Experiences of stigma and discrimination of women living with HIV/AIDS in health-care settings of Kashmir.

Stigma and discrimination create barriers for women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) in accessing quality health-care services, affecting their well-being and also increasing the number of cases. The current article studies issues of stigma and discrimination that WLHA experience in health-care settings and highlights the importance of building awareness and sensitivity regarding HIV among all health-care workers. This hospital-based study was conducted in an anti-retroviral therapy center in Kashmir. Twenty-one WLHA participated in the study. The WLHA internalizes stigma and experiences shock, guilt, anger, and numbness while receiving a diagnosis. The stigma is socially constructed, having very little medical or logical basis. Verbal abuse, gossiping, expression of shock and disbelief of health-care workers, discriminatory attitudes such as wearing multiple surgical gloves, denial of care and treatment, and disclosing their HIV-positive status without their consent to their families and others have been learned. These experiences in health-care institutions are disempowering for WLHA. Gender stereotyping and inequalities within health-care settings and the discriminatory approach of some health practitioners toward women is the main barrier to accessing the services for HIV prevention, treatment and support services.

Financial cost to institutions on patients waiting for gall bladder disease surgery.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the financial costs to institution on patients waiting for gall bladder disease surgery and suggest measures to reduce them. METHODS: This multi-centre prospective descriptive survey was performed on all patients who underwent an elective cholecystectomy by three consultants at secondary care hospitals in Pakistan between Jan 2010 to Jan 2012. Data was collected on demographics, the duration of mean waiting time, specific indications and nature of disease for including the patients in the waiting list, details of emergency re-admissions while awaiting surgery, investigations done, treatment given and expenditures incurred on them during these episodes. RESULTS: A total of 185 patients underwent elective open cholecystectomy. The indications for listing the patients for surgery were biliary colic in 128 patients (69%), acute cholecystitis in 43 patients (23%), obstructive jaundice in 8 patients (4.5%) and acute pancreatitis in 6 patients (3.2%). 146 (78.9%) and 39 (21.1%) of patients were listed as outdoor electives and indoor emergencies respectively. Of the 185 patients, 54 patients (29.2%) were re-admitted. Financial costs in Pakistani rupees per episode of readmission were 23050 per episode in total and total money spent on all readmissions was Rs. 17,05,700/-. CONCLUSION: Financial costs on health care institutions due to readmissions in patients waiting for gall bladder disease surgery are high. Identifying patients at risk for these readmissions and offering them early laparoscopic cholecystectomy is very important.

Women Police and COVID-19 Pandemic in Kashmir.

Women police form an integral part of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and have played an important role in the crisis created as a result of COVID-19. They have been working on the frontline with their male counterparts in every area like maintenance of law and order situation by looking for any violations, enforcement of the standard operating procedures (SOPs), protecting healthcare workers, accompanying health workers for the community sampling, awareness of the public, scrutinizing and facilitating the migrants and students, maintaining the databases of COVID-19-positive patients in the communities etc. We have used a qualitative research approach to explore and analyse the experiences of women police during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kashmir. Both face-to-face and telephonic interviews were conducted with the participants depending on the feasibility of the participants and the researchers to conduct the interviews. Two main themes evolved from our study which include socio-personal problems and work-related problems. Various sub-themes like social ostracism, unavailability of transport facility, familial challenges, risk of contracting the virus and negative impact on the family, negative impact on personal health, erratic work schedules and excessive workload emerged from the two main themes.

On physical analysis of topological indices via curve fitting for natural polymer of cellulose network.

Plant materials are processed in a variety of ways to produce biologically active compounds. Cellulose (natural polymer) has the ability to deliver physiologically active compounds to organ targets that have been extracted by CO 2 . Researchers have recently become interested in polymers that can transport biologically active compounds into human bodies. For appropriately selecting bearers of biologically active chemicals, knowledge of the thermodynamic properties of cellulose is required. In QSPR/QSAR modelling, which provides the theoretical and optimum foundation for costly experimental drug discovery, molecular descriptors are extremely important. In this article, we investigated a natural polymer of cellulose network which has interesting pharmacological applications, outstanding characteristics, and a novel molecular structure. We plan to look into and compute a variety of closed-form formulas of various K-Banhatti indices along with their respective K-Banhatti entropies and the heat of formation. The numerical and graphical characterization of computed results was combined with curve fitting between calculated thermodynamic properties and topological indices. This presentation will provide a complete description of potentially important thermodynamic features that could be useful in modifying the structure of natural polymer of cellulose network CN y x .

Computing the Entropy Measures for the Line Graphs of Some Chemical Networks.

Chemical Graph entropy plays a significant role to measure the complexity of chemical structures. It has explicit chemical uses in chemistry, biology, and information sciences. A molecular structure of a compound consists of many atoms. Especially, the hydrocarbons is a chemical compound that consists of carbon and hydrogen atoms. In this article, we discussed the concept of subdivision of chemical graphs and their corresponding line chemical graphs. More preciously, we discuss the properties of chemical graph entropies and then constructed the chemical structures namely triangular benzenoid, hexagonal parallelogram, and zigzag edge coronoid fused with starphene. Also, we estimated the degree-based entropies with the help of line graphs of the subdivision of above mentioned chemical graphs.

Long-term morbidity of axillary lymph node dissection: implications for patients with carcinoma breast.

BACKGROUND: To assess the long term complications of level II Axillary Lymph Node Dissection (AXLND) in patients with breast cancer and to see if they are high enough to warrant a Sentinel Lymph Node (SLN) biopsy in all patients presenting with carcinoma breast in our setup in Pakistan. METHODS: This study was conducted at Surgical Unit IV, Department of Surgery, Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi. Upper, lower arm circumferences and body mass index were ascertained in post Modified Radical Mastectomy (MRM) with level II AXLND, in female patients who had undergone surgeries from 1992 to 2008. Patient's perception of degree of lymph oedema, arm function and other symptoms like pain, tingling and numbness was noted. The number of lymph nodes removed, number of positive nodes and post operative radiotherapy were also recorded from the hospital records. RESULTS: Thus upper arm circumference in 85.7% patients and lower arm circumference in 89.2% patients was within 2 Cm of the unaffected side. No, moderate and severe arm swelling was described by 83.35% of patients, 11.6% of patients and one patient respectively and 41.5% of patients describing some arm swelling had positive lymph nodes. Thus even if they had gone (SLN) biopsy, these patients would have had a subsequent AXLND. Over 94% of patients had either good or excellent arm function with most in the excellent range. CONCLUSION: The patients at significant risk for positive nodal may be better served with an AXLND rather than the SLN technique.

On eccentricity-based entropy measures for dendrimers.

The eccentricity-based entropy inspired by Shannon's entropy approach is the information-theoretic quantity to figure out the structural information of complex networks. The investigation for advance biomedical utilization of dendrimers has improved the synthesis of radical based molecules. Categorically, attaining radical dendrimers has initiated their use in different fields such as anti-tumor agents and as magnetic resonance imaging. The use of radical dendrimers has increased the possibility of establishing new kinds of devices based on para-magnetic axioms of organic radicals. In this article, we discussed dendrimer based on cyclotriphosphazene ( N 3 P 3 ) which has balanced edge groups and these are examined by EPR temperature spectrum. Firstly, we computed eccentricity-based indices and then we computed eccentricity based entropies by developing an acquaintance between these indices and their entropies. Moreover we presented our computed result numerically and graphically which leads to good importance of our contribution.