Authorship: who, why and what not.

Concerning authorship, order of authorship and ethics therein, contributors and publishers both are equally nonplussed by multiple definitions. A manuscript is the intellectual property of authors, not the study sponsor – because, funding, supervision, review or approval of an information product, by themselves, do not justify authorship. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria

Pre- & post- bronchodilator pulmonary function test in Indian females: a survey in and around Jaipur.

Background: Nonsmoker COPD in people is a continued point of concern. Recent standards prescribe that spirometry should be population specific, recent origin and methodically derived (prescribed by GOLD) with influencing factors specified – which this study aims to do. Methods: From a random sample of 4,500 adults, subjects were invited into study through a 16 point questionnaire. After inclusion/ exclusion criteria applied to 3,733 total responders, 244 rural and 240 urban healthy non-smoker females were enrolled. Spirometry with reproducibility testing before and after bronchodilator (salbutamol) was done as per GOLD prescription. As normality of distribution was disproved, non-parametric methods were used in statistics. Results: Mean FEV1 and FVC were 2.25 and 2.69 liters respectively in rural females, while it was 2.06 and 2.44 liters in urban females. Post-bronchodilator (after 0.3 mg salbutamol) values in rural females were 2.32 and 2.70 liters respectively while the same were 2.13 and 2.45 liters in urban cases. Conclusion: PFT of rural females resulted better on FEV1 and FVC, pre as well as post-bronchodilator. Possibly biomass fuel exposure in the rural females might not be causing a generalized decrease in PFT parameters or urban chemical pollution which might have more than counterbalanced in urban side.

Microbial xylanases and their biomedical applications: a review .

Xylanases have a great potential, mainly known for industrial applications. They can hydrolyze the xylose (Hemicellulose of plant cell wall) and can be used for bio-bleaching the kraft pulp. As it reduces the requirement of harsh chemicals in the process, it can be used further to a number of bio-products with a great aggregate value. Microbial-origin xylanases can also be used in improving the nutritional quality of animal feed (e.g. food additives to poultry, piggery or fishery) and indirectly affect the humans. Additionally they can be used directly in human food in bakery, clarification of juices and in xenobiotics like tobacco processing. The great value of xylanase as a bio-bleaching agent has now a new dimension of fiber digesting agent having relevance to food, drugs and cosmetics act. This review presents some important applications of Xylanases extended up to biomedical sciences.

Prevalence of G6PD deficiency versus oxidizing drugs: a survey in the tertiary care hospital.

Background: G6PD deficiency is distributed worldwide including India and is involved in accidental hemolysis and anemia by inadvertent use of oxidizing drugs. Awareness of community wise occurrence of G6PD deficiency can help in screening beforehand. Methods: On 150 community wise classified, non-anemic, non- hemolysed (in recent past) visitors of pathological laboratory attached to C U Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, Gujarat, Crayman’s hemoglobin colorimetric kit (item no 700540) was used to estimate normal or below normal status of G6PD. Results: 10 people (6.6% of population) were found deficient – 7 (4 male + 3 female) from Harijan community, 2 (1 male + 1 female) from Rabbari community and 1 (1 male + 0 female) from Lohana community. Conclusions: While applying oxidizing drugs in a person of Harijan community (prevalence 7 out of total 26, i.e. 27%), extra caution is required, esp. if a person otherwise vulnerable (e.g. alcoholic). For other less represented communities, larger stratified sampling is required.

Sample size: from formulae to concepts - II.

Sample size formulae need some input data or to say it otherwise we need some parameters to calculate sample size. This second part on the formula explanation gives ideas of Z, population size, precision of error, standard deviation, contingency etc which influence sample size.

Sample size: from formulae to concepts.

Sample size can be calculated from many online calculators or tables. But the use of these instruments is rational only when we understand our input data and the concept behind them completely. Terminologies like confidence interval, confidence limit, standard error of mean, margin of error, standard normal variate, power, significance level etc. and extent to which population size or chances of occurrence of an outcome can affect our sample size remain to be well understood before using these software solutions.

Small size sampling.

Though small size samples can be planned and justified based on scarcity of time, money and manpower, there are situations making more accuracy a must and needing larger samples sizes. That’s why rare adverse drug reactions are identified only after a drug comes into the market and a large population is exposed to it. There are many more reasons for increasing the sample size and requirement of the study decides which criteria of accuracy should be tightened the most (e.g. avoiding type I error is more important or type II error).

Morphometric and molecular characterization of fungus Pestalotiopsis using nuclear ribosomal DNA analysis.

Taxonomy of the fungus Pestalotiopsis based on morphological characters has been equivocal. Molecular characterization of ten Pestalotiopsis species was done based on nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) amplifications. Results of the analyses showed that species of genus Pestalotiopsis are monophyletic. We report ITS length variations, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (INDELS) among ten species of Pestalotiopsis that did not cause any phylogenetic error at either genus or species designation levels. New gene sequences have been assigned (Gen Accession numbers from HM 190146 to HM 190155) by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information, USA.

Small size sampling.

Based on the law of large numbers which is derived from probability theory, we tend to increase the sample size to the maximum. Central limit theorem is another inference from the same probability theory which approves largest possible number as sample size for better validity of measuring central tendencies like mean and median. Sometimes increase in sample-size turns only into negligible betterment or there is no increase at all in statistical relevance due to strong dependence or systematic error. If we can afford a little larger sample, statistically power of 0.90 being taken as acceptable with medium Cohen’s d (<0.5) and for that we can take a sample size of 175 very safely and considering problem of attrition 200 samples would suffice.

Studies on genetic divergence among Indian varieties of a spice herb, Coriandrum sativum.

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is an annual spice herb that belongs to umbel family Apiaceae with diversified uses. We investigated the extent of variability among 22 Indian varieties of coriander using phenotypic and genetic markers. Multilocus genotyping by nine RAPD primers detected an average of intraspecific variations amounting to 66.18 % polymorphism in banding patterns. Analysis of molecular variance indicated that a greater proportion of total genetic variation exists within population (98%) rather than among populations (2%). Higher values of Nei’s gene diversity (h) and Shannon Information Index (i) and genetic distance analysis validate wider genetic diversity among Indian coriander varieties. Besides total internal transcribed spacer (ITS) length variations and single nucleotide polymorphisms, insertions/deletions (INDELS) were detected at seven sites in ITS-1 region. Multiple sequence alignment of 12 sequenced varieties revealed cent per cent identities of 5.8S gene region (162 bp) that validates its conserved nature. Multiple sequence alignment of ITS-1 region may be of phylogenetic significance in distinguishing and cataloguing of coriander germplasm. The representative sequences of each subgroup and all distinct varieties of RAPD clusters have been submitted to NCBI database and assigned Gen Accession numbers HQ 377194-377205. The measures of relative genetic distances among the varieties of coriander did not completely correlate the geographical places of their development. Eventually, the knowledge of their genetic relationships and DNA bar coding will be of significance.