Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New York State Superintendent Job Satisfaction in an Era of Reduced Resources and Increased Accountability.

The purpose of this study was to investigate New York State school superintendent job satisfaction and the potential contributing factors to their job satisfaction in an era of reduced resources and increased accountability. This survey was sent to 684 superintendents throughout New York State and completed by 280 superintendents. Sharp, Malone and Walter (2002) created a 49-item survey entitled the Positive Aspects and Motivation Survey and used it in a three-state study (Indiana, Illinois and Texas) that found increasing job satisfaction. Padalino (2009) used the same instrument and found increasing superintendent job satisfaction in New York State. The Padalino (2009) study, with a 75% superintendent job satisfaction rating, served as the baseline for this study. In this study, superintendent job satisfaction was only measured at 60%. This is a 15% decrease in 6 years. This study used the 49-item survey and added five new questions related to current issues confronting New York State superintendents. These questions asked superintendents their feelings toward: working with the Board of Education, the property tax levy cap, the Gap Elimination Adjustment, the rollout of the Common Core standards, and the new Annual Professional Performance Review. Working with the Board of Education was strongly positive while the other four were viewed as strongly negative. However, only working with the Board of Education had a significant correlation to superintendent job satisfaction. Approximately 81% of respondents had positive feelings about working with the Board of Education. Almost exactly the same 81% of respondents said yes they would aspire to the superintendency if starting their careers over. Thus, superintendent-Board of ii
Characteristics of respondents and non-respondents to a mailed questionnaire.

In establishing a cohort of U.S. nurses, an assessment of response bias was made comparing respondents and non-respondents with regard to age, education, state of residence, employment status, field of employment, and major specialty. Overall, the 122,328 respondents (69.7 per cent) and 43,222 non-respondents were quite similar. Together with the reasonable response rate in a homogeneous population, this suggests that estimation of exposure-disease associations is unlikely to be affected by major bias due to non-response.
Inactivation-resistant channels underlying the persistent sodium current in rat ventricular myocytes

Single-channel sodium currents that could be blocked with TTX were elicited by depolarizing voltage pulses in either cell-attached or inside-out patches from rat ventricular myocytes. A transient burst of channels was followed by late-opening (persistent) channels with low open probability. Conditioning depolarizing pre-pulses that inactivated transient channels and ‘chattering’ late-opening channels had no effect on persistent channels. The open probability of persistent channels reached a maximum at more negative potentials than transient channels. Between – 70 mV and – 40 mV, the average open time of persistent channels increased, whereas the average open time of transient channels did not change significantly, so the open times of the two channels diverged as the potential became more positive. The conductance of transient and persistent channels was similar, and the conductance of both kinds of channel increased at more depolarized potentials.
Neuronal NO modulates spontaneous and ANG II-stimulated fetal swallowing behavior in the near-term ovine fetus.

Spontaneous fetal swallowing occurs at a markedly higher rate compared with spontaneous adult drinking activity. This high rate of fetal swallowing is critical for amniotic fluid volume regulation. Central NO is critical for maintaining the normal rate of fetal swallowing, as nonselective inhibition of NO (with central N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester) suppresses spontaneous and angiotensin II (ANG II)-stimulated swallowing. We sought to differentiate the contributions of central endothelial vs. neuronal NO in the regulation of spontaneous and stimulated fetal swallowing, using a selective neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) inhibitor. Six time-dated pregnant ewes and fetuses were chronically prepared with fetal vascular and intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) catheters and electrocorticogram (ECoG) and esophageal electromyogram electrodes and studied at 130 +/- 1 days of gestation. After an initial 2-h baseline period (0-2 h), the selective nNOS inhibitor N-propyl-L-arginine (NPLA) was injected i.c. v. (2-4 h). At 4 h, the dose of NPLA was repeated, together with ANG II, and fetal swallowing was monitored for a final 2 h. Four fetuses also received an identical control study (on an alternate day) in which NPLA was replaced with artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF). Suppression of nNOS by i.c. v. NPLA significantly reduced mean (+/- SE) spontaneous fetal swallowing (1.35 +/- 0.12 to 0.50 +/- 0.07 swallows/min; P < 0.001). Injection of ANG II in the presence of NPLA had no dipsogenic effect on fetal swallowing (0.68 +/- 0.09 swallows/min). In the aCSF study, i.c. v. aCSF did not change fetal swallowing (0.93 +/- 0.10 vs. 0.95 +/- 0.09 swallows/min), whereas i.c. v. ANG II resulted in a significant increase in the rate of fetal swallowing (2.0 +/- 0.04 swallows/min; P = 0.001). We speculate that the suppressive dipsogenic effects of central NPLA indicate that spontaneous and ANG II- stimulated fetal swallowing is dependent on central nNOS activity.
Supporting Virtual Collaboration in Spatial Design Tasks: Are Surrogate or Natural Gestures More Effective?

