Academic Setup Research Articles

Strengthening health care research and academics during and after COVID19 pandemic- an Indian perspective

The world-wide crisis of COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted daily lives, global economies, intra/inter-countries political outlook and educational systems. Schools and colleges in India and abroad are under lock-down to maximize social distancing and minimize the spread of infection amongst students and teaching staff. Health sciences related universities and researchers are forced to adopt non-contact teaching and research.Present article highlights the positive impact and opportunities provided by COVID-19 crisis to health care research and academic set-up. We have compiled ethical, effective and practical guidelines to mitigate the impact on health care related research and academic front during these pandemic times in an Indian perspective. These guidelines and management suggestions can be modified to suit region based cases and can be applied in global perspective also.The suggestions in the current article provide a working collaboration of students and teachers to effectively connect on virtual platforms to strengthen their research output, giving suggestions of data-sharing and rapid review of proposals by online review ethical boards. This time is proposed to be used for generating a positive impact on health and research sector to use each adversity as an opportunity.

Combining classical and component-based TPA for equivalent load identification

The transfer path analysis (TPA) has become a rather standard tool for solving noise and vibration problems, as it helps understanding the mechanisms responsible for the generation and transmission of those quantities. By better understanding the intricate role of multiple sources and propagation paths, it is possible to diagnose and propose effective modifications that would addresses such issues at specific target locations. Although originally an experimental approach, hybrid methods that include modeled sub-systems have been proposed, which allow the assessment of key system features even at stages prior to the construction of full physical prototypes. However, in classical TPA, the operational forces are characteristics of the complete system, which implies that, with each modification in one subsystem, it is necessary to redo all the tests for the correct determination of target functions. For this reason, in recent years, interest has been renewed in the development of faster and simpler techniques for analyzing energy transfer paths, which offer a compromise between workload and accuracy. More specifically, a set of methods called component-based TPA is highlighted, which consists of characterizing the excitation of a source through a set of equivalent forces (or even interface velocities) inherent only to the active subsystem. In this way, the responses at target locations on the passive subsystem could be calculated using these equivalent loads and the dynamics of the complete system, obtained numerically, experimentally or under a hybrid framework. This work presents a critical analysis of the component-based TPA methods and proposes the combined use of these methods with a classical TPA approach in the process of determining equivalent forces of the active subsystem. This set of equivalent forces, combined with the passive subsystem dynamics, allows the prediction of the vibrational behavior of the full assembly at targeted locations, without the need for a full experimental analysis of the assembled system. As the case study presented here consists of a modular academic setup, it allows the qualitative assessment of the method in distinct assembly boundary conditions, in which the subsystems are connected via rigid or flexible joints.

Evolution of the Web of Social Machines: A Systematic Review and Research Challenges

Social machines (SMs) are the term used to define processes in which the people do the creative work and the machine does the administration. The concept was scarcely studied until 2013, when the series of workshops on SMs was created, and the topic began to receive more attention. However, it is not clear how research has evolved since then. This article aims to investigate and summarize how the research field of SM has evolved since 2013, to outline the state of the art and practice, and identify research opportunities within this field. We performed a systematic literature review analyzing the quantity and quality of publications, the main topics addressed, the current classifications of SMs, the context in which the concepts are used, and the main perceived challenges. We identified and analyzed 56 relevant studies addressing 12 topics, representing the current practical landscape of research regarding SM. Our findings suggest that: 1) research interest in SM is increasing, but is still concentrated into two research clusters; 2) topics are grouped under two main headings: a) human behavior and b) software development; 3) there is still a need for a common taxonomy to define and classify SM; 4) the main contexts are crowdsourcing and social networks, and the majority of studies are small-scale studies in an academic setup; and 5) more empirical rigor and evidence is needed regarding their use, benefits and challenges, despite some evidence regarding challenges related to user engagement, trust, scalability, and a better human–machine collaboration. Finally, a vision of the future of SMs, with the integration of web of people, artificial intelligence, and things, is also presented and discussed.

