This paper describes the follow-up interventions and results of the work place tobacco cessation study.
To assess the tobacco quit rates among employees, through self report history, and validate it ...with rapid urine cotinine test; compare post-intervention KAP regarding tobacco consumption with the pre-intervention responses and assess the tobacco consumption pattern among contract employees and provide assistance to encourage quitting.
This is a cohort study implemented in a chemical industry in rural Maharashtra, India.
All employees (104) were interviewed and screened for oral neoplasia. Active intervention in the form of awareness lectures, focus group discussions and if needed, pharmacotherapy was offered. Medical staff from the industrial medical unit and from a local referral hospital was trained. Awareness programs were arranged for the family members and contract employees.
Non-parametric statistical techniques and kappa.
Forty eight per cent employees consumed tobacco. The tobacco quit rates increased with each follow-up intervention session and reached 40% at the end of one year. There was 96% agreement between self report tobacco history and results of rapid urine cotinine test. The post-intervention KAP showed considerable improvement over the pre-intervention KAP. 56% of contract employees used tobacco and 55% among them had oral pre-cancerous lesions.
A positive atmosphere towards tobacco quitting and positive peer pressure assisting each other in tobacco cessation was remarkably noted on the entire industrial campus. A comprehensive model workplace tobacco cessation program has been established, which can be replicated elsewhere.
Background: Tobacco use is highly prevalent and culturally accepted in
rural Maharashtra, India. Aims: To study the knowledge, attitude, and
practices (KAP) regarding tobacco consumption, identify ...reasons for
initiation and continuation of tobacco use, identify prevalence of
tobacco consumption and its relation with different precancerous
lesions, provide professional help for quitting tobacco, and develop
local manpower for tobacco cessation activities. Settings, Design,
Methods and Material: The present study was conducted for one year in a
chemical industrial unit in Ratnagiri district. All employees (104)
were interviewed and screened for oral neoplasia. Their
socio-demographic features, habits, awareness levels etc. were
recorded. Active intervention in the form of awareness lectures, focus
group discussions, one-to-one counseling and, if needed,
pharmacotherapy was offered to the tobacco users. Results: All
employees actively participated in the program. Overall, 48.08% of the
employees were found to use tobacco, among which the smokeless forms
were predominant. Peer pressure and pleasure were the main reasons for
initiation of tobacco consumption, and the belief that, though
injurious, it would not harm them, avoiding physical discomfort on
quitting and relieving stress were important factors for continuation
of the habit. Employees had poor knowledge regarding the ill-effects of
tobacco. 40% of tobacco users had oral precancerous lesions, which were
predominant in employees consuming smokeless forms of tobacco.
Conclusions: Identifying reasons for initiation and continuation of
tobacco consumption along with baseline assessment of knowledge,
attitudes, and practices regarding tobacco use, are important in
formulating strategies for a comprehensive workplace tobacco cessation
program.
Snort, BRO, NetSTAT, Emerald and SAX2 : A Comparison Patil, Suchita; Kulkarni, Pallavi S; Rane, Pradnya B ...
International journal of advanced research in computer science,
03/2012, Letnik:
3, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Intrusion detection is an important component in network security. Many current Intrusion Detection Systems are designed on rule-based, which have a limitation of identifying the unknown attacks. ...Some IDS are designed on anomaly based detection technique which have advantage of identifying known and unknown attacks. It has a disadvantage of learning and training the data set to identify the good and bad data. Some IDS are designed on both signature based and anomaly based detection techniques. That are also referred to as hybrid IDS systems. There are many IDS available in which some IDS are open source IDS and some IDS are commercial products used in enterprise network. This paper gives the detailed comparative study of open source software SNORT, BRO, NetSTAT also covers the commercial products like NFR, Emerald which is used as research tool and SAX2.
Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive, neurodegenerative disorder with currently no known cure. PD has a significant impact on quality of life of the patients, as well as, ...the caregivers and family members. It is the second most common cause of chronic neurological disability in US and Europe. According to National Parkinson's Foundation, there are almost 1 million patients in the Unites States and 50,000 to 60,000 new cases of PD are diagnosed each year. The total number of cases of PD is predicted to double by 2030. The annual cost associated with this disease is estimated to be $10.8 billion in the United States, including the cost of treatment and the cost of the disability. Although it is primarily thought of as a movement-disorder and is clinically diagnosed based on motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms such as cognitive and emotional deficits are thought to precede the clinical diagnosis by almost 20 years. By the time of clinical diagnosis, there is 80% loss in the dopamine content in the striatum and 50% degeneration of the substantia nigra dopamine cells. The research presented in this thesis was an attempt to develop an animal model of PD in its pre-motor stages. Such a model would allow us to develop pre-clinical markers for PD, and facilitate the development and testing of potential treatment strategies for the non-motor symptoms of the disorder. Specific Aims: There were five specific aims for this research: * The first specific aim dealt with development of a rat model of PD with slow, progressive onset of motor deficits, determination of timeline for future studies, and quantification the dopamine depletion in this model at a pre-motor stage. * The second and the third specific aims focused on testing for emotional (aversion) deficits and cognitive (executive functioning) deficits in this rat model at the 3 week timepoint determined during specific aim 1. * The fourth specific aim was to determine the brain network changes associated with the behavioral changes observed our rat model using resting state connectivity as a measure. * The fifth and the final specific aim was to test sodium butyrate, a drug from the histone deacetylase inhibitor family, as a potential treatment option for cognitive deficits in PD. Results: The 6-hydroxy dopamine based stepwise striatal lesion model of pre-motor PD, developed during this research, exhibits delayed onset of Parkinsonian gait like symptoms by week 4 after the lesions. At 3 weeks post lesion (3WKPD), the rats exhibit 27% reduction in striatal dopamine and 23%reduction in substantia nigra dopamine cells, with lack of any apparent motor deficits. The 3WKPD rats also exhibited changes in aversion. The fMRI study with the aversive scent pointed towards possible amygdala dysfunction sub-serving the aversion deficits. The executive function deficits tested using a rat analog of the Wisconsin card sorting test, divulged an extra-dimensional set shifting deficit in the 3WKPD rats similar to those reported in PD patients. The resting state connectivity study indicated significant changes in the 3WKPD rats compared to age matched controls. We observed increased overall connectivity of the motor cortex and increased CPu connectivity with prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and hypothalamus in the 3WKPD rats compared to the controls. These observations parallel the observations in unmedicated early-stage PD patients. We also observed negative correlation between amygdala and prefrontal cortex as reported in humans. This negative correlation was lost in 3WKPD rats. Sodium butyrate treatment, tested in the cognitive deficit study, was able to ameliorate the extra-dimensional set shifting deficit observed in this model. This treatment also improved the attentional set formation. Conclusion: Taken together, our observations indicate that, the model of pre-motor stage PD developed during this research is a very high face validity rat model of late Braak stage 2 or early Braak stage 3 PD. Sodium butyrate was able to alleviate the cognitive deficits observed in our rat model. Hence, along with the prior reports of anti-depressant and neuroprotective effects of this drug, our results point towards a possible treatment strategy for the non-motor deficits of PD.
Abstract
The overexpression of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and dysregulation of its downstream effector pathways are important molecular hallmarks of oral cancers. Present study ...investigates the chemopreventive potential of polymeric black tea polyphenols (PBPs)/thearubigins (TRs) in the hamster model of oral carcinogenesis as well as determine the effect of PBPs on EGFR and the molecular players in the EGFR pathway. In dose-dependent manner, pre and concurrent treatment with PBPs (1.5%, 5%, 10%) decreased the number and volume of macroscopic tumors as well as the number and area of microscopic lesions. Interestingly, at 10% dose of PBPs, no macroscopic or microscopic tumors were observed. We observed PBPs mediated dose-dependent decrease in oxidative DNA damage (8OHdG); inflammation (COX-2); proliferation (PCNA, Cyclin D1); expression of EGFR, and its downstream signaling kinases (pAkt, Akt, and mTOR); hypoxia (HIF1α) and angiogenesis (VEGF). There was also a PBPs mediated dose-dependent increase in apoptosis (Bax). Thus, our data clearly indicate that the observed chemopreventive potential of PBPs was due to modulation in the EGFR pathway associated with cell proliferation, hypoxia, and angiogenesis. Taken together, our results demonstrate preclinical chemopreventive efficacy of PBPs and give an insight into its mechanistic role in the chemoprevention of experimental oral cancer.
