Classroom

In this section of Resonance, we invite readers to pose questions likely to be raised in a classroom situation. We may suggest strategies for dealing with 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. This project was done as part of the Research Education Advancement Programme held over weekends at the Bangalore Association for Science Education, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore.     

Unpacking the Impacts of a Universal Parenting Program on Child Behavior

This study examined the theory of change of the ACT Raising Safe Kids parenting program, including whether intervention effects on children's behavior problems were explained by improvements in mothers’ reported parenting practices, as well as whether baseline child behavior problems moderated these relations. Adult mothers of 3-to 8-year-old Brazilian children were assigned to the intervention (n = 97) or control (n = 46) groups. Results showed that the intervention improved mothers' perceptions of their parenting practices (positive discipline, emotional and behavioral regulation, and communication). Intervention-induced reductions in children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were mediated by improvements in mothers’ emotional and behavioral regulation. Program effects were strongest for children with high levels of baseline behavior problems.     

The promise of curriculum in the post-Covid world: Eclecticism,deliberation, and a return to the practical and the prophetic

PROSPECTS - This article focuses on the possibilities through which curriculum on the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic might contribute more proactively to future social and political crises...     

Oxidant and antioxidant status in vegetarians and fish eaters

An adequate antioxidant reserve which is usually present in a vegetarian diet is associated with higher life expectancy. On the other hand habitual consumption of fish is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases which is attributed to the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) present in it. However the PUFA are readily susceptible to oxidation leading to the formation of free radicals which is known to be involved in the causation of several diseases. The oxidant-antioxidant status of 23 vegetarians and 22 fish eaters was studied by determining the plasma lipid peroxides measured as malondialdehyde (MDA) and the antioxidants, viz. glutathione (GSH), ascorbic acid, ceruloplasmin and uric acid. Results show that the ascorbic acid values were significantly higher in vegetarians. In addition, MDA correlated negatively with ascorbic acid only in vegetarians. However, correlation of MDA with glutathione showed a significant negative correlation only in fish eaters. There was no statistically significant difference in the MDA, GSH, ceruloplasmin and uric acid levels. The mechanism behind these findings are not clear and needs to be explored.     

Strategies in pharmaceutical research

Until comparatively recently the only systematic means of discovering new biologically active substances was laboriously to screen very large numbers of compounds. Now, however, computer graphics is replacing this crude shotgun technique and making it possible to display in some detail the conformation of substances before they are synthesized and determine how far they match the essential features of those in which the biological activity desired has already been demonstrated.     

Technology transfer revisited from the perspective of the knowledge-based economy

This contribution proposes a revised framework for understanding and analyzing the process of technology transfer in the perspective of the knowledge-based economy (KBE). The underlying hypothesis is that the context of the knowledge-based economy introduces a major shift in the way technology transfer is conceived. The traditional model of technology transfer was based on the vision of technology moving from one well-defined economic unit to another well-defined unit. We suggest that in the new perspective technology transfer is essentially considered as a specific knowledge-transfer process that depends on the ways firms and other institutions manage knowledge, in particular the co-evolution of their absorptive capabilities and their knowledge-transmission strategies. To support the theoretical analysis, we analyze the business case of Nortel Networks over the past 50 years.     

Fluorescent probes: a new way to study lymphocyte activation

Fluorescent dyes can be used as cell probes which bind, according to their chemical structure, to particular subcellular regions of lymphocytes. Because of their sensitivity to variations in the local molecular environment, expressed by changes in fluorescence emission, they provide a means of studying the early events of lymphocyte activation to antigens and mitogens. The technology also yields a rapid assay of lymphocyte activation and thus new diagnostic tests of cell-mediated immunity, for example to organ transplants and to cancer.