Frictions that activate change: dynamics of global to local non-governmental organizations for female education and empowerment in China,India, and Pakistan*

This article examines how non-governmental organizations create resources and spaces for girls and women’s education and empowerment in China, India and Pakistan – in the context of global expectations and local state relations as well as cultural norms. We examine the dynamics that foster female empowerment associated with educational attainment. Analysis showed that the five NGO’s responses to enabling and constraining local needs and demands gave rise to productive friction that activated positive development. We conclude that engaging local individuals as managers, teachers or facilitators who can negotiate with international actors and with the state is an effective foundation for maintaining a balance between being accountable to local contingencies and norms and to global social justice principles of the projects. These models indicated that “effective scale” might better be defined as a collaboration between the local and global, rather than “scaling up” in size.

International NGO partnerships with several of state organizations and local leadership can be a catalyst for fundamental change, subject to dynamic engagement with productive friction that activates educational empowerment and social change.     

A modified peer rating system to recognise rating skill as a learning outcome

The peer rating system used here advances the quantitative literacy goals outlined in the social sciences. We instituted a mid-semester intervention to teach rating skills and used an index to track longitudinal changes of skill mastery over the course of the semester. Seventy-four students in five advanced research classes followed the procedure of the existing peer rating system by completing reading assignments, writing reflections online, engaging in class discussions, rating their peers’ reflections and receiving feedback on their group effort. Peer ratings were then compared with each other and also with the instructor ratings to derive individualised indices of reliability and validity. These technical indicators enabled two rounds of assessment before and after a class-wide intervention. An omnibus test across the five classes showed a significant improvement in rating quality due to the intervention. Our courses not only met a quantitative learning outcome but also promised vocational competence.     

Establishment of engineering laboratories for undergraduate and postgraduate studies

The importance of the laboratories for the study of engineering problems is manifold. At the undergraduate level it provides an opportunity for the students to get an impression of the basic principles of engineering. At the postgraduate level it becomes an instrument for advanced level study and for the solutions to real-life engineering problems. Level of emphasis by an individual engineering institution on basic engineering, interdisciplinary aspects of engineering and relevance to international, national and local industrial trends effects the policy to establish the engineering laboratories. However, a core facility, for the teaching of the most basic principals of relevant field of engineering should be a common feature of all the laboratories associated with individual subject area. In this research paper an approach for establishing engineering laboratories is presented. It discusses the relation between the syllabus of appropriate level of study and the equipment required in the laboratory, physical planning for the laboratory, sequential and parallel approaches for establishing the laboratories, the functional capacity of laboratories, the organizational flexibility of the laboratories, the cost factor and the recurring expenditure. It suggests ways of utilizing the laboratory for effective teaching and research through optimal use of the above factors.     

How many equivalent resistances?

It is straightforward to construct the set of equivalent resistance for circuits constructed from a bunch of four or five equal resistors. But as the bunch size increases it becomes difficult to find the order of the set of equivalent resistances. Even the computer programs runs out of memory. Here we present an analytical result using simple mathematical machinery. The size of the set is shown to be less than 2.618 ⁿ .     

Substrate channelling

The fascinating process of channelling of metabolic intermediates through enzymes is discussed in this article. Often, the active sites of two enzymes that catalyse sequential reactions in a metabolic pathway are connected through an intra-molecular ??void?? ?? a sort of tunnel, lined by amino acids through which intermediates pass. Synergy between the subunits leads to a phenomenal increase in the overall rate of catalysis. There are enzymes with a single channel, some with multiple channels and some without any discrete channel/s, yet achieving high catalytic rates. Unravelling details about these natural tunnels of angstromdimensions has evoked great interest and curiosity in biochemists all over the world.     

Construction of nationhood through education in Malaya: revisiting the Barnes and Fenn-Wu Reports

This article provides an analysis of two colonial reports, the Barnes and the Fenn-Wu Reports on education in the British colony of Malaya. The popular stance on the Barnes and the Fenn-Wu Reports is that one is an effect or reply to the other. We argue on the contrary that the two reports construct a common argument on nation-building which becomes apparent through a dialogic reading of the reports. We show how the two reports, written in the 1950s, reflect the anxiety of the colonial rulers in constructing a nation and the ethnic communities (the Malays and the Chinese) in pre-independent Malaya. These communities were constructed not without their inherent antagonism as well as their reciprocal vulnerabilities in a future political state. This act of articulation is predominantly a political act constructed through a complex web of interdiscursivity and intertextuality. The spectres of the Barnes and the Fenn-Wu Reports continue to surface in education and nation-building discourse in modern-day Malaysia.     

Can more become less? Effects of an intensive assessment environment on students’ learning performance

Online interactive systems offer the beguiling prospect of an improved environment for learning at minimum extra cost. We have developed online interactive tutorials that adapt the learning environment to the current learning status of each individual student. These Adaptive Tutorials (ATs) modify the tasks given to each student according to their previous responses. Feedback, assessment and remediation are also adapted. Over a three-year period we progressively blended ATs into notoriously challenging courses in introductory Engineering Mechanics. We assessed the impact of this initiative by reviewing three lines of data: (i) the built-in diagnostics of the system, (ii) changes in student grades from year-to-year and (iii) supplementary surveys. Generally, students liked the new blended system and grades improved. Detailed analysis revealed nuances in the measures of student learning, such as differences between high-performing and low-performing students. With these insights we are able to further adapt the system to meet the learning needs of our students.     

Oxygen free radical modified DNA: Implications in the etiopathogenesis of Systemic lupus erythematosus

The present study was designed to probe the possible role of singlet oxygen and superoxide anion radical modified DNA in the etiopathogenesis of Systemic lupus erythematosus. These species were generated by the exposure of riboflavin to 365 nm UV light. Modified DNA showed single strand breaks, hyperchromicity at 260nm and decrease in Tm. The modified DNA induced high titer antibodies in experimental animals. The antibodies showed reactivity with various nucleic acid polymers, a property commonly associated with Systemic lupus erythematosus anti-DNA autoantibodies. Systemic lupus erythematosus sera showed preferential binding of modified DNA over native DNA in direct binding and competitive binding solid phase immunoassays and band shift assays. The results suggest for the possible involvement of the singlet- superoxide modified DNA as a potential trigger for anti- DNA autoantibody production in SLE and thus in the etiopathogenesis of the disease.     

建立知识社会

人类社会正经历着向知识社会的转变;知识正日益成为经济发展和社会进步的核心因素.身处全球迈向知识社会的进程之中,我们目睹和亲历着世界性的合作、竞争、流动和创新.技术变革无疑是这一进程的强大驱动力之一;而在技术不断取得极大进步,知识与信息以空前的数量产生和极快的速度传播的同时,也存在着知识鸿沟或数字鸿沟现象.