Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed leadership in South Africa: yet another passing fad or a robust theoretical tool for investigating school leadership practice?

ABSTRACT Distributed leadership, while an established concept in the international literature on education leadership, is slowly gaining prominence in post-apartheid South Africa. This is primarily due to its normative and representational appeal. However, of concern is that the concept has become a catch-all phrase to describe any form of devolved or shared leadership and is being espoused as ‘the answer’ to the country’s educational leadership woes. Drawing on a South African publications-based doctoral study of distributed teacher leadership (Grant 2010. “Distributed Teacher Leadership: Troubling the Terrain.” Unpublished PhD diss., University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg) for its evidence, this article argues for a theoretically robust form of distributed leadership conceptualised as socio-cultural practice and framed as a product of the joint interactions of school leaders, followers and aspects of their situation (Gronn 2000. “Distributed Properties: A New Architecture for Leadership.” Educational Management and Administration 28 (3): 317–338; Spillane, Halverson and Diamond 2004. “Towards a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective. ” Journal of Curriculum Studies 36 (1): 3–34; Spillane 2006. Distributed Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass). It endorses a sequential distributed leadership framing for the South African context and calls for further empirical studies which interrogate the complex practices of distributed school leadership. For without this theoretically robust work, the article argues, distributed leadership is likely to be relegated to the large pile of redundant leadership theories and become a passing fad.
The Liver MicroRNA Expression Profiles Associated With Chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Genotype-4 Infection: A Preliminary Study

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been repeatedly shown to play important roles in liver pathologies, including hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Egypt has the highest hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection rate worldwide, predominantly involving genotype-4. Objectives In this study, we attempted to characterize the miRNA profile of the poorly studied genotype 4 of HCV in chronically infected Egyptian patients to obtain a better understanding of the disease and its complications and help in the design of better management protocols. Patients and Methods We analyzed the expression levels of a selected panel of 94 miRNAs in fresh liver biopsies collected from 50 Egyptian patients diagnosed with chronic HCV infection using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze the expression level of each miRNA and association with the clinicopathological features of enrolled patients in this study. Results Our results revealed differential expression levels of the analyzed miRNAs compared to the normal controls. Twenty-seven miRNAs (including miR-105, miR-147, miR-149-3p, and miR-196b) showed up-regulation, while 17 miRNAs (including miR-21, miR-122, miR-199a-3p, and miR-223) showed down-regulation. An inverse correlation was observed between levels of miR-95, miR-130a, and miR-142-5p with the blood albumin level. Increased expression levels of seven miRNAs (miR-29c, miR-30c, miR-126, miR-145, miR-199a, miR-199a-3p, and miR-222) were observed with severe chronic hepatic inflammation. Several deregulated miRNAs found in this study have been previously linked to chronic liver inflammation and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. Conclusions The identified expression profiles of some examined miRNAs might offer important points to consider for the treatment of naive patients and the management of chronically infected HCV patients in Egypt and around the world.
Ability of Experience Design Elements to Elicit Emotions and Loyalty Behaviors

Experience design, an approach to create emotional connection with guests or customers through careful planning of tangible and intangible service elements, has gained popularity in many hospitality and retail businesses. With ever-increasing competition, service providers seek to develop loyalty by aggressively designing, continuously innovating, and managing their customer experiences. This article explores the relationship between different service elements designed to create enhanced experience and customer loyalty. In addition, it looks at emotional responses as mediating factors between the physical and relational elements and loyalty behaviors. A model is proposed and tested with a VIP hospitality tent for an internationally renowned touring circus. Results of the study indicate that while a few design elements directly affect loyalty behavior, the relationship between most design elements and loyalty behavior is strongly mediated by eliciting certain types of emotional behavior. This connection has implications for the focus of service managers' efforts in different environments.
Evolutionary Computation : a survey of existing theory

A literature survey of non applicative research is conducted on all attempts that have been made to enhance the design of Interactive Evolutionary Algorithms (IEAs) by theoretical means. Emphasis is put on theory and builds over the exhaustive application oriented survey made by Takagi [36]. After having positioned the study in its background and described the only attempt of mathematical modelling that was made [28], previous work is inventoried in the three main, up to now explored, directions of research : enhancing the system’s interface, allowing the user to actively participate in the search and boosting the search itself.
Multi-robot complete exploration using hill climbing and topological recovery

