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BACKGROUND The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in India caused disruptions in cancer treatment due to the restriction on movement of patients. We aimed to maintain continuity in cancer treatment during the lockdown through teleconsultations. We tried to reach out to our patients using telephonic consultations by establishing a Teleconsult Centre facility run by a team of doctors and patient navigators. METHODS We telephonically contacted all patients who had outpatient appointments from 23 March to 30 April 2020 at our centre through the Teleconsult Centre to understand their current circumstances, feasibility of follow-up, local resources and offered best possible alternatives to continue cancer treatment, if required. RESULTS Of the 2686 patients scheduled for follow-up during this period, we could contact 1783 patients in 9 working days. Through teleconsultations, we could defer follow-ups of 1034 patients (57.99%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 55.6%–60.3%), thus reducing the need for patients to travel to the hospital. Change in systemic therapy was made in 75 patients (4.2%, 95% CI 3.3%–5.2%) as per the requirements and available resources. Symptoms suggestive of disease progression were picked up in 12 patients (0.67%, 95% CI 0.35%–1.17%), who were advised to meet local physicians. CONCLUSION Our study suggests that the majority of patients on follow-up can be managed with teleconsultation in times of crisis. Teleconsultation has the potential of being one of the standard methods of patient follow-up even during periods of normalcy.
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Introduction: Sexual violence occurs when a person is forced to unwillingly take part in sexual activity, these activity include forced sexual intercourse, touching in a sexual manner without consent (kissing, grabbing etc), forcefully showing pornographic material, exhibitionism, making unwelcome sexual jokes or comments etc. Rising incidence of rapes and sexual harassment are increasing concern in India and globally. A significant proportion of sexual violence victims are adolescents. Male victimization is relatively less discussed domain in sexual violence as compared to female and majority of cases go unreported. Objective: The purpose of present study was to find out prevalence and factors associated with sexual violence victimization among adolescent males in rural setting. Methods: A total of 510 males of age group 10-19 years were interviewed adopting a community based cross-sectional study design. Multistage sampling method was used to select the study subjects. Results: Out of total, 6.9% adolescents reported being forced for sexual intercourse at least once in their life time and 10% reported being victim of sexual violence other than sexual intercourse. Conclusion: Association between sexual violence and Age, Socioeconomic status and educational status were found statistically significant. Other factors like parent’s education, type of family, family size were not found to be significantly associated.
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Background: The management of full term course of Tuberculosis at DOTS centres and achieving the desired goals of RNTCP is a major challenge. As the treatment is of long duration so the staffs and patients and their relatives need a great cooperation for the accomplishment of treatment. Also there are many factors which influence proper functioning of the DOTS centre and patient care. It is very important to know the challenges and successes of DOTS centres and hence it is decided to take up this study. Objective: To identify the challenges and success of DOTS centre, the difficulties faced by the patients and staffs of the centre and to suggest recommendations for better functioning of the DOTS centre. Material and Method: The present descriptive study was conducted in DOTS centre of Urban Health Training Centre, Department of Community Medicine, IMS BHU, Varanasi. The staff members and the patients of the DOTS centre were included in the study. This study was conducted for a period of two and half months. Tabulation of data is done in terms of frequency; percentage and use of Microsoft office excel for analysis. Result: The Sunderpur DMC is a part of Sunderpur Tuberculosis Unit at a sub-district level, which is under the Varanasi District Tuberculosis Centre. Total 6 DOT centre is present under the Sunderpur DMC and Sunderpur DOT Centre is one of them. Some major challenges that found at the Sunderpur DMC cum DOT centre were the lack of hand washing facilities, lack of clean drinking water facility and lack of Binocular microscope at the DMC.
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Background: Eating patterns differ vastly among young adult females due to their body image concern and this consequently affects their BMI status. In most cases the subjects choose to skip meals, change their eating pattern, switch on to exercise so as to lose weight to gain appreciable body image. But it is also seen that in the way to have perfect body image, these subjects tend to have unhealthy food habits that affect their BMI, i.e., either they become underweight or overweight, and it results in malnourishment. The present paper reviews association of eating patterns and body image perception among young adult females and the effect of this association on their BMI. Methodology: In depth literature review was carried out using available search engines such as PubMed, Cochrane Library, Science Direct etc, for published original articles, government reports with specific reference to young adult females were collected. Results: A total of 10 original articles and 3 systematic review articles were included regarding this paper. All the 10 original articles had study subjects belonging to urban background and majority included medical students. A high prevalence of malnourishment was seen among subjects and majority of them were dissatisfied with their body image. Conclusion: This review article focused on the young adult female groups which may be useful for future studies because the body image perception and changing eating patterns are the major issues in the young adult females. Through this review article, various aspects have been revealed that would lead to significant step towards the improvement in the eating patterns of young adult females.
