Reflective and integrative learning and the role of instructors and institutions—evidence from Malaysia

Higher Education - The shift in contemporary workplaces has caused higher education institutions to place importance on developing non-academic attributes along with academic success to help...     

Improved protocol for plasma microRNA extraction and comparison of commercial kits

IntroductionMicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNA molecules that are becoming popular biomarkers in several diseases. However, their low abundance in serum/plasma poses a challenge in exploiting their potential in clinics. Several commercial kits are available for rapid isolation of microRNA from plasma. However, reports guiding the selection of appropriate kits to study downstream assays are scarce. Hence, we compared four commercial kits to evaluate microRNA-extraction from plasma and provided a modified protocol that further improved the superior kit’s performance.Materials and methodsWe compared four kits (miRNeasy Serum/Plasma, miRNeasy Mini Kit from Qiagen; RNA-isolation, and Absolutely-RNA MicroRNA Kit from Agilent technologies) for quality and quantity of microRNA isolated, extraction efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Bioanalyzer-based Agilent Small RNA kit was used to evaluate quality and quantity of microRNA. Extraction efficiency was evaluated by detection of four endogenous control microRNA using real-time-PCR. Further, we modified the manufacturer’s protocol for miRNeasy Serum/Plasma kit to improve yield.ResultsmiRNeasy Serum/Plasma kit outperformed the other three kits in microRNA-quality (P < 0.005) and yielded maximum microRNA-quantity. Recovery of endogenous control microRNA i.e. hsa-miR-24-3p, hsa-miR-191-5p, hsa-miR-423-5p and hsa-miR-484 was higher as well. Modification with the inclusion of a double elution step enhanced yield of microRNA extracted with miRNeasy Serum/Plasma kit significantly (P < 0.001).ConclusionWe demonstrated that miRNeasy Serum/Plasma kit outperforms other kits and can be reliably used with a limited plasma quantity. We have provided a modified microRNA-extraction protocol with improved microRNA output for downstream analyses.     

Use of on-line databases by faculty members and research scholars of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi (India): A survey

The study is focused on finding out the level of use of on-line databases by faculty members and research scholars of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi (India). Both are Central Universities and are funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC). A well-structured questionnaire was administered to faculty members and research scholars of the JNU and JMI to collect data regarding the use of on-line database. The survey reveals that all of the faculty members and research scholars are aware of the availability of on-line databases and largely use them for reference purposes in their research work and studies. The degree of usefulness and utilization of on-line databases is high among the universities' faculty members and research scholars. The survey further reveals that the respondents from both universities are aware of the search options for accessing on-line databases. It is also found that a large number of respondents of JNU and JMI are using field searching and Boolean operators to access information from on-line databases.     

代表UNESCO向"UNESCO信息素养培训师培训班(武汉)"致欢迎词

女士们,先生们,早上好! 感谢你们今天的热情欢迎. 今天我很荣幸地来到武汉,这个地处中国中部的政治、经济、文化和教育都市.武汉的生机与活力也反映了过去20年中国的空前发展,在此高速增长之下,我期待着在不久的将来看到更大的进步.     

Functional observer based controller for stabilizing Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy systems with time-delays

This paper investigates the construction of a fuzzy functional observer for nonlinear systems with time-delays, and the application of the observer to estimate the state functions of the parallel distributed compensation controller for stabilizing the system. Two types of time-delays are considered: constant and time-varying delays with bounded time derivative. Stability conditions are obtained using Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional approach; and the conditions are transformed into linear matrix inequalities with equality constraints so that observer parameters can be calculated using the solution of these inequalities. Functional observer construction procedures are presented considering both constant and time-varying time-delays. Two examples, including one for obtaining a power system stabilizer for a single machine infinite bus system, are presented to illustrate effectiveness of the proposed design procedures.     

