What They Say . . . . . [3]

Hem-: blood

eg. Hematoma_ a swelling containing blood, usually clotted in a tissue or organ. It may occur almost any where on the body and may result from injury or from some blood diseases.

Hemi-: half, partial

eg. Hemiataxia_ a loss of muscle control affecting on side of the body, usually as a result of a stroke or cerebellar injury.

Hepato-: liver

eg. Hepatocarcinogen_ an agent that causes carcinoma of the liver.

Hydro-: water, liquid

eg. Hydrocephalus_ an abnormal expansion of cavities within the brain that is caused by the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid.

Hyper-: above, beyond, excessive

eg. Hypertension_ high blood pressure.

Hypo-: under, beneath

eg. Hypoxia_ insufficient level of oxygen in blood or tissue.

Hystero-: uterus

eg. Hysterocleisis_ surgical occlusion of the uterus.

Im-: not

eg. Impaired_ having a physical or mental disability.

Intra-: within

eg. Intraocular_ occurring within the eyeball.

Kerat-: cornea

eg. Keratectomy_ removal of a part of the cornea.

Leuk-: white

eg. Leukemia_ a progressive, malignant disease of the blood forming organs, marked by distorted proliferation and development of white blood cells and their precursors in the blood and bone marrow.

Litho-: stone

eg. Litholysis_ the dissolution of urinary calculi.

Laryng-: larynx

eg. Laryngitis_ inflammation of the larynx, resulting in hoarseness of the voice.

Lip-: fat

eg. Lipoma_ a benign tumour characterized by fat cells.

Posted by Jade Dame

What They Say . . . . . [2]

Ecto-: outer, external

eg. Ectocardia_ an abnormal position of the heart; it may be outside the thoracic cavity or misplaced within the thorax.

En-: in, into, inside

eg. Endemic_ a disease or pathogen that is found in or confined to a particular location, region or people.

Encephal-: brain

eg. Encephalitis_ an inflamed condition of the brain.

Endo-: inside, within

eg. Endoarteritis_ chronic inflammation of the inner layer of arteries.

Epi-: outer, above, on, over, near

eg. Epidural_ injection of anaesthetic into the space outside the dura mater enveloping the spinal cord.

Erythro-: red

eg. Erythrocytosis_ an abnormal increased production of red blood cells.

Gastro-: stomach, abdomen

eg. Gastroesophageal reflux disease_ chronic symptoms or mucosal damage produced by the abnormal reflux of stomach acid to the oesophagus.

Geno-: to become or produce

eg. Genophobia_ an abnormal fear of sexual intercourse.

Glyco-: sugar, sweet

eg. Glycosuria_ atypical occurrence of glucose in urine, may be due to excessive carbohydrate ingestion or a disorder, such as diabetes mellitus.

Gnatho-: jaw

eg. Gnathodynia_ pain in the jaw, such as that commonly associated with an impacted wisdom tooth.

Gyn-: woman

eg. Gynecology_ the branch of medical science that studies the diseases of women, especially of the reproductive organs.

Posted by Jade Dame

What They Say . . . . .

A-: without, negative, not

eg. Avitaminosis_ disease resulting from a deficiency of one or more vitamins.

Ana-: upward, back, again

eg. Anaplasia_ reversion of cells to a more primitive or undifferentiated form, often seen

in malignant tumour.

Andro-: male

eg. Androgen_ male sex hormone as testosterone.

Angio-: vessel

eg. Angiosclerosis_ a thickening and hardening of the walls of blood vessels.

Ante-: before

eg. Antemortem_ preceding death.

Anti-: against

eg. Antibiotic_ tending to prevent, inhibit or destroy life.

Arth-: joint

eg. Arthritis_ inflammation of joints due to infectious, metabolic or constitutional causes.

Auto-: self

eg. Autoimmune_ of, relating to, or caused by antibodies or T cells that attack molecules, cells, or tissues of the organism producing them (autoimmune diseases).

Brady-: slow

eg. Bradycrotic_ marked by inducing slowness of pulse.

Blast-: bud, budding, germ

eg. Blastomycosis_ infectious diseases caused by yeast-like fungi.

Bronchi-: wind pipe

eg. Bronchitis_ acute or chronic inflammation of the bronchial tubes.

Cardi-: heart

eg. Carditis_ inflammation of the heart muscle.

Chole-: bile

eg. Cholecystitis_ inflammation of the gallbladder.

Con-: together, with

eg. Conjoined twins_ twins that are physically united at some part or parts of their bodies at the time of birth.

Contra-: against

eg. Contraception_ deliberate prevention of conception or impregnation.

