Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL TEACHERS IN INDIA: LEARNING FROM INTERNATIONAL SUCCESSES

Professional development of teachers refers to the procedures and ways of assisting the teachers in constant renewal of their knowledge base and honing their skills to adjust to the emerging needs and changing situations of the teaching profession. While professional development includes both pre-service(preparation for the teaching profession) , continuous professional development of teachers refers to the in-service teacher education programs meant for development and professional growth within the realms of this profession. The paper discusses in brief the scenario of teacher professional development in the country along with some chief problems uncovered through researches made in the area of teacher education and professional development of teachers in India. Further, five international models of continuous professional development namely the MiTEP, the Ramp and Pathways, the Quest , the CCM and the Wyoming Triad model, have been discussed in brief that have provided a number of strategies and techiniuques of teaching and learning that can be implemented in the Indian system of professional development of teachers and some of them have been listed in the paper.
An exploration of ticket pricing in intercollegiate athletics

AN EXPLORATION OF TICKET PRICING IN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS Craig A. Morehead Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr. Stephen L. Shapiro Ticket sales represent a significant revenue stream for FBS athletic departments, yet little is known about how administrators determine prices for those tickets. This three-paper format dissertation is an attempt to begin filling this gap in the literature so that we may better understand ticket pricing from a managerial perspective. Paper one is conceptual in nature, and includes a review of extant ticket pricing literature and presents a research agenda for studying pricing in the unique environment of intercollegiate sport using the theoretical frameworks of stakeholder theory and institutional theory. The second and third papers are empirical examinations of ticket-pricing from the viewpoints of athletic administrators with various departmental responsibilities so that we may better understand the role of ticket pricing in intercollegiate sport from different points of departure. Using a phenomenological approach, twenty athletic administrators, representing two Power 5 and two Group of 5 institutions, were interviewed about their experiences with ticket pricing. Paper two represents an attempt to better understand the pricing process utilized in college sport, including the organizational objectives and influencing factors identified by administrators, while also suggesting a cyclical model for spectator sport ticket pricing. Paper three is an exploration of the perceived roles of athletic administrative stakeholders, as well as departmental isomorphic behavior, as they relate to ticket pricing decisions in intercollegiate athletics.
Quantification of Trabecular-Iris Contact and its Prevalence by Optical Coherence Tomography in a Healthy Caucasian Population

Purpose To determine the prevalence of trabecular-iris contact (TIC) and quantify this contact in healthy Caucasian individuals using Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT). Methods For this cross-sectional study, 2,012 eyes of 1,006 healthy subjects were recruited among individuals undergoing a routine ophthalmologic checkup. In each participant, age, sex, intraocular pressure, and spherical refractive error were first recorded along with anterior chamber depth and volume, central corneal thickness measured with the Pentacam, and axial length with the IOLMaster. Anterior chamber angle variables and the presence of TIC in the horizontal quadrants were determined by anterior segment FD-OCT (RTVue 100®). When TIC was observed, TIC length (TICL) and its percentage in relation to the length of the trabecular meshwork (TICL percentage) were also measured. Results Trabecular-iris contact in the horizontal quadrants was observed in 34 eyes of 25 patients, representing 1.6% of the total number of eyes examined. In this subgroup of individuals, mean age was 55.8 years, 84% were women, and spherical refractive error ranged from -0.25 to 8.25 D. Eyes with TIC showed an angle width of less than 23.2 degrees and axial length shorter than 23.7 mm. Mean TICL was 239 ± 79 μm (103-495 μm) and mean TICL percentage was 46.9% ± 13.9% (17.2%-76.3%). Conclusions The prevalence of TIC was low in this population. Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography emerged as useful to assess its prevalence and quantify the extent of TIC.
An Alternative Method for Locating Faults in Transmission Line Networks Based on Time Reversal

