Perspectives of Medical Students & Teachers Regarding the Use of Different Lecture Methods

Background: Teaching methods used for lectures are mostly teacher-centered and not learner-centered. The method used for lectures is mainly determined by the teacher as per his/her convenience. The students are never asked about the lecture method which helps them in better learning. This can lead to poor understanding by students which in turn may hamper the learning process. Objectives: To find out the perspectives of students & teachers about the use of different lecture methods. Methodology: Views & opinions of 488 medical students & 47 medical teachers of a medical college about different types of teaching methods namely Traditional (chalk and board), over head projector and power point presentation were collected in an observational study with the help of separate questionnaires. Results: Most of the students (51.6%) prefer traditional method for the lectures, 54.9% have better understanding with traditional method (p<0.05), 61.5% students feel that they can concentrate more with traditional method (p<0.05) while 58% students feel that it is easy to note down important points with the help of Power point presentation (p<0.05). Large proportion of teachers (78.7%) prefer Power point presentation for classroom teaching, 76.6% teachers are willing to change to other method of classroom teaching if required, 80.5% teachers would like to have their performance monitored for self evaluation & self improvement. Overhead projector is neither preferred by students nor teacher as a teaching tool. Conclusion: A combination of traditional and power point presentation is preferred by the students for a better teaching-learning process. Keywords: Lecture; Chalk and talk; Powerpoint

Perspectives of Medical Students & Teachers Regarding the Use of Different Lecture Methods

Background: Teaching methods used for lectures are mostly teacher-centered and not learner-centered. The method used for lectures is mainly determined by the teacher as per his/her convenience. The students are never asked about the lecture method which helps them in better learning. This can lead to poor understanding by students which in turn may hamper the learning process. Objectives: To find out the perspectives of students & teachers about the use of different lecture methods. Methodology: Views & opinions of 488 medical students & 47 medical teachers of a medical college about different types of teaching methods namely Traditional (chalk and board), over head projector and power point presentation were collected in an observational study with the help of separate questionnaires. Results: Most of the students (51.6%) prefer traditional method for the lectures, 54.9% have better understanding with traditional method (p<0.05), 61.5% students feel that they can concentrate more with traditional method (p<0.05) while 58% students feel that it is easy to note down important points with the help of Power point presentation (p<0.05). Large proportion of teachers (78.7%) prefer Power point presentation for classroom teaching, 76.6% teachers are willing to change to other method of classroom teaching if required, 80.5% teachers would like to have their performance monitored for self evaluation & self improvement. Overhead projector is neither preferred by students nor teacher as a teaching tool. Conclusion: A combination of traditional and power point presentation is preferred by the students for a better teaching-learning process. Keywords: Lecture; Chalk and talk; Powerpoint

Influence of Monovalent and Divalent Ions in the Conformational Change of Caspase-Cleaved Par-4 (cl-Par-4) Tumor Suppressor Protein

Prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4) is a pro-apoptotic tumor suppressor protein. We have shown that this 38 kDa full-length Par-4 (Fl-Par-4) protein is predominantly intrinsically disordered in vitro. In vivo, Par-4 is cleaved by caspase-3 at Asp-131 to generate a 24 kDa functionally active cleaved Par-4 (cl-Par-4) fragment. The cl-Par-4 protein inhibits the NF-κB-mediated cell survival pathway and causes selective apoptosis in various tumor cells. Our laboratory is interested in how the disorder-order balance within Fl-Par-4 and cl-Par-4 may be related to the balance between cell survival and cell death. Currently, we are using biophysical techniques such as circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), UV-vis spectroscopy and SDS-PAGE to characterize the structure of cl-Par-4 in the presence of various concentrations of monovalent and divalent ions, in order to shed light on the possible ion-specific role of cl-Par-4 in inducing structure and self-association of this protein. Results show that effects on cl-Par-4 conformation are ion-specific, and effects of divalent cations are considerably more pronounced than effects from monovalent cations. We have also found that the anion moiety of a salt possesses almost negligible influence.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2021_sciences/1000/thumbnail.jp

