A Socio-Clinical Profile Of Cases Of Laparoscopic Sterilization Performed At Institution And Camps

Research Question: What is the socio-clinical profile of cases of laparoscopic sterilization performed at the insti­tution and camps. Objectives: To study the (1) socio-clinical aspect of laparoscopic ligations. (2) complications and the failure rate. Study Design: Longitudinal study. Setting: Females coming for sterilization at the O-.P.D. and post-partum centre. Participants: 9088 females of reproductive age group. Study Variables: Age group, social class, residence, education, number of living children. Outcome Variables: Proportion of women who came for sterilization, ligations performed at hospital. Results: Demographic characteristics showed that 5658 (62.2%) and 3430 (37.8%) were from rural and urban areas respectively. Socio-economically , 80% cases be­longed to low socio-enonomic class. As regards the literacy status, 5500 (60.5%) of the patients were illiterate and 2600 (28.6%) of them had received only primary education. The age group which commonly accepted sterilization in 5056 cases (55.6%) was 31-35 years. The parity in our study showing highest incidence of laparoligation. i.e. 36.17% was 5. Our complication rate was 0.5% and failure rate 0.6%. Conclusions: Our experience of about 15 years shows that laparoscopic sterilization is a simple, safe, easy method and acceptable to the rural and even illiterate masses in this region. In the event of pregnancy, this permanent method is more acceptabl

DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOCOMPATIBLE POLYHYDROXY BUTYRATE IMPREGNATED WITH HERBAL PLANTS AGAINST WOUND HEALING ACTIVITY ON IN VIVO ANIMAL MODEL

Objective: The current study is to evaluate the antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and in vitro cytotoxicity activities of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and to develop the herbal impregnated PHB cast film for wound healing activities using Albino Wistar rat model. Methods: PHB produced by Azotobacter chroococcum A3 strain was synthesized and characterized (previous study). The PHB was subjected to various biocompatibility studies such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory studies. The PHB was also subjected to cytotoxicity study by (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay. PHB films were made using different combinations of plant and algal blends (herbal blends). The herbal blends of PHB films were evaluated for in vivo wound healing activity using Albino Wistar rats. Results: The turmeric impregnated PHB showed the highest result for antimicrobial with 27.25±0.23 mm against skin pathogens and antioxidant activity with the highest percentage of inhibition of 76%. The result predicts that PHB will not let to any toxic substances rather it acts as a chemoprotective agent followed by the inhibitory concentration value was found to be 1.56 μg/ml for 100 μg. The in vivo study showed better wound healing activity for PHB blended with 2% turmeric leaf and rhizome cast film. Whereas the wound healing activity of control and crude PHB was 90.4±0.4 and 91.3±0.56 respectively. Conclusion: The results from the present study showed that PHB can act as a good candidate for drug carrier and it is biocompatible in living cells

Pharmacy services for shielding patients should act as a blueprint for those who are housebound

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the vital role that community pharmacy staff play in patient care. Now, the sector should offer a suite of nationally commissioned essential services for housebound patients

Acute kidney injury in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in HIMS, Hassan

Background: There is a growing need to understand the risk factors and prevalence of AKI in COVID-19 patients to better manage and prevent the condition. HIMS, Hassan is a hospital in India that has been treating COVID-19 patients since the onset of the pandemic. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in COVID-19 patients admitted to a hospital in HIMS, Hassan, and to identify the associated risk factors. Methods: The study is a retrospective cohort study that investigates the clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters of hospitalized COVID-19 patients who met the inclusion criteria in HIMS teaching hospital, Hassan. 300 patients were included, and descriptive statistical analysis was performed using mean with standard deviation (SD) for continuous variables and proportions and percentages for categorical variables. Results: Out of 300 patients, 68% had AKI. The age distribution was similar between the two groups, with the highest proportion of patients in the age group of 40-49 years. The proportion of AKI was higher among males than females, but the difference was not statistically significant. The need for ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and dialysis was strongly associated with AKI. Patients with comorbidities such as DM and DM+HTN were at a higher risk of developing AKI. Laboratory parameters such as D-dimer, LDH, ferritin, urea, creatinine, SGOT, SGPT, Neutrophils / Lymphocytes ratio, and chloride levels were significantly different between the two groups. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of monitoring patients with comorbidities closely and implementing preventive measures to reduce the incidence of AKI in COVID-19 patients

