Use of complementary and alternative medicine by patients with dermatological disorders in western part of India: a prospective study

Background: This study was aimed in assessing the prevalence and pattern of CAM in patients with dermatological disorders.Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out at outpatient department of Dermatology at tertiary care teaching hospital. Data was collected with help of questionnaire which contained sociodemographic details and details of use of CAM if any by the attending patients. Data was analysed for sociodemographic and clinical character, pattern of use of CAM, source of information and reasons for using CAM.Results: Mean age of participants was 29.29±20.25 (Mean±SD) years and 102 (46.54%) users were women. Highly educated patients (49.25%) were the most frequently CAM users. Below 20 years (57.84%) youngsters were the frequent CAM users. About 45.19% patients were belonging to rural area of community. Acne vulgaris was the commonest condition for CAM use. Folk medicines (70.73%) were the most frequent used CAM. Advised by friends/relatives was the commonest source of information. About 80.49% patients had not informed to their physician about the use of CAM. None of the patients had knowledge of adverse effect of CAM.Conclusions: Use of CAM is very common in dermatological disorders, youngsters and literate were the most common CAM users. Combined administration of herbs with prescription drugs may increase or decrease the pharmacological or toxicological effects of either compound

સૌરાષ્ટ્ર્માં જળસ્ત્રાવ વ્યવસ્થાપન દ્વારા થયેલ અસરોનો અભ્યાસ

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Prescription pattern at outpatient department in a tertiary care hospital of Gujarat: a cross-sectional study

Background: Evaluation of drug prescription prototype is a significant feature of patient care, which also provides as an estimate of the quality of care provided. Thus, the current study was carried out to analyze the prescriptions of patients attending outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: Present cross-sectional study was performed in the OPD of our tertiary care teaching hospital. The study was carrying out for duration of two years. Data was obtained from 850 prescriptions. Data was analysed as per WHO prescribing indicators.Results: Total 1700 prescriptions were analysed, that includes 55.8% males and 40.1% females. The highest numbers of prescriptions were from the age group of 18-40 (53.6%) years of age. Average number of drugs in the current study was found to be (2.1). Percentage of come across with an antibiotic prescribed was 17.12%. Percentage of come across with an injection prescribed was 11.81%.Conclusions: There is necessitate of recuperating the prescribing pattern by maintaining the number of medicines as little as possible, prescribing medicines by generic names, using medicines properly after selecting and deliberately keeping the charge of treatment low

Scanning probe imaging of coexistent ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity at room temperature

Room temperature coexistence of ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in a thin film of a novel material of nominal composition PbTi0.5Fe0.5O3-d is probed by standard ferroelectric and ferromagnetic hysteresis loop measurements and by scanning probe microscopy of various kinds. Both magnetic domains and ferroelectric domains are observed in the same spatial region of the material, implying phase coexistence in this system. For both order parameters, sample morphology strongly affects roughness of the domain walls.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Use of complementary and alternative medicines by patients with orthopaedic disorders in western part of India: a cross sectional study

Background: Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) are consumed all over the world for variety of health problems. This study was aimed at assessing the prevalence and pattern of CAM in patients with orthopaedic disorders.Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out at outpatient department of Orthopaedics at a tertiary care teaching hospital. Data was collected with help of questionnaire which contained sociodemographic details and details of use of CAM if any by the attending patients. Data was analysed for sociodemographic and clinical characters, pattern of use of CAM, source of information and reasons for using CAM.Results: Out of 500 participants 196 (39.2 %) reported use of CAM. Mean age of participants was 42.6±19.8 (mean±SD) years and 130 (66.3%) users were women. Illiterate patients (57%) were the most frequent users of CAM. About 77% of patients aged 60 years and above used CAM. Fibromyalgia (48%) was the commonest condition for CAM use. Folk medicines (46%) and ayurvedic medicines (45%) were most commonly used CAM. Advice from friends/relatives was the commonest source of information. None of the respondents had knowledge of adverse effects of CAM used by them and about 70% did not inform their doctor about use of CAM.Conclusions: Use of CAM is highly prevalent in patients with orthopaedic disorders, women, illiterate and elderly being the more likely users. Concurrent use of folk remedies with allopathic medicines has potential for interactions between the two. History of use of CAM should be obtained as a routine from patients with musculoskeletal complaints