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Water quality of rural area of Patna was studied. The water samples from rural area of Patna were collected to assess the quality of potable water. A laboratory test was conducted for assessment of water quality. The physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters were studied. The results obtained were compared with WHO/ICMR standard. Results showed high TDS, hardness at some locations and coliform counts were high at some sampling sites. Conductivity increases with increase of hardness of water. The pH of drinking water samples were followed by the standards recommended by the ICMR or WHO. TDS of water samples showed wide range of variations. Hard water is responsible for cardiovascular diseases. Such quality of water can cause various diseases like diarrhoea, jaundice, typhoid, dysentery etc.
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Food taboos are commonly found among around all societies of the world. In every society, culture and beliefs influence the women eating patterns during pregnancy. In Indian society, most food practices and beliefs have emerged from deeply rooted traditions and customs of particular geographical area or culture. Objectives: The objectives of the present study were- 1. To study the prevalence of food taboos and social beliefs among pregnant women. 2. To find out the avoided certain food and reason behind it during the pregnancy. 3. To study the association between the demographic characteristic of pregnant women and food taboos. Methods & Materials: Participants of the study were pregnant 105 women aged 18 to 35 years of Harahua Primary Health Centre, in Varanasi District. The cross-sectional study design was used to obtain the objective of the study. The finding of the study revealed that most of the pregnant women (70.47%) use to avoid some foods during pregnancy. Papaya was the most common food, which was avoided by the pregnant women, and reasons for not consuming the papaya, is it cause were abortion and it is a hot food. The findings of the present study also revealed no association between food taboos and pregnant women demographic characteristics such as age, category, type of family, educational status, socio-economic status, number of pregnancy etc. It means in every type of family, educated women, as well as of high socio-economic backgrounds women use to belief on food taboos.
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Camptothecin (CPT), a monoterpene indole alkaloid, is a potent inhibitor of DNA topoisomerase I and has applications in treating ovarian, small lung and refractory ovarian cancers. Stem wood tissue of Nothapodytes nimmoniana (Graham) Mabb. (family Icacinaceae) is one of the richest sources of CPT. Since there is no genomic or transcriptome data available for the species, the present work sequenced and analysed transcriptome of stem wood tissue on an Illumina platform. From a total of 77,55,978 reads, 9,187 transcripts were assembled with an average length of 255 bp. Functional annotation and categorization of these assembled transcripts unraveled the transcriptome architecture and also a total of 13 genes associated with CPT biosynthetic pathway were identified in the stem wood tissue. Four genes of the pathway were cloned to full length by RACE to validate the transcriptome data. Expression analysis of 13 genes associated with CPT biosynthetic pathway in 11 different tissues vis-à-vis CPT content analysis suggested an important role of NnPG10H, NnPSLS and NnPSTR genes in the biosynthesis of CPT. These results indicated that CPT might be synthesized in the leaves and then perhaps exported to stem wood tissue for storage.
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DNA methylation is a type of epigenetic modification where a methyl group is added to the cytosine or adenine residue of a given DNA sequence. It has been observed that DNA methylation is achieved by some collaborative agglomeration of certain proteins and non-coding RNAs. The assembly of IDN2 and its homologous proteins with siRNAs recruits the enzyme DRM2, which adds a methyl group at certain cytosine residues within the DNA sequence. In this study, it was found that de novo DNA methylation might be regulated by miRNAs through systematic targeting of the genes involved in DNA methylation. A comprehensive genome-wide and system-level study of miRNA targeting, transcription factors, DNA-methylation-causing genes and their target genes has provided a clear picture of an interconnected relationship of all these factors which regulate DNA methylation in Arabidopsis. The study has identified a DNA methylation system that is controlled by four different genes: IDN2, IDNl1, IDNl2 and DRM2. These four genes along with various critical transcription factors appear to be controlled by five different miRNAs. Altogether, DNA methylation appears to be a finely tuned process of opposite control systems of DNAmethylation- causing genes and certain miRNAs pitted against each other.
