BackgroundAs preventing cancer with the help of a vaccine is a comparatively new concept, awareness and education about it will have important implication in the implementation of this strategy.Materials and MethodsPresent explorative questionnaire based survey included 618 MBBS students for final analysis.ResultsMajority of participants (89.6%) were well aware of the preventable nature of cervical cancer. Most of them (89.2%) knew that necessary factor responsible for cervical cancer is infection with high risk HPV. Awareness regarding the availability of vaccine against cervical cancer was 75.6%. Females had a better awareness regarding availability of vaccine, target population for vaccination and about the catch up program. Overall acceptance of HPV vaccine among the population studied was 67.8%. Medical teaching had a definitive impact on the understanding of this important public health issue. Females seemed to be more ready to accept the vaccine and recommend it to others. For our study population the most common source of information was medical school teaching. Majority of participants agreed that the most important obstacle in implementation of HPV vaccination program in our country is inadequate information and 86.2% wanted to be educated by experts in this regard.ConclusionHPV vaccine for primary prevention of cervical cancer is a relatively new concept. Health professional will be able to play a pivotal role in popularizing this strategy.

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The influence of surface topography resolution in Indian summer monsoon simulation is investigated. Three sets of six-member ensemble simulations with climatological sea surface temperature are conducted with the Community Atmospheric Model, version 5.1 (CAM5.1): COARSE simulation at 1.9° × 2.5° latitude–longitude resolution, FINE simulation at 0.47° × 0.63° resolution, and HYBRID simulation, that is, using COARSE surface topography imposed on the FINE configuration. With regard to the representation of the surface topography, substantial differences occur at the regional scales between the simulations, especially over the foothills and steep flanks of the mountains. In the COARSE and HYBRID simulations, the orographic height of the foothills is overestimated whereas that of the steep flanks adjacent to the foothills is underestimated. The biases are severe (up to 1 km) over the Himalayas and Tibet and have detrimental effects on regional climate through barrier effects on the low-level flow, and the lapse rate and elevated heat source effects. Overall, the simulations show remarkable improvement with an increase in resolution, mainly because of the improved representation of atmospheric and surface processes. However, local climate—surface air temperature, sea level pressure, precipitable water, and wind—of the orographic regions, particularly where large orographic biases exist in COARSE, is found to benefit substantially from increased resolution of surface topography. Local precipitation and evaporation are exceptions, although, as they are negligibly sensitive to topographic resolution, showing strong dependence on the resolution of surface and atmospheric processes. Moreover, resolution of surface topography generally does not have notable remote impacts.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the role of a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy and a color Doppler test in the detection of prostate cancer in patients with increased serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and/or an abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE).MethodA total of 40 cases, ranging in age from 50 to 80 years and showing increased serum PSA levels (4-10 ng/ml) and/or abnormal DRE, were enrolled and underwent TRUS evaluation followed by color Doppler flowmetric studies. A TRUS-guided biopsy was performed in all the cases. The findings were confirmed histopathologically. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test.ResultsHistopathologically, a total of 13 cases (32.5%) were malignant. On TRUS, irregular shape, heterogeneous echotexture loss of differentiation between the peripheral and internal zones, less mean weight of the prostate, and capsular invasion were significantly associated with malignancy. On flowmetry, moderate vascularity and focal asymmetry were significantly associated with malignancy. The combined use of TRUS and color Doppler flowmetry was found to be 100% sensitive and 92.6% specific and had a positive predictive value (PPV) and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 86.7% and 100%, respectively.ConclusionTRUS with color Doppler flowmetry was highly sensitive and specific in the detection of prostate malignancy.