Effects of Interaction on Reading Comprehension in the Secondary School Classrooms: An Action Research

This study investigates the EFL classrooms to identify the role of interaction in reading comprehension classes Student-student interaction through the form of pairwork was introduced while the pre-test and post-test measured its effect Adequate classes were observed to identify the level of the control group students This study tried to find out the role of interaction in facilitating students reading comprehension It had found that when the students got the opportunity to interact through pair-work they became their source of input And it was evident that after the introduction of interaction their comprehension ability enhanced as they correctly answered more questions in the post-test than in the pre-test Based on the results the study also recommends the introduction of interaction to enhance students skill in listening speaking and writin

SMART PAYMENTS: METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INTEGRATING STORED VALUE WALLETS WITH VISA INSTALMENTS SERVICE (VIS)

The present disclosure relates to a method and a system for integrating stored value wallets with a Visa Instalments Service (VIS). The present disclosure suggests uploading a Bank Identification Number (BIN) file including BINs eligible for an Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) payment and creating specific plans associated with the uploaded BINs. Thereafter, a cardholder selects a digital wallet which includes a stored value wallet for payment during the checkout process on an electronic commerce (e-commerce) merchant website or a mobile application. Once the selection process is successful, the present disclosure suggests initiating a VIS Application Program Interface (API) to facilitate comprehensive data exchange, wherein data includes, without limited to, primary account number, purchase amount, and wallet amount. After the initiation of the VIS API, the present disclosure suggests determining the best savings EMI plan by combining the VIS API data with an issuer server data. Subsequently, offering/presenting the determined EMI plan along with a suggested down-payment option to the cardholder. Further, the cardholder may actively select the offered EMI plan and proceed to finalize the financial transaction

Automated corner grading of trading cards: Defect identification and confidence calibration through deep learning

This research focuses on trading card quality inspection, where defects have a significant effect on both the quality inspection and grading. The present inspection procedure is subjective which means the grading is sensitive to mistakes made by individuals. To address this, a deep neural network based on transfer learning for automated defect detection is proposed with a particular emphasis on corner grading which is a crucial factor in overall card grading. This paper presents an extension of our prior study, in which we achieved an accuracy of 78% by employing the VGG-net and InceptionV3 models. In this study, our emphasis is on the DenseNet model where convolutional layers are used to extract features and regularisation methods including batch normalisation and spatial dropout are incorporated for better defect classification. Our approach outperformed prior findings, as evidenced by experimental results based on a real dataset provided by our industry partner, achieving an 83% mean accuracy in defect classification. Additionally, this study investigates various calibration approaches to fine-tune the model confidence. To make the model more reliable, a rule-based approach is incorporated to classify defects based on confidence scores. Finally, a human-in-the-loop system is integrated to inspect the misclassified samples. Our results demonstrate that the model's performance and confidence are expected to improve further when a large number of misclassified samples, along with human feedback, are used to retrain the network

Stability of Piceatannol in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium by In Situ UPLC-MS/MS Analysis

Piceatannol is a stilbenoid, which has shown bioactivities in various cell culture models. However, its stability in cell culture medium is not clear. Here, UPLC-MS/MS was applied in situ to analyze the degradation products of piceatannol in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) and cell culture to investigate the compound's stability in DMEM. During the incubation with cell culture medium (at 4 and 37 °C), several piceatannol derivatives, such as an oxidation product ( m/z 243.06), a reduction product ( m/z 247.09), dimers ( m/z 485.12 and 487.14) and trimers ( m/z 727.18) were detected, which demonstrated the instability of piceatannol in cell culture conditions. To confirm if the new products during the incubation were generated due to the instability of piceatannol, ascorbic acid was added. The presence of ascorbic acid could significantly slow the degradation rate of piceatannol and the generation of piceatannol derivatives, which proved that the new products were generated by the degradation of piceatannol and indicated that the instability of piceatannol might be related to its antioxidant activity

Highly Oxygenated Flavonoids from the Leaves of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia (Solanaceae)

Nicotiana plumbaginifolia Viv. is an annual herb of the family Solanaceae, which grows abundantly in the weedy lands of Bangladesh. This plant possesses analgesic, antibacterial, anti-anxiety and hepatoprotective properties, and produces various phenolic compounds including flavonoids. The present study afforded determination of total phenolic and flavonoid contents, and for the first time, the isolation and characterization of highly oxygenated flavonoids, e.g., 3,3',5,6,7,8-hexamethoxy-4',5'-methylenedioxyflavone (1), 3,3',4',5',5,6,7,8-octamethoxyflavone (2, exoticin), 6,7,4',5'-dimethylenedioxy-3,5,3'-trimethoxyflavone (3) and (3,3',4',5,5',8-hexamethoxy-6,7-methylenedioxyflavone (4) from the leaves of N. plumbaginifolia. All these flavonoids are rather rare natural products, and only found in a few genera, e.g., Polygonum and Murraya. The structures of the isolated flavonoids were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses, e.g., UV, 1H, 13C NMR, DEPT, HSQC, HMBC and MS

