What to do Until the Readiness Workbooks Arrive!

On a brisk October morning, Ms. Kind arrived at school early. Are those readiness workbooks here, yet? she asked Ms. Leeder, the principal. Not yet, Ms. Leeder replied, but they should be here any day now. I hope so, responded Ms. Kind. This morning I noticed how much the leaves have turned. The school year is moving right along. Since the school system\u27s goal this year is to have all children ready to begin reading instruction by the time they complete kindergarten, and my children have such a long way to go, I had better get started soon. Well, they\u27re due in any day now, Ms. Leeder repeated as she walked out to greet the first busload of children. For the next several weeks Ms. Kind checked every day to see if the workbooks had arrived. Finally, she was told that they were back-ordered and should be there after Thanksgiving! Meanwhile, Ms. Kind knew from talking with teachers in other schools that their workbooks had arrived weeks before. When Christmas vacation began and still no readiness workbooks had appeared, Ms. Kind decided to take matters into her own hands. Armed with journal articles she had copied at the library and some current textbooks, she sat down one snowy afternoon after Christmas, determined to plan her own reading readiness program. Her list at the end of the afternoon included five major knowings

A Simplified Miscue Analysis for Classroom and Clinic

In light of the work of Goodmans, Burke, and Tortelli, the author has developed a miscue analysis system which attempts to maintain the strengths and completeness of the RMI while eliminating most of its weaknesses

Reading Comprehension is Crucial but not Critical

Reading and English teachers are often aware that many adults who dislike reading in general and literature in specific learned their dislike through being required to memorize and parrot the teacher\u27s interpretation and evaluation of pieces of writing. Countless articles and books have reported this phenomenon and called on teachers to foster democratic principles by encouraging individual responses and divergent thinking in their classes. These same teachers, however, see many of their students unwilling or unable to offer any response to what they have read. The resulting dilemma requires that teachers either make negative value judgments about the thinking of their students and risk turning them off to reading, or make no attempt to stifle their students\u27 individuality and risk allowing them to get nothing from their reading. Most teachers are unable to allow the latter and insist that students obtain something even if it is the teacher\u27s ideas. The misunderstanding which unites reading comprehension and critical reading leaves the teacher little choice but either to ignore inaccurate and insufficient comprehension to prevent suppressing critical reading or to suppress critical reading to improve reading comprehension

Burnout and the Reading Teacher

It\u27s the end of the school day on Friday and most of the teachers are congregating in the lounge and classrooms, happily anticipating the weekend. Carole, however, walks straight to the parking lot without pausing to speak to colleagues as she did in former years. Today she informed the principal that she would not be renewing her contract as a remedial reading teacher and, although saddened by her decision, she also feels relief that months of increasing frustration and self-doubt have reached a conclusion. Part of the tragedy of this hypothetical but all too familiar example of Carole is her feeling of isolation in dealing with the stress and depression culminating in burnout generated by her work as a remedial reading teacher. Ironically, her high levels of enthusiasm and success in her preservice education program and the excitement of her initial teaching experience did little to prepare Carole for the inevitable frustrations and disappointments in remedial teaching over which she had little or no control. Although a certain amount of stress and other burnout-inducing factors are present in any teaching situation, the authors of this article propose that the realities of certain professionals, such as reading teachers, magnify stress to levels that require explicit acknowledgement and preparation on a collective, profession-wide basis

Targeted disruption of py235ebp-1: Invasion of erythrocytes by Plasmodium yoelii using an alternative Py235 erythrocyte binding protein

