Awareness and Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among Farmers in Kerala: A Study

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be used as a potential tool to develop rural India, but the awareness and positive attitude towards the facilities offered by it is a necessity to use it to the full potential. The study tries to analyze the awareness of farmers about the various ICT tools in agriculture. Survey using questionnaire was resorted to collect data from user group. The user group under consideration consists of farmers registered to four KrishiBhavans in Nedumangad block, Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala. Farmers with more than 1 acre of land registered in KrishiBhavans in the four selected blocks were 1040. From them, a sample size of fifteen percentages (156) of farmers is selected. Data obtained through questionnaire was tabulated, analyzed and interpreted using Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and SPSS 20. Chi-square test was applied for finding significant association between the categorical variable

Water as catalyst and solvent: Tetrahydropyranylation of alcohols in an aqueous medium

Water is found to catalyze the tetrahydropyranylation of alcohols at elevated temperature. Interestingly, tetrahydropyranylation of alcohols works under a wide range of pH, 6.5 to 2 and does not work beyond pH 7.5 in an aqueous medium. Hydrophobic interactions between the substrate alcohol and Dihydropyran ether (DHP) and favorable pKa’s of water, alcohols, and protonated hydroxyl and protonated ethereal functions are the driving forces for the reaction. Thus the reaction, which is carried out in anhydrous aprotic solvents, can be carried out in aqueous medium in an environmentally benign way

Awareness On The Management Of Iatrogenic Arterial Nicking During Dental Surgical Procedures Among Dental Students

Background: Bleeding during surgery may be a serious clinical problem which will be very disconcerting to the patient and will have serious consequences. During the course of nearly all kinds of surgery, blood vessels are going to be disrupted, causing some bleeding. The dentist should be aware of all techniques of hemorrhage control for various sorts of bleeding episodes—small vessels, large vessels, oozing, drug-induced, or when an underlying coagulation defect is present. Bleeding complications can occur in healthy also as systemically compromised patients. Aim: The aim of the current study is to analyse the awareness and knowledge on the management of iatrogenic arterial nicking among dental undergraduate students. Materials and Methods: The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire study. Survey was designed as a questionnaire in English with 2 sections. Section 1 contained demographics and section 2 had questions on various techniques on management of arterial injury, which was answered by 150 dental undergraduate students. All the obtained data were entered on Microsoft excel sheet and analysed using SPSS by IBM. Results: From the statistical analysis it is clear that almost 75% of the respondents from final year and internship were aware of different methods of management and prevention of dental injuries, yet only minimal number of students from other three years were aware of the methods and procedures to be followed at each step during dental surgical procedures, Conclusion: Within the limitations of the current study, it can be concluded that the majority of dental undergraduate students are aware of different methods of presentation and management of iatrogenic arterial nicking during dental surgical procedures. In the present study the knowledge on the methods of management such as mobilisation, deep sutures, burnishing of bone, use of bone grafting was lacking among first to third year students when compared to students pursuing their final year and internship.Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical SciencesSaveetha Dental College and HospitalsSaveetha UniversityAkshaya Associates Private Limited, Chenna

A critical review on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/zinc oxide (ZnO) based piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators

In the recent era of energy crisis, piezoelectric and triboelectric effects are surfacing out of several research topics. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its copolymers are well known piezoelectric polymers due to their high piezoelectricity and widely used in flexible devices. PVDF is greatly utilized in preparation of triboelectric layer also due to its higher electronegative nature amongst common polymers. On the other hand, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been studied widely to investigate its multifunctional properties including piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and antibacterial activity. This versatile material can be prepared, using low cost and environmental friendly routes, in various morphologies. Various research is already performed to capture the synergistic effect of reinforcing ZnO within PVDF polymeric matrix. This work firstly describes the basic principles of piezoelectric and triboelectric effects. Thereafter, piezoelectric and triboelectric performances of PVDF and ZnO based materials are briefly depicted based on their structures. Finally, challenges and future scopes, associated with the mechanical energy harvesting from such materials, are highlighted

'I am on treatment since 5 months but I have not received any money': coverage, delays and implementation challenges of 'Direct Benefit Transfer' for tuberculosis patients - a mixed-methods study from South India.

