Hemoglobin, growth, and attention of infants in southern Ethiopia

Male and female infants from rural Ethiopia were tested to investigate relations among hemoglobin (Hb), anthropometry, and attention. A longitudinal design was used to examine differences in attention performance from 6 (M = 24.9 weeks, n = 89) to 9 months of age (M = 40.6 weeks, n = 85), differences hypothesized to be related to changes in iron status and growth delays. Stunting (length‐for‐age z scores < ?2.0) and attention performance, t(30) = ?2.42, p = .022, worsened over time. Growth and Hb predicted attention at 9 months, R² = .15, p < .05, but not at 6. The study contributes to the knowledge base concerning the relations among Hb, early growth, and attention.     

The alienation response of children abused in out-of-home placement

THIS BRIEF COMMUNICATION addresses program abuse in out-of-home placement which deepens what we identify as the alienation response in the already alienated child. Alienation is defined as a state of feeling separate, apart, not being able to relate effectively with another, not belonging, and with impaired ability to connect the inside world of feelings with the outside environment. Program abuse is seen as any act or condition permitted in a program that further alienates a child. In evaluating a child's degree of alienation and developing creative methods to reach the most severely “child alone,” the use of the Alienation Chart in Figure 1, has been helpful to our staff.     

Effects of Academic Discipline and Teaching Goals in Predicting Grading Beliefs Among Undergraduate Teaching Faculty

Prior research reveals that differential grading patterns exist among the academic disciplines. One explanation may lie in discipline-related differences in teaching goals and beliefs about the meaning grades should convey. This study examined the effects of academic discipline and teaching goals on grading beliefs. A national sample (n = 442) of undergraduate teaching faculty provided responded to a survey measuring the importance of various teaching goals and orientations toward norm-referenced or criterion-referenced grading (Frame of Reference), and beliefs about using grades to sort and select students on the basis of achievement (Gatekeeping). Both teaching goals and academic discipline were significantly related to gatekeeping beliefs, but not to beliefs about frames of reference for grading. Higher gatekeeping scores were associated with faculty in the paradigmatic fields and those who emphasized analytic skills and time management. Lower gatekeeping scores were associated with the preparadigmatic disciplines and teaching goals of synthesis and integration and developing respect for others. Faculty who identified their primary teaching role as subject matter oriented were more gatekeeping than those who identified themselves primarily as being student/personal development oriented.     

Potential Effect of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacopa monnieri</Emphasis> on Nitrobenzene Induced Liver Damage in Rats

The study was designed to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of ethanolic extract of Bacopa monnieri in acute experimental liver injury induced by Nitrobenzene in rats. The extract at the dose of 200 mg/kg body weight was administered orally once every day for 10 days. The increased serum marker enzymes, Aspartate transaminase, Alanine transaminase and alkaline phosphatase were restored towards normalization significantly by the extract. Significant increase in SOD, CAT and GPx was observed in extract treated liver injured experimental rats. Histopathological examination of the liver tissues supported the hepatoprotection. It is concluded that the ethanolic extract of Bacopa monieri plant possess good hepatoprotective activity.     

Stress analysis of anisotropic thick laminates in cylindrical bending using a semi-analytical approach

Semi-analytical elasticity solutions for bending of angle-ply laminates in cylindrical bending are presented using the state-space-based differential quadrature method (SSDQM). Partial differential state equation is derived from the basic equations of elasticity based on the state space concept. Then, the differential quadrature (DQ) technique is introduced to discretize the longitu- dinal domain of the plate so that a series of ordinary differential state equations are obtained at the discrete points. Meanwhile, the edge constrained conditions are handled directly using the stress and displacement components without the Saint-Venant principle. The thickness domain is solved analytically based on the state space formalism along with the continuity conditions at interfaces. The present method is validated by comparing the results to the exact solutions of Pagano’s problem. Numerical results for fully clamped thick laminates are presented, and the influences of ply angle on stress distributions are discussed.     

Pheromone synthesis in a biomicroreactor coated with anti-adsorption polyelectrolyte multilayer

To prepare a biosynthetic module in an infochemical communication project, we designed a silicon/glass microreactor with anti-adsorption polyelectrolyte multilayer coating and immobilized alcohol acetyl transferase (atf), one of the key biosynthetic enzymes of the pheromone of Spodoptera littoralis, on agarose beads inside. The system reproduces the last step of the biosynthesis in which the precursor diene alcohol (Z,E)-9,11-tetradecadienol is transformed into the major component (Z,E)-9,11-tetradecadienyl acetate. The scope of this study was to analyze and implement a multilayer, anti-adsorption coating based on layer-by-layer deposition of polyethylenimine/dextransulfate sodium salt (PEI/DSS). The multilayers were composed of two PEI with molecular weights 750 and 1.2 kDa at pH 9.2 or 6.0. Growth, morphology, and stability of the layers were analyzed by ellipsometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The anti-adsorption functionality of the multilayer inside the microreactor was validated. The activity of His(6)-(atf) was measured by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer (GC-MS).     

Framing processes in public commentary on US federal tobacco control regulation

Governmental health policy officials increasingly seek to promote public participation in expert and technical decisions regarding health regulation. The issues of what r?le the public plays in regulatory processes, and how health policy officials orient to public opinion, matter especially in the US context, where public commentary is a requisite component of federal rule-making. This paper examines written commentary as one specific, institutionalized form of public participation. To understand the relationship between scientific evidence and public commentary in public health regulation, we examine a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation, proposed in 1995, to restrict the promotion and sale of tobacco products to minors. We use recent work on collective action frames to analyse how the FDA framed the proposed regulation as a rational, science-based policy; the discursive practices employed in the public commentary either to embrace or to contest the FDA's framing; and how the agency presented the final version of its rule as responsive to that public commentary. Our content analyses reveal a significant disparity between the FDA's emphasis on scientific evidence and the commentators' emphases on political and ideological frames, which we analyse in terms of counter-framing. An orientation to the dynamics of framing and counter-framing contributes to an understanding of the relationship between scientific evidence and public commentary in the formulation of controversial health policy regulations.