Quality of Teachers’ Performance Evaluation in Public and Private Secondary Schools of Karachi, Pakistan

This descriptive study explored the quality of teachers’ performanceevaluation process used in schools of Karachi city. The sample of thisstudy included 50 principals and 250 teachers from public and privateschools. Using structured, closed-ended questionnaire, data wereanalyzed by descriptive statistics and Independent t test. The results ofthe study indicate that both private and public secondary schools inKarachi have a proper system of teachers’ performance evaluation but asignificant difference exists in terms of quality. Unlike private schools,the performance of teachers in public schools is not monitored regularly,the results of performance evaluation do not accurately reflect a teacher’sability, and the rating system used to evaluate teachers is not useful forthe growth of teachers and principals. The results concluded that bothpublic and private secondary schools in Karachi have a trustworthysystem of teachers’ performance evaluation. The study also revealed thatthe quality of teachers’ performance evaluation in private secondaryschools is better than public secondary schools in Karachi. The privateschools have a formative system of teachers’ performance evaluation thatis reflected through regular informal visits by their principal to check theperformance of teachers. In contrast the public schools have a summativeevaluation system to check the performance of teachers which wasreflected through lack of regular visits by principal to check theperformance of teachers

STAT1 and Nmi are downstream targets of Ets-1 transcription factor in MCF-7 human breast cancer cell

AbstractEts-1 is a cellular homologue of the product of the viral ets oncogene of the E26 virus, and it functions as a tissue-specific transcription factor. It plays an important role in cell proliferation, differentiation, lymphoid cell development, transformation, angiogenesis, and apoptosis. Ets-1 controls the expression of critical genes involved in these processes by binding to ets binding sites present in the transcriptional regulatory regions. Here, we transiently overexpressed Ets-1 in MCF-7 and comprehensively searched for potential downstream targets of Ets-1 by cDNA microarray analysis. The expressions of several interferon-related genes including STAT1 and Nmi were augmented by the overexpression of Ets-1. RT-PCR and Western blotting confirmed the increase in the levels of STAT1 and Nmi mRNA and protein. In contrast, Ets-1 siRNA decreased the expression of STAT1 and Nmi proteins. As in our transient transfection experiments, stable overexpression of Ets-1, also increased the protein expression of STAT1 and Nmi in MCF-7 cells. Taken together, our results indicate that STAT1 and Nmi are downstream targets of Ets-1 in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells

Hybrid Procedure for a Traumatic Aortic Rupture Consisting of Endovascular Repair and Minimally Invasive Arch Vessel Transposition without Sternotomy

Emergency surgical repair for acute traumatic aortic ruptures has been associated with a high peri-procedural mortality rate. Endovascular stent-grafting, as a less invasive procedure, has shown encouraging results. This report describes a patient with a short landing zone, who was treated by transposing the supra-aortic branch without sternotomy, followed by covered stent-grafting with an extended proximal bare portion to enhance fixation

Limits of Binaries That Can Be Characterized by Gravitational Microlensing

Due to the high efficiency of planet detections, current microlensing planet searches focus on high-magnification events. High-magnification events are sensitive to remote binary companions as well and thus a sample of wide-separation binaries are expected to be collected as a byproduct. In this paper, we show that characterizing binaries for a portion of this sample will be difficult due to the degeneracy of the binary-lensing parameters. This degeneracy arises because the perturbation induced by the binary companion is well approximated by the Chang-Refsdal lensing for binaries with separations greater than a certain limit. For binaries composed of equal mass lenses, we find that the lens binarity can be noticed up to the separations of $\sim 60$ times of the Einstein radius corresponding to the mass of each lens. Among these binaries, however, we find that the lensing parameters can be determined only for a portion of binaries with separations less than $\sim 20$ times of the Einstein radius.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Soluble expression and stability enhancement of transcription factors using 30Kc19 cell-penetrating protein

