Psychological Assessment of Health-Care Workers Working during COVID-19 Pandemic Condition in Bangladesh.

The study was aimed to assess the psychological aspects and relevant factors of the health-care workers (HCWs) working in COVID 19 pandemic condition in Bangladesh. This online cross-sectional survey was conducted from different tertiary, secondary and primary hospitals in Bangladesh. Eligible 638 HCWs who were directly involved in the caring of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients were recruited in this study. The mental health was assessed by the Patient Health Questionnare-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). High frequency of depression 536(84.0%), anxiety 386(60.5%) and insomnia 302(47.3%) was found among the HCWs, which were significantly higher in physicians (p<0.001) than nurses. Moderate to severe depression was significantly higher in female, whereas minimal to mild depression was significant in male HCWs (p=0.014). Symptoms of depression (p<0.001), anxiety (p<0.001) and insomnia (p=0.004) were significantly higher among the HCWs of primary and secondary compared to the tertiary level. The HCWs developed psychological trauma due to family health (45.3%) and contagious disease property (66.6%). After adjusting confounders, multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that physicians and HCWs of secondary hospital had significant symptoms of severe depression (OR=2.95, 95% CI=0.50-17.24; p<0.001), anxiety (OR=2.64, 95% CI=0.80-8.72; p<0.001) and insomnia (OR=2.67, 95% CI=1.23-5.84; p=0.018); whereas female HCWs had more risk of developing symptoms of severe insomnia (OR= 1.84; 95% CI=1.23-2.75; p=0.003). High rate of depression, anxiety and insomnia was found among HCWs working in the COVID-19 pandemic condition in this survey.

Need Assessment for Updating the MBBS Curriculum 2012 of Bangladesh.

Curriculum is the road map of any course and an instrument for developing the competencies of the human resources. The MBBS curriculum in our country was last updated in 2012 during the period of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Since then it has been under implementation in different government, non-government and Army medical colleges in association with different universities. "Health Professional for a New Century" now asks for a transformation of the education to strengthen the health systems for meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Curriculum reform is an important issue in transformative education and need assessment is the first and essential task to review and update any curriculum. The objective of the study was to assess the need to review and update the MBBS curriculum 2012 of Bangladesh. Review and updating of MBBS curriculum was organized by Centre for Medical Education (CME) and supported by World Health Organization (WHO). CME, DGHS, Dean offices, MOH&FW, BM&DC and all the government and non-government medical colleges were involved in this activity. Duration of study was 7 months from April 2019 to October 2019. Data were collected from academic councils of 102 medical colleges through structured questionnaire and through FGD with teachers and interns. Around 90(88.2%) academic councils agreed and 12(12%) disagreed about the appropriateness of existing four phases of MBBS curriculum. About 80(84.2%) academic councils agreed with 1.5 years duration of Phase I, 84(88.4%) agreed with one year duration of Phase II, 84(94.4%) agreed with one year duration of Phase III and 77(84.6%) agreed with 1.5 years duration of Phase IV. The study suggested the subjects for 2nd phase are, Pharmacology 74(84.1%), Pathology 53(60.3%), Forensic Medicine 46(52.3%), and for 3rd phase are Community Medicine 60(69.8%), Microbiology 54(62.8%). The study revealed that the subjects of overloaded contents are, Anatomy - 24(50%), Community Medicine - 35(72.9%) and Pathology - 19(39.6%). The study suggested incorporation of organized teaching-learning for behavioral science, communication skills, ethics and development of attitude by most of the academic councils. The study suggested that the increased duration of ambulatory care (outdoor/emergency) teaching. The study revealed around 84(83.2%) academic councils recommended that Single Best Answer (SBA) type of questions should be included in MCQ part for all subjects along with multiple true-false response and around 82(81.2%) academic councils recommended that Structured Essay Question (SEQ) should be included in written part along with Short Answer Question (SAQ). The study revealed that 58(58.6%) academic councils recommended that carry-on system should not be in Phase I and 53(53.5%) academic councils opined to introduce grading system in MBBS course. Most of the academic councils agreed about the appropriateness of existing four phases of MBBS curriculum. The subjects for 2nd phase are, Pharmacology - 84.1%, Pathology - 60.3%, Forensic Medicine - 52.3%, and for 3rd phase are Community Medicine - 69.8%, Microbiology - 62.8%. Most of the participants are in favour of the present curriculum components, grading system for assessment but not the carry-on system in Phase I. The study recommended for national level consultations involving the concerned persons for finalization of the MBBS curriculum.

