Appropriate Education, Juvenile Corrections, and No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 promotes high-quality educational services for all children and youths, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, income, or background. Despite the law\u27s laudable goals, one group continues to be left behind: youths who are incarcerated in juvenile correctional facilities. These youths--particularly those with emotional or behavioral disorders--often fail to receive high-quality educational services for a multitude of reasons. The authors review current knowledge about youths with disabilities in juvenile corrections and factors associated with high-quality education programs. They then examine aspects of NCLB in the context of current practices in correctional education and conclude with a brief discussion of how NCLB might be used to improve education programs for incarcerated youths

TGF- signaling mediates endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) during vein graft remodeling

Veins grafted into an arterial environment undergo a complex vascular remodeling process. Pathologic vascular remodeling often results in stenosed or occluded conduit grafts. Understanding this complex process is important for improving the outcome of patients with coronary and peripheral artery disease undergoing surgical revascularization. Using in vivo murine cell lineage–tracing models, we show that endothelial-derived cells contribute to neointimal formation through endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT), which is dependent on early activation of the Smad2/3-Slug signaling pathway. Antagonism of transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) signaling by TGF-β neutralizing antibody, short hairpin RNA–mediated Smad3 or Smad2 knockdown, Smad3 haploinsufficiency, or endothelial cell–specific Smad2 deletion resulted in decreased EndMT and less neointimal formation compared to controls. Histological examination of postmortem human vein graft tissue corroborated the changes observed in our mouse vein graft model, suggesting that EndMT is operative during human vein graft remodeling. These data establish that EndMT is an important mechanism underlying neointimal formation in interpositional vein grafts, and identifies the TGF-β–Smad2/3–Slug signaling pathway as a potential therapeutic target to prevent clinical vein graft stenosis