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.     

Systems biology

Systems biology seeks to study biological systems as a whole, contrary to the reductionist approach that has dominated biology. Such a view of biological systems emanating from strong foundations of molecular level understanding of the individual components in terms of their form, function and interactions is promising to transform the level at which we understand biology. Systems are defined and abstracted at different levels, which are simulated and analysed using different types of mathematical and computational techniques. Insights obtained from systems level studies readily lend to their use in several applications in biotechnology and drug discovery, making it even more important to study systems as a whole.     

Maryam Mirzakhani

The article outlines the life and work of Maryam Mirzakhani — the first and the only female winner of the Fields Medal since its inception in 1936. Mirzakhani is an inspiration to young women around the world, to believe in their own abilities and pursue their academic dreams.     

Role of HAMP Genetic Variants on Pathophysiology of Iron Deficiency Anemia

Hepcidin is a 25-amino acid peptide hormone produced by hepatocytes and plays a key role in body iron metabolism. Hepcidin deficiency is the cause of iron overload in hereditary hemochromatosis, iron-loading anemia, and its excess is associated with anemia of inflammation, chronic disease and iron deficiency anemia (IDA). The aims of this study was to evaluate HAMP gene mutation, namely IVS2 + 1(–G) (c.148–150 + 1del) and Gly71 Asp (c.212G > A (rs104894696) association with iron status in IDA conditions. Our study participants were 500 IDA patients and 550 age and sex-matched healthy controls. Hepcidin, ferritin and CRP analysis was done by ELISA method while ESR analysis was done according to Wintrobe method. CBC analysis was done by auto-analyzer. Two mutations in the HAMP genes were analysed by PCR RFLP method. Among the IDA patients, 7 were heterozygous for Met50del IVS2 + 1(–G) mutation. Nine IDA patients were heterozygous for G71D G–A mutation and homozygous were not identified in both mutations.Controls were showing heterozygous frequency 1.8 and 2.1% of Met50del IVS2 + 1(–G) and G71D G–A mutations respectively. Mutation of HAMP (Met50del IVS2 + 1(–G) and G71D G–A) were clinically associated with IDA and act as modulator of disease.     

Middle School Teachers’ Use of Mathematics to Make Sense of Student Solutions to Proportional Reasoning Problems

Mathematics teacher education aims to improve teachers’ use of mathematical knowledge to support teaching and learning, an aspect of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In this study, we interviewed teachers to understand how they used mathematics to make sense of student solutions to proportional reasoning problems. The larger purpose was to find accurate ways of categorizing teachers’ ability to do this vital aspect of teaching and thereby to inform assessment, teacher education, and professional development. We conjectured that teachers’ PCK for proportional reasoning could be reliably described in terms of attention to quantitative meanings in story problem contexts and in terms of understanding naïve forms of proportional reasoning. Instead, our findings reveal that individual teachers used a variety of means to make sense of (1) cognitively similar student solutions to different tasks and (2) mathematically related steps of a student solution within a single task. These findings illustrate the complexity of PCK for the topic of proportional reasoning and suggest the limits of what can be inferred about teacher knowledge from teachers’ evaluations of student solutions. We discuss implications for teacher education and assessment.     

Trends in private higher education in Australia

The last decade has witnessed a significant growth of private higher education around the world. The growth included the number of private education providers, and also the growing number of students. While some countries are experiencing trend growth, others are witnessing decline. Some of the reasons for the decline include increased regulation and stringent accreditation and reaccreditation of higher education institutions and courses, government policies to encourage the growth of public universities, and acquisition of small providers by large private education institutions. The growth of private higher education has increased competition, and it has also established collaboration with public institutions. The growth of private higher education has also raised concerns about ethical governance, maintenance of academic standards, and mechanisms to plan, review, and improve educational outcomes. This paper focuses on Australia where despite growth, there is limited research about private higher education. This paper reviews literature on the global growth and decline of private higher education. It then analyses the trends in Australia and possible scenarios for the future of private higher education in the country.     

Equal Opportunity Issues in the Context of the National Curriculum: a black perspective

This article examines the context and content of the National Curriculum documentation published so far within the framework of educational debates on the education of black children (black referring to non‐white). In particular it focuses on the interpretation of equal opportunities, the proposed strategies for implementation within the National Curriculum, and the prospects for success because of the other changes brought about by the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA). The main conclusion is that in some respects more appears to have been achieved than would have seemed possible in the early stages of the debates relating to ERA; on the other hand, there is a probability that an education system that provides true equal opportunities for groups and individuals currently being denied that will remain more of a hope than a reality. The article concludes that equality of opportunity is still a long way off, especially from a black perspective.     

Goodbye conflict, hello development? Curriculum reform in Timor-Leste

Motivations to reform curriculum in post-conflict, or post-colonial states are often driven by the need to (re) construct a cohesive and publicly legitimated national identity that is starkly different to that which existed prior. This paper explores the context behind such action in the Timor-Leste (East Timor) and some challenges which policy makers and citizens have wrestled with in developing and implementing the country's first post-independence primary curriculum. The author argues that specific aspects of this new curriculum have effectively alienated and/or divided large segments of its population, despite a desire for the reforms to result in a more inclusive, democratic and distinctly “Timorese” educational system. The assertion is that the desire to institute change rapidly after independence has in fact hampered the ability of the reforms to constructively serve the political and social project of nation building. The paper cautions that education's role in promoting human development, and reducing the triggers of conflict in this country hang in the balance as long as this new curriculum fails to deliver on its aspirations.     

Establishing the overall service quality of engineering education: fuzzy logic approach

Measuring overall service quality (OSQ) is gaining prominence in higher education due to the increased competition among engineering education institutions (EEIs) and growing awareness about value for money among the public. Determination of OSQ on certain institutional aspects is done by various agencies throughout the world. Each system uses a different set of weighted indicators to measure the overall service quality of institutions. Five service quality factors, namely professionalism, integrated education, facilities, responsiveness and empathy are considered in the study. Trapezoidal fuzzy numbers are used to determine the aggregate weights of the factors to handle the vagueness present in the linguistic values of the stakeholders’ subjective opinions. Final weights of the factors are assessed by taking the distances of each factor between Fuzzy Positive Ideal Rating and Fuzzy Negative Ideal Rating. An illustrative study is presented to determine the OSQ of EEIs. The results help to focus on the factors which need immediate attention to enhance the quality of EEIs.     

Projectile motion with quadratic damping in a constant gravitational field

The motion of a projectile in a constant gravitational field is an age-old problem. If there is no resistive force, the problem is simple. However, with the intoduction of resistive forces, the complexity of the problem increases. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the problem of projectile motion under a resistive force proportional to the square of velocity. The problem for resistive force proportional to vv cannot be solved in closed analytical form. A series solution of the equation leads to divergent series for x (t) and y (t) for reasonable values of the initial speed and angle of projection. However, we demonstrate that by inverting the series for x (t), i.e., expressing t in terms of x, and substituting this in y (t) one can express y in terms of x which is a highly convergent series and one can obtain the path of projectile with a few terms of the series. We further demonstrate that one can obtain the path even with a few terms of the divergent series for x (t) and y (t) by using extrapolation methods.