Determinants of Teacher Quality: Pedagogical Excellence Accreditation Program

Garcia, LY (Garcia, Leidy Y.); Cerda, AA (Cerda, Arcadio A.); Donoso-Diaz, S (Donoso-Diaz, Sebastian)Teachers at primary and secondary schools constitute a hey factor in the educative process and learning results of their students. Given the constitutional mandate that defines the slate's responsibility to provide high-quality public education, it must attract. retain and motivate "good" teachers through diverse mechanisms and incentives, and in the Chilean case it must generate efficient mechanisms to evaluate their teaching performance. The Program to Reward Pedagogical Excellence (AEP from its Spanish acronym) conic about in this framework as a mechanism lot evaluation and incentives, because it aims to evaluate significant aspects of the quality of teachers, awarding bonuses to the roost outstanding. Given the importance of educational quality in establishments subsidized by the state (both municipal and private) for the development of the country and society, this work aims to determine the characteristics of teachers who have obtained ALP quality accreditation, through a conditional probit model using data from a longitudinal Teaching Survey (ELD from its Spanish acronym), while also calculating the probability of participating in this program. We conclude that the factors that explain the probability of being accredited are: experience, the family's socioeconomic condition. the mother's educational level, the teacher's educational level training and internships, quality of health conditions, vocation and quality of the AEP program, which have significant hut reduced effect

Generation of a human iPS cell line from a patient with retinitis pigmentosa due to EYS mutation

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited retinal degenerative disease. Mutations in EYS have been associated with autosomal recessive RP. The human iPS cell line, CABi002-A, derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a patient carrying a heterozygous double mutation in EYS gene was generated by non-integrative reprogramming technology, using hOCT3/4, hSOX2, hc-MYC and hKLF4 reprogramming factors. Pluripotency and differentiation capacity were assessed by immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR. This iPSC line can be further differentiated towards the affected cells to understand the pathophysiology of the disease and test new therapeutic strategies.Cellex FoundationFundación Progreso y Salu

Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for organic apples

Cerda, AA (reprint author), Univ Talca, Fac Ciencias Empresariales, 2 Norte 685, Talca, Chile.This study provides marketing data regarding consumer preferences and willingness to pay for organic agricultural products in Chile. The main objectives of this study were to assess consumer willingness to pay for organic apples and to determine the main attributes that consumers look for when purchasing apples. The methodology applied to reach the first objective was the contingent valuation method using a logistic probability function and a single-bound dichotomous choice format. Additionally, this study estimates the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) of consumers for organic apples by using conjoint analysis with ranking procedures. This study was performed in the city of Talca, Chile, where a total of 400 individuals from a probability sampling were interviewed. The results of our study show that the estimation of part-worth utilities of each attribute confirms that the Fuji variety, organic method of production, sweet apples and lowest price are the most preferred levels of each attribute. However, an analysis of the relative utility index shows that price and variety are much more important to consumer choice and behavior than the method of production and flavor. Finally, our study shows a positive willingness to pay an additional 130 Chilean pesos per kilogram for organic apples and a greater preference for apples produced organically than by conventional methods. These results provide important information about market opportunities as well as policy implementation regarding the production of organic agricultural products

Towards NNLO accuracy for epsilon '/epsilon

The quantity $\varepsilon'/\varepsilon$ measures direct CP violation in Kaon decays. Recent SM predictions show a $2.9\sigma$ tension with data, with the theoretical uncertainty dominating. As rapid progress on the lattice is bringing nonperturbative long-distance effects under control, a more precise knowledge of short-distance contributions is needed. We describe the first NNLO results for $\varepsilon'/\varepsilon$ and discuss future prospects, as well as issues of scheme dependence and the separation of perturbative and nonperturbative effects. Finally we also comment on the solution of the renormalisation-group evolution in one of the talks at this conference and present the correct solution.Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the Kaon 2016 Conferenc

A Nexafs Study of Nitric Oxide Layers Adsorbed from a nitrite Solution onto a Pt(111) Surface

