Building Student Success From the Ground Up: A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College

Achieving the Dream teaches community colleges to use student data to improve programming and student success. Since participating, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina has become a data-driven, success-oriented institution and has seen promising trends in student achievement. This study offers lessons for other colleges undertaking similar institutional reform

MORC3, a component of PML nuclear bodies, has a role in restricting herpes simplex virus type 1 and human cytomegalovirus

We previously reported that MORC3, a protein associated with promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (PML NBs), is a target of HSV-1 ICP0 mediated degradation. Since it is well known that certain other components of the PML NB complex play an important role during an intrinsic immune response to HSV-1, and are also degraded or inactivated by ICP0, we further investigate here the role of MORC3 during HSV-1 infection. We demonstrate that MORC3 has antiviral activity during HSV-1 infection and that this antiviral role is counteracted by ICP0. In addition, MORC3's antiviral role extends to wild type (wt) HCMV infection as its plaque forming efficiency increased in MORC3 depleted cells. We found that MORC3 is recruited to sites associated with HSV-1 genomes after their entry into the nucleus of an infected cell, and in wt infections this is followed by its association with ICP0 foci prior to its degradation. The RING finger domain of ICP0 was required for degradation of MORC3 and we confirmed that no other HSV-1 protein is required for the loss of MORC3. We also found that MORC3 is required for fully efficient recruitment of PML, Sp100, hDaxx and γH2AX to sites associated with HSV-1 genomes entering the host cell nucleus. This study further unravels the intricate ways in which HSV-1 has evolved to counteract the host immune response and reveals a novel function for MORC3 during the host intrinsic immune response

“I Needed to Rediscover who I Really Was”: An Inquiry into the Impacts of one Graduate Teacher Education Program for Early Elementary Teachers

This paper reports on the impacts on teachers of a new Masters in Education program developed for early elementary teachers at one small Canadian university. Central to the program are concepts of the child as competent and capable, and a view of professional learning as democratic, critically reflective and a way to enhance teacher agency. Our findings are based on interviews and focus group conversations with several members of one of the cohorts who completed the program. In our thematic analysis we determined that teachers reported changes in their practices including slowing down and listening to children as well as increased flexibility and ability to relinquish control. Additionally, teachers spoke of increased confidence in themselves and the children in their classrooms as a result of participating in this program.Keywords: early elementary grades, graduate teacher education, early elementary pedagogy, democratic professional learning, teachers’ agencyCet article fait état des impacts sur les enseignants d’un nouveau programme de maitrise en éducation développé par une petite université canadienne pour les enseignants du primaire. Le programme est centré sur le concept selon lequel l’enfant est compétent et capable, et sur une perspective de l’apprentissage professionnel comme étant un processus de réflexion critique qui est démocratique et susceptible d’augmenter chez les enseignants le sentiment de pouvoir agir. Nos résultats découlent d’entrevues et de conversations avec des groupes de discussion impliquant plusieurs membres d’une cohorte ayant complété le programme. Notre analyse thématique révèle que les enseignants ont signalé des changements dans leurs pratiques; entre autres, ils ont indiqué qu’ils ralentissaient et écoutaient les élèves, étaient plus souples et se sentaient en mesure de céder le contrôle. De plus, les enseignants ont reconnu que leur participation au programme avait entrainé une augmentation de leur confiance en soi et en les élèves.Mots clés : premières années du primaire, études supérieures en enseignement, pédagogie des premières années du primaire, sentiment chez les enseignants de pouvoir agir

Diversification and expression of the PIN, AUX/LAX, and ABCB families of putative auxin transporters in \u3cem\u3ePopulus\u3c/em\u3e

