Studies on the influence of host plants and effect of chemical stimulants on the feeding behavior in the muga silkworm, Antheraea assamensis

The feeding habits of Antheraea assamensis, Helfer (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) larvae towards the leaves of its four different host plants, Persea bombycina King ex. Hook (Laurales: Lauraceae), Litsea polhantha Jussieu, L. salicifolia Roxburgh ex. Nees and L. citrata Blume, and the chemical basis of feeding preference were investigated. Nutritional superiority of young and medium leaves with respect to soluble protein, total phenol and phenylalanine ammonia lyase activity was observed in the leaves of P. bombycina compared to other host plants. Attraction and feeding tests with detached leaves and artificial diet with different chemical stimulants revealed that a mixture of the flavonoids, myrcetin, and 7, 2’, 4’ trimethoxy dihydroxy flavone with sterol compound β-sitosterol elicited the most biting behavior by A. assamensis larvae. While linalyl acetate alone attracted larvae towards the leaves of the host plants, a mixture of caryophyllene, decyl aldehyde and dodecyl aldehyde was found to both attract them to the host leaves and cause biting behavior. Azaindole was found to deter them from the host plants

Integrating Statistics and Systems-Based Content in Undergraduate Medical Education Using a Novel Competitive Game—“The Study Puzzles”

Educators and professionals recognize the importance for inclusion of statistics in contemporary medical education programs and advocate its consideration for curricular integration. Given medical students’ perceptions about statistics, educators must explore pedagogical strategies that foster student engagement, ensure relevance of content, improve motivation and self-efficacy, and, ultimately, facilitate long-term retention of content knowledge. Games, with and without competitive elements, have been implemented successfully in both statistics and medical education. This paper presents a competitive game, known as “study puzzles,” that integrates statistics content with other systems-based content in the undergraduate medical education curriculum through the use of published research articles