This article addresses the problem of autonomous map building and exploration of an unknown environment with mobile robots. The proposed method assumes that mobile robots use occupancy grid maps as the main representation model for the built maps and a hill climbing local search algorithm for exploring the environment without any kind of human intervention. It is demonstrated that hill climbing based exploration may recover from local minima and cover completely any environment, if a topological representation of the environment is created incrementally along the mapping and exploration mission. The approach is devised for either a single mobile robot or multiple cooperative mobile robots.
Staggering Disease in a Cat: The First Case of Borna Disease Virus Infection in a Belgian Cat

A 1-year-old female domestic cat showing progressive locomotor and neurological problems for 4 weeks was euthanized and examined. On autopsy, the brain was macroscopically normal. Test results for rabies, feline spongiform encephalopathy, feline infectious peritonitis, feline immunodeficiency virus, feline leukemia virus, and feline herpes virus (type I) were negative. Histologic examination of the brain revealed a nonsuppurative meningoencephalitis. Frozen brain material tested positive for the presence of Borna disease virus specific antigens. The present case appears to be the first description of a Borna disease virus infection in a cat in Belgium.
ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ON POVERTY USING THE SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS FRAMEWORK

As the goals of international agricultural research move beyond increasing food production to the broader aims of reducing poverty, both agricultural research and studies of its impact become more complex. Yet examining the magnitude and mechanisms through which different types of agricultural research are able to help the poor is essential, not only to evaluate claims for continued funding of such research, but more importantly, to guide future research in ways that will make the greatest contribution to poverty reduction. This paper reports on the approach used in a multicountry study of the poverty impact of research programs under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The studies use an expanded understanding of poverty that goes beyond income- or consumption-based headcounts or severity measures, to consider many other factors that poor people in different contexts define as contributing to their vulnerability, poverty, and well-being. The sustainable livelihoods framework provides a common conceptual approach to examining the ways in which agricultural research and technologies fit (or sometimes do not fit) into the livelihood strategies of households or individuals with different types of assets and other resources, strategies that often involve multiple activities undertaken at different times of the year. This paper reports on the conceptual framework, methods, and findings to date of these studies. It provides an overview of the sustainable livelihoods approach, how it can be applied to agricultural research, and describes detailed methods and results from five case studies: (1) modern rice varieties in Bangladesh; (2) polyculture fishponds and vegetable gardens in Bangladesh; (3) soil fertility management practices in Kenya; (4) hybrid maize in Zimbabwe; and (5) creolized maize varieties in Mexico.
Default Greeks under an objective probability measure ∗

Correct estimation of default probabilities are becoming an increasingly important element of financial institution’s measurement and management of credit exposures. Growing stress on proper rating systems driven by regulators also motivates for a better understanding of these issues. This article focus on the use of option based models in credit risk management. We present a framework to derive an objective probability of default directly, and its comparative statics (or socalled "Greeks") based on the BlackScholesMerton model. We then demonstrate the use of these concepts with several numerical examples. In special, we elucide the difference between risk neutral and objective (or real) probabilities of default and its implication for credit risk management and capital allocation strategies. Effort should though be put on the transformation of the risk measures as wrong estimates of expected default frequencies could lead to a situation where to little capital is allocated to less risky project and as a consequence destroy shareholder value. JEL classification: G13, G21, G33
Prevalence of Broad-Host-Range Lytic Bacteriophages of Sphaerotilus natans, Escherichia coli, andPseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT Two bacteriophage collections were examined with regard to their ability to form plaques on multiple bacterial host species. Nine of 10 phages studied were found to be broad-host-range bacteriophages. These phages fell into two groups. Group 1, the SN series, was isolated from sewage treatment plant samples with Sphaerotilus natansATCC 13338 as a host. The DNAs of these bacteriophages contained modified bases and were insensitive to cleavage by type I and II restriction endonucleases. The efficiency of plating of these bacteriophages was changed only slightly on the alternate host. Group 2, the BHR series, was isolated by a two-host enrichment protocol. These bacteriophages were sensitive to restriction, and their efficiency of plating was dramatically reduced on the alternate host. Our results suggest that a multiple-host enrichment protocol may be more effective for the isolation of broad-host-range bacteriophages by avoiding the selection bias inherent in single-host methods. At least two of the broad-host-range bacteriophages mediated generalized transduction. We suggest that broad-host-range bacteriophages play a key role in phage ecology and gene transfer in nature.
Endogenous sample selection and partial naiveté : A laboratory study ∗

