For students who entered medical school with the intention to later work in a rural location, RCS experience was the deciding factor for realising this intention. Background, intent and RCS participation should all be considered if medical schools are to increase the proportion of graduates working rurally.

Background: In India, a proper reporting of medication errors in the hospital is not available. Drugs worth crores of rupee are consumed every year but a substantial part of these drugs are irrationally prescribed. In order to promote rational drug usage standard policies on use of drugs must be set, and this can be done only after the current prescription practices have been audited. The prescriptions were analyzed based on the objectives of the study in order to promote rational use of drugs in a population. Methods: The study was carried out prospectively over a period of two months and 15 days in general medicine OPD of our tertiary care hospital. A specially designed performa was used with pre-inserted carbons. Results: Two hundred and thirty seven prescriptions were analyzed. Total no. of drugs in 237 prescriptions were 1001. Therefore average number of drugs/prescription is 4.22. Drugs were prescribed by generic names in 3.79% of cases, drugs on EDL are only 53.25% and fixed dose combinations are 26.87% of total drugs. Dosage forms used were mostly oral -93.51%. Injectables were only 6.19% and topical forms were least 0.299%. Doctors profile indicates that maximum number i.e. 93.67% were general practitioners. Basic information of patient was written in 72.57% prescriptions. Complete diagnoses were written in 70.04% prescriptions. Only 88.61% prescriptions were legible and only 76.79% prescriptions were complete in terms of dose, route, strength, frequency and dosage forms. Disease pattern seen was variable. Diseases of respiratory system were maximum 44.72 % followed by infectious and parasitic diseases - 16.03 % and diseases of digestive system - 13.92 %. The most common drug groups prescribed were NSAIDs± serratiopeptidases, antibiotics, antihistaminics, multivitamins, minerals, enzymes and expectorants & bronchodilators. The incidence of polypharmacy was also common with maximum number of drugs which were prescribed per prescription were four in 39.24% of prescriptions. The prescriptions also had other minor anomalies. Conclusions: This study showed that there is scope for improvement in prescribing patterns in areas of writing generic names of drugs, essential drugs, writing legible and complete prescriptions. Polypharmacy was also evident from our study. Establishment and implementation of appropriate clinical guidelines, use of essential medicines list, public education about medicines and regular update to the clinicians will help in implementing the principles of rational pharmacotherapeutics. [Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol 2012; 1(3.000): 184-190

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive disease with rapid invasion and early encasement of blood vessels. Hence, levels of circulating nucleic acids and tumor-associated mutations in them may have clinical importance. We analyzed the levels of circulating tumor DNA and oncogenic k-ras mutation in plasma of patients with pancreatic cancer and correlated their levels with survival and clinicopathological parameters. Higher levels of plasma DNA (>62 ng/mL) was found to associate significantly with lower overall survival time (p=.002), presence of vascular encasement (p=.030) and metastasis (p=.001). However, k-ras mutation status did not correlate with any of the clinicopathological parameters or survival. We conclude that circulating DNA in plasma can be an important predictor of prognosis in pancreatic cancer.

Background: Bronchial asthma being a chronic inflammatory disease of airways has numerous treatment options none of which have disease modifying properties. Curcumin, a yellow dietary pigment has varied pharmacological activities, prominent among which is an anti-inflammatory activity which may be crucial in bronchial asthma as has been proved by various in vitro and in vivo animal studies. Aims:To determine the efficacy and safety of curcumin as an 'add-on' therapy in patients of bronchial asthma. Settings and Design:This study was conducted on 77 patients of mild to moderate Bronchial asthma who had a documented positive bronchodilator reversibility test with ≥15% improvement in forced expiratory volume one second (FEV1). Materials and Methods:Seventy seven patients were recruited for the study and randomized into either of the two groups, but 17 patients were lost to follow up. Thus Group A -Receiving standard therapy for bronchial asthma for 30d (n=30) and Group B -Receiving standard therapy for bronchial asthma + Cap Curcumin 500mg BD daily for 30d (n=30). The predefined primary endpoints were clinical assessments of dyspnoea, wheezing, cough, chest tightness and nocturnal symptoms, change in the pre-bronchodilator FEV1 during the treatment and hematological improvement. The secondary end points were assessed by the change in the post-bronchodilator FEV1, C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration and incidence of adverse events. Statistical Analysis used:The data was analysed by SPSS 17.0 software using one-way ANOVA or Paired t-test.

