Menopausal symptoms in rural middle aged women: a community based cross sectional study

Background: Menopause poses a big challenge to the healthy aging of a woman. With growing emphasis on universal health coverage and improving quality of life, it is the need of hour to address the issues population of postmenopausal women to enhance our understanding of women’s experiences during menopause.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using non-probability purposive sampling and house-to-house visit in randomly selected villages falling under rural Health Block Kot-Bhalwal. 245 postmenopausal women were interviewed in accordance with pretested questionnaire consisting of Sociodemographic data and Greene Climacteric Scale.Results: Muscle and joint pains was the most common complaint (89.0%), followed by feeling tired or lacking in energy (87.4%), difficulty in sleeping (82.5%) and difficulty in concentrating (80.4%). Nearly three-fourth of the study participants reported to be suffering from Irritability (77.6%), feeling tense/nervous (77.5%), Headaches (76.7%), loss of interest in most things (75.9%), feeling unhappy or depressed (74.29%), sweating at night (73.47%), attacks of anxiety, panic (73.5%), pressure or tightness in head (72.6%), and feeling dizzy or faint (71.8%).Conclusions: A higher prevalence of menopausal symptoms was found. However, more research studies are needed to determine rural urban differences in prevalence and severity of the symptoms using a standardized tool on a larger sample in the community setting

Prevalence, patterns and determinants of smoking among migrant workers in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, India

Background: Rapid urbanization and industrialization is leading a massive exodus of migrant workers from rural to urban areas and from one state to another in search of green pastures. The migrant workers living in unsafe environments, working in hazardous conditions and in absence of family/friends makes them vulnerable to indulge in substance abuse. The present study aimed to estimate the prevalence and patterns of smoking in the migrant workers in Jammu region of J and K, India.Methods: All the migrant workers visiting the OPD of Medicine/ Surgery in Government Medical College, Jammu due to any reason were registered. Only those who gave positive history of smoking were interviewed through a questionnaire survey. Data on demographics and details regarding tobacco use were collected.Results: The prevalence of tobacco use was found to be 43.13%. Pattern of tobacco use was found to be significant in relation to the sex of the respondents (p<0.05). Among other variables associated with smoking, monthly income and literacy levels of the migrant workers were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05).Conclusions: The prevalence and patterns observed in the present study needs to further elucidate the role of various risk factors among the migrant workers. These risk factors can be targeted for health promotion as well as intervention for the amelioration of the current smokers

Health care providers knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers towards emergency contraception in a sub-Himalayan state of India

Background: Emergency Contraception (EC) is a method of contraception used within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent unwanted pregnancy. More than ten years since its use, a study was conducted among health care providers to assess their knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers towards EC.Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted among the health care providers (HCPs) in all the health institutions of Jammu city, one of which included a tertiary care teaching hospital. The HCPs for the purpose of the current study included Medical Officers (MOs), Lady Health Visitors/ Staff Nurses (LHV/ SNs) and pharmacists. A 24 item pre-tested questionnaire was administered to the respondents to gather the relevant information.Results: MOs and LHV/SNs were found to have better knowledge than the pharmacists. Higher proportion of LHV/SNs and pharmacists were willing to learn more about EC (p<0.05). About two-third of MOs and LHV/SNs agreed about shortage of time during clinic schedule to counsel the users about EC (p<0.05).Conclusions: Gaps in the knowledge of the respondents need to be taken care of with continuing in-service trainings along with behaviour change communication. Role of pharmacists as health care provider especially in the context of family welfare services needs to be reassessed

Gender based perspectives about organ donation among students in a medical school in North India

Background: Deaths due to organ failure are reaching alarming numbers mainly due to paucity of organ donation. The medical students who are the future doctors hold promise to alleviate this paucity by willing to register as a donor themselves as well as facilitating cadaver organ donation process. Objective was to assess the perspectives (awareness and attitudes) of medical students regarding organ donation.Methods: The present cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 280 undergraduates’ students of Government Medical College Jammu, J and K, India. A pretested and self administered 22 item questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics (5), to assess awareness (11) and attitude (6) about organ donation.Results: Higher proportion of female students were aware about transplantation of human organ act (p<0.05). Awareness about organ donation card was very poor among both the sexes. Only 77.50% of the respondents were aware of the legal age for organ donation. Higher proportion of male students considered themselves to be future organ donor (p<0.05) although both the sexes wanted to be informed more on organ donation. Organ could be wasted (47.14%) was the main barrier among respondents for organ donation.Conclusions: The awareness and attitude among the respondents were found to be non-desirable on many parameters. Authors suggest introduction of a teaching module which should include all aspects of organ donation in medical schools starting from first profession onwards