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DNA methylation is a type of epigenetic modification where a methyl group is added to the cytosine or adenine residue of a given DNA sequence. It has been observed that DNA methylation is achieved by some collaborative agglomeration of certain proteins and non-coding RNAs. The assembly of IDN2 and its homologous proteins with siRNAs recruits the enzyme DRM2, which adds a methyl group at certain cytosine residues within the DNA sequence. In this study, it was found that de novo DNA methylation might be regulated by miRNAs through systematic targeting of the genes involved in DNA methylation. A comprehensive genome-wide and system-level study of miRNA targeting, transcription factors, DNA-methylation-causing genes and their target genes has provided a clear picture of an interconnected relationship of all these factors which regulate DNA methylation in Arabidopsis. The study has identified a DNA methylation system that is controlled by four different genes: IDN2, IDNl1, IDNl2 and DRM2. These four genes along with various critical transcription factors appear to be controlled by five different miRNAs. Altogether, DNA methylation appears to be a finely tuned process of opposite control systems of DNAmethylation- causing genes and certain miRNAs pitted against each other.
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An increasing percentage of the population is now living longer. The elderly are more likely to have medical conditions which can affect their systemic well-being, their oral health and their ability to undergo dental treatment. This can be compounded by polypharmacy .There are significant physiological changes that occur in old age. These can affect an individual’s ability to process drugs. The General Dental practitioner need to be familiar with the potential influences of systemic diseases and also with the potential for side-effects and interactions associated with a wide range of medications and impact of ageing on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of any drug taken. The aim of this article is to outline the `must know` facts about most common medical conditions affecting elderly and medications used to treat systemic diseases that impact upon the oral mucosa and principles that should be borne in mind when prescribing medication for this group.
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miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs with average length of ~21 bp. miRNA formation seems to be dependent upon multiple factors besides Drosha and Dicer, in a tissue/stage-specific manner, with interplay of several specific binding factors. In the present study, we have investigated transcription factor binding sites in and around the genomic sequences of precursor miRNAs and RNA-binding protein (RBP) sites in miRNA precursor sequences, analysed and tested in comprehensive manner. Here, we report that miRNA precursor regions are positionally enriched for binding of transcription factors as well as RBPs around the 3′ end of mature miRNA region in 5′ arm. The pattern and distribution of such regulatory sites appears to be a characteristic of precursor miRNA sequences when compared with non-miRNA sequences as negative dataset and tested statistically.When compared with 1 kb upstreamregions, a sudden sharp peak for binding sites arises in the enriched zone near the mature miRNA region. An expression-data-based correlation analysis was performed between such miRNAs and their corresponding transcription factors and RBPs for this region. Some specific groups of binding factors and associated miRNAs were identified. We also identified some of the overrepresented transcription factors and associated miRNAs with high expression correlation values which could be useful in cancer-related studies. The highly correlated groups were found to host experimentally validated composite regulatory modules, in which Lmo2-GATA1 appeared as the predominant one. For many of RBP–miRNAs associations, coexpression similarity was also evident among the associated miRNA common to given RBPs, supporting the Regulon model, suggesting a common role and common control of these miRNAs by the associated RBPs. Based on our findings, we propose that the observed characteristic distribution of regulatory sites in precursor miRNA sequence regions could be critical inmiRNA transcription, processing, stability and formation and are important for therapeutic studies. Our findings also support the recently proposed theory of self-sufficient mode of transcription by miRNAs, which states that miRNA transcription can be carried out in host-independent mode too.
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The non-coding elements of a genome, with many of them considered as junk earlier, have now started gaining long due respectability, with microRNAs as the best current example. MicroRNAs bind preferentially to the 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs) of the target genes and negatively regulate their expression most of the time. Several microRNA:target prediction softwares have been developed based upon various assumptions and the majority of them consider the free energy of binding of a target to its microRNA and seed conservation. However, the average concordance between the predictions made by these softwares is limited and compounded by a large number of false-positive results. In this study, we describe a methodology developed by us to refi ne microRNA:target prediction by target prediction softwares through observations made from a comprehensive study. We incorporated the information obtained from dinucleotide content variation patterns recorded for fl anking regions around the target sites using support vector machines (SVMs) trained over two different major sources of experimental data, besides other sources. We assessed the performance of our methodology with rigorous tests over four different dataset models and also compared it with a recently published refi nement tool, MirTif. Our methodology attained a higher average accuracy of 0.88, average sensitivity and specifi city of 0.81 and 0.94, respectively, and areas under the curves (AUCs) for all the four models scored above 0.9, suggesting better performance by our methodology and a possible role of fl anking regions in microRNA targeting control. We used our methodology over genes of three different pathways – toll-like receptor (TLR), apoptosis and insulin – to fi nally predict the most probable targets. We also investigated their possible regulatory associations, and identifi ed a hsa-miR-23a regulatory module.