No “Gift” Giving Here: The Inadequate Gifted Education Programs in New York State and the Need for Gifted Education Reform

Gifted Education is a topic that is often not at the forefront of educational issues throughout federal and state discussions and legislative actions. However, while there are a large number of students in classrooms across the country who are “gifted,” the number of individual states with comprehensive gifted programs within their public school districts is small. As a result, gifted programming is limited and gifted students are not guaranteed any sort of academic assistance beyond that of a standard classroom curriculum for their designated grade levels. More importantly, in the majority of states, including New York, the legal protections offered to gifted students are extremely limited, translating to the reality that those students are sitting in classrooms unengaged for years. Eventually, many gifted students are no longer within the four walls of the classroom because they have resorted to dropping out of school all together. This Note argues that New York’s current laws covering gifted education are inadequate and need to be reformed in order to adequately protect gifted students within the state. A proposal is made for New York to amend its laws and follow the Pennsylvania approach to gifted education. The Pennsylvania model mandates the implementation of a Gifted Individualized Education Program as well as the requirement that all public school districts within the state maintain gifted programs for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. This amendment to the law would help ensure that gifted students in New York receive educational services tailored to their individualized learning needs. It will also afford adequate legal recourse to help guarantee that such gifted services are provided, much like the protections afforded to special education students in the state and nationwide

Linking soil microbial community structure to potential carbon mineralization: A continental scale assessment of reduced tillage

Potential carbon mineralization (Cmin) is a commonly used indicator of soil health, with greater Cmin values interpreted as healthier soil. While Cmin values are typically greater in agricultural soils managed with minimal physical disturbance, the mechanisms driving the increases remain poorly understood. This study assessed bacterial and archaeal community structure and potential microbial drivers of Cmin in soils maintained under various degrees of physical disturbance. Potential carbon mineralization, 16S rRNA sequences, and soil characterization data were collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements (NAPESHM). Results showed that type of cropping system, intensity of physical disturbance, and soil pH influenced microbial sensitivity to physical disturbance. Furthermore, 28% of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), which were important in modeling Cmin, were enriched under soils managed with minimal physical disturbance. Sequences identified as enriched under minimal disturbance and important for modeling Cmin, were linked to organisms which could produce extracellular polymeric substances and contained metabolic strategies suited for tolerating environmental stressors. Understanding how physical disturbance shapes microbial communities across climates and inherent soil properties and drives changes in Cmin provides the context necessary to evaluate management impacts on standardized measures of soil microbial activity

Carbon-sensitive pedotransfer functions for plant available water

Currently accepted pedotransfer functions show negligible effect of management-induced changes to soil organic carbon (SOC) on plant available water holding capacity (θAWHC), while some studies show the ability to substantially increase θAWHC through management. The Soil Health Institute\u27s North America Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements measured water content at field capacity using intact soil cores across 124 long-term research sites that contained increases in SOC as a result of management treatments such as reduced tillage and cover cropping. Pedotransfer functions were created for volumetric water content at field capacity (θFC) and permanent wilting point (θPWP). New pedotransfer functions had predictions of θAWHC that were similarly accurate compared with Saxton and Rawls when tested on samples from the National Soil Characterization database. Further, the new pedotransfer functions showed substantial effects of soil calcareousness and SOC on θAWHC. For an increase in SOC of 10 g kg–1 (1%) in noncalcareous soils, an average increase in θAWHC of 3.0 mm 100 mm–1 soil (0.03 m3 m–3) on average across all soil texture classes was found. This SOC related increase in θAWHC is about double previous estimates. Calcareous soils had an increase in θAWHC of 1.2 mm 100 mm–1 soil associated with a 10 g kg–1 increase in SOC, across all soil texture classes. New equations can aid in quantifying benefits of soil management practices that increase SOC and can be used to model the effect of changes in management on drought resilience

No “Gift” Giving Here: The Inadequate Gifted Education Programs in New York State and the Need for Gifted Education Reform

