Abstract: ASER Centre, the research and assessment arm of Pratham Education Foundation sees measurement as the first stage of action. ASER uses primary research to push and give empirical foundations to policy discussions at a multitude of levels. At a household level, common citizens use a simple assessment (a floor-level test) to measure learning across rural India. This paper presents the evidence on the applicability of an ASER approach to the health sector. A citizen-led assessment was designed and executed that collected information from young mothers with children up to a year of age. The pilot assessments were rolled-out in two different models: Paid surveyors and student volunteers. The survey covered three geographic areas: 1,239 children in the Jaipur District of Rajasthan, 2,086 in the Rae Bareli District of Uttar Pradesh, and 593 children in the Bhuj Block in Gujarat. The survey tool was designed to study knowledge of health-related issues, daily practices followed by young mothers and access to relevant services and programs. It provides insights on behaviors related to infant and young child feeding practices, child and maternal nutrition and supplementation, water and sanitation, and health services. Moreover, the survey studies the reasons behind behaviors giving policy-makers actionable pathways to improve implementation of social sector programs. Although data on health outcomes are available, this approach could provide a rapid annual assessment of health issues with indicators that are easy to understand and act upon so that measurements do not become an exclusive domain of experts. The results give many insights into early childhood health behaviors and challenges. Around 98% of children are breastfed, and approximately half are not exclusively breastfed (for the first 6 months). Government established diet diversity guidelines are met for less than 1 out of 10 children. Although most households are satisfied with the quality of drinking water, most tested households had contaminated water.
Abstract: Bagh-e Dasht area is situated in the northern part of Herat, an old city in western Afghanistan located on the Silk Road which has received a strong influence from Persian culture. Initially, the Bagh-e Dasht area was developed for gardens and palaces near Joy-e Injil canal during the Timurid Empire in the 15th century. It is assumed Bagh-e Dasht became a settlement in the 16th century during the Safavid Empire. The oldest area is the southern part around the canal bank which is characterized by Dalans, sun-dried brick arcades above which houses are often constructed. Traditional houses in this area are built with domical vault roofs constructed with sun-dried bricks. Bagh-e Dasht is one of the best-preserved settlements of traditional houses in Herat. This study examines the transformation of the Bagh-e Dasht area with a focus on Dalans, where traditional houses with domical vault roofs have been well-preserved until today. The aim of the study is to examine the extent of physical changes to the area as well as changes to houses and the community. This research paper contains original results which have previously not been published in architectural history. The roof types of houses in the area are investigated through examining high resolution satellite images. The boundary of each building and space is determined by both a field survey and aerial photographs of the study area. A comprehensive field survey was then conducted to examine each space and building in the area. In addition, a questionnaire was distributed to the residents of the Dalan houses and interviews were conducted with the Wakil (Chief) of the area, a local historian, residents and traditional builders. The study finds that the oldest part of Bagh-e Dasht area, the south, contains both Dalans and domical vault roof houses. The next oldest part, which is the north, only has domical vault roof houses. The rest of the area only has houses with modernized flat roofs. This observation provides an insight into the process of historical development in the Bagh-e Dasht area.
Abstract: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the blood lipid profile and liver lipid peroxidation in normal rat fed with different concentrations of Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal. Thirty six Sprague Dawley male rats each weighing between 180-200g were randomly divided into two groups. Each group contains eighteen rats and were divided into three groups of 6 rats per group. The rats were fed ad libitum with commercial rat’s feed and tap water containing different concentrations of Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal (3% and 6%) for 4 weeks. The results at 4 weeks showed that there was no significant difference (p≤0.05) in the total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG) between the control group and treated groups while the results for the high density lipoprotein (HDL-C) showed a significant decrease (P≥0.05) at the 3% and 6% of gum arabic treated groups compared to control group. There was a significant increase (P≥0.05) in low density lipoprotein (LDL-C) with 3% and 6% of gum Arabic (GA) groups compared to the control group. The study indicated that there was no significant (p≤0.05) effect on TC and TG but there was significant effect (P≥0.05) on HDL-C and LDL-C in blood lipid profile of normal rat. The results showed that after 4 weeks of treatment the malondialdehyde (MDA) value in rat fed with 6% of A. seyal group was significantly higher (P≥0.05) than control or other treated groups of A. seyal and A. senegal studied. Thus, the two species of gum arabic did not have beneficial effect on blood lipid profile and lipid peroxidation.
Abstract: By the evolvement in technology, the way of
expressing opinions switched direction to the digital world. The
domain of politics, as one of the hottest topics of opinion mining
research, merged together with the behavior analysis for affiliation
determination in texts, which constitutes the subject of this paper.
