PERCEIVED SOURCES OF STRESS AMONG BIOALLIED SCIENCE STUDENTS OF SOUTH INDIA

Health care profession is considered a stressful occupation. Stress in these professions is not just confined to their practice, but is experienced by students within the same academic environment. Stress among students of bioallied sciences (Dental, Nursing, Pharmacy & Ayurvedic) is associated with cognitive impairment and is detrimental to health. Objective: To know the sources of stress among bioallied science students. Methods: A cross sectional study design using a modified version of Dental Environment Stress questionnaire (DESQ) was used to assess the stress among Dental, Pharmacy, Ayurvedic and Nursing students. Results: Dental students showed higher stress domains, followed by Nursing, Pharmacy students being the least. Conclusion: The findings of this study do not support that student of dental, & allied sciences experience high stress levels overall but, they have important issues and stress level vary according to that for each profession

Grape extract protect against ionizing radiation-induced DNA damage

Grape extracts of different cultivars (Flame seedless, Kishmish chorni, Red globe and Thompson seedless) were investigated for in vitro antioxidant activity by ABTS assay, and compared protective efficacy against radiation-induced DNA damage. Seed extract showed the highest scavenging activity, followed by skin extract. Among different cultivars, ‘flame seedless’ skin extract showed higher scavenging activity followed by ‘Kishmish chorni’ skin extract. Grape extracts significantly prevented radiation-induced plasmid DNA damage. Super-coiled pBR 322 plasmid DNA (~93%) is completely converted to open circular (~97%) and linear (~2%) form at a dose of 150 Gy γ-radiation. Pretreatment with different grape extracts showed various degree of protection against radiation-induced DNA damage. Pretreatment with 1.6 µg grape skin extract of ‘Thompson seedless’ cultivar or grape flesh extract of any tested cultivar diminished the DNA strand breaks, and there was an increase in the super coiled form of DNA against 150 Gy of γ-radiation. However, pretreated pBR 322 DNA with the skin of ‘Kishmish chorni’ cultivars or seed of ‘red globe’ grape cultivars remained static during electrophoresis and confined in the groove on exposure to 150 Gy γ-radiation treatment. Co-treatment with the skin of red globe cultivar also partially confined plasmid DNA in the groove. The same trend was observed when plasmid DNA was exposed to 1.2 kGy γ-radiation. Our investigation revealed that anthocyanin present in grape skin was probably involved in radio protective activities through the formation of co-pigmentation with DNA

Grape extract protect against ionizing radiation-induced DNA damage

219-227Grape extracts of different cultivars (Flame seedless, Kishmish chorni, Red globe and Thompson seedless) were investigated for in vitro antioxidant activity by ABTS assay, and compared protective efficacy against radiation-induced DNA damage. Seed extract showed the highest scavenging activity, followed by skin extract. Among different cultivars, ‘flame seedless’ skin extract showed higher scavenging activity followed by ‘Kishmish chorni’ skin extract. Grape extracts significantly prevented radiation-induced plasmid DNA damage. Super-coiled pBR 322 plasmid DNA (~93%) is completely converted to open circular (~97%) and linear (~2%) form at a dose of 150 Gy γ-radiation. Pretreatment with different grape extracts showed various degree of protection against radiation-induced DNA damage. Pretreatment with 1.6 µg grape skin extract of ‘Thompson seedless’ cultivar or grape flesh extract of any tested cultivar diminished the DNA strand breaks, and there was an increase in the super coiled form of DNA against 150 Gy of γ-radiation. However, pretreated pBR 322 DNA with the skin of ‘Kishmish chorni’ cultivars or seed of ‘red globe’ grape cultivars remained static during electrophoresis and confined in the groove on exposure to 150 Gy γ-radiation treatment. Co-treatment with the skin of red globe cultivar also partially confined plasmid DNA in the groove. The same trend was observed when plasmid DNA was exposed to 1.2 kGy γ-radiation. Our investigation revealed that anthocyanin present in grape skin was probably involved in radio protective activities through the formation of co-pigmentation with DNA

A study on coronary dominance and luminal diameters of major coronary arteries in cadaveric human hearts of the Maharashtra population

The study was undertaken to assess the coronary dominance and variations in luminal diameters of major coronary arteries and to compare the relation between the coronary dominance and variation in luminal diameter and between coronary dominance and number of vessels measuring less than 2.5 mm in diameter, in 75 cadaveric human hearts obtained from the Department of Anatomy from the various medical colleges of western Maharashtra, India. Out of 75 hearts, 58 (77.33%) showed right dominance, 14 (18.67%) showed left dominance and 3 (4%) showed codominant pattern. No significant difference was noted in the luminal diameters of coronary arteries (right coronary artery, marginal artery, posterior interventricular artery, left coronary artery, anterior interventricular branch, circumflex branch) among the dominance type. It was also observed that 63 hearts (84%) showed more than 2 arteries measuring less than 2.5mm in diameter. To conclude, a majority of the population has a right predominance and hence the chances of suffering from coronary artery disease are relatively less, but howe ver 84% of the sample under study had more than two coronary arteries measuring less than 2.5 mm in diameter out of the 6 arteries studied, thus increasing susceptibility of thrombosis in these arteries and therefore increasing the chances of myocardial infarction

