What Educators Need to Do with Biased Children’s Books on Religion, Gender and Race

Children’s books from around the world have often provided a more favorable description of the groups holding power than those that are marginalized. Fortunately, today’s children’s books are much improved than those published in previous years and portray minority groups better than ever before. However, some recently published children’s literature can be stereotypical. This article explores the way biased children’s books published in selected regions from around the world describe groups holding less power in society. To illustrate how offensive these resources can be, examples of children’s books from Nazi Germany are discussed first

Translated Literature in Your Library: The Mildred L Batchelder Award

Translated books represent a unique bridge between cultures for young readers. This article discusses recent trends and practical applications for award-winning literature that has been translated into English and published in the United States. Winner and honour titles earning the Mildred L Batchelder Award for their publishers often include European languages of origins and settings. Despite this homogeneity, the books represent a quality option as a way to diversify a library collection for English-speaking patrons, particularly young adults, and to enhance teaching lessons with the integration of this global literature

Curation in Translation: Promoting Global Citizenship Through Literature

As curators of the school library collection, librarians ensure the resources they select are of high quality and that they meet students\u27 social needs, including diverse perspectives representative of our world and supportive of global citizenship skills and dispositions. The Mildred L. Batchelder Award given to English translations published in the United States is an option for librarians seeking such cultural diversity for their collections. Using the United Nations\u27 Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959), the research identifies the strong potential these titles hold for engaging youth and promoting global citizenship

New technologies and firm organization : the case of electronic traceability systems in French agribusiness

This paper considers the relationship between the adoption of electronic traceability systems (ETSs) and the organization of firms. More precisely, it analyzes the respective roles of a firm's organizational structure, and organizational changes, in the process of ETS adoption in agribusiness. We use data from the French "Organizational Changes and Computerization" survey from 2006. We test a probit model to demonstrate the organizational structure and organizational changes underlying the firm's ETS adoption choice. Results show that ETS adoption is strongly favored by organizations with heavy hierarchical structures, standardized managerial practices and contractual mechanisms with external partners. This adoption process seems to coevolve with the organization: firms that implemented an ETS during the observed period (2003-2006) have experienced the most important organizational changes in terms of managerial practices, information systems and contractual relations, as well as the strengthening of the intermediate levels in the hierarchy

A communal catalogue reveals Earth's multiscale microbial diversity

Our growing awareness of the microbial world's importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth's microbial diversity.Peer reviewe

A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity

Our growing awareness of the microbial world’s importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth’s microbial diversity

Identification of unique neoantigen qualities in long-term survivors of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a lethal cancer with fewer than 7% of patients surviving past 5 years. T-cell immunity has been linked to the exceptional outcome of the few long-term survivors1,2, yet the relevant antigens remain unknown. Here we use genetic, immunohistochemical and transcriptional immunoprofiling, computational biophysics, and functional assays to identify T-cell antigens in long-term survivors of pancreatic cancer. Using whole-exome sequencing and in silico neoantigen prediction, we found that tumours with both the highest neoantigen number and the most abundant CD8+ T-cell infiltrates, but neither alone, stratified patients with the longest survival. Investigating the specific neoantigen qualities promoting T-cell activation in long-term survivors, we discovered that these individuals were enriched in neoantigen qualities defined by a fitness model, and neoantigens in the tumour antigen MUC16 (also known as CA125). A neoantigen quality fitness model conferring greater immunogenicity to neoantigens with differential presentation and homology to infectious disease-derived peptides identified long-term survivors in two independent datasets, whereas a neoantigen quantity model ascribing greater immunogenicity to increasing neoantigen number alone did not. We detected intratumoural and lasting circulating T-cell reactivity to both high-quality and MUC16 neoantigens in long-term survivors of pancreatic cancer, including clones with specificity to both high-quality neoantigens and predicted cross-reactive microbial epitopes, consistent with neoantigen molecular mimicry. Notably, we observed selective loss of high-quality and MUC16 neoantigenic clones on metastatic progression, suggesting neoantigen immunoediting. Our results identify neoantigens with unique qualities as T-cell targets in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. More broadly, we identify neoantigen quality as a biomarker for immunogenic tumours that may guide the application of immunotherapies

From Rags to Rich as Rockefeller : Portrayals of Class Mobility in Newbery Titles

Several scholars have noted the prevalence of the discourse of upward class mobility in the United States, particularly within K-12 education settings. Rags-to-riches stories, an extreme form of upward mobility discourse, have been embedded in American culture for generations. However, the prevalence of upward mobility discourse in recently published books for children has not been widely studied. Children\u27s literature merits scholarly attention because it has the potential to influence the perceptions and worldviews of young people, and books for youth reflect the values that adults in a society want to pass on to young people. This qualitative content analysis, grounded in assumptions of the sociology of school knowledge and critical literacy, investigates representations of upward class mobility in 22 titles given the Newbery Medal or Honor between 2009 and 2013. The findings indicate 7 out of 22 books include poor and working-class characters experiencing class ascendency. Characters became upwardly mobile by receiving a large sum of money unexpectedly, being adopted by a more affluent person, and gaining recognition from royalty or nobility. The presence of poor and working-class characters in these titles is positive: American children, who belong to a range of class groups, can find characters like themselves in literature. Yet the portrayals of upward mobility in Newbery titles may reinforce dominant ideologies that value economic success and blame the poor for their circumstances

The University for the Poor : Portrayals of Class In Translated Children\u27s Literature

Background: Scholars of children\u27s literature have been investigating portrayals of females and racial groups for several decades, yet few have examined depictions of social class. Research on social class depictions in children\u27s literature is needed in order to identify books that affirm children\u27s class identities and offer portrayals of socioeconomic diversity. Focus of the Study: This study investigates portrayals of social class in 35 titles receiving the Batchelder Award or Honor between 2001 and 2013. The Batchelder Award recognizes outstanding translated books with international origins. International books for children were selected in this study because American titles are thought to be middle class in orientation; the researchers hypothesized that the international books might provide a more complex analysis of social class. Research Design: The inductive approach to qualitative content analysis was utilized. At least two researchers read and coded each book in the sample. The researchers examined passages referencing social class as well as other cultural constructs such as race/ethnicity, gender, religion, and nationality. Findings: The researchers identified several markers that served as indicators of social class status: living conditions, food, safety and protection, healthcare, leisure, education, occupation, residence, speech and mannerisms, clothing/dress, death rituals, and material possessions. Social class was often associated with other identities such as a character\u27s religion or ethnicity. Characters from typically marginalized class groups, such as the poor and the working class, were portrayed sensitively and with dignity. Conclusions: The markers of class identified in this study may serve as a framework for other researchers interested in examining class in children\u27s literature or media. The findings may help teachers and teacher educators identify and select books that realistically and respectfully portray members of different social classes