Barriers to Becoming CASE Certified as Seen by Agriculture Educators

There is a need to improve science comprehension in the United States. Incorporating scientific principles into the study of food production provides context to engage youth in STEM education. The Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) is an inquiry-based program that stimulates scientific engagement. While agriscience teachers believe in the concept, less than 20% are certified in Nebraska to teach CASE. Twenty-five active agriscience teachers, who were not CASE certified, individually discussed their reluctance to become CASE certified. Most research participants had a positive view of CASE but were concerned about the apparent stringent program structure. They questioned individualizing the CASE model for different teaching styles and programs. Three primary barriers to CASE certification were identified: cost, time, and administrative support. Although scholarships were available to cover certification costs ($2,500-$3,000) in Nebraska, participants questioned funding needed equipment and supplies to implement the program. Traditional CASE certifications require 50-100 hours of intense training, and participants opposed trainings that exceeded five days due to personal and professional obligations. Teachers also believe school administrators lack knowledge of CASE benefits. For the widespread implementation of CASE, certification trainings need to be more concise, implementation costs minimized, and school administrators informed of benefits

Impact of Prolonged Professional Development on Teachers’ Confidence in Using Inquiry-Based Learning in the Classroom

Professional development (PD) programs for science and agriculture teachers designed around the inquiry-based learning (IBL) teaching strategy could help to improve science proficiency amongst our high school students. PD that continues over a longer period of time is more effective than short-term workshops. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a prolonged PD program on teachers’ confidence in using IBL strategies for teaching animal sciences content. The following research questions guided this study: RQ1: What were participants’ perceptions of a prolonged PD program? and RQ2: How did the prolonged PD program influence the participants’ confidence in using IBL? For this project, the teachers completed three online modules focused on best practices for using IBL in the classroom and then participated in a five-day in-person PD program that was offered in Tennessee and Nebraska during June and July of 2022. Basic qualitative methodology was used, and four focus groups were conducted. The following themes emerged: perceptions of the PD and confidence in using IBL. Allowing teachers to work through the IBL activities as students appeared to increase their confidence in using IBL to teach animal science concepts in the future

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy and risk of malaria in early childhood: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (IPTp-DP) has been shown to reduce the burden of malaria during pregnancy compared to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP). However, limited data exist on how IPTp regimens impact malaria risk during infancy. We conducted a double-blinded randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the hypothesis that children born to mothers given IPTp-DP would have a lower incidence of malaria during infancy compared to children born to mothers who received IPTp-SP. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We compared malaria metrics among children in Tororo, Uganda, born to women randomized to IPTp-SP given every 8 weeks (SP8w, n = 100), IPTp-DP every 8 weeks (DP8w, n = 44), or IPTp-DP every 4 weeks (DP4w, n = 47). After birth, children were given chemoprevention with DP every 12 weeks from 8 weeks to 2 years of age. The primary outcome was incidence of malaria during the first 2 years of life. Secondary outcomes included time to malaria from birth and time to parasitemia following each dose of DP given during infancy. Results are reported after adjustment for clustering (twin gestation) and potential confounders (maternal age, gravidity, and maternal parasitemia status at enrolment).The study took place between June 2014 and May 2017. Compared to children whose mothers were randomized to IPTp-SP8w (0.24 episodes per person year [PPY]), the incidence of malaria was higher in children born to mothers who received IPTp-DP4w (0.42 episodes PPY, adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR] 1.92; 95% CI 1.00-3.65, p = 0.049) and nonsignificantly higher in children born to mothers who received IPT-DP8w (0.30 episodes PPY, aIRR 1.44; 95% CI 0.68-3.05, p = 0.34). However, these associations were modified by infant sex. Female children whose mothers were randomized to IPTp-DP4w had an apparently 4-fold higher incidence of malaria compared to female children whose mothers were randomized to IPTp-SP8w (0.65 versus 0.20 episodes PPY, aIRR 4.39, 95% CI 1.87-10.3, p = 0.001), but no significant association was observed in male children (0.20 versus 0.28 episodes PPY, aIRR 0.66, 95% CI 0.25-1.75, p = 0.42). Nonsignificant increases in malaria incidence were observed among female, but not male, children born to mothers who received DP8w versus SP8w. In exploratory analyses, levels of malaria-specific antibodies in cord blood were similar between IPTp groups and sex. However, female children whose mothers were randomized to IPTp-DP4w had lower mean piperaquine (PQ) levels during infancy compared to female children whose mothers received IPTp-SP8w (coef 0.81, 95% CI 0.65-1.00, p = 0.048) and male children whose mothers received IPTp-DP4w (coef 0.72, 95% CI 0.57-0.91, p = 0.006). There were no significant sex-specific differences in PQ levels among children whose mothers were randomized to IPTp-SP8w or IPTp-DP8w. The main limitations were small sample size and childhood provision of DP every 12 weeks in infancy. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to our hypothesis, preventing malaria in pregnancy with IPTp-DP in the context of chemoprevention with DP during infancy does not lead to a reduced incidence of malaria in childhood; in this setting, it may be associated with an increased incidence of malaria in females. Future studies are needed to better understand the biological mechanisms of in utero drug exposure on drug metabolism and how this may affect the dosing of antimalarial drugs for treatment and prevention during infancy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT02163447