In current practice, regional models are limited in their capability to analyze policies involving changes and improvements to airports (and their services) and ground access transportation. Typically, airports are treated only as employment centers or as special generators. Important and distinct features of air passenger travel affecting trip distribution and mode choice are rarely modeled explicitly. This paper presents the development of a joint airport and ground access mode choice model for the New York City metropolitan region based on an extensive survey of airport users. Unlike travel to and from most U.S. cities, air passengers flying to and from the New York region face a nontrivial choice of airports and ground access modes (including premium transit options). A nested logit model was formulated with airport choice at the upper level and ground access mode choice at the second level; however, a multinomial logit model was found to be statistically preferable. Results indicate that air passenger travel behavior is significantly different for business and nonbusiness travelers. Overall, willingness to pay for trips to and from the airport is much higher than for regular intracity trips. Average yield, access time, and access cost are the most important determinants of air passenger's choice; demographics and trip characteristics are also significant. The developed tool was used for a comprehensive study of airport development alternatives in the New York region and is seen as the platform for additional data development and model extensions for future studies of air passenger service planning in the New York megaregion.

This article explores the traffic, land use and welfare impacts of road pricing in the Austin (Texas, USA) region, including the introduction of planned toll roads, bridge tolls, and a downtown cordon toll. Different tolling strategies are examined, including fixed versus variable toll rates. The travel demand model (TDM) incorporates joint mode and time-of-day choice models, as well as multinomial model of destination choice, relying on a full feedback of travel times and costs. Austin-calibrated DRAM-EMPAL models are used to predict future household and job distributions. Results include traffic redistribution over space and time, long-term location choice changes, and traveler welfare implications. While the proposed toll roads to generate revenues and enhance traveler options, their estimated project costs are not estimated to exceeds such benefits. In addition, the bridge tolls are expected to successfully redistribute traffic, while the downtown area appears highly sensitive to cordon tolls.

The increasing complexity of summarization systems makes it difficult to analyze exactly which modules make a difference in performance. We carried out a principled comparison between the two most commonly used schemes for assigning importance to words in the context of query focused multi-document summarization: raw frequency (word probability) and log-likelihood ratio. We demonstrate that the advantages of log-likelihood ratio come from its known distributional properties which allow for the identification of a set of words that in its entirety defines the aboutness of the input. We also find that LLR is more suitable for query-focused summarization since, unlike raw frequency, it is more sensitive to the integration of the information need defined by the user.

Objectives:To compare anti-inflammatory effect of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin in patients of acute coronary syndrome.Materials and Methods:The study was a prospective, open-labeled, randomized and single-center study conducted on 100 patients of acute coronary syndrome. Patients were assigned to atorvastatin 40 mg daily or rosuvastatin 20 mg daily for 4 weeks. C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, lipid profiles, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and adverse effects were measured at beginning and at the end of 4 weeks.Results:Baseline parameters and clinical profile did not differ between the two groups. CRP levels significantly decreased from beginning to the end of 4 weeks in both atorvastatin and rosuvastatin groups (from 35.48 to 23.07 mg/l and from 35.88 to 19.91 mg/l respectively, both P < 0.001). However, there was significant difference between the levels of CRP in patients of the rosuvastatin group as compared to the atorvastatin group (19.91 ± 6.32 vs 23.07 ± 7.47, P < 0.05). In addition, both the drugs were associated with a reduction in total cholesterol, LDL levels and ESR at the end of 4 weeks as compared to the beginning (P < 0.001 for all comparisons).Conclusion:Both atorvastatin (40 mg) and rosuvastatin (20 mg) are effective in decreasing CRP and LDL cholesterol levels even in a short duration of 4 weeks. Rosuvastatin was found to be more effective in decreasing CRP levels.