Tackling Low-level Cognitive Task Teaching in Secondary Mathematics: One pproach to Mold Pre-service Teachers’ Pre-conceived Beliefs into Best Practice

This article focuses on a secondary mathematics teacher education program where traditional field placements are prevalent in grades 9-12. Traditional, for this article, is defined as and comprised of: (a) straight-rowed desks in classrooms, (b) explicitly direct instruction (teacher-centered classrooms), (c) predominantly repetition of low-level cognitive tasks, and (d) consistent absence of technology use by students to explore mathematics concepts and problem solving. This article aims to inform readers of how one secondary mathematics teacher education program is addressing the challenges many programs currently experience in producing new teachers of best practice through advanced mathematical tasks and advanced technology use for teaching mathematics within education courses. Early evidence appears to be having effects on some pre-service teachers pre-conceived beliefs about teaching mathematics traditionally with greater anticipation for long-term sustainable change

MODELLING QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF THE SUPPLY CHAINS

The article presents how to use methods and tools in the area of quality engineering to assess the supply chain, having the example of the food industry. It outlines the regulatory requirements and standardization documents for the transport of dairy products. Using a questionnaire conducted it selects criteria that were directly used to assess the quality of the supply chain (network). Then, using the Pareto-Lorenz diagram the most important criteria were selected, which were also used in the study

Belt and road initiative in the age of COVID-19 pandemic : implications for the development of the strategic project of the People’s Republic of China

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of the pandemic on the current implementation of the New Silk Road project and its future in light of changes worldwide. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study used empirical methods (source material review, expert opinion surveys, diagnostic survey) and theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, comparison, modeling, and inference). Findings: The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with societies worldwide with China and, in extreme cases, entire East Asia. This belief has affected mass attitudes and social phenomena concerning the People's Republic of China's foreign policy in different parts of the world. Therefore, a correlation between changes in worldwide societal attitudes towards the People's Republic of China and the perspective for developing the Chinese New Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative) project has emerged. However, another implication concerns the deteriorated structure of the global economy due to COVID-19, which had a significant impact on the change in many states' strategic position. Practical Implications: The conclusions will compare the knowledge resulting from the literature review with the outcomes of this article's own research. Originality: Because of it, it will be possible to identify not only the main assumptions of the New Silk Road but, above all, to present a foresight for the development of this flagship project of the PRC in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.peer-reviewe

NK cells with KIR2DS2 immunogenotype have a functional activation advantage to efficiently kill glioblastoma and prolong animal survival

Glioblastomas (GBMs) are lethal brain cancers that are resistant to current therapies. We investigated the cytotoxicity of human allogeneic NK cells against patient-derived GBM in vitro and in vivo, as well as mechanisms mediating their efficacy. We demonstrate that KIR2DS2 immunogenotype NK cells were more potent killers, notwithstanding the absence of inhibitory killer Ig–like receptor (KIR)-HLA ligand mismatch. FACS-sorted and enriched KIR2DS2+ NK cell subpopulations retained significantly high levels of CD69 and CD16 when in contact with GBM cells at a 1:1 ratio and highly expressed CD107a and secreted more soluble CD137 and granzyme A. In contrast, KIR2DS2− immunogenotype donor NK cells were less cytotoxic against GBM and K562, and, similar to FACS-sorted or gated KIR2DS2− NK cells, significantly diminished CD16, CD107a, granzyme A, and CD69 when in contact with GBM cells. Furthermore, NK cell–mediated GBM killing in vitro depended upon the expression of ligands for the activating receptor NKG2D and was partially abrogated by Ab blockade. Treatment of GBM xenografts in NOD/SCID mice with NK cells from a KIR2DS2+ donor lacking inhibitory KIR-HLA ligand mismatch significantly prolonged the median survival to 163 d compared with vehicle controls (log-rank test, p = 0.0001), in contrast to 117.5 d (log-rank test, p = 0.0005) for NK cells with several inhibitory KIR-HLA ligand mismatches but lacking KIR2DS2 genotype. Significantly more CD56+CD16+ NK cells from a KIR2DS2+ donor survived in nontumor-bearing brains 3 wk after infusion compared with KIR2DS2− NK cells, independent of their proliferative capacity. In conclusion, KIR2DS2 identifies potent alloreactive NK cells against GBM that are mediated by commensurate, but dominant, activating signals.publishedVersio

Arabidopsis NSE4 Proteins Act in Somatic Nuclei and Meiosis to Ensure Plant Viability and Fertility

