Effect of Oral Contraceptive Pills on the Blood Serum Enzymes and DNA Damage in Lymphocytes Among Users

The continuous use of synthetic hormones as contraceptive pill or hormonal replacement therapy among women is increasing day by day. The widespread use of different formulations as oral contraceptives by women throughout their reproductive cycle has given rise to a serious concern for studying the effects of oral contraceptives on enzymatic profile and DNA damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes among users. The present study was carried out on women taking oral contraceptives. The study was based on the questionnaire having the information of reproductive history, fasting, age, health, nature of menstrual cycle, bleeding and other disease. The profile of the blood serum enzymes i.e. alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aminotransferases (SGOT and SGPT), serum proteins (albumin and globulin) and DNA damage in lymphocytes was studied among users and non-users. The results of the present study suggest that OCs not only effects enzymatic activity but also results in DNA damage that may vary with the duration of using oral contraceptives. A significant increase in LDH, GGT, SGPT, SGOT, globulin and decrease in ALP as well as albumin was found among users as compared to non-users. The observed DNA damage was more in users as compared to non-users. Hormonal contraceptives seem to exert DNA damage and also have significant effects on blood serum enzymes.     

A sensemaking model of knowledge in organisations: a way of understanding knowledge management and the role of information technologies

The objective of the paper is to demonstrate how a sensemaking model of knowledge enables better and deeper understanding of knowledge management (KM) processes in organisations and the role of information technologies (IT) in these processes. Inspired and informed by a sensemaking view of organisations, the model identifies four types of knowledge, corresponding to four sensemaking levels: the individual, collective, organizational, and cultural. Each knowledge type, as the paper shows, is of different nature and has different characteristics but is constituted and affected by all other knowledge types. An organisation is thus seen as a ‘distributed knowledge system’ composed of numerous instances of these four knowledge types and their dynamic interplay. By drawing from three empirical studies, the paper illustrates how the sensemaking model of knowledge can be applied to investigate different ways companies (try to) manage knowledge and use IT-based systems to improve KM and ultimately company performance. A deeper understanding of these processes through the lens of the model reveals mechanisms and forces underlying KM phenomena that help explain why some processes were successful and others failed. The paper intends to make the following contributions: propose a theoretical framework of knowledge and KM in organizations, which is reasonably comprehensive and empirically grounded and also demonstrate its relevance and usefulness to both researchers and practitioners as they investigate and make sense of specific KM processes and IT applications in practice.     

Knowledge society discourse and higher education

The growing importance of knowledge, research and innovation are changing the social role of universities in the globalized world. One of the most popular concepts used to approach these changes in post-industrial and post-modern societies is the concept of ‘Knowledge Society’. In this paper, we will analyse the roles higher education is expected to play with regard to various knowledge society discourses. We will begin with analyzing the uses of knowledge society as an intellectual device and continue by reflecting on how changes in higher education are related to knowledge society discourses in national, regional and global levels. In the final section we will reflect on current challenges and expectations generated within these discourses for higher education and the implications these expectations have for higher education research.     

Learning-based curriculum development

This article is written to inspire curriculum developers to centre their efforts on the learning processes of students. It presents a learning-based paradigm for higher education and demonstrates the close relationship between curriculum development and students’ learning processes. The article has three sections: Section “The role of higher education (HE) institutions” presents a discussion of the role of higher education in the knowledge society. Section “Contextual learning” presents the paradigm of contextual learning which we see as a useful foundation for curriculum development. Section “Curriculum development in practice—the BETA course” shows how a particular course in Business Economic Theory and Analysis has been developed using this paradigm. The article will be of interest to all academics interested in students’ learning processes but is especially relevant to those responsible for curriculum development.     

Gender Differences in Attachment Styles Regarding Conflict Handling Behaviors Among Turkish Late Adolescents

This study was designed to examine gender differences in attachment styles and explore the relationship between attachment styles and preference for conflict handling behavior in close relationships among Turkish adolescents. The participants comprised 371 Turkish undergraduate students (252 females and 119 males; with a mean age of 21.98 years; standard deviation 1.18) enrolled in different departments of the Faculty of Education at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. A Turkish version of Bartholomew and Horowitz’s (J Pers Soc Psychol, 61:226–244, 1991) Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) and the Conflict Questionnaire (CQ) developed by Tezer (J Psychol, 130:281–292, 1996) were used to obtain data. Intercorrelations among four attachment style subscales, and correlation coefficients among four attachment styles and five conflict handling behaviors were computed in addition to a series of ANOVAs and ANCOVAs. Results revealed an association between attachment styles and conflict handling, as well as gender differences in attachment styles.     

Global and local priorities in higher education policies: a headache at the national level?

In November 2001 the Finnish Ministry of Education published a working group report on the internationalisation strategy for higher education, and shortly after another report concentrating on the local dimensions and effects of higher education. In the era of internationalisation and globalisation, local concerns seem to be so great that the Ministry intends to add a third mission in the University Act along with the traditional quests of research and teaching. Thus, in the future, Finnish universities are obliged to act in collaboration with their local environment. This paper analyses the proposals and argumentation of the two reports, aiming, in particular, at discovering the intersections and contact surfaces of the global and local. Finnish developments and discussion will be analysed against the ideas of glonacal agency heuristic presented by Marginson and Rhoades.     

The fine-grained spatial abilities of three seed-caching corvids

We used a psychophysical method to examine the ability of three corvid species to discern fine-grained spatial information. Nutcrackers, pinyon jays, and scrub-jays were required to discriminate the distance between two landmarks on a computer screen in an operant chamber. All three species were able to discriminate between arrays that differed by 20 mm; the discrimination gradients for scrub-jays and pinyon jays were sharper than those for nutcrackers, however. The results suggest that differences in spatial memory among these species are not related to differences in fine-grained perception.