Launching a new fellowship in microrestorative and endodontics for postgraduates in conservative dentistry and endodontics.

Expanding and refining the skill sets of postgraduates specialists is required by the many current and changing demands of dental science education and research. To meet this challenge, the Indian Board of Micro Restorative and Endodontics under the aegis of the Indian Association of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics has begun a fellowship program in Micro Restorative and Endodontics; the main aim being to improve the knowledge and skills of these specialists empowering them to go a step higher and beyond their areas of specialization. The objectives of the fellowship course are as follows: (1) Achieving necessary skills in managing routine and advanced restorative and endodontic scenarios using modern magnification technology. (2) Constantly enhancing the existing knowledge by pursuing new arenas in magnification technology. (3) Complete understanding and application of cutting edge research in the practice of microrestorative and endodontics. (4) Ensuring the highest possible patient-centric quality of care. Learning experiences shall be provided under the guidance and supervision of competent mentors at predesignated centers all over India. The learning strategies will be through workshops, contact sessions, and learning assignments. The carefully designed curriculum shall prepare the restorative dentists and endodontists, to be an autonomous, effective, safe, and a compassionate professional, who practices collaboratively in a variety of clinical and academic setups, responsive to the current and future needs of the restorative and endodontic health-care system. A passion for microdentistry would be a great way to make a positive difference to your patient care and creative work.

From Traditional to Practical: A Twist Using Inquiry Based Instruction in ESL Learning

Continuing professional development is an indispensable mechanism for deepening teachers’ knowledge about content and developing teaching practices. Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) through Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI) is a program designed as a set of experiential learning where teachers have opportunities to integrate, reflect upon and develop their inquiry teaching performance (Alper, 2018). Inquiry is a multifaceted, student-centered, collaborative, constructivist activity aimed at improving students’ higher-order reasoning. It could be described as hands-on, problem-based, project-based as well as deductive and inductive approaches in teaching ESL. The researcher surveyed students using a modified questionnaire not only on the opportunity given to students to inquire and the frequency of their asking of questions but also the kinds and types of questions the teachers asked in the academic set-up. Using discourse analysis too, the researcher was able to examine the ways in which language was used, in the study, the teachers’ questions, in the real situation, the classroom. The investigated data revealed merged linguistics and sociology by taking into account the social and cultural context language was used to better understand an aspect in communication. Highlight of the study was to assess the possible twist of instruction from traditional to inquiry-based approach in ESL learning, where students inquire instead of the teachers asking questions.

Utilisation of ANPSort for sorting alternative with interdependent criteria illustrated through a researcher’s classification problem in an academic context

Six problem formulations exist in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA): choice, sorting, ranking, description, elimination and design problems. MCDA methods are generally developed for choice or ranking problems. Recently, several methods have been adapted for sorting problems. However, they all assume that the criteria are independent, which is often not the case practically in real life. Therefore, this paper proposes a new sorting technique ANPSort, which can handle problems and challenges with interdependent criteria. Moreover, another practical limitation of ANP is that a high number of alternatives imply a large number of comparisons. In comparison, our proposed ANPSort requires far-less comparisons than ANP, which facilitates decision-making within large-scale problems. It further allows a structured, transparent and consistent evaluation integrating qualitative and quantitative criteria. In this paper, we contextualise and problematise this challenge and contribute through the lens of a practical case study in a higher education academic set-up specifically concentrating on a topical area of ‘researcher classification’, to illustrate our concept and approach.

