CULTURAL QA 08-2022-13 BEING A COMPILATIONTHERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Can you see red blood cells without anelectron microscope? A1 Ken Saladin, Former professor ofhistology (microscopic anatomy) 23h Yes, easily. Even under a child’s toy microscope(although the image won’t be great). Something like this under a cheap toymicroscope. You can see the blood cells, but not very well. In teaching histology, I always told my students to scanthe blood slides first at 100x to see a wide fieldand tentatively identify the white cell types (which are larger than red cells and characterized byviolet-staining nuclei), then center the WBC and zoom in to 400x ifnecessary to confirm it. But you can see RBCs all over the place even at lowpower. A low-power view (100x) looks like this with a student-grade microscope(high school or college). To an educated eye, it’s often unnecessary to zoom into high power to identify WBC types. Under an electronmicroscope (scanning type), blood cells look like this. The pillow like discswith sunken centers are the red blood cells, the spheroidal fuzzy ones arewhite blood cells, and thetiny objects at the upper left are platelets. EM photos are oftencolorized just to tart them up and make them look prettier to laypeople and intextbooks, like this: Thetransmission electron microscope (TEM) achieves higher magnification andresolution (detail) butusually shows only 2-D images of ultrathin slices. Below is a TEM photo of ared blood cell (the gray crescent that opens to the right) within a bloodcapillary (whose cell nucleus is the darker gray crescent opening to the left).There’s not much detail visible in an RBC because these cells don’t haveorganelles—just a colloid of hemoglobin, enzymes, and other chemicals. White blood cells,though, have nuclei and other organelles, and a lot more interesting internaldetail. This is a TEM of a white blood cell, colorized in photo processing. Youcould decorate a biology major’s dorm room with a poster of this. My note- pictures are not added Q2 Do airlines compensate doctors forassisting during an emergency? For example, if a doctor says that a flight nolonger needs to be diverted because of a passenger’s condition, can the doctorget compensation for preventing that? A2 Pallab Roy Chowdhury (GENERAL non Ews)Lives in Kolkata, West Bengal, India Wed In flight emergencies and their treatment are not even 1%glamorous for doctors, as they show in the movies I had a storynarrated by one of our gynecologists from RG KAR. He said.The flighthad a sudden emergency, when a person was complaining of severe chest pain and profusesweating.The sweating was so much, it looked like it had rainedinside the airbus. There wasa call “Is there any doctor? “ Our sir stood up inan instant, and went to the patient. Though he was agynecologist, we all haveread about acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) in our MBBS days. And weknow how to treat it. Surprisingly, the plane had all the relevant medications,aspirin, clopidogrel, atorvastatin, nitroglycerin and supplemental oxygen too. The patient was saved, though thegynecologist advised of an emergency landing in pune, because all these medications just delay heart attack, not cure it. The entire flightcrew was pissed at him, including the air hostesses and gave him looks. No one was happy that a man'slife was saved. All they thought was how few hours of their schedulewill now be wasted doing the emergency landing. Upon landing, thepatient was attended by the medical officer and referred to the hospital Thegynecologist had to show is registration certificate to medical officer just toprove that he was actually a doctor . No one carries it, butthankfully, he had its photo saved in his phone. Then he hadto write an application form as why he took up a AMI case, being agynecologist. And then he waitedwith the rest of the passengers (who were angry on him for the delay) for thenext flight. No garlands, noclaps, no salutes, not even a thank you. This was written by a 63 yr old gynecologist in hisfacebook profile. Thankless job! And yet surviving daily! Q3 What are the disadvantages of using anappliance that uses a battery instead of mains electricity? A3 Gopala Krishnan, Former AssistantGeneral Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966–2004)Just now A lot of appliances we use daily are using battery.Remotes of air conditioner units, TVs, setup boxes, cordless mouse, remote oflatest fans controlled by remotes , wall clocks etc. They operate with dry cell battery. There is alife period for battery. So there can be a failure of battery even in anunexpected time. So reserve of cells with us with specified type at all times. Even the laptop canbe used with specified DC battery if available to fit the location. Only thingwe may have to replace them often. I keep half a dozencells of 1.5 volts for my cordless mouse in my personal reserve other thancells for other items. In factthere is only disadvantage when the