Impact of Innovation on Economic Growth of G8 Countries- Analysis Over 1996-2020

Purpose: The study aimed to analyze the relationship between innovation and economic growth in the G8 countries over the period 1996-2020.   Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework id built upon the neo-classical growth theory, endogenous growth theory, and the innovation systems approach.   Design/methodology/approach: The research used the Vector Auto Regression (VAR) model and penal regression, and found evidence of a positive and significant relationship between innovation and economic growth through the results of the Johansen co-integration test. The Granger causality Wald test also indicated that lgdp (GDP) Granger causes irrd (research and development), ipan (patent application), lpar (participation rate), lhte (high-tech exports), lede (educational expenditure), and istj (scientists and engineers), with strong evidence against the null hypothesis.   Results: The test results presented in the table provide information on the rank of the co-integrating relationships. The maximum and minimum values of the trace statistics and eigenvalues are reported at each rank, along with the critical values at 5% and 1% significance levels. Granger causes the other time series results suggests that lgdp Granger causes irrd (p-value = 0.034), ipan (p-value = 0.005), lpar (p-value = 0.001), lhte (p-value = 0.029), lede (p-value = 0.000), and istj (p-value = 0.000). The p-value for the overall test (lgdp vs. all) is 0.000, indicating that lgdp Granger causes all the other time series.   Findings:  The fixed effects regression model showed a significant relationship with an F-statistic of 2.54 and a corresponding p-value of 0.0218. The study provided policy recommendations to support innovation-led economic growth in the G8 countries

Proizvodnja i karakterizacija α-galaktozidaze fermentacijom na čvrstoj podlozi s pomoću višestruko mutiranog soja Aspergillus niger

α-Galactosidase is applied in the sugar industry to enhance sugar recovery from sugar beet syrup and to improve nutritional value of the soymilk. In the present investigation, the influence of process variables on the production of this important enzyme has been explored in a newly isolated multiple mutant strain of Aspergillus niger in solid-state fermentation (SSF). Defined fermentation parameters include substrate type (pure lactose and by-products of rice and flour mills as prime substrates), nitrogen source, incubation time, initial pH of the medium and incubation temperature. Extracellular α-galactosidase reached the value of 135.4 IU/g of dry substrate (IU/g) after 96 h of fermentation. Supplementation with 2 g of glucose and 3 g of corn steep liquor significantly increased the enzyme production, and maximum value of product yield (318 IU/g) by the mutant strain was significantly higher than that reported by the wild type (this work), or other A. niger mutants, recombinants and yeasts reported in literature as producers of elevated levels of α-galactosidase. Among three α-galactosidases, one possessing high subunit molecular mass proteins (99 and 100 kDa) has been characterized in both wild and mutant organisms. Thermal properties of the purified enzymes indicate that the mutation decreased the values of activation energy for the formation of enzyme-substrate (ES) complex, enthalpy, Gibbs free energy demand for substrate binding, and transition state stabilization. A thermodynamic study of irreversible inactivation of enzymes suggests that the mutant–derived enzyme is more thermostable than the native enzyme, which is attributable to amino acids involved in active catalysis. Because of these properties, the mutant organism is a novel organism and may be exploited for bulk production of thermostable α-galactosidase for the above industrial and nutritional applications.U industriji se α-galaktozidaza primjenjuje radi povećanja prinosa šećera iz sirupa šećerne repe te poboljšanja hranjive vrijednosti sojinog mlijeka. U radu je ispitan utjecaj varijabli procesa na proizvodnju ovog važnog enzima fermentacijom na čvrstoj podlozi s pomoću novoizoliranog višestruko mutiranog soja Aspergillus niger. Procijenjeni su sljedeći parametri: supstrat (čista laktoza te nusprodukti meljave riže i brašna), izvor dušika, vrijeme inkubacije, početna pH-vrijednost podloge i temperatura inkubacije. Nakon 96 sati fermentacije dobiveno je 135,4 IU ekstracelularne galaktozidaze po g suhe podloge. Dodatak od 2 g glukoze i 3 g kukuruznog ekstrakta značajno je povećao proizvodnju enzima. S pomoću mutantnog soja postignut je kudikamo veći maksimalni prinos (318 IU/g) nego s divljim sojem (u ovom radu) ili drugim u literaturi navedenim mutantnim sojevima A. niger, rekombinantnim vrstama ili kvascima koji proizvode α-galaktozidazu. Ispitane su tri α-galaktozidaze, od kojih je ona što sadrži podjedinice proteina velike molekularne mase (99 i 100 kDa) karakterizirana i u divljem i u mutantnom soju. Toplinska svojstva pročišćenih enzima pokazuju da je mutacija smanjila energiju aktivacije potrebnu za nastajanje kompleksa enzim-supstrat, entalpiju, količinu Gibbsove slobodne energije utrošene za vezivanje supstrata i stabilizaciju prijelaznog stanja. Termodinamičkim ispitivanjem ireverzibilne inaktivacije enzima zaključeno je da enzim izoliran iz mutantnog soja ima veću termostabilnost od prirodnog enzima zbog aminokiselina u aktivnom katalitičkom procesu. Zbog toga bi se svojstva mutantni organizam mogao upotrijebiti u proizvodnji veće količine termostabilne α-galaktozidaze, za njezinu primjenu u industriji šećera, te radi poboljšanja hranjive vrijednosti proizvoda

