Background: cigarette smoking is the greatest known risk factor for lung cancer, and people with different smoking status may process risk information differently. While psychological distress has been linked with smoking status, little is known about the

Background: cigarette smoking is the greatest known risk factor for lung cancer, and people with different smoking status may process risk information differently. While psychological distress has been linked with smoking status, little is known about the impact of distress on lung cancer perception or the moderating role of physical activity and race. This study explores the association of lung cancer perception and distress and investigates the effects of physical activity and race on that association. Methods: the study uses a national, biennial survey (the Health Information National Trends Survey) that was designed to collect nationally representative data on the American public’s need for, access to, and use of cancer-related information using a cross-sectional, complex sample survey design. Out of 5 586 participants, 1 015 were current smokers, 1 599 were former smokers, 2 877 were never smokers. Of the sample, 1 765 participants answered the lung cancer risk perception question and had no personal history of lung cancer. Statistical analysis contrasts smokers, former smokers, and never smokers to examine the association of lung cancer perception and distress and the moderating role of physical activity and race. Results: distress and lung cancer risk perception were significantly positively associated (p value < 0.001). Respondents who were current smokers and were distressed had very high odds of agreeing that they have a somewhat high chance (odds ratio=900.8, CI: 94.23, 8 611.75; p value < 0.001) or a very high chance (odds ratio=500.44 CI: 56.53, 4 430.02, p value < 0.001) of developing lung cancer in the future as compared to not distressed never smokers. However, race and physical activity status did not significantly affect perception of risk. Perceptions of risk are important precursors of health change. Conclusions: elevated distress level and higher perceived risk, in addition to physical activity status and race, could potentially be used to develop targeted interventions, such as tailoring quitting support for smokers at elevated distress levels, which may enhance success rate of quitting smoking and staying quit

FOREIGN BODY IN AERO-DIGESTIVE TRACT: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS AT TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to analyze some of the key issues about the presentation, types, complications, and management arising about foreign body in the upper aero-digestive tract. Methods: All the patients presenting with or without history of swallowing or inhaling foreign bodies with symptoms such as dysphagia, drooling of saliva, stridor, and acute respiratory distress were included in study. Extraction of foreign body in airway tract was done by bronchoscopy and in digestive tract by esophagoscopy. Patient’s demographic details, types, symptoms and nature, size, and location of the inhaled foreign bodies were analyzed. Results: Patients aged more than 10 years constituted maximum number 14 (28%) in digestive tract. Patient aged 1–2 and 2–3 years accounted for most of the cases 10 (50%) in airway. Sensation dysphagia (100%) and foreign body sensation including cough (100%) were the most common symptom of digestive tract and airway tract, respectively. Currency coins (64%) were the most common type of foreign body in case of digestive tract ground nut (30%) was the most common type of airway foreign body. Conclusions: This study concluded that symptoms of foreign bodies in the aerodigestive tract are mainly nonspecific and needs high degree of suspicion, experience, and clinical acumen to diagnose and manage these patients

Study of efficacy of oral ivermectin in comparison to commonly used topical antiscabetic drugs gamma benzene hexachloride and permethrin

Background: Scabies is an infectious disease, contagious in nature and caused by Sarcoptes Scabiei, is transmitted readily, often throughout an entire household, by prolonged skin-to-skin contact with an infected person. The objective was to know the efficacy of oral ivermectin in the treatment of scabies infection in comparison to commonly used topical antiscabetic drugs gamma benzene hexachloride and permethrin.Methods: Using prospective, longitudinal, comparative randomized design, study was conducted for a period of one year in 299 patients, in the age group of 5 to 60 years, belonging to both sexes, attending outpatient department of dermatology of J.L.N. Medical College and associated hospitals Ajmer (RAJ), India. Pregnant and lactating women, children below 5 years, elderly patients more than 60 year, patients not willing to come for follow-up and patients with any serious systemic illness were excluded. Data so collected, were analyzed as per the aims and objectives with the help of appropriate statistical software (primer statistical software version 6).Results: Efficacy of oral ivermectin therapy was comparable with topical permethrin therapy but more efficacious (statistically significant) than topical gama benzene hexachloride therapy.Conclusions: Ivermectin can be a very useful weapon in patients who do not show compliance with topical therapy

Study of efficacy of oral ivermectin in comparison to commonly used topical antiscabetic drugs gamma benzene hexachloride and permethrin

Background: Scabies is an infectious disease, contagious in nature and caused by Sarcoptes Scabiei, is transmitted readily, often throughout an entire household, by prolonged skin-to-skin contact with an infected person. The objective was to know the efficacy of oral ivermectin in the treatment of scabies infection in comparison to commonly used topical antiscabetic drugs gamma benzene hexachloride and permethrin.Methods: Using prospective, longitudinal, comparative randomized design, study was conducted for a period of one year in 299 patients, in the age group of 5 to 60 years, belonging to both sexes, attending outpatient department of dermatology of J.L.N. Medical College and associated hospitals Ajmer (RAJ), India. Pregnant and lactating women, children below 5 years, elderly patients more than 60 year, patients not willing to come for follow-up and patients with any serious systemic illness were excluded. Data so collected, were analyzed as per the aims and objectives with the help of appropriate statistical software (primer statistical software version 6).Results: Efficacy of oral ivermectin therapy was comparable with topical permethrin therapy but more efficacious (statistically significant) than topical gama benzene hexachloride therapy.Conclusions: Ivermectin can be a very useful weapon in patients who do not show compliance with topical therapy

