Matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) -1612 5A/6A promoter polymorphism in coronary artery disease in Indian population

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play important role in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD). 5A allele of -1612 5A/6A polymorphism of MMP-3 is associated with two fold higher activity than 6A allele. Present study was designed to analyse the association of this polymorphism with CAD in Indian population. Subjects included in the study were patients with stable angina (n=35), unstable angina (n=53), patients with recent event of myocardial infarction (MI) (MI Group-1, n=56) and patients at presentation of the acute MI (MI Group-2, n=49). Controls were healthy individuals (n=99). Genotyping of MMP-3 5A/6A polymorphism was carried out by PCR-based restriction digestion method. The genotype distribution of patient groups did not deviate from controls. Serum MMP-3 levels were significantly elevated at presentation of the acute MI by 36.8% (P=0.031) as compared to controls and more associated with 6A genotype suggesting discrepancy between in vitro transfection experiment and peripheral MMP-3 levels.     

Disabled and successful: education in the life stories of disabled high achievers

There has been much debate concerning the pros and cons of special and mainstream education for young people with a disability. This paper adds data to this debate by reporting the educational experiences of 20 high-achievers with congenital disabilities who live in the United Kingdom and were born between 1950 and 1970. It presents personal accounts of the high-achievers' perceptions of how their education, which was either purely in special schools, in mainstream schools or a combination of both, had influenced their transition to adulthood. While those who attended special school considered it to provide a supportive environment that permitted the cultivation of their personalities without the constraints of non-disabled barriers, many others thought it prevented them as disabled children from interacting with non-disabled peers, thus inhibiting social integration between the disabled and non-disabled world. This was the main perceived advantage of mainstream education although problems of physical access meant that some choices were out of reach. The findings highlight how both special and mainstream education can be compatible with career success of individual disabled people. The paper implies that a combination of the two systems may be needed to facilitate disabled students to develop psychologically, socially and cognitively at the rate of their non-disabled peers, and proposes that link schools and partial integration could contribute to the achievement of such goals.     

Disconnecting to Connect: Developing Postconnectivist Tactics for Mobile and Networked Technical Communication

ABSTRACT

In a networked society, humans are connected through mobile devices to always-on networks, and these technologies merge with us in new ways. In this environment, studying human-networked interactions involves an expanded type of usability. In this article, we argue that a key component of usability is how humans connect and disconnect from these networks. For this reason, the authors advocate studying how users connect and disconnect between online and offline contexts in their everyday life. Such an effort involves questioning our assumptions about the role of connection in usability and introduces methodological issues in studying these processes. These shifts require our research to be more multidisciplinary and more methodologically demanding, with major implications for the portability and durability of technical communication research.     

‘The fruit caught between two stones’: the conflicted position of teachers within Aceh's independence struggle†

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the challenging situation faced by teachers as professionals and members of the community in Aceh, Indonesia during the province's civil war. It reveals how teachers’ sense of agency during this period was deeply influenced by the economic/material, political and socio-cultural condition at that time – conditions and experiences which today have bearing on a place for teachers in the post-conflict peace-building process occurring in the province. During the conflict, teachers struggled to balance their strategic societal positioning – as civil servants and community members – and found themselves caught in the middle of a complex range of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces at play. This position of constraint, we argue, limited the ability of teachers to act as peace-builders during the conflict, and continues to influence teachers’ ability to function in such ways today.     

论酒店经营管理的整体服务意识

提高酒店的服务质量必须增强企业的整体服务意识。整体服务意识是统一、规范、完整的服务质量观。本文从酒店业的实际出发,界定了构成整体服务意识的四个要素及其相互之间的关系,概括并总结了确立和实践整体服务意识的酒店企业的成功经验,同时还从企业经营管理的角度指出影响酒店提高优质服务所存在的问题。     

Problems of Illiteracy in a Literate Developing Society: Sri Lanka

With 87.0% of its population literate, Sri Lanka occupies a high ranking position among South and South-East Asian nations in educational development. The high percentage of literacy achieved through progressive measures in education spanning half a century, however, has led to a state of complacency and less priority being given to efforts at eradicating illiteracy. This paper will focus on a recent study conducted on the incidence of illiteracy in specific disadvantaged communities in the country which indicated that in the present era of technological advancement, lack of literacy will continue to affect the life-chances of people in these communities where the rate of literacy remains much lower than the national average. The study investigates into the factors associated with illiteracy, and the attitudes and perceptions of the communities themselves towards literacy programmes and regarding the modalities and strategies of providing literacy. The implications of the study and the final recommendations drawn up in consultation with the policy makers at national and provincial levels in governmental and non-governmental sectors are also discussed in the paper.     

开展机构协作发展远程教育

[译者按]本文原文发表于"学习联邦"(Com-monwea]th of Learning)网站<知识系列>(Know]-edge Series)栏目(2003年).学习联邦是英联邦各成员国的政府首脑倡议成立的政府间组织,其宗旨是鼓励开发和共享开放学习和远程教育的知识、资源和技术.目前我国远程教育机构也正在开展各种形式的协作,既有电大之间的协作,也有电大与其他教育机构的协作,还有国际间的协作,但毕竟一切刚刚起步,许多地方有待于进一步完善.因此,我们认为这篇经验之谈的文章所提出的一些原则、建议、指南等对我们有一定指导意义和借鉴价值.现将其译成中文,以飨读者,并向印度甘地国立开放大学Sharma高级讲师和Chaudhary教授以及学习联邦组织致谢!     

Making sense of double number lines in professional development: exploring teachers’ understandings of proportional relationships

This study presents a qualitative analysis of the knowledge teachers in one professional development course used to reason about proportional relationships with double number lines. We work from the knowledge-in-pieces perspective to consider the existing knowledge the participants did or did not invoke when learning to reason with this new-to-them representation. We analyzed videotaped sessions of a group of urban middle-grade teachers across five class meetings. Our findings include discussion of the two pieces of knowledge that emerged as important for reasoning about proportions with the representation and three knowledge pieces that deterred meaning making. Implications for professional development are discussed as are the implications for conceptualizing teachers’ understanding through a knowledge-in-pieces lens.     

Investigating importance and key factors for information governance implementation in Nigerian Universities

Education and Information Technologies - Information governance (IG) embraces underlying necessities to organize information using consistent method for meeting organizational needs. This demand...     

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.