Approaches and Activities Adopted by M. Ed. Student Teachers of English to Teach Reading: A Critical Assessment

Literature on second language reading suggests that the effectiveness of teaching reading depends largely on theoretically-guided and contextually-informed classroom methodology. In this study, we investigated the classroom methodology adopted by the students of Master of Education (M. Ed.) specializing in English from Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahachal, who were teaching Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.) reading courses during their practice teachinghence defined as ‘student teachers’ (STs). Foregrounding the role of reading in the overall language development and academic achievement of English as a foreign language (EFL) students, the present B. Ed. English curriculum under Tribhuvan University has adopted a content-based approach to teaching reading. In order to understand how those reading courses were taught, we purposively selected ten M.Ed. STs and observed two classes of each, employing a semi-structured classroom observation scheme. In order to cross-compare STs' classroom performance with their theoretical knowledge about reading pedagogy and overall objectives of the reading courses, we also analyzed the English language teaching course the STs had studied in the M.Ed. program as well as B. Ed. reading courses and coursebooks they were teaching. The collected data were coded and analyzed thematically. The findings show that the teaching methodology adopted by the STs goes counter to the principles of ESL/EFL reading and expectations articulated in the reading courses. These findings illustrate the urgent need to reassess the methodology of teaching reading at the tertiary level and minimize the gap between the M. Ed. English students’ pedagogical knowledge and their classroom performance

Outbreak of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 in Nepal

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The 2009 flu pandemic is a global outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza virus. Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 has posed a serious public health challenge world-wide. Nepal has started Laboratory diagnosis of Pandemic influenza A/H1N1 from mid June 2009 though active screening of febrile travellers with respiratory symptoms was started from April 27, 2009.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 609 collected samples, 302 (49.6%) were Universal Influenza A positive. Among the influenza A positive samples, 172(28.3%) were positive for Pandemic influenza A/H1N1 and 130 (21.3%) were Seasonal influenza A. Most of the pandemic cases (53%) were found among young people with ≤ 20 years. Case Fatality Ratio for Pandemic influenza A/H1N1 in Nepal was 1.74%. Upon Molecular characterization, all the isolated pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 virus found in Nepal were antigenically and genetically related to the novel influenza A/CALIFORNIA/07/2009-LIKE (H1N1)v type.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Pandemic 2009 influenza virus found in Nepal were antigenically and genetically related to the novel A/CALIFORNIA/07/2009-LIKE (H1N1)v type.</p

Nanomaterials based electrochemical approaches for biosensing and bacterial disinfection

Electrochemical approaches to myriad medical and environmental challenges are highly attractive due to their strong potential for extensive and green applications. Point of care diagnostics through the electrochemical monitoring of clinically and environmentally relevant molecules are gaining attraction due to their low cost and simple fabrication procedures. The development of highly stable and sensitive electrochemical sensors/biosensors, for a wide variety of biomolecules in actual samples, makes these methods alternative analytical tools in different pharmaceutical and hospital laboratories. Electrochemical biocatalysis is an additional promising area to address the removal of bacteria for the generation of safe potable water. As the world’s population is dealing with lack of access to safe drinking water, photoelectrocatalysis has been investigated as a very efficient technique for the destruction of pathogenic bacteria in water. Nanomaterials with dimensions of less than 100 nm have great potential to enhance the performance of electrochemical methods, due to their excellent electronic, mechanical, and thermal properties. These materials have the capacity to greatly enhance biocatalytic activity, and thus greatly improve the performance of electrochemical sensors/biosensors. This remarkable improvement in bacterial catalysis has been studied using a novel synergistic approach, which incorporates both photocatalysts and electrocatalysts. For my PhD thesis, we designed a high-performance electrochemical sensor based on graphene for the sensitive detection of acetaminophen, valacyclovir, and mixtures thereof. This sensor was fabricated through the concurrent electrochemical reduction and deposition of graphene oxide (GO) onto a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electrocatalytic properties of the electrochemically reduced graphene (ERG) for the oxidation of acetaminophen were analyzed via cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry, (DPV) and chronoamperometry. For comparison, various ERG/GCEs were prepared under different electrodeposition cycles to optimize the required quantity of ERG. Our experimental results indicated that the optimized ERG/GCE possessed robust activity toward the electrochemical oxidation of acetaminophen, valacyclovir, and their mixture, leading to the development of a highly sensitive electrochemical sensor for its detection. An extremely low detection limit of 2.13 nM for acetaminophen, and 1.34 nM for the exclusive detection of valacyclovir was achieved. A wide linear detection range of from 5.0 nM to 800 μM was achieved via the combination of an amperometric technique and DPV. The developed electrochemical sensor was further employed for the determination of acetaminophen, valacyclovir, and their mixture in human serum, with excellent recovery, ranging from 96.08% to103.2%. The fabricated electrochemical sensor also demonstrated high selectivity, stability and reproducibility

Carbon Nanomaterials Based Electrochemical Sensors/Biosensors for the Sensitive Detection of Pharmaceutical and Biological Compounds

Electrochemical sensors and biosensors have attracted considerable attention for the sensitive detection of a variety of biological and pharmaceutical compounds. Since the discovery of carbon-based nanomaterials, including carbon nanotubes, C60 and graphene, they have garnered tremendous interest for their potential in the design of high-performance electrochemical sensor platforms due to their exceptional thermal, mechanical, electronic, and catalytic properties. Carbon nanomaterial-based electrochemical sensors have been employed for the detection of various analytes with rapid electron transfer kinetics. This feature article focuses on the recent design and use of carbon nanomaterials, primarily single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), SWCNTs-rGO, Au nanoparticle-rGO nanocomposites, and buckypaper as sensing materials for the electrochemical detection of some representative biological and pharmaceutical compounds such as methylglyoxal, acetaminophen, valacyclovir, β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrate (NADH), and glucose. Furthermore, the electrochemical performance of SWCNTs, rGO, and SWCNT-rGO for the detection of acetaminophen and valacyclovir was comparatively studied, revealing that SWCNT-rGO nanocomposites possess excellent electrocatalytic activity in comparison to individual SWCNT and rGO platforms. The sensitive, reliable and rapid analysis of critical disease biomarkers and globally emerging pharmaceutical compounds at carbon nanomaterials based electrochemical sensor platforms may enable an extensive range of applications in preemptive medical diagnostics