Three Facets of Equity in Steffe's Research Programs

The [National Council of Teachers of Mathematics] NCTM research committee made a recent, urgent call for mathematics education researchers to "examine and deeply reflect on our research practices through an equity lens." With this in mind, we use this paper to reflect on the ways in which Steffe's work has contributed to three facets of equity. We also suggest opportunities for researchers working within this framework to deepen their commitments to issues of equity. [For complete proceedings, see ED581294.

Red list and checklist of the molluscs

Von den in Berlin nachgewiesenen 158 Molluskenarten und Unterarten wurden 38,6 % als bestandsgefährdet eingestuft. Der Anteil gefährdeter Taxa ist bei den Muscheln mit 43,3 % am höchsten, gefolgt von 39,8 % bei den Landschnecken und 33,3 % bei den Wasserschnecken. Im Vergleich zur Roten Liste 2005 sank der Anteil bedrohter Taxa um 10,4 %. Während der Anteil der bedrohten Landschnecken lediglich um 4,1 % gesunken ist, ist er bei den Wasserschnecken um 17,8 % und bei den Muscheln sogar um 18,2 % gefallen. Die Ursachen hierfür liegen einerseits in der verbesserten Datenlage, vor allem bei den Wassermollusken, und andererseits in der veränderten Auswertungsmethodik nach Ludwig et al. (2009). Bewertend lässt sich feststellen, dass sich die Biotopqualität in den letzten 10 Jahren in Berlin verschlechtert hat und zum Rückgang einiger anspruchsvoller Arten führte. Hinzu kommt, dass infolge zunehmender Ausbreitung von Neozoen eine rückläufige Bestandssituation einiger einheimischer Arten durch Verdrängung und Hybridisierung zu beobachten ist.58 mollusc species and subspecies are found in Berlin, 38.6 % of these were classified as threatened. The highest percentage of threatened taxa is found in the bivalve molluscs with 43.3 %, followed by 39.8 % in land snails and 33.3 % in water snails. Overall, the percentage of threatened taxa decreased by 10.4 % compared to the Red List of 2005. While the amount of threatened land snails decreased by only 4.1 %, it has dropped in water snails by 17.8 % and in mussels by 18.2 %. These changes are partly due to the improved data basis, especially in aquatic molluscs, and partly to the modified evaluation procedure developed by Ludwig et al. (2009). It has to be stated that the habitat quality has degraded during the last 10 years. This led to the decline of some sensible species in Berlin. Additionally, a declining population status of some native species by displacement and hybridization due to the rapid spread of invasive species can be observed

Small Open Reading Frames, Non-Coding RNAs and Repetitive Elements in Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110

Small open reading frames (sORFs) and genes for non-coding RNAs are poorly investigated components of most genomes. Our analysis of 1391 ORFs recently annotated in the soybean symbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110 revealed that 78% of them contain less than 80 codons. Twenty-one of these sORFs are conserved in or outside Alphaproteobacteria and most of them are similar to genes found in transposable elements, in line with their broad distribution. Stabilizing selection was demonstrated for sORFs with proteomic evidence and bll1319_ISGA which is conserved at the nucleotide level in 16 alphaproteobacterial species, 79 species from other taxa and 49 other Proteobacteria. Further we used Northern blot hybridization to validate ten small RNAs (BjsR1 to BjsR10) belonging to new RNA families. We found that BjsR1 and BjsR3 have homologs outside the genus Bradyrhizobium, and BjsR5, BjsR6, BjsR7, and BjsR10 have up to four imperfect copies in Bradyrhizobium genomes. BjsR8, BjsR9, and BjsR10 are present exclusively in nodules, while the other sRNAs are also expressed in liquid cultures. We also found that the level of BjsR4 decreases after exposure to tellurite and iron, and this down-regulation contributes to survival under high iron conditions. Analysis of additional small RNAs overlapping with 3’-UTRs revealed two new repetitive elements named Br-REP1 and Br-REP2. These REP elements may play roles in the genomic plasticity and gene regulation and could be useful for strain identification by PCR-fingerprinting. Furthermore, we studied two potential toxin genes in the symbiotic island and confirmed toxicity of the yhaV homolog bll1687 but not of the newly annotated higB homolog blr0229_ISGA in E. coli. Finally, we revealed transcription interference resulting in an antisense RNA complementary to blr1853, a gene induced in symbiosis. The presented results expand our knowledge on sORFs, non-coding RNAs and repetitive elements in B. japonicum and related bacteria

NASA UAS Intergration in the NAS Project

No abstract availabl

ALFA: First Operational Experience of the MPE/MPIA Laser Guide Star System for Adaptive Optics

The sodium laser guide star adaptive optics system ALFA has been constructed at the Calar Alto 3.5-m telescope. Following the first detection of the laser beacon on the wavefront sensor in 1997 the system is now being optimized for best performance. In this contribution we discuss the current status of the launch beam and the planned improvements and upgrades. We report on the performance level achieved when it is used with the adaptive optics system, and relate various aspects of our experience during operation of the system. We have begun to produce scientific results and mention two of these.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX (spie.sty). SPIE conf proc 3353, Adaptive Optical System Technologies, March 199

UAS Integration in the NAS Project - FY 14 Annual Review

This briefing gives insight into the research activities and efforts being executed in order to integrate unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system. This briefing is to inform others of the UAS-NAS Projects progress and future directions

Opioidergic and dopaminergic modulation of cost/benefit decision-making in Long Evans Rats

Eating disorders are associated with impaired decision-making and dysfunctional reward-related neurochemistry. The present study examined the potential contributions of dopamine and opioid signaling to these processes using two different decision-making tasks. In one task, Long Evans Rats chose between working for a preferred food (high-carbohydrate banana-flavored sucrose pellets) by lever pressing on a progressive-ratio schedule of reinforcement vs. obtaining less preferred laboratory chow that was concurrently available. In a second (effort-free) task, rats chose between the same two reinforcers when they were both available freely. Rats were trained in these tasks before receiving haloperidol (0.00, 0.05, 0.10 mg/kg, intraperitoneally (i.p.)) or naloxone (0.0, 1.5, 3.0 mg/kg, i.p.). In the first task, haloperidol decreased breakpoint, lever presses, number of reinforcers earned, and increased chow intake, whereas naloxone decreased breakpoint and number of reinforcers earned but had no effect on chow consumption. In the effort-free task, haloperidol reduced intakes of both foods without affecting preference, whereas naloxone selectively reduced the consumption of banana-pellets. The present findings support converging evidence suggesting that DA signaling affects processes more closely related to appetitive motivation, leaving other components of motivation unchanged. By contrast, opioid signaling appears to mediate aspects of hedonic feeding by selectively altering intakes of highly palatable foods. For preferred foods, both appetitive and consummatory aspects of food intake were altered by opioid receptor antagonism. Our findings argue against a general suppression of appetite by either compound, as appetite manipulations have been shown to unselectively alter intakes of both types of food regardless of the task employed