I-O Psychology Gives Back To Society!

Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology—what a mouthful! The field originally focused on the prediction and improvement of job performance in industrial and military settings, but after World War II interests in broader organizational phenomena (e.g., leadership, groups, motivation, satisfaction) came into frame. Before APA Division 14 incorporated as the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) in 1982, it was called Division 14, Industrial and Business Psychology from 1945 to 1962. In 1962, “Business” was dropped from the name, and in 1973 “Organizational” was added to the name. Considering the field’s historical focus and Division 14’s former names, it isn’t surprising that traditionally I-O psychology has catered primarily to employer-centric interests. However, the eventual addition of “organizational” to Division 14’s name not only reflected a growing curiosity about broader organizational phenomena, but also acknowledged the emergence of a more humanistic I-O psychology. These leanings were influenced by the 20th-century human relations movement, which drew heavily from the work of humanistic psychologists, like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, who were not I-O psychologists. For several decades, I-O psychology has shown its capacity for advancing humanistic ideals and helping improve society at large

AES: Clinical Presentation and Dilemmas in Critical Care Management

Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is an epidemiological term used for surveillance of encephalitis. Worldwide, reported incidences of encephalitis range from 6.3 to 7.4 per 100,000 for all ages (adults and children) and approximately 10.5-13.8 per 100,000 children. The most common cause of AES is viral but definitive diagnosis remains elusive in most cases.Gorakhpur and adjoining areas have been witnessing seasonal outbreaks since 1978. Over the past few years, the clinical pattern of the epidemics has changed with patients having multisystem involvement rather than isolated neurological involvement. The percentage of Japanese encephalitis positive cases have also declined and few studies have identified Enteroviruses as a possible cause, but the exact aetiology still remains undetermined. The changing clinical presentations have also posed a challenge towards the optimal management of patients of encephalitis. The management of AES does not end with acute illness, but prolonged neurological deficits are common, needing not only medical but educational and vocational support, and physiotherapy as well. Evidence based guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of these cases is required

Awareness, knowledge and practice of contact lens use among medical students

Background: Contact lens are thin optical lenses that are commonly used for correcting refractive errors. They are available in various materials, types, and colors. The complications associated with contact lens usage are allergic conjunctivitis, keratitis, and neovascularization. These complications arise with a lack of proper practice and knowledge about contact lens. In our study, we assess the awareness, knowledge, and practice of contact lens use among medical students of Saveetha medical college and hospital. Study design was cross-sectional study. Place of study was Saveetha medical college and hospital, Thandalam, Chennai.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on contact lens users among medical students. A total of 100 contact lens users participated in the study of which 70 were females and 30 were males. The study was done using pretested semi-structured questionnaire. The data were collected, tabulated, and analyzed using SPSS version 25 software.Result: There is a female predominance with about 70%. Most of the participants use contact lens for both cosmetic and refractive errors. About 91% of students use soft contact lens. Nearly 70% of students are not aware of overwear syndrome. Problems faced by contact lens wearers include dryness, eye discomfort, pain, watering, and redness.Conclusions: The lack of proper practice, knowledge, and awareness of contact lens use even in those knowledgeable like medical students increases the risk of complications. Thus, there is a need to provide more education to consumers

Recognizing Facial Expression using PCA and Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents an efficient method of recognition of facial expressions in a video. The works proposes highly efficient facial expression recognition system using PCA optimized by Genetic Algorithm .Reduced computational time and comparable efficiency in terms of its ability to recognize correctly are the benchmarks of this work. Video sequences contain more information than still images hence are in the research subject now-a-days and have much more activities during the expression actions. We use PCA, a statistical method to reduce the dimensionality and are used to extract features with the help of covariance analysis to generate Eigen –components of the images. The Eigen-components as a feature input is optimized by Genetic algorithm to reduce the computation cost

Complete androgenin sensitivity syndrome presenting with primary amenorrhoea and inguinal mass: a case report

Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS), also known as testicular feminization, an X-linked recessive disorder comprises a wide range of phenotypes that are caused by various types of mutations in the androgen receptor gene. AIs can be classified as complete, partial, or mild based on the phenotypic presentation. The clinical findings include a female type of external genitalia, 46-XY karyotype, absence of Mullerian structures, presence of Wolffian structures to various degree, and normal to high testosterone and gonadotropin levels. We report this case as an interesting and rare syndrome. The patient is a 15-year-old phenotypic female who presented with primary amenorrhea and normal-appearing external genitalia. Orchidectomy was done after proper counselling and proper psychological support was given to her

Caste-specific phenotypic plasticity of Asian weaver ants: Revealing the allometric and non-allometric component of female caste system of Oecophylla smaragdina (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) by using geometric morphometrics

In eusocial insects, particularly in ants, caste differentiation is extremely complicated when we rely on traditional taxonomy. In most species, the worker caste does not display any distinct morphological characters neither the caste’s central division according to their morphological size variations. We used a landmark-based geometric morphometric approach to quantify the morphological characteristics of female caste systems (queen, major and minor worker ant) of Oecophylla smaragdina. Our findings suggested that each caste has its unique shape and size. Especially in the worker caste, apart from the size variations, we can use the shape as a prominent tool for distinguishing between them. The O. smaragdina exhibits a triphasic allometry pattern. Studying the allometry and non-allometry components of each caste system revealed a highly complex size and shape relationship in the female caste systems. From the allometric and non-allometric analysis, we concluded that the major worker ants showed a closer relationship with the queen than the minor worker ant. This outcome demonstrated that Asian weaver ant exhibits complex shape variations related to size and is correlated to their functional modular characters. This research sheds new light on caste systems’ taxonomic uncertainties for eusocial hymenopteran groups, especially ants

Mapping the multi-step mechanism of a photoredox catalyzed atom-transfer radical polymerization reaction by direct observation of the reactive intermediates

The rapid development of new applications of photoredox catalysis has so far outpaced the mechanistic studies important for rational design of new classes of catalysts. Here, we report the use of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopic methods to reveal both mechanistic and kinetic details of multiple sequential steps involved in an organocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization reaction. The polymerization system studied involves a N,N-diaryl dihydrophenazine photocatalyst, a radical initiator (methyl 2-bromopropionate) and a monomer (isoprene). Time-resolved spectroscopic measurements spanning sub-picosecond to microseconds (i.e., almost 8 orders of magnitude of time) track the formation and loss of key reactive intermediates. These measurements identify both the excited state of the photocatalyst responsible for electron transfer and the radical intermediates participating in propagation reactions, as well as quantifying their lifetimes. The outcomes connect the properties of N,N-diaryl dihydrophenazine organic photocatalysts with the rates of sequential steps in the catalytic cycle

A study of 7-deaza-2′-deoxyguanosine–2′-deoxycytidine base pairing in DNA

The incorporation of 7-deazaguanine modifications into DNA is frequently used to probe protein recognition of H-bonding information in the major groove of DNA. While it is generally assumed that 7-deazaguanine forms a normal Watson–Crick base pair with cytosine, detailed thermodynamic and structural analyses of this modification have not been reported. The replacement of the 7-N atom on guanine with a C–H, alters the electronic properties of the heterocycle and eliminates a major groove cation-binding site that could affect the organization of salts and water in the major groove. We report herein the characterization of synthetic DNA oligomers containing 7-deazaguanine using a variety of complementary approaches: UV thermal melting, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD), chemical probing and NMR. The results indicate that the incorporation of a 7-deazaguanine modification has a significant effect on the dynamic structure of the DNA at the flanking residue. This appears to be mediated by changes in hydration and cation organization

Isolation, screening and identification of amylase and catalase producing bacterial strains from marine sediments

Marine sediments are valuable source of industrially useful enzymes. Here, we attempted isolation, screening and identification of bacterial strains from marine sediments which produce industrially important enzymes amylase and catalase. Marine sediment samples were collected and cultured on zobell marine agar medium. After incubation, the isolates that showed amylase and catalase activity were selected for the assay. The strains AM01 and Ca07 showed the highest amylase and catalase activity, respectively. The selected strains were further sequenced for identification. Morphological studies indicated that the isolates were Gram -ve, rod shaped and non-motile organism. The phenotypic characterization and 16S rRNA of the strains AM01 and Ca07 revealed them to be Klebsiella pneumoniae and K. quasipneumoniae, respectivel