ABSTRACT:This study assessed

Background: Nocardiosis is a clinical and diagnostic challenge, compounded by lacunae in existing literature. Our objectives were to establish the clinical spectrum of this disease in our setting, describe the most common causative agent of the disease and to ascertain differences in our patient population from available data.Methods & Materials: This was a 10 year (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) retrospective study carried out at a tertiary care centre in South India, of 131 cases of nocardiosis. The electronic medical records were studied and data analysed.Results: Sixty three percent were male, 23% of all in the sixth decade of life. The most common sites of infection were the skin and the eye -36 (27%) patients each and the lower respiratory tract -35 patients(26%). 48 (37%) patients were on immunosuppressant therapy, either a triple drug therapy following renal transplant, autoimmune disorders/ haematological malignancies on combination immunosuppressants or patients on prolonged corticosteroids. Of 36 patients with nocardiosis of the eye, 30 (83%) were corneal ulcers with history of trauma with vegetative matter or soil, and 5(14%) were endophthalmitis following intraocular lens implantation. 16(46%) patients with respiratory tract nocardiosis had a previous lung pathology. 11(8%) were HIV associated nocardiosis. Disseminated disease was seen in 7(5.3%) patients following renal transplant and in 3(2.3%) patients with SLE, all on triple drug immunosuppression. The most common organism isolated was Nocardia asteroides in 73(56%), followed by Nocardia spp in 32(24%), aerobic actinomycetes in 24(18%) and Nocardia brasiliensis in 2(1.5%). All patients responded to treatment with cotrimoxazole alone or in addition to surgical debridement for cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions. There was only one Nocardiosis related death in this cohort of patients. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing performed on 72 isolates showed 6.9% , 9.7%, 31%, 38%, 75%, 42%, 31%, 74% susceptibility to penicillin, ampicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline, cotrimoxazole, chloramphenicol, cefazolin and triple sulfa respectively.Conclusion: We report a predominance of nocardiosis from the eye and nocardiosis following immunosuppression. The most common species isolated was N.asteroides. A paucity in HIV associated nocardiosis is striking. Antimicrobial susceptibility showed 75% susceptibility to cotrimoxazole, the drug of choice, which was reflected by a good response to therapy in this cohort. http://dx.

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The purpose of conducting this research was to examine the effect of Inside-Outside Circle technique on students’ speaking ability at SMA Negeri 1 Kabangka. The population of this research was all the second grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Kabangka which consisted of five classes while the sample of this research was the second grade science program two (XI IPA2) which consisted of 24 students. This research was conducted in pre-experimental research design. The data of this research were collected by giving pre-test and post-test to students. The data was analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 version (descriptive analysis and inferential statistics). Descriptive analysis was used to describe the maximum scores, minimum scores, mean score and standard deviation while the inferential statistic was used to examine the hypothesis. The result showed that there was an improvement of the students’ speaking ability. It can be seen from the mean score of post-test was 52.89, while the mean score of pre-test was 29.45. In order to prove the hypothesis, the researcher took the conclusion by comparing between the values of Sig (2 tailed) with the significance α value. It showed that the value of Sig (2 tailed) was 0.000 while the significance α value was 0.05. Therefore, it can be concluded that the value of Sig (2 tailed) was lower than the significance α value (0.000 < 0.05). In other words, the alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted. It was meant that Inside-Outside Circle had a significant effect on students’ speaking ability at SMA Negeri 1 Kabangka.

This research focused on the correlation between students’ motivation and their speaking achievement. The research conducts in Halu Oleo University, English Department at academic year 2017/2018 that have pass Speaking III to see their motivation and speaking achievement. There are 36 students taken as sample. The data of the research collect through close-ended questionnaire adapted from Gardner (1985) who had developed the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) to get the data of students’ motivation index (integrative motivation and instrumental motivation), especially in speaking III. To analyze the data, the researcher uses descriptive statistic to find out the students’ speaking achievement and their motivations based on the five categories of; very good, good, moderate, low and failed. The researcher uses the SPSS 16 program as the statistical program to analyze the data. The finding of the research shows that students’ speaking achievement was mostly categorized as a moderate category and students are moderate motivated in speaking English. The result of inferential statistical analysis show that the result of the Pearson correlation is valued as much as rxy= 0,479 (moderate correlation) with positive significant 0.03(rxy<0.05). Based on the data, the researcher found that there is a significant correlation between students’ motivation and their speaking achievement at English Department of Halu Oleo University. Motivation is an important factor that influenced students’ achievement. Motivation is directly proportional to the score of students. The higher the students’ motivation to speak, the higher their speaking score achieved.