6 Ways to Celebrate Student Writing

Susan Adamson, executive director of the Indiana Partnership for Young Writers, shares a few of her favorite strategies for celebrating student writing at the end of a unit of study

Book review: Talking diversity with Teachers and Teacher educators

Book review of Cruz, B., Ellerbrock, C. R., Vásquez, A., & Howes, E. V. (2014). Talking diversity with teachers and teacher educators: Exercises and critical conversations across the curriculum. by Ryan Flessner and Susan C. Adamson

Blazing the Real: Writing by Indiana Children

I got my first camera when I was in third grade—a Brownie Hawkeye flash model with a snazzy little camera case. The instruction manual provided six simple steps for taking successful pictures. Hold the camera steady, supporting it underneath. Then, with the sun behind your back or over your shoulder, locate the subject in the finder. At the instant of exposure, hold your breath and press the shutter release with a gentle squeezing action (Brownie Hawkeye Instruction Manual). The camera came with two rolls of film, each with16 frames. I eagerly used them up and sent the exposed film off for developing and printing. Maybe because I didn’t hold my breath or squeeze the shutter release quite gently enough—I don’t know—but when the prints came back, I had (according to the manual) “fumbles”: double-exposures, complete blurs, specks on the images, a few close-ups of my finger or the camera strap, and plenty of shots where the subject was cut-off. I did have pictures, but not one that was good. Cameras now are nothing like my Brownie Hawkeye, but if you still point and shoot like I do, you have surely noticed that the beautiful sunset you see with your own eyes is nothing like the digital image you end up with. That’s because creating breathtaking photography is up to the photographers who are, in the words of Ansel Adams, blazing the poetry of the real (1930) – using shadow and light, focus, compositional elements, perspective, texture, and tone to illuminate what we see (and sometimes don’t see). For the longest time, we have used a point and shoot mentality in writing, too. You remember... follow the directions for writing a paper, hold your breath when you turn it in, then get it back in a few days with your “fumbles” clearly marked in red pen. Think about it. How much better would your writing have been if you had known how to create the illusion of motion or sound, manipulate the volume or inflection in a reader’s voice, make the reader your accomplice, or persuade her to think like you? That is the work of writing after all—to hold its own in the absence of the author, blazing the real of time and space. Knowing how to write well is not just the province of published authors anymore. It can’t be—too much is at stake. Workshop teachers take seriously this call to action, teaching the qualities of good writing every single day. In Blazing the Real, their students demonstrate that good writing comes from a deeper understanding of craft, of what writers know and do. These young writers understand that very specific, tangible details help them effectively express big, sometimes abstract concepts. They understand the power of creating intimacy with a reader by using second-person address. They understand that reflecting on topics immediately relevant to their own lives, stirs emotions that resonate broadly. And, they even understand how to manipulate the conventions of writing to provoke their audiences to respond in particular, intended ways. Breathe in the beauty of Blazing the Real—the splendor of meticulously crafted photographs inspired by the writing in each of four chapters, the artistry of language both written and drawn that is influenced by the work of real writers. And know, we are a very long way from point and shoot. -Susan C. Adamsonhttps://digitalcommons.butler.edu/iypw_books/1000/thumbnail.jp

Randomized Controlled Caregiver Mediated Joint Engagement Intervention for Toddlers with Autism

This study aimed to determine if a joint attention intervention would result in greater joint engagement between caregivers and toddlers with autism. The intervention consisted of 24 caregiver-mediated sessions with follow-up 1 year later. Compared to caregivers and toddlers randomized to the waitlist control group the immediate treatment (IT) group made significant improvements in targeted areas of joint engagement. The IT group demonstrated significant improvements with medium to large effect sizes in their responsiveness to joint attention and their diversity of functional play acts after the intervention with maintenance of these skills 1 year post-intervention. These are among the first randomized controlled data to suggest that short-term parent-mediated interventions can have important effects on core impairments in toddlers with autism. Clinical Trials #: NCT00065910

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs during chemotherapy for preservation of ovarian function and fertility in premenopausal early breast cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient-level data

