AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS PHARMACOVIGILANCE AMONG MEDICAL GRADUATES IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN SOUTH INDIA.

Objectives: As an ever growing scale people are using newer and more effective drugs for various medical conditions. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are preventable if the health-care professional pays close attention to the details of the adverse effects, following a drug administration. Awareness about ADRs can decrease the irrational use of drugs. Hence, there is an urgent need to create awareness among the prescribers about the ADR monitoring. Hence, this study is undertaken to assess the awareness, knowledge, and attitude toward Pharmacovigilance among the future health-care professionals.Methods: Questionnaire-based study was conducted in a tertiary health-care hospital after getting approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee. The questionnaire was developed to assess the knowledge, awareness, and practice of Pharmacovigilance activity. The questions were distributed to the final year students, interns, and postgraduate's students and allowed to write down the answers independently. Each correct answer was given a score of ‘1,' whereas the incorrect/incomplete was given a score of 0.â€Results and Conclusion: The study reported that awareness (UGs - 53.3%, interns - 54.9%, PGs - 30.75) was adequate among undergraduates and interns, in the knowledge part (UGs-65.5%, interns - 35.4%, PGs - 9.2%), undergraduates excel far than the interns and PGs. However, in the application of Pharmacovigilance (UG - 22.2%, interns - 59.8%, PGs - 63.1%) postgraduates and interns fair better than the undergraduates. Hence, there is need to increase the awareness and also increase the ADR reporting practice among medical graduates

Bio-efficacy of pumpkin phloem lectin on red spider mite, Oligonychus coffeae (Nietner) infesting tea

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Auxin pretreatment promotes regeneration of sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) midrib segment explants

We have developed a new, simple, quick and genotype-independent method for direct regeneration of sugarcane using novel midrib segment explants. Our protocol involves two steps: the pretreatment of starting material on MS (Murashige and Skoog (1962) Physiol Plant 15:473–497) medium containing 3.0 mg/l 2,4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) for 8 days under continuous dark and subsequent transfer of the explants to MS medium augmented with 0.1 mg/l benzyladenine (BA) and 0.1 mg/l naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) under light-dark conditions. On the regeneration medium, numerous globular structures appeared from the explants and subsequently differentiated into shoots. Regenerated shoots attained 2–5 cm height within 30 days of culture initiation and readily rooted on MS basal medium. Hardened plants were successfully established in the greenhouse. The regulation of sugarcane morphogenesis by auxin pretreatment is discussed

Characterization of ginger rhizome lectin and its efficacy in controlling red spider mite in tea

Methodology was developed to isolate and characterize the ginger rhizome lectin and its applied aspects in integrated pest management in tea. Lectin, a defense protein with mannose specificity was purified from fresh rhizomes of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) by affinity chromatography. Purified fractions of lectin showed agglutination with rabbit erythrocytes. SDS PAGE analysis revealed the presence of 15 KDa ginger rhizome lectin. Bio-efficacy of purified ginger rhizome lectin was experimented on red spider mite (Oligonychus coffeae Nietner) under in-vitro conditions. It was observed that 100 µg ml–1 of purified lectin caused in toto mortality of adult red spider mite. Identical results were observed in terms of ovipositional deterrence of red spider mite at 100 µg ml–1 of ginger rhizome lectin. Results suggest that ginger rhizome could be used as an alternative plant source for lectin isolation and it can be used as an acaricide in the IPM schedule or organic tea fields

Orthodontic-periodontic interdisciplinary approach: A literature review

In the last few years, there has been a major advancement in the orthodontic treatment of adult patients. Adult orthodontics differs from children's orthodontics in that there is virtually no more growth in adults and that the tooth-supporting structures, the periodontium, have changed.Because orthodontic treatment is done through the periodontium, having a healthy tooth supporting system is a must. At the same time, when the tooth moves under the influence of orthodontic treatment, the periodontium undergoes a variety of modifications. This review article discusses relationship between periodontal tissue and orthodontic treatment

Optimization of the Impeller Design for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Culture on Microcarriers in Bioreactors

When agitating mesenchymal stem cells adhered on microcarriers in bioreactors, a compromise has to be found between sufficient particle suspension and limitation of hydromechanical stresses. The present study proposes a strategy to improve the design of an ‘elephant ear' impeller at the just-suspended state by varying its relative size, blade slope angle, and position in the reactor. To do that, computational fluid dynamics simulations were coupled with multi-objective optimization to minimize the hydromechanical stress encountered by the microcarriers. Two minimization criteria were considered: (P/V)@p and the energy dissipation function EDC. On the basis of 31 conditions, an optimal impeller geometry is proposed. © 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinhei

Minimal handling and super-binary vectors facilitate efficient, agrobacterium-mediated, transformation of sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid)

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation (AMT) of sugarcane has been limited by low transformation efficiency, high variability between experiments and genotype specificity. We tested combinations of parameters that have been useful in other recalcitrant plant systems, aiming to develop an efficient and reproducible method. Applied to elite sugarcane cultivar Q117, key parameters were (i) minimal handling of callus near the time of co-cultivation, (ii) use of a super-binary helper vector with additional virB,C,G gene copies, and (iii) use of Agrobacterium strain AGL1. Transformation efficiency was in the range 0.5 to 3.5 stably transformed, embryogenic-callus-forming lines per gram fresh weight of co-cultivated callus, over six independent callus batches. Addition of 5 μM copper sulphate to the callus-growth medium appeared beneficial in a single further test. Following selection for aminoglycoside resistance conferred by PUbi-aphA, 87% of transformed lines that formed embryogenic callus were regenerable to plants. Southern blot analysis of 24 transgenic lines showed 21% with a single-copy insertion of an intact T-DNA without vector backbone, and a mean transgene copy number of 2.5. Over multiple batches, the AMT protocol approached the transformation efficiency from our routine conditions for particle bombardment of Q117. However, the same parameters were ineffective for AMT of cultivars Q208 and Q172, and yielded a lower transformation efficiency (0.02) with KQ228. As experienced in other systems such as rice, high-efficiency transformation of one recipient genotype may provide useful starting parameters for work towards AMT of additional genotypes