Differential patterns of IgG subclass responses to <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> antigens in relation to malaria protection and RTS,S vaccination

Naturally acquired immunity (NAI) to Plasmodium falciparum malaria is mainly mediated by IgG antibodies but the subclasses, epitope targets and effector functions have not been unequivocally defined. Dissecting the type and specificity of antibody responses mediating NAI is a key step toward developing more effective vaccines to control the disease. We investigated the role of IgG subclasses to malaria antigens in protection against disease and the factors that affect their levels, including vaccination with RTS,S/AS01E. We analyzed plasma and serum samples at baseline and 1 month after primary vaccination with RTS,S or comparator in African children and infants participating in a phase 3 trial in two sites of different malaria transmission intensity: Kintampo in Ghana and Manhiça in Mozambique. We used quantitative suspension array technology (qSAT) to measure IgG1-4 responses to 35 P. falciparum pre-erythrocytic and blood stage antigens. Our results show that the pattern of IgG response is predominantly IgG1 or IgG3, with lower levels of IgG2 and IgG4. Age, site and RTS,S vaccination significantly affected antibody subclass levels to different antigens and susceptibility to clinical malaria. Univariable and multivariable analysis showed associations with protection mainly for cytophilic IgG3 levels to selected antigens, followed by IgG1 levels and, unexpectedly, also with IgG4 levels, mainly to antigens that increased upon RTS,S vaccination such as MSP5 and MSP1 block 2, among others. In contrast, IgG2 was associated with malaria risk. Stratified analysis in RTS,S vaccinees pointed to novel associations of IgG4 responses with immunity mainly involving pre-erythrocytic antigens upon RTS,S vaccination. Multi-marker analysis revealed a significant contribution of IgG3 responses to malaria protection and IgG2 responses to malaria risk. We propose that the pattern of cytophilic and non-cytophilic IgG antibodies is antigen-dependent and more complex than initially thought, and that mechanisms of both types of subclasses could be involved in protection. Our data also suggests that RTS,S efficacy is significantly affected by NAI, and indicates that RTS,S vaccination significantly alters NAI

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

RTS,S/AS01E immunization increases antibody responses to vaccine-unrelated Plasmodium falciparum antigens associated with protection against clinical malaria in African children:a case-control study

BACKGROUND: Vaccination and naturally acquired immunity against microbial pathogens may have complex interactions that influence disease outcomes. To date, only vaccine-specific immune responses have routinely been investigated in malaria vaccine trials conducted in endemic areas. We hypothesized that RTS,S/A01E immunization affects acquisition of antibodies to Plasmodium falciparum antigens not included in the vaccine and that such responses have an impact on overall malaria protective immunity. METHODS: We evaluated IgM and IgG responses to 38 P. falciparum proteins putatively involved in naturally acquired immunity to malaria in 195 young children participating in a case-control study nested within the African phase 3 clinical trial of RTS,S/AS01E (MAL055 NCT00866619) in two sites of different transmission intensity (Kintampo high and Manhiça moderate/low). We measured antibody levels by quantitative suspension array technology and applied regression models, multimarker analysis, and machine learning techniques to analyze factors affecting their levels and correlates of protection. RESULTS: RTS,S/AS01E immunization decreased antibody responses to parasite antigens considered as markers of exposure (MSP142, AMA1) and levels correlated with risk of clinical malaria over 1-year follow-up. In addition, we show for the first time that RTS,S vaccination increased IgG levels to a specific group of pre-erythrocytic and blood-stage antigens (MSP5, MSP1 block 2, RH4.2, EBA140, and SSP2/TRAP) which levels correlated with protection against clinical malaria (odds ratio [95% confidence interval] 0.53 [0.3-0.93], p = 0.03, for MSP1; 0.52 [0.26-0.98], p = 0.05, for SSP2) in multivariable logistic regression analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Increased antibody responses to specific P. falciparum antigens in subjects immunized with this partially efficacious vaccine upon natural infection may contribute to overall protective immunity against malaria. Inclusion of such antigens in multivalent constructs could result in more efficacious second-generation multistage vaccines

