Exploring the Factors that Influence Female Students’ Decision to (Not) Enrol in Elective Physical Education: A Private School Case Study

This article presents the results from a qualitative case study that examined the influencers upon a somewhat unique group of female students who opted out of elective physical education (PE). More specifically, this study focused upon female students attending an affluent private school, investigating why—when they transitioned from middle school to senior high school and PE became optional—they opted out of the class. Employing a research design that relied principally upon in-depth interviews, seven themes emerged from the students’ stories: perspectives on policy and PE programming, co-ed problems; friends’ influence, parental support for opting out, A+ academic achievement, free time and electives, and adequate physical activity accumulation outside of school. By considering these themes, particularly as they align with an Ecological Systems Theory, or EST (Bronfenbrenner, 1977) social-ecological framework, it is possible to more fully comprehend contributing influencers to these students’ decisions. Moreover, with this comprehension, we offer suggestions for future practice and inquiry.Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude de cas qualitative qui a examiné les facteurs qui influencent un groupe quelque peu unique d’étudiantes qui avaient choisi de ne pas s’inscrire au cours d’éducation physique facultatif. Plus précisément, cette étude porte sur les raisons pour lesquelles les étudiantes d’une école privée pour familles aisées, lors de leur transition de l’école élémentaire vers l’école secondaire où le cours d’éducation physique est dorénavant facultatif, ont décidé de ne pas s’y inscrire. La recherche repose sur une conception qui s’appuie principalement sur les entrevues détaillées. Sept thèmes découlent des récits des étudiantes : des perspectives sur la politique et la programmation du cours d’éducation physique; des problèmes liées aux cours mixtes; l’influence des amis; l’appui parental devant le choix de ne pas s’inscrire; une rendement académique de A+; le temps libre et les cours facultatifs; et suffisamment d’activité physique à l’extérieur de l’école. L’étude de ces thèmes et notamment la mesure dans laquelle ils correspondent à la Théorie des systèmes écologiques (Brofenbrenner, 1977) aide à mieux comprendre les facteurs qui influencent les décisions de ces étudiantes. Nous appuyant sur ces conclusions, nous offrons des suggestions pour la pratique et la recherche à l’avenir.

Quantifying sources of variability in infancy research using the infant-directed-speech preference

Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) assessing the overall replicability of a single theoretically important phenomenon and (b) examining methodological, cultural, and developmental moderators. We focus on infants’ preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Stimuli of mothers speaking to their infants and to an adult in North American English were created using seminaturalistic laboratory-based audio recordings. Infants’ relative preference for IDS and ADS was assessed across 67 laboratories in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia using the three common methods for measuring infants’ discrimination (head-turn preference, central fixation, and eye tracking). The overall meta-analytic effect size (Cohen’s d) was 0.35, 95% confidence interval = [0.29, 0.42], which was reliably above zero but smaller than the meta-analytic mean computed from previous literature (0.67). The IDS preference was significantly stronger in older children, in those children for whom the stimuli matched their native language and dialect, and in data from labs using the head-turn preference procedure. Together, these findings replicate the IDS preference but suggest that its magnitude is modulated by development, native-language experience, and testing procedure. (This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 798658.

Control of hemA Expression in Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1: Effect of a Transposon Insertion in the hbdA Gene

The common precursor to all tetrapyrroles is 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), and in Rhodobacter sphaeroides its formation occurs via the Shemin pathway. ALA synthase activity is encoded by two differentially regulated genes in R. sphaeroides 2.4.1: hemA and hemT. In our investigations of hemA regulation, we applied transposon mutagenesis under aerobic conditions, followed by a selection that identified transposon insertion mutants in which hemA expression is elevated. One of these mutants has been characterized previously (J. Zeilstra-Ryalls and S. Kaplan, J. Bacteriol. 178:985–993, 1996), and here we describe our analysis of a second mutant strain. The transposon inserted into the coding sequences of hbdA, coding for S-(+)-β-hydroxybutyryl–coenzyme A dehydrogenase and catalyzing an NAD-dependent reaction. We provide evidence that the hbdA gene product participates in polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) metabolism and, based on our findings, we discuss possibilities as to how defective PHB metabolism might alter the level of hemA expression

School-Level Environment and Outcomes-Based Education in South Africa

In this study, we developed and validated a questionnaire to assess teachers’ perceptions of their actual and preferred school-level environment, investigated whether teachers involved with Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) perceive the school-level environment differently from those who are not, and investigated factors in the school-level environment (such as resources and staff freedom) linked with a school’s likelihood of successfully implementing OBE. The study involved modifying and validating an existing questionnaire to make it suitable for assessing the school-level environment in South Africa, as well as adding to the School-Level Environment Survey (SLEQ) the scales of Familiarity with OBE and Parental Involvement. Analysis of data collected from 403 teachers provides evidence for the validity and reliability of the new SLEQ-SA. MANOVA for repeated measures revealed a statistically significant (p < 0.01) difference between teacher perceptions of their actual school environment and the one that they would prefer for all seven SLEQ-SA dimensions. When MANOVA was used to examine whether teachers involved in OBE perceive their school-level environments differently from those who are not, statistically significant differences emerged for two of the seven school-level environment scales, with teachers involved with OBE perceiving significantly more Familiarity with OBE and Work Pressure. The constraints faced by teachers are wide ranging and include a number of factors such as a lack of material resources and large class sizes. The results provide valuable information to policy-makers, principals and researchers that potentially could help to guide the implementation of OBE

