Diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction: CK-MB versus cTn-T in Indian patients

The comparative diagnostic efficacy of two cardiac markers: CK-MB and cTn-T, has scarcely been investigated in Indian patients of acute myocardial infarction. The present study was conducted for the same objective. The present study comprised of 59 patients. Males were 44 (75%) and females were 15 (25 %). The age of patients ranged from 32–84 years with mean age of 62.8 yrs. The mean age of males and females were 60 and 63 yrs respectively. All patients presented with history of chest pain with a 12 leads ECG proven MI (ST Elevation, discordant T-waves). CK-MB was estimated in peripheral blood samples at 0,24,48 and 72 hours by an autoanalyzer. Following 12 hours of admission bed side Troponin-T test was done employing cTn-T marker kit. Initially (0 hr), in 50% patients CK-MB was elevated. By end of 24 hours all the patients were CKMB positive and peak level was attained at 24 hrs. Then it tended to decline over next 48 hrs. There were no false positive or negative results. The cTn-T test was positive only in 22 % of ECG positive infarctions. However, the cTn-T positive cases were always accompanied by a higher CK-MB levels. A significantly lower cTn-T positive cases in Indian patients can only be attributed to some difference in amino acid sequence of Indian cTn-T and occidental cTn-T. A larger study from other Indian cardiac centers can either substantiate or contradict our results.     

The WISC-R and evidence of item bias for native-American Navajos

The study investigated cultural bias in the 79 items of the three verbal tests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). The Information, Similarities, and Vocabulary subtests were administered to 40 Anglo and 40 Native- American Navajo subjects matched for grade level. The responses of the two groups of subjects on individual items were analyzed by log-linear technique using the likelihood ratio chi-square statistic. The findings revealed that performance of subjects was homogeneous across groups on most of the items of three verbal subtests of the WISC-R. Only 15 (19%) of the 79 items comprising Information, Similarities, and Vocabulary subtests were found to be biased against the Navajo sample. Five of these items are from the Information, four from the Similarities, and the remaining six items are from the Vocabulary subtest. Implications of these findings for the psychoeducational assessment of minority children were discussed.     

Synthesis and evaluation of 4-substituted semicarbazones of levulinic acid for anticonvulsant activity

Objective: A series of 4-aryl substituted semicarbazones of levulinic acid (4-oxo pentanoic acid) was designed and synthesized to meet the structural requirements essential for anticonvulsant activity. Methods: All the compounds were evaluated for anticonvulsant activity. Anticonvulsant activity was determined after intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration to mice by maximal electroshock (MES) and subcutaneous metrazol (ScMet) induced seizure methods and minimal motor impairment was determined by rotorod test. Results: A majority of the compounds exhibited significant anticonvulsant activity after intraperitoneal administration. In the present study 4-(4'-fluoro phenyl) levulinic acid semicarbazone emerged as the most active molecule, showing broad spectrum of activity with low neurotoxicity. Unsubstituted levulinic acid semicarbazone was found to be inactive in all the screens. Conclusion: The results obtained validate the hypothesis that presence of an aryl group near the semicarbazone moiety is essential for anticonvulsant activity. The results also indicate that the hydrophilic-hydrophobic site can accommodate hydrophilic groups.     

IN A DIMENSION OF HEIGHT: ETHICS IN THE EDUCATION OF OTHERS

A bstract .  Ethics penetrates every aspect of Western education. Many of its dominant narratives — education as salvation, as progress, as panacea, and as liberation, for example — are infused with the ethical. Educators are compelled by ethical callings; in fact, education as the call of the ethical informs the singular and collective identities of educators. In this essay, Aparna Mishra Tarc troubles the role of the ethics in Western education using Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's deconstruction of the ethical in philosophy. Spivak's deconstruction reveals how an ethics based in one's idea of what the Other is and should be violates the uniqueness of Others. Spivak challenges educators to examine vigilantly the ethico-political assumptions and discourses underlying ethical acts in the classroom. Drawing on the writings of Emmanuel Levinas, mediated by the thinking of Jacques Derrida, Spivak re-imagines ethics apart from — and as a part of — its metaphysical heritage. Tarc discusses aspects of Spivak's vision for an education borne out of ethical singularity as hearing and responding to the Other's call. Finally, she explores its implications for how one might begin to respond justly to the conditions of others within and alongside of one's own intellectual and pedagogical engagements.     

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.     

Americans ‘support’ the idea of tuition-free college: an exploration of sentiment and political identity signals otherwise

In January 2015, President Obama captured headlines in the US by announcing America’s College Promise (ACP), a policy that would reverse four decades of privatisation in higher education by making community colleges ‘tuition-free’. This research explores the conversation that unfolded across the Facebook pages of various media sources. Key phrases associated with sentiments and communication styles are uncovered using a Bag of Words (BoW) technique. Next, guided by political identity theory, the researchers employ logistic regression to explore variable effects (e.g. source, gender, race, age and political leaning) on communicating: (1) Against ACP, (2) in a Civil manner, and (3) Against/Civil/On-Topic. BoW models suggest those against the policy utilise anti-free-ride, privatisation rhetoric, whereas those using uncivil language attack commentators and groups who counter personally-held political beliefs – while also introducing non-sequiturs from other policies (e.g. healthcare and immigration). The combined communication styles unlocked tokens not found in larger sentiments, such as concerns over student loan debt. Logistic regression illustrates that, depending on sentiment or communication style explored, political identities and memberships associated with source and political alignment significantly affected likelihoods of communicating in the conversation. These findings are linked back to political identity theory.     

An efficient parallel algorithm for shortest paths in planar layered digraphs

This paper presents an efficient parallel algorithm for the shortest path problem in planar layered digraphs that runs in O(log3n) time with n processors. The algorithms uses a divide and conquer approach and is based on the novel idea of a one-way separator, which has the property that any directed path can be crossed only once.