Cranio-: skull

eg. Craniocele_ a congenital gap in the skull that usually results in a protrusion of brain material.

Cysto-: sac or vesicle, bladder

eg. Cystocele_ hernia of the urinary bladder.

Derm-: skin

eg. Dermatitis_ inflammation of the skin

Dys-: abnormal, impaired, difficulty

eg. Dyspnea_ difficulty in breathing often associated with lung or heart disease and resulting in shortness of breath.

Posted by Jade Dame

Why do you have these .... Fart, Sneezing, Sweating and Tearing?

Fart

You fart sometimes and is completely normal. You swallow gases like oxygen and nitrogen while eating food. Some of them go through your digestive system during digestion. Also, carbon-dioxide, hydrogen and methane are produced in the large intestine due to the break down of the food eaten.

Hydrogen sulphide and ammonia gases combine with small portion of these gases there, adding bad smell to them. Then the accumulated gases in your digestive system escape out as Farts. Be alert!, it may be a signal that send you to the toilet.

Sneezing

Your nose is a gate way to your lungs. There are small hairs inside your nose. They can trap things like dust, pollen, cold air and dirt which irritate your nose. When it happens, a message about the irritation is send to the sneeze centre that locates in your brain. Then the sneeze centre send this message to all the muscles concern. These include: the eyelid muscle, the throat muscle, the vocal cord muscle, the chest muscle, the diaphragm muscle and the belly muscle. They cooperate and force out those unwelcome particles from your nose called Sneezing.

Sweating

Your body becomes uncomfortable when the temperature is above 98.6°F (37°C). So, one of the parts of your brain called hypothalamus sends a message to your skin to cool down. In response, sweat glands in the outer layer of your skin produce a lot of sweat.

These sweat leave your skin through tiny pores and thus you are Sweating. When the sweat meet the air and evaporate, you cool down. Normally, sweat has no smell. But when it mixes with the bacteria that dwell in the skin, it changes into smelly one.

Tearing

When you are frighten, sad or upset, your brain sends a message to your eyes to cry. The lacrimal glands situated above the outer corner of your eyes produce tears. Once your eyes are filled with tears, they drain out through the tear ducts which is located near the inside corner of your eyes. And so, you are Crying. If you cry too hard, tears run down your face as the tear ducts are unable to drain all of them.

Besides crying, your eyes water to protect themselves from :

• irritants like dirt in your eyes
• particles which make up smoke
• becoming too dry by cold wind
• tiny chemicals that can hurt while peeling or chopping onion

Other causes of tearing are: allergies, conjunctivitis, dry eyes and blocked tear ducts.

Posted by Jade Dame

Why do you have these ..... belching, blinking, goose bumps, hiccup, ringing in the ears, snoring, and stomach rumbles?

Belching

You may swallow extra air into your stomach when you eat or drink very fast, talking while eating and drinking, consuming carbonized drink and using straw to drink. Belching is the normal way to force these excess air through the oesophagus and out of the mouth.

Blinking

You open and shut your eye-lids many times per minute with or without your knowledge and that is blinking. This action is to clean and moisten your eyes. Your eye-lids automatically close to protect your eyes from possible injury too. Also, your eye-lids and eye lashes work together to get rid of foreign particles out of your eyes.

Goose bumps

When you feel cold, your blood vessels become narrow as much as possible in order to keep the warm blood away from the surface of the skin and prevent losing body heat. Due to the reflex action, special tiny erectopili muscles lifted your hairs and your hair follicles stand out upright, forming goose bumps. They are so-called because they look like the skin of a plucked goose. Fear or anxiety may cause goose bumps in the same way.

Hiccup

When the intake of air is fast, the top of your oesophagus close down and then hiccup occurs. Your air intake may be accelerated if you drink alcohol or carbonated drinks or having sudden excitement or stress. Prolong hiccup can be the consequence of having tumour or an abscess near your oesophagus or heart.

Ringing in the ears

When the air pressure in your inner ear changes, there will be ringing in your ears. If you have an infection or weakened circulation to the inner ears, ringing will be persistent. In this case, ringing that is rapid and regular, distract, present only in one ear or combined with sudden loss of hearing may be seen.

Snoring

When the soft tissue in your mouth such as soft palate, tonsil and tongue base block the upper airway, you snore. Likewise, if you are overweight, your air way become too full with more soft tissue and trouble breathing, resulting snoring.

Stomach rumbles

It may be of two kinds: low-pitched and high-pitched. Low-pitched stomach rumble indicates that your intestinal muscles are contracting, ready to prepare food. While high-pitched sound signal that you have a bowel obstruction.