Experimental Study of the Shaft Penetration Factor on the Torsional Dynamic Response of a Drive Train

Typical rotating machinery drive trains are prone to torsional vibrations. Especially those drive trains that comprise one or more couplings which connect the multiple shafts. Since these vibrations rarely produce noise or vibration of the stationary frame, their presence is hardly noticeable. Moreover, unless an expensive torsional-related problem has become obvious, such drive trains are not instrumented with torsional vibration measurement equipment. Excessive levels can easily cause damage or even complete failure of the machine. So, when designing or retrofitting a machine, a comprehensive and detailed numerical torsional vibration analysis is crucial to avoid such problems. However, to accurately calculate the torsional modes, one has to account for the penetration effect of the shaft in the coupling hub, indicated by the shaft penetration factor, on the torsional stiffness calculation. Many guidelines and assumptions have been published for the stiffness calculation, however, its effect on the damping and the dynamic amplification factor are less known. In this paper, the effect of the shaft penetration factor, and hence coupling hub-to-shaft connection, on the dynamic torsional response of the system is determined by an experimental study. More specifically, the damping is of major interest. Accordingly, a novel academic test setup is developed in which several configurations, with each a different shaft penetration factor, are considered. Besides, different amplitude levels, along with both a sweep up and down excitation, are used to identify their effect on the torsional response. The measurement results show a significant influence of the shaft penetration factor on the system’s first torsional mode. By increasing the shaft penetration factor, and thus decreasing the hub-to-shaft interference, a clear eigenfrequency drop along with an equally noticeable damping increase, is witnessed. On the contrary, the influence of the sweep up versus down excitation is less pronounced.

LEVEL OF AWARENESS OF SUCCESSION PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG EDUCATIONAL LEADERS AT GULF COLLEGE, OMAN

The study aimed to determine the level of awareness of succession planning and management practices of educational managers at Gulf College, Oman. Specifically, it sought to establish the significant relationship of the respondents’ personal profiles and their level of awareness in succession planning and management practices. This study employed the descriptive-evaluative method. The respondents were the educational leaders (deputy deans, head of faculty, program leaders, coordinators and centre managers, lecturers). Statistical procedures were used to analyse the quantitative data such as Frequency and Percentage Distributions and Weighted mean and Computed r. The results show that in terms of talent training and development and process evaluation as against the respondents’ profile, the result showed that only the respondents’ age has a significant relationship in terms of succession planning and management practices. The levels of awareness of the respondents as regards to succession planning and management practices in terms of communicate expectations and organization assessment and alignment must be strengthened, since they have a verbal interpretation of aware. Likewise, the level of awareness of the respondents as regards to succession planning and management practices in terms of talent training and development as well as process evaluation have marked less aware, this implies that although educational leaders have some knowledge in succession planning and management practices, their involvement is limited. Hence, implementation is not actualized. In order to keep abreast with the challenging academic set ups educational leaders, particularly the top and middle managers should provide an open avenue in succession planning and practices specifically in communicate expectations, organization and assessment, talent and training development programs, and process evaluation. An apprenticeship programs must be provided for incoming educational leaders or managers. Article visualizations:

FilTer BaSe: A web accessible chemical database for small compound libraries

Finding novel chemical agents for targeting disease associated drug targets often requires screening of large number of new chemical libraries. In silico methods are generally implemented at initial stages for virtual screening. Filtering of such compound libraries on physicochemical and substructure ground is done to ensure elimination of compounds with undesired chemical properties. Filtering procedure, is redundant, time consuming and requires efficient bioinformatics/computer manpower along with high end software involving huge capital investment that forms a major obstacle in drug discovery projects in academic setup. We present an open source resource, FilTer BaSe- a chemoinformatics platform (http://bioinfo.net.in/filterbase/) that host fully filtered, ready to use compound libraries with workable size. The resource also hosts a database that enables efficient searching the chemical space of around 348,000 compounds on the basis of physicochemical and substructure properties. Ready to use compound libraries and database presented here is expected to aid a helping hand for new drug developers and medicinal chemists.

My 40-year journey in diabetes research: The power of collaboration.

