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Objective: To compare the prevalence of depression and anxiety between a public sector and a private medical college and assess the psychological health of medical students in general. Study Design: Cross-sectional Comparative study. Setting: Private and a Public Sector Medical College in Mirpur-Azad Kashmir. Period: January, 2020 - September 2020. Material & Methods: Total 434 students (217 from each college) of first year to final year MBBS were enrolled in the study after written informed consent. PHQ-9 questionnaire was used for screening depression and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) for anxiety. Students were classified as having minimal, mild, moderate, moderately severe and severe depression and for Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, as having mild to moderate and moderate to severe anxiety. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. Frequency tables representing demographic profile of medical students were drawn. Results: Overall prevalence of depression was 62%. 29.4 % from public and 20.3% from private sector medical college's students suffered from moderate to severe depression while 26.7% students from private sector and 20.7 % from public sector suffered from moderate to severe form of anxiety. Cross-tabulation results indicated that indicators of depression and anxiety were more commonly reported by the students of public medical college in comparison to the private medical college students. Conclusion: Significant psychological morbidity is experienced by medical students and its prevalence is higher in private sector medical college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be successful, hand exoskeletons require customisable low encumbrance design with multi-compliant materials. This paper details the modification and testing of a fused filament fabrication printer to produce three categories of multi-compliant material that can be incorporated into the design of hand exoskeletons. Demonstration of the multi-compliant material for some common problems in hand exoskeleton design are presented. This method of manufacturing multi-compliant materials could result in widespread use of exoskeleton design in both the rehabilitation and assistive fields.

Free drug samples are distributed among doctors as a promotional tool. We investigated the effects of dispensing samples on prescriptions by the doctors and their opinion about samples through a cross-sectional survey. A questionnaire was distributed among the doctors in the Department of Medicine, Nishtar Hospital Multan. It contained drug choices for two hypothetical scenarios, options and reasons for using free samples and doctors' views about them. Response rate remained 83% (166/198). In scenario 1 (rheumatoid arthritis), 100 % and in scenario 2 (acid peptic disease), 13% of sample users dispensed against their preference while in both cases 78 % prescribed the same brand afterwards. Trainees used samples more frequently in both vignettes (p value 0.24 and 0.001 respectively). Mainly, samples were used as a cost-effective measure and were considered a source of medication for poor, significantly. (p value 0.007). But in this process, physicians ignored their first choice and inadvertently increased the total expenditure.