**9.9 Letter–sound knowledge**

Letter-sound knowledge is assessed through writing, production, and recognition exercises which describes how well-versed a pupil is in letter names, forms, and related sounds. To measure letter–name fluency, the student may be given a random list of uppercase and lowercase letters and asked to identify the names of as many letters as possible in 1 min. A random list of capital and lowercase letters and 1 min test to name as many letters as possible can be used to gauge a student's letter-name fluency.

Similar to this, students may be given a random selection of uppercase and lowercase letters on tests of letter-sound fluency, and they have 1 min to identify as many letter sounds as they can. Additionally, a pupil can be required to write individual dictated letters or the letter or combination of letters that matches to an oral sound that is delivered. (e.g., "Write a letter that makes "n" sound").

*Common tests used are*

*Screening, Assessment and Identification Tools for Dyslexia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113899*


*2.4.1 Principle*

Raman spectroscopy based on the scattering of light, which was described by C.V. Raman in 1928 through his outstanding study i.e., Raman effect. According to Raman effect when a certain frequency of monochromatic radiations incident on a sample, the incident light is scattered through interaction with vibrating sample molecules, the frequency of scattered light is different from that of the incident light. It is based on the inelastic scattering of incident radiation [27]. In Raman spectroscopy, when a monochromatic radiation strikes the sample, it scatters in all directions after its interaction with sample molecules. Much of this scattered radiation elastically that constitutes Rayleigh scattering. Only a small fraction of scattered radiation in-elastically scattered that constitutes Raman

**Figure 12.** *FTIR spectrum of Sparfloxacin.*

*Spectroscopy and Spectrophotometry: principles and Applications for Colorimetric and Related… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101106*

scattering. Usually, in Raman spectrum there is an appearance of Stokes lines, this is due to the frequency of incident radiation is higher than frequency of scattered radiation. On the other hand, there is an appearance of anti-Stokes lines in Raman spectrum, when the frequency of incident radiation is lower than frequency of scattered radiation occurs.


**6. Conclusions**

In this paper we have reconsidered the Guduru adhesive contact problem. The rigid solution has been derived, which has been shown to depend only on two parameters: the dimensionless waviness amplitude *A* † and the dimensionless parameter *α* = *AR*/*λ* 2 . It has been shown that increasing *A* † and *α* reduces the macroscopic pull-off force by orders of magnitude due to the effect of roughness. Secondly, by using a BEM numerical code with Lennard–Jones interaction law, we have investigated the effects of the waviness wavelength, amplitude and of the sphere Tabor parameter on the adhesion enhancement. It has been shown that adhesion enhancement is limited to a certain region of the plane *A*/*λ* versus *µ*. In particular, at low Tabor parameter increasing the ratio *A*/*λ* tends to destroy adhesion. For large Tabor parameters increasing the ratio *A*/*λ* first increases adhesion due to the Guduru enhancement mechanism, but later, for *A*/*λ* greater than about 10−1 , the waviness amplitude gets too large, internal cracks appear and macroscopic adhesion reduces strongly. We have shown that in this region using the JKR model to estimate both the pull-off force and the dissipated energy by hysteresis leads to very large errors as the hypothesis of compact contact area does not hold.

The enhancement effect is well captured by the Johnson parameter as derived by Ciavarella–Kesari–Lew [21,24], and is much larger than the Persson–Tosatti enhancement [13] in terms of increase of real contact area due to roughness. The Persson–Tosatti energetic argument for adhesion reduction seems to give a lower bound to the effective work of adhesion.

The axisymmetric waviness in the Guduru contact problem is highly idealized with respect to more common randomly fractal roughness, hence it is difficult to give reasonable estimates of the parameters we have introduced in our model for a fractal randomly rough surface. The analysis made is intended to shed light into the problem of adhesion enhancement with a potential application to the development of nano- and micro-mechanical systems and of bioinspired adhesives. Experimental measurements have been reported by Santos et al. [42], which show how echinoderms' tube feet exploit adhesion enhancement to increase the interfacial toughness on rough substrates. Santos et al. [42] tried to explain the interfacial toughening accounting for an increased contact area obtained when the echinoderm feet conforms to the rough substrate. We have found that adhesion enhancement may be obtained also when the latter effect is negligible.

