Tag: Reading (process)

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Herbs & Plants

Brassica rapa

Botanical Name : Brassica rapa
Family: Brassicaceae
Genus: Brassica
Species:B. rapa
Kingdom:Plantae
Order: Brassicales

Common Names: Turnip, Field mustard, Toria, Yellow sarson, Bird rape, Keblock, and Colza

Habitat : Cultivated in Europe for over 4000 years, probably native to central and southern Europe, now spread throughout world, including most parts of the tropics.

Description:
Brassica rapa is a biennial herb with swollen tuberous white-fleshed taproot, lacking a neck; leaves light to medium green, hairy or bristly, stalked, lyrate-pinnatifid, 30–50 cm long, stem-leaves sometimes glaucous with clasping base; flowers bright yellow, sepals spreading: petals 6–10 mm long, those in anthesis close together and commonly overtopping the unopened buds; outer 2 stamens curved outwards at base and much shorter than inner stamens; fruit 4–6.5 cm long, with long tapering beak, on divaricate-ascending pedicels 3.2–6.5 cm long; seeds blackish or reddish-brown, 1.5–2 mm in diameter. Fl. and fr. second spring.

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It is not frost tender. It is in flower from May to August, and the seeds ripen from Jul to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees.The plant is self-fertile.
Cultivation:
Turnip is basically a cool climate crop that is resistant to frost and mild freezes. The plants are very easily grown, provided they grow quickly when young and the soil is not allowed to dry out. They succeed in full sun in a well-drained fertile preferably alkaline soil. Turnips grow best in deep, friable, highly fertile soil with pH 5.5 – 6.8. They are said to prefer a light sandy soil, especially when grown for an early crop in the spring, and dislike a heavy soil. They prefer cool moist growing conditions. Turnips tolerate an annual precipitation of 35 to 410cm, an annual average temperature range of 3.6 to 27.4°C and a pH in the range of 4.2 to 7.8. Temperatures below 10°C cause the plants to run to seed, even if they have not yet formed an edible root. The turnip is often cultivated, both in the garden and commercially, for its edible root. A fast growing plant, it can take less than ten weeks from sowing to harvesting. Its short growing season makes turnips very adaptable as a catch crop[269]. There are several named varieties and by careful selection and successional sowing it is possible to harvest roots all year round. The roots are fairly cold hardy and can be left in the ground during the winter, harvesting them as required. However, they can be troubled by slugs and other creatures so it is often better to harvest them in late autumn or early winter and store them in a cool but frost-free place. This species has long been cultivated as an edible plant and a large number of forms have been developed. Botanists have divided these forms into a number of groups, and these are detailed below. Separate entries in the database have been made for each group. B. rapa. The species was actually named for the cultivated garden turnip with its edible swollen tap root. This form is dealt with on this record. B. rapa campestris. This is the wild form of the species. It does not have a swollen root and is closest to the forms grown for their oil-rich seeds. B. rapa chinensis. Pak choi has long been cultivated in the Orient for its large tender edible leaves which are mainly produced in the summer and autumn. B. rapa dichotoma. Cultivated in the Orient mainly for its oil-rich seeds. B. rapa narinosa. Chinese savoy is another Oriental form. It is grown for its edible leaves. B. rapa nipposinica. Mizuna is a fast-growing cold-hardy form with tender edible leaves that can be produced all year round. B. rapa oleifera. The stubble turnip has a swollen edible root, though it is considered too coarse for human consumption and is grown mainly for fodder and as a green manure. It is also cultivated for its oil-rich seeds. B. rapa parachinensis. False pak choi is very similar to B. rapa chinensis with tender edible leaves, though it is considerably more cold-hardy. B. rapa pekinensis. Chinese cabbages are widely grown in the Orient. The large tender leaves often form a cabbage-like head. B. rapa perviridis. Spinach mustard is grown for its edible leaves. A very cold-hardy plant, and also able to withstand summer heat, it can provide a crop all year round. B. rapa trilocularis. Indian colza is mainly grown for its oil-rich seeds. Grows well with peas but dislikes growing with hedge mustard and knotweed. A good bee plant.
Propagation:
Seed – sow in situ from early spring to late summer. The first sowing can be made under cloches in late winter and will be ready for use in early summer. The latest sowings for winter use can be made in mid to late summer.
Edible Uses:.. Leaves; Root……
Leaves – raw or cooked. The cooked leaves make an acceptable vegetable, though they are coarser than the related cabbage. They are more often used as a spring greens, sowing the plants in the autumn and allowing them t overwinter. Young leaves can also be added in small quantities to salads, they have a slightly hot cabbage-like flavour and some people find them indigestible. A nutritional analysis is available. Root – raw or cooked. Often used as a cooked vegetable, the young roots can also be grated and eaten in salads, they have a slightly hot flavour like a mild radish. A nutritional analysis is available

