Depression, Anxiety and Stress Reduction in Medical Education: Humor as an Intervention

Background: In recent years there has been a growing appreciation of the issues of quality of life and stresses involved in medical training as this may affect their learning and academic performance. Objective of the study was to explore the effectiveness of humor when used as intervention in large group teaching over negative emotions amongst students. Method: The present Interventional, Randomized control trial study was carried out on medical students of 4th Semester of RMCH, Bareilly, which has total 90 students. Using simple random sampling lottery method the whole class was divided in two groups-A and B consisting of 45 students each. Group A as control group and Group B experimental group. In first and last lecture of both groups Dass-21 was used as measuring scale, for depression, anxiety and stress and results were compared to see the effect of humor on these three negative emotions. Result: Comparison of Severe and Extremely severe Stress: In Group A 40.54% in class -1 increased to 47.54% in class- 4, while in group B initial 13.15 % was reduced to 0 % (highly significant). Anxiety: In group A, after Class 1 -57.45% increased to 61.11% after class 4, while in group B, after class 1- 23.68% reduced to 2.27% only (highly significant). Depression: In group A, after Class 1 - 40.53% & 41.66 % after class 4 (not significant), while in group B, after class 1- 18.41% reduced to 0% (highly significant). Conclusion: In present study humor was found to be very effective intervention in relieving students on their negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress to a larger extent. Further research would justify the use of humor as an effective teaching aid in medical education

The relative importance of home and host innovation systems in the internationalisation of MNE R&D: a patent citation analysis

host innovation systems, internationalisation, MNE, R&D

Disintegration, modularity and entry mode choice: Mirroring technical and organizational architectures in business functions offshoring

We study the relationship between modularity and entry mode choice in the context of business functions offshoring. We define the degree of modularity of an activity as technical architecture (whether it can be detached from the rest of the value chain without loss of synergies). We refer to the entry mode chosen as organizational architecture (whether a captive solution, a partnership or outsourcing). We propose that the selection of entry mode should reflect the alignment of the technical and organizational architectures: that is, they need to be ‘mirrored’. Modular activities are more likely to be outsourced, as modularity decreases transaction costs and knowledge leakages risks, while not-modular activities reflect captive entry modes. Based on the analysis of 486 business function offshoring initiatives, we also argue that firms can “break” the mirror as the entry choice is contingent upon the level of disintegration of the value chain and the offshoring experience of the firms

Role of root exudates in plant-microbe interactions

The interactions in the rhizosphere are leading to a highly structured microbial community which, to a great deal, is influenced by the root exudates of plant origin. In this review, we have included the different types of interaction with special regard to the root exudates’ function in such positive or negative interactions beween plants and both bacterial and fungal partners of the plant in the rhizosphere, including mycorrhiza, nitrogen-fixing symbionts, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria endophytes and biological control organisms as well as allelopathy, antimicrobial effects and effects on nematodes. The differences in root exudates induced by microbial associations, role of quorum sensing in structuring communitites and effect on biogeochemical cycles are reviewed. The focus is put on agricultural systems and implications for ecosystems on arable land are drawn