Altmetrics: A new paradigm for scholarly communication

Counting citations have been the usual norm to determine the impact of any research and/or scholar. However, with majority of the scholarly activities happening on the World Wide Web, traditional counting of citations is now being termed “slower.” The recent explosion of online data storage for many articles may serve as a pool which uses social media sites to navigate. Altmetrics has been proposed as the new entity which aims to change the focus of the scholarly reward system to value and encourage web-native scholarship. This paper makes an attempt to understand altmetrics.

Assessment of Urinary Tract Infections among Children Visited in Medical Institute

Background: Urinary tract infection is one of the frequent and serious bacterial infection amongst children. Children that are diagnosed with urinary tract infection account for about 1 million of office visits annually and 500,000 visits to emergency department. The present study was done to assess the characteristics of children with urinary tract infection and determine the most commonly isolated organism in culture.Methods: The present prospective study was conducted in the OPD of Department of Pediatrics, Pacific Institute of Medical sciences, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. The socio demographic information was obtained from the guardians and filled in pre designed questionnaires. Midstream urine sample was collected in a sterile container after cleaning the urethral meatus. The criteria for culture positive was more than 105 colony forming units per ml of urine and growth of a single organism. All the data was arranged in a tabulated form and analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The present study enrolled a total of150 subjects with urinary tract infections. The mean age of the subjects was 5.89 +/-2.87 years. There were 20% (n=30) subjects less than 1 year of age, 40% (n=60) subjects each were between 1-5 years and 6-14 years of age. Dysuria was seen in 14% children and pain in abdomen was observed amongst 12% children. There were 82% (n=123) subjects with culture positive for gram negative bacteria. Conclusion: In our study, circumcision amongst boys and undernutrition was significantly associated with UTI. The most commonly isolated microorganisms from urine culture were gram negative bacteria.

Comparative Evaluation of Respiratory Infections among Rural and Urban Child Patients

Background: Acute respiratory infections are infections of any portion of respiratory tract or any linked structures like pleural cavity, para nasal sinuses and middle ear. It comprises of a new means occurring in any subject who has been symptom free for at least 48 hours and the infections are less than 30 days duration except for that of the middle ear where the duration is less than 14 days. The aim of the present study was to determine and compare the incidence of respiratory tract infections amongst children of rural and urban areas. Materials and methods: The present prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of pediatrics for a period of 4 months. The questionnaire had information regarding the lifestyle and habits of parents. The level of maternal education was taken into consideration.  Modified prasad’s classification was used to socially classify the subjects. Chi square test and student t test was used to perform the statistical analysis. Probability value of less than 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The present study 320 subjects out of which there were 73 subjects who had acute respiratory infection. There were 47% (n=16) males and 53% (n=18) females between 0-1 years of age. Acute respiratory infection was seen amongst 27 urban children and 46 rural children. There was significant difference between the two. Out of the children living in urban suburbs, there were 7.4% who belonged to social class I, 11.1% belonging to class II, 18.5% belonging to class II, 29.6% to Class IV and 33.3% to class V. Conclusion: From the above study we can conclude that ARI is more common amongst children residing in rural areas.

Management of blight of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum var. grossum) caused by Drechslera bicolor

Abstract Sweet or bell pepper is a member of the Solanaceae family and is regarded as one of the most popular and nutritious vegetable. Blight, in the form of leaf and fruit blight, has been observed to infect bell pepper crops cultivated at the horticulture farm in Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur, India. Based on disease severity, we attempted to curb this newly emerged problem using different fungicides, plant extracts, bio-control agents, and commercial botanicals against the fungus in laboratory and pot experiments. Bio-control agent Trichoderma viride and plant growth promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) isolate Neist-2 were found to be quite effective against bell pepper blight. All evaluated fungicides, botanicals, commercial botanicals, and bio-control agents in vitro were further studied as seed dressers and two foliar sprays at ten days interval in pot experiments. The combinations of Vitavax, PGPR isolate Neist-2, and Mehandi extract were found to be very effective against bell pepper blight followed by Vitavax, T. viride, and Mehandi extract used individually. All treatments in the pot experiments were found to significantly reduce seedling mortality and enhance plant biomass of bell pepper. Thus, these experimental findings suggest that a better integrated management of bell pepper blight could be achieved by conducting field trials in major bell pepper- and chilli-cultivated areas of the state. Besides fungicides, different botanicals and commercial botanicals also seem to be promising treatment options. Therefore, the outcome of the present study provides an alternate option of fungicide use in minimizing loss caused by Drechslera bicolor.

Dental pain and its impact on quality of life among indigenous adolescents of Himalayas (Ladakh), India.