Purpose The role of temporary ovarian suppression with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa) during chemotherapy as a strategy to preserve ovarian function and fertility in premenopausal women remains controversial. This systematic review and meta-analysis using individual patient\u2013level data was conducted to better assess the efficacy and safety of this strategy in patients with early breast cancer. Methods The trials in which premenopausal women with early breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy alone or with concurrent GnRHa were eligible for inclusion. Primary end points were premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) rate and post-treatment pregnancy rate. Disease-free survival and overall survival were secondary end points. Because each study represents a cluster, statistical analyses were performed using a random effects model. Results A total of 873 patients from five trials were included. POI rate was 14.1% in the GnRHa group and 30.9% in the control group (adjusted odds ratio, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.26 to 0.57; P, .001). A total of 37 (10.3%) patients had at least one post-treatment pregnancy in the GnRHa group and 20 (5.5%) in the control group (incidence rate ratio, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.06 to 3.15; P = .030). No significant differences in disease-free survival (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.72 to 1.42; P = .999) and overall survival (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.42 to 1.06; P = .083) were observed between groups. Conclusion Our findings provide evidence for the efficacy and safety of temporary ovarian suppression with GnRHa during chemotherapy as an available option to reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced POI and potentially improve future fertility in premenopausal patients with early breast cancer

Help-seeking behaviour among people living with chronic hip or knee pain in the community

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A large proportion of people living with hip or knee pain do not consult health care professionals. Pain severity is often believed to be the main reason for help seeking in this population; however the evidence for this is contradictory. This study explores the importance of several potential risk factors on help seeking across different practitioner groups, among adults living with chronic hip or knee pain in a large community sample.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Health care utilization, defined as having seen a family doctor (GP) during the past 12 months; or an allied health professional (AHP) or alternative therapist during the past 3 months, was assessed in a community based sample aged 35 or over and reporting pain in hip or knee. Adjusted odds ratios were determined for social deprivation, rurality, pain severity, mobility, anxiety/depression, co-morbidities, and body mass index.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 1119 persons reporting hip or knee pain, 52% had pain in both sites.</p> <p>Twenty-five percent of them had seen a doctor only, 3% an AHP only, and 4% an alternative therapist only. Thirteen percent had seen more than one category of health care professionals, and 55% had not seen any health care professional. In the multivariate model, factors associated with consulting a GP were mobility problems (OR 2.62 (1.64-4.17)), urban living (OR 2.40 (1.14-5.04) and pain severity (1.28 (1.13-1.44)). There was also some evidence that obesity was associated with increased consultation (OR 1.72 (1.00-2.93)). Factors were similar for consultation with a combination of several health care professionals. In contrast, seeing an alternative therapist was negatively associated with pain severity, anxiety and mobility problems (adjusting for age and sex).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Disability appears to be a more important determinant of help-seeking than pain severity or anxiety and depression, for adults with chronic pain in hip or knee. The determinants of seeking help from alternative practitioners are different from determinants of consulting GPs, AHPs or a combination of different health care providers.</p

Inhibition of nuclear factor kappa-B signaling reduces growth in medulloblastoma in vivo