Structual Analysis of the cl-Par-4 Tumor Suppressor as a Function of Ionic Environment

Prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4) is a proapoptotic tumor suppressor protein that has been linked to a large number of cancers. This 38 kilodalton (kDa) protein has been shown to be predominantly intrinsically disordered in vitro. In vivo, Par-4 is cleaved by caspase-3 at Asp-131 to generate the 25 kDa functionally active cleaved Par-4 protein (cl-Par-4) that inhibits NF-κB-mediated cell survival pathways and causes selective apoptosis in tumor cells. Here, we have employed circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS) to assess the effects of various monovalent and divalent salts upon the conformation of cl-Par-4 in vitro. We have previously shown that high levels of sodium can induce the cl-Par-4 fragment to form highly compact, highly helical tetramers in vitro. Spectral characteristics suggest that most or at least much of the helical content in these tetramers are non-coiled coils. Here, we have shown that potassium produces a similar effect as was previously reported for sodium and that magnesium salts also produce a similar conformation effect, but at an approximately five times lower ionic concentration. We have also shown that anion identity has far less influence than does cation identity. The degree of helicity induced by each of these salts suggests that the “Selective for Apoptosis in Cancer cells” (SAC) domain—the region of Par-4 that is most indispensable for its apoptotic function—is likely to be helical in cl-Par-4 under the studied high salt conditions. Furthermore, we have shown that under medium-strength ionic conditions, a combination of high molecular weight aggregates and smaller particles form and that the smaller particles are also highly helical, resembling at least in secondary structure, the tetramers found at high salt

A Pathway to Solving the Structure of cl-Par-4 Tumor Suppressor Protein: Challenges & Findings

Prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4) is a pro-apoptotic tumor suppressor protein. Down-regulation of this protein has been reported in a myriad of cancers. Conversely, up-regulation of Par-4 is found to be associated with several neurodegenerative disorders. Par-4 is unique in the sense it can selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells. For this, caspase-dependent intracellular cleavage of Par-4 is essential to produce the functionally active fragment, cl-Par-4 (caspase-cleaved Par-4). The cl-Par-4 protein inhibits the NF-κB-mediated cell survival pathway and causes selective apoptosis in various tumor cells. Our laboratory is interested in determining the structure of cl-Par-4 and understanding it’s interaction with various proteins. Currently, we are using biophysical techniques such as circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and SDS-PAGE to characterize the structure of cl-Par-4 in the presence of various concentrations of monovalent and divalent ions, in order to shed light on the possible ion-specific role of cl-Par-4 in inducing structure and self-association of this protein. Results show that effects on cl-Par-4 conformation are ion-specific, and effects of divalent cations are considerably more pronounced than effects from monovalent cations. We have also found that the cl-Par-4 shows a better stability in presence of Cl- ions than in presence of SO42- ions. Further, with the help of D313K mutant of cl-Par-4, we investigated that charge-charge repulsion between similar charged amino acid residues in leucine zipper is responsible for high salt at neutral pH or low salt at low pH requirement of cl-Par-4. All these findings will be helpful in getting the structured conformation of cl-Par-4 and, therefore, determining the structure of this protein via X-ray crystallography or via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2022_sciences/1013/thumbnail.jp

Prevalence and Indications of Cesarean Section in a Community Hospital of Western Region of Nepal

  Introduction: Cesarean section is one of the common obstetric procedures done when the childbirth is not anticipated to occur by the normal vaginal delivery. There has been increased rate of cesarean section globally as well as in our country in recent decades. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study has been carried out by reviewing a year of data from maternity ward of Paschimanchal Community Hospital, Prithvi Chowk, Pokhara. The total number of delivery, their modes either vaginal or cesarean, indications for the cesarean section and their outcomes were analyzed. The obtained data was entered and analyzed in Microsoft Excel. Results: Total of 257 cases underwent delivery during the study period and 174 (63.27%) were by cesarean section. Oligohydramnios is the most common indication for cesarean section. Around 25 (14.36%) of the women underwent repeat cesarean section. Conclusions: The rate of cesarean section was quite high in our study and further studies are recommended for understanding of causes and other associated factors with it

