Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PDS Site Selection: Implications for Educational Reform and Restructuring.

This paper defines and describes nontraditional Professional Development School (PDS) sites, atypical collaborations, and the responsibility of schools, colleges, and departments of education in selecting and developing those sites. The paper suggests that the influence of PDSs on both school reform and the preparation of educators is likely to be attenuated by the way in which they are typically defined and implemented. While traditional PDSs are based at one school site, nontraditional PDSs can be located outside of a school, at multiple sites, or within entire school systems. At nontraditional sites, there is not just concern for the preparation of preservice teachers but also for the preparation of educational professionals such as principals and other educational administrators, school counselors, school psychologists, and related professionals (e.g., school social workers). Nontraditional PDSs focus on retraining practicing teachers or on other forms of staff development rather than just on training preservice teachers. Nontraditional sites may be located in inner city schools and poor rural schools rather than high-performing schools. Finally, nontraditional PDSs may include parents and community partners as well as school and university partners. (Contains 13 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. PDS Site Selection: Implications for Educational Reform and Restructuring John P. Galassi The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill In J. P. Galassi (Chair). (2000, April). Non traditional sites, atypical collaborations and the responsibility of schools, colleges and departments of education (SCDEs) in establishing Professional Development Schools. Symposium presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. This symposium is about nontraditional professional development school sites, atypical collaborations, and the responsibility of schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDEs) in selecting and developing those sites. Since their inception in the mid-1980s, professional development schools (PDSs) have been touted as an important educational reform mechanism in public schools as well as in restructuring the curriculum of colleges and universities that prepare educators (Holmes Group, 1986). PDSs are a growing phenomenon with over 1,035 PDSs in existence in 47 states in 1998 (Abdal-Haqq, 1999) and with 46% of surveyed SCDEs participating in them as of 1993 (AACTE, 1995). The basic premise of this paper is that the influence of PDSs on both school reform and the preparation of educators is likely to be attenuated by the way in which they are typically being defined and implemented. The objective of this symposium is to describe some nontraditional PDSs and what is being learned from them. ( BEST COPY AVAILABLE PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
Activation of the Ah receptor signal transduction pathway by bilirubin and biliverdin.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-dependent transcription factor that mediates many of the biological and toxicological actions of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD, dioxin) and related chemicals. Although no endogenous physiological ligand for the AhR has yet been described, persistent expression of hepatic CYP1A1 gene expression (an AhR-dependent response) in congenitally jaundiced Gunn rats indirectly supports the existence of such a ligand(s) in these animals. High plasma levels of the heme degradation product bilirubin (BR) in these animals prompted us to evaluate whether BR is an endogenous AhR agonist. Expression of dioxin responsive element (DRE)-driven luciferase gene expression in stably transfected mouse, guinea pig, rat, and human cells was induced by treatment with physiological concentrations of BR. Biliverdin (BV), the metabolic precursor of bilirubin, also induced luciferase activity in all species. BR and BV not only stimulated AhR transformation and DRE binding in vitro andin cells in culture, but competitive inhibition of [3H]TCDD-specific binding to the cytosolic AhR revealed that these chemicals are AhR ligands. The significantly greater inducing potency of these chemicals in intact cells, compared to their ligand binding and AhR transformation potency in vitro, suggests that BR and BV may also be converted within the cell to a more potent activator(s). Our results demonstrate that the heme degradation products BR and BV are AhR ligands which can regulate the AhR-dependent gene expression pathway.
Using the Survey of Plant Capacity to Measure Capital Utilization

Most capital in the United States is idle much of the time. By some measures, the average workweek of capital in U.S. manufacturing is as low as 55 hours per 168 hour week. The level and variability of capital utilization has important implications for understanding both the level of production and its cyclical fluctuations. This paper investigates a number of issues relating to aggregation of capital utilization measures from the Survey of Plant Capacity and makes recommendations on expanding and improving the published statistics deriving from the Survey of Plant Capacity. The paper documents a number of facts about properties of capital utilization. First, after growing for decades, capital utilization started to fall in mid 1990s. Second, capital utilization is a useful predictor of changes in capacity utilization and other factors of production. Third, adjustment of productivity measures for variable capital utilization improves statistical and economic properties of these measures. Fourth, the paper constructs weights to aggregate firm level capital utilization rates to industry and economy level, which is the major enhancement to available data.
Can trade, aid, foreign direct investments and remittances curb migration from Turkey?

