A case of Guillain-Barre syndrome presented with bilateral pseudo-internuclear ophthalmoplegia

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) or acute idiopathic polyradiculoneuritis is an acquired immune-mediated inflammatory and mainly demyelinating disorder of the peripheral nervous system. Cranial nerves are affected in over 50% of all cases, with the facial nerves being affected the most. It uncommonly presents as atypical forms such as brachial pharyngeal variant, miller fisher and other restricted forms. Herein, we reported a 44 year old male with GBS who presented with diplopia and bilateral pseudo- internuclear ophthalmoplegia. Initially, the patient was confused as a case of multiple sclerosis but finally diagnosis of GBS was made. Although internuclear ophthalmoplegia is a typical feature of multiple sclerosis, it may be seen as a rare manifestation of GBS as well

An Investigation into the EFL Milieu and Availability of Language Learning Opportunities to Iranian English Language Learners

It is believed that ESL contexts are different from EFL contexts with regard to the language learning and teaching practices. Due to various types of language learning opportunities and resources in these two milieus, language learning practices take place differently in these two situations. ESL context provides learners with ample amount of language learning opportunities, while EFL context does not readily make these opportunities and resources available to language learners. Keeping that in mind, the researchers made an attempt to shed light on the resources and opportunities which may exist for English language learners in an EFL context such as Iran. To this end, a group of advanced language learners in Iran was selected, and the required data was gathered through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Results obtained from both descriptive and inferential statistics indicated that the range of resources and opportunities used by language learners is very limited in this milieu. Moreover, it was revealed that in this EFL context, there are some new and widespread language learning resources and opportunities which can assist language learners in all four skills

Glucoherb versus metformin on glycemic markers and glycosylated hemoglobin in prediabetes patients; a clinical trial study

Introduction: There is a high risk of diabetes mellitus in pre-diabetic patients. Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare the effect of the extracts of these herbs in the formulation of Glucoherb supplementation versus metformin in pre-diabetes patients on glycemic markers and glycosylated hemoglobin. Patients and Methods: Pre-diabetic patients who had indication of drug treatment according to the criteria of the American Diabetes Association, were selected and randomly divided into two groups of Glucoherb and metformin. Body mass index (BMI), fasting blood sugar (FBS), 2 hours postprandial blood glucose (BS2PP) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were measured before and after the intervention. Results: The mean BMI, FBS, BS2PP and HbA1c levels were significantly decreased after intervention in both Glucoherb and metformin groups (P < 0.05) without any significant difference between them (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Glucoherb showed similar efficacy to metformin in reducing blood glucose, BMI and HbA1c in pre-diabetic patients

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic

Social Context and Resources Available to Iranian Foreign Language Learners of English

It has long been known that teaching and learning a language in an ESL context is by far easier than teaching and learning it in an EFL context and that learning a language must take place in a social context. Foreign language contexts are those in which students do not have enough opportunities for communication in the target language beyond their classroom settings whereas in second language contexts, the target language is readily available out there (Brown, 2001). Given the important role that language learning resources could potentially play in EFL contexts, in the present study an attempt is made to shed light on the resources which Iranian language learners rely on and to explore the possible resources which exist around them and of which not all of them are necessarily aware. To this end, a group of students studying in Iran Language Institute in Shiraz was chosen. The data of the study were gathered through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The findings suggested that they rely on very few resources outside the classroom setting. In addition, it was revealed that in an EFL context, such as Iran, there is a range of resources which foreign language learners could rely on and which could present them with opportunities in all four language skills.

Preprocessing of alarm data for data mining

Many industries, including process industry, face an increased number of alarms every day. This is due to advanced computer-based monitoring and control technologies that are widely available in all industrial plants. On the other hand, data mining, as a method of finding patterns in data, has been widely used to discover patterns and relationships in alarm data, in hopes of reducing the volume of alarms and operators' workload. One of the first steps in data mining is to prepare and cleanup raw data for better mining, also known as preprocessing. In this paper, we focus on preprocessing of alarm data and investigate the steps required for data preparation. Two steps - namely, removing chattering alarms and reconstruction of missing alarms - are more challenging. For chattering alarms, many algorithms are proposed with a discussion on the time frame that should be selected for removing chattering alarms. As for the reconstruction of missing alarms, two methods are presented, using information from the same alarm tag or other related alarms. A case study shows the efficiency of the proposed methods

Investigating the Applicability of Critical Pedagogy Principles among Iranian EFL Teachers: From Theory to Practice

Critical pedagogy is derived from critical thinking which is considered as a postmodern approach and a newly developed paradigm in thinking about education. Critical pedagogy (CP) provides recommendations and guidelines to account for social relations and injustice in human education. This study aimed at elaborating on ILI language teachers’ awareness of critical pedagogy components and the extent to which they can employ these issues in their teaching experience. To this end, 100 language teachers teaching English at Iran Language Institute (ILI) were chosen randomly to participate in the study. Since this was a mixed design study, the data gathered through CP questionnaire and the interview phase threw lights on some significant facts in this regard. The researcher made use of various statistical procedures such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis, as well as grounded theory in order to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. Results revealed that although majority of the instructors in ILI seem to be aware of critical pedagogy principles, they do not feel free to implement them in their language classes due to some obstacles of which the topdown and centralized educational systems were known to be the most significant one. Moreover, it was revealed that obstacles in implementing CP principles in language classes will not prepare students to get familiar with these issues