Perceived rates of return to higher education: Further evidence from Cyprus

The paper provides new estimates of the perceived rates of return to higher education in Cyprus and compares them to previous estimates for the year 1994 in the same country. Both the elaborate and the short-cut methods are used in the estimation of rates of return. The estimated rates are entered as independent variables in logistic regression analysis in order to study the effect of economic considerations on the decision of secondary school students to pursue higher education. The findings show an increase in the perceived rate of return for both higher education and labour market entrants. In agreement with human capital theory, the mean rate of return to higher education expected by higher education candidates is considerably higher than that expected by labour market entrants. In two logistic regression models, the perceived rate of return to higher education, as estimated by both the elaborate and the short-cut methods, has a significant effect on the students’ intention to pursue higher studies.     

Student Involmement in University Governance: A Need for Negotiated Educational Aims?

The paper argues for the need toincrease student participation in universitygovernance, especially in relation tohigh-level decision-making concerning the aimsand mission of tertiary institutions. The paperexamines the arguments in favour of, andagainst, student participation in universitygovernance. It also provides an overview ofthe findings of recent empirical studies on thetopic. The need for a process of negotiation inthe setting of higher education aims isemphasised and several suggestions are offeredregarding ways of increasing studentinvolvement in the aims-setting process.     

Improving Science and Literacy Learning for English Language Learners: Evidence from a Pre-service Teacher Preparation Intervention

This paper present findings from a pre-service teacher development project that prepared novice teachers to promote English language and literacy development with inquiry-based science through a modified elementary science methods course and professional development for cooperating teachers. To study the project’s impact on student learning, we administered a pre and post assessment to students (N = 191) of nine first year elementary teachers (grades 3 through 6) who experienced the intervention and who taught a common science unit. Preliminary results indicate that (1) student learning improved across all categories (science concepts, writing, and vocabulary)—although the effect varied by category, and (2) English Language Learner (ELL) learning gains were on par with non-ELLs, with differences across proficiency levels for vocabulary gain scores. These results warrant further analyses to understand the extent to which the intervention improved teacher practice and student learning. This study confirms the findings of previous research that the integration of science language and literacy practices can improve ELL achievement in science concepts, writing and vocabulary. In addition, the study indicates that it is possible to begin to link the practices taught in pre-service teacher preparation to novice teacher practice and student learning outcomes.     

Bibliometrics of global malaria vaccine research

Objectives: This study evaluates malaria vaccine research carried out in different parts of the world during 1972–2004 using different bibliometric indicators. Method: Data have been downloaded from PubMed for the period 1972–2004 using the keywords (malaria* or plasmodium or falciparum) and (vaccine*) in the title and abstract fields. The study examined the pattern of growth of the output, its geographical distribution, profile of different countries in different subfields and pattern of citations using GOOGLE Scholar. Results: Malaria vaccine research output is gradually increasing. The USA, followed by the UK and Australia contributed the highest number of papers. Publication activity has decreased in Switzerland and Sweden, but has increased in Brazil and China. The majority of the countries have focused on the development of asexual blood stage malaria. Citations per paper and incidence of high‐quality papers for the USA, the UK, Papua New Guinea and Denmark are more than the average. The majority of the prolific institutions are located in the USA, the UK, France and Australia. Conclusion: The last two decades have witnessed considerable growth in research output in this field, while a successful malaria vaccine still remains elusive. Interestingly, the countries like the USA, the UK and Australia that lead in the quantity, quality and citation of this output are often not those directly affected by malaria.     

Breakthrough recognition: Bias against novelty and competition for attention

Adding to the literature on the recognition and spread of ideas, and alongside the bias against novelty view documented in prior research, we introduce the perspective that articles compete for the attention of researchers who might build upon them. We investigate this effect by analyzing more than 5.3 million research publications from 1970 to 1999 in the life sciences. In support of our competition for attention perspective, we show that articles covering rarely addressed topics tend to receive more citations and have a higher chance of being breakthrough papers as compared to articles on more popular topics. We also explore conditions under which these effects might vary by using decade subsamples, home- versus foreign-field forward citations, as well as short-, medium- and long-term time windows. Finally, we also find evidence consistent with the previously documented bias against novelty and show that both mechanisms can work simultaneously.     

Cinderella in Serum Protein Electrophoresis

Paraproteinemia is characterised by clonal proliferation of plasma cells. A common laboratory finding in paraproteinemia being a monoclonal peak in serum protein electrophoresis (M band). But there are factors which produce a peak similar to M spike in serum protein electrophoresis and these factors are known as pseudoparaproteins. This case report discusses a rare cause of pseudo M spike in a known case of autoimmune hemolytic anaemia due to administration of drug-Rituximab, a monoclonal antibody by itself.     

Adenosine deaminase and protein tyrosine phosphatase activities in liver and peritoneal macrophages of streptozotocin induced diabetic mice

Adenosine deaminase and protein tyrosine phosphatase activities in liver and peritoneal macrophages were estimated in control, streptozotocin induced diabetes and insulin treated diabetic groups of Swiss albino mice. Both the enzyme levels were elevated while glycogen content decreased in the liver of diabetic group of animals as compared to controls, while in insulin treated group, they were comparable to control levels. In macrophages also, both adenosine deaminase which plays an important role in their maturation and protein tyrosine phosphatase enzyme involved in their activation were high in diabetic group, whereas in insulin treated diabetic group, the values were comparable to control levels. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A00FN011 00003     

Changes in the levels of glycoproteins and glycosaminoglycans in diabetes associated with myocardial infarction

Changes in the levels of glycoprotein (GP) and glycosminoglycans (GAG) were studied in diabetes associated with myocardial infarction in rats. Diabetes was induced by alloxan while myocardial infarction was induced using isoproterenol. Most of the GAG fraction increased in the heart and aorta in diabetes superimposed with myocardial infarction. The carbohydrate of GP also increased in heart while in serum only sialic acid showed an increase. The activity of lysosomal enzymes showed an increase in the case of β-glucuronidase and β-hexosaminidase while in the case of β-galactosidase and β-fucosidase it showed a decrease in the heart.     

Plasma oxidant-antioxidant status in different respiratory disorders

This study confirms the fact that in different respiratory disorders, the status of plasma oxidants and antioxidants shifts from normal. The status of oxidants in plasma as represented by malondialdehyde (MDA) levels increased significantly in the conditions of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, bronchiectasis and bronchial asthma. The two vitamin antioxidants vitamin C and vitamin E showed decreased levels than in controls. In patients with COPD the endogenous antioxidant viz. reduced glutathione (GSH) estimated from whole blood was comparable to that of control group, whereas in patients with emphysema, bronchiectasis and bronchial asthma, GSH concentration was increased to that of control group. The activity of enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) was significantly decreased in all study groups. Pulmonary function tests were found to have no correlation with MDA and antioxidants     

Investigating Preservice Teachers’ Science Teaching Self-Efficacy: an Analysis of Reflective Practices

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - The purpose of this mixed methods research was to investigate the development of 55 preservice elementary teachers’ science...