This article describes a 40 year journey in diabetes research of an Indian diabetologist, starting as an undergraduate medical student. The article describes how collaborations with multiple stake-holders is necessary if one is to advance one's research from the simple studies that one starts with and take it to higher and higher levels. It is also essential that the seeds for doing research are planted early in a medico's life even during undergraduate days, as only then will more doctors take up medical research as a career. Finally, the article demonstrates how it is possible to do good quality research in India if one has the passion and sustained interest in the field even if one is not in a university or academic setup.

Student Perceptions to the Use of Paperless Technology in Assessments–A Case Study Using Clickers

Modern classrooms see many innovative practices in facilitation. Most facilitators prefer using presentations animated videos and multimedia to better explain their content. Campuses are Wi-Fi enabled and students use tablets, laptops and smartphones to capture the essence of a lecture. However the one area where technological innovation is still lagging behind, in an academic setup, is in assessment. This paper looks at the perception of students to the use of clicker technology as a form of paperless assessment. Clicker technology was introduced as a tool for conducting formative and summative assessments to a first year electrical engineering subject, Digital Systems 1. The paper first elaborates on the significance, types and the methods of academic assessments. It then discusses the pros and cons of assessments using clicker technology. Thirdly it sheds light on the research methodology used in acquiring data for this research. Finally the results are analyzed which among others show that that 71% students enjoyed using clickers in class for formative assessments while only 52% appreciated its use in summative assessments. One of the reasons touted for this decrease is student anxiety. The key recommendation from this research is to increase the use of these assessment techniques within a formative assessment environment so as to familiarize students to eventually use it with confidence in summative assessments.

Assessment and Management of Learning Disability: A Case Report

The performance of school going students is determined by gamut of factors. The traditional view that intelligence is the most potent factor which determines academic performance has been challenged based on research and clinical work. The performance of the school going students is significantly effected by emotional and other non-cognitive factors. These non-cognitive factors include persistence of negative psychological states like depression, anger, excessive anxiety etc. Learning disability is also one of the factors which impairs academic performance of the school going students. The term “learning disability” has emerged from the need to identify and serve the children who continuously fail at school, yet are not intellectually disabled. In 1905, Witmer's case of child with larding problems gave impetus to the discipline of clinical psychology. There has been less focus on learning disability in school going children in India. The school teachers and administrators are less sensitive to these issues in students. Over the last few years, however, there has been an increase awareness of these important issues in schools and other academic set ups. The current paper will highlight the nature of learning disability, its assessment and interventions to work with students with these issues. The paper highlights the importance of trained special educators, mental health counselors and other similar professionals who can work in school set up to help school going children manage learning disability and similar issues. It has implications such students’ academic and emotional well-being.

Tango assay for ligand-induced GPCR-β-arrestin2 interaction: Application in drug discovery.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are widely known to modulate almost all physiological functions and have been demonstrated over the time as therapeutic targets for wide gamut of diseases. The design and implementation of high-throughput GPCR-based assays that permit the efficient screening of large compound libraries to discover novel drug candidates are essential for a successful drug discovery endeavor. Usually, GPCR-based functional assays depend primarily on the measurement of G protein-mediated second messenger generation. However, with advent of advanced molecular biology tools and increased understanding of GPCR signal transduction, many G protein-independent pathways such as β-arrestin translocation are being utilized to detect the activity of GPCRs. These assays provide additional information on functional selectivity (also known as biased agonism) of compounds that could be harnessed to develop pathway-selective drug candidates to reduce the adverse effects associated with given GPCR target. In this chapter, we describe the basic principle, detailed methodologies and assay setup, result analysis and data interpretations of the β-arrestin2 Tango assay, and its comparison with cell-based G protein-dependent GPCR assays, which could be employed in a simple academic setup to facilitate GPCR-based drug discovery.

HRCT in cystic fibrosis in patients with CFTR I1234V mutation: Assessment of scoring systems with low dose technique using multidetector system and correlation with pulmonary function tests.

