A Comparative Study of Demand for Medical Care on Non Communicable Diseases: Western vs. Alternative

Medical care is an input to the production of health. People get treatment for their health issues under western medicine , complementary and alternative medicine. Western medicine can be identified as the most famous and modern medical care system in the world. Complementary and alternative medicine refers to avariety of health practices as ayurveda, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbs, yoga, etc . Considering Sri Lankan context, with the rapid increase of ageing population, there is a growing trend in non communicable diseases. Most of people tend to use these two systems to recover from non communicable diseases asasthma, cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, etc. The main objective of this study was to distinguish between the demand for alternative medicine and western medicine related to non communicable diseases. It was considered socio demographic and economic factors for demand in medical care for both sectors. Primary data was based on Arogya private hospital and Siddhayurvedini private ayurvedic care institution in Gampaha. It was selected 100 non communicable disease patients using systematic sampling method. Logistic regression model was mainly used to distinguish between the alternative and western medical care. According to the findings of this study, females are more likely to demand for both medical cares. Middle age, unemployed, arthritis patient and duration of disease 2-5 years cause to raise demand for alternative medical care. Diabetic patient, employed, believing health status as serious and having employer provided insurance cause to raise demand for western medical care. Relative to the demand for alternative medical care, living in rural area and lower educated people are negatively associated with demand for western medical care.KEYWORDS: Demand, Western, alternative, non communicable disease

Ultrasound morphology of carotid plaque and its link with lipid: protein content and 3d microstructure of the plaque.

the 22nd Meeting of the European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (ESNCH), 19-21 May 2017. Berlin, Germany, and published in the International Journal of Stroke 12(1S): 57 (Poster 101), May 2017. ISSN: 1747-4930, eISSN: 1747-4949

Development of sodium-ion rechargeable battery using sodium cobalt phosphate cathode

Lithium-ion batteries are the most popular kind of rechargeable batteries accommodate in portable electronic devices up to date. As the Lithium deposits are depleting the cost of Lithium-ion batteries is increasing. Sodium- ion batteries can be introduced as an alternative technology which can replace expensive Lithium-ion batteries. Sodium sources are highly abundant and therefore Sodium-ion batteries could be made cheaper than Lithium-ion batteries. A number of cathode materials which were accommodated in Lithium-ion batteries have also been tested as cathode materials for Sodium-ion batteries. This research was based on a Sodium-ion battery which cathode was prepared using Sodium cobalt phosphate. The cathode material was prepared using a simple solid-state reaction between Cobalt (II) oxide and Sodium phosphate. The prepared material was characterized using powder XRD. Chargedischarge cycles, cyclic voltammetry analyzing, impedance curve matching to obtain equivalent circuit was used in order to analyze the performance of the prepared cathode in the battery. The discharge capacity of the cathode was calculated as 9.58 mA h g-1. The cyclic voltammetry curve has shown that an oxidation and reduction processes involved in the battery cycle but the battery cycle was not completely reversible.KEYWORDS: Rechargeable batteries, Sodium cobalt oxide, cyclic voltammetry, charge-discharge cycles

Biocompatibility evaluation of bioprinted decellularized collagen sheet implanted in vivo cornea using swept-source optical coherence tomography

Corneal transplantation by full-thickness penetrating keratoplasty with human donor tissue is a widely accepted treatment for damaged or diseased corneas. Although corneal transplantation has a high success rate, a shortage of high-quality donor tissue is a considerable limitation. Therefore, bioengineered corneas could be an effective solution for this limitation, and a decellularized extracellular matrix comprises a promising scaffold for their fabrication. In this study, three-dimensional bioprinted decellularized collagen sheets were implanted into the stromal layer of the cornea of five rabbits. We performed in vivo noninvasive monitoring of the rabbit corneas using swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) after implanting the collagen sheets. Anterior segment OCT images and averaged amplitude-scans were acquired biweekly to monitor corneal thickness after implantation for 1 month. The averaged cornea thickness in the control images was 430.3 +/- 5.9 mu m, while the averaged thickness after corneal implantation was 598.5 +/- 11.8 mu m and 564.5 +/- 12.5 mu m at 2 and 4 weeks, respectively. The corneal thickness reduction of 34 mu m confirmed the biocompatibility through the image analysis of the depth-intensity profile base. Moreover, hematoxylin and eosin staining supported the biocompatibility evaluation of the bioprinted decellularized collagen sheet implantation. Hence, the developed bioprinted decellularized collagen sheets could become an alternative solution to human corneal donor tissue, and the proposed image analysis procedure could be beneficial to confirm the success of the surgery.11Ysciescopu

