A Qualitative Study on the Feasibility and Benefits of Foot Hygiene Measures Practiced by Patients with Brugian Filariasis

Disability alleviation is an important component of Global Programme for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis'. In Brugia malayi infection the disability is largely due to acute attacks of adenolymphangitis (ADL), which frequently prevent patients from attending their normal activities, causing much suffering and economic loss. The foot care programme has been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of these episodes. In the present study we used semi-structured interviews to evaluate the impact of the foot care in 127 patients with brugian filariasis. They were previously trained in this procedure and were advised to practice it regularly, unsupervised. All except one could recollect the various components of foot hygiene and were practicing it regularly. They were aware of the factors causing ADL attacks and were able to avoid them. Majority (95.2%) expressed their happiness with the relief provided by foot care, which prevented or reduced the ADL episodes. The motivation was such that they transmitted this knowledge to others suffering in the community and even physically helped them to carry out foot care. This study fully endorses the advocacy of foot care programme as an easy to carry out, effective, sustainable and economically feasible ,procedure to prevent acute ADL attacks

FACTORS INFLUENCING JOB REJECTIONS IN CLOUD ENVIRONMENT

The IT organizations invests heavy capital by consuming large scale infrastructure and advanced operating platforms. The advances in technology has resulted in emergence of cloud computing, which is promising technology to achieve the aforementioned objective. At the peak hours, the jobs arriving to the cloud system are normally high demanding efficient execution and dispatch. An observation that has been carried out in this paper by capturing a job arriving pattern from a monitoring system explains that most of the jobs get rejected because of lack of efficient technology. The job rejections can be controlled by certain factors such as job scheduling and load balancing. Therefore, in this paper the efficiency of Round Robin (RR) scheduling strategy used for job scheduling and Shortest Job First Scheduling (SJFS) technique used for load balancing in reducing the job rejections are analyzed. Further, a proposal for an effective load balancing approach to avoid deadlocks has been discussed

Estimation of ASO titer as an indicator of streptococcal infection precipitating acute adenolymphangitis in brugian lymphatic filariasis

Recurrent episodes of acute adenolymphangitis (ADL) are important clinical manifestations of lymphatic filariasis which contribute significantly to the progression of lymphedema. It is increasingly being recognized that secondary bacterial infections play an important role in the etiology of ADL. We examined the role of streptococcal infection as a precipitating factor of ADL in brugian filariasis, by determining the anti-streptolysin O (ASO) titers and by isolating the causative organism wherever possible. The study population consisted of 30 patients with filariasis related ADL (Group A), 30 patients with chronic filarial edema (Group B) and 60 age and sex matched healthy adults (Group C). ASO titer was estimated by the latex agglutination method at the time of entry into the study, at the 15th day and at 3,6 and 12 months. ASO titers were persistently elevated in 90% of patients in Group A and a portal of entry for bacterial infection was detected in all of these patients. In Group B only six patients had persistently elevated ASO titers. These patients had grade III lymphedema and three of them had monilial infections in the affected limb. In the control group none had persistently elevated ASO titers. The elevated ASO titers and the detection of a site of entry for bacteria in patients with ADL supports a streptococcal etiology for this condition

Treatment of the microfilaraemia of asymptomatic brugian filariasis with single doses of ivermectin, diethylcarbamazine or albendazole, in various combinations

Several new chemotherapeutic tools are now available for the control of lymphatic filariasis. Combinations of single doses of antifilarial drugs are generally superior to single drugs. The efficacy and safety of albendazole in combination with diethylcarbamazinc (DEC) or ivermectin, for the treatment of Brugia malayi infection, were investigated, for the first time, in an open, hospital-based study. Fifty-one asymptomatic microfilaraemics (with 108-4034 microfilariae/ml; median = 531) of both sexes and aged 14-70 years were randomly allocated to receive single-dose treatments of ivermectin (200 μg/kg) with diethylcarbamazine (DEC; 6 mg/kg), ivermectin (200 μg/kg) with albendazole (400 mg), DEC (6 mg/kg) with albendazole (400 mg), or albendazole (400 mg) alone. Albendazole alone had no effect on the microfilarial levels at the 1-year follow-up but both groups given DEC had significantly lower microfilaraemias ( P < 0.015 and P < 0.02) than that given ivermectin with albendazole. Overall, 47%-64% of those given DEC but only 14% of those given ivermectin with albendazole appeared to be amicrofilaraemic 1 year post-treatment. The adverse reactions seen in the study were mild, transient and qualitatively similar to those seen earlier with ivermectin and DEC. The combination of DEC and albendazole, both well tested drugs, offers a new option for countries such as India where there is no onchocerciasis or loiasis and where ivermectin may not be immediately available. The direct and indirect effects of albendazole on intestinal helminths would be additional benefits

KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARD COVID-19 DISEASE AMONG VARIOUS PROFESSIONALS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL ONLINE SURVEY

Objectives: This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice associated with COVID-19 disease by undertaking a web-based online survey. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted all over India during the initial phase of COVID-19 hit between March 19, 2020, and March 29, 2020. Anyone aged 18 years and above using social media were included in the study. The questionnaire had a section on sociodemography which had questions regarding age, gender, marital status, and occupation. This was followed by questions on knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The knowledge scores were summarized as median with interquartile range as the data followed a non-normal distribution. Attitude and practice questions were summarized individually as proportions and its association with socio-demographic variables was established using Chi-square test. The statistical significance was set at p&lt;0.05. Results: Occupational groups, marital status, and age group had significant difference between the groups with at least one of the practices with p&lt;0.05. Conclusion: Since the study provides enhancing effect of knowledge toward protective behaviors, the awareness raising activities and health education through mass media and campaigns, this should urgently be conducted focusing on effectiveness of hand washing, cough etiquette, social distancing, and responsibility to inform suspected cases to local health authority to prevent COVID-19

COLORECTAL CANCER AND ITS RISK FACTORS AMONG PATIENTS ATTENDING A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN SOUTHERN KARNATAKA, INDIA

Objective: To determine the association between certain socio-demographic and life style factors with colorectal cancer.Methods: This case-control study was conducted using a pre-designed questionnaire among 100 incident colorectal cancer patients and 200 unmatched controls attending a tertiary care hospital in southern Karnataka. Cases and the controls were interviewed and details regarding their socio-demographic factors were collected. Information on lifestyle factors such as dietary habits, physical activity levels and substance use were documented. They were also assessed for presence of existing co-morbidities and family history of colorectal and other cancers. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine the association between various risk factors and colorectal cancer.Results: In the present hospital based study, mean age of the participants was less than 55 years. Sixty three percent of the cases and 54.5% of the controls were males. On multivariable analysis age ≥50years (OR=1.87; 95%CI=1.02-3.45), low physical activity (OR=5.66; 95%CI=3.10-10.34) and low frequency of fruits consumption (OR=4.10; 95%CI=2.21-7.50) and hypertension (OR= 4.65; 95% CI=1.32-16.44) showed a positive association with colorectal cancer.Conclusion: Promoting healthy dietary practices and physical activity among the middle aged population appears to be significant in the context of colorectal cancer prevention in the Indian subcontinent.Keywords: Colorectal cancer, Case–control, Risk factors, Lifestyle, Comorbidities

Probing ion channel functional architecture and domain recombination compatibility by massively parallel domain insertion profiling

Protein domains are the basic units of protein structure and function. Comparative analysis of genomes and proteomes showed that domain recombination is a main driver of multidomain protein functional diversification and some of the constraining genomic mechanisms are known. Much less is known about biophysical mechanisms that determine whether protein domains can be combined into viable protein folds. Here, we use massively parallel insertional mutagenesis to determine compatibility of over 300,000 domain recombination variants of the Inward Rectifier K+ channel Kir2.1 with channel surface expression. Our data suggest that genomic and biophysical mechanisms acted in concert to favor gain of large, structured domain at protein termini during ion channel evolution. We use machine learning to build a quantitative biophysical model of domain compatibility in Kir2.1 that allows us to derive rudimentary rules for designing domain insertion variants that fold and traffic to the cell surface. Positional Kir2.1 responses to motif insertion clusters into distinct groups that correspond to contiguous structural regions of the channel with distinct biophysical properties tuned towards providing either folding stability or gating transitions. This suggests that insertional profiling is a high-throughput method to annotate function of ion channel structural regions