1,291 research outputs found
Ethics Matter: The Morality and Justice Principles of Elected City Officials and their Impact of Urban Issues
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2011.00583.xThis article pursues the thesis that ethics matter in urban policymaking. Interviews with 95 elected
officials in 12 cities revealed the officials' support for—and opposition to—many principles of political
morality and political justice. Officials regarded their ethical principles as almost as important as
economic constraints on their policy decisions, and much more important than political, legal,
jurisdictional, and cultural considerations. The role of ethics in the resolution of 93 issues that arose in
their communities varied from minimal to decisive. On some occasions ethical considerations served
mainly as justifications for policy decisions made primarily on other grounds. But more often, significant numbers of officials drew largely, and even primarily, on their own moral judgments when casting their votes on community issues. And some policies were driven by consensual moral understandings
Application of a Social Skill and Problem-Solving Group Training Program to Learning Disabled and Non-Learning Disabled Youth
This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.The efficacy of training social and problem-solving skills to learning disabled adolescents was evaluated by conducting a group skiff training program with three sets of youths: (a) LD adolescents attending an alternative high school, (b) non-LD youths attending the same school, and (c) court-adjudicated youths on probation with a juvenile court. Results of behavioral role-play tests showed that all three groups of youths performed the skills at low levels prior to training. With the training of each social skill, increases were shown by each group in that social skill level. Baseline levels of the untrained skills remained stable until after training. Initial increases apparent after training generally were maintained or increased throughout the program. On the cognitive problem-solving skill, LD adolescents showed a slight gain when compared to gains for non-LD and court-adjudicated youths
Research Approaches to Studying the Link Between Learning Disabilities and Juvenile Delinquency
This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.A relationship between learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency has been hypothesized for a period of time. Research on this relationship has been clouded with methodological difficulties. These problems include the definitions of learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency, the use of appropriate experimental designs, and the difficulty of obtaining informed consent in the court system. A current study through The University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities which is intervening with learning disabled youth in the juvenile court is described. Finally, key questions in the field are proposed with suggestion for future research
Quantum teleportation with squeezed vacuum states
We show how the partial entanglement inherent in a two mode squeezed vacuum
state admits two different teleportation protocols. These two protocols refer
to the different kinds of joint measurements that may be made by the sender.
One protocol is the recently implemented quadrature phase approach of
Braunstein and Kimble[Phys. Rev. Lett.{\bf 80}, 869 (1998)]. The other is based
on recognising that a two mode squeezed vacuum state is also entangled with
respect to photon number difference and phase sum. We show that this protocol
can also realise teleportation, however limitations can arise due to the fact
that the photon number spectrum is bounded from below by zero. Our examples
show that a given entanglement resource may admit more than a single
teleportation protocol and the question then arises as to what is the optimum
protocol in the general case
Identification of transcription-factor genes expressed in the Arabidopsis female gametophyte
Dongfang Wang, Changqing Zhang, David J. Hearn, Il-HO Kang, megan I. Skaggs, Karen S. Schumaker, and Ramin Yadegari are with the School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0036, USA -- Il-Ho Kang, Jayson A. Punwani, and Gary N. Drews are with the Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0840, USA -- Changqing Zhang is with The Section of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-0159, USA -- David J. Hearn is with the Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Towson, Maryland 21252-0001, USA -- Il-Ho Kang is with the Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-1100, USA --Jayson A. Punwani is with the Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3280, USABackground
In flowering plants, the female gametophyte is typically a seven-celled structure with four cell types: the egg cell, the central cell, the synergid cells, and the antipodal cells. These cells perform essential functions required for double fertilization and early seed development. Differentiation of these distinct cell types likely involves coordinated changes in gene expression regulated by transcription factors. Therefore, understanding female gametophyte cell differentiation and function will require dissection of the gene regulatory networks operating in each of the cell types. These efforts have been hampered because few transcription factor genes expressed in the female gametophyte have been identified. To identify such genes, we undertook a large-scale differential expression screen followed by promoter-fusion analysis to detect transcription-factor genes transcribed in the Arabidopsis female gametophyte.