Quantifying Sources of Variability in Infancy Research Using the Infant-Directed-Speech Preference

Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) assessing the overall replicability of a single theoretically important phenomenon and (b) examining methodological, cultural, and developmental moderators. We focus on infants’ preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Stimuli of mothers speaking to their infants and to an adult in North American English were created using seminaturalistic laboratory-based audio recordings. Infants’ relative preference for IDS and ADS was assessed across 67 laboratories in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia using the three common methods for measuring infants’ discrimination (head-turn preference, central fixation, and eye tracking). The overall meta-analytic effect size (Cohen’s d) was 0.35, 95% confidence interval = [0.29, 0.42], which was reliably above zero but smaller than the meta-analytic mean computed from previous literature (0.67). The IDS preference was significantly stronger in older children, in those children for whom the stimuli matched their native language and dialect, and in data from labs using the head-turn preference procedure. Together, these findings replicate the IDS preference but suggest that its magnitude is modulated by development, native-language experience, and testing procedure

Markers of Successful Extubation in Extremely Preterm Infants, and Morbidity After Failed Extubation

To identify variables associated with successful elective extubation, and to determine neonatal morbidities associated with extubation failure in extremely preterm neonates. This study was a secondary analysis of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network's Surfactant, Positive Pressure, and Oxygenation Randomized Trial that included extremely preterm infants born at 240/7 to 276/7 weeks' gestation. Patients were randomized either to a permissive ventilatory strategy (continuous positive airway pressure group) or intubation followed by early surfactant (surfactant group). There were prespecified intubation and extubation criteria. Extubation failure was defined as reintubation within 5 days of extubation. Of 1316 infants in the trial, 1071 were eligible; 926 infants had data available on extubation status; 538 were successful and 388 failed extubation. The rate of successful extubation was 50% (188/374) in the continuous positive airway pressure group and 63% (350/552) in the surfactant group. Successful extubation was associated with higher 5-minute Apgar score, and pH prior to extubation, lower peak fraction of inspired oxygen within the first 24 hours of age and prior to extubation, lower partial pressure of carbon dioxide prior to extubation, and non-small for gestational age status after adjustment for the randomization group assignment. Infants who failed extubation had higher adjusted rates of mortality (OR 2.89), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (OR 3.06), and death/ bronchopulmonary dysplasia (OR 3.27). Higher 5-minute Apgar score, and pH prior to extubation, lower peak fraction of inspired oxygen within first 24 hours of age, lower partial pressure of carbon dioxide and fraction of inspired oxygen prior to extubation, and nonsmall for gestational age status were associated with successful extubation. Failed extubation was associated with significantly higher likelihood of mortality and morbidities. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00233324

Loss-of-function in RBBP5 results in a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder associated with microcephaly

Epigenetic dysregulation has been associated with many inherited disorders. RBBP5 (HGNC:9888) encodes a core member of the protein complex that methylates histone 3 lysine-4 (H3K4) and has not been implicated in human disease. We identify five unrelated individuals with de novo heterozygous variants in RBBP5. Three nonsense/frameshift and two missense variants were identified in probands with neurodevelopmental symptoms including global developmental delay, intellectual disability, microcephaly, and short stature. Here, we investigate the pathogenicity of the variants through protein structural analysis and transgenic Drosophila models. Both missense p.(T232I) and p.(E296D) variants affect evolutionarily conserved amino acids located at the interface between RBBP5 and the nucleosome. In Drosophila, overexpression analysis identifies partial loss-of-function mechanisms when the variants are expressed using the fly Rbbp5 or human RBBP5 cDNA. Loss of Rbbp5 leads to a reduction in brain size. The human reference or variant transgenes fail to rescue this loss and expression of either missense variant in an Rbbp5 null background results in a less severe microcephaly phenotype than the human reference, indicating both missense variants are partial loss-of-function alleles. Haploinsufficiency of RBBP5 observed through de novo null and hypomorphic loss-of-function variants is associated with a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder. Huang et al. report the first functional validation of candidate pathological variants in RBBP5. We present three truncating p.(K244Nfs*6), p.(W254*), p.(R307*) and two missense p.(T232I), p.(E296D) variants found de novo in affected individuals sharing phenotypes including microcephaly and short stature. RBBP5 is a core member of the COMPASS complex responsible for H3 lysine 4 methylation to activate developmental target genes (COMPASS complex adapted from Namitz et al., 2023). Differentiation of neural stem cells in humans and neuroblasts in Drosophila is conserved allowing for the study of neural development in the fly model organism (neural stem cell/neuroblast differentiation diagram adapted from Kim and Hirth, 2009). We used overexpression and rescue experiments to characterize the missense variants in the fly. Neural progenitor populations were evaluated in the larval brain and tissue specific phenotypes were quantified using adult eye and wing morphology studies. We identify that the truncating and missense variants are loss-of-function alleles. As additional patients are identified, the full phenotypic spectrum of RBBP5-related disorders will be elucidated. Created with Biorender.com. [Display omitted