ASSESSMENT OF BODY MASS INDEX (BMI) AMONG ENTRY LEVEL STUDENTS IN A UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE IN PANVEL, NAVI MUMBAI, INDIA

College life is an important stage for adolescents where they are exposed to stress and lack of time, posing a barrier to adoption of healthy practices. Evaluation of the nutritional status of individuals and population groups is an important tool in public health and a feasible indicator of standards of living. The purpose of the present study was to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among entry level students in an undergraduate college in Panvel, Navi Mumbai. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect and record information on age, sex, height in meters and weight in kilograms. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated by the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters (kg/m2). Of the total 264 students participated in the study, 128 (48.48%) were male and 136 (51.52%) were female. The result showed that the average height, weight and BMI recorded in the present study was 1.62±0.093 m (range 1.42-1.82 m), 50.75±11.976 kg (range 31-100 kg) and 19.322±3.705 kg/m2 (range 13.10-34.00 kg/m2) respectively. Nutritional status of the students under study reveals that 123 (46.591%) students were underweight, 123 (46.591%) were with normal weight, 12 (4.545%) were overweight and 6 (2.273%) were with obesity Class I. More male students are overweight and obese than female students. Also prevalence of significantly higher proportion of underweight in students should not be ignored. The study recommends organization of health promotion programmes to promote healthy styles on diet, physical activity and health. A nutritional education is required in order to eliminate the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Present information could be helpful as a baseline data for further study on prevalence of overweight and obesity among college and University students

The novel anti-androgen candidate galeterone targets deubiquitinating enzymes, USP12 and USP46, to control prostate cancer growth and survival

Metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer is one of the main causes of male cancer associated deaths worldwide. Development of resistance is inevitable in patients treated with anti-androgen therapies. This highlights a need for novel therapeutic strategies that would be aimed upstream of the androgen receptor (AR). Here we report that the novel small molecule anti-androgen, galeterone targets USP12 and USP46, two highly homologous deubiquitinating enzymes that control the AR-AKT-MDM2-P53 signalling pathway. Consequently, galeterone is effective in multiple models of prostate cancer including both castrate resistant and AR-negative prostate cancer. However, we have observed that USP12 and USP46 selectively regulate full length AR protein but not the AR variants. This is the first report of deubiquitinating enzyme targeting as a strategy in prostate cancer treatment which we show to be effective in multiple, currently incurable models of this disease

Behavioural science principles for scaling-up zero tillage wheat and maize in the Eastern Terai region of Nepal

Farmers have a set of convictions and tend to do what their forefathers had practiced. By identifying their beliefs and designing appropriate ways of upscaling to convince them of new and improved practices, we can improve the adoption of zero tillage technology for maize and wheat. Small and fragmented landholdings that resulted from the cultural system of distributing land to heirs are diverse in their cropping requirements. Moreover, farmers are risk-averse and do not believe easily in new technologies. Traditional extension approaches have not been effective in upscaling these technologies. A new way of thinking based on behavioural science can provide some insights and guidelines for improving the effectiveness of technology adoption. Understanding farmers' socioeconomic circumstances and their decision-making system at the household and society level can help in designing upscaling approaches. Approaches such as capitalising on social bonding, use of established technology leaders, and use of farmers' organizations can improve adoption. Recommended strategies include encouraging a comprehensive contracting system of service provision, using active community influential local leaders in technology expansion, taking group and social identity approaches in technology extension, and capacity building programs for service providers/operators and farmers to help raise confidence and to remove perceived barriers to technology adoption. &nbsp

Hybrid multicriteria fuzzy classification of network traffic patterns, anomalies, and protocols

© 2017, Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature. Traffic classification in computer networks has very significant roles in network operation, management, and security. Examples include controlling the flow of information, allocating resources effectively, provisioning quality of service, detecting intrusions, and blocking malicious and unauthorized access. This problem has attracted a growing attention over years and a number of techniques have been proposed ranging from traditional port-based and payload inspection of TCP/IP packets to supervised, unsupervised, and semi-supervised machine learning paradigms. With the increasing complexity of network environments and support for emerging mobility services and applications, more robust and accurate techniques need to be investigated. In this paper, we propose a new supervised hybrid machine-learning approach for ubiquitous traffic classification based on multicriteria fuzzy decision trees with attribute selection. Moreover, our approach can handle well the imbalanced datasets and zero-day applications (i.e., those without previously known traffic patterns). Evaluating the proposed methodology on several benchmark real-world traffic datasets of different nature demonstrated its capability to effectively discriminate a variety of traffic patterns, anomalies, and protocols for unencrypted and encrypted traffic flows. Comparing with other methods, the performance of the proposed methodology showed remarkably better classification accuracy

Co-rotating twin screw process for continuous manufacturing of solid crystal suspension: A promising strategy to enhance the solubility, permeation and oral bioavailability of Carvedilol [version 3; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]

