Community College Students\u27 Perceptions of Developmental Mathematics and Influences on Persistence

The increase in the dropout rates associated with developmental mathematics classes in 1 Texas community college provoked the need for this study. The purpose of this case study was to explore students\u27 reasons for dropping out of developmental mathematics and what might have helped them be successful. Tinto\u27s model of student attrition, which is characterized by students\u27 social and academic integration affecting their retention in the college, provided the conceptual framework for the study. The research questions addressed the students\u27 perceptions of both why they dropped out of developmental mathematics courses and what might have helped them to successfully complete those courses. A purposeful sampling process was used to select 7 developmental mathematics students who did not complete the course. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from 7 developmental mathematics students. Emergent themes were identified through open coding, and the findings were developed and reviewed for trustworthiness through member checking, rich descriptions, and a code-recode process. Findings revealed that students needed help in acquiring a better understanding of the subject, in adapting to different teaching methods, and in finding available resources. A professional development training for mathematics instructors was created to share the why students drop out of developmental mathematics and to provide suggestions for improved teaching practices. Results from this study may lead to the positive social change by providing teachers with successful developmental mathematics strategies to improve student performance

Preclinical evaluation of Siddha Polyherbal formulation Pitha Kamalai Choornam for its Hepatoprotective activity in wistar albino rats

The trial drug Pitha Kamalai Choornam was selected from the text “Korakkar Maruththuvam” for the validation of safety, efficacy and its potency in hepatoprotective effect. The raw drugs were collected from the Ramasamy pillai shops, at Paris corner, Chennai. The raw drugs were authenticated by the Botanist and Proffesor in Gunapdam Department in Government Siddha Medical College, Arumbakkam, and Chennai-106. Various collections of Siddha and Modern science about the ingredients of the drug supported the fact of hepatoprotective activity. The shelf life of Choornam is mentioned in Siddha literature as 3 months. But the recent report has been published by the AYUSH and mentioned that the shelf life of Choornam is only 1 years. Physico-chemical Analysis: The pH of Pitha Kamalai Choornam was 5.63 which is acidic in nature. Acidic drugs are essential for Bioavailability and effectiveness. Acididic drugs are better absorbed in stomach. Hence, the drug does not produce any harmful effect to the mucus membrane of the GI tract. Choornam is one of the basic medicines in Siddha system. The medicines on this order have fine particle size and low moisture content. The fine particle size enhances the pharmacokinetic actions and the low moisture content indicates the longer shelf life period of the drug. Instrumental Analysis: Based on the results, Pitha Kamalai Choornam is preferably non-toxic to human in its therapeutic dose. The standardization of the drug was evaluated by chemical characterization with heavy metal analysis, functional group analysis, elemental analysis and determination of particle size by ICP-OES, FTIR, XRD and SEM respectively. ICP-OES reveals high concentration of K in Pitha Kamalai Choornam (44.801 mg/l). It also has physiologically important minerals like Na, Mg, P and Ca. In Pitha Kamalai Choornam the heavy metals like As, Cd, Pb and trace element like Ni were not detectable level. This reveals the safety of the drug. The FTIR results showed the presence of O-H Stretching and bend, C-H Stretching and bend, C=O Stretching as functional groups. The shift of C=O stretching frequency indicates a bounding of the calcium and oxygen nanoparticles through this group. XRD pattern of the trail drug Pitha Kamalai Choornam shows some good crystanility. The majar diffraction peaks are identified after XRD analysis. The crystalline may be due to the presence of the ingredients of the Pitha kamalai choornam. The SEM picture shown the presence of nanoparticle of size 1μm – 500 nm in the drug Pitha Kamalai Choornam. Further, the study shows that Pitha Kamalai Choornam is a kind of nanomedicine which favours the advantages of bio availability, better absorption and non toxic with minimal dose level. The Physico chemical analysis shows the presence of Calcium, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium which is physiologically important. In Pitha Kamalai Choornam the heavy metals like Arsenic, Cadmium, and Mercury were not detectable. This reveals the safety of the drug. Pharmacokinetic Aspect: The week acidic medicines were absorbed in alkaline medium. That is the Pitha Kamalai Choornam may be absorbed in small intestine. Toxicity Studies: From the acute toxicity study as per OECD guideline 423, it was concluded that the test drug Pitha Kamalai Choornam is a safest drug. No mortality was obtained. In Conclusion, no toxic effect was observed up to 400mg/kg of Pitha Kamalai Choornam treated over a period of 28 days (OECD 407). So, it can be concluded that the Pitha Kamalai Choornam can be prescribed for therapeutic use in human with the dosage recommendations of up to 100mg/kg body weight p.o. Hepatoprotective activity aginst CCl4 and Paracetamol: The present study showed that Pitha Kamalai Choornam produce protective action against the hepatotoxicity induced by CCl4 and paracetamol. The hepatoprotective role of Pitha Kamalai Choornam might be due to its chemical constituent. Pitha Kamalai Choornam produces antioxidant activity so this mechanism suggesting that the Pitha Kamalai Choornam may be useful to prevent the oxidative stress induced damage in liver. Hence Pitha Kamalai Choornam may be act as prophylactic as well as curative drug in treating hepato toxic conditions. Further studies needs to isolate the active constituents and also to evaluate the exact mechanism of action. Thus the author validated Pitha Kamalai Choornam as a new hepatoprotective drug which is cost effective and without any side effects

