Of books and barbecues

Statewide testing has created an atmosphere in schools that is intimidating and mundane. A substantial body of research indicates that as students pay increasing attention to how well they are doing, they become decreasingly concerned with what they are doing. If we simply wanted to know how well a student was learning, or how well a teacher was teaching, there are many rich, authentic, classroom-based forms of assessment that could give us a meaningful answer. Only if your primary concern was to know who’s beating whom would you need to give exactly the same mass-produced tests under the same condition

From silence to dissent fostering critical voice in teachers

Teachers today have lost almost all control over their work. Few are capable of standing up to state-mandates. They are tightly constrained by school districts seeking compliance and higher text scores. We need critical literate teachers capable of critical reflection

Cadmium Exposure and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in U.S. Children

Background: Low-level environmental cadmium exposure in children may be associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes

Correction to: \u27Greater Wealth Inequality, Less Polygyny: Rethinking the Polygyny Threshold Model\u27

With apologies, an incorrect author list was given in the article. An additional author, Chris von Rueden, (Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond) also contributed to this work. Author Ryan Schacht's affiliation was out-of-date. His correct affiliation is: Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University

Cutting edge: Priming of NK cells by IL-18.

International audienceRecent evidence suggests that NK cells require priming to display full effector activity. In this study, we demonstrate that IL-18 contributed to this phenomenon. IL-18 signaling-deficient NK cells were found to be unable to secrete IFN-gamma in response to ex vivo stimulation with IL-12. This was not due to a costimulatory role of IL-18, because blocking IL-18 signaling during the ex vivo stimulation with IL-12 did not alter IFN-gamma production by wild-type NK cells. Rather, we demonstrate that IL-18 primes NK cells in vivo to produce IFN-gamma upon subsequent stimulation with IL-12. Importantly, IL-12-induced IFN-gamma transcription by NK cells was comparable in IL-18 signaling-deficient and -sufficient NK cells. This suggests that priming by IL-18 leads to an improved translation of IFN-gamma mRNA. These results reveal a novel type of cooperation between IL-12 and IL-18 that requires the sequential action of these cytokines