Structured Intervention as a Tool to Shift Views of Parent–Professional Partnerships: Impact on Attitudes Toward the IEP

The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is the roadmap that helps educators and families drive the education of students with disabilities, improve outcomes, and fulfill each child’s potential. However, the IEP can be challenging due to the large number and diversity of stakeholders, dynamics and culture of collaboration, and the complex procedures guiding the referral, evaluation, and placement. This study describes changes in attitudes toward the IEP reported by special educators and parents participating in a statewide six-month collaborative training model. Pre- and post-test data analysis indicates an interaction effect on overall attitude toward the IEP, with parents’ ratings of the value of the IEP decreasing at the end of the training and teachers’ ratings increasing. Moreover, special educators’ significantly higher ratings of the value of team planning for the IEP indicate enduring pre- and post-intervention differences. These findings have implications for school districts and agencies providing professional development to improve collaboration in IEPs

Ecologia e status de conservação do jacaré-paguá nas montanhas do Amolar, Pantanal Sul.

Paleosuchus palpebrosus é considerado entre as 22 espécies de crocodilianos a menor em tamanho, atingindo no máximo 1.6 m de comprimento (Medem, 1981). Paleosuchus significa "crocodilo antigo", derivado de palaios (antigo em grego) e soukhos que significa crocodilo, e palpebrosus significa "pálpebra espessa" referindo-se às pálpebras que possuem placas ósseas. Dentre as cinco espécies que ocorrem no Brasil, tem a sua distribuição marcante ao longo dos rios Amazonas, Paraguai e Paraná e de suas áreas inundadas, excluindo a área central do Pantanal (Magnusson, 1985). No entanto, um dos maiores problemas que afeta as populações naturais são as modificações dos seus habitats aliado ao total desconhecimento da sua distribuição e abundância ao longo da área de distribuição (Campos et al., 1995). A falta de informação da ecologia da espécie, apesar da extensa distribuição geográfica, é um fator que pode eventualmente afetar a conservação da espécie (Thorbjarnarson, 1992). Pouco é conhecido sobre reprodução e de seus habitats, mas sabe-se que as fêmeas fazem montes de folhas e gravetos e põem de 10 a 15 ovos. A dieta varia de invertebrados aquáticos, terrestres e vertebrados, principalmente peixes. Nas bordas do Pantanal, existem alguns registros de ocorrência dessa espécie no rio Paraguai, norte de Cáceres, serras da Bodoquena, Amolar e Urucum. A espécie provavelmente ocupa habitats periféricos da planície do Pantanal, causando uma separação espacial com o Caiman crocodilus yacare (jacaré-do-pantanal). Este estudo é parte de um projeto pioneiro da Embrapa-Pantanal com P. palpebrosus na região das montanhas do Amolar, que busca conhecer densidade, estrutura de tamanho, e razão sexual. Também, determinar o conteúdo estomacal dos jacarés em seu habitat natural.bitstream/item/79504/1/COT31.pd

Molecular analyses of confiscated shark fins reveal shortcomings of CITES implementations in Germany

A three-ton shipment of dry shark fins was examined by German customs in 2017 leading to the confiscation of 405 kg of potential CITES species. We analyzed a subsample of this material (115 specimens) using DNA sequence-based identification and compared results to morphological screening of CITES species. We found a mixture of CITES regulated (4 of 11 species) and unregulated shark species. Our results demonstrate the difficulties of identifying CITES species morphologically in large fin shipments of mixed species composition. Correct identification of CITES species based on morphology alone may be hindered by missing characters or those altered by drying. We therefore suggest random molecular screening as a uniform approach for German customs authorities to check species composition and identify CITES regulated species in transit shipments.publishedVersio

(Un)Natural Pairings: Fantastic, Uncanny, Monstrous, and Cyborgian Encounters in Contemporary Central American and Hispanic Caribbean Literature

