The corporal punishment ban in schools: Teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices

This study examines Indian teachers’ perceptions of corporal punishment (CP), the reasons why CP still persists despite a ban, and the ways in which CP controversy reflects on social climate of the schools. Drawing from literature on custodial views of pupil control and systems theories, this qualitative study primarily uses observations and interviews to examine teachers’ perceptions related to use of CP in Delhi, India. Based on the data analysis this study concludes that alternatives to CP and successful implementation of the CP ban depend on compatibility between local and national sociocultural norms, teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards the policies’ objectives, and the availability of resources. This study helps with understanding educator’s perception of corporal punishment as a disciplinary tool to spur meaningful action and change in the society. Additionally, this study creates a context for the policy-makers to develop equitable policies capable of helping teachers effectively to deal with students’ misbehaviour and creating safe learning environments.     

A Comparative Study of Bone Scan Findings and Serum Levels of Tumor Marker CA15-3 in Patients with Breast Carcinoma

Breast cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies in the world. Available staging procedures to detect breast cancer are bone scan, chest X-ray, liver ultrasonography, computerized tomography, estimation of tumor markers like carbohydrate antigen (CA15-3) and carcino embryonic antigen. These procedures are expensive and may not be required in all cases. Out of 70 patients studied, 55 had normal CA15-3 and 15 had elevated levels of Ca15-3. Eight (14.5%) of the 55 patients with normal CA15-3 had abnormal bone scan. Fifteen patients had CA15-3 levels above the normal range and among these 9 (60%) had abnormal bone scan. While prime facie it would appear that a high level of CA15-3 correlate with abnormal bone scan, it is also true that the numbers are small at present and conclusions about the validity of CA15-3 as marker of bone metastasis may be premature.     

Evaluation of Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant Status in Pregnant Anemic Women

The present study was conducted to investigate the oxidant–antioxidant status in iron deficient pregnant anemic women. One hundred thirty pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) were divided into three groups, namely mild (50), moderate (50) and severe (30) anemic along with pregnant healthy women as controls (50). The complete blood count, plasma lipid peroxidation products, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants were measured according to respective protocols. The levels of complete blood count, iron, ferritin along with antioxidant enzymes namely catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and reduced glutathione were significantly reduced in all IDA groups. However, the level of oxidized glutathione, lipid peroxides, protein carbonyls, conjugated dienes were found significantly increased in all anemic patients. Antioxidant vitamins, namely C, E and A were also found significantly decreased in IDA patients. On the basis of our results, it may be concluded that IDA tends to increase the pro-oxidant components, which may result in various complications including peroxidation of vital body molecules resulting in increased risk for pregnant women as well as fetus.     

Comparative Study of Serum Amylase and Lipase in Acute Pancreatitis Patients

To establish utility of single enzymatic marker for the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis. This is a cohort study. Tertiary care centre proven cases of acute pancreatitis (n = 50) admitted in surgery ward between December 2011 and May 2013 were included in the study. Serum amylase and lipase were performed along with many analytes. All relevant data including serum lab values and imaging were collected. All 50 patients included in the study had raised serum lipase, 42 patients had both amylase and lipase raised, 8 patients had amylase normal but lipase raised. In smaller hospitals where limited lab and radiological facilities are available, estimation of serum lipase will be a better choice over serum amylase in diagnosis of acute pancreatitis.     

Limitations of autopilot design for controlling a statically unstable flexible interceptor

The Mach number, angle of attack and altitude of operation for an interceptor vary widely during the course of its trajectory. As a result, the interceptor Center of Pressure (CP) locations move significantly around a given Center of Gravity (CG) location at these operating conditions. This results in an inevitable variation in aerodynamic static stability leading to stable and unstable operating regions. In order to ensure good speed of response during the interceptor homing phase, lesser static stability is desirable. Hence the requirement to handle aerodynamic instability at some other operating conditions in the interceptor envelope become inevitable. Since flexibility has a strong bearing on autopilot design, it becomes necessary to control unstable operating points in the presence of flexibility modes. Despite the static stability variation, aerodynamic design can control the level of maximum instability of the configuration. Hence the maximum static instability the autopilot can handle has to be specified for aerodynamic configuration design. This paper brings out the limitations of autopilot design in controlling an unstable interceptor with low bending mode frequencies in terms of maximum instability the autopilot design can handle, which serves as an important input for aerodynamic design.     

Microfluidic enrichment of small proteins from complex biological mixture on nanoporous silica chip

The growing field of miniaturized diagnostics is hindered by a lack of pre-analysis treatments that are capable of processing small sample volumes for the detection of low concentration analytes in a high-throughput manner. This letter presents a novel, highly efficient method for the extraction of low-molecular weight (LMW) proteins from biological fluids, represented by a mixture of standard proteins, using integrated microfluidic systems. We bound a polydimethylsiloxane layer patterned with a microfluidic channel onto a well-defined nanoporous silica substrate. Using rapid, pressure-driven fractionation steps, this system utilizes the size-exclusion properties of the silica nanopores to remove high molecular weight proteins while simultaneously isolating and enriching LMW proteins present in the biological sample. The introduction of the microfluidic component offers important advantages such as high reproducibility, a simple user interface, controlled environment, the ability to process small sample volumes, and precise quantification. This solution streamlines high-throughput proteomics research on many fronts and may find broad acceptance and application in clinical diagnostics and point of care detection.     

A study of thyroid status in hyperemesis gravidarum

Study was undertaken to assess thyroid status in hyperemesis gravidarum. 150 women pregnant with <20 weeks of gestation were selected randomly and out of these 100 women presenting with hyperemesis formed study group while 50 normal pregnant women served as controls. 53% of hyperemetic pregnant women were primigravidae and 82% of pregnant women presented with vomiting at less than 12 weeks of gestation. Statistically significant, 22% of hyperemetic women had increased serum T₃ levels while T₄ levels were increased in 67% of women in study group as compared to 8% and 16% respectively in control group. TSH levels were decreased in 18% of hyperemetic women as compared to 8% in control group with decrease in mean TSH level statistically significant. 22% of hyperemetic women had electrolyte disturbances and 7% were ketonuric. In clinically euthyroid women, biochemically altered thyroid function can attribute to vomiting and its prolongation to second trimester     

“This School Helps A Lot”: Personal Agency Among Black Youth Within a Supportive School Environment

The Urban Review - We collected field observation notes, accessed student demographic data, and interviewed sixteen Black high school youth (50% male; Mage?=?16.1) to explore...