Investigation of optical coherence micro-elastography as a method to visualize micro-architecture in human axillary lymph nodes

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of lymph node involvement is an important factor in detecting metastasis and deciding whether to perform axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in breast cancer surgery. As ALND is associated with potentially severe long term morbidity, the accuracy of lymph node assessment is imperative in avoiding unnecessary ALND. The mechanical properties of malignant lymph nodes are often distinct from those of normal nodes. A method to image the micro-scale mechanical properties of lymph nodes could, thus, provide diagnostic information to aid in the assessment of lymph node involvement in metastatic cancer. In this study, we scan axillary lymph nodes, freshly excised from breast cancer patients, with optical coherence micro-elastography (OCME), a method of imaging micro-scale mechanical strain, to assess its potential for the intraoperative assessment of lymph node involvement. METHODS: Twenty-six fresh, unstained lymph nodes were imaged from 15 patients undergoing mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery with axillary clearance. Lymph node specimens were bisected to allow imaging of the internal face of each node. Co-located OCME and optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans were taken of each sample, and the results compared to standard post-operative hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained histology. RESULTS: The optical backscattering signal provided by OCT alone may not provide reliable differentiation by inspection between benign and malignant lymphoid tissue. Alternatively, OCME highlights local changes in tissue strain that correspond to malignancy and are distinct from strain patterns in benign lymphoid tissue. The mechanical contrast provided by OCME complements the optical contrast provided by OCT and aids in the differentiation of malignant tumor from uninvolved lymphoid tissue. CONCLUSION: The combination of OCME and OCT images represents a promising method for the identification of malignant lymphoid tissue. This method shows potential to provide intraoperative assessment of lymph node involvement, thus, preventing unnecessary removal of uninvolved tissues and improving patient outcomes.Kelsey M. Kennedy, Lixin Chin, Philip Wijesinghe, Robert A. McLaughlin, Bruce Latham, David D. Sampson, Christobel M. Saunders, and Brendan F. Kenned

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the 0.013 < z < 0.1 cosmic spectral energy distribution from 0.1 m to 1 mm

We use the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey (GAMA) I data set combined with GALEX, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) imaging to construct the low-redshift (z < 0.1) galaxy luminosity functions in FUV, NUV, ugriz and YJHK bands from within a single well-constrained volume of 3.4 × 105 (Mpc h−1)3. The derived luminosity distributions are normalized to the SDSS data release 7 (DR7) main survey to reduce the estimated cosmic variance to the 5 per cent level. The data are used to construct the cosmic spectral energy distribution (CSED) from 0.1 to 2.1 μm free from any wavelength-dependent cosmic variance for both the elliptical and non-elliptical populations. The two populations exhibit dramatically different CSEDs as expected for a predominantly old and young population, respectively. Using the Driver et al. prescription for the azimuthally averaged photon escape fraction, the non-ellipticals are corrected for the impact of dust attenuation and the combined CSED constructed. The final results show that the Universe is currently generating (1.8 ± 0.3) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 of which (1.2 ± 0.1) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 is directly released into the inter-galactic medium and (0.6 ± 0.1) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 is reprocessed and reradiated by dust in the far-IR. Using the GAMA data and our dust model we predict the mid- and far-IR emission which agrees remarkably well with available data. We therefore provide a robust description of the pre- and post-dust attenuated energy output of the nearby Universe from 0.1 μm to 0.6 mm. The largest uncertainty in this measurement lies in the mid- and far-IR bands stemming from the dust attenuation correction and its currently poorly constrained dependence on environment, stellar mass and morphology