Accounting for sample selection is a challenge not only for empirical researchers but also for the agents populating our models. Yet most models abstract from these issues and assume that agents successfully tackle selection problems. We design an experiment where anyone who understands samplefrom these issues and assume that agents successfully tackle selection problems. We design an experiment where anyone who understands sample selection can easily account for it. Agents make choices under uncertainty and their choices reveal valuable information that is biased due to the presence of unobservables. We find that essentially no subject optimally accounts for endogenous selection. On the other hand, behavior is far from random but actually quite amenable to analysis: Subjects follow simple heuristics that result in a partial accounting of selection and mitigate mistakes. ∗We thank Roland Bénabou, Erik Eyster, Kfir Eliaz, Guillaume Fréchette, Drew Fudenberg, Philippe Jehiel, Muriel Niederle, Stefan Penczynski, Demian Pouzo, Andrew Schotter, Bernardo Silveira, Ran Spiegler, Charles Sprenger, Alistair Wilson, Leeat Yariv, and several seminar participants for helpful comments. We acknowledge support from NYU’s Center for Experimental Social Science and from UCSB’s Center for Scientific Computing from the CNSI, MRL: NSF MRSEC (DMR1121053) and NSF CNS-0960316. Esponda: Olin Business School, Campus Box 1133, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, MO 63130, iesponda@wustl.edu; Vespa: Department of Economics, University of California at Santa Barbara, 2127 North Hall University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106, vespa@ucsb.edu.
The User Behavior in Facebook and its Development from 2009 until 2014

Online Social Networking is a fascinating phenomena, attracting more than one billion people. It supports basic human needs such as communication, socializing with others and reputation building. Thus, an in-depth understanding of user behavior in Online Social Networks (OSNs) can provide major insights into human behavior, and impacts design choices of social platforms and applications. However, researchers have only limited access to behavioral data. As a consequence of this limitation, user behavior in OSNs as well as its development in recent years are still not deeply understood. In this paper, we present a study about user behavior on the most popular OSN, Facebook, with 2071 participants from 46 countries. We elaborate how Facebookers orchestrate the offered functions to achieve individual benefit in 2014 and evaluate user activity changes from 2009 till 2014 to understand the development of user behavior. Inter alia, we focus on the most important functionality, the newsfeed, to understand content sharing amongst users. We (i) yield a better understanding on content sharing and consumption and (ii) refine behavioral assumptions in the literature to improve the performance of alternative social platforms. Furthermore, we (iii) contribute evidence to the discussion of Facebook to be an aging network.
Cooperative phoneotypes: exploring phone-based behavioral markers of cooperation

Cooperation is a fundamental human concept studied across multiple social and biological disciplines. Traditional methods for eliciting an individual's propensity to cooperate have included surveys and laboratory experiments and multiple such studies have connected an individual's cooperation level with her social behavior. We describe a novel approach to model an individual's cooperation level based on her phoneotype i.e. a composite of an individual's traits as observable via a mobile phone. This phone sensing-based method can potentially complement surveys, thus providing a cheaper, faster, automated method for generating insights into cooperation levels of users. Based on a 10-week field study involving 54 participants, we report that: (1) multiple phone-based signals were significantly associated with participant's cooperation attitudes; and (2) combining phone-based signals yielded a predictive model with AUCROC of 0.945 that performed significantly better than a comparable demography-based model at predicting individual cooperation propensities. The results pave the way for individuals and organizations to identify more cooperative peers in personal, social, and commerce related settings.
Spatial and Feature-Based Attention in a Layered Cortical Microcircuit Model

Directing attention to the spatial location or the distinguishing feature of a visual object modulates neuronal responses in the visual cortex and the stimulus discriminability of subjects. However, the spatial and feature-based modes of attention differently influence visual processing by changing the tuning properties of neurons. Intriguingly, neurons' tuning curves are modulated similarly across different visual areas under both these modes of attention. Here, we explored the mechanism underlying the effects of these two modes of visual attention on the orientation selectivity of visual cortical neurons. To do this, we developed a layered microcircuit model. This model describes multiple orientation-specific microcircuits sharing their receptive fields and consisting of layers 2/3, 4, 5, and 6. These microcircuits represent a functional grouping of cortical neurons and mutually interact via lateral inhibition and excitatory connections between groups with similar selectivity. The individual microcircuits receive bottom-up visual stimuli and top-down attention in different layers. A crucial assumption of the model is that feature-based attention activates orientation-specific microcircuits for the relevant feature selectively, whereas spatial attention activates all microcircuits homogeneously, irrespective of their orientation selectivity. Consequently, our model simultaneously accounts for the multiplicative scaling of neuronal responses in spatial attention and the additive modulations of orientation tuning curves in feature-based attention, which have been observed widely in various visual cortical areas. Simulations of the model predict contrasting differences between excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the two modes of attentional modulations. Furthermore, the model replicates the modulation of the psychophysical discriminability of visual stimuli in the presence of external noise. Our layered model with a biologically suggested laminar structure describes the basic circuit mechanism underlying the attention-mode specific modulations of neuronal responses and visual perception.
Dependence of Tropical Cyclone Intensification on the Coriolis Parameter