Composition:
Figures in grams (g) or miligrams (mg) per 100g of food.
Leaves (Dry weight)

*2300 Calories per 100g
*Water : 0%
*Protein: 30g; Fat: 4g; Carbohydrate: 54g; Fibre: 7g; Ash: 12g;
*Minerals – Calcium: 1600mg; Phosphorus: 1000mg; Iron: 17mg;

*Magnesium: 0mg; Sodium: 0mg; Potassium: 4500mg; Zinc: 0mg;
*Vitamins – A: 0mg; Thiamine (B1): 30mg; Riboflavin (B2): 2mg; Niacin: 8mg; B6: 0mg; C: 500mg;

Medicinal Uses:
A decoction of the leaves or stems is used in the treatment of cancer. The powdered seed is said to be a folk remedy for cancer. The crushed ripe seeds are used as a poultice on burns. Some caution should be exercised here since the seed of most brassicas is rubefacient. The root when boiled with lard is used for breast tumours. A salve derived from the flowers is said to help skin cancer.

Known Hazards: Occasionally suspected of poisoning bovines, sheep, and pigs.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassica_rapa
https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Brassica_rapa.html
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Brassica+rapa

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Ailmemts & Remedies Pediatric

Dyslexia

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Definition:
Dyslexia comes from the Greek language meaning ‘difficulty with words’. It is a broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person’s fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, speak, and spell, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, and/or rapid naming. Dyslexia is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction. It is believed that dyslexia can affect between 5 to 10 percent of a given population although there have been no studies to indicate an accurate percentage.

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There are three proposed cognitive subtypes of dyslexia: auditory, visual and attentional. Although dyslexia is not an intellectual disability, it is considered both a learning disability and a reading disability. Dyslexia and IQ are not interrelated, since reading and cognition develop independently in individuals who have dyslexia.

Accomplished adult dyslexics may be able to read with good comprehension, but they tend to read more slowly than non-dyslexics, and may perform more poorly at nonsense word reading (a measure of phonological awareness), and spelling.

Dyslexia usually occurs in children with normal vision and normal intelligence. Children with dyslexia usually have normal speech, but may have difficulty interpreting spoken language and writing.

Dyslexia can go undetected in the early grades of schooling. The child can become frustrated by the difficulty in learning to read, and other problems can arise that disguise dyslexia. The child may show signs of depression and low self-esteem. Behavior problems at home as well as at school are frequently seen. The child may become unmotivated and develop a dislike for school. The child’s success in school may be jeopardized if the problem remains untreated.

Children with dyslexia need individualized tutoring, and treatment for dyslexia often involves a multisensory education program. Emotional support of your child on your part also plays an important role.

 

Symptoms:
The symptoms of dyslexia vary according to the severity of the disorder as well as the age of the individual.

Once your child is in school, dyslexia symptoms may become more apparent, including:

*Reading at a level well below the expected level for the age of your child
*Problems processing and understanding what he or she hears
*Difficulty comprehending rapid instructions
*Trouble following more than one command at a time
*Problems remembering the sequence of things
*Difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences in letters and words
*An inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word
*Seeing letters or words in reverse (b for d or saw for was) — although seeing words or letters in reverse is common for children younger than 8 who don’t have dyslexia, children with dyslexia will continue to see reversals past that age
*Difficulty spelling
*Trouble learning a foreign language

Causes:–
Dyslexia is caused by differences in the areas of the brain that deal with language, which aren’t yet fully understood.

Several areas in the brain interact in a complex way to coordinate the manipulation of words needed for reading, writing and spelling, so the features of any one person’s dyslexia will depend on which areas are affected and how.

There may be problems, for example, receiving sensory information through vision or hearing, holding it or structuring it in the brain, or retrieving it later, or there may be problems with the speed of processing information.

