Teachers\u27 Perceptions and Concerns of Year-Round Education in Tennessee High School Agriculture Programs

The purpose of this study was to focus on the emergence of year-round education and its possible effects on agricultural education programs throughout the state of Tennessee. The study collected perceptions of teachers who currently teach in a Tennessee high school agriculture program regarding the implementation of a year-round program at their school. A survey was designed and sent to all 284 teachers identified in the 2002-2003 Tennessee Agriculture teacher directory. Findings were based upon a 69% response rate. Findings The total number of survey respondents was 197; of these 93 .1 % taught in schools operating on a traditional schedule, while 6.9% taught in schools that operate on a year-round schedule. Of the 197 respondents 73.9% stated no schedule change was being proposed by their respective school district, 25% are proposing a change from a traditional schedule to a year-round schedule, and 1.1 % stated their school system is proposing a change from a year-round to a traditional schedule. The majority (59.1 %) of the agriculture education instructors at schools on traditional schedules showed some level of concern regarding the implementation of a year-round schedule at their school. Of the respondents on a traditional schedule the largest percentage (38.7%) showed some level of agreement with the statement: \u27If a year-round schedule is implemented at my school my instructional methods would not change.\u27 However, the largest number (41.7%) of teachers on a year-round schedule were neutral regarding this statement. The largest percentage of respondents on a traditional schedule felt that both teacher (43.4%) and student burnout (45.7%) would increase following the implementation of a year-round schedule. The largest number (50%) of teachers on a year-round schedule felt that teacher burnout would decrease even though the respondents were evenly divided regarding increased/decreased student burnout. vi The majority (59.8%) of respondents on a traditional schedule felt that student discipline problems would remain the same following the implementation of a year-round schedule. The largest percentage of respondents (41.7%) on a year-round schedule felt that discipline problems would increase. Of the teachers on a traditional schedule 39.5% felt that the time students spend on S.A.E.\u27s would decrease while 39% were neutral. The majority of the respondents on a year-round schedule were neutral. The majority (68.2%) of respondents on a traditional schedule as well as those on a year-round schedule, felt that it would be more difficult to schedule events such as State Convention and FF A Camp. Conclusions Forty-nine (26.1 % ) teachers stated their schools are proposing schedule changes indicating that schedule changes may be forthcoming for some Tennessee high school agriculture programs. The majority of teachers on a traditional schedule are concerned about the implementation of a year-round schedule at their school while the majority of teachers on a year-round schedule are not concerned. This possibly makes the concerns of teachers on a traditional schedule unwarranted and influenced by inexperience with the schedule itself. There are differing biggest concerns regarding the implementation of a year-round schedule between the two statistical groups. This raises the question, Are changes in curriculum and instruction the biggest concern of teachers beginning to teach on a year-round schedule? The largest number of teachers on a traditional schedule feel that teacher burnout would increase following the implementation of a year-round schedule at the school where they currently teach. However, the largest number of teachers on a year-round schedule feel that teacher burnout would decrease reaffirming the data given from Ballinger, Kirschenbaum, and Poimbeauf ( 1987). The largest number of respondents currently on a year-round schedule stated that student discipline problems would increase, contradicting the data collected from the Oxnard School District (Oxnard, 1992)

Transcriptome profiling of chemosensory appendages in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae reveals tissue- and sex-specific signatures of odor coding

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chemosensory signal transduction guides the behavior of many insects, including <it>Anopheles gambiae</it>, the major vector for human malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. To better understand the molecular basis of mosquito chemosensation we have used whole transcriptome RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to compare transcript expression profiles between the two major chemosensory tissues, the antennae and maxillary palps, of adult female and male <it>An. gambiae</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We compared chemosensory tissue transcriptomes to whole body transcriptomes of each sex to identify chemosensory enhanced genes. In the six data sets analyzed, we detected expression of nearly all known chemosensory genes and found them to be highly enriched in both olfactory tissues of males and females. While the maxillary palps of both sexes demonstrated strict chemosensory gene expression overlap, we observed acute differences in sensory specialization between male and female antennae. The relatively high expression levels of chemosensory genes in the female antennae reveal its role as an organ predominately assigned to chemosensation. Remarkably, the expression of these genes was highly conserved in the male antennae, but at much lower relative levels. Alternatively, consistent with a role in mating, the male antennae displayed significant enhancement of genes involved in audition, while the female enhancement of these genes was observed, but to a lesser degree.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings suggest that the chemoreceptive spectrum, as defined by gene expression profiles, is largely similar in female and male <it>An. gambiae</it>. However, assuming sensory receptor expression levels are correlated with sensitivity in each case, we posit that male and female antennae are perceptive to the same stimuli, but possess inverse receptive prioritizations and sensitivities. Here we have demonstrated the use of RNA-seq to characterize the sensory specializations of an important disease vector and grounded future studies investigating chemosensory processes.</p

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, Including 28 Subphenotypes

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, Including 28 Subphenotypes journaltitle: Cell articlelink: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.05.046 content_type: article copyright: © 2018 Elsevier Inc