Hand gestures offer a rich source of information for communication of spatial concepts. However, gestures are often lost when people work together in virtual space. Gestures may be conveyed in virtual spaces through many approaches, for example by drawing circles and arrows around objects on a shared screen, or using natural, real-time videos of a distant collaborator's hands or body. The first is an example of “surrogate” gestures and the second of “natural” gestures. The first is relatively inexpensive but requires users take some effort to draw and erase temporary symbols; the second is more costly but also more expressive and natural. This work will: 1) provide a brief, high-level framework characterizing tools that support virtual gestures; and 2) present an experimental study comparing the cognitive effort required when using sketched surrogate gestures versus natural gestures in a virtual mechanical design tasks. The larger goal is to understand whether the additional cost to support natural gestures is warranted, thus informing the design of future virtual collaboration tools. We recruited 24 participants and asked them to collaborate using three different approaches: face-to-face (as a baseline), virtual-sketching (which allows users to make gestural sketches on their drawings), and virtual-sketching with natural hand videos projected on the drawing surface. We found that users' cognitive workload was significantly reduced when natural hand videos were added to a virtual-sketching environment. These results suggest that the ease and expressivity of natural gestures provide more benefits than simpler surrogate gestures for virtual mechanical design tasks.
Measuring the Implementation Fidelity of the Response to Intervention Framework in Milwaukee Public Schools. REL 2017-192.

Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest assisted Milwaukee Public Schools in developing a system for measuring schools’ progress in implementing Response to Intervention (RTI), a pedagogic method that uses tiered levels of instruction adapted to student needs. This study examined the ratings produced by that system in 2014/15 to determine the system’s reliability, schools’ progress in implementing RTI, and any relationship of the ratings to school characteristics. The study found the following: • The district-customized rubric for measuring the implementation fidelity of the RTI framework showed good interrater and interitem reliability. • Some 53 percent of participating elementary schools that were rated using the rubric were implementing RTI with adequate fidelity. Schools with the lowest academic performance (priority schools) struggled most with implementation. • Among components of the RTI framework, schools struggled most with multitiered instruction and evaluation. • Implementation fidelity ratings were related to the percentage of teachers with advanced credentials, retention rates of licensed staff, percentage of economically disadvantaged students, and percentage of students suspended during the school year.
Numerically modeled dynamic response of perfect and leaky dielectric droplets in an electric field

Summary form only given. A dielectric liquid droplet in an immiscible dielectric medium will deform when subjected to an external electric field. This effect is a component of the motion seen in electrically actuated droplets in a lab-on-a-chip setting, and is being studied in order to provide a basis for modeling electrowetting actuation behaviour. It is, however, a widely studied phenomenon in its own right, and can be employed in various emulsion technologies. The present work is a finite element analysis of both the perfect and leaky dielectric models, taking into account the time dependence of the deformation and the nonlinearity encountered when the deformation becomes large. In order to assess the accuracy of the model, comparisons are made with the classical small-deformation analytic results and with recent finite element results. The effects of the fluid properties and the applied field on the transient response and the resulting deformation are observed, and the transient response in particular is analyzed in order to provide a basis for dynamic control of the system. This could lead to a strategy for reliably controlling the behaviour of droplets under electrowetting actuation on a microfluidic chip.
Low-power fully integrated and tunable CMOS RF wireless receiver for ISM band consumer applications

