Nasal foreign bodies: our experience

Background: The experience of a mother of a child with a foreign body stuck in its nasal cavity can be quite panicky and horrifying. The nasal foreign bodies are one of the commonest emergencies in the department of otorhinolaryngology. The common foreign body objects that are removed from the nasal cavity includes beads, pencil butts, peas or other grains, seeds, sponge, stones, paper bits, erasers, metallic objects, crayons, batteries.Methods: An observational prospective study was performed at the department of otorhinolaryngology, government medical college, Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir. In this study we examined 120 cases of foreign body nose that had presented to us from March 2019 up to March 2020. Once detected a written consent was obtained from the patient’s attendants after duly explaining the involved risks to the child. Thereafter the foreign bodies were removed using appropriate instruments. Microsoft Excel tool were used to analyze and interpretate the data.Results: Amongst the 120 patients, there were 23 adults and 97 children under 10 years. Study included 72 males and 48 females. The 86 patients had a clear history of foreign body insertion. The 12 patients were brought to our OPD with history of a long standing unilateral nasal discharge. The 12 patients had presented with history of epistaxis. Eight patients had presented with headache and recurrent episodes of rhinorrhea. Two cases presented with symptoms of pain over the nasal bridge and swelling.  In our study 86% of the patients were brought with a history of foreign body insertion and only 14% a foreign body was detected when the child had presented to the outpatient department with nasal complaints. Amongst the patients 88 of them (74%) had presented with foreign bodies in their right nostril.Conclusions: Any history of insertion of a foreign body inside the nose should be thoroughly investigated. Appropriate clinical examination and diagnostic nasal endoscopy (wherever indicated) should be done. Appropriate instrument should be selected and used for foreign body removal

Cloud Computing: Performance implications and Challenges

Cloud computing is a new paradigm in the field of distributed computing. The objective of cloud computing is to provide various computing resources over the internet in the form of service to number of cloud consumers. Cloud provides the computing environment to organization in a cost effective manner and give flexibility to increase the number of resources as required during peak load time. In this paper we have tried to highlight some of the major challenges like security, availability of cloud services, reliability and auto-provisioning of cloud resources etc. which need to be addressed by researchers. Certainly there are some performance implications which also need to be resolved in order to get maximum output from the cloud so we need to manage the cloud resources in optimized way to increase the performance of cloud and its adaptability among different organization

Financing Urban Infrastructure in India through Tax Increment Financing Instruments: A Case for Smart Cities Mission

The paper is aimed at exploring the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) model for financing planned urban development programmes and projects in Indian cities – smart cities, in particular. This is based on the premise that the TIF approach offers an excellent opportunity to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for the creation, capture and recycling of values in cities support funding of core urban infrastructure in a sustained manner. The paper describes the key elements of the TIF model and explains why it is a theoretically elegant and practically desirable strategy for possible adoption by Indian cities at the present stage of urban evolution, when municipal finances are precarious and the municipalities are also not in a position to generate current revenue surplus. The paper is based on the principle of ‘theory follows practice and vice versa’, case studies on TIF as implemented internationally. Finally, the paper suggests directions as to how the TIF principles could be incorporated into the framework of financing innovative projects under the Smart Cities Mission, including accessing capital market funds through municipal bonds. The key findings of the paper suggests that the efficacy of tax increment financing tools in Indian cities will depend on several factors: the versatility of city development strategy and plan; reforms in municipal finance system; reforms in spatial planning; effective design of TIF projects and financing strategies, including mechanisms for value capture and recycling to catalyze economic growth-enhancing enterprises that create further values to land-owners and the city; and human resource capacity to plan, design, finance, implement and monitor projects. If designed well, TIF instruments can act as powerful tools to augment external economies of agglomeration and networking and create economic growth momentum, generating a self-financed or even surplus-generating process of planned urban expansion, development and renewal

Imaging resemblance but diagnostic disparity in cervix cancer: a rare case report

F-18 FDG PET-CT is an establish modality for staging of cervical cancer. The high uptake value in PET with no evidence of necrosis in CECT is generally understood malignant pathology in known cancer patients. A 47 year-old-female with cervix carcinoma underwent staging FDG PET-CT. It showed FDG avid primary lesion in cervix with FDG avid pelvic, retroperitoneal, mediastinal and supraclavicular lymph nodes. USG guided FNA from the supraclavicular lymph node revealed tuberculosis. Now patient scheduled for ATT and chemotherapy

Comparative evaluation of efficacy of terbinafine and itraconazole in treatment of tinea cruris

