Dargah libraries in India: a comparative study

This paper relates to the difficulty in retrieving precise information from big repositories of magazine articles in full text, and proposes an Extended Markup Language (XML) vocabulary for improving retrieval rates. The hypothesis tested was as follows: Magazine articles marked up with an XML vocabulary, indexed only by selected parts, give more precise search results than the same search using full text index.

The study was exploratory with the following characteristics: 29 magazine articles were tested for results, 8 scholars were interviewed for defining 23 search strategies and evaluating results. The data showed that precision improved from 40.72% with full text search to 62.84% using XML markup and searching only in specific labels.

Revision of the vocabulary and more testing has to be done by the library and information science community in order to obtain a valid vocabulary and provide more research results. Cultural characteristics and politics of librarians and information managers’ community are as important as technical issues in order to consider any technical proposal to be implemented successfully to achieve interoperability.     

Measuring Effectiveness and Efficiency of an Academic Library's Collection and Services of the Central Library,Allahabad University: Users’ Point of View

The main purpose of this study is to know the users opinion regarding the adequacy of the library's collection and to analyze the level of users’ satisfaction about the library collection, organization, facilities, and services. A well-structured survey was administered to the faculty members, research scholars, and students of the Allahabad University Library to collect data. Data show that the majority of the respondents believess that not only does the library possess an average collection, but the overall library's function, i.e., library collection, organization of collection, attitude of library staff, services, and IT-based services, is also rated average.     

Teacher-student development in mathematics classrooms: Interrelated zones of free movement and promoted actions

This paper applies and extends Valsiner’s ‘zone theory’ (zones of free movement and promoted actions) through an examination of an intervention to establish inquiry communities in primary mathematics classrooms. Valsiner’s zone theory, in a classroom setting, views students’ freedom of choice of action and thought as mediated by the teacher. The extension of this theory adds that teachers’ freedom of choice of action and thought is mediated by ‘significant others’ and also by the actions of students with new freedoms. The paper presents necessary theoretical constructs and provides extracts from lessons and from teacher-teacher collaboration to illustrate the theoretical extension.     

Cellular immune response to infection by different genotypes of hepatitis C virus

The present study aimed to estimate the cellular immune response to infection by different HCV genotypes in some Egyptian patients with chronic liver disease. HCV-RNA and HCV genotypes were conducted using type-specific primers to amplify the core region of HCV genome. The levels of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, PIIINP, SOD enzyme were also determined. The results showed that genotype 4 was the prevalent one (88.57%).Genotype 3 was found mixed with genotype 2 and 4 (11.42% and 34.28% respectively). Genotype 1 was absent from patients under study. No significant differences were observed in the level of IFN-gamma interferon, SOD enzyme and ALT enzyme between those genotypes. On the other hand the level of TNF-alpha was greatly increased in patients infected with mixed HCV genotypes 3, 4 compared with patients with genotype 4 and those infected with mixed genotypes 2, 3. Otherwise PIIINP was decreased significantly of the same group compared with other groups.     

Transcoding numbers: A developmental approach of comprehension

The aim of this article is to study the development of transcoding ability using a comprehension task. We present the subject with a number written in the alphabetic code (e.g., Five) and we ask him to point out the equivalent in a set of four numbers written with the Arabic code (e.g., 5, 15, 50, 34). Results are discussed with regard to the cognitive and neuropsychological models of number transcoding.     

Development and validation of Mobile Learning Acceptance Measure

The growth of Smartphone usage, increased acceptance of electronic learning (E-learning), the availability of high reliability mobile networks and need for flexibility in learning have resulted in the growth of mobile learning (M-learning). This has led to a tremendous interest in the acceptance behaviors related to M-learning users among the information systems researchers. Despite a large amount of significant research in the field of M-learning, the measurement of user acceptance of M-learning has not received attention. This research study intends to develop and validate a survey that measures users’ acceptance of M-learning. A total sample of 806 university and higher college students from different institutes in Oman participated in this study. This research study was conducted in two stages. The first stage using a sample size of 388 students initiated a generic questionnaire, and examined factorial validity and reliability. The second stage that was conducted using different sample of 418 students employed confirmatory factor analysis to establish factorial validity and measurement invariance. A correlated six-factor model (Flexibility, Suitability, Enjoyment, Efficiency, Economic and Social) was fit using maximum likelihood estimation. The internal consistency and item reliability of Mobile Learning Acceptance Measure was found to be at acceptable level for both samples.     

The mental health and psychological well-being of refugee children and young people: an exploration of risk,resilience and protective factors

This research investigates the perceptions of refugee children, refugee parents and school staff regarding the positive adaptation of refugee children in a new social context and the effects on mental health and psychological well-being. This included an exploration of resilience and the role of risk and protective factors. Few studies have focused on views from a resilience perspective, and these have tended to use quantitative rather than qualitative measures. This mixed methods piece of “real world” research adopted a “what’s working well” perspective and explored the important voices of these children, parents and school staff. Staff, parent and child responses were triangulated to provide a rich picture of the potential protective factors operating within the school and family environment. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Restrictive versus facilitative teacher professional development: a case from three public schools in Indonesia

Asia Pacific Education Review - This paper argues that the professional learning of teachers is shaped and conditioned by the circumstances, arrangements, and specificity of teacher professional...