January 17, 2013

Fatty acids and dietary fat


All fats are combinations of fatty acids. Nutritionists characterize a dietary fat or oil as saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated depending on which fatty acids make up the largest portion of the fat or oil:

Foods such as butter, which are high in saturated fatty acids, are solid at room temperature and get harder when chilled.

Foods such as olive oil, which are high in monounsaturated fatty acids, are liquid at room temperature; they get thicker when chilled.

Foods such as corn oil, which are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids, are liquid at room temperature and stay liquid when chilled.

So how come margarine, which is composed primarily of unsaturated fatty acids, is solid? Because its fatty acids have been artificially saturated with extra hydrogen atoms. This process, called hydrogenation, turns an oil, such as corn oil, into a solid fat — margarine.

Hydrogenated fats are sometimes called trans fatty acids, but no matter what you call them, these fatty acids raise — rather than lower — cholesterol levels. As a result, these days most margarines boast “no trans fats” right on the label. I know your mother told you not to toot your own horn, but these guys have earned the right. So when you’re shopping, pick them.



Angiogram



Having an angiogram isn't an everyday walk in the medical park. This procedure is reserved for people with chest pain or other signs of an imminent heart attack. To perform the test, your cardiologist or radiologist (by this time, you’re way past the primary-care-physician stage) inserts a very small tube called a catheter into an artery, sends dye through the tube into your bloodstream, and watches an X-ray monitor to see how freely the dye flows. If the dye suddenly slows or stops, blocked by a clot or narrowed area, your doctor may perform immediate angioplasty, the surgical procedure that removes the blockage and clears the blood vessel. In most cases, after clearing the vessel, the surgeon inserts a stent — a tiny spring — into the artery to hold it open, hopefully forever. The stent is designed to prevent restenosis, the technical term for blocking an artery after it has been cleared out. If the artery is blocked again, the treatment is a new angioplasty and a new stent.

In order to be able to do an angioplasty, the blockage must not be too far down the coronary artery or else the balloon won’t be able to fit in there. If you have multiple blocked arteries or an angioplasty can’t be performed, a cardiac surgeon can perform coronary bypass surgery whereby he takes arteries from one place in your body, such as the internal mammary arteries, and attaches them to your coronary circulation. If one does never need an angiogram, the good news is that it can save your life and keep you alive for years and years to come, which gives you plenty of time to work on controlling your cholesterol.


Multiple Sclerosis (MS) symptoms


Multiple Sclerosis (MS) symptoms can involve virtually any sensory or motor function that’s controlled by the central nervous system. This means that the list of possible symptoms is long — including fatigue (by far the most common), visual changes, walking problems, and tremor; bladder and bowel problems, sexual difficulties, sensory changes, and speech and swallowing problems; and mood changes and problems with thinking and memory.



Most symptoms tend to come and go, but some may come and stay. And they can range from mild to quite severe. The good news is that most people don’t develop all of these symptoms, and most of the symptoms are treatable. MS symptoms don’t show up in any particular order. Often, however, visual changes are what bring someone to the doctor. Then, once in the doctor’s office, it’s pretty common for someone to remember an episode of one or more of these symptoms during high school or college that came and went without anyone paying much mind. That’s why your doctor asks you so many questions and takes such a careful medical history when trying to arrive at a diagnosis.

  can involve virtually any sensory or motor function that’s controlled by the central nervous system. This means that the list of possible symptoms is long — including fatigue (by far the most common), visual changes, walking problems, and tremor; bladder and bowel problems, sexual difficulties, sensory changes, and speech and swallowing problems; and mood changes and problems with thinking and memory.

Most symptoms tend to come and go, but some may come and stay. And they can range from mild to quite severe. The good news is that most people don’t develop all of these symptoms, and most of the symptoms are treatable. MS symptoms don’t show up in any particular order. Often, however, visual changes are what bring someone to the doctor. Then, once in the doctor’s office, it’s pretty common for someone to remember an episode of one or more of these symptoms during high school or college that came and went without anyone paying much mind. That’s why your doctor asks you so many questions and takes such a careful medical history when trying to arrive at a diagnosis.


Research Proposal - THE CONTENTS OF A PROPOSAL




All research proposals should contain the following information:

Title

This should be short and explanatory.

Background

This section should contain a rationale for your research. Why are you undertaking the project? Why is the research needed? This rationale should be placed within the context of existing research or within your own experience and/or observation. You need to demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about and that you have knowledge of the literature surrounding this topic. If you’re unable to find any other research which deals specifically with your proposed project, you need to say so, illustrating how your proposed research will fill this gap. If there is other work which has covered this area, you need to show how your work will build on and add to the existing knowledge. Basically, you have to convince people that you know what you’re talking about and that the research is important.

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Aims and objectives

Many research proposal formats will ask for only one or two aims and may not require objectives. However, for some research these will need to be broken down in more depth to also include the objectives. The aim is the overall driving force of the research and the objectives are the means by which you intend to achieve the aims. These must be clear and succinct.

Methodology/methods

For research at postgraduate level you may need to split the methodology and methods section into two. However, for most projects they can be combined. In this section you need to describe your proposed research methodology and methods and justify their use. Why have you decided upon your methodology? Why have you decided to use those particular methods? Why are other methods not appropriate?

This section needs to include details about samples, numbers of people to be contacted, method of data collection, methods of data analysis and ethical considerations. If you have chosen a less well known methodology, you may need to spend more time justifying your choice than you would need to if you had chosen a more traditional methodology. This section should be quite detailed – many funding organisations find that the most common reason for proposal failure is the lack of methodological detail.

