As an anniversary special, the website of The HINDU features links to some of the key articles and news that have been published in the Kerala education plus during the past year. URL: http://www.thehindu.com/edu/epkeralaspl/main.htm
These links point to the large terrain Education plus has covered, from courses, careers, studies and soft skills to institutions and achievers, entrance tests and campus trends.

This is an e-resource that helps users work on their English free of cost. The website follows the cafeteria mode of learning wherein there are no successive modules. The learner gets to choose what he wants to do .It can be grammar today and story reading tomorrow.

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For example the quadriceps muscles on the front of the thigh, and the calf muscles, stretch and shorten quickly every time you skip a rope. Children who hop and skip a lot have brains that react faster to changes in muscle stretch

They also have improved capacity to generate power and speed. Their bones are denser and they find it easier to control body weight. Regular pylometric exercises also decrease the risk of injuries in children

Young female athletes injure their knees more often than male athletes, and pylometrics can help prevent knee injuries in girls by strengthening the muscles around the knee joint. There are many levels of pylometric training. Skipping and hopping are beginners' stuff. Higher levels include hopping on one leg, depth jumping, multiple jumps and throws using large lightweight balls.

Children and teenagers must increase their conditioning with a week of aerobic exercise before attempting pylometrics. Another method is to begin with low intensity exercises a few skips every day, before increasing the volume and intensity of training. Initially one must do a few sets of upper body exercises (throws) followed by a few sets of skipping. The rest period in between sets must be at least four minutes

As the weeks and months go by, it pays to play around with the programme and vary the exercises to prevent over exercising some parts and under training others

Pylometrics like skipping is a wonderful warm up exercise before weight training or aerobic exercise. Just make sure you are wearing the right kind of shoes and that the surface you are jumping on is resilient and not too hard

Don't make the mistake of taking up pylometrics only to drop every other exercise you are doing. Pylometrics is not a complete training system by itself. It is meant to supplement and boost other systems like aerobic exercise, weight training, and flexibility training. Use your skipping rope to work up a sweat before your regular workout, and you will find that you are automatically getting better at all your other exercises.

The other members of the panel are T.P.M Zaheer and Ezukone Narain

The committee has been entrusted with the task of fulfilling the requirements for increasing the standard of CUSAT to that of the IIT. These include taking immediate steps for acquisition of the land as well as for initiating discussion with the office of the Chief Minister said a press release from CUSAT here on Saturday

The University Vice Chancellor, P.K. Abdul Aziz who presided over the syndicate meeting said that CUSAT had been described by the Union Human Resources Ministry as an institution that could be considered for being raised to the status of the IIT

He briefed the syndicate about the developments at the meeting convened by the Joint Secretary, ministry of Human Resource Development, in New Delhi on May 3

It was suggested at the meeting that CUSAT should fulfil certain conditions before it's up gradation

The conditions include CUSAT becoming a central institute following the academic and admission procedure in the IIT's

Principals

The Syndicate also appointed H.I. Thampan as the principal of the Engineering College, Pulinkunnu. P.T. Rajan Nambiar will be appointed the principal of the school of Engineering within the CUSAT campus here.

The post of the public relations officer has been redesigned as Director, public Relations and Publications. S. Anil Kumar will be the Director

The Syndicate also decided to appoint staff for the hostel for Scheduled Castes and Tribes students that has just been completed

All faculties under the Engineering departments will have an extra seat reserved for Naval officers, said the press release. The University Syndicate decided to up grade the medical sciences and technology faculty. The meeting also approved of the report submitted by the subcommittee of the syndicate to inspect the reservation system in the University according to a directive of the Supreme Cour.

Those arising out of Neurological disorders are usually associated with symptoms like nausea, vomiting, blurred vision and fits. This type of headache may be a warning of increased intra cranial tension or intracranial tumours. Ophthalmic disorders like glaucoma and refractory errors may cause headaches. Dental caries and other disorders in the teeth may cause severe headaches, which can mimic sinusitis. Migraines cause more trouble and are usually episodic associated with an aura. They are also one sided

Common Cause

The commonest cause of headache, however, is sinusitis. This may be associated with nasal obstruction, running nose, postnasal discharge, dry cough and other such factors. With the nose being subject to various environmental pollutants and infections sinusitis has become an increasingly common problem

Sinuses are normal spaces or cavities within our skull. Ventilation and drainage of their secretion is essential for proper functioning. Our nose acts as a common drainage point for all sinuses. When the sinus pathway is obstructed secretions collect in sinuses leading to bacterial and fungal infections. The nasal obstruction may be caused by variations in the anatomy of the nose like deviation of the septum and formation of soft tissues like polyps

Examination

Evaluation of patients with sinusitis requires a detailed examination. The advent of nasal endoscopes has revolutionised the treatment of sinusitis. This reveals the complex anatomy and the changes causing disease in the nose and sinusitis. The patient can also see all this on the monitor. Blood tests, x rays a ct scan of the sinus complement the endoscopy and play a vital role in evaluation

Patients are initially treated with appropriate antibiotic therapy. The use of nasal endoscopes has brought about a great change in the treatment of the disease and surgical aspects. The earlier surgical methods like puncturing and lavage, which did not establish adequate drainage, are all obsolete now

The latest surgical procedure called Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) uses the advanced nasal endoscope. This procedure precisely eliminates the blockage of natural pathways of the sinuses restoring the normal flow of secretions. It also has a cosmetic advantage in that it produces no external scar. The surgery can be performed as day care procedure.

Advanced surgical tools like microdebrider help in adequate and efficient treatment, making FESS a safe and advanced technique in the management of sinusitis. The use of Micro debrider provides good mucosal preservation, reduced complications like bleeding and hence good postoperative results. Microdebrider plays a vital role in polyp surgeries reducing the recurrence rate

The nasal endoscope is also a great tool in performing other surgeries and it's role in minimally invasive removal of orbital tumours and in neurosurgery has revolutionised these fields. With these advanced options available sinusitis no longer needs to be a headache

Courtesy - The Hindu