175 research outputs found
Ratings war?
No full textAvinash Persaud argues that the proposed regulation of credit rating agencies will do more harm than good Copyright (c) 2009 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2009 ippr.
First person – Avinash Persaud
No full textABSTRACT
First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Avinash Persaud is the first author on ‘Dynamin inhibitors block activation of mTORC1 by amino acids independently of dynamin’, published in Journal of Cell Science. Avinash is a research associate in the lab of Daniela Rotin at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, investigating mTORC1 signaling and the function of the ubiquitin ligase Nedd4.</jats:p
Maximising the performance of multi-diverse design teams
No full textIn our Integrated Product Design master at the Delft faculty of Industrial Design Engineering we see a growing diversity in our student population. Besides a growing number of different nationalities there are also significant differences in prior education, competences, and socioemotional aspects. Within the Advanced Embodiment Design (AED) course, students work in teams on a client-based design project for one full semester. In 2018-2019, 22 student-teams started out their endeavour, coached by eight coaches. Within the course an important learning objective we want to offer students is the opportunity to experience and perform in a successful team, acknowledge all students' input, and experience a successful result. During the process of embodiment design, the project teams come across several hurdles which challenges team performance and their project progress, and thereby influences the project results. To maximise the performance of student design-teams we have conducted two studies researching the challenges these teams come across over the course of the semester. One study was based on the coaches' experiences during the project (Flipsen & Persaud, 2016), and the other one on the students' individual reflections on the project (Flipsen, Persaud & Magyari, 2021). The challenges our students come across are analysed and relate to becoming a team, doing the project right, and finalising the project successfully. The results of both studies are used to develop a framework supporting coaches in maximising the performance of multi-diverse design teams. The framework is built around the Theory U (Scharmer 2016), a model describing how teams work with each other, following the right path to success (presencing) or off-tracking by muddling through, or by absencing. To track the different team's performances, we use a project-group tracking-system existing of seven Key Performance Indicators combined with a coach journal. The combination of KPI's help the team of coaches to pinpoint lower performing teams and intervene when needed. In this paper we will present the framework, consisting of (i) preparatory activities to initiate trust, teambuilding, and a successful student cooperation, (ii) a system to track the student-teams' health and performance and pinpoint troublesome groups, and (iii) responsive activities related to the hurdles teams might come across and how to reverse them. To assist the individual coach, we have developed several responsive activities the coach can use to intervene, slowing down the process of dysfunctionality and revert the process towards highly performing teams. The activities are tested in the two cohorts following our initial studies in 2018-2019.Circular Product DesignDesign for Sustainabilit
Psychology of optimism [podcast]
No full textIn this podcast Dr Raj Persaud discusses the meaning and underlying psychological constructs of optimism with Dr Rebecca McGuire-Snieckus, author of the paper 'Hope, Optimism and Delusion' published in the Psychiatric Bulletin. By the end of this podcast we hope you will have gained an understanding of: 1) the meaning and underlying constructs of optimism, 2) some of the psychological research on positivity bias, including self enhancing cognitive bias, 3) the relationship between optimism and psychological models of depression, 4)the role of optimism in cognitive behavioural therapy
Factors influencing student degree completion at a historically Black university in a southeastern urban center, 2006
