Reconvene and Reconnect the Antioxidant Hypothesis in Human Health and Disease

The antioxidants are essential molecules in human system but are not miracle molecules. They are neither performance enhancers nor can prevent or cure diseases when taken in excess. Their supplemental value is debateable. In fact, many high quality clinical trials on antioxidant supplement have shown no effect or adverse outcomes ranging from morbidity to all cause mortality. Several Chochrane Meta-analysis and Markov Model techniques, which are presently best available statistical models to derive conclusive answers for comparing large number of trials, support these claims. Nevertheless none of these statistical techniques are flawless. Hence, more efforts are needed to develop perfect statistical model to analyze the pooled data and further double blind, placebo controlled interventional clinical trials, which are gold standard, should be implicitly conducted to get explicit answers. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase and catalase are termed as primary antioxidants as these scavenge superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide. All these three enzymes are inducible enzymes, thereby inherently meaning that body increases or decreases their activity as per requirement. Hence there is no need to attempt to manipulate their activity nor have such efforts been clinically useful. SOD administration has been tried in some conditions especially in cancer and myocardial infarction but has largely failed, probably because SOD is a large molecule and can not cross cell membrane. The dietary antioxidants, including nutrient antioxidants are chain breaking antioxidants and in tandem with enzyme antioxidants temper the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) within physiological limits. Since body is able to regulate its own requirements of enzyme antioxidants, the diet must provide adequate quantity of non-enzymic antioxidants to meet the normal requirements and provide protection in exigent condition. So far, there is no evidence that human tissues ever experience the torrent of reactive species and that in chronic conditions with mildly enhanced generation of reactive species, the body can meet them squarely if antioxidants defense system in tissues is biochemically optimized. We are not yet certain about optimal levels of antioxidants in tissues. Two ways have been used to assess them: first by dietary intake and second by measuring plasma levels. Lately determination of plasma/serum level of antioxidants is considered better index for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. The recommended levels for vitamin A, E and C and beta carotene are 2.2–2.8 μmol/l; 27.5–30 μmol/l; 40–50 μmol/l and 0.4–0.5 μmol/l, respectively. The requirement and recommended blood levels of other dietary antioxidants are not established. The resolved issues are (1) essential to scavenge excess of radical species (2) participants in redox homeostasis (3) selective antioxidants activity against radical species (4) there is no universal antioxidant and 5) therapeutic value in case of deficiency. The overarching issues are (1) therapeutic value as adjuvant therapy in management of diseases (2) supplemental value in developing population (3) selective interactivity of antioxidant in different tissues and on different substrates (4) quantitative contribution in redox balance (5) mechanisms of adverse action on excess supplementation (6) advantages and disadvantages of prooxidant behavior of antioxidants (7) behavior in cohorts with polymorphic differences (8) interaction and intervention in radiotherapy, diabetes and diabetic complications and cardiovascular diseases (9) preventive behavior in neurological disorders (10) benefits of non-nutrient dietary antioxidants (11) markers to assess optimized antioxidants status (12) assessment of benefits of supplementation in alcoholics and heavy smokers. The unresolved and intriguing issues are (1) many compounds such as vitamin A and many others possessing both antioxidant and non-antioxidant properties contribute to both the activities in vivo or exclusively only to non-antioxidant activity and (2) since human tissues do not experience the surge of FR, whether there is any need to develop stronger synthetic antioxidants. Theoretically such antioxidants may do more harm than good.     

Estimation of financial loss ratio for E-insurance: a quantitative model

In view of the risk of E-commerce and the response of the insurance industry to it, this paper is aimed at one important point of insurance, that is, estimation of financial loss ratio, which is one of the most difficult problems facing the E-insurance industry. This paper proposes a quantitative analyzing model for estimating E-insurance financial loss ratio. The model is based on gross income per enterprise and CSI/FBI computer crime and security survey. The analysis results presented are reasonable and valuable for both insurer and the insured and thus can be accepted by both of them. What we must point out is that according to our assumption, the financial loss ratio varied very little, 0.233% in 1999 and 0.236% in 2000 although there was much variation in the main data of the CSI/FBI survey.     

Achievement differences in structured versus unstructured instructional geometry programs

This study investigated the effect of students' ability and type of instructional program, structured and unstructured, on easy and difficult posttest items. Seventh-grade students worked through 14 instructional activities in The Geometer Sketchpad, a dynamic geometry program, and accessed a Geometry tutorial developed to parallel the state geometry standards. Low-ability students scored higher in the less structured program, whereas high- and medium-ability learners performed better in the structured program. High- and medium-ability students outscored low-ability learners by a greater margin on the difficult items than on the easy items. Although their overall performance was poor in both programs, that low-ability learners performed relatively better in the less structured, less traditional, mathematics activities is an encouraging finding for mathematics educators and designers of open-ended learning environments.     