Background In the current work, co-rotating twin-screw processor (TSP) was utilized to formulate solid crystal suspension (SCS) of carvedilol (CAR) for enhancing its solubility, dissolution rate, permeation and bioavailability using mannitol as a hydrophilic carrier. Methods In-silico molecular dynamics (MD) studies were done to simulate the interaction of CAR with mannitol at different kneading zone temperatures (KZT). Based on these studies, the optimal CAR: mannitol ratios and the kneading zone temperatures for CAR solubility enhancement were assessed. The CAR-SCS was optimized utilizing Design-of-Experiments (DoE) methodology using the Box-Behnken design. Saturation solubility studies and in vitro dissolution studies were performed for all the formulations. Physicochemical characterization was performed using differential scanning calorimetry , Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction studies, and Raman spectroscopy analysis. Ex vivo permeation studies and in vivo pharmacokinetic studies for the CAR-SCS were performed. Stability studies were performed for the DoE-optimized CAR-SCS at accelerated stability conditions at 40 ºC/ 75% RH for three months. Results Experimentally, the formulation with CAR: mannitol ratio of 20:80, prepared using a KZT of 120 ºC at 100 rpm screw speed showed the highest solubility enhancement accounting for 50-fold compared to the plain CAR. Physicochemical characterization confirmed the crystalline state of DoE-optimized CAR-SCS. In-vitro dissolution studies indicated a 6.03-fold and 3.40-fold enhancement in the dissolution rate of optimized CAR-SCS in pH 1.2 HCl solution and phosphate buffer pH 6.8, respectively, as compared to the pure CAR. The enhanced efficacy of the optimized CAR-SCS was indicated in the ex vivo and in vivo pharmacokinetic studies wherein the apparent permeability was enhanced 1.84-fold and bioavailability enhanced 1.50-folds compared to the plain CAR. The stability studies showed good stability concerning the drug content. Conclusions TSP technology could be utilized to enhance the solubility, bioavailability and permeation of poor soluble CAR by preparing the SCS

Cohort Profile: Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study

The Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study was established to assess the prevalence of chronic airflow obstruction, a key characteristic of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and its risk factors in adults (≥40 years) from general populations across the world. The baseline study was conducted between 2003 and 2016, in 41 sites across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, the Caribbean and Oceania, and collected high-quality pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry from 28 828 participants. The follow-up study was conducted between 2019 and 2021, in 18 sites across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. At baseline, there were in these sites 12 502 participants with high-quality spirometry. A total of 6452 were followed up, with 5936 completing the study core questionnaire. Of these, 4044 also provided high-quality pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry. On both occasions, the core questionnaire covered information on respiratory symptoms, doctor diagnoses, health care use, medication use and ealth status, as well as potential risk factors. Information on occupation, environmental exposures and diet was also collected

A Study of Green Buying Behaviour of Indian Consumers Related to Ayurvedic Cosmetic Products

It is well documented that Indian consumers are largely made up of a diverse range of income levels, economic classes and cultural backgrounds. This heterogeneity has profound effects on the way these consumers view and understand products, as well as their willingness to purchase them. The research presented in this paper also aims to investigate how consumers perceive the relationship between products and their healing properties, as well as to identify the key  environmental factors that influence consumer decision making. The study was conducted in Panjim City of Goa, India, which is the capital of one of India's smallest states, where various Ayurvedic products are available. The major focus of this paper is identifying the key factors that influence green buying behaviour of people who buy Ayurvedic cosmetic products. 231 customers who use Ayurvedic cosmetic products were considered for the purpose of the study. The findings of the study show that consumers consider both qualitative and quantitative factors while purchasing Ayurvedic products

Nasal Reconstruction with Forehead Flap: Our Experience

Face represents complete personality of a man or woman and on the middle of face nose is situated. So nose is seen first and can not escape from the eyes of others. Nose gives beauty to face. Therefore cosmetically it is very important part of a person especially for woman. There are many situations when due to disease or trauma nasal defect araises, which requires nasal correction or reconstruction of nose. During cancer diagnosis camps at Government Hospitals and even at more remote places we came across few patients suffering from cancer of nose. These patients were operated and the nasal defect thus araised were repaired with midline Forehead flaps. Rhinoplasty is a very costly technique in India and the surgeons doing Rhinoplasty can be counted on fingers here. Our technique is although very old but it is cost effective and can be performed even at remote places in Local anaesthesia with sedation. This is a retrospective multicentric study representing a series of six cases of nasal reconstruction after Nasal cancer surgery in a period from Jan 2009 to April 2011 at Government and Private Hospitals. These Hospitals are of the level of secondary Referral centres. Six patients were analysed according to the age, sex, anatomical location of lesion on the nose. All patients were male, age ranging from 56 to 72 years. Five out of six patients were of basal cell carcinoma and one was suffering from squamous cell carcinoma. All patients were operated and nasal reconstruction was done with midline forehead flap with good aesthetic result

Workplace Bullying and Employee Turnover Intention: A Mediating Role of Organizational Justice

Workplace bullying is a distal and indirect cause of employee turnover intention which in turn poses negative consequences for organizations. The present study investigated the mediating role of organizational justice on the relationship between workplace bullying and employee turnover intention.  The major focus of this study is to explore the proposition that workplace bullying has a mediating effect on organizational justice in predicting employee turnover intention. Study findings support the role of organizational justice in mediating the relationship between bullying and turnover intention. Data from 207 employees from 10 leading BPOs in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region was taken. This study draws from several established theories including: (1) social exchange theory; (2) justice perspective; (3) emotional intelligence; (4) organizational commitment; and, (5) job satisfaction. Results suggest that it is important to pay attention to employees' reactions towards organizational injustice as these reactions may affect not only their attitudes but also their behaviour