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Newsletter of Sri Ramachandra University ….Connecting SRU June 2013 Welcome Royale Welcome Royale
Newsletter of Sri Ramachandra University
….Connecting SRU
June 2013
Welcome RoyaleWelcome Royale
From the Editor’s Desk
Bridges - Connecting SRU
Bridges Committee
Patron:
Shri. V. R. VenkataachalamChancellor
Advisory Board:
Prof. J. S. N. MurthyVice-Chancellor
Prof. S. RangaswamiProfessor of Eminence inMedical Education
Prof. K.V. SomasundaramDean of Faculties
Editor-in-Chief:
Dr. Sheela Ravinder. S.
Editor:
Ms. Hemalatha C. R.
Co-Editor:
Mr. Antony Leo Aseer P.
Editorial Board:
Mr. Abhinand P. A.
Dr. Archana P. Kumar
Dr. Ganesh V.
Prof. Kalpana Suresh
Dr. Nithya Jagdish
Prof. Prakash Boominathan
Prof. Sandhya Sundaram
Dr. Sreelekha B.
Secretarial Assistance:
Ms. Stella Augustus
Ms. Geetha R.
Photography:
Mr. Anand Kumar A.
Art & Design:
Mr. Arunagiri S.
Printing:
Mr. Velayudam S.
Cover Photo Courtesy:
Mr. Anand Kumar A.Senior Photographer, SRU
Beloved Readers,
Let us stay connected…
Every academic year begins with loads of promise, hope and optimism. Bridges wishes
all the new entrants a fabulous year filled with immense joy of learning. Numerous training
programs implemented at SRU provide continuous opportunities to gain knowledge and
fulfill the university's vision to march towards excellence.
Learning to remain calm in times of stress helps us lead a happier and healthier life
says ‘Happiness is’. ‘Believe it or Not’ in this issue divulges that we carry friendly viruses
that shield us from infection by dangerous bacteria. To experience unrestrained childlike
happiness, take every opportunity to relish something new that life offers at every moment
reveals ‘Your Corner’.
Sheela Ravinder. S. Editor-in-Chief
Memories
Dept. of Pediatric Surgery & Chennai City Chapter of Pediatric Surgeons organizednd th ththe 2 PESI – IAPS Workshop on 16 & 17 March 2007. The chief guest was
Mr. V. K. Subburaj, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Dear Editor,
Our newsletters are not just Bridges. They are flyovers. They not only connect us, but have changed the way we communicate with each other. I love ‘Soul to Soul’, ‘Happiness is…’ & ‘Tamil section’ in particular. Mr. Akshay Singh's poems are awesome, with a maturity that belies his age.
Dr. S. Roopa,Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Physiology
thBridges celebrates its 5 Anniversary in July 2013. So get geared-up with your creative
skills to participate in our anniversary competitions and win prizes.
Letters to the Editor
Are you ready?
Happenings
Bridges - Connecting SRU
Dept. of Dermatology,
Venereology & Leprosy
observed on th20 May. An interactive
session was held with
patients to counsel them
regarding the nature and
prognosis of the disease.
Vitiligo Day
Dept. of Psychiatry o b s e r v e d
on th24 May. An awareness
program was organized to sensitize the public about Schizophrenia. The various events organized included:
·Brochure distribution
·Interactive session by consultants
·Video presentation More than 2000 public, 100 patients and care givers benefited.
W o r l d Schizophrenia Day
Facu l t y o f Den t a l
Sciences observed the
ston 31 May by organizing
a ‘Walkathon’ around the
campus and a signature
campaign in the college.
World No Tobacco Day
June ‘13
In commemoration of the World No Tobacco Day, the Dept. of Oral Medicine & Radiology conducted a
th from May 30 stto 1 Jun. A total of 97
patients were screened, of which 17 patients were diagnosed to have oral precancer and one with cancer. All the patients were followed up for histopathological evaluation and further management. 17 patients were enrolled for tobacco cessation program.
Oral Cancer & Precancer Screening
Camp
An
thon 17 May to
conduct the National
Examination Board in
Occupational Safety and
Health (NEBOSH)-UK
course at SRU.
was signed
between SRU and Safety
Engineers Association
(SEA)
MoU
Nurses Day th was observed on 11 May. Prizes were awarded for the meritorious service of nurses by our Chancellor.
College of Management conducted
from th th14 to 18 May. The
speake r s we re Mr. Abhishek, Behavioural Trainer & Psychometric Analyst, Center for Emotional Support,
Bengaluru, Mrs. Hemalatha, Behaviour Trainer, PARIKSITH Business Consultancy and Mr. Sathish, Managing Director, PARIKSITH Business Consultancy.
