Awareness of diabetes mellitus among the non-diabetic young population of various universities of Lahore

Background: Diabetes is one of the most common non-communicable diseases in the world with a considerably higher rate of mortality and morbidity. The lack of awareness regarding signs and symptoms and the impact of a sedentary lifestyle on the onset of diabetes is a major reason why young people are developing diabetes nowadays. This study will help to identify the gaps in the knowledge of diabetes in the young population. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the awareness of diabetes mellitus among the non-diabetic young population. Methods: This cross-sectional study was completed in 6 months from 1st January 2019 to 1st July 2019. In this survey 157 participants were selected through convenience sampling from the University of Lahore, University of South Asia, and Comsat University. Data was collected after taking informed written consent. The questionnaire consisted of questions regarding demographic data, general knowledge, risk factors, symptoms, complications, precautions, lifestyle, and non-medical measures. Data analysis and coding were done through SPSS version 25. Result: The research shows that out of a total of 157 participants 64% of non-diabetics had poor knowledge, 34% had medium knowledge and 2% of participants had good knowledge regarding awareness of diabetes mellitus. 33 (21%) were male and 124 (79%) were female. The participants had a mean age of 25.5 years. 103 (65.6%) belong to the urban area while the remaining 54 (34.4%) belong to the rural area. The current research reveals that the mean score regarding diabetes knowledge in the young population is 9.78 ± 4.78 out of a total score of 24. Conclusion: In the presenting research serious level of unawareness was found in the young population regarding diabetes. More than 1/3rd of the participants answered that they don’t know about the general knowledge, risk factors, symptoms, complications, precautions, lifestyle, and non-medical measures of diabetes. Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Awareness, young population, non-diabetics

Drug utilization and prescribing pattern in the treatment of urolithiasis: a perspective on World Health Organization recommendations

Background: Drug utilization research (DUR) is essential in promoting rational use of medicine, aimed at understanding the patterns of prescription, administration, and utilization of medications. It provides valuable insights into the actual drug usage patterns for specific disease conditions. To evaluate the current utilization pattern of drugs in patients of urolithiasis in the Department of General Medicine and Surgery at Integral Institute of Medical Science and Research Hospital, Lucknow. Methods: Following the approval of the institutional ethics committee, a prospective observational study was conducted at Integral Institute of Medical Science and Research Department of general medicine and surgery over a six-month period. Urolithiasis patients’ prescriptions were analyzed to study the prescribing patterns. Information about patient demographics, co-morbidities, and the number and types of medications prescribed were collected and analyzed. Results: Out of 102 patients studied, a female preponderance over male patients was observed. The co-morbidities that are encountered most commonly were hydronephrosis, cystitis, and renal cyst. There is averaged 7 medicines per prescription, 15.25% of medicines written by the generic name, 83.33% of patients receiving antibiotics, 54.70% of patients receiving injections, and 83% of drugs prescribed are mentioned in the essential medicine list. Analgesics, antibiotics, nutritional supplements, antiemetic, alkalizing agents, and antispasmodics were among the class of medicines given. Conclusions: This study highlights the current use of medicines and drug utilization in urolithiasis management. The findings show important insights for healthcare professionals to enhance medication therapy, encourage cost-effective healthcare delivery and improve quality of patient in urolithiasis management

Improvement of Headache in Patients after Occipital Extradural Hematoma (EDH) with Less Than 15 ml of Volume after Single Burr Hole Evacuation and Placement of Drain

Objective:  We hypothesized that if we operate occipital extradural hematoma (EDH) having a volume less than 15 ml by single burr hole evacuation of extradural hematoma (EDH) and placement of drain without doing craniotomy then clinical status of the patients particularly headache improves. Method:  An observational study of 15 patients (with presenting GCS: 8–13) was conducted on patients who were operated in Punjab Institute of Neurosciences (PINS). All patients had acute extradural hematoma less than 15 ml after a road traffic accident (RTA). The age range was 22 – 45 years. All patients were operated on within 12 hours of road traffic accident. The timing of surgery was in the range of 1-2 hours. Results:  In all patients, surgery was performed by a single burr hole at the occipital region at the site of occipital EDH and the drain was placed in an extradural position. Co-morbidities in our patients were DM, polytrauma. Receiving GCS was 9 in 2 (13.33%) patients, was 13 in 10 (66.67%), was 8 in 1 (6.66%) patient and receiving GCS was 15 in 2 (13.33%) patients. All patients were assessed clinically on 5th post-operative day. It was seen headache was relieved on 5th post-operative day in all patients except 1 (6.66%) patient. Our 1 (6.66%) patients came for follow-up with the complaint of headache and vomiting which was managed conservatively. Conclusion: Surgery by single burr hole evacuation and placement of drain is a safe method if occipital EDH is less than 15 ml in volum

