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Introduction: Hypertension (HT) has its origin in childhood and adolescent period but it goes undetected due to absence of sign and symptoms, unless specifically looked for during this period. It has been seen that one with raised blood pressure level in this period will also have raised Blood Pressure (BP) level in their adulthood and elderly period.Aim: The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of HT and its risk factor among apparently healthy school going adolescents of Patna district. Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study among 2913 school going adolescents of eighth to 10 th standard was conducted from April 2014 to August 2015 by adopting a two stage cluster sampling technique. The questions pertaining to risk behavior in relation to cardiovascular diseases from WHO's Global School based Student Health Survey were used for this study. Results:The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure of study population was 107.4 mm of Hg (95% C.I. 106.93-107.77) and 67.4 mm of Hg (95% C.I. 67.26-67.54), respectively. Prevalence of pre-HT and HT was 10.9% and 4.6% in school going adolescents while prevalence of overweight/obesity was 1.5%. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressures had positive and significant correlation with age, height and body mass index. The proportion of children who had ever taken tobacco was 5.3%, cigarette smoking 4.3%, alcohol consumption 2.1%, and excess salt intake 22.3%. Only 49.1% children were doing physical activity at least one hour a day in past seven days for maintenance of good health. Conclusion:The present study recommends that regular screening of blood pressure level must be initiated in adolescents so that remedial measure can be initiated as early as possible.

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Introduction: Chronic (non-communicable) diseases are major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and have a significant impact on an individual's quality of life. The objectives of this study were to assess the magnitude of common chronic diseases among elderly, to assess their quality of life and to compare the quality of life of diseased elderly with non diseased elderly persons. Material and methods: This community based cross sectional study was conducted among 402 rural geriatric persons of Varanasi district. The Quality of Life was assessed using World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaireshort version (WHOQoL-BREF). Results: The prevalence of musculoskeletal problem, hyperten sion, cataract, diabetes, stroke and cancer was 56%, 34.1%, 25.4%, 6.7%, 2% and 0.7% respectively among geriatric population. The total score for Quality of Life was 60.69 on 0-100 scale. The mean score was 59.16, 59.14, 63.25 and 61.20 for physical, psychological, social and environmental domain respectively. The effect of any chronic disease was quite significant on all the domains of QOL i.e. physical, psychological, social and environmental with maximum effect was on physical domain. Conclusions: Elderly living in the rural community who have chronic disease experience significant impairment in their quality of life. Awareness among the elderly population should be created for regular medical checkups to ensure prevention and early detection of the chronic diseases and to ensure better Quality of Life.

VO2(010)/NiO(111) epitaxial heterostructures were integrated with Si(100) substrates using a cubic yttria-stabilized zirconia (c-YSZ) buffer. The epitaxial alignment across the interfaces was determined to be VO2(010)‖NiO(111)‖c-YSZ(001)‖Si(001) and VO2[100]‖NiO⟨110⟩‖c-YSZ⟨100⟩‖Si⟨100⟩. The samples were subsequently treated by a single shot of a nanosecond KrF excimer laser. Pristine as-deposited film showed diamagnetic behavior, while laser annealed sample exhibited ferromagnetic behavior. The population of majority charge carriers (e−) and electrical conductivity increased by about two orders of magnitude following laser annealing. These observations are attributed to the introduction of oxygen vacancies into the VO2 thin films and the formation of V3+ defects.