Understanding Perception and Factors Influencing Private Voluntary Health Insurance Policy Subscription in the Lucknow Region

Background: Health insurance has been acknowledged by researchers as a valuable tool in health financing. In spite of its significance, a subscription paralysis has been observed in India for this product. People who can afford health insurance are also found to be either ignorant or aversive towards it. This study is designed to investigate into the socio-economic factors, individuals’ health insurance product perception and individuals’ personality traits for unbundling the paradox which inhibits people from subscribing to health insurance plans. Methods: This survey was conducted in the region of Lucknow. An online questionnaire was sent to sampled respondents. Response evinced by 263 respondents was formed as a part of study for the further data analysis. For assessing the relationships between variables T-test and F-test were applied as a part of quantitative measuring tool. Finally, logistic regression technique was used to estimate the factors that influence respondents’ decision to purchase health insurance. Results: Age, dependent family members, medical expenditure, health status and individual’s product perception were found to be significantly associated with health insurance subscription in the region. Personality traits have also showed a positive relationship with respondent’s insurance status. Conclusion: We found in our study that socio-economic factors, individuals’ product perception and personality traits induces health insurance policy subscription in the region

ORAL DRUG DELIVERY OF INSULIN IN DIABETES MELLITUS: AN ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATE TO OVERCOME INVASIVE ROUTE

The subcutaneous injection of insulin for the treatment of diabetes mellitus can lead to patient non-compliance, discomfort, pain and local infection is a chronic metabolic health disease affecting the homeostasis of blood sugar levels in human beings. Oral route of drug delivery system has been the most widely accepted means of drug administration other than invasive drug delivery systems. For the development of an oral insulin delivery system, we have to focus on overcoming the various gastro-intestinal barriers for insulin uptake from the gastrointestinal tract. To overcome these barriers various types of formulations such as insulin conjugates, micro/nanoparticles, liposomes, hydrogel, capsule, and tablets are designed to deliver insulin orally. Various potential ways to administer insulin orally has been explored over years but a fluctuating level of insulin release have been recorded. A number of advancement has taken place in the recent years for understanding the needs of improved oral delivery systems of insulin. This review article concentrates on the challenges for oral drug delivery of insulin as well as various carriers used for the oral drug delivery of insulin and also provides the relevant information about the clinical tested formulations of oral insulin and its patents.                       Peer Review History: Received 16 December 2018;   Revised 28 December; Accepted 31 December, Available online 15 January 2019 Academic Editor: Dr. Marwa A. A. Fayed, University of Sadat City, Egypt, [email protected] UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file:        Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 5.0/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 8.0/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. Lucky Llegbosi Nwidu, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, [email protected] Prof. Dr. Syamsudin Abdillah, Pancasila University, Indonesia, [email protected] Similar Articles: ACORUS CALAMUS L ON TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS MEDICATION PLASMA FERRITIN AND HEPCIDIN LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTI-DIABETIC POTENTIALS OF PERSEA AMERICANA MILL. (LAURACEAE) FRUIT EXTRAC

Quantum Criticality and Novel Phases: Summary and Outlook

This conference summary and outlook provides a personal overview of the topics and themes of the August 2009 Dresden meeting on quantum criticality and novel phases. The dichotomy between the local moment and the itinerant views of magnetism is revisited and refreshed in new materials, new probes and new theoretical ideas. New universality and apparent zero temperature phases of matter move us beyond the old ideas of quantum criticality. This is accompanied by alternative pairing interactions and as yet unidentified phases developing in the vicinity of quantum critical points. In discussing novel order, the magnetic analogues of superconductivity are considered as candidate states for the hidden order that sometimes develops in the vicinity of quantum critical points in metallic systems. These analogues can be thought of as "pairing" in the particle-hole channel and are tabulated. This analogy is used to outline a framework to study the relation between ferromagnetic fluctuations and the propensity of a metal to nematic type phases which at weak coupling correspond to Pomeranchuk instabilities. This question can be related to the fundamental relations of Fermi liquid theory.Comment: Conference summary for the 2009 Dresden Meeting on Quantum Criticality and Novel Phases. 7 pages and 4 figures. The associated presentation may be found at http://www.theory.bham.ac.uk/staff/schofield/talks/Dresden

A Low Cost and Computationally Efficient Approach for Occlusion Handling in Video Surveillance Systems

In the development of intelligent video surveillance systems for tracking a vehicle, occlusions are one of the major challenges. It becomes difficult to retain features during occlusion especially in case of complete occlusion. In this paper, a target vehicle tracking algorithm for Smart Video Surveillance (SVS) is proposed to track an unidentified target vehicle even in case of occlusions. This paper proposes a computationally efficient approach for handling occlusions named as Kalman Filter Assisted Occlusion Handling (KFAOH) technique. The algorithm works through two periods namely tracking period when no occlusion is seen and detection period when occlusion occurs, thus depicting its hybrid nature. Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker governs the operation of algorithm during the tracking period, whereas, a Cascaded Object Detector (COD) of weak classifiers, specially trained on a large database of cars governs the operation during detection period or occlusion with the assistance of Kalman Filter (KF). The algorithm’s tracking efficiency has been tested on six different tracking scenarios with increasing complexity in real-time. Performance evaluation under different noise variances and illumination levels shows that the tracking algorithm has good robustness against high noise and low illumination. All tests have been conducted on the MATLAB platform. The validity and practicality of the algorithm are also verified by success plots and precision plots for the test cases