Background: In March 2018, the Government of India launched a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme to provide nutritional support for all tuberculosis (TB) patients in line with END TB strategy. Here, the money (@INR 500 [~8 USD] per month) is deposited electronically into the bank accounts of beneficiaries. To avail the benefit, patients are to be notified in NIKSHAY (web-based notification portal of India's national TB programme) and provide bank account details. Once these details are entered into NIKSHAY, checked and approved by the TB programme officials, it is sent to the public financial management system (PFMS) portal for further processing and payment. Objectives: To assess the coverage and implementation barriers of DBT among TB patients notified during April-June 2018 and residing in Dakshina Kannada, a district in South India. Methods: This was a convergent mixed-methods study involving cohort analysis of patient data from NIKSHAY and thematic analysis of in-depth interviews of providers and patients. Results: Of 417 patients, 208 (49.9%) received approvals for payment by PFMS and 119 (28.7%) got paid by 1 December 2018 (censor date). Reasons for not receiving DBT included (i) not having a bank account especially among migrant labourers in urban areas, (ii) refusal to avail DBT by rich patients and those with confidentiality concerns, (iii) lack of knowledge and (iv) perception that money was too little to meet the needs. The median (IQR) delay from diagnosis to payment was 101 (67-173) days. Delays were related to the complexity of processes requiring multiple layers of approval and paper-based documentation which overburdened the staff, bulk processing once-a-month and technological challenges (poor connectivity and issues related to NIKSHAY and PFMS portals). Conclusion: DBT coverage was low and there were substantial delays. Implementation barriers need to be addressed urgently to improve uptake and efficiency. The TB programme has begun to take action

Estimating global injuries morbidity and mortality : methods and data used in the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study

Background: While there is a long history of measuring death and disability from injuries, modern research methods must account for the wide spectrum of disability that can occur in an injury, and must provide estimates with sufficient demographic, geographical and temporal detail to be useful for policy makers. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study used methods to provide highly detailed estimates of global injury burden that meet these criteria. Methods: In this study, we report and discuss the methods used in GBD 2017 for injury morbidity and mortality burden estimation. In summary, these methods included estimating cause-specific mortality for every cause of injury, and then estimating incidence for every cause of injury. Non-fatal disability for each cause is then calculated based on the probabilities of suffering from different types of bodily injury experienced. Results: GBD 2017 produced morbidity and mortality estimates for 38 causes of injury. Estimates were produced in terms of incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, cause-specific mortality, years of life lost and disability-adjusted life-years for a 28-year period for 22 age groups, 195 countries and both sexes. Conclusions: GBD 2017 demonstrated a complex and sophisticated series of analytical steps using the largest known database of morbidity and mortality data on injuries. GBD 2017 results should be used to help inform injury prevention policy making and resource allocation. We also identify important avenues for improving injury burden estimation in the future

Subnational mapping of HIV incidence and mortality among individuals aged 15–49 years in sub-Saharan Africa, 2000–18 : a modelling study