Gifted Education is a topic that is often not at the forefront of educational issues throughout federal and state discussions and legislative actions. However, while there are a large number of students in classrooms across the country who are “gifted,” the number of individual states with comprehensive gifted programs within their public school districts is small. As a result, gifted programming is limited and gifted students are not guaranteed any sort of academic assistance beyond that of a standard classroom curriculum for their designated grade levels. More importantly, in the majority of states, including New York, the legal protections offered to gifted students are extremely limited, translating to the reality that those students are sitting in classrooms unengaged for years. Eventually, many gifted students are no longer within the four walls of the classroom because they have resorted to dropping out of school all together. This Note argues that New York’s current laws covering gifted education are inadequate and need to be reformed in order to adequately protect gifted students within the state. A proposal is made for New York to amend its laws and follow the Pennsylvania approach to gifted education. The Pennsylvania model mandates the implementation of a Gifted Individualized Education Program as well as the requirement that all public school districts within the state maintain gifted programs for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. This amendment to the law would help ensure that gifted students in New York receive educational services tailored to their individualized learning needs. It will also afford adequate legal recourse to help guarantee that such gifted services are provided, much like the protections afforded to special education students in the state and nationwide

Linking soil microbial community structure to potential carbon mineralization: A continental scale assessment of reduced tillage

Potential carbon mineralization (Cmin) is a commonly used indicator of soil health, with greater Cmin values interpreted as healthier soil. While Cmin values are typically greater in agricultural soils managed with minimal physical disturbance, the mechanisms driving the increases remain poorly understood. This study assessed bacterial and archaeal community structure and potential microbial drivers of Cmin in soils maintained under various degrees of physical disturbance. Potential carbon mineralization, 16S rRNA sequences, and soil characterization data were collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements (NAPESHM). Results showed that type of cropping system, intensity of physical disturbance, and soil pH influenced microbial sensitivity to physical disturbance. Furthermore, 28% of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), which were important in modeling Cmin, were enriched under soils managed with minimal physical disturbance. Sequences identified as enriched under minimal disturbance and important for modeling Cmin, were linked to organisms which could produce extracellular polymeric substances and contained metabolic strategies suited for tolerating environmental stressors. Understanding how physical disturbance shapes microbial communities across climates and inherent soil properties and drives changes in Cmin provides the context necessary to evaluate management impacts on standardized measures of soil microbial activity.Foundation for Food and Agriculture ResearchOpen access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

An evaluation of carbon indicators of soil health in long-term agricultural experiments

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is closely tied to soil health. However, additional biological indicators may also provide insight about C dynamics and microbial activity. We used SOC and the other C indicators (potential C mineralization, permanganate oxidizable C, water extractable organic C, and β-glucosidase enzyme activity) from the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements to examine the continental-scale drivers of these indicators, the relationships among indicators, and the effects of soil health practices on indicator values. All indicators had greater values at cooler temperatures, and most were greater with increased precipitation and clay content. The indicators were strongly correlated with each other at the site-level, with the strongest relationship between SOC and permanganate oxidizable C. The indicator values responded positively to decreased tillage, inclusion of cover crops, application of organic nutrients, and retention of crop residue, but not the number of harvested crops in a rotation. The effect of decreased tillage on the C indicators was generally greater at sites with higher precipitation. The magnitude and direction of the response to soil health practices was consistent across indicators within a site but measuring at least two indicators would provide additional confidence of the effects of management, especially for tillage. All C indicators responded to management, an essential criterion for evaluating soil health. Balancing the cost, sensitivity, interpretability, and availability at commercial labs, a 24-hr potential C mineralization assay could deliver the most benefit to measure in conjunction with SOC.Samuel Roberts Noble FoundationOpen access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Evaluation of aggregate stability methods for soil health

