IntroductionSelf-medication is an important public health problem, with varied prevalence across the world. The high prevalence of self-medication in India is one of the important factors contributing to the development of antimicrobial resistance. Self-medication without medical guidance can lead to inappropriate, incorrect, or undue therapy, missed diagnosis, delays in appropriate treatment, pathogen resistance, and increased morbidity. The growing trend of self-medication can be attributed to various factors like the urge for selfcare, sympathy toward sick family members, inaccessible health services and nonavailability of drugs, time and financial constraints, ignorance, misbeliefs, extensive advertisement and availability of drugs in places other than drug shops. MethodologyThe present community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban field practice area of a tertiary health care center (UHTC) in Central India. Individuals above 18 years of age and present at home at the time of the house-to-house survey comprised the study participants. A total of 400 participants were enrolled in the study. Data were collected using a predesigned and pretested questionnaire by the faceto-face interview technique. ResultsThe prevalence of self-medication in the area was 60 % (240). The most widely used drugs for selfmedication were analgesics (159; 66.25%) and antipyretics (142; 59.16%). Common ailments for which selfmedication was used frequently were fever, body aches, common cold, and cough. It was observed that female participants were twice more likely to self-medicate as compared to male participants (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.04; Prevalence (p) = 0.014, Confidence Interval (CI) 95% = 1.15-3.62). Additionally, those having education above the high school level had more chances of self-medicating than those educated less than high school (OR: 1.25; p≤0.014, CI 95%=1.05-1.50). The commonest reasons for resorting to selfmedication as per the findings of the present study are that it saves time and the condition was not serious enough to warrant a physician's consultation.

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<p>Accurate prediction of flow and solute migration through the subsurface porous media is essential for the reclamation of the polluted aquifer and future contamination control. This study focuses on the dispersion process under non-Darcian flow conditions in the laboratory using a synthetic single fracture. A sand-packed single fracture of 1000 cm length and 0.3 cm fracture aperture was fabricated in the laboratory for conducting flow and contaminant transport experiments. Non-Darcian flow conditions prevailed in the filled-single fracture and were best simulated by the Forchheimer equation. Sodium Flouride (NaF) was used as a reactive contaminant in the experiments and was injected using Pulse-type boundary conditions. The resulting Breakthrough Curves (BTCs) were found to be non-Fickian with long tailings and early arrival. Solutions of the Convective-Dispersive equation (CDE) and Mobile Immobile (MIM) transport equations (for constant, linear, and exponential distance-dependent dispersion) were obtained through the Implicit finite difference technique. For different flow velocities, the MIM model was better at simulating the long tailings and early arrival of BTCs. Further, it is observed that constant (MIMC) and exponential distance-dependent (MIME) dispersion models are better at simulating observed BTCs compared to the linear-distance dependent (MIML) dispersion model. Through the statistical analysis and goodness of fit, the suitability of MIME and MIMC in describing contaminant transport through fracture was further confirmed.</p> <p><strong><em>Keywords:</em></strong>  <em>non-Fickian; Filled-single fracture; non-Darcian;</em><em> </em><em>Breakthrough curves; Forchheimer equation; MIM model.</em></p>

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