Examining kindergarten teachers' beliefs and practices in science education

textThis dissertation investigates kindergarten teachers' beliefs and their teaching practices in science education through a qualitative case study. This study addresses these topics by exploring two key issues: First, it illustrates how kindergarten teachers think about teaching science to the students. Second, this study demonstrates how the teachers’ beliefs about teaching science affect the teaching practices in the classroom. The qualitative data was obtained through formal and informal interviews with four kindergarten teachers from a public elementary school. In addition, observation of the science lessons were also conducted. The teachers' beliefs about science education were classified based on Calderhead's (1996) categories about teachers' beliefs: 1) beliefs about students in science classes, 2) beliefs about teaching science classes, 3) beliefs about science as a subject, 4) beliefs about learning to teach science, and 5) beliefs about teachers’ roles in science classes. Based on the categories of teachers' beliefs, this study found a relationship between teachers' beliefs and how they teach science. In particular, the participant teachers preferred hands-on science activities and focused on children's interest in science. Their personal learning history and past schooling experiences appeared to inform their beliefs. However, this research also shows that some of the teachers' beliefs did not match the teaching practices in science lessons. As evidence, contrary to their beliefs, some of the participant teachers did not include as many hands-on activities because of the limited time allowed for science and the characteristics of the topics in science classes. Finally, the findings suggest there are differences between experienced and inexperienced teachers' in the beliefs and practices. For instance, experienced teachers believed that they were able to effectively manage the science classes, whereas inexperienced teachers showed concerns regarding managing the science class. Moreover, the experienced teachers actually demonstrated their expertise in successfully managing the class, while the inexperienced teachers experienced difficulty. Summary of findings, limitation, implications, and future research are discussed.Curriculum and Instructio

Cancer-related Fatigue in Patients with Advanced Cancer Treated with Autonomic Nerve Pharmacopuncture

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to observe the effects of autonomic nerve pharmacopuncture (ANP) treatment on cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in patients with advanced cancer. This observational case study was conducted at the East West Cancer Center of Daejeon University's Dunsan Korean Medical Hospital. Two patients were observed. One patient was diagnosed with left thymic cancer metastatic to the left pleura. The other patient had terminal-stage cervical cancer with iliac bone and lumbar 5 metastases. We injected mountain ginseng pharmacopuncture (MGP) into acupoints alongside the spine (Hua-Tuo-Jia-Ji-Xue, EX B2). We examined the patients for CRF using the Korean version of the Revised Piper Fatigue Scale (RPFS-K), which is a self-assessment tool. The scores on the RPFS-K for both patients tended to decrease during the treatment. Laboratory findings, including hematological changes, were also checked. Liver and renal function tests showed that the treatment was safe. Although further large-population studies are necessary, this case study suggests that ANP has a favorable effect on CRF in patients with advanced cancer

Neuroblastoma in a 3-year-old boy presenting with pain in the bilateral hip and abdomen

A 3-year-old boy presented to our emergency department with a 3-week history of pain in the bilateral hip and abdomen that had persisted through antibiotic therapy based on diagnosis of acute osteomyelitis. At presentation, he had fever, anemia, and increased concentration of lactate dehydrogenase. After the identification of a left adrenal mass indicating neuroblastoma on computed tomography scan, he was admitted to the hospital by a pediatric oncologist. Subsequently, positron emission tomography and bone scintigraphy showed disseminated metastasis to the bone and bone marrow, and neuroblastoma was pathologically confirmed. This case highlights the importance of differential diagnosis of non-traumatic hip pain in toddlers considering the protean manifestations of neuroblastoma

The Effect of Calcipotriol on the Expression of Human β Defensin-2 and LL-37 in Cultured Human Keratinocytes