tiny motor to lift water from canes are tobe charged with AC Mains. If it worked with a smallbattery of 3 V instead, it would have been more advantageous. Blood pressure meter and pulse oximeter are also workingusing dry cells. Our watches, bloodtest meters also work with lithium or silver oxide coin size flat cells. Q4 What is the appliance that uses themost electricity in India? A4 Gopala Krishnan, Former AssistantGeneral Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966–2004)Just now A few items consumemore electricity in most homes. One is air conditioner unit. Another is motor lifting water.Other is lights. In areas where temperature is low, room heaters. I have answered thisquestion, assuming usage in homes in India. Other wise maximumusage of electricity is by different appliances in factories. The question isvauge. Q5 If someone has a small piece of landleft for planting trees in the house, which one should he plant first? A5 Lois L. Kersey Aug 3 As the question is,which plant should be planted first in the small part of the land left in thehouse. So you should firstplant sweet neem or curry leaves. Now the question arises that whyonly sweet neem? So listen to thebenefits of applying sweet neem. If it was not a bigtree like neem, then your house would never be in danger.Always a useful item. If you have thisplant in your house, then you will be able to take advantage of the medicinalproperties of its leaves as it makes hair black. Once applied, thereis no need to apply again and again.Since it is a shrub, you can give anybeautiful shape. After this, if there is space left, then plant a basilplant and a giloy vine and drink it after making a decoction every day. My note- Most Hindu homes gives priority to holy basil.Other than in Tulasi matam, wherever it appears , they are well maintained till they dry after about 8 months. Q6 Do batteries stop working if they gettoo cold? A6 Gopala Krishnan,Former AssistantGeneral Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966–2004)Just now Here too question is vague.If Lead Acid batteries is meant, they work better in normal temperature between20–30 degrees. If temperature exceeds electrolyte evaporates and topping isrequired. If temperature is too low to frozenelectrolyte battery will not work. Regarding dry cellsit is preferable to keep in low temperature like in a AC Room. Spare Lithium cells areoften kept in fridges packed in cover in special cells clearly marked contentnot usually handled. They are used inblood glucose test meter . On emergency we must have the meter working. Theyare kept in AC room/fridge not to loose the water content in them. Howeverregular shops where they are sold every day, they are kept in almirahs or in tabledrawers . Q7 What happens if you leave electricalappliances plugged in all the time? A7 Danielle Murphy,72 years old, Female,love animals, have fibromyalgia23h It depends on theappliance, your TV will use some electricity to allow it to start quickly andrespond to your remote. A washer will not use extra unless it has some specialfeatures. A refrigerator needs to stay cold all the time. A toaster is a different issue, a toaster that develops a shortin it's wiring can set your house on fire. You decide what you want to unplug My note- The general instruction is not to use TVs continuously more than 4-5 hours. Similarly thegeneral computers and laptops. One would have observed on heat the old computersnot working properly and getting held up. If one has observed the bank computers, often staff switchoff for some time 4 hours , again logging in after a few minutes. Similarly railway reservation staffswitch OFF during luch/tiffin break the LAN computer. Q8 Why shouldn't we plug in electricalappliances when the switch is 'on'? A8 Praneeth Nanduri, Electrical Engineer(2018–present)7y Well I'm sittingbeside the power socket when I saw this question. It has three holesof which only two are responsible for current flow, the lower twoholes.(current does flow from top big hole, but only in certain circumstanceswhich is now irrelevant) These two holes aremere metal contacts, the power line of 230v, 50hz which is behind the switchboard is kept at a safe distance from the metal contacts of a socket with thehelp of a switch. If switch isalready closed.one of the holes is at 230V A.C and the other is at groundpotential. Air medium hastendency to breakdown i.e to conduct electricity depending upon someparameters. As you can see in the pic above when the switch is onand when I'm bringing my charger nearer to it, At a certain distance, there isa chance that air in between my charger pin and metal contact break down andcurrent jumps from socket to my charger pin, this causes sparks and alsovoltage surge. This may damageyour device or even worse ,if you're working in an explosive environment,sparks may lead to a fire accident Q9 In a South Indian meal, why do peopleeat sambar rice then rasam rice and then curd rice? Why is this orderimportant? Why can't I eat curd