Niche partitioning and competition between different rabbit breeds using stable isotopes

[EN] Stable isotope analysis (SIA) is an evolving method for determining diet, understanding food web and resolving biogeochemical issues in the ecosystem. This study aims to trace out ecological niche preferences/partitioning and competition among the lagomorphs, including two different breeds of European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), New Zealand rabbit and American Dutch rabbit, using SIA. Thirty-two samples of tooth enamel were analysed, which were collected from different districts of Punjab, Pakistan, including Okara, Sahiwal and Kasur. Among these samples, 16 belonged to the New Zealand breed (08 male and 08 female rabbits) and 16 to the American Dutch breed (08 male and 08 female rabbits). Significant (P<0.001) intergender differences in the isotope content of ?13C in the enamel for New Zealand and American Dutch rabbit were found. The European rabbits showed significant differences for both genders in the stable isotope of oxygen in the enamel (?18O) values (P=0.05). Nitrogen stable isotope results showed no significant intergender differences between American Dutch and New Zealand rabbits (P=0.24). The stable isotope results for ?13C, ?15N, and ?18O indicate that the trophic niche partitioning of both breeds overlaps, which can potentially cause competition for resources, whereas the water intake may differ among different genders, which may reflect differential gender-related activities. The archaeological and fossilised data of lagomorphs is present, but there is no significant literature available for living lagomorphs (rabbits). In general, this study provides a basic and first dataset for ?13C, ?15N, and ?18O of living lagomorphs, which can serve as a comparative dataset for future studies.Shouket, U.; Ahmad, RM.; Waseem, MT.; Khan, AM.; Zubaid, S. (2024). Niche partitioning and competition between different rabbit breeds using stable isotopes. World Rabbit Science. 32(1):73-81. https://doi.org/10.4995/wrs.2024.19934738132

Integrating Nanotherapeutic Platforms to Image Guided Approaches for Management of Cancer

Cancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, accounting for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. The landscape of cancer therapeutics is rapidly advancing with development of new and sophisticated approaches to diagnostic testing. Treatment plan for early diagnosed patients include radiation therapy, tumor ablation, surgery, immunotherapy and chemotherapy. However the treatment can only be initiated when the cancer has been diagnosed thoroughly. Theranostics is a term that combines diagnostics with therapeutics. It embraces multiple techniques to arrive at comprehensive diagnosis, molecular images and an individualized treatment regimen. Recently, there is an effort to tangle the emerging approach with nanotechnologies, in an attempt to develop theranostic nanoplatforms and methodologies. Theranostic approach to management of cancer offers numerous advantages. They are designed to monitor cancer treatment in real time. A wide variety of theranostic nanoplatforms that are based on diverse nanostructures like magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, gold nanomaterials, polymeric nanoparticles and silica nanoparticles showed great potential as cancer theranostics. Nano therapeutic platforms have been successful in integrating image guidance with targeted approach to treat cancer

Comparison of Early vs. Late Tracheostomy in Subdural Hematoma Operated at GCS Six or Below

Objectives:To compare the outcomes of early tracheostomy vs. late tracheostomy in post-operative patients after acute subdural hematoma at receiving GCS (Glasgow comma scale) of six or below. Method:  A quasi observational study was conducted on 30 patients with acute subdural hematoma after RTA (road traffic accident) and were operated in The Department of Neurosurgery Unit 2, Punjab Institute of Neurosciences, LGH, Lahore. The age range was 20 – 65 years. All patients were operated upon within 12 hours of RTA. Results:  In Group A, 12 (40%) patients, decompressive craniectomy with the evacuation of acute subdural hematoma and early tracheostomy were performed. In Group B, 8 (26%) patients’ craniotomy and evacuation of acute subdural hematoma were done along with early tracheostomy. In 6(20%) patients, decompressive craniectomy and evacuation were done and their tracheostomies were done at the 10th post-operative day. In 4 (13.33%) patients’ craniotomy and evacuation of hematoma done and their tracheostomies were also done at 10th post-operative day. In Group A, on 5th postoperative day GCS of 16 (53.33%) patients with early tracheostomies and fewer comorbidities improved, they were extubated, while 2 (6.67%) patients did not improve and 2 (6.67%) patients died. In Group B, in 30 patients with late tracheostomies, only 4 (13.33%) patients were improved. On 10th post-op day, GCS of 4 (13.33%) patients improved, GCS of 3 (10%) patients not improved and 3 (10%) patients died. Conclusion:  Early tracheostomy in patients with acute subdural hematoma yields good results as compared to late tracheostomy

