Assessment of factor affecting performance of undergraduate medical students at GMERS medical college, Dharpur-Patan, North Gujarat, India: a cross sectional and descriptive study

Background: Undergraduate medical education in India and many developing nations is facing new challenges today. Multiple stressors including academic burden, parental pressure and even psychological ailments affect medical students. Depression, burnout and stress are commonly seen in medical students. This increases psychiatric morbidity and affects performance.              This study was conducted to extract the factors which are important factors for the effective learning of students and influences their performance during curriculum.Methods: This cross sectional and descriptive study was carried out among 100 MBBS student of 2015 of GMERS medical college, Dharpur-Patan during March to April 2018. Students were administered pre-designed and structured questionnaire after obtaining their informed consent while seated in the lecture hall. Responses of questionnaires were analyzed with Epi Info 7.0 and MS Excel. Frequencies and percentages were calculated and Chi-square test was applied to find out significance.Results: Most important factors which were affecting students’ performance in our study were language problems, competent teachers, social media and campus environment. 70% students have no issue with financial status. Majority students prefer self study.Conclusions: Identification of hidden factors affecting academic performance is very important in very early stage so they can perform better in their study in future. Language, hostel environment, teachers’ attitude towards students etc are also certain important factors which help students to perform better in curriculum.</jats:p

Electrochemistry of (Thia)Calix[4]Arenes Bearing Various Redox Probes

Calixarene skeleton is a stable supramolecular frame which is, however, electrochemically inactive. Introduction of one or more electroactive substituents to the molecule enable its electrochemical investigation, moreover, the interpretation of series of electrochemical data can reveal the distribution of electrons in the molecule, their mutual communication, shape of the molecule, its dynamic behaviour etc. Suitable substitution on the upper and/or lower rim can influence not only geometry of the molecule, but also its reactivity and coordination ability. Generally, structure modification or introduction of heteroatoms lead to unusual and surprising properties of the whole supramolecule. Thiacalix[4]arenes contain four aromatic units connected by sulphur atoms. This contribution will be focused first on two series of 1,3-alt-conformers bearing one or more nitro groups as electrochemical probes and on other calixarene derivatives bearing various redox probes.. The first series consists of eight para-tetranitro derivatives which resemble each other in their electrochemical response: first two two-electron reversible waves are followed by final step during which a tetrakis(hydroxylamino) derivative is formed. This reduction pattern is analogous to the “standard” methylene-bridged para-tetranitrocalix[4]arenes, where no mutual electron interaction takes place, all nitrogroups are totally independent and a stable tetraanion tetraradical is formed [1,2]. The second series includes four meta-nitro derivatives. Generally, the electroreductive behaviour of them is more complicated (except the first member which bears only one nitrogroup). Presence of two and three nitro groups in the same molecule in position meta towards the lower rim (that means in position ortho- and para- towards the thia bridges), exhibit clear intramolecular communication. [3,4]. This phenomenon was confirmed by quantum chemical calculations. In the third series some newly synthesized derivatives with various redox probes are presented. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the GACR grant No. 17-18108S and by institutional support RVO: 61388955. The authors thank prof. Pavel Lhoták for granting the compounds. Krunal M. Modi - On leave from Chemistry Department, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad-380009 India References: [1] Alan Liška, Pavel Vojtíšek, Albert J. Fry, Jiří Ludvík: J.Org.Chem 78 (2013) 10651 – 10656. [2] Alan Liška, Marco Rosenkranz, Jiří Klíma, Lothar Dunsch, Pavel Lhoták, Jiří Ludvík: Electrochimica Acta 140 (2014) 572 – 578. [3] Alan Liška, Karolína Flídrová, Pavel Lhoták, Jiří Ludvík: Monatsh. Chem. 146 (2015) 857–862. [4] Alan Liška, Jiří Ludvík: Current Opinions in Electrochemistry - submitted </jats:p

Effects of Tobacco on Corneal Endothelial Cells – a Hospital-based Cross-sectional Study from Western Gujarat, India