Background and Aim: Despite recent advances, the outcomes of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) remain dismal. This is a retrospective study to understand the pattern of care and its impact on ...DIPG patients diagnosed over 5 years in a single institute.
Subjects and Methods: DIPGs diagnosed between 2015 and 2019 were retrospectively reviewed to understand the demographics, clinical features, patterns of care, and outcomes. The usage of steroids and response to treatment were analyzed as per the available records and criteria. The re-irradiation cohort was propensity matched with patients with a progression-free survival (PFS) >6 months treated with supportive care alone based on PFS and age as a continuous variable. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression model was used to identify any potential prognostic factors.
Results: One hundred and eighty-four patients were identified with demographic profiles similar to western population-based data in the literature. Of them, 42.4% were residents from outside the state of the institution. About 75.2% of patients completed their first radiotherapy treatment, of which only 5% and 6% had worsening clinical symptoms and persistent need for steroids 1 month posttreatment. On multivariate analysis, Lansky performance status <60 (P = 0.028) and cranial nerve IX and X (P = 0.026) involvement were associated with poor survival outcomes while receiving radiotherapy with better survival (P < 0.001). In the cohort of patients receiving radiotherapy, only re-irradiation (reRT) was associated with improved survival (P = 0.002).
Conclusion: Many patient families still do not choose radiotherapy treatment, although it has a consistent and significant positive association with survival and steroid usage. reRT further improves outcomes in the selective cohorts. Involvement of cranial nerves IX and X needs improved care.
Numerous preclinical studies have been carried out using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) therapy for ischemic stroke. The purpose of the present meta‐analysis is to review the quality of preclinical ...studies. In all, 4,361 articles were identified, out of which 64 studies were included (excluding in vitro studies). The results were obtained across species, route, and time of administration, immunogenicity, and doses. The median quality score 4.90/10, confidence interval 95%, and large effect size were observed, which strongly supports the translation potential of MSC therapy for ischemic stroke.
In the United States, a few studies have evaluated geographic variation of severe asthma at the subnational level.
To assess state-level geographic variation in the prevalence and characteristics of ...severe persistent asthma in the United States.
Patients aged above or equal to 12 years with severe persistent asthma were identified using nationally representative data from IQVIA open-source Medical/Pharmacy Claims and PharMetrics Plus databases (January 2019-December 2020). The index date was defined as the patient's earliest qualifying date for a severe asthma diagnosis. Baseline characteristics were measured during the 12-month pre-index period. Outcomes including exacerbation occurrence, asthma control, and medication use were measured during the 12-month post-index period and compared across states using census-level projections.
A total of 2,092,799 patients with asthma were identified; 496,750 (23.7%) met criteria for severe persistent asthma and all inclusion criteria. Mean age was 50.5 years; 68.4% were females. The prevalence of severe persistent asthma varied across states, ranging from 19.6% (New Mexico) to 31.9% (Alaska). Among patients with severe persistent asthma, 40.9% had more than or equal to 1 exacerbation, ranging from 34.2% (Vermont) to 45.6% (Louisiana); 21.1% had uncontrolled disease, ranging from 16.5% (Vermont) to 24.0% (Arizona). Among patients with exacerbations, 13.7% had exacerbation-related emergency department visits or hospitalizations, ranging from 7.0% (North Carolina) to 17.7% (Nevada). Among patients with severe uncontrolled asthma, 15.6% used biologics post-index, ranging from 2.2% (Hawaii) to 27.9% (Mississippi).
There is significant variability in severe persistent asthma prevalence and disease burden across US states. Reasons for geographic variation may include differences in socioeconomic/environmental factors or asthma management.
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