This paper combines data from two different international research studies that used problem posing in analyzing elementary teacher candidates’ understanding of rational numbers. In 2007, a mathematics educator from the United States and a mathematician from Northern Ireland collaborated to investigate their respective elementary teacher candidates’ understanding of addition and division of fractions. A year later, the same US mathematics educator collaborated with a mathematics educator from South Africa on a similar research project that focused solely on the addition of fractions. The results of both studies show that elementary teacher candidates from the three different continents share similar misconceptions regarding the addition of fractions. The misconceptions that emerged were analyzed and used in designing teaching strategies intended to improve elementary teacher candidates’ understanding of rational numbers. The research also suggests that problem posing may improve their understanding of addition of fractions.

The meteoric political decline of George Romney is unparalleled in political history and in the history of presidential campaigning. In the space of one year, the man evolved from the overwhelming presidential favorite of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike to a presidential drop out, criticized severely and even mocked by press and public alike.There are many opinions as to why this phenomenon occurred. The press has opinions, the public has opinions, and the people closest to George Romney have opinions.A step by step analysis of Romney's campaign casts light on these opinions and completely discredits some while validating and emphasizing others.Romney's campaign had finance problems, it had personnel problems, and, most of all, it had a candidate who never fully committed himself to the campaign, who never truly and deeply wanted the Presidency of the United States.

No description available.

The racial composition of elected officials in the United States has significantly diversified in recent decades. Nevertheless, the proportion of candidates of color still fall far short of the underlying voter population, particularly as the minority demographic continues to grow at a rapid pace. To explain the source of racial disparity in government, scholars have long examined various political opportunity structures under which minority candidates arise, suggesting that whether candidates of color emerge or not is a strategic matter: minority candidates enter politics when they perceive high electoral viability, which they estimate using information such as the racial composition of a district and prior electoral success of co-ethnic candidates. However, absent from this scholarship is a comprehensive understanding of how minority individuals enter the emergence process in the first place and how the factors that advance them through the pipeline to power evolve over time. This dissertation investigates the process by which racial minorities decide to enter politics, examining the entire pipeline to power from developing an initial interest in running for office to officially becoming a candidate. First, I examine political ambition among the general American public, focusing on the racial differences in the development of political ambition and the factors uniquely influencing ordinary minority voters' entry decisions. Through an online survey on a sample of ordinary American voters, post-stratified to be representative of each racial population, I find that factors commonly used to predict political ambition, such as encouragement from personal or political sources, political efficacy, and community participation, operate differently between minority respondents and their white counterparts as well as across different racial groups. A conjoint experiment designed to examine entry decisions among ordinary minority voters both confirms existing theories and offers a new insight. I find that the perceived electoral viability is higher in electoral districts with larger share of co-ethnic populations, which aligns with conventional wisdom that minority population is often used to gauge the primary voter base among minority candidates. Furthermore, I find that among politically ambitious minority respondents, perceived electoral viability is higher when an incumbent shares the respondent's ethnicity. However, this effect is reduced when both the incumbent and the challenger share the same ethnicity, indicating that minority status is no longer a comparative electoral advantage. Second, in two field experiments embedded in real-world candidate recruitment efforts, I investigate the relative influence of intrinsic and extrinsic appeals on developing nascent interest in running for office. I find that intrinsic motivation to run, such as a desire to bring about social change, increases not only the immediate information-seeking behavior but also a longer-term commitment to candidacy, including applying to and attending a campaign training program. On the other hand, extrinsic appeals intended to increase the perceived likelihood of winning generate a significantly smaller effect on the immediate consideration of political candidacy while exerting a modest amount of influence on the longer-term commitment. Third, through a conjoint experiment on minority individuals situated at different stages of the emergence process, I study how the motivation to run evolves as they progress through their political journey. I find modest evidence of a shift in priority, from intrinsic to extrinsic, as minority individuals advance through the pipeline to power. Specifically, those with low levels of political ambition prefer to run in districts that have undergone a surge in violence targeted toward co-ethnic groups. In contrast, those with a high level of political ambition prefer districts with a substantial share of their co-ethnic population. Fourth, I examine how both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to run play out in real-world elections. Leveraging city-level exposure to police brutality, I find that the share of Black candidates running in municipal elections increases in cities after a fatal police shooting of a Black resident, suggesting that racial violence politicizes group consciousness among the Black community, which, in turn, influences their desire to enter politics. However, exploring individual cases of who those candidates are and when they appear on a ballot reveals that Black candidates emerge for both intrinsic and strategic reasons: political veterans emerge immediately after the incident as they take advantage of increased minority voter turnout and open seats, whereas political newcomers arise several years later as they require more resources. The empirical findings challenge the conventional wisdom that attributes minority under-representation to strategic calculations alone. Instead, they highlight the importance of examining both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations at each stage of the emergence process to fully understand why racial minorities run for office. In doing so, this research offers new insights into the nuanced dynamics of minority candidate emergence and, in turn, minority representation in the United States.

Zur Zeit gibt es keinen quantitativen Gesamtüberblick und keinen bundesweiten Vergleich der Zahlen von Studienanfängern, Absolventen mit abgelegter Tierärztlichen Prüfung (TP), Tierärzten mit Approbation sowie Kammermitgliedschaften. Es wird untersucht, wie sich das Verhältnis zwischen der Anzahl der von den veterinärmedizinischen Bildungsstätten erteilten TP zur Anzahl der in Deutschland erteilten Approbationen und diese wiederum zu den bestehenden Pflichtmitgliedschaften in den Landestierärztekammern für den Untersuchungszeitraum der Abschlussjahrgänge 2000 bis 2010 darstellt. Es wurde Datenmaterial der Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung, der fünf veterinärmedizinischen Bildungsstätten, des Deutschen Tierärzteblattes, der Approbationsbehörden und der Zentralen Tierärztedatei Dresden genutzt. Anschließend wurden die Daten mittels Recherche in öffentlichen Medien ergänzt. Insgesamt wurden n = 8036 Personen zur Untersuchung herangezogen, wovon n = 6715 (84 %) auswertbar waren, dabei lag der Frauenanteil stets bei durchschnittlich 82 %. Es zeigte sich, dass die überwiegende Mehrheit (92 %) der auswertbaren Personen ihre Approbation innerhalb der ersten drei Monate nach Bestehen der TP erhielt. 84 % ließen nur maximal drei Monate zwischen Approbationserhalt und Kammerbeitritt vergehen. 75 % der Absolventen bleiben ihrem Ausbildungsland treu bzw. kehren dorthin zurück, eine veterinärmedizinische Hochschule bzw. Fakultät hat somit einen fachkräftebindenden Effekt für das jeweilige Bundesland. Im Bereich der Haupttätigkeitsfelder geht der Trend nach wie vor in Richtung „Praktiker“ (52 %). Personen ohne Berufsausübung bzw. Doktoranden nehmen den zweitgrößten Anteil (17 %) der Tätigkeitsfelder ein. Dabei steht die Einstufung der Doktoranden der Tiermedizin in tierärztlich „Tätige“ oder „nicht Tätige“ zur Diskussion, da diese in Deutschland noch in einer rechtlichen Grauzone liegt. Das Anmeldesystem ausgehend von der Approbationsbeantragung bis zur Kammermitgliedschaft bei den Tierärzten in Deutschland, mit weniger als 3 % nicht registrierter Kammermitgliedschaften sowie weniger als 1 % niemals beantragter Approbationen, funktioniert recht gut. Dies scheint in erster Linie am starken Pflichtbewusstsein der deutschen Tierärzte zu liegen. Lücken in der Zusammenarbeit zwischen Approbationsbehörden und Landestierärztekammern bzw. Fehlerquellen bei der Datenübermittlung fielen bisher nicht auf und die rechtliche Verfolgung von Versäumnissen einzelner Tierärzte spielt in der Kammerverwaltung eine untergeordnete bis gar keine Rolle, da rechtliche Vergehen tatsächlich Ausnahmen darstellen. Dennoch sollten die Datenbasis und auch der Datenfluss zwischen den beteiligten Institutionen vereinheitlicht, verifiziert und auch regelmäßig ausgewertet werden, denn ohne die Anwendung von Kontroll- und Sanktionsmaßnahmen ist die rechtsverbindliche Pflichtmitgliedschaft de facto eine reine Selbstverpflichtung. Eine einheitliche Stellungnahme zum Status der Doktoranden seitens der berufspolitischen Organe ist dringend notwendig. Doktoranden sollten zur Gruppe der tierärztlich „Tätigen“ zählen und der Nachweis der Approbation für alle mit der Promotion einhergehenden Arbeitsschritte Pflicht sein. In Anbetracht einer diesbezüglich bisher fehlenden bundeseinheitlichen Regelung, ist die Frage, ob man in Deutschland ohne Probleme mit fehlender Approbation tierärztlich tätig werden kann, eindeutig mit „ja“ zu beantworten.

