The Need For Participation In Open And Distance Education: The Open University Malaysia Experience

This paper provides an overview of adult learner participation in open and distance education by focusing participation needs based on selected socio-demographic variables such as age, years of working experience and monthly income. The related study involved a sample of 454 Open University Malaysia students from a number of learning centres located in different parts of the country. The study found that adult learners are generally below the age of 39, relatively not affluent, have less than 20 years of work experience and have a high need for participation. The highest need is professional advancement, followed closely by cognitive interest, and communication improvement while the lowest reported need is escapism/social stimulation. Age and work experience exhibited negative regression coefficients, indicating inverse associations with participation need. These results are comparable to the findings of previous research on the role of age, work experience and monthly income as factors determining participation in adult higher education

The Cakravala method

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Variability of Grain Arsenic Concentration and Speciation in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Arsenic is not an essential element and can be toxic to both plants and animals in high concentration. There is a demonstrated association between soil arsenic (As) and the occurrence of straighthead (a physiological disorder in rice characterized by panicle sterility and yield loss); however, the relationship between grain-As accumulation and straighthead susceptibility in rice is not yet fully understood. The objective of the current study was to evaluate a set of diverse rice cultivars, including both indica and japonica subspecies, for total grain-As (TGAs) and As-species concentrations in 2004, 2005, and 2007, on a native (moderate As-concentration) paddy soil and an adjacent monosodium monomethylarsonate (MSMA) amended soil. Cultivars were evaluated under both continuously flooded and intermittently flooded (saturated) field conditions. The genotypic differences in the occurrence of straighthead, total grain-As (TGAs) and As-species concentrations, and their relationships with plant growth parameters, e.g., heading date, plant height, and yield were assessed. The cultivars exhibited a considerable range in both TGAs and grain-As species concentrations. In 2004 and 2005, twenty-one rice cultivars replicated on native soil under continuous flooding showed significant differences in TGAs and As-species concentrations by genotype and year. In 2005, heading was generally delayed in the rice cultivars, resulting in reduced yields that were likely associated with unusually high temperatures and prolonged exposure to stresses in the field, including prolonged flooding and associated soil-As induced stresses. Lower grain-As concentrations were generally associated with early maturing and high yielding genotypes, but with some exceptions. Total grain-As concentrations were not correlated to straighthead susceptibility suggesting that high As concentration in rice grain might not be a direct cause of the genotype-dependent panicle sterility associated with MSMA in soil. The rice cultivars grown on the MSMA-flooded treatment could be effectively differentiated for their relative straighthead susceptibility, with scores ranging from 1 to 8 for the most resistant to the most susceptible genotypes, respectively. In general, traits such as low grain-iAsIII concentration,early maturity, and high yield were correlated with straighthead resistance. In the MSMA-flooded treatment, very high grain-As accumulation resulted in elevated rice-grain dimethyl-AsV (DMAsV) concentration, whereas, the concentration of the more harmful inorganic-AsIII species was less affected. The TGAs and As-species concentrations were considerably higher in continuously--flooded soil than the intermittently-flooded soil. The variations in TGAs and grain-DMAsV concentrations were more highly influenced by water regime than by genotype, whereas, grain-iAIII concentrations were more highly genotype dependent. In the native soil with intermittent flooding, the concentrations of grain-DMAsV and the less desirable grain-iAIII concentrations were lowest. The study concluded that for attaining lower As accumulation in the rice grain both genotype selection and water management are potentially useful approaches

Attrition in ODL : a macro perspective in reducing non-completion rate among LLL learners

Increasing student attrition at high rates in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions is a phenomenon which has not been fully understood. Generally, much literature has been produced to explore student attrition in the conventional higher education settings, which provides guidance as to possible factors that may influence attrition. Many factors affecting student attrition have been identified; however, these results have only benefited the traditional institution of higher education that promotes full-time learning, but have not helped the attrition rates at ODL institutions that supports formal learning via lifelong learning (LLL). Today, in the advent of the Internet and its digital technologies, focus on LLL, online education and adult learning is more evident. ODL institutions in Malaysia have now reached the mainstream of education via lifelong learning through formal learning. Therefore, a major benefit of this research is to provide conclusive results, which are to be used to work towards successfully reducing student attrition at ODL institutions, and, in turn, increase their completion rates. (Abstract by authors

Structural characterization of a novel KH-domain containing plant chloroplast endonuclease

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a single celled alga that undergoes apoptosis in response to UV-C irradiation. UVI31+, a novel UV-inducible DNA endonuclease in C. reinhardtii, which normally localizes near cell wall and pyrenoid regions, gets redistributed into punctate foci within the whole chloroplast, away from the pyrenoid, upon UV-stress. Solution NMR structure of the first putative UV inducible endonuclease UVI31+ revealed an alpha(1)-beta(1)-beta(2)-alpha(2)-alpha(3)-beta(3) fold similar to BolA and type II KH-domain ubiquitous protein families. Three alpha-helices of UVI31+ constitute one side of the protein surface, which are packed to the other side, made of three-stranded beta-sheet, with intervening hydrophobic residues. A twenty-three residues long polypeptide stretch (D54-H76) connecting beta(1) and beta(2) strands is found to be highly flexible. Interestingly, UVI31+ recognizes the DNA primarily through its beta-sheet. We propose that the catalytic triad residues involving Ser114, His95 and Thr116 facilitate DNA endonuclease activity of UVI31+. Further, decreased endonuclease activity of the S114A mutant is consistent with the direct participation of Ser114 in the catalysis. This study provides the first structural description of a plant chloroplast endonuclease that is regulated by UV-stress response

Chickpea

The narrow genetic base of cultivated chickpea warrants systematic collection, documentation and evaluation of chickpea germplasm and particularly wild Cicer species for effective and efficient use in chickpea breeding programmes. Limiting factors to crop production, possible solutions and ways to overcome them, importance of wild relatives and barriers to alien gene introgression and strategies to overcome them and traits for base broadening have been discussed. It has been clearly demonstrated that resistance to major biotic and abiotic stresses can be successfully introgressed from the primary gene pool comprising progenitor species. However, many desirable traits including high degree of resistance to multiple stresses that are present in the species belonging to secondary and tertiary gene pools can also be introgressed by using special techniques to overcome pre- and post-fertilization barriers. Besides resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses, the yield QTLs have also been introgressed from wild Cicer species to cultivated varieties. Status and importance of molecular markers, genome mapping and genomic tools for chickpea improvement are elaborated. Because of major genes for various biotic and abiotic stresses, the transfer of agronomically important traits into elite cultivars has been made easy and practical through marker-assisted selection and marker-assisted backcross. The usefulness of molecular markers such as SSR and SNP for the construction of high-density genetic maps of chickpea and for the identification of genes/QTLs for stress resistance, quality and yield contributing traits has also been discussed

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