Task of the teaching life: Self through bakhtinian dialogue and ideological engagement

This article describes Mikhail Bakhtin’s 20^th century work on dialogue as it may serve one engaged in the teaching as a vocation and existential pursuit rather than as a job or profession. Dialogue, as theorized by Bakhtin, within the pedagogical real, potentially becomes a mod of being through which the individual engages in the project of selfhood, a task basic to the human enterprise. For Bakhtin, dialogue was in part a structure within and through which we come to consciousness and give flesh and meaning to our existence. According to Bakhtin, the structure of self is dialogical and unfinalizable, meaning that each individual comes to consciousness through dialogue with some other. From a Bakhtinian perspective, the, selfhood as a dialogical formation constitutes a fundamental relation by which we much participate without end, making dialogue an unavoidable social activity immersed in language.     

Conceptual Mediation Program in Practice: Educational Outcomes from Two Sites

We report on two studies in which high school students who had been exposed to a cognitive training procedure known as the Conceptual Mediation Program (CMP) were compared to students who had not participated within the program. In the first study, based on data from two sites, it was found that 70 CMP students exhibited higher levels of school affect and strategy awareness than 103 comparable students not in the program. In the second study, based on retrospective data from one site, 53 students who had participated within CMP classes were found to exhibit higher levels of attainment on Year 12 South Australian public examination results (effect size of 1.04 on the aggregate). On the Year 12 examination results, the CMP students outperformed both the school and state norms.     

Innovation and Enterprise in Singapore Schools

Schools in Singapore are now tasked to develop the spirit of innovation and enterprise in their students. This is in line with the national vision of ‘Thinking Schools, Learning Nation’. This policy initiative, which began in 2004, is set to change the fundamental nature of education in Singapore. This article discusses the innovation and enterprise (I&E) initiative, its major implications for schools in Singapore and the areas still to be addressed in the implementation of the policy. In particular, the article discusses the issues of teachers and school leaders as role models of I&E, I&E as an organic part of school business, the influence of the wider societal culture and values system, and the measurement of success of I&E. The challenge for schools is to go beyond the form of the initiative to bring real substantial and sustainable change through this movement.     

Degradation kinetics and mechanisms of phenol in photo-Fenton process

Phenol degradation in photochemically enhanced Fenton process was investigated in this work. UV-VIS spectra of phenol degradation showed the difference between photo-Fenton process and UV/H2O2, which is a typical hydroxyl radical process. A possible pathway diagram for phenol degradation in photo-Fenton process was proposed, and a mathematical model for chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was developed. Operating parameters such as dosage of H2O2 and ferrous ions, pH, suitable carrier gas were found to impact the removal of COD significantly. The results and analysis of kinetic parameters calculated from the kinetic model showed that complex degradation of phenol was the main pathway for removal of COD; while hydroxyl radicals acted weakly in the photo-Fenton degradation of phenol.     

Lonely or bored: Children’s lived experiences reveal the difference

In spite of the growing body of research on loneliness, the relationship between the phenomena of loneliness and boredom has not been sufficiently addressed, especially in respect to children. The question, “How does the child’s experience of boredom stand phenomenologically in relation to the experience of loneliness?” is explored from a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective. A critical examination of the literature regarding the phenomenology of both loneliness and boredom provides a theoretical background to the study. Elementary school children’s experiential accounts of loneliness and boredom are collected through research conversations. An original interpersonal communication board game is devised and used to initiate these conversations. The themes of loneliness and boredom emerged in a process of phenomenological reflection based on the participants’ lived experiences, the author’s personal experiences, and experiential accounts available in the literature. Distinctions between the two phenomena are derived from the exploration of these themes. Both boredom and loneliness are viewed as important pedagogical ingredients in the formation of the child’s inner self.     

China-ASEAN Relations in Higher Education: An Analytical Framework

China’s dramatic economic rise has tended to overshadow other wider perspectives on the developing China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) relationship, including in higher education. The article examines contemporary relations between China and ASEAN, set against the longer term development of cultural and trade relations. It is argued that, notwithstanding current territorial disputes, and a history of discrimination against ethnic Chinese in several parts of ASEAN, prospects for a deepening of relations in higher education remain strong. Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam are selected as three instances of the developing relationship in higher education and some of the links traced, with the former assessed as best placed to take advantage of its China relations in higher education. The developing sense of regionalism is seen as likely to further enhance China-ASEAN relations in higher education.