The influence of parents on undergraduate and graduate students’ entering the STEM disciplines and STEM careers

This research examines the influence of parents on students’ studying the STEM disciplines and entering STEM careers. Cases of two graduate students (one female, one male) and one undergraduate student (male) are featured. The first two students in the convenience sample are biology and physics majors in a STEM teacher education programme; the third is enrolled in computer science. The narrative inquiry research method is used to elucidate the students’ academic trajectories. Incidents of circumstantial and planned parent curriculum making surfaced when the data was serially interpreted. Other themes included: (1) relationships between (student) learners and (teacher) parents, (2) invitations to inquiry, (3) modes of inquiry, (4) the improbability of certainty, and (5) changed narratives?=?changed lives. While policy briefs provide sweeping statements about parents’ positive effects on their children, narrative inquiries such as this one illuminate parents’ inquiry moves within home environments. These actions became retrospectively revealed in their adult children’s lived narratives. Nurtured by their mothers and/or fathers, students enter STEM disciplines and STEM-related careers through multiple pathways in addition to the anticipated pipeline.     

Early childhood care and education in India

A brief history of the development of Early Childhood Care and Education in pre and post Independent India has been given first. The current situation of ECCE, teacher training and research has been described and the Research — Policy — Program interface has been delineated.

Among the myriad issues confronting ECCE in the country a few have been selected for discussion.     

Technology Readiness, Learning Goals, and eLearning: Searching for Synergy

More and more business schools are offering classes online or classes using a mix of face‐to‐face and online elements. In this article, we focus on how technology readiness and learning‐goal orientation influence students' preference toward these mixed classes. We conducted a large‐scale survey to determine whether students who are technology ready would place higher utility on enrolling in mixed classes and/or whether there exists a participation bias such that students with low learning‐goal orientation place higher utility on enrolling in mixed classes. We found that overall students who are more technology ready do place higher utility on enrolling in mixed classes, but that learning‐goal orientation does not influence this decision. We conclude with implications and recommendations for business schools that are interested in offering mixed classes.     

In defence of children

The Convention on the rights of the child has not made much of a difference to the existing conditions of children in India. Moral energy and a socio‐political vision is required by not only the government, but all concerned to improve the status of the child in India. There is a need to focus on child rights issues related to creating public awareness, attitudinal change, political commitment, mass sensitisation and reaching the unreached. An appropriate action strategy is suggested for the restoration of the rights of children in India.     

An IAD type framework for Blockchain enabled smart tourism ecosystem

The concept of smart tourism remains fuzzy when it comes to practice because of the lack of clarity on the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in addition to complex institutional ecosystem that exist within the tourism industry. Further, trust and safety of the data generated due to the advancement of smart tourism in varied institutional arrangements pose huge challenges. Extant literature proposes that the application of decentralized ledger promises possible solutions to most of these problems due to the inherent features of the Blockchain technology. This suggestion raises two practical questions. First, does the sophisticated additional layer adds complexity to its practical application? Second, will the suggested solutions really lead to a win-win for all the stakeholders involved? In this study, we use Ostrom's action arena to examine the exchanges (information, contractual and monetary) between various stakeholders in a BCT enabled smart tourism of a Blockchain enabled tourism industry to answer these two questions.     

Combined Analysis of Anti SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM Responses in COVID19 Patients in India

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global health problem, India being the second most affected country. The kinetics of antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in Indian population is not studied yet. To understand serological response in relation to age, gender, time period and severity of disease, Roche Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 test was used which analysed both IgM and IgG. One hundred and three COVID-19 patients were enrolled. Seropositivity was seen in 64% of patients, with 33% at ≤ 7 days, 62% between 8 and 15 days and 81% at ≥ 16 days from the time of admission. Men (65%) showed higher antibody response than women (59%), whereas no difference was observed in seropositivity with respect to age of the patients. Dynamics of antibody responses revealed individual variations. Patients in ICU had higher antibody reactivity with 67% positivity as compared to 60% positivity in non-ICU patients. Kinetics of antibody response during COVID-19 disease varied in relation to gender, age, time period and severity and these factors might play an important role in treatment and control of COVID-19.     

