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Aim: This study aimed to determine the causes of pediatric ocular morbidity in the in-patient department of a tertiary-care hospital in eastern India. Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study done on admitted patients in the age group of 0-12 years between July 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019, in a tertiary-care hospital in eastern India. Results: During the study period, a total of 5775 patients were admitted to the hospital, out of which 447 were children belonging to 0-12 years, the prevalence being 7.74%. Out of the 447 children, 276 were males (61.74%) and 171 were females (38.26%) with a male:female ratio of 1.6:1. A total of 31.77% patients were reported from urban areas and 23% from rural areas. The mean age of the children was 5.5 years (range: 20 days-12 years). The highest frequency of admission was found in the age group of zero to 4 years (61.74%). Ocular trauma (44.07%) was found to be the most common ocular morbidity, followed by cataract (32.21%) and infectious ocular diseases (7.61%). The average duration of stay in the hospital was 4.9 days ranging from 2 to 56 days. Conclusion: Timely intervention with early diagnosis and regular follow-up are essential in the management of pediatric ocular morbidity as well as childhood blindness. In our study, ocular trauma was found to be most common ocular morbidity leading to poor visual outcome and hospital admission, which can be prevented by safe home practices and parental education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluates the water quality status of 6-km-long Kali River stretch that passes through the Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh, India, by utilizing high-resolution IRS P6 LISS IV imagery. In situ river water samples collected at 40 random locations were analyzed for seven physicochemical and four heavy metal concentrations, and the water quality index (WQI) was computed for each sampling location. A set of 11 spectral reflectance band combinations were formulated to identify the most significant band combination that is related to the observed WQI at each sampling location. Three approaches, namely multiple linear regression (MLR), backpropagation neural network (BPNN) and gene expression programming (GEP), were employed to relate WQI as a function of most significant band combination. Comparative assessment among the three utilized approaches was performed via quantitative indicators such as R2, RMSE and MAE. Results revealed that WQI estimates ranged between 203.7 and 262.33 and rated as "very poor" status. Results further indicated that GEP performed better than BPNN and MLR approaches and predicted WQI estimates with high R2 values (i.e., 0.94 for calibration and 0.91 for validation data), low RMSE and MAE values (i.e., 2.49 and 2.16 for calibration and 4.45 and 3.53 for validation data). Moreover, both GEP and BPNN depicted superiority over MLR approach that yielded WQI with R2 ~ 0.81 and 0.67 for calibration and validation data, respectively. WQI maps generated from the three approaches corroborate the existing pollution levels along the river stretch. In order to examine the significant differences among WQI estimates from the three approaches, one-way ANOVA test was performed, and the results in terms of F-statistic (F = 0.01) and p-value (p = 0.994 > 0.05) revealed WQI estimates as "not significant," reasoned to the small water sample size (i.e., N = 40). The study therefore recommends GEP as more rational and a better alternative for precise water quality monitoring of surface water bodies by producing simplified mathematical expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tobacco smoking in any form (cigarette, bidi etc.) has long been established as a risk factor for CAD (coronary artery disease) but a very little research has been done on tobacco chewing, which is restricted to South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) whether it increases risk for cardiovascular morbidity or not. Aims & Objective: To assess the cardiovascular risks in tobacco chewers as compared to normal population of Aligarh a city of Western Uttar Pradesh. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in Department of Physiology, Department of TB Chest and Department of Medicine JNMCH, AMU Aligarh. The study consisted of 30 tobacco chewers (in any form) and 30 subjects without any history of tobacco consumption in any form. The age group varied from 20-60years. Anthropometric measurement age, weight, height, BMI, Pulse, SBP (systolic BP), DBP (Diastolic BP) and Lipid Profile estimation from blood sample. Results: Anthropometric measurements did not show any significant change when compared in two groups (p > 0.05). Cardiovascular Parameters like, Systolic pressure (117.46 ± 11.07); diastolic pressure (83.37 ± 8.74); mean arterial pressures (93.40 ± 6.33) and pulse rate (84.29 ± 5.70), were significantly increased in chewers as compared to normal population (p < 0.05). Lipid Profile Parameters like, Total cholesterol (237.04 ± 82.6); HDL (45.54 ± 5.46); LDL (161.16 ± 76.7) were increased in chewers as compared to control (p < 0.05). Atherogenic index T Choles./HDL (5.22 ± 1.90); LDL/HDL (3.57±1.35); Non-HDL/HDL (4.3 ± 1.0), were also showed a significant increase (p < 0.05). Conclusion: All these findings are suggestive that tobacco chewers are at increased risk of cardiovascular diseases as compared to non-tobacco consuming population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Setting: The study was carried out at Delhi State, New Delhi., Objectives: 1. To assess the effect of social stigma in TB patient's treatment, their personality, emotions, feelings, changes in their thinking process and behaviour of their family members, friends. 2. To study the relationship of gender and to what extent social stigma affects their lives., Design: It was a prospective study. A total of 1977 newly diagnosed and registered cases under Revised National TB Control Programme for treatment during the period of March 2009 to May 2009 were included in the study. Out of a total population of 170 lacs, a proportion of 31 lacs of Delhi, distributed among five chest clinics of Delhi, comprised the study population. All the patients were interviewed according to a pre-designed & pre-tested questionnaire after taking informed consent of the patients. The data was collected and analysed after processing into MS excel sheets for statistical analysis., Results: There was an immense stigma observed at society level with 60% of the patients hiding their disease (p<0.05) from friends and neighbours. Stigma was observed more among middle and upper middle class when compared to lower middle class and lower class (p<0.05). Gender-wise further it was observed that stigma was more among females (p<0.05) than in males., Conclusion: The study has demonstrated that despite good performance of Revised National TB Control Programme the stigma in tuberculosis still remains a problem and we need to supplement the efforts in advocacy, communication and social mobalization for reducing the stigma problem among TB patients in effective control of tuberculosis.