Pressure dependent structural, elastic and mechanical properties with ground state electronic and optical properties of half-metallic Heusler compounds Cr2YAl (Y=Mn, Co): first-principles study.

Hydrostatic pressure dependent structural, electronic, elastic and optical properties of Heusler compounds Cr2YAl (Y=Mn, Co) are investigated by the first-principles calculations. Present study shows good agreement between the calculated and experimental values of lattice parameters of these compounds. The gradual decrease of lattice parameter and unit cell volume with the increase of pressure eliminates the possibility of phase transition up to the considered pressure range 0-30 GPa. The absence of negative frequency in the phonon dispersion curves at various external pressures up to 30 GPa confirm the dynamical stability of these compounds. The values of Pugh's ratio, Poisson's ratio and Cauchy pressure indicate the ductility of Cr2CoAl while those criteria confirm the brittleness of Cr2MnAl. Pressure dependent behaviour of the elastic constants of these compounds shows the mechanical stability over the studied pressure range (0-30 GPa). Crystal stiffening of both the compounds is indicated by the increase of Debye temperature with increasing hydrostatic pressure. The pressure dependent band structure and density of states (DOS) calculations reveal the half- and the near half-metallic behaviour of Cr2MnAl and Cr2CoAl, respectively up to 20 GPa while those disappears at pressure around 30 GPa. The variations of optical constants with pressure is consistent with the results of the electronic structure calculations. High reflectivity (>45%) of both the compounds makes them attractive for optoelectronic device applications.

Genetic basis of heterosis and inbreeding depression in rice (Oryza sativa L.).

The genetic basis of heterosis was studied through mid-parent, standard variety and better parent for 11 quantitative traits in 17 parental lines and their 10 selected hybrids in rice (Oryza sativa L.). The characters were plant height, days to flag leaf initiation, days to first panicle initiation, days to 100% flowering, panicle length, flag leaf length, days to maturity, number of fertile spikelet/panicle, number of effective tillers/hill, grain yield/10-hill, and 1000-grain weight. In general the hybrids performed significantly better than the respective parents. Significant heterosis was observed for most of the studied characters. Among the 10 hybrids, four hybrids viz., 17Ax45R, 25Ax37R, 27Ax39R, 31Ax47R, and 35Ax47R showed highest heterosis in 10-hill grain yield/10-hill. Inbreeding depression of F2 progeny was also studied for 11 characters of 10 hybrids. Both positive and negative inbreeding depression were found in many crosses for the studied characters, but none was found significant. Selection of good parents was found to be the most important for developing high yielding hybrid rice varieties.

Visual recognition of triamines by phenolphthalein derivatives: consideration of the structure of the colored complex.

[structure: see text] A hybrid molecule 1 consisting of phenolphthalein and two crown ether moieties can be used to discriminate the length of linear triamines strictly by color development. The purple color is developed most deeply at -10 degrees C and fades with either an increase or decrease in temperature.

Visual enantiomeric recognition using chiral phenolphthalein derivatives.

[structure: see text] Optically active artificial host molecules 2-5 based on a phenolphthalein skeleton have been prepared for visual enantiomeric recognition of alanine derivatives 8 and 9. The receptor 3 discriminates (R)-8 and (R)-9 from (S)-8 and (S)-9, respectively, to develop a purple color.

Synthesis of extremely simplified compounds possessing the key pharmacophore units of taxol, phenylisoserine and oxetane moieties.

Straight chain compounds having a phenylisoserine unit and an oxetane ring at the alpha- and omega- position, respectively as extremely simplified analogues of taxol were prepared. None of these compounds showed promising tubulin inhibitory activity.

[The clinico-diagnostic significance of determining creatine kinase activity and isoenzymes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus]. / Kliniko-diagnosticheskoe znachenie opredelenie aktivnosti i izofermentov kreatinkinazy u bol'nykh sistemnoi krasnoi volchankoi.

Creatine kinase (CK) activity was assessed in the direct and reverse tests and CK isoenzymes in agar gel for 41 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). With growing activity of the process, there was a decline of CK activity in the reverse test though in the direct test this activity was scarcely changeable allowing a shift to predominance of the direct response. Significant differences were found in CK reverse reaction which correlated with SLE activity and pattern. The more active the disease, the less content of CK-1 and CK-3 isoenzymes. Investigations of CK activity and isoenzymes during SLE treatment help objectivize the clinical control.