EVALUATION OF PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY IN ADOLESCENTS IN PATIALA DISTRICT, PUNJAB

Background:What is the morbidity pattern of the adolescent patients coming to seek treatment in Psychiatry Deptt.? Objectives: To evaluate the pattern of mental disorders in adolescents. Methods:The study was a hospital based cross-sectional study conducted in the Deptt. of Psychiatry, Rajindra Hospital,Patiala. 500 adolescents aged 10-19 were interviewed. Results: More of the morbid patients were from nuclear families, 6.4% were married among whom, 2.4% were either divorced or separated.13.2% patients had positive history of any family member having psychiatric problem. Only 21.2% had contacted a psychiatrist at first instance while 50.8% had been to traditional healers. The most common diagnosis was Mood (affective) disorders followed by neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders. Next was mental retardation followed by schizophrenia and delusional disorders .The most common diagnosis among males was neurotic, stress related and among females was mood disorders. The difference of distribution of diagnosis among urban and rural , nuclear and joint families was statistically significant. Conclusion: Patients reporting to the hospital with psychiatric disorders were urban males. Most of the patients were eldest in birth order and belonged to nuclear families. Most of the patients had been to traditional healers. The most common diagnosis was mood disorders followed by neurotic stress related illness

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices regarding Swine Flu among adult population

Introduction: Prevention is the most appropriate measure to control H1N1 flu pandemic and awareness of H1N1 flu is ranked very high in preventive measures. Keeping this in view, study was designed to assess the awareness level and to compare it among urban and rural participants. Aims and objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding swine flu among adult population, to assess whether there is any difference among rural and urban population and to assess the response generated by the media coverage and the Government efforts.Methods: This cross-sectional study was done from April to July 2015 on 300 houses from the urban area and 150 houses from rural area, chosen from study population by random sampling. Mean and standard deviation for continuous variables and percentages for categorical were calculated. Results: 94% of urban and 91.3% of the rural participants had previously heard about swine flu, main source being TV. 46% of urban and 74% of rural participants had myth about spread of swine flu by eating pork. 41.3% of urban and 8.7% of rural population thought that government measures are sufficient for controlling swine flu. Conclusion: Knowledge regarding swine flu pandemic is good among study participants but role of health care providers is minimal and requires more dedicated effort. Lack of awareness among study population regarding some key focus areas like health promoting habits, vaccination and myths regarding the spread is of serious concern and needs to be addressed by the media, health workers and the Government effort

PREVALENCE AND DRUG RESISTANCE IN ACINETOBACTER SP. ISOLATED FROM INTENSIVE CARE UNITS PATIENTS IN PUNJAB, INDIA

Objective: This study was designed to study the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Acinetobacter sp. as isolated from patients lodged in intensive care units (ICUs) of a tertiary care hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.Methods: The clinical samples were simultaneously streaked on Blood agar and MacConkey agar. The identification of the bacterial isolates was carried out with the aid of Gram stain, motility test and along with a combination of other commonly employed biochemical tests. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of all the bacterial isolates was carried out on Muller-Hinton agar through Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.Results: Acinetobacter sp. formed a fair allowance contributing at 42% among all ICU culture positive samples. The respiratory tract samples had a major share at 63.15% for all samples attributed to be positive for Acinetobacter sp. nosocomial etiology. The antibiotic sensitivity pattern portrayed that more than 95% of Acinetobacter sp. isolates were multiple drug resistant (MDR) whereas >50% Acinetobacter sp. showed extensive drug resistant (XDR). The last resort for such Acinetobacter sp. nosocomial infections is left to colistin and polymyxin B.Conclusion: Acinetobacter sp. is a highly prevalent microorganism among ICU patients of Ludhiana, Punjab, India, while its potential to acquire resistance toward commonly used antibiotics represents it as a grave threat to the health-care industry, therefore signifying the need for its regular monitoring in the health-care setups

Plant growth promotion of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) by potassium solubilizing bacteria with multifarious plant growth promoting attributes

Potassium (K) is the foremost macronutrients for growth of plant, soil health and fertility. The huge application of NPK chemical fertilizers negatively impacts the economy and is a threat to environmental sustainability. The rapid depletion of K mineral in soil is due to the application of agrochemicals agricultural fields for the production of crops in India. In present investigation, K-solubilizing microbes (KSM) were isolated and enumerated from cereal crops growing in Sirmour Himachal Pradesh. A total 125 bacteria were isolated and screened for K- solubilization on Aleksandrov agar plates and found that 31 bacterial strains exhibited K-solubilization. These 31 K-solubilizing strains of bacteria were additionally screened for other plant growth promoting (PGP) potential including solubilization of minerals, production of siderophores, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and indole acetic acids. The performance of an efficient K-solubilizer was evaluated for plant growth promoting ability in pot assay under in vitro conditions. The strain EU-LWNA-25 positively influenced shoot length, fresh weight, carotenoids and total sugar content than the full dose, half dose and control. The strain enhancing physiological and growth parameters was identified by BLASTn analysis as Pseudomonas gessardii EU-LWNA-25. K-solubilizing plant growth promoting bacteria could be suitable bioinoculants for Rabi seasonal crops and overcomes the challenges of sustainable agriculture in K-deficient soil