We present an alternative method based on the time-reversal process to locate faults in transmission line networks. The proposed procedure considers different media for the forward and the backward propagation phases. Specifically, the transverse branch representing the fault is removed from the circuit in the backward propagation since its location represents the solution of the process and, therefore, is not known in advance. The advantage of the proposed method is twofold. First, the proposed backward model requires only one simulation for the time-reversed backward propagation phase, thus reducing significantly the computational burden. Second, we demonstrate that this modified backward propagation medium satisfies a property such that the fault location can be identified by computing, in the frequency domain, the argument of the voltage along the line. The theory is first formulated for the case of a lossless homogeneous single-phase transmission line; then, its applicability is extended to lossy inhomogeneous transmission line networks. A single-phase inhomogeneous transmission line and an inhomogeneous Y-shape network are specifically considered to support this claim. We show that the proposed procedure can provide high fault location accuracy (i.e., in the range of $\pm 1$ m), using only one observation point. Furthermore, we propose a criterion to link the bandwidth of the sampling system to the desired fault location accuracy.
A comparison of blood gases, biochemistry, and hematology to ecomorphology in a health assessment of pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides)

Despite the promise of hematological parameters and blood chemistry in monitoring the health of marine fishes, baseline data is often lacking for small fishes that comprise central roles in marine food webs. This study establishes blood chemistry and hematological baseline parameters for the pinfish Lagodon rhomboides, a small marine teleost that is among the most dominant members of near-shore estuarine communities of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Given their prominence, pinfishes are an ideal candidate species to use as a model for monitoring changes across a wide range of near-shore marine communities. However, pinfishes exhibit substantial morphological differences associated with a preference for feeding in primarily sea-grass or sand dominated habitats, suggesting that differences in the foraging ecology of individuals could confound health assessments. Here we collect baseline data on the blood physiology of pinfish while assessing the relationship between blood parameters and measured aspects of feeding morphology using data collected from 37 individual fish. Our findings provide new baseline health data for this important near shore fish species and find no evidence for a strong linkage between blood physiology and either sex or measured aspects of feeding morphology. Comparing our hematological and biochemical data to published results from other marine teleost species suggests that analyses of trends in blood value variation correlated with major evolutionary transitions in ecology will shed new light on the physiological changes that underlie the successful diversification of fishes.
Effects of Harvest of Nontimber Forest Products and Ecological Differences between Sites on the Demography of African Mahogany

Abstract: The demographic impacts of harvesting nontimber forest products (NTFP) have been increasingly studied because of reports of potentially unsustainable harvest. Nevertheless, our understanding of how plant demographic response to harvest is altered by variation in ecological conditions, which is critical for developing realistic sustainable‐use plans, is limited. We built matrix population models to test whether and how variation in ecological conditions affects population responses to harvest. In particular, we examined the effect of bark and foliage harvest on the demography of populations of African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) in two contrasting ecological regions of Benin, West Africa. K. senegalensis bark and foliage harvest significantly reduced its stochastic population growth rates, but ecological differences between regions had a greater effect on population growth rates than did harvest. The effect of harvest on population growth rates (Δλ) was slightly stronger in the moist than in the drier region. Life‐table response experiments revealed that the mechanism by which harvesting reduced λ differed between ecological regions. Lowered stasis (persistence) of larger life stages lead to a reduction in λ in the drier region, whereas lowered growth of all life stages lowered λ in moist region. Potential strategies to increase population growth rates should include decreasing the proportion of individuals harvested, promoting harvester‐owned plantations of African mahogany, and increasing survival and growth by promoting no‐fire zones in gallery forests. Our results show how population responses to harvest of NTFP may be altered by ecological differences across sites and emphasize the importance of monitoring populations over the climatic range in which they occur to develop more realistic recommendations for conservation.
Sleep mediates the link between resiliency and behavioural problems in children at high and low risk for alcoholism