In this study we examine the macro-determinants of Turkish migration to Germany over the period 1969–2004 by means of cointegration analysis. We find that trade and factor flows indeed influence migration and play a role in managing Turkish migration in the short as well as in the long run. However, the income differential between Turkey and Germany is the most important factor in determining migration flows and the effects of trade and factor flows on migration in the short as well as in the long run are mixed. Therefore, we argue that migration could be better managed when the dynamic gains from trade and factor flows are considered.
Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Studies Evaluating Functional Rhinoplasty Outcomes with the NOSE Score

Objective To provide aggregate data regarding the ability of functional rhinoplasty to improve nasal obstruction as measured by the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) score. Data Sources PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane databases. Review Methods A search was performed with the terms “nasal obstruction” and “rhinoplasty. ” Studies were included if they evaluated the effect of functional rhinoplasty on nasal obstruction with the NOSE score. Case reports, narratives, and articles that did not use the NOSE score were excluded. Functional rhinoplasty was defined as surgery on the nasal valve. This search resulted in 665 articles. After dual-investigator independent screening, 16 articles remained. Study results were pooled with a random effects model of meta-analysis. Change in NOSE score after surgery was assessed via the mean difference between baseline and postoperative results and the standardized mean difference. Heterogeneity was assessed and reported through the I2 statistic. Results Patients in the included studies had moderate to severe nasal obstructive symptoms at baseline. The NOSE scores were substantially improved at 3-6, 6-12, and ≥12 months, with absolute reductions of 50 points (95% CI, 45-54), 43 points (95% CI, 36-51), and 49 points (95% CI, 39-58), respectively. All of these analyses showed high heterogeneity. Conclusions Nasal obstruction as measured by the NOSE survey is reduced by 43 to 50 points (out of 100 points) for 12 months after rhinoplasty. Our confidence in these results is limited by heterogeneity among studies, large variability in outcomes beyond 12 months, and the inherent potential for bias in observational studies.
Adenovirus-Mediated MUC1 Gene Transduction into Human Blood-Derived Dendritic Cells

MUC1 protein is widely expressed on various human cancer cells and has a specific highly glycosylated core structure with multiple tandem repeats, which may include an immunogenic peptide sequence. The potency of MUC1 protein to induce human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen–class I–restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) induction remains to be fully clarified in human beings. In the current study, we made MUC1-expressing human dendritic cells (DCs) using recombinant adenovirus vector. Adenovirus vector plasmid containing human MUC1 cDNA, pAdHM4-MUC1 was constructed using in vitro ligation with a shuttle vector, pHMCMV5. Adenovirus vector expressing MUC1 was generated by the transfection of Pac I-digested recombinant vector plasmid into 293 cells. Human blood DCs were obtained from 7-day culture of monocytes with recombinant human (rh) granulocyte-macrophage (GM) colony-stimulating factor (CSF) and (rh)interleukin (IL)-4. Then, 1 × 10 6 DCs were incubated with viral supernatant at a multiplicity of infection of 200 for 24 h in the presence of rhGM-CSF and rhIL-4. Flow cytometric analysis showed that 30% to 40% of the transduced DCs expressed MUC1 protein; by contrast, nontransduced or transduced DCs with mock virus expressed only small amounts of MUC1 protein. Adenovirus-mediated MUC1 gene transduction into DCs had no significant effect on DC surface marker expressions or functions such as mixed leukocyte reaction. Furthermore, MUC1-specific CD8 + CTLs could be induced from healthy donor blood lymphocytes using MUC1-expressing DCs as stimulators. These results suggested that MUC1 gene-transduced DCs are a functional and potent tool for triggering a CTL response against MUC1 + cancer cells.
Relational Contracts, Growth Options, and Heterogeneous Beliefs: A Game-Theoretic Perspective on Information Technology Outsourcing

More companies have realized that information technology (IT) outsourcing, once viewed as a cost reduction tool, could facilitate and even enable the transformation of their core business processes. The benefits from a potential outsourcing relationship expansion have strategic implications for relational incentive provision. Modeling "information poaching" in IT outsourcing as an incentive problem with contractibility constraints, our analysis shows that this problem could be mitigated in a repeated game where the outsourcing client and the service provider agree on a relational contract. When the two partners share the belief that they can potentially benefit from a future relationship expansion, they are more likely to behave cooperatively during the early stages of their relationship. However, when they disagree about the likelihood of the future relationship expansion, they will have different preferences on a set of otherwise equivalent relational bonus contracts. Specifically, they will adopt a relational contract with large but infrequent bonuses when the client is more optimistic than the service provider about the potential of their relationship. Because these results hold even when the sourcing partners' beliefs are very close to each other, our analysis sheds fresh light on the issue of equilibrium selection in relational contract theory. In the context of IT outsourcing, the results of this study suggest that, because salient forms of relational bonuses are often not adopted, relational incentive provision is likely more pervasive than what we can observe.
Gender and Alcohol Use Disorders Diagnostic Criteria in Emergency Department Patients of Argentina