Lymphatic filariasis in migrant population in non-endemic states - Need to cover by Mass Drug Administration (MDA)

Background: Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is targeted by WHO for global elimination as a public health problem by year2020. GoI is signatory to WHO resolution and envisaged elimination by instituting annual mass drug administration (MDA) in all endemic districts under NVBDCP by year 2015.With rapid industrialization and urbanization, large number of landless farmer, unskilled/skilled labour migrate either singly or with entire family members to other states (which may be non-endemic for LF) in search of employment. These migrants from endemic states escape MDA beings migrated to non-endemic states. Aims and Objectives: To find out prevalence of LF and MF density among migrant staying in non-endemic states and assess needs to institute MDA in such migrants. Material & Methods: This study was a cross sectional epidemiological study carried out in migrant population staying at/near the construction site covering the population of 1640. However, only 1092 person participated in the study. Result: A total of 1092 people agreed to participate in the study, out of which, 22 were found MF positive and 4 presented with clinical signs of LF. The study found MF prevalence of 2.01% with average MF density of 3.90. Conclusion: Endemicity (2.01%) of MF among migratory population more than national average (0.45%), which is capable of continuing transmission (>1%) in population at risk living in non-endemic states where MDA is not administered.&nbsp

Knowledge, anxiety and the use of hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis among health care students and professionals regarding COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction:  Data regarding knowledge and attitude about COVID-19, the prevalence of acceptance of hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis and anxiety amidst COVID-19 pandemic among health care students/professionals in India is scarce.Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during May 2020, using an online survey via Google forms. A self-administered validated structured questionnaire was applied, which comprised 28 questions among health care students/professionals at a tertiary care centrein North India.Results: A total of 956 respondents were included (10.2% nurses, 45.2% medical students, 24.3% paramedical students, 11.7% resident doctors and 8.6% consultant doctors). Overall knowledge score was 9.3/15; the highest for preventive practices (4/5), followed by clinical knowledge (2.7/5) and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) (2.6/5). The overall score was the highest in consultant doctors (10.8) while the lowest in nurses (8.5) and paramedical students (8.4) (p < 0.001). Less than half of the respondents had knowledge about the correct sequence of doffing PPE and the use of N95 mask. About 21.8% of the participants experienced moderate to severe anxiety; higher among nurses (38%), followed by paramedical students (29.3%); and anxiety was higher when knowledge score was low (27.6% vs 14.7%); both factors were independent predictors on multivariate analysis (p < 0.001). Only 18.1% of the respondents applied HCQ prophylaxis — the highest proportion constituted consultants (42.7%), and the least — paramedical students (5.2%); (p < 0.001) and HCQ use was more frequently used if they had a family member of extreme age group at home (23.3% vs 12.2%; p < 0.001). Conclusions: The knowledge about correct PPE usage is low among all groups of HCWs and students, and there is a high prevalence of anxiety due to COVID-19. The lower COVID-19 knowledge scores were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of anxiety and inadequate use of HCQ prophylaxis. The appliance of HCQ prophylaxis had no significant association with anxiety levels of the respondents

An Integrated Approach for Cancer Survival Prediction Using Data Mining Techniques

Ovarian cancer is the third most common gynecologic cancers worldwide. Advanced ovarian cancer patients bear a significant mortality rate. Survival estimation is essential for clinicians and patients to understand better and tolerate future outcomes. The present study intends to investigate different survival predictors available for cancer prognosis using data mining techniques. Dataset of 140 advanced ovarian cancer patients containing data from different data profiles (clinical, treatment, and overall life quality) has been collected and used to foresee cancer patients’ survival. Attributes from each data profile have been processed accordingly. Clinical data has been prepared corresponding to missing values and outliers. Treatment data including varying time periods were created using sequence mining techniques to identify the treatments given to the patients. And lastly, different comorbidities were combined into a single factor by computing Charlson Comorbidity Index for each patient. After appropriate preprocessing, the integrated dataset is classified using appropriate machine learning algorithms. The proposed integrated model approach gave the highest accuracy of 76.4% using ensemble technique with sequential pattern mining including time intervals of 2 months between treatments. Thus, the treatment sequences and, most importantly, life quality attributes significantly contribute to the survival prediction of cancer patients

Supplement: "Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914" (2016, ApJL, 826, L13)

This Supplement provides supporting material for Abbott et al. (2016a). We briefly summarize past electromagnetic (EM) follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current EM follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the EM follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands