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Background: Adequate knowledge about HIV/AIDS among people living with HIV (PLHIV) is essential for the prevention of HIV transmission. Methods: A cross-sectional study consisting of 409 PLHIV aged ≥18 years were interviewed regarding their HIV-related knowledge, from April 2014 to April 2015. HIV-related knowledge was assessed using the HIV knowledge questionnaire 18 . Univariate and multivariate analyses were done to determine the factors associated with high HIV-related knowledge. Odds ratios with its corresponding 95% confidence intervals were reported. A value of P < .05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Among 409 PLHIV, 46.2% had high HIV-related knowledge. Univariate analysis yields factors like upper socioeconomic status, those who are literates, unemployed, and adherent to antiretroviral therapy (ART) were associated with higher HIV-related knowledge. On multivariate analysis, upper socioeconomic status and adherence to ART were the factors that remained significantly associated with higher HIV-related knowledge. Conclusion: HIV-related knowledge among PLHIV can be improved through HIV educational programs.

Rabies, a 100% fatal disease claims more than 59,000 human lives every year globally. One human life is lost every 15 minutes due to this deadly preventable disease. Timely initiation of post exposure prophylaxis following an animal exposure can result in 100% preventability of this fatal disease.This facility based study was conducted among clinical fraternities of teaching hospitals. A semi structured questionnaire was used for collection of data. Institutional Ethics Committee approval was sought. The study investigators visited the workplace of the participants and distributed the questionnaire. SPSS Ver 16 (Chicago, IL, USA) was used to analyse the data.Most of the participants knew that veterinary groups and zoo-keepers should be given pre-exposure prophylaxis. Many participants knew about the Intra Muscular schedule of anti-rabies vaccine and its site of administration for pre exposure prophylaxis. It was observed that most participants had knowledge regarding correct intramuscular regimen of anti-rabies vaccine for post-exposure prophylaxis but less than half were able to differentiate between the intramuscular and intradermal regimens. Less than half of participants were aware of the fact that local administration of anti-rabies serum is useful.The knowledge regarding WHO categorisation of animal exposure and recommended post exposure prophylaxis according to type of exposure observed to be minimal among clinical fraternity.

Introduction: Antenatal depression has often been overlooked and under-diagnosed throughout the world, especially in developing nations like India. The study was conducted to assess the prevalence of antenatal depression among pregnant women in South India and to identify associated risk factors. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted over seven months on 201 pregnant women in Mangalore. A semi structured questionnaire using Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 11.5. Results: 201 pregnant ladies were evaluated for antenatal depression. Majority women (52.7%) belonged to the age group of 26-30 years. Using EPDS we found that 10.9% women were progressing towards antenatal depression. The risk of developing antenatal depression was statistically significant among the women (21.1%) who were married before 20 years of age (p= 0.027), who were multi-gravida (p=0.002) and who were facing pressure from in-laws (p

Background: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has increased life expectancy of HIV/AIDS patients, but the quality of life (QOL) still remains the same. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 356 people living with HIV (PLHIV) were interviewed to assess their QOL using WHOQOL-HIV BREF questionnaire. The association between QOL with sociodemographic, clinical and cohabitation status of the participants was tested using ANOVA and Student t-test, and p value < .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Physical domain of QOL showed maximum score of 16.4, while a minimum score of 12.2 was seen in social relationship domain. Participants with higher socioeconomic status (SES) and self-motivated to take ART had shown better scores across all the domains of QOL ( p < .05). Conclusion: In our study, quality of life was high among males, younger patients, married participants, higher socioeconomic status, longer duration of ART, self-motivation to take ART, absence of opportunistic infection, and with higher CD 4 count.

Background: The HIV/AIDS scenario all over the world is complicated by the stigmatic and discriminative attitudes toward the HIV-infected individuals. Methodology: In this facility-based, cross-sectional study, 104 HIV-positive patients were assessed regarding their personal experience with HIV-related stigma and discrimination using a Revised HIV Stigma Scale. The association between stigma and factors such as socioeconomic status and gender was tested using chi-square test, and P < .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A large proportion (41.3%) of the participants were in the age-group of 26 to 35 years. Confidentiality of the HIV positivity status was maintained only in 14.4% of the participants. Compared to females (48.2%), more than half (51.5%) of the male participants had experienced HIV/AIDS-related personalized stigma ( P > .05). Conclusion: HIV-related stigma and discrimination are the major social determinants driving the epidemic, despite the advances in medical treatment and increases in the awareness about the disease.

