Music is used in healthcare to promote physical and psychological well-being. As clinical applications of music continue to expand, there is a growing need to understand the biological mechanisms by ...which music influences health. Here we explore the neurochemistry and social flow of group singing. Four participants from a vocal jazz ensemble were conveniently sampled to sing together in two separate performances: pre-composed and improvised. Concentrations of plasma oxytocin and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were measured before and after each singing condition to assess levels of social affiliation, engagement and arousal. A validated assessment of flow state was administered after each singing condition to assess participants' absorption in the task. The feasibility of the research methods were assessed and initial neurochemical data was generated on group singing. Mean scores of the flow state scale indicated that participants experienced flow in both the pre-composed (M = 37.06) and improvised singing conditions (M = 34.25), with no significant difference between conditions. ACTH concentrations decreased in both conditions, significantly so in the pre-composed singing condition, which may have contributed to the social flow experience. Mean plasma oxytocin levels increased only in response to improvised singing, with no significant difference between improvised and pre-composed singing conditions observed. The results indicate that group singing reduces stress and arousal, as measured by ACTH, and induces social flow in participants. The effects of pre-composed and improvised group singing on oxytocin are less clear. Higher levels of plasma oxytocin in the improvised condition may perhaps be attributed to the social effects of improvising musically with others. Further research with a larger sample size is warranted.
Continuous occurrence of snakebite incidences and the vulnerability of some communities remain a critical problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite causing permanent disability to almost half a million ...people annually and numerous deaths, snakebite and associated complications are still largely neglected. This study aimed at elucidating risk factors associated with snakebite cases, treatment availability and case management practices for vulnerable agro-pastoralist communities in Northern Tanzania.
Data was collected in the Monduli (Arusha region) and the Simanjiro (Manyara region) districts in Tanzania. Interviews with 101 snakebite victims or their guardians and 13 health professionals from 3 health centers in the districts were conducted. Additionally, case records of patients admitted between 2007 and 2019 to the Meserani Snakebite Clinic were obtained.
This study showed that appropriate treatment for snakebite including anti-venom, is difficult to access and that snakebite incidences were significantly linked to factors such as gender, age, socio-economic activity, season of the year, and whether being at home or out in the fields. Anti-venom and trained health professionals were only available at the Meserani Snake Park Clinic. Men were bitten most often (χ2 = 62.08, df = 4, p-value < 0.0001). Overall, adults between the ages of 18 and 60 years (χ2 = 62.08, df = 4, p-value < 0.0001) received most bites, usually while outdoors herding cattle in the dry season. A significant majority of victims looked for traditional treatment first (52.7%, χ2 = 29.541, df = 2, p-value = 0.0001). The results of this study present crucial information on what is needed to improve the accessibility to appropriate treatment after a snakebite among agro-pastoral communities.
The situation regarding morbidity and mortality due to the inaccessibility of common treatment for snakebite in northern Tanzania is challenging. Reliance on traditional medicine exacerbates the situation. There is dire need to involve affected communities, researchers, the government, clinicians and the public in general, to work together and take part in the global snakebite initiative. Communities and health professionals recognise the underlying challenges and have valuable suggestions on how to improve the situation.
This essay situates Object Lessons in the contemporary academic spaces of women’s studies in India. A decade ago, Object Lessons offered an extensive critique of identity knowledges in the US academy ...with a special focus on women’s studies. What might its relevance be in the contemporary Indian context? The institutionalisation of women’s studies in India has been shaped by the resources of the social sciences, with their empirical bent and especially their connection to state and development policy. This makes for specific differences with the US context while many concerns are shared. The essay also looks at how gender as a category has been deployed in specific contexts in contrast to that of “women”, in the light of Wiegman’s cautions over seeking resolutions to particular problems through a preferential treatment of categories. By way of concluding thoughts on the Indian situation, women’s studies in India is hypervisible compared to other identity knowledges. In spite of its marginal and precarious location in the academy, it carries a disproportionate political burden, one that a heterogeneous student body is shouldering in their struggles for a sustainable future.
Most estrogen receptor α (ERα) ligands target the ligand binding domain (LBD). Agonist 17β-estradiol (E
) and tamoxifen (TM, known SERM), bind to the same site within the LBD. However, structures of ...ligand-bound complexes show that E
and TM induce different conformations of helix 12 (H12). During the molecular modelling studies of some naturally occurring flavonoids such as quercetin, luteolin, myricetin, kaempferol, naringin, hesperidin, galangin, baicalein and epicatechin with human ERα (3ERT and 1GWR), we observed that most of the ligands bound to the active site pocket of both 3ERT and 1GWR. The docking scores, interaction analyses, and conformation of H12 provided the data to support for the estrogenic or antiestrogenic potential of these flavonoids to a limited degree. Explicit molecular dynamics for 50 ns was performed to identify the stability and compatibility pattern of protein-ligand complex and RMSD were obtained. Baicalein, epicatechin, and kaempferol with 1GWR complex showed similar RMSD trend with minor deviations in the protein backbone RMSD against 1GWR-E
complex that provided clear indications that ligands were stable throughout the explicit molecular simulations in the protein and outcome of naringin-3ERT complex had an upward trend but stable throughout the simulations and all molecular dynamics showed stability with less than overall 1 Å deviation throughout the simulations. To examine their estrogenic or antiestrogenic potential, we studied the effect of the flavonoids on viability, progesterone receptor expression and 3xERE/3XERRE-driven reporter gene expression in ERα positive and estrogen responsive MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Epicatechin, myricetin, and kaempferol showed estrogenic potential at 5 µM concentration.