Plasmodium yoelii YM asexual blood stage parasites express multiple members of the py235 gene family, part of the super-family of genes including those coding for Plasmodium vivax reticulocyte binding proteins and Plasmodium falciparum RH proteins. We previously identified a Py235 erythrocyte binding protein (Py235EBP-1, encoded by the PY01365 gene) that is recognized by protective mAb 25.77. Proteins recognized by a second protective mAb 25.37 have been identified by mass spectrometry and are encoded by two genes, PY01185 and PY05995/PY03534. We deleted the PY01365 gene and examined the phenotype. The expression of the members of the py235 family in both the WT and gene deletion parasites was measured by quantitative RT-PCR and RNA-Seq. py235ebp-1 expression was undetectable in the knockout parasite, but transcription of other members of the family was essentially unaffected. The knockout parasites continued to react with mAb 25.77; and the 25.77-binding proteins in these parasites were the PY01185 and PY05995/PY03534 products. The PY01185 product was also identified as erythrocyte binding. There was no clear change in erythrocyte invasion profile suggesting that the PY01185 gene product (designated PY235EBP-2) is able to fulfill the role of EBP-1 by serving as an invasion ligand although the molecular details of its interaction with erythrocytes have not been examined. The PY01365, PY01185, and PY05995/PY03534 genes are part of a distinct subset of the py235 family. In P. falciparum, the RH protein genes are under epigenetic control and expression correlates with binding to distinct erythrocyte receptors and specific invasion pathways, whereas in P. yoelii YM all the genes are expressed and deletion of one does not result in upregulation of another. We propose that simultaneous expression of multiple Py235 ligands enables invasion of a wide range of host erythrocytes even in the presence of antibodies to one or more of the proteins and that this functional redundancy at the protein level gives the parasite phenotypic plasticity in the absence of differences in gene expression

Mixed Linear/Square-Root Encoded Single Slope Ramp Provides a Fast, Low Noise Analog to Digital Converter with Very High Linearity for Focal Plane Arrays

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) converts pixel voltages from a CMOS image into a digital output. A voltage ramp generator generates a voltage ramp that has a linear first portion and a non-linear second portion. A digital output generator generates a digital output based on the voltage ramp, the pixel voltages, and comparator output from an array of comparators that compare the voltage ramp to the pixel voltages. A return lookup table linearizes the digital output values

Education and Manpower in the Omaha SMSA

This report is a compilation of statistics having to do with education and manpower in the Omaha Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA). The SMSA consists of Douglas and Sarpy Counties in Nebraska and Pottawattamie County in Iowa

In Vitro Gene Expression Dissected: Chemostat Surgery for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

A unique approach, combining defined and reproducible in vitro models with DNA microarrays, has been developed to study environmental modulation of mycobacterial gene expression. The gene expression profiles of samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, from independent chemostat cultures grown under defined and reproducible conditions, were found to be highly correlated. This approach is now being used to study the effect of relevant stimuli, such as limited oxygen availability, on mycobacterial gene expression. A modification of the chemostat culture system, enabling largevolume controlled batch culture, has been developed to study starvation survival. Cultures of M. tuberculosis have been maintained under nutrient-starved conditions for extended periods, with 106 – 107 bacilli surviving in a culturable state after 100 days. The design of the culture system has made it possible to control the environment and collect multiple time-course samples to study patterns of gene expression. These studies demonstrate that it is possible to perform long-term studies and obtain reproducible expression data using controlled and defined in vitro models

Environmental limits of Rift Valley fever revealed using ecoepidemiological mechanistic models.

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) of humans and domestic animals are a significant component of the global burden of disease and a key driver of poverty. The transmission cycles of VBDs are often strongly mediated by the ecological requirements of the vectors, resulting in complex transmission dynamics, including intermittent epidemics and an unclear link between environmental conditions and disease persistence. An important broader concern is the extent to which theoretical models are reliable at forecasting VBDs; infection dynamics can be complex, and the resulting systems are highly unstable. Here, we examine these problems in detail using a case study of Rift Valley fever (RVF), a high-burden disease endemic to Africa. We develop an ecoepidemiological, compartmental, mathematical model coupled to the dynamics of ambient temperature and water availability and apply it to a realistic setting using empirical environmental data from Kenya. Importantly, we identify the range of seasonally varying ambient temperatures and water-body availability that leads to either the extinction of mosquito populations and/or RVF (nonpersistent regimens) or the establishment of long-term mosquito populations and consequently, the endemicity of the RVF infection (persistent regimens). Instabilities arise when the range of the environmental variables overlaps with the threshold of persistence. The model captures the intermittent nature of RVF occurrence, which is explained as low-level circulation under the threshold of detection, with intermittent emergence sometimes after long periods. Using the approach developed here opens up the ability to improve predictions of the emergence and behaviors of epidemics of many other important VBDs.The work was partially supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Change and Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in partnership with Public Health England (PHE) and in collaboration with the University of Exeter, University College London, and the Met Office. European Union FP7 Project ANTIGONE (Contract 278976). Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. The Alborada Trust