Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine an essential component of enacting an improvement network: facilitation. In it, the author surfaces "synthesizing" as a core, power-laden facilitation ...practice that brought together network members from disparate institutions to converge on a shared network aim and theory of improvement. Design/methodology/approach: This study is situated within a teacher preparation improvement network. Forty-four teacher educators from seven university-based teacher preparation programs participated in the network. Guided by practice theory (Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011), the author collected and analyzed network meetings and artifacts to unveil facilitation practices and their relation to power. Findings: Synthesizing emerged as a central facilitation practice. Facilitators' engagement in this practice produced power by constraining and enabling how network members participated. Finally, facilitators were systematically and advantageously positioned to prioritize some network members' perspectives while peripheralizing others'. Practical implications: This paper offers a concrete, detailed window into a core facilitation practice in a network and problematizes it to enable network leaders to be deliberate about facilitation decisions. Originality/value: Facilitation is a central component of effective networks (Rincón-Gallardo and Fullan, 2016) and is considered central to the work of networked improvement (Bryk "et al.," 2015), but there exists a dearth of research that offers insights into how facilitation comes to be enacted in practice. This study offers detailed insights into one such facilitation practice.
Inositol polyphosphate-4-phosphatase type II (INPP4B) is a dual-specificity phosphatase that acts as a tumor suppressor in multiple cancers. INPP4B dephosphorylates phospholipids at the 4th position ...of the inositol ring and inhibits AKT and PKC signaling by hydrolyzing of PI(3,4)P2 and PI(4,5)P2, respectively. INPP4B protein phosphatase targets include phospho-tyrosines on Akt and phospho-serine and phospho-threonine on PTEN. INPP4B is highly expressed in testes, suggesting its role in testes development and physiology. The objective of this study was to determine whether Inpp4b deletion impacts testicular function in mice. In testis, Inpp4b expression was the highest in postmeiotic germ cells in both mice and men. The testes of Inpp4b knockout male mice were significantly smaller compared to the testes of wild-type (WT) males. Inpp4b-/- males produced fewer mature sperm cells compared to WT, and this difference increased with age and high fat diet (HFD). Reduction in early steroidogenic enzymes and luteinizing hormone (LH) receptor gene expression was detected, although androgen receptor (AR) protein level was similar in WT and Inpp4b-/- testes. Germ cell apoptosis was significantly increased in the knockout mice, while expression of meiotic marker γH2A.X was decreased. Our data demonstrate that INPP4B plays a role in maintenance of male germ cell differentiation and protects testis functions against deleterious effects of aging and high fat diet.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This article examines how a business school's environment encourages the formation of entrepreneurial intentions among its students. Building on insights from the theory of planned behaviour and the ...business event model, a structural equation model was applied on a sample of 283 Costa Rican university students. The main results of the study suggest that the entrepreneurial training provided by the business school contributes to improve students' entrepreneurial intentions. However, this effect develops through an indirect mechanism: that is, entrepreneurial training positively influences students’ attitudes toward entrepreneurship which, in turn, impact students’ perception on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The proposed model rooted in cognitive frameworks allows business schools, and higher education institutions in general, to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of their entrepreneurial training programs in promoting entrepreneurial intentions.
The construction industry’s recognition of the importance of embodied carbon (EC) drives the need for streamlined early-stage EC assessment. The adoption of building information modelling (BIM) ...allows for integrating EC assessment into current workflows, as BIM data are fundamental to the assessment. This paper presents a BIM-based prototype tool developed to provide a quick and comprehensive assessment of EC in structural models. The prototype utilises visual programming language (VPL) and a database of external carbon factors to automate the assessment process and displays the results in a visualisation model. The prototype also offers high-level insights to support informed decision making and a detailed analysis to identify areas for optimisation. The results of this study indicate the effectiveness of the prototype in identifying EC hot spots and enabling informed decision making for optimisation. From an academic perspective, the study addresses a research gap by demonstrating the viability of integrating EC assessment in the early stages of design. In terms of practical implications, the presented prototype tool offers practitioners a solution that streamlines the assessment of EC in structural models, enabling informed decision making and identification of optimisation opportunities. In terms of policy, the research is aligned with the industry’s recognition of EC’s importance and supports sustainable building practices towards achieving net zero carbon goals.