"حياة الدكنورظهوراحمد اظهر وخدماته للغة العربية"

There is long list of great men in sub continent and Arab countries who rendered their services for the progress of Arabic language .Dr Zahoor Ahmad Azhar is such a person who devoted his life for the betterment of Arabic language in subcontinent and Arab contries .he has great comand on Arabic language. He produced a great number of scholars in the department of Arabic &amp; Islamic Studies, Many of them got great position under his kind supervision .He has a lot of contribution in Arabic literature.He is a famous scholar, writer and translater. He wrote many books and articles on diffirent topics .His some famous books are Maarif –e-hajweria, Maarif-e-Mujadadia, Dewan –ul-Faiz, Dewa Qazi Tla Mohammad al pishawri etc

Psychological Morbidity among Married Women of Reproductive Age Group Living In Rural Jammu: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Globally, one in three women will be afflicted by common mental disorders including depression by the year 2020(WHO). The study was conducted to assess the prevalence of psychological morbidity and its relationship with various Sociodemographic factors among women of reproductive age group living in a rural area of Jammu district. Methods: This was a field-based cross-sectional study conducted in village Tanda of R.S.Pura Block, Jammu district. Using purposive sampling, 197 eligible women who agreed to participate were interviewed. Data was collected using a pretested Self Rating questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20). The data so collected was first entered into a master chart on Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using it and SPSS 20 .0 software. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 32.27± 7.87years.the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was found to be 22.3% among the study population. A significant association of age at marriage and the presence of psychological morbidity was seen. 70.5% of those with psychological morbidity were married before the age of 21 years. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to develop women-friendly health policies to improve the mental health of Indian women

Simultaneous determination of moxifloxacin and H2 receptor antagonist in pharmaceutical dosage formulations by RP-HPLC: application to in vitro drug interactions

Simultaneous determination of moxifloxacin (MOX) and H2-antagonists was first time developed in bulk and formulations. Purospher STAR C18 (250 x 4.6 mm, 5 μm) column was used. The mobile phase (methanol: water: ACN, 60:45:5 v/v/v, pH 2.7) was delivered at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min-1, eluent was monitored at 236, 270 and 310 nm for cimetidine, famotidine and ranitidine, respectively. The proposed method is specific, accurate (98-103%), precise (intra-day and inter-day variation 0.098-1.970%) and linear (r>0.998). The LOD and LOQ were 0.006-0.018 and 0.019-0.005 μg mL-1, respectively. The statistical parameters were applied to verify the results. The method is applicable to routine analysis of formulations and interaction of MOX with H2-antagonist