The article discusses a study that aims to determine workplace harassment among women, types and reasons for harassment faced by women employees in India. According to the study, nearly 28% of the research subjects had encountered some form of harassment, out of which 37% were below 25 years old. It notes that there is an increase in workplace harassment among women because of the rise in number of women employees. It cites the need for the government to address the issue of harassment for the purpose of ensuring a safe working environment for women.

In this paper, four new operators (O1,O2,O3,O4) are proposed, defined and considered to study the new properties and identities on hesitant fuzzy sets. Since these operators are useful for different operation on hesitant fuzzy sets, the various theorems are proved by using them. The study of the proposed new operators has opened a new area of research and applications.

Dental agenesis is the most common developmental anomaly in humans, which can be either in the form of anodontia, oligodontia, or hypodontia. Oligodontia can occur either as an isolated finding or as part of a syndrome. Nonsyndromic oligodontia is rare. Management requires integrated multidisciplinary approach. Prompt intervention improves quality of life. Here, we report a case of isolated, nonsyndromic oligodontia in a 13-year-old female who allegedly had complete set of primary teeth but failed to develop complete permanent dentition. No other clinical feature, except oligodontia, was present that could suggest any syndromic association.

Introduction: The preference of a male child over a female child has been the main cause for female feticide. The causes can be broadly divided under the grounds of religion, economic and social aspects. Objectives: To assess the awareness and the attitude regarding female feticide among adolescents. Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried at few pre-university colleges in Mangalore. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The study included 300 adolescents. 45.7% stated that the major cause for practice of feticide is discrimination between male and female. Majority (62%) of them were aware of all the diagnostic methods to determine the sex of the child and termination methods. 43.3% of the students were aware about the laws enforced. 37% believe that enforcing strict laws could be the way to stop female feticide. Conclusion: Adolescents agreed that the decline in sex ratio is the main impact of female feticide. The students have adequate knowledge about diagnostic methods used for sex determination. They believe that strict law implementation is a promising way to stop female male feticide. However, they were not knowledgeable about the laws enforced for the control.

Lipoid proteinosis is a very rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by deposition of hyaline material in the skin and the upper aerodigestive tract. Hoarseness of voice occurs very early in life and airway obstruction may occur. Characteristic skin lesions include multiple brown atrophic scars over face and distal extremities, beaded papules over the margins of the eyelids and verrucous nodules over the friction bearing areas (elbows, knees). The overall prognosis is good. There is no definitive treatment.

Background. The burden of diabetes mellitus (DM) is on the rise especially in developing countries like India. Due to its chronic nature DM tends to cause many debilitating complications and diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of them. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of DPN among patients attending a tertiary care hospital and to identify the determinants associated with it. Design and methods. A cross sectional study was conducted in Government Wenlock Hospital, Mangalore (India), during January-February 2014. A total of 208 patients with >5 year duration of DM were asked to respond to the patient history version of Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) and examinations were conducted after obtaining consent from them. The statistical analysis was done in terms of descriptive statistics and association between variables was tested using logistic regression test.Results. The prevalence of DPN using the MNSI history version and MNSI examination were found to be 18.3% and 32.2% respectively. The major determinants associated with DPN were found to be male gender (OR: 2.7, CI: 1.4-5.1, P=0.001), smoking (OR: 5.8, CI: 1.9-17.3, P=0.001) and age >40 years (OR: 2.7, CI: 1.2-5.8, P=0.011). Conclusions. The burden of undetected DPN was found to be higher among diabetics, with an especially higher prevalence among males, smokers and those with long standing diabetes mellitus. Interventions in the form of early detection through routine screening, smoking cessation and regular follow up examinations would go a long way in reducing the burden of disability among diabetics and improve their quality of life significantly.

Objectives: The present study was conducted to assess the awareness and attitude regarding prenatal sex determination and Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic techniques Act among pregnant women. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried at tertiary care teaching hospitals of Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore, India among 132 pregnant women. Data was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS) version 11.5 and results were expressed in percentages. Results: The study included 132 participants and the mean age of study subjects was around 27 y. Majority of the study subjects (91.7%) knew that prenatal sex determination was possible. Three fourth (74.4%) of the participants prenatal sex determination was a punishable offence. One of the participants was ready to terminate pregnancy if sex of the fetus was revealed to be female before second trimester. Majority of participants (67.4%) were willing to educate people about PCPNDT act and motivate them against sex determination and sex selective abortions. Conclusion: Our study showed that higher proportion of participants knew about the prenatal sex determination and it was a punishable offence, still majority of them preferred to know the sex of unborn child which shows the need to implement the act effectively.

Introduction: Wearing various types of earrings is not only an age old custom but a fashion symbol also. This demographic and clinical profile study was done on ear lobe cleft cases attending ENT OPD of a tertiary care center of North Gujarat. Methodology: The size, number of ears involved, factors leading to ear lobe cleft such as weight of earring, duration of wearing heavy rings, pull leading to tear were noted in all cases. Surgical repair was done by scar excision and suturing. The procedure was completed in 15-20 minutes and minimal post surgical complications in the form of depressed linear scar and lower border notching are seen in 2 cases. Results: Prevalence of ear lobe cleft was 2.4% of all OPD cases. 192 cases (328 ears) included 187 (97.3%) females and 5 males. Both ears were involved in 136 (70.8%) cases while 56 cases had unilateral involvement. A partial cleft of 6 to 10 mm size (range from 3-25 mm) was most common reason in females to visit for repair and total cleft was observed in 122 (37.1%) ears. 42% females (age 15-45 years) had bilateral clefts whereas unilateral involvement was common at young age (1-15 years). Factors leading to cleft formation were earrings weight and prolonged use (44.4% tears were due to weight 15 grams or more). Conclusion: Ear lobe cleft can be repaired by simple surgical approximation. Prevention of recurrence can be done by simple advice of avoiding the scar site for re-piercing and use of light weight earrings.

Drug dependence is still to be recognized in developing countries as a significant public health problem and literature on the magnitude of this problem is limited. The present research was planned to study the socio-demographic profile and the reasons for substance use among patients admitted at De-addiction centres in Mangalore, India. In this cross-sectional study, all the patients admitted at the De-addiction centres during the study period were interviewed. The data was analyzed and the results obtained were expressed in proportions. A total of 83 patients were included in the study, all of whom were males. A positive family history of substance use was evident in 63% of the respondents. The mean age of the study participants was 41.9 (SD±11.2) years and the mean age for starting substance use was 20.9 (SD±7.7) years. The most common substance used was alcohol (95.2%). Majority of the subjects (56.6%) cited peer pressure as a reason for initiating substance use. Our findings suggest that the initiation of substance use occurs during late teenage years and mostly due to peer pressure. Our observations point towards the vulnerability of younger age towards substance use and hence, it is proposed that the preventive health policies in this regard should be targeted specifically during teenage years.

An abstract of the article "Awareness and attitude of the general public toward HIV AIDS in coastal South India - a community based crossectional study," by B. Reshmi, B. Unnikrishnan, P. Mithra, and T. Rekha is presented.

For routine pathology diagnosis and imaging-based biomedical research, Whole-slide image (WSI) analyses have been largely limited to a 2D tissue image space. For a more definitive tissue representation to support fine-resolution spatial and integrative analyses, it is critical to extend such tissue-based investigations to a 3D tissue space with spatially aligned serial tissue WSIs in different stains, such as Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and Immunohistochemistry (IHC) biomarkers. However, such WSI registration is technically challenged by the overwhelming image scale, the complex histology structure change, and the significant difference in tissue appearances in different stains. The goal of this study is to register serial sections from multi-stain histopathology whole-slide image blocks. We propose a novel translation-based deep learning registration network CGNReg that spatially aligns serial WSIs stained in H&E and by IHC biomarkers without prior deformation information for the model training. First, synthetic IHC images are produced from H&E slides through a robust image synthesis algorithm. Next, the synthetic and the real IHC images are registered through a Fully Convolutional Network with multi-scaled deformable vector fields and a joint loss optimization. We perform the registration at the full image resolution, retaining the tissue details in the results. Evaluated with a dataset of 76 breast cancer patients with 1 H&E and 2 IHC serial WSIs for each patient, CGNReg presents promising performance as compared with multiple state-of-the-art systems in our evaluation. Our results suggest that CGNReg can produce promising registration results with serial WSIs in different stains, enabling integrative 3D tissue-based biomedical investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural industry is rapidly accepting daily changes and updates, and expanding to meet the basic demands of humanity. The main objective of modern agricultural practices is high profits with minimal investment, without upsetting any other form of life or abiotic factors. According to this principle, nanofertilizers are recommended for use in agriculture and are classified in different ways based on their nutritive value, functional role in the environment, chemical composition, and form of application to ensure their persistent availability in the required quantities. These nanofertilizers meet the global crop nutrient requirement of 191.8 million metric tons along with multitudes of added value, and which are highly endorsed in the agricultural field compared to other chemical fertilizers, or their usage can be reduced to less than 50% by the use of nanofertilizers. In this review, we discuss different types of nanofertilizers, their effects on crop yield, stress tolerance, and their impact on the environment. Furthermore, the different types of nanofertilizer delivery, modes of action, and toxic impacts of nanofertilizers have been discussed. Although a large number of commercially successful effects of nanofertilizers have been demonstrated, the effects of biomagnification and cellular transformation are still disputed. The effect of the biomagnification of nanofertilizers remains unclear. A suitable strategy must be developed to easily recycle nanofertilizers. It is the need of the hour to accept the use of nanofertilizers in parallel to addressing this issue. • Nanofertilizers can enhance the physical and chemical properties of soils. • Nanotechnology can improve the plant yield and nutrient uptake. • Nanofertilizers can improve environmental sustainability. • Nanopesticides control the pests effectively than chemical pesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a sustainable and eco-friendly method is developed to quantify azelnidipine and chlorthalidone in rabbit plasma by gradient liquid chromatography based on green chemistry principle and analytical quality by design. The separation was achieved on a Shim pack C18 (25 cm × 5 cm × 4.6 μm) column with L1 packing. The mobile phase compromised of ethanol and 50-Mm ammonium acetate buffer (pH.6) at flow rate of 0.6 mL/min with 25-min runtime. The resolution and asymmetric factor were identified as critical analytical attributes (CAAs). The screening studies employing Control Noise Experimentation revealed that mobile phase pH, flow rate and ethanol concentration at 6 and 15 min significantly affected the CAAs method. The critical method parameters were optimized using Central Composition design. Chromatogram showed peak of the drugs at retention time of 9.03 min for chlorthalidone and 16.83 min for azelnidipine. The greenness score of the analytical method was found to be 1876.43 using analytical method greenness score calculator. The validation of the developed method was done which showed linearity at the range of 16-520 ng/mL, with R2 of 0.9992 and 0.9996 for azelnidipine and chlorthalidone, respectively, furthermore accuracy, precision, recovery and stability studies are carried out., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Pathological complete response (pCR) is associated with favorable prognosis in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, only 30-40% of TNBC patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) show pCR, while the remaining 60-70% show residual disease (RD). The role of the tumor microenvironment in NAC response in patients with TNBC remains unclear. In this study, we developed a machine learning-based two-step pipeline to distinguish between various histological components in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained whole slide images (WSIs) of TNBC tissue biopsies and to identify histological features that can predict NAC response., Methods: H&E-stained WSIs of treatment-naïve biopsies from 85 patients (51 with pCR and 34 with RD) of the model development cohort and 79 patients (41 with pCR and 38 with RD) of the validation cohort were separated through a stratified eightfold cross-validation strategy for the first step and leave-one-out cross-validation strategy for the second step. A tile-level histology label prediction pipeline and four machine-learning classifiers were used to analyze 468,043 tiles of WSIs. The best-trained classifier used 55 texture features from each tile to produce a probability profile during testing. The predicted histology classes were used to generate a histology classification map of the spatial distributions of different tissue regions. A patient-level NAC response prediction pipeline was trained with features derived from paired histology classification maps. The top graph-based features capturing the relevant spatial information across the different histological classes were provided to the radial basis function kernel support vector machine (rbfSVM) classifier for NAC treatment response prediction., Results: The tile-level prediction pipeline achieved 86.72% accuracy for histology class classification, while the patient-level pipeline achieved 83.53% NAC response (pCR vs. RD) prediction accuracy of the model development cohort. The model was validated with an independent cohort with tile histology validation accuracy of 83.59% and NAC prediction accuracy of 81.01%. The histological class pairs with the strongest NAC response predictive ability were tumor and tumor tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for pCR and microvessel density and polyploid giant cancer cells for RD., Conclusion: Our machine learning pipeline can robustly identify clinically relevant histological classes that predict NAC response in TNBC patients and may help guide patient selection for NAC treatment., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Research is the key to advancement in medical science. Medical school can nurture the skill of research right from the under graduation. Research forms an integral part of the medical curriculum in western countries. We attempted the same in our medical school in India. We developed a structured research methodology program, which was implemented in the undergraduate (UG) curriculum in two phases. Phase I focuses on research methodology and Phase II on manuscript writing. With the implementation of a competency-based medical education curriculum (CBME), we have extended the research methodology program with manuscript writing and introduction to systematic reviews, which is being offered as electives to UG medical students in the third professional year. Our experience in training students at an UG level has been immensely satisfying. We hope that this article will help other medical schools to adopt a similar method of training UG medical students in research methodology and scientific medical writing., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2022 Indian Journal of Community Medicine.)

