Effect of antimalarials treatment on rat liver lysosomal function—Anin vivo study

Effects of treatmentin vivo with the antimalarials:chloroquine (CQ), primaquine (PQ) and quinine(Q) on lysosomal enzymes and lysosomal membrane integrity were examined. Treatment with the three antimalarials showed an apparent increase in the membrane stability. CQ treatment resulted in increase in both the ‘free’ and ‘total’ activities of all the enzymes i.e. acid phosphatase, RNase II, DNase II and cathepsin D. PQ treatment lowered the ‘free’ and ‘total’ activities of acid phosphatase and cathepsin D, but the DNase II activities increased. Treatment with Q resulted in increased ‘free’ and ‘total’ activities of RNase II and DNase II. While ‘free’ activities of acid phosphatase and cathepsin D were low; the ‘total’ activities increased significantly. Our results suggest that a generalized increase in free nucleases activities following prolonged treatment with antimalarials may lead to cell damage and/or necrosis.     

Effect of thiazide drug compound on the testicular protein and cholesterol contents of albino rat

In this study the effect of thiazide diuretic compound on the protein and cholesterol contents in the testes of albino rats as the experimental model. The drug thiazide was administered orally daily for 10,20 and 30 days at the dose of 100mg/kg body weight. Total protein decrease in the testes of rats were evidenced may be due to the side effects of thiazide drug compound which is linked with the hyponatremia and protein metabolism. An elevated level of cholesterol contents observed in thiazide treated rats also revealed that the side effect of drug compound thiazide and also may be due to the stimulation of catecholamine which is stimulated therefore, the biochemical estimation such as protein and cholesterol in the testes after the thiazide treatment determined the effectiveness of diuretic drug compound would provide clinical evidences of their side effects.     

Comparing three South African student cohorts on their attitudes to the rights of working women

This study compares three cohorts (1998–1999, 2005–2006 and 2010) of undergraduate psychology students at a South African university on the level of support for working women (women in paid employment) on various issues considered to be feminist. Cohort 1 (n?=?244), cohort 2 (n?=?311) and cohort 3 (n?=?266) completed an adapted version of a questionnaire used by the Research Group on Women and Work (Kitch, S. L. 1994. “‘We're All in this Alone’: Career Women's Attitudes Toward Feminism.” In Women and Careers: Issues and Challenges, edited by C. W. Konek and S. L. Kitch. London: Sage). The expected liberalisation of attitudes over the cohorts was evident for the females but not for the males: the second male cohort had more conservative attitudes than the first and third male cohorts. While there appeared to be strong overall support for gender equality in work and educational fields, there were equally solid endorsements of the importance of marriage and motherhood for working women. Across the cohorts there were somewhat moderate attitudes on the need for structural change in the family and at work. The implications of the findings are considered.     

Foraging on the radial-arm maze: Effects of altering the reward at a target location

Thirsty rats were trained to collect small water rewards from the end of each arm of an eight-arm radial maze. During these training trials and subsequent testing trials, the subjects were allowed to choose a maximum of eight arms. “Preference” for a target maze location was studied by noting when, in the sequence of eight choices, the target was selected. During testing, when one maze location was consistently devoid of water, rats decreased their preference for this arm over trials (Experiment 1). Similarly, rats that learned a saccharin-lithium association demonstrated lower preferences for a maze location that consistently held the conditioned saccharin solution. This was true for animals that received saccharin-lithium conditioning on the maze (Experiment 3A) and for animals conditioned to saccharin in a separate context (Experiment 3B). An increase in preference for a target maze location consistently containing a sweet chocolate milk solution was observed in animals that were water- and food-deprived (Experiment 2). These studies demonstrate that animals will modify their responses toward (preferences for) maze locations that predictably contain an altered reward.     

