Genetics of Alcoholism

Purpose of Review We review the search for genetic variants that affect the risk for alcohol dependence and alcohol consumption. Recent Findings Variations in genes affecting alcohol metabolism (ADH1B, ALDH2) are protective against both alcohol dependence and excessive consumption, but different variants are found in different populations. There are different patterns of risk variants for alcohol dependence vs. consumption. Variants for alcohol dependence, but not consumption, are associated with risk for other psychiatric illnesses. Summary ADH1B and ALDH2 strongly affect both consumption and dependence. Variations in many other genes affect both consumption and dependence—or one or the other of these traits—but individual effect sizes are small. Evidence for other specific genes that affect dependence is not yet strong. Most current knowledge derives from studies of European-ancestry populations, and large studies of carefully phenotyped subjects from different populations are needed to understand the genetic contributions to alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders

Oral Health Promotion: Evidences and Strategies

Oral health promotion is for upliftment of oral health of community rather than an individual and has long‐term impact. Since Ottawa Charter for health promotion is implemented, significant advancements have happened in oral health promotion. Under comprehensive health programs, India has been running oral health promotion programs, and these evidences are shared here. Such examples are apt learning and execution to any part of world having similarities. The chapter put forward the strategic view points to consider further oral health promotion aspects and based on the needs. The authors have gathered various examples from national programs implemented in India. The authors discuss how these programs are linked to the Oral health promotion concept. For example, National tobacco control program which currently running across many states in India, how the banning on tobacco products near school premises helped to reduce the incidence is discussed. The worldwide literature and evidences of oral health promotion strategies are explained. The evidences and strategies mentioned can be significant for another region of world. Unless published, many programs remain hidden and are loss of valuable evidences to oral health science

Declines in prevalence of adolescent substance use disorders and delinquent behaviors in the USA: A unitary trend?

AbstractBackgroundDownward trends in a number of adolescent risk behaviors including violence, crime, and drug use have been observed in the USA in recent years. It is unknown whether these are separate trends or whether they might relate to a general reduction in propensity to engage in such behaviors. Our objectives were to quantify trends in substance use disorders (SUDs) and delinquent behaviors over the 2003–2014 period and to determine whether they might reflect a single trend in an Externalizing-like trait.MethodsWe analyzed data from 12 to 17 year old participants from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a representative survey of the household dwelling population of the USA, across the 2003–2014 period (N = 210 599). Outcomes included past-year prevalence of six categories of substance use disorder and six categories of delinquent behavior.ResultsTrend analysis suggested a net decline of 49% in mean number of SUDs and a 34% decline in delinquent behaviors over the 12-year period. Item Response Theory models were consistent with the interpretation that declines in each set of outcomes could be attributed to changes in mean levels of a latent, Externalizing-like trait.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that declines in SUDs and some delinquent behaviors reflect a single trend related to an Externalizing-like trait. Identifying the factors contributing to this trend may facilitate continued improvement across a spectrum of adolescent risk behaviors.</jats:sec

Privacy Preservation using T-Closeness with Numerical Attributes

Data mining is a process that is used to retrieve the knowledgeable data from the large dataset. Information imparting around two associations will be basic done a large number requisition zones. As people are uploading their personal data over the internet, however the data collection and data distribution may lead to disclosure of their privacy. So, preserving the privacy of the sensitive data is the challenging task in data mining. Many organizations or hospitals are analyzing the medical data to predict the disease or symptoms of disease. So, before sharing data to other organization need to protect the patient personal data and for that need privacy preservation. In the recent year�s privacy preserving data mining has being received a large amount of attention in the research area. To achieve the expected goal various methods have been proposed. In this paper, to achieve this goal a pre-processing technique i.e. k-means clustering along with anonymization technique i.e. k-anonymization and t-closeness and done analysis which techniques achieves more information gain