ABSTRACT Background: Alcohol consumption and its related consequences are not equal for women and men, although related studies do not frequently include gender analysis. Objective: Our aim was to characterize differences in endorsement of ICD-10 and DSM 5 alcohol use disorder (AUD) criteria by gender in an Argentinean emergency department population. Methods: A probability sample of patients (N = 923) from the largest emergency department in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina (44% were females, aged 16 to 86, M (SD) = 37.31(15.20) was collected. Using a structured questionnaire, diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorders, alcohol consumption, and socio-demographic variables were obtained. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess differences in the endorsement of each diagnostic criterion by gender. Results: Women were less likely to endorse each of the criteria for each of the diagnostic schemes. Even after controlling alcohol consumption, socio-demographic variables, severity of alcohol use disorders and adjusting for multiple comparisons females had a lower probability than males of endorsing withdrawal and impaired control. Conclusions: gender differences in the endorsement of diagnostic criteria for both the DSM 5 and ICD-10 were found. Some differences in endorsement but not all, might be partially explained by alcohol consumption patterns and socio-demographic factors, and same remained after controlling severity of the AUD. Results also suggest a differential functioning of DSM 5 and ICD-10 AUD criteria for women and men.
Realization of Ni Fully Silicided Gate on Vertical Silicon Nanowire MOSFETs for Adjusting Threshold Voltage $({V}_{T})$

A vertical Si nanowire (SiNW) gate-all-around n-type MOSFET integrated with Ni fully silicided gate is presented. Devices are fabricated with 100 nm gate length on vertical SiNWs with diameters down to 50 nm using fully CMOS compatible top-down approach. Tunability of the threshold voltage (Δ<i>V</i><sub>T</sub> ~ 0.3 V), which is vital in nanowire devices to make them suitable for circuit integration, has been achieved without impacting other electrical parameters (<i>SS</i> <; 70 mV/dec, <i>DIBL</i> <; 30 mV/V, and I<sub>on</sub>/I<sub>off</sub> >;10<sup>7</sup>). In addition, <i>V</i><sub>T</sub> dependence on nanowire diameter is studied. The results indicate that multiple <i>V</i><sub>T</sub> required in logic circuits can be implemented through different nanowire diameters with the same doping conditions for all devices.
On Additive Premium Calculation Principles

A premium calculation principle is a general rule that assigns a premium P to any given risk S. Intuitively, P is what the insurance carrier charges (apart from an expense allowance) for taking over the risk S (see [3], p. 85-87). Mathematically, S is a random variable, and P depends on S through its distribution function. The value of P may be finite or infinite; in the latter case we speak of an uninsurable risk. A premium calculation principle is called additive, if the premium assigned to the sum of two independent risks is the sum of the premiums that are assigned to the two risks individually. For example, the variance principle, P = E[S] + β Var [S] (β > o), is additive, because the variance of the sum of independent random variables equals the sum of the variances. Additivity is a very desirable property, from a theoretical as well as from a practical point of view (as pointed out by Borch [2], p. 429). The variance principle is not entirely satisfactory for various reasons. For one thing it does not take account of the skewness of S (a risk whose distribution is skewed to the right seems to be more dangerous than one with a symmetrical distribution). Furthermore, it produces in some cases a premium P that exceeds S with probability one (example: β = .3, S = o or 10, each with probability 1/2).
Interpretation of CIs in clinical trials with non-significant results: systematic review and recommendations

Objectives Interpretation of CIs in randomised clinical trials (RCTs) with treatment effects that are not statistically significant can distinguish between results that are ‘negative’ (the data are not consistent with a clinically meaningful treatment effect) or ‘inconclusive’ (the data remain consistent with the possibility of a clinically meaningful treatment effect). This interpretation is important to ensure that potentially beneficial treatments are not prematurely abandoned in future research or clinical practice based on invalid conclusions. Design Systematic review of RCT reports published in 2014 in Annals of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine and The Lancet (n=247). Results 85 of 99 articles with statistically non-significant results reported CIs for the treatment effect. Only 17 of those 99 articles interpreted the CI. Of the 22 articles in which CIs indicated an inconclusive result, only four acknowledged that the study could not rule out a clinically meaningful treatment effect. Conclusions Interpretation of CIs is important but occurs infrequently in study reports of trials with treatment effects that are not statistically significant. Increased author interpretation of CIs could improve application of RCT results. Reporting recommendations are provided.
A Preliminary Study on Cyclic Behaviour of SFS Dowelled Connections in Glulam Frames