NO molecules adsorbed on a Pt(111) surface from dipping in an acidic nitrite solution are studied by near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) techniques. LEED patterns and STM images show that no long range ordered structures are formed after NO adsorption on a Pt(111) surface. Although the total NO coverage is very low, spectroscopic features in N K-edge and O K-edge absorption spectra have been singled out and related to the different species induced by this preparation method. From these measurements it is concluded that the NO molecule is adsorbed trough the N atom in an upright conformation. The maximum saturation coverage is about 0.3 monolayers, and although nitric oxide is the major component, nitrite and nitrogen species are slightly co-adsorbed on the surface. The results obtained from this study are compared with those previously reported in the literature for NO adsorbed on Pt(111) under UHV conditions

Measuring Dislocation Density in Aluminum with Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy

Dislocations in a material will, when present in enough numbers, change the speed of propagation of elastic waves. Consequently, two material samples, differing only in dislocation density, will have different elastic constants, a quantity that can be measured using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy. Measurements of this effect on aluminum samples are reported. They compare well with the predictions of the theory.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Regulation of surface architecture by symbiotic bacteria mediates host colonization

Microbes occupy countless ecological niches in nature. Sometimes these environments may be on or within another organism, as is the case in both microbial infections and symbiosis of mammals. Unlike pathogens that establish opportunistic infections, hundreds of human commensal bacterial species establish a lifelong cohabitation with their hosts. Although many virulence factors of infectious bacteria have been described, the molecular mechanisms used during beneficial host–symbiont colonization remain almost entirely unknown. The novel identification of multiple surface polysaccharides in the important human symbiont Bacteroides fragilis raised the critical question of how these molecules contribute to commensalism. To understand the function of the bacterial capsule during symbiotic colonization of mammals, we generated B. fragilis strains deleted in the global regulator of polysaccharide expression and isolated mutants with defects in capsule expression. Surprisingly, attempts to completely eliminate capsule production are not tolerated by the microorganism, which displays growth deficits and subsequent reversion to express capsular polysaccharides. We identify an alternative pathway by which B. fragilis is able to reestablish capsule production and modulate expression of surface structures. Most importantly, mutants expressing single, defined surface polysaccharides are defective for intestinal colonization compared with bacteria expressing a complete polysaccharide repertoire. Restoring the expression of multiple capsular polysaccharides rescues the inability of mutants to compete for commensalism. These findings suggest a model whereby display of multiple capsular polysaccharides provides essential functions for bacterial colonization during host–symbiont mutualism

Anomalous strength of membranes with elastic ridges

We report on a simulational study of the compression and buckling of elastic ridges formed by joining the boundary of a flat sheet to itself. Such ridges store energy anomalously: their resting energy scales as the linear size of the sheet to the 1/3 power. We find that the energy required to buckle such a ridge is a fixed multiple of the resting energy. Thus thin sheets with elastic ridges such as crumpled sheets are qualitatively stronger than smoothly bent sheets.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, 3 figure

Dynamics for variable length multisection continuum arms

Variable length multisection continuum arms are a class of continuum robotic manipulators that generate motion by structural mechanical deformation. Unlike most continuum robots, the sections of these arms do not have (central) supporting flexible backbone, and are actuated by multiple variable length actuators. Because of the constraining nature of actuators, the continuum sections can bend and/or elongate (compress) depending on the elongation/contraction characteristics of the actuators being used. Continuum arms have a number of distinctive differences with respect to traditional rigid arms namely: smooth bending, high inherent compliance, and adaptive whole arm grasping. However, due to numerical instability and the complexity of curve parametric models, there are no spatial dynamic models for multisection continuum arms. This paper introduces novel spatial dynamics and applies these to variable length multisection continuum arms with any number of sections. An efficient recursive computational scheme for deriving the equations of motion is presented. This is applied in a general form based on structurally accurate and numerically well-posed modal kinematics that assumes circular arc deformation of continuum sections without torsion. It is shown that the proposed modal dynamics are highly scalable, producing efficient and accurate numerical results. The spatial dynamic simulation results are experimentally validated using a pneumatic muscle actuated multisection prototype continuum arm. For the first time this enables investigation of spatial dynamic effects in this class of continuum arms