Interaction between prey and mutually interfering predator in prey reserve habitat: Pattern formation and the Turing–Hopf bifurcation

In this paper, we propose a diffusive prey-predator system with mutually interfering predator (Crowley–Martin functional response) and prey reserve. In particular, we develop and analyze both spatially homogeneous model based on ordinary differential equations and reaction-diffusion model. We mainly investigate the global existence and boundedness of positive solution, stability properties of homogeneous steady state, non-existence of non-constant positive steady state, conditions for Turing instability and Hopf bifurcation of the diffusive system analytically. Conventional stability properties of the non-spatial counterpart of the system are also studied. The analysis ensures that the prey reserve leaves stabilizing effect on the stability of temporal system. The prey reserve and diffusive parameters leave parallel impact on the stability of the spatio-temporal system. Furthermore, we illustrate the spatial patterns via numerical simulations, which show that the model dynamics exhibits diffusion controlled pattern formation by different interesting patterns.     

HealthCyberMap: a semantic visual browser of medical Internet resources based on clinical codes and the human body metaphor

OBJECTIVES: HealthCyberMap (HCM-http://healthcybermap.semanticweb.org) is a web-based service for healthcare professionals and librarians, patients and the public in general that aims at mapping parts of the health information resources in cyberspace in novel ways to improve their retrieval and navigation. METHODS AND SERVICE DESCRIPTION: HCM adopts a clinical metadata framework built upon a clinical coding ontology for the semantic indexing, classification and browsing of Internet health information resources. A resource metadata base holds information about selected resources. HCM then uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems) spatialization methods to generate interactive navigational cybermaps from the metadata base. These visual cybermaps are based on familiar medical metaphors. CONCLUSIONS: HCM cybermaps can be considered as semantically spatialized, ontology-based browsing views of the underlying resource metadata base. Using a clinical coding scheme as a metric for spatialization ('semantic distance') is unique to HCM and is very much suited for the semantic categorization and navigation of Internet health information resources. Clinical codes ensure reliable and unambiguous topical indexing of these resources. HCM also introduces a useful form of cyberspatial analysis for the detection of topical coverage gaps in the resource metadata base using choropleth (shaded) maps of human body systems.     

Comparative effect of olive oil and fish oil supplementation in combating gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity in rats

The present study is related to the comparative effects of fish oil and olive oil supplementation on gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity in rats. Three treatment groups (Pretrement, Co-treatment and post treatment) were chosen for the study. Nephrotoxicity in rats was induced by intraperitonial administration of gentamicin (80 mg/kg/d) for 3,5,7,10,& 12 consecutive days. The animals were sacrificed 12 hrs after last treatment in each group. The maximum nephrotoxicity was developed on 10 days treatment of gentamicin. For each group a control group was taken without any oil or gentamicin treatment. Beneficial effects of oils were evidenced by reduced serum urea and creatinine concentrations in the group receiving oils compared to the non oil treatment animals receiving gentamicin only. Further, the changed values of alkaline phosphatase and acid phosphatase activity retumed to normal in kidney and liver tissue homogenates after fish and olive oil treatment. In this study, it was found that co-treatment of fish and olive oil is more effective antagonist of gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity. However fish oil was found to be more effective. Hypercholesteromia associated with gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity is also lowered by oil supplementations. The beneficial effects of these oils are due to counteracting effect of the biochemical alterations induced by the drug.     

Changes in biochemical constituents and induction of early sprouting by triadimefon treatment in white yam （Dioscorea rotundata Poir.） tubers during storage

The ability of triadimefon(TDM),a triazolic fungicide,to alter the biochemical constituents and thereby minimizing the days required for sprouting in white yam(Dioscorea rotundata Poir.) tubers during storage under(30±2) °C in the dark,was studied.TDM at 20 mg/L was given to tubers by dipping the tubers in treatment solution containing 20 mg/L TDM on 10,25 and 40 d after storage(DAS).Starch,sugars,protein,amino acid contents as well as protease and α-amylase activities were estimated on 15,30 and 45 DAS from two physiological regions viz.,apical and basal regions of the tubers.In normal conditions(control) sprouting occurred on 70 to 80 DAS.The starch content decreased,while protein,amino acid,sugar contents and protease and α-amylase activities were increased due to TDM treatment and led to early sprouting.