SFS self-drilling dowels are a special type of metal fasteners in timber construction which can go through relatively thin steel plates and timber members without pre-drilling. The application of SFS dowels makes wood-steel connection assembling more efficient and accurate. Due to tight fitting between holes and fasteners, initial slips in SFS dowelled connections are much smaller than that in conventional dowelled or bolted connections which have predrilled holes typically oversized with 1~2mm. So far, design of SFS dowelled connections in New Zealand mainly follows European practice and very limited experimental testing has been done to validate the SFS dowelled connection strength and stiffness with NZ Radiata Pine (RP). This paper presents a preliminary experimental study to investigate cyclic performance of SFS dowelled connections in RP glulam that are designed to connect diagonal braces with glulam beams and columns. Connection properties in terms of strength, stiffness, ductility and overstrength were derived from the forcedisplacement curves. The test results showed that the SFS connections performed well with high ductility. The design equations in Eurocode 5 also provided reasonably accurate ultimate strength, initial stiffness and ultimate stiffness predictions.
A social network analysis of research collaboration in theeconomics community

RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) offers the RePEc Author Service (RAS). It allows registrants to claim authorship of the research papers that are described in RePEc archives. The data from this service forms a highquality authorship database. We use this data to examine, as a practical example, how different network constructions affect the ranking of economists through authorship centrality. We use Spearman's rho test for evaluating the correlation between author centrality measures.
Identification of a Proline-Rich Sequence in the CD2 Cytoplasmic Domain Critical for Regulation of Integrin-Mediated Adhesion and Activation of Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase

ABSTRACT The CD2 molecule is one of several lymphocyte receptors that rapidly initiates signaling events regulating integrin-mediated cell adhesion. CD2 stimulation of resting human T cells results within minutes in an increase in β1-integrin-mediated adhesion to fibronectin. We have utilized the HL60 cell line to map critical residues within the CD2 cytoplasmic domain involved in CD2 regulation of integrin function. A panel of CD2 cytoplasmic domain mutants was constructed and analyzed for their ability to upregulate integrin-mediated adhesion to fibronectin. Mutations in the CD2 cytoplasmic domain implicated in CD2-mediated interleukin-2 production or CD2 avidity do not affect CD2 regulation of integrin activity. A proline-rich sequence, K-G-P-P-L-P (amino acids 299 to 305), is essential for CD2-mediated regulation of β1 integrin activity. CD2-induced increases in β1 integrin activity could be blocked by two phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-K) inhibitors or by overexpression of a dominant negative form of the p85 subunit of PI 3-K. In addition, CD2 cytoplasmic domain mutations that abrogate CD2-induced increases in integrin-mediated adhesion also ablate CD2-induced increases in PI 3-K enzymatic activity. Surprisingly, CD2 cytoplasmic domain mutations that inhibit CD2 regulation of adhesion do not affect the constitutive association of the p85 subunit of PI 3-K association with CD2. Mutation of the proline residues in the K-G-P-P-L-P motif to alanines prevented CD2-mediated activation of integrin function and PI 3-K activity but not mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase activity. Furthermore, the MEK inhibitor PD 098059 blocked CD2-mediated activation of MAP kinase but had no effect on CD2-induced adhesion. These studies identify a proline-rich sequence in CD2 critical for PI 3-K-dependent regulation of β1 integrin adhesion by CD2. In addition, these studies suggest that CD2-mediated activation of MAP kinase is not involved in CD2 regulation of integrin adhesion.
A Novel Intronic cAMP Response Element Modulator (CREM) Promoter Is Regulated by Activator Protein-1 (AP-1) and Accounts for Altered Activation-induced CREM Expression in T Cells from Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus*

The transcriptional repressor cAMP response element modulator (CREM) α has important roles in normal T cell physiology and contributes to aberrant T cell function in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Recently, we characterized a specificity protein-1-dependent promoter located upstream of the CREM gene that accounts for increased basal CREM expression in SLE T cells and reflects disease activity. Here, we identify a novel intronic CREM promoter (denoted P2) in front of the second exon of the CREM gene that harbors putative binding sites for TATA-binding proteins and the transcriptional activator AP-1. DNA binding studies, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and reporter assays confirmed the functional relevance of these sites, and T cell activation through CD3/CD28 stimulation or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate/ionomycin treatment enhances P2 promoter activity. Although the basal CREM levels are increased in T cells from SLE patients compared with healthy controls, there are remarkable differences in the regulation of CREM expression in response to T cell activation. Whereas T cells from healthy individuals display increased CREM expression after T cell activation, most likely through AP-1-dependent up-regulation of the P2 promoter, SLE T cells fail to further increase their basal CREM levels upon T cell activation due to a decreased content of the AP-1 family member c-Fos. Because CREM trans-represses c-fos transcription in SLE T cells, we propose an autoregulatory feedback mechanism between CREM and AP-1. Our findings extend the understanding of CREM gene regulation in the context of T cell activation and disclose another difference in the transcriptional machinery in SLE T cells.