A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

Cancer Types and Treatment Modalities in Patients Attending at Delta Medical College Hospital

Background: Cancer is a major health burden worldwide. By 2030, over 9 million cancer patients are assumed to die in developing countries from different types of cancers. Incidence of different types of cancers is increasing due to unhealthy life style. At present, lung cancer is most prevalent in Bangladeshi male whereas it is cancer cervix in female. Objective: To determine the frequency, pattern and treatment modalities in different types of cancer in different age and sex group to get an idea about national cancer scenario. Materials and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1300 cancer patients attending at Delta Medical College Hospital within three months duration (from 15.07.10 to 15.10.10). Histologically proven malignant cases were included in the study. Results: There were 400 male and 900 female patients. Male: female ratio was 1:2.25. Among all patients, cervical cancer was the top most common malignancy (23.07%) followed by breast (22.46%). In male, lung cancer was found to be the most common cancer (15.75%), followed by non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (13.75%), colorectal (12%), stomach (6.75%), and oesophageal (5.75%) carcinomas. In female patients, carcinoma cervix was the top most cancer (33.33%), followed by breast (32.33%), ovary (6.11%), gall bladder (3.77%), and colorectal (3%) carcinomas. Majority of cancers occurred in middle and older age groups. Combination of surgery, chemotherapy and teletherapy was the most common form of treatment. Conclusion: The findings of the study may provide a helpful clue to important facts and figures of different types of cancers in Bangladesh

Isolation, molecular characterization and prevalence of Clostridium perfringens in sheep and goats of Kashmir Himalayas, India

Aim: The study was conducted to report the occurrence of the Clostridium perfringens in sheep and goats of the Kashmir valley for the 1st time and to characterize them molecularly with respect to toxin genes to determine the prevalence of the various toxinotypes. Materials and Methods: A total of 177 samples (152 from sheep and 25 from goats) collected from healthy, diarrheic animals, and morbid material of animals suspected to have died of enterotoxaemia were screened for C. perfringens toxinotypes. The presumptive positive isolates were confirmed using 16S rRNA gene-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All the confirmed isolates were screened for six toxin genes, namely; cpa, cpb, etx, cpi, cpb2, and cpe using a multiplex PCR. Results: The PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene revealed that out of 177 samples collected, 125 (70.62%) were found positive for C. perfringens, of which 110 (72.36%) were from sheep and 15 (60%) were from goats. The highest prevalence of C. perfringens toxinotype D was observed in lambs (56.16%) and kids (46.16%) followed by 3.84% in adult sheep while it was absent in samples obtained from adult goats. The multiplex PCR revealed that 67 (60.90%) isolates from sheep and 8 (53.33%) isolates from goats belonged to toxinotype A, while 43 (39.09%) isolates from sheep and 7 (46.66%) isolates from goats were detected as toxinotype D. None of the isolates was found to be toxinotype B, C, or E. All the C. perfringens toxinotype A isolates from sheep were negative for both cpb2 and cpe genes, however, 27.90% toxinotype D isolates from sheep carried cpb2 gene, and 6.97% possessed cpe gene. In contrast, 12.50% C. perfringens toxinotype A isolates from goats harbored cpb2 and cpe genes while 14.28% isolates belonging to toxinotype D carried cpb2 and cpe genes, respectively. Conclusion: The high prevalence of C. perfringens was observed, even in day-old lambs. The toxinotypes A and D are prevalent in both sheep and goats. The severity of disease and mortality may be associated with the presence of minor toxins in both the detected toxinotypes