Background The aim was to evaluate various detrimental effects of tobacco chewing and smoking on corneal endothelial cells and morphology, as tobacco causes various ocular conditions, including cataract, glaucoma, dry eye, optic neuropathy, age-related macular degeneration and many more. Material and methods The cross-sectional study was conducted in the ophthalmology department, focusing on individuals who consumed tobacco, through either smoking or chewing. Each group included 100 patients. Specular microscopy was performed to measure the endothelial cell density, coefficient of variation coefficient of variation, and percentage of hexagonal cells. Results Endothelial cell density and hexagonal cells were significantly higher in non-tobacco users than tobacco users, with p-values 0.05. Only right eye coefficient of variation showed a significant difference, with a p-value < 0.001. Conclusions This study revealed poor corneal endothelia cell health in smokers and tobacco users. Strict law should be enforced to halt tobacco consumption

Isolation and Characterization of Bacillus Consortia for Plant Growth Promotion in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

In this study, soil samples from the rhizosphere of various uncultivated weeds were collected from fifteen different locations of Gujarat. Heat treatment was given at 65°C for 20 minutes prior to initial screening for spore-forming Bacillus spp. Among them, 20 nitrogen-fixing (NFB), 27 phosphate solubilising (PSB) and 15 potassium mobilizing (KMB) isolates were screened primarily. After molecular identification only Bacillus isolates were further selected and characterized. Three superior Bacillus isolates were selected from each category by secondary screening. All isolates belonging to different category were compatible in nature and showed significant ammonia production, ARA, phosphate solubilisation, potassium mobilization, siderophore production, IAA production and organic acid producers.  The relative expression analysis of three genes NRT2.1 (Nitrate transporter), PT6 (Phosphorus transporter), and AKT1 (Potassium transporter) at transcriptional level were performed in the juvenile root tissues of Rice using qRT-PCR technique at 15th, 30th and 45th days after transplanting with Actin as a internal control. Rice transplants were inoculated with different NPK fixing Bacillus consortia, which significantly improved growth parameters as compared to control in field study. Various growth and yield attributing characters of rice viz., plant height (at 60 DAT, 90 DAT, and at harvesting), number of productive tillers, days to 50 % flowering, 100 seed weight, grain yield, straw yield, as well as dry biomass per hectare were significantly influenced by different treatments. An application of 100 % RDF with NPK consortia  (T7) treatment of rice crop resulted in significantly higher plant height (49.25 cm at 60 DAT, 107.00 cm at 90 DAT, 129.50 cm at harvesting), days to 50% flowering (75.63),  100 seed weight (3.53 g), number of productive tillers per plant (12.13), grain yield (6889.00 kg ha-1), straw yield (8754.25 kg ha-1) and dry biomass (7889.25 kg ha-1) followed by the treatments T4 (T2 + N consortia), T5 (T2 + P consortia), T6 (T2 + K consortia), and T2 (RDF (NP) 100%). Nutrient content in grain and straw was differing significantly due to different treatments. However, significantly higher N, P, K, content in straw (1.28 %, 0.15 %, and 1.52 %) and grain (2.06 %, 0.23 %, and 0.25 %) respectively, were recorded under the treatment T7. The spore forming Bacillus consortia was able to survive at a wide range of temperature and pH fluctuations and found to be effective as N-fixers, P-solubilizers, K-mobilizers, siderophore producers, IAA producers with having antagonistic activity against rice pathogen Magnaportha oryzae.</jats:p

Reconnoitering the dynamics-calix[4]pyrrole: A heights in research and technology

Calix[4]pyrrole has potential applications as a molecular recognition receptor, sensor, ditopic cation, and anion receptor. Other supramolecular receptors could be made using novel approaches inspired by the mechanism and selectivity of these receptors. We believe that this brief summary will act as a catalyst for growth in the potential applications of calix[4]pyrrole in research and technology. The simple functionalizing group and ring modification of calix[4]pyrrole make it an excellent choice for multi-component identification. The mode of action of the calix[4]pyrrole receptor and an explanation of its selectivity could inspire the development of other supramolecular receptors