School Climate and Student Behavioral Problems

In recent decades, the world’s scientific and professional literature has been increasingly interested in contextual factors at the school level that support the academic and psychosocial outcomes of schooling. One of the constructs that is considered to be the key to improving the overall development of students is school climate. Although the available empirical material abounds in evidence of the effects of school climate on the academic and psychosocial outcomes of education, this link continues to attract the attention of researchers.The aim of this paper is to systematically consider the connection between school climate and student behavioral problems. Upon having an insight into numerous studies dealing with the issue, one can notice the connection between different forms of externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems, along with the indicators of a negative school climate, such as: vaguely set rules of conduct, teachers who do not motivate nor monitor students’ work and progress, lack of disciplinary measures, teaching without the use of modern forms and methods of work, inadequate reward for student achievements, negative classroom climate, bad relationships, poor cooperation with parents, etc.It is quite certain that the school environment, along with all its characteristics, climate and the way its is organized, directly or indirectly contributes to a specific manner of behaving. In addition to identifying school climate as a factor associated with various forms of externalized and internalized problems in student behavior, we must underscore its importance in reducing and preventing behavioral problems

Quantitative super-resolution microscopy: pitfalls and strategies for image analysis

Super-resolution microscopy is an enabling technology that allows biologists to visualize cellular structures at nanometer length scales using far-field optics. To break the diffraction barrier, it is necessary to leverage the distinct molecular states of fluorescent probes. At the same time, the existence of these different molecular states and the photophysical properties of the fluorescent probes can complicate data quantification and interpretation. Here, we review the pitfalls in super-resolution data analysis that must be avoided for proper interpretation of images.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Comparing autoencoder-based approaches for anomaly detection in highway driving scenario images

Autoencoder-based anomaly detection approaches can be used for precluding scope compliance failures of the automotive perception. However, the applicability of these approaches for the automotive domain should be thoroughly investigated. We study the capability of two autoencoder-based approaches using reconstruction errors and bottleneck-values for detecting semantic anomalies in automotive images. As a use-case, we consider a specific highway driving scenario identifying if there are any vehicles in the field of view of a front-looking camera. We conduct a series of experiments with two simulated driving scenario datasets and measure anomaly detection performance for different cases. We systematically test different autoencoders and training parameters, as well as the influence of image colors. We show that the autoencoder-based approaches demonstrate promising results for detecting semantic anomalies in highway driving scenario images in some cases. However, we also observe the variability of anomaly detection performance between different experiments. The autoencoder-based approaches are capable of detecting semantic anomalies in highway driving scenario images to some extent. However, further research with other use-cases and real datasets is needed before they can be safely applied in the automotive domain

Inhibitory synapse deficits caused by familial α1 GABAA receptor mutations in epilepsy

Epilepsy is a spectrum of neurological disorders with many causal factors. The GABA type-A receptor (GABA(A)R) is a major genetic target for heritable human epilepsies. Here we examine the functional effects of three epilepsy causing mutations to the alpha 1 subunit (alpha 1(T10T), alpha 1(D192N) and alpha 1(A295D)) on inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) mediated by the major synaptic GABA(A)R isoform, alpha 1 eta 2 gamma 2L. We employed a neuron - HEK293 cell heterosynapse preparation to record IPSCs mediated by mutant-containing GABA(A)Rs in isolation from other GABA(A)R isoforms. IPSCs were recorded in the presence of the anticonvulsant drugs, carbamazepine and midazolam, and at elevated temperatures (22, 37 and 40 degrees C) to gain insight into mechanisms of febrile seizures. The mutant subunits were also transfected into cultured cortical neurons to investigate changes in synapse formation and neuronal morphology using fluorescence microscopy. We found that IPSCs mediated by alpha 1(T10T)beta 2 gamma 2L, alpha 1(D192N)beta 2 gamma 2L GABA(A)Rs decayed faster than those mediated by alpha 1 beta 2 gamma 2L receptors. IPSCs mediated by alpha 1(D192N)beta 2 gamma 2L and alpha 1(A295D) beta 2 gamma 2L receptors also exhibited a heightened temperature sensitivity. In addition, the alpha 1(T10T)beta 2 gamma 2L GABA(A)Rs were refractory to modulation by carbamazepine or midazolam. In agreement with previous studies, we found that alpha 1(A295D)beta 2 gamma 2L GABA(A)Rs were retained intracellularly in HEK293 cells and neurons. However, pre-incubation with 100 nM suberanilohydroxamic acid (SAHA) induced alpha 1(A295D)beta 2 gamma 2L GABA(A)Rs to mediate IPSCs that were indistinguishable in magnitude and waveform from those mediated by alpha 1 beta 2 gamma 2L receptors. Finally, mutation specific changes to synaptic bouton size, synapse number and neurite branching were also observed. These results provide new insights into the mechanisms of epileptogenesis of alpha 1 epilepsy mutations and suggest possible leads for improving treatments for patients harbouring these mutations

Junctophilin-2 in the nanoscale organisation and functional signalling of ryanodine receptor clusters in cardiomyocytes

