328 research outputs found
Policies and Practices of Professional Development in China: What do Early Childhood Teachers Think?
This paper focuses on early childhood teachers’ professional development in China. It reports a study which aims to elicit twelve in-service early childhood teachers’ perspectives of the values and issues of professional development policies and the learning opportunities they experienced. Two themes arising from the study are addressed, namely the teachers’ positive responses to the government aspirations for enhancing teaching in early childhood education, and the complexities of the organizational and role structures of the early childhood community in ChangChun where the study took place. An important aspect of the teachers’ perspectives of their professional development, which connects up to the early childhood environment in ChangChun, is the view that professional development was oriented to their own employment continuity. Teachers’ learning was perceived as a useful means to offset the insecurity of their careers, but not closely related to children’s learning
Beyond language: Immigrant children as committed and strategic learners
This paper uses examples of some Chinese immigrant children’s strategic learning of English language in their early childhood centres to illustrate the committed nature of these children as learners. Through child observations, child interviews and interviews with the children’s teachers and their parents, this research obtained evidence about the children’s strategic engagement with learning of a new language. The adoption of a phenomenological approach
in research theorized the children’s intentionality and reflexivity. The children’s experience with the English language became of window into their learning motivation and attitudes. The use of a new language reflects the children’s underlying desires for settlement in a learning
setting. The data demonstrate that the children adopted a range of strategies when reconciling their commitment to settle in a learning setting with the opportunities provided to them in that setting. Learning viewed as strategic activity has as its central defining characteristics a process in which immigrant children respond to the possibilities or constraints stemming from
their learning environments
Chinese Immigrant Children in New Zealand Early Childhood Centres
This research investigated the learning experiences of Chinese immigrant children in New Zealand early childhood centres with the aim of describing educational implications for early childhood professionals. A qualitative research approach was adopted using a multiple case study design. Eight Chinese immigrant children aged three to five years, their parents and their teachers participated in the study; the children were enrolled in six early childhood centres in a large urban area. Procedures of data gathering included child observations, and child, parent and teacher interviews. Data were analysed from phenomenological and sociocultural perspectives. The children's learning experiences, particularly languages and interpersonal relationships, were discussed from the perspectives of sociocultural theories. The concept of a learning community contributed to the analysis which was also influenced by the notions of cultural diversity and multiculturalism. A major theme of this research was the value of the culture of Chinese immigrant families to mediate the learning experiences of Chinese immigrant children in New Zealand early childhood centres. Familiar cultural tools and mediators provided important support for the children who were able to access them in their centres. The children's intention to drive their own learning experiences was also a salient feature. Evidence was documented that illustrated how learning and development were mediated by fulfilment of feelings of belonging, as well as the children's commitment to cross cultural boundaries. The Chinese immigrant children were active drivers of their own learning and capably negotiated and created the relationships between their family culture and that of their early childhood centre. Specific strategies they adopted to construct their own learning experiences were found to be significant in explaining the emergence of hybrid cultural tools which mediated the children's evolving development of appropriate repertoires of practice in their early childhood centres. This thesis contributes to the body of sociocultural research via the examination of children's creation of intercultural learning possibilities. It provides early childhood teachers with insights regarding how to enhance pedagogical policies, values and practices to more closely align with sociocultural frameworks, concepts of learning communities and cultural diversity. It is important that diverse cultural relations are appropriately established in the early childhood centres so that immigrant children can move between different cultures in order to generate a useful intercultural way of being for themselves
The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment
The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in
operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from
this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release
Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first
two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14
is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all
data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14
is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation
Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the
Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2),
including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine
learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes
from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous
release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of
the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the
important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both
targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS
website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to
data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is
planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be
followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14
happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov
2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections
only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected
Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas
This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing
molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin
Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts
Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas
Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN
Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images
Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images
of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL
maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to
classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and
correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard
histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations
derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched
among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial
infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic
patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for
the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment
A Giant Planet Candidate Transiting a White Dwarf
Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets outside the solar system,
most of which orbit stars that will eventually evolve into red giants and then
into white dwarfs. During the red giant phase, any close-orbiting planets will
be engulfed by the star, but more distant planets can survive this phase and
remain in orbit around the white dwarf. Some white dwarfs show evidence for
rocky material floating in their atmospheres, in warm debris disks, or orbiting
very closely, which has been interpreted as the debris of rocky planets that
were scattered inward and tidally disrupted. Recently, the discovery of a
gaseous debris disk with a composition similar to ice giant planets
demonstrated that massive planets might also find their way into tight orbits
around white dwarfs, but it is unclear whether the planets can survive the
journey. So far, the detection of intact planets in close orbits around white
dwarfs has remained elusive. Here, we report the discovery of a giant planet
candidate transiting the white dwarf WD 1856+534 (TIC 267574918) every 1.4
days. The planet candidate is roughly the same size as Jupiter and is no more
than 14 times as massive (with 95% confidence). Other cases of white dwarfs
with close brown dwarf or stellar companions are explained as the consequence
of common-envelope evolution, wherein the original orbit is enveloped during
the red-giant phase and shrinks due to friction. In this case, though, the low
mass and relatively long orbital period of the planet candidate make
common-envelope evolution less likely. Instead, the WD 1856+534 system seems to
demonstrate that giant planets can be scattered into tight orbits without being
tidally disrupted, and motivates searches for smaller transiting planets around
white dwarfs.Comment: 50 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Published in Nature on Sept. 17,
2020. The final authenticated version is available online at:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2713-
Candidate Proteins, Metabolites and Transcripts in the Biomarkers for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (BforSMA) Clinical Study
Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a neurodegenerative motor neuron disorder resulting from a homozygous mutation of the survival of motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. The gene product, SMN protein, functions in RNA biosynthesis in all tissues. In humans, a nearly identical gene, SMN2, rescues an otherwise lethal phenotype by producing a small amount of full-length SMN protein. SMN2 copy number inversely correlates with disease severity. Identifying other novel biomarkers could inform clinical trial design and identify novel therapeutic targets.To identify novel candidate biomarkers associated with disease severity in SMA using unbiased proteomic, metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches.A cross-sectional single evaluation was performed in 108 children with genetically confirmed SMA, aged 2-12 years, manifesting a broad range of disease severity and selected to distinguish factors associated with SMA type and present functional ability independent of age. Blood and urine specimens from these and 22 age-matched healthy controls were interrogated using proteomic, metabolomic and transcriptomic discovery platforms. Analyte associations were evaluated against a primary measure of disease severity, the Modified Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale (MHFMS) and to a number of secondary clinical measures.A total of 200 candidate biomarkers correlate with MHFMS scores: 97 plasma proteins, 59 plasma metabolites (9 amino acids, 10 free fatty acids, 12 lipids and 28 GC/MS metabolites) and 44 urine metabolites. No transcripts correlated with MHFMS.In this cross-sectional study, "BforSMA" (Biomarkers for SMA), candidate protein and metabolite markers were identified. No transcript biomarker candidates were identified. Additional mining of this rich dataset may yield important insights into relevant SMA-related pathophysiology and biological network associations. Additional prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings, demonstrate sensitivity to change with disease progression, and assess potential impact on clinical trial design.Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00756821
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