Impact of the National Writing Project's College-Ready Writers Program in High-Need Rural Districts

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the broader problem of improving teaching and learning requires continued efforts to understand how to support teachers in making substantial changes in instruction. This paper reports on a district-randomized controlled trial of the National Writing Project's College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP), implemented in high-need rural districts in 10 states, testing one instance of professional development paired with supporting curricular resources and a formative assessment tool designed to shift instruction to align with the new college- and career-ready standards in English language arts classes in Grades 7–10. Researchers randomly assigned 44 rural districts either to receive two years of CRWP or to be in a business-as-usual control group and found positive impacts on teacher practice and student source-based argument writing.     

Development of three-dimensional integrated microchannel-electrode system to understand the particles' movement with electrokinetics

An optical transparent 3-D Integrated Microchannel-Electrode System (3-DIMES) has been developed to understand the particles'' movement with electrokinetics in the microchannel. In this system, 40 multilayered electrodes are embedded at the 2 opposite sides along the 5 square cross-sections of the microchannel by using Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems technology in order to achieve the optical transparency at the other 2 opposite sides. The concept of the 3-DIMES is that the particles are driven by electrokinetic forces which are dielectrophoretic force, thermal buoyancy, electrothermal force, and electroosmotic force in a three-dimensional scope by selecting the excitation multilayered electrodes. As a first step to understand the particles'' movement driven by electrokinetic forces in high conductive fluid (phosphate buffer saline (PBS)) with the 3-DIMES, the velocities of particles'' movement with one pair of the electrodes are measured three dimensionally by Particle Image Velocimetry technique in PBS; meanwhile, low conductive fluid (deionized water) is used as a reference. Then, the particles'' movement driven by the electrokinetic forces is discussed theoretically to estimate dominant forces exerting on the particles. Finally, from the theoretical estimation, the particles'' movement mainly results from the dominant forces which are thermal buoyancy and electrothermal force, while the velocity vortex formed at the 2 edges of the electrodes is because of the electroosmotic force. The conclusions suggest that the 3-DIMES with PBS as high conductive fluid helps to understand the three-dimensional advantageous flow structures for cell manipulation in biomedical applications.     

Evaluation of urinary abnormalities in nephrolithiasis patients from Marathwada region

Urinary abnormalities were evaluated in 100 renal stone patients with first episode of renal stone having age 22 to 45 years from both sex and compared to 100 normal healthy control group having same age group from both sex. Twenty-four hours urinary oxalate, calcium, uric acid, sodium, magnesium, phosphorus and citrate were estimated. The urinary pH was also determined. In stone formers urinary oxalate, calcium, sodium and uric acid excretions were significantly higher when compared with control group. Whereas citrate, phosphate and magnesium excretion were significantly lower in stone formers when compared with control. The pH of urine in stone formers was lower than the controls. High dietary intake of purine rich diet causes elevated excretion of uric acid, which leads to calcium oxalate crystal formation and precipitation. Other risk factors such as urinary oxalate, calcium also related to formation of renal calculi. Hypocitraturia is the main cause of renal calculi along with hypomagnesiuria and hypophosphaturia in the patient of Marathwada region. On the basis of urinary abnormalities further stone formation in the patient can be prevented by dietary modifications.     

External quality assessment for the RIA of thyroid related hormones: Second phase

An external quality assessment was conducted to assess the performance of various laboratories for RIA of thhyroid related hormones in two phases. In the first phase thirty five laboratories participated. At the end of first phase a meeting cum workshop was organised to discuss the results of first phase, difficultires faced by the participants and pinpoint the short oming. A second phase was then initiated with an objective of improvement in the performance, if any, where twelve samples from four pools were distributed to twenty four laboratories who participated for the second phase. The overall return of the results increased significantly from 71.8% (1586/2208) for the first phase to 92.4% (732/792) for the second phase. The inter laboratory %CV for T₃, T₄ and TSH were lower during the second phase (30.6%, 19.0% and 31.6% respectively) as compared to those observed during first phase (36.3%, 22.7% and 52.8% respectively). Similarly, there was an improvement in reproducibility of ALTM as %CV for T₃, T₄ and TSH decreased from 6.0%, 9.8% and 13.4% respectively to 4.5%, 4.6% and 8.5% respectively. The individual performances of the participating laboratories viz. bias, variability of bias and imprecision also showed a trend towards improvement as percent laboratories having desirable or acceptable results for T₃, T₄ and TSH increased from 10.7%, 60.7% and 0.0% respectively to 20.8%, 66.7% and 22.2% respectively. External quality assessment thus appears to be beneficial in assessing the performane of a laboratory in comfparison with other laboratories and indeed helps in improving the performance.     

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.     

Lipid peroxide levels and antioxidant status in alcoholic liver disease

The present study was conducted to evaluate some of the components of antioxidant defense system and oxidative damage in 20 male patients of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). The results were compared with 20 healthy male smokers and 20 healthy male non-smokers volunteers. Patients were subjected to detailed clinical examination and laboratory investigations. Blood samples were collected for estimating reduced glutathione (GSH), total thiols (T-SH) malondialdehyde (MDA), transaminases (AST, ALT), glutathione-S-transferease (GST) and gammaglutamyl transferase (GGT). Serum aspartate amino transferase (AST)/alanine amino transferase (ALT) ratio was significantly (p<0.01) reduced in ALD patients as compared to the controls. However, the core of utility of MDA and GST was found to be significantly (p<0.01) increased in ALD patients compared to controls. There was a significant negative correlation of MDA with both GSH and TSH. Plasma GGT levels were significantly (p<0.01) increased in alcoholics and the enzyme showed a significant positive correlation with MDA. These results give enough evidence of increased oxidative stress and compromised antioxidant defense system in patients with ALD.     

The costs of technological innovation

Since its publication in 1967, the estimates of the US Panel on Invention and Innovation (“Charpie” Panel) on the cost structure of technological innovation have been widely quoted and almost universally accepted. However, two later studies, by Edwin Mansfield and by Statistics Canada, have found that R&D accounts for a far greater proportion of total innovation costs than that suggested by the Charpie Panel. The Canadian study may be particularly interesting for medium-sized industrial nations since it is likely that the costs of commercializing the results of R&D are affected by the size of the potential market or field of utilization of the innovation. The results of Mansfield and Statistics Canada imply that governments, in their encouragement of innovation by supporting R&D, have been following a better strategy than perhaps they knew.