“Our Leaders Are Us”: Youth Activism in Social Movements Project

In this article, we describe the development and implementation of a project, “Our Leaders Are Us: Youth Activism in Social Movements”, that we undertook with New York City high school students exploring events leading up to and following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown. As part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the Brown decision, we designed a series of three workshops that sought to extend urban students’ knowledge of Brown, segregation, and activism and to examine the roles of young people in critical civil rights campaigns. In addition, we discussed with students the ways in which young people can be involved in contemporary social movements and the strategies they can use to effect what they perceive to be needed changes in their lives. Along with the researchers’ extensive field notes, the participating students completed questionnaires throughout the project so that their understanding of Brown and related issues could be documented. Using our findings, we suggest ways that educators can develop and implement similar programs for use in schools.

Personalizing context in teaching mathematical concepts: Teacher-managed and computer-assisted models

The present paper examines a strategy intended to facilitate mathematics learning by adapting the context of instructional material to students’ backgrounds and interests. In four validation studies, the strategy was implemented through teacher management, using college students learning statistical probability rules as subjects. Achievement and attitude outcomes consistently favored treatment groups who received the adaptive contexts over control groups. The culmination of this research is the development of a computer-assisted model to increase the strategy’s practicality and sensitivity to learner differences. The computer model uses stored information about each student to personalize explanations and story examples on a fractions unit.     

A profile of health sciences libraries in Southeast Asia.

This paper reports the results of a survey undertaken by the World Health Organization of health sciences libraries in Southeast Asia. It includes information on clientele, budget, personnel, collections, lending policy, dissemination of information, and reference services. The survey indicates that the collections in most of the health sciences libraries in Southeast Asia are deficient and that services provided to readers are inadequate. Recommendations for improvement are outlined.     

Hypolipidemic effect of water extract ofFicus bengalensis in alloxan induced diabetes mellitus in rabbits

Hypolipidemic effect of the water extract of the bark ofFicus bengalensis was investigated in alloxan induced diabetes mellitus in rabbits. Treatment for one month (50 mg/kg body weight/day) brought down the level of total serum cholesterol (TC) in subdiabetic and diabetic rabbits (five in each group) from 82±11 mg% and 118±10.6 mg% to 42.7±3.1 mg% and 51.7±4.7 mg% respectively. Low density lipoprotein cholesterol and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol values came down from 34±10 mg% and 95±24 mg% to 16±3 mg% and 29±4 mg% in subdiabetic and diabetic rabbits. Triacylglycerol level before treatment was 121±21.6 mg% and 416±70 mg% in subdiabetic and diabetic rabbits. Treatment brought it down to 45±5 mg% and 81±27.5 mg%. Glycosylated hemoglobin was brought down from 2.1±0.3% to 1.5±0.1% in subdiabetic group and from 4.28±0.5% to 2±0.3% in diabetic group, indicating that treatment with water extract effectively controlled blood sugar. After treatment with water extract serum lipid values were nearly equal to those in healthy controls (normal) in subdiabetic rabbits, while in diabetic group, the values were only slightly above those of normal.     

Metabolic Syndrome in Childhood: Rare Case of Alstrom Syndrome with Blindness

Alstrom’s syndrome (AS) is a rare autosomal recessive ciliopathic condition affecting 1:10,00,000 children. It’s a single gene disorder of ALMS1 on chromosome 2 with multisystem involvement with cone-rod retinal dystrophy causing juvenile blindness, obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 Diabetes mellitus, hypogonadism and sensorineural hearing loss. Till now only 800 patients with this disorder has been identified so far. In this report, we describe the case of a 9-year old male boy from south India. He had been initially referred for polyphagia, polyuria, polydipsia, generalized weakness from 1 weeks. On examination he was demonstrated features suggestive of AS, including blindness, obesity, type 2 diabetes, altered lipid profile, hypogonadism, acanthosis nigricans, seborrheic dermatitis, right ear discharge and episodes of respiratory tract infections. So, diagnosis of AS is critical as it can easily be overlooked because of the many features associated with metabolic syndrome starting at age 7, a relatively early age.     

