Transformation impossible: policy,evidence and change in South African higher education

Higher Education - A quarter of a century after South Africa’s transition to democracy, the rhetoric of ‘transformation’ remains firmly ingrained in its higher education policy...     

Equality or equity: Gender awareness issues in secondary schools in Pakistan

This paper focuses on gender awareness issues as a dimension of addressing the wider issue of the quality of education in Pakistan from the perspective of social justice. In Pakistan classrooms, boys and girls learn separately and therefore teachers and others tend to think that there are no gender issues once access is achieved and the learners are in the classroom. However, beyond access there are several factors that compromise quality of education and raise issues for gender equity as an element of social justice. These issues are examined in the context of a professional development intervention on promoting gender awareness among secondary mathematics teachers in disadvantaged schools in rural Pakistan.     

Measuring Change in Students' Attitudes Toward Science Over Time: An Application of Latent Variable Growth Modeling

The purpose of this paper is to show how latent variable growth modeling can be utilized to examine change in students' attitudes toward science over the middle and high school years using data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (Miller, Hoffer, Suchner, Brown, & Nelson, 1992).The results of the present study show that students' attitudes toward science generally decline over the middle and high school years. Science self-concept was found to be the strongest predictor of attitudes toward science. Teacher encouragement of science and peer attitudes are also significant predictors of students' attitudes. The effect of the parent variable was found to be quite small and statistically nonsignificant, with the exception of the seventh grade. Boys were found to have higher initial status on attitudes toward science and their attitudes dropped faster than girls. Also it was found that students in metropolitan and rural schools have less positive attitudes toward science in the seventh grade compared to students in suburban schools. Latent variable growth modeling allows one to examine change in attitudes and also examine the effects of time-varying and time-invariant predictors. Substantive and methodological implications of this technique are also discussed.     

Lack of Circadian Pattern of Serum TNF-α and IL-6 in Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome

The present study was designed to test the hypothesis of a circadian variation in circulating levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in women with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-α were measured at 4 h intervals of the day in 50 women with FMS satisfying American College of Rheumatology criteria for FMS (age 36.68 ± 9.89) as well as 50 healthy control women (age 32.82 ± 10.53). Serum TNF-α levels were substantially increased in patients with FMS but showed no circadian variation. In contrast, no difference in the levels of IL-6 was found. Moreover, there was also no circadian variation in both the groups of patients and controls. We conclude that no circadian pattern exists in the circulating levels of serum IL-6 and TNF-α in patients with FMS, although TNF-α levels are found raised in patients with FMS.     

Teachers as agents of peace? Exploring teacher agency in social cohesion in Pakistan

This paper studies an under-researched area – teachers’ role in peacebuilding in conflict-affected contexts – through exploring teacher agency for social cohesion in Pakistan. Insights are sought into teachers’ perspectives on the major drivers of conflict in society and the role of education and teachers in social cohesion and mitigating inequities in education. A 4Rs framework of redistribution, recognition, representation and reconciliation was employed to analyse data gathered from: interviews with and classroom observations of teacher educators; focus-group discussions with and a questionnaire completed by pre- and in-service teachers; and analysis of teacher education and school curriculum texts. While teachers expressed a nuanced understanding of the conflict drivers in society and appreciated the significance of education in peacebuilding, they subscribed to assimilationist approaches to social cohesion, which were aligned with curriculum texts and promoted official nation-building agendas. Additionally, teachers saw issues of social cohesion as peripheral to the core academic curriculum. Teachers’ identity was integrally linked to their religious affiliations.     

Special Lectures

Calcineurin, a Ca²⁺—Calmodulin dependent protein phosphatase, is important for Ca²⁺ mediated signal transduction. The main objective of this study was to examine the potential role of calcineurin in idiopathic mental handicap. Calcineurin levels were estimated in 20 children in the age group of 5–16 years with idiopathic mental handicap attending the Special. Education Centre for the Mentally Handicapped in Hyderabad. The results of the present study showed decreased activity of serum calcineurin in children with idiopathic mental handicap compared to those of normal subjects in the same age group. The observations thus suggest impaired calcineurin activity in children with mental handicap. Calcineurin that is involved in biosynthesis and release of neurotransmitters at the synaptic terminal brain is affected thereby causing brain damage and leading to mental handicap. Impaired calcineurin activity was already indicated in many human diseases such as Down's syndrome, Alzheimers, Brain ischemia, cardiac hypertrophy etc. It is therefore necessary to check the calcineurin levels in children with mental handicap to understand the role of calcineurin in the causation of Mental handicap.     

Prevalence of +405G>C,−1154G>A Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Polymorphism in Breast Cancer

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in the development of Breast Cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of polymorphisms in the VEGF gene on prognosis of Breast Cancer patients. This study comprised 200 patients with histologically confirmed cases of Breast cancer and 200 controls. Genotyping of the VEGF gene polymorphisms at +405G>C,−1154G>A, were performed by PCR-RFLP analysis. Preoperative plasma VEGF levels were determined by ELISA. Amongst both cases and controls, the genotypic distribution of the individual SNPs were all in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Mean VEGF level was significantly elevated in cases compared to controls (t = 8.248; P < 0.001). No significant association was found between +405G>C,−1154G>A VEGF polymorphism and Breast Cancer. Logistic regression analysis revealed that 405GG & 1154GG were associated with higher levels of VEGF.     

Wearables can help me learn: A survey of user perception of wearable technologies for learning in everyday life

Education and Information Technologies - Wearable devices are a popular class of portable ubiquitous technology. These devices are available in a variety of forms, ranging from smart glasses to...     

Use of specific IgE to fractions of gynandropsis gynandra pollen inin vitro diagnostic test

The study was aimed at presence of specific IgE antibody levelsinvitro to the identified antigen. Based on positive skin test with Gynandropsis gynandra and elevated levels of total IgE (>325 IU/ml) 104 patients were selected. Healthy, asymptomatic individuals (25) with low total IgE (<325 IU/ml) were included as controls. The mean OD values by ELISA for specific IgE were 0.67±0.21, 0.57±0.18 and 0.56±0.18 with whole pollen antigen, 46-37 kD fraction and 36-32 kD fraction, respectively. The specificity and sensitivity between skin test positivity with whole pollen antigen verses fraction with mol.wt 46-37 kD was 90% and 90% and for fraction with mol.wt 36-32 kD was found to be 81.1% and 89.4%. The clusters with molecular weights 46-37 kD and 36-32 kD may be useful inin vitro diagnostic test. Fractions within these clusters need to be identified for a higher specificity.