Synthesis of Substituted 1,2,4-Triazole Containing Novel Small Molecules by Using Microwave

Green chemistry finds its most promising use in the synthesis of compounds using ecologically friendly, non-hazardous, non-irritant, gentle, and reproducible catalysts and solvents. The adoption of green chemistry approaches has recently been shown to significantly reduce chemical waste and reaction times in a number of organic synthesis processes. The objective of this research work is to develop an eco-friendly method for the Substituted 1,2,4-Triazole containing novel small molecules. The approach makes use of acid as starting material on reaction with hydrazine forms Acetyl-hydrazide. On condensation with nitrile and subsequent ring closure forms substituted 1,2,4-Triazole derivatives.  This research work describes the synthesis of thirty-two unique 1,2,4-triazole containing novel small molecules. It has been shown that this technique is superior to other synthetic methods in terms of reaction time, yield, and energy efficiency along with use of green chemistry and microwave. &nbsp

Effect of supervised exercise on physical function and balance in patients with intermittent claudication

Background The aim of the study was to identify whether a standard supervised exercise programme (SEP) for patients with intermittent claudication improved specific measures of functional performance including balance. Methods A prospective observational study was performed at a single tertiary vascular centre. Patients with symptomatic intermittent claudication (Rutherford grades 1–3) were recruited to the study. Participants were assessed at baseline (before SEP) and 3, 6 and 12 months afterwards for markers of lower-limb ischaemia (treadmill walking distance and ankle : brachial pressure index), physical function (6-min walk, Timed Up and Go test, and Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) score), balance impairment using computerized dynamic posturography with the Sensory Organization Test (SOT), and quality of life (VascuQoL and Short Form 36). Results Fifty-one participants underwent SEP, which significantly improved initial treadmill walking distance (P = 0·001). Enrolment in a SEP also resulted in improvements in physical function as determined by 6-min maximum walking distance (P = 0·006), SPPB score (P < 0·001), and some domains of both generic (bodily pain, P = 0·025) and disease-specific (social domain, P = 0·039) quality of life. Significant improvements were also noted in balance, as determined by the SOT (P < 0·001). Conclusion Supervised exercise improves both physical function and balance impairment

On the effects of multimodal information integration in multitasking

There have recently been considerable advances in our understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying multitasking, but the role of multimodal integration for this faculty has remained rather unclear. We examined this issue by comparing different modality combinations in a multitasking (stop-change) paradigm. In-depth neurophysiological analyses of event-related potentials (ERPs) were conducted to complement the obtained behavioral data. Specifically, we applied signal decomposition using second order blind identification (SOBI) to the multi-subject ERP data and source localization. We found that both general multimodal information integration and modality-specific aspects (potentially related to task difficulty) modulate behavioral performance and associated neurophysiological correlates. Simultaneous multimodal input generally increased early attentional processing of visual stimuli (i.e. P1 and N1 amplitudes) as well as measures of cognitive effort and conflict (i.e. central P3 amplitudes). Yet, tactile-visual input caused larger impairments in multitasking than audio-visual input. General aspects of multimodal information integration modulated the activity in the premotor cortex (BA 6) as well as different visual association areas concerned with the integration of visual information with input from other modalities (BA 19, BA 21, BA 37). On top of this, differences in the specific combination of modalities also affected performance and measures of conflict/effort originating in prefrontal regions (BA 6)

Non-monotonic size dependence of the elastic modulus of nanocrystalline ZnO embedded in a nanocrystalline silver matrix

We present the first high pressure Raman study on nanocrystalline ZnO films with different average crystallite sizes. The problem of low Raman signals from nano sized particles was overcome by forming a nanocomposite of Ag and ZnO nanoparticles. The presence of the nanodispersed Ag particles leads to a substantial surface enhancement of the Raman signal from ZnO. We find that the elastic modulus of nanocrystalline ZnO shows a non-monotonic dependence on the crystallite size. We suggest that the non-monotonicity arises from an interplay between the elastic properties of the individual grains and the intergranular region.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure