A Study of the Factors Involved in the Development and Establishment of Merit Rating Programs in Public School Systems

With the increasing shortage of teachers and pressures for more competent teachers, the question of more pay to attract trained personnel appears greatest upon the horizon. The mere mention of better pay seems to attract the attention of persons who offer panaceas for the teacher shortage problem. The best known plans are loosely catalogued under the general heading of merit rating

ALS spinal neurons show varied and reduced mtDNA gene copy numbers and increased mtDNA gene deletions

Background Spinal cord neurons of ALS patients demonstrate reduced cytochrome oxidase histochemical activity, and ALS spinal cord tissues have increased mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) point mutations and depleted mtDNA levels. It is presently unknown whether mtDNA abnormalities are present in single human ALS neurons. Results Using laser capture microdissection (LCM) we isolated several hundred individual anterior spinal neurons from unfixed, frozen sections of 10 ALS and 7 age-matched CTL cervical spinal cords. DNA from each individual neuron was analyzed with multiplex qPCR for ND2, CO3, and ND4, three mitochondrial DNA genes encoding respiratory proteins. Scatterplots of individual spinal neuron results showed extensive heterogeneity of mtDNA gene levels across 4-5 orders of magnitude that were much more clustered in single Purkinje neurons isolated from CTL cerebella. Plots of ratios of ND4/ND2 and CO3/ND2 showed that many but not all ALS neurons from individuals contained low ratios of these mtDNA genes, implying greater abundances of mtDNA deletions in the major arc. Single CTL cerebellar Purkinje neurons did not contain high levels of apparent mtDNA deletions observed in anterior spinal neurons. Conclusions At the time of ALS subjects\u27 deaths, many but not all surviving anterior neurons in their cervical spinal cords have reduced mtDNA gene levels and increased mtDNA deletion abundances that arise for unclear reasons. If these anterior spinal neuron mtDNA gene deficiencies contribute to bioenergetic impairments, reduced synaptic function and increased risk of degeneration, then introduction into mitochondria and expression of intact mtDNA, now available through use of recently developed recombinant human TFAM, may reverse the course of ALS

An Examination of the contribution of off-farm income to the viability and sustainability of farm households and the productivity of farm businesses

End of project reportThe number of farm households in Ireland participating in the off-farm labour market has increased significantly in the last decade. According to the National Farm Survey (NFS), the number of farm households where the spouse and/or operator is working off-farm has increased from 37 per cent in 1995 to 58 per cent in 2007. The important contribution of non-farm income to viability of farm households is highlighted in the results of the Agri-Vision 2015 report, which concluded that the number of economically viable farm businesses is in decline and that a significant proportion of farm households are sustainable only because of the presence of off-farm income. Research conducted by Hennessy (2004) demonstrated that approximately 40 percent of farm households have an off-farm income and that almost 30 percent of the farming population are only sustainable because of off-farm income. Clearly, the future viability and sustainability of a large number of farm households depends on the ability of farmers and their spouses’ to secure and retain gainful off-farm employment. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF) have recognised the importance of off-farm income to the sector and they have recommended that future policies focus on farm household viability in all its dimensions, including farm and off-farm income sources (2000).Funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Research Stimulus Fundin

On the Significance of Absorption Features in HST/COS Data

We present empirical scaling relations for the significance of absorption features detected in medium resolution, far-UV spectra obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). These relations properly account for both the extended wings of the COS line spread function and the non-Poissonian noise properties of the data, which we characterize for the first time, and predict limiting equivalent widths that deviate from the empirical behavior by \leq 5% when the wavelength and Doppler parameter are in the ranges \lambda = 1150-1750 A and b > 10 km/s. We have tested a number of coaddition algorithms and find the noise properties of individual exposures to be closer to the Poissonian ideal than coadded data in all cases. For unresolved absorption lines, limiting equivalent widths for coadded data are 6% larger than limiting equivalent widths derived from individual exposures with the same signal-to-noise. This ratio scales with b-value for resolved absorption lines, with coadded data having a limiting equivalent width that is 25% larger than individual exposures when b \approx 150 km/s.Comment: 25 pages, 3 tables, 7 figures, accepted for publication in PAS