Orange fleshed sweet potato a nutrition sensitive functional food for possible dietary approach to vitamin A deficiency and undernutrition

Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSPs) is an excellent nutrition sensitive function food. It contains dense amount of carotene and is also rich in proximate nutrients. A wide number of cultivars of OFSPs has been developed worldwide, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In Bangladesh, sixteen cultivars have been developed. Carotene content in the OFSPs surpasses all of the plant food carotene. OFSPs also contains good content of energy yielding nutrients. The Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes could, therefore, be a potential dietary approach to address the vitamin A deficiency for undernourished indigent people.

Performance of Mattis dementia rating scale-Chinese version in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease

Background To identify the applicability of the Chinese Version of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS-CV). Methods The DRS-CV was administered to 483 participants, including 136 normal controls, 167 patients with mild cognition impairment (MCI), and 180 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the scale. Results The scores of DRS-CV were ranked in the order of NC > MCI > mild AD > moderate AD group. Memory was the sensitive function affected at a relatively earlier stage of AD. ROC curve analysis indicated the DRS-CV total score and memory subscale showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI from mild AD and mild AD from moderate AD, but poor sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI and NC. Conclusion The DRS-CV is useful to the early diagnosis and severity of AD, not to the early identification of MCI.

Inferring thermospheric composition from ionogram profiles: a calibration with the TIMED spacecraft

We present a method for augmenting spacecraft measurements of thermospheric composition with quantitative estimates of daytime thermospheric composition below 200 km, inferred from ionospheric data, for which there is a global network of ground-based stations. Measurements of thermospheric composition via ground-based instrumentation are challenging to make, and so details about this important region of the upper atmosphere are currently sparse. The visibility of the F1 peak in ionospheric soundings from ground-based instrumentation is a sensitive function of thermospheric composition. The ionospheric profile in the transition region between F1 and F2 peaks can be expressed by the “G” factor, a function of ion production rate and loss rates via ion–atom interchange reactions and dissociative recombination of molecular ions. This in turn can be expressed as the square of the ratio of ions lost via these processes. We compare estimates of the G factor obtained from ionograms recorded at Kwajalein (9∘ N, 167.2∘ E) for 25 times during which the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft recorded approximately co-located measurements of the neutral thermosphere. We find a linear relationship between G and the molecular-to-atomic composition ratio, with a gradient of 2.55±0.40. Alternatively, using hmF1 values obtained by ionogram inversion, this gradient was found to be 4.75±0.4. Further, accounting for equal ionisation in molecular and atomic species yielded a gradient of 4.20±0.8. This relationship has potential for using ground-based ionospheric measurements to infer quantitative variations in the composition of the neutral thermosphere via a relatively simple model. This has applications in understanding long-term change and the efficacy of the upper atmosphere on satellite drag.

Performance of Mattis dementia rating scale-Chinese Version in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Background: To identify the applicability of the Chinese Version of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS-CV).Methods: The DRS-CV was administered to 483 participants, including 136 normal controls, 167 patients with mild cognition impairment (MCI), and 180 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the scale.Results: The scores of DRS-CV were ranked in the order of NC >MCI > mild AD > moderate AD group. Memory was the sensitive function affected at a relatively earlier stage of AD. ROC curve analysis indicated the DRS-CV total score and memory subscale showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI from mild AD and mild AD from moderate AD, but poor sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI and NC.Conclusion: The DRS-CV is useful to the early diagnosis and severity of AD, not to the early identification of MCI.

Performance of Mattis dementia rating scale-Chinese Version in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Background: To identify the applicability of the Chinese Version of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS-CV).Methods: The DRS-CV was administered to 483 participants, including 136 normal controls, 167 patients with mild cognition impairment (MCI), and 180 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the scale.Results: The scores of DRS-CV were ranked in the order of NC >MCI > mild AD > moderate AD group. Memory was the sensitive function affected at a relatively earlier stage of AD. ROC curve analysis indicated the DRS-CV total score and memory subscale showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI from mild AD and mild AD from moderate AD, but poor sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI and NC.Conclusion: The DRS-CV is useful to the early diagnosis and severity of AD, not to the early identification of MCI.

Performance of Mattis dementia rating scale-Chinese Version in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Background: To identify the applicability of the Chinese Version of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS-CV).Methods: The DRS-CV was administered to 483 participants, including 136 normal controls, 167 patients with mild cognition impairment (MCI), and 180 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the scale.Results: The scores of DRS-CV were ranked in the order of NC >MCI > mild AD > moderate AD group. Memory was the sensitive function affected at a relatively earlier stage of AD. ROC curve analysis indicated the DRS-CV total score and memory subscale showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI from mild AD and mild AD from moderate AD, but poor sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI and NC.Conclusion: The DRS-CV is useful to the early diagnosis and severity of AD, not to the early identification of MCI.

Performance of Mattis dementia rating scale-Chinese Version in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Background: To identify the applicability of the Chinese Version of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS-CV).Methods: The DRS-CV was administered to 483 participants, including 136 normal controls, 167 patients with mild cognition impairment (MCI), and 180 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the scale.Results: The scores of DRS-CV were ranked in the order of NC >MCI > mild AD > moderate AD group. Memory was the sensitive function affected at a relatively earlier stage of AD. ROC curve analysis indicated the DRS-CV total score and memory subscale showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI from mild AD and mild AD from moderate AD, but poor sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI and NC.Conclusion: The DRS-CV is useful to the early diagnosis and severity of AD, not to the early identification of MCI.

Performance of Mattis dementia rating scale-Chinese Version in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Background: To identify the applicability of the Chinese Version of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS-CV).Methods: The DRS-CV was administered to 483 participants, including 136 normal controls, 167 patients with mild cognition impairment (MCI), and 180 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the scale.Results: The scores of DRS-CV were ranked in the order of NC >MCI > mild AD > moderate AD group. Memory was the sensitive function affected at a relatively earlier stage of AD. ROC curve analysis indicated the DRS-CV total score and memory subscale showed excellent sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI from mild AD and mild AD from moderate AD, but poor sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination between MCI and NC.Conclusion: The DRS-CV is useful to the early diagnosis and severity of AD, not to the early identification of MCI.

Discourse markers as a lens to variation across speech and writing

This paper explores the use of the discourse marker (DM) yaʕni (lit. ‘it means’) in spoken and written Egyptian-Cairene Arabic. The DM yaʕni originates in conversational interaction and is symbiotic with its socio-cognitive constraints and goals: it serves to facilitate the verbalization of new or hard-to-activate ideas and to optimize the verbalization of already-introduced ideas, so as to enhance participants’ mutual understanding and involvement. When carried over to written discourse, yaʕni undergoes various forms of adaptation. In casual-personal prose yaʕni is frequently used, however the distribution of the tokens is different and their function recontextualized. Tokens introducing new ideas are few and acquire symbolic meaning, while tokens introducing elaboration of prior discourse are widely used and serve to evoke conversational interaction. In expository discourse, as reflected in Egyptian Wikipedia, yaʕni is considerably less frequent and limited to elaborations of concepts and facts. The paper shows the highly context-sensitive function of the DM yaʕni and the ways in which its indexical force, as a marker of conversationality, is either heightened or weakened in writing, depending on the genre in which it is put to use.