Posted by Jade Dame

What the Library Catalogue is and How it Works

A phrase “library catalogue” consists of two words, the library and the catalogue. A library is a building or a room of a building. It keeps books, periodicals, audiovisual materials, and more for people to read, listen or watch. A catalogue is a list of library materials in the library.

Most libraries allow their patrons to borrow books for a certain period. On this occasion, there are enormous or restrictive amount of holdings in the library according to their sizes and specialities. Whether more or less, it seems to be difficult to search for a necessary information. However, it is very easy to find where, how and what we want among numerous subjects. It is the reason for well development of technical know-how.

How the Library Catalogue Create?

A card catalogue is a true proof of one of the library tools in under developed countries. Nowadays it has become an online catalogue in developed countries. A library catalogue is made up of the card catalogues on which books are catalogued according to the AACR (Anglo American Cataloguing Rules), and filed alphabetically for the library users. Each and every card is an enumeration of  all the resources of a library. So, its function is to assist a library patron. How does it help the users? It is actually a guide to find out whether some information we want is available at the library.

What's in the Catalogue?

Librarians make descriptive catalogues of their collections. They have interesting piece of information about the publication data such as authors, titles, edition, publishers, date, page, etc. Moreover, it shows the publication shelved by call number i.e. the combination of the Dewey Decimal Classification number and Author's initial letters. The Accession number on it gives how many copies the library owns, and lots of other information. All of detailed information for every collection are organized together on card catalogues respectively. Therefore, the users can find things in it promptly.

Like a Guidebook

The library catalogue is like a guidebook that gives information for tourists about a city or country.

Similarly, the catalogue will connect the people to the books, periodicals, documents and digital resources, etc. that you seek in the library. Which way does it join?

The catalogue:

[1] shows what the library owns (holdings)

[2] tells us where the collections are 

[3] explains how to get a certain publication 

It gives us also__whether the publication is available or not; if not, the reservation is allowed.

The Amazing and Interesting Library Catalogue

The current online catalogue can hold the infinite variety of information. The traditional old card catalogue keeps the limited publication data in its capacity. The online catalogue contains more information and more searching techniques than the old one. It also has easy connection among other libraries by means of computers. Thus, the library catalogue is not the same as the web, because the two searchings are different between the catalogue and the World Wide Web.

By contrast, our use of www has increased enormously. The reason is that people feel better in abundant knowledge. The World Wide Web contains billions of web pages. But they have no quality control. The readers cannot be sure that information on web is correctly edited or misleading, current or outdated, useful or useless.

Today websites had played a major role in an important information source. Nobody can refuse to accept. Because of that clear conception of Internet knowledge, most librarians are making the library catalogues have links to www.

Posted by Nyan U

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

What OCD is.

OCD is an anxiety disorder in which sufferers do certain things with great attention to detail. They think that something will go wrong if they do something carelessly.

They perfectly understand that their thoughts and actions are not normal. But they cannot control themselves.

Effect of OCD

OCD may disrupt a person's life to a greater extent. However, depending upon individual sufferer, some may be barely bothered, while others spend a lot of time on compulsive actions almost everyday.

Common types

Five common types of OCD exist. They may also appear in combination.

1. Checkers

2. Hoarders

3. Obsessionals

4. Orderers

5.Washers and Cleaners

What they fear and how they behave

Checkers_ fear that they will cause harm and will be blamed if they forget to lock or switch off something. They go on checking and rechecking locks and switches in the house or office.

Hoarders_ have excessive fear of throwing away certain things in belief that they may be useful in the future. They collect and keep both useless and useful items in bulk though they are not able to use up all of them.

Obsessionals_ have violent scenes of hurting a loved one in their thoughts. To get rid of the disturbing thoughts, they repeat words or counting repeatedly.

Orderers_ used to keep objects orderly or in a fixed position before doing a daily routine. They will be bitterly disappointed if those things are shifted or out of place.

Washers and Cleaners_ have a constant fear of contamination, getting a disease and spreading it to other people. They keep away from or discard all possible sources of bacteria and unclean matter.

Do treatment be necessary and effective?

It would be wise to be treated if there are disturbances in performing daily tasks or work because of anxiety. Though treatment may takes long time, most anxiety disorders can be cured or can improve the present condition effectively.

Posted by Jade Dame

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder?

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a mental illness in which people become distressed over the imagined or very slight defect in their appearance.

Who are the sufferers?

Perfectionists, people who are easily stressed or in low-esteem are more likely to suffer. Mostly, teenage girls and women. Some cases of teenage boys may also seen.