A 0.25-/spl mu/m single-chip CMOS single-conversion tunable low intermediate frequency (IF) receiver operated in the 902-928-MHz industrial, scientific, and medical band is proposed. A new 10.7-MHz IF section that contains a limiting amplifier and a frequency modulated/frequency-shift-key demodulator is designed. The frequency to voltage conversion gain of the demodulator is 15 mV/kHz and the dynamic range of the limiting amplifier is around 80 dB. The sensitivity of the IF section including the demodulator and limiting amplifier is -72 dBm. With on-chip tunable components in the low-power low-noise amplifier (LNA) and LC-tank voltage-controlled oscillator circuit, the receiver measures an RF gain of 15 dB at 915 MHz, a sensitivity of -80 dBm at 0.1% bit-error rate, an input referred third-order intercept point of -9 dBm, and a noise figure of 5 dB with a current consumption of 33 mA and a 2450 /spl mu/m/spl times/ 2450 /spl mu/m chip area.
Sitting Balance in Spinal Deformity

A computerized pressure plate system was used to analyze the sitting pressure distribution and balance of 100 subjects with both normal and abnormal spines. Normal subjects had a balanced sitting posture with the weight taken evenly on each ischial tuberosity. Patients with idiopathic scoliosis showed significant sitting imbalance especially in the presence of lumbar curves. Bracing improved the sitting balance and stability in most patients. Abnormal sitting patterns were seen with the spinal deformities of myelodysplasia or cerebral palsy. Some patients with severe scoliosis had very asymmetric patterns, which correlated with their loss of sitting stability. The kyphosis of myelorlysplasia produced an abnormal tripod sitting pattern due to pelvic flexion and a hyperiordosis of cerebral palsy a public sitting pattern due to pelvic extension. The patients studied after spinal fusion also had poor sitting balance and occasionally persisting decubitus ulceration.
Specific Protein Targeting during Cell Differentiation: Polarized Localization of Fus1p during Mating Depends on Chs5p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT In budding yeast, chs5 mutants are defective in chitin synthesis and cell fusion during mating. Chs5p is a late-Golgi protein required for the polarized transport of the chitin synthase Chs3p to the membrane. Here we show that Chs5p is also essential for the polarized targeting of Fus1p, but not of other cell fusion proteins, to the membrane during mating.
Measurement of Production Efficiency: A Case of Indian Agricultural Production in Post Reforms Period

The paper examines the production efficiency of agricultural system in regions of India using state level data for the period 1990-91 to 2004-05 and for 2005-06 to 2013-14. Stochastic production frontier model using panel data, as proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995), has been used for estimating the efficiency variations taking an integrated effect model into consideration. State level mean efficiency estimates ranges from 0.9660 to 0.4369 during 1990-91 to 2004-05 and from 0.8648 to 0.4805 for 2005-06 to 2013-14. The statistically significant efficiency variables are rate of rural literacy, rate of rural technical education, total state road length per unit of area and share of agricultural NSDP to state NSDP and the major inputs were net irrigated area and consumption of pesticides for the period 1990-91 to 2004-05. For the period 2005-06 to 2013-14, institutional credit, consumption of fertilizers and consumption of pesticides shares a significant and positive relation with the level of production. The total state road length per unit of area and share of agricultural NSDP to state NSDP are found to reduce inefficiency in agricultural production. Original Research Article Ghoshal and Goswami; AJAEES, 13(4): 1-10, 2016; Article no.AJAEES. 40016 2
Size and Value Anomalies in European Bank Stocks

