Population Control in Japan: An Economic Theory and Its Application

Information technology (IT) have for several decades been used in university education. An increasing number of classrooms today are built around a concept which uses IT in collaboration with the room itself. However, little is known about the experience of university teachers when working in such classrooms. This study examines the views and opinions of teachers at a Swedish university regarding using and interacting with these classrooms. Furthermore, we identify possible underlying factors that influence these views. Using data from qualitative interviews we apply Technology acceptance model (TAM) and Activity theory (AT) used in both education and human computer interaction to identify how different factors interact to form these opinions. Our study finds that teachers experience a lack of proper training in the use of classrooms as a concept and tend to stay in established norms of how education is to be conducted. These results leads to questions whether education in the use of these classrooms is adequate for teachers or if education needs to focus more on outcomes of the concept and changing established norms rather than to focus on the use of technology. Our study also shows that teachers do not view the classrooms as a whole where artefacts enable and form each other. Rather they view the physical room, the technology and themselves as separate entities that operate separately from each other

Structural and mutagenic analysis of the RM controller protein C.Esp1396I

Bacterial restriction-modification (RM) systems are comprised of two complementary enzymatic activities that prevent the establishment of foreign DNA in a bacterial cell: DNA methylation and DNA restriction. These two activities are tightly regulated to prevent over-methylation or auto-restriction. Many Type II RM systems employ a controller (C) protein as a transcriptional regulator for the endonuclease gene (and in some cases, the methyltransferase gene also). All high-resolution structures of C-protein/DNA-protein complexes solved to date relate to C.Esp1396I, from which the interactions of specific amino acid residues with DNA bases and/or the phosphate backbone could be observed. Here we present both structural and DNA binding data for a series of mutations to the key DNA binding residues of C.Esp1396I. Our results indicate that mutations to the backbone binding residues (Y37, S52) had a lesser affect on DNA binding affinity than mutations to those residues that bind directly to the bases (T36, R46), and the contributions of each side chain to the binding energies are compared. High-resolution X-ray crystal structures of the mutant and native proteins showed that the fold of the proteins was unaffected by the mutations, but also revealed variation in the flexible loop conformations associated with DNA sequence recognition. Since the tyrosine residue Y37 contributes to DNA bending in the native complex, we have solved the structure of the Y37F mutant protein/DNA complex by X-ray crystallography to allow us to directly compare the structure of the DNA in the mutant and native complexes

The Helper-Therapy Principle Applied to Weight Management Specialists

One hundred twenty applicants to a weight management specialist training program were studied over a 33-month period. Following a nine-month training period, Specialists (N = 29; those leading at least one posttraining weight management group) were compared to Contact Controls (N = 31; persons participating in the weight management program, but not in the helper role) and No Contact Controls (N = 60; those not accepted into the training program and whose only contact with the program was for data collection purposes) in a test of the helper-therapy principle. The major question was, What are the long-term physical, psychological, and behavioral effects on overweight and formerly overweight individuals involved in helping other persons manage their weight? Data gathered at 12 and 24 months posttraining revealed few differences between the total group of specialists and persons in the two control groups. However, when the data were analyzed by the amount of commitment to the specialist role, it was found that the Higher Involved Specialists (N = 16; those who led two or more weight management groups in the year posttraining) were significantly more likely to lose additional weight (or maintain earlier weight losses), to be more consistent in their adherence to the eating and activity levels advocated by the program, to feel better about themselves and their bodies, and to maintain their levels of general well-being than control subjects or the Lesser Involved Specialists. These latter individuals (N = 13) were significantly the worse for having gone through specialist training, but not fully carrying out the specialist role

Drugs, Crime, and Urban Trial Court Management: The Unintended Consequences of the War on Drugs

The cultivation, distribution, sale, and consumption of illicit drugs have profoundly affected all aspects of American life. During the past few years, a proliferation of popular books, magazine articles, and scholarly publications have focused on America\u27s drug problem. Moreover, public opinion surveys conducted throughout the 1980s consistently show that Americans consider drug abuse to be among the most important problems confronting their local communities and their nation. The public perception is well-founded, since detailed general population studies have revealed that considerable illegal drug use is occurring among all segments of American society. In 1986, for example, the United States imported approximately 11,000 tons of marijuana, 165 tons of hashish, 138 tons of cocaine and its derivatives, and seven tons of heroin and other opium derivatives. Thousands of tons of domestic marijuana and tens of millions of illicit doses of synthetic narcotics such as PCP, methadone, Demerol, Darvon, and Talwin were also consumed each year. Cocaine, consumed at least occasionally by seven to thirteen million Americans, is by itself a $20 billion component of the$50 billion drug industry