The Relationship of a Systemic Student Support Intervention to Academic Achievement in Urban Catholic Schools

Much of the achievement gap between rich and poor students can be attributed to out-of-school factors, yet few schools have a comprehensive, coordinated system for addressing students’ nonacademic needs. Within a group of Catholic schools located in one city, this study examines academic achievement on the Stanford Achievement Test battery in mathematics, reading, and language among 2nd through 8th grade students participating in such an intervention, and compares the results with those of similar nonparticipating students in nearby cities. Using hierarchical longitudinal growth modeling and adjusting for demographic characteristics, this study found that students in intervention schools outperformed the comparison group on average in 6th grade mathematics. Intervention students also experienced significantly higher rates of growth in achievement than the comparison group in all three subjects. The results suggest that systemic service provision models have the potential to help urban Catholic schools meet their mission of educating the whole child and serving the poorest families. Keywords Catholic education, longitudinal growth analysis, achievement gap Le lien entre une intervention systémique de soutien aux élèves et la réussite scolaire dans les écoles catholiques en milieu urbain. Une bonne partie de l\u27écart entre les résultats obtenus par les élèves riches et les pauvres peut être attribuée à des facteurs extérieurs à l\u27école, pourtant peu d\u27écoles disposent d\u27un système complet et coordonné pour résoudre les besoins extrascolaires des élèves. Cette étude, qui porte sur un groupe d\u27écoles catholiques situées dans une seule ville, examine la réussite scolaire sut la batterie de tests de réussite de Stanford en mathématiques, lecture et langage parmi des élèves de la 11eà la 3eparticipant à cette intervention et compare les résultats avec ceux d\u27élèves similaires, dans des villes voisines qui n\u27y participaient pas. À l\u27aide d\u27une modélisation longitudinale de croissance, avec un ajustement pour les caractéristiques démographiques, cette étude a trouvé que les élèves des écoles où avait lieu l\u27intervention avaient de meilleurs résultats en moyenne que le groupe de comparaison en mathématiques de classe de 6e. Les élèves bénéficiant de l\u27intervention ont aussi eu des taux de croissance plus élevés que le groupe de comparaison dans les trois matières. Ce résultat indique que des modèles de service systémique fourni aux élèves peuvent potentiellement aider les écoles catholiques urbaines à remplir leur mission d\u27éducation intégrale de l\u27enfant et rendre service aux familles pauvres. Mots-clés : éducation catholique, analyse longitudinale de croissance, écart de réussite Relación entre una intervención sistémica de apoyo al estudiante y los logros académicos en escuelas católicas urbanas La mayor parte de la brecha en los logros entre estudiantes ricos y pobres puede atribuirse a factores extraescolares, sin embargo, pocas escuelas disponen de un sistema comprensivo coordinado que aborde las necesidades no académicas de los estudiantes. Tomando un grupo de escuelas católicas ubicadas en una misma ciudad, este estudio examina los logros académicos en las pruebas de aptitud de Stanford (SAT) en matemáticas, lectura y lengua de estudiantes entre segundo y octavo curso que participan en tales intervenciones; y compara los resultados a los de estudiantes no participantes, con perfiles similares, en ciudades cercanas. Al emplear modelos de crecimiento longitudinal jerárquico y al ajustarlos a las características demográficas, el presente estudio encontró que los estudiantes de escuelas con intervención superaron la media de los resultados del grupo de comparación en 6º curso de matemáticas. Los estudiantes con intervención también experimentaron significativamente mayores tasas de crecimiento que los del grupo de comparación en las tres materias. Los resultados sugieren que los modelos que proveen servicios sistémicos disponen del potencial para ayudar a que las escuelas católicas urbanas cumplan su misión de educar al niño en su totalidad y de servir a las familias pobres. Palabras clave educación católica, análisis de crecimiento longitudinal, brecha de logro

