University of Haifa

About: University of Haifa is a education organization based out in Haifa, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 7558 authors who have published 27141 publications receiving 711629 citations. The organization is also known as: Haifa University & Universiṭat Ḥefah.

Semantic facilitation in lexical decision as a function of prime-target association

Abstract: Using a lexical decision task, the relationship between magnitude of semantic facilitation and degree of prime-target relatedness was examined as a function of amount of attention allocated to the prime and the prime-target interval. In none of the conditions studied did amount of facilitation vary with prime-target relatedness, a finding which was seen as inconsistent with the spread of activation account of the association effect in lexical decision. Both forward (prime to target) and backward (target to prime) associations were effective in producing semantic facilitation. Backward associates, however, were effective only during earlier stages of the experiment and forward associations only during later stages. The implications of these findings for the processes underlying the association effect was discussed.

Professional Development of Mathematics Teacher Educators: Growth Through Practice

Abstract: In this paper we present a study conductedwithin the framework of an in-serviceprofessional development program for junior andsenior high school mathematics teachers. Thefocus of the study is the analysis of processesencountered by the staff members, as members ofa community of practice, which contributed totheir growth as teacher educators. We offer athree-layer model of growth through practice asa conceptual framework to think about becominga mathematics teacher educator, and illustratehow our suggested model can be adapted to thecomplexities and commonalities of theunderlying processes of professionaldevelopment of mathematics teacher educators.

Do Municipal Amalgamations Work? Evidence from Municipalities in Israel

Abstract: Municipal amalgamation reforms are performed in most developed countries. The basic rationale for these reforms is taking advantage of economies of scale in municipal provision of public services. Contrary to theory and common wisdom, empirical literature finds almost no benefits arising from an amalgamation. This literature, however, relies on scant evidence. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence for the budgetary outcomes of municipal amalgamations. The study is based on an extensive panel data of municipalities in Israel for the years 1999-2007. The evaluation uses the amalgamation reform of 2003 analyzed with the difference in differences methodology in order to assess changes in the budgetary situation of the amalgamated municipalities. The results indicate that the amalgamations resulted in a decrease of about 8% in municipal expenditures. I find no evidence of a decrease in the level of services in the amalgamated municipalities. The results suggest that municipal amalgamations bring economies of scale into practice.

Interval mapping of quantitative trait loci employing correlated trait complexes.

Abstract: An approach to increase the resolution power of interval mapping of quantitative trait (QT) loci is proposed, based on analysis of correlated trait complexes. For a given set of QTs, the broad sense heritability attributed to a QT locus (QTL) (say, A/a) is an increasing function of the number of traits. Thus, for some traits x and y, H(xy)2(A/a) > or = H(x)2(A/a). The last inequality holds even if y does not depend on A/a at all, but x and y are correlated within the groups AA, Aa and aa due to nongenetic factors and segregation of genes from other chromosomes. A simple relationship connects H2 (both in single trait and two-trait analysis) with the expected LOD value, ELOD = -1/2N log(1-H2). Thus, situations could exist that from the inequality H(xy)2(A/a) > or = H(x)2(A/a) a higher resolution is provided by the two-trait analysis as compared to the single-trait analysis, in spite of the increased number of parameters. Employing LOD-score procedure to simulated backcross data, we showed that the resolution power of the QTL mapping model can be elevated if correlation between QTs is taken into account. The method allows us to test numerous biologically important hypotheses concerning manifold effects of genomic segments on the defined trait complex (means, variances and correlations).