Histološke i biokemijske promjene u jetri i bubrezima štakora izazvane torijevim nitratom

The histopathological and biochemical alterations in rat\u27s liver and kidney induced by daily intraperitoneal administration of thorium nitrate were studied. The activity of alkaline phosphatase and adenosine triphosphatase was found to be inhibited at various intervals and the pathomorphological changes were found to be related to the duration of treatment. The results indicate that the effect of thorium is cumulative and that the biochemical alterations occur prior to histological changes.Toksikološka svojstva torija slabo su istražena, iako torij postaje sve važniji elemenat u industriji. Njegova se upotreba širi, pa se upotrebljava i u medicinskoj dijagnostici (torijev dioksid - thorotrast). U ovom su radu istraživani učinci torijevih soli na bubrege i jetru štakora kojima je torijev nitrat injiciran intraperitonealno u dozi od 10 mg/kg svakog dana kroz 120 dana. Kontrolnim je životinjama injicirana fiziološka otopina na jednak način. U prvih 60 dana pokusa samo je nekoliko štakora uginulo, a nakon toga vremena smrtnost se povećala. Tek nakon 30 dana uočene su histološke promjene jetre u obliku kongestije vena i sinusoida i taj je nalaz postajao sve izrazitiji tijekom vremena. U kasnijoj su fazi nađena degenerativna i nekrotična žarišta. Slične su promjene nađene i u bubrežnom parenhimu. Ovim je promjenama prethodilo smanjenje aktivnosti alkalne fosfataze i adenozin trifosfataze u jetri i u još većoj mjeri u bubregu

Antioxidant compounds from marine seaweeds and their mechanism of action

Investigation of natural products has moved toward marine environments as they are a source of many biologically active agents. The natural antioxidant compounds isolated from seaweeds provide a valuable contribution to the innovation of new drugs for chronic diseases associated with oxidative stress. While the antioxidant activity and nutritional benefits of various seaweed products are well recognized, their proper utilization as antioxidants remains at initial stages that require further investigative studies. This review provides a detailed study of isolated antioxidant compounds from seaweeds and their major mechanism of action by focusing on the reports from 2015 to 2019. The report discusses various active antioxidant compounds, including phenolics (e.g., phlorotannins), polysaccharides, and pigments with proven benefits against oxidative stress-related diseases, especially carotenoids, from the aspect of benefits to human health

Butyl Rubber-Nylon Composites with Improved Flame Retardancy & Gas Impermeability

Butyl rubber, because of its high packing density and chemical structure is inherently impermeable to air and gases. However, the elastomer is highly flammable owing to its neat carbon-hydrogen backbone structure. The particular rubber is extensively being used as coating materials for nylon, cotton, polyester etc., for development of clothing outfits for service personnel working in hazardous chemical environments . It is, therefore , essential to evolve flame retardant butyl rubber compositions which could make such clothings impermeable to chemical agents having adequate flame retardancy.The present paper describes an attempt towards using various chemical additives viz. brominated phenyl ethers, chlorinated paraffin, various inorganic oxides and halogenated elastomer, either singly or in combinations as potential flame retardants in bromo-butyl rubber compositions. The cements were then prepared by adding toluene to these compositions (20 to 30% solid content). The homogenised cements were then applied on both sides of nylon fabric with varying add -on concentrations in a laboratory coating machine with doctors blade specially designed for this purpose. The coated fabrics were cured at different temperatures in step curing between 70-150°C, tested for impermeability against hazardous warfare agents and found to offer enhanced protection against these chemicals . Standard test methods e.g. (a) exposure of the fabric to direct flame as per BS method 3119 (b) limited oxygen index as per ASTM specification D-2663 were followed in the evaluation of flame retardancy. The fabrics showed no after glow- low after flame (2.5 sec. against 6 sec. specified)and 7.2 cm char length against 12 cm max. permissible value. The hysicomechanical' properties e.g., breaking and tensile strengths were determined . Morphology and rubber fabric adhesion were studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy

Estimating Emotion Contagion on Social Media via Localized Diffusion in Dynamic Graphs

We present a computational approach for estimating emotion contagion on social media networks. Built on a foundation of psychology literature, our approach estimates the degree to which the perceivers' emotional states (positive or negative) start to match those of the expressors, based on the latter's content. We use a combination of deep learning and social network analysis to model emotion contagion as a diffusion process in dynamic social network graphs, taking into consideration key aspects like causality, homophily, and interference. We evaluate our approach on user behavior data obtained from a popular social media platform for sharing short videos. We analyze the behavior of 48 users over a span of 8 weeks (over 200k audio-visual short posts analyzed) and estimate how contagious the users with whom they engage with are on social media. As per the theory of diffusion, we account for the videos a user watches during this time (inflow) and the daily engagements; liking, sharing, downloading or creating new videos (outflow) to estimate contagion. To validate our approach and analysis, we obtain human feedback on these 48 social media platform users with an online study by collecting responses of about 150 participants. We report users who interact with more number of creators on the platform are 12% less prone to contagion, and those who consume more content of `negative' sentiment are 23% more prone to contagion. We will publicly release our code upon acceptance