Middle School Teachers’ Use of Mathematics to Make Sense of Student Solutions to Proportional Reasoning Problems

Mathematics teacher education aims to improve teachers’ use of mathematical knowledge to support teaching and learning, an aspect of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In this study, we interviewed teachers to understand how they used mathematics to make sense of student solutions to proportional reasoning problems. The larger purpose was to find accurate ways of categorizing teachers’ ability to do this vital aspect of teaching and thereby to inform assessment, teacher education, and professional development. We conjectured that teachers’ PCK for proportional reasoning could be reliably described in terms of attention to quantitative meanings in story problem contexts and in terms of understanding naïve forms of proportional reasoning. Instead, our findings reveal that individual teachers used a variety of means to make sense of (1) cognitively similar student solutions to different tasks and (2) mathematically related steps of a student solution within a single task. These findings illustrate the complexity of PCK for the topic of proportional reasoning and suggest the limits of what can be inferred about teacher knowledge from teachers’ evaluations of student solutions. We discuss implications for teacher education and assessment.     

Using kindergarten number sense to predict calculation fluency in second grade

Children's number sense in kindergarten was used to predict their calculation fluency in second grade (N = 198). Using block entry regression, usual predictors of age, reading, memory, and verbal and spatial cognition were entered in the first block and number sense measures were added in the second block. Number sense measures contributed a significant amount of variance over and above the more general predictors (26%-42%). Uniquely predictive subareas were active memory for numbers, number knowledge, and number combinations, with number combinations standing out as the strongest single predictor. Number sense screening in kindergarten, using "at-risk" versus "not-at-risk" criteria, successfully ruled out 84% of the children who did not go on to have calculation fluency difficulties and positively identified 52% of the children who later showed fluency difficulties. The relation of early number skills to later calculation fluency has important implications for math screening and intervention.     

Dietary Fats and Oxidative Stress: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Coronary Artery Disease Subjects Consuming Coconut Oil/Sunflower Oil

Coconut oil has been used by the people of Kerala as a cooking medium for several decades. Due to its alleged hypercholesterolemic activity, general population in recent times is shifting to cooking oils rich in polyunsaturated fats, the most popular being sunflower oil. The effect of long-term consumption of sunflower oil on oxidative stress in humans is not well investigated. We studied oxidative stress among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients who were consuming coconut oil or sunflower oil as a part of their routine diet. Men, aged 35–70 years, with established CAD, who presented to the hospital for routine cardiac evaluations, were enrolled in this observational study. Group 1 and 2 consisted of 73 and 80 subjects consuming coconut oil and sunflower oil respectively for over a period of 2 years. Lipid profile and parameters for oxidative stress were evaluated among them. Conventional lipid parameters did not differ significantly between the two groups. Mean vitamin C concentration was significantly reduced for subjects on sunflower oil compared to those consuming coconut oil (P = 0.044). Malondialdehyde was higher for sunflower oil consumers compared to coconut oil consumers (P < 0.0001). Other parameters such as oxidized LDL, GSH, GPx and SOD were not found to be significantly different between the two groups. The results of the present study show that coconut oil did not induce hypercholesterolemia compared to sunflower oil. On the other hand, sunflower oil group had elevated oxidative stress compared to coconut oil group.     

A Narrative Review of Potential Future Antidiabetic Drugs: Should We Expect More?

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus, a chronic metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia, is growing worldwide. The majority of the cases belong to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Globally, India ranks second in terms of diabetes prevalence among adults. Currently available classes of therapeutic agents are used alone or in combinations but seldom achieve treatment targets. Diverse pathophysiology and the need of therapeutic agents with more favourable pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamics profile make newer drug discoveries in the field of T2DM essential. A large number of molecules, some with novel mechanisms, are in pipeline. The essence of this review is to track and discuss these potential agents, based on their developmental stages, especially those in phase 3 or phase 2. Unique molecules are being developed for existing drug classes like insulins, DPP-4 inhibitors, GLP-1 analogues; and under newer classes like dual/pan PPAR agonists, dual SGLT1/SGLT2 inhibitors, glimins, anti-inflammatory agents, glucokinase activators, G-protein coupled receptor agonists, hybrid peptide agonists, apical sodium-dependent bile acid transporter (ASBT) inhibitors, glucagon receptor antagonists etc. The heterogeneous clinical presentation and therapeutic outcomes in phenotypically similar patients is a clue to think beyond the standard treatment strategy.     

A Microarray Immunoassay for Serum Thyrotropin and Thyroglobulin Using Antibodies Immobilized on Track-Etched Membranes

Serum thyroglobulin (Tg) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) measurements have evolved as important analytes for monitoring the prognosis of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, post-thyroidectomy. Individual analyte immunoassay is the current practice in clinical pathology, but the simultaneous assay for all relevant analytes for a given disease, can reduce assay costs, improve patient compliance and give the clinician more information for an unequivocal diagnosis. Microarray immunoassay (MI) can achieve this goal and, hence, we have developed and validated a immuno-radiometric MI for quantitation of serum TSH and Tg by using highly micro-porous polycarbonate (PC) track-etched membranes (TEM) to immobilize the monoclonal anti-TSH and polyclonal anti-Tg antibodies in ~1 mm diameter spots. Non-competitive immunoassays were performed using mixture of ¹²⁵I labeled monoclonal anti-TSH and anti-Tg antibodies. Phosphorimager was used to quantify the bound radioactivity. TSH and Tg were detected with detection limit of 0.07 µIU/ml and 0.13 ng/ml respectively, which is lower than the clinically required cut-off level. The assay showed: acceptable intra-assay precision within 20 % and recovery in the range of 76–111.2 %. MI compared well with the established immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) with r = 0.98, p < 0.01 (n = 41). No cross-reactivity was seen between the immobilized antibodies. Although two hormones are addressed in this report, MI using PC TEM and isotopic/non-isotopic tracers has the potential for highly automated multiplexed analysis.