Attitude and Myths Towards Rape among Medical Students in Rajkot, India

Background: Violence against women takes many forms – physical, sexual, psychological and economic. Violence against women harms families and communities across generations and reinforces other violence prevalent in society. Rape myths encompass a set of (false) beliefs about rape that places the blame on the victim and not the perpetrator. Objective: to assess the prevailing attitudes on rape myths among the medical students. Methods: The study was conducted after taking informed consent among 346 undergraduate medical students of P D U Government Medical College, Rajkot, India from January to June, 2013 by using previously validated questionnaire using updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Results: The age range of 346 medical students was 17 to 23 years with 172 male and 174 female students. Total 24.4% male and 23% female students had very good positive attitude. One fourth of male and one fifth of female students had a more negative attitude. No relation was observed for rape myth acceptance among medical students for residential or socio-economic status. Conclusion: The present study provides insight to the prevalence of attitude and rape myths towards rape among medical students. Introduction of education on gender violence with introduction of courses on ‘sexual violence’ in medical curriculum may help to decrease rape incidence and for better management of victims

Thin-film hermeticity: A quantitative analysis of diamond-like carbon using variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we report on the successful application of variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry to quantitative thin-film hermeticity evaluation. Secondly, it is shown that under a variety of film preparations and moisture introduction conditions water penetrates only a very thin diamondlike carbon (DLC) top surface-roughness region. Thus DLC is an excellent candidate for use as protective coatings in adverse chemical and aqueous environments

Design and Performance of INMAS Whole Body Counter

A whole-body counter has been commissioned at INMAS for radiation protection and clinical applications including body potassium estimations. It has 4-crystal bed geometry inside a shielded enclosure. The background index of the system (counts) per minute per cc detector volume in the energy band 0.1-2 me V is about 0.6 comparing favorably with other whole-body monitors in the world. The sensitivity is 0.5 cpm per gram of K. Body potassium can be estimated can be estimated correct to 10 g for one hour counting. The variation in detector response to a point source on the mid-line of the bed is + - 10% of the mean over a length of 170 cm. The usefulness of the large dimensions of the enclosure chosen is discussed

Exploiting nonlinearities through geometric engineering to enhance the auxetic behaviour in re-entrant honeycomb metamaterials

Classical approaches to enhance auxeticity quite often involve exploring or designing newer architectures. In this work, simple geometrical features at the member level are engineered to exploit non-classical nonlinearities and improve the auxetic behaviour. The structural elements of the auxetic unit cell are here represented by thin strip-like beams, or thin-walled tubular beams. The resulting nonlinear stiffness enhances the auxeticity of the lattices, especially under large deformations. To quantify the influence of the proposed structural features on the resulting Poisson's ratio, we use here variational asymptotic method (VAM) and geometrically exact beam theory. The numerical examples reveal that 2D re-entrant type micro-structures made of thin strips exhibit an improvement in terms of auxetic behaviour under compression. For the auxetic unit cell with thin circular tubes as members, Brazier's effect associated with cross-sectional ovalisation improves the auxetic behaviour under tension; the enhancement is even more significant for the 3D re-entrant geometry. Thin strip-based auxetic unit cells were additively manufactured and tested under compression to verify the numerical observations. The experimentally measured values of the negative Poisson's ratio are in close agreement with the numerical results, revealing a 66% increase due to the nonlinearity. Simulation results showcase these alternative approaches to improve the auxetic behaviour through simple geometric engineering of the lattice ribs

Hedgehog pathway mutations drive oncogenic transformation in high-risk T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The role of Hedgehog signaling in normal and malignant T-cell development is controversial. Recently, Hedgehog pathway mutations have been described in T-ALL, but whether mutational activation of Hedgehog signaling drives T-cell transformation is unknown, hindering the rationale for therapeutic intervention. Here, we show that Hedgehog pathway mutations predict chemotherapy resistance in human T-ALL, and drive oncogenic transformation in a zebrafish model of the disease. We found Hedgehog pathway mutations in 16% of 109 childhood T-ALL cases, most commonly affecting its negative regulator PTCH1. Hedgehog mutations were associated with resistance to induction chemotherapy (P = 0.009). Transduction of wild-type PTCH1 into PTCH1-mutant T-ALL cells induced apoptosis (P = 0.005), a phenotype that was reversed by downstream Hedgehog pathway activation (P = 0.007). Transduction of most mutant PTCH1, SUFU, and GLI alleles into mammalian cells induced aberrant regulation of Hedgehog signaling, indicating that these mutations are pathogenic. Using a CRISPR/Cas9 system for lineage-restricted gene disruption in transgenic zebrafish, we found that ptch1 mutations accelerated the onset of notch1-induced T-ALL (P = 0.0001), and pharmacologic Hedgehog pathway inhibition had therapeutic activity. Thus, Hedgehog-activating mutations are driver oncogenic alterations in high-risk T-ALL, providing a molecular rationale for targeted therapy in this disease

Single Cell Deposition and Patterning with a Robotic System

Integrating single-cell manipulation techniques in traditional and emerging biological culture systems is challenging. Microfabricated devices for single cell studies in particular often require cells to be spatially positioned at specific culture sites on the device surface. This paper presents a robotic micromanipulation system for pick-and-place positioning of single cells. By integrating computer vision and motion control algorithms, the system visually tracks a cell in real time and controls multiple positioning devices simultaneously to accurately pick up a single cell, transfer it to a desired substrate, and deposit it at a specified location. A traditional glass micropipette is used, and whole- and partial-cell aspiration techniques are investigated to manipulate single cells. Partially aspirating cells resulted in an operation speed of 15 seconds per cell and a 95% success rate. In contrast, the whole-cell aspiration method required 30 seconds per cell and achieved a success rate of 80%. The broad applicability of this robotic manipulation technique is demonstrated using multiple cell types on traditional substrates and on open-top microfabricated devices, without requiring modifications to device designs. Furthermore, we used this serial deposition process in conjunction with an established parallel cell manipulation technique to improve the efficiency of single cell capture from ∼80% to 100%. Using a robotic micromanipulation system to position single cells on a substrate is demonstrated as an effective stand-alone or bolstering technology for single-cell studies, eliminating some of the drawbacks associated with standard single-cell handling and manipulation techniques

Team players against headache: multidisciplinary treatment of primary headaches and medication overuse headache

Multidisciplinary approaches are gaining acceptance in headache treatment. However, there is a lack of scientific data about the efficacy of various strategies and their combinations offered by physiotherapists, physicians, psychologists and headache nurses. Therefore, an international platform for more intense collaboration between these professions and between headache centers is needed. Our aims were to establish closer collaboration and an interchange of knowledge between headache care providers and different disciplines. A scientific session focusing on multidisciplinary headache management was organised at The European Headache and Migraine Trust International Congress (EHMTIC) 2010 in Nice. A summary of the contributions and the discussion is presented. It was concluded that effective multidisciplinary headache treatment can reduce headache frequency and burden of disease, as well as the risk for medication overuse headache. The significant value of physiotherapy, education in headache schools, and implementation of strategies of cognitive behavioural therapy was highlighted and the way paved for future studies and international collaboration