Objectives: The concept of length-tension relationship in skeletal muscle can be studied in a living person by demonstrating the relationship between isometric strength and joint angles. There is lack of an effective practical module to demonstrate this concept in living person, hence the study was planned. Materials and Methods: A simple, feasible and novel practical is designed using a custom-made isometric elbow flexion-extension exercising instrument, in which isometric elbow strength is measured using a dynamometer against various elbow joint angles measured using a goniometer. Result: Elbow isometric strength varied across its joint angles and was maximum at the optimum angle, which was 90°. Conclusion: We propose a simple and novel practical to understand the skeletal muscle length-tension relationship in a living person partly, by using the angle-strength relationship for undergraduate teaching in physiology.

Recent evidence links melatonin hormone and its receptor to the etiology and behavioral manifestation of addiction. The role of exogenous melatonin in addiction treatment is still inconsistent and unclear. The present study aimed to review the literature on randomized clinical trials that evaluated the role of melatonin supplementation, compared to placebo, in the treatment of various substance addictions. The literature searches of relevant articles published in the English language in MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases were performed from inception up to May 2021. We included only randomized clinical trials investigating the effect of melatonin treatment, compared to placebo, on substance addiction-related parameters. Non-randomized clinical trials, observation studies, and animal studies were excluded. The risk of bias-2 was used to assess the quality of the studies. Of 537 articles, 12 randomized control trials (RCT) met our inclusion criteria. Studies have been conducted on substances of addiction including benzodiazepine (BZD), alcohol, nicotine, and opioids. Our results indicated that melatonin treatment had mixed results in improving sleep quality and was not found beneficial in BDZ cessation/discontinuation rate among patients with BDZ dependence. Sleep quality and mental health had improved by melatonin supplements in opioid addiction. In nicotine addiction, melatonin treatment showed effectiveness only on mood changes but not in performance tests. In patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), melatonin treatment did not show any improvement in sleep quality. We found that the use of exogenous melatonin in substance addiction has mixed results which do not provide sufficient evidence, relative to randomized clinical trials, to establish its role.

Introduction: Most institutes worldwide have experienced a forced shift to online mode education during COVID 19 pandemic. As in Indian Medical Institutions e-learning is not a well-established mode of teaching, it disrupts the newly implemented competency based medical education (CBME). This sudden shift in educational methods introduced new experiences, opportunities, and difficulties among medical teachers and students. In this study we explore undergraduate medical students and teachers’ perception, detailed insights and learning experience on online medical education. Method: This is an institution based mixed methods study conducted at three medical institutes in India. A self-prepared semi structured questionnaire was applied to extract various prospective of teaching and assessment through online mode. Qualitative descriptive design was applied using focused group discussion. All FGDs were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic content analysis to identify themes and subthemes regarding perceptions of online and offline education. Result: A total of 323 medical students out of 510 and 35 medical teachers out of 71 were included in the study. Most students and teachers agreed to the fact that they faced technical difficulties, perceived less connected, and felt difficulty in achieving desired competencies. In qualitative analysis five major themes (Learning Environment, Technology, Competency, Health issues, Assessment) and multiple subthemes were identified. Conclusion: Improvement of the online teaching methods with appropriate technical advancement may help to reduce the gap between the online and offline teaching learning modalities.