Acute pain abdomen in adolescents: a gynecologist’s dilemma

Background: Ovarian torsion is 5th most common emergency in gynecology. Benign functional ovarian cysts and benign teratomas are most common among ovarian torsion. Aims and objectives were to study the outcome and HPE of all adolescent girls presenting with acute pain abdomen at BGS GIMS, Bangalore. Methods: A study was conducted at BGS GIMS from 2020 to 2022 of all children and adolescents presenting with acute pain abdomen. Study included data consisting of age, complaints, investigations, intervention and HPE was collected and analysed. Results: There were 21 cases between 12- and 21-years age group who presented with acute pain abdomen in the study period. Majority of them were of 16-19 years age group. Out of 21 cases, 100% of them presented with acute pain abdomen. Operative procedures included 15 (71%) exploratory laparotomy and 6 (29%) operative laparoscopies. Ovarian torsion was seen in 11 cases of which 2 cases had bilateral ovarian torsion and 9 cases had unilateral torsion. Ovarian cystectomy was done in 7 patients, unilateral oophorectomy in 3 patients and unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy in 6 patients. Histopathology reports showed 5 cases of serous cystadenoma, 1 case of teratoma and others were mostly simple cyst or corpus luteal cysts. Conclusions: Acute pain abdomen in adoloscents should be diagnosed early to prevent from risk of ovarian torsions. Operative procedures should aim at fertility preservation.

Effect of nitrogen and plant growth regulators on seed yield per plant and seed quality parameters in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

The present investigation on effect of nitrogen [N0 (Control), N1 (50 kg N/ha), N2 (100 kg N/ha), and N3 (150 kg N/ ha)] and plant growth regulators [G0 (Control), G1 (50 ppm GA3), G2 (50 ppm NAA) and G3 (500 ppm Cycocel)] on seed yield per plant and seed quality parameters in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) cv. GJB 3 was carried out at the Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh during kharif 2015-16. The experiment was laid out in field as per randomized block design (Factorial) with three replications. The seed harvested from 16 different treatments combinations replicated thrice from the field were analyzed in the laboratory following completely randomized design (factorial) for various seed quality parameters. Application of nitrogen @ 150 kg N/ha recorded significantly (P&lt;0.05) highest seed yield per plant, shoot fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot dry weight and vigour index – 2 (mass), while application of 100 kg N/ha resulted in significantly (P&lt;0.05) highest germination percentage, root length, shoot length, root fresh weight and vigour index – 1 (length). Application of GA3 at 50 ppm recorded significantly the highest seed yield per plant, germination percentage, root length, shoot length, root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, vigour index – 1 (length) and vigour index – 2 (mass). Among the 16 different treatment combinations, nitrogen @ 150 kg/ha and GA3 50 ppm noted the maximum seed yield per plant, shoot dry weight and vigour index – 2 (mass), while significantly the maxi-mum germination percentage, root length, shoot length, root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight and vigour index – 1 (length) were registered in treatment combination nitrogen 100 kg N/ha and GA3 @ 50 ppm. Therefore, it is advised that application of 100-150 kg of N/ha as a nitrogenous fertilizer and spray GA3 @ 50 ppm (G1) at 45 days after transplanting helps in increasing the seed yield per plant and seed quality parameters in brinjal seed production

An evaluation of online proctoring tools

COVID'19 is hastening the adoption of online learning and teaching worldwide, and across all levels of education. While many of the typical learning and teaching transactions such as lecturing and communicating are easily handled by contemporary online learning technologies, others, such as assessment of learning outcomes with closed book examinations are fraught with challenges. Among other issues to do with students and teachers, these challenges have to do with the ability of teachers and educational organizations to ensure academic integrity in the absence of a live proctor when an examination is being taken remotely and from a private location. A number of online proctoring tools are appearing on the market that portend to offer solutions to some of the major challenges. But for the moment, they too remain untried and tested on any large scale. This includes the cost of the service and their technical requirements. This paper reports on one of the first attempts to properly evaluate a selection of these tools and offer recommendations for educational institutions. This investigation, which was carried out at the University of the South Pacific, comprised a four-phased approach, starting with desk research that was followed with pilot testing by a group of experts as well as students. The elimination of a tool in every phase was based on the ‘survival of the fittest’ approach with each phase building upon the milestones and deliverables from the previous phase. This paper presents the results of this investigation and discusses its key findings