What causes BDD?

Precise cause is not known. But a chemical imbalance in the brain or childhood problem or unresolved conflicts may be the cause of BDD.

Which are the features that sufferers hate most?

Most common features are body shape and size, face, hair, skin, breast and private parts.

Can sufferers be treated?

Early treatment with medication and counselling can make full recovery.

What are the results of chronic cases?

Chronic cases may result in depression, anxiety, obsessive behaviour and even attempted suicide.

Case study (1) Miss M was a pretty singer. However, she became to dislike her face. She wanted a fuller one. So she injected herself with paraffin and bean oil. As a result, she got a face that was three times bigger than before. From then on, she was called "fan-faced auntie" by others.

Case study (2) Miss W hated her ears since she was six. She even wished to cut them off. But what she did was, sticking them down with tape. Fortunately, she could cover them with her long hair when she grew up.

Case study (3) Mr P, a junior college student, suffered from BDD. He thought he had an over-sized private part. Though his mother, his girlfriend and his doctor gave him support, he desperately committed suicide.

What are the signs of BDD?

1. Frequent checking of the particular parts that they care in mirrors or other shiny surfaces.

2. Frequent comparing of the appearances that they are unhappy about with those of others.

3. Camouflaging the defect with make-up, clothing, hats, scarf, hands or body position.

4. Visiting several specialists such as plastic surgeons, dermatologists or physicians without necessity.

5. Over grooming oneself.

6. Avoiding mirrors, in order, not to remind the defect.

7. Frequent touching of the part which one is obsessed with.

8. Measuring the body parts that they dislike frequently.

9. Excessive reading about the perceived defect.

10. Avoid socializing with others.

Posted by Jade Dame

Reference Tools [2]

Gazetteer: A book contains an alphabetical list of names of places of relevant continent or country or region. It is a geographical dictionary or directory, as an important reference book for information concerning the geographical make-up, the social statistics and physical features, such as mountains, rivers, roads, population, literacy rate, etc. and also used in conjunction with a map. e.g. “The World Gazetteer”. See also Atlas.

Guidebook: A book that gives basic information or instruction for travellers or tourists. It provides detailed itinerary and a geographic location as a convenient travel guide. The guidebook supplies also essential information to migrants about an unfamiliar place, such as travel routes and travel conditions, a general description of the place and its residents, services for food and stay. e.g. “Australia travel guide”, “The Online Business Guidebook”.

Handbook/ Manual: A concise reference book usually providing generally specific information about one or more subjects. It is also known as a compendium for quick location of facts and ready reference. Some handbook provides longer entry of articles with bibliographies. It is often synonymous with “manual”. e.g. “Handbook on Drug and Alcohol Abuse”, “Ilford Manual of Photography”.

Indexes and Abstracts: A compendium which contains references to section of works, such as periodical articles, conference or research papers, but also other specific literature that is seldom found in library catalogues. The references are arranged in alphabetical order. The titles of articles are followed by the authors. It is easy to trace by volume, date of publication and page numbers which will lead to necessary information. For examples: “Applied Science and Technology Index”, H. W. Wilson; “Chemical Abstracts”, The American Chemical Society, etc.

 

Thesaurus: A thesaurus is a book that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning. It also contains synonyms and sometimes antonyms, as well as dependencies and other relationships to each other. It is in contrast to a dictionary which shows definitions and pronunciations. e. g. “Roget's thesaurus of English words and phrases”.

Who's Who: A book containing information about the name and position of the world's each richest or most famous person, especially in an organisation. The content of it list career and each and every personal data for each biography. It is published annually since 1849 and most recognised and respected works of reference. It is continually updated, the essential directory of living noteworthy and influential individuals, from all walks of life, worldwide. e.g. “Marquis Who's Who”.

Yearbooks: A book published yearly as a report or summary of collections of statistics or facts, charts, news events from that year, famous birthdays, and lists of Presidents or Prime Ministers. It is also known as  an “Annual”. e.g. “Asean Statistical Yearbook”, “The Statesman's Yearbook online”. See also Almanac.

Posted by Junk Guy

Reference Tools [1]

 

Reference 

Reference book is a citation work to which someone can refer for authoritative facts. It is also a compendium of information, usually of a specific type for easy reference. As a result of good formation, the necessary information can be manually searched in prompt action. Thus, a source of information is simply defined as a book or paragraph on which one can consult for useful facts.

What are reference tools? 

