An Epidemiological study of malignancies in Jammu province, India a retrospective study (1999-2003)

Research Question: -To Study the magnitude, pattern and inter district variation of Malignancies in different regions of Jammu Province from January 1999 to Dec. 2003. Setting : - Entire Population of Jammu Province. Study Design: - A Hospital based retrospective study. Methodology: -The study was carried out retrospectively from January 1999 to December 2003. The year wise data was collected from the medical case files maintained year wise in the Department of Radiotherapy and medical record section of the associated hospitals. All the new cases from Jammu province reporting for the first time in the five year time period were included. Only the primary tumors were recorded. In case of multiple primary cancer in same person they were all counted as new. Results: : - The total of 4507 new cases from Jammu province were registered in five year time period. Maximum cases 2541 (56.37%) were from Jammu District. Among males from Kathua, Jammu, Doda , Udhampur and Rajouri Respiratory system and Intrathoracic organs were at the top (40.40%, 37.47%, 37.25%, 36.97% and 33.74% resp.). Female Genital organs followed by Breast cancer were the leading site in female patients from Kathua and Jammu District (41.31% and 16.90% for Kathua and 33.39% and 18.41% for Jammu. Conclusion : -The leading Site of Malignancies among Male and Females varied in different districts of Jammu province. This could be attributed to various cultural dietary and environmental factors

Prevalence of respiratory morbidity among brick kiln workers: a cross sectional study from rural north India

Background: Fired clay bricks, an important construction material, are manufactured in non-mechanized, labour intensive brick kilns which mostly employ unskilled men and women. The workers, as an occupational hazard, are exposed to dust and air pollution leading to respiratory diseases.Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among brick kiln workers in RS Pura block of Jammu district. The workers were assessed regarding respiratory symptoms and illnesses using translated version of American Thoracic Society Division of Lung Disease questionnaire (ATS-DLD-78A).Results: 692 brick kiln workers were interviewed during the course of survey and 58.8%of them were males. 45% of the respondents were working since last less than three years. Among the respiratory symptoms chronic cough, was present in 23.55% and phlegm in 22.83% of the respondents. Chronic bronchitis was present in 20.52% of the respondents. Association of respiratory symptoms in relation to sex of the respondents was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05).Conclusions: Respiratory symptoms and illness were found to be quite prevalent in the brick kiln workers. More research needs to be conducted to assess other health risks besides respiratory morbidity. Health planners need to plan for their basic sanitation facilities and periodic check ups

Role of lifestyle and psychological variables in erectile dysfunction: a cross-sectional study

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a highly prevalent yet underestimated disorder among men, associated with a significant burden of illness. The understanding of pathophysiological factors has led to better assessment of the disease yet a lot of patients are left dissatisfied and undertreated. The study was undertaken to elicit the various life style and psychological variables associated with ED.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on cases of ED reporting in urology OPD in 3 months period. A pretested semi structured questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. ED was addressed in five domains using International index of erectile function (IIEF) scale. Information collected included socio demographic factors, life style variables and psychological factors [perceived stress (PT), self-esteem (SST) and erectile performance anxiety (ET)]. Data collected was analyzed using independent sample t test.Results: A total of 155 cases of ED participated in the study. Their mean age was 33.93±5.05 years (range 25-48).  80.6% were non-smokers, 54.8% were alcoholic and 22.6% patients performed light physical activity. There was no statistically significant association between different life style variables with five domains of International index of erectile function except for the domain of orgasmic function with consumption of drugs (p=0.017) and intercourse satisfaction with physical activity(p=0.045). Barring the domain of overall satisfaction most of the other domains of ED showed a significant association with psychological variables.Conclusions: Contrary to lifestyle factors, psychological factors are significantly related to ED and need to be addressed effectively for improving patient treatment outcome

Reproductive factors in relation to breast cancer: A hospital based case control study in Jammu, India

Research Question: To Study the risk factors of Breast cancer , Setting:All the newly registered cases of Breast cancer in one year from Ist May 2004. Study Design:A Hospital based case control study. Methodology:Data was collected by a face to face interview using the prestructured Questionnaire after taking informed consent. Results: 100 cases of Breast Cancer and 100 controls were analyzed. Mean age of breast cancer cases was 50.20 ± 12.49 years. Income (p >0.39), Educational Status (p>0.35) Age at Marriage (p>0.36) Age at First pregnancy (p>0.32) Total No of live Birth (p>0.09) Duration of Breast Feeding (P>0.07) Showed no statistically significant relationship to the risk of Breast Cancer. Dietary History (p<0.001) Smoking History (p<0.04) Physical Activity (p<0.001) Age at Menarche (p<0.002) History of Breast Feeding (p<0.04) History of Abortion (p<0.003) were shown to be Statistically Significant to the risk of Breast Cancer . Conclusion : The risk factor which are often implicated in the risk of Breast Cancer may not hold true in our settings

H-AES: Towards Automated Essay Scoring for Hindi

The use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Automated Essay Scoring (AES) has been well explored in the English language, with benchmark models exhibiting performance comparable to human scorers. However, AES in Hindi and other low-resource languages remains unexplored. In this study, we reproduce and compare state-of-the-art methods for AES in the Hindi domain. We employ classical feature-based Machine Learning (ML) and advanced end-to-end models, including LSTM Networks and Fine-Tuned Transformer Architecture, in our approach and derive results comparable to those in the English language domain. Hindi being a low-resource language, lacks a dedicated essay-scoring corpus. We train and evaluate our models using translated English essays and empirically measure their performance on our own small-scale, real-world Hindi corpus. We follow this up with an in-depth analysis discussing prompt-specific behavior of different language models implemented

Recent progress and growth in biosensors technology: A critical review

Crucial exploitation of biosensors has attained dominant significance in the meadow of drug innovation, drug identification, bio-remedy, food protection principles, security, protection, and ecological examination. It has direct to the innovation of specific and authoritative diagnostic tools that employ biological sensing elements as biosensors. Glucometers employ oxygen or hydrogen peroxide electrochemical recognition utilizing immobilized glucose oxidase electrodes, showing biosensors' invention. Current advances in biological methods and instrumentation relating to fluorescence tags to nano-materials have increased the responsive limit of biosensors. The use of aptamers or nucleotides, antibodies, peptide arrays, and molecule imprinted polymers offer tools to build up novel biosensors over the classical method. Integrated methods offer an improved perception for a buildup of precise and responsive biosensors with high regenerative potentials. Various biosensors ranging from nanomaterials polymers to microbes have more comprehensive potential applications. Combining multifaceted approaches to design biosensors that comprise the prospective for different usage is reasonably significant. In light of this, this review provides an overview of different types of biosensors being used, ranging from electrochemical and fluorescence tagged, nanomaterials, silica or quartz, and microbes for various biomedical and environmental applications with the future outlook of biosensor technology