Serving Students with Asperger Syndrome in the General Education Classroom

The identification and prevalence of students with Asperger Syndrome (AS) in schools throughout the U.S. appears to be rapidly increasing (Barnhill, 2001a). Lamarine (2001 ), states that, Epidemiological evidence suggests that AS may affect approximately 7 out of every 1,000 people (p. 152). Many students identified as having AS are served in both special and general education classrooms. The purpose of this project was to emphasize the necessity of early identification and interventions, to review the characteristics of AS, and delineate best practice strategies for serving these students in the gen\:ral education classroom. The literature concerning teaching and learning for students\u27 with AS suggested many simple interventions that not only provide the needed support for students with Asperger\u27 s, but also benefit their general education peers. With the current research on Asperger\u27 s, and full collaboration between parents, students, and school personnel, the student with Asperger Syndrome can experience success within the general education classroom. The project consists of a handbook, which addresses the background of the disorder, characteristics and diagnostic criteria, along with strategies for inclusion and resources for both teachers and parents

Teaching Values, Teaching Stereotypes: Sex Education and Indoctrination in Public Schools

Many sex education curricula currently used in public schools indoctrinate students in gender stereotypes. As expressed in the title of one article: If You Don\u27t Aim to Please, Don\u27t Dress to Tease, and Other Public School Sex Education Lessons Subsidized by You, the Federal Taxpayer, Jennifer L. Greenblatt, 14 Tex.J. on CL. & CR. 1 (2008). Other lessons pertain not only to responsibility for sexual activity but to lifelong approaches to family life and individual achievement. One lesson, for example, instructs students that, in marriage, men need sex from their wives and women need financial support from their husbands. This Article first describes the ways in which teaching sex stereotypes may affect children, highlighting the need for further empirical research in this area. Second, it critiques the extant feminist legal response to gender-biased sex education curricula, particularly the use of precedent dealing with governmental perpetuation of stereotypes; those precedents cannot be incorporated wholesale into this context. Finally, to correct this analytical gap, this Article connects the sex education issue to the existing scholarly literature on indoctrination of schoolchildren, a literature that has hooks in both equal protection and the First Amendment. The First Amendment principles developed in this literature provide the missing link to explain the constitutional law in sex stereotyping at school. The result is an endorsement standard, based on a blending of equal protection and First Amendment doctrine: public school students should not be inculcated in values whose entrenchment by government is contrary to the constitutional commitment to sex equality

A Descriptive Study of Special Education Teachers Serving Students with Autism: Knowledge, Practices Employed, and Training Needs

Autism now affects a significant number of students in schools. It is well documented that the unique learning characteristics of these students differ widely from other learners requiring teachers to possess specialized skills (Simpson, 2005). Despite advancements in instructional practices for students with autism (Iovannone, Dunlap, Huber, & Kincaid, 2003) little attention has been given to examining the qualities of special education teachers who deliver services to these students.This dissertation evaluated special education teachers\u27 knowledge and implementation of educational practices critical for the improvement of students with autism and determined areas of training needs. The study was conducted with special education teachers employed in the Virginia Department of Education Region I. A survey instrument titled the Needs Assessment of Special Educators who Serve Students with Autism was created specifically for this research project. The survey evaluated the teacher\u27s knowledge, implementation, and training needs of the Virginia Skill Competencies for Professionals and Paraprofessionals Supporting Individuals with Autism Across the Lifespan. The survey was distributed electronically to special education teachers. A total of 498 responded. This equated to 21.3% of special education teachers from Region I. Participants reported a low to intermediate level of knowledge as well as implementation of practices. They reported the greatest knowledge in general autism, and the least knowledge in sensory motor development. The greatest level of implementation was in individualization and support strategies and lowest in social skills. Participants indicated an intermediate need for training. The most frequently reported was a need for training in social skills development and the least frequently reported was training in individualization and support strategies. Relationships between the level of knowledge, implementation, and training needs and teachers\u27 occupational characteristics were explored. Numerous occupational characteristics were found to have a relationship with level of knowledge and implementation, including area of endorsement, educational level, educational setting, number of students with autism taught, and student learning characteristics. There were no relationships found between the need for training and occupational characteristics. The results of this study have important implications for designing personnel preparation initiatives for current and future special educators

Rare Variant Analysis of Human and Rodent Obesity Genes in Individuals with Severe Childhood Obesity