Background: In a hot and humid country like India, the prevalence of superficial mycotic infections is on the rise due to contributing environmental and demographic factors. In this study, we sought to assess the efficacies of two oral antifungal drugs, Itraconazole (a traditional azole) and Terbinafine (the only orally available allylamine). The two drugs were analyzed to see whether they differed significantly in their cure rates of tinea cruris. Since data, that compares only systemically administered Itraconazole and Terbinafine in the treatment of tinea cruris, is limited, this study becomes imperative.Methods: 60 patients, all clinically confirmed cases of tinea cruris and belonging to the age group of 18-65 years, were recruited for this prospective study. Patients were then randomly divided into groups A and B and followed-up for a month. Group A received cap. Itraconazole 100 mg, twice a day, for 15 days while group B received tab. Terbinafine 250 mg, once a day, for 4 weeks. Both groups were given topical 2% Sertaconazole that had to be continued for 8 weeks. During the 4 visits, scores for the 3 parameters (erythema, pruritis and scaling) were calculated and recorded for statistical analysis.Results: Authors observed that majority of the patients were exposed to hot and humid environment that contributed to sweating and poor personal hygiene. The changes in scores of erythema, pruritis and scaling from the baseline visit for both, Itraconazole and Terbinafine, were statistically significant at week 4 with P < 0.05 for all parameters. But the difference between the scores of the two drugs was not found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: Although the sample size of this study was small and the data was limited, findings of this study supported that both Itraconazole and Terbinafine were highly effective in the treatment of tinea cruris

Does PMJDY Scheme Augment Financial Inclusion in India? Evidence from Indian States

The study attempts to examine the impact of financial inclusion, promoted through Pradhaan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) scheme, on the economic performance across the Indian states. Using the index of financial inclusion developed in Sarma (2008), the current study develops a 3-dimensional FII for 25 major Indian states for the year 2011 and 2016 to assess the status of financial inclusion. Cross-sectional and pooled Ordinary Least Square regression techniques are applied to examine the impact of financial inclusion on the economic performance of the Indian states. The slope and interaction dummies are used to incorporate the effect of PMJDY scheme, which takes value 1 for structural change and 0 for the control period. The major findings of the study suggest the PMJDY scheme failed to augment financial inclusion in India in the short-run. Lack of physical infrastructure, human development and effective governance are the major reasons behind the failure of the PMJDY scheme. Hence, structural reforms are warranted in the regulatory framework for better economic outcomes

Does PMJDY Scheme Augmented Financial Inclusion in India? Evidence from Indian States

The study attempts to examine the impact of financial inclusion, promoted through Pradhaan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) scheme, on the economic performance across the Indian states. Using the index of financial inclusion developed in Sarma (2008), the current study develops a 3-dimensional FII for 25 major Indian states for the year 2011 and 2016 to assess the status of financial inclusion. Cross-sectional and pooled Ordinary Least Square regression techniques are applied to examine the impact of financial inclusion on the economic performance of the Indian states. The slope and interaction dummies are used to incorporate the effect of PMJDY scheme, which takes value 1 for structural change and 0 for the control period. The major findings of the study suggest the PMJDY scheme failed to augment financial inclusion in India in the short-run. Lack of physical infrastructure, human development and effective governance are the major reasons behind the failure of the PMJDY scheme. Hence, structural reforms are warranted in the regulatory framework for better economic outcomes

Identification of Co-Existing Mutations and Gene Expression Trends Associated With K13-Mediated Artemisinin Resistance in Plasmodium falciparum

Plasmodium falciparum infects millions and kills thousands of people annually the world over. With the emergence of artemisinin and/or multidrug resistant strains of the pathogen, it has become even more challenging to control and eliminate the disease. Multiomics studies of the parasite have started to provide a glimpse into the confounding genetics and mechanisms of artemisinin resistance and identified mutations in Kelch13 (K13) as a molecular marker of resistance. Over the years, thousands of genomes and transcriptomes of artemisinin-resistant/sensitive isolates have been documented, supplementing the search for new genes/pathways to target artemisinin-resistant isolates. This meta-analysis seeks to recap the genetic landscape and the transcriptional deregulation that demarcate artemisinin resistance in the field. To explore the genetic territory of artemisinin resistance, we use genomic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) datasets from 2,517 isolates from 15 countries from the MalariaGEN Network (The Pf3K project, pilot data release 4, 2015) to dissect the prevalence, geographical distribution, and co-existing patterns of genetic markers associated with/enabling artemisinin resistance. We have identified several mutations which co-exist with the established markers of artemisinin resistance. Interestingly, K13-resistant parasites harbor α-ß hydrolase and putative HECT domain–containing protein genes with the maximum number of SNPs. We have also explored the multiple, publicly available transcriptomic datasets to identify genes from key biological pathways whose consistent deregulation may be contributing to the biology of resistant parasites. Surprisingly, glycolytic and pentose phosphate pathways were consistently downregulated in artemisinin-resistant parasites. Thus, this meta-analysis highlights the genetic and transcriptomic features of resistant parasites to propel further exploratory studies in the community to tackle artemisinin resistance.</p