Specialty Preference Among Medical Students and Factors Affecting It

Introduction: Medical education is one of the core part of educational system of any country. Medical education requires undergraduate students to study a wide range of medical specialties. It is often assumed that students do not make their career preferences until after they have graduated from medical school. So the reasons and factors responsible for preferences need to be found out among medical students. Material and Methods: It was a Cross sectional study on 180 medical students to assess preference for specialty and factors responsible. Results: Out of total 190 medical students more or less everyone (97.89%) wanted to pursue specialization and majority of them (96.84%) wanted to pursue the same in Medical Field(p>0.05). majority of male students were interested to pursue their specialization in the field of medicine (37.63%), surgery (23.65%) and pediatrics (13.97%). On the other hand female students were more interested in medicine (24.17%), pediatrics (32.96%) and obstetrics & gynecology (24.17%)(p<0.05). Interest, by far was found to be most common factor (76.63%) responsible for the preference of particular medical specialty among all four groups of students (1st professional-25.27%, 2nd professional-75.92%, final professional-89.47%, interns-68.42%).Conclusion: It is thus concluded there are many factors playing role in the specialty selection and preference among the medical students and should be equally justified and addressed

Non-adiabatic radiative collapse of a relativistic star under different initial conditions

We examine the role of space-time geometry in the non-adiabatic collapse of a star dissipating energy in the form of radial heat flow, studying its evolution under different initial conditions. The collapse of a star with interior comprising of a homogeneous perfect fluid is compared with that of a star filled with inhomogeneous imperfect fluid with anisotropic pressure. Both the configurations are spherically symmetric, however, in the latter case, the physical space $t= constant$ of the configurations is assumed to be inhomogeneous endowed with spheroidal or pseudo-spheroidal geometry. It is observed that as long as the collapse is shear-free, its evolution depends only on the mass and size of the star at the onset of collapse.Comment: To appear in Pramana- j. of physic

Dynamics of socio-economic factors affecting climate vulnerability and technology adoption: Evidence from Jodhpur district of Rajasthan

192-196Climate change and extreme weather fluctuations are the most threatening challenges to the farming communities especially in semi-arid tropics. The paper investigates socio-economic factors affecting vulnerability and adoption of innovations using micro-level survey data of 100 systematically selected farmers in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, India. The results reveal that higher income, irrigation and provision of seeds reduce climate vulnerability to a great extent. Several farm level strategies have been adopted by the farmers against climate induced stress, including change in cropping pattern, reduction in irrigation usage, use of drips and sprinklers and water conservation. In case of pearl millet cropping system, we found that adoption of wide row spacing is significantly influenced by the level of the farmer’s education, land size category, climate awareness and trainings programs. The study suggests that diversified crop sequence involving pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley-onion, farmers’ adoption of suitable adaptation strategies and climate resilient technologies will improve with better awareness, education and farm governance with regard to climate change. Moreover, technologies especially indigenous ones suitable to the local contextual needs must be developed or fine-tuned and disseminated for reducing climate-induced vulnerability

‘DUS’ characterization of an endangered salt tolerant radish landrace (Newar)

24-32In this study, responses to salinity stress of three varieties of radish, viz., ‘Newar’ (landrace), ‘Pusa Mridula’ and ‘White Excel’, were recorded. Additionally, landrace Newar was also characterized for ‘Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability’ (DUS) using 34 descriptors. Results indicated higher salt tolerance in ‘Newar’ as evidenced by relatively early germination and high early seedling vigour than other varieties regardless of the salinity of the irrigation water. Although salinity stress, especially up to 8.0 dS m-1, had no adverse effect on shoot growth in all the varieties, effects on root growth were quite different. While ‘Newar’ exhibited non-significant differences in root fresh weight (RFW) at different salinity levels, ‘White Excel’ displayed nominal variations up to 8.0 dS m-1 salinity and ‘Pusa Mridula’ registered consistent declines in RFW with increasing salinity. ‘Newar’ plants were found to be efficient in Na+ exclusion and in maintaining a favourable Na+ to K+ ratio in their shoots and roots. Further, proline accumulation was much higher in salt treated Newar than in ‘White Excel’ and ‘Pusa Mridula’ plants. Based on DUS descriptors, number of leaves, leaf length, and root length and weight were found to be the major distinguishable characters in Newar

Identifying sources, pathways and risk drivers in ecosystems of Japanese Encephalitis in an epidemic-prone north Indian district

