Specialty Preference Among Medical Students and Factors Affecting It

Introduction: Medical education is one of the core part of educational system of any country. Medical education requires undergraduate students to study a wide range of medical specialties. It is often assumed that students do not make their career preferences until after they have graduated from medical school. So the reasons and factors responsible for preferences need to be found out among medical students. Material and Methods: It was a Cross sectional study on 180 medical students to assess preference for specialty and factors responsible. Results: Out of total 190 medical students more or less everyone (97.89%) wanted to pursue specialization and majority of them (96.84%) wanted to pursue the same in Medical Field(p>0.05). majority of male students were interested to pursue their specialization in the field of medicine (37.63%), surgery (23.65%) and pediatrics (13.97%). On the other hand female students were more interested in medicine (24.17%), pediatrics (32.96%) and obstetrics & gynecology (24.17%)(p<0.05). Interest, by far was found to be most common factor (76.63%) responsible for the preference of particular medical specialty among all four groups of students (1st professional-25.27%, 2nd professional-75.92%, final professional-89.47%, interns-68.42%).Conclusion: It is thus concluded there are many factors playing role in the specialty selection and preference among the medical students and should be equally justified and addressed

Study of antioxidant activity and free radical scavenging power of Rheum Ribes flower extract

In recent years, the use of synthetic antioxidants and the degradation products derived from them is limited, because they are toxic and carcinogenic. So, studying on the use of natural antioxidants to replace the synthetic antioxidants is very important. Natural antioxidants are healthier and have more benefits and fewer harmful side effects. In this study, first, the Rheum Ribes of flower was extracted by maceration method with methanol. The extract’s phenolic compounds and inhibitory activity of free radicals were evaluated in different concentrations (100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 ppm) by Folin-Ciocalteu method and DPPH test, respectively and then, compared with the synthetic antioxidant of BHT at the constant concentration of 200 ppm. The results showed that the highest antioxidant properties of the extract was related to the concentration of 300 ppm and also the concentration of 250 ppm of the extract of Rheum Ribes of flower was equivalent to a concentration of 200 ppm of BHT in terms of free radical scavenging properties.Keywords: Rheum Ribes flower, Free radical scavenging power, Natural antioxidants, Phenolic compound

A comparative study of a bio fuel cell with two different proton exchange membrane for the production of electricity from waste water

In the present study, electricity generation with waste water as substrate was investigated in a two compartment biofuel cell with two different combinations of electrodes and membrane. Two proton exchange membranes namely nafion and agar salt bridge and aluminum as electrode were used in the biofuel cell. It was found that biofuel cells operated with nafion produce maximum voltage 0.504 V with a current density of 0.1 A/m2 whereas in case of agar salt bridge maximum voltage of 0.145 V with a current density of 0.05 A/m2 was obtained. The more voltage produced in case of nafion is attributed to its low resistance for hydrogen ion transport

Study of antioxidant activity and free radical scavenging power of Physalis alkekengi flower extract

According to the undesirable effects of many chemical preservatives in food products such as oilseed extraction industry, the possibility of substituting these materials with effective compounds of herbal plants have been considered by the researchers. In this study, at first, the Physalis Alkekengi flower extract was extracted by using maceration method with methanol. The Phenolic compounds and the amount of free radical scavenging activity of the flower extract were investigated in different concentrations (200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 ppm), respectively by Folin–Ciocalteu method and DPPH test and were compared with the synthetic antioxidant activity (BHT) at 200 ppm. The results showed a significant difference between different concentrations of Physalis Alkekengi flower extract, in terms of the rate of Phenolic compounds and free radical scavenging activity of flower extract (p &lt; 0.05). In general, the results of this study showed that the methanol extract of Physalis Alkekengi flower, as a source of cheap and available natural antioxidant, after conducting supplementary experiments can be used in food industry.Keywords: Physalis Alkekengi flower, Free radical scavenging power, Natural antioxidants,Phenolic compounds

The comparison of the minimum data set for elderly health in selected countries

Introduction: Ongoing increase in the elderly population in many developed countries has drawn attention to health of this age group. Recording adequate and relevant data for the elderly is considered as the basis for future planning for this segment of society. So this study was conducted to compare minimum data about elderly health in selected countries. Methods: This review study was conducted through Internet and library studies. Key words were extracted from search engines and data bases including Google, Yahoo, Google Scholar, PubMed, ProQuest and Iranian National Medical Digital Library. Inclusion criteria included English language with no time limits. All articles, research projects, theses, guidelines and progress reports were retrieved from the United States, Sweden, Japan and Iran and reviewed. Also, websites of organizations responsible for elderly health in selected countries were visited and their documents were reviewed. Results from this search were provided narratively and finally were presented within comparison tables. Findings: The findings of this study showed that elderly data in the selected countries are collected around four axis including minimum demographic data, medical histories, health assessment and financial data of elderly health. Discussion and Conclusion: Given the importance of the minimum data set of elderly health for future planning, the use of experiences of leading countries in elderly health seems necessary; however, localization of it according to the country's needs is inevitable. © 2015 Nasrin Davaridolatabadi, Mehraban Shahi, Farahnaz Sadoughi, Maryam Ahmadi

ROLE OF EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT IN OPTICAL TRANSPORT NETWORK

The ever-developing interest of present day society for information with enhanced execution over longer separations have made the system complex in terms of architecture, technologies, Network Elements, communication between Network Elements, security and signaling control. Equipment Management as a segment of Network Management System gives administrators the capacity to control general operation of the NEs, superintend interaction among NEs and to upper layer administration framework, thus automating the task of managing complex network. This paper presents the role of Equipment Management in Optical Transport Network and some of its challenges

Removal of hexavalent chromium Cr (VI) using activated carbon prepared from mango kernel activated with H3PO4

The present work reported the adsorption of Cr (VI) from aqueous solutions on activated carbon prepared from mango kernel, a seasonal waste from mango fruits. Kernels from dried mango fruit shells were taken out and pulverized in a micro-pulverizing mill. The powder thus obtained was activated with 40% H3PO4 and carbonized at 600 °C for 1 hour in an inert atmosphere. Physico-chemical characteristics such as elemental composition, surface area, functional groups and surface morphology of the activated carbon were analyzed using elemental analyzer, BET surface area analyzer, FTIR spectroscopy and SEM analysis respectively. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to investigate the effects of Cr (VI) concentration, carbon dose, pH, rate of agitation, time and temperature. The maximum adsorption capacity of Cr(VI) was found to be 7.8 mg g−1 at pH 2 and temperature 35 °C. The Langmuir adsorption isotherm best represented the equilibrium data and a pseudo-second order relation represented the adsorption kinetics

Dredging induced changes in zooplankton community and water quality in Dal Lake, Kashmir, India

A study was conducted from July 2013 to June 2014 to assess the outcome of dredging activity on the water characteristics and zooplankton community structure in Dal Lake. An assessment was done with respect to alterations in physico-chemical  parameters and zooplankton community changes in predredged and post-dredging periods. The results showed a considerable  reduction in Secchi transparency while water depth, conductivity, total dissolved solids, nitrate and total phosphorous concentrations increased noticeably in post dredging scenario. Variations in the values of dissolved oxygen, pH and temperature as a result of dredging were not statistically significant. The environmental changes as a result of dredging activity affected the structure and distribution of zooplankton community; the abundance of rotifers decreased, while the crustaceans increased. The prominent taxa were Brachionus sp., Keratella cochlearis, Bosmina longirostris, Chydorus sphaericus and Diaptomus sp.Key words: Dredging, water quality, zooplankton, rotifer, crustacean