This study aims to classify the text in news/blogs either as
Republican or Democrat with the minimum number of features. As
an initial set, 68 features which 64 were constituted by Linguistic
Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) features were tested against 14
benchmark classification algorithms. In the later experiments, the
dimensions of the feature vector reduced based on the 7 feature
selection algorithms. The results show that the “Decision Tree”,
“Rule Induction” and “M5 Rule” classifiers when used with “SVM”
and “IGR” feature selection algorithms performed the best up to
82.5% accuracy on a given dataset. Further tests on a single feature
and the linguistic based feature sets showed the similar results. The
feature “Function”, as an aggregate feature of the linguistic category,
was found as the most differentiating feature among the 68 features
with the accuracy of 81% in classifying articles either as Republican
or Democrat.
Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the magnetic resonance
(MR) signal enhancement ratio (ER) of contrast-enhanced MR
angiography (CE-MRA) in normal rats with gadobenate dimeglumine
(Gd-BOPTA) using a clinical 3T scanner and an extremity coil. The
relaxivities of Gd-BOPTA with saline only and with 4.5% human
serum albumin (HSA) were also measured. Compared with
Gadolinium diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA),
Gd-BOPTA had higher relaxivities. The maximum ER of aorta (ERa),
kidney, liver and muscle with Gd-BOPTA were higher than those with
Gd-DTPA. The maximum ERa appeared at 1.2 min and decayed to half
at 10 min after Gd-BOPTA injection. This information is helpful for
the design of CE-MRA study of rats.
Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of
the antioxidant activity of germinated African Yam Bean (AYB) on
oxidative stress markers in alloxan induced diabetic rat. Rats were
randomized into three groups; control, diabetic and germinated AYB
– treated diabetic rats. The Total phenol and flavonoid content and
DPPH radical scavenging activity before and after germination were
investigated. The glucose level, lipid peroxidation and reduced
glutathione of the animals were also determined using standard
technique for four weeks. Germination increased the total phenol,
flavonoid and antioxidant activity of AYB extract by 19.14%,
32.28% and 57.25% respectively. The diabetic rats placed on
germinated AYB diet had a significant decrease in the blood glucose
and lipid peroxidation with a corresponding increase in glutathione
(p
Abstract: We have developed a polyimide based neural interface electrode to record nerve signals from the sciatic nerve of a rat. The neural interface electrode has a split-ring shape, with four protruding gold electrodes for recording, and two reference gold electrodes around the split-ring. The split-ring electrode can be opened up to encircle the sciatic nerve. The four electrodes can be bent to sit on top of the nerve and hold the device in position, while the split-ring frame remains flat. In comparison, while traditional cuff electrodes can only fit certain sizes of the nerve, the developed device can fit a variety of rat sciatic nerve dimensions from 0.6 mm to 1.0 mm, and adapt to the chronic changes in the nerve as the electrode tips are bendable. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement was conducted. The gold electrode impedance is on the order of 10 kΩ, showing excellent charge injection capacity to record neural signals.
Abstract: Kwashiorkor is one of nutritional problem in
Indonesia, which lead to decrease immune system. This condition
causes susceptibility to infectious disease, especially tuberculosis.
Development of new tuberculosis vaccine will be an important
strategy to eliminate tuberculosis in kwashiorkor. Previous research
showed that 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein is one of the
potent immunogen. However, the role of oral immunization with 38-
kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein to the number of
lymphocytes in the rat model of kwashiorkor is still unknown. We
used kwashiorkor rat model groups with 4% and 2% low protein diet.
Oral immunization with 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein
given with 2 booster every week. The lymphocytes number were
measured by flowcytometry. There was no significant difference
between the number of lymphocytes in the normal rat group and the
kwashiorkor rat groups. It may reveal the role of 38-kDa
Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein as a potent immunogen that can
increase the lymphocytes number from kwashiorkor rat model same
as normal rat.
Abstract: Structured phospholipids from commercial soybean
lecithin with oil enriched omega-3 fatty acid form by product of tuna
canning is alternative procedure to provides the stability of omega-3
fatty acid structure and increase these bioactive function in
metabolism. Best treatment condition was obtain in 18 hours
acidolysis reaction with 30% enzyme concentration, which EPADHA
incorporation level was 127,47 mg/g and incorporation
percentage of EPA-DHA was 51,04% at phospholipids structure.
This structured phospolipids could reduce atherosclerosis risk in
male Sprague dawley rat. Provision of structured phospholipids has
significant effect (α = 0.05) on changes in lipid profile, intima-media
thickness of aorta rats (male Sprague dawley) fed atherogenic diet.
Structured phospholipids intake can lower total cholesterol 78.36
mg/dL, total triglycerides 94,57 mg/dL, LDL levels 87.08 mg/dL and
increased HDL level as much as 12,64 mg/dL in 10 weeks cares.
Structured phospholipids intake also can prevent the thickening of
the intima-media layer of the aorta.
