Classroom

In this section of Resonance, we invite readers to pose questions likely to be raised in a classroom situation. Wemay suggest strategies for dealingwith them, or invite responses, or both. “Classroom” is equally a forum for raising broader issues and sharing personal experiences and viewpoints on matters related to teaching and learning science.     

School meal time and social learning in England

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an ethnographic account of the culture of school meal time at Peartree Academy, with a specific focus on notions of social learning. This qualitative study is focused on a collection of interviews, observations, field notes and analyses what happens when the school organises its canteen as a restaurant. The focus moves away from the traditional realms of nutrition and explicitly introduces the notion of social learning in its informal sense through which a conceptual framework of a skills model is applied. The paper argues how the school dining hall known as the restaurant can foster opportunities for a form of social competence which is not necessarily seen but can be experienced in the social reproduction of its actors. The findings highlight tensions of control within the environment, which are said to impinge upon these social learning opportunities from occurring.     

Serum super oxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in urinary disorders

Evaluation of serum SOD and MDA level was done in 21 first episode renal stone formers, 9 recurrent stone formers, 20 patients with obstructive uropathy other than urolithiasis and 12 patients with urinary infection. Twenty-two healthy volunteers were taken as controls. The level of SOD in respective groups was 2.12±0.84, 2.78±0.85, 1.42±0.31, 1.98±0.70 and 2.32±0.62 units/ml and of MDA was 2.61±1.07, 2.69±1.15, 1.65±0.33, 1.33±0.34 and 1.55±0.48 n mol/ml respectively. The results indicate increased peroxidative stressin nephrolithiasis only. Since SOD level was normal in all groups, this increased peroxidative stress in nephrolithiasis should be due to factors other than this one.     

QTL analysis for some quantitative traits in bread wheat

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis was conducted in bread wheat for 14 important traits utilizing data from four different mapping populations involving different approaches of QTL analysis. Analysis for grain protein content (GPC) sug- gested that the major part of genetic variation for this trait is due to environmental interactions. In contrast, pre-harvest sprouting tolerance (PHST) was controlled mainly by main effect QTL (M-QTL) with very little genetic variation due to environmental interactions; a major QTL for PHST was detected on chromosome arm 3AL. For grain weight, one QTL each was detected on chromosome arms 1AS, 2BS and 7AS. QTL for 4 growth related traits taken together detected by different methods ranged from 37 to 40; nine QTL that were detected by single-locus as well as two-locus analyses were all M-QTL. Similarly, single-locus and two-locus QTL analyses for seven yield and yield contributing traits in two populations respectively allowed detection of 25 and 50 QTL by composite interval mapping (CIM), 16 and 25 QTL by multiple-trait composite interval mapping (MCIM) and 38 and 37 QTL by two-locus analyses. These studies should prove useful in QTL cloning and wheat improvement through marker aided selection.     

Utility of P-SEP,sTREM-1 and suPAR as Novel Sepsis Biomarkers in SARS-CoV-2 Infection

The coronavirus disease 2019 is a highly contagious viral infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, member of coronaviridae family. It causes life threatening complications due to complexity and rapid onset course of the disease. Early identification of high-risk patients who require close monitoring and aggressive treatment remains challengeable till date. Novel biomarkers which help to identify high risk patients at the early stage is high priority. Objective of this review to find utility of P-SEP, sTREM-1 and suPAR for diagnosis, risk stratification and prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 infected cases. Soluble receptors like, P-SEP, sTREM-1 and suPAR have been involved in immune regulation in SARS-CoV-2 infection and elevate more in severe cases. A comprehensive research of databases like PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI and Web of Science was performed for relevant studies. A total of nine out of fifteen research literature in initial screening were included for this review. Interestingly all studies have reported high levels of P-SEP, sTREM-1 and suPAR in SARS-CoV-2 infected cases and the biomarkers positively correlated with severity of infection. This implies that P-SEP, sTREM-1 and suPAR can be implemented as surrogate marker in blood profile for early diagnosis, risk stratification and prognosis in SARS-CoV-2 for better management in Indian population at the current situation.     

Relationship Understanding Between Emotional Stability,Self-Disclosure and Social Adjustment

This paper discusses a survey, carried out by the authors, of 211 employees’ employed in public and private manufacturing organizations in North India to determine if emotional stability acts as a mediator between self-disclosure and social adjustment. Capitalization theory has been used as theoretical framework to examine the proposed relationships. Results indicate that high self-disclosure has positive association with social adjustment. Results also suggest that emotional stability partially mediates self-disclosure and social adjustment relationship. Implications for future research include further examination through additional mediators and other dimensions of self-disclosure from capitalization theory in understudied non-U.S. cultures like India.     

What Is Right About Special Education

Abstract

Promoting self-determination has become an important aspect of the educational programs of students with disabilities. There is now a sufficient literature base to support some syntheses that enable researchers to judge their progress in this area to date and to provide direction for future research and practice. For this study, we conducted a literature review of studies that measured or examined global self-determination.     

Revisiting the occupational aspirations and destinations of Anglo-Australian and Chinese-Australian high school students

Evidence from Australia lends support to the “Asian high achieving syndrome” in Chinese-Australian students and “self-deprivation syndrome” in Anglo-Australian students. Applying ethnographic case studies approach for doctoral thesis the author collected data on a longitudinal basis from homes and school of these students. All of these students attended the same school located in a predominantly middle class suburb of Perth Metropolitan area in Western Australia. Chinese-Australian families had settled in Perth from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, whereas Anglo-Australian families had been residing in Perth for three generations. Impetus to revisit these students (now young adults with their own families) 10 years later came from an urge to test the validity of the prediction the author had made in the concluding chapter of his doctoral thesis. The author had claimed that “if Anglo-Australian parents keep on dwelling in the era of 1950s and 1960s and do not change their laid-back attitude about education, their children could eventually be under-privileged in their own country”. Ten years later, the author undertook a follow-up study on these young adults from six of the eight original families in order to find out their occupational destinations and future aspirations. Data for the follow-up study were collected from these young adults and their parents. These research cases were interviewed twice, each time approximately for two hours and their parents were interviewed once for two to three hours. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of the follow-up study which reveals a remarkable relationship between the attitude towards schooling and academic performance with their subsequent occupational destination.     

‘Twilight or Middlemarch?’ A Teacher’s Refusal to Choose

What should children and young adolescents read? Recent changes in the English curriculum have once again shifted the focus towards more canonical texts, but does featuring such texts on the course necessarily equate to rigorous teaching and in-depth learning? Through a self-examination of her own reading history, the author argues for a dialogic approach to reading and text selection instead, so that students may negotiate better understandings of themselves and their own socio-cultural contexts.