Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
English Learners in California Schools

Research publications reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, officers, or Board of Directors of the Public Policy Institute of California. Short sections of text, not to exceed three paragraphs, may be quoted without written permission provided that full attribution is given to the source and the above copyright notice is included. PPIC does not take or support positions on any ballot measure or on any local, state, or federal legislation, nor does it endorse, support, or oppose any political parties or candidates for public office. iii Foreword The litany of challenges facing California's K–12 public school system seems endless. The latest reports document poor test performance throughout the schools. The finance system is caught up in state budget politics, with little freedom for districts to raise their own funds. Reformers are concerned that there are inadequate incentives for teachers to perform at their very best. The districts with the fastest-growing student populations have trouble both maintaining their existing infrastructure and building new schools to accommodate the growth. And the enthusiasm for charter schools has been offset by a lackluster performance of the students involved in this latest attempt at school reform. As if the challenges are not formidable enough, this latest report from PPIC highlights the scale and complexity of a student body where, on average, 26 percent are classified as English learners. In this report, Christopher Jepsen and Shelley de Alth conclude that there are numerous obstacles to students being reclassified from English learners to Fluent English Proficient. To start with, over 50 languages are spoken in California's public schools. Although 85 percent of English learners speak Spanish as their first language, the sheer number of other languages complicates matters for specific students and teachers in any given setting. Add to this the mobility of families and movement in and out of schools, and the tendency of many students to drop out of school increases with grade level. The authors note numerous other barriers to achieving English proficiency. Homogeneity of language in a school impedes learning a new language; special education students find the challenge more burdensome than other students; lagging academic performance prevents reclassification as fluent in English; and the level of resources available in a school to deal with the needs of English learners affects student outcomes. As frustrating and familiar as all this might be, the …
Improving Preschool Educators' Interactive Shared Book Reading: Effects of Coaching in Professional Development.

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to examine the effects of coaching by speech-language pathologists on educators' interactive shared book reading, children's participation in shared reading, and children's language development. METHOD Thirty-two educators and small groups of preschoolers were randomly assigned to experimental and comparison groups. The experimental group (n = 15) received 4 in-service workshops plus 5 individualized coaching sessions. The comparison group received only the 4 workshops. Participants were video-recorded during a shared book reading activity with a small group of children at pretest and posttest. The video recordings were transcribed and coded to yield measures of conversations, educators' questions, and children's responses. The mean length of utterances of the children's responses was also calculated. RESULTS There were no significant Time × Group interaction effects for the number and length of shared reading conversations or for the number of participants in these conversations. However, significant Time × Group interactions were observed for the use of educators' experiential reasoning questions, children's experiential reasoning responses, and the mean length of utterances of children's responses. CONCLUSION These results suggest that coaching increases educators' use of inferential questions, enhancing an interactive shared-reading strategy that had a direct impact on the children's quality and complexity of language.
Catumaxomab for the Treatment of Malignant Ascites in Patients With Chemotherapy-Refractory Ovarian Cancer: A Phase II Study

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of intraperitoneal catumaxomab in heavily pretreated patients with chemotherapy-refractory ovarian cancer and recurrent symptomatic malignant ascites. Methods The study is a single-arm open-label multicenter US phase II study. Patients received 4 three-hour intraperitoneal catumaxomab infusions (10, 20, 50, and 150 &mgr;g within 10 days). The primary end point was the percentage of patients with at least a 4-fold increase in the puncture-free interval (PuFI) relative to the pretreatment interval. The main secondary end points were puncture-free survival, overall survival, ascites symptoms, and safety. Time to first therapeutic puncture (TTPu) was analyzed post hoc. Results Forty patients were screened, and 32 patients (80%) were treated. Seven patients (23%) achieved the primary end point. The median PuFI was prolonged 2-fold from 12 to 27.5 days. The median TTPu was prolonged 4-fold from 12 to 52 days. The median puncture-free survival and overall survival were 29.5 and 111 days, respectively. Nineteen patients (59%) required puncture after catumaxomab treatment. Ascites symptoms improved in most of the 13 predefined categories. At study end, most symptoms were still improved compared with screening. The most frequent treatment-related adverse events were related to cytokine release (vomiting, nausea, pyrexia, fatigue, and chills) or intraperitoneal administration (abdominal pain). Transient increases in liver parameters and transient decreases in blood lymphocytes were regularly observed but were generally without clinical relevance. Conclusions Catumaxomab prolonged PuFI and TTPu had a beneficial effect on quality of life, as shown by the improvement in ascites symptoms, and had an acceptable safety profile, which is consistent with its mode of action.
External Manufacturing Investment in a Peripheral Rural Region: The Case of Devon and Cornwall

