Role of Computers in Educating Young Children: U.S. and Japanese Teachers’ Perspectives

This study was conducted with kindergarten teachers in the United States and Japan with respect to their beliefs about the role of computers in educating young children. Overall findings indicated significant differences in responses of teachers in the two countries. Generally, U.S. teachers had a more positive attitude toward computers in educating young children, while the Japanese teachers had more concerns. The teachers’ own sense of competence with computers was not related to their beliefs about computers and young children in either country. Respondents from both countries identified a lack of resources and clear guidelines for integrating computers in the classroom as challenges. These findings highlighted the need for training of early childhood teachers in integrating and using computers in the classroom.     

Characterization of Human Serum Immunoglobulin G Modified with Singlet Oxygen

Reactive oxygen species, as singlet oxygen (¹O₂), is continuously being generated by aerobic organisms, and react actively with biomolecules. At excessive amounts, ¹O₂ induces oxidative stress and shows carcinogenic and toxic effects due to oxidation of lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. In our study, immunoglobulin G (IgG) was modified by ¹O₂ generated by the ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of methylene blue. The modified IgG was characterized by UV spectroscopy, carbonyl content determination, thermal denaturation and electrophoretic study. Oxidation induced by modification of IgG by ¹O₂ also analyzed by scavenging studies. It was found that ultraviolet absorption spectra of modified IgG shows marked hyperchromicity. The carbonyl content was found to be high in modified IgG as compared to native IgG which confirms its oxidation. Thermal denaturation of modified protein sample shows decrease in Tm value by 3 °C and less intensity banding pattern on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The quenching effect of sodium azide provides clue for modification of IgG by methylene blue, as it is known ¹O₂ scavenger. Hence, the IgG modified with ¹O₂ may be one of the etiological pathogenic factors for rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.     

Equality and Opportunity in Education: Evidence from the 1958 and 1970 birth cohort studies

There is controversy about whether inequalities and educational outcomes are increasing or decreasing. Using longitudinal data collected in two birth cohort studies started in 1970 and 1958 respectively, the paper examines the evidence in relation to two outcomes, probability of leaving school at 16 and highest qualification achieved. Multi-variate analysis (logistic and OLS regression) was used to model the relationships of these educational outcomes to family social class, taking account of a wide range of early life variables, including living in an urban as opposed to rural location. It is concluded that the impact of social class on educational achievement has not changed across the 12 years covered by the two studies, a result that applies in both rural and urban areas of Britain.     

It’s a MATERIALS World!

In this article, we describe our experiences of conducting a series of workshops titled ‘It’s a MATERIALS world!’ to popularize Materials Science among school children in India. Some of the hands-on activities that can be performed with easily available ingredients/equipment in a classroom are described for the benefit of educators.     

Role of l-Arginine on Dyslipidemic Conditions of Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients

Oxidative stress conditions associated with atherosclerosis leads to oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The body’s capabilities to inhibit LDL oxidation and to remove or neutralize the atherogenic oxidized LDL (ox-LDL) are limited. When the LDL cholesterol level increases in the blood, it leads to dangerous consequences like atherosclerosis, leading to myocardial infarction. The major effect of an antioxidant in the LDL environment is to prevent the formation of ox-LDL (during atherogenesis. Strategies to reduce LDL oxidation and prevent atherogenesis can involve the enrichment of arterial cells with potent antioxidants that can prevent oxidative damage to the arterial wall. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of l-arginine on serum lipid and cholesterol levels in the patients of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The study consisted of 70 AMI patients and 60 healthy individuals (serving as control) age 55–65 years. Serum levels of total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), LDL and Triglycerides were determined on day 1 and day 15 of l-arginine administration (oral dose 3 g/day). The total cholesterol/HDL and the LDL/HDL ratio were calculated and compared. As per the observations, l-arginine administration was found to improve the lipid profile of the subjects. Hence it could be used as an adjuvant therapy for AMI and as a preventive measure for the onset of the disease in the healthy elderly also.     

On the approximate discrete KLT of fractional Brownian motion and applications

This paper establishes connection between discrete cosine transform (DCT) and the discrete-time fractional Brownian motion process (dfBm). It is proved that the eigenvectors of the auto-covariance matrix of a dfBm can be approximated by DCT basis vectors in the asymptotic sense. This shows that DCT basis acts as discrete Karhunen–Loève transform (DKLT) for these processes in the approximate sense. Analytic perturbation theory of linear operators is used to prove this result. This result will be of great practical significance in applications where one is looking for an appropriate basis to work with signals that can perhaps be modeled as belonging to fBm processes. The utility of the proposed work has been illustrated with two real-life data (a) on compressive sampling based reconstruction of financial time-series and (b) in denoising gravitational wave event GW150914 data obtained from a binary black hole merger.