Since the turn of the 20th century many writers, playwrights, and poets in Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean have published fantastic, gritty, and oftentimes unsettling stories of ghosts, anthropomorphic animals, zoomorphic humans, and uncanny spaces. These unexpected encounters and strange entities are an embodiment of muddled boundaries and a creation of unsettling and sometimes monstrous myths and fictions. Cultural theorists from Central America and Cuba have associated this kind of literature with a growing culture of disenchantment and cynicism that is rooted in the loss of utopian and egalitarian ideals associated with past revolutionary projects. Through the course of this dissertation, I look beyond cultural disenchantment as I show how many writers—especially women—from Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) and the Hispanic Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic) have utilized strange, fantastic, and sometimes grotesque elements in their work in order to imagine alternative, utopic futures that challenge gendered hierarchies in society. Traditional dualistic categories that require all-or-nothing identities (of being all good, all bad, all feminine, all masculine, etc.) are broken down in the literature that I explore from both regions. By joining sacred domestic spaces in uncanny environments, mixing the dead with the living, blending animals with humans, and rendering passive women into abject, erotic monsters—these (un)natural pairings contest and contradict naturalized gender and sexual hierarchies by revealing the fluidity of supposedly inherent and fixed boundaries. At the same time, the (un)natural pairings that I explore provide an unlikely and creative space where traditional gender and sexual ideologies are especially foregrounded, which invites the reader to rethink conventional and hierarchal structures of power, especially as they relate to gender in Hispanic Caribbean and Central American societies

Pleasure and pedagogy: the consumption of DVD add-ons among Irish teenagers

This article addresses the issue of young people and media use in the digital age, more specifically the interconnection between new media pleasures and pedagogy as they relate to the consumption of DVD add-ons. Arguing against the view of new media as having predominantly detrimental effects on young people, the authors claim that new media can enable young people to develop media literacy skills and are of the view that media literacy strategies must be based on an understanding and legitimating of young people's use patterns and pleasures. The discussion is based on a pilot research project on the use patterns and pleasures of use with a sample of Irish teenagers. They found that DVDs were used predominantly in the home context, and that, while there was variability in use between the groups, overall they developed critical literacy skills and competences which were interwoven into their social life and projects of identity construction. The authors suggest that these findings could be used to develop DVDs and their add-on features as a learning resource in the more formal educational setting and they go on to outline the potential teaching benefits of their use across a range of pedagogical areas

Developmental evolution of flowering plant pollen tube cell walls: callose synthase (CalS) gene expression patterns

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A number of innovations underlie the origin of rapid reproductive cycles in angiosperms. A critical early step involved the modification of an ancestrally short and slow-growing pollen tube for faster and longer distance transport of sperm to egg. Associated with this shift are the predominantly callose (1,3-β-glucan) walls and septae (callose plugs) of angiosperm pollen tubes. Callose synthesis is mediated by callose synthase (CalS). Of 12 <it>CalS </it>gene family members in <it>Arabidopsis</it>, only one (<it>CalS5</it>) has been directly linked to pollen tube callose. <it>CalS5 </it>orthologues are present in several monocot and eudicot genomes, but little is known about the evolutionary origin of <it>CalS5 </it>or what its ancestral function may have been.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We investigated expression of <it>CalS </it>in pollen and pollen tubes of selected non-flowering seed plants (gymnosperms) and angiosperms within lineages that diverged below the monocot/eudicot node. First, we determined the nearly full length coding sequence of a <it>CalS5 </it>orthologue from <it>Cabomba caroliniana </it>(<it>CcCalS5</it>) (Nymphaeales). Semi-quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated low <it>CcCalS5 </it>expression within several vegetative tissues, but strong expression in mature pollen. <it>CalS </it>transcripts were detected in pollen tubes of several species within Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales, and comparative analyses with a phylogenetically diverse group of sequenced genomes indicated homology to <it>CalS5</it>. We also report <it>in silico </it>evidence of a putative <it>CalS5 </it>orthologue from <it>Amborella</it>. Among gymnosperms, <it>CalS5 </it>transcripts were recovered from germinating pollen of <it>Gnetum </it>and <it>Ginkgo</it>, but a novel <it>CalS </it>paralog was instead amplified from germinating pollen of <it>Pinus taeda</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The finding that CalS5 is the predominant callose synthase in pollen tubes of both early-diverging and model system angiosperms is an indicator of the homology of their novel callosic pollen tube walls and callose plugs. The data suggest that <it>CalS5 </it>had transient expression and pollen-specific functions in early seed plants and was then recruited to novel expression patterns and functions within pollen tube walls in an ancestor of extant angiosperms.</p

