Perceived Social Empowerment Status of the Medicinal Plant Growers

The indigenous systems of medicine in India are Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani which is practisedfrom ancient times. India and China are the two major countries having 40 per cent of the global diversity and are known as the house of medicinal plants. Most of the medicinal plants are gathered from the forest areas to meet the demand of the medicinal profession, which becomes exhaustible if overused and sustainable when used with care and wisdom. Hence, it is important to take efforts to grow them as commercial crops. Several theoretical concepts to measure empowerment of farmers have been identified and proposed worldwide, very few studies have been conducted to measure their empowerment. This paper presents the Perceived Social Empowerment status of medicinal plant growers

An analysis of medulloblastoma: 10 year experience of a referral institution in South India.

BACKGROUND: Medulloblastoma is an embryonal tumor with aggressive behavior and is more commonly seen in children than adults. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiological patterns of medulloblastoma in a tertiary care center in Southern India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It is a retrospective study, in which the records of all the clinically diagnosed medulloblastoma cases in the last 10 years (2002‑2012) were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 58 cases were found, with the mean age at diagnosis being 10 years. There was a slight predilection for the male sex (58.62%). The first presenting symptom was mostly related to raise intracranial pressure and the mean duration of symptoms was 200 days. Nearly, 89.6% of patients were in Stage 0 and had a central tumor location. Multimodality treatment included surgery followed by craniospinal irradiation up to 36 gray followed by posterior fossa boost up to 54 gray. Median radiation therapy duration was 6.5 weeks and concurrent single agent vincristine was the most common chemotherapy used. Most of the patients showed only a partial response to treatment, mainly because of large tumors at presentation, which could be attributed to the lack of awareness, delayed medical attention and poor follow‑up. CONCLUSION: Early diagnosis and treatment is the key to management of medulloblastoma, which still needs to be achieved. Bulky tumors have a poor outcome, efforts should be aimed at complete surgery and giving risk stratification based treatment. Resources need to be allocated to make more conformal methods of radiotherapy available, which will decrease the growth abnormalities and cognitive impairments.

Effect of Silicate Solubilizing Bacteria and Fly Ash on Mean Leaf Erectness of Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) in Low, Medium and High Silicon Soils.

The leaf erectness is known to be one of the important factors that affect light conditions in plant population. Thereby triggers photosynthetic activity. A field experiment was carried out in low Si soil and observations made on leaf erectness at tillering stage and correlated with Si uptake and dry matter production. The leaf openness varied greatly due to application of graded levels of fly ash with and without SSB and FYM. Application of fly ash @ 100 t ha-1 with SSB and FYM registered the lowest value (16.7) which was on par with application of 50 t ha-1 fly ash +SSB and FYM. This parameter was negatively and significantly correlated with Si content (r = -0.83) and uptake (r = -0.92) in rice plant at tillering. Similarly, significant and negative correlation (r= -0.70) was observed with grain yield in loamy sand soil with low Si status. In sandy loam soil with low to medium Si status the parameter was best correlated with grain yield (r=-0.94) and negatively, significantly correlated with Si content (r =-0.55) and uptake (r=-0.82) in plant at tillering. Among the different treatments, application of SSB + FYM recorded the lowest leaf openness of 14.9 which was on par with SSB (16.4) followed by FYM (17.4) whereas control recorded the highest leaf openness of 20.0. The interaction between different main treatments and graded levels of fly ash has not rendered significant change in leaf openness under high soil Si status.

A simple technique for hemoglobin estimation to screen for anaemia.

Drabkins method has been modified enabling detection of anaemia in a large population. 132 samples of EDTA blood were subjected to hemoglobin estimation by (1) Direct Drabkin (DD) (2), Filter Drabkin (FD) and (3) Special Filter Drabkin (SFD). Hemoglobin estimations by DD and FD compared well on statistical analysis. SFD with a punch diameter of 10.6 to 10.7 mm compared well with DD and is ideal for screening anaemia in field studies.

Comparative study of hemoglobin estimated by Drabkin's and Sahli's methods.

Hemoglobin was estimated by Sahli's and Drabkin's method in samples collected by finger prick and venepuncture. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference in the hemoglobin values obtained by the two methods (P less than .01 & P less than .05 respectively). Sahli's method carried out by two different groups of workers in samples of blood collected by venepuncture showed statistically significant difference (P less than .001). This could be due to the inbuilt errors of Sahli's method including a subjective bias due to visual comparison. When same samples were subjected to Drabkin's method by the same group of workers no significant difference in the results were obtained (P less than .05). This is due to reliability of the Drabkins method. The aim of this comparative study of hemoglobin estimation by Sahli's and Drabkin's methods is to emphasize the sensitivity and reliability of Drabkin's over Sahli's and utility of Drabkin's method in undergraduate teaching schedule.

Abnormal cardiovascular and electrocardiographic profiles and cardiac glycogen content in rabbits injected with scorpion venom.

Cardiovascular and ECG abnormalities were studied following injection of venom of Buthus tamulus, a common scorpion found in South India. Venom was administered in doses of 2 and 4 mg/kg body weight. Subsequent estimation of glycogen content of different chambers of the heart, showed a significant reduction in tissue glycogen levels in both atria and ventricles in animals treated with a venom dose of 2 mg/kg. However, a significant reduction occurred only in atria with a higher venom dose of 4 mg/kg.