Validation of the Scale for the Assessment of Illness Behavior (SAIB) in a community sample of elderly people.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the construct validity of the SAIB in a community sample of elderly people. The SAIB was administered to a large community sample representative of the German population aged 60-85 years (n=1593). The original model was assessed and then refined through confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. Criterion validity was evaluated by comparing SAIB scores with external criteria in 3 categories: subjective health, chronic illness and health care utilization. The originally suggested five factor structure of the SAIB yielded a comparative fit index (CFI) of 0.70 and the weighted root mean square residual (WRMR) was 3.68. A shortened questionnaire with 13 items and four factors resulted in better model fit (CFI 0.97 and WRMR 1.3). Correlations between subjective health and the new scales ranged from 0.06 to 0.33. Effect sizes (Cohens d) of mean differences in factor scores between those with and without healthcare system contact varied by healthcare type, ranging from 0.05 to 0.94; effect sizes were largest in relation to contact with psychotherapy and alternative medicine practitioners. We propose a shortened version of the SAIB with a different scale structure, which resulted in better model fit with our data. Neither the original nor revised SAIB appeared to discriminate well in terms of health care use, suggesting that the illness behavior as currently conceptualized may not fully explain the increased use of healthcare in the elderly

Theory of high bias Coulomb Blockade in ultrashort molecules

We point out that single electron charging effects such as Coulomb Blockade (CB) and high-bias staircases play a crucial role in transport through single ultrashort molecules. A treatment of Coulomb Blockade through a prototypical molecule, benzene, is developed using a master-equation in its complete many-electron Fock space, evaluated through exact diagonalization or full Configuration Interaction (CI). This approach can explain a whole class of non-trivial experimental features including vanishing zero bias conductances, sharp current onsets followed by ohmic current rises, and gateable current levels and conductance structures, most of which cannot be captured even qualitatively within the traditional Self Consistent Field (SCF) approach coupled with perturbative transport theories. By comparing the two approaches, namely SCF and CB, in the limit of weak coupling to the electrode, we establish that the inclusion of strong-correlations within the molecule becomes critical in addressing the above experiments. Our approach includes on-bridge-correlations fully, and is therefore well-suited for describing transport through short molecules in the limit of weak coupling to electrodes.Comment: 19 pages 5 figure

A study on median nerve conduction velocity in different age groups

Background: Nerve Conduction Velocity (NCS) is a test to measure the speed and electrical activity in a nerve. Physiological factors like age, temperature, height, gender affect the nerve conduction velocity. There is paucity on the data regarding the age group at which these changes become significant. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the specific age group at which changes in nerve conduction velocity occurs.Methods: 103 individuals in the age group of 15-65 years participated in the study. They were grouped into, Group I in the age group of 15-30 (n=40) years, Group II 31-45 years (n=31), Group III 46-60 years (n=32). Median motor and sensory conduction velocity were determined.Results: There was a significant correlation between age and median motor (p=0) and sensory (p=0) conduction velocities. There was a significant decreasing trend observed in Group III.Conclusions: Age has definite correlation with the NCS in median motor and sensory nerves. It is essential to have reference values with relation to age

Evaluation of drug promotional brochures in a tertiary teaching hospital of Kannur, India

Background: Pharmaceutical industries worldwide are heavily involved in aggressive drug promotions. WHO has framed guidelines for ethical drug promotion in 1988. The transparency of pharmaceutical advertisements is important because decision of the physician is likely to be influenced by the claims made by the pharmaceutical companies in the promotional drug brochures and pharmaceutical industries treat their marketing material as “educational material” for doctors. Authors did this study to analyze the information given on drug promotional brochures by the drug companies using ethical criteria of drug promotion by WHO 1988 and to verify the authenticity of the claims given by the pharmaceutical companies in drug promotional brochures.Methods: Cross sectional study extending from 1/8/2012 to 31/7/2013. 612 drug promotional brochures satisfied our inclusion criteria. Drug brochures were analyzed with WHO ethical criteria 1988 and further categorizing the data into type of claims, number and source of references. Validity of journal articles were checked by using a validity measure developed by Cardarelli.Results: Total 612 brochures satisfied inclusion criteria. INN was mentioned in 93.8% of collected brochures. Brand name was mentioned in 100% brochures. Content of active ingredients was mentioned in 92% of brochures. Name of the other ingredients known to cause problem 28.4% of brochures. Dosage form or regimen was mentioned in 23.2% of brochures. Approved therapeutic use mentioned in 65.7% brochures. Side effects and major adverse drug reactions were mentioned in 31.4% brochures. Precautions and contraindications and warnings were mentioned in 30.4% drug promotional brochures. Drug interactions were mentioned in 26.5% brochures. Name and address was mentioned by 69.1% brochures. There were 1144 claims and 739 references. Efficacy claims were 84.88% of the total claims. Main source of reference was from journal articles (74.1%) and among them 49.65% were randomized control trials. Only 47.94 % of the journal references were valid.Conclusions: Brochures were lacking in vital information which included contraindication, warning, precaution, name of the other ingredients known to cause problem hence companies were found violating WHO ethical criteria. Claims were not well supported with references. Less than half of the given journal references were only valid. This study highlights the need of healthcare professionals to remain cautious about promotional material presented by pharmaceutical representatives

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Management. We thank the participants at the University of Michigan brown bag workshop for helpful comments and suggestions. Any errors are our own. Do stock prices underreact to SEO announcements? Evidence from SEO Valuation This paper examines whether the market underreacts to the negative information implicit in SEO announcements. We find that it does but conditional on the valuation of SEO firms prior to the SEO issue date. SEO firms that are overvalued relative to their industry peers experience a smaller decline in market value on the SEO announcement day but experience a larger decline over the next five years. The results are robust to various ways of choosing industry peers and valuation multiples and various methodologies for computing risk-adjusted abnormal returns. Cross-sectional regressions indicate SEO P/V ratios (offer-price to value ratio based on relative valuation techniques) are significantly positively related to announcement day returns and significantly negatively related to long-run returns even after controlling for expected growth rates, accruals, and B/M ratios. Additional tests indicate overvalued SEOs earn lower returns around future quarterly earnings announcement dates and do not exhibit superior ex-pos

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Do pre-diagnosis primary care consultation patterns explain deprivation-specific differences in net survival among women with breast cancer? An examination of individually-linked data from the UK West Midlands cancer registry, national screening programme and Clinical Practice Research Datalink.