The Baryon Content of Extremely Low Mass Dwarf Galaxies

We investigate the gas content and baryonic Tully-Fisher relationship for extremely low luminosity dwarf galaxies in the absolute magnitude range -13.5 > Mr > -16. The sample is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and consists of 101 galaxies for which we have obtained follow-up HI observations using the Arecibo Observatory and Green Bank Telescope. This represents the largest homogeneous sample of dwarfs at low luminosities with well-measured HI and optical properties. The sample spans a range of environments, from dense groups to truly isolated galaxies. The average neutral gas fraction is f_gas=0.6, significantly exceeding that of typical gas-rich galaxies at higher luminosities. Dwarf galaxies are therefore less efficient at turning gas into stars over their lifetimes. The strong environmental dependence of the gas fraction distribution demonstrates that while internal processes can reduce the gas fractions to roughly f_gas=0.4, external processes are required to fully remove gas from a dwarf galaxy. The average rotational velocity of our sample is vrot=50 km/s. Including more massive galaxies from the literature, we fit a baryonic Tully-Fisher slope of M_baryon \propto vrot^(3.70+/- 0.15). This slope compares well with CDM models that assume an equal baryon to dark matter ratio at all masses. While gas stripping or other processes may modify the baryon to dark matter ratio for dwarfs in the densest environments, the majority of dwarf galaxies in our sample have not preferentially lost significant baryonic mass relative to more massive galaxies.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures. Accepted to ApJ. Data available at http://www.ociw.edu/~mgeha/researc

Crystal structure of (Z)-4-methylbenzyl 3-[1-(5-methylpyridin-2-yl)ethylidene]dithiocarbazate

In the title dithiocarbazate compound, C17H19N3S2, the central CN2S2 residue is essentially planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0288 Å) and forms dihedral angles of 9.77 (8) and 77.47 (7)° with the substituted-pyridyl and p-tolyl rings, respectively, indicating a highly twisted molecule; the dihedral angle between the rings is 85.56 (8)°. The configuration about the C=N bond is Z, which allows for the formation of an intramolecular N—H...N(pyridyl) hydrogen bond. The packing features tolyl-methyl-C—H...N(imine), pyridyl-C—H...π(tolyl) and π–π interactions [between pyridyl rings with a distance = 3.7946 (13) Å], which generates jagged supramolecular layers that stack along the b axis with no directional interactions between them

Resilience of Medication Adherence Practices in Response to Life Changes: Learning from Qualitative Data Obtained during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nonadherence to medicines is widespread and can adversely affect health outcomes. Previous research has identified that patients develop their own strategies to assist with adherence. However, such research has not focused on how the helpfulness of these strategies may change in response to changes in patients’ circumstances. This study aimed to explore resilience of medication adherence to life changes. It involved secondary thematic analysis of the verbatim transcripts of 50 semi-structured interviews that were conducted with adults who were advised to shield or were over the age of 70 during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Interview data suggested that resilience of medication adherence varied between participants. Participants either reported that they had not used any specific strategies to remind them to take their medicines prior to the pandemic, that the strategies that they had employed prior to the pandemic remained effective during the pandemic, that they had needed to make some adjustments to the strategies used, or that the strategies they had used were no longer effective. In addition, beliefs about medicines and motivation to take them were altered for some participants. These findings suggest that challenges associated with medication adherence do not always remain stable over time and that healthcare professionals need to continue to monitor and support medication adherence long-term

A STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF RP-HPLC METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF CEFPODOXIME IN BULK AND A PHARMACEUTICAL DOSAGE FORMS

A simple, rapid, precise, sensitive and, reproducible reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method has been developed for the quantitative analysis of Cefpodoxime in a pharmaceutical dosage form. Chromatographic separation of Cefpodoxime was achieved on Waters Alliance -2695, by using Luna Pheny Hexyl (250mm x 4.6mm, 5µm) column and the mobile phase containing 0.1% TEA adj pH-2.5 with OPA & ACN in the ratio of 75:25% v/v. The flow rate was 1.0 ml/min, detection was carried out by absorption at 222nm using a photodiode array detector at ambient temperature. The number of theoretical plates and tailing factor for Cefpodoxime were NLT 2000 and should not be more than 2 respectively. The linearity of the method was excellent over the concentration range 7-105 µg/ml for Cefpodoxime respectively. The correlation coefficient was 0.999. % Relative standard deviation of peak areas of all measurements always less than 2.0. The proposed method was validated according to ICH guidelines.  The method was found to be a simple, economical, suitable, precise, accurate & robust method for quantitative analysis of Cefpodoxime and study of its stability

NGC 602 Environment, Kinematics and Origins

The young star cluster NGC 602 and its associated HII region, N90, formed in a relatively isolated and diffuse environment in the Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Its isolation from other regions of massive star formation and the relatively simple surrounding HI shell structure allows us to constrain the processes that may have led to its formation and to study conditions leading to massive star formation. We use images from Hubble Space Telescope and high resolution echelle spectrographic data from the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with 21-cm neutral hydrogen (HI) spectrum survey data and the shell catalogue derived from it to establish a likely evolutionary scenario leading to the formation of NGC 602. We identify a distinct HI cloud component that is likely the progenitor cloud of the cluster and HII region which probably formed in blister fashion from the cloud's periphery. We also find that the past interaction of HI shells can explain the current location and radial velocity of the nebula. The surrounding Interstellar Medium is diffuse and dust-poor as demonstrated by a low visual optical depth throughout the nebula and an average HI density of the progenitor cloud estimated at 1 cm^-3. These conditions suggest that the NGC 602 star formation event was produced by compression and turbulence associated with HI shell interactions. It therefore represents a single star forming event in a low gas density region.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP. 25 pages, 10 figure