Background and Aims:Pulmonary changes in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) with CFTR I1234V mutation have not been extensively documented. Impact of geographic influence on phenotypical expression is largely unknown. This descriptive clinical study presents the high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) pulmonary findings and computed tomography (CT) scoring with respect to pulmonary function tests (PFT) in a small subset of CF group.Materials and Methods:We examined 29 patients between 2 and 31 years of age with CFTR I1234V mutation. HRCT and PFT were performed within 2 weeks of each other. Imaging abnormalities on HRCT were documented and analyzed by utilizing the scoring system described by Bhalla et al., Brody et al., Helbich et al.,and Santamaria et al. Efficacy of the scoring system with respect to PFT was compared.Statistical Analysis:Inter-observer reliability of the scoring systems was tested using intraclass correlation (ICC) between the two observers. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between the scoring systems and between the scoring systems and PFT results.Results:In our study, right upper and middle lobes were the most frequently involved sites of involvement. Bronchiectasis and peribronchial thickening were the most frequent imaging findings. Scores with all four scoring systems were reproducible, with good ICC coefficient of 0.69. There was good agreement between senior radiologists in all scoring systems.Conclusion:We noted pulmonary imaging abnormalities in a large majority (96%) of our CF patients. There was no significant difference in the CT scores observed from various systems. The CT evaluation system by Broody is detailed and time consuming, and is ideal for research and academic setup. On the other hand, the systems by Bhalla and Santamaria are easy to use, quick, and equally informative. We found the scoring system by Santamaria preferable over that of Bhalla by virtue of additional points of evaluation and ease of use, and therefore better suited for busy clinical practice.

INVESTIGATION OF STUDENT’S PERSONALITY ON PAIR PROGRAMMING TO ENHANCE THE LEARNING ACTIVITY IN THE ACADEMIA

Agile Software development is now a global phenomenon and is rapidly becoming organizations' most preferred IT process. Extreme Programming (XP) is one of the Agile Methods and Collaborative Pair Programming (CPP) is one of the very important practices of eXtreme Programming. Agile focuses team work which is very important in the field of software development. The software industry has practiced CPP, where two programmers working side by side on one computer on the same problem with great success. Similar experiments have been conducted in academia and pair programming has been shown to be beneficial for both students and teaching staff in university courses. In this study, we conducted some set of experiments about the "human" aspect of the CPP; in particular the effects that personality attributes may have on pair programmer's effectiveness as a pedagogical tool. A formal experiment has been conducted during 2012-13 odd semester at the PSG College of Technology, India to investigate the influence of personality differences among paired students using the five-factor model as a personality measurement framework. The aim of this research is to improve the implementation of CPP as a pedagogical tool to the academic setup through understanding the impact of the variation in the personality profile of paired students towards their academic performance.

Knowledge Management through Academic Portal: A Case Study of Bodhidroom E-learning Portal

The study aims to find out how knowledge management processes can be implemented through a portal in an academic set-up. This is a web based study of Bodhidroom e-learning portal (http:// www.bodhidroom.idolgu.org/) under the Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) of Gauhati University. Portal features discussed and illustrated here might serve as model for academic institutions interested in developing a campus portal as knowledge management enabler.

Marketing of Information Products and Services of Academic Libraries

The changing information environment requires library and information professionals to adopt the principles of marketing to justify the existence of libraries within an academic setup and to meet the intellectual curiosity of the stakeholders. This paper provides an overview of marketing and highlights the need for marketing of academic library products and services. The various steps of marketing and tools for promoting library products and services have also been discussed. It is concluded that the use of technology is essential for cornering the fruits of this exigent chore.

