Differences between good and poor child writers on fMRI contrasts for writing newly taught and highly practiced letter forms

During fMRI imaging, 12 good and 8 poor writers aged 11 wrote a newly taught pseudoletter and a highly practiced letter. Both letters were formed from the same components, but the pseudoletter had a novel configuration not corresponding to a written English letter form. On the first fMRI contrast between the newly taught pseudoletter and highly practiced letter, based on a group map, good and poor writers significantly activated many common regions; but the poor writers showed spatially more extensive brain activation than did the good writers. The additional regions of significant activation may reflect inefficiency in learning a new letter form. For the second contrast between the highly practiced and newly taught letters, individual brain activation analyses, based on exact clusters, showed that good and poor writers differed significantly in activation only in left fusiform. This individual fusiform activation correlated significantly with behavioral measures of automatic letter writing and expressive orthographic coding. Multiple regression in which both individual fusiform activation and individual orthographic coding were entered explained significant variance in written composition. Results are discussed in reference to the role of the orthographic loop, from internal letter form to external letter writing by hand, in writing letters and composing. The overall results are consistent with prior brain and behavioral studies of writing.     

Alkaptonuria: A Case of Familial Inheritance from Hangarki Village in Dharwad District of Karnataka

Alkaptonuria is a genetic disorder, unknown to the general public and ignored by general physicians due to lack of awareness of its high prevalence. Increasing incidences of familial inheritance are recorded. A 41 years 8 months male with the swollen knee, chronic mechanical pain, restricted limping walk and tingling sensation in the limb. Also, has a complaint of the stiffness of back in the morning, which gets relieved by movement. Mild hyper pigmentation of pinna and sclera of eye. X-ray report reveals osteoarthritis of the knee and thoracic kyphosis. After considering clinical finding, report of radiological investigation and Biochemical test results, patient was diagnosed as a case of Alkaptonuria. Screening of entire family revealed a typical case of familial inheritance. Hidden familial inheritance can be disclosed by mass screening of families and medical awareness.     

Instructional design best practices for Second Life: a case study from a college-level English course

Interest in the instructional application of virtual worlds, such as Second Life (SL), has grown substantially. However, little information is available about effective instructional activities using virtual worlds. This case study illustrates lessons learned from a pilot integrating SL into a two-semester English course at a large southwestern US university. A building activity was implemented in the first semester, and based on qualitative and quantitative formative evaluation results and additional planning, the instructional activity for the second semester was modified. These changes substantially enhanced students' learning experiences. Eight general and five discussion/debate-specific best practices discussed for implementing SL in college-level courses include capitalising on social interactions and establishing a clear connection of activities with learning objectives. This study demonstrates the importance of combining careful instructional design with ongoing assessment when implementing emerging technologies. It also indicates that course learning goals and students' needs should be considered first and foremost when adopting new technologies for instruction.     

科学家重新思考动物的记忆天性

大象从不会忘事——抑或也会? 很长一段时间来科学家都认为动物没有所谓的短暂记忆——这种记忆可以让人类回忆起过去发生的事情。但是最近对啄木鸟、黑猩猩和大猩猩进行的实验已经使科学家对动物的记忆天性重新思考了。动物记忆研究人员首先面时在不同物种之间进行沟通的挑战。“你无法准确问清楚当巴姆比的妈妈被射杀的时候,这些动物正在那里,它们正在干什么,”英国剑桥大学研究比较认知的     

A Synergistic Role of Myeloperoxidase and High Sensitivity Troponin T in the Early Diagnosis of Acute Coronary Syndrome