POTTER J. (1993) External manufacturing investment in a peripheral rural region: the case of Devon and Cornwall, Reg. Studies 27, 193–206. This paper presents original and recent evidence on the scale and structure, evolution and causes of external manufacturing investment in Devon and Cornwall. External investment is shown to be very important, and to have grown considerably during the last three decades. Externally owned units are analysed in terms of their size, manufacturing sector and parent company characteristics. Regional policy has played a critical role in attracting significant levels of greenfield branch investment, while external acquisition of existing firms has increased rapidly. Findings demonstrate the current central importance of large firm branch plants to the region's manufacturing activity. POTTER J. (1993) L'investissement externe dans l'industrie manufacturiere aux regions rurales peripheriques: cas d'etude du Devon et des Cournouailles, Reg. Studies 27, 193–206. Cet article presen.
Two Distinct Interleukin-3-Mediated Signal Pathways, Ras-NFIL3 (E4BP4) and Bcl-xL, Regulate the Survival of Murine Pro-B Lymphocytes

ABSTRACT Hematopoietic cells require cytokine-initiated signals for survival as well as proliferation. The pathways that transduce these signals, ensuring timely regulation of cell fate genes, remain largely undefined. The NFIL3 (E4BP4) transcription factor, Bcl-xL, and constitutively active mutants of components in Ras signal transduction pathways have been identified as key regulation proteins affecting murine interleukin-3 (IL-3)-dependent cell survival. Here we show that expression of NFIL3 is regulated by oncogenic Ras mutants through both the Raf–mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathways. NFIL3 inhibits apoptosis without affecting Bcl-xL expression. By contrast, Bcl-xL levels are regulated through the membrane proximal portion in the cytoplasmic domain of the receptor (βc chain), which is shared by IL-3 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Activation of either pathway alone is insufficient to ensure cell survival, indicating that multiple independent signal transduction pathways mediate the survival of developing B-lymphoid cells.
Does Increased Audit Partner Tenure Reduce Audit Quality?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires the lead audit or coordinating partner and the reviewing partner to rotate off the audit every five years so the engagement can be viewed “with fresh and skeptical eyes. ” Using data obtained from actual audits by multiple U.S. offices of three large international audit firms, we examine whether there is a relationship between evidence of reduced audit quality, measured by estimated discretionary accruals, and audit partner tenure with a specific client. We find that estimated discretionary accruals are significantly and negatively associated with the lead audit partner's tenure with a specific client. Thus, audit quality appears to increase with increased partner tenure. After controlling for client size and engagement risk, we find audit partner tenure significantly and negatively associated with estimated discretionary accruals only for small clients with partner tenure of greater than seven years, regardless of risk level. We also find that tenure is not significantly associated with estimated discretionary accruals for large clients. This suggests that as partner tenure increases, auditors of small client firms become less willing to accept more aggressive financial statement assertions by managers, and that partner tenure does not affect audit quality for large clients or for shorter-tenure smaller clients. Our results relating to audit partner tenure are consistent with the conclusions about audit firm tenure by Geiger and Raghunandan (2002); Johnson, Khurana, and Reynolds (2002);Myers, Myers, and Omer (2003); and Nagy (2005) and extend their findings by focusing on individual audit partners rather than on audit firms.
Natural double inflation in supergravity

We propose a natural double inflation model in supergravity. In this model, chaotic inflation first takes place by virtue of the Nambu-Goldstone-like shift symmetry, which guarantees the absence of the exponential factor in the potential for the inflaton field. During chaotic inflation, an initial value of the second inflation (new inflation) is set. In this model, the initial value of new inflation can be adequately far from the local maximum of the potential for new inflation due to the small linear term of the inflaton in the K\"ahler potential. Therefore, the primordial fluctuations within the present horizon scale may be attributed to both inflations; that is, the first chaotic inflation produces the primordial fluctuations on the large cosmological scales while the second new inflation on the smaller scales. The successive decay of the inflaton for new inflation leads to a reheating temperature low enough to avoid the overproduction of gravitinos in a wide range of the gravitino mass.
Emigration from the UK, 1870-1913 and 1950-1998

International migration is determined by both economic and political forces. This article examines the influence of economic, demographic and policy variables on British emigration to four principal destinations in two different eras. Before 1914 the economic and demographic forces that drove British emigration can be clearly identified. Had the same conditions applied in the post-Second World War period, mass emigration from Britain would have continued until the early 1990s. But from the mid-1960s these influences became less powerful as they were increasingly inhibited by immigration policies in the principal destination countries. The long-term decline in emigration is largely accounted for by shifts in policy, especially those that curtailed or abolished the preferences previously extended to settlers from the UK.
Thailand's evolving Internet policies: the search for a balance between national security and the right to information