This study sought to determine the extent a relationship exists between locus of control and the rate of completion for proposal and dissertation defense among doctoral students. Levenson's Internal, Powerful Others, and Chance scales were utilized to identify locus of control orientation. Findings indicated that: (1) a majority, 102, scored highest on the Internal scale; (2) Internal scale scores above the median related to increased probability of a proposal and dissertation defense and to reduced time in reaching those points; (3) no significant difference was found between male and female defensive externals in completing the proposal or dissertation defense; and (4) females tended to score higher than males on the Internal scale. Among conclusions drawn are: (1) Internal scale scores above the median relate to a reduced length of time to complete the proposal and dissertation defense; and (2) few doctoral candidates scoring higher on the Powerful Others or Chance scales were identified in this doctoral program after the point of qualifying examinations.

A esquistossomose é uma doença causada por trematódeos do gênero Schistosoma. Dentre os genes identificados no transcriptoma do parasita, membros da família gênica SmVAL (Schistosoma mansoni Venom Allergen-Like) foram apontados como candidatos vacinais. SmVALs foram identificadas em secreções de cercárias e esquistossômulos cultivados in vitro, os transcritos SmVAL4 e 24 foram localizados nas glândulas acetabulares de germ ball e a proteína nativa SmVAL4 foi identificada em extrato de cercárias, indicando funções durante a penetração da pele. Já os transcritos SmVAL13 e 14 foram localizados na glândula esofágica anterior de vermes adultos, sugerindo papéis no processo de alimentação sanguínea. A imunização com as proteínas rSmVAL4, 6, 7, 13, 14 e 18 coadministradas não protegeu camundongos contra o desafio experimental, porém, observou-se uma diminuição do número de fêmeas e do número de ovos no grupo imunizado. A investigação de funções para as proteínas secretadas mostrou que a rSmVAL18 interage com plasminogênio in vitro favorecendo a invasão do hospedeiro. / Schistosomiasis is a disease caused by trematodes of the genus Schistosoma. Among the genes identified in the parasite transcriptome, members of SmVAL (Schistosoma mansoni Venom Allergen-Like) gene family were proposed as vaccine candidates. SmVALs were identified in cercariae and schistosomule secretions in vitro, the SmVAL4 and 24 transcripts were located to the germ ball acetabular glands and SmVAL4 native protein was identified in cercariae extract, indicating functions in skin penetration. On the other hand, SmVAL13 and 14 transcripts were located to the anterior esophageal gland of adult worms, suggesting roles in the blood feeding processes. Immunization with rSmVAL4, 6, 7, 13, 14 and 18 proteins co-administered did not protected mice against experimental challenge, however, there was a decrease in the number of females and the number of eggs in the immunized group. The investigation of functions for secreted proteins showed that rSmVAL18 interacts with plasminogen in vitro thus favoring the host invasion.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T12:51:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 helenacatharinecamarerodefelicio_dissert.pdf: 1266538 bytes, checksum: 8e51ee02a7424654eda7e0709c1202e3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-04-27 / Liver transplantation is currently indicated for chronic and acute liver failure when no other treatment is available. As a complex procedure, it requires interdisciplinary care and the patients and caregivers´ compliance behavior. Objectives: to obtain from liver recipients, transplant candidates, families and health care professionals what kind of information they considered sufficient or insufficient about liver transplantation; to use the obtained data to elaborate a manual with information identified as relevant and necessary. Method: this is a descriptive study approved by the Ethics Committee and conducted at the Unity of Surgery and Liver and Large Intestine Transplant, Hospital de Base, Sao Jose do Rio Preto, S.P. A total of 50 liver transplant candidates , 50 caregivers of these patients , 50 recipient patients and 24 health care professionals from this unity comprised the study. All patients and caregivers were interviewed in the Outpatient Service and in the Transplant Unit by the research nurse. All professionals received a questionnaire; afterwards the answers were returned to the researcher. Results: Most patients were male: liver recipients (41 men; mean age: 47.52; sd: 11.7); candidate patients (30 men; mean age: 48.02; sd:10.29). The Group of caregivers (n: 37) and professionals (n: 15) comprised mostly women. Professional team comprised physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, nutritionists and physical therapists. Recipients related insufficient information (p<0.032) concerning their disease, exams, waiting list, pre- and postsurgery periods, immunosupressor drugs, rejection and complications and follow-up at the outpatient clinic. Candidate patients considered they had insufficient information (p<0.032) about their disease (liver functioning, cyrrhosis, severity and complications); about the treatment (exams and protocol); surgery (need for surgery and donor); pre-, intra and postoperative periods (hospital arrival, exams and procedures at the operating room, duration and risks of surgery and ICU) and follow-up (rejection, retransplantation, immunosupressors, diet and follow-up). Caregivers had insufficient information (p<0.032) about the disease, exams, treatment, waiting list, quality of life, hospitalization, protocol, pré-, intra e postoperative periods, immunosupressor drugs , rejection and complications, retransplantation, pre- and post diet, hospital discharge and outpatient follow-up. Professionals´ answers pointed out topics related to their own specialties . Conclusions: even thought all health care professionals provide information; patients and caregivers still report not to have enough information about the whole process of liver transplantation. An orientation manual was elaborated based on the obtained data. / O transplante de fígado é indicado para hepatopatias crônicas ou agudas para as quais não existe outro tratamento disponível. É um processo complexo que requer atendimento interdisciplinar e comportamentos de adesão por parte do paciente e cuidador. Este estudo teve como objetivos: a) identificar informações consideradas suficientes ou não sobre o transplante na perspectiva de pacientes transplantados e candidatos ao transplante, familiares e profissionais; b) elaborar manual de orientações para pacientes e familiares a partir dos dados obtidos, contendo informações identificadas como relevantes e necessárias. Casuística e Método: estudo descritivo, aprovado por Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa e realizado na Unidade de Cirurgia e Transplante de Fígado e Intestino Delgado do Hospital de Base de São José do Rio Preto, SP. Participaram 50 pacientes em lista de espera para transplante de fígado, 50 familiares (cuidadores) de pacientes em lista, 50 pacientes já transplantados e 24 profissionais da equipe interdisciplinar da Unidade. Foram realizadas entrevistas estruturadas com os pacientes e familiares. Os profissionais receberam questionários que foram respondidos e entregues posteriormente. Resultados: A maior parte dos pacientes era do sexo masculino: transplantados (41 homens; média de idade do grupo: 47,52; dp: 11,7); em lista (30 homens; média de idade do grupo:48,02; dp: 10,29). Os grupos de cuidadores e de profissionais foram principalmente do sexo feminino: n: 37 e n:15, respectivamente. Os profissionais da equipe eram médicos, enfermeiras, psicólogos, assistentes sociais, nutricionistas e fisioterapeutas. Foram consideradas insuficientes (p&#8804;0,032) para os transplantados informações sobre a doença, exames, fila de espera, protocolo, pré e pós-operatório, medicação imunossupressora, rejeição e complicações e seguimento ambulatorial. Para os pacientes em lista foram consideradas insuficientes (p&#8804;0,032) informações sobre a doença, tratamento, cirurgia, pré, intra e pós-operatório (chegada ao hospital, exames, procedimentos no centro cirúrgico, duração e riscos da cirurgia e UTI) e acompanhamento (rejeição, retransplante, imunossupressores, alimentação e seguimento). Para os cuidadores foram consideradas insuficientes (p&#8804;0,032) informações sobre a doença, exames, alimentação, tratamento, fila de espera, qualidade de vida, internações, protocolo, pré, intra e pós-operatório, medicação imunossupressora, rejeição e complicações, retransplante, alimentação, alta e seguimento ambulatorial. As respostas dos profissionais enfatizaram questões relacionadas às diversas especialidades. Conclusões: Embora informações sejam fornecidas por todos os profissionais da equipe, pacientes e cuidadores ainda percebem possuir informações insuficientes sobre todo o processo. Um manual contendo as orientações foi elaborado com base nos dados obtidos.

L'étude d'une structure de protéine issue d'un gène de fonction inconnue est une manière d'appréhender les mécanismes biochimiques dans lesquels elle est impliquée. L'amélioration des méthodes de résolution des structures de macromolécules a contribué à l'augmentation quadratique du nombre de structures disponibles. La fonction d'une protéine se définit par ces interactions avec des partenaires spécifiques qui sont la base des mécanismes biologiques majeurs. La détection et la comparaison de surfaces d'interaction sont ainsi des étapes essentielles pour annoter fonctionnellement les protéines, et surtout dans le cadre de l'élaboration de nouveaux médicaments.<br />Le logiciel SuMo et son produit dérivé à vocation industrielle MED-SuMo représentent une des premières approches utilisant la position relative des groupements chimiques fonctionnels élémentaires disponibles à la surface des protéines, pour comparer les surfaces d'interaction. Mon travail de thèse a été basé sur trois points: (1) Optimisation du logiciel MED-SuMo et mise en évidence de son intérêt pour l'annotation fonctionnelle de protéines hypothétiques aux travers de deux applications (protéines TM1012 et YBL036C). (2) Développement et implémentation d'une nouvelle méthode de classification des surfaces d'interaction des protéines: MED-SMA. Deux applications ont été réalisées et pour chacune d'elle, MED-SMA rassemble dans les mêmes groupes des sites détectés pour fixer des types équivalents de molécules. (3) Participation au développement d'une nouvelle méthode de conception de molécules actives de novo combinant la détection MED-SuMo de similitudes locales des surfaces des protéines avec une approche fragmentale.

Hiring the wrong leader can have disastrous effects on the productivity, moral, time and budget of an organization. In fact, a gap of leaders will arise in the next years, which makes it necessary to know and use the right strategies for attracting and selecting the appropriate future leaders who have the ability to successfully lead a company. Therefore, recruiting and selecting the right leaders is an important challenge for all organizations worldwide. How can they find, attract and choose people to become leaders? To answer this question, this Thesis looks at the whole process of hiring future leaders for organizations. First, we want to determine what is necessary to be successful in a leadership position in an organization. Second, we figured out what kind of recruitment strategies can be used in order to attract and find leaders, and third, we aim at showing which methods companies can employ to select the best fitting candidate for their vacant leadership position. In order to find answers to these questions, we have conducted interviews with seven leaders from different industry sectors, who shared their experience about leadership and the way of finding, attracting and selecting talented people who can become future leaders. Moreover, we conducted a questionnaire that has been handed out to students who might be potential leaders of the future. To ensure the meaningfulness of the study, we asked students from different faculties in 21 countries. The reason of the mixture of different sources is to acquire a broader insight into how the recruitment and selection of leaders takes place, with the aim of creating a representative picture.