OPENING ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM THROUGH PERMEABLE READ-ALOUDS

Thesis (Ed.D.) - Indiana University, Department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education/School of Education, 2020This research explored the ways that professional development can be designed to increase elementary school teachers’ understandings of their students’ literacies and lived experiences, opening spaces where they can enact read-alouds that are permeable to students’ life-worlds and literacies. Informed by a sociocultural perspective on literacy (Street, 1984; Gee, 1996; Heath, 1983), this research explored the following three questions: Q1: In what ways can teachers use read-alouds to open their curriculum and connect to children’s lived experiences? Q2: What elements of read-alouds show promise for engaging students in literacies that are grounded in their life-worlds and experiences? Q3: How can professional learning be designed to help teachers to know and understand their students’ lives and literacies, informing read-aloud practices? Data, consisting primarily of interviews and conversations with first-grade teachers, classroom observations, and field notes were collected in one Midwestern public school district. This qualitative study led to deeper understandings of the ways that teachers can learn to open the space of their read-alouds to make room for the students’ life-worlds. Findings reveal that professional learning can empower teachers to shift their read-aloud practices from teaching to the curriculum to teaching to open the curriculum

Multi-Omics and Pathway analyses of Genome-Wide associations Implicate Regulation and Immunity in Verbal Declarative Memory Performance

BACKGROUND: Uncovering the functional relevance underlying verbal declarative memory (VDM) genome-wide association study (GWAS) results may facilitate the development of interventions to reduce age-related memory decline and dementia. METHODS: We performed multi-omics and pathway enrichment analyses of paragraph (PAR-dr) and word list (WL-dr) delayed recall GWAS from 29,076 older non-demented individuals of European descent. We assessed the relationship between single-variant associations and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in 44 tissues and methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) in the hippocampus. We determined the relationship between gene associations and transcript levels in 53 tissues, annotation as immune genes, and regulation by transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs. to identify significant pathways, gene set enrichment was tested in each cohort and meta-analyzed across cohorts. Analyses of differential expression in brain tissues were conducted for pathway component genes. RESULTS: The single-variant associations of VDM showed significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) with eQTLs across all tissues and meQTLs within the hippocampus. Stronger WL-dr gene associations correlated with reduced expression in four brain tissues, including the hippocampus. More robust PAR-dr and/or WL-dr gene associations were intricately linked with immunity and were influenced by 31 TFs and 2 microRNAs. Six pathways, including type I diabetes, exhibited significant associations with both PAR-dr and WL-dr. These pathways included fifteen MHC genes intricately linked to VDM performance, showing diverse expression patterns based on cognitive status in brain tissues. CONCLUSIONS: VDM genetic associations influence expression regulation via eQTLs and meQTLs. The involvement of TFs, microRNAs, MHC genes, and immune-related pathways contributes to VDM performance in older individuals

AIDS-related mycoses: the way forward.

The contribution of fungal infections to the morbidity and mortality of HIV-infected individuals is largely unrecognized. A recent meeting highlighted several priorities that need to be urgently addressed, including improved epidemiological surveillance, increased availability of existing diagnostics and drugs, more training in the field of medical mycology, and better funding for research and provision of treatment, particularly in developing countries

Genome-wide meta-analyses reveal novel loci for verbal short-term memory and learning

Understanding the genomic basis of memory processes may help in combating neurodegenerative disorders. Hence, we examined the associations of common genetic variants with verbal short-term memory and verbal learning in adults without dementia or stroke (N = 53,637). We identified novel loci in the intronic region of CDH18, and at 13q21 and 3p21.1, as well as an expected signal in the APOE/APOC1/TOMM40 region. These results replicated in an independent sample. Functional and bioinformatic analyses supported many of these loci and further implicated POC1. We showed that polygenic score for verbal learning associated with brain activation in right parieto-occipital region during working memory task. Finally, we showed genetic correlations of these memory traits with several neurocognitive and health outcomes. Our findings suggest a role of several genomic loci in verbal memory processes.Peer reviewe

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Author Correction:Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function

Christina M. Lill, who contributed to analysis of data, was inadvertently omitted from the author list in the originally published version of this article. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the article

Keynote Address: The Aesthetic Qualities of Aboriginal Writing

For the Aboriginal storyteller, the politics of story and the act of telling involves mediating the relationship between languages and the world views they produce and represent. As Armstrong explains, for Aboriginal storytellers, this process requires an awareness of how non-linear First Language literature has been transformed by the linear imperatives of the English language and White Western scholarship. Dualities present in original language texts are often compromised when translated into English, and must be recovered, if not re-imagined, by the Aboriginal storyteller whose ability to create “the thread which becomes history” can subvert English literary aesthetics and ensure cultural autonomy. First Language writers and scholars must keep in mind the specific challenges faced by Aboriginal storytellers from various historical periods in order to fully understand the real power and aesthetic of those works. N. Scott Momaday’s The Man Made of Words addresses many of these issues, and explains how we might re-imagine and re-story the things that are of us

14. An Okanagan Worldview of Society

Fig. 8 Totemic Sentry, Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada. Photo by Jason Hall (2008), CC BY. I grew up in a very remote part of the Okanagan on the Penticton Indian reservation in British Columbia, Canada. I was born at home on the reservation, and I was fortunate to be born into a family that was considered by many people in our area as a traditionalist family. I grew up in a family where the first language was Okanagan, and which practiced hunting/gathering traditions on the land. I’m..

The Development and Evaluation of a Therapeutic Playgroup for Children with Developmental Delay

Jodie’s consumer driven doctorate entitled ‘The development and evaluation of a therapeutic playgroup for children with developmental delay’ arose from parents’ desire for early access to therapy and connection with other families sharing their experience when first referred for services. Embedded into the Child Development Service, this seven-stage doctorate collaborated with over 150 consumers, policy-makers, practitioners and community members during the planning, development, and evaluation, ensuring translation and the development of an intervention of relevance