Discrepancies in the Ideal Perceptions and the Current Experiences of Special Education Teachers

The field of special education continues to have lower teacher retention rates compared to general education. As a result, concerns over the quality of special education teachers’ professional experiences have risen. Both general and special education teachers have their ideal views of the profession, including ample classroom facilities, available resources, and supportive administration; however, many factors can cause teachers to have less than ideal experiences in the field. The purpose of this study was to examine special education teachers’ ideal perception of teaching compared to their current experiences. The researchers conducted a causal comparative research study using the Perceptions of Success Inventory for Beginning Teachers (Corbell, Osborne, & Reiman, 2010; Corbell, Reiman, & Nietfeld, 2008). The study included a sample of 14 participants employed as special education teachers in one school system located in the southeastern United States. A series of paired sample t-test analyses were conducted. The results revealed special education teachers’ current experiences were rated significantly lower than their ideal perceptions in 7 out of 8 scales (i.e., colleagues, administration, classroom, success, resources, workload, and parents). This research could provide administrators with insight into what special education teachers view as essential, or ideal, for effective teaching. Then, administrators can better determine how teachers’ current experiences are or are not meeting the teachers’ expectations

Gene Expression Pattern Analysis of Anterior Hox Genes during Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryonic Development Reveals Divergent Expression Patterns from Other Teleosts

The regional identity of organs and organ systems along the anterior-posterior axis during embryonic development is patterned, in part, by Hox genes, which encode transcription factor proteins that activate or repress the expression of downstream target genes. Divergent nested Hox gene expression patterns may have had a role in facilitating morphological divergence of structures, such as the pharyngeal jaw apparatus, among evolutionarily divergent teleost fishes. Recent studies from several evolutionarily divergent teleosts, such as the Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes) and the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), have shown the presence of divergent expression patterns of several Hox genes within paralog groups 2–5 between these species. Specifically, these expression patterns were documented in the pharyngeal arches, which give rise to the pharyngeal jaw apparatus. While the expression patterns of several Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Hox genes that are orthologous to those of Medaka and Tilapia have been documented within the developing hindbrain and pharyngeal arches, many still have yet to be documented, especially within the pharyngeal arches during the postmigratory cranial neural crest cell stages. Here, we present the expression patterns of six Zebrafish Hox genes, hoxc3a, d3a, a4a, d4a, b5a, and c5a, within the pharyngeal arches during a postmigratory cranial neural crest cell stage and compare them to their orthologous genes of Medaka and Tilapia at similar stages. We show that while hoxc3a, d3a, and c5a of Zebrafish are absent from the pharyngeal arches, hoxa4a, d4a, and b5a show divergent expression patterns from their orthologs in Medaka and Tilapia. These observed divergences may be, in part, responsible for the divergent pharyngeal jaw apparatus structures exhibited by these fishes

A Comparative Examination of Two Online Programs

With increased enrollment of non-traditional students and concerns about student retention and degree progression, the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education could serve as a tool for improving course design and delivery within the online learning environment. The participants in this concurrent mixed methods study included 40 education and 68 nursing students. The results of the web-based survey data indicated group differences with the Cooperation among Students and Prompt Feedback subscales. Given professional development, the Seven Principles could be implemented into online courses at little to no cost for an institution to improve student satisfaction, which could lead to increased retention, progression, and graduation

Carbon fiber composite characterization in adverse thermal environments.

The behavior of carbon fiber aircraft composites was studied in adverse thermal environments. The effects of resin composition and fiber orientation were measured in two test configurations: 102 by 127 millimeter (mm) test coupons were irradiated at approximately 22.5 kW/m{sup 2} to measure thermal response, and 102 by 254 mm test coupons were irradiated at approximately 30.7 kW/m{sup 2} to characterize piloted flame spread in the vertically upward direction. Carbon-fiber composite materials with epoxy and bismaleimide resins, and uni-directional and woven fiber orientations, were tested. Bismaleimide samples produced less smoke, and were more resistant to flame spread, as expected for high temperature thermoset resins with characteristically lower heat release rates. All materials lost approximately 20-25% of their mass regardless of resin type, fiber orientation, or test configuration. Woven fiber composites displayed localized smoke jetting whereas uni-directional composites developed cracks parallel to the fibers from which smoke and flames emanated. Swelling and delamination were observed with volumetric expansion on the order of 100% to 200%. The purpose of this work was to provide validation data for SNL's foundational thermal and combustion modeling capabilities

Case Report: Color as a Therapeutic Intervention

Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Characterization of muscle in OI Model mice

Abstract only availableOsteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a congenital connective tissue disorder characterized by decreased bone mineral density and increased bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. In addition to skeletal fragility, patients with OI reportedly have muscle weakness although currently no systematic evaluation of muscle function or morphology in humans or animal models of the disease has been performed. Normal type I collagen is coded for two genes located on different chromosomes: COL1A1 and COL1A2. The oim/oim mouse is homozygous for a null mutation in the COL1A2 gene and is a phenocopy of human type III OI (severe disease phenotype). Heterozygous mice (oim/+) harbor the null mutation in only one allele of the COL1A2 gene and model human patients with type I OI (mild disease phenotype). We wanted to determine whether the reported muscle weakness in OI patients is due to a muscle pathology. We analyzed the muscle mass, fiber morphology, and cross-sectional area of muscles fibers of the hind limb muscles (quadriceps, gastrocnemius, plantaris, tibialis anterior and soleus), as well as the fiber type composition of the soleus muscle of wildtype (wt), heterozygous (oim/+), and homozygous (oim/oim) mice. Our results demonstrate that the muscle mass/body mass, fiber morphology, cross-sectional area of hindlimb muscles, as well as fiber type composition of the soleus muscle of oim, oim/+ relative to wt (+/+) mouse muscles were not significantly different between the genotypes. We correlated our morphologic findings with a functional contractile assay and determined that muscle tension-force generation and nerve conduction are not impaired in oim/oim or oim/+ mice. These findings suggest that oim and oim/+ mice do not have inherent muscle pathology. This knowledge is important in our ultimate understanding of skeletal muscle in OI model mice and ultimately, humans with this disease.Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunity Progra