A. Palotie on työryhmän UK10K Consortium jäsen.Obesity is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. Using targeted and whole-exome sequencing, we studied 32 human and 87 rodent obesity genes in 2,548 severely obese children and 1,117 controls. We identified 52 variants contributing to obesity in 2% of cases including multiple novel variants in GNAS, which were sometimes found with accelerated growth rather than short stature as described previously. Nominally significant associations were found for rare functional variants in BBS1, BBS9, GNAS, MKKS, CLOCK and ANGPTL6. The p.S284X variant in ANGPTL6 drives the association signal (rs201622589, MAF similar to 0.1%, odds ratio = 10.13, p-value = 0.042) and results in complete loss of secretion in cells. Further analysis including additional case-control studies and population controls (N = 260,642) did not support association of this variant with obesity (odds ratio = 2.34, p-value = 2.59 x 10(-3)), highlighting the challenges of testing rare variant associations and the need for very large sample sizes. Further validation in cohorts with severe obesity and engineering the variants in model organisms will be needed to explore whether human variants in ANGPTL6 and other genes that lead to obesity when deleted in mice, do contribute to obesity. Such studies may yield druggable targets for weight loss therapies.Peer reviewe

Improved imputation of low-frequency and rare variants using the UK10K haplotype reference panel

Imputing genotypes from reference panels created by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) provides a cost-effective strategy for augmenting the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) content of genome-wide arrays. The UK10K Cohorts project has generated a data set of 3,781 whole genomes sequenced at low depth (average 7x), aiming to exhaustively characterize genetic variation down to 0.1% minor allele frequency in the British population. Here we demonstrate the value of this resource for improving imputation accuracy at rare and low-frequency variants in both a UK and an Italian population. We show that large increases in imputation accuracy can be achieved by re-phasing WGS reference panels after initial genotype calling. We also present a method for combining WGS panels to improve variant coverage and downstream imputation accuracy, which we illustrate by integrating 7,562 WGS haplotypes from the UK10K project with 2,184 haplotypes from the 1000 Genomes Project. Finally, we introduce a novel approximation that maintains speed without sacrificing imputation accuracy for rare variants

Mechanical design of the optical modules intended for IceCube-Gen2

IceCube-Gen2 is an expansion of the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole that aims to increase the sensitivity to high-energy neutrinos by an order of magnitude. To this end, about 10,000 new optical modules will be installed, instrumenting a fiducial volume of about 8 km3. Two newly developed optical module types increase IceCube’s current sensitivity per module by a factor of three by integrating 16 and 18 newly developed four-inch PMTs in specially designed 12.5-inch diameter pressure vessels. Both designs use conical silicone gel pads to optically couple the PMTs to the pressure vessel to increase photon collection efficiency. The outside portion of gel pads are pre-cast onto each PMT prior to integration, while the interiors are filled and cast after the PMT assemblies are installed in the pressure vessel via a pushing mechanism. This paper presents both the mechanical design, as well as the performance of prototype modules at high pressure (70 MPa) and low temperature (−40∘C), characteristic of the environment inside the South Pole ice

The next generation neutrino telescope: IceCube-Gen2

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic-kilometer-scale neutrino detector at the geographic South Pole, has reached a number of milestones in the field of neutrino astrophysics: the discovery of a high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux, the temporal and directional correlation of neutrinos with a flaring blazar, and a steady emission of neutrinos from the direction of an active galaxy of a Seyfert II type and the Milky Way. The next generation neutrino telescope, IceCube-Gen2, currently under development, will consist of three essential components: an array of about 10,000 optical sensors, embedded within approximately 8 cubic kilometers of ice, for detecting neutrinos with energies of TeV and above, with a sensitivity five times greater than that of IceCube; a surface array with scintillation panels and radio antennas targeting air showers; and buried radio antennas distributed over an area of more than 400 square kilometers to significantly enhance the sensitivity of detecting neutrino sources beyond EeV. This contribution describes the design and status of IceCube-Gen2 and discusses the expected sensitivity from the simulations of the optical, surface, and radio components

Sensitivity of IceCube-Gen2 to measure flavor composition of Astrophysical neutrinos

The observation of an astrophysical neutrino flux in IceCube and its detection capability to separate between the different neutrino flavors has led IceCube to constraint the flavor content of this flux. IceCube-Gen2 is the planned extension of the current IceCube detector, which will be about 8 times larger than the current instrumented volume. In this work, we study the sensitivity of IceCube-Gen2 to the astrophysical neutrino flavor composition and investigate its tau neutrino identification capabilities. We apply the IceCube analysis on a simulated IceCube-Gen2 dataset that mimics the High Energy Starting Event (HESE) classification. Reconstructions are performed using sensors that have 3 times higher quantum efficiency and isotropic angular acceptance compared to the current IceCube optical modules. We present the projected sensitivity for 10 years of data on constraining the flavor ratio of the astrophysical neutrino flux at Earth by IceCube-Gen2