Signalling nanodomains requiring close contact between the plasma membrane and internal compartments, known as ‘junctions’, are fast communication hubs within excitable cells such as neurones and muscle. Here, we have examined two transgenic murine models probing the role of junctophilin-2, a membrane-tethering protein crucial for the formation and molecular organisation of sub-microscopic junctions in ventricular muscle cells of the heart. Quantitative single-molecule localisation microscopy showed that junctions in animals producing above-normal levels of junctophilin-2 were enlarged, allowing the re-organisation of the primary functional protein within it, the ryanodine receptor (RyR; in this paper, we use RyR to refer to the myocardial isoform RyR2). Although this change was associated with much enlarged RyR clusters that, due to their size, should be more excitable, functionally it caused a mild inhibition in the Ca2+ signalling output of the junctions (Ca2+ sparks). Analysis of the single-molecule densities of both RyR and junctophilin-2 revealed an ∼3-fold increase in the junctophilin-2 to RyR ratio. This molecular rearrangement is compatible with direct inhibition of RyR opening by junctophilin-2 to intrinsically stabilise the Ca2+ signalling properties of the junction and thus the contractile function of the cell

Frequent exchange of the DNA polymerase during bacterial chromosome replication

The replisome is a multiprotein machine that carries out DNA replication. In Escherichia coli, a single pair of replisomes is responsible for duplicating the entire 4.6 Mbp circular chromosome. In vitro studies of reconstituted E. coli replisomes have attributed this remarkable processivity to the high stability of the replisome once assembled on DNA. By examining replisomes in live E. coli with fluorescence microscopy, we found that the Pol III* subassembly frequently disengages from the replisome during DNA synthesis and exchanges with free copies from solution. In contrast, the DnaB helicase associates stably with the replication fork, providing the molecular basis for how the E. coli replisome can maintain high processivity and yet possess the flexibility to bypass obstructions in template DNA. Our data challenges the widely-accepted semidiscontinuous model of chromosomal replication, instead supporting a fully discontinuous mechanism in which synthesis of both leading and lagging strands is frequently interrupted

ESPAD Report 2019: Results From European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs

The main purpose of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is to collect comparable data on substance use and other forms of risk behaviour among 15- to 16-year-old students in order to monitor trends within, as well as between, countries. Between 1995 and 2019, seven waves of data collection were conducted across 49 European countries. This report presents selected key results. The full set of data on which the current report is based, including all of the standard tables, is available online (http://www.espad.org). All tables can be downloaded in Excel format and used for further analysi

Partnering for sustainability : Parent-Teacher-School (PTS) interactions in the Qatar education system

The interaction avenues, levels, and impacts between parents, schools and teachers have changed drastically due to the ever-increasing responsibilities, frequent and rapid changes in the curriculum, the invasive dominance of the internet and digital media in the lives of all stakeholders, and the digitization of learning materials, to name a few. This pilot study follows a design-thinking approach to investigate the current practices, needs, and challenges of parental involvement in public schools in Qatar to improve student achievements towards sustainable living and habits by identifying problems, developing solutions, and improving student achievement in conjunction with all local and relevant stakeholders. To this end, building on extensive and comparative studies on theories, models, and best practices within and outside the selected domain, a qualitative study is conducted to obtain insight from local teachers and parents in preparatory public schools. The grounded theory method is employed to analyze the data via the qualitative coding technique. The results indicate that parental involvement practices in Qatar public schools occur in different forms, including home-based and school-based learning. Furthermore, while almost all parents recognize the significance of parental involvement and show a high level of interest in being on the ‘Board of Trustees’, in reality, very few participate or volunteer in school activities, and they rarely visit classrooms or interact with teachers or schools, mainly due to their increasing job-related commitments. In addition, the majority of parents indicate the need for additional flexibility in communication with the school to increase their involvement. Meanwhile, the teachers highlight the significant lack of parental involvement in understanding, overcoming and improving student achievement in both academic subjects and sustainable living habits and actions. The study outlines a few key suggestions to overcome these challenges and improve the parent-teacher-school (PTS) partnership, including offering mandatory parenting classes, developing and implementing effective communication mechanisms to facilitate parent-school interactions, and involving parents in decision-making process relating to their children and other school-related activities. Despite the sampling limitation, this study’s findings represent a starting point for understanding the needs of PTS partnerships, current practices of parental involvement, and mechanisms to improve their contribution to Qatar’s schools

Single molecule evaluation of fluorescent protein photoactivation efficiency using an in vivo nanotemplate

Photoswitchable fluorescent probes are central to localization-based super-resolution microscopy. Among these probes, fluorescent proteins are appealing because they are genetically encoded. Moreover, the ability to achieve a 1:1 labeling ratio between the fluorescent protein and the protein of interest makes these probes attractive for quantitative single-molecule counting. The percentage of fluorescent protein that is photoactivated into a fluorescently detectable form (i.e., the photoactivation efficiency) plays a crucial part in properly interpreting the quantitative information. It is important to characterize the photoactivation efficiency at the single-molecule level under the conditions used in super-resolution imaging. Here, we used the human glycine receptor expressed in Xenopus oocytes and stepwise photobleaching or single-molecule counting photoactivated localization microcopy (PALM) to determine the photoactivation efficiency of fluorescent proteins mEos2, mEos3.1, mEos3.2, Dendra2, mClavGR2, mMaple, PA-GFP and PA-mCherry. This analysis provides important information that must be considered when using these fluorescent proteins in quantitative super-resolution microscopy.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft