Embodying skilful performance: Co-constituting body and world in biotechnology

This article offers a philosophical-empirical account of embodied skilful performance in the practice of plant biotechnology. Drawing on the work of Merleau-Ponty and others, we elaborate how skilful performance emerges from and through reciprocal relations encompassing the body-in-the-world and the world-in-the-body. The contribution of this article lies in offering an account of skilful performance that is attentive to a perceiving, motile, feeling body entwined with world. In genetically modifying plants, scientists direct their senses of touch and vision to manipulating plant materials and matter, ‘reading’ subtle changes in tissue cultures, plantlets and so on. In rhythmic movements, they extend their bodies through skilful use of complex equipment, while calling on ‘intuition’ to guide their work. Skilful performance, then, relies on our lived body that is not merely a physical object among other objects, nor a passive instrument for the mind, but dynamic and inescapably entwined with people and things in a world in flux. Bringing to the fore how perceiving, motile, feeling bodies are implicated in skilful performance has significant implications for education and workplace training.     

Use of Internet services and resources in the engineering colleges of Punjab and Haryana (India): A study

This article reports a survey on the use of Internet services and resources in the engineering colleges of Punjab and Haryana states of India. Data were collected by using a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with Internet users, i.e. teachers and students of engineering colleges. The response rate was 80.8%. Results showed that all the respondents make frequent use of the Internet because they have access either at college or at home. The survey revealed that the majority of the respondents, i.e. 65.6%, access the Internet from college or their workplace. More than 75% of the respondents use the Internet services mainly for educational and research purposes. Google and Yahoo search engines are found to be more widely used than other search engines. More than 70% of the respondents feel that the Internet is useful, informative, easy to use, inexpensive and time saving.     

Universality of scholarly impact metrics

Given the growing use of impact metrics in the evaluation of scholars, journals, academic institutions, and even countries, there is a critical need for means to compare scientific impact across disciplinary boundaries. Unfortunately, citation-based metrics are strongly biased by diverse field sizes and publication and citation practices. As a result, we have witnessed an explosion in the number of newly proposed metrics that claim to be “universal.” However, there is currently no way to objectively assess whether a normalized metric can actually compensate for disciplinary bias. We introduce a new method to assess the universality of any scholarly impact metric, and apply it to evaluate a number of established metrics. We also define a very simple new metric h_s, which proves to be universal, thus allowing to compare the impact of scholars across scientific disciplines. These results move us closer to a formal methodology in the measure of scholarly impact.     

Transit of venus: Quantitative observing with simple equipment

The possibilities of quantitative student observations during the transit of Venus, using simple equipment, are discussed. The equipment could also be used for safe observations of the Sun during eclipses, transits of Mercury as also for daily observations of sunspots. The annual variation in the angular diameter of the Sun as it passes from aphelion to perihelion and so on, could be measured with this simple equipment. School and college astronomy clubs would find it very useful to use this equipment for daytime astronomy activities and learning-oriented projects.     

课前指导与补充指导对学生网络学习的影响

马来西亚开放大学（OUM）90％以上的学生为在职人员。这些成年学生离开学校至少已经5年,而且大多数人的数学基础不好。因此,仅是在线学习加少量面授辅导的教学模式对他们来说还不能完全解决学习困难。学校试用了“课前指导工作室”与“补充指导”的教学方法,探讨了这一方法对学员的在线参与程度及考试结果的影响,运用源于探究团体模式的34项量表对在线论坛的内容进行了分析,结果表明,学员参加工作室与否同他们的期末考试成绩有很大关系。参加指导老师工作室及补充指导的学员与那些参加指导老师常规指导的学员相比,前者的在线参与程度及期末考试的平均分都存在着很大的差异。两组学员的数学探究团体模式平均分表明,两组学员在教学存在和认知存在方面有差异,但在社会存在方面基本相同。     

The benefits of overseas study for international postgraduate students in Malaysia

This paper investigates the benefits of overseas tertiary education for international postgraduate students enrolled at a research-intensive university in Malaysia, an emerging yet under-researched Asian education hub. The study is based on 55 semi-structured qualitative interviews with international students and academic and professional support staff. Our analysis identified three sets of benefits linked to specific economic, educational, social and cultural pull factors: academic success, building knowledge and skills, and contributing to home country on return. Our analysis illustrates the interplay between macro and meso-level actors and policies in shaping the micro-level experiences of international students. The paper contributes new insights into vital nuances in the nature and lived experience of the key benefits of international education relating to academic success and time, language learning and friendship, and employability and ‘giving back’.     

Improvement in electrolyte imbalance in critically ill patient after magnesium supplementation — A case report

Hypomagnesaemia is common finding in current medical practice mainly in critically ill, post-operative patients and patients admitted to ICU in tertiary cancer cases. Magnesium has been directly implicated in hypokalemia, hypocalcaemia and dysrrthymias. We report a case of 60 year old patient, suffering from rectal carcinoma for a period of one year with confirmed hypokalemia, hypocalcaemia and hyponatremia. Magnesium supplementation corrected the underlying multiple electrolyte disturbances in the patient thus, establishing a positive correlation of magnesium with sodium, potassium and calcium.     

Combined Analysis of Anti SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM Responses in COVID19 Patients in India

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global health problem, India being the second most affected country. The kinetics of antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in Indian population is not studied yet. To understand serological response in relation to age, gender, time period and severity of disease, Roche Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 test was used which analysed both IgM and IgG. One hundred and three COVID-19 patients were enrolled. Seropositivity was seen in 64% of patients, with 33% at ≤ 7 days, 62% between 8 and 15 days and 81% at ≥ 16 days from the time of admission. Men (65%) showed higher antibody response than women (59%), whereas no difference was observed in seropositivity with respect to age of the patients. Dynamics of antibody responses revealed individual variations. Patients in ICU had higher antibody reactivity with 67% positivity as compared to 60% positivity in non-ICU patients. Kinetics of antibody response during COVID-19 disease varied in relation to gender, age, time period and severity and these factors might play an important role in treatment and control of COVID-19.     

Use of Internet services and resources in the engineering colleges of Punjab and Haryana (India): A study

This article reports a survey on the use of Internet services and resources in the engineering colleges of Punjab and Haryana states of India. Data were collected by using a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with Internet users, i.e. teachers and students of engineering colleges. The response rate was 80.8%. Results showed that all the respondents make frequent use of the Internet because they have access either at college or at home. The survey revealed that the majority of the respondents, i.e. 65.6%, access the Internet from college or their workplace. More than 75% of the respondents use the Internet services mainly for educational and research purposes. Google and Yahoo search engines are found to be more widely used than other search engines. More than 70% of the respondents feel that the Internet is useful, informative, easy to use, inexpensive and time saving.