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Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) facilitate competency-based assessments. India is on the verge of implementing competency-based training for postgraduate programs. MD degree in Biochemistry is a unique program available exclusively in India. Postgraduate programs in most specialties have started working toward EPA-based curriculum, in both India and other countries. However, EPAs for MD Biochemistry course are yet to be defined. This study aims to identify EPAs for postgraduate training program in Biochemistry. Identification and attaining consensus on the list of EPAs for MD Biochemistry curriculum was done by modified Delphi method. The study was conducted in three rounds. In round 1, tasks expected from an MD Biochemistry graduate were identified by working group followed by expert panel validation. The tasks were organized and reframed to EPAs. Two rounds of online survey were conducted to achieve a consensus on the list of EPAs. Consensus measure was calculated. A cut-off value of 80% and above was considered to reflect good consensus. The working group identified 59 tasks. This was validated by 10 experts based on which, 53 items were retained. These tasks were reframed into 27 EPAs. In round 2, 11 EPAs achieved good consensus. Among the remaining EPAs, 13 achieved consensus of 60%-80% and were selected for round 3. Five EPAs achieved good consensus in this round. A total of 16 EPAs were identified for MD Biochemistry curriculum. This study provides a frame of reference for experts to develop an EPA-based curriculum in the future.

This paper captures the design of a comprehensive curriculum incorporating the four skills based exclusively on the use of parallel audio-visual and written texts. We discuss the use of authentic materials to teach English to Indian undergraduates aged 18 to 20 years. Specifically, we talk about the use of parallel reading (screen-play) and audiovisual texts ("Shawshank Redemption," and "Life is Beautiful," "A Few Good Men" and "Lion King") drawn from popular culture in the classroom as an effective teaching medium. Students were gradually introduced to films based on novels with extracts from the original texts ("Schindler's List," "Beautiful Mind") for extended reading and writing practice. We found that students began to pay more attention to aspects such as pronunciation, intonational variations, discourse markers and vocabulary items (phrasal verbs, synonyms, homophones, and puns).

Dr. Zakir Husain is known as a self-less nationalist leader and also as an educationist "par excellence." Taking a cue from his educational ideas like the "Nai Talim," this article brings into focus his views on the medium-conundrum. Dr. Husain was very clear about the role of Indian languages and the relevance of mother tongue. He was secular to the core and from this came his support for Hindustani which was understood by both the Hindus and Muslims. Like his illustrious contemporary Dr. Ambedkar, he also thought of education as a potent tool for social justice and empowerment. His views deserve a recapitulation.

Introduction: The prevalence of acute kidney injury (AKI) among hospitalized patients in the United States of America is around 5-7%, and that among Intensive Care Units (ICU) is 30%. The mortality and morbidity associated with AKI are immense, and the prevalence has been increasing over the past decades. However, the data on the prevalence, profile, and outcome of AKI in hospitalized patients from the developing world is meager. Objective: This study aimed at determining the common etiologies and clinical profile of AKI patients in the ICU of a tertiary care center, in South India and to assess the outcome of AKI in community-acquired and hospital-acquired AKI patients with respect to its etiology. Materials and methods: This study was designed to be a prospective observational study. We included 150 patients who were either directly admitted to ICU or transferred from ward to ICU, in our tertiary care center, who had AKI either at admission or during the course in the hospital. They were followed up until discharge/death and their clinical and biochemical data were studied. Results: The causes of AKI were grouped as acute tubular necrosis (56%), volume loss/hypoperfusion (26%), acute interstitial nephritis (12%), urinary tract obstruction (4.7%), and glomerulonephritis (1.3%). The major contributing illness for AKI was sepsis (including septic shock) (28.7%). The other common causes were nephrotoxins (24%), acute gastroenteritis (13.3%), pyelonephritis (7.3%), and urinary tract obstruction (4.7%). Among the subjects, 82.7% had community-acquired AKI and 17.3% had hospital-acquired AKI. Most of the patients (60%) recovered from AKI, whereas 36% had partial recovery, one person was dependent on renal replacement therapy (0.7%), and death occurred in 3.3% (n=5). The outcome between community-acquired and hospital-acquired AKI was statistically non-significant. Conclusion: Sepsis and nephrotoxins were the most common causes of AKI in our study. Community- acquired AKI was more prevalent than