Abstract: Leptospirosis occurs worldwide (except the
poles of the earth), urban and rural areas, developed and
developing countries, especially in Thailand. It can be
transmitted to the human by rats through direct and indirect
ways. Human can be infected by either touching the infected rats
or contacting with water, soil containing urine from the infected
rats through skin, eyes and nose. The data of the people who
are infected with this disease indicates that most of the
patients are adults. The transmission of this disease is studied
through mathematical model. The population is separated into human
and rat. The human is divided into two classes, namely juvenile
and adult. The model equation is constructed for each class. The
standard dynamical modeling method is then used for
analyzing the behaviours of solutions. In addition, the
conditions of the parameters for the disease free and endemic
states are obtained. Numerical solutions are shown to support the
theoretical predictions. The results of this study guide the way to
decrease the disease outbreak.
Abstract: This study investigated the climatic factors associated
with Influenza incidence in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Southern
Thailand. Climatic factors comprised of the amount of rainfall,
percent of rainy days, relative humidity, wind speed, maximum,
minimum temperatures and temperature difference. A multiple
stepwise regression technique was used to fit the statistical model.
The result showed that the temperature difference and percent of
rainy days were positively associated with Influenza incidence in
Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Abstract: Various assisted reproductive techniques have been
developed and refined to obtain a large number of offspring from
genetically superior animals or obtain offspring from infertile (or
subfertile) animals. The embryo transfer is one assisted reproductive
technique developed well, aimed at increased productivity of selected
females, disease control, importation and exportation of livestock,
rapid screening of AI sires for genetically recessive characteristics,
treatment or circumvention of certain types of infertility. Embryo
transfer also is a useful research tool for evaluating fetal and maternal
interactions. This technique has been applied to nearly every species
of domestic animal and many species of wildlife and exotic animals,
including humans and non-human primates. The successful of
embryo transfers have been limited to within-animal, homologous
replacement of the embryos. There are several examples of
interspecific and intergeneric embryo transfers in which embryos
implanted but did not develop to term: sheep and goat, mouse and rat.
An immunological rejections and placental incompatibility between
the embryo and the surrogate mother appear to restrict interspecific
embryo transfer/interspecific pregnancy. Recently, preimplantation
embryo manipulation procedures have been applied, such as
technique of inner cell mass transfer. This technique will possible to
overcome the reproductive barrier interspecific embryo
transfer/interspecific pregnancy, if there is a protective mechanism
which prevents recognition of the foreign fetus by the mother of the
other species
Abstract: In the present study, changes of morphology and
mechanical characteristics in the lumbar vertebrae of the
ovariectomised (OVX) rat were investigated. In previous researches,
there were many studies about morphology like volume fraction and
trabecular thickness based on Micro - Computed Tomography (Micro
- CT). However, detecting and tracking long-term changes in the
trabecular bone of the lumbar vertebrae for the OVX rat were few. For
this study, one female Sprague-Dawley rat was used: an OVX rat. The
4th Lumbar of the OVX rat was subjected to in-vivo micro-CT.
Detecting and tracking long-term changes could be investigated in the
trabecular bone of the lumbar vertebrae for an OVX rat using in-vivo
micro-CT. An OVX rat was scanned at week 0 (just before surgery), at
week 4, at week 8, week 16, week 22 and week 56 after surgery. Finite
element (FE) analysis was used to investigate mechanical
characteristics of the lumbar vertebrae for an OVX rat. When the OVX
rat (at week 56) was compared with the OVX rat (at week 0), volume
fraction was decreased by 80% and effective modulus was decreased
by 75%.
Abstract: Leonotisleonurus a shrub indigenous to Southern
Africa is widely used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of
conditions ranging from skin diseases and cough to epileptic fits and
‘heart problems’. Studies on the aqueous extract of the leaves have
indicated cycloxegenase enzyme inhibitory activity and an
antihypertensive effect.
Five methanol leaf extract fractions (MLEa - MLEe) of L.
leonurus were tested on anaesthetized normotensive male Wistar rats
(AWR) and isolated perfused working rat hearts (IWH). Fraction
MLEc (0.01mg/kg – 0.05mg/kg) induced significant increases in BP
and HR in AWR and positive chronotropic and inotropic effects in
IWH (1.0mg/ml – 5.0mg/ml). Pre-administration of atenolol
(2.0mg/kg) and prazosin (60μg/kg) significantly inhibited MLEc
effect on HR and MAP respectively in vivo, while atenolol
(7.0mg/ml) pre-perfusion significantly inhibited MLEc effect in vitro.
The hypertensive effect of MLEc is probably via β1agonism.
Results also indicate the presence of multiple cardioactive
compounds in L. leonurus.
Abstract: Delayed wound healing in diabetes is primarily
associated with hyperglycemia, over-expression of inflammatory
marker, oxidative stress and delayed collagen synthesis. This
unmanaged wound is producing high economic burden on the
society. Thus research is required to develop new and effective
treatment strategies to deal with this emerging issue. Our present
study incorporates the evaluation of wound healing effects of 50%
ethanol extract of Ocimum sanctum (OSE) in streptozotocin
(45mg/kg)-induced diabetic rats with concurrent wound ulcer. The
animals showing diabetes (Blood glucose level >140 and