Creating A Culture Of Independent Reading Among African American Students, Especially Black Males

The research question addressed in this project is: How can I create a culture of independent reading among African American students, especially black males? The goal is to help motivate students to become lifelong readers who will be prepared to develop their life choices into great successes. The author examines the history of education of African Americans and the ensuing achievement gap. She discusses literature on the topic of motivating African American students, especially males, to see the value of reading and education, and includes literature on culturally relevant teaching. She documents three areas of teaching that influence the development of a culture of readers. These are vocabulary, independent reading, and teacher read-alouds. Research has shown that teacher read-alouds have a positive impact on independent reading, so the teacher shared read-aloud project was developed. The structure and implementation of the read-aloud project are documented and described for use by others

Claire Doquet, L’écriture débutante, pratiques scripturales à l’école élémentaire

Cet ouvrage présente un intérêt important pour la connaissance du processus scriptural et de son apprentissage. En effet, s’intéressant aux scripteurs débutants (élèves en fin de cursus de l’école primaire), Claire Doquet cherche à mieux comprendre l’activité d’écriture telle que la pratiquent ces derniers et à définir plus précisément la charge cognitive demandée par cette activité, en examinant la genèse de productions d’écoliers. L’hypothèse originale, qui sous-tend l’ensemble de l’ouvrage..

Enhancing reactivity of aluminum-based structural energetic materials

Reactive metals are routinely added in applications such as propellants and explosives to increase energy density and total energy output. These materials are also becoming useful in warhead casings compared to traditional inert materials because of their ability to enhance weapon output such as peak blast pressure and blast impulse. Aluminum is a good candidate for such enhanced blast applications involving structural reactive warhead casings due to its high combustion enthalpy; however, under explosive loading, conventional aluminum casings expend little of the energetic potential stored within the material. In addition, aluminum casings are capable of producing large fragments (on the order of mm's) which can be diffi cult to ignite and are accelerated away from the target, lending no additional reaction enhancement to the initial blast. This study aims to determine the most e ffective methods of increasing the reactivity of aluminum warhead casings through modi fication of alloy composition and casing geometry using controlled explosive initiation experiments. The study also explores e ffects of explosive end confi nement and impact induced fragment reactions. Transient and quasi-static pressure measurements, high speed imaging, and spatially-varying spectroscopy are performed to determine the e ffectiveness of reaction enhancement for each alloy. In addition, analysis of coarse and fine fragments collected during experiments provides insight into the role of fragmentation size and distribution on reactivity enhancement of the aluminum materials. Generation of fi ne particles below 10 microns during initial fragmentation is believed to play a key role in the casing reactivity enhancement immediately following the high explosive detonation

Atmospheric Flow Validation for Contaminant Transport

Presentation on atmospheric flow validation for contaminant transport.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/presentations/1015/thumbnail.jp

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor interacts with adult-born immature cells in the dentate gyrus during consolidation of overlapping memories.

Successful memory involves not only remembering information over time but also keeping memories distinct and less confusable. The computational process for making representations of similar input patterns more distinct from each other has been referred to as "pattern separation." Although adult-born immature neurons have been implicated in this memory feature, the precise role of these neurons and associated molecules in the processing of overlapping memories is unknown. Recently, we found that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the dentate gyrus is required for the encoding/consolidation of overlapping memories. In this study, we provide evidence that consolidation of these "pattern-separated" memories requires the action of BDNF on immature neurons specifically.The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council . Grant Number: BB/G019002/1 The Innovative Medicine Initiative Joint Undertaking . Grant Number: 115008 The European Union's Seventh Framework Programme . Grant Number: FP7/2007-2013 The James S. McDonnell Foundation, Mather's Foundation, NIMH, Ellison Foundation, NINDS, NIMH, NIA, JPB FoundationThis is the final published version, which can also be viewed online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.22304/ful

Improving Hippocampal Memory Through the Experience of a Rich Minecraft Environment

It is well known that the brain changes in response to the surrounding environment. The hippocampus has been shown to be particularly susceptible to environmental enrichment, with effects ranging from the generation of new hippocampal neurons and synapses to an increased expression of neurotrophic factors. While many of these changes in the hippocampus are well documented in animals, our understanding of how environmental enrichment can apply to humans is more ambiguous. In animals, spatial exploration has been shown to be a clear way to elicit the effects of environmental enrichment and considering the role of the hippocampus in spatial navigation, which has been shown in both animal models and humans, it suggests a viable avenue for translation of environmental enrichment to humans. Here, we test the hypothesis that the spatial exploration of a virtual video game environment, can impact the hippocampus and lead to an improvement in hippocampal-dependent memory. Using the video game Minecraft, we tested four groups of participants, each playing on custom servers and focusing on different aspects of Minecraft to test the effects of both building and exploration over the course of 2 weeks. We found an improvement in hippocampus-associated memory from pre-test to post-test and that the degree of improvement was tied to both the amount of exploration of the Minecraft world and the complexity of the structures built within Minecraft. Thus, the number of enrichment participants engaged in while playing Minecraft was directly correlated with improvements in hippocampal-dependent memory outside of the game

Metallorganische Lewis-Säuren. L

Die Metallorganischen Lewis-Säuren Ph3PAuNO3 (1) und (CO)5ReFBF3 (2) setzen sich mit den Dithiolato-Metallkomplexen (Bu4N)2[M(mnt)2] (mnt = maleonitrildithiolato, M = Ni, Cu, Pt, Zn) und (Bu4N)2[Zn(dmit)2] (dmit = dimercaptoisotrithiono) zu den Komplexen (Ph3PAu)2mnt (3), (Bu4N)[Ph3PAu(mnt)] (4), (Ph3PAu)2Pt(mnt)2 (5) und (Ph3PAu)2dmit (10) bzw. [(CO)5Re]2Ni(mnt)2 (6), (Bu4N){[(CO)5Re]M(mnt)2} (M = Ni, Pt, 7, 8), [(CO)5Re]2(mnt)2 (9) und [(CO)5Re]2Ni(dmit)2 (11) um. Die Strukturen von 3, 4 und 5 wurden röntgenographisch bestimmt. In 4 ist der Chelatligand symmetrisch an das AuI-Atom gebunden. Im Kristall von 3 entstehen durch schwache AuAu-Wechselwirkungen Ketten (dAuAu = 309 pm). Die trans-anti-Konfiguration im Komplex 5 wird aus sterischen Gründen auch für die analogen Komplexe 6 und 11 angenommen. Während 1 mit K2[M(dto)2] (dto = dithiooxalato, M = Pd, Pt) die erwarteten Bis(triphenylphosphangold)-Addukte 12 und 13 bildet, ergibt 2 [(CO)5Re]2 (dto)2 (14) als stabiles Endprodukt. Das Triphenylphosphangold-Analogon 15 erhält man durch Reaktion von 1 mit K2dto. [(CO)5Re]2FeNO(dto)2 (16) kann als primäres Produkt der Reaktion von 2 mit [Fe(NO)(dto)2]2- isoliert werden. Re(CO)5+ und Ph3PAu+ können an die verbrückenden S-Atome von [(ON)2Fe(-S)2Fe(NO)2]2- unter Bildung von 17 und 18 addiert werden

Long-term labeling of hippocampal neural stem cells by a lentiviral vector

Using a lentivirus-mediated labeling method, we investigated whether the adult hippocampus retains long-lasting, self-renewing neural stem cells (NSCs). We first showed that a single injection of a lentiviral vector expressing a green fluorescent protein (LV PGK-GFP) into the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the adult hippocampus enabled an efficient, robust, and long-term marking of self-renewing NSCs and their progeny. Interestingly, a subset of labeled cells showed the ability to proliferate multiple times and give rise to Sox2+ cells, clearly suggesting the ability of NSCs to self-renew for an extensive period of time (up to 6 months). In addition, using GFP+ cells isolated from the SGZ of mice that received a LV PGK-GFP injection 3 months earlier, we demonstrated that some GFP+ cells displayed the essential properties of NSCs, such as self-renewal and multipotency. Furthermore, we investigated the plasticity of NSCs in a perforant path transection, which has been shown to induce astrocyte formation in the molecular layer of the hippocampus. Our lentivirus (LV)-mediated labeling study revealed that hippocampal NSCs are not responsible for the burst of astrocyte formation, suggesting that signals released from the injured perforant path did not influence NSC fate determination. Therefore, our studies showed that a gene delivery system using LVs is a unique method to be used for understanding the complex nature of NSCs and may have translational impact in gene therapy by efficiently targeting NSCs

Cdk5 Regulates Accurate Maturation of Newborn Granule Cells in the Adult Hippocampus

Newborn granule cells become functionally integrated into the synaptic circuitry of the adult dentate gyrus after a morphological and electrophysiological maturation process. The molecular mechanisms by which immature neurons and the neurites extending from them find their appropriate position and target area remain largely unknown. Here we show that single-cell–specific knockdown of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (cdk5) activity in newborn cells using a retrovirus-based strategy leads to aberrant growth of dendritic processes, which is associated with an altered migration pattern of newborn cells. Even though spine formation and maturation are reduced in cdk5-deficient cells, aberrant dendrites form ectopic synapses onto hilar neurons. These observations identify cdk5 to be critically involved in the maturation and dendrite extension of newborn neurons in the course of adult neurogenesis. The data presented here also suggest a mechanistic dissociation between accurate dendritic targeting and subsequent synapse formation