The Contemporary Women's Movement and Women's Education in India

The contemporary women's movement in India (1975–present) has played an important role in bringing gender issues to the forefront of development planning and defining feminist politics. This paper examines how this movement has addressed the issue of women's education. The first section highlights contributions of the social reformist movement in the 19th century and the nationalist movement in promoting women's education. The role of the contemporary women's movement in changing school curricula is examined in the second section, followed by discussion on how women's studies has contributed to redefining knowledge. The fourth section discusses women's empowerment and education from the perspective of the women's movement. The article concludes by highlighting challenges facing the women's movement in promoting women's education for equality and empowerment.     

Organization of biomedical data for collaborative scientific research: A research information management system

Biomedical researchers often work with massive, detailed and heterogeneous datasets. These datasets raise new challenges of information organization and management for scientific interpretation, as they demand much of the researchers’ time and attention. The current study investigated the nature of the problems that researchers face when dealing with such data. Four major problems identified with existing biomedical scientific information management methods were related to data organization, data sharing, collaboration, and publications. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop an efficient and user-friendly information management system to handle the biomedical research data. This study evaluated the implementation of an information management system, which was introduced as part of the collaborative research to increase scientific productivity in a research laboratory. Laboratory members seemed to exhibit frustration during the implementation process. However, empirical findings revealed that they gained new knowledge and completed specified tasks while working together with the new system. Hence, researchers are urged to persist and persevere when dealing with any new technology, including an information management system in a research laboratory environment.     

Parent and teacher perceptions of students＇ general scholastic abilities： Effects on involvement and communication

Parents＇ and teachers＇ perceptions of students＇ general scholastic abilities, such as being able to complete their school work, retain what they learn, and achieve sufficiently compared to other students at their ages, were analyzed for how well they predict parents＇ forms of involvement in their children＇s education and teachers＇ forms of communication to parents. Data were collected from parents and teachers in two Title I, public middle schools in a large, urban city in the southwest. Parent involvement and teacher communication practices were measured using the ＂school and family partnerships survey＂. Parents＇ and teachers＇ perceptions of students＇ general scholastic abilities were measured using a teacher-rating version of the ＂perceived competence scale for children＂. Linear regression analyses revealed that parents＇ perceptions did not predict their involvement, nor did teachers＇ perceptions predict their amount of communication as reported by parents. Although parents＇ and teachers＇ perceptions did not predict involvement in this study, perceptions of children＇s general academic abilities should be further explored in relation to family-school partnerships. The results suggest that involvement in middle school occurs in ways distinctive from elementary school. Therefore, improved instruments are needed to more accurately measure parent involvement and teacher communication at grade levels beyond elementary school.     

Congruity in Quality Indicators and Laboratory Performance

Proficiency of laboratory services is the mainstay in clinical medicine in providing error free diagnostic results. The efficiency of the laboratory needs to be evaluated as per standard international criterion. The quality indicators of the different phases of total testing process are considered the fundamental measurable tool for evaluation of laboratory performance. In order to optimize the laboratory’s proficiency and accreditate it as per international standard in our newly established lab, the study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of errors incurred by laboratory and nonlaboratory professionals during the whole testing process. Retrospective analysis was done for data received from April 2016 to Dec 2016 in our lab. Total number of samples received was 61,674, out of which 43200 samples could be analyzed for quality indicators. Total numbers of tests processed in these samples were 172,800. In the study samples, 26.5% errors were due to pre-analytical factors whereas 9.4% of errors were contributed by analytical phase and 18% by post-analytical phase. Inappropriateness of test requisition was observed to be the major attributing determinant for pre-analytical errors. Instrumentation efficiency in form of frequent breakdown (~7%), greatly affected the proficiency of analytical phase in our lab. 12% of post-analytical errors were ascribed by excessive turn-around-time. However, timeliness of critical value call out and reporting for STAT samples revealed high proficiency up to 97%. High error rates were observed in pre–pre- and pre-analytical phases that also accorded for high error frequency in post analytical phase. This emphasizes urgent need to formulate guidelines for processing all steps of total testing process and initiate strategic measures for reducing risk of errors and increasing patient safety.