hospital-acquired AKI. The mortality rate of AKI patients in the ICU was less (3.3%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the occurrence of microplastics (MPs) in the gut, gill, and muscle of edible fish Stolephorus indicus sampled from Tuticorin coastal regions of Tamilnadu, India was investigated. We recorded a total of 689 MPs which includes 510 and 179 MPs from males and females respectively. The total abundance of MPs was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the gut followed by gills and muscle. The sex-wise distribution of average MPs showed high in the females' gut and compared to that in males. Further, the length wise distribution of MPs was higher in the muscle in both male and female fish, followed by other organs. The predominance of MPs in tissues were transparent and blue colour with fibers and fragments in both males and females. Besides, polyethylene terephthalate and nylon were evidenced by the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectrum in all organs of fishes. • Microplastics (MPs) in the gut, gills, and muscle of Stolephorus indicus was recorded. • Females had a high abundance of MPs in the gut compared to males. • Mean lengths of MPs were high in the muscles of both male and female fishes. • Polyethylene terephthalate and nylon were identified in all organs of fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 has ushered in a renewed focus on health, sanitisation and, in unexpected ways, on the need for productive employment opportunities in rural India. MGNREGA, the rural employment guarantee programme, has had a mixed track record in terms of providing adequate employment to those who need it the most, the quality of asset creation and adequacy of wages offered. This paper makes a case for reorienting a small portion of MGNREGA spending to create micro-entrepreneurs out of the 'reverse migrating' masons, electricians, plumbers and others in rural areas who can directly contribute to augmenting health and sanitization infrastructure in the likely new normal. This will provide relief to those whose livelihoods have been severely impacted and eventually lower dependence on public finances. We propose approval of a new work type for sanitization works without any hard asset creation under MGNREGA and roping in the private sector for its project management skills to quickly skill up the returning migrants as well as to match work with workers on an ongoing basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is rich with its culture and heritage. It is known for its traditional medicinal system and it is mentioned even in the ancient Vedas and other scriptures also. In India, Traditional Medical system includes Ayurveda, yoga, siddha, Unani, and homeopathy. Biomedical Text Mining (BioTM) is aiming at the extraction of novel, non-trivial information from the large amounts of biomedical related documents. This unstructured bio medical document holds greater knowledge about medical diagnostics, treatment, and prevention. Ontology plays a vital role in deep understanding of information. It is the building block of the Semantic Web and considers it's important on the semantic clarity of concepts and entities. The main objective is to search the most relevant content from this huge set of text by understanding the meaning of conceptual terms. We proposed Ontology based Concept Extraction and Classification in which the domain ontology and semantic document description was used to improve classification accuracy. The results show that the classification accuracy of proposed algorithm outperforms than the other existing supervised machine learning algorithm. To further prove the efficiency of the model, experiments were conducted by giving different queries and the results are compared with other existing methods. The results show that the content retrieved by the proposed model was most relevant when compared with existing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of selected Siddha formulations and Standard of Care (Treatment group;(n = 76)) compared with only Standard of Care (Control group;(n = 78)) by assessing the accelerated recovery within seven days of treatment. We enroled mild and moderate SARS CoV2 patients and selected Siddha formulations as shown in (Supplementary Table 1) and (Supplementary Table 2) were administered for the asymptomatic and Mild COVID cases and for Moderate and Severe COVID cases respectively. The control group was treated with only the standard of care as per India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recommendations. Accelerated recovery was assessed by a 10-point ordinal WHO clinical progression scale. Statistical analysis between the two study groups was calculated using logistic models and expressed as Odds Ratios. In the treatment group, 81.6% had accelerated recovery within seven days, which statistically differs from 52.6% in the control group. Multivariate analysis revealed that the accelerated recovery in the treatment group has four (3.8) times higher odds than the control group after adjusting the effect of gender (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 3.8; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.8–7.9). In the treatment group, median time for recovery is 6 days, 95%CI = 5.6–6.4 which is statistically significant from median time of control group 7 days, 95%CI = 6.4–7.6. Selected Siddha formulations along with the standard of care showed a significantly higher proportion of accelerated recovery. Clinical Trial Registry of India: CTRI/2020/06/025763. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Class is an important tool of analysis in social science and a useful European category for social understanding. For Marx, it is the pivot of social transformation. However, a class is resurfacing Indian democracy which in some degree lacks a link with the old pillars of democracy and has nothing to do with the conventional notions of class. The class comprised of a new political tribe has been attributed with characteristics which the old generation can never think of. With an army of false promises to the people for almost six decades, the political class fortified a forged political empire. This paper cast light up on the categories and attributes of the emerging political class in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent Chennai floods taught us many lessons, one of it being the importance of social media during a disaster as devastating as this. Though the damage was heavy, one thing that was clear is the spirit of humanity. People from various walks of lives came together to help one another in this unforeseen calamity and social media played a major role in bringing people together. Taking this as a case study we aim to study the uses and gratification of social media at the time of a crisis. We have used different methodologies including interviews and surveys to study in-depth about how people used social media before the calamity, during and post the calamity. At the end of the article, we aim to get a thorough understanding of the role, analyze the pros and cons of social media in a disaster situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the economics of unirrigated agricultural production in Perambalur district, Tamil Nadu. The study attempts to analyse the cost of cultivation, productivity and the relationship between farm size and productivity in unirrigated agricultural field. Perambalur district is selected as a study district where 94.28 per cent of gross sown area is used for cultivating food crops and remaining 5.72 per cent for nonfood crops. Veebanthattai and Veeppur blocks are selected as a food and non-food crop cultivating blocks at the second stage. Anukkur, Tondamandurai, Venbavur and Vengalam are sleleted as representative food crop villages in Veebanthattai block. Further, Andhur, Assor, Odiyam and Perali are selected as representative non-food crop villages in Veppur block. In each of the representative food and non-food cultivation villages, 10 farm households are surveyed from each farm categories, i.e., Marginal, Small, Medium and Large through the disproportionate stratified random sampling method. In each block, 160 sample respondents were surveyed and the total sample households stood at 320. From the analsysis, it is found that the average yield and average net income are inversely related with the farm size. The availability of family labour, pest and fertilizer management, harvesting management and regular supervision improves the farm yield and higher level of average net income. Cost of cultivation is huge for marginal and small farmers as compared to medium and large farms. The fact is that the large and medium farms own tractors, tillers and sprayers, which minimize the cost of cultivation of the large and medium farms. The unirrigated agriculture parts play a major role in food and non-food cultivation and Government role in providing irrigational facilities may help the farmer's livelihood to a large extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this multicenter survey was to identify the sources of perceived psychological stress in the post-graduate students of Orthodontics and to analyze the influence of age, gender and the year of study on these stressors. 251 post-graduate orthodontic students from 24 dental schools across India anonymously completed a 61 item self-administered questionnaire. The relevant descriptive statistics were computed to summarize the obtained data. The Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA were used for analyzing the inter-group differences based on the gender and year of study respectively. Regression analyses were applied to evaluate the demographic variables as predictors of the degree of perceived stress. The results indicated that dependencies on alcohol, drugs etc., limitations of financial resources, politics and psychological games played by the faculty, fully loaded day, and forced postponement of engagement or marriage were the first five highly stressful factors for the students. Factors related to the personal life of the student were the more common among the top few stressors. In general, the gender of the student or the year of study did not make any significant difference in the nature and degree of perceived stress. None of the demographic variables evaluated in the study were predictive of the overall extent of perceived stress in the student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the importance of open access journal especially in the field of law. Describes the role of NLSIU in promoting open source movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India incredibly in recent times found to have been larger internet penetration not In terms of the number of people using Internet platforms but rather the frequency of people making use of internet The use and reach of internet is so extensive that now it has turned out to be a space for organizing protest and politics in many sense. In India there area wide variety of online social networking platforms which like any other offline groups can more or less be common platform for organizing public spaces where discussion on public issues can be organized. This proposal enquires whether such platforms meet the requirements of a true public sphere in the context of selected online activist platforms in Indian cyberspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aims: To study the prevalence, and clinical profile of autosomal dominant (AD) inherited forms of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: Detailed pedigree charts were drawn on 510 consecutive T2DM subjects attending a tertiary care diabetes centre in South India. Clinical and biochemical features of T2DM subjects with and without AD inheritance were compared. Results: Overall, 36.1% of T2DM had one parent with diabetes, in 10.6%, both parents had diabetes and 10.2% had features of AD. Age at diagnosis of diabetes was the lowest among AD group compared to other groups (p for trend <0.001). Only 22.6% of T2DM with AD inheritance had age at diagnosis of diabetes below 25 years and in 26.4%, it was diagnosed above 45 years. There were no significant differences in the clinical features, including prevalence of diabetic complications, between T2DM with and without AD inheritance. Conclusions: In this clinic-based study, 10.2% of T2DM subjects had evidence of AD inheritance. While the AD cases occurred at younger age, older age at diagnosis was not uncommon. Clinical features, including complications, did not differ between the T2DM patients with or without AD. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the study related to various economic factors and data including productivity growth, wages and employments at the manufacturing sector industries in India following the period after liberalization. It mentions the importance of productivity growth at denoting developmental stage and future economic scenario of the country. It emphasis the role of proper productivity gains distribution at the developing countries.

Estuaries provide enumerable ecosystem services to mankind in terms of provisional, regulating, supporting, recreational and information services. However, the persistent human-environment interactions for these services altered the ecological integrity of estuaries. Although the small estuaries receive little attraction in scientific studies due to their low surface area and regional importance, these ecosystems are more vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures and require urgent attention from the scientific fraternity. The Terekhol Estuary (TRE) is a small tropical estuary situated along Goa, west coast of India, gaining recognition in recent years due to the pollution risk from tourism activities. Moreover, the estuary also behaves as an extension of the marine realm during the dry season. The food web structure and network flow indices of the TRE was assessed to reveal its present ecological status. The Ecopath modelling approach was employed to delineate the ecosystem structure and trophic functioning of the estuary distributed in 22 ecological compartments from 2018 to 2019. The trophic level of the food web ranged from detritus (TL-1) to sharks (TL- 4.53). The ecosystem structure demonstrated a grazing chain (herbivory) based organization over the detritus-based pathway. The proportion of exports to the total flows was 35% for the TRE. The model has a high total system throughput (12,043.6 t km−2 year−1), low system omnivory index (0.17) and connectance index (0.21), and a moderate relative ascendency (45.1%). Finn's cycling index (2.17%) indicated very low recycling in the system. All these indicators along with the eco-exergy index (8567.22 g detritus equivalent m−2), specific eco-exergy (38.25) and robustness index (0.11) classified the estuary as be immature, less stable and less organized and is in the initial stages of its development. The ecological indicators analyzed here point towards a medium to a high level of impact in the TRE due to anthropogenic activities. We also highlight the management measures to be implemented in order to restore the ecological quality of the TRE. [Display omitted] • The food web model of a small tropical estuary, Terekhol along the west coast of India was constructed. • A grazing chain based on herbivory followed by detritivory was identified in the estuary. • The estuary is identified as an immature, low recycling and developing ecosystem. • The health and stability indices indicated a less stable and less organized stature of the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was performed to analyze the bioaccumulation of heavy metals, biochemical constituents, antioxidants, and metabolic enzymes in the crab Scylla serrata from different regions of Tuticorin, Southeast Coast of India. The study area consists of Threspuram and Harbour Beach which were polluted environments due to the discharge of industrial effluents and domestic sewage into them. Punnakayal, which is a low-polluted environment where the in-situ culture of S. serrata is carried out by local fish farmers, was selected as well. The results revealed that the level of heavy metals, biochemical constituents, antioxidants, and metabolic enzymes were significantly high in the crabs collected from Threspuram and Harbour Beach compared to the crabs collected from Punnakayal. This study indicates that crabs from polluted environments have significant heavy metals bioaccumulation which leads to elevated antioxidants and metabolic enzyme levels. This implies that the crabs are under oxidative and metabolic stress. • Heavy metals accumulation and physiology of Scylla serrata from polluted and low-polluted regions of Tuticorin was studied. • Bioaccumulation of heavy metals and biochemical elements were higher in S. serrata sampled from polluted regions. • Antioxidants and metabolic enzymes level were higher in S. serrata sampled from polluted regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) still continues to be a major public health threat. Early diagnosis is the cornerstone in combating TB. Community pharmacists are the front line health care providers among the health care system. The present study aimed to identify the barriers of community pharmacists in the identification and referral of presumptive pulmonary tuberculosis cases., Methods: Prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted among the community pharmacists in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. One pharmacist from each pharmacy was interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire. Knowledge component, practice and barriers of identification and referral in presumptive TB cases were captured., Results: A total of 143 pharmacists were included in the study. Barriers in identification and referral by pharmacists' perception were patient volume (32%), pharmacy workload (22%), difficulty in identifying the cases (16%), etc. Research team also identified few barriers such as pharmacists do not have adequate knowledge about TB (34%), pharmacists are not trained enough to identify and refer presumptive TB cases (26%), etc. All the pharmacists (100%) refer the presumptive TB cases, if they come across for OTC medications. Pharmacists also provided health education to their community (45.7%)., Conclusion: Adequate training of community pharmacists and a follow-up system for the presumptive TB cases identified by the community pharmacist are essential in reducing the barriers of pharmacists in TB case detection., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest The authors have none to declare., (Copyright © 2020 Tuberculosis Association of India. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Neural tube defects (NTDs) are among the most common severe congenital malformations, representing a long-term public health burden in India. A deranged one-carbon metabolism and genes regulating this metabolism have been linked to NTDs. Vitamin B(12) deficiency is reported to be more prevalent than folate deficiency in the Indian population. We investigated the role of maternal nutritional and genetic markers related to one-carbon metabolism in the etiology of NTDs., Methods: We conducted a multicenter case-control study to compare plasma folate, vitamin B(12) , homocysteine and holo-transcobalamin levels, and polymorphisms in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR, 677C>T, 1298A>C, 1781G>A and 236+724A>G) and transcobalamin (TCN2, 776C>G) genes, in 318 women with NTD-affected offspring (cases) and 702 women with apparently healthy offspring (controls). The samples were collected at diagnosis in cases and at delivery in controls., Results: We observed a significant association of high maternal plasma homocysteine concentrations with NTDs in the offspring (p = 0.026). There was no association of maternal folate or B(12) levels with NTDs (p > 0.05) but low maternal holo-transcobalamin predicted strong risk of NTDs in the offspring (p = 0.003). The commonly associated maternal polymorphism 677C>T in the MTHFR gene did not predict risk of NTDs in the offspring (p > 0.05) and 1298A>C and 1781G>A polymorphisms in MTHFR were protective (p = 0.024 and 0.0004 respectively). Maternal 776C>G polymorphism in TCN2 was strongly predictive of NTD in the offspring (p = 0.006)., Conclusion: Our study has demonstrated a possible role for maternal B(12) deficiency in the etiology of NTDs in India over and above the well-established role of folate deficiency., (Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)