This article offers a preliminary analysis of the New Education Policy document 2020 (NEP 2020) that was released by the government after considerable delay. Since 2016, the government has been ...trying to bring out a policy document on education, and NEP 2020 is at the end of several attempts that fell by the wayside. The context for the present discussion is that of the unprecedented expansion in higher education among students in recent decades. Within the emergence of a heterogeneous student body, the presence of women students—which has even reached parity in mainstream disciplines at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels—has somehow escaped public attention. The NEP document, especially the section concerning higher education, has to be read with care in order to go beyond its welcome aspects, such as those of multi-disciplinarity and holism. What is disturbing is evidence of a tiered differential structure that is likely to have negative effects on the kind of access that women have achieved. The hard question before us is whether the unprecedented entry of women across social groups that recent decades have witnessed, however poorly recognised or understood, will see a reversal in the wake of the lack of interest in questions of equity that the NEP vision document demonstrates. With the important exception of issues of sexual harassment on campuses, the overall neglect of the meanings and purpose of women’s increased claims on higher education bodes ill for the future.
This article begins with the aftermath of the Delhi gangrape in 2012, which shook India and the wider world. It examines what new insights emerged as sexual violence and harassment became a ...touchstone for naming what ails women in India, in public life and for feminist politics. The essay goes on to point out how the special focus on violence has obscured the contexts structuring and constraining young women students' aspirations, namely the peculiar twin developments of near parity in access to higher education coupled with one of the lowest female work participation rates in the world. The arrival of #MeToo in India from 1917, first in academia and then in several workplaces, brings in a further twist. Through the controversial staging of anonymous lists and collective testimonies through social media, the experience of #MeToo in India has revealed the ongoing force of a politics of naming acts of sexual harassment in a hostile climate where "job loss growth" is only going to increase most women's exclusion from employment and their greater dependency on men. I liken this contradiction to a new form of "hermeneutic injustice," which calls for vigilance and understanding as protests change their face yet again.
The transmission of signals to the cell body from injured axons induces significant alterations in primary sensory neurons located in the ganglion tissue, the site of the perikaryon of the affected ...nerve fibers. Disruption of the continuity between the proximal and distal ends leads to substantial adaptability in ganglion cells and induces macrophage-like activity in the satellite cells. Research findings have demonstrated the plasticity of satellite cells following injury. Satellite cells work together with sensory neurons to extend the interconnected surface area in order to permit effective communication. The dynamic cellular environment within the ganglion undergoes several alterations that ultimately lead to differentiation, transformation, or cell death. In addition to necrotic and apoptotic cell morphology, phenomena such as histomorphometric alterations, including the development of autophagic vacuoles, chromatolysis, cytosolic degeneration, and other changes, are frequently observed in cells following injury. The use of electron microscopic and stereological techniques for assessing ganglia and nerve fibers is considered a gold standard in terms of investigating neuropathic pain models, regenerative therapies, some treatment methods, and quantifying the outcomes of pharmacological and bioengineering interventions. Stereological techniques provide observer-independent and reliable results, which are particularly useful in the quantitative assessment of three-dimensional structures from two-dimensional images. Employing the fractionator and disector techniques within stereological methodologies yields unbiased data when assessing parameters such as number. The fundamental concept underlying these methodologies involves ensuring that each part of the structure under evaluation has an equal opportunity of being sampled. This review describes the stereological and histomorphometric evaluation of dorsal root ganglion neurons and satellite cells following nerve injury models.
•The satellite cells display high plasticity following injury.•Physical disector counting technique is used for getting unbiased result.•Resin embedding medium is the best for neuron number estimation in DRG.•Cavalieri method is used for volume and volume ratio.
Social and occupational functioning are important for psychological health. However, quantitative research has suggested that these areas can be adversely affected by multiple chemical sensitivity ...(MCS). This systematic review therefore sought to explore what qualitative research has suggested about how people with MCS perceive it to affect their social and occupational functioning.
Journal articles were included if they were 1) peer reviewed 2) qualitative or mixed methods 3) published in English 4) reported qualitative findings relevant to the review. Studies were excluded if they were 1) descriptive only 2) primarily concerned with environmental intolerances other than chemicals or 3) focussed on specific populations such as veterans. Quality was assessed using the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2018) qualitative quality criteria. However, quality was not used to determine eligibility for inclusion. Six databases (CINAHL, Medline, PsychArticles, PsychInfo, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched between the 24th of February 2019 and 2nd of March 2019.
Having removed duplicates, database searches identified 388 potential articles. Thirteen of these articles were eligible for inclusion. Following review, no more articles were included from the reference lists of these studies. Meta-aggregation of the findings identified seven categories. These were synthesised into three themes; ‘limited access’, ‘loss & anxiety’ and ‘seeking engagement’.
The findings suggested that MCS limits some people's social and occupational functioning. The results warrant further research, and, the development of prevention and intervention strategies. Studies predominantly recruited United States and Canadian females and had several limitations.
•People with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) experience stigma and disbelief.•MCS is associated with financial, social and occupational losses.•Coping strategies include requesting accommodations, avoidance and support groups.•People affected by MCS might benefit from psychosocial support.
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