A Study of Attitudes and Feelings about Competency Based Testing in a Selected Eastern Nebraska Public School District

The minimum competency movement can be viewed as a national response of concern about the supposed decline in academic skills in the nation\u27s schools. When high school graduates have trouble reading a newspaper, balancing a checkbook, or filling out a job application, questions about the quality of their schooling are bound to be raised

Panel III: Implications of the New Telecommunications Legislation

We present a method that employs a tree-based Neural Network (NN) for performing classification. The novel mechanism, apart from incorporating the information provided by unlabeled and labeled instances, re-arranges the nodes of the tree as per the laws of Adaptive Data Structures (ADSs). Particularly, we investigate the Pattern Recognition (PR) capabilities of the Tree-Based Topology-Oriented SOM (TTOSOM) when Conditional Rotations (CONROT) [8] are incorporated into the learning scheme. The learning methodology inherits all the properties of the TTOSOM-based classifier designed in [4]. However, we now augment it with the property that frequently accessed nodes are moved closer to the root of the tree. Our experimental results show that on average, the classification capabilities of our proposed strategy are reasonably comparable to those obtained by some of the state-of-the-art classification schemes that only use labeled instances during the training phase. The experiments also show that improved levels of accuracy can be obtained by imposing trees with a larger number of nodes

CD4+ T cell hyporesponsiveness after repeated exposure to Schistosoma mansoni larvae is dependent upon interleukin-10

The effect that multiple percutaneous exposures to Schistosoma larvae has on the development of early CD4+ lymphocyte reactivity is unclear, yet it is important in the context of humans living in areas where schistosomiasis is endemic. In a murine model of multiple infections, we show that exposure of mice to repeated doses (4×) of Schistosoma mansoni cercariae, compared to a single dose (1×), results in CD4+ T cell hyporesponsiveness within the skin-draining lymph nodes (sdLN), manifested as reduced CD4+ cell proliferation and cytokine production. FoxP3+ CD4+ regulatory T cells were present in similar numbers in the sdLN of 4× and 1× mice and thus are unlikely to have a role in effecting hyporesponsiveness. Moreover, anergy of the CD4+ cell population from 4× mice was slight, as proliferation was only partly circumvented through the in vitro addition of exogenous interleukin-2 (IL-2), and the in vivo blockade of the regulatory molecule PD1 had a minimal effect on restoring responsiveness. In contrast, IL-10 was observed to be critical in mediating hyporesponsiveness, as CD4+ cells from the sdLN of 4× mice deficient for IL-10 were readily able to proliferate, unlike those from 4× wild-type cohorts. CD4+ cells from the sdLN of 4× mice exhibited higher levels of apoptosis and cell death, but in the absence of IL-10, there was significantly less cell death. Combined, our data show that IL-10 is a key factor in the development of CD4+ T cell hyporesponsiveness after repeated parasite exposure involving CD4+ cell apoptosis

Extent of gas hydrate filled fracture planes: Implications for in situ methanogenesis and resource potential

High-angle gas hydrate filled fracture planes were identified along a 31 m interval in logging while drilling images in two holes located ~11 m apart drilled during the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01, offshore India. Using Monte Carlo simulations to account for uncertainty in hole location, hole deviation, strike and dip, we assert with 95% confidence that the fracture planes in the two holes are not the same. The gas hydrate filled fracture planes likely only extend a few meters laterally from each borehole and occur in an isolated interval in the middle of the gas hydrate stability zone. This suggests gas generated microbially within in the gas hydrate stability zone may have supplied the gas hydrate-filled fracture interval. Production of methane from these reservoirs using conventional methods may be quite challenging

CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein-mediated gene editing in the plant pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Magnaporthe oryzae, the cause of rice blast disease, is a model fungus for studying plant-pathogen interactions and a major threat to global agriculture. From changes made to their DNA, pathogens like M. oryzae have evolved characteristics like aggressiveness, host range, and fungicide resistance. Once source of DNA variation, arises from DNA repair. There are many sources of DNA damage, with the most severe being double-strand breaks (DSBs) which can lead to genome instability if left unrepaired. Hence, eukaryotes have evolved complex repair mechanisms like microhomology-mediated-end-joining (MMEJ), non-homologous-end-joining (NHEJ) and homologous-recombination (HR) to repair DNA DSBs. Interestingly, these repair pathways have different rates of fidelity, meaning some pathways create more mutations than others. In filamentous fungi, the mechanism by which MMEJ repairs DSBs is not well molecularly characterized, so the purpose of this project is to identify genes controlling MMEJ. To facilitate this, we created knockouts for homologs of DNA repair genes. Five genes were selected for deletion, including ligase 1 A & B, and polymerases θ, 3, and 4. Two CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins were used to make DNA DSBs surrounding our target genes. Donor DNA encoding resistance to G418 antibiotic was supplied for insertion into the DSB site, where it served as a selectable marker when plated on complete media containing G418 antibiotics. DNA was extracted from individual colonies and used in PCR genotyping to test for the target gene and correct G418 integration. These knockouts will be characterized in future work to determine their individual roles in MMEJ DSB repair

Fracture-controlled gas hydrate systems in the northern Gulf of Mexico

High-angle, open mode fractures control the presence of natural gas hydrate in water-saturated clays at the Keathley Canyon 151 site in the northern Gulf of Mexico, which was investigated for gas hydrates as part of the Chevron Joint Industry Project drilling in 2005. We analyze logging-while-drilling resistivity images and infer that gas hydrate accumulated in situ in two modes: filling fractures and saturating permeable beds. High-angle hydrate-filled fractures are the most common mode for gas hydrate occurrence at this site, with most of these fractures dipping at angles of more than 40° and occurring between 220 and 300 m below seafloor. These fractures all strike approximately N–S, which agrees with the 165°SE–345°NW maximum horizontal stress direction determined from borehole breakouts and which aligns with local bathymetric contours. In one interval of hydrate-filled fractures, porosity increases with increasing hydrate saturation. We suggest that high pore pressure may have dilated sediments during fracture formation, causing this increase in porosity. Furthermore, the formation of gas hydrate may have heaved fractures apart, also increasing the formation porosity in this interval

Time Course of Changes in Peripheral Blood Gene Expression During Medication Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder.