Phosphoinositides (PIs) are relatively rare lipid components of the cellular membranes. Their homeostasis is tightly controlled by specific PI kinases and PI phosphatases. PIs play essential roles in ...cellular signaling, cytoskeletal organization, and secretory processes in various diseases and normal physiology. Gene targeting experiments strongly suggest that in mice with deficiency of several PI phosphatases, such as Pten, Mtmrs, Inpp4b, and Inpp5b, spermatogenesis is affected, resulting in partial or complete infertility. Similarly, in men, loss of several of the PI phosphatases is observed in infertility characterized by the lack of mature sperm. Using available gene expression databases, we compare the expression of known PI phosphatases in various testicular cell types, infertility patients, and mouse age-dependent testicular gene expression, and discuss their potential roles in testis physiology and spermatogenesis. Summary Sentence Phosphatidylinositol polyphosphate phosphatases (PI phophatases) play an important role in testicular function by regulating spermatogenesis, maintaining testicular muscle function and blood–testis barrier, and by modulating overall metabolic health. Graphical Abstract
Background and Context: Continuous improvement and networked improvement science have emerged as prominent approaches to improving schools. Although continuous improvement approaches have generated ...promising results in education, how these efforts come to be enacted remains a crucial question that can generate insight into how these approaches can be improved. Purpose and Objective: Our study is focused on understanding how improvement is performed by focusing on the process of generating a shared aim statement in a teacher-preparation improvement network. We seek to understand how practitioners within a network (a) engage a central tension (between language acquisition and multilingualism), (b) negotiate this tension, and (c) reach a settlement that results in a shared aim. Setting: This study takes place in a teacher-preparation improvement network as part of the California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN). The focus of the network centered on improving the preparation of candidates to build on multilingual students' strengths. Participants: The improvement network that is the focus of our research consists of 49 teacher educators across eight teacher preparation programs as well as three facilitators who were part of CTERIN, including the two authors of this study. Research Design: Our analysis examines the interactions among teacher educators and improvement facilitators to unveil the practices that they engaged in to produce a shared aim. Data for this study include audio and video recordings of three 90-minute videoconference meetings, audio-video of a two-day in-person convening, and improvement artifacts such as fishbone and driver diagrams. Findings: Our study highlights the range of practices that practitioners engaged in and how those evolved as they negotiated and settled a tension between language acquisition and multilingualism. As the process of generating an aim unfolded, teacher educators engaged in the practices of aspirationalizing, dualizing, recentering, rerouting, clarifying, tuning, and converting. Conclusions and Recommendations: We argue that these practices make visible that the process of generating an aim statement is a complex and complicated process that requires negotiation and a recognition that some perspectives are foregrounded and others are backgrounded. Understanding this process has implications for how improvement facilitators engage practitioners in the process of doing improvement and generates theory of improvement implementation by highlighting how disparate teams, individuals, and organizations reaching sharedness requires negotiating, foregrounding, and backgrounding.
Demographic growth entails an increase in the construction of buildings and streets, whose materials significantly absorb heat and, upon release, create discomfort for the inhabitants of large urban ...areas. Vegetation emerges as a crucial element to enhance both the indoor environment of buildings and the outdoor surroundings. Green facades present themselves as a highly efficient alternative to integrate vegetation in densely urbanized areas. This study focuses on evaluating the thermal performance of an indirect-type green facade system in a warm climate in Mexico. The research encompasses experimental measurements and numerical simulations of the thermal effect of the green facade and also a parametric study of the vertical leaf area index (LAIV) and air gap size. In the experimental test, temperatures were recorded in two identical test cells, one of which was equipped with a green facade with Pyrostegia Venusta plants on one of its surfaces. The numerical study validated the results obtained through experimental tests, using simulations of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) considering a typical day for each season throughout the year. Validation results revealed Mean Percentage Errors (MPE) of −2.86 % and 0.25 %, Mean Bias Errors (MBE) of −0.49 °C and 0.08 °C, and Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) of 1.34 °C and 1.29 °C for the bare facade and the green facade, respectively. In the numerical analysis, it was observed that the green facade succeeded in reducing the indoor air temperature in a range of 4.57 to 5.64 °C, while decreasing the heat flux in an interval of 7.84 to 16.79 W/m2. Moreover, a parametric study revealed that the LAIV ceases to be a significant parameter beyond 2.5, while the air gap size proves to be a considerably less influential factor compared to the LAIV. These results confirm the relevance of using vegetation in buildings to mitigate the effects of heat and improve the thermal comfort of inhabitants.