Intercellular transport of the plant hormone auxin is mediated by three families of membrane-bound protein carriers, with the PIN and ABCB families coding primarily for efflux proteins and the AUX/LAX family coding for influx proteins. In the last decade our understanding of gene and protein function for these transporters in Arabidopsis has expanded rapidly but very little is known about their role in woody plant development. Here we present a comprehensive account of all three families in the model woody species Populus, including chromosome distribution, protein structure, quantitative gene expression, and evolutionary relationships. The PIN and AUX/LAX gene families in Populus comprise 16 and 8 members respectively and show evidence for the retention of paralogs following a relatively recent whole genome duplication. There is also differential expression across tissues within many gene pairs. The ABCB family is previously undescribed in Populus and includes 20 members, showing a much deeper evolutionary history, including both tandem and whole genome duplication as well as probable gene loss. A striking number of these transporters are expressed in developing Populus stems and we suggest that evolutionary and structural relationships with known auxin transporters in Arabidopsis can point toward candidate genes for further study in Populus. This is especially important for the ABCBs, which is a large family and includes members in Arabidopsis that are able to transport other substrates in addition to auxin. Protein modeling, sequence alignment and expression data all point to ABCB1.1 as a likely auxin transport protein in Populus. Given that basipetal auxin flow through the cambial zone shapes the development of woody stems, it is important that we identify the full complement of genes involved in this process. This work should lay the foundation for studies targeting specific proteins for functional characterization and in situ localization

Blending in at the Cost of Losing Oneself: The Cyclical Relationship between Social Anxiety, Self-Disclosure, and Self-Uncertainty

Recent research has demonstrated that high social anxiety is associated with uncertainty about one’s self views and self-concept (Moscovitch et al., 2009; Stopa et al., 2010; Wilson & Rapee, 2006). However, no research has addressed potential mechanisms underlying the link between high social anxiety and low self-certainty nor has research examined whether this relationship is bi-directional. In the current research, I propose a cyclical model in which high social anxiety leads to low self-certainty, which in turn, feeds back into higher levels of social anxiety. I also propose that the relationship between high social anxiety and low self-certainty is mediated by the self-protective self-disclosure patterns employed by socially anxious individuals. In three interconnected studies, I examine the hypothesis that social anxiety, self-disclosure and self-certainty operate in a cyclical model. Study 1 provided a correlational test of the hypothesized feedback model in its entirety and demonstrated that honesty of self-disclosure was the most important and influential mechanism underlying the link between high social anxiety and low self-certainty. Experimentally manipulating the honesty of participants’ self-disclosures in Study 2 demonstrated that dishonest self-disclosures during a social task led to low self-certainty, but only amongst individuals high in trait performance anxiety. Finally, experimentally manipulating self-certainty in Study 3 demonstrated that low self-certainty led to high anticipatory anxiety about an upcoming self-disclosure task. Together, these results elucidate a cyclical maladaptive pattern in which low self-certainty as a result of self-protective self-disclosure leads to high social anxiety and a greater reluctance to self-disclose. Results from the three studies are discussed with respect to their theoretical implications and in relation to clinical applications for individuals with social anxiety disorder

Therapeutic Benefits of an Enhanced Video Feedback Intervention for Socially Anxious Individuals

Video feedback (VF) has been widely integrated into cognitive behavioural treatment protocols for socially anxious individuals due to its presumed efficacy in improving negative self-perception and reducing underestimations of performance. However, studies examining VF in social anxiety reveal, surprisingly, that correction of overly negative self-perception does not unequivocally facilitate anxiety reduction during subsequent social interactions. In the current study, we examined whether VF could be optimized to facilitate social anxiety reduction through the inclusion of a post-VF encoding manipulation. The manipulation was designed to enable individuals to internalize the positive information received from VF by enhancing the depth at which they processed the self-exposure information. Forty-three individuals high in social anxiety and verbal communication anxiety were randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions: A) VF + Manipulation; B) VF + No Manipulation; and C) No VF. Results revealed that VF + Manipulation led to significant cognitive changes pertaining to self-efficacy and internal attributions of performance relative to the other two conditions. Unexpectedly, both VF conditions were equally efficacious in the facilitation of anxiety reduction relative to the No VF condition. Results are discussed in the context of cognitive behavioural models of anxiety and the mechanisms of exposure-based learning

Meaning, sociality and dialog in bonobo (Pan paniscus) gestural communication : an observational study at the Milwaukee County Zoo

