Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Over The Counter (OTC) Drugs among Community Pharmacists

INTRODUCTION: Over The Counter (OTC) drugs are drugs which can be sold in the pharmacy without the prescription of registered medical practitioners. Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) regulates import, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs and cosmetics by Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DCA) and its subordinate legislation, Drugs and Cosmetics Rules (DCR), 1940 in India. Community Pharmacists have an important role in modifying patients behaviours and curbing the misuse of OTC. AIM OF THE STUDY: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards OTC drugs dispensing among community pharmacists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire based study was conducted to assess the KAP of OTC drugs among community pharmacists working in the community pharmacies. Pamphlets were provided to community pharmacists to create the awareness about OTC drug dispensing in pharmacy. Questionnaire was distributed to 160 community pharmacists situated in Peelamedu and its surrounding areas. All the data were analysed by using SPSS software and applying descriptive statistics, odds ratio. RESULTS: A total of 160 participants responded to the questionnaire. About 80.6% participants were males and 19.4% were females. All participants having a qualified pharmacy degree [ D. Pharm (15.0%), B. Pharm (66.9%), M. Pharm (15.0%), Pharm. D (3.1%)]. Among 160 participants, 149 (93.1%) good knowledge, 93 (58.1%) positive attitude, 85 (53.1%) practice toward OTC drug dispensing. Respondents age and education qualification were significantly associated with knowledge. Knowledge of OTC drugs among community pharmacists was positively correlated with attitude. CONCLUSION: Community Pharmacists are aware about OTC drugs and had positive attitudes to periodically update information regarding OTC drugs but some of them were less enthusiastic to update their knowledge. They should be properly trained and regularly update about OTC drugs

Awareness On Light Pollution Among Teacher Educators

This article is intended to assess the awareness of light pollution among teacher educators.  The data were collected from Teacher educators who are working in teacher education institutions under Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University (TNTEU). The self-made multiple-choice Questionnaire was used to collect the data. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data.  There are many interesting findings were derived. The present study created an insight and enlightened about the light pollution among teacher educator

A Review of Metallothionein Isoforms and their Role in Pathophysiology

The Metallothionein (MT) is a protein which has several interesting biological effects and has been demonstrated increase focus on the role of MT in various biological systems in the past three decades. The studies on the role of MT were limited with few areas like apoptosis and antioxidants in selected organs even fifty years after its discovery. Now acknowledge the exploration of various isoforms of MT such as MT-I, MT-II, MT-III and MT-IV and other isoforms in various biological systems

DNA microarray profiling of genes differentially regulated by the histone deacetylase inhibitors vorinostat and LBH589 in colon cancer cell lines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite the significant progress made in colon cancer chemotherapy, advanced disease remains largely incurable and novel efficacious chemotherapies are urgently needed. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) represent a novel class of agents which have demonstrated promising preclinical activity and are undergoing clinical evaluation in colon cancer. The goal of this study was to identify genes in colon cancer cells that are differentially regulated by two clinically advanced hydroxamic acid HDACi, vorinostat and LBH589 to provide rationale for novel drug combination partners and identify a core set of HDACi-regulated genes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>HCT116 and HT29 colon cancer cells were treated with LBH589 or vorinostat and growth inhibition, acetylation status and apoptosis were analyzed in response to treatment using MTS, Western blotting and flow cytometric analyses. In addition, gene expression was analyzed using the Illumina Human-6 V2 BeadChip array and Ingenuity^®Pathway Analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Treatment with either vorinostat or LBH589 rapidly induced histone acetylation, cell cycle arrest and inhibited the growth of both HCT116 and HT29 cells. Bioinformatic analysis of the microarray profiling revealed significant similarity in the genes altered in expression following treatment with the two HDACi tested within each cell line. However, analysis of genes that were altered in expression in the HCT116 and HT29 cells revealed cell-line-specific responses to HDACi treatment. In addition a core cassette of 11 genes modulated by both vorinostat and LBH589 were identified in both colon cancer cell lines analyzed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study identified HDACi-induced alterations in critical genes involved in nucleotide metabolism, angiogenesis, mitosis and cell survival which may represent potential intervention points for novel therapeutic combinations in colon cancer. This information will assist in the identification of novel pathways and targets that are modulated by HDACi, providing much-needed information on HDACi mechanism of action and providing rationale for novel drug combination partners. We identified a core signature of 11 genes which were modulated by both vorinostat and LBH589 in a similar manner in both cell lines. These core genes will assist in the development and validation of a common gene set which may represent a molecular signature of HDAC inhibition in colon cancer.</p