Background: Ladakh has less than optimal oral health care services and a poor transport and connectivity with other areas of the country during most part of the year. Therefore, immediate address to any dental pain is not possible. This study aims to determine the prevalence of dental pain among 12–15-year-old schoolchildren of Leh, Ladakh after the commutation impairing time of the year. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2014 to determine the prevalence and impact of dental pain among adolescents residing in Leh, Ladakh. A total of 264 students in the age group of 12–15 years participated in the study. The data were obtained using a pretested questionnaire that elicited information on past experience (6 months) of dental pain and the resultant impact on their daily lives. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive statistics was used for distribution of frequencies. Results: The response rate was 75.7%. Seventy-seven percent of the students reported dental pain in the past 6 months. About 89% of the students reported, at least, one impact due to dental pain. Females reported more than their male counterpart. Difficulty in eating was found to be commonly reported impact followed by difficulty in sleeping. Conclusions: The prevalence of dental pain and its impact was found to be high. There is a need for a paradigm shift in focus of oral health services from urban areas to remote and rural areas. Knowledge about the magnitude of dental pain can be used to evaluate and plan preventive and curative services in remote and rural areas.

Three Port Versus Standard Four Port Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy- A Prospective Study.

The current study was undertaken to compare the safety, efficacy, cosmesis, cost effectiveness, complication rates and incidence of conversions. In a period of one year 200 patients with symptomatic GB stone disease were randomly divided into group A (100 patients) for three port technique and group B (100 patients) for standard four port technique. The outcomes were assessed based on duration of surgery, complication rates, postoperative pain, cosmesis, hospital stay and conversion rates.The mean operative time was compared and found to be less in group A. Intraoperative and postoperative complications was similar in both groups. The postoperative pain was less in group A. The mean hospital stay was less in group A (1.27 days) than group B (1.95 days).Better cosmetic results and patient satisfaction was observed in group A. 5 patients of group A required fourth port and 3 patients of group B required conversion to open cholecystectomy. The three port technique is a safe and feasible method in hands of an experienced laparoscopic surgeon. Thus it can be recommended as a safe alternative to conventional four ports laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.

Management of paradoxical response in pediatric tubercular meningitis with methylprednisolone

Paradoxical response to anti-tubercular drugs remains a diagnostic dilemma. In India where tuberculosis is quite prevalent, paradoxical response to anti-tubercular treatment [ATT] is either misdiagnosed or under-diagnosed. We report two cases of optochiasmatic arachnoiditis due to paradoxical response in children suffering from tuberculous meningitis. Visual acuity was recorded as no light perception in all eyes of both patients while they were taking 4-drug ATT [isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol]. However their systemic conditions did not worsen. They were treated with intravenous methylprednisolone for five days followed by systemic corticosteroids on a tapering dose for four weeks along with ATT. This case report highlights the importance of early recognition of this sight-threatening complication and timely, effective treatment to prevent permanent blindness.

New Vision for Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP): Universal access - “Reaching the un-reached”.

The Phase II (2006-2012) of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has been successful in achieving its objectives. Tuberculosis (TB) disease burden (prevalence and mortality) in India has reduced significantly when compared to 1990 levels, and India is on track to achieve the TB related millennium development goals. Despite significant progress, TB still continues to be one of the major public health problems in the country, and intensified efforts are required to reduce TB transmission and accelerate reductions in TB incidence, particularly in urban areas and difficult terrains. Achieving ‘Universal access’ is possible and necessary for the country. RNTCP during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) aims to achieve ‘Universal access’ to quality assured TB diagnosis and treatment and elaborate plans are being made. This requires broad and concerted efforts and support from all stakeholders with substantial enhancement of commitment and financing at all levels. This paper describes the new vision of RNTCP and an overview of how this will be achieved.

Development of a novel diagnostic test for detection of bovine viral diarrhea persistently infected animals using hair

The purpose of this study was to determine whether manually plucked hairs might serve as an alternative sample for a quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) testing. Twenty three, 1~3 week old, non-bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) vaccinated calves, found to be positive for BVDV by immunohistochemical staining, were selected and hairs were manually plucked from the ear. qRT-PCR was performed on samples consisting of more than 30 hairs (30~100) and whole blood. All 23 animals were positive for the virus by qRT-PCR performed on the whole blood and when samples of more than 30 hairs were assayed. Additionally, qRT-PCR was performed on groups of 10 and 20 hairs harvested from 7 out of 23 immunohistochemical staining-positive calves. When groups of 20 and 10 hairs were tested, 6 and 4 animals, respectively, were positive for the virus.