The validity and reliability of continuous-wave near -infrared spectroscopy for the assessment of leg blood volume during an orthostatic challenge.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can potentially be used to assess the cardiovascular autonomic system by monitoring orthostatic challenge-induced shifts in lower limb blood volume. However, in order to be of clinical utility the test must be valid, reliable, and relatively simple to conduct. Purpose: To induce lower limb blood volume shifts using a 10min 70o head-up tilt, and: (1) in the soleus, determine the validity of an inexpensive continuous wave (cw)-NIRS device by comparing to a criterion frequency-domain (fd-) NIRS device, (2) determine the between-day reliability of soleus assessments obtained from cw-NIRS and fd-NIRS; and, (3) compare the between-day reliability for fd-NIRS assessments obtained at the soleus (standard) and gastrocnemius (simpler alternative). Methods: Fifteen non-smoking healthy adults were tested on 3 different mornings, under standardized conditions, separated by a maximum of 7 days. Total haemoglobin concentration (tHb) was continuously monitored bi-laterally in the medial soleus using cw-NIRS and fd-NIRS. For site comparison, tHb was measured in the medial gastrocnemius using fd-NIRS. Results: (1) The area under the curve (AUC) for cw-NIRS and fd-NIRS assessments at the soleus were not significantly different (p =.619). (2) The criterion (0.75) intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was exceeded for both cw-NIRS and fd-NIRS. (3) The criterion ICC was exceeded for both soleus and gastrocnemius assessments. Conclusion: Continuous-wave NIRS can be used to monitor orthostatic stress-induced shifts in lower leg blood volume with acceptable validity and reliability. This orthostatic test may present a relatively simple and inexpensive approach for assessing the cardiovascular autonomic nervous system

University of Missouri- St. Louis Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (UMSL CSSI)

View the website for this project here: https://www.umsl.edu/ccj/research/cssi.htm

Gonococci with mutations to low-level penicillin resistance exhibit increased sensitivity to the oxygen-independent bactericidal activity of human polymorphonuclear leukocyte granule extracts.

Gonococci which cause disseminated gonococcal infection are nearly always highly penicillin sensitive, in contrast to many isolates causing uncomplicated gonorrhea. We questioned whether any of the known chromosomal mutations to low-level penicillin resistance might adversely affect virulence. The penA2 locus is known to result in low-level resistance to penicillins, whereas mtr-2 results in nonspecific resistance to a variety of antimicrobial agents. We found that the penA2 and mtr-2 mutations each markedly increased sensitivity of strain FA19 to oxygen-independent killing by human polymorphonuclear leukocyte mixed or isolated azurophilic granule extracts. The penA2 and mtr-2 mutations had no effect on sensitivity to serum antibody and complement. Isogenic opaque or transparent variants of several strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae were equally resistant to human polymorphonuclear leukocyte mixed granule extract bactericidal systems. There were also no differences in susceptibility of piliated type 1 and nonpiliated type 4 variants to human polymorphonuclear leukocyte mixed granule extracts. Since the penA2 and mtr-2 loci are known to increase the degree of cross-linking of cell wall peptidoglycan, the structure of peptidoglycan apparently affects sensitivity to killing by one or more polymorphonuclear leukocyte azurophilic granule extract bactericidal systems. These observations might explain why gonococci with mutations similar to penA2 and mtr-2 are almost never isolated from patients with disseminated gonococcal infection

Mutational Analysis of the Nitrogenase Carbon Monoxide Protective Protein CowN Reveals That a Conserved C‑Terminal Glutamic Acid Residue Is Necessary for Its Activity

Nitrogenase is the only enzyme that catalyzes the reduction of nitrogen gas into ammonia. Nitrogenase is tightly inhibited by the environmental gas carbon monoxide (CO). Many nitrogen fixing bacteria protect nitrogenase from CO inhibition using the protective protein CowN. This work demonstrates that a conserved glutamic acid residue near the C-terminus of Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus CowN is necessary for its function. Mutation of the glutamic acid residue abolishes both CowN’s protection against CO inhibition and the ability of CowN to bind to nitrogenase. In contrast, a conserved C-terminal cysteine residue is not important for CO protection by CowN. Overall, this work uncovers structural features in CowN that are required for its function and provides new insights into its nitrogenase binding and CO protection mechanism