Finishing School Program
The Alumni Association of Sri Ramachandra School and College of Nursing celebrated the
on t h8 May. 98 alumni
participated.
t hNurses Day & 11 Alumni Reunion
The Pharmacy Education Unit organized a Faculty Development thProgram on on 6 May.
39 in-house faculty members and 11 participants from various Pharmacy colleges in Chennai participated.
Quality Indicators for Andragogues
Bridges - Connecting SRU
Dept . of Phar macy Practice organized a two day program -
th thon 29 & 30 Apr.
The chief guest was Dr. S. D. Rajendran, Head, Medical Affairs Division,
Sristek, Hyderabad. A hands-on training was given by experts using the software, Phoenix WinNonlin. 52 delegates participated.
SRU's Hands-on Workshop on Basic PK/PD Modeling
Faculty of Nursing
organized a
on rd23 Apr. 206 outgoing
students participated.
Career
Orientation Program
New Projects Sanctioned
Sl.No. Title Principal Investigator Funding Agency
1. Association of susceptible genetic markers and autoantibodies in Rheumatoid Arthritis Biochemistry Govt. of India
2. A Domino Ullman/Hartwig-Buchwald-Claisen approach for synthesis Dr. K. V. Geetha SERB, DSTof fused heterocycles and studies on their antimicrobial activities Medicinal Chemistry Govt. of India
Prof. Nalini Ganesan SERB, DST
Did you know?Value-based Add-on Courses at SRU
Sl. No. Course
1. College of Pharmacy
Certificate Course in Drug Regulatory Affairs
2. College of Nursing
Certificate Course in Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Nursing
3. College of Physiotherapy
Certificate in Handling Skills in Rehabilitation
4. College of Management
Certificate Course in Strategic Human Resources Management for Healthcare
College of Allied Health Sciences
5. Dept. of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences
Certificate Course in Improving Communication Skills
6. Dept. of Clinical Nutrition
Certificate Course in Art of Cooking and Food Preservation
7. Dept. of Environmental Health Engineering
Certificate Course in Data Management and Data Analysis for Health Science Research
College of Biomedical Sciences, Technology and Sciences
8. Dept. of Human Genetics
Certificate Course in Medical Genetics
9. Dept. of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology
in vitro Bioassays for Pre-Clinical Screening of Natural Products
10. Dept. of Biomedical Sciences
Certificate Course in Everyday Electronics
11. Dept. of Bioinformatics
Certificate Course in Health Informatics
Various departments of the university are offering value-based add-on courses for a duration of 6 months (9 credits). All students, faculty
and staff of SRU are eligible to apply. Interested candidates can contact the respective departments for further details.
Bridges - Connecting SRU
Dinosaurs (except for birds) became extinct about 66 million years ago, at the same time
that an enormous asteroid, about 10km wide, smacked into the Yucatan Peninsula of
Mexico.
We know there was an asteroid because there is a crater in Mexico that is 66 million years
old. There is also a thin layer of clay that was formed at this time, all around the world,
that is enriched in iridium (an element that is extremely rare on earth but very common in
asteroids). In addition, there is clear evidence for global wildfires and huge tsunamis that
were caused by the impact.
Source: Steve Brusatte, Walking with Dinosaur, May 22, 2013
Furthermore, dinosaur fossils are not found in rocks that were formed after this asteroid
impact – we simply never find dinosaurs in rocks deposited above the iridium-rich clay
layer. So it seems clear that the asteroid impact had something to do with the dinosaur extinction, a view that has been widely supported since
the father-and-son team of Luis and Walter Alvarez first proposed it in 1980.
But one question has remained: were dinosaurs in decline prior to this asteroid impact? If so, perhaps the asteroid simply delivered
a final crushing blow to dinosaurs, which were already heading towards extinction. Recent studies have shown that certain dinosaur groups
were in decline during the final 10 million years of the Cretaceous. A study published by paleontologists from 2012
showed that the large-bodied, bulk-feeding, plant-eating dinosaurs (ceratopsids and hadrosauroids) dramatically decreased in diversity
during this time.
Another intriguing study, published by Jonathan Mitchell from and his co-workers, asked an important question: what
did this decline actually mean for dinosaurs? They constructed food webs for several dinosaur ecosystems during the final 10 million years of
the Cretaceous. These food webs are similar to an interconnected network of species showing who eats who, that links together all members
of an ecosystem.
Mitchell et al then used a computer to perform a calculation: what would happen to these food webs if various species became extinct? They
found that the ecosystems that existed when the asteroid hit were far more susceptible to devastating extinctions (where the extinctions of a
few species has cascading consequences throughout the food web) than the ecosystems of 10 million years before. The asteroid impacted at a
time when ecosystems were particularly vulnerable and weak.
So it does seem as if dinosaurs suffered some pretty bad luck, and would have had a better chance of surviving the asteroid apocalypse if it had
occurred 10 million years earlier.