Children of alcoholic parents are at greater risk for developing substance use problems. Having a parent with any mental illness increases the risk for sleep disorders in children. Using actigraphy, this study characterized sleep in children of alcoholics and community controls over a period of 1 week. This study further examined whether sleep characteristics of the children mediated the relationship between self‐regulation indices (i.e. undercontrol and resiliency) and outcome measures of function (e.g. problem behaviours and perceived conflict at home). Eighty‐two children (53 boys, 29 girls, 7.2–13.0 years old) were recruited from the ongoing Michigan Longitudinal Study. Seventeen participants had no parental history of alcohol abuse or dependence family history negative (FH−), 43 had at least one parent who was a recovered alcoholic, and 22 had at least one parent who met diagnostic criteria within the past 3 years. Sleep was assessed with actigraphy and sleep diaries for 1 week, and combined with secondary analysis of data collected for the longitudinal study. FH− children had more objectively measured total sleep time. More total sleep time was associated with greater resiliency and behavioural control, fewer teacher‐reported behavioural problems, and less child‐reported conflict at home. Further, total sleep time partially mediated the relationship between resiliency and perceived conflict, and between resiliency and externalizing problems. These findings suggest that in high‐risk homes, the opportunity to obtain sufficient sleep is reduced, and that insufficient sleep further exacerbates the effects of impaired dispositional self‐regulatory capacity on behavioural and emotional regulation.
Detection of bacterial DNA in serum and ascitic fluid of asymptomatic outpatients with cirrhosis and non‐neutrocytic ascites

Background and aims: Bacterial DNA (bactDNA) has been found in serum and ascitic fluid (AF) of 30–40% of hospitalized patients with cirrhosis and non‐neutrocytic ascites, but its prevalence in outpatients is unknown. The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the presence of bactDNA in AF and serum among cirrhotic outpatients with non‐neutrocytic ascites.
Decreased Erythropoietin Requirements in Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients with Statin Therapy

&NA; Inflammatory cytokines induce erythropoietin (EPO) resistance, anorexia, and suppression of hepatic albumin synthesis. Increased levels of C‐reactive protein (CRP) have been associated with relative EPO resistance in dialysis patients. More recently, studies have shown that statin therapy decreases CRP. This study analyzed the effect of statin therapy on EPO requirements in dialysis patients. This retrospective, single center study stratified stable hemodialysis patients into two groups: Group 1, statin therapy (n ·19), and Group 2, nonstatin therapy (n ·19). Group 1 was subclassified into Group 1a (prestatin therapy) and Group 1b (poststatin therapy). Baseline demographics, biochemical parameters [serum lipid panel, hemoglobin (Hgb), transferrin saturation (TSAT), ferritin, parathyroid hormone (PTH), aluminum, albumin, KT/V, urea reduction ratio (URR), and protein catabolic rate (nPCR)] and EPO requirements (u/kg per treatment) were obtained. Poststatin labs were obtained at a mean of 4.7 months. Statistically significant changes were noted in Group 1 after initiation of statin therapy for cholesterol (174.68 53.8 to 142 ·32.7, p < 0.05), Hgb (10.61 ·1.2 to 12.48‐0.79, p < 0.0005), ferritin (618 ·334.1 to 334 ·265, p < 0.05), and albumin (3.58 ·0.4 to 3.77 ·0.4, p < 0.005). EPO requirements decreased by 25%. Mean values for lipid panel showed reductions in cholesterol (18%), triglyceride (37.8%), and low density lipoprotein (LDL) (26%), as well as elevation in high density lipoprotein (HDL) (11%). These data suggest that statin therapy may decrease EPO requirements in dialysis patients. The improvement in EPO responsiveness may be caused by the effect of statins on CRP. ASAIO Journal 2003; 49:422‐425.
Return Asymmetry and the Cross Section of Stock Returns