A library of bis(azolyl)sulfonamidoacetamides was prepared by the reaction of azolylsulfonylamines with azolylchloroacetamides in the presence of pyridine/4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) under ultrasonication. The reaction proceeded well with DMAP, resulting in a higher yield of the products. The antimicrobial activity of the compounds indicated that N-{5-[N-(2-{[4-(4-chloro-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)-1H-imidazol-2-yl)amino}-2-oxoethyl)sulfamoyl]-4-phenylthiazol-2-yl}benzamide (22a), N-{5-[N-(2-{[4-(4-chloro-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)-1H-imidazol-2-yl]amino}-2-oxoethyl)sulfamoyl]-4-(4-chlorophenyl)thiazol-2-yl}benzamide (22c), and N-{5-[N-(2-{[4-(4-chloro-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)-1H-imidazol-2-yl]amino}-2-oxoethyl)sulfamoyl]-4-(4-chloro-phenyl)-1H-imidazol-2-yl}benzamide (24c) exhibited a low minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) against Bacillus subtilis, equal to the standard drug, chloramphenicol. Compounds 22c and 24c also showed low MICs against Aspergillus niger, equal to the standard drug, ketoconazole. The molecular properties of the synthesized molecules were studied to identify druglikeness properties of the target compounds. On the basis of molecular properties prediction, 19a, 19b, 20b, 20c, 21a-c, 22b, 22c, and 23a-c can be treated as drug candidates., (© 2021 Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft.)

Benzylidenehydrazinyl imidazoles (3) are prepared from 2-hydrazinyl imidazoles (2) on treatment with hydrazine. The imine functionality in 3 is utilized to develop 5'-aryl-N-(4-aryl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-amines (5) by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of diazomethane followed by aromatization with I 2 in DMSO. Compounds 3 are also explored to prepare 4'-aryl-1-(4-aryl-1H-imidazol-2-ylamino)-3-chloroazetidin-2-ones (6) on treatment with chloroacetyl chloride. The Molinspiration calculations predicted that 3, 5 and 6 have molecular hydrophobicity, conformational flexibility, good intestinal absorption and bioactivity scores. The chloro, bromo and nitro substituted imidazolyl azetidinones (6c, 6d, 6f) and nitro substituted imidazolyl triazole (5f) exhibited excellent antibacterial activity on B. subtilis, whereas chloro and nitro substituted imidazolyl triazoles (5c, 5f) showed prominent antifungal activity on A. niger., (© 2019 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.)