The Fama-French three-factor model (Fama & French, 1993) has been subject to extensive testing on samples of US and European nonfinancial firms over several time windows. The most accepted evidence is that size premium (SMB) and value premium (HML) other than the market risk premium help explain cross-section and time-series changes in stock returns. However, scholars have always paid little attention to the financial industry because of the intrinsic differences between financial and nonfinancial firms. The few studies that tested the model on financial firms found mixed evidence on the role of size and book-to-market ratio (B/M) in explaining stock returns. This paper tries to bridge the gap by testing the model on a sample of European financial firms. We find that size and B/M factors seem to be sources of undiversifiable risks and should therefore be included as risk premiums for estimating expected returns of financial firms. Small and high-B/M firms show higher returns that are not explained by market risk and the inclusion of SMB and HML helps improve the regression models’ goodness-of-fit.
A Novel Protocol to Monitor Trace Levels of Selected Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Environmental Water Using Fabric Phase Sorptive Extraction Followed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Fluorescence Detection

Fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) combines the advanced material properties of sol–gel derived microextraction sorbents and the flexibility and permeability of fabric to create a robust, simple and green sample preparation device. It simultaneously improves the extraction sensitivity and the speed of the extraction by incorporating high volumes of sponge-like, porous sol–gel hybrid inorganic–organic sorbents into permeable fabric substrates that are capable of extracting target analytes directly from both simple and complex aqueous sample matrices. For the first time, this technique was applied to the trace-level determination of selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental water samples using a non-polar sol–gel C18 coated FPSE media. Several extraction parameters were optimized to improve the extraction efficiency and to achieve a high detection sensitivity. Validation tests of spiked samples showed good linearity for four selected PAHs (R2 = 0.9983–0.9997) over a wide range of concentrations (0.010–10 ng/mL). Limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were measured at pg/mL levels; 0.1–1 pg/mL and 0.3–3 pg/mL, respectively. Inter- and intra-day precision tests showed variations of 1.1%–4.1% for four selected PAHs. Average absolute recovery values were in the range of 88.1%–90.5% with relative standard deviations below 5%, surpassing the values predicted by the recovery prediction model. Finally, the developed FPSE-HPLC-FLD protocol was applied to analyze 8 environmental water samples. Out of four selected PAHs, fluoranthene (Flu) and phenanthrene (Phen) were the most frequently detected in four samples, at concentrations of 5.6–7.7 ng/mL and 4.1–11 ng/mL, respectively, followed by anthracene (Anth) and pyrene (Pyr) in two samples. The newly developed FPSE-HPLC-FLD protocol is simple, green, fast and economical, with adequate sensitivity for trace levels of four selected PAHs and seems to be promising for routine monitoring of water quality and safety.
Discordant discourse : campaign news, candidate interviews and political advertising in the 1992 campaign

Discordant Discourse; ompaign News, Candidate Interviews and Political Advertising in the 1992 Campaign Marion Just Wellesley College Ann Crigler University of Southern California Tami Buhr Havard University Working Paper 96-2 INSTiTUTE OF GOVERNMENTAL STUDIES LIBRARY may UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENTAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY
Brain activation in high-functioning older adults and falls

Objective: To determine whether brain activity over the prefrontal cortex measured in real time during walking predicts falls in high-functioning older adults. Method: We examined166 older persons (mean age 75 years, 51% women) enrolled in a prospective aging study. High-functioning status defined as the absence of dementia or disability with normal gait diagnosed by study clinicians. The magnitude of task-related changes in oxygenated hemoglobin levels over the prefrontal cortex was measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy during motor (walking at normal pace) and cognitive (reciting alternate letters of the alphabet) single tasks and a dual-task condition (walking while reciting alternate letters of the alphabet). Incident falls were prospectively assessed over a 50-month study period. Results: Over a mean follow-up of 33.9 ± 11.9 months, 116 falls occurred. Higher levels of prefrontal cortical activation during the dual-task walking condition predicted falls (hazard ratio adjusted for age, sex, education, medical illnesses and general mental status 1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.03–1.70). Neither behavioral outcomes (velocity or letter rate) on the dual task nor brain activation patterns on the single tasks (normal walk or talk alone) predicted falls in this high-functioning sample. The results remained robust after accounting for multiple confounders and for cognitive status, slow gait, previous falls, and frailty. Conclusions: Prefrontal brain activity levels while performing a cognitively demanding walking condition predicted falls in high-functioning seniors. These findings implicate neurobiological processes early in the pathogenesis of falls.
Interaction of Heterotrimeric G Protein Gαowith Purkinje Cell Protein-2

The heterotrimeric G protein Gαo is ubiquitously expressed throughout the central nervous system, but many of its functions remain to be defined. To search for novel proteins that interact with Gαo, a mouse brain library was screened using the yeast two-hybrid interaction system. Pcp2 (Purkinje cellprotein-2) was identified as a partner for Gαo in this system. Pcp2 is expressed in cerebellar Purkinje cells and retinal bipolar neurons, two locations where Gαo is also expressed. Pcp2 was first identified as a candidate gene to explain Purkinje cell degeneration in pcdmice (Nordquist, D. T., Kozak, C. A., and Orr, H. T. (1988) J. Neurosci. 8, 4780–4789), but its function remains unknown as Pcp2 knockout mice are normal (Mohn, A. R., Feddersen, R. M., Nguyen, M. S., and Koller, B. H. (1997) Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 9, 63–76). Gαoand Pcp2 binding was confirmed in vitro using glutathioneS-transferase-Pcp2 fusion proteins and in vitrotranslated [35S]methionine-labeled Gαo. In addition, when Gαo and Pcp2 were cotransfected into COS cells, Gαo was detected in immunoprecipitates of Pcp2. To determine whether Pcp2 could modulate Gαo function, kinetic constants k cat andk off of bovine brain Gαo were determined in the presence and absence of Pcp2. Pcp2 stimulates GDP release from Gαo more than 5-fold without affectingk cat. These findings define a novel nucleotide exchange function for Pcp2 and suggest that the interaction between Pcp2 and Gαo is important to Purkinje cell function.
MOTOR VEHICLE-RELATED INJURY PREVENTION BEHAVIORS: A REPORT CARD FOR THE NATION, 1995

This study estimated state prevalences for injury prevention behaviors such as the use of safety belts (always v. not always) and the frequency of drinking and driving among adults (at least one time in the last month) as well as the use of child safety seats, seat belts and bicycle helmets among children (always v. not always). The study was based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), an annual cross-sectional survey of adults aged 18 years and older conducted monthly by state health departments about health risk behaviors. Weighted percentages and confidence intervals for each state and each behavior are reported. Maps are presented to illustrate the geographic distribution of states by quartile. Conclusions of this study are: 1) The Healthy People 2000 Health Objectives for the Nation have specified goals for increasing the use of safety belts among adults (85%), child occupant restraint use (85%), and bicycle helmet use (50%) and the reduction of drinking and driving. Many states still fall short of the goals for the year 2000. For example, 16 states have met the occupant restraint goal for children and only 3 states have met the goal for adults. Only 6 states have met the bicycle helmet goal for children. 2) Certain states had consistently poor quartile rankings, raising the question of whether injury risk taking behaviors cluster and whether these states should launch more concerted safety efforts. Seven states were in the bottom quartile for both adult safety belt use and child restraint use (ID, MT, ND, NE, SD, WI, WY). 3) States with behavior relevant laws appeared to have the highest level of associated safety practices for impaired driving, occupant restraint use and bicycle helmet use.
New replica server placement strategies using clustering algorithms and SOM neural network in CDNs

: Many service providers distribute various kinds of content over the internet. Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) use replication of either entire website or most used objects to bring content close to the users and improve communication delay. In order to deliver web contents, CDNs should decide where to place replica servers and how many replicas are needed. In this paper, a linear programming formulation for web server replica placement has been provided. We also present new algorithms using K-means, Fuzzy c-means clustering and Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) Neural network to place web server replicas. Our objective is to find best replica server sites, which minimize distance between replicas and clients-to keep replicas. We compare our algorithms with Greedy algorithm. We have considerable enhancement in terms of load balancing and Runtime.