Endometrial Stromal Sarcoma Presenting As Puberty Menorrhagia

Endometrial stromal sarcomas are rare uterine tumours usually seen in perimenopausal females. We report here a case of low grade malignant endometrial stromal sarcoma in an adolescent girl, presenting as puberty menorrhagia. She underwent total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and pelvic node sampling. She also received adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She is disease free at completion of one year of follow-up

Monitoring Works: Getting Teachers to Come to School

In the rural areas of developing countries, teacher absence is a widespread problem. This paper tests whether a simple incentive program based on teacher presence can reduce teacher absence, and whether it has the potential to lead to more teaching activities and better learning. In 60 informal one-teacher schools in rural India, randomly chosen out of 120 (the treatment schools), a financial incentive program was initiated to reduce absenteeism. Teachers were given a camera with a tamper-proof date and time function, along with instructions to have one of the children photograph the teacher and other students at the beginning and end of the school day. The time and date stamps on the photographs were used to track teacher attendance. A teacher's salary was a direct function of his attendance. The remaining 60 schools served as comparison schools. The introduction of the program resulted in an immediate decline in teacher absence. The absence rate (measured using unannounced visits both in treatment and comparison schools) changed from an average of 42 percent in the comparison schools to 22 percent in the treatment schools. When the schools were open, teachers were as likely to be teaching in both types of schools, and the number of students present was roughly the same. The program positively affected child achievement levels: a year after the start of the program, test scores in program schools were 0.17 standard deviations higher than in the comparison schools and children were 40 percent more likely to be admitted into regular schools.

Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India

Using the most comprehensive data file ever compiled on air pollution, water pollution, environmental regulations, and infant mortality from a developing country, the paper examines the effectiveness of India's environmental regulations. The air pollution regulations were effective at reducing ambient concentrations of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. The most successful air pollution regulation is associated with a modest and statistically insignificant decline in infant mortality. However, the water pollution regulations had no observable effect. Overall, these results contradict the conventional wisdom that environmental quality is a deterministic function of income and underscore the role of institutions and politics.

Culture of rotifer and their nutritional enrichment- Winter School on Recent Advances in Breeding and Larviculture of Marine Finfish and Shellfish

Rotatoria (=Rotifera) belonging to the smallest metazoa consist of 1000 species of which 90% inhabit in freshwater habitats. In the fifties and sixties though Brachionus plicatilis was first identified as a pest in the pond culture of eels but soon the Japanese researchers realized that this rotifer could be used as a suitable live food organism for the early larval stages of marine fish. Later in China also B. plicatilis is used as food in local shrimp and crab hatcheries. The rotifers are considered as an important live feed in hatchery operation due to their planktonic nature, tolerance to a wide range of environmental conditions, high reproduction rate (0.7-1.4 offspring/female/day), small size and slow swimming nature. The animals reproduce rapidly and can thus contribute to the build up of large quantities of live food in a very short period of time. The possibility of rearing these animals at very high densities (2000 animals/ml ) have been reported by (Hirata, 1979) and the growth is assured by plasma increase and not by cell division. More over the filter-feeding nature of the rotifers facilitates the inclusion of specific nutrients essential for the larval predators through bioencapsulation into their body tissues

Mass culture of microalgae as an inherent part of hatchery operation- Winter School on Recent Advances in Breeding and Larviculture of Marine Finfish and Shellfish

Microalgae are microscopic unicellular phytoplankton which have less than 10 μ size. These floating planktons being the predominant component of the first tropic level in the aquatic food chain has got immense value as an aquaculture live feed and as a result the production of unicellular algae has gained importance in several countries due to their wide use as food in the hatchery. Most micro algae are rich sources of essential fatty acids; vitamins such as B12, B6, B1, biotin, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pantothenate, C, E and A; chlorophyll ‘a’ and ‘b’ and carotenoids and these plankton plays a vital role in aquaculture to meet the nutritional requirements of the larvae as well as for bio-encapsulation. It is, therefore, its culture is an inherent part of aquaculture operation. The successful rearing, growth and survival of larvae in the hatchery depends upon the provision of suitable strain of these microalgae during their critical stages of life cycle. The algal species may vary in size, shape and nutritional quality, and are also used for generating “green water” system in many hatcheries. Inspite of all efforts to replace micro algae by artificial feeds, aquaculturists are still depending on the production and use of micro algae as live food for the fishes during their different stages of life cycles. In addition to these, micro algae together with bacteria have an important role in oxygen balance in fish culture system