Frequency of Parental Psychopathology in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Parental mental health concerns place children at a significantly greater risk of lower social, psychological and physical health than children in families not affected by mental illness. Several studies have examined the extent to which psychopathology in children are closely related to parental substance use disorders or to other mental disorders. This study intended to investigate the frequency of occurrence of parental psychopathology in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and compare the characteristics of children with and without parental psychopathology. Fifty children between 7-14 years of either sex fulfilling the ICD-10 criteria for ADHD comprised the sample of this study.It would be a chart review of in-patients and out-patients who have consulted at Kasturba Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Manipal over a two year period. Parents diagnosed with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) and other psychiatric morbidity according to ICD-10 was compared with those parents without any psychiatric illness on various Sociodemographic, clinical characteristics. Most of the parents were in the second or third decade of their life. Of the fifty patients 41(82%) were males and 9 (18%) were females. In 36(87.0 %) of the fathers had a history of substance use disorder and 5(13.0 %) it was absent. Other morbidities were also present in both parents. The findings are discussed in light of the implications

Factors Associated with Tuberculosis and Rifampicin-Resistant Tuberculosis amongst Symptomatic Patients in India: A Retrospective Analysis

Background Tuberculosis remains a major public health challenge for India. Various studies have documented different levels of TB and multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB among diverse groups of the population. In view of renewed targets set under the End TB strategy by 2035, there is an urgent need for TB diagnosis to be strengthened. Drawing on data from a recent, multisite study, we address key questions for TB diagnosis amongst symptomatics presenting for care: are there subgroups of patients that are more likely than others, to be positive for TB? In turn, amongst these positive cases, are there factors—apart from treatment history—that may be predictive for multi-drug resistance? Methods We used data from a multi-centric prospective demonstration study, conducted from March 2012 to December 2013 in 18 sub-district level TB programme units (TUs) in India and covering a population of 8.8 million. In place of standard diagnostic tests, upfront Xpert MTB/RIF testing was offered to all presumptive TB symptomatics. Here, using data from this study, we used logistic regression to identify association between risk factors and TB and Rifampicin-Resistant TB among symptomatics enrolled in the study. Results We find that male gender; history of TB treatment; and adult age compared with either children or the elderly are risk factors associated with high TB detection amongst symptomatics, across the TUs. While treatment history is found be a significant risk factor for rifampicin-resistant TB, elderly (65+ yrs) people have significantly lower risk than other age groups. However, pediatric TB cases have no less risk of rifampicin resistance as compared with adults (OR 1.23 (95% C.I. 0.85–1.76)). Similarly, risk of rifampicin resistance among both the genders was the same. These patterns applied across the study sites involved. Notably in Mumbai, amongst those patients with microbiological confirmation of TB, female patients showed a higher risk of having MDR-TB than male patients. Conclusion Our results cast fresh light on the characteristics of symptomatics presenting for care who are most likely to be microbiologically positive for TB, and for rifampicin resistance. The challenges posed by TB control are complex and multifactorial: evidence from diverse sources, including retrospective studies such as that addressed here, can be invaluable in informing future strategies to accelerate declines in TB burden

Predictors of Risky Sex Behavior among Adolescents in a Traditional Indian Society: Implications for Program Intervention Strategies

Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess the risk behavior and its effect on involvement in sex among school-going adolescents as a part of assessing implementation of Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Scheme (ARSH) in a state of India.Methods: The sample covered 3069 randomly selected adolescents (students) from 9th to 12th standard in various government, private and missionary-run schools from two districts, namely, Aizawl and Champhai in the state of Mizoram.Results: It was found that more than one-third of adolescents (37%) accepted taking alcohol and 72% of adolescents accepted seeing pornographic movies. Nearly 23% respondents were aware about premarital pregnancy among friends and 7.5% were aware about complication due to unsafe abortion among them. About 10% accepted involvement in premarital sex and majority of them (70%) had premarital sex between age group 15 and 19 years and 54% never used condom. Influence of peer group who were taking alcohol, tobacco and drug and exposure to erotic materials was found to be the major risk factors for indulgence in unsafe sex practices among adolescents.Conclusion: Better awareness and counseling against tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse, and pornographic literature among adolescents is needed through school health education.

Bottom-up or top-down: unit cost estimation of tuberculosis diagnostic tests in India.

SETTING: Of 18 sites that participated in an implementation study of the Xpert® MTB/RIF assay in India, we selected five microscopy centres and two reference laboratories. OBJECTIVE: To obtain unit costs of diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB. DESIGN: Laboratories were purposely selected to capture regional variations and different laboratory types. Both bottom-up and the top-down methods were used to estimate unit costs. RESULTS: At the microscopy centres, mean bottom-up unit costs were respectively US$0.83 (range US$0.60-US$1.10) and US$12.29 (US$11.61-US$12.89) for sputum smear microscopy and Xpert. At the reference laboratories, mean unit costs were US$1.69 for the decontamination procedure, US$9.83 for a solid culture, US$11.06 for a liquid culture, US$29.88 for a drug susceptibility test, and US$18.18 for a line-probe assay. Top-down mean unit cost estimates were higher for all tests, and for sputum smear microscopy and Xpert these increased to respectively US$1.51 and US$13.58. The difference between bottom-up and top-down estimates was greatest for tests performed at the reference laboratories. CONCLUSION: These unit costs for TB diagnostics can be used to estimate resource requirements and cost-effectiveness in India, taking into account geographical location, laboratory type and capacity utilisation

