Blackbelts in biochemistry: On being and becoming

High precision lab work is feasible and all students can be inducted into such practices from day one. This is also required by the more commercially/industrially oriented laboratories, though no compendium of such practices exists. Based on experience in imparting such instruction and analysis to teaching labs as well as larger laboratories, some immediately relevant ideas are put together here. While the ideas may appear simple, there is danger in thinking that the underlying statistical theory is also simple, which is often not the case. But even without the relevant theory, much can be achieved in the lab.     

Perceptions of the physical environment,stage of change for physical activity,and walking among Australian adults

Data for this study were from a population survey of 1,200 adults ages 40-60 years, sampled from the Illawarra region of New South Wales. Questionnaire items on perceptions of the environment were factor analyzed into: Aesthetic Environment and Practical Environment. For both factors, those in the Contemplation stage had more negative views of the environment than those in Maintenance. Those who walked for 0-20 min/week held more negative perceptions of their environment than those who walked for 21-120 min/week and those who walked for > 120 min/week. The health promotion implications of these findings are that environments perceived as attractive and as providing convenient access to services and facilities may influence motivational readiness for physical activity and time spent walking.     

Electronic commerce

In this part we will depict the infrastructure required for ecommerce as a six layered architecture and describe the three bottom layers.     

Filaria associated clinical manifestations in children in an endemic area and morbidity control by immunomonitoring and optimal DEC therapy: Sevagram experience

Lymphatic filariasis is a major public health problem in India with 412 million people living in bancroftian endemic areas and is a major cause of clinical morbidity. Twenty million people are reported to suffer from chronic disease manifestations such as lymphoedema, hydrocele or elephantiasis. At least twice the number have been shown to suffer from acute and occult filarial infections in an endemic area without diagnosis. Due to non-availability of suitable diagnostic test for confirming filaria aetiology other than parasitological examination, no significant study on filariasis in children has been reported earlier. Studies in our laboratory for more than a decade showed usefulness of microfilarial excretory-secretory antigen in confirming filarial aetiology in acute and occult infections in adults as well as in children. This study reports acute and atypical manifestations such as lymphadenopathy, asthmatic bronchitis, pulmonary eosinophilia, mono-arthritis, recurrent URI, pneumonia, nutritional anemia, pain in abdomen etc. in children living in filaria endemic area having no microfilaraemia but showing filaria aetiology by immunomonitoring for the presence of antibody or antigen and responding to optimal DEC therapy.     

Stress and women

Stress-tension-pain occur more often in health disorders of women than anywhere in the entire spectrum of human illness. No where is the effect of rapid change more apparent than in the changing role of today's women who are subjected to pressures from all sides. Now a days women virtually take part occupy positions, in day to day activities similar to their male counterparts. An outline of conceptual consideration, biochemical overview of stress and intricacies of coping mechanisms are delineated from the point of view of stress situations in female (during reproductive life span) peculiar to them only viz menarche, menstrual cycle, pregnancy-eventualities of pregnancy-labour-delivery, purperium, postpartum psychosis, abortions-induced, spontaneous, menopause. Lipid profile and oxidative stress status as biochemical responses in these stresses were investigated. As expected observed maximal/minimal biochemical responses well correlated with peak time and at termination of stress. Present day emphasis is on menstrual regulation by intake of oral contraceptive to improve health if women prefer not to bleed every month and hormone replacement therapy for elderly women to improve post menopausal quality of life and avoiding menstrual problems at the same time.     

Can High School Achievement Tests Serve to Select College Students?

Postsecondary schools have traditionally relied on admissions tests such as the SAT and ACT to select students. With high school achievement assessments in place in many states, it is important to ascertain whether scores from those exams can either supplement or supplant conventional admissions tests. In this study we examined whether the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) high school tests could serve as a useful predictor of college performance. Stepwise regression analyses with a predetermined order of variable entry revealed that AIMS generally did not account for additional performance variation when added to high school grade-point average (HSGPA) and SAT. However, in a cohort of students that took the test for graduation purposes, AIMS did account for about the same proportion of variance as SAT when added to a model that included HSGPA. The predictive value of both SAT and AIMS was generally the same for Caucasian, Hispanic, and Asian American students. The ramifications of universities using high school achievement exams as predictors of college success, in addition to or in lieu of traditional measures, are discussed.