Aggregate stability is a commonly used indicator of soil health because improvements in aggregate stability are related to reduced erodibility and improved soil–water dynamics. During the past 80 to 90 years, numerous methods have been developed to assess aggregate stability. Limited comparisons among the methods have resulted in varied magnitudes of response to soil health management practices and varied influences of inherent soil properties and climate. It is not clear whether selection of a specific method creates any advantage to the investigator. This study assessed four commonly used methods of measuring aggregate stability using data collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements. The methods included water stable aggregates using the Cornell Rainfall Simulator (WSACASH), wet sieved water stable aggregates (WSAARS), slaking captured and adapted from SLAKES smart-phone image recognition software (STAB10), and the mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates (MWD). Influence of climate and inherent soil properties at the continental scale were analyzed in addition to method responses to rotation diversity, cash crop count, residue management, organic nutrient amendments, cover crops, and tillage. The four methods were moderately correlated with each other. All methods were sensitive to differences in climate and inherent soil properties between sites, although to different degrees. None measured significant effects from rotation diversity or crop count, but all methods detected significant increases in aggregate stability resulting from reduced tillage. Significant increases or positive trends were observed for all methods in relation to cover cropping, increased residue retention, and organic amendments, except for STAB10, which expressed a slightly negative response to organic amendments. Considering these results, no single method was clearly superior and all four are viable options for measuring aggregate stability. Therefore, secondary considerations (e.g., cost, method availability, increased sensitivity to a specific management practice, or minimal within-treatment variability) driven by the needs of the investigator, should determine the most suitable method.General Mills IncOpen access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Risk of COVID-19 after natural infection or vaccinationResearch in context

Background: While vaccines have established utility against COVID-19, phase 3 efficacy studies have generally not comprehensively evaluated protection provided by previous infection or hybrid immunity (previous infection plus vaccination). Individual patient data from US government-supported harmonized vaccine trials provide an unprecedented sample population to address this issue. We characterized the protective efficacy of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and hybrid immunity against COVID-19 early in the pandemic over three-to six-month follow-up and compared with vaccine-associated protection. Methods: In this post-hoc cross-protocol analysis of the Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Novavax COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we allocated participants into four groups based on previous-infection status at enrolment and treatment: no previous infection/placebo; previous infection/placebo; no previous infection/vaccine; and previous infection/vaccine. The main outcome was RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 >7–15 days (per original protocols) after final study injection. We calculated crude and adjusted efficacy measures. Findings: Previous infection/placebo participants had a 92% decreased risk of future COVID-19 compared to no previous infection/placebo participants (overall hazard ratio [HR] ratio: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.05–0.13). Among single-dose Janssen participants, hybrid immunity conferred greater protection than vaccine alone (HR: 0.03; 95% CI: 0.01–0.10). Too few infections were observed to draw statistical inferences comparing hybrid immunity to vaccine alone for other trials. Vaccination, previous infection, and hybrid immunity all provided near-complete protection against severe disease. Interpretation: Previous infection, any hybrid immunity, and two-dose vaccination all provided substantial protection against symptomatic and severe COVID-19 through the early Delta period. Thus, as a surrogate for natural infection, vaccination remains the safest approach to protection. Funding: National Institutes of Health

Risk of COVID-19 after natural infection or vaccinationResearch in context

Summary: Background: While vaccines have established utility against COVID-19, phase 3 efficacy studies have generally not comprehensively evaluated protection provided by previous infection or hybrid immunity (previous infection plus vaccination). Individual patient data from US government-supported harmonized vaccine trials provide an unprecedented sample population to address this issue. We characterized the protective efficacy of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and hybrid immunity against COVID-19 early in the pandemic over three-to six-month follow-up and compared with vaccine-associated protection. Methods: In this post-hoc cross-protocol analysis of the Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Novavax COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we allocated participants into four groups based on previous-infection status at enrolment and treatment: no previous infection/placebo; previous infection/placebo; no previous infection/vaccine; and previous infection/vaccine. The main outcome was RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 >7–15 days (per original protocols) after final study injection. We calculated crude and adjusted efficacy measures. Findings: Previous infection/placebo participants had a 92% decreased risk of future COVID-19 compared to no previous infection/placebo participants (overall hazard ratio [HR] ratio: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.05–0.13). Among single-dose Janssen participants, hybrid immunity conferred greater protection than vaccine alone (HR: 0.03; 95% CI: 0.01–0.10). Too few infections were observed to draw statistical inferences comparing hybrid immunity to vaccine alone for other trials. Vaccination, previous infection, and hybrid immunity all provided near-complete protection against severe disease. Interpretation: Previous infection, any hybrid immunity, and two-dose vaccination all provided substantial protection against symptomatic and severe COVID-19 through the early Delta period. Thus, as a surrogate for natural infection, vaccination remains the safest approach to protection. Funding: National Institutes of Health