Self-immolation a common suicidal behaviour in eastern Sri Lanka.

A high number of self-burning injuries are noted in Batticaloa. The epidemiology, outcome and psychosocial aspects of 87 patients admitted with such burns over a 2-year-period was studied. The patients were compared with accidental burns and patients using other methods of suicide. Seventy nine percent of the victims were females and 72% were in the 15-34 years age-group. Most had marital problems. The majority were Tamils, but Muslims were fairly well represented. The median extent of burn was 48% of total body surface area (TBSA), with the top of the body mainly affected. The use of fire proved to have a high mortality in a group of patients who did not really want to die; 61 (70%) died. Mortality was higher than for accidental burns after matching for age and burn extent. The survivors had long hospital stays and suffered severe disfigurement. The cases where the patient denied self-harm, but in which the injuries were suggestive of this motive, were strikingly similar in age, sex and burn extent to the suicide group. In contrast, poison suicide records showed a male predominance and a gross under-representation of Muslims. Fire is a very significant method of suicide in our area. Social make-up and poor problem-solving ability may be contributing factors

Evaluation of Waterhyacinth and Paddy Straw Waste for Culture of Oyster Mushrooms

Waterhyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms.) was evaluated at ratios of 25, 50 and 75% with paddy straw ( Oryza sativa L.) for oyster mushroom ( Pleurotus sajor-caju) cultivation. There was an increase in yield with decreasing ratio waterhyacinth

Clinical and radiological recurrence after childhood arterial ischemic stroke

Background: Data on rates and risk factors for clinical and radiological recurrence of childhood arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) might inform secondary prevention strategies. Methods and Results: Consecutive Great Ormond Street Hospital patients with first AIS were identified retrospectively (1978–1990) and prospectively (1990–2000). Patients underwent repeat neuroimaging at the time of clinical recurrence or, if asymptomatic, at least 1 year after AIS. Cox and logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relationships between risk factors and clinical and radiological recurrence, respectively. A total of 212 patients were identified, of whom 97 had another prior diagnosis. Seventy-nine children had a clinical recurrence (29 strokes, 46 transient ischemic attacks [TIAs], 4 deaths with reinfarction 1 day to 11.5 years (median 267 days) later); after 5 years, 59% (95% confidence interval, 51% to 67%) were recurrence free. Moyamoya on angiography and low birth weight were independently associated with clinical recurrence in the whole group. Genetic thrombophilia was associated with clinical recurrence in previously healthy patients, independent of the presence of moyamoya. Sixty of 179 patients who had repeat neuroimaging had radiological reinfarction, which was clinically silent in 20. Previous TIA, bilateral infarction, prior diagnosis (specifically immunodeficiency), and leukocytosis were independently associated with reinfarction. Previous TIA and leukocytosis were also independently associated with clinically silent reinfarction. Conclusions: Clinical and radiological recurrence are common after childhood AIS. The risk of clinical recurrence is increased in children with moyamoya and, in previously healthy patients, in those with genetic thrombophilia. Preexisting pathology, including immunodeficiency, and persistent leukocytosis are risk factors for radiological recurrence, which suggests a potential role for chronic infection

Structural anomalies of fluids: Origins in second and higher coordination shells

Compressing or cooling a fluid typically enhances its static interparticle correlations. However, there are notable exceptions. Isothermal compression can reduce the translational order of fluids that exhibit anomalous waterlike trends in their thermodynamic and transport properties, while isochoric cooling (or strengthening of attractive interactions) can have a similar effect on fluids of particles with short-range attractions. Recent simulation studies by Yan [Phys. Rev. E 76, 051201 (2007)] on the former type of system and Krekelberg [J. Chem. Phys. 127, 044502 (2007)] on the latter provide examples where such structural anomalies can be related to specific changes in second and more distant coordination shells of the radial distribution function. Here, we confirm the generality of this microscopic picture through analysis, via molecular simulation and integral equation theory, of coordination shell contributions to the two-body excess entropy for several related model fluids which incorporate different levels of molecular resolution. The results suggest that integral equation theory can be an effective and computationally inexpensive tool for assessing, based on the pair potential alone, whether new model systems are good candidates for exhibiting structural (and hence thermodynamic and transport) anomalies.Chemical Engineerin