Respecting patients' rights is a fundamental aspect of providing quality healthcare. The present investigation attempts to explore the awareness among patients about their rights in a coastal township in India. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 215 patients admitted to the wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Mangalore. Awareness among patients regarding their rights varied for various issues and ranged between 48.4 and 87.4 %. Awareness about patients' rights was independent of gender, socio-economic and educational status. Doctors were found to be the most common source of information for patient's about their rights in the study. Doctors must conform to the relevant legislations and involve patients in all aspects of healthcare. There is a need to increase awareness among patients about their rights to ensure informed decisions and better health care services.

Conformational and molecular docking analysis of 2-acetylamino-5-bromo-6-methylpyridine molecule was carried out and the vibrational spectral analysis was also carried out using experimental and theoretical methods. The calculated and experimentally observed vibrational frequencies of the molecule were assigned and compared. The pyridine ring CH stretching and CH3 stretching vibrational modes were shifted towards higher wavenumber (blue shift). The C=O stretching vibrational frequency was shifted towards lower wavenumber (red shift). Ultraviolet-visible spectrum of the molecule simulated theoretically was further validated experimentally. Molecular reactivity and stability were investigated using the frontier molecular orbital analysis and the related quantum chemical molecular properties. Natural bond orbital analysis and the structure activity relations were also studied to confirm the bioactivity of the molecule. Anticancer activity was examined based on molecular docking analysis and it has been identified that the AABMP molecule can act as a good inhibitor against lung cancer., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: A balanced sex ratio is essential for a stable society., Objective: The main objective of the present research was to study the perceptions of women attending the antenatal care (ANC) facility regarding their gender preferences and family composition., Method: In this cross-sectional study 132 antenatal women were interviewed in their preferred language using a predesigned semi-structured questionnaire. The collected information was analyzed using SPSS version 11.5., Results: The mean age of the study participants was 27.2 ± 4.1 years. The majority of the antenatal women (60.6%, n=80) did not have any gender preferences. Among those who had a gender preference (39.4%, n=52), male and female preference was reported by 55.7% (n=29) and 44.3% (n=23) of the participants respectively. The overall son preference index was observed to be 1.3. No consistent relationship could be established between the socio-demographic factors and the preference for gender. The mean preferred family size in our study was 1.85±0.531 and more than half of the participants had a balanced gender preference. The majority of the participants were aware that the adverse sex ratio can lead to fall in the number of brides and that it would bring about a social imbalance., Conclusion: As a developed society we need to ensure that both the genders get equal respect and are free from any sort of preferences and prejudices. To achieve this, more and more people need to be made aware of the consequences of gender imbalance and adverse sex ratio in a society.

Background: Anaemia is highly prevalent among pregnant women and iron deficiency is the most important cause. Like many other countries, India has policies to give pregnant women iron supplements. Non-compliance is one important challenging factor in combating anaemia., Objective: To estimate the compliance for IFA tablets among pregnant women and to study the social factors influencing it., Methodology: This study included 190 pregnant women seeking ante-natal care in tertiary health Centres in the Mangalore city in South India. After Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) approval, data was collected by personal interview. Missing ≥2 doses consecutively was considered non-compliance. The data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 11.5., Results: The mean age of the study population was 25.8 years (SD: 4.1). Majority of the subjects consumed mixed diet and 72.1% belonged to lower socioeconomic status. Overall, compliance with IFA tablets was 64.7%. Compliance increased with the increase in age, birth order and single daily dose. Forgetfulness and both perceived as well as experienced side effects of IFA therapy were the important factors for non-compliance., Conclusion: There was a moderate level of Compliance towards IFA tablets with key social and demographic factors playing important role.

Ethics is the application of values and moral rules to human activities. Medical practitioners are expected to not only have the skills and knowledge relevant to their field but also with the ethical and legal expectations that arise out of the standard practices. The present research was conducted with an aim to study the perceptions and practices of medical practitioners towards healthcare ethics in Indian scenario and to strengthen the evidence in the field of ethics training. A cross-sectional study was carried out in three associate hospitals of a Medical College in Southern India. Medical practitioners included in the study were administered a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. Data was collected based on their responses on a 5 point Likert scale and analyzed using SPSS version 11.5. The majority of the participants mentioned that their perceptions of ethics in medical practice were based on information obtained during their undergraduate training, followed by experience at work. The medical practitioners had a positive perception on issues relating to consent in medical practice. However, the same degree of perception was not observed for issues related to confidentiality and their dealing with patients during emergency conditions. The majority of the medical practitioners agreed that ethical conduct is important to avoid legal and disciplinary actions. Among the medical practitioners, the responses of specialists and non-specialists were mostly similar with major differences of opinion for a few issues. A highest level of knowledge, awareness and understanding of ethics are expected in medical practice as it is the foundation of sound healthcare delivery system., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.)