Reactivity of Perovskites with Water: Role of Hydroxylation in Wetting and Implications for Oxygen Electrocatalysis

Oxides are instrumental to applications such as catalysis, sensing, and wetting, where the reactivity with water can greatly influence their functionalities. We find that the coverage of hydroxyls (*OH) measured at fixed relative humidity trends with the electron-donor (basic) character of wetted perovskite oxide surfaces. Using ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we report that the affinity toward hydroxylation, coincident with strong adsorption energies calculated for dissociated water and hydroxyl groups, leads to strong H bonding that is favorable for wetting while detrimental to catalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Our findings provide novel insights into the coupling between wetting and catalytic activity and suggest that catalyst hydrophobicity should be considered in aqueous oxygen electrocatalysis.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (Award DMR-0819762)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship (Grant DGE-1122374)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Career Award (0952564

P-Selectin and P-Selectin Glycoprotein Ligand 1 Are Major Determinants for Th1 Cell Recruitment to Nonlymphoid Effector Sites in the Intestinal Lamina Propria

The recruitment of activated T cell subsets to sites of effector immune responses is mediated by homing receptors induced upon activation in secondary lymphoid tissue. Using an adoptive transfer model, the intestinal recruitment of CD4+ T cells activated with intraperitoneal antigen in complete Freund's adjuvant was examined. The data demonstrate that activated CD4+ T cells recruited to intestinal Peyer's patches (PP) and lamina propria (LP) up-regulate functional P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1 (PSGL-1). Blockade of IL-12 inhibited functional PSGL-1 expression and reduced PP and LP CD4+ T cell recruitment by >40%. P-Selectin blockade reduced LP recruitment of activated cells by 56% without affecting PP recruitment. Studies of mice examined 3 d after adoptive transfer of differentiated T cell subsets revealed that Th1 but not Th2 cells were recruited to small intestine PP and LP. Mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule blockade reduced Th1 recruitment to PP by 90% and to LP by >72%, whereas P-selectin blockade reduced Th1 recruitment to PP by 18% and Th1 recruitment to LP by 84%. These data suggest that IL-12–induced functional PSGL-1 expression is a major determinant for the recruitment of Th1 effector cells to noninflamed as well as inflamed intestine

Aberrant miR-29 is a predictive feature of severe phenotypes in pediatric Crohn’s disease

Funding Information: This work was supported by 5P01DK094779 (NIH/NIDDK) awarded to SZS, TSF, and PS; the NIDDK R01 DK136262 awarded to SZS; and 5R21HD104922-02 (NIH/NICHD) awarded to PS. We would also like to thank BioRender for its help in creating our graphical abstract.Peer reviewe

Alterations to chromatin in intestinal macrophages link IL-10 deficiency to inappropriate inflammatory responses

Intestinal macrophages are uniquely programmed to tolerate exposure to bacteria without mounting potent inflammatory responses. The cytokine IL-10 maintains the macrophage anti-inflammatory response such that loss of IL-10 results in chronic intestinal inflammation. To investigate how IL-10-deficiency alters intestinal macrophage programming and bacterial tolerance, we studied changes in chromatin accessibility in response to bacteria in macrophages from two distinct niches, the intestine and bone-marrow, from both wild-type and IL-10-deficient mice. In both bone-marrow-derived and intestinal macrophages, we identified chromatin accessibility changes associated with bacterial exposure and IL-10-deficiency. Surprisingly, IL-10-deficient intestinal macrophages adopted chromatin and gene expression patterns characteristic of an inflammatory response, even in the absence of bacteria. Further, if IL-10 protein was added to cells that had previously been IL-10-deficient, it could not revert the chromatin landscape to a normal state. Our results demonstrate that IL-10 deficiency results in stable chromatin alterations in macrophages, even in the absence of bacteria. This supports a model where IL-10-deficiency leads to chromatin alterations that contribute to a loss of intestinal macrophage tolerance to bacteria, which is a primary initiating event in chronic intestinal inflammation