Changes in gene expression (GE) during antidepressant treatment may increase understanding of the action of antidepressant medications and serve as biomarkers of efficacy. GE changes in peripheral blood are desirable because they can be assessed easily on multiple occasions during treatment. We report here on GE changes in 68 individuals who were treated for 8 weeks with either escitalopram alone, or escitalopram followed by bupropion. GE changes were assessed after 1, 2, and 8 weeks of treatment, with significant changes observed in 156, 121, and 585 peripheral blood gene transcripts, respectively. Thirty-one transcript changes were shared between the 1- and 8-week time points (seven upregulated, 24 downregulated). Differences were detected between the escitalopram- and bupropion-treated subjects, although there was no significant association between GE changes and clinical outcome. A subset of 18 genes overlapped with those previously identified as differentially expressed in subjects with MDD compared with healthy control subjects. There was statistically significant overlap between genes differentially expressed in the current and previous studies, with 10 genes overlapping in at least two previous studies. There was no enrichment for genes overexpressed in nervous system cell types, but there was a trend toward enrichment for genes in the WNT/β-catenin pathway in the anterior thalamus; three genes in this pathway showed differential expression in the present and in three previous studies. Our dataset and other similar studies will provide an important source of information about potential biomarkers of recovery and for potential dysregulation of GE in MDD

Large Magellanic Cloud Microlensing Optical Depth with Imperfect Event Selection

I present a new analysis of the MACHO Project 5.7 year Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) microlensing data set that incorporates the effects of contamination of the microlensing event sample by variable stars. Photometric monitoring of MACHO LMC microlensing event candidates by the EROS and OGLE groups has revealed that one of these events is likely to be a variable star, while additional data has confirmed that many of the other events are very likely to be microlensing. This additional data on the nature of the MACHO microlensing candidates is incorporated into a simple likelihood analysis to derive a probability distribution for the number of MACHO microlens candidates that are true microlensing events. This analysis shows that 10-12 of the 13 events that passed the MACHO selection criteria are likely to be microlensing events, with the other 1-3 being variable stars. This likelihood analysis is also used to show that the main conclusions of the MACHO LMC analysis are unchanged by the variable star contamination. The microlensing optical depth toward the LMC is = 1.0 +/- 0.3 * 10^{-7}. If this is due to microlensing by known stellar populations, plus an additional population of lens objects in the Galactic halo, then the new halo population would account for 16% of the mass of a standard Galactic halo. The MACHO detection exceeds the expected background of 2 events expected from ordinary stars in standard models of the Milky Way and LMC at the 99.98% confidence level. The background prediction is increased to 3 events if maximal disk models are assumed for both the MilkyWay and LMC, but this model fails to account for the full signal seen by MACHO at the 99.8% confidence level.Comment: 20 pages, 2 postscript figues, accepted by Ap

Heme oxygenase is induced in nephrotoxic nephritis and hemin, a stimulator of heme oxygenase synthesis, ameliorates disease

Heme oxygenase is induced in nephrotoxic nephritis and hemin, a stimulator of heme oxygenase synthesis, ameliorates disease. Heme oxygenase (HO) catalyses degradation of heme to biliverdin, iron and carbon monoxide (CO). Two isoforms exist, a constitutive form and an inducible form (HO-1). Induction of HO-1 may have protective effects in inflammation. We studied heterologous (HNTN) and accelerated (ANTN) nephrotoxic nephritis in Lewis rats. Hemin, an inducer of HO-1, (30 μmol/kg) was administered 18 hours before induction of nephritis and 72 hours later in ANTN. HO-1 was not detected immunohistochemically in normal glomeruli but was present in HNTN and ANTN in cells with the morphology of macrophages. HO-1 induction was confirmed by RT-PCR. In normal rats hemin induced glomerular HO-1 mRNA at 18 hours. In HNTN hemin markedly reduced proteinuria at 24 hours (10 ± 4 mg/24 hr; control 54 ± 16; P < 0.05), neutrophil infiltration at two hours (29.8 ± 1.8 vs. 22.3 ± 1.5 neutrophils/glomerulus, P < 0.05), and glomerular macrophage number at two hours (2.1 ± 0.1 vs. 3.1 ± 0.4 cells/glomerulus, P < 0.05). In ANTN proteinuria was reduced at day 1 and day 4 (36 ± 11 vs. 60 ± 15 and 35 ± 7 vs. 86 ± 9mg protein/24 hr, respectively, P < 0.001), glomerular thrombi were reduced by hemin at day 1 and 4 (1.5 ± 2.7 vs. 2.7 ± 0.2 and 1.3 ± 0.01 vs. 2.9 ± 0.02, respectively, P < 0.001) and glomerular macrophage infiltration was reduced on day 4 (11.2 ± 0.8 cells/glom; control 15.9 ± 0.8, P < 0.01). Possible mechanisms by which HO-1 ameliorates disease include anti-complement or anti-oxidant effects of bilirubin and vasodilator and anti-platelet effects of carbon monoxide