When rough surfaces are idealized by spherical caps, a very small radius of curvature is expected at the finest scale, which suggests asperity contact takes place at very low Tabor parameters, hence adhesion enhancement seems to be very unlikely. At present, the only viable route to adhesion enhancement seems to be the design of an ad-hoc macroscopic roughness profile.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.P. and M.C.; Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Writing—original draft preparation, A.P.; writing—review and editing, A.P. and M.C.; Supervision: M.C.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** A.P. and M.C. acknowledge the support by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research under the Programme Department of Excellence Legge 232/2016 (Grant No. CUP-D94I18000260001). A.P. is thankful to the DFG (German Research Foundation) for funding the project PA 3303/1-1. A.P. acknowledges support from "PON Ricerca e Innovazione 2014-2020-Azione I.2" - D.D. n. 407, 27/02/2018, bando AIM (Grant No. AIM1895471).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

## **Appendix A. BEM Formulation with Constant Pressure Discrete Elements**

Equation (10) constitutes the nonlinear problem to be solved. A problem arises in evaluating the integral (11) as the kernel function *G* (*r*,*s*) is singular in *s* = *r*. The common approach is to discretize Equation (11) assuming that the pressure *σ* (*s*) has a simple form over a discrete element. To this end the simplest approach is to assume that the pressure is constant over each element. For a constant pressure *p* acting over the ring *c*1 < *r* < *c*2 the deflection at *r* of a single half-space is

$$
\mu\_z\left(r\right) = \frac{4\overline{p}}{\pi \mathcal{E}^\*} \left[ F\left(c\_2, r\right) - F\left(c\_1, r\right) \right] \tag{A1}
$$

where from Johnson [29]

$$F\left(c,r\right) = \begin{cases} \begin{array}{cc} c\mathbf{E}\left(\frac{r}{c}\right) \\ r\left[\mathbf{E}\left(\frac{c}{r}\right) - \left(1 - \left(\frac{c}{r}\right)^2\right)\mathbf{K}\left(\frac{c}{r}\right)\right] \end{array} & r \le c \\\ r\left[\mathbf{E}\left(\frac{c}{r}\right) - \left(1 - \left(\frac{c}{r}\right)^2\right)\mathbf{K}\left(\frac{c}{r}\right)\right] & r > c \end{array} \tag{A2}$$

being *K* (*k*) and *E* (*k*) respectively the complete elliptic integrals of first and second kind with modulus *k*.

Assume we have discretized the surface in *N* elements, so that we have *M* = *N* + 1 discretization points. The deflection at point *ri* due to a constant pressure *pj* ring in between the radii *rj* and *rj*+1 is

$$\mu\_z\left(r\_{\bar{l}}\right) = \frac{4\overline{p}\_{\bar{j}}}{\pi \mathcal{E}^\*} \left[\mathcal{F}\left(r\_{\bar{j}+1}, r\_{\bar{l}}\right) - \mathcal{F}\left(r\_{\bar{j}}, r\_{\bar{l}}\right)\right] = \frac{1}{\mathcal{E}^\*} \mathcal{G}\_{l\bar{l}} \overline{p}\_{\bar{j}} \tag{A3}$$

$$\mathcal{G}\_{\rm ij} = \frac{4}{\pi} \left[ F\left(r\_{\rm j+1\prime}, r\_{\rm i}\right) - F\left(r\_{\rm j\prime}, r\_{\rm i}\right) \right] \tag{A4}$$

where the term *Gij* within square brackets depends only on the nodal coordinates, hence by varying *i*, *j* = 1, ..., *M* all the terms can be computed once for all.

#### **References**

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).


**4. Concluding remarks**

Conventional, currently methods used in sperm quality assessment are unsatisfactory to correctly predict sperm fertility potential and do not provide sufficient information for diag‐ nosing and overcome some clinical infertility situations. The major advantages of biomarker approach over conventional semen analysis are the proficiency to accurately measure bio‐ marker levels and to expose hidden sperm defects, which go undetected during current sperm morphology assessment. Newer, unconventional diagnostic tests of sperm function have the increased potential to deliver relevant information and to have an effective predic‐ tive role in male reproductive medicine. In the present work, several molecular markers have been presented for each of the sperm functions. Some are already used in human an‐ drology, but are less used for the animals. Its use allows an increased efficiency in the identi‐ fication of infertile individuals or to predict the sperm behaviour to manipulation, hence predicting the degree of damage to be expected for a given sperm sample. The development of test based on predicted sperm functions such as capacitation and in particular sperm–oo‐ cyte interaction will present increasing impact on the field of extenders research, as well as of semen banks implementation for both domestic and wild species. It is of utmost interest the characterization of a particular biomarker patterns/levels in fertile and infertile samples, with the subsequent ability to identify males with superior tolerance to semen cryopreserva‐ tion. Nevertheless, putative molecular markers that may be used for sperm quality assess‐ ment were not exhausted in this review. Further efforts must be focused on understanding how these biomarkers correlate with transient impairments of male infertility caused by heat stress, malnutrition, diseases or trauma. Finally, the adjunctive evaluation of spermato‐ zoa functions is particular important when considering sperm storage.