Background. Vitamin D has been reported to regulate innate immunity by controlling the expression of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Objective. We investigated the effect of calcipotriol on the expression of AMPs in human cultured keratinocytes. Methods. Keratinocytes were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), TNF-α, Calcipotriol and irradiated with UVB, cultured, and harvested. To assess the expression of human beta defensin-2 and LL-37 in the control group, not exposed to any stimulants, the experimental group was treated with LPS, TNF-α, or UVB, and another group was treated again with calcipotriol; reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, and immunohistochemical staining were performed. Results. In the experimental group treated with LPS, UVB irradiation, and TNF-α, the expression of β-defensin and LL-37 was increased more than in the control group and then decreased in the experimental group treated with calcipotriol. Conclusions. Calcipotriol suppressed HBD-2 and LL-37, which were stimulated by UVB, LPS, and TNF-α

Quaternary structures of Vac8 differentially regulate the Cvt and PMN pathways.

Armadillo (ARM) repeat proteins constitute a large protein family with diverse and fundamental functions in all organisms, and armadillo repeat domains share high structural similarity. However, exactly how these structurally similar proteins can mediate diverse functions remains a long-standing question. Vac8 (vacuole related 8) is a multifunctional protein that plays pivotal roles in various autophagic pathways, including piecemeal microautophagy of the nucleus (PMN) and cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting (Cvt) pathways in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Vac8 comprises an H1 helix at the N terminus, followed by 12 armadillo repeats. Herein, we report the crystal structure of Vac8 bound to Atg13, a key component of autophagic machinery. The 70-angstrom extended loop of Atg13 binds to the ARM domain of Vac8 in an antiparallel manner. Structural, biochemical, and in vivo experiments demonstrated that the H1 helix of Vac8 intramolecularly associates with the first ARM and regulates its self-association, which is crucial for Cvt and PMN pathways. The structure of H1 helix-deleted Vac8 complexed with Atg13 reveals that Vac8[Delta 19-33]-Atg13 forms a heterotetramer and adopts an extended superhelical structure exclusively employed in the Cvt pathway. Most importantly, comparison of Vac8-Nvj1 and Vac8-Atg13 provides a molecular understanding of how a single ARM domain protein adopts different quaternary structures depending on its associated proteins to differentially regulate 2 closely related but distinct cellular pathways

Disruption of the astrocyte–neuron interaction is responsible for the impairments in learning and memory in 5XFAD mice: an Alzheimers disease animal model

The morphological dynamics of astrocytes are altered in the hippocampus during memory induction. Astrocyte–neuron interactions on synapses are called tripartite synapses. These control the synaptic function in the central nervous system. Astrocytes are activated in a reactive state by STAT3 phosphorylation in 5XFAD mice, an Alzheimers disease (AD) animal model. However, changes in astrocyte–neuron interactions in reactive or resting-state astrocytes during memory induction remain to be defined. Here, we investigated the time-dependent changes in astrocyte morphology and the number of astrocyte–neuron interactions in the hippocampus over the course of long-term memory formation in 5XFAD mice. Hippocampal-dependent long-term memory was induced using a contextual fear conditioning test in 5XFAD mice. The number of astrocytic processes increased in both wild-type and 5XFAD mice during memory formation. To assess astrocyte–neuron interactions in the hippocampal dentate gyrus, we counted the colocalization of glial fibrillary acidic protein and postsynaptic density protein 95 via immunofluorescence. Both groups revealed an increase in astrocyte–neuron interactions after memory induction. At 24 h after memory formation, the number of tripartite synapses returned to baseline levels in both groups. However, the total number of astrocyte–neuron interactions was significantly decreased in 5XFAD mice. Administration of Stattic, a STAT3 phosphorylation inhibitor, rescued the number of astrocyte–neuron interactions in 5XFAD mice. In conclusion, we suggest that a decreased number of astrocyte–neuron interactions may underlie memory impairment in the early stages of AD.This research was supported by the Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI) basic research program through Korea Brain Research Institute funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT (21-BR-02-13, 21-BR-03-02 to Y.H.J.) and by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Sci‑ence and Technology (NRF-2020R1A2C1011839 awarded to H.S.K.)