Brain-imaging scans show that when dyslexic people try to process information their brains work differently to those without dyslexia. This has nothing to do with intellect – people with dyslexia show a normal range of intelligence.

Inherited or genetic factors are important in dyslexia and other family members are often affected.

Complications:–
Your child’s inability to read well may not affect achievement in other school subjects, such as arithmetic. However, because reading is a skill basic to most other school subjects, a child who has dyslexia is at a great disadvantage in most classes and may have trouble learning.

Left untreated, dyslexia may lead to low self-esteem, behavioral problems, anxiety, delinquency, aggression, and withdrawal or alienation from friends, parents and teachers. The degree to which these problems develop may relate to the severity of the condition.

Diagnosis:–
Dyslexia diagnosis involves an evaluation of medical, cognitive, sensory-processing, educational and psychological factors. Your doctor may ask about your child’s developmental and medical history as well as your family medical history.

Doctor may also suggest that your child undergo:

*Vision, hearing and neurological evaluations. These evaluations can help determine whether another disorder may be causing or contributing to your child’s poor reading ability.

*A psychological assessment. This can help determine whether social problems, anxiety or depression may be limiting your child’s abilities.

*An evaluation of educational skills. Your child may take a set of educational tests and have the process and quality of his or her reading skills analyzed by an expert.

Treatment:
There is no cure for dyslexia, but dyslexic individuals can learn to read and write with appropriate educational support.

Especially for undergraduates, some consideration of what ‘reading’ is and what it is for can be useful. There are techniques (reading the first sentence [and/or last] of each paragraph in a chapter, for example) which can give an overview of content. This can be sufficient for some purposes. Since stress and anxiety are contributors to a dyslexic’s weaknesses in absorbing information, removing these can assist in improving understanding. When a dyslexic knows that not every reading experience must be onerous, it greatly helps their mental approach to the task.

The best approaches acknowledge that the objective in helping to improve a dyslexic’s ‘reading’ is not to ‘read-like-a-non-dyslexic-does’, but to find a way of extracting information from text that works efficiently for someone who processes such information differently from the majority.

For alphabet writing systems the fundamental aim is to increase a child’s awareness of correspondences between graphemes and phonemes, and to relate these to reading and spelling. It has been found that training focused towards visual language and orthographic issues yields longer-lasting gains than mere oral phonological training.

The best form of approach is determined by the underlying neurological cause(s) of the dyslexic symptoms.

Context sensitive spell checkers combined with text-to-speech systems offer forms of assistive technology to dyslexia users, supporting reading and writing.

Recent research suggests that adaptive working memory training using a program called Jungle Memory was effective in boosting IQ, working memory, and literacy scores in students with dyslexia.

Fast ForWord software, which works on auditory processing, working memory and other aspects of dyslexia has also been successful in helping dyslexia.

Other approaches can help, too. In cases linked to visual differences, coloured overlays and lenses can lead to improvement because they may stop the letters from ‘dancing on the page’ (a common complaint).

Coping and support:-
Emotional support and opportunities for achievement in activities that don’t involve reading are important for children with dyslexia.

If your child has dyslexia:

*Be supportive. Having difficulty learning to read may affect your child’s self-esteem. Be sure to provide love and to support his or her talents and strengths.

*Talk to your child. Explain to your child what dyslexia is and that it’s not a failure on his or her part. The better your child understands this, the more likely he or she will cope with and compensate for this learning disability.

*Take steps at home to make it easier for your child to study. Provide a clean, quiet, organized place for your child to study, and designate a study time. Also, make sure your child gets enough rest, good nutrition and family support — through outings and activities — to provide a better environment in which he or she can learn.

*Work with your child’s school. Talk with teachers frequently to make sure your child is able to stay on track. Be sure your child gets extra time for tests that require reading, if needed. Ask your child’s teacher if it would help your child to record the day’s lessons to playback later. If available, tutoring sessions with a reading-disorders specialist can be very helpful for many children with dyslexia.

You may also want to consider joining a support group to stay in contact with parents who face similar learning disabilities in their children. Belonging to a support group can provide you with both good information and emotional support. Check with your doctor or your child’s reading specialist to find out if there are any support groups in your area.

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.

Resources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/dyslexia2.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia
http://www.medicinenet.com/dyslexia/article.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dyslexia/DS00224

http://www.readinghorizons.com/research/dyslexia/information.aspx

http://www.causesdyslexia.net/dyslexia-biological-cause/

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