Comparative Difficulties with Non-Scientific General Vocabulary and Scientific/Medical Terminology in English as a Second Language (ESL) Medical Students

Objectives: Medical education requires student comprehension of both technical (scientific/medical) and non-technical (general) vocabulary. Our experience with “English as a second language” (ESL) Arab students suggested they often have problems comprehending scientific statements because of weaknesses in their understanding of non-scientific vocabulary. This study aimed to determine whether ESL students have difficulties with general vocabulary that could hinder their understanding of scientific/medical texts. Methods: A survey containing English text was given to ESL students in the premedical years of an English-medium medical school in an Arabic country. The survey consisted of sample questions from the Medical College Admission Test (USA). Students were instructed to identify all unknown words in the text. Results: ESL students commenced premedical studies with substantial deficiencies in English vocabulary. Students from English-medium secondary schools had a selective deficiency in scientific/medical terminology which disappeared with time. Students from Arabic-medium secondary schools had equal difficulty with general and scientific/medical vocabulary. Deficiencies in both areas diminished with time but remained even after three years of English-medium higher education. Conclusion: Typically, when teaching technical subjects to ESL students, attention is focused on subject-unique vocabulary and associated modifiers. This study highlights that ESL students also face difficulties with the general vocabulary used to construct statements employing technical words. Such students would benefit from increases in general vocabulary knowledge

What is the best treatment for mild to moderate acne?

For mild comedonal acne, monotherapy with topical retinoids is the treatment of choice (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A). For moderate comedonal and mild to moderate papulopustular acne, combination therapy with either benzoyl peroxide or topical retinoids (adapalene [Differin], tazarotene [Tazorac], tretinoin [Retin-A]) plus topical antibiotics (erythromycin or clindamycin) is proven most effective (SOR: A). Six to eight weeks should be allowed for most treatments to work before altering the regimen (SOR: A)

A prospective, randomized, cross sectional study of manual versus vacuum extraction of mobile head in caesarean section

Background: Considering the high rate of caesarean section, and the difficulty during delivery of the floating foetal head even by the most experienced obstetrician, the use of vacuum has been described. The present study was undertaken with the hypothesis that, vacuum assisted foetal head delivery during caesarean section is safe and effective without increasing maternal and neonatal complications. The outcomes enumerated by the limited literature available need to be evaluated before it is used routinely.Methods: A prospective, randomized, comparative, cross sectional Hospital based study was conducted at St. Philomena’s Hospital, Bangalore. Every woman randomized for the study received either conventional method or ventouse extraction of fetal head at cesarean section. 200 women were enrolled into the study with 100 in each arm. The primary outcome measures were percentage of successful extractions and I-D interval. The secondary outcome measures were, uterine incision extension, estimated blood loss, Apgar scores, neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and neonatal scalp or head injury.Results: Successful extraction was done in 89 % and 98 % cases in manual and vacuum extraction cases. (p =0.0184). U-D interval in the manual extraction group was 66.59±4.64 seconds and in the Vacuum extraction group it was 56.06±3.46 seconds (P<0.001). The mean pre-delivery hemoglobin levels in group I was 11.6±0.73 compared to 11.36±0.49 gm% in group II. The mean post-delivery hemoglobin levels in group I was 10.29±0.79 compared to 10.21±0.53 gm% in group II (p <0.001). The uterine incision extensions were significantly higher in manual extraction group, 18 of the 100 women (18 %), whereas only 2 of the 100 women in vacuum group had uterine extensions (p=0.0002).Conclusions: Authors conclude that the routine use of ventouse is safe and effective for mobile fetal head extraction at cesarean section

Demonstrating Antenna Miniaturisation for Radiolocation Applications using Double Elliptical Patches

Double Elliptical Micro-strip Patch Antenna (DEMPA) is developed out of Double Elliptical Patch (DEP) which is a recently proposed shape of patch. The use of DEP results in higher flexibility in design of patch antenna and thus promotes antenna miniaturisation. The present work is an attempt to demonstrate the miniaturisation of radiolocation antenna through the concept of Design Flexibility (DF). In this paper, optimised neural network model for synthesis of DEMPA has been developed for radiolocation applications for which the earmarked frequency band is 8.50 GHz – 10.50 GHz. With the help of synthesis model, for an arbitrary operational frequency of 9.85 GHz, radiolocation antennas with effective patch area ranging from 142 mm2 to 66 mm2 were designed by using DEPs. In this case, the percentage reduction in effective patch area was found to be 53.52%. It shows that double elliptical patches can be employed to develop miniaturised radiolocation antennas. One prototype antenna was fabricated and tested to demonstrate the efficacy of the methodology adopted. The fabricated antenna had resonance at 10.15 GHz with a reflection coefficient of -20.73dB and bandwidth of 3.106 GHz (from 7.458 GHz to 10.564 GHz). Its Fractional Bandwidth was 34.469%. Positive and reasonably good gain was maintained over the entire working band. At resonance, the peak gain was 4.22 dB.The measured characteristics of antenna were in close agreement with the simulated results. The methodology presented in this paper can also be applied to frequency bands for other wireless applications

