Abnormal callosal morphology in male adult dyslexics: relationships to handedness and phonological abilities

The classical notion that developmental dyslexia may somehow relate to impaired communication between hemispheres has not yet received convincing support. Sixteen dyslexic adults and 12 controls received a high resolution brain MRI scan for morphometric study of the corpus callosum. Automatized measurements of callosal area and calculation of indices defining the general morphology of the callosal mid-surface were performed. Each participant received global intelligence and reading achievement evaluation; dyslexics were further proposed specific neuropsychological tests specially designed to explore the mechanisms of reading impairment. It just appears from the group comparisons (1) that the dyslexics' corpus callosum displays a more circular and evenly thicker general shape, and (2) that the midsagittal surface is on the average larger than in controls, in particular in the isthmus. Moreover, the different morphometric characteristics of the dyslexic brain correlated with the degree of impairment on various tests exploring phonological abilities. In vivo morphometry of the corpus callosum may provide valuable hints for understanding developmental learning disorders and their consequences in adults.     

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF HIGH AND LOW TEMPERATURE SHIFT CONVERTERS

Theoretical analysis is performed to study catalytic reaction of CO in bolh high and low temperature shift converters. The study includes comparison between model predictions and data collected from local industries in Kuwait. Theoretical models are developed to simulate temperature and conversion profiles of CO in both the high and low shift converters. Good fits are obtained between the theoretical predictions of exit CO conversion and axial temperature profiles and the collected data. Calculations show existence of an optimum feed temperature for the high temperature shift converter. Such an optimum does not exist for the low temperature shift system because of physical limitations on operating conditions. @KEYWORDS: Carbon monoxide, Shift converters.     

Analogue mechanism technique for ribbed cylindrical shell roof

An analogue mechanism method, based in principle upon Newmark's spring bar mechanism technique, for the elastic analysis of rib-stiffened cylindrical barrels is presented. The shell column interaction is taken into account. Numerical solutions obtained for representative problems and their comparison, whenever possible, to existing solutions are presented. Experimental results obtained from a sand-cement model is presented in order to demonstrate the reliability of this method for predicting stresses in shell problems where there are no analytical solutions available for comparison.     

Incidence of Toxoplasma and Toxocara antibodies among out-patients in the Ophthalmic Research Institute, Egypt

Infection by Toxoplasma gondii and Toxocara canis is getting much important nowadays. Both are soil transmitted infections. The present study was planned to detect the incidence of T. gondii and T. canis antibodies among 100 patients attending the outpatient clinics in Research Institutes of Ophthalmology (RIO), whose urine and stool were free from other parasitic stages. Patients were classified into two groups, group I; (70 ocular cases) and group II, (30 non-occular cases). Control group (group III); 30 healthy persons. Sera from all individuals were subjected to IFAT and IHAT to detect Toxoplasma antibodies and IFAT to detect Toxocara antibodies. By using IFAT for Toxoplasma revealed, 25% as a total incidence, 21.4% in group I, 33.3% in group II and 6.6% in group III. While IHAT revealed 51% as a total incidence, 51.4% in group I, 50% in group II and 23.3% in group III. Among group I, retinochoroiditis cases showed the highest incidence and titre. While hydrocephalic cases showed highest incidence and titre in group II. T. canis antibodies revealed 23% as a total incidence, 14.3% in group I, 43.3% in group II and 5% in group III. Cases presented with retinal detachment showed the highest incidence and titre in group I while in group II hepatomegalic cases gave the highest incidence and titre. Concomitant infection of both Toxoplasma and Toxocara was detected in 8% of positive cases.     

Effect of simple carbohydrates, casein hydrolysate, and a lipid test meal on ethane exhalation rate

To determine the potential differences in the effect of various nutrients on lipid peroxidation, the ethane exhalation (EE) rate, an index of lipid peroxidation, was measured in rats at 4 (young), 18 (intermediate age), and 24 (aged) mo of age at fasting conditions and after acute ingestion of various test meals. The EE rate (means +/- SD) after a 15-h fast was significantly reduced in 24-mo-old rats (2.45 +/- 0.44 pmol.min-1.100 g body wt-1) and 18-mo-old rats (3.51 +/- 0.55 pmol.min-1.100 g body wt-1) compared with 4-mo-old rats (4.44 +/- 0.66 pmol.min-1.100 g body wt-1; P < 0.01). The EE rate significantly increased in 4-mo-old rats after ingestion of 50% (wt/vol) dextrose (8.59 +/- 2.9 pmol.min-1.100 g body wt-1), 50% casein hydrolysate (6.77 +/- 1.23 pmol.min-1.100 g body wt-1), and 20% neutral lipid emulsion (7.33 +/- 1.96 pmol.min-1.100 g body wt-1; P < 0.01). The response of aged rats to these nutrients compared with young rats was reduced by approximately 50%. A 25% dextrose solution or a 50% solution of sucrose, fructose, maltose, or galactose did not significantly alter EE rate. It is concluded that various macronutrients have a diverse potential of inducing lipid peroxidation. The responsiveness of aged rats to meal-induced enhancement of EE and presumably lipid peroxidation is significantly reduced.     

