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There have been attempts to integrate assessment with teaching to enhance learning. In this study, we have attempted to use assessment as a strategy to foster socioscientific issue (SSI)-based learning. The available research suggests that teachers have a positive attitude towards the incorporation of SSI-based discussions in their classrooms simultaneously stating challenges like limited time, rigid syllabus, exam pressure, unavailability of related resource material, and intellectual demand on the part of the teacher as well as students, etc. We argue that ‘guided assessment’ as a pro-learning assessment approach could be used to promote SSI-based learning in the face of challenges. This paper describes and explores the efficacy of the ‘guided assessment’ task included in an SSI-based learning module developed on issues related to groundwater. This module was trialled with thirty secondary science students belonging to the lower socioeconomic background. The data related to the ‘guided assessment’ task was analyzed qualitatively using socioscientific sustainability reasoning framework developed by Morin et al. (2014) and we found that the ‘guided assessment’ strategy facilitated students through questioning and provided opportunities to reflect on themes crucial to decision-making. The findings also revealed the impact of peer interactions on decision-making skills of students. Based on this intervention, we propose that teachers can use such an assessment strategy to make their SSI-based instruction more efficient and effective.

Purpose: Globally, 859 million people in 50 countries are threatened by lymphatic filariasis. Due to its severity, the available drugs are mainly used for microfilaricidal and do not kill efficiently the adult parasites, which continue to produce microfilariae. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a plant-based macrofilaricidal drug. Methods: The inhibitory activity of the various solvent extracts of the leaves of Anacardium occidentale L. (Anacardiaceae) was tested against the recombinant hexokinase of B. malayi (BmHk). BmHK, an enzyme of the glycolytic pathway that plays a vital role in the replication/survival of filarial parasites, was chosen as a target. A preliminary phytochemical test and GC-FID analysis of the extract were carried out. Results: The hydroalcoholic extract of A. occidentale showed the highest inhibition (65.80±1.60%) of activity of BmHk, compared to other extracts, which showed less than 50% inhibition. Conclusion: The present study showed that hydroalcoholic extract of A. occidentale has inhibitory activity against BmHk and can be explored further for developing the herbal-based anti-filarial drug.

In today’s global economy, industries require a talented pool of candidates to create a comparative competitive advantage to address the global opportunities as well as to address these global trends and dynamic challenges factual and cognitive leadership is required to manage changes effectively. The nurturing and task-oriented style, managerial practices, organizational orientation, especially followed by women entrepreneurs/ leaders/ managers has carved a niche for women leadership in national as well as international platforms. The current financial crisis and long-term global trends are reshaping the corporate landscape, and there is an urgent need to accelerate some of the changes in corporations to seize the new opportunities that arise from time to time. This conceptual research paper analyzes that though the ages, how women have experienced the disadvantages of existing in a patriarchal framework designating them in a homemaker role and how women in business now, have broken that mold across the world and created new stories for themselves.

Background: Resistance to malarial drugs represents a major obstacle in the treatment of disease, thereby increasing the need for more efficient drugs. The development of metal complexes offers the medicinal chemist an opportunity to expand the activity of drugs. For providing supportive therapy to the host to boost its immune system several new antimalarial drugs are being beneath research, but sufficient information on their efficacy is yet not available. Methods: In view of above, eight drug metal complexes (Ba (II), Ca (II), Zn (II), St (II), Hg (II), Fe (III), Cu (II), Ni (II) of Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and Primaquine were synthesized and in-vitro evaluated for their antimalarial activity against malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum by using fluorescence based assay. Result: The antimalarial activity of Nickel (EC50= 1.41µM) and Zinc (EC50=0.96µM) complexes have shown tremendous activity as compared to the standard drug Primaquine (EC50=0.07µM). The structures of all these newly synthesized derivatives were confirmed by spectral data (IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Mass spectrometry). Conclusion: In conclusion, this study describes that the preparation and antimalarial evaluation of metal complexes of primaquine and sulphamethoxazole. Evaluation of their possible biological activities such as antimalarial activity was carried out and most of the synthesized compounds (Nickel and Zinc metal complexes) showed the good activity as compared to the standard drug primaquine. Therefore the compounds are appropriate candidates for more investigation and some more derivatives can be synthesized to get an imminent into the structure activity relationship of these compounds to be employed as biologically useful agents.

This paper reports an efficient method for growing MnO2 nanoflakes by reactive magnetron sputtering for supercapacitor applications. The physical vapor deposition technique presented in this work is simple, unique, without much chemical usage, direct and economically viable route for growing nanoflakes as per the requirement for different applications. Here, MnO2 nanoflakes were directly deposited on the steel cold finger substrate at liquid nitrogen temperature. The MnO2 nanoflakes electrode based supercapacitor cell in three electrode configuration delivers good specific capacitance value ∼374 F g−1 at current density of 1.1 Ag−1 in 1M sodium sulphate (Na2SO4) aqueous electrolyte solution. The symmetric two electrode supercapacitor cell delivers a high capacitance value ∼64 Fg−1 at 1.17 Ag−1, good cycling ability, 85.59% of capacitance retention after 1500 cycles along with good energy and power density, 7.2 Wh kg−1 and 607 Wkg−1 respectively. This work opens a new avenue towards efficient designing of catalyst-free MnO2 nanoflakes.

Different types of thiosemicarbazone derivatives were designed and tested for their Drug-Like Molecular (DLM) nature by using Lipinski and Veber rules. Subsequently, compounds with DLM properties were synthesized and characterized by spectral methods. In vitro antimalarial activity studies of the synthesized thiosemicarbazone derivatives have been carried out against Plasmodium falciparum, 3D7 strain using fluorescence assay method and found that the compounds, (E)-2-(1-(4-fluorophenyl)ethylidene)hydrazine-1-carbothioamide (6), (E)-2-(1-(3-bromophenyl) ethylidene) hydrazine-1-carbothioamide (15) and (E)-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzylidene) hydrazine-1-carbothioamide (29) showed notable antimalarial activity with EC50 values of 13.54 μM, 15.83 μM and 14.52 μM respectively.