What’s new in computers

Lately there has been a lot of excitement about disruptive forms of ‘money’ — cryptocurrencies. This article traces the evolution of cryptocurrencies focusing on the enabling technologies and some theoretical foundations. We shall also explore the challenges they pose to well-established monetary systems.     

From inactivity to encouragement: the contribution of Lord Elphinstone to the educational development of the Madras Presidency (1837–1842)

In light of the focus placed on English education by the colonial government, and the petition signed by 70,000 local inhabitants of the Madras Presidency, Lord John Elphinstone, the Governor, made efforts to disseminate English education during his governorship (1837–1842). Spurred on by the petition, Elphinstone wrote two fundamental educational minutes, in 1839 and 1841, and established Madras High School. Later, the School was transformed into Presidency College and became the first home of the University of Madras. Elphinstone’s planning led to the first systematic effort by the Madras government to impart English education. Subsequently, Elphinstone emphasised the dissemination of secular education and inclusion of native people in educational administration. Against this background, this paper discusses the contribution of Elphinstone to the educational development of Madras. It also questions the historiographical neglect of Elphinstone and challenges the established post-colonial discourse that the establishment of English institutions was a ‘colonialist’ imposition.     

Immune response to n-terminal and c-terminal deletion mutants of Aspergillus fumigatus major allergen ASP F 3

The ubiquitous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus causes allergic rhinitis, asthma, sinusitis and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. A number of major allergens from A. fumigatus are purified, but their structure-function role in the pathogenesis of disease is not known. Such information is essential for devising alternative therapy of fungal allergic diseases. In the present study, N-terminal and C-terminal deletion mutants ofAsp f 3 were constructed and their immunopathological responses studied in a mice model of allergy. Three mutants viz,Asp f 3 (aa 33–168), (aa 1–142), and (aa 23–142) were made by deleting certain amino acids from epitopic regions of full lengthAsp f 3, a major allergen of A. furnigatus. TheAsp f 3 and three mutated proteins were expressed in pET vector. The C-terminal deletion mutantAsp f 3 (aa 1–142) induced elevated IFN-γ but low levels of IL-4 by spleen cells. This mutant also showed significant downregulation of peripheral blood eosinophils and lung inflammation in immunized mice. The N-terminal deletion mutantAsp f 3 (aa 33–168) also exhibited an immuno-suppressive effect in terms of IgE production and induction of Th2 cytokine. The results indicate thatrAsp f 3 and its deletion mutants induced distinct immune-inflammatory responses in mice on challenge with these proteins. The non-IgE binding deletion mutants ofAsp f 3 (aa 1–142 and aa 33–168) could deviate Th2 immune response with a concomitant reduction in airway inflammation and infiltration of inflammatory cells.     

Serum total PSA and free PSA in breast tumors

Now a days measurement of molecular forms of PSA has gained importance in clinical practice. Several studies have demonstrated the production of PSA in female tissues, such as breast. The present piece of work has been undertaken with an objective to estimate the relative proportion of the molecular forms of PSA in serum along with serum testosterone in benign and malignant breast tumor cases and to analyze their association with the severity of the disease process 34 malignant and 26 benign breast disease cases along with 33 healthy controls of same age group were enrolled in this study for evaluation. Serum testosterone was measured by ELISA, whereas serum total PSA (TPSA) and free PSA (FPSA) were estimated by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. A significant rise of fasting plasma glucose along with prominent dyslipidemia was observed in breast tumor cases. Marked rise in serum testosterone as well as TPSA and FPSA was documented in both benign and malignant breast tumor cases. Serum testosterone revealed a significant positive association with both TPSA and FPSA pointing towards an etiological association between them. However, surgical removal of tumor mass resulted in a marked decline of presurgical value of both TPSA and FPSA with a non-significant fall in serum testosterone revealing tumor tissue as the source of FPSA and TPSA. Thus, estimation of PSA provides prognostic information that may assist in future treatment.     

Supporting Online PBL: Design Considerations for Supporting Distributed Problem Solving

This study considers how four groups of education graduate students worked in a distributed problem-based learning (PBL) environment using an asynchronous threaded discussion tool. The analyses consider how the students were able to interact with each other using the tool and how they worked together to define the problem and identify key issues to explore. The outcomes include some design considerations for tools to support these activities as well as insight about how students may work together to solve a problem in a distributed environment.     

Establishing the overall service quality of engineering education: fuzzy logic approach

Measuring overall service quality (OSQ) is gaining prominence in higher education due to the increased competition among engineering education institutions (EEIs) and growing awareness about value for money among the public. Determination of OSQ on certain institutional aspects is done by various agencies throughout the world. Each system uses a different set of weighted indicators to measure the overall service quality of institutions. Five service quality factors, namely professionalism, integrated education, facilities, responsiveness and empathy are considered in the study. Trapezoidal fuzzy numbers are used to determine the aggregate weights of the factors to handle the vagueness present in the linguistic values of the stakeholders’ subjective opinions. Final weights of the factors are assessed by taking the distances of each factor between Fuzzy Positive Ideal Rating and Fuzzy Negative Ideal Rating. An illustrative study is presented to determine the OSQ of EEIs. The results help to focus on the factors which need immediate attention to enhance the quality of EEIs.     

Tide–surge interaction model including air bubble effects for the coast of Bangladesh

An estimate of water levels due to the interaction of tide and surge associated with a storm including air bubble effects is made along the coastal region of Bangladesh. For this purpose, a vertically integrated shallow water model in Cartesian coordinate system is developed introducing air bubbles and is solved using nested finite difference schemes. A fine grid model covering the region between 21°15′N to 23°N and 89°E to 92° E has been nested into a coarse grid model covering the region between 15°N to 23°N and 85°E to 95°E in the Bay of Bengal to incorporate all the major islands and coastal bending accurately. By applying tidal forcing through the southern open boundary of the coarse grid model appropriate tidal conditions are generated in the problem domain. Numerical experiments are performed with the help of the model to simulate water levels due to tide and surge interaction including air bubble effects associated with the tropical storm of April 1991. The model results are found to be reasonable and the model can be found to simulate higher water levels in the presence of air bubbles.     

How do Teachers View Their Teaching and the Use of Teaching Resources?

This paper looks briefly at teachers' views and opinions of their use of various teaching methods and teaching resources. The study was limited to a single secondary school where a questionnaire was given to a small sample of 15 teachers in four departments. What was found was that in the Ideal World (where everything that was needed was available), the reasons given for various teaching methods used were mainly pupil dominated, but when it came to the actual methods being used, the reasons were mainly personal constraints of the teacher or organizational constraints. This dichotomy widened from the humanities field to the sciences field. With respect to the resources used, it could be hypothesised that most teachers felt they were not prepared to use new types of resources especially if they entailed acquiring new technical skills, more preparation, and a change of roles played by the teacher.     

On I-acceleration convergence of sequences

In this article we introduce the notion of I-acceleration convergence of sequences. We prove the decomposition theorem for I-acceleration convergence of sequences as well as for subsequence transformations. We study different properties of I-acceleration convergence of sequences.