rice then rasam rice and then sambar rice? A9 Priya C, Lives in Bengaluru, Karnataka,India Wed I once tried having it the other way round and did’ntlike the feel in my stomach. Had to gulp down some rasamand a glass of buttermilk to feel ok :) Lets see why thishappens. Sambar is a thickliquid prepared out of tamarind, vegetables, salt, sambar powder and lentils.Sometimes coconut is also roasted, ground and added at the end. Lentils being aprotein source and veggies a source of vitamins, sambar added to rice and dal along with ghee issure to fill the stomach, leaving you wanting to have something to help aid indigesting it, along with a change of taste, owing to its blandness (lentils create blandness). This is where our Rasam comes in. Rasam means juice inTamil. It is a pungent liquid generally prepared out oftamarind, tomatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, mustard, red chillies, asafoetida, afew other spices with added herbs like curry leaves and coriander leaves. Itsfluid like consistency and the combination the spices aids both in digesting theheaviness/flatulence caused due to the sambar and also activates the tastebuds. A glass of rasamcan also had as an appetizer before a meal. But, as a meal course, it has tosucceed a sambar rice. As Rasam leaves a strong spicy taste in your mouth aswell as your stomach, you will now need something to neutralize the tasteand also to cool down your stomach after a spicy meal. Curd rice does this jobperfectly. It is the fermented form of milk and contains probioticbacterial organisms like lactobasillus which does wonders to the digestivetract. It also aids in digesting a heavy meal. Be it a threecourse (sambar, rasam and curd) or a two course meal (sambar or rasam andcurd), curd is alwaysconsumed at the end. Some people don’t like to have curd rice as they don’tseem to like the smell of it. As a kid, I hatedits taste and smell. Now, as an adult, I need it after every meal :) If you too hatecurds, try atleast having a fruit and a small glass of milk instead. My note- If served parippu poti with hot rice alongwith ghee, I like to eat it dipping in pickles. Almost stomach would be full by50%, a small quantity of rice with curd kitchadi, and curd rice with pickles. If good fruit is there, my brain thinks about eating fruit at the end of meal. Q10 Are there any doctors with belowaverage IQ? A10 Tiny Nair, Cardiologist at PRS Hospital, Trivandrum5y Doctorsare top notch, high IQ, highly knowledgeable people who can diagnose and treatdiseases like a magic. Right? Wrong. Years back, we hadone junior resident, who was real dumb, kind of unable to understand anyconcept. He would write Pulse, BP and vitals as instructed and stop at that.Ask him what disease he was suspecting; all you get back was vacant look. Hepassed out from a private college in the state Karnataka (the state has many‘donation’ colleges, where one could get into MBBS for a fee). After the mandatory probation oftwo months, we had decided to tell him that he can look for some other job. That same morning, he comes beaming with a packet ofsweets and says ‘sir thank you for all your encouragement. I got a seat for MDin dermatology in….. medical college’. His father, anastute businessman knew precisely what to do with his sons career better thanthe academic councilor. The interesting thing is that, today after finishing hisstudies he practices dermatology in a private clinic set up by his father. Ihave met umpteen number of patients who have benefited by his treatment, happywith him and appreciate him. Usual medical practiceis simple and doesn’t need a genius to perform well. It is pretty algorithmic. Average or below average IQ may bejust fine. Complicated diseases needing a broad diagnostic mindsetare fortunately rare, as are such physicians. Majority of doctorsare good simply because you need to be good to clear all those MCQ hurdlesmultiple times in your career. But not all. Fortunately, The Medical council doesn’t insist ondisplaying IQ levels of doctors outside their clinics! My note- It was early time of diabetics in 1999. I had itching underforeskin. I fixed up appointment withthe famous doctor of Trivandrum medical college in urology. After askingquestions, filling up a questionnaire, he prescribed an ointment. Itching remained. I went to a local physician, he had a MBBS completed studenttaught by the famous doctor as assistant. Assistant saw the prescription, added one more andinstructed to apply that over what the famous doctor of medical collegeprescribed. What a wonder, in a week my itching disappeared. The juniorsmilingly told in low voice, perhaps professor may not be knowing these newmedicines recently appeared better than what he wrote, keeping all respect with hisfamous professor. All the above QA are from Quora website on 12-08- 2022. Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 13-08-2022 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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