Aim of this study was to evaluate the role of Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and high sensitive Troponin T in the early diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This was a cross sectional study that comprised of 120 individuals of which 75 were cases and 45 healthy controls. On the basis of clinical history and 12 lead electrocardiogram initial diagnosis of ACS was made in the cases. MPO and high sensitive Troponin T (hs-cTnT) was measured in all the individuals. Levels of MPO were significantly higher in patients of ACS as compared to those in control group [medians: 15.40 (95 % CI 11.06–20.84) vs 5.84 (95 % CI 5.50–6.44)]. By taking the cut off as >11.87 U/mL for MPO, its sensitivity was 87 % (95 % CI 73.7–95.1), specificity was 97.3 % (95 % CI 90.6–99.7), positive predictive value was 94.6 % and negative predictive value was 92.6 %. Positive likelihood ratio was 33.0 while negative likelihood ratio was 0.13, whereas the corresponding values in case of hs-cTnT were 95.6 % (95 % CI 85.2–99.5), 61.3 % (95 % CI 49.5–72.6), 59.7 %, 95.8 %, 2.47 and 0.07 by taking cut off as >14 pg/ml. The area under the ROC curves (AUC) of MPO and hscTnT at 0–6 h were 0.971 (95 % CI 0.92–0.99, P < 0.001) and 0.797 (95 % CI 0.71–0.86, P < 0.001) respectively. The logistic model combining the two markers yielded sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of 95.7, 97.3, 98.2 and 93.7 % respectively. It was concluded that MPO and hs-cTnT may be useful tools for risk stratification of ACS and can be used together with better accuracy in the early diagnosis of ACS.     

Changes in serum seromucoid following compensatory hyperparathyroidism: A sequel to chronic fluoride ingestion

This study was conducted to find out the possible underlying mechanism of various manifestation of fluorosis, a disease caused by excess ingestion of fluoride. For this the fluoride belt of Jaipur district was selected. The parameters selected were serum Parathyroid hormone, the levels of which are directly affected by fluoride intake. The levels of serum seromucoid, serum and leucocyte ascorbic acid, serum sialic acid (SSA) reflects ground substance metabolism. The study was conducted on two hundred children, selected from four areas (50 from each area) consuming water containing 2.4, 4.6, 5.6 and 13.6 mg/l of fluoride. Drinking water fluoride and serum fluoride were measured by Ion selective electrode method. Serum parathyroid by RIA and all other parameters were measured spectrophotometrically. The results revealed an increase in levels of fluoride, parathyroid hormone and seromucoid in serum with increasing water fluoride concentrations. Serum Calcium and serum ascorbic acid were found in normal range, how ever leucocyte ascorbic acid were decreased. A high positive correlation among fluoride concentration in drinking water and serum parathyroid hormone (r=0.967), and, serum parathyroid hormone and serum seromucoid concentration (r=0.935) was also observed The results indicated that secondary hyperparathyroidism due to hypocalcemic stress caused by excess fluoride ingestion disturbs normal metabolism of ground substance in calcified tissues of the body reflected as altered levels of the components of ground substance in the serum.     

CYSTINURIA: Crystals that Make a Baby Cry

Cystinuria is a common aminoaciduria due to a COAL transporter defect in renal tubular epithelium. Increased level of cystine in urine with occasional cystine crystal can be diagnostic. With reference to clinical examinations, symptoms and laboratory reports we present a case of primary cystinuria. Prevention of complication in cystinuric relies on detection at early stage and targeting treatment towards maintaining low level of urinary cystine level.     

Monitoring and Root Cause Analysis of Clinical Biochemistry Turn Around Time at an Academic Hospital

Quality can be defined as the ability of a product or service to satisfy the needs and expectations of the customer. Laboratories are more focusing on technical and analytical quality for reliability and accuracy of test results. Patients and clinicians however are interested in rapid, reliable and efficient service from laboratory. Turn around time (TAT), the timeliness with which laboratory personnel deliver test results, is one of the most noticeable signs of laboratory service and is often used as a key performance indicator of laboratory performance. This study is aims to provide clue for laboratory TAT monitoring and root cause analysis. In a 2 year period a total of 75,499 specimens of outdoor patient department were monitor, of this a total of 4,142 specimens exceeded TAT. With consistent efforts to monitor, root cause analysis and corrective measures, we are able to decreased the specimens exceeding TAT from 7–8 to 3.7 %. Though it is difficult task to monitor TAT with the help of laboratory information system, real time documentation and authentic data retrievable, along with identification of causes for delays and its remedial measures, improve laboratory TAT and thus patient satisfaction.