Education: A second career

Education provides women with the freedom to choose their destiny and forge a life for themselves if desired or necessary. Many women are denied the opportunity of education while growing up and must attempt to achieve such schooling later in life. For most women the decision to pursue this education can represent a very traumatic moment in their lives. Having faced the dilemma and decided to proceed, results in a very satisfying feeling when success has been achieved

Drugs of abuse inhibit striatal dopamine transmission evoked by prefrontal cortex inputs

Drugs of abuse target the reward system and have one common action in the brain: increasing dopamine (DA) in the striatum. Recently, it was shown that the activation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) inputs can evoke DA transients in the striatum, comparable to more conventional DA transients evoked by firing of midbrain DA neurons (DANs). In response to stimulation of glutamatergic inputs from the PFC, cholinergic interneurons fire action potentials and release acetylcholine (ACh), which in turns activate nicotinic ACh receptors on DA fibers and triggers DA release. It is yet unclear what is the function of this new form of DA transmission in vivo and the effects of drugs of abuse on it. Using in vitro voltammetry and transgenic mice with optogenetic techniques, DA transients were recorded in dorsal striatum by stimulating either PFC inputs or DAN fibers in the same brain slice. To our surprise, bath application of either cocaine, nicotine, ethanol, morphine, fentanyl, or THC all inhibited PFC-driven DA transients without affecting DAN-driven DA transients. Further experiments showed that while each drugs of abuse inhibit the PFC-driven DA transient, the mechanisms by which they do so differ. Furthermore, PFC-driven and DAN-driven DA transmission antagonized each other. When the stimulation of PFC fibers preceded stimulation of DAN fibers, the DAN-driven DA transient was depressed, and vice versa. These antagonistic effects were significantly reduced in the presence of cocaine. These findings encourage a reconsideration of how DA transmission in the striatum is affected by drugs of abuse and also reveal a novel interaction between two mechanisms of DA release that may be compromised by drugs of abuse.Fil: Shin, Jung Hoon. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Adrover, Martín Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Authement, Michael. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Álvarez, Verónica. National Institutes of Health; Estados Unidos10th IBRO World Congress of NeuroscienceDaeguCorea del SurInternational Brain Research Organizatio

A case study of four teachers' experiences while implementing the latest version of the Eureka Math curriculum in the state of Louisiana.

The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) develops all mathematic standards and curricula in Louisiana. Once approved, these items become the officially mandated curricula that each school must teach. LDOE is also responsible for the flow down of the official curricula to each school system, plus providing the appropriate amount of training to the math teachers to effectively implement the new curricula. For example, in 2017, a statewide assessment provided information on student mathematical proficiency. Based on the poor results, and improved mandated set of standards and curricula, LDOE launched a rubric of approved research-based curricula required for low performing schools. One of the curriculum options was Eureka Math Curriculum. In response to the LDOE Curriculum mandates St. Tammany Parish Public Schools (STPPS) decided in 2020 to implement the same required LDOE curriculum to all schools in the district no matter their performance. This change in curriculum culminated in the third curriculum between 2017–2020 change for most math teachers in the district. This study focused on the experiences of selected math teachers charged with implementing the Eureka Math curriculum into the STPPS. The data collected consisted of structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with four fourth and fifth-grade teachers school system. Hargreaves (1998) Changing Teachers, Changing Times framed this study. Using Hargreaves’s (1998) framework for the study, the researcher identified four obstacles teachers faced implementing a mandated curriculum. Finally, the researcher concludes with recommendations for best practices when implementing any mandated math curriculum. The researcher identified Eureka Math as the teachers’ primary change element to implement curricula changes. Using Hargreaves’s (1998) outline, the researcher identified four obstacles to overcome and offered three solutions towards the successful implementation of Eureka Math. The obstacles included: pacing and planning, lack of resources, need for increased support, and teacher autonomy. This study identifies three best practices for successfully implementing the challenging Eureka Math: increased support, leniency on the scope and sequence of curricula implementation, and a new requirement for focused and tailored instruction sessions for each level of math teachers

From Rarity to Recognition: Infantile Botulism and the Broad Spectrum of Differential Diagnoses

This case illustrates a 5-week-old girl who presented with decreased activity, decreased feeds, poor suck, weak cry, lethargy, hypotonia, and areflexia. The child was found to have infant botulism. The case demonstrates the importance of a full history and broad differential in an ill-appearing infant. The differential for an ill-appearing infant should always include infectious etiologies and may include metabolic disorders, congenital anomalies, nonaccidental trauma, neurologic disorders, and endocrine disorders. The broad differential diagnosis may make rapid diagnosis and treatment for infantile botulism a challenge

The Temperate Marine Phage ΦHAP-1 of Halomonas aquamarina Possesses a Linear Plasmid-Like Prophage Genome ▿

A myovirus-like temperate phage, ΦHAP-1, was induced with mitomycin C from a Halomonas aquamarina strain isolated from surface waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The induced cultures produced significantly more virus-like particles (VLPs) (3.73 × 1010 VLP ml−1) than control cultures (3.83 × 107 VLP ml−1) when observed with epifluorescence microscopy. The induced phage was sequenced by using linker-amplified shotgun libraries and contained a genome 39,245 nucleotides in length with a G+C content of 59%. The ΦHAP-1 genome contained 46 putative open reading frames (ORFs), with 76% sharing significant similarity (E value of <10−3) at the protein level with other sequences in GenBank. Putative functional gene assignments included small and large terminase subunits, capsid and tail genes, an N6-DNA adenine methyltransferase, and lysogeny-related genes. Although no integrase was found, the ΦHAP-1 genome contained ORFs similar to protelomerase and parA genes found in linear plasmid-like phages with telomeric ends. Southern probing and PCR analysis of host genomic, plasmid, and ΦHAP-1 DNA indicated a lack of integration of the prophage with the host chromosome and a difference in genome arrangement between the prophage and virion forms. The linear plasmid prophage form of ΦHAP-1 begins with the protelomerase gene, presumably due to the activity of the protelomerase, while the induced phage particle has a circularly permuted genome that begins with the terminase genes. The ΦHAP-1 genome shares synteny and gene similarity with coliphage N15 and vibriophages VP882 and VHML, suggesting an evolutionary heritage from an N15-like linear plasmid prophage ancestor