New ceramides from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rantherium suaveolens</Emphasis>

A mixture of five new ceramides was isolated from the aerial parts of Rantherium suaveolens and characterized by spectroscopic and chemical methods. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic and chemical methods as (2S, 3S, 4R, 2′R, 14E)-2-(2′-hydroxydocosanoylamino)-14-octadecene-1,3,4-triol (1), (2S,3S,4R,2′R, 14F)-2-(2′-hydroxytricosanoylamino)-14-octadecene-1,3,4-triol (2), (2S,3S,4R,2′R,14F)-2-(2′-hydroxytetracosanoylamino)-14-octadecene-1,3,4-triol (3), (2S,3S,4R,2′R,14E)-2-(2′-hydroxypentacosanoylamino)-14-octadecene-1,3,4-triol (4), and (2S,3S,4R,2′R,14E)-2-(2′-hydroxyhexacosanoylamino)-14-octadecene-1,3,4-triol (5).     

Evaluation of oxygen as oxidant in coal fired open cycle MHD-steam power plants

This study compares the thermal efficiency and economics of using oxygen rather than air as the oxidant in large coal-fired MHD-steam energy conversion plants, using a computer model to calculate thermal efficiency. The systems compared are a coal-air system with a thermal input of 2000 MW_th and two coal-oxygen systems, one with an input of 2000 MW_th and one with 6600 MW_th. The paper describes the process; compares flame temperature, electrical conductivity, and specific enthalpy; and presents Mollier diagrams for the two systems. At an oxidant preheat temperature of 1644 K, the net thermal efficiency of the coal-oxygen system is 8 to 9 percentage points lower than that for the coal-air system, if the power required to produce the oxygen is taken into account; however, despite its lower thermal efficiency, the coal-oxygen system has a lower cost of electricity. At a preheat temperature of 1644 K, the cost advantage is small, but at temperatures below 1200 K, the cost advantage is significant.     

Redesigning network topology with technology considerations

We present a redesign methodology that automatically redesigns a network topology while considering the different network technology interfaces. The network redesign problem is to preserve as many as possible of the network devices within the original network topology to satisfy the redesign factors while minimizing the redesign cost and time. The redesign factors can be various parameters that are involved in the design of a network topology, such as the workload and number of clients. In this paper we used a uniform growth of the network workload as the main factor for topology redesign; moreover, our methodology attempts to maintain as many as possible of the network devices within the original topology while satisfying the extra growth of the clients' loads. We formulated the network redesign problem as an optimization problem and used an evolutionary approach to search the redesign space. The experimental results for a three‐level network redesign problem described here demonstrate how valuable the redesign methodology is in finding good solutions with low redesign cost and short redesign time for an enterprise networks consisting of 65 client nodes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computer aided diagnosis of brain abnormalities using texture analysis of MRI images

The drive of this study is to develop a robust system. A method to classify brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image into brain-related disease groups and tumor types has been proposed. The proposed method employed Gabor texture, statistical features, and support vector machine. Brain MRI images have been classified into normal, cerebrovascular, degenerative, inflammatory, and neoplastic. The proposed system has been trained on a complete dataset of Brain Atlas-Harvard Medical School. Further, to achieve robustness, a dataset developed locally has been used. Extraordinary results on different orientations, sequences of both of these datasets as per accuracy (up to 99.6%), sensitivity (up to 100%), specificity (up to 100%), precision (up to 100%), and AUC value (up to 1.0) have been achieved. The tumorous slices are further classified into primary or secondary tumor as well as their further types as glioma, sarcoma, meningioma, bronchogenic carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma, which could not be possible to determine without biopsy, otherwise.     

Synthesis,characterization and adsorption studies of h-BN crystal for efficient removal of Cd2+ from aqueous solution

In the present study, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was synthesized from boric acid and melamine by thermal annealing method in a nitrogen atmosphere. The pure h-BN was used as an efficient sorbent for the uptake of Cd²⁺ ions from the solution phase. The kinetics and sorption studies of metal ions onto the h-BN were carried out in batch adsorption experiments at different temperature, time, pH, sorbent dosage, and concentration of metal ions. The optimum pH for the removal of the Cd²⁺ ions was found to be pH 7. The effect of temperature showed that the process of Cd²⁺ sorption remained endothermic in the range of 298 K–328 K. The Lagergren's first and Ho's second kinetic models were tested to interpret the adsorption kinetic data, however the present data was explained well by Ho's model for kinetics. The thermodynamic perameters ΔG, ΔS and ΔH were determined using the available adsorption data at different temperatures. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized product were also characterized before and after adsorption by different analytical techniques like FT-IR, TGA, XRD and Point of Zero Charge (PZC). The morphology of the surface was analyzed with the help of Scanning Electron Microscopy. The h-BN proved to be an efficient adsorbent for the uptake of the Cd²⁺ ions from aqueous media.