Background: High-resolution estimates of HIV burden across space and time provide an important tool for tracking and monitoring the progress of prevention and control efforts and assist with improving the precision and efficiency of targeting efforts. We aimed to assess HIV incidence and HIV mortality for all second-level administrative units across sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: In this modelling study, we developed a framework that used the geographically specific HIV prevalence data collected in seroprevalence surveys and antenatal care clinics to train a model that estimates HIV incidence and mortality among individuals aged 15–49 years. We used a model-based geostatistical framework to estimate HIV prevalence at the second administrative level in 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for 2000–18 and sought data on the number of individuals on antiretroviral therapy (ART) by second-level administrative unit. We then modified the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP) to use these HIV prevalence and treatment estimates to estimate HIV incidence and mortality by second-level administrative unit. Findings: The estimates suggest substantial variation in HIV incidence and mortality rates both between and within countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with 15 countries having a ten-times or greater difference in estimated HIV incidence between the second-level administrative units with the lowest and highest estimated incidence levels. Across all 44 countries in 2018, HIV incidence ranged from 2 ·8 (95% uncertainty interval 2·1–3·8) in Mauritania to 1585·9 (1369·4–1824·8) cases per 100 000 people in Lesotho and HIV mortality ranged from 0·8 (0·7–0·9) in Mauritania to 676· 5 (513· 6–888·0) deaths per 100 000 people in Lesotho. Variation in both incidence and mortality was substantially greater at the subnational level than at the national level and the highest estimated rates were accordingly higher. Among second-level administrative units, Guijá District, Gaza Province, Mozambique, had the highest estimated HIV incidence (4661·7 [2544·8–8120·3]) cases per 100000 people in 2018 and Inhassunge District, Zambezia Province, Mozambique, had the highest estimated HIV mortality rate (1163·0 [679·0–1866·8]) deaths per 100 000 people. Further, the rate of reduction in HIV incidence and mortality from 2000 to 2018, as well as the ratio of new infections to the number of people living with HIV was highly variable. Although most second-level administrative units had declines in the number of new cases (3316 [81· 1%] of 4087 units) and number of deaths (3325 [81·4%]), nearly all appeared well short of the targeted 75% reduction in new cases and deaths between 2010 and 2020. Interpretation: Our estimates suggest that most second-level administrative units in sub-Saharan Africa are falling short of the targeted 75% reduction in new cases and deaths by 2020, which is further compounded by substantial within-country variability. These estimates will help decision makers and programme implementers expand access to ART and better target health resources to higher burden subnational areas

Global, regional and national burden of bladder cancer and its attributable risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease study 2019

Introduction The current study determined the level and trends associated with the incidence, death and disability rates for bladder cancer and its attributable risk factors in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2019, by age, sex and sociodemographic index (SDI; a composite measure of sociodemographic factors). Methods Various data sources from different countries, including vital registration and cancer registries were used to generate estimates. Mortality data and incidence data transformed to mortality estimates using the mortality to incidence ratio (MIR) were used in a cause of death ensemble model to estimate mortality. Mortality estimates were divided by the MIR to produce incidence estimates. Prevalence was calculated using incidence and MIR-based survival estimates. Age-specific mortality and standardised life expectancy were used to estimate years of life lost (YLLs). Prevalence was multiplied by disability weights to estimate years lived with disability (YLDs), while disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are the sum of the YLLs and YLDs. All estimates were presented as counts and age-standardised rates per 100 000 population. Results Globally, there were 524 000 bladder cancer incident cases (95% uncertainty interval 476 000 to 569 000) and 229 000 bladder cancer deaths (211 000 to 243 000) in 2019. Age-standardised death rate decreased by 15.7% (8.6 to 21.0), during the period 1990–2019. Bladder cancer accounted for 4.39 million (4.09 to 4.70) DALYs in 2019, and the age-standardised DALY rate decreased significantly by 18.6% (11.2 to 24.3) during the period 1990–2019. In 2019, Monaco had the highest age-standardised incidence rate (31.9 cases (23.3 to 56.9) per 100 000), while Lebanon had the highest age-standardised death rate (10.4 (8.1 to 13.7)). Cabo Verde had the highest increase in age-standardised incidence (284.2% (214.1 to 362.8)) and death rates (190.3% (139.3 to 251.1)) between 1990 and 2019. In 2019, the global age-standardised incidence and death rates were higher among males than females, across all age groups and peaked in the 95+ age group. Globally, 36.8% (28.5 to 44.0) of bladder cancer DALYs were attributable to smoking, more so in males than females (43.7% (34.0 to 51.8) vs 15.2% (10.9 to 19.4)). In addition, 9.1% (1.9 to 19.6) of the DALYs were attributable to elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (males 9.3% (1.6 to 20.9); females 8.4% (1.6 to 19.1)). Conclusions There was considerable variation in the burden of bladder cancer between countries during the period 1990–2019. Although there was a clear global decrease in the age-standardised death, and DALY rates, some countries experienced an increase in these rates. National policy makers should learn from these differences, and allocate resources for preventative measures, based on their country-specific estimates. In addition, smoking and elevated FPG play an important role in the burden of bladder cancer and need to be addressed with prevention programmes.publishedVersio

