The Accessibility of Higher Education in the Russian Regions

This article provides a comparative analysis of accessibility of higher education across Russian regions in terms of the following three factors: the availability of admission opportunities; financial affordability; and geographic accessibility.

The study will be of interest to government agencies in higher education at various levels, analysts and researchers, as well as a wide range of readers focused on regional differences in higher education systems and policies.     

Analysis of academic administrators’ attitudes: annual evaluations and factors that improve teaching

This article examines academic administrators’ attitudes towards the academic evaluation process in the US and those factors that are utilised to improve teaching. We use path regressions to examine satisfaction with evaluation procedures, as well as the direct and indirect effects of these factors on perceptions of whether the evaluation process facilitates quality instruction. With increased pressure for accountability being placed on higher education, it is important to ensure that we are meeting both public and academic expectations. The evaluation process is an important tool to ensure the university’s goals and values are articulated and that academics can be successful in their individual career paths. The problem is most research finds flaws with the current method of evaluation, and academics and academic administrators are sceptical about the process and results. We find there are environmental factors that influence academic administrators’ perceptions of academic evaluations and the ability to improve classroom instruction.     

Evaluating the potential of teacher-designed technology-based tasks for meaningful learning: Identifying needs for professional development

With technology increasingly being introduced into classrooms worldwide, stakeholders are asking whether ICT provides educational value. It is not simply having access to technology but how teachers use it that will determine its worth to education. Thirty-three teacher-designed technology-based tasks from eight subject areas were analysed for their effective use of ICT, and their potential to involve students in constructivist learning. Few of the tasks made effective use of ICT for meaningful learning, for reasons associated with teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and missing TPACK components or competencies. These factors provide the basis for a model of areas to target when structuring professional development courses to help teachers better utilize educational ICT to design meaningful learning tasks.     

Diurnal variation in serum glucose,pyruvate, lactate and lactate dehydrogenase levels under different environmental temperatures

Circadian rhythm of serum glucose, pyruvate, lactate and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was studied in normal healthy young volunteers at the onset (I Group, 7 cases) and peak (II Group, 8 cases) of winters in India with highly varied temperature. There was a significant difference, in the circadian rhythm of glucose, pyruvate and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) of the two groups. A clockwise shift was observed in acrophase except in serum lactate, which is related to the energy demand in association with time qualified changes in diurnal activity of the individuals and change in photoperiod.     

Towards new molecular sensory devices: charged guest recognition by redox responsive ligand systems

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of crown ethers by C. J. Pedersen (see Mary R. Truter and C. J. Pedersen Endeavour, 30, 142, 1971). This article reviews some new developments in this important field. New crown ether and related ligand systems that contain organometallic redoxactive groups can complex and electrochemically detect cations (metals, ammonium) and anions (halide, nitrate) in polar solvents. Thus, they represent prototypes of novel molecular sensory devices of the future.     

Privacy,speech, and values: what we have no business knowing

In the United States the ascendancy of speech protection is due to an expansive and unjustified view of the value or primacy of free expression and access to information. This is perhaps understandable, given that privacy has been understood as a mere interest, whereas speech rights have been seen as more fundamental. I have argued elsewhere that the “mere interest” view of privacy is false. Privacy, properly defined, is a necessary condition for human well-being or flourishing. The opening section of this article will provide an overview of this theory. Next, after a few remarks on speech absolutism, privacy absolutism, and balancing theories, I will sketch several of the dominant argument strands that have been offered in support of presumptively weighty speech rights. While these arguments, taken together, establish that free speech is important, they do not support the view that speech should nearly always trump privacy. In final section I will present and defend a way to balance free speech and privacy claims.