Developmental evolution of flowering plant pollen tube cell walls: callose synthase (\u3cem\u3eCalS\u3c/em\u3e) gene expression patterns

Background A number of innovations underlie the origin of rapid reproductive cycles in angiosperms. A critical early step involved the modification of an ancestrally short and slow-growing pollen tube for faster and longer distance transport of sperm to egg. Associated with this shift are the predominantly callose (1,3-β-glucan) walls and septae (callose plugs) of angiosperm pollen tubes. Callose synthesis is mediated by callose synthase (CalS). Of 12 CalS gene family members in Arabidopsis, only one (CalS5) has been directly linked to pollen tube callose. CalS5 orthologues are present in several monocot and eudicot genomes, but little is known about the evolutionary origin of CalS5 or what its ancestral function may have been. Results We investigated expression of CalS in pollen and pollen tubes of selected non-flowering seed plants (gymnosperms) and angiosperms within lineages that diverged below the monocot/eudicot node. First, we determined the nearly full length coding sequence of a CalS5 orthologue from Cabomba caroliniana (CcCalS5) (Nymphaeales). Semi-quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated low CcCalS5 expression within several vegetative tissues, but strong expression in mature pollen. CalS transcripts were detected in pollen tubes of several species within Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales, and comparative analyses with a phylogenetically diverse group of sequenced genomes indicated homology to CalS5. We also report in silico evidence of a putative CalS5 orthologue from Amborella. Among gymnosperms, CalS5 transcripts were recovered from germinating pollen of Gnetum and Ginkgo, but a novel CalS paralog was instead amplified from germinating pollen of Pinus taeda. Conclusion The finding that CalS5 is the predominant callose synthase in pollen tubes of both early-diverging and model system angiosperms is an indicator of the homology of their novel callosic pollen tube walls and callose plugs. The data suggest that CalS5 had transient expression and pollen-specific functions in early seed plants and was then recruited to novel expression patterns and functions within pollen tube walls in an ancestor of extant angiosperms

Distribution of Tyrosine Hydroxylase-Expressing Interneurons with Respect to Anatomical Organization of the Neostriatum

We have recently shown in vitro that striatal tyrosine hydroxylase-expressing interneurons identified in transgenic mice by expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein (TH-eGFP) display electrophysiological profiles that are distinct from those of other striatal interneurons. Furthermore, striatal TH-eGFP interneurons show marked diversity in their electrophysiological properties and have been divided into four distinct subtypes. One question that arises from these observations is whether striatal TH-eGFP interneurons are distributed randomly, or obey some sort of organizational plan as has been shown to be the case with other striatal interneurons. An understanding of the striatal TH-eGFP interneuronal patterning is a vital step in understanding the role of these neurons in striatal functioning. Therefore, in the present set of studies the location of electrophysiologically identified striatal TH-eGFP interneurons was mapped. In addition, the distribution of TH-eGFP interneurons with respect to the striatal striosome–matrix compartmental organization was determined using μ-opioid receptor (MOR) immunofluorescence or intrinsic TH-eGFP fluorescence to delineate striosome and matrix compartments. Overall, the distribution of the different TH-eGFP interneuronal subtypes did not differ in dorsal versus ventral striatum. However, striatal TH-eGFP interneurons were found to be mostly in the matrix in the dorsal striatum whereas a significantly higher proportion of these neurons was located in MOR-enriched domains of the ventral striatum. Further, the majority of striatal TH-eGFP interneurons was found to be located within 100 μm of a striosome–matrix boundary. Taken together, the current results suggest that TH-eGFP interneurons obey different organizational principles in dorsal versus ventral striatum, and may play a role in communication between striatal striosome and matrix compartments