BACKGROUND: In England and Wales breast cancer survival is higher among more affluent women. Our aim was to investigate the potential of pre-diagnostic factors for explaining deprivation-related differences in survival. METHODS: Individually-linked data from women aged 50-70 in the West Midlands region of England, diagnosed with breast cancer 1989-2006 and continuously eligible for screening, was retrieved from the cancer registry, screening service and Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Follow-up was to the end of July 2012. Deprivation was measured at small area level, based on the quintiles of the income domain of the English indices of deprivation. Consultation rates per woman per week, time from last breast-related GP consultation to diagnosis, and from diagnosis to first surgery were calculated. We estimated net survival using the non-parametric Pohar-Perme estimator. RESULTS: The rate of primary care consultations was similar during the 18 months prior to diagnosis in each deprivation group for breast and non-breast symptoms. Survival was lower for more deprived women from 4 years after diagnosis. Lower net survival was associated with more advanced extent of disease and being non-screen-detected. There was a persistent trend of lower net survival for more deprived women, irrespective of the woman's obesity, alcohol, smoking or comorbidity status. There was no significant variation in time from last breast symptom to diagnosis by deprivation. However, women in more deprived categories experienced significantly longer periods between cancer diagnosis and first surgery (mean = 21.5 vs. 28.4 days, p = 0.03). Those whose surgery occurred more than 12 weeks following their cancer diagnosis had substantially lower net survival. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that although more deprived women with breast cancer display lifestyle factors associated with poorer outcomes, their consultation frequency, comorbidities and the breast cancer symptoms they present with are similar. We found weak evidence of extended times to surgical treatment among most deprived women who were not screen-detected but who presented with symptoms in primary care, which suggests that treatment delay may play a role. Further investigation of interrelationships between these variables within a larger dataset is warranted

A study on virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance pattern among enterococci isolated from various clinical specimens from a tertiary care hospital

Background: Enterococci, adult faeces commensal are important nosocomial pathogens. E. faecalis is the most common cause of infection, followed by E. faecium. In the past two decades, they have developed resistance to many commonly used antimicrobial agents. Understanding virulence factors and monitoring antimicrobial resistance among Enterococci is essential for controlling the spread of bacterial resistance and important for epidemiological surveillance within the hospital environment. The aim of the study is to evaluate antibiotic resistance and virulence factors exhibited by Enterococcus sp.Methods: One hundred consecutive isolates of Enterococci isolated from different clinical samples of patients attending AVMC and H, a tertiary care center at Pondicherry in a period of 20 months were included in the study. Enterococcus sp were identified as per standard conventional bacteriologic methods and detected for the production of virulence factors such as Hemolysin production, Gelatinase production. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out by disc diffusion method and MIC of vancomycin and teicoplanin was determined by E-test strips.Results: Among 100 Enterococcal isolates included in the study, 81% were E. faecalis and 19% were E. faecium which were isolated from urine (44%), Pus (51%) and others specimen (5%, which includes blood 80% and drain tube 20%). In this study, overall 15% of E. faecalis and 1% of E. faecium showed hemolysin production and Gelatinase was produced by 6% of E. faecalis and 4% of E. faecium. Majority of E. faecalis and E. faecium strains isolated in our study, had increased sensitivity were to be exhibited for Linezolid, Vancomycin followed by high level gentamycin and high degree of resistance to penicillin, ciprofloxacin and cotrimoxazole. Analyzing the results of MIC of vancomycin and teicoplanin, 5 isolates were classified phenotypically as VanB phenotype that possess only moderate to high levels of vancomycin resistance and one isolate obtained from drain tube which showed MIC of vancomycin as 120µg/ml and teicoplanin 16µg/ml was grouped into VanA.Conclusions: Though the prevalence of vancomycin resistant Enterococcci (VRE) is very low in our study, yet regular monitoring of vancomycin resistance is very crucial for early detection, treatment, application of preventive and control measures and most importantly to check the spread of virulent multidrug resistant Enterococcus species

Indirect and direct somatic embryogenesis from aerial stem explants of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.)

Protocols for direct and indirect somatic embryogenesis from aerial stem explants of ginger have been developed. Aerial stem explants of two ginger varieties were cultured on different concentrations of 2,4-D induced callus. An in vitro aerial stem produced hard, nodular and yellowish callus (Type I) and an in planta aerial stem gave rise to soft, sticky callus with pale white color (Type II). The proliferated Type II calli were subject to stress for 40–60 days without subculturing. The desiccated calli produced white friable calli which turned embryogenic and then produced somatic embryos in a medium containing 2 mg L–1 benzyl amino purine. The mature, club-shaped somatic embryos were germinated on a medium containing benzyl amino purine and a – naphthalene acetic acid in different concentrations. Type I callus of neither variety turned embryogenic but produced roots in all the cultures. Direct somatic embryogenesis was observed from the in planta aerial stem and leaf base explants with the use of thidiazuron alone or in combination with indole, 3-butyric acid. Histological studies revealed that the somatic embryos in ginger have a distinct single layered epidermis, scutellum, coleoptile, shoot apex and root apex