ABSTRACT
Tobacco is one of the most widely abused drugs in the world making it leading cause of preventable death. A two-phase study was done to identify the prevalence of tobacco abuse and to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of planned teaching programme in terms of knowledge, attitude and practice among the support staff in a selected hospital in New Delhi. During phase-I of the study, 200 support staff were selected based on total enumeration sampling technique. Structured tools containing socio-demographic variables, prevalence assessment tool, knowledge questionnaire, attitude scale, and practice scale were administered as a pre-test. During phase-II of the study, administration of the planned teaching programme was done for all the 200 support staff. A post-test was conducted for 66 tobacco abusers identifi ed during phase-I of the study based on the prevalence. The study results revealed that the prevalence rate of tobacco abuse among the support staff was 33 percent. Out of this 33 percent of the tobacco abusers, 26.5 percent were smokeless tobacco users and 6 percent were smoking tobacco abusers. The mean difference of pre-test and post-test knowledge, attitude, and practice scores were found out to be 2.95, 1.99, and 0.69 respectively. The planned teaching programme was effective in increasing the knowledge score of the tobacco abusers but there was no effect of PTP on attitude and practice score. The demographic variables such as age, sex, gender, educational qualifi cation, marital status, and monthly income were found to be signifi cantly associated with tobacco abuse among the support staff
ABSTRACT
Plant biomass, antioxidant enzymes activity, ions accumulation and proline level in four soybean cultivars were investigated at different NaCl concentrations (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 mM) applied to plants 15 days after sowing. There was a significant decrease in plant biomass and soluble protein content with each NaCl treatment. Accumulation of Na+ and Cl– was maximum in roots, followed by the stem and leaves in all the treated cultivars; Pusa 9712 being the top accumulator. On the contrary, K+ and Ca2+ ion concentrations were inhibited in all the treated cultivars. Activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase) and proline content increased significantly in all the cultivars with each NaCl treatment. The maximum increase was found in Pusa 9712. However, catalase activity decreased in all the cultivars except in Pusa 9712. On the whole, Pusa 9712 was most efficient in managing protection against salinity stress.
ABSTRACT
This study assesses the effect of NaCl (80 and 160 mM) and CaCl2 (10 mM) solutions, alone and in combination, to 30-day-old seedlings of Cichorium intybus L. Observations were made at 30 day intervals from the time of treatment till harvest (180 days after sowing). Application of NaCl resulted in significant decreases in lengths of root and stem, in dry weights of root, stem and leaves and in the leaf area, as compared with control. The reduction was less with the combined application of NaCl and CaCl2 than with the NaCl treatment alone. On the contrary, treatment of CaCl2 alone promoted the above variables. Proline content in the leaves was enhanced with NaCl and CaCl2 alone as well as with the NaCl + CaCl2 treatments; the maximum (six-fold) enhancement was observed with the combined treatments, compared with NaCl (four-fold increase) and CaCl2 (two-fold increase) alone. The sodium (Na+) and Chloride (Cl) contents in different plant parts increased both with NaCl and with NaCl + CaCl2 treatments. The maximum accumulation was observed in leaves, followed by that in stem and root. The potassium (K+) and calcium (Ca2+) contents decreased under NaCl stress, but increased with CaCl2 treatment. Thus, calcium ameliorated the deleterious effects of NaCl stress and stimulated the plant metabolism and growth.