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Reflection on visioning as a leadership practice
No full textThis reflective essay argues that public school principals in China and Southeast Asia often demonstrate an inadequate understanding of their visioning responsibilities. They overlook the importance of creating a unique school vision that is tailored to their contextual requirements. Setting direction through a clear vision for the school is one of the four core leadership practices and has been extensively explored around the world. By drawing on personal reflection, this essay highlights the imperative for school principals from the regions to actively participate in developing a school vision that is contextually responsive for their school and also aligns with the guidelines of the department of education. Using three personal examples, it underscores the crucial role that visioning plays in a school\u27s success and the indispensability of stakeholder\u27s involvement in the visioning process
In search of silver linings in teaching during COVID-19: the perspectives of early childhood teachers in the United States
No full textThis study sought to explore the potential silver linings that early childhood teachers in the United States might find amidst the teaching-related challenges and stress arising from the unconventional teaching necessitated by COVID-19. The participants consisted of 15 early childhood teachers teaching in preschool−3rd grade during the 2020–2021 school year. These teachers (ages 24–45 years, M = 32 years) had one to 10 years of teaching experience. Eight of them just completed their first year of teaching. Each teacher was interviewed for 60–90 minutes (M = 75 minutes) virtually via Zoom. Thematic analysis of the data revealed the five most salient silver linings: (1) ‘thinking outside the box,’ (2) gaining and applying newfound pedagogical skills, (3) cultivating and applying compassion and understanding towards the children and their families, (4) building and applying stress resilience, and (5) developing and applying adaptability and flexibility. The first two silver linings may be characterised as pedagogical skills, the next two as professional dispositions, and the last one as both a necessary professional skill and a positive professional disposition. Collectively, these five silver linings were seemingly amplified as sources of strength for the teachers to navigate the challenging and stressful teaching terrain during COVID-19
Biosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Kitchen Vegetable Waste Extract for Application against Poultry Pathogens, Antimicrobial Activity, and Photocatalytic Dye Degradation
No full textBacteria develop resistance against antimicrobial drugs, and new remediations are constantly being introduced in the market. Silver and its compounds have strong resistance against different bacteria. The vegetable waste extract-synthesized silver nanoparticles (VWE-AgNPs) have distinct properties and potential applications because of their unique size and morphology. The fundamental purpose of this study was to develop an environment-friendly method for the synthesis of VWE-AgNPs to avoid the use of hazardous chemicals that cause danger to the environment as well as recycling vegetable waste material. The VWE-AgNPs were synthesized by mixing 1 mM AgNO3 solution and VWE at room temperature. The VWE-AgNPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, FTIR, SEM, and EDX. The synthesized particles showed good antibacterial properties against poultry bacteria Salmonella gallinarum and Salmonella enteritidis (growth reduction of 31 mm and 18 mm at 80 mg/mL AgNPs, respectively). The results demonstrated that VWE-AgNPs inhibited the growth of tested bacterial strains. The fabricated VWE-AgNPs also had the potential to act as a green photocatalyst for degradation of 87.7% of methylene blue (MB) and 90.76% of methyl orange (MO) nearly at 3.25 h and 1 h sunlight exposure time, respectively. The highest antifungal activity, which was determined to be 36.5 mm and 31.8 mm against Alternata sp. and C. albican, was discovered to be in VWE-AgNPs
Reflecting on reflection among early childhood teachers: a study of reflection for, in, and on action intersecting with the technical, practical, and critical dimensions
No full textThis study investigated how early childhood teachers might reflect on their teaching-learning process related to the unconventional instructional modalities necessitated by COVID-19 during the 2020–2021 school year. The participants consisted of 15 teachers (ages 24–45 years, M = 32 years) teaching children in preschool to third grade in New Jersey, USA. Data collection involved interviewing each teacher virtually via Zoom for 60–90 minutes (M = 75 minutes). This study analyzed only the data directly related to reflection, leading to 20 most salient ‘Reflective Instances’ (RIs) being identified and subsequently coded according to a 3 (types: reflection-for-action, reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action) x 3 (dimensions: technical, practical, and critical) framework. The analysis revealed four main findings. First, while there was evidence of all three types of reflection, reflection-on-action was the most prominent. Reflection-on-action was also the only type exhibiting evidence of all three dimensions. Second, the RIs concentrated most predominantly on the practical dimension, which was also the only one occurring in all three types of reflection. Third, the intersection between reflection and dimension revealed that reflection-in-action along the practical dimension was the most salient. Fourth, the teachers’ sociodemographic characteristics did not appear to account for the variations in the patterns of the reflection types and dimensions
A Systematic Strategic Technology Planning Process for Material and Component Industries With a Sectoral Innovation System View
No full textRecent trade tensions between the U.S. and China force multinational corporations to deal with severe supply chain disruptions. Although the comparative advantage of nations is the basis of supply chain collaboration in a serious rivalry between leading and emerging power, composite materials are often employed as weapons to protect the competitive advantage of strategic sectors in advanced nations. Also, the tight coupling between product and process innovation has been a critical issue in risk-sharing partnerships in manufacturing. Thus, in this article, we examine how firms make transitions in interdependence-decoupling cycles in the context of increasing competitive tensions. Practitioners and researchers still have difficulties finding practical guidelines for effective strategic technology planning encompassing various types of innovations. This study proposes a systematic strategic technology planning process in public R&D programs affecting a firm\u27s strategic technology planning. There is ample evidence and/or cases to show the effectiveness of technology planning for the material and component industries (MCIs) with different characteristics. The primary objective is to address the unique aspect of the MCI roadmap and provide a more advanced framework for public technology planning. Consequently, the systematic technology planning process offers an R&D strategy to transform industry structure from finished products to components and materials for responding to severe supply chain disruptions across the value chain
Amino acid motifs for the identification of novel protein interactants
No full textBiological systems consist of multiple components of different physical and chemical properties that require complex and dynamic regulatory loops to function efficiently. The discovery of ever more novel interacting sites in complex proteins suggests that we are only beginning to understand how cellular and biological functions are integrated and tuned at the molecular and systems levels. Here we review recently discovered interacting sites which have been identified through rationally designed amino acid motifs diagnostic for specific molecular functions, including enzymatic activities and ligand-binding properties. We specifically discuss the nature of the latter using as examples, novel hormone recognition and gas sensing sites that occur in moonlighting protein complexes. Drawing evidence from the current literature, we discuss the potential implications at the cellular, tissue, and/or organismal levels of such non-catalytic interacting sites and provide several promising avenues for the expansion of amino acid motif searches to discover hitherto unknown protein interactants and interaction networks. We believe this knowledge will unearth unexpected functions in both new and well-characterized proteins, thus filling existing conceptual gaps or opening new avenues for applications either as drug targets or tools in pharmacology, cell biology and bio-catalysis. Beyond this, motif searches may also support the design of novel, effective and sustainable approaches to crop improvements and the development of new therapeutics
Pre-College Students STEaM to Future Career Success at Kean
Get PDFPre-College Students STEaM to Future Career Success at Kea
From structure to syntax: Practical methods for improving representation, diversity, and inclusiveness in course materials and courseware.
No full textLetter from the United States Department of Agriculture
Get PDFA high-ranking executive within the United States Department of Agriculture corresponds with Florence P. Dwyer, congresswoman of New Jersey, stating information about farm and conservation programs.https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/cp_dwyer_letters/1002/thumbnail.jp