Par-4: An Attractive Target for Cancer Therapy

Lack of early diagnosis, cancer recurrence, metastasis, and adverse side effects are some of the major problems in the treatment of cancers. Par-4, a tumor suppressor protein, is an attractive target for cancer therapy as it selectively kills cancer cells. Cl-Par-4 is the active fragment of Par-4 that enters the nucleus and selectively induces apoptosis in cancer cells. It has also been reported that Par-4 increases the susceptibility of cancer cells to chemotherapy and reverses cancer recurrence. Further, Par-4 has been shown to play a dual role: inhibition of EMT (Epithelial-mesenchymal transition) as well as assistance in the reverse process, thereby lowering the chance of cancer metastasis. Because of these unique properties of Par-4, it offers an attractive target for developing anticancer therapy. However, so far only the C-terminal coiled-coil domain has been studied structurally. Here, we have optimized conditions that will be helpful in the structural determination of cl-Par-4 using NMR and X-ray crystallography.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2023_sciences/1017/thumbnail.jp

Characterization of Cl-Par-4: WT vs. Mutant

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) play important roles in regulation of cell signaling pathways as well as cellular processes. Dysregulation of these proteins is associated with several human diseases. Prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4), a proapoptotic tumor suppressor protein, is categorized as an intrinsically disordered protein and downregulation of this protein has been reported in myriad of cancers including glioma, breast cancers, and prostate cancers. The caspase-cleaved fragment of Par-4 (cl-Par-4) plays an active role in tumor suppression by inhibiting several cell survival pathways. Here, we employed site-directed mutagenesis to introduce a point mutation in the cl-Par-4 wildtype (WT) to generate the D313K cl-Par-4 mutant. We have characterized both the mutant and the WT using various biophysical techniques such as CD, DLS, and NMR to determine the effect of the D313K mutation. The results show that D313K cl-Par-4 attains a compact and well-folded helical conformation, possibly a tetramer, similar to that of the WT in presence of high salt at physiological pH. However, D313K does so with half the amount of salt required for the WT. This establishes that the substitution of a basic residue for an acidic residue at position 313 alleviates inter-helical charge repulsion between dimer partners and helps to stabilize the structural conformation.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2023_gradschool/1004/thumbnail.jp

Novel bacteriophage therapy for controlling metallo-beta-lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in Catfish

Background: The bacteriophage therapy is an effective antimicrobial approach with potentially important applications in medicine and biotechnology which can be seen as an additional string in the bow. Emerging drug resistant bacteria in aquaculture industry due to unrestricted use of antibiotics warrants more sustainable and environmental friendly strategies for controlling fish infections. The isolated bacteria from fish lesions was characterised based on isolation on selective and differential medium like Pseudomonas agar, gram staining, biochemical tests and 16SrRNA sequencing. The metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) producing bacterial isolate was evaluated using Imipenem - Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) disk method. The specific bacteriophage was isolated and concentrated using coal bed developed in our lab at CSIR-NEERI. The isolated and enriched bacteriophage was characterised by nucleotide sequencing and electron microscopy. The phage therapy was applied for treating ulcerative lesion in fish. Results: The pathogenic bacterium responsible for causing ulcerative lesions in catfish species (Clarias gariepinus) was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. One out of twenty P. aeruginosa isolate showing multi drug resistance (MDR) was incidentally found to be MBL producing as determined by Imipenem-EDTA disk method. The phage therapy effectively cured the ulcerative lesions of the infected fish in 8–10 days of treatment, with a sevenfold reduction of the lesion with untreated infection control. Conclusion: Bacteriophage therapy can have potential applications soon as an alternative or as a complement to antibiotic treatment in the aquaculture. We present bacteriophage therapy as a treatment method for controlling MDR P. aeruginosa infection in C. gariepinus. To the best of our knowledge this is a first report of application of phage therapy against MBL producing P. aeruginosa isolated from aquatic ecosystem. Keywords: P. aeruginosa, Multi drug resistance, Metallo-β-lactamase, Bacteriophage therapy, Catfis