No full textThe purpose of this study was to determine the influence of instructors teaching style, student learning styles, student self-efficacy, student support services, student motivation, financial aid, campus safety, and student demographics on student degree completion. The dependent variable for this study was undergraduate student degree completion. Independent variables were instructors teaching style, student learning styles, student self-efficacy, student support services, student motivation, financial aid, campus safety, and student demographics. A descriptive statistical design involving Pearson correlation, factor analysis, and multiple regression, ANOVA, and T-test were utilized to achieve the purpose of this study. A purposeful sample of those students enrolled in the School of Education, School of Business, School of Arts and Sciences, and School of Social Work at a Southeastern Historically Black University was used (n = 151). Participants in this study were undergraduate students of the aforementioned schools. Participants completed a survey instrument developed by the researcher, Dr, Ganga Persaud, and Dr. Trevor Turner. The result of the study indicated a significant relationship between student selfefficacy, student motivation, and student gender and degree completion. Female students were more likely to persist to graduation than their male counterpart. Based on these findings, recommendations for instructors, head of departments, deans, university policy makers, and researchers were given. The study was limited to one particular institutio
Factors affecting school dropout, a model for prevention planning, 1991
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between students' perceptions of students dropping out of school and students returning to school as influenced by school curriculum, instructional practices, counselor support, parental involvement, family financial problems, and peer relationships, when controlling for the demographic variables of marital status, gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Since there is limited research on students dropping out and returning to school and since there is no comprehensive dropout program in the state or the city, this study was undertaken to discover the reasons students drop out and return to school in an effort to develop a dropout prevention model. A quantitative study utilizing the correlational research design was employed in this study. The procedure used to gather data was a questionnaire developed by the researcher and Dr. Ganga Persaud (2001). The questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 252 students who had dropped out of school and returned to inner city institutions to complete their education for a GED. These institutions included a GED center, a community school, Job Corps, and Literacy Action Incorporated. The significant findings revealed that students' negative feelings about dropping out of school were associated with their negative views about school curriculum, instructional practices, peer relationships, and gender as indicated by the correlation analysis. The t test revealed that the mean score for females was higher than that for males. A one way analysis of variance showed that the older students were the more likely they were to return to school. The factor analysis data showed that dropping out of school was loaded in Factor 2 with family financial problems and peer relationships. A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the students' negative feelings about dropping out of school were explained only by undesirable peer relationships with a beta coefficient of .4785. As a result of the analysis of data, this study suggested that the only significant variable related to dropping out of school was explained by undesirable peer relationships when controlling for other selected variables. Conversely, students' feelings about returning to school were significantly and positively related to their older age, negatively by family financial problems, and positively by parental involvement respectively. Based on these findings, the conclusions suggested that planning for dropout prevention should begin with a plan for building and improving peer relationships
The perceptions of teachers and administrators towards the effectiveness of the in-school suspension program and its impact on student discipline and learning in a large Metro Atlanta school district, 2002