Segmentation and Classification of Skin Lesions for Disease Diagnosis

In this paper, a novel approach for automatic segmentation and classification of skin lesions is proposed. Initially, skin images are filtered to remove unwanted hairs and noise and then the segmentation process is carried out to extract lesion areas. For segmentation, a region growing method is applied by automatic initialization of seed points. The segmentation performance is measured with different well known measures and the results are appreciable. Subsequently, the extracted lesion areas are represented by color and texture features. SVM and k-NN classifiers are used along with their fusion for the classification using the extracted features. The performance of the system is tested on our own dataset of 726 samples from 141 images consisting of 5 different classes of diseases. The results are very promising with 46.71% and 34% of F-measure using SVM and k-NN classifier respectively and with 61% of F-measure for fusion of SVM and k-NN.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 2 Tables in Elsevier, Proceedia Computer Science, International Conference on Advanced Computing Technologies and Applications (ICACTA-2015

Association of Lichen Planus with Metabolic Syndrome

INTRODUCTION: Lichen planus (LP) is a papulosquamous disorder involving the skin, nails, hair follicles and mucous membranes. It has a chronic course with relapse and period of remission1. The disease was first described by Hebra as Leichen ruber. Erasmus Wilson, in 1869 named the condition as leichen planus. The skin, hair, nails, mucus membrane may be affected. Lichen Planus is rare in children. Common in middle aged adult. Itching is variable. The primary lesion is violaceous flat topped papule with several clinical forms. AIM OF THE STUDY: To find the association of lichen planus with metabolic syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 113 newly diagnosed lichen planus patients were included in the study to find the association with metabolic syndrome. Children below 10 years were excluded. Detailed history was taken, Systemic examination and dermatological examination were done. Blood pressure and waist circumference were measured at the time of examination. Blood sugar, triglyceride and high density lipoprotein were taken after 8 hours of fasting. International diabetic federation criteria 2015 was used to diagnose metabolic syndrome in the lichen planus patients. RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome was high in females when compared to males. Prevalence of with metabolic syndrome in the 4th decade was significantly higher with 57.1% compared to other age group. When compared to classical variant, which was common and reported in 72 cases, eruptive variant had association with metabolic syndrome with p value of 0.008 which was significant. CONCLUSION: Lichen planus in female patients presented in 4th decade had more association with metabolic syndrome. Among the variants, eruptive variant of lichen planus was associated more with metabolic syndrome. Cases not associated with metabolic syndrome, many of them had dyslipidemia

Effectiveness of inhibitory casting with electrical stimulation on improving the hand function in patients with middle cerebral artery stroke