Do type I collagen defects that cause Osteogenesis Imperfecta result in an inherent muscle pathology? [abstract]

Abstract only availableOsteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a congenital connective tissue disorder characterized by decreased bone mineral density and increased bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. In addition to skeletal fragility, patients with OI reportedly have muscle weakness, although currently no systematic evaluation of muscle function or morphology in humans or animal models of the disease has been performed. Normal type I collagen is coded for by two genes located on different chromosomes: COL1A1 and COL1A2. The oim/oim mouse is homozygous for a null mutation in the COL1A2 gene and is a phenocopy of a human type III OI (severe disease phenotype). Heterozygous mice (oim/+) harbor the null mutation in only one allele of the COL1A2 gene and model human patients with type I OI (mild disease phenotype). One of our aims is to characterize and determine muscle mass and cross-sectional area of hind limb muscle fibers in wild type (+/+), heterozygous (oim/+), and homozygous (oim/oim) mice. We analyzed muscle mass, fiber morphology, cross-sectional area of hindlimb muscles, as well as fiber type composition of the soleus muscle of oim, oim/+ relative to +/+ mouse muscles and determined that significant differences do not exist between genotypes. We also determined that there is no evidence of necrosis, degeneration, regeneration, hypertrophy or atrophy in hindlimb muscles of oim/oim and oim/+ mice. We correlated our morphologic findings with a functional contractile assay and determined that muscle tension-force generation and nerve conduction are not impaired in oim mice. These findings suggest that oim and oim/+ mice do not have inherent muscle pathology. This knowledge is important in our ultimate understanding of skeletal muscle in OI model mice and ultimately, humans with this disease.Biochemistry Departmen

Nocardia kroppenstedtii sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from a lung transplant patient with a pulmonary infection

An actinomycete, strain N1286T, isolated from a lung transplant patient with a pulmonary infection, was provisionally assigned to the genus Nocardia. The strain had chemotaxonomic and morphological properties typical of members of the genus Nocardia and formed a distinct phyletic line in the Nocardia 16S rRNA gene tree. It was most closely related to Nocardia farcinica DSM 43665T (99.8% gene similarity) but was distinguished from the latter by a low level of DNA:DNA relatedness. These strains were also distinguished by a broad range of phenotypic properties. On the basis of these data, it is proposed that isolate N1286T (=DSM 45810T = NCTC 13617T) should be classified as the type strain of a new Nocardia species for which the name Nocardia kroppenstedtii is proposed

A PK–PD model of ketamine-induced high-frequency oscillations

Objective. Ketamine is a widely used drug with clinical and research applications, and also known to be used as a recreational drug. Ketamine produces conspicuous changes in the electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals observed both in humans and rodents. In rodents, the intracranial ECoG displays a high-frequency oscillation (HFO) which power is modulated nonlinearly by ketamine dose. Despite the widespread use of ketamine there is no model description of the relationship between the pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamics (PK–PDs) of ketamine and the observed HFO power. Approach. In the present study, we developed a PK–PD model based on estimated ketamine concentration, its known pharmacological actions, and observed ECoG effects. The main pharmacological action of ketamine is antagonism of the NMDA receptor (NMDAR), which in rodents is accompanied by an HFO observed in the ECoG. At high doses, however, ketamine also acts at non-NMDAR sites, produces loss of consciousness, and the transient disappearance of the HFO. We propose a two-compartment PK model that represents the concentration of ketamine, and a PD model based in opposing effects of the NMDAR and non-NMDAR actions on the HFO power. Main results. We recorded ECoG from the cortex of rats after two doses of ketamine, and extracted the HFO power from the ECoG spectrograms. We fit the PK–PD model to the time course of the HFO power, and showed that the model reproduces the dose-dependent profile of the HFO power. The model provides good fits even in the presence of high variability in HFO power across animals. As expected, the model does not provide good fits to the HFO power after dosing the pure NMDAR antagonist MK-801. Significance. Our study provides a simple model to relate the observed electrophysiological effects of ketamine to its actions at the molecular level at different concentrations. This will improve the study of ketamine and rodent models of schizophrenia to better understand the wide and divergent range of effects that ketamine has.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Pioneer Award DP1-OD003646)Burroughs Wellcome Fund (Career Award at the Scientific Interface)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant 5R01MH061976)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (New Innovator Award DP2-OD006454

Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA) : The wavelength-dependent sizes and profiles of galaxies revealed by MegaMorph

We investigate the relationship between colour and structure within galaxies using a large, volume-limited sample of bright, low-redshift galaxies with optical-near-infrared imaging from the Galaxy AndMass Assembly survey.We fit single-component,wavelength-dependent, elliptical Sérsic models to all passbands simultaneously, using software developed by the MegaMorph project. Dividing our sample by n and colour, the recovered wavelength variations in effective radius (Re) and Sérsic index (n) reveal the internal structure, and hence formation history, of different types of galaxies. All these trends depend on n; some have an additional dependence on galaxy colour. Late-type galaxies (nr 2.5), even though they maintain constant n with wavelength, revealing that ellipticals are a superimposition of different stellar populations associated with multiple collapse and merging events. Processes leading to structures with larger Re must be associated with lower metallicity or younger stellar populations. This appears to rule out the formation of young cores through dissipative gas accretion as an important mechanism in the recent lives of luminous elliptical galaxies.Peer reviewe