Chapter 7 : Use of Assessments to Inform Educational Policies in French-Speaking Belgium

In French-speaking Belgium, the national assessments developed only lately, and there are not yet national assessments developed by professionals that can be used to evaluate trends. Therefore, the only tools available to rigorously evaluate trends are international assessments. French-speaking Belgium has participated in international assessments since the early 1970s and their results are highly valued by policy-makers. Their level of awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the education system can be considered as good. However, until recently, the impact of international assessments on education policies has been limited. Only scattered initiatives have been taken. From 2014, an extremely ambitious plan called Pacte pour un enseignement d’excellence has been launched. The Pact tackles most of the systemic weaknesses of the education system in FS Belgium and addresses at the same time structural change (lowering grade repetition, moving to a comprehensive lower secondary education), curricular changes and governance in a long-term perspective. A significant reform of the system of national assessments is currently under discussion

La estrategia Educativa 2020 o las limitaciones del Banco Mundial para promover el "aprendizaje para todos"

La nueva Estrategia Educativa 2020 del Banco Mundial establece las prioridades de reforma educativa en paises en vias de desarrollo para la decada siguiente. El titulo explicito de la estrategia, Aprendizaje para Todos, es un claro reconocimiento de que, mas alla de politicas centradas en el acceso, se debe hacer algo mas para asegurar que la educacion derive en experiencias positivas de aprendizaje. Sin embargo, como este articulo sostiene, las opciones de politicas explicitas y latentes en la Estrategia 2020 no son las mas adecuadas para lograr el Aprendizaje para Todos. El articulo desarrolla tres tipos de argumentos al respecto. El primero se refiere al fuerte apego del Banco a un conocimiento disciplinario y un enfoque metodológico que es insufi ciente para entender lo que aprenden los niños en la escuela y por que. El segundo argumento se refiere al sesgo pro-mercado de la Estrategia por lo que respecta a la reforma del sector publico y a nuevas formas de oferta educativa. En tercer lugar, el articulo senala las principales ausencias de la Estrategia, con especial atencion a las omisiones relacionadas con la compleja relación entre educación y pobreza.The World Bank's 2020 Education Strategy establishes the new education priorities in developing countries for the next decade. Its title, Learning for All, clearly recognizes that, beyond policies focusing on access, something else must be done to ensure that schooling involves positive learning experiences. However, as this paper argues, the 2020 Strategy explicit and latent policy options might not be adequate to achieve Learning for All. This paper develops three arguments on that matter. The fi rst one refers to the Bank's strong attachment to a disciplinary knowledge and a methodological approach that do not suffi ce to understand what children learn at school and why. The second one addresses its pro-market bias when it approaches the public sector reforms and the new forms of providing education. The last argument points out the main omissions of this Strategy, especially in what regards the complex relation between education and poverty

Establishment of a New Cell-Based Assay To Measure the Activity of Sweeteners in Fluorescent Food Extracts

Taste receptors have been defined at the molecular level in the past decade, and cell-based assays have been developed using cultured cells heterologously expressing these receptors. The most popular approach to detecting the cellular response to a tastant is to measure changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentration using Ca2+-sensitive fluorescent dyes. However, this method cannot be applied to food-derived samples that contain fluorescent substances. To establish an assay system that would be applicable to fluorescent samples, we tested the use of Ca2+-sensitive photoproteins, such as aequorin and mitochondrial clytin-II, as Ca2+ indicators in a human sweet taste receptor assay. Using these systems, we successfully detected receptor activation in response to sweetener, even when fluorescent compounds coexisted. This luminescence-based assay will be a powerful tool to objectively evaluate the sweetness of food-derived samples even at an industry level

Epigenetic abnormalities in myeloproliferative neoplasms: a target for novel therapeutic strategies

The myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are a group of clonal hematological malignancies characterized by a hypercellular bone marrow and a tendency to develop thrombotic complications and to evolve to myelofibrosis and acute leukemia. Unlike chronic myelogenous leukemia, where a single disease-initiating genetic event has been identified, a more complicated series of genetic mutations appear to be responsible for the BCR-ABL1-negative MPNs which include polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and primary myelofibrosis. Recent studies have revealed a number of epigenetic alterations that also likely contribute to disease pathogenesis and determine clinical outcome. Increasing evidence indicates that alterations in DNA methylation, histone modification, and microRNA expression patterns can collectively influence gene expression and potentially contribute to MPN pathogenesis. Examples include mutations in genes encoding proteins that modify chromatin structure (EZH2, ASXL1, IDH1/2, JAK2V617F, and IKZF1) as well as epigenetic modification of genes critical for cell proliferation and survival (suppressors of cytokine signaling, polycythemia rubra vera-1, CXC chemokine receptor 4, and histone deacetylase (HDAC)). These epigenetic lesions serve as novel targets for experimental therapeutic interventions. Clinical trials are currently underway evaluating HDAC inhibitors and DNA methyltransferase inhibitors for the treatment of patients with MPNs

: Direction de n° spécial de revue : "Education comparée", 2011, n°5

Consultable en ligne : http://www.i6doc.com/livre/?GCOI=28001100361400International audienceLes politiques d'accountability ne sont plus une nouveauté. Dès la fin des années 80, elles apparaissent comme une tendance, d'abord locale, des politiques éducatives nord-américaines, avant d'être consacrées à travers la politique fédérale de No child Left Behind (2001). A vrai dire, derrière ce terme très général d'accountability, il serait précieux de distinguer une grande diversité de politiques

Neodymium-doped cladding pumped aluminosilicate fiber laser tunable in the 0.9 micron wavelength range

A tunable high-power cladding-pumped neodymium-doped aluminosilicate fiber laser is demonstrated. The maximum power reached was 2.4 W with a slope efficiency of 41% and a threshold pump power of 1.68 W, both with respect to launched pump power, when cladding pumped by two 808 nm diode pump sources at both fiber ends. The dependence of the tuning range on the fiber length is investigated. The tuning range changed from 922 to 942 nm for a 25 m-long fiber to 908-938 nm with a 14 m-long fiber, because of reabsorption effects. The output linewidth was 0.26 nm in a diffraction-limited beam. Operation on the challenging 0.9 µm three-level transition in neodymium-doped double-clad fiber laser was facilitated by a W-type core refractive index profile. This filtered out the unwanted and competing strong transition at 1.06 µm while guidance of 0.9 µm remained intact

A plant plasma membrane proton-ATPase gene is regulated by development and environment and shows signs of a translational regulation.

A proton-pumping ATPase is present in the plasma membrane of plant cells where it sustains transport-related functions. This enzyme is encoded by a family of genes that shows signs of both transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. The regulation of pma1, one of the Nicotiana plumbaginifolia H+-ATPase genes, was characterized with the help of the beta-glucuronidase (gusA) receptor gene in transgenic plants. pma1 is active in the root epidermis, the stem cortex, and guard cells. This activity depends on developmental and growth conditions. For instance, pma1 activity in guard cells was strongly enhanced when the plant material (young seedlings or mature leaves) was incubated in liquid growth medium. pma1 is also expressed in several tissues of the reproductive organs where active transport is thought to occur but where scarcely any ATPase activity has been identified, namely in the tapetum, the pollen, the transmitting tissue, and the ovules. Several pma genes have a long 5'untranslated region (leader sequence) containing an upstream open reading frame (URF). Analysis of translational and transcriptional fusions with gusA in transgenic plants suggests that the pma1 leader sequence might activate translation of the main open reading frame, even though the URF is translated by a large majority of the scanning ribosomes. As confirmation, transient expression experiments showed that the pma1 leader causes a fourfold post-transcriptional increase of main open reading frame expression. Deletion of the URF by site-directed mutagenesis stimulated the main open reading frame translation 2.7-fold in an in vitro translational assay. These results are consistent with a regulatory mechanism involving translation reinitiation. Altogether, they suggest a fine, multilevel regulation of H+-ATPase activity in the plant