How does teachers’ professional agency in the classroom change in the professional transition from early career teachers to more experienced ones?

Professional agency is key for teachers’ professional development, for constructing their professional identity, and for promoting student learning. This longitudinal study explored the development of teachers’ (N = 201) sense of professional agency in the classroom in the professional transition from early career teachers to more experienced ones. We used latent profile analysis to examine the individual variation and change in teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom in a five-year follow-up. The results showed three distinctive profiles: a high sense of professional agency (64%), a moderate sense of professional agency (32%), and a low sense of professional agency (4%) in the classroom. The changes detected in the three teachers’ sense of professional agency profiles varied. The profiles were associated with teacher groups (i.e., primary teachers, subject teachers, and special education teachers), but not with stress, attrition intention or school size. The results imply that teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom does not always increase in tandem with experience, and thus, different kinds of support are needed for cultivating teachers’ sense of professional agency over time.Peer reviewe

Early Career Teachers’ Sense of Professional Agency in the Classroom and Associations With Their Perception of Transformational Leadership Vision and School Size

This study explores the relationship between early career teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom, their perceptions of principals’ transformational leadership vision, and school size. The survey data were collected from 779 primary and junior secondary school teachers with a maximum of 5 years of teaching experience in China. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in the Mplus statistical package. The results show that teachers possess a relatively high sense of professional agency and report that their principals exhibit a rather high ability to sustain shared transformational vision. The results also suggest that teachers’ sense of professional agency is positively correlated with their perceptions of transformational vision. Moreover, the results revealed that teachers’ sense of professional agency in terms of collaborative learning and transformative practice is significantly higher in small schools than in large schools. The results indicate the importance of transformational vision to facilitate teachers’ professional agency.Peer reviewe

Microbial Community and Functional Gene Changes in Arctic Tundra Soils in a Microcosm Warming Experiment

Microbial decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) in thawing Arctic permafrost is important in determining greenhouse gas feedbacks of tundra ecosystems to climate. However, the changes in microbial community structure during SOC decomposition are poorly known. Here we examine these changes using frozen soils from Barrow, Alaska, USA, in anoxic microcosm incubation at −2 and 8°C for 122 days. The functional gene array GeoChip was used to determine microbial community structure and the functional genes associated with SOC degradation, methanogenesis, and Fe(III) reduction. Results show that soil incubation after 122 days at 8°C significantly decreased functional gene abundance (P < 0.05) associated with SOC degradation, fermentation, methanogenesis, and iron cycling, particularly in organic-rich soil. These observations correspond well with decreases in labile SOC content (e.g., reducing sugar and ethanol), methane and CO2 production, and Fe(III) reduction. In contrast, the community functional structure was largely unchanged in the −2°C incubation. Soil type (i.e., organic vs. mineral) and the availability of labile SOC were among the most significant factors impacting microbial community structure. These results demonstrate the important roles of microbial community in SOC degradation and support previous findings that SOC in organic-rich Arctic tundra is highly vulnerable to microbial degradation under warming

The extended Heine-Stieltjes polynomials associated with a special LMG model

New polynomials associated with a special Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model corresponding to the standard two-site Bose-Hubbard model are derived based on the Stieltjes correspondence. It is shown that there is a one-to-one correspondence between zeros of this new polynomial and solutions of the Bethe ansatz equations for the LMG model.A one-dimensional classical electrostatic analogue corresponding to the special LMG model is established according to Stieltjes early work. It shows that any possible configuration of equilibrium positions of the charges in the electrostatic problem corresponds uniquely to one set of roots of the Bethe ansatz equations for the LMG model, and the number of possible configurations of equilibrium positions of the charges equals exactly to the number of energy levels in the LMG model. Some relations of sums of powers and inverse powers of zeros of the new polynomials related to the eigenenergies of the LMG model are derived.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

Genome-Wide Linkage Scan of a Pedigree with Familial Hypercholesterolemia Suggests Susceptibility Loci on Chromosomes 3q25-26 and 21q22

BACKGROUND: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a heritable disorder that can increase the risk of premature coronary heart disease. Studies suggest there are substantial genetic heterogeneities for different populations. Here we tried to identify novel susceptibility loci for FH in a Chinese pedigree. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed a SNP-based genome-wide linkage scan with the Chinese FH pedigree. Two suggestive linkage loci not previously reported were identified on chromosomes 3q25.1-26.1 (NPL = 9.01, nominal P<0.00001, and simulated occurrence per genome scan = 1.08) and 21q22.3 (NPL = 8.95, nominal P<0.00001, and simulated occurrence per genome scan = 1.26). In the interaction analysis with a trimmed version of the pedigree, we obtained a significantly increased joint LOD score (2.70) compared with that obtained when assuming the two loci uncorrelated, suggesting that more than one locus was involved in this pedigree. Exon screening of two candidate genes ABCG1 and LSS from one of the suggestive region 21q22 didn't report any causative mutations. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCES: These results confirm complex etiologies and suggest new genetic casual factors for the FH disorder. Further study of the two candidate regions is advocated

Which health-related quality of life score? A comparison of alternative utility measures in patients with Type 2 diabetes in the ADVANCE trial.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes has a high burden of illness both in life years lost and in disability through related co-morbidities. Accurate assessment of the non-mortality burden requires appropriate health-related quality of life and summary utility measures of which there are several contenders. The study aimed to measure the impact of diabetes on various health-related quality of life domains, and compare several summary utility measures. METHODS: In the ADVANCE (Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron MR Controlled Evaluation) study, 978 Australian patients with Type 2 diabetes completed two health-related quality of life questionnaires at baseline: the EQ-5D and the SF-36v2, from which nine summary utility measures were calculated, and compared. The algorithms were grouped into four classes: (i) based on the EQ-5D; (ii) using fewer items than those in the SF-12 (iii) using the items in the SF-12; and (iv) using all items of the SF-36. RESULTS: Overall health-related quality of life of the subjects was good (mean utility ranged from 0.68 (+/-0.08) to 0.85(+/-0.14) over the nine utility measures) and comparable to patients without diabetes. Summary indices were well correlated with each other (r = 0.76 to 0.99), and showed lower health-related quality of life in patients with major diabetes-related events such as stroke or myocardial infarction. Despite the smaller number of items used in the scoring of the EQ-5D, it generally performed at least as well as SF-36 based methods. However, all utility measures had some limitation such as limited range or ceiling effects. CONCLUSION: The summary utility measures showed good agreement, and showed good discrimination between major and minor health state changes. However, EQ-5D based measures performed as well and are generally simpler to use