A perspective on how to improve the quality of life of elderly people living in rural areas

Introduction: We are going to witness the demographic shift with the predictable trends of population ageing and thus need to understand healthy ageing. This study was aimed to understand factors that influence the quality of life (QOL) of the elderly. Methods: This was a qualitative study conducted in 4 selected villages including males and females of age group > 60 years of age. 20 elderly individuals and 10 elderly individuals were chosen for a free listing and pile sorting exercise respectively. Smith's index was calculated for a free listing. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were conducted to do pile sorting of data. Data were analyzed using Flame v1.2 and Anthropac. Result: During free-listing, 54 salient items were identified. Financial stability, healthy living, self-sufficiency, and work engagement were the most frequent responses that came from the study subjects. 25 salient items that were repeated in the free-listing exercise were included for the pile-sorting. The piles generated ranged from 3-12. Later, 25 perceived items (factors) for improving quality of life were clustered into 5 groups (Role of harmonious family, healthy ageing, daily schedule activity, leisure time and external support). Conclusion: The elderly recognized that a harmonious family, healthy ageing, daily schedule with leisure activity, and Government support can all improve their quality of life

Giant sialoliths of submandibular gland duct: Report of two cases with unusual shape

Giant sialoliths are classified as those exceeding 15 mm in any one dimension. Although, large sialoliths have been described in the body of salivary glands, they are rarely found in the salivary ducts, particularly when the patients have no painful symptoms. Sialolithiasis is one of the most common diseases of the salivary glands in middle-aged patients and approximately 80% of all reported cases of sialoliths occur in the submandibular gland. Here, we report two cases of giant sialolith of submandibular gland duct. Interestingly, sialolith found in one of our cases had an unusual similarity with the canine tooth and mimicking it in both size and shape. In both cases the calculus was removed surgically via intraoral approach. No recurrence was seen in any of the cases on follow-up

Adoption and forecasting of technology:modeling the dynamics of cloud adoption using a system approach

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the dynamism of causal relationships among cloud computing (CC) adoption factors in the Indian context, considering the perspectives of both the cloud adopter and cloud provider.Design/methodology/approach: The case-study method has been used to understand the dynamics among the factors. Using data from specific cases in India, causal loop diagrams (CLDs) have been developed. System dynamic modeling (SDM) and simulation are used to study the relationships and their effect on the adoption rate.Findings: The results revealed that adoption of CC depends on various factors such as persuasion (time-saving, cost-saving and word of mouth) and constraint factors (security and financial loss). However, it is seen that the adoption rate is very sensitive to changes in adoption per contact and word of mouth. Further, the adopter firm has a quicker time to market, which gives an added advantage to the firm. Also, with CC services, a firm can fulfill its projects or clients' requirements with little to no upfront investment in information technology (IT) services.Practical implications: Lack of security, standardization and undefined service-level agreements are a few pressing issues that make it difficult for firms to evaluate the performance and reliability of services. Hence, immediate attention is needed to make transparent policies on CC and its services, thereby building trust.Originality/value: This is the first and only work that has tried to explore and empirically test the dynamics of critical factors while making an adoption decision, considering both the adopter and provider perspectives. This study shows the journey of a firm, starting from being a prospective adopter to an adopter and continuous user. The work also empirically tested how adopters of technology benefit from the technology.</p

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of First Year Medical Students Regarding COVID-19 in Chhattisgarh: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction and Aim: Purpose of this study is to investigate knowledge, attitude and practice of first year medical students towards COVID 19.Material and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 148 first-year undergraduate students of a tertiary care hospital of Bhilai Chhattisgarh, from April to May 2020.Results: Finding of this study showed 93 % of the participants had knowledge about the precautionary actions,81% about the mode of spread, 96% about infecting agent. Most of the participants had encouraging outlook towards activities to control COVID-19 spread. The practice part was also acceptable with very minor shortcomings.Conclusion: Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding covid 19 was found to be acceptable. Some areas in practice part need attention which can be attained by giving informative sessions regarding same

The assessment of factors influencing Big data adoption and firm performance: Evidences from emerging economy

The current study investigates and prioritizes 17 determinants of big data adoption (BDA) and establishes causality between these determinants’ and firms’ performance in the tourism and hospitality sector using technology, organisation & environment (TOE) framework. Semi-structured interviews and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) were utilized to gather data from 28 industry experts. “Big data quality” ranked as the most influential determinant, while “trading partner pressure” ranked as the least influential determinant. This study’s findings highlight the need for governments across the globe to propose and implement policies to reduce the digital divide and enhance standardization

Denoising Of Intravascular Ultrasound Images: A Comparative Study

Abstract — The major objective of the image Enhancement techniques is to emphasize &amp; sharpen the features of images for better display &amp; investigation. Medical images are affected by the Mixed Noise, which is the combination of Speckle &amp; Gaussian Noise. Mixed Noise is an inherent property of Intravascular Ultrasound Imaging (IVUS) &amp; it is generally tends to deteriorate the image quality, thereby reducing the diagnostic value of this medical imaging modality. As a result the noise reduction filtering is considered to be an important &amp; essential procedure to be used, whenever IVUS image is used for atherosclerotic lesions assessment. In this paper, wiener filtering is used to reduce the mixed noise in IVUS Image. This method reduces the noise &amp; hence the quality of the image is enhanced. Experimental results show a significant improvement in removing the mixed noise present in the IVUS Image by giving better PSNR &amp; MSE values

Evaluation of exfoliative cytology in the diagnosis of oral premalignant and malignant lesions: A cytomorphometric analysis

Background: Many oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) arise within regions that previously had premalignant lesion. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment of premalignant lesions offers the best hope of improving the prognosis in patients with OSCC. Exfoliative cytology is a simple and non-invasive diagnostic technique that could be used for early detection of oral premalignant and malignant lesions. This study was undertaken to evaluate the quantitative changes in nuclear area (NA), cytoplasmic area (CA) and nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio (NA/CA) in cytological buccal smears of oral leukoplakia with dysplasia (OLD) and OSCC patients while comparing with normal healthy mucosa. Materials and Methods: A quantitative study was conducted over 90 subjects including 30 cases each of OLD, OSCC and clinically normal oral mucosa. The smears obtained were stained with Papanicolaou (PAP) stain and cytomorphological assessment of the keratinocytes was carried out. The statistical tools included arithmetic mean, standard deviation, Chi-square test, analysis of variance, Tukey multiple comparison. P < 0.001 was considered as significant. Results: The mean NA of keratinocytes in the normal mucosa was 65.47 ± 4.77 μm 2 while for OLD it was 107.97 ± 5.44 μm 2 and 139.02 ± 8.10 μm 2 for that of OSCC. The differences show a statistically significant increment in NA (P < 0.001). There was significant reduction (P < 0.001) in the CA of keratinocytes from OSCC when compared with those from smears of OLD and normal mucosa with the values of 1535.80 ± 79.38 μm 2 , 1078.51 ± 56.65 μm 2 and 769.70 ± 38.77 μm 2 respectively. The NA/CA ratio in the smears from normal oral mucosa, OLD and OSCC showed a mean value of 0.043 ± 0.004, 0.100 ± 0.008, 0.181 ± 0.015 respectively with a significant difference among the groups (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Evaluation of nuclear and CA of keratinocytes by cytomorphometry can serve as a useful adjunct in the diagnosis and prognosis of a dysplastic lesion which may lead to OSCC