A cross sectional study was conducted to evaluate perceptions of HIV/AIDS ethics among health care professionals at three associate hospitals of Kasturba Medical College Mangalore. A total of 144 health care professionals were included, of which 106 (73.6%) were doctors and 38 (26.4%) were nurses.Only 52.8% of doctors and 56.6% of nurses agreed that they had received adequate training related to HIV data confidentiality. 85.8% of doctors and 76.3% of nurses perceived that they need additional training in HIV policies & procedures. With respect to rights of HIV-positive clients 92.5% of doctors and 84.2% of nurses felt the need for further training. 69% of doctors and 52.6% of nurses agreed that confidentiality could be breached in case of subpoena or other judicial processes. Only 68.4% nurses agreed that it is an offence to intentionally disclose HIV/AIDS confidential information to anyone who is not legally authorised.

Introduction: With increase in the incidence of breast carcinoma, fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has began to play a major role in diagnosing and grading. The study was aimed at validating the different cytological grading systems like Hunt's cytological grading (HCG), modified black grading (MBG), Robinson's cytological grading (RCG) and Masood's cytology index (MCI) in comparison with a modified Bloom-Richardson (MBR) histopathological grading., Methods and Material: Fifty breast carcinoma cases were prospectively studied by comparing various cytological grading methods with histopathological grading over a period of three years. All statistical analyses were carried out with the Epi-info package., Results: The concordance rate of RCG was 82% which is highest of all, while that of MBG was 68%. HCG and MCI were not comparable with MBR due to insufficient grading., Conclusions: RCG for breast carcinoma is validated. A consensus for a standard cytological grading method similar to the gold standard MBR histological grading must be arrived at based on conducted comparative studies and has to be inculcated in routine cytology reports.

We have studied the presence of long-range correlations in the complete genomes of ten different dsDNA viruses and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (bakers' yeast) chromosome I. We have also studied the correlation between the distribution of the gene length and the domain of "1/f region" of their genomes. Linear regression analysis was done for the power-law region of these organisms and the slope values obtained were approximately -1, which signify the existence of "1/f noise" in the low and medium (intermediate) frequency regions. This suggests the presence of long-range correlations in their genomes. The presence of 1/f noise in a given frequency interval indicates the existence of a fractal (self-similar) structure in the corresponding range of wavelengths. The results of our study suggest that genes have correlations within themselves, and the correlations appear to be related with the scaling exponent alpha.

Background: Eradication of H. pylori infection cures peptic ulcer disease and conversely, relapse is associated with reappearance of H. pylori infection. However, it is not clear whether the recurrence of ulcers following H. pylori eradication is due to recrudescence (identical strain) of the previous infection or as a result of exogenous reinfection (different strain) by another strain. The aim of the present study was to analyze the FAFLP patterns of pre and post treatment H. pylori samples to check if the recurrence was due to recrudescence or reinfection., Materials and Methods: 24 of 30 duodenal ulcer (DU) subjects screened for H. pylori infection were positive for H. pylori infection. The treatment regime included pantoprazole, ciprofloxacin and amoxicillin. The patients were called for a repeat endoscopy after one month and screened for H. pylori infection. FAFLP analysis and PCR for the cagA and vacA gene was performed for the pre and post treatment samples., Results: Of the 24 positive H. pylori patients, only 6 were negative after treatment and the remaining 18 were positive for H. pylori infection. The analysis of the pre and post treatment samples of the 18 patients showed that the FAFLP profiles of the initial and follow-up pools were similar to one another., Conclusion: It can be concluded that in the present series of patients, reinfection was due to recrudescence of infection due to incomplete eradication. The study also suggests that DNA fingerprinting by FAFLP provides discriminatory and complementary data for identifying strains of H. pylori while monitoring therapy.