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Due to its speed, accuracy and cost-effectiveness, microscopy has become an integral part of clinical examination for disease diagnosis. However, modern microscopes are very costly and require skilled personnel for their operation and maintenance, and specimen processing and analysis is labour-intensive. Further, lack of such expensive diagnostic tools in remote areas is a serious concern. Affordable point-of-care diagnostic tools are the most useful for timely disease diagnosis and management. The Foldscope is an affordable origami-based microscopy device composed of a series of paper clippings, which, upon assembly, can hold a specimen slide for observation, and this specimen can be viewed via a mobile phone camera attached to it. The present study evaluated the use of the Foldscope in the clinical diagnosis of oral and urinary tract infections and evaluated its efficacy as a motivational tool for improving oral health among school children in India. We qualitatively compared the Foldscope to a clinical microscope by examining five different types of clinical samples. Of the different types of clinical samples, the Foldscope was effective in detecting infection in dental plaque samples and urine samples. Thus, we further analysed 31 dental plaque samples of patients aged 3-13 years and 25 urine samples of patients aged 11-62 years. We also evaluated the use of the Foldscope as an educational tool for motivating oral hygiene among 80 school children aged 12 years and found that students in the Foldscope intervention group had better measures of oral hygiene than * Authors T. Kaur and S. Dahiya are Joint first coauthors. did students in the nonintervention group. In summary, our study indicated that the Foldscope is useful in detecting urinary tract infections and kidney stones in urine samples and is a useful motivational tool for oral health education among school-aged children. Furthermore, it may also be useful in oral health monitoring in resource poor settings.

Background: The pesticides belong to a category of chemicals used worldwide as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, nematicides, and plant growth regulators in order to control weeds, pests and diseases in crops as well as for health care of humans and animals. The positive aspect of pesticide use renders enhanced crop/food productivity and drastic reduction of vector-borne diseases. On the other hand, excess use of fertilizers threatens the groundwater and surface water on a large scale. Agricultural runoff is surface water leaving cultivated fields as a result of receiving water in excess of the infiltration rate of the soil. Pesticides can enter water through surface runoff or through leaching. These two fundamental processes are linked to the earth's hydrologic cycle. Methodology: Data for the present study were collected from two villages, Arnetu of Patiala District and Wallipur of Ludhiana District of Punjab, India, from the year 2017 to 2018. Data on the frequency of pesticide use, demographic profile, and the concentration of heavy metals in edible vegetables were collected by using structured schedule, case study, and in-depth interview from a total of 250 respondents. Elemental analysis of vegetable samples was carried out with the help of Energy Dispersive X-Ray Florescence (EDXRF). Objectives: a) assessment of pesticide use and its frequency among the farmers of the studied areas; b) to ascertain potential health risk of pesticide concentrations in runoff from field-sized agricultural watersheds and in rivers and streams and its impact on the residents of the field area (Figure 1 & Figure 2); c) to collect cases of effected families. Results: It was reported that 80% and 81% of respondents from Arnetu and Wallipur village respectively used pesticide in agricultural fields. The frequency of pesticide use was 60% of the respondents from Arnetu and 70% from Wallipur village reported that their use of pesticides depends upon the type of crops they have cultivated. The area observed leaching (vertical downward displacement of pesticides through the soil profile and the unsaturated zone, and finally to groundwater

Background: Carcinoma cervix is the commonest cancer among women worldwide and in India it accounts for 80% of all genital cancers. Screening methods include cervical cytology, human papilloma virus testing and colposcopy. Objective of present study was to evaluate suspicious cervix colposcopically using Reids Colposcopic Index (RCI) and to correlate RCI with histopathological findings.Methods: This was a prospective cross sectional study done on 125 women with clinical diagnosis of suspicious cervix. Colposcopy was performed and grading of the disease was done according to RCI. Positive cases were subjected to cervical biopsy and endocervical curettage was performed in unsatisfactory colposcopy.Results: Colposcopy was done on 125 women with suspicious cervix. Out of 125, sixty two showed abnormal colposcopic findings which were graded according to RCI into Low grade disease predicting histological diagnosis of CIN1 in 47, Intermediate grade disease predicting histological diagnosis of CIN1/2 in 11 and High grade disease predicting histological diagnosis of CIN2/3 in 4 women. Colposcopy of one women suggested invasive carcinoma and was confirmed on histopathology to be microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma. Six women with unsatisfactory colposcopy showed benign histopathology. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive value and false negative rate of colposcopy for invasive disease was 50%, 100%, 100% and 1.60% respectively with 98.40% diagnostic accuracy. Colposcopic diagnosis of invasive disease and histopathology report showed 100% correlation.Conclusions: Correlation between RCI and histopathology was good. Predictive accuracy of colposcopy increased with increasing severity of disease.

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