This research investigated communication policy and its application to Thailand's management of Internet resources – a battle between a national security ideology and a rationale for freedom of communication in the public's interest. Three topics were explored: the use of regulations to control the public's use of online media; the consequences of government's strict control of the Internet; and communication policy theories that could help explain the genesis of Thailand's online regulatory doctrines. Based on news reports on Internet censorship in Thailand, the findings revealed that the government policy increasing control over the public's use of Internet resources was clearly evident in the Computer Crime Act and lèse majesté laws. During the phase of Internet's initial development, laws and regulations were imposed to legitimize the government's control over the new information technologies. Later it was found that the more widespread the Internet, the stricter the policy used to control it became. Lastly, heavy censorship of the Internet following the 2006 coup demonstrated again how political considerations could inhibit public channels of communication.
Are U.S. CEOs Overpaid

Executive Overview Critics of U.S. corporate governance claim that public company (a) CEOs are overpaid, (b) CEOs are not paid for performance, and (c) boards do a poor job of compensating and monitoring CEOs. In this paper, I argue that the critics are wrong. While corporate governance and CEO pay are not perfect, a great deal of evidence suggests that CEO pay is largely determined by market forces. CEOs have been affected by the same forces that have increased income inequality. They have not done better than several similar groups. (In fact, average CEO pay declined in real terms from 2000 to 2006.) CEOs are strongly paid for performance. And boards do monitor CEOs. CEO tenures are lower than they have been since tenures began to be measured in the 1970s; CEO turnover is more closely tied to stock performance than it has been since turnover began to be studied in the 1970s. Increased transparency for CEO pay (required by the SEC), increased shareholder activism, and the increased prevalence of majority.
Electronic Medical Records and Cost Efficiency in Hospital Medical-Surgical Units

This study examines the impact of electronic medical records (EMRs) on cost efficiency in hospital medical-surgical units. Using panel data on California hospitals from 1998 to 2007, we employed stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate the relationships between EMR implementation and the cost inefficiency of medical-surgical units. We categorized EMR implementation into three stages based on the level of sophistication. We also examined the effects of specific EMR systems on cost inefficiency. Our SFA models addressed potential bias from unobserved heterogeneity and heteroskedasticity. EMR Stages 1 and 2, nursing documentation, electronic medication administration records, and clinical decision support were associated with significantly higher inefficiency.
Enabling Democracy: Disability and Voter Turnout

How likely are the millions of Americans with disabilities to participate in politics? What insights do their experiences provide into overall participation levels and determinants? This article reports the results of a nationally representative household telephone survey of 1,240 peoplestratified to include 700 people with disabilities-following the November 1998 elections. Voter turnout is found to be 20 percentage points lower among people with disabilities than among people without disabilities who have otherwise-similar demographic characteristics. Other standard predictors of turnout such as political efficacy and mobilization explain only a small portion of this gap. There is great variation within the disability sample: the lower turnout is concentrated among people with disabilities who are not employed or who are age 65 or older, who have had recent onset of a disabling condition, and who have difficulty going outside alone (despite the availability of absentee ballots). The findings suggest that disability, apart from imposing resource constraints, often has social and psychological effects that decrease voter turnout through decreased social capital and identification with mainstream society, particularly among senior citizens. The findings also support the idea that general mobility and major life transitions can be important influences on voter turnout in general, and raise questions on the causal relations among age, employment, efficacy, and voter turnout that should be a focus of future research.
YouCookII Dataset

Learning from instructional video is a promising direction that may help ground the vision and language problem. To move toward this goal, we collect a largescale cooking video dataset, called YouCookII, with 2000 videos downloaded from YouTube. All the videos are untrimmed, under unconstrained environment and in third person viewpoint. They represent a more challenging visual problem than existing instructional datasets. The annotations of the videos include the temporal boundaries for procedure steps of each video the corresponding English descriptions for each step. All the frame-wise features and annotations are available for download on the dataset webpage: http://youcook2.eecs. umich.edu.
Portfolio Management in the Social Rented Sector: Valuation, Risk Analysis and Strategy Development