Transcription factors have been studied as an important drug candidate. Ever since the successful generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), there has been tremendous interest in reprogramming transcription factors. Because of the safety risks involved in a virus-based approach, many researchers have been trying to deliver transcription factors using nonintegrating materials. Thus, delivery of transcription factors produced as recombinant proteins in E. coli was proposed as an alternative method. However, the low level of soluble expression and instability of such recombinant proteins are potential barriers. We engineered a Bombyx mori 30Kc19 protein as a fusion partner for transcription factors to overcome those problems. We have previously reported that 30Kc19 protein can be produced as a soluble form in E. coli and has a cell-penetrating property and a protein-stabilizing effect. Transcription factors fused with 30Kc19 (Oct4-30Kc19, Sox2-30Kc19, c-Myc-30Kc19, L-Myc-30Kc19, and Klf4-30Kc19) were produced as recombinant proteins. Interestingly, Oct4 and L-Myc were expressed as a soluble form by conjugating with 30Kc19 protein, whereas Oct4 alone and L-Myc alone aggregated. The 30Kc19 protein also enhanced the stability of transcription factors both in vitro and in cells. In addition, 30Kc19-conjugated transcription factors showed rapid delivery into cells and transcriptional activity significantly increased. Overall, 30Kc19 protein conjugation simultaneously enhanced soluble expression, stability, and transcriptional activity of transcription factors. We propose that the conjugation with 30Kc19 protein is a novel approach to solve the technical bottleneck of gene regulation using transcription factors.OAIID:RECH_ACHV_DSTSH_NO:T201623709RECH_ACHV_FG:RR00200001ADJUST_YN:EMP_ID:A002014CITE_RATE:3.376FILENAME:2. (2016.04) Soluble expression and stability enhancement of.pdfDEPT_NM:화학생물공학부EMAIL:[email protected]_YN:YFILEURL:https://srnd.snu.ac.kr/eXrepEIR/fws/file/0df54ee9-e9f1-4612-9d6e-6deaa8197e3e/linkCONFIRM:

Prevention of mitochondrial impairment by inhibition of protein phosphatase 1 activity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by progressive loss of motor neurons (MNs) and subsequent muscle weakness. These pathological features are associated with numerous cellular changes, including alteration in mitochondrial morphology and function. However, the molecular mechanisms associating mitochondrial structure with ALS pathology are poorly understood. In this study, we found that Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) was dephosphorylated in several ALS models, including those with SOD1 and TDP-43 mutations, and the dephosphorylation was mediated by the pathological induction of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) activity in these models. Suppression of the PP1-Drp1 cascade effectively prevented ALS-related symptoms, including mitochondrial fragmentation, mitochondrial complex I impairment, axonal degeneration, and cell death, in primary neuronal culture models, iPSC-derived human MNs, and zebrafish models in vivo. These results suggest that modulation of PP1-Drp1 activity may be a therapeutic target for multiple pathological features of ALS

NASA ExoPAG Study Analysis Group 11: Preparing for the WFIRST Microlensing Survey

NASA's proposed WFIRST-AFTA mission will discover thousands of exoplanets with separations from the habitable zone out to unbound planets, using the technique of gravitational microlensing. The Study Analysis Group 11 of the NASA Exoplanet Program Analysis Group was convened to explore scientific programs that can be undertaken now, and in the years leading up to WFIRST's launch, in order to maximize the mission's scientific return and to reduce technical and scientific risk. This report presents those findings, which include suggested precursor Hubble Space Telescope observations, a ground-based, NIR microlensing survey, and other programs to develop and deepen community scientific expertise prior to the mission.Comment: 35 pages, 5 Figures. A brief overview of the findings is presented in the Executive Summary (2 pages

A Planetary lensing feature in caustic-crossing high-magnification microlensing events

Current microlensing follow-up observations focus on high-magnification events because of the high efficiency of planet detection. However, central perturbations of high-magnification events caused by a planet can also be produced by a very close or a very wide binary companion, and the two kinds of central perturbations are not generally distinguished without time consuming detailed modeling (a planet-binary degeneracy). Hence, it is important to resolve the planet-binary degeneracy that occurs in high-magnification events. In this paper, we investigate caustic-crossing high-magnification events caused by a planet and a wide binary companion. From this study, we find that because of the different magnification excess patterns inside the central caustics induced by the planet and the binary companion, the light curves of the caustic-crossing planetary-lensing events exhibit a feature that is discriminated from those of the caustic-crossing binary-lensing events, and the feature can be used to immediately distinguish between the planetary and binary companions. The planetary-lensing feature appears in the interpeak region between the two peaks of the caustic-crossings. The structure of the interpeak region for the planetary-lensing events is smooth and convex or boxy, whereas the structure for the binary-lensing events is smooth and concave. We also investigate the effect of a finite background source star on the planetary-lensing feature in the caustic-crossing high-magnification events. From this, we find that the convex-shaped interpeak structure appears in a certain range that changes with the mass ratio of the planet to the planet-hosting star.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

A Case of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Patient with Coombs' Negative Hemolytic Anemia and Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Coombs' negative autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) is a rare disease which shares similar clinical and hematological features with Coombs' positive AIHA, but its exact frequency remains unknown. There have been few reports of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and Coombs' negative AIHA associated with other lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs). Since there is a well known association between LPDs and autoimmune phenomena, it is important to investigate the possibility of an underlying malignancy. We report a case of ITP and Coombs' negative AIHA associated with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma