Mothers’ gendered aspirations for their children: a case study of Forbesganj,Bihar

Current literature on parent aspirations has not empirically explored the factors that may lead to differences in aspirations among similar types of parents. Additionally, little is known about the gendered nature of these differences. In this study, we seek to understand factors shaping mothers’ aspirations in regards to education, marriage, and careers of their daughters and sons, and to explore why differences may be found for mothers from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Using a case study approach, we conduct in-depth interviews with 28 mothers in the Indian town of Forbesganj, Bihar. We use a conceptual framework based on the capabilities approach, and draw on theories of social learning, or learning from one’s peers, through which to understand differences in aspirations. Findings suggest that mothers desire lives for their children that are different from their own, and that conceptions of such lives are influenced by exposure to role models in their communities.     

Continuity of Care: Primary Caregiving in Singapore

Early Childhood Education Journal - Child care centres in many developed countries have expanded exponentially due to the increased participation of women in the workforce. Consequently, children...     

Automatic recommendation system based on hybrid filtering algorithm

Education and Information Technologies - Web recommendation systems are ubiquitous in the world used to overcome the product overload on e-commerce websites. Among various filtering algorithms,...     

Architectural Support for Context-Aware Mobile Learning Applications

Education and Information Technologies - Context-aware mobile learning applications provide learning materials to suit the needs of individual learners. Despite several applications developed,...     

Depoliticization of educational reforms: the STEM story

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Education reforms are rarely successful or free of controversies. However, efforts to STEM-ify public education in the USA by positioning education in STEM...     

Circadian rhythms

Over the series of articles on circadian rhythms, we saw that living organisms exhibit daily rhythms in multiple behaviours and physiological processes. Although some rhythms may be passive responses to 24 h environmental cycles, many are regulated by endogenous-rhythmgenerating machinery called circadian clocks. We have introduced the concept of circadian clocks, their organization and the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this article, we will dwell upon one of the most fundamental questions pertaining to circadian clocks, ‘Why do we have them?’. The aim of this article is not to provide answers, but to discuss the efforts and strategies used to address this question and critically evaluate explanations proposed till date.     

MBA Students' Preparedness for Enterpreneurial Efforts

This is a survey of MBA students'preparedness for launching new businessinitiatives or other entrepreneurialactivities. It explores the readiness of theMBA students, estimated on dimensionscomprising knowledge, attitude, skills,experience, opportunity and networks. Thevariation of the postgraduate students'perceptions along these six dimensions andcertain demographic factors, including gender,stage of the MBA programme, students' permanentresidence, their funding source, enrolmentstatus, employment status, marital status andyears of work experience, was considered. Multiple regressions then established therelationship between entrepreneurialpreparedness and the six dimensions. Finally,some broad implications for the MBA curriculumare considered.     

Science, science education and their discontents: a response to commentaries on the paper, Portrait of a Science Teacher as a Bricoleur: A case study from India

In this response to commentaries by Ali Sammel, Jhumki Basu and Alberto Rodriguez, I present my perspective on three important issues raised by the commentators. These issues relate to the role of a researcher in her field settings and society, the critique of science and science education as oppressive dominant discourses, and co-opting participants as researchers. I argue that researchers should work actively for progressive change in discursive fields such as educational research, in which they are firmly embedded rather than playing an interventionist role in field settings where their discursive positionality maybe temporary and not that rooted. Regarding the critique of science and science education, my response favors a perspective wherein an understanding of the marginalization and oppression of non-western communities caused by western science and science education is counterbalanced by an appreciation of the ways in which marginalized communities can use science and science education for affecting progressive change. Lastly, I recognize the value of co-opting participants in writing and communication of research.

Cancer on the cross-wires

Normal cells in our body that constitute a cellular society are not selfish and this is evident by the fact that they have evolved a phenomenal pathway whereby they cause their own death under conditions of stress that lie beyond the absorbing capacity of the cell. This phenomenon is known as ‘Apoptosis’ or ‘Programmed Cell Death’. However, cancerous cells, which are indeed selfish and proliferate at the cost of their normal counterparts, evade the apoptotic pathway by hindering the mitochondrial release of the proapoptotic protein cytochrome c (Cyt c). Here, we have proposed a scheme whereby the power of proteasome (an intracellular protein chopper) could be harnessed to remove the obstruction placed by cancer cell to the apoptotic process and thereby pushing the cancerous cells to self-destruction, leading to a possible cure for cancer.     

Existence and uniqueness theorem for flow and heat transfer of a non-Newtonian fluid over a stretching sheet

Analysis is carried out to study the existence, uniqueness and behavior of exact solutions of the fourth order nonlinear coupled ordinary differential equations arising in the flow and heat transfer of a viscoelastic, electrically conducting fluid past a continuously stretching sheet. The ranges of the parametric values are obtained for which the system has a unique pair of solutions, a double pair of solutions and infinitely many solutions.