Apes use gestures in an intentional and highly flexible manner. It has been proposed that human language originated in gestural communication and therefore ape gestures have been of great interest to primatologists and psychologists alike. The extensive, flexible and intentional nature of ape gestural communication may also provide new insights to the study of social regulation as large communicative systems are thought to be useful in navigating complex social landscapes. To date studies of bonobos and their use of gestures has occurred in limited contexts and therefore the known repertoire of bonobos is relatively small. It is also unknown as to what bonobos use gestures for and whether they use those gestures flexibly in order to regulate their social relationships. To investigate these questions I studied a captive population of bonobos for 12 months at the Milwaukee County Zoo, Wisconsin, USA. Milwaukee bonobos used 55 gesture types over the course of the study period. I found that bonobos have particular goals behind their signalling and that bonobos used gestures consistently for specific goals and that the same gestures were used for the same goals across signallers. It was therefore possible to identify to meanings behind over half of the gestures within the bonobo repertoire. Even though the meanings of gestures were consistent across signallers, the age and sex of a signaller influenced what context and for what purpose he or she used gestural communication. Particular types of signallers used gestures for particular goals and directed those gestures towards particular recipients. Bonobos also used gestures within dialog during special circumstances in order to coordinate asymmetrical interactions. These results indicate that gestural communication is an excellent medium for investigating the influence a large, intentional and flexible communication system has on managing a complex social network

The ups & downs of working in telesales: an analysis of the development of prosodic style in a Scottish call centre

This study examines the prosodic style of workers in a Scottish outbound call centre during telesales call openings. I describe the conversational structure and accompanying intonational patterns of a corpus of scripted call centre telephone openings, and investigate if this provides evidence to suggest the emergence of patterns of prosodic style or 'tone of voice' used by workers in the call centre during telephone sales encounters. I investigate how and why workers come to adopt ways of speaking via data collected during long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the call centre, paying particular attention to the training and prescriptive processes to which new employees are exposed. Examination of the classroom training period and other methods put in place by the call centre, such as scripting and managerial surveillance, reveals that prosodic style is not overtly prescribed in the same way as other aspects of the agents' linguistic performance. It emerges that the on-the-job period of training known as 'nesting' is where most managerial prescription of style takes place, at a point when workers are making the transition from apprentice to expert via increasing participation in local practices. It is during this transitional phase of apprenticeship that individual speakers begin construction of a new, activity-based persona, of which their prosodic style is a defining part

The ups and downs of working in telesales: An analysis of the development of prosodic style in a Scottish call centre

This study examines the prosodic style of workers in a Scottish outbound call centre during telesales call openings. I describe the conversational structure and accompanying intonational patterns of a corpus of scripted call centre telephone openings, and investigate if this provides evidence to suggest the emergence of patterns of prosodic style or 'tone of voice' used by workers in the call centre during telephone sales encounters. I investigate how and why workers come to adopt ways of speaking via data collected during long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the call centre, paying particular attention to the training and prescriptive processes to which new employees are exposed. Examination of the classroom training period and other methods put in place by the call centre, such as scripting and managerial surveillance, reveals that prosodic style is not overtly prescribed in the same way as other aspects of the agents' linguistic performance. It emerges that the on-the-job period of training known as 'nesting' is where most managerial prescription of style takes place, at a point when workers are making the transition from apprentice to expert via increasing participation in local practices. It is during this transitional phase of apprenticeship that individual speakers begin construction of a new, activity-based persona, of which their prosodic style is a defining part

The Effects of Recreational Therapy on the Psychosocial Functioning of an Inpatient Behavioral Health Population

The original purpose of this study was to examine the association of recreational therapy services with changes in psychosocial functioning (as measured by the Global Assessment of Functioning) of people with serious mental illness (SMI). Due to a series of events, the study was re-scaled to a descriptive study of recreational therapy (RT) treatment based on diagnoses, type of intervention used, age at admission, and length of stay. The sample included 2,051 adult participants with SMI who received treatment in an inpatient behavioral health center in the southeastern United States between 2007 and 2010. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to identify RT treatment patterns among individuals diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, a mental disorder, episodic mood disorder, and bipolar I disorder. A cross tabulation was used to determine which diagnoses received RT individual assessment. Correlations were used to determine the relationship between age at admission, length of stay, and the units of total RT received. Results indicated different diagnoses received varied units of RT based on length of stay and age at admission; however, any significance found between mean RT units received and diagnoses groups was explained through length of stay at the facility and number of daily RT units received. Different RT interventions were also explored by diagnoses, but data was insufficient to answer research questions. Though limitations for this study were extensive, results provide appropriate implications for practitioners and recommendations for future researchers.  M.S