Effects of pre- and postnatal testosterone treatments on growth and carcass traits of heifers used in a single-calf heifer system

Three studies evaluated growth and carcass traits of heifers in a single-calf heifer system. In Study 1, 24 prenatally androgenized (PA) heifers and 27 control (C) heifers were fed a finishing diet postpartum and slaughtered at 1.1 cm s.c. fat. Calves were weaned at 117 d of age. Preweaning, PA heifers gained 22.5% faster $(P<.01)$ and were 17.3% more efficient $(P<.01)$ than C heifers. Calf gain was not affected. The PA and C pairs gained 2.88 and 2.53 kg/d, respectively, and efficiency improved $(P<.01)$ 10.8%. Pre- and postweaning, PA heifers gained 23% faster $(P<.01)$ and were 16% more efficient $(P<.02)$ than C heifers. At slaughter, PA and C heifers averaged 853 and 865 d of age, respectively. Skeletal (B\sp0) and lean (A\sp{60}) maturity scores were similar between treatments. One carcass was C-maturity. Marbling scores exceeded Small\sp{50}, and sensory traits were similar. In Exp. 1 of Study 2, 33 yearling (16 C and 17 PA) and 39 once-calved (20 C and 19 PA) heifers were used to evaluate effects of age and PA. Once-calved heifers gained 11% faster $(P<.08),$ but had similar $(P=.44)$ gain to feed ratios (.138 vs..131) as yearlings. Growth was not affected by PA. Yearling and once-calved heifers averaged 707 and 1080 d of age, respectively, at slaughter. Despite maturity differences $(P<.01),$ marbling scores $(P=.26)$ and percentage of choice carcasses $(P = .27)$ were similar. Organoleptic properties did not differ. Experiments 2 and 3 evaluated the effect of melengestrol acetate (MGA) and Synovex-H on feedlot traits of once-calved heifers. In Exp. 2, 48 once-calved Simmental cross heifers were fed to possess.8 cm s.c. fat. In Exp. 3, 52 moderately sized heifers were fed for 116 d. Performance in Exp. 2 was not affected by MGA, but heifers fed MGA in Exp. 3 gained 9% faster $(P<.05)$ than C heifers. In Exp. 2, Synovex-H improved ADG $(P<.09)$ and feed efficiency $(P<.07),$ but did not affect performance in Exp. 3. Carcass traits were not affected. In Study 3, 12 C and 12 PA L and five (2 C and 3 PA) nonlactating (NL) heifers were used to assess effects of PA and L on metabolic activity of s.c. adipose tissue (AT). The NL heifers gained.22 kg/d (13.9%) faster $(P=.20)$ than L heifers and had greater fat deposition, and PA heifers were fatter but gained 14.6% faster than C heifers, preweaning. Calves were weaned at 112 $\pm$ 1 d of age, and AT was biopsied at 77 and 126 d postpartum. Epinephrine (E) and norepinephrine (NE) increased in vitro fatty acid (IVFA) release 25 $(P<.01)$ and 15% $(P<.06),$ respectively. Near-maximal lipolytic release of IVFA as estimated by E with theophylline and adenosine deaminase (ETAD) stimulation was 73% greater $(P<.01)$ than basal rates. Basal IVFA release was not affected by PA, but ETAD-stimulated rates decreased $(P<.04).$ Basal, E-$(P=.22),$ and NE-stimulated $(P=.31)$ IVFA release rates were similar between C and PA. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio

Predicting teachers’ intent to use inquiry-based learning in the classroom after a professional development

In the United States, there is an increasing need for high school students to enhance their science proficiency. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) can serve as a teaching strategy to increase students’ science proficiency levels, but it is critical that teachers are equipped with the knowledge needed to teach IBL. In this study, we aimed to describe the impact that a professional development (PD) about integrating IBL into curricula has on science and agriscience teachers’ intent to use IBL. The theory of planned behavior, as well as confidence, guided this evaluation. A paper survey was distributed to the PD participants after the in-person part of a prolonged PD. Survey questions were related to respondents’ confidence, attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and intent in using the IBL animal science concepts. Findings from this study indicate that teachers developed an increased confidence, possessed positive attitudes, were influenced by subjective norms, and felt that barriers could be controlled. However, attitude was the only significant predictor of intent to integrate the IBL animal science concepts. We recommend pursuing a follow-up with the teachers after implementation of the IBL lessons to gain a better understanding of the practicality of IBL in the classroom.