Prevalence of anemia in geriatric population of Kashmir: A hospital based study: Anemia: an unrecognized sign in geriatric patients

Anemia is a common concern in geriatric age group in developing countries. The purpose of this study was to identify the common causes and types of anemia in elderly patients in educationally backward region with limited access to quality health care. This was an observational study was done in Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital of Government Medical College Srinagar, over a period of two years. 2000 patients above 60 years of age attending the outpatient clinic were screened for anemia based on WHO criteria. A random and non-consecutive selection of 100 anemic patients was done to study the morphological type and cause of anemia. 1160 (58%) patients were males and 840 (42%) were females.  Total 812 out of 840 (96.67%) females and 738 out of 1160 (63.62%) males were found to be anemic. Maximum numbers of anemic patients were found in the age group 60-69 years. Mean age was 74.5 years. All the types of anemia based on peripheral smear were evident, normocytic being the commonest constituting 77.5%, followed by microcytic hypochromic 11.1%, macrocytic 7.05% and dimorphic 4.35%. 21% were lost to follow up and almost one fourth of the patients (24%) needed further evaluation before labelling them as having anemia due to old age. The common causes of anemia noted were gastrointestinal malignancy (31%), renal insufficiency (15%) and tuberculosis (9%). The inability to evaluate anemia in elderly individuals can lead to delay in the diagnosis of treatable as well as threatening disease conditions

Emotional Distress Among Pediatric Cancer Patients and their Siblings

Objectives: Cancer being a serious chronic illness, causes profound effects on physical and mental health of the individual as well as affects their caregivers and family members' mental health. This study aims to find out the burden of emotional distress in patients of childhood cancer as well as their healthy siblings. Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Parents of the children undergoing cancer treatment or having completed treatment within past one year were asked to complete an interview proforma (Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale) about their child’s behaviour over past one month, scoring each behaviour on a scale of 1 to 5 according to the frequency of symptoms. The data was then analysed using SPSS 20. The frequency distribution, central tendencies and standard deviations were calculated accordingly. Results: Almost eighty-five% of the patients showed scores above the clinical threshold for emotional distress. Eighteen% of the healthy siblings also had scores above the clinical threshold. Patients as well as their healthy siblings showed high levels of anxiousness in their behaviours. Conclusions • Childhood cancer is a cause of major emotional trauma in patients. • Age-matched siblings usually cope well with the illness.

A survival analysis of high-grade gliomas in sub-himalayan population including the times of lockdown during COVID 19 pandemic: A single institutional experience

Background and Objectives: High Grade Gliomas are categorised as Grade III and IV and have high mortality rate with poor prognosis. How we should adopt clinical practice in neuro-oncology during Covid 19 Pandemic is another area of scientific exploration . Hypofractionated radiotherapy protocols can be easily utilised in high grade gliomas during Covid 19 pandemic . Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of 147 patients with diagnosis of high-grade gliomas between January 2009 till December 2020 including Covid-19 pandemic lockdown time was done. Age , gender , KPS , symptoms , extent of surgery and use of concurrent temozolamide , were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analysis .Overall Survival was determined using the Kaplan Meir method . Results: Glioblastoma multiforme being the most common brain tumor (82.3%) in all high-grade gliomas .Near total or total excision was done in 83.7% of cases The median dose of EBRT delivered was 60Gy .75.5% patients were treated with concurrent and adjuvant chemotherapy . 29.2% patients were treated during Covid 19 pandemic lockdown time . The median overall survival was 15.9 months . The 1 year Overall survival was 67.8% , and 3 year OS was 6.4% . Out of 43 patients treated during covid pandemic time ,62.7% are alive and on follow up . Conclusion: The results of survival analysis demonstrated the benefit of adding radiation with concurrent and adjuvant temzolamide in high grade gliomas including covid 19 during lockdown time . Hypofractionated radiotherapy with concurrent temozolamide is safe during the Covid 19 pandemic

Efficacy of Various Treatment Modalities on Patientrelated Outcome in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients –A Retrospective Study

Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in China, in December 2019, and was declared a pandemic by WHO on March 11, 2020. The treatment is evolving and is mostly supportive in nature. Material and methods: This was a single-center retrospective study that included confirmed COVID-19 cases treated at our institute (a tertiary care hospital in Jammu and Kashmir, India), between March 2020 and December 2020. Patients with age more than 18 years were included in the study. Results: On evaluating the effect of various drug therapies used in management of COVID-19 patients of all severity, use of remdesivir and famotidine was associated with significantly higher odds of survival. In subgroup of patients with severe disease, use of systemic steroids was associated with significantly higher odds of survival in addition to remdesivir and famotidine. In patients with severe COVID-19 illness, likelihood of survival was significantly higher in those who received combination of systemic steroids plus remdesivir compared to steroids and remdesivir alone. Conclusion: Steroids were effective in severe COVID-19 illness and the combination of steroids and remdesivir was more effective in severe illness. There is a need to undertake more large scale prospective randomized trials to determine the most effective drug therapies to treat the sick patients and prevent worsening of mild cases

Functional Literacy: Analysis of Literacy Practices of Female Attendants in Pakistani Context

William S.Gray (1956) initially defined the term functional literacy for UNESCO. He associated it with the approaches which also covers the successful acquisition of verb, cognitive and computational skills to fulfill not only the practical ends but also the culturally specific ways. So, A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community, and also for enabling him to continue reading, writing and calculating for his own and the community development. (A.M.Thomas, 1983).Functional literacy includes the possession of skills perceived as necessary by a particular individual or group to fulfill their self-determined objective as a family or community member, citizen, consumer, job-holder, or member of religious, social or other associations of their choosing (Haramn, 1984).Self-perceived need and self-determined objectives forms the basis of learning.The reason to review functional literacy through literacy practices of female attendants is that usually attendants are assumed to be devoid of formal education hence apparently lacking in skills (functional literacy) but the ground reality is they perform tasks which involves linguistic competence. So, the current study is an attempt to review the concept of functional literacy and functional literacy competence by analyzing specific literacy practices of female attendants at Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi (FJWU). A qualitative approach was used to evaluate and analyses the literacy practices of female attendants. Population of the study comprised of five female attendants at FJWU chosen through random sampling method. Data was collected through semi structured interviews to probe deep in the literacy practices of female attendants. Findings of the study revealed that the literacy practices (dispatching documents, presenting refreshment, receiving keys etc.) of female attendants at FJWU are culture specific and performed through functional skills (verbal, cognitive and computational) by practitioner's self-determined objects (support family, perform the task accurately, get HODs approval, job benefits) formulated under practitioner's perception (precision and accuracy will result in reward). The study would pave the way for adult education policy makers to comprehend the literary practices of working adults and accordingly to design courses and policies to enhance their capabilities which would ultimately increase their productivity

Variation in physico-chemical/analytical characteristics of oil among different flaxseed (Linum usittatissimum L.) cultivars

The present study evaluates and compares the proximate parameters of flaxseed, as well as the physicochemical characteristics of the extracted flaxseed oils of locally grown eight cultivars. The oil, protein, fiber and ash content of the seeds ranged from32.56-39.98%, 16.02-18.50%, 23.30-26.88 and 3.20-3.60%, respectively showing considerable variation among cultivars. The quality attributes such as unsaponifiable matter, peroxide value, acid value, para-anisidine value, conjugateddienes and trienes as well as tocopherols content of the tested flaxseed oils varied significantly (p&lt;0.05) among cultivars. The major tocopherol was γ-tocopherol (173.7 to 257.9 mg/L)followed by relatively low quantities of α-tocopherol (8-12 mg/L), while δ-tocopherol was not detected.α-Linolenic acid was found to be the principal fatty acid in the range of 44.51 to 54.87%, while the second major fatty acid present in the oils was oleic acid (21.05 to 30.96%). The variationin the characteristics of oils among different cultivars observed during present investigation might be attributed to difference in genetic makeup and harvesting regimes of the flax plants.</p

Socio-economic effects of COVID-19 – a study of the University students and teachers in Pakistan