Photoelectrochemical properties of CdSxTe1-x films

CdSxTe1-x films were deposited on titanium and conducting glass substrates at room temperature using 0.25 M cadmium sulphate, the concentration of sodium thiosulphate and TeO2 dissolved in sodium hydroxide was varied in the range of 0.01–0.05 M. The as deposited films exhibited hexagonal structure irrespective of the composition. The FWHM maximum of the x-ray diffraction peaks were found to decrease with increase of duty cycle. The optical energy gap values are in the range of 1.54–2.32 eV for films of different composition, it is observed that the band gap shifts towards CdS side as the concentration of CdS in the films increase. Photoelectrochemical cell studies indicated higher short circuit current density and efficiency compared to earlier reports

Neuro Fuzzy Controller for Automatic Battery Charge-Discharge Management system of a Wireless Sensor Node

Background: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are not same this year as past. Wireless sensor nodes of a network have major constraints due to their limited energy, storage capacity, computing power and frequent battery replacement factor, when they meant to collect the information from an unattended location using various sensors. The modern wireless sensor networks deals with power consumption by the sensor node, communication defects, mobility of nodes, size of the sensor node and importantly cost of the sensor node. Researchers&apos; preferably giving more attention to the power consumption of a sensor node as it is the main criteria in all wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Objective: Hence the proposed research implements a novelty power management system by introducing pack of two solar powered batteries and an automatic battery switching system with LabVIEW based real time data acquisition. The battery charge -discharge management system is controlled by the Neuro-Fuzzy control system. Also this present work describes the implementation of the Back propagation algorithm for use in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application. Results: By implementing an Automatic Battery Switching System, a long life sensor node is designed and LabVIEW based real time data acquisition is achieved. Conclusion: Compared with conventional battery management techniques, the proposed research effectively avoids the frequent replacement of batteries in the sensor node about 95%. INTRODUCTION The huge decrease in power consumption and size of CMOS circuitry has led to a huge research effort based around the idea of omnipresent networks of wireless sensor nodes. As the cost and size of such wireless sensor nodes continues to reduce, the probability of their use becoming extensive in automobiles, buildings, aircraft, industrial environments increases. As their cost and size reduces, and as their occurrence increases, effective power provisions become a larger problem. The problem is that the scaling down in cost and size of electronics has put the scaling of power density in batteries, which are by the most common power supply presently used. Therefore, the power supply is usually the main and most costly component of the promising wireless sensor nodes being projected and designed. Normally, the power consumption includes the sensors placed in the nodes, Microcontrollers, wireless transceivers etc (M.T. . Typically, the sensor node power consumption is calculated by monitoring the battery level of the corresponding node by some special sensors. Those sensors will find out the power status and deliver the status through wireless transceiver. But if there are power shortages, the corresponding node will become a sleep node and data transmission is stopped. The possible techniques of providing power for wireless sensor nodes are grouped in to three. They are as follows, 1. store up the energy on the node (battery), 2. allocate power to the node (wire), 3. Scavenge existing ambient energy at the node (solar cell). Fig1 shows a typical wireless sensor node. The wireless sensor node consists of microcontroller unit, sensor array, wireless transceivers and power supply (Battery). Powering the wireless sensor node will include the Energy Reservoirs inside its architecture in order to power the WSN. As said, there are types of Energy Reservoirs. They are Macro-scale Batteries, Micro-scale Batteries, Micro-fuel Cells, Ultra capacitors, radioactive power sources. Unlike power sources that are basically power scavenging sources, energy reservoirs are typically characterized by their power density rather than energy density. Various attractive techniques to gather ambient energy have been recommended over the past few years. Practically, there are really four choices only. They are Differential, Temperature, Vibration Light and RF Energy. There is a restriction to using primary batteries to power WSNs though the capacity. The power consumption necessities for some WSN applications would be such that sizing a battery for the 5-year lifetime would require 66 pound and 12 volt deep discharge cell for a primary source. Occasionally that will work and in sometimes it will not. Hence the requirement of solar powered energy source is essential here. But the generated power (Pg) must be higher than that consumed by the node (Pc), on average when harvesting the energy from the ambient. The transducer converts ambient energy into electrical energy, with a given efficiency. For any arbitrary time period T in which Pc &gt; Pg, the storage unit must fulfill the condition