Combination Of Sgt (Small Group Teaching) And Pal (Peer Assisted Learning) Approach To Facilitate Learning Among Mbbs Students From A Private University In Malaysia During Pre-Clinical Years

@#Didactic lecture promotes passive learning and fails to motivate students. Small group learning has been widely recommended as it helps to refine understanding of complex issues, to solve the problems, develop critical thinking and apply knowledge to new situations. PALS – a “peer assisted learning” mode where in students discuss in groups and learn from each other. They get motivated and set a platform, which encourages them to communicate and do problem solving. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of small group teaching (SGT) and peer assisted learning (PAL) approach among pre clinical medical students. Small groups of students were selected for this study out of the big batch of students pursuing 2nd year MBBS program at AIMST University who were undergoing “respiratory system” block. At the end of lecture-based sessions, a few topics were selected for SGT- PAL session. Students were asked to complete the pretest questions on the selected topics and they were then explained the topics selected for this session. Students had SGT PAL on those selected topics. Then they completed the post test questions on the same topic. Responses obtained for the pre- test and post-test questions were analyzed using SPSS using paired t test and the perceptions on their own understanding using marginal homogeneity test, both showed a significant improvement. SGT and PAL approach helped students to improve understanding of important concepts and can be adopted more widely as an alternative to lectures.

Comparative investigation of the free radical scavenging potential and anticancer property of Diospyros blancoi (Ebenaceae)

Objective: To investigate the comparative effects of Diospyros blancoi (Ebenaceae) leaves (DBL), root bark (DBRB) and stem bark (DBSB) on free radicals and cancer. Methods: The polyphenol contents, antioxidant and free radical scavenging properties were determined using standard spectrophotometric methods. Cytotoxicity and anticancer activities were performed on brine shrimp nauplii and Ehrlich ascite carcinoma cells, respectively. Results: Among the extracts, DBSB showed the highest total antioxidant capacity and reducing capacity on ferrous ion. Based on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities, DBSB showed (95.760 ± 0.343)% and (67.460 ± 2.641)% scavenging with IC

Socioeconomic position as a determinant of maternal healthcare utilization: a population-based study in Namibia

Improving maternal health is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] aimed at improving maternal healthcare and reducing maternal mortality. The utilization of maternal health services is influenced by several factors that need to be better understood. The objective of this study was to estimate the role of socio-economic position as a determinant of the utilization of maternal health care in Namibia. Data were collected from the Namibia Demographic and Health Survey in 2006-2007, based on survey responses from 9,804 female respondents aged 15-49 years. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed accounting for socio-economic factors associated with the use of maternal health care services. The results from both bivariate and multivariate analyses confirmed the importance of education, wealth index, place of residence and marital status in explaining the utilization of maternal health care services. Wealth index was the only consistently significant predictor of all indicators of maternal health services; with other factors being significantly associated with one or more of the indicators. Women's age and occupation showed inconclusive results in relation to access to maternal health care services. Several socio-economic factors significantly influence the three indicators of maternal health services utilization. Effective interventions need to take these factors into consideration and to explore means that increase maternal health service utilization especially among lowly educated and poor women in rural areas

Efficient Mining of Interesting Patterns in Large Biological Sequences

Pattern discovery in biological sequences (e.g., DNA sequences) is one of the most challenging tasks in computational biology and bioinformatics. So far, in most approaches, the number of occurrences is a major measure of determining whether a pattern is interesting or not. In computational biology, however, a pattern that is not frequent may still be considered very informative if its actual support frequency exceeds the prior expectation by a large margin. In this paper, we propose a new interesting measure that can provide meaningful biological information. We also propose an efficient index-based method for mining such interesting patterns. Experimental results show that our approach can find interesting patterns within an acceptable computation time.

An Efficient Approach to Mining Maximal Contiguous Frequent Patterns from Large DNA Sequence Databases

Mining interesting patterns from DNA sequences is one of the most challenging tasks in bioinformatics and computational biology. Maximal contiguous frequent patterns are preferable for expressing the function and structure of DNA sequences and hence can capture the common data characteristics among related sequences. Biologists are interested in finding frequent orderly arrangements of motifs that are responsible for similar expression of a group of genes. In order to reduce mining time and complexity, however, most existing sequence mining algorithms either focus on finding short DNA sequences or require explicit specification of sequence lengths in advance. The challenge is to find longer sequences without specifying sequence lengths in advance. In this paper, we propose an efficient approach to mining maximal contiguous frequent patterns from large DNA sequence datasets. The experimental results show that our proposed approach is memory-efficient and mines maximal contiguous frequent patterns within a reasonable time.