INTRODUCTION : Inhibitory casting produce an effective extrinsic stretch shortening of the extensor musculature, and strengthening of the intrinsic musculature. Electrical stimulation applied to antagonists would reduce agonist muscle tone and increase strength of antagonist muscles and improves the hand function. In patients with MCA stroke upper limb is commonly affected. Casts provide low load, long duration force by maintaining the affecting extremity in a reflex –inhibiting positions. Casts may cause thermal and tactile receptors to turn-off, thus decreasing motor neuron excitability. OBJECTIVE : It is an experimental study design to determine the effectiveness of inhibitory casting with electrical stimulation on improving the hand function in MCA stroke patients . DESIGN : The study was Pre-test and post-test experimental group design. PARTICIPANTS : A sample of 40 MCA stroke patients were divided in to 2 groups : Group A :Experimental group :Treated with inhibitory casting and electrical stimulation and Brunnstorm’s approach. Group B : Control group :Treated with traditional stretching and mat activities . OUTCOME MEASURES : Spasticity, hand function and Brunnstorm’s approach were measured using modified ashworthscale, wolf motor function test and Brunnstorm’s recovery scale RESULTS : Statistically group A was significant when compared to group B which received inhibitory casting ,electrical stimulation and Brunnstorm’s approach. CONCLUSION : The study concludes that inhibitory casting with electrical stimulation and Brunnstorm’s stages in patients with MCA stroke .Thus, this study accepts the alternate hypothesis and rejects the null hypothesis

Development of Validated UV Spectroscopic and Chromatographic Methods for the Estimation of Isradipine in Bulk Drug and Butylated Hydroxyanisole in Selected Food Stuffs

INTRODUCTION: Pharmaceutical analysis is a branch of chemistry, which involves the series of process for the identification, determination, quantitation and purification. This is mainly used for the separation of the components from the mixture and for the quantification of the compounds.The modern pharmaceutical analysis entails the following activities like, 1. Analysis of drug substances in bulk drug 2. Degradation and impurity analysis of drug substances 3. Finger print analysis of harmful organic substances in food materials 4. Food and cosmetic analysis 5. Preformulation analysis 6. Analysis of solid dosage forms 7. Analysis of injectable dosage forms 8. Development of new dosage forms 9. Method development 10. Method validation 11. Biological analysis 12. Kinetic studies 13. Food - food interaction and food - drug interaction studies etc. AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE WORK:Literature survey reveals that various analytical methods has been developed and validated for the estimation of isradipine using RP-HPLC. Only one method has been reported on UV spectrophotometric method for the determination of isradipine in solid lipid nanoparticles. However, no method has been reported on HPTLC technique for the estimation of isradipine in bulk and its application to degradation studies. Apart from this the presence work aim for the analysis of butylated hydroxyanisole in selected food stuffs. Butylated hydroxyanisole is a phenolic antioxidant which is used to prevent rancidity of fats and oils in food by protecting against oxidation. When the food additives amendment was enacted (1958), BHA were listed as common preservative and considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS). GRAS regulations limit BHA to 0.02% or 200ppm of the fat or oil content of the food products. Based on animal studies, the national toxicology program has concluded that BHA is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. Hence this project aims at quantifying of BHA present in locally available various food products to check whether the BHA are within the acceptable limit given in FDA using modern analytical techniques like RP-HPLC and RP-HPTLC. Hence the objective of the work, Development of validated UV spectroscopic method and stability indicating HPTLC method for the estimation of isradipine in bulk drug. Development of validated of RP- HPLC and RP- HPTLC method for the estimation of butylated hydroxyanisole in various food products. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: An attempt has been made to develop validated UV spectroscopic and stability indicating HPTLC methods for the estimation of isradipine in bulk drug and development of validated RP-HPLC and RP-HPTLC methods for the estimation of butylated hydroxyanisole in selected food stuffs. A simple and sensitive UV spectroscopic method has been developed for the estimation of isradipine in bulk drug. Isradipine exhibited maximum absorbance at 326nm in methanol. Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range of 5- 50μg/ml. The % recovery values close to 100% indicated the accuracy of the method developed. More over the data of analysis was supported by RSD values. HPTLC method was developed for isradipine in bulk drug on silica gel 60 F254 TLC plates using mobile phase of toluene: methanol: glacial acetic acid (9:1:0.05% v/v/v) and detection was carried out at 331nm. The Rf value of isradipine was 0.34 (±0.03). The percentage recovery of isradipine was found to be 101.3± 0.35 for 50% and 101.0± 0.36 for 100% with coefficient variation 0.9994. The drug was subjected to acid hydrolysis, alkaline hydrolysis, oxidation, thermal and photolytic degradation. The degradation study indicated isradipine was susceptible to acid hydrolysis and alkaline hydrolysis. The degradation products were well resolved from the pure drug with significant differences in Rf values. The Rf value of isradipine was 0.34± 0.03 and acid degradants were appeared at the Rf value of 0.15 and 0.51. The Rf value of alkaline degradant was 0.20. The comparative study is tabulated in table 32