Leptin Activates Human B Cells to Secrete TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 via JAK2/STAT3 and p38MAPK/ERK1/2 Signaling Pathway

Leptin, one of the adipokines, functions as a hormone and a cytokine. In this investigation, we show for the first time that leptin, in a concentration-dependent manner, activates human peripheral blood B cells to induce secretion of IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α. Leptin increased B cells expressing CD25 and HLA-DR. Leptin induces phosphorylation of Janus activation kinase 2 (JAK2), signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2). Furthermore, leptin-induced cytokine secretion by B cells was blocked by inhibitors of JAK2, STAT3, p38MAPK, and ERK1/2. These data demonstrate that leptin activates human B cells to secrete cytokines via activation of JAK2/STAT3 and p38MAPK/ERK1/2 signaling pathways, which may contribute to its inflammatory and immunoregulatory properties

Age estimation of indian adults from orthopantomographs

The aim of this study was to develop a method for estimating the chronological age of Indian adults based on the relationship between age and various morphological variables of canine teeth, obtained using orthopantomographs. Orthopantomographs of 120 selected patients were digitized, and radiographic images of the right maxillary canine in each case were processed using a computer aided drafting program. Pulp/tooth area ratio, pulp/root length ratio, pulp/tooth length ratio, pulp/root width ratio at the cemento-enamel junction level, pulp/root width ratio at midroot level, and pulp/root width ratio at the midpoint between the cemento-enamel junction and the midroot of the canine were calculated by measuring various features on the images. Pearson's correlation, multiple linear regression, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Student's t-test were used for statistical analysis. Regression equations were developed to estimate age from morphological variables. The observed minus the estimated age in the total study sample ranged from -2.2 to +1.5 years, in males from -0.9 to +0.8 years, while in females it was from -1 to +0.8 years. Differences between observed and estimated ages of subjects were not statistically significant. In conclusion there is a linear relationship of pulp/root width ratio at mid-root level and pulp/tooth area ratio of the right maxillary canine with chronological age in the Indian population. Age of subjects can therefore be estimated with a good degree of accuracy using regression equations

A Preliminary Cost Effective Qualitative Assay for Diastase Analysis in Honey

Quality characteristics of honey can be evaluated in terms of some of its biochemical characteristics which are quite unique to honey and not easy to be adulterated. One such important quality index is its diastase enzyme activity. Primary source of diastase in honey is considered to be secretionsfrom the salivary and hypopharyngeal glands of foraging bees. For ease of evaluation, a simple and cost effective “In-vitro Starch Hydrolysis Plate Assay (ISHPA)” is proposed here that has been compared with the existing standard Schade method (Diastase number) and displayed a good correlation (R2 =0.93). The proposed method is quite simple, qualitative, cost effective and suitable for routine analysis of diastase activity in different honey samples

Phytochemicals from <i>Andrographis paniculata</i>

3159-3163Andrographis paniculata is an important medicinal plant possessing hepatoprotective and other pharmacological properties. The detailed chemical investigation of the aerial parts of the plant led to the isolation of one new flavone glycoside, three first time reported compounds from the plant and a mixture of four steroids of which three are first time reported. Besides these seven known compounds have also been isolated

Adverse health effects and unhealthy behaviors among dental undergraduates surfing social networking sites

Introduction: Little is known about the relationships between adverse health effects and unhealthy behaviors among dental undergraduate students surfing social networking sites (SNSs). Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the associations between adverse health effects and unhealthy behaviors with social networking usage among dental students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a private university in Madhya Pradesh (India) among 300 dental undergraduate students. A self-administered questionnaire was used. It included questions on sociodemographical data, pattern of social networking use, social relationship, unhealthy behaviors, and health effects. Results: The mean age was 21.5 (±2.3) years. The average daily SNSs surfing hours were 3.5 (±1.8). Significant associations were found between average hours of social networking and the following factors: isolation from family members and society, refusing to answer calls, musculoskeletal pain, headache, and eye irritation (P < 0.001). The average hours spent on social networking were significantly associated with holding urination and defecation while online, surfing SNSs until midnight, and postponing, forgetting, or skipping meals (P < 0.001). Cohen's effect size value between adverse health effect and social networking hours were 0.78, 0.86, 0.82, 0.86, and 0.81 for back pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain, headache, and eye irritation, respectively. The effect size value between health-related behaviors and social networking hours were 0.72, 0.62, 0.72, 0.71, and 0.84 for holding urine, holding defecation, postponing meal, skipping meal, and social networking until midnight, respectively. Gender-wise comparison for social networking hours showed a low practical significance (d = 0.09). Conclusions: The average hours spent on social networking were associated with adverse health effects and unhealthy behaviors among dental undergraduate students, as well as social isolation from the family and society