A study of the relation between inflation and exchange rates in the Fiji Islands: a cointegration and vector error correction approach

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the exchange rates, international prices, and the demand shocks on inflation in Fiji. How the domestic inflation in a pegged exchange rate system is aligned with international price shocks is an important monetarist idea, and this is tested in this study. This study employs annual data from 1975 to 2010. The multivariate cointegration tests are done after the unit root tests, and further, the Vector Error Correction (VEC) model shows that the changes in Fiji’s CPI are Granger caused by the long-term trends in all other variables, and the CPI in Australia, and devaluation-year dummies are used as exogenous variables in the VEC model, and the changes in exchange rate and changes in demand shocks are the independent variables but made endogenous in the VEC model. The impulse response function also shows that due to the exchange rate depreciation, inflation has increased for many years in Fiji. The policy implication of our study is that as a monetary policy instrument, the flexibility of the exchange rate policy is indispensable for Fiji to appropriately absorb the international supply and price shocks

Analysis of electroencephalograms in Alzheimer's disease patients with multiscale entropy

The aim of this study was to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients using the Multiscale Entropy (MSE). The MSE is a recently developed method that quantifies the regularity of a signal on different time scales. These time scales are inspected by means of several coarse-grained sequences formed from the analysed signals. We recorded the EEGs from 19 scalp electrodes in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls and estimated the MSE profile for each epoch of the EEG recordings. The shape of the MSE profiles reveals the EEG complexity, and it suggests that the EEG contains information in deeper scales than the smallest one. Moreover, the results showed that the EEG background activity is less complex in AD patients than control subjects. We found significant difference

Cloning and Expression Studies of Starch Phosphorylase From Solanum tuberosum

The aim of this project was to study starch phosphorylase gene expression in potato tubers during different physiological conditions when starch was mobilised, like wound healing and sprouting. One of the objectives was to clone plastidic potato tuber starch phosphorylase cDNA. cDNA libraries were constructed using mRNA from wounded and unwounded tuber tissue as templates for cDNA synthesis. Based on the amino acid sequence (Nakano & Fukui, 1986) of specific regions of potato tuber starch phosphorylase, two different sets of mixed oligonucleotide probes (called SP1 and SP2) were prepared and subsequently used to screen the cDNA libraries for starch phosphorylase recombinants

Advanced imaging and artificial intelligence for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in glioblastoma

Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has a pivotal role in diagnosis and post-treatment management of glioblastoma, however it has limitations. This work investigates the use of advanced MRI techniques that assess the tumour microenvironment, and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that compute quantitative features, as potential imaging biomarkers in key clinical issues faced by clinicians, through several retrospective studies. Results show that advanced multiparametric MRI is superior to current standard-of-care imaging for the diagnosis of glioblastoma, and in treatment response assessment. Results of AI techniques on pre-operative imaging show the ability to differentiate between glioblastoma and metastasis with an accuracy of 88.7%, prediction of overall survival with a high level of accuracy, and stratification of patients into high- and low-level groups of MGMT promoter methylation with accuracies between 45-67%. In the early post-treatment phase, AI analysis of imaging can distinguish between disease progression and pseudoprogression with an accuracy of 73.7%, compared to neuroradiologist accuracy of 32.9%. Integrating these techniques into routine clinical practice is essential to improve patient outcomes. Further work is required to validate advanced imaging and AI biomarkers, towards the longer-term goal of using these as clinical decision support tools, to benefit patients with glioblastoma and other brain tumours

Dietary Behaviours During Covid-19 among Households at Risk For Food insecurity

The objective of the present study was to examine associations between variables of COVID-19-related concerns and changes in fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption among a sample of participants from the Brighter Bites program at risk for food insecurity. Cross-sectional data were collected during April-June 2020 using a rapid-response survey to understand social needs, COVID-19-related concerns and diet-related behaviours among families with children participating in Brighter Bites

Clinical profile and treatment of infantile spasms using vigabatrin and ACTH - a developing country perspective

Background: Infantile spasms represent a serious epileptic syndrome that occurs in the early infantile age. ACTH and Vigabatrin are actively investigated drugs in its treatment. This study describes the comparison of their efficacy in a large series of Patients with infantile spasms from Pakistan. Methods: All Patients with infantile spasms who presented to Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan from January, 2006 to April, 2008 were included in this study. Inclusion criteria were clinical symptoms of infantile spasms, hypsarrythmia or modified hyparrythmia on electroencephalography, at least six months of follow-up period and receipt of any of the two drugs mentioned above. The type of drug distribution was random according to the availability, cost and ease of administration. Results: Fifty six cases fulfilled the inclusion criteria. 62.5% were males. Mean age at onset of seizures was 5 +/- 1.4 months. Fifty two (92.8%) Patients demonstrated hypsarrythmia on electroencephalography. 64.3% cases were identified as symptomatic while 19.6% were cryptogenic and 16.1% were idiopathic. Eighteen Patients received ACTH while 38 Patients received Vigabatrin as first line therapy. Initial response to first line therapy was similar (50% for ACTH and 55.3% for Vigabatrin). Overall, the symptomatic and idiopathic groups responded better to Vigabatrin. The relapse rate was higher for ACTH as compared to Vigabatrin (55.5% vs. 33.3%) when considering the first line therapy. Four Patients evolved to Lennox-Gastaut variant, all of these Patients had initially received Vigabatrin and then ACTH. Conclusion: Vigabatrin and ACTH showed no significant difference in the initial treatment of infantile spasms. However, Patients receiving ACTH were 1.2 times more likely to relapse as compared to the Patients receiving Vigabatrin when considering monotherapy. We suggest that Vigabatrin should be the initial drug of choice in Patients presenting with infantile spasms. However, larger studies from developing countries are required to validate the therapeutic trends observed in this study

Atypical clinical and electroencephalographic pattern in a patient with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis

We describe an atypical clinical and electroencephalographic (EEG) pattern observed during the course of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis in a 14 year-old boy. In this patient with a two weeks history of partial complex seizures, the atypical EEG pattern was characterized by an initial left temporal focus which evolved to periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) and, only during the 3rd and 4th weeks the typical bilateral and generalized periodic complexes appeared

Tourism-Growth Nexus in the South Pacific Islands: Role of Financial Sector Development as a Contingent Factor An Empirical Study of Fiji: 1980-2014

Tourism in recent years has emerged as the engine of growth in Pacific island countries. In Fiji in particular, it has relegated its traditional sugar exports to third place. Besides the steadily increasing air passenger traffic, there has been a rising trend in cruise ship arrivals. Short visits by cruise ship travelers have become additional sources of income for a host of small scale tourist operators and vendors, most of them being outside the informal sector in around its two major ports. In this context, financial inclusion efforts have assumed greater importance as these incomes in some part can find their way as savings into banks. The role of financial sector development (FSD) has thus become a critical factor in the tourism-growth nexus. This paper finds while the FSD indicator when individually employed, whether as broad money or bank credit to private sector is supportive of the growth nexus, the interaction term is has emerged with a negative sign indicating that FSD does not play a complementary role. The financial sector of Fiji is still shallow, despite considerable progress in financial inclusion efforts, measures towards deepening of FSD depend not on one front of mobilization of savings, but on all round progress in various segments of financial sector