PCT as a Prognostic Marker in Cardiac Patients with Neutropenic Sepsis: Two Case Reports

Procalcitonin (PCT) is an innovative and highly specific marker for diagnosis of clinically relevant bacterial infection and sepsis. PCT supports early diagnosis and Clinical decision making. A retrospective study of two classical cases of neutropenic sepsis with elevated PCT levels in cardiac ICU was done. PCT was analyzed using Elecsys Brahms PCT kit. Serum PCT levels <0.5 ng/ml and ANC <1,000/mm³ was taken as cutoff. The first patient had initial high levels of PCT 100 ng/ml, TLC 13,600/mm³ and ANC 12,250/mm³. It was followed by drop with subsequent rise in PCT levels and drop in TLC 1,000/mm³ and ANC 70/mm³. The second patient had normal PCT 0.116 ng/ml, TLC 5,600/mm³ and ANC 4,420/mm³ levels followed with sharp increase in all the values with subsequent drop in TLC 2,000/mm³ and ANC 880 cells/mm³. Both the patients died of neutropenic sepsis with multiorgan failure. The case reports showed the correlation of PCT with TLC and ANC levels in predicting the mortality of patients with neutropenic sepsis in cardiac ICU.     

Does LDL-C Estimation Using Anandaraja’s Formula Give a Better Agreement with Direct LDL-C Estimation than the Friedewald’s Formula?

Estimation of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is crucial in management of coronary artery disease patients. Though a number of homogenous assays are available for estimation of LDL-C, use of calculated LDL-C by Friedewald’s formula (FF) is common in Indian laboratories for logistic reasons. Recently Anandaraja and colleagues have derived a new formula for calculating LDL-C. This formula needs to be evaluated before it is extensively applied in diagnosis. We measured LDL-C by homogenous method (D-LDL-C) in 515 fasting samples. Friedewald’s and Anandaraja’s formulas were used for calculation of LDL-C (F-LDL-C and A-LDL-C, respectively). The mean LDL-C levels were 123.3 ± 53.2, 112.4 ± 50.2 and 109.2 ± 49.8 mg/dl for D-LDL-C, F-LDL-C and A-LDL-C, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the results (P > 0.001) obtained by calculation formulas compared to the measured LDL-C. There was underestimation of LDL-C by 10.8 and 14 mg/dl by Friedewald’s and Anandaraja’s formulas respectively. The Pearson’s correlation between F-LDL-C and D-LDL-C was 0.931 and that between A-LDL-C and D-LDL-C was 0.930. Bland–Altman graphs showed a definite agreement between mean and differences of the calculation formulas and direct LDL-C with 95% of values lying with in ±2 SD limits. The mean percentage difference (calculated as {(Calculated LDL-C)-(D-LDL-C)}/D-LDL-C × 100) for F-LDL-C was maximum (−11.6%) at HDL-C ≥ 60 mg/dl and TG levels of 200–300 mg/dl (−10.4%) compared to D-LDL-C. A-LDL-C results gave highest mean percentage difference at total cholesterol concentrations <100 mg/dl (−37.3%) and HDL-C < 40 mg/dl (−17.1%), respectively. The results of our study showed that FF is better in agreement with D-LDL-C than Anandaraja’s formula for estimation of LDL-C by calculation though both lead to its underestimation.     

Role of Iron and Copper in the Pathogenesis of Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an old age disorder of basal ganglia which involves oligomerization of α-synuclein protein and formation of intercellular inclusions known as “Lewy bodies” in substantia nigra and caudate nuclei in brain which is progressive in nature. It is second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremor at rest, muscle rigidity, slowness of movement (bradykinesia, akinesia), and changes in posture (instability). Both excess and deficiency in levels of transition metals (especially iron, copper) can be detrimental to the central nervous system. Abnormalities in iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) metabolism have been reported to produce oxidative stress which is one of the major cause in pathogenesis of PD. In the present study 35 PD patients and 33 controls of Northern Indian population were included and serum levels of Fe, Cu and ceruloplasmin (Cp) were measured. Serum Fe (p < 0.01) and Cu (p < 0.01) levels were found to be significantly decreased in PD, whereas there was no significant change in Cp levels in PD patients as compared to controls. These results suggest the existence of a defect in iron which over the time, may hasten the entry of iron into the brain and decrease iron in the extracellular compartment in PD patients.