Those are sources of information i.e. books, periodicals, abstracts, databases, etc. that are used for the answer asked by anyone. Such publications may not normally borrowed, but consulted only on the premise of library. There are limited number of specific type in the different reference tools. They are as follows:

Almanac: A usually annual compendium of statistical, factual and general information, both current and retrospective. It is also a type of yearbook. Useful data and statistics relating to countries, personalities, events, subjects, weather, etc. are included and arranged by a given year. e.g. “Information Please Almanacs”.

Atlas / Map: Map is a plane representation of the earth’s surface, or a part of some, indicating physical feature, political boundaries, etc. [Harrod]. Atlas is a collection of maps or plates or other exhibits bound in a volume. [Shores]. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. e.g. “The Times Universal Atlas of the World”.

Dictionary: A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words of a language, or the terms of a subject, with explanations of their definitions, usage, etymologies, phonetics pronunciations and other information. e.g. “The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary”.

Directory: List of persons or organisations in alphabetical or classified arrangement. These include addresses and affiliations for individuals and officers and other data for organisations and business firms. [Gates] e.g. “International White and Yellow Pages” (www.wayp.com) 

Encyclopedia (Encyclopaedia): A reference work containing information on all subjects, or limited to a specific subject, usually in articles arranged in alphabetical order. There are two different types of encyclopaedia. Some are general, e.g. “Encyclopaedia Britanica”. Some are specific in subject, e.g. “Medical Encyclopedia”. Nowadays encyclopedia comes distinctly into two versions_traditional printed and modern digital format.

Government Documents: Publications published by a government agency, are classified as: (1) Records of government administration, (2) research documents for specialists, (3) confidential sources of information. Citing Government Documents are not always straightforward due to the the specific nature of government documents.

Posted by Junk Guy

Book in Useful Parts

Book has its structural parts that form as a body of a printed book. Readers had better know those parts for their convenience. Book lovers are genuinely interested in these parts.

Front cover: hardbound or softcover (paperback)_To put something over or upon, as to conceal.

Spine: binding that joins the front and back covers where the pages hinge, on which the call number is labelled and also the back part of the book that faces outward while shelving it right.

Endpapers: the leaves of paper before the title page and after the text. One part is fastened with the inside covers. They occur front or back in position. They also hold the text together and sometimes have with relevant information such as map.

Flyleaf: the blank leaf, one or more following the front endpaper and preceding the back endpaper.

Frontispiece: an elaborate illustration facing the title page of a book. The use is now obsolete.

Title page: The page at the beging of a book, usually containing the title, the author and the publisher of the book. It is no longer similar to frontispiece in modern usage. It may have a shorter title than the cover as well as it may shows condensed content of the whole text. However, no title occurs in incunabula (first printed book).

Copyright page: typically verso of title page where the copyright date is shown giving the cataloguing data such as copyright date, edition, ISBN, and brief history of the book.

Table of contents: a list of the contents of a book, arranged by chapter, section, subsection.

Dedication: it is the place where the author dedicates the book to somone.

Acknowledgments: a page where the author have the opportunity to thank those people who give their contribution to the book. This page is included as a front matter in Preface or before the Table of Contents,

Foreword: an introduction by someone other than the author, and it is usually a famous person. It precedes an author's preface, or it comes right after the table of contents.

Preface: an introduction to a book written by the work's author. A preface generally covers the story of how the idea for the book was developed, its intended purpose, and to what extent it covers the field. It is often followed by acknowledgements of persons who give help to the author during the time of writing.

Introduction: a writing by the author, or sometimes, the editor. It shows the full scope of a book. It also gives what the author's view is. It may guide the reader how he should stand on the way to reading. After scanning it one may know what fact-finding is and whether should read it or not.

Body: the text, the pages are usually numbered sequentially, and often divided into chapters,

the actual words of the book.

Appendix: usually extra material for helpful reference, i.e. a large table, materials that would distract if it were included as part of the main text. It may be one or more after the main text.

Glossary: a list of alphabetized collection of terms and their meanings often printed in the back of the book.

Index: an entry list of words or phrases of names and subjects in alphabetical order at the end of the book. It is associated with the reference pages by which readers can retrieve the necessary information of interest.

Bibliography: a list of reference books, articles etc. used by the author at the end of the text.

Colophon: A brief description of publication and printing data of a book relevant to the edition, in modern books usually located at the verso of the title page, but it was located at the end of the book in 15^th century.

Back cover: gives more information about the book and also same as the front cover.

After the interesting main parts, there is a partial part; moreover it is a useful thin marker, commonly known as bookmark. It is made of paper, card or narrow silk ribbons that attached to the edge of a book. Other materials become more common today.

Posted by Junk Guy