Background: Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID–19) has appeared as a deadly pandemic affecting most of the countries across the world. The disease has caught humanity unprepared; therefore, there has been a lack of awareness about the causes, and transmission and mortality rates. It has also affected the overall socioeconomics from individual to worldwide levels. COVID-19 is an unprecedented and first-time challenge for Pakistan and a lockdown imposed by the Government of Pakistan has further devastated the economy of the country. This online survey was conducted to know the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the social life and economic status of the people of Pakistan. In this article, we mainly focused on teachers and students from different Universities of Pakistan for data generation because they can provide better information due to the use of modern technologies as a source of information.Methods: An online questionnaire survey covering 11 parameters including age, gender, employment status, mortality rate, education, marital status and, information about the pathogen responsible for the disease was filled by 1260 individuals from Pakistan.Results: The results obtained show that 56.6% of the responders were males,43.4% were females, 59.9% were unmarried, 37.7% were graduate students and, 48.7% unemployed. Most of the responders (55.6%) said that COVID-19 negatively affected the jobs of the people. We found (93%) of the responders with good knowledge about COVID-19.Conclusion: We conclude from the results that most of the responders were males, educated and they knew the pathogenic effect of the COVID-19 virus on humans. These results also show that the disease has drastically affected the economy and social life of the people of Pakistan.Keywords: Coronavirus; COVID-19; Knowledge; Socio-economic; Pakistan

Fungal Proteases as Emerging Biocatalysts to Meet the Current Challenges and Recent Developments in Biomedical Therapies: An Updated Review

With the increasing world population, demand for industrialization has also increased to fulfill humans&rsquo; living standards. Fungi are considered a source of essential constituents to produce the biocatalytic enzymes, including amylases, proteases, lipases, and cellulases that contain broad-spectrum industrial and emerging applications. The present review discussed the origin, nature, mechanism of action, emerging aspects of genetic engineering for designing novel proteases, genome editing of fungal strains through CRISPR technology, present challenges and future recommendations of fungal proteases. The emerging evidence revealed that fungal proteases show a protective role to many environmental exposures and discovered that an imbalance of protease inhibitors and proteases in the epithelial barriers leads to the protection of chronic eosinophilic airway inflammation. Moreover, mitoproteases recently were found to execute intense proteolytic processes that are crucial for mitochondrial integrity and homeostasis function, including mitochondrial biogenesis, protein synthesis, and apoptosis. The emerging evidence revealed that CRISPR/Cas9 technology had been successfully developed in various filamentous fungi and higher fungi for editing of specific genes. In addition to medical importance, fungal proteases are extensively used in different industries such as foods to prepare butter, fruits, juices, and cheese, and to increase their shelf life. It is concluded that hydrolysis of proteins in industries is one of the most significant applications of fungal enzymes that led to massive usage of proteomics

Chromium Toxicity in Plants: Signaling, Mitigation, and Future Perspectives

Plants are very often confronted by different heavy metal (HM) stressors that adversely impair their growth and productivity. Among HMs, chromium (Cr) is one of the most prevalent toxic trace metals found in agricultural soils because of anthropogenic activities, lack of efficient treatment, and unregulated disposal. It has a huge detrimental impact on the physiological, biochemical, and molecular traits of crops, in addition to being carcinogenic to humans. In soil, Cr exists in different forms, including Cr (III) “trivalent” and Cr (VI) “hexavalent”, but the most pervasive and severely hazardous form to the biota is Cr (VI). Despite extensive research on the effects of Cr stress, the exact molecular mechanisms of Cr sensing, uptake, translocation, phytotoxicity, transcript processing, translation, post-translational protein modifications, as well as plant defensive responses are still largely unknown. Even though plants lack a Cr transporter system, it is efficiently accumulated and transported by other essential ion transporters, hence posing a serious challenge to the development of Cr-tolerant cultivars. In this review, we discuss Cr toxicity in plants, signaling perception, and transduction. Further, we highlight various mitigation processes for Cr toxicity in plants, such as microbial, chemical, and nano-based priming. We also discuss the biotechnological advancements in mitigating Cr toxicity in plants using plant and microbiome engineering approaches. Additionally, we also highlight the role of molecular breeding in mitigating Cr toxicity in sustainable agriculture. Finally, some conclusions are drawn along with potential directions for future research in order to better comprehend Cr signaling pathways and its mitigation in sustainable agriculture