Inhibition of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma by Manilkara zapota L. stem bark in Swiss albino mice

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the antitumor activity of Manilkara zapota (M. zapota) L. stem bark against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in Swiss albino mice.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The in vivo antitumour activity of the ethyl acetate extract of stem bark of M. zapota L. (EASM) was evaluated at 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg bw against EAC using mean survival time. After administration of the extract of M. zapota, viable EAC cell count and body weight in the EAC tumour hosts were observed. The animal was also observed for improvement in the haematological parameters (e.g., heamoglobin content, red and white blood cells count and differential cell count) after EASM treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Intraperitoneal administration of EASM reduced viable EAC cells, increased the survival time, and restored altered haematological parameters. Significant efficacy was observed for EASM at 100 mg/kg dose (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>It can be concluded that the ethyl acetate extract of stem bark of M. zapota L. possesses significant antitumour activity.</p>

Comparison of hypotensive and hypolipidemic effects of catharanthus roseus leaves extract with atenolol on adrenaline induced hypertensive rats

The leaves extract of Catharanthus roseus was investigated for hypotensive and hypolipidemic effects in adrenaline-induced hypertensive rats [AIHR] and compared with those of Atenolol in a crossover design. The pharmacologically Active components responsible for hypotensive activities were isolated from plant using bioassay guided purification approach and the structure of the compounds was proposed by spectroscopic methods. Catharanthus roseus leaves extract and commercial drug Atenolol were administered through intraperitoneal [i.p] route for one week. Different biochemical parameters such as heart weight, blood glucose level, serum cholesterol level, serum triglyceride level, body weight and the relationships between them were measured. Catharanthus roseus leaves extract at a dose of 30 mg/155 +/- 15 gm of body weight was injected in rat at every morning during the treatment period. The dose of Atenolol was determined according to its pharmacokinetic parameters. Clinically effective plasma concentration as a hypotensive drug was obtained after the injection of 0.1 mg/155 +/- 15 gm of body weight of the drug. The Catharanthus roseus leaves extract made significant changes in each cardiovascular parameter after investigation. Catharanthus roseus leaves extract treated animals have shown the hypotensive effects. Hypotensive effects were also shown by Atenolol

Tetralogy of fallot in Down syndrome [Trisomy 21] - an uncommon association

Down Syndrome [trisomy 21] is the common disorder among chromosomal anomalies. This is frequently associated with congenital acyanotic heart disease. Tetralogy of fallot is an uncommon event in the trisomy 21. Tetralogy of fallot presents with cyanosis usually in the later part of infancy, but cyanosis is present since birth if Tetralogy of Fallot is accompanied with Down Syndrome

Kala-azar [visceral leishmaniasis] in children

Clinical presentations of kala-azar [visceral leishmaniasis] are varied in children and adults. This may at Least initially mimic many tropical and hepatobilliary diseases. This paper is an attempt to see the clinical presentations of kala-azar in children. Eleven cases are analyzed, retrospectively admitted in a pediatric unit of a tertiary care hospital in the southern part of Bangladesh. Fever 91%, Jaundice 55%, splenomegaly 100%, hepatomegaly 91% are common findings. Presence of jaundice and ascites may mimic chronic liver disease which is suspected in 36% in this series. Awareness regarding these uncommon features will help in diagnosis

Seasonal variation of childhood acute poisoning

Acute poisoning is a common medical emergency in paediatric unit. This was a retrospective study to see the seasonal variation of acute poisoning in children in a tertiary hospital. The study was done in Khulna Medical College Hospital from January 2004 to December 2005. The cases were studied to see the seasonal variations and other epidemiological and clinical parameters. One hundred ninety three patients enrolled in the study were divided in four groups. Prevalence and type of poisoning was observed in winter, spring, summer and rainy seasons respectively. A total of 193[4.7%] cases of childhood acute poisoning were admitted. Out of them 107[55.4%] cases were male and rest 86[44.6%] were female. 1-3 years was the most vulnerable age group to be affected [P<.005]. Kerosene was the commonest form of ingredient used. Poisoning cases were more common during summer season [P<.005]. Overall mortality rate was 4.66%. Poisoning was common during the summer season and kerosene was found to be most common ingredient. It was possibly due to easy availability of kerosene and during the summer months thirsty children took this substance which was sometimes kept in the discarded container of soft drinks and mineral water bottles etc. People should be warned not to keep these toxic ingredients in such containers and within reach of the children