The SMC 5/6 complex together with cohesin and condensin is a member of the structural maintenance of chromosome (SMC) protein family. In non-plant organisms SMC5/6 is engaged in DNA repair, meiotic synapsis, genome organization and stability. In plants, the function of SMC5/6 is still enigmatic. Therefore, we analyzed the crucial d-kleisin component NSE4 of the SMC5/6 complex in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Two functional conserved Nse4 paralogs (Nse4A and Nse4B) are present in A. thaliana, which may have evolved via gene subfunctionalization. Due to its high expression level, Nse4A seems to be the more essential gene, whereas Nse4B appears to be involved mainly in seed development. The morphological characterization of A. thaliana T-DNA mutants suggests that the NSE4 proteins are essential for plant growth and fertility. Detailed investigations in wild-type and the mutants based on live cell imaging of transgenic GFP lines, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), immunolabeling and super-resolution microscopy suggest that NSE4A acts in several processes during plant development, such as mitosis, meiosis and chromatin organization of differentiated nuclei, and that NSE4A operates in a cell cycle-dependent manner. Differential response of NSE4A and NSE4B mutants after induced DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) suggests their involvement in DNA repair processes

Chromatin dynamics during interphase and cell division:similarities and differences between model and crop plants

Genetic information in the cell nucleus controls organismal development, responses to the environment and finally ensures own transmission to the next generations. To achieve so many different tasks, the genetic information is associated with structural and regulatory proteins, which orchestrate nuclear functions in time and space. Furthermore, plant life strategies require chromatin plasticity to allow a rapid adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses. Here, we summarize current knowledge on the organisation of plant chromatin and dynamics of chromosomes during interphase and mitotic and meiotic cell divisions for model and crop plants differing as to the genome size, ploidy and amount of genomic resources available. The existing data indicate that chromatin changes accompany most (if not all) cellular processes and that there are both shared and unique themes in the chromatin structure and global chromosome dynamics among species. Ongoing efforts to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in chromatin organisation and remodeling have, together with the latest genome editing tools, potential to unlock crop genomes for innovative breeding strategies and improvements of various traits

The Effects of Mismatching Teacher Candidates with Mentoring Teachers

The majority of teacher candidates are eager to enter the field of teaching for their junior participation to try out methods such as Problem Solving Approach that they have been learning throughout their classes at college. In mathematics, for example, semester after semester, I place an emphasis on the use of Problem Solving Approach which is natural to children because the world is new to them. Children exhibit curiosity, intelligence, and flexibility as they face new situations (Principles and standards for school mathematics, 2000). In science, the inquiry method is emphasized. The challenge for preservice teachers is to build on children’s innate problem-solving inclinations and preserve and encourage a disposition that values problem solving. Teacher candidates are encouraged to motivate children to think critically and provide them with opportunities to create, explain, and analyze their procedures. However, different learning environments can either facilitate or impede the implementation of these new strategies. One problem is that of effectively matching teacher candidates with mentoring teachers. In this article I examine the effects of mismatching preservice Teachers with mentoring teachers by describing the experiences of four preservice teachers as they attempted to integrate new learnings

Optimization of process of stocks controling based on group ordering the goods

W praktyce gospodarczej bardzo często występuje problem zamawiania różnorodnych asortymentów od jednego bądź wielu dostawców. Związany jest on z tzw. efektem skali, czyli obniżeniem kosztów, a także uzyskaniem rabatów wraz z zamawianiem surowców, transportem, produkcja oraz magazynowaniem produktów w większych partiach. Rozwiązanie tego problemu zostanie przedstawione na przykładzie wybranej klasycznej metody zamawiania grupowego, jaką jest analiza pokrycia.In the article it is proposed an innovative aspect for the process of stocks controlling. It is presented an opportunity using of nonlinear programming for the optimization of process of the group ordering the goods, which is the 'coverage analysis'. The attention is paid for the formation of scale effect and the occurrence of trade-off relation, connected to safety of the customer needs by the minimization the general costs of maintenance the stocks

Risk management in logistics in cultural diversity environment

W artykule poruszono jedną z najistotniejszych kategorii ryzyka – ryzyko kulturowe - które dotyczy systemów społecznych. Takim systemem jest również system logistyczny. Podkreślono, że zarówno ze strony kierownictwa, jak i pracowników danej firmy, zadania oraz sposób ich rozdzielenia i wykonania zależą w dużej mierze od kultury z jakiej pochodzą poszczególne osoby powiązane zależnościami w danej organizacji. Struktura oraz globalny zasięg współczesnych łańcuchów dostaw stawia czynniki międzykulturowe na jednym z najwyższych miejsc jeśli chodzi o potencjalne źródła zakłóceń ich funkcjonowania, a tym samym zmniejszenia ich efektywności.In article authors touched one of the most important risk category – cultural risk – which is an integral part of each social system. Such kind of the system is also logistic system. It was emphasized, that from the management and employees point of view assigned tasks, the way of its distribution and executing strongly depend on culture which originate respective people linked by relationship within particular organization. Structure and global range of contemporary supply chains constitute intercultural factors one of the most significant in terms of potential source of disruption, hence decreasing efficiency of particular organization