ABSTRACT The dependence of tropical cyclone (TC) intensification on the Coriolis parameter was investigated in an idealized hurricane model. By specifying an initial balanced vortex on an f-plane, we observed faster TC development under lower planetary vorticity environment than under higher planetary vorticity environment. The diagnosis of the model outputs indicates that the distinctive evolution characteristics arise from the extent to which the boundary layer imbalance is formed and maintained in the presence of surface friction. Under lower planetary vorticity environment, stronger and deeper subgradient inflow develops due to Ekman pumping effect, which leads to greater boundary layer moisture convergence and condensational heating. The strengthened heating further accelerates the inflow by lowing central pressure further. This positive feedback loop eventually leads to distinctive evolution characteristics. The outer size (represented by the radius of gale-force wind) and the eye of the final TC state also depend on the Coriolis parameter. The TC tends to have larger (smaller) outer size and eye under higher (lower) planetary vorticity environment. Whereas the radius of maximum wind or the eye size in the current setting is primarily determined by inertial stability, the TC outer size is mainly controlled by environmental absolute angular momentum.
Beginning teachers’ induction in Chile: the perspective of principals

Abstract This case study investigated the role of school principals in the induction of beginning teachers in Copiapó, Chile. Building upon group and individual interviews, and review of extant literature, the following findings were established: (a) principals in this study expect beginning teachers to be fully formed as classroom teachers; (b) principals were unlikely to talk about induction practices that might help beginning teachers to learn pedagogical strategies for classrooms; and (c) principals’ induction practices focused on the symbolic role that principals play as the highest authority within the school which has little practical influence on helping beginning teachers to develop their pedagogy. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
Measuring the conceptual fitness of an application in a computing ecosystem

Developing computing applications that can match a set of evolving requirements requires an understanding of the conceptual fitness of these applications relative to the domains they purport to serve. We present the computing ecosystem framework with its associated concepts, use niches, use potential, and activation potential. We show how the ecosystem framework allows us to characterize the usefulness of an application through the concept of fitness. We propose a method for measuring the fitness of an application using a metric called ontological coverage. We first use a technique called ontological excavation that identifies the user-visible concepts from applications and models them in an ontology. We then use a set of use cases to develop a use case silhouette on the ontology that allows us to measure the ontological coverage of an application as an initial approximation of fitness to a use niche. We present some examples from case studies showing how use case silhouettes can be used to measure the fitness of an application and conclude with some proposals for future work.
Co-Curricular Learning and Assessment in New Student Orientation at a Community College

With increased public pressure to impact student success, assess student learning and increase completion outcomes at community colleges, mandatory orientation can be an important first step on the path to success. Colleges also need to identify opportunities for assessing co-curricular learning in student affairs programs and functions. This study describes the process of implementing a mandatory new student orientation at a community college in Colorado. The program assessment included data collection at the individual student level to document student learning, and more broadly to demonstrate that the program contributed to increases in student retention outcomes and documented student learning from the beginning of the college transition process. The authors found statistically significant differences in student learning about key on boarding topics following orientation and the new student orientation also contributed to a seventeen percent increase in fall to spring retention of new students.
Experimental clues in favor of a generalized norm of reciprocity

The norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) has only been considered and experimentally demonstrated between two individuals. However, comments from several authors invite the consideration of an expanded form of this norm. 120 passersby, randomly assigned to 3 conditions, were asked to watch a confederate’s belongings. Depending on the condition, they had either previously been given a gift or not. In addition, the gift was offered by either the confederate making the target request or by a second confederate, not initially involved. First, results show that passersby are significantly more likely to comply with the target request if they were offered a gift than if they weren’t no matter who the confederate was. Second, the confederate offering the gift gets significantly more compliance than the one not initially involved. Results are discussed in terms of self-presentation theory (Pendleton & Batson, 1979), internalization of norm (Schwartz & Howard, 1981) and positive mood induction (Isen & Al, 1978).