Efficient Model Checking of Hardware Using Conditioned Slicing

AbstractIn this work, we present an abstraction based property verification technique for hardware using conditioned slicing. We handle safety property specifications of the form G(antecedent⇒consequent). We use the antecedent of the properties to create our abstractions, Antecedent Conditioned Slices. We extend conditioned slicing to Hardware Description Languages (HDLs). We provide a theoretical foundation for our conditioned slicing based verification technique. We also present experimental results on the Verilog RTL implementation of the USB 2.0. We demonstrate very high performance gains achieved by our technique when compared to static program slicing, using state-of-the-art model checkers

Isolation of Enterobacteriaceae and non-fermenting Gram-negative bacilli (NFGNB) from Dental Unit Water Lines (DUWL) in a tertiary care institutional setup

Background: The quality of dental unit water lines (DUWL) is of considerable importance since patients and dental staff are regularly exposed to water and aerosols generated from dental units which thereby influence the individual patient outcome and health-care associated morbidity. The aim of the present study was to determine the microbiological quality of water used, presence of biofilms and also the potential of isolated bacterial species in producing biofilms within DUWL. Methods: Thirty DUWL samples were collected from various departments of Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore. Bacteriological analysis was done for the presence of various bacterial contaminants. Presence of biofilms on DUWLs and potential of bacterial isolates to form biofilm were also determined. Results: Seven of 30 samples (23.3%), were found to be of unsatisfactory quality (coliform count > 200 CFU/ml), most frequently from air/water syringes. A total of 45 strains were isolated from 14 water samples. Genera isolated were Escherichia spp., Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Acinetobacter spp. Four of 10 samples from DUWL tubing showed presence of biofilms (40%), formed mostly by Acinetobacter spp. and Pseudomonas spp. Out of 45 strains that were isolated, 19 strains displayed ability to form biofilms. Maximum number (10) isolates formed biofilms with 48 hours. Conclusion: Exposure to contaminated water from DUWL poses threat to the well-being of the patient and the health care personnel as well. Hence, measures should be initiated to ensure the optimum quality of DUWL water. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.131977

Punctured Turbo Codes for Bandwidth-efficient Transmission

Turbo codes are the error-coding schemes applied nowadays in wireless networks. In navalapplications, the information is mostly sent through wireless networks and the data is moreprone to noise. Since very important data has to be communicated, it is necessary to get backthe original data in the receiver. In military applications also, the soldiers wear electronic jacketswhich are connected by wireless networks. In such applications, the data loss is not affordableand there is also a need to utilise the bandwidth efficiently through puncturing by means ofwhich certain bits are deleted before transmission from the output of encoder. By means of thispunctured turbo codes, bandwidth-efficient coding is achieved. Hence, it is necessary to designturbo codes with an efficient puncturing pattern so that the performance of the punctured codeis also improved in spite of deletion of few bits before transmission. This paper deals in choosingthe puncturing patterns that lead to systematic rate-compatible punctured turbo codes (RCPTCs)which also give a reduction in bit-error rate. The design criterion for choosing the best puncturingpatterns is based on the minimum weight of code words and their multiplicities. The best puncturingpattern chosen is tested for its performance by simulating turbo codes for an additive whiteGaussian noise (AWGN ) channel. Compared with the existing puncturing pattern, the patternproposed is able to achieve a gain of 0.5 dB at a bit-error rate of 10-3

Conservation of fauna of Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve – An overview

The Indian Government has established 18 Biosphere reserves in India which protect larger areas of natural habitat and often include one or more National parks. Seshachalam hills, the first Biosphere Reserve in Andhra Pradesh, is located in southern Eastern Ghats of Chittoor and Kadapa districts. It is the richest floristic hot spot harboring many endemic and rare plants. Five Gecko species were recorded in this reserve, out of that the Golden Gecko Calodactylodes aureus are rare and endemic species in the biosphere reserve.12 species of lizards and 22 species of snakes are found Seshachalam Biosphere. The protection of habitat is an important aspect in the conservation of such species. The biospheres are sites where protection is granted to the flora and fauna of the protected region. Each biosphere reserve is intended to fulfil 3 basic functions such as conservative, development and logistic functions. The Wildlife is a potential source of useful products of global interest. Wildlife is nature’s gift and its decline has an adverse effect on ecology and hence there is an urgent need to protect the Wildlife. An awareness should be developed among the general public about the proper management and the necessity of conservation of natural ecosystem and wild Communities of plants and animals they contain. To ensure this certain legal steps are to be taken up by the Government to regulate the exploitation of Wildlife

A Study of Challenges and Recommendations for Teaching: DevOps Education

DevOps has gained significant popularity in the software industry due to its ability to enhance collaboration, improve software delivery, and drive organizational agility. However, providing effective education and training in DevOps poses several Issue. This research paper presents an interview study conducted with a seasoned DevOps professional to explore the challenges faced in DevOps education and provide recommendations for addressing these challenges. The study highlights the evolving nature of the DevOps landscape, the interdisciplinary nature of DevOps, and the need for hands-on learning experiences. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of continuous curriculum updates, practical exercises, cross-functional collaboration, industry partnerships, and fostering a continuous learning mindset. The findings from this study contribute to the understanding of the unique challenges and recommendations for improving DevOps education