Search

Aims and Objective: To evaluate the attitudes of Indian nurses towards the importance of family involvement in nursing care and the association between nurse attitudes and sociodemographic characteristics. Background: Involving the family in the care process is crucial for delivering family‐ and patient‐centred care and ensuring the best possible patient outcomes. Nevertheless, published literature revealed that the nurses may lack clarity regarding the role of family members in the patient's care, which in turn hinders families' participation in care. Design: Cross‐sectional descriptive study. The STROBE checklist was used to report the present study. Methods: A total of 203 Nurses participated in a prospective cross‐sectional study between May 2022 and August 2022. They were recruited through convenience sampling from two tertiary care centres in India. A two‐part questionnaire was used to gather the data; the first section contained questions for gathering sociodemographic information, and the second part contained the standardized FINC‐NA scale. Results: The mean age of the nurses was (28.08 ± 4.722) years, and their median professional experience was 2.5 (1–5.5) years. Nurses' attitude regarding family's importance in patient care was found to be significantly associated (p ≤.05) with education level, marital status, religion and hometown region. Conclusion: In several items Indian nurses have positive attitudes towards family involvement in care but some of the lower scoring items can present opportunities for focused improvement. Continuing development programmes about family‐centered care can constitute important strategies to improve the positive attitudes of nurses towards families in practice. Patient and public contribution: No patient or public contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, an attempt has been made to discover the impacts of various developmental activities on the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong wildlife corridor of Assam, India, using geospatial technology; as well as to predict the future status of the wildlife corridor by using the Cellular Automata Markov Model. Due to various anthropogenic activities the condition of the natural corridor has deteriorated, and in recent years many wild animals have been killed by road traffic accidents; in particular, greater one-horned (Indian) rhinoceros ( Rhinoceros unicornis) are killed indiscriminately by the poachers, having been deviated from their regular routes. Changes were evident during the two decades between 1990 and 2010, when a large number of dense forest areas were converted to open forest, combined with losses of areas of scrub and marshy land. The area under agriculture and plantation crop increased along with the grassland during the decades. It has been found that the forests in Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong corridor are fragmented, and the area within the corridor is shrinking. There is considerable increase in patchiness, proportion of edge, and a perforated reduction of core areas within the corridor. The predicted land use/cover map of Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong corridor shows expansion of agricultural land, as well as plantation areas. It is estimated that only 25.66 percent of the present dense forest and 20.72 percent of open forest will remain by 2030, while areas under agriculture and plantation will increase by 33.91 and 5.33 percent, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petiole anatomy of eight varieties of Mangifera indica L., namely 'Alphonso', 'Badshashpasand', 'Cowasji', 'Jhumakhiya', 'Khodi', 'Ladvo', 'Pairi' and 'Sindoria', growing in Gujarat were carried out. The evaluated characters were found to be useful in differentiating individual varieties. On the basis of significant characters, such as shape of petiole, cross-sectional area of petiole , vascular arc, shape of vascular strands, total visual count of vessels and radial multiples of vessels in main arc, number of resin canals and their diameter, thickness of cuticle and shape and size of epidermal cell and layers of hypodermal cell the varieties were investigated. Number of resin canal was highest in 'Jhumakhiya' (18), followed by 'Khodi' and 'Cowasji' (15), 'Pairi' and 'Ladvo' (14), 'Alphonso' 'Badshahpasand' 'Sindoria' (13) respectively. Thickness of cuticle was maximum in 'Pairi' (12 μm), 'Khodi' (10 μm), 'Alphonso' (8.5 μm), followed by 'Jhumakhiya' (6.24 μm), 'Ladvo' (7 μm), 'Badshahpasand' (6 μm), 'Cowasji' (5 μm) and 'Sindoria' (5 μm). Shape of petiole on adaxial side was circular in all the varieties except 'Alphonso' and 'Badshahpasand', which had planoconvex shape and 'Sindoria' with a highly convex shape. The evaluated petiole anatomical characteristic features proved to be a useful tool for the taxonomic discrimination of the eight studied varieties. An artificial synoptic key to the identification of the varieties has been formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We undertook this study to characterize peak bone density and evaluate its determinants in a healthy cohort of young adult male paramilitary personnel. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in 473 healthy men aged 21–40yr. The effect of anthropometry and biochemical parameters on BMD was determined. Mean BMD values of L1–L4, forearm, total hip, and femoral neck were 1.170±0.137, 0.755±0.089, 1.129±0.130, and 1.115±0.133g/cm2, respectively. BMD values for 31- to 40-yr age group were lower than those of 20- to 30-yr age group except for forearm, which was higher in the former. Significant positive correlation was observed between height, weight, and body mass index with BMD. On multivariate regression analysis, weight was the most consistent contributor to variance in the BMD. Compared with age-matched US males, BMD of total hip and femoral neck were higher for Indian paramilitary personnel by 3.58% and 4.2%, whereas lumbar spine BMD was lower by 4.1%. In conclusion, peak BMD in healthy Indian males was achieved by 30yr of age at lumbar spine and hip, with weight being the most consistent contributor to variance in BMD. Peak BMD in this population was comparable to that reported in white US males. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction: Rickets is usually attributed to vitamin D deficiency. However, recent studies have implicated dietary calcium deficiency in its etiology. Information on relative efficacy of calcium, vitamin D or both together in healing of rickets is limited., Objective: To study effect of treatment with calcium, vitamin D or a combination of these two on healing of nutritional rickets in young children., Design: Randomized controlled trial., Methods: Sixty-seven cases of nutritional rickets in the age group of 6 months to 5 years were randomly allocated to receive vitamin D (600 000 IU single intramuscular dose), calcium (75 mg/kg/day elemental calcium orally) or a combination of the above two for a period of 12 weeks. The demographic parameters, nutritional status, dietary calcium and phytate intake were assessed for all. Radiographs (wrist and knee) and biochemical parameters (serum calcium, inorganic phosphate, alkaline phosphatase, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol and parathyroid hormone) were evaluated at baseline, 6 and 12 weeks for evidence of healing., Results: Mean dietary intake of calcium in all cases was low (204 ± 129 mg/day). Mean serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol D level was 15.9 ± 12.4 ng/ml, and 82.1% of patients had serum vitamin D levels <20 ng/ml, indicative of vitamin D deficiency. After 6 and 12 weeks of treatment, radiological and biochemical evidence of healing rickets was observed in all treatment groups, albeit to a variable extent. The combined end point of normal serum alkaline phosphatase and complete radiological healing at 12 weeks was observed in 50% subjects on combination therapy as compared with 15.7% subjects on vitamin D alone and 11.7% on calcium alone., Conclusions: Children with rickets had a low serum vitamin D level and a low dietary calcium intake. The best therapeutic response was seen with a combination of vitamin D and calcium than either of them given alone., Trial Registration Number: CTRI/2010/091/000448.