Can an Online Reading Camp Teach 5-Year-Old Children to Read?

Literacy is an essential skill. Learning to read is a requirement for becoming a self-providing human being. However, while spoken language is acquired naturally with exposure to language without explicit instruction, reading and writing need to be taught explicitly. Decades of research have shown that well-structured teaching of phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and letter-to-sound mapping is crucial in building solid foundations for the acquisition of reading. During the COVID-19 pandemic, children worldwide did not have access to consistent and structured teaching and are, as a consequence, predicted to be behind in the development of their reading skills. Subsequent evidence confirms this prediction. With the best evidence-based practice in mind, we developed an online version of a well-structured early literacy training program (Reading Camp) for 5-year-old children. This 2-week online Reading Camp program is designed for pre-K children. It incorporates critical components of the fundamental skills essential to learning to read and is taught online in an interactive, multi-sensory, and peer-learning environment. We measure the participants' literacy skills and other related skills before and after participating in the online Reading Camp and compare the results to no-treatment controls. Results show that children who participated in the online Reading Camp improved significantly on all parameters in relation to controls. Our results demonstrate that a well-structured evidence-based reading instruction program, even if online and short-term, benefits 5-year-old children in learning to read. With the potential to scale up this online program, the evidence presented here, alongside previous evidence for the efficacy of the in-person program, indicates that the online Reading Camp program is effective and can be used to tackle a variety of questions regarding structural and functional plasticity in the early stages of reading acquisition.

Reverse redistribution in thallium-201 stress tests in coronary artery disease--a brief report

Reverse redistribution (RR) is the apparent worsening of a stress-induced defect or the appearance of a new defect in the myocardium in the delayed thallium images. This has been linked to the presence of coronary artery disease. In this article, we examine the incidence of this phenomenon in our local population, and its pathophysiological significance.

Nuclear cardiology in the detection of coronary artery disease--an overview of its role in the Singapore General Hospital

Nuclear cardiology at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) had a humble beginning in 1983 when it was carried out by the joint staff of the departments of cardiology and nuclear medicine. At the onset the bulk of the scans were blood pool studies. In 1984, qualitative tomographic myocardial perfusion studies replaced the less accurate planar scans and this was carried out on a routine basis. Its superiority to conventional exercise electrocardiography in the detection, management and prognostication of coronary artery disease (CAD) has since been validated locally. We have since progressed to the fields of research involving pharmacological stress testing with intravenous dipyridamole and use of technetium-based isonitrile as an alternative to the conventional myocardial perfusion agent, thallous chloride. Our results mirror those from other research centres. On this encouraging note we are looking into newer areas such as the role of diastolic function for early detection of cardiac disease. In under a decade we are in a position to provide scintigraphic service expected of an established nuclear cardiac laboratory. This article provides an overview of our work in the management of CAD.

Felodipine as monotherapy in Asian patients with mild to moderate hypertension

Felodipine (Plendil) is a once daily antihypertensive calcium antagonist. The present study evaluated the clinical efficacy and tolerability of felodipine as monotherapy in treating Asian patients with mild to moderate hypertension. Twenty-three males and 14 females with supine diastolic blood pressure (sDBP) above 95 mmHg after a 2-4 week placebo treatment period were included in the study. Active treatment was initiated with felodipine 10 mg once every morning for 2 weeks. The dose was titrated stepwise with increments of 10 mg every two weeks if BP was greater than the target DBP of 90 mmHg. The optimum dose was then maintained for at least 4 months during which the patients returned for 2 weekly follow-up visits. At each visit, supine and standing blood pressure and heart rate (HR) were measured after dosing. Any adverse events were recorded when they occurred. Blood chemistry was checked before and at 4 weeks after starting felodipine treatment and at the end of the study. The target DBP was achieved in all 37 patients, 25 with 10 mg, 11 with 20 mg and 1 with 30 mg. The supine BP was reduced to 127 +/- 10/83 +/- 5 by felodipine which was significantly lower than the pre-treatment BP (151 +/- 16/103 +/- 8, p less than .001). The BP control was maintained at the end of the study period (124 +/- 12/82 +/- 6). No significant changes in heart rates were detected after felodipine treatment. Side effects attributable to vasodilation were observed in 10 patients (transient headache in 8 and mild ankle oedema in 2), none requiring withdrawal of the drug. We conclude that felodipine 10-20 mg given once daily is an effective and well-tolerated monotherapy for the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension.

Systemic amyloidosis with severe amyloid heart disease--a case report

Cardiac Amyloidosis was first observed by Vichow in 1957. Since then many more cases have been documented, but there has been no case report of mortality from severe cardiac involvement in the local literature. We describe one such case seen in the Singapore General Hospital and review briefly the clinico-pathological data on this uncommon entity.

Electronic conduction in lipid films with metal contacts

The electrical characteristics of lipid films with Au and Hg contacts were investigated. Our results indicate that the conduction is mainly electronic and is electrode limited. With gold biased negatively, the current-voltage characteristics of thin and thick films follow the equations: I = 4.367 exp [9.58(eV + 0.21)(1/2)]. [1 - exp (-eV/kT)]pA, and I = 3.424 exp [8.59(eV + 0.082)(1/2)][1 - exp (-eV/kT)]pA, respectively. For thick films, the conductivity is insensitive to thickness. By temperature and photoresponse measurements the interface barrier height is found to be 1.09 eV. In view of the possible structural disorders in the films, a model is proposed to explain our findings based on the theory of noncrystalline materials. According to this model, the band gap for the film is 2.016 eV and the density of localized states is near the Fermi level, 1.31 x 10(18) cm(-3) eV(-1). The results may be helpful in providing some insight into the speculated electronic conduction in biological membranes.