Customer churn prediction using composite deep learning technique

Customer churn, a phenomenon that causes large financial losses when customers leave a business, makes it difficult for modern organizations to retain customers. When dissatisfied customers find their present company\u27s services inadequate, they frequently migrate to another service provider. Machine learning and deep learning (ML/DL) approaches have already been used to successfully identify customer churn. In some circumstances, however, ML/DL-based algorithms lacks in delivering promising results for detecting client churn. Previous research on estimating customer churn revealed unexpected forecasts when utilizing machine learning classifiers and traditional feature encoding methodologies. Deep neural networks were also used in these efforts to extract features without taking into account the sequence information. In view of these issues, the current study provides an effective method for predicting customer churn based on a hybrid deep learning model termed BiLSTM-CNN. The goal is to effectively estimate customer churn using benchmark data and increase the churn prediction process\u27s accuracy. The experimental results show that when trained, tested, and validated on the benchmark dataset, the proposed BiLSTM-CNN model attained a remarkable accuracy of 81%

Nanoemulgel: For Promising Topical and Systemic Delivery

Nanoemulgel delivery system is a fusion of two different delivery systems, wherein the physical state of drug containing nanoemulsion is changed by adding it to the gel matrix, thus enabling more lipophilic drugs to be used in treatment therapies. It solves the major issues such as limiting use of lipophilic drugs, poor oral bioavailability, and unpredictable pharmacokinetic and absorption variations. Simultaneously, its nongreasy nature and easily spreading ability support the patient compliance. Nanoemulgel can be widely used in the treatment of acne, pimple, psoriasis, fungal infection, and inflammation cause by osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The delivery of drug via ocular, vaginal, dental, and nose to brain routes for the treatment of diverse local and systemic ailments for instance alopecia, periodontitis, and Parkinson’s are possible. In the cosmetic industries, UV absorber nanoemulgel protected skin from sunburn

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: An Overview

The healthcare industry is advancing ahead swiftly. For many healthcare organizations, being able to forecast which treatment techniques are likely to be successful with patients based on their makeup and treatment framework is a big step forward. Artificial intelligence has the potential to help healthcare providers in a variety of ways, including patient care and administrative tasks. The technology aims to mimic human cognitive functions, as it offers numerous advantages over traditional analytics and other clinical decision-making tools. Data becomes more precise and accurate, allowing the healthcare industry to have more insights into the theranostic processes and patient outcomes. This chapter is an overview of the use of artificial intelligence in radiology, cardiology, ophthalmology, and drug discovery process

The Art and Science of Cosmetics: Understanding the Ingredients

Cosmetics, a captivating category of over-the-counter products that enhance appearance and promote skin health, have become ubiquitous in modern society. Initially associated with altering one’s appearance, cosmetics have evolved beyond their traditional beauty role to encompass skincare and the treatment of various skin conditions. While numerous chemicals can be utilised in cosmetic formulations, key ingredients include water, emollients, humectants, surfactants, preservatives, antioxidants and ultraviolet (UV) filters. With the rise in consumer preferences for clean beauty, silicone- and paraben-free cosmetics and cruelty-free testing, safe and effective herbal and plant-based products have gained significance. Researchers are actively exploring the development of natural cosmetics, leveraging the synergistic properties of these substances. Nanoformulations such as liposomes, nanoparticles and emulsions have been investigated and proven safer and more efficient than conventional cosmetics. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the utilisation of these ingredients in cosmetics, their specific effects on product development and properties, emerging alternatives in the personal care market, the widespread adoption of nanotechnology in various scientific fields, and its impact on the advancement of personal care products