Influences on the survival of new consumer magazines

This study tracks magazines started from 1981 to 1983 that have survived to the present. It finds that magazines started by entrepreneurs, rather than media firms, and magazines that were consumer driven, rather than advertising driven, were more likely to survive.     

Audit of the Prevalence of Noncorrelation of Immunofixation with Protein Electrophoresis and Serum Free Light Chain Assays in Multiple Myeloma in a Tertiary Cancer Care Center

Multiple myeloma (MM) is diagnosed and monitored by correlating panel of test results including serum Protein electrophoresis (SPE), Immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE), serum Free Light chain (sFLC) measurements. This audit is aimed to evaluate the prevalence of non-correlation and discrepancies amongst the three investigations (SPE/IFE/sFLC) for assessment of MM. 106 MM patients were reviewed over 16 months in a tertiary cancer care center by the availability of 3 serum test results (SPE/IFE/sFLC). Patients were divided into 2 groups: group1, newly diagnosed MM patients who were yet to receive myeloma specific treatment (n = 48); and group2, already diagnosed MM patients on treatment and followup (n = 58). Treatment modalities included stem cell transplantation and standard chemotherapy regimens. Non-correlation between the three test results (IFE/SPE/sFLC) was observed (21% in group1 and 45% in group2). Three types of discrepancies were detected as follows: (a) IFE showing less number of restriction bands as compared to SPE (8.6% patients in group2); (b) SPE/IFE negative with an abnormal sFLC ratio (12.5% patients in group1 and 13.7% in group2); (c) SPE/IFE positive but normal sFLC ratio (8% in group1 and 22% in group2). To conclude, IFE may sometimes provide information that does not always correlate with either of the SPE or sFLC results due to different sensitivities, antigen–antibody interactions, or treatment. Hence, SPE plus sFLC may be more useful particularly for patients on follow-up while IFE plus sFLC may help screen the new patients. The judicious selection of the biochemical assays can effectively reduce the treatment cost in a developing country like India.     

Interaction of - α 3.7, ? Thalassemia Mutation IVS 1-5 and HbD Punjab in a Family: A Case Report

Hemoglobin D exist in four form; HbD trait, HbD-thalassemia, HbD sickle cell and HbD homozygous. HbD trait and HbD homozygous generally asymptomatic condition but when HbD co-inherit with thalassemia and sickle cell anemia, produces clinically significant conditions like chronic hemolytic anemia. Here we present a case of HbD Punjab with α 3.7 kb deletion and IVS-1-5 β-thalassemia across a family. Diagnosis of HbD patient was performed by high performance liquid chromatography and complete blood count was measured by automated cell analyzer. Molecular study for common alpha deletions done by Gap-PCR while beta thalassemia mutation identified by ARMS-PCR. Case was clinically significant due to the inheritance of HbD/β⁺thalassemia genotype. Thus observed case behaved like thalassemia intermedia due to co-existence of α 3.7 deletions with IVS 1-5 β-thalassemia mutation in HbD Punjab patient.     

The influence of a peer-tutoring training model for implementing cooperative groupings with elementary students

This study examined the effects of peer-tutoring training on elementary school student communication and collaboration skills when used in conjunction with cooperative learning. Within six classes (grades 2–6) in an inner-city school, cooperative learning pairs were randomly assigned to two groups (control and training). Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) of quantitative data from a systematic observation instrument used over an entire year showed that, in general, the training group surpassed the control group in both communication and collaborative skills. Students in grades 2–3 showed substantially more improvement than students in grades 4–6; also, students with average or below-average reading levels required more time to acquire these skills than did above-average students. The qualitative data further substantiated these findings while revealing a large variation among teachers in implementing cooperative learning. and is Editor of the Research section of this journal.