Edinburgh University
Edinburgh University
Global NewsIf not for the asteroid, would dinosaurs have survived?
Date Eventnd12.05.’13 Ms. E. V. Gomathi, M.Sc MIT II year secured the 2 place for podium presentation at the CME
on Advanced Imaging Techniques - 2013 held at NIMHANS Convention Center, Bengaluru
27.04.’13 Dr. M. Semmal Syed Meerasa, Assoc. Prof., delivered a lecture on ‘Scientific Insights in
Thirukkural’ at Culturelle des Tamouls de Vaureal, France
24.04.’13 CME on ‘Characterisation of Biomaterials at a Refined Scale using Modern Techniques of
Electron Microscopy’ by Prof. Hamish L. Fraser, Dept. of Material Science and Engg., Ohio
University, USA
19.04.’13 & Dr. R. Dhayanandan, final year PG won the Best Paper Presentation Award at the Association of
20.04.’13 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons of India (Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Chapter) Conference held
in Coonoor, Tamilnadu
15.04.’13 Industry Institution Interaction on the topic Medical Tourism followed by Placement Interview
by Mr. G. Srinivasan, Chief Consultant, Frontenders Healthcare Services, Chennai
Department
Radiology & Imaging
Sciences
Physiology
Ramachandra Innovis
Oral & Maxillofacial
Surgery
College of Management
Bridges - Connecting SRU
June ‘13
Founder-Chancellor Shri. N. P. V. Ramasamy Udayar Memorial Multispecialty Free Medical Camp was conducted at Perambalur th thon 25 & 26 May. Dr. Darez Ahamed, District Collector, Perambalur graced the event. Prof. S. Anandan, Dean, Medical College &
Prof. S. Thanikachalam, Chairman & Director, Cardiac Care Center, Prof. Emeritus & Prof. P. Soundararajan, HOD, Nephrology with a team of 80 doctors & paramedical staff participated in this camp. Investigations including blood tests, ECG, echocardiograph, ultrasound and X-rays along with medicines for one week were provided free of cost. Dental screening was also a part of the camp. More than 4000 people benefited.
rdFaculty of Dental Sciences conducted a free denture camp on 3 May at the Rural Health and Training Center, Vayalanallur. 16 patients benefited.
Faculty of Dental Sciences observed World No Tobacco Day by conducting a free oral cancer th stscreening camp from 29 to 31 May at the Rural Health and Training Center, Vayalanallur.
Telemedicine consultation was also offered by the doctors.
Reach Out
Happiness is...... in staying calm
Living completely in the present is the secret of an unhurried mind. When the mind is calm, it is alert and ready & opens the door to tremendous discoveries. Living in a hurried world, we are tired and drained from the pace of everyday's work. Slowing down not only our physical movements, but also our racing mind is a skill that we need to learn. We can slow down the pace of life by not crowding our day with too many activities, trying to do everything possible. By slowing down our pace and calming the mind, we will find more time for family & friends and more time to do things that are important to us.
A wandering mind is an untrained mind. We need to be mindful of what we are thinking, saying and doing. However tight our schedule maybe, if we stay calm we can accomplish more with undivided attention. To still our mind, we need to overcome our conditioned habits, set priorities and do one thing at a time. Being calm keeps a person from making hasty decisions. Cultivating calmness makes you and the people around you happier. A mind that is slow is sound; a mind that is still is divine.
‘Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.’
- Mahatma Gandhi
Bridges - Connecting SRU
June ‘13
Bacteria can be friends and foes—causing infection and disease, but also helping us slim down and even combating acne. Now, a new study reveals that viruses have a dual nature as well. For the first time, researchers have shown that they can help our bodies fight off invading microbes.
One of our most important lines of defense against bacterial invaders is mucus. The slimy substance coats the inside of the mouth, nose, eyelids, and digestive tract, to name just a few places, creating a barrier to the outside world. “Mucus is actually a really cool and complex substance,” says Jeremy Barr, a microbiologist at San Diego State University in California and lead author of the new study. Its gel-like consistency is attributed to the chemical nature of mucins, which are large, bottle brush-shaped molecules made of a protein backbone surrounded by strings of sugars. In between the mucins are a soup of nutrients and chemicals adapted to keep germs close, but not too close. Microbes such as bacteria live near the surface of the layer, whereas the mucus at the bottom, near the cells that produced it, is almost sterile.
Mucus is also home to phages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria. They can be found wherever bacteria reside, but Barr and his colleagues noticed that there were even more phages in mucus than in mucus-free areas just millimeters away. The saliva surrounding human gums, for example, had about five phages to every bacterial cell, while the ratio at the mucosal surface of the gum itself was closer to 40 to 1. “That spurred the question," Barr says. "What are these phages doing? Are they protecting the host?”