Stepwise complexometric determination of aluminium, titanium and iron concentrations in silica sand and allied materials

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed at measuring the quantities of Al, Ti and Fe in silica sand and allied materials employing a complexometric method in the same analyte and a stepwise indirect titration with EDTA. The method involves the complexation of Al, Ti and Fe with excess EDTA and the selective de-complexation of TiO-EDTA and Al-EDTA complexes with tartaric acid and NaF respectively. In addition to its simplicity, rapidity and accuracy, the proposed method does not require the use of a separation technique or any sophisticated instrumentation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Each of the test samples were analyzed five times using the proposed method. The method's accuracy was confirmed by analyzing the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Standard Reference Materials (SRM) 81a, 89 and IPT SRM 61 using the procedure proposed, in addition to analyzing Ti and Fe levels by spectrophotometry and that of Al by complexometry.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study shows that there is good agreement between the proposed and existing methods. The standard deviations of the measurements were calculated by analyzing five replicates of each sample, and were found to be less than 1.5% in our method.</p

Isolation and Characterization of Antibacterial Compounds from <i>Aspergillus fumigatus:</i> An Endophytic Fungus from a Mangrove Plant of the Sundarbans.

The Sundarbans, a UNESCO world heritage site, is one of the largest mangrove forests in one stretch. Mangrove plants from this forest are little studied for their endophytic fungi. In this study, we isolated fourteen endophytic fungi from the plants Ceriops decandra and Avicennia officinalis collected from the Sundarbans. Five of them were identified as Aspergillus sp. and one as Penicillium sp. by macroscopic and microscopic observation. Antibacterial activity of the crude extracts obtained from these endophytes was determined against Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using resazurin-based microtiter assay. The isolated endophytes showed varying degrees of antibacterial activity with MICs ranging between 5 and 0.078 mg/mL. Molecular identification of the most active endophyte revealed its identity as Aspergillus fumigatus obtained from the leaves of C. decandra. Acute toxicity study of the ethyl acetate extract of A. fumigatus in mice revealed no mortality even at the highest dose of 2000 mg/kg bodyweight, though some opposing results are found in the subacute toxicity study. The extract was subjected to silica gel and Sephadex column chromatography resulting in the isolation of three pure compounds. LC-MS analysis of these pure compounds revealed their identity as fumigaclavine C, azaspirofuran B, and fraxetin. This is the first report of fraxetin from A. fumigatus. All three identified compounds were previously reported for their antibacterial activity against different strains of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, the observed antibacterial activity of the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract of A. fumigatus could be due to the presence of these compounds. These results support the notion of investigating fungal endophytes from the Sundarbans for new antimicrobial compounds

A Case Report on Avascular Necrosis of Right Femoral Head in a 20-years Old Male

Avascular necrosis of the femoral head is a condition which causes cellular destruction of bone material due to interruption of blood supply. Necrosis is caused by inadequate blood supply, resulting in bone tissue destruction with collapsing of that segment. The disease usually occurs in young adults, and femoral head is one of the commonest sites. Avascular necrosis may be traumatic or non-traumatic and causes major musculoskeletal disability. Initially patients remain asymptomatic. In untreated cases the disease progresses and causes joint destruction, requiring surgical intervention and in later stages need total hip replacement. Plain X-ray, isotope bone scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) play important role in making the diagnosis. MRI is highly accurate method for the diagnosis of avascular necrosis of the femoral head

GC–MS analysis and pharmacological evaluations of Phoenix sylvestris (Roxb.) seeds provide new insights into the management of oxidative stress and hyperglycemia

Phoenix sylvestris Roxb. (Arecaceae) seeds are used in the treatment of diabetes in the traditional system of medicine. The present study evaluated antihyperglycemic and antioxidant activities as well as the total phenolic and flavonoid content of the methanol extract of P. sylvestris seeds (MEPS). The constituents of the extract were identified by GC–MS analysis. MEPS demonstrated strong antioxidant activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (IC50 = 162.70 ± 14.99 μg) and nitric oxide (NO) (IC50 = 101.56 ± 9.46 μg/ml) free radicals. It also possesses a substantial amount of phenolics and flavonoids. It significantly (p < .05) reduced blood glucose levels in glucose-loaded and alloxan-induced diabetic mice at the doses of 150 and 300 mg/kg b.w., respectively. A total of 46 compounds were detected and identified by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) analysis, among which 8-methylisoquinoline N-oxide (32.82%) was predominant. The phytochemical study by GC–MS revealed that the MEPS possesses compounds which could be related to its antidiabetic and antioxidant activities. To recapitulate, P. sylvestris seeds can be a very good option for antidiabetic and antioxidant activity though further studies are still recommended to figure out the responsible phytochemicals and establish their exact mechanism of action