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Background: Silent aspiration (SA) is common post-stroke and associated with increased risk of pneumonia, length of stay and healthcare costs. Clinical swallow examinations (CSEs) are unreliable measures of SA. There is no consensus on the clinical components that best detect SA. Cough reflex testing (CRT) is an alternative/adjunct whose SA detection accuracy also lacks consensus. Aims: To investigate the feasibility of CSE versus CRT against gold standard flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) for SA identification and to estimate its prevalence in a hyperacute stroke setting. Methods & Procedures: A single-arm preliminary, prospective, feasibility study of patients less than 72 h post-stroke, over a 31-day period on a hyperacute stroke unit: the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Ethical approval for the study was obtained. The study tested the feasibility and acceptability of introducing CRT and developing a standardized CSE. Consent/assent was obtained for all participants. Patients unfit for study were excluded. Outcomes & Results: A total of 62% of patients less than 72 h post-stroke (n = 61) were eligible. A total of 75% of those approached (n = 30) consented. A total of 23 patients completed all tests. The principal barrier was anxiety regarding FEES. Mean test time for CRT = 6 min; CSE = 8 min; FEES = 17 min. Patients rated CRT and FEES on average as moderately uncomfortable. A total of 30% (n = 7) of participants who received FEES presented with SA. Conclusions & Implications: CRT, CSE and FEES are feasible in 58% of hyperacute stroke patients in this setting. FEES anxiety is the main recruitment barrier and is not always well tolerated. Results support further work to establish optimum methods and differential sensitivity/specificity of CRT and CSE in hyperacute stroke for SA identification.

The purpose of this study was to provide a reliable and valid instrument in Hindi for measuring gratitude in the Indian context. Psychometric properties of the translated Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6) were analyzed in two studies. In the first study, 448 adults (M.sub.age = 36.47) completed the Hindi version of GQ-6 with demographic questions. Participants were split into two groups for conducting exploratory (EEA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), respectively. The EFA indicated a one-factor solution ([alpha] = .74) with five items. The CFA showed the five-item version (GQ-5) fit the data better than the original instrument (GQ-6). Measurement invariance was investigated across gender using the whole dataset. Configural and scalar invariance were supported. In the second study, participants were 211 adults who completed the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE), Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAC), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) along with previous instruments. The CFA replicated a one-factor structure with five-items. The instrument showed adequate evidence of convergent validity with GAC, discriminant validity with life satisfaction and joy, and nomological validity. In conclusion, the Hindi GQ-5 is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing gratitude in Hindi speaking population in India., Author(s): Shravan K. Dixit [sup.1] , Jyotsna Sinha [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.419983.e, 0000 0001 2190 9158, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, [...]

