Screen Time Among Medical and Nursing Students and Its Correlation With Sleep Quality and Attention Span: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND:  Screen time is increasing among students and is also known to affect their lifestyle and health. The study investigated the correlation of screen time with sleep quality and attention span. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical and nursing students in November 2021. A total of 192 students were selected randomly and investigated using a structured questionnaire. Sleep behavior was assessed using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. Screen time and attention span were measured for each participant. The screen time data was reported as the median with an IQR. Pearson's correlation was performed to assess the correlation between screen time and sleep behavior and screen time and attention span. RESULTS:  The median screen time for 28 days was 260 (192.2-326.7) hours, and the median non-academic screen time was 250.0 (172.3-328.0) hours. Subjective sleep quality was good among 163 (84.9%) of the study participants. Global sleep quality was poor among 91 (42.2%) participants. The median score of the digit span forward was 6.00 (IQR: 5.00-7.00), and the median score of the digit span backward was 5.00 (IQR: 4.00-6.00). The global sleep score had a strong positive correlation with screen time, with a Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.86. Forward and backward attention spans were not correlated with sleep scores, with correlation coefficients of 0.037 and 0.071, respectively. CONCLUSION:  Screen time is increasing significantly among medical and nursing undergraduate students, and their sleep is also getting affected. Emphasis should be given to the balance between digitalization and health.

Heavy metals contamination, receptor model-based sources identification, sources-specific ecological and health risks in road dust of a highly developed city.

The present study quantified Ni, Cu, Cr, Pb, Cd, As, Zn, and Fe levels in road dust collected from a variety of sites in Tangail, Bangladesh. The goal of this study was to use a matrix factorization model to identify the specific origin of these components and to evaluate the ecological and health hazards associated with each potential origin. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to determine the concentrations of Cu, Ni, Cr, Pb, As, Zn, Cd, and Fe. The average concentrations of these elements were found to be 30.77 ± 8.80, 25.17 ± 6.78, 39.49 ± 12.53, 28.74 ± 7.84, 1.90 ± 0.79, 158.30 ± 28.25, 2.42 ± 0.69, and 18,185.53 ± 4215.61 mg/kg, respectively. Compared to the top continental crust, the mean values of Cu, Pb, Zn, and Cd were 1.09, 1.69, 2.36, and 26.88 times higher, respectively. According to the Nemerow integrated pollution index (NIPI), pollution load index (PLI), Nemerow integrated risk index (NIRI), and potential ecological risk (PER), 84%, 42%, 30%, and 16% of sampling areas, respectively, which possessed severe contamination. PMF model revealed that Cu (43%), Fe (69.3%), and Cd (69.2%) were mainly released from mixed sources, natural sources, and traffic emission, respectively. Traffic emission posed high and moderate risks for modified NIRI and potential ecological risks. The calculated PMF model-based health hazards indicated that the cancer risk value for traffic emission, natural, and mixed sources had been greater than (1.0E-04), indicating probable cancer risks and that traffic emission posed 38% risk to adult males where 37% for both adult females and children.

Substrate preferences, phylogenetic and biochemical properties of proteolytic bacteria present in the digestive tract of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

Vertebrate intestine appears to be an excellent source of proteolytic bacteria for industrial and probiotic use. We therefore aimed at obtaining the gut-associated proteolytic species of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). We have isolated twenty six bacterial strains from its intestinal tract, seven of which showed exoprotease activity with the formation of clear halos on skim milk. Their depolymerization ability was further assessed on three distinct proteins including casein, gelatin, and albumin. All the isolates could successfully hydrolyze the three substrates indicating relatively broad specificity of their secreted proteases. Molecular taxonomy and phylogeny of the proteolytic isolates were determined based on their 16S rRNA gene barcoding, which suggested that the seven strains belong to three phyla viz. Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria, distributed across the genera Priestia, Citrobacter, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Burkholderia, Providencia, and Micrococcus. The isolates were further characterized by a comprehensive study of their morphological, cultural, cellular and biochemical properties which were consistent with the phylogenetic annotations. To reveal their proteolytic capacity alongside substrate preferences, enzyme-production was determined by the diffusion assay. The Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas and Micrococcus isolates appeared to be most promising with maximum protease production on casein, gelatin, and albumin media respectively. Our findings present valuable insights into the phylogenetic and biochemical properties of gut-associated proteolytic strains of Nile tilapia.