A study to assess the level of concentration in reading, writing and listening skills among school children in selected schools at Madurai

The researcher did a study on “A study to assess the level of concentration in reading, writing and listening skills among school children in selected schools at Madurai”. Research hypotheses were formulated and review of literature was prepared relevant to the study. The conceptual framework adopted for this study was based on the Health Promotion Model by Nola J. Pender (1996).The research design was descriptive design in nature. The selected populations were the children those were studying 4th standard between the ages 9 & 10 years in Tamil medium. The tool used for data collection were structured interview schedule to collect the demographic data and observational rating scale to assess the level of concentration in reading, writing and listening skills among school children. The tool and learning module were validated by experts and which were found reliable. After establishing the feasibility through pilot study, the main study was conducted in CSI Primary School, Pasumalai, CSI Primary School, South Gate, Jothi Middle School, Thirupparankundram and Capron Hall School, Madurai. A total of 80 samples were included in the study using Simple Random Sampling Technique - Lottery method. Data collection was done by using structured interview schedule and observational rating scale. The validated learning module was distributed to improve the level of concentration in reading, writing and listening skills among school children. The collected data were tabulated, analyzed and interpreted by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study were revealed that the level of concentration in reading skills mean score was 30.89 and standard deviation was 8.09; the level of concentration in writing skills mean score was 20.33 and standard deviation was 4.96 and the level of concentration in listening skills mean score was 20.25 and standard deviation was 6.28. There was a positive correlation (r = 0.653, p < 0.001 level) between the level of concentration in reading and writing skills among school children. There was a positive correlation (r = 0.561, p < 0.001 level) between the level of concentration in listening and reading skills among school children and there was a positive correlation (r = 0.529, p < 0.001 level ) between the level of concentration in listening and writing skills among school children. There was a highly significant association between the level of concentration in reading skills and academic performance of the child (x2=36.87) and there was a significant association between the level of concentration in reading skills and mother’s education (x2= 12.33) and mother’s occupation (x2=8.21). There was a highly significant association between the level of concentration in writing skills and academic performance of the child (x2= 24.74). There was a highly significant association between the level of concentration in listening skills and academic performance of the child (x2= 27.49) and there was a significant association between the level of concentration in listening skills and area of living of the child (x2= 7.05)

Anemia and blood transfusion in children with septic shock: Does it affect outcome? A prospective observational study

Background: Anemia is frequently encountered in critically ill children. Packed cell transfusion is a common therapeutic intervention in these children. The consequences of this on morbidity and mortality in children with septic shock are poorly defined and need to be explored. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of anemia and to explore the relationship of anemia and packed red blood cells transfusion to clinical outcomes in children with septic shock. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in pediatric intensive care unit between July 2013 and July 2014. Children between 1 month and 16 years of age with septic shock were enrolled in the study. The clinical profile including outcomes was noted in recruited patients. Results: The prevalence of anemia in children with septic shock was 63%. Among them, 13% were severely anemic. No significant differences were found in the Pediatric Risk of Mortality score, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, duration of inotropic requirement, hours of ventilation, and mortality rates between anemic and non-anemic children. Similar findings were observed between the transfused and non-transfused groups. However, the duration of inotropic requirement was longer among the transfused group (72 [6,120] vs. 48 [3, 72], p=0.025). A higher mortality rate was observed among transfused group with an odds ratio of 2.168 (95%, confidence interval [CI] 0.9–5) but was not statistically significant [p=0.08]. Conclusion: More than half of our children with septic shock were anemic at presentation. Anemia was not associated with increased mortality or morbidity. The transfused group had a higher mortality rate