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) has caused repeated outbreaks in endemic pockets of India. This study was conducted in Kushinagar, a highly endemic district, to understand the human-animal-ecosystem interactions, and the drivers that influence disease transmission. Utilizing the ecosystems approach, a cross-sectional, descriptive study, employing mixed methods design was employed. Four villages (two with pig-rearing and two without) were randomly selected from a high, a medium and a low burden (based on case counts) block of Kushinagar. Children, pigs and vectors were sampled from these villages. A qualitative arm was incorporated to explain the findings from the quantitative surveys. All human serum samples were screened for JE-specific IgM using MAC ELISA and negative samples for JE RNA by rRT-PCR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In pigs, IgG ELISA and rRT-PCR for viral RNA were used. Of the 242 children tested, 24 tested positive by either rRT-PCR or MAC ELISA; in pigs, 38 out of the 51 pigs were positive. Of the known vectors, Culex vishnui was most commonly isolated across all biotopes. Analysis of 15 blood meals revealed human blood in 10 samples. Univariable analysis showed that gender, religion, lack of indoor residual spraying of insecticides in the past year, indoor vector density (all species), and not being vaccinated against JE in children were significantly associated with JE positivity. In multivariate analysis, only male gender remained as a significant risk factor. Based on previous estimates of symptomatic: asymptomatic cases of JE, we estimate that there should have been 618 cases from Kushinagar, although only 139 were reported. Vaccination of children and vector control measures emerged as major control activities; they had very poor coverage in the studied villages. In addition, lack of awareness about the cause of JE, lack of faith in the conventional medical healthcare system and multiple referral levels causing delay in diagnosis and treatment emerged as factors likely to result in adverse clinical outcomes

Sequential Effects in Judgements of Attractiveness: The Influences of Face Race and Sex

In perceptual decision-making, a person’s response on a given trial is influenced by their response on the immediately preceding trial. This sequential effect was initially demonstrated in psychophysical tasks, but has now been found in more complex, real-world judgements. The similarity of the current and previous stimuli determines the nature of the effect, with more similar items producing assimilation in judgements, while less similarity can cause a contrast effect. Previous research found assimilation in ratings of facial attractiveness, and here, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by the social categories of the faces presented. Over three experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of own- (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces of both sexes that appeared successively. Through blocking trials by race (Experiment 1), sex (Experiment 2), or both dimensions (Experiment 3), we could examine how sequential judgements were altered by the salience of different social categories in face sequences. For sequences that varied in sex alone, own-race faces showed significantly less opposite-sex assimilation (male and female faces perceived as dissimilar), while other-race faces showed equal assimilation for opposite- and same-sex sequences (male and female faces were not differentiated). For sequences that varied in race alone, categorisation by race resulted in no opposite-race assimilation for either sex of face (White and Chinese faces perceived as dissimilar). For sequences that varied in both race and sex, same-category assimilation was significantly greater than opposite-category. Our results suggest that the race of a face represents a superordinate category relative to sex. These findings demonstrate the importance of social categories when considering sequential judgements of faces, and also highlight a novel approach for investigating how multiple social dimensions interact during decision-making

Of cattle, sand flies and men : a systematic review of risk factor analyses for South Asian visceral leishmaniasis and implications for elimination

Background: Studies performed over the past decade have identified fairly consistent epidemiological patterns of risk factors for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Indian subcontinent. Methods and Principal Findings: To inform the current regional VL elimination effort and identify key gaps in knowledge, we performed a systematic review of the literature, with a special emphasis on data regarding the role of cattle because primary risk factor studies have yielded apparently contradictory results. Because humans form the sole infection reservoir, clustering of kala-azar cases is a prominent epidemiological feature, both at the household level and on a larger scale. Subclinical infection also tends to show clustering around kala-azar cases. Within villages, areas become saturated over a period of several years; kala-azar incidence then decreases while neighboring areas see increases. More recently, post kalaazar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) cases have followed kala-azar peaks. Mud walls, palpable dampness in houses, and peridomestic vegetation may increase infection risk through enhanced density and prolonged survival of the sand fly vector. Bed net use, sleeping on a cot and indoor residual spraying are generally associated with decreased risk. Poor micronutrient status increases the risk of progression to kala-azar. The presence of cattle is associated with increased risk in some studies and decreased risk in others, reflecting the complexity of the effect of bovines on sand fly abundance, aggregation, feeding behavior and leishmanial infection rates. Poverty is an overarching theme, interacting with individual risk factors on multiple levels. Conclusions: Carefully designed demonstration projects, taking into account the complex web of interconnected risk factors, are needed to provide direct proof of principle for elimination and to identify the most effective maintenance activities to prevent a rapid resurgence when interventions are scaled back. More effective, short-course treatment regimens for PKDL are urgently needed to enable the elimination initiative to succeed

The relation of steady evaporating drops fed by an influx and freely evaporating drops

We discuss a thin film evolution equation for a wetting evaporating liquid on a smooth solid substrate. The model is valid for slowly evaporating small sessile droplets when thermal effects are insignificant, while wettability and capillarity play a major role. The model is first employed to study steady evaporating drops that are fed locally through the substrate. An asymptotic analysis focuses on the precursor film and the transition region towards the bulk drop and a numerical continuation of steady drops determines their fully non-linear profiles. Following this, we study the time evolution of freely evaporating drops without influx for several initial drop shapes. As a result we find that drops initially spread if their initial contact angle is larger than the apparent contact angle of large steady evaporating drops with influx. Otherwise they recede right from the beginning