Preliminary studies on the hypoglycaemic effect ofAbroma augusta in alloxan diabetic rats

The hypoglycemic effect of the aqueous extract ofAbroma augusta (Family: Steculiceae) was studied in normal as well as alloxan diabetic rats. Treatement of diabetic rats with 4 ml (4gm dry weight) of agueous extract ofA. augusta for 16 weeks resulted in gradual but significant fall in fasting blood glucose and improvement in glucose tolerance. Serum total and LDL cholesterol and triacylglycerol which increased in diabetic rats showed improvement. These results show that the water extract ofA. augusta has both hypoglycemic and hypocholesterolemic effects.     

Assessing metacognition in an online community of inquiry

Metacognition is an important aspect of human intelligence and higher learning. There is the recognition that metacognition is not just a private internal activity but also socially situated. In this context, the purpose of this research is to develop and validate a metacognitive construct that provides the opportunity to assess metacognition in online discussions. Furthermore, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework provided the conceptual coherence to construct, operationalize and interpret metacognition in an online collaborative inquiry. The results provided evidence of metacognition indicators in student discussion postings and the frequency of these indicators increased over time.     

The communicative competences of students and teachers in different levels of education in North Cyprus

This study was conducted in order to determine the beliefs of students and teachers in different levels of education about their communicative competences. The study group of this research is consisted of 600 secondary school, high school and undergraduate students and 41 of their teachers. In this study, it is observed that not a significant correlation at a considerable degree exists in the communicative competences of students with their teachers, who are from different nationalities, gender and levels. Furthermore, regarding students, educated at different levels, no relation has been observed in their communicative competences with their teachers. Moreover, while students consider their communicative competences with their teachers to be moderately adequate, teachers consider their communicative competences with their students to be adequate in general.     

Provided information literacy instructions at private university libraries in Jordan and trends of Zarqa Private University students towards its objective achievements

This study aims to investigate the resources and methods used in information instruction provided at private university libraries in Jordan. It also investigates trends among Zarqa Private University students towards the achievement of its objectives. Data was collected via two questionnaires. The population of the study consisted of 19 administrators of private university libraries; 14 of them (73.7%) responded positively to the study, and of 600 first year students who were in the first semester of the academic year 2007/2008, 512 of them (85.3%) responded positively. Study findings have revealed that information literacy instruction programmes are not comprehensive in all target libraries. No more than five (35.7%) of the responding libraries offer the required lectures that inform students about the importance of libraries and libraries’ departments, the practical training of online access to databases through internet, or training on the usage of periodical indexes. The curricula offered by more than 78.6% of the respondents lacked courses or exercises that support library usage. Findings of “information literacy instruction programmes offered to students of Zarqa Private University, reveal that the programmes concentrate on theoretical aspects more than practical aspects. This study introduces some recommendations related to its findings.     

Grappling with ‘Natural Selection’ — Experiences of a Teacher

Since evolution forms the core of modern biology, teaching about natural selection is extremely important as this equips the student to frame the ‘why’ questions properly and, at the same time, sharpens their understanding about a host of issues pertaining to behaviour, diversity and genetics.     

Employment for Disability: Human Resources Management in Higher Education for Quality

ABSTRACT

The aim of the research study aims to evaluate human resource management policies and strategies in higher education practices. As this research relies on qualitative nature, self report was conducted in order to gain experiences of research participants about human resources management process. In addition to this, maximum variation was conducted as a sampling method and 15 participants due to their managerial roles were involved to the research. Thematic analysis was conducted in analsying data. The results revealed that disability is an important factor im employment. Human resources management is key solution for the quality in higher education.     

Phonological awareness and musical aptitude

The relationship between phonological awareness and musical aptitude in pre‐school children was examined. In Experiment 1, Turkish children, and in Experiment 2, American children performed various phoneme deletion tasks with words in their respective native languages and with pseudo‐words. They also did initial and final tone deletion tasks with snippets of melodies. Because none of these children knew how to read, both tasks were presumed to depend largely on pure auditory skills. In general, success in the different phoneme deletion tasks reflected the characteristics of the specific languages with which the children were familiar. In addition, in both experiments, children in the high musical aptitude group did much better on all tasks than those in the low musical aptitude group, showing that success in manipulating linguistic sounds was related to awareness of distinct musical sounds.     

Identification of novel catalytic features of endo-β-1,4-glucanase produced by mulberry longicorn beetle Apriona germari

Mulberry longicorn beetle, Apriona germari, has been reported to produce two endo-β-l,4-glucanases or AgEGases (accession Nos. Q6SS52 and Q5XQD1). AgEGase sequence contains catalytic motif (amino acid residues 37～48), which is the characteristic of family Glycohydrolase 45 and is identified as the substrate binding site. The application of bioinformatics approaches includes sequence analysis, structural modeling and inhibitor docking to relate the structure and function of AgEGases.We have dissected the sequence and structure of AgEGase catalytic motif and compared it with crystal structure of Humicola insolens endoglucanases Ⅴ. The results show an involvement of sulfur containing amino acid residues in the active site of the enzyme. Cys residues and position of disulfide bonds are highly conserved between the two structures of endoglucanases of A.germari. Surface calculation of AgEGase structure in the absence of Cys residues reveals greater accessibility of the catalytic site to the substrate involving Asp42, a highly conserved residue. For the inhibition study, tannin-based structure was docked into the catalytic site of AgEGase using ArgusLab 4.0 and it resulted in a stable complex formation. It is suggested that the inhibition could occur through formation of a stable transition state analog-enzyme complex with the tannin-based inhibitor, as observed with other insect cellulases in our laboratory.