Gender Nerds at Heart: An Interview on Bridging the Blogging/Academic Divide with Feministing.com

Gender Nerds at Heart: An Interview on Bridging the Blogging/Academic Divide with Feministing.com Naomi Greyser (bio) Naomi talked with Samhita Mukhopadhyay, executive editor of the blog Feministing, and Gwendolyn Beetham, the blog’s academic feminist, about translating feminism for multiple audiences, sustaining a blog without substantial funding, and seeing Judith Butler’s work on PowerPoint slides at the United Nations. Feministing is “an online community for feminists and their allies” founded in 2004. Naomi What does the labor of “bridging the blogging/academic divide,” as Gwendolyn puts it in the description of her series, involve? In what other ways, besides through the “Academic Feminist” series, does Feministing seek to do that kind of bridging? Gwendolyn For a long time before the series was put into action, Samhita and I (and some of the other editors at Feministing) discussed bringing more academic work to the site. This is not only because both of us have an academic background and like to drop words like intersectional and performativity into everyday conversation, but because, like many feminists of our generation and younger, we cut our feminist teeth in a women’s and gender studies classroom. As a result, even if a lot of the editors don’t say so explicitly (and some of them do), much of Feministing’s content is heavily shaped by feminist thought. On the other side of things, while working in academia (I finished my PhD last year), I noticed the common problem that a lot of “junior” academics face—that is, a lot of the work that they were doing wasn’t making it out into the world at large, whether it was because of the notorious hierarchies in the academic publishing world or the difficulties in translating into language accessible to a larger audience. And of course, there is the problem that, even when feminist academics do want to contribute to public conversations, the lag time in the academic publishing world can be one to three years (and sometimes more!), even for journals that publish online. We hoped that the [End Page 837] Academic Feminist could be a bridge where two things could happen: one, we could make explicit the ties to feminist theory that were already on the site, and two, we could help academics make their work available to a larger audience in a timely manner. Samhita Yes, Gwen is correct, we are all gender nerds at heart and started blogging in part due to our academic training in feminism. But many of us felt constrained by the academic setup, which works for some types of discourse and not others. We wanted to create something more fun and accessible—a new type of grassroots theory that young women of a variety of backgrounds could latch onto to inform their lives. Naomi Do you have any specific stories about times when activist analysis transformed academic work, or vice versa? Gwendolyn I’ve been saying for years that I want to write a piece on the different ways that Butler’s theories about gender have been adapted around the world. I’ve been in discussions at the United Nations and seen Butler’s name pop up on a PowerPoint! Seriously, it’s crazy. I’ve also seen a push back on the deconstruction of gender, especially from certain parts of the trans activist community, with some people saying “wait a minute, I think that ‘gender fluid’ does not represent who I am; I want to identify within the male/female binary.” Although I think that some of the critique is based on a misreading of Butler’s (and others’) work from both sides, I nevertheless believe it’s a good thing that the lived experiences of trans folks are leading to debates about how theory affects people’s lives. In my opinion, that’s what feminist research—and theory—is supposed to be about. Samhita The rigor and thoughtfulness that organizers often put to their work is generally rooted in some theory they may have interacted with in the past—whether that be feminist theory or ethnic studies or others. It’s hard to separate, since the inception of many of these liberal fields was...

Institutionalize Quality to Excellence in Technical University

The case study of an institute upgrading to a Deemed University is analyzed in this work, and reported with more generic treatment. Though various initiatives reported have largely been a reactive response to the mandate of Deemed University framework, many situational corrections have been undertaken with strategically planned interventions firmly in place. Analysis of the case institute (name with-held because the institute remains in public (government) sector even after upgradation, and grant of autonomy), has been prescriptively built around the Joseph Juran quality model. The circumscribing objective of this work is to count how quality may be institutionalized in an academic setup. Cognizance is driven from AUM model – the acronym meaning as Alignment, Utilization and Metamorphosis, to elucidate the hierarchical progression of learner for excellent performance. Need of inculcating excellence is emphasized in this work.

Fast, Economic, and Green Synthesis of N-Formylated Benzotriazoles

Formylation is an integral part of organic, medicinal, and biological chemistry both in industrial and academic set-ups. A reflection of this importance is the number of approaches and reagents that have been developed to achieve it. We have developed a fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly procedure for the synthesis of N-formylated benzotriazoles.