Model for the free-volume distributions of equilibrium fluids

We introduce and test via molecular simulation a simple model for predicting the manner in which interparticle interactions and thermodynamic conditions impact the single-particle free-volume distributions of equilibrium fluids. The model suggests a scaling relationship for the density-dependent behavior of the hard-sphere system. It also predicts how the second virial coefficients of fluids with short-range attractions affect their free-volume distributions.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Performance of distributed mechanisms for flow admission in wireless adhoc networks

Given a wireless network where some pairs of communication links interfere with each other, we study sufficient conditions for determining whether a given set of minimum bandwidth quality-of-service (QoS) requirements can be satisfied. We are especially interested in algorithms which have low communication overhead and low processing complexity. The interference in the network is modeled using a conflict graph whose vertices correspond to the communication links in the network. Two links are adjacent in this graph if and only if they interfere with each other due to being in the same vicinity and hence cannot be simultaneously active. The problem of scheduling the transmission of the various links is then essentially a fractional, weighted vertex coloring problem, for which upper bounds on the fractional chromatic number are sought using only localized information. We recall some distributed algorithms for this problem, and then assess their worst-case performance. Our results on this fundamental problem imply that for some well known classes of networks and interference models, the performance of these distributed algorithms is within a bounded factor away from that of an optimal, centralized algorithm. The performance bounds are simple expressions in terms of graph invariants. It is seen that the induced star number of a network plays an important role in the design and performance of such networks.Comment: 21 pages, submitted. Journal version of arXiv:0906.378

AWARENESS AND USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AMONG THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED STUDENTS OF ALAGAPPA UNIVERSITY ITS AFFLIATED COLLEGES IN SIVAGANGAI DISTRICT, A STUDY

The study analysed awareness and use of social networking sites among the physically challenged students of alagappa university its affliated colleges in sivaganga districts, a study (69.5%) respondents were male, , 31.52 percentage of them are in the age group of 26 -30, 55.28% majority of respondents belong to the rural area, majority (37.15) of the respondents are doing 1st year, majority the respondents has UG degree of studying in 33.33 %of them are in the respondents 35. (54.28) of the respondents are using Crutches, 73.33% of the respondents are regularly using the university library, the majority (89.52) of the respondents are viewing Text Books, Majority of the respondents were frequently using library websites (75.28), Majority the respondents are Social Networking Sites 95.23 Facebook, . It is observed from the table that majority the respondents are using SNS daily (39.05), Majority of the respondents were learn by course materials (31.52), 36.19% of the respondents are using by desktops, The survey research design was used for the study. The total population includes 120 physically challenged students are registered students from the Alagappa university and its affiliated colleges in Sivagangai Districts. A questionnaire has been prepared in such a way that the respondents could easily understand the items. A total number of 120 questionnaires were distributed among the respondents. The investigator could collect questionnaires from only 105 out of 120 respondents among whom the questionnaires were distributed. This constitutes 87.50% (105/120) of the total response

People's Education and Social Status in Folk Songs

Literature is created by the well-known poets and preserved by the learned people. Aru. Alagappan says folk songs are created by lay people and saved by them. They have created folk songs in the form of oral literature in various categories such as lullaby songs, ghummi songs, themmangu songs, sports songs. These songs are about the joys and sorrows of the common people but, they may not be documented. The songs do not have formal grammatical forms or word structure. But it has all the flavors and concepts of the people like pleasure, suffering, waiting, achievement, trial, heroism, love and loss. These songs are the time pieces that show the history of the people of that period. No one knows who composed these songs. Yet, it continues to be preserved by lay people and passed down to the next generation. These songs are still sung in villages. Just like a banana tree grows its offspring, these folk songs also continue to grow along the way. It may vary slightly from time to time in some places, but that does not detract from its authenticity. It is the duty of the learner to document this properly. There is a lot of difference between the world seen by educated people and laymen. The lay people sang the world as they had seen, the world they had to see, in the words they knew, in the ragas they knew, and solved their grief and pain. Even though all the songs are not recorded or written, they are preserved by word of mouth. We should not forget that all these are songs of an uneducated people. However, this article examines the folk songs sung by the lay people and how they gave importance to education and through these songs one can get a clear idea about their social status