Use of multidimensional item response theory methods for dementia prevalence prediction : an example using the Health and Retirement Survey and the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study

Background Data sparsity is a major limitation to estimating national and global dementia burden. Surveys with full diagnostic evaluations of dementia prevalence are prohibitively resource-intensive in many settings. However, validation samples from nationally representative surveys allow for the development of algorithms for the prediction of dementia prevalence nationally. Methods Using cognitive testing data and data on functional limitations from Wave A (2001-2003) of the ADAMS study (n = 744) and the 2000 wave of the HRS study (n = 6358) we estimated a two-dimensional item response theory model to calculate cognition and function scores for all individuals over 70. Based on diagnostic information from the formal clinical adjudication in ADAMS, we fit a logistic regression model for the classification of dementia status using cognition and function scores and applied this algorithm to the full HRS sample to calculate dementia prevalence by age and sex. Results Our algorithm had a cross-validated predictive accuracy of 88% (86-90), and an area under the curve of 0.97 (0.97-0.98) in ADAMS. Prevalence was higher in females than males and increased over age, with a prevalence of 4% (3-4) in individuals 70-79, 11% (9-12) in individuals 80-89 years old, and 28% (22-35) in those 90 and older. Conclusions Our model had similar or better accuracy as compared to previously reviewed algorithms for the prediction of dementia prevalence in HRS, while utilizing more flexible methods. These methods could be more easily generalized and utilized to estimate dementia prevalence in other national surveys

The burden of injury in Central, Eastern, and Western European sub-region : a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Study

Background Injury remains a major concern to public health in the European region. Previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study showed wide variation in injury death and disability adjusted life year (DALY) rates across Europe, indicating injury inequality gaps between sub-regions and countries. The objectives of this study were to: 1) compare GBD 2019 estimates on injury mortality and DALYs across European sub-regions and countries by cause-of-injury category and sex; 2) examine changes in injury DALY rates over a 20 year-period by cause-of-injury category, sub-region and country; and 3) assess inequalities in injury mortality and DALY rates across the countries. Methods We performed a secondary database descriptive study using the GBD 2019 results on injuries in 44 European countries from 2000 to 2019. Inequality in DALY rates between these countries was assessed by calculating the DALY rate ratio between the highest-ranking country and lowest-ranking country in each year. Results In 2019, in Eastern Europe 80 [95% uncertainty interval (UI): 71 to 89] people per 100,000 died from injuries; twice as high compared to Central Europe (38 injury deaths per 100,000; 95% UI 34 to 42) and three times as high compared to Western Europe (27 injury deaths per 100,000; 95%UI 25 to 28). The injury DALY rates showed less pronounced differences between Eastern (5129 DALYs per 100,000; 95% UI: 4547 to 5864), Central (2940 DALYs per 100,000; 95% UI: 2452 to 3546) and Western Europe (1782 DALYs per 100,000; 95% UI: 1523 to 2115). Injury DALY rate was lowest in Italy (1489 DALYs per 100,000) and highest in Ukraine (5553 DALYs per 100,000). The difference in injury DALY rates by country was larger for males compared to females. The DALY rate ratio was highest in 2005, with DALY rate in the lowest-ranking country (Russian Federation) 6.0 times higher compared to the highest-ranking country (Malta). After 2005, the DALY rate ratio between the lowest- and the highest-ranking country gradually decreased to 3.7 in 2019. Conclusions Injury mortality and DALY rates were highest in Eastern Europe and lowest in Western Europe, although differences in injury DALY rates declined rapidly, particularly in the past decade. The injury DALY rate ratio of highest- and lowest-ranking country declined from 2005 onwards, indicating declining inequalities in injuries between European countries.Peer reviewe