Vertical Field Effect Transistor based on Graphene-WS2 Heterostructures for flexible and transparent electronics

The celebrated electronic properties of graphene have opened way for materials just one-atom-thick to be used in the post-silicon electronic era. An important milestone was the creation of heterostructures based on graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) crystals, which can be assembled in 3D stacks with atomic layer precision. These layered structures have already led to a range of fascinating physical phenomena, and also have been used in demonstrating a prototype field effect tunnelling transistor - a candidate for post-CMOS technology. The range of possible materials which could be incorporated into such stacks is very large. Indeed, there are many other materials where layers are linked by weak van der Waals forces, which can be exfoliated and combined together to create novel highly-tailored heterostructures. Here we describe a new generation of field effect vertical tunnelling transistors where 2D tungsten disulphide serves as an atomically thin barrier between two layers of either mechanically exfoliated or CVD-grown graphene. Our devices have unprecedented current modulation exceeding one million at room temperature and can also operate on transparent and flexible substrates

Ultrafast collinear scattering and carrier multiplication in graphene.

Graphene is emerging as a viable alternative to conventional optoelectronic, plasmonic and nanophotonic materials. The interaction of light with charge carriers creates an out-of-equilibrium distribution, which relaxes on an ultrafast timescale to a hot Fermi-Dirac distribution, that subsequently cools emitting phonons. Although the slower relaxation mechanisms have been extensively investigated, the initial stages still pose a challenge. Experimentally, they defy the resolution of most pump-probe setups, due to the extremely fast sub-100 fs carrier dynamics. Theoretically, massless Dirac fermions represent a novel many-body problem, fundamentally different from Schrödinger fermions. Here we combine pump-probe spectroscopy with a microscopic theory to investigate electron-electron interactions during the early stages of relaxation. We identify the mechanisms controlling the ultrafast dynamics, in particular the role of collinear scattering. This gives rise to Auger processes, including charge multiplication, which is key in photovoltage generation and photodetectors

Quantitative Metabolomics by 1H-NMR and LC-MS/MS Confirms Altered Metabolic Pathways in Diabetes

Insulin is as a major postprandial hormone with profound effects on carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. In the absence of exogenous insulin, patients with type 1 diabetes exhibit a variety of metabolic abnormalities including hyperglycemia, glycosurea, accelerated ketogenesis, and muscle wasting due to increased proteolysis. We analyzed plasma from type 1 diabetic (T1D) humans during insulin treatment (I+) and acute insulin deprivation (I-) and non-diabetic participants (ND) by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The aim was to determine if this combination of analytical methods could provide information on metabolic pathways known to be altered by insulin deficiency. Multivariate statistics differentiated proton spectra from I- and I+ based on several derived plasma metabolites that were elevated during insulin deprivation (lactate, acetate, allantoin, ketones). Mass spectrometry revealed significant perturbations in levels of plasma amino acids and amino acid metabolites during insulin deprivation. Further analysis of metabolite levels measured by the two analytical techniques indicates several known metabolic pathways that are perturbed in T1D (I-) (protein synthesis and breakdown, gluconeogenesis, ketogenesis, amino acid oxidation, mitochondrial bioenergetics, and oxidative stress). This work demonstrates the promise of combining multiple analytical methods with advanced statistical methods in quantitative metabolomics research, which we have applied to the clinical situation of acute insulin deprivation in T1D to reflect the numerous metabolic pathways known to be affected by insulin deficiency

Polarization and magnetization dynamics of a field-driven multiferroic structure

We consider a multiferroic chain with a linear magnetoelectric coupling induced by the electrostatic screening at the ferroelectric/ferromagnet interface. We study theoretically the dynamic ferroelectric and magnetic response to external magnetic and electric fields by utilizing an approach based on coupled Landau- Khalatnikov and finite-temperature Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations. Additionally, we compare with Monte Carlo calculations. It is demonstrated that for material parameters corresponding to BaTiO3/Fe the polarization and the magnetization are controllable by external magnetic and electric fields respectively

Uniaxial strain in graphene by Raman spectroscopy: G peak splitting, Grüneisen parameters, and sample orientation

Graphene is the two-dimensional building block for carbon allotropes of every other dimensionality. Since its experimental discovery, graphene continues to attract enormous interest, in particular as a new kind of matter, in which electron transport is governed by a Dirac-like wave equation, and as a model system for studying electronic and phonon properties of other, more complex, graphitic materials[1-4]. Here, we uncover the constitutive relation of graphene and probe new physics of its optical phonons, by studying its Raman spectrum as a function of uniaxial strain. We find that the doubly degenerate E2g optical mode splits in two components, one polarized along the strain and the other perpendicular to it. This leads to the splitting of the G peak into two bands, which we call G+ and G-, by analogy with the effect of curvature on the nanotube G peak[5-7]. Both peaks red shift with increasing strain, and their splitting increases, in excellent agreement with first-principles calculations. Their relative intensities are found to depend on light polarization, which provides a useful tool to probe the graphene crystallographic orientation with respect to the strain. The singly degenerate 2D and 2D' bands also red shift, but do not split for small strains. We study the Gruneisen parameters for the phonons responsible for the G, D and D' peaks. These can be used to measure the amount of uniaxial or biaxial strain, providing a fundamental tool for nanoelectronics, where strain monitoring is of paramount importance[8, 9