No full textThe purpose of this paper was to examine the effectiveness of an In-School Suspension program to improve student discipline and learning. The program required teachers to send their discipline problem cases to the in-school suspension classes rather than seeking out of school suspension. The in-school suspension classes were taught by paraprofessionals and supervised by the assistant principals for discipline. Theoretically, it was expected that teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the plan would be related to improvement in discipline and learning in the classrooms when controlled by school and demographic variables. Data were collected by a questionnaire constructed by Persaud (01) for this purpose. The Cronbach Alpha reliability for the scales in the instrument was in the range of .92 to .98 except for one scale (.82). The instrument was administered to all teachers in all middle and high schools in a large metro Atlanta school district (over 100,000 students) with over 500 teachers responding. The results indicated that in a factor analysis of the data, teachers' rating of the in-school suspension plan is negatively loaded in Factor I with student discipline and learning, leadership style, parental cooperation, leadership supervisory practices, workshops, and student responsiveness to teaching, indicating an inverse relationship. Apparently, teachers rated student discipline, learning, and parental cooperation as attributing to the leadership supervisory culture when they rated the in-school suspension plan ineffective. In regression analysis, in-school suspension plan effectiveness was inversely explained by student discipline and learning, leadership supervisory style, and parental cooperation, in that order, while student discipline and learning was positively explained by parental cooperation and inversely explained by in-school suspension programming effectiveness, followed by smaller but significant contributions by student responsiveness to teaching and the administrators' perceptions about the effectiveness of the in-school suspension program. It is recommended that a long-term plan is required for making teachers less dependent on the in-school suspension program by increasing their cooperation with parents and improving the quality of teaching to obtain the responsiveness of students
Teachers perceptions of principals in schools trained for effectiveness, 1987
No full textThe purpose of this study was to determine if a school system treats a group of schools in the lower social-economic area of the county with an inservice program based on the effective school characteristic in the literature, will the treatment predict a factorized effective school characteristic at a level greater than the control schools. The design was a quasi-experimental quasi-survey using three groups, experimental, control, and non-experimental group to control for the Hawthorne Effect. Data was collected using System Analysis of Principal's Instructional Supervisor's Behavior developed by Dr. Gange Persaud at Atlanta University. From a population of 277 teachers 60% responded. The data was analyzed by correlational techniques (running SPSS statistical packages) in order to test the hypothesis. Factor analyses were used. This research has examined an effective school experiment after two years and found no statistically significant differences among schools. Interesting, it was found that the family of variables thought to characterize the effective school factored into three groups rather than a single group. Another interesting finding has to do with how principals are perceived in the post teaching conference. Among the variables identified as Effective Supervision, Post Teaching Observation Judgment was seen as a negative perception. The variables believed to constitute the effective school characteristic in the experiment were divided into groups named Effective Student Expectation and Effective Supervision. These groups of variables appeared to be inputs whose output influence a group of variables named Effective Schools characteristics in this study. It is recommended that teachers and administrators be sensitized to race through inservice training. Effective School Characteristics should be examined to delineate, and determine other possible grouping of variables. Administrators and supervisors should examine their behavior during the post teaching observation conference in terms of the judgment teachers may perceive
CTX DTM and ORI Mosaics over Sakarya Vallis, Gale Crater, Mars
No full textLocal digital terrain model (DTM) and orthorectified image (ORI) mosaics over Sakarya Vallis, west of Aeolis Mons in Gale crater, Mars. The two constituent DTMs were processed using the CASP-GO suite described in Tao et al. (2018); the ORIs were processed using Ames Stereo Pipeline. The DTMs were then co-registered to an HRSC DTM mosaic (Persaud et al. 2021, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5808354) and each other using Ames Stereo Pipeline, and then cropped and mosaicked.
Format: GeoTiff
Projection: Equidistant cylindrical
Datum: Spheroid (r = 3396.190 km)
Bit depth: Float32
DTM grid-spacing: 18 m/pixel
ORI resolution: 6 m/pixel
Stereo pairs (from Grindrod and Davis, 2018):
P04_002675_1746_XI_05S222W, B21_017786_1746_XN_05S222W
D02_027834_1748_XN_05S222W, G04_019698_1747_XI_05S222W
Image IDs of the ORIs: P04_002675_1746_XI_05S222W, D02_027834_1748_XN_05S222WThe first author is now at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. Contact: [email protected]
CLN3p impacts galactosylceramide transport, raft morphology, and lipid content
No full textJuvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) belongs to the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses characterized by blindness-seizures-motor-cognitive decline and early death. JNCL is caused by CLN3 gene mutations that negatively modulate cell growth-apoptosis. CLN3 protein (CLN3p) localizes to Golgi-Rab4--Rab11-positive endosomes and lipid rafts, and harbors a galactosylceramide (GalCer) lipid raft-binding domain. Goals are proving CLN3p participates in GalCer transport from Golgi to rafts, and GalCer deficits negatively affect cell growth-apoptosis. GalCer-mutant CLN3p are retained in Golgi, with CLN3p rescuing GalCer deficits in rafts. Diminishing GalCer in normal cells by GalCer synthase siRNA negatively affects cell growth-apoptosis. GalCer restores JNCL cell growth. WT CLN3p binds GalCer, but not mutant CLN3p. Sphingolipid content of rafts-Golgi is perturbed with diminished GalCer in rafts and accumulation in Golgi. CLN3-deficient raft vesicular structures are small by transmission electron microscopy, reflecting altered sphingolipid composition of rafts. CLN1-CLN2-CLN6 proteins bind to lysophosphatidic acid-sulfatide, CLN6-CLN8 proteins to GalCer, and CLN8 protein to ceramide. Sphingolipid composition-morphology of CLN1--CLN2--CLN6--CLN8- and CLN9-deficient rafts are altered suggesting changes in raft structure-lipid stoichiometry could be common themes underlying these diseases. Copyright © 2008 International Pediatric Research Foundation, Inc.Boggs JM, 2004, J NEUROSCI RES, V76, P342, DOI 10.1002-jnr.20080; Boustany R.M., 1996, HDB CLIN NEUROLOGY, V22, P671; Brugger B, 2006, P NATL ACAD SCI USA, V103, P2641, DOI 10.1073-pnas.0511136103; Cao Y, 2006, J BIOL CHEM, V281, P20483, DOI 10.1074-jbc.M602180200; de Gassart A, 2003, BLOOD, V102, P4336, DOI 10.1182-blood-2003-03-0871; Dhar S, 2002, ANN NEUROL, V51, P448, DOI 10.1002-ana.10143; Eckford PDW, 2005, BIOCHEM J, V389, P517; Fujita Y, 2000, J NEUROL SCI, V174, P137, DOI 10.1016-S0022-510X(00)00265-3; GAMMON CM, 1987, BIOCHEMISTRY-US, V26, P6239, DOI 10.1021-bi00393a043; Gombos I, 2006, IMMUNOL LETT, V104, P59, DOI 10.1016-j.imlet.2005.11.021; Gottesman MM, 2001, J BIOENERG BIOMEMBR, V33, P453, DOI 10.1023-A:1012866803188; Hanada K, 2003, NATURE, V426, P803, DOI 10.1038-nature02188; Hering H, 2003, J NEUROSCI, V23, P3262; Hirahara Y, 2004, GLIA, V45, P269, DOI 10.1002-glia.10327; Hobert JA, 2007, BIOCHEM BIOPH RES CO, V358, P111, DOI 10.1016-j.bbrc.2007.04.064; Huang Q, 2006, CANCER RES, V66, P5807, DOI 10.1158-0008-5472.CAN-06-0077; JECKEL D, 1992, J CELL BIOL, V117, P259, DOI 10.1083-jcb.117.2.259; Katz ML, 1999, J NEUROSCI RES, V57, P551; Kilkus J, 2003, J NEUROSCI RES, V72, P65, DOI 10.1002-jnr.10549; Kremmidiotis G, 1999, HUM MOL GENET, V8, P523, DOI 10.1093-hmg-8.3.523; LEVINE TP, 2004, TRENDS CELL BIOL, V9, P483; London E, 2000, BBA-BIOMEMBRANES, V1508, P182, DOI 10.1016-S0304-4157(00)00007-1; Luiro K, 2001, HUM MOL GENET, V10, P2123, DOI 10.1093-hmg-10.19.2123; Mahfoud R, 2002, J BIOL CHEM, V277, P11292, DOI 10.1074-jbc.M111679200; Mao QW, 2003, FEBS LETT, V541, P40, DOI 10.1016-S0014-5793(03)00284-9; Margraf LR, 1999, MOL GENET METAB, V66, P283, DOI 10.1006-mgme.1999.2830; Miyaji M, 2005, J EXP MED, V202, P249, DOI 10.1084-jem.20041685; Narayan SB, 2006, ANN NEUROL, V60, P570, DOI 10.1002-ana.20975; Persaud-Sawin DA, 2005, APOPTOSIS, V10, P973, DOI 10.1007-s10495-005-0733-6; Persaud-Sawin DA, 2007, PEDIATR RES, V61, P146, DOI 10.1203-pdr.0b013e31802d8a4a; Persaud-Sawin DA, 2004, PEDIATR RES, V56, P449, DOI 10.1203-01.PDR.0000136152.54638.95; Persaud-Sawin DANW, 2002, HUM MOL GENET, V11, P2129, DOI 10.1093-hmg-11.18.2129; Pullarkat RK, 1997, NEUROPEDIATRICS, V28, P42, DOI 10.1055-s-2007-973665; Rao CS, 2005, BIOPHYS J, V89, P4017, DOI 10.1529-biophysj.105.070631; Rylova SN, 2002, CANCER RES, V62, P801; Sakurai A, 2000, ACTA NEUROPATHOL, V100, P270; Sprong H, 2003, MOL BIOL CELL, V14, P3482, DOI 10.1091-mbc.E03-03-0130; Zaas DW, 2005, BBA-MOL CELL RES, V1746, P305, DOI 10.1016-j.bbamcr.2005.10.00320191
- …