2. The age-related changes in the pelvic angles during sitting

The first section investigated the relationship between age and the maximum pelvic anteversion and retroversion angles, as well as the associated pelvic range of motion, which is measured based on the knee movement in the sitting position [44]. The pelvic range of motion was defined as the difference between the maximum pelvic anteversion and retroversion angles. The hypothesis of the present study was that pelvic range of motion would be affected by aging.

The participants included 132 healthy volunteers (female, n = 74; male, n = 58) of 20–79 years of age (Table 1). The participants were recruited from a university, two workplaces, and the community near the university. The participants were free from neurological and orthopedic impairments. After the experimental protocol was explained to all of the participants, they gave their informed consent.

All measurements were taken with the participants seated on a chair with a 50 cm · 50 cm seat face. The height of the seat face was 65 cm from the floor to allow the free movement of the knee joints. The participants sat on the chair. The front edge of the seating face was aligned with the point 66% along the length of the thigh from the greater trochanter.

The pelvic angles were measured based on the sacral inclination angle [46]. An inclinometer with a resolution of 1 was used to measure the pelvic angles. The pelvic tilt angle was defined as the angle between the longitudinal axis through the midline of the dorsal sacral surface and the anterior horizontal line (Figure 1).

The subjects were instructed to maintain the same anteroposterior shoulder position throughout the movements of pelvic inclination to avoid anteroposterior movement of the trunk. The

a Significant difference from 20 to 29 years of age.

b Significant difference from 30 to 39 years of age.

c Significant difference from 40 to 49 years of age.

d Significant difference from 50 to 59 years of age.

Table 1. The mean and standard deviation of the pelvic angles in each age group [44].

2. The age-related changes in the pelvic angles during sitting

by aging.

44 Clinical Physical Therapy

Age group n

20–29 years

30–39 years

40–49 years

50–59 years

60–69 years

70–79 years

gave their informed consent.

the anterior horizontal line (Figure 1).

angle (˚)

a Significant difference from 20 to 29 years of age. b Significant difference from 30 to 39 years of age. c Significant difference from 40 to 49 years of age. d Significant difference from 50 to 59 years of age.

Table 1. The mean and standard deviation of the pelvic angles in each age group [44].

n = 48

n = 13

n = 13

n = 23

n = 19

n = 16

Maximum pelvic anteversion

The first section investigated the relationship between age and the maximum pelvic anteversion and retroversion angles, as well as the associated pelvic range of motion, which is measured based on the knee movement in the sitting position [44]. The pelvic range of motion was defined as the difference between the maximum pelvic anteversion and retroversion angles. The hypothesis of the present study was that pelvic range of motion would be affected

The participants included 132 healthy volunteers (female, n = 74; male, n = 58) of 20–79 years of age (Table 1). The participants were recruited from a university, two workplaces, and the community near the university. The participants were free from neurological and orthopedic impairments. After the experimental protocol was explained to all of the participants, they

All measurements were taken with the participants seated on a chair with a 50 cm · 50 cm seat face. The height of the seat face was 65 cm from the floor to allow the free movement of the knee joints. The participants sat on the chair. The front edge of the seating face was aligned

The pelvic angles were measured based on the sacral inclination angle [46]. An inclinometer with a resolution of 1 was used to measure the pelvic angles. The pelvic tilt angle was defined as the angle between the longitudinal axis through the midline of the dorsal sacral surface and

The subjects were instructed to maintain the same anteroposterior shoulder position throughout the movements of pelvic inclination to avoid anteroposterior movement of the trunk. The

angle (˚)

84.53.4 123.1 6.1 38.7 6.0

87.84.1 125.7 6.8 37.6 9.2

90.15.4a 124.1 8.9 34.0 8.7

88.84.6a 118.2 9.8 29.4 8.4a,b

92.66.5a,b 117.1 8.7b 24.3 6.3a,b,c

9.39 4.0a,b,d 117.8 9.3 23.8 8.6a,b,c

Maximum pelvic retroversion

Pelvic range of motion

(˚)

with the point 66% along the length of the thigh from the greater trochanter.

Figure 1. A schematic illustration of the procedure for measuring the pelvic inclination angle: (A) the pelvic retroversion angle, (B) the pelvic anteversion angle [44].

instruction to the subjects was, "Please maintain your shoulder position during pelvic movement." Participants assumed alternating maximum pelvic anteversion and retroversion positions five times. The maximum and minimum angles were excluded, and the mean of the three remaining values was calculated. The pelvic range of motion was defined as the difference between the average maximum pelvic anteversion and retroversion angles.

The maximum pelvic anteversion angle, maximum pelvic retroversion angle, and the range of pelvic motion were significantly affected by aging (Table 1).

The maximum pelvic anteversion angles in participants of 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, and 70–79 years of age were significantly smaller than those in participants of 20–29 years of age. The maximum pelvic anteversion angles in participants of 60–69 and 70–79 years of age were significantly smaller than those in participants of 30–39 years of age, and the maximum pelvic anteversion angles in participants of 70–79 years of age were significantly smaller than those in participants of 50–59 years of age (Table 1).

With regard to the maximum pelvic retroversion angle, none of the age groups showed a significant difference in comparison to the 20–29 year age group. The maximum pelvic retroversion angle in the participants of 60–69 years of age was significantly smaller than that in the participants of 30–39 years of age (Table 1).

The pelvic ranges of motion in participants of 50–59, 60–69, and 70–79 years of age were significantly smaller in comparison to participants of 20–29 and 30–39 years of age. Furthermore, the pelvic range of motion of participants of 60–69 and 70–79 years of age was significantly smaller than that in participants of 40–49 years of age (Table 1).

The relationships between these variables and age were approximated using linear regression equations (Figure 2). These results indicate that pelvic mobility in the sitting position is affected by aging. There was a significant correlation between age and the maximum pelvic anteversion angle (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), the maximum pelvic retroversion angle (r = 0.29, p < 0.05), and the range of pelvic motion (r = 0.63, p < 0.001) (Figure 2).

Hamstring tension probably had an insignificant effect on pelvic mobility in this dataset, especially on the anterior tilt, because the knees could move freely during pelvic movement. The hip flexion angle during maximum pelvic anteversion was 87 and the extension angle during maximum retroversion was 57 in participants of 70–79 years of age. Thus, the pelvic mobility in the present study did not seem to be affected by hamstring muscle tension or hip joint mobility. The pelvic mobility measured in this study was in line with the results of previous studies on lumbar spine mobility, which reported strong correlations between pelvic tilt or the sacral tilt angle, and the lumbar spine lordosis angle in the sitting position [5, 46, 47]. In addition, the pelvic mobility in the sitting position is larger than that in the standing position [6]. Kuo et al. reported that there was a significant correlation between lumbar spine

Figure 2. The correlations between age and the maximum pelvic anteversion angle (black circles), the maximum pelvic retroversion angle (white squares), and the pelvic range of motion (black triangles) [44].

mobility and the pelvic tilt angle (r = 0.67) in the sitting position [5]. Thus, changes in the maximum pelvic anteversion and retroversion angles that occur with aging might be directly affected by the changes in lumbar spine mobility that occur with aging [11]. When sitting, the angle between the lumbar spine and the pelvis is reduced when leaning forward, especially in elderly individuals. It is considered that thoracic kyphosis becomes more pronounced and that the thoracic and the lumbar spines almost act as one segment to compensate for this reduced lumbar mobility [5].

The pelvic ranges of motion in participants of 50–59, 60–69, and 70–79 years of age were significantly smaller in comparison to participants of 20–29 and 30–39 years of age. Furthermore, the pelvic range of motion of participants of 60–69 and 70–79 years of age was signifi-

The relationships between these variables and age were approximated using linear regression equations (Figure 2). These results indicate that pelvic mobility in the sitting position is affected by aging. There was a significant correlation between age and the maximum pelvic anteversion angle (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), the maximum pelvic retroversion angle (r = 0.29, p < 0.05), and the

Hamstring tension probably had an insignificant effect on pelvic mobility in this dataset, especially on the anterior tilt, because the knees could move freely during pelvic movement. The hip flexion angle during maximum pelvic anteversion was 87 and the extension angle during maximum retroversion was 57 in participants of 70–79 years of age. Thus, the pelvic mobility in the present study did not seem to be affected by hamstring muscle tension or hip joint mobility. The pelvic mobility measured in this study was in line with the results of previous studies on lumbar spine mobility, which reported strong correlations between pelvic tilt or the sacral tilt angle, and the lumbar spine lordosis angle in the sitting position [5, 46, 47]. In addition, the pelvic mobility in the sitting position is larger than that in the standing position [6]. Kuo et al. reported that there was a significant correlation between lumbar spine

Figure 2. The correlations between age and the maximum pelvic anteversion angle (black circles), the maximum pelvic

retroversion angle (white squares), and the pelvic range of motion (black triangles) [44].

cantly smaller than that in participants of 40–49 years of age (Table 1).

range of pelvic motion (r = 0.63, p < 0.001) (Figure 2).

46 Clinical Physical Therapy

However, due to the aging-related shortening of the hamstring muscles, the maximum pelvic anteversion angle may be more restricted when performing this movement without the free mobility of the knees.

The pelvic range of movement was approximately 40 in participants of 20–29 years of age and approximately 24 in participants of 60–69 and 70–79 years of age. The rate of pelvic mobility limitation that occurred with aging in this study (approximately 30%) was larger than that previously reported for hip extension (approximately 20%), which is considered to be the joint in the lower extremities that is most limited by aging [48]. Thus, sagittal plane pelvic mobility may be an important factor that is associated with mobility limitation during the sit-to-stand movement in elderly adults.


**1. Introduction**

India is endowed with rich biodiversity, natural beauty, and sound climatic as well as edaphic suitability. The country has a strange diversity of climatic regions, ranging from cold temperate and alpine in the Himalayan north to the hot and

humid tropical in the south. The country also cherishes a rich history of water heritage. The tradition of water harvesting in India is centuries old, this shows how much respect people have for water since ancient times. Traditionally water was worshiped, stored and conserved. Although there was diversity in the water harvesting systems, but on a large scale, reservoirs were constructed on a coordinated basis, the main objective of which was to create a wide range of water storage systems. In spite of all these bounties, the unfortunate aspect is that presently, India has become a house of a huge proportion of the world's 'water poor' population. It holds only 4 per cent of the world's freshwater resources, but 18% of the global inhabitants [1]. Presently in the country, agitating climate variability, rapid urbanization, and competitive demand of water for agriculture, industry, energy production, and municipal supply puts tremendous pressure on underground reservoirs and is hence making it increasingly tough to meet the water challenges of the near future.

The chapter finds defects in the current water distribution and utilization systems which specifically aim at realizing immediate results without respecting ecological boundaries. Additionally, it argues that there is an urgent need to revive India's traditional water culture to better cope with the worsening water conditions prevalent across the country. The chapter also signifies that the shortcomings of current water system can be well addressed by regaining the old wisdom of traditional water culture, and by integrating it with current state of scientific methods and technologies. A blend of traditional water culture and advanced water technologies can lead to a transformation into a more relevant water infrastructure that integrates development within the sustainable water cycle.


**1. Introduction**

Avocado (*Persea americana* Mill.) is an oleaginous fruit produced by a tree belonging to the magnoliid clade, a basal linage of flowering plants. It belongs to the large plant family of Lauraceae, with approximately 2500–3000 species [1, 2]. Avocado has been rapidly incorporated as a component of human diet in many countries [3]. Due to low cost, vigor of seedling growth and easy propagation, most of the countries are still using seeds to produce rootstocks for grafted avocado trees despite their genetic variability [4]. Several Mexican varieties are derived from seeds that are resistant to attack by *Phytophthora cinnamomi* [5, 6] and are adapted to the soil and environmental conditions of the region. The Mexican state of Michoacán is the primary avocado-producing region in the world, and all the rootstocks used for the commercial production of cultivar Hass are obtained from *P. americana* var. drymifolia ("nativo mexicano") [7]. The principal consume form is as fresh fruit, but is really important in cosmetic industry [8]. Avocado plant has medicinal properties, including cancer prevention [9–11]. There is ethnopharmacological information on the use of avocado seeds for the treatment of health-related conditions, especially in America. Recent research has shown that the avocado seeds are rich in phenolic compounds and these maybe play a role in putative health effects [12]. The avocado fruit is a berry of one carpel containing a single seed. This large and very conspicuous seed is made up of two fleshy cotyledons and a central attached plumule, hypocotyl and radicle, the whole surrounded by two papery seed coats closely adherent to each other. There is no endosperm left in the seed at maturity. The cotyledons are formed of indifferentiated parenchyma tissue interspersed with occasional idioblasts. Starch is the main storage material of the cotyledons and is present in great abundance [13]. Despite its importance, avocado seed development remains uncharacterized. To date, little information is available regarding the molecular biology of the seed. Analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) is a rapid and effective method to identify novel genes or to investigate gene expression in different tissues, organs and plants [14, 15]. Furthermore, EST libraries and databases could provide valuable resources for functional genomic studies [16].

In principle, the frequency with which the sequence of a given gene is read in ESTs sequencing projects should reflect the relative abundance of the corresponding mRNA. This approach uses EST counts to infer the relative level of expression of a gene [17–19].

In this work, we report the analysis of an ESTs collection from immature avocado nativo mexicano seeds and the analysis of expression of bHLH transcription factor, metallothioneins (MTs) and snakin like more abundantly expre3ssed.