This paper develops a new measure of return asymmetry, following Patil et al. (2012). We demonstrate that the return asymmetry measure helps explain the cross section of stock returns. Consistent with results in Barberis and Huang (2008), our empirical findings show that stocks with high return asymmetry exhibit low expected returns. The negative relation between return asymmetry and the cross section of stock returns persists for up to the 12-month forecast horizon and remains robust after controlling for the effects of skewness.
The influence of prophylactic antibiotic administration on post-operative morbidity in dental implant surgery. A prospective double blind randomized controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES A prospective double-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted to test the effect of prophylactic antibiotics on post-operative morbidity and osseointegration of dental implants. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifty-five subjects scheduled for implant surgery were enrolled. The patients were randomly assigned to the antibiotic (test group) and placebo (control group). Twenty-seven patients (test group) received 3 g amoxicillin one hour pre-operatively, and 28 patients (control group) received placebo capsules 1 h pre-operatively. No post-operative antibiotics were prescribed. Pain diaries and interference with daily activities diaries were kept by the patients for 1 week post-operatively. Signs of post-operative morbidity (swelling, bruising, suppuration and wound dehiscence) were recorded by the principal investigators at day 2 and day 7 following the operation. Osseointegration was assessed at 2nd stage surgery or 3-4 months post-operatively. RESULTS The results of this study suggest that the use of prophylactic pre-operative antibiotics may result in higher dental implant survival rates (100% vs. 82%). Five implant failures, one in each of five patients, were reported in the placebo group and none in the antibiotic group (P = 0.0515). No significant differences were found for most of the signs of post-operative morbidity 2 and 7 days post-operatively. Only bruising at 2 days following the operation appeared to be higher in the placebo group (P = 0.0511). Post-operative pain (P = 0.01) and interference with daily activities (P = 0.01) appeared to be significantly lower for the antibiotic group after 7 days. Those patients with implant failure reported higher pain (based on the VAS scores) after 2 days (P = 0.003) and after 7 days (P = 0.0005), higher pain (based on the amount of analgesics used) after 7 days (P = 0.001) and higher interference with daily activities (based on the VAS scores) after 2 days (P = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS The use of for dental implant surgery may be justified, as it appears to improve implant survival in the short term and also results in less post-operative pain and interference with daily activities. From the results of this study, it appears that prophylactic antibiotics may also be beneficial both in terms of implant survival, especially when the surgical procedure is prolonged due to its difficulty, high number of implants placed or operator's inexperience.
Comparison of Rectal Diazepam and Subcutaneous Morphine‐Scopolamine Administration for Outpatient Sedation in Minor Oral Surgery

In a randomized cross‐over study on sedation in outpatient oral surgery, subcutaneous administration of morphine‐scopolamine was compared with rectal administration of diazepam. The mean dose of morphine was 0.13 mg kg‐1 (range 0.13–0.24) and of diazepam 0.57 mg kg‐1 (range 0.50–0.71). Apprehension, the determining factor for patients' preference for sedation method, the recovery from sedation and the postoperative course were studied. Both methods produced the desired effects. For diazepam, the effect was scored higher by the patient than the nurse observer and for morphine‐scopolamine the opposite was found. Postoperative pain and patients' preference for sedation did not differ between the methods and the determining factor for the patients' preference for sedation method was the experience of stronger tranquillization. Side‐effects such as prolonged recovery, nausea, dizziness, and dysphoria were frequent during the postoperative course after the morphine‐scopolamine sedation but were not seen during diazepam sedation. Thus, rectal administration of diazepam should be preferred to morphine and scopolamine for sedation in minor oral surgery performed under local anesthesia.
Evaluation of aegerolysins as novel tools to detect and visualize ceramide phosphoethanolamine, a major sphingolipid in invertebrates