The financial aspects of social housing management are becoming more important for housing associations in Western Europe, due to changes in their economic and institutional context. As part of a trend towards the privatisation and decentralisation of public services, housing associations are becoming more self-reliant. Government financial support is decreasing and parts of the housing market are changing in response to low demand. To ensure that housing associations run an economic, efficient and financially sound business, knowledge of the financial performance of their stock is becoming more important for their investment policy. In the Netherlands, these general changes in housing policy, management and market have been a prominent feature of the last decade, and have resulted in a variety of responses under the general heading of asset and portfolio management. This paper describes methods for valuation, risk analysis and portfolio management for housing associations. The paper sets out the context within which Dutch housing associations operate. Existing methods for valuation and risk analysis are evaluated for their applicability to social landlords. These methods are placed within the business planning process to show how the methods can be used to inform asset management strategy. Finally the paper reflects on the implications for practice in social housing management.
Iron-Binding Compounds fromAgrobacterium spp.: Biological Control StrainAgrobacterium rhizogenes K84 Produces a Hydroxamate Siderophore

ABSTRACT Iron-binding compounds were produced in various amounts in response to iron starvation by a collection of Agrobacterium strains belonging to the species A. tumefaciens, A. rhizogenes, andA. vitis. The crown gall biocontrol agent A. rhizogenes strain K84 produced a hydroxamate iron chelator in large amounts. Production of this compound, and also of a previously described antibiotic-like substance called ALS84, occurred only in cultures of strain K84 grown in iron-deficient medium. Similarly, sensitivity to ALS84 was expressed only when susceptible cells were tested in low-iron media. Five independent Tn5-induced mutants of strain K84 affected in the production of the hydroxamate iron chelator showed a similar reduction in the production of ALS84. One of these mutants, M8-10, was completely deficient in the production of both agents and grew poorly compared to the wild type under iron-limiting conditions. Thus, the hydroxamate compound has siderophore activity. A 9.1-kb fragment of chromosomal DNA containing the Tn5 insertion from this mutant was cloned and marker exchanged into wild-type strain K84. The homogenote lost the ability to produce the hydroxamate siderophore and also ALS84. A cosmid clone was isolated from a genomic library of strain K84 that restored to strain M8-10 the ability to produce of the siderophore and ALS84, as well as growth in iron-deficient medium. This cosmid clone contained the region in which Tn5 was located in the mutant. Sequence analysis showed that the Tn5 insert in this mutant was located in an open reading frame coding for a protein that has similarity to those of the gramicidin S synthetase repeat superfamily. Some such proteins are required for synthesis of hydroxamate siderophores by other bacteria. Southern analysis revealed that the biosynthetic gene from strain K84 is present only in isolates of A. rhizogenes that produce hydroxamate-type compounds under low-iron conditions. Based on physiological and genetic analyses showing a correlation between production of a hydroxamate siderophore and ALS84 by strain K84, we conclude that the two activities share a biosynthetic route and may be the same compound.
The effect of pterygium surgery on corneal topography.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this prospective randomized clinical study was to evaluate the effect of pterygium surgery on the corneal topography using a computerized corneal topography system. PATIENTS AND METHODS Computerized corneal topography was performed on 27 patients with primary pterygium before and after pterygium excision surgery. The topographical changes that occurred following surgery were evaluated using paired and unpaired two-tailed t-test and Pearson coefficient of correlation analyses. Simulated keratometric astigmatism at the central 3 mm and the total mean refractive powers of the whole cornea were measured before and after surgery. Following surgery, flattened or steepened corneal areas were determined. RESULTS Simulated keratometric astigmatism at 3 mm was found to be 2.30 +/- 2.08 D (0.2 - 7.63) preoperatively and 0.82 +/- 0.74 D (0.06 - 2.79) postoperatively. The difference between these two values was statistically significant (t = -3.46, P = 0.002). Total mean refractive power of the whole cornea was found to be 42.26 +/- 0.63 (40.80 - 43.64) preoperatively and 43.69 +/- 0.88 (41.50 - 44.90) postoperatively and the difference was 1.42 +/- 0.87. There was a statistically significant high difference (t = 28.36, P < 0.001). When preoperative and postoperative corneal topographies were compared, the whole cornea was found steeper at the postoperative period except a little region in the superior nasal quadrant. CONCLUSION We believe that corneal topographical changes caused by the pterygium are almost reversible after surgical treatment, and postoperatively the cornea becomes steeper.
How Does Bank Capital Affect Bank Profitability and Risk? Evidence from China's WTO Accession

This paper examines how bank capital affects bank profitability and risk in China, and how its impact differed before and after the nation entered the WTO. Our study uses the dynamic generalized method of moments approach with a panel database containing 171 Chinese commercial banks. We find that bank capital has significant influence on bank profitability and risk, but its impact has declined since China joined the WTO in 2001. For different sized groups, the impact of capital on profitability exhibits a distinct trend. The effects of capital on bank risk are different for large and small banks depending on the risk variables used for the Chinese banking industry.