Results
Using quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR, we analyzed 1,482 Arabidopsis transcription-factor genes and identified 26 genes exhibiting reduced mRNA levels in determinate infertile 1 mutant ovaries, which lack female gametophytes, relative to ovaries containing female gametophytes. Spatial patterns of gene transcription within the mature female gametophyte were identified for 17 transcription-factor genes using promoter-fusion analysis. Of these, ten genes were predominantly expressed in a single cell type of the female gametophyte including the egg cell, central cell and the antipodal cells whereas the remaining seven genes were expressed in two or more cell types. After fertilization, 12 genes were transcriptionally active in the developing embryo and/or endosperm.
Conclusions
We have shown that our quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR differential-expression screen is sufficiently sensitive to detect transcription-factor genes transcribed in the female gametophyte. Most of the genes identified in this study have not been reported previously as being expressed in the female gametophyte. Therefore, they might represent novel regulators and provide entry points for reverse genetic and molecular approaches to uncover the gene regulatory networks underlying female gametophyte development.Cellular and Molecular [email protected]
Comparison of Single-Element and Multi-Element Oxygen/RP-1 Oxidizer-Rich Staged-Combustion Injector Hot-Fire Test Results
As part of the Combustion Stability Tool Development project funded by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center designed, fabricated, assembled and hot-fire tested an oxygen/hydrocarbon propellant multi-element integrated test article that included an oxidizer-rich oxygen/hydrocarbon propellant preburner and a staged-combustion main injector. Also as part of this project, the Air Force Research Laboratory fabricated single-element main injectors of the same designs as used in the NASA multi-element injectors, and tested them in a staged-combustion integrated test article that used an oxidizer-rich oxygen/hydrogen propellant preburner. Final results of the multi-element and single-element staged-combustion main injector test programs are described in companion papers at this JANNAF meeting. The design, development, and preliminary test results of these main injectors have also been described in previous JANNAF papers. The main injector element designs were all based on relatively conventional gas-centered swirl coaxial injector element configurations such as used in Russian RD-170 and NK-33 engines, and planned for use in future U.S.-built experimental engine systems such as the Hydrocarbon Boost program demonstration engine. Four different elements were tested in both the multi-element and single-element main injectors, at similar combustion chamber pressures, chamber contraction ratios, and mixture ratios. Variations of the element features included recess depth, fuel gap width, and the presence of the sleeve separating the swirling fuel flow from the axial oxidizer flow. This paper compares the hydraulics, combustion performance, stability, and compatibility characteristics of the single-element and multi-element injectors operated at similar conditions. The single-element hardware is shown to have captured a significant level of the operability of the multi-element hardware
Social Skills Performances of Learning Disabled, Non-Learning Disabled and Delinquent Adolescents
This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.This study compared the social skills performances of LD adolescents on eight general social skills to the performances of two other groups of youths: a group of nonhandicapped adolescents who were members of a high school band (the non-LD group) and a group of court-adjudicated juvenile delinquent adolescents who had been referred for social skills training by their probation officers (the JD group). The results showed that the non-LD youths performed significantly better than the other two groups of youths on seven of the eight skills. The LD youths performed significantly better than the JD youths on only one skill, resisting peer pressure
Transfinite thin plate spline interpolation
Duchon's method of thin plate splines defines a polyharmonic interpolant to
scattered data values as the minimizer of a certain integral functional. For
transfinite interpolation, i.e. interpolation of continuous data prescribed on
curves or hypersurfaces, Kounchev has developed the method of polysplines,
which are piecewise polyharmonic functions of fixed smoothness across the given
hypersurfaces and satisfy some boundary conditions. Recently, Bejancu has
introduced boundary conditions of Beppo Levi type to construct a semi-cardinal
model for polyspline interpolation to data on an infinite set of parallel
hyperplanes. The present paper proves that, for periodic data on a finite set
of parallel hyperplanes, the polyspline interpolant satisfying Beppo Levi
boundary conditions is in fact a thin plate spline, i.e. it minimizes a Duchon
type functional
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