Abstract Background Medulloblastoma is a highly malignant pediatric brain tumor that requires surgery, whole brain and spine irradiation, and intense chemotherapy for treatment. A more sophisticated understanding of the pathophysiology of medulloblastoma is needed to successfully reduce the intensity of treatment and improve outcomes. Nuclear factor kappa-B (NFκB) is a signaling pathway that controls transcriptional activation of genes important for tight regulation of many cellular processes and is aberrantly expressed in many types of cancer. Methods To test the importance of NFκB to medulloblastoma cell growth, the effects of multiple drugs that inhibit NFκB, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate, diethyldithiocarbamate, sulfasalazine, curcumin and bortezomib, were studied in medulloblastoma cell lines compared to a malignant glioma cell line and normal neurons. Expression of endogenous NFκB was investigated in cultured cells, xenograft flank tumors, and primary human tumor samples. A dominant negative construct for the endogenous inhibitor of NFκB, IκB, was prepared from medulloblastoma cell lines and flank tumors were established to allow specific pathway inhibition. Results We report high constitutive activity of the canonical NFκB pathway, as seen by Western analysis of the NFκB subunit p65, in medulloblastoma tumors compared to normal brain. The p65 subunit of NFκB is extremely highly expressed in xenograft tumors from human medulloblastoma cell lines; though, conversely, the same cells in culture have minimal expression without specific stimulation. We demonstrate that pharmacological inhibition of NFκB in cell lines halts proliferation and leads to apoptosis. We show by immunohistochemical stain that phosphorylated p65 is found in the majority of primary tumor cells examined. Finally, expression of a dominant negative form of the endogenous inhibitor of NFκB, dnIκB, resulted in poor xenograft tumor growth, with average tumor volumes 40% smaller than controls. Conclusions These data collectively demonstrate that NFκB signaling is important for medulloblastoma tumor growth, and that inhibition can reduce tumor size and viability in vivo. We discuss the implications of NFκB signaling on the approach to managing patients with medulloblastoma in order to improve clinical outcomes.</p

Unique Roles of Mothering and Fathering in Child Anxiety; Moderation by Child’s Age and Gender

We examined the associations between the parenting dimensions autonomy granting, over control, and rejection and children’s anxiety, in relation to parent and child gender and child age. Elementary school-aged children (n = 179, Mage = 10.27, SD = 1.30), adolescents (n = 127, Mage = 15.02, SD = 1.54) and both their parents completed questionnaires on parenting and children’s anxiety. Parenting was more strongly related to child anxiety in elementary school children than in adolescents. Maternal over control was uniquely related to elementary school-aged children’s anxiety whereas paternal over control was more important during adolescence. Opposite to our expectations, we found higher levels of parental autonomy granting to be related to higher levels of anxiety for younger elementary school-aged children (age < 10). For adolescents, the association between paternal over control and anxiety was stronger for older adolescents (age > 15), with higher levels of over control related to higher levels of anxiety. For both elementary school-aged children and adolescents, the associations between parenting and child anxiety did not differ as a function of the child’s gender. If we are to understand the associations between parenting and children’s anxiety, it is important to distinguish parental autonomy granting from parental over control and to consider the role of parent gender and the age of the child

Gene-Trap Mutagenesis Identifies Mammalian Genes Contributing to Intoxication by Clostridium perfringens ε-Toxin

The Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin is an extremely potent toxin associated with lethal toxemias in domesticated ruminants and may be toxic to humans. Intoxication results in fluid accumulation in various tissues, most notably in the brain and kidneys. Previous studies suggest that the toxin is a pore-forming toxin, leading to dysregulated ion homeostasis and ultimately cell death. However, mammalian host factors that likely contribute to ε-toxin-induced cytotoxicity are poorly understood. A library of insertional mutant Madin Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, which are highly susceptible to the lethal affects of ε-toxin, was used to select clones of cells resistant to ε-toxin-induced cytotoxicity. The genes mutated in 9 surviving resistant cell clones were identified. We focused additional experiments on one of the identified genes as a means of validating the experimental approach. Gene expression microarray analysis revealed that one of the identified genes, hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 1 (HAVCR1, KIM-1, TIM1), is more abundantly expressed in human kidney cell lines than it is expressed in human cells known to be resistant to ε-toxin. One human kidney cell line, ACHN, was found to be sensitive to the toxin and expresses a larger isoform of the HAVCR1 protein than the HAVCR1 protein expressed by other, toxin-resistant human kidney cell lines. RNA interference studies in MDCK and in ACHN cells confirmed that HAVCR1 contributes to ε-toxin-induced cytotoxicity. Additionally, ε-toxin was shown to bind to HAVCR1 in vitro. The results of this study indicate that HAVCR1 and the other genes identified through the use of gene-trap mutagenesis and RNA interference strategies represent important targets for investigation of the process by which ε-toxin induces cell death and new targets for potential therapeutic intervention