Educator Recruitment In International Schools: The Administrator’s View

In this study, the researcher examined the strategies and tactics that international school leaders use when engaging in the recruitment of international school educators. The study included 89 international school leaders who took part in an online survey regarding various aspects of the recruiting process and 20 international school leaders who took part in a Skype interview to discuss further the process of recruitment. Qualitative inductive content analysis was used to code and theme the data that resulted from the anonymous online surveys and Skype interviews. Five main themes emerged from the data, and these themes described crucial components of recruiting international educators. The first theme, adaptation, describes the way in which school leaders have had to adjust their recruiting in the short and long terms. The second theme, fit versus match, describes the way in which school leaders approach people and positions that are available in their respective schools. The third theme, success, describes the ways in which school leaders define their success, and the measures they use to gauge it. The fourth theme, location and capabilities, shows how strategies and approaches change because of their respective school location and the limitations that might be attached to it. The fifth theme, timelines, describes how recruiting international educators changes depending on when a school leader begins conducting his or her recruitment process. This researcher found that participants perceived as important in the recruiting process many of the recruiting strategies mentioned in the survey. However, their ability to use some of the specific strategies was limited by the country in which they were located and their respective recruiting season. The factors identified in this study build on previous research on international educator recruitment and provides an additional dimension for school leaders to analyze their recruiting efforts and strategies. Further research on how school leaders interpret these factors and on other components of the international teacher recruiting process are important to augment the research in this field

The Grizzly, March 30, 1993

This is a parody issue of the Ursinus College Grizzly newspaper, entitled The Goofly.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1313/thumbnail.jp

Studies in polymer compatibility.

Polymer Science and EngineeringDoctor of Philosophy (PhD

The Architecture of Coupon-Based, Semi-off-Line, Anonymous Micropayment System for Internet of Things

Part 6: Computational Systems ApplicationsInternational audienceIn the Internet of Things a lot of business opportunities may be identified. The devices in IoT may create ad-hoc temporary networks to provide services or share some resources. Such services are characterized by a great economical potential, especially while provided at mass-scale and for incidental users. However, the development of paid services or resources in IoT is hampered by relatively big transaction costs of payment operations. To deal with this problem, we propose a novel architecture of coupon based, semi off line, anonymous micropayment system to enable transactions in the scope of Internet of Things. User anonymity and security is assured by the usage of standard cryptographic techniques together with novel architectural design of the payment processes. Utilization of a hash function allows generating and verifying electronic coins in computationally efficient way, so as to be executed even in hardware- and software-restricted environment such as Internet of Things

A Circuitous Route to Noncoding RNA

Most genetic information is expressed as, and transacted by, proteins. Yet, less than 2% of the human genome actually codes for proteins, prompting a search for functions for the other 98% of the genome, once considered to be mostly “junk DNA.” Transcription is pervasive, however, and high-throughput sequencing has identified tens of thousands of distinct RNAs generated from the non—protein—coding portion of the genome (1). These so-called noncoding RNAs vary in length, but like protein-coding RNAs, appear to be linear molecules with 5′ and 3′ termini, reflecting the defined start and end points of RNA polymerase on the DNA template. But do all RNAs have to be linear

Stem Cell RNA Epigenetics: M6Arking Your Territory

Modifications of mRNAs can have a profound effect on cellular function and differentiation. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Batista et al. (2014) describe fundamental parameters of N6-methyl-adenosine modification of mRNAs in embryonic stem cells and provide strong evidence that modification plays a role in exit from pluripotency toward differentiation

A noncoding RNA produced by arthropod-borne flaviviruses inhibits the cellular exoribonuclease XRN1 and alters host mRNA stability

All arthropod-borne flaviviruses generate a short noncoding RNA (sfRNA) from the viral 3′ untranslated region during infection due to stalling of the cellular 5′-to-3′ exonuclease XRN1. We show here that formation of sfRNA also inhibits XRN1 activity. Cells infected with Dengue or Kunjin viruses accumulate uncapped mRNAs, decay intermediates normally targeted by XRN1. XRN1 repression also resulted in the increased overall stability of cellular mRNAs in flavivirus-infected cells. Importantly, a mutant Kunjin virus that cannot form sfRNA but replicates to normal levels failed to affect host mRNA stability or XRN1 activity. Expression of sfRNA in the absence of viral infection demonstrated that sfRNA formation was directly responsible for the stabilization of cellular mRNAs. Finally, numerous cellular mRNAs were differentially expressed in an sfRNA-dependent fashion in a Kunjin virus infection. We conclude that flaviviruses incapacitate XRN1 during infection and dysregulate host mRNA stability as a result of sfRNA formation

A plant-infecting subviral RNA associated with poleroviruses produces a subgenomic RNA which resists exonuclease XRN1 in vitro

Subviral agents are nucleic acids which lack the features for classification as a virus. Tombusvirus-like associated RNAs (tlaRNAs) are subviral positive-sense, single-stranded RNAs that replicate autonomously, yet depend on a coinfecting virus for encapsidation and transmission. TlaRNAs produce abundant subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) upon infection. Here, we investigate how the well-studied tlaRNA, ST9, produces sgRNA and its function. We found ST9 is a noncoding RNA, due to its lack of protein coding capacity. We used resistance assays with eukaryotic Exoribonuclease-1 (XRN1) to investigate sgRNA production via incomplete degradation of genomic RNA. The ST9 3' untranslated region stalled XRN1 very near the 5' sgRNA end. Thus, the XRN family of enzymes drives sgRNA accumulation in ST9-infected tissue by incomplete degradation of ST9 RNA. This work suggests tlaRNAs are not just parasites of viruses with compatible capsids, but also mutually beneficial partners that influence host cell RNA biology

Chimeric peptide nucleic acid compounds modulate splicing of the bcl-x gene in vitro and in vivo

Alternative splicing of the bcl-x gene generates two transcripts: the anti-apoptotic bcl-xL isoform and the pro-apoptotic bcl-xS isoform. The ratio between the two isoforms is a key factor in development and in cancer progression. Here, we show that a short antisense chimeric peptide nucleic acid (PNA) oligonucleotide conjugated to a polypeptide containing eight Ser-Arg repeats (SR)(8) can modulate splicing of bcl-x both in vitro and in vivo and induces apoptosis in HeLa cells. The PNA-SR oligo was targeted to a region of bcl-x that does not contain splicing regulatory sequences and was able to override the complex network of splicing enhancers and silencers that regulates the ratio between the two bcl-x isoforms. Thus, PNA-SR oligos are powerful tools that can potentially modulate splice site choice in endogenous genes independent of the presence of other splicing regulatory mechanisms on the target gene