Diagnosis of gastrointestinal parasites has traditionally relied on stool microscopy, which has low diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. We have developed a novel, rapid, high-throughput ...quantitative multi-parallel real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) platform. Species-specific primers/probes were used for eight common gastrointestinal parasite pathogens: Ascaris lumbricoides, Necator americanus, Ancylostoma duodenale, Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium spp., Entamoeba histolytica, Trichuris trichiura, and Strongyloides stercoralis. Stool samples from 400 13-month-old children in rural Ecuador were analyzed and the qPCR was compared with a standard direct wet mount slide for stool microscopy, as were 125 8-14-year-old children before and after anthelmintic treatment. The qPCR showed higher detection rates for all parasites compared with direct microscopy, Ascaris (7.0% versus 5.5%) and for Giardia (31.5% versus 5.8%). Using an enhanced DNA extraction method, we were able to detect T. trichiura DNA. These assays will be useful to refine treatment options for affected populations, ultimately leading to better health outcomes.
The article aims at the general description of the academic research that examines the fear of crime concept after September 11, 2001, when new areas of research became a part of security studies, ...substantially changing the very understanding of fear of crime. Thus, there was a change in the academic models for examining the social perception of crime. At first, there were some fruitful years for the sociological analysis of the fear of crime concept. Today, sociological studies of fear of crime continue, but this concept became even more important for criminological studies. Therefore, we analyzed the fear of crime category in the articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals in the criminological and sociological perspectives (Sage, Jstor, EbscoHost, and others). The findings explain the evolution of the fear of crime concept in the research from 2001 to 2021. For Latin America, the concept of fear is quite recent, which is very different from other regions of the world. Moreover, the interpretation of fear in Latin America is very different from both Europe and the United States. Although Latin America and the United States have much in common, the article presents the unique features of the Latin-American approach to this phenomenon.
This study developed and evaluated an in vitro rumen incubation (IVRI) method to describe the exsheathment kinetics of
Haemonchus contortus
third-stage infective larvae (L
3
) in ruminal liquor (RL). ...The specific objectives were (i) to standardize the IVRI method to facilitate the contact between L
3
and RL as well as the larval recovery, and (ii) to apply the IVRI method to describe the exsheathment kinetics of
H. contortus
and to select the best fitting nonlinear model. Incubation devices containing
H
.
contortus
larvae were incubated according to the IVRI technique in cattle RL or PBS. The incubation conditions included RL mixed with a nitrogen-rich media, maintained at 39 °C, with pH = 7.0, vented with CO
2
and manual agitation. The larvae were recovered after 0, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 h. The exsheathed and ensheathed larvae were counted to estimate the exsheathment (%) in RL or PBS. Exsheathment in RL was analyzed with nonlinear regression models: Exponential, Gompertz, Logistic, Log-Logistic, and Weibull. The models’ fit was compared to select the one that best described the exsheathment kinetics. The exsheathment in RL reached 6.52%, 20.65%, 58.22%, 69.24%, 73.08%, and 77.20% in 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 h, respectively. Although the Gompertz, Weibull, and Logistic models were adequate to describe the observed exsheathment, the Log-Logistic model had the best fit. The IVRI method using bovine RL represents a suitable tool for the study of the in vitro exsheathment kinetics of
H. contortus
L
3
.
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