Heart-Type Fatty Acid-Binding Protein,in Early Detection of Acute Myocardial Infarction: Comparison with CK-MB,Troponin I and Myoglobin

The study aimed to investigate whether heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) measurement provides additional diagnostic value to that of conventional cardiac markers in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) within first 6 h after the onset of symptoms. The study included 120 subjects: 60 AMI cases and 60 age and sex matched controls. The cases and controls were further divided into 2 subgroups depending on the time since onset of chest pain as (1) subjects within 3 h and (2) between 3 and 6 h of onset of chest pain. In all the cases and controls, serum H-FABP concentration was measured by Immunoturbidimetric method, serum Troponin I and myoglobin concentrations by Chemiluminescence immunoassay and serum CK-MB concentration by Immuno-inhibition method. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of H-FABP were significantly greater than CK-MB and myoglobin but were lesser than Troponin I in patients with suspected AMI in both within 3 h and 3–6 h groups. Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated greatest diagnostic ability for Troponin I (AUC = 0.99, p < 0.001) followed by H-FABP (AUC = 0.906, p < 0.001) within 3 h and 3–6 h after the onset of chest pain. In conclusion, the diagnostic value of H-FABP is greater than CK-MB and myoglobin but slightly lesser than troponin I for the early diagnosis of AMI within first 6 h of chest pain. H-FABP can be used as an additional diagnostic tool for the early diagnosis of AMI along with troponin I.     

Levels of plasma soluble complement receptor 1 (sCR1) in normal Indian adult population

A decrease in the membrane anchored erythrocyte complement receptor 1 (CR1) is reported as an acquired phenomenon in a number of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with concomitant rise in soluble CR1 (sCR1) levels in plasma. There is a need to establish the normal range of sCR1 in Indian adults to assess the function and disease association of this protein. The plasma sCR1 levels of 50 healthy individuals have been estimated by an indigenously developed sandwich ELISA. sCR1 levels from 26 patients suffering from nephropathies had also been assayed which was much higher than the normal controls. This observation suggests sCR1 as a potential market for the assessment of disease activity in nephropathies.     

Effect of hemodialysis on circulating cystatin c levels in patients with end stage renal disease

Plasma cystatin C is an emerging parameter to assess kidney function. Its utility in assessing the adequacy of hemodialysis in patients with end-stage-renal disease has however not been established with certainty. This study was therefore carried out to assess the usefulness of serum cystatin C estimation in patients undergoing low flux membrane hemodialysis. Serum creatinine and cystatin C were estimated in 20 patients before and after undergoing hemodialysis. The mean serum creatinine decreased from a pre-dialysis value of 7.72 mg/dL to a post-dialysis value of 2.90 mg/dL. On the contrary, the mean serum cystatin C levels were found to increase from a pre-dialysis value of 5.97 mg/L to a post-dialysis value of 8.25 mg/L. Therefore, serum cystatin C cannot be used to monitor dialysis adequacy. It however, serves as a surrogate marker of the inadequacy of low flux membrane bicarbonate hemodialysis in clearing low molecular weight proteins from the circulation.     

Evaluation of Flow Rate,pH, Buffering Capacity,Calcium, Total Proteins and Total Antioxidant Capacity Levels of Saliva in Caries Free and Caries Active Children: An In Vivo Study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the physicochemical properties of saliva such as flow rate, pH, buffering capacity, calcium level, total protein and total antioxidant levels in caries free and caries active children. The present study included one hundred and twenty healthy children who were divided into two groups; group I and group II comprising of age groups 7–10 and 11–14 years, respectively. Both the groups were then sub-divided equally according to gender. They were further divided into caries free and caries active with 15 children in each group. Unstimulated saliva was collected by suction method and flow rates were determined. The samples were then analyzed for pH, buffering capacity, total protein, calcium and total antioxidant capacity. The data was statistically analyzed using student t test (unpaired). The results revealed that when all these parameters were compared among the caries free and caries active children, flow rate, pH, buffering capacity were slightly reduced in caries active children, but total protein and total antioxidant capacity of saliva increased significantly in caries active children and the total calcium decreased significantly in caries active children. Within the limitation of this study, we conclude that, the physicochemical properties of saliva play a major role in the development of caries.     

Serum Paraoxonase Levels In Patients with Acute Liver Disease

Paraoxonase is an anti-oxidant enzyme, which circulates in the plasma, tightly bound to HDL. This enzyme is known to be synthesized in the liver. This study was carried out in order to ascertain the diagnostic utility of this enzyme in acute liver disease. Serum basal as well as salt (NaCl) stimulated paraoxonase was estimated in 50 patients with an established diagnosis of acute liver disease and also in 50 healthy blood donors. Paraoxonase levels were significantly lower in patients as compared with controls (P < 0.05). The ‘receiver operating characteristic’ plot showed that this enzyme has a high degree of sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis acute liver disease. Serum PON is likely to emerge as an additional test of liver function, as it encompasses three different attributes of hepatic function namely, synthetic capacity, detoxication and secretory functions.