The nucleotide sequence of Shigella flexneri 1A: A common Indian isolate

We report complete sequences of 2 genes of S.flexneri 1a an Indian isolate for the first time. Shigella is causative agent of shigellosis or bacillary dysentery. Genomic library was constructed by shotgun approach. Sequencing was carried out using Big Dye terminator chemistry using ABI 3730 48 capillary DNA analyzer. 170 recombinants were subjected to nucleotide sequencing. Sequence data was analyzed, of these 2 clones showed presence of complete genes out of the total clones sequenced. Annotations were done using various bioinformatics tools. Gene Sfo676 on contig SF21B11, 513 bp long codes for a protein 170 aa long with molecular weight of 18836.5 daltons. The protein is 99 % identical to S. flexneri 2a 301 and not with any other strain of Shigella. It has 7 different sites for phosphorylation, myristoylation and glycosylation. Predicted cellular localization is cytoplasmic membrane. SF0368 is another full-length gene SF0368 on contig SF69C1 is a 312 nucleotide long. It is 103 aa long with molecular weight 11394.0 daltons. Protein is 100% identical to S. flexneri 2a 301 and 99% with S. sonnei strain 046. The gene shows difference when compared with S.sonnei in mono and dinucleotide frequency as well as amino acid composition.     

Teaching problem solving: Don't forget the problem solver(s)

The importance of intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences has long been known but educators have debated whether to and how to incorporate those topics in an already crowded engineering curriculum. In 2010, the authors used the classroom as a laboratory to observe the usefulness of including selected case studies and exercises from the fields of neurology, artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences and social psychology in a new problem-solving course. To further validate their initial findings, in 2012, the authors conducted an online survey of engineering students and engineers. The main conclusion is that engineering students will benefit from learning more about the impact of emotions, culture, diversity and cognitive biases when solving problems. Specifically, the work shows that an augmented problem-solving curriculum needs to include lessons on labelling emotions and cognitive biases, ‘evidence-based’ data on the importance of culture and diversity and additional practice on estimating conditional probability.     

Development of CAI Presentations for Science Teaching and Overview of Research Findings

Research suggests that information and communication technologies (ICT) used in the form of computer assisted instruction (CAI) may benefit student learning. There is, however, limited research about the application of CAI in non-Western educational contexts. Here I describe the use of CAI in the learning of science in India. Evaluation of student learning by quantitative and qualitative means suggests that CAI has led to enhanced learning for a variety of science topics in this educational setting. I also reflect on issues germane to the Indian context and provide guidelines for the use of CAI in science instruction in countries for which ICT facilities in schools are somewhat compromised.     

An introduction to parallel computation

The most powerful computers in existence today are parallel computers. How are these parallel computers built? How are they programmed? This article provides an introduction