Timetable

A detailed timetable scheduling all aspects of the research should be produced. This will include time taken to conduct background research, questionnaire or interview schedule development, data collection, data analysis and report writing. Research almost always takes longer than you anticipate. Allow for this and add a few extra weeks on to each section of your timetable. If you finish earlier than you anticipated, that’s fine as you have more time to spend on your report. However, finishing late can create problems especially if you have to meet deadlines.


Budget and resources

If you’re applying to a funding body you need to think about what you will need for your research and how much this is likely to cost. You need to do this so that you apply for the right amount of money and are not left out of pocket if you have under-budgeted. Funding bodies also need to know that you have not over-budgeted and expect more money than you’re going to use. If you are a student you may not have to include this section in your proposal, although some tutors will want to know that you have thought carefully about what resources are needed and from where you expect to obtain these. Some types of research are more expensive than others and if you’re on a limited budget you will have to think about this when deciding upon your research method

Dissemination

What do you expect to do with the results of your research? How are you going to let people know about what you have found out? For students it will suffice to say that the results will be produced in an undergraduate dissertation which will be made available in the institution library. For other researchers you may want to produce a written report, make oral presentations to relevant bodies, produce a web site or write a journal article.

January 15, 2013

Research Proposal


For most types of research you will need to produce a research proposal. This is a document which sets out your ideas in an easily accessible way. Even if you have not been asked specifically to produce a research proposal by your boss or tutor, it is a good idea to do so, as it helps you to focus your ideas and provides a useful document for you to reference, should your research wander off track a little.




Before you start work on your research proposal, find out whether you’re required to produce the document in a specific format. For college and university students, you might be given a general outline and a guide as to how many pages to produce. For those of you who are producing a proposal to send to a funding organisation you might have to produce something much more specific.

Many funding organisations provide their own forms for you to complete. Some provide advice and guidance about what they would like to see in your proposal. The larger funding bodies produce their proposal forms on-line so that they can be filled in and sent electronically, which makes the process a lot quicker and easier.


January 14, 2013

THE FIVE ‘Ws’



When you start to think about your research project, a useful way of remembering the important questions to ask is to think of the five ‘Ws’:

What?
Why?
Who?
Where?
When?

Once you have thought about these five ‘Ws’ you can move on to think about how you are going to collect your data.


What?

What is your research? This question needs to be answered as specifically as possible. One of the hardest parts in the early stages is to be able to define your project, so much research fails because the researcher has been unable to do this. A useful tip is to sum up, in one sentence only, your research. If you are unable to do this, the chances are your research topic is too broad, ill thought out or too obscure.


Why?

Why do you want to do the research? What is its purpose? Okay, you might have been told to do some research by your tutor or by your boss, but there should be another reason why you have chosen your particular subject. It might be solely to do with the fact that you are interested in the topic. This is a good start as you need to be interested in your research if you are to keep up your enthusiasm and remain motivated. Or you might have identified a gap in the research literature – this is good as it shows you have carried out careful background research. Or perhaps you want to try to obtain funding for a particular service or enterprise and you need to do some research first to find out if there is demand for what you are proposing.

Whatever your reason, think very carefully about why you are doing the research as this will affect your topic, the way you conduct the research and the way in which you report the results. If you’re doing it for a university dissertation or project, does your proposed research provide the opportunity to reach the required intellectual standard? Will your research generate enough material to write a dissertation of the required length? Or will your research generate too much data that would be impossible to summarize into a report of the required length? If you’re conducting research for funding purposes, have you found out whether your proposed funding body requires the information to be presented in a specific format? If so, you need to plan your research in a way which will meet that format.



Who?

Who will be your participants? At this stage of the research process, you needn’t worry too much about exactly how many participants will take part in your research as this will be covered later. However, you should think about the type of people with whom you will need to get in touch with and whether it will be possible for you to contact them. If you have to conduct your research within a particular time scale, there’s little point choosing a topic which would include people who are difficult or expensive to contact. Also, bear in mind that the Internet now provides opportunities for contacting people cheaply, especially if you’re a student with free internet access.


Where?

Where are you going to conduct your research? Thinking about this question in geographical terms will help you to narrow down your research topic. Also, you need to think about the resources in terms of budget and time that are available to you. If you’re a student who will not receive travel expenses or any other out of pocket expenses, choose a location close to home, college or university. If you’re a member of a community group on a limited budget, only work in areas within walking distance which will cut down on travel expenses.

Also, you need to think about where you’ll be carrying out your research in terms of venue. If you’re going to conduct interviews or focus groups, where will you hold them? Is there a room at your institution which would be free of charge, or are you going to conduct them in participants’ own homes? Would it be safe for you to do so?

Would you be comfortable doing so? If you’ve answered ‘no’ to either of these last two questions, maybe you need to think again about your research topic. It can happen and you must never put yourself in a dangerous situation. Think very carefully about whether your chosen topic and method might have an influence on personal safety.


When?

When are you going to do your research? Thinking about this question will help you to sort out whether the research project you have proposed is possible within your time scale. It will also help you to think more about your participants, when you need to contact them and whether they will be available at that time. For example, if you want to go into schools and observe classroom practice, you wouldn’t choose to do this research during the summer holiday. It might sound obvious, but some students present a well-written research proposal which, in practical terms, will not work because the participants will be unavailable during the proposed data collection stage.

Once you have thought about these five ‘Ws’, try to sum up your proposed project in one sentence. When you have done this, take it to several people, including your boss and/or tutor, and ask them if it makes sense. Do they understand what your research is about? If they don’t, ask them to explain their confusion, revise your statement and take it back to them. One can’t overemphasise the importance of this stage of the research process. If you get it right now, you will find that the rest of your work should flow smoothly. However, if you get it wrong, your problems could well escalate.


January 13, 2013

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ



Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 3:15-16.21-22. 

The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. 

John answered them all, saying, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."