Aim: The aim of this study was to monitor prescription patterns, clinical outcomes, and adverse drug reactions (ADR) among patients of various interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in collaboration with the Department of Respiratory Medicine, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, for a period of 12 months (October 2020–September 2021). A total of 77 patients were enrolled after satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The prescriptions were collected, and necessary details were noted on the case report form. After completion of the study, the data were analyzed for prescription patterns, clinical outcomes, and quality of life with the help of a validated questionnaire-King’s Brief ILD (KBILD) questionnaire. At the same time, ADRs, if any, were assessed using Hartwig’s Severity Assessment Scale and Naranjo Causality Assessment Scale. Results: The most common ILD was acute/chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP). Average number of drugs per encounter was 4.45. Crepitations were the most common clinical signs. Clubbing and rhonchi were reported maximum in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. It was found that psychological, breathlessness and activities, chest symptoms, and total KBILD reduced significantly after 3 months as compared to baseline with a statistically significant difference as P < 0.01. ADRs were found in 23.38% (18) of the subjects. Maximum ADR reported was gastritis (9.09%), followed by hepatitis (3.90%). Conclusion: The high proportion of patients clinically diagnosed with HP in our study highlights the importance of a detailed environmental exposure history in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with ILD to avoid inaccurate diagnoses. ADR-related hospital admissions are a significant problem in the health-care system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the use of a low pulse energy and high repetition rate diode pumped solid-state laser was investigated for trigger-free laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) based quantitative analysis of commonly used steel grades. Owing to the low pulse energy of 2 mJ, the signal was accumulated over a large number of pulses to obtain a good signal quality and was acquired in a free-running mode, i.e. without any triggering. Although the trigger-free signal acquisition lacked a continuum suppression capability, the weak plasma events caused by the low pulse energy did not produce a significant continuum and hence continuum suppression was not an issue. Further, the 2 kHz repetition rate of the laser required the sample to be continuously scanned to avoid signal decay as a result of the formation of excessively deep craters. As scanning could introduce additional signal fluctuations, a combination of sample scanning velocity and pulse energy leading to the least signal fluctuations was used to acquire LIBS spectra for the steel samples. Of the total 19 samples, 15 steel samples were used to train random forest regression models for the quantitative analysis of various elements, including C, Si, Mn, Cr, Ni, Mo, Cu, and Co. The remaining 4 samples were used for testing/validating the models. It was observed that compared to the full spectral range of ∼185–545 nm, a smaller and information-rich spectral range of ∼185–310 nm produced better results. With the selected spectral range, the relative mean error (RME) ranged from 1.4% to 15.77%, with the lower values belonging to the major elements and the higher values to the minor elements. The root mean square error (RMSE) values were found to range from 0.014 wt% for C to 0.26 wt% for Ni. The R2 values, which indicated the correlation between the predicted and reference concentrations, were found to be >96% for all the elements except Si and Cu. These results suggested that trigger-free LIBS based on a low-pulse-energy, high-repetition-rate laser and a single channel spectrometer covering a narrow spectral range, in combination with machine learning techniques, is suitable for the quantitative analysis of steel elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher education seems to exhibit a shift from product-oriented mode to social constructivist, process-oriented mode of working. The emergence of professional learning communities (PLCs) of teachers may be seen as one manifestation of this shift. PLCs are increasingly seen as an effective channel for teacher learning and professional development. This article presents the findings of a small-scale research into the impact of the participation in a PLC called English Teachers' Clubs (ETCs) on teachers' thinking about and attitudes towards classroom problems in a central Indian context. It has been found that the participation in ETCs has led to better performance among the members in terms of contextualisation of the problems, critical approach to the problems, belief in self agency and pragmatic approach to finding solutions. (Contains 1 table.)

Under emergencies such as floods and fires or during indoor navigation where cues from local landmarks and a Global Positioning System (GPS) are no longer available, the acquisition of comprehensive environmental representation becomes particularly important. Several studies demonstrated that individual differences in cognitive style might play an important role in creating a complete environmental representation and spatial navigation. However, this relationship between cognitive style and spatial navigation is not well researched. This study hypothesized that a specific type of map orientation (north-up vs. forward-up) might be more efficient for individuals with different cognitive styles. Forty participants were recruited to perform spatial tasks in a virtual maze environment to understand how cognitive style may relate to spatial navigation abilities, particularly the acquisition of survey and route knowledge. To measure survey knowledge, pointing direction tests and sketch map tests were employed, whereas, for route knowledge, the landmark sequencing test and route retracing test were employed. The results showed that both field-dependent and field-independent participants showed more accurate canonical organization in their sketch map task with a north-up map than with a forward-up map, with field-independent participants outperforming field-dependent participants in canonical organization scores. The map orientation did not influence the performance of Field-Independent participants on the pointing direct test, with field-dependent participants showing higher angular error with north-up maps. Regarding route knowledge, field-independent participants had more accurate responses in the landmark sequencing tests with a north-up map than with a forward-up map. On the other hand, field-dependent participants had higher accuracy in landmark sequencing tests in the forward-up map condition than in the north-up map condition. In the route retracing test, however, the map orientation had no statistically significant effect on different cognitive style groups. The results indicate that cognitive style may affect the relationship between map orientation and spatial knowledge acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]