To find out, Barr and his colleagues grew human lung tissue in the lab. Lungs are one of the body surfaces that is protected by mucus, but the researchers also had a version of the lung cells where the ability to make mucus had been knocked out. When incubated overnight with the bacterium Escherichia coli, about half the cells in each culture died; the mucus made no difference to their survival. But when the researchers added a phage that targets E. coli to the cultures, survival rates skyrocketed for the mucus-producing cells. This disparity shows that phages can kill harmful bacteria, Barr says, but it's not clear whether they help or hurt beneficial bacteria; that may depend on which types of phages are present.
In a related series of experiments, the team found that the phages are studded with antibody like molecules that grab onto the sugar chains in mucins. This keeps the phages in the mucus, where they have access to bacteria, and suggests that the viruses and the mucus-producing tissue have adapted to be compatible with each other, the team reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It may also be possible to design a mucus-compatible phage that could fight infection or alter the body’s microbial balance, although that possibility is still very distant. This work, Barr says, “forces us to reevaluate the role of phages. Hopefully this will get people thinking about what they do and how we can use them to help us and combat disease.”
Source: McGuckin MA, Hasnain SZ: There is a “uc” in mucus, but is there mucus in UC? Gut 2013.
As we have seen, the Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR model tries to explain consciousness by connecting quantum computational processes occurring in microtubules in the neurons to changes in fundamental space-time geometry that forms the fine fabric of the universe. It therefore implies that the basis for consciousness could possibly exist on its own, in various fine-scale planes in space-time geometry, and not necessarily dependent on biology. The model thus offers another explanation for consciousness; a mechanism far more subtle compared to axon-to-dendrite chemical synaptic pathway and dendrite-to-dendrite gap junction electrical signals conventionally taken as important in this regard. Consciousness can thus be considered as a bridge connecting events occurring in the quantum and ‘classical’ worlds.
Sir Roger Penrose started by pointing out the fundamental and messy nature of ‘superposition’ at quantum levels in which atoms and subatomic particles can be present concurrently in two or more states or locations. Another property of matter in the quantum realm is known as ‘non-local entanglement’ in which components in a system separated in space can still remain connected and linked.
We are familiar with the description of matter as space-time curvature in Einstein's general theory of relativity. Penrose extended this concept -33to the Planck scale. The Planck scale (10 cm) is recognized as the most basic level of the universe. Extending our understanding down to the
Planck scale, it is therefore possible to imagine quantum superposition in which a particle in one specific location or state could exist as a specific curvature in space-time geometry whereas the same particle in another location would be a curvature in the opposite direction. What does therefore ‘superposition’ mean? Penrose describes it as simultaneous curvatures of space-time in opposite directions. This ‘separation’ caused by simultaneous curvatures in opposite directions is explained by him as a ‘bubble’ or ‘blister’ in the very fabric of reality. Penrose's diagram to explain this is shown here.
Penrose's concept of quantum superposition as curvature in space-time geometry in the Planck scale
Prof. S. Rangaswami,Professor of Eminence in Medical Education, SRU.
(will be continued…)Source : Google Images
Believe it or NotFriendly Viruses Protect us against Bacteria
Soul to Soul
8June ‘13
Bridges - Connecting SRU
For internal circulation only
Those little hands, those tiny feetYet wide enough to embrace it allTo mould things, and sparkle them To rebuild them after each fall The sorrow of a broken toy, a lost candyIs never lingered upon for long The same lips which tremble with tears Can again smile and break into a song The knees get scraped and hands get dirtyThose pattering feet fall and stumble Yet they wipe their noses, ready for moreNo matter how many times they crumble The joy of making mom's funny sketch The peals of laughter at anything stupidThe cuddling at night, free of care When life itself appears to be the cupid These 'tiny teachers' I call them Ancient keepers of wisdom mundane Just look at them closely and see...What we have forgotten down the lane Learn from them, the joy of simplicityThe spirit of adventure, whether we lose or win To accept and forget and move on To know that real happiness comes from within Comes from within ….
- Mr. Akshay Singh, Alumnus (MBBS)
ColorsHang Out Huddle ‘n’ Cuddle
Mr. Antony Leo Aseer P.,Reader, Faculty of Physiotherapy
Ms. S. Jayashree,Lecturer, Dept. of SLHS
Your CornerTiny Teacher...
thThe 28 Bridges Monthly Book Review was held on 07.06.'13
Book : The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Author : Robin S. Sharma
Reviewed by : Ms. A. Seethalakshmi, Reader, College of Nursing
Forthcoming Bridges Monthly Book Review
July 2013 – The Year of the Intern by Robin Cook
To be reviewed by Dr. R. Ramya, Alumna (MS Ophthalmology)
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