Ceramide phosphoethanolamine (CPE), a sphingomyelin analog, is a major sphingolipid in invertebrates and parasites, whereas only trace amounts are present in mammalian cells. In this study, mushroom‐derived proteins of the aegerolysin family—pleurotolysin A2 (PlyA2; KD = 12nM), ostreolysin (Oly; KD = 1.3 nM), and erylysin A (EryA; KD = 1.3 nM)—strongly associated with CPE/cholesterol (Chol)‐containing membranes, whereas their low affinity to sphingomyelin/Chol precluded establishment of the binding kinetics. Binding specificity was determined by multilamellar liposome binding assays, supported bilayer assays, and solid‐phase studies against a series of neutral and negatively charged lipid classes mixed 1:1 with Chol or phosphatidylcholine. No cross‐reactivity was detected with phosphatidylethanolamine. Only PlyA2 also associated with CPE, independent of Chol content (KD = 41 μM), rendering it a suitable tool for visualizing CPE in lipid‐blotting experiments and biologic samples from sterol auxotrophic organisms. Visualization of CPE enrichment in the CNS of Drosophila larvae (by PlyA2) and in the bloodstream form of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei (by EryA) by fluorescence imaging demonstrated the versatility of aegerolysin family proteins as efficient tools for detecting and visualizing CPE. —Bhat, H. B. , Ishitsuka, R. , Inaba, T. , Murate, M. , Abe, M. , Makino, A. , Kohyama‐Koganeya, A. , Nagao, K. , Kurahashi, A. , Kishimoto, T. , Tahara, M. , Yamano, A. , Nagamune, K. , Hirabayashi, Y. , Juni, N. , Umeda, M. , Fujimori, F. , Nishibori, K. , Yamaji‐Hasegawa, A. , Greimel, P., Kobayashi, T. Evaluation of aegerolysins as novel tools to detect and visualize ceramide phosphoethanolamine, a major sphingolipid in invertebrates. FASEB J. 29, 3920‐3934 (2015). www.fasebj. org
Three essays on information and transboundary problems in environmental and resource economics

The thesis contains three chapters on environmental and natural resource economics and focuses on situations where agents receive private or public information. The first chapter analyses the problem of transboundary fisheries, where harvesting countries behave non-cooperatively. In addition to biological uncertainty, countries may face strategic uncertainty. A country that receives negative assessments about the current level of the fish stock, may become “pessimistic” about the assessment of the other harvesting country, which can ignite “panic-based” overfishing. In such a coordination problem, multiplicity of equilibria is a generic characteristic of the solution. Both strategic uncertainty and equilibrium selection, relatively, have been given less attention in the theoretical literature of common-property natural resources. In this model, in the limit as the harvesting countries observe more and more precise information, rationality ensures the unique “global game” equilibrium, a la Carlsson and van Damme (1993). The improved predictive power of the model helps a potential intergovernmental manager of the stock understand the threshold behaviour of harvesting countries. The global game threshold coincides with the risk-dominance threshold of a precise information model, as if there was no strategic uncertainty, and implies that the countries select the corresponding risk-dominant action for any level of assessment of the stock. Gaining from the risk-dominance equivalence, I derive policy suggestions for the overfishing cost and the property rights in common-property fisheries. The second chapter develops a theoretical framework to examine the role of public information in dynamic self-enforcing international environmental agreements (IEAs) on climate change. The countries choose self-enforcing emission abatement strategies
Nonlinear pricing with consumer satiation

In various scenarios, consumers may become satiated with products, and the degree of satiation is directly associated with their prior experiences. Confronted with consumer satiation, the seller is unable to either identify consumers who have a higher likelihood of being satiated ex ante or distinguish satiated from non‐satiated consumers ex post. Therefore, the seller should address dynamic selling, valuation uncertainty, and quantity decisions, all of which are important operational issues. We consider a two‐period problem in which consumer types are influenced by their prior consumption experiences. Faced with these consumers, the seller intends to optimize quantities and adjust the prices of the products in each period to maximize revenue. We find that the seller may reduce ex ante production quantity as some consumers become satiated. Moreover, the ex ante quantity is first decreasing and then increasing with regard to the satiation rate. Furthermore, two‐period information asymmetries may provide a rationale for upward distortion in quantity when consumer preferences are highly sensitive to first‐period consumption. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 386–400, 2016
Virtual Texturing

Other Solutions: • Repeating/Blending: A common approach in video games is to have a repeating base texture that is blended with other detail textures to simulate the variety of a single high-resolution texture. Although this approach reduces the texture storage requirements it commonly is still higher than the available graphics memory. Also this approach may be visually unsatisfying, requires skilled artist labour and is inapplicable to many applications.