Efficient Noise Filtration of Images by Low-Rank Singular Vector Approximations of Geodesics' Gramian Matrix

Modern society is interested in capturing high-resolution and fine-quality images due to the surge of sophisticated cameras. However, the noise contamination in the images not only inferior people's expectations but also conversely affects the subsequent processes if such images are utilized in computer vision tasks such as remote sensing, object tracking, etc. Even though noise filtration plays an essential role, real-time processing of a high-resolution image is limited by the hardware limitations of the image-capturing instruments. Geodesic Gramian Denoising (GGD) is a manifold-based noise filtering method that we introduced in our past research which utilizes a few prominent singular vectors of the geodesics' Gramian matrix for the noise filtering process. The applicability of GDD is limited as it encounters $\mathcal{O}(n^6)$ when denoising a given image of size $n\times n$ since GGD computes the prominent singular vectors of a $n^2 \times n^2$ data matrix that is implemented by singular value decomposition (SVD). In this research, we increase the efficiency of our GGD framework by replacing its SVD step with four diverse singular vector approximation techniques. Here, we compare both the computational time and the noise filtering performance between the four techniques integrated into GGD.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimizatio

Photocrosslinking Activity-Based Probes for Ubiquitin RING E3 Ligases

Summary: Activity-based protein profiling is an invaluable technique for studying enzyme biology and facilitating the development of therapeutics. Ubiquitin E3 ligases (E3s) are one of the largest enzyme families and regulate a host of (patho)physiological processes. The largest subtype are the RING E3s of which there are >600 members. RING E3s have adaptor-like activity that can be subject to diverse regulatory mechanisms and have become attractive drug targets. Activity-based probes (ABPs) for measuring RING E3 activity do not exist. Here we re-engineer ubiquitin-charged E2 conjugating enzymes to produce photocrosslinking ABPs. We demonstrate activity-dependent profiling of two divergent cancer-associated RING E3s, RNF4 and c-Cbl, in response to their native activation signals. We also demonstrate profiling of endogenous RING E3 ligase activation in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulation. These photocrosslinking ABPs should advance E3 ligase research and the development of selective modulators against this important class of enzymes

Review of studies on thermal comfort in Indian residential buildings

This paper presents the systematic review on thermal comfort studies in Indian residential buildings, helpful in identifying the present research scenario, data gaps and policy interventions. Majority of the studies are performed in composite climate (ten), followed by warm-humid (seven) and a very few from cold (two) and hot-dry (two) climates. None of the thermal comfort study is found from temperate climate. Besides, the seven studies have considered multiple climates for assessment of thermal comfort in residential buildings. This shows that thermal comfort studies in Indian residential buildings are scarce, scattered and unorganized. Further, due to differences in socio-cultural set-up and local adaptations, the prodigious variations in occupant’s comfort requirements are reported. This review argues the dynamic modifications in individual behaviours due to change in cost of building energy services and comfort requirements. Only four studies have partially considered the occupant behaviour regarding control of indoor thermal environment. The results obtained from these studies indicate that there is strong need of localised thermal comfort model that will not only help in improving comfort requirements but also the building energy performance. Moreover, this review paves way for research development in India where high residential building stock is yet to be built

Design of a New Peptide Substrate Probe of the Putative Biomarker Legumain with Potential Application in Prostate Cancer Diagnosis ex vivo

The lysosomal endoprotease legumain (asparaginyl endoprotease) has been proposed as a putative biomarker in prostate tumours, in which the enzyme is markedly overexpressed. Overexpression, coupled with highly selective specificity for cleavage of substrates at the C-terminus of asparagine (Asn) residues, make legumain an attractive biochemical target for potential diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. We report the design, synthesis, characterisation and preliminary evaluation of a new rhodamine-B (Rho-B)-labelled legumain peptide substrate probe 5 [Rho-Pro-Ala-Asn-PEG-AQ(4-OH)] and its selective targeting to lysosomes in PC3 prostate cancer cells. Probe 5 was efficiently activated by recombinant human legumain to afford the high quantum yield reporter fluorophore tripeptide 4b (Rho-Pro-Ala-Asn-OH) with concomitant release of intense fluorescence. Furthermore, probe 5 was activated upon incubation with homogenates derived from fresh-frozen tissue material of prostatectomy specimens. Probe 5 represents a new viable biochemical tool for probing the activity of legumain with the potential to be used in ex vivo diagnostics in the cancer pathology laboratory