Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning

The findings are grouped into four sections. The first section on student achievement finds that there were positive effects on student mathematics and reading performance and that the lowest-performing students made substantial gains relative to their peers. The second section on implementation and the perceptions of stakeholders finds that adoption of personalized learning practices varied considerably. Personalized learning practices that are direct extensions of current practice were more common, but implementation of some of the more challenging personalized learning strategies was less common. The third section relates implementation features to outcomes and identifies three elements of personalized learning that were being implemented in tandem in the schools with the largest achievement effects. Finally, the fourth section compares teachers' and students' survey responses to a national sample and finds some differences, such as teachers' greater use of practices that support competency-based learning and greater use of technology for personalization in the schools in this study with implementation data

Translating Standardized Effects of Education Programs Into More Interpretable Metrics

Evaluators report effects of education initiatives as standardized effect sizes, a scale that has merits but obscures interpretation of the effects’ practical importance. Consequently, educators and policymakers seek more readily interpretable translations of evaluation results. One popular metric is the number of years of learning necessary to induce the effect. We compare years of learning to three other translation options: benchmarking against other effect sizes, converting to percentile growth, and estimating the probability of scoring above a proficiency threshold. After enumerating the desirable properties of translations, we examine each option’s strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that years of learning performs worst, and percentile gains performs best, making it our recommended choice for more interpretable translations of standardized effects

Anti-Müllerian Hormone and Lifestyle, Reproductive, and Environmental Factors Among Women in Rural South Africa

Few data exist regarding antiMüllerian hormone, a marker of ovarian reserve, in relation to environmental factors with potential ovarian toxicity

Anti-Müllerian hormone and lifestyle, reproductive, and environmental factors among women in rural South Africa

BACKGROUND : Few data exist regarding anti-Müllerian hormone, a marker of ovarian reserve, in relation to environmental factors with potential ovarian toxicity. METHODS : This analysis included 420 women from Limpopo, South Africa studied in 2010-2011. Women were administered comprehensive questionnaires, and plasma concentrations of anti-Müllerian hormone and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane were determined. We used separate multivariable models to examine the associations between natural log-transformed anti-Müllerian hormone concentration (ng/ml) and each of the lifestyle, reproductive, and environmental factors of interest, adjusted for age, body mass index, education, and parity. RESULTS : The median age of women was 24 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 22 to 26); the median anti-Müllerian hormone concentration was 3.1 ng/ml (IQR = 2.0 to 6.0). Women who reported indoor residual spraying in homes with painted walls (indicative of exposure to pyrethroids) had 25% lower (95% confidence interval [CI] = -39%, -8%) anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations compared with women who reported no spraying. Little evidence of decreased anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations was observed among women with the highest dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane levels. Compared with women who used an electric stove, no association was observed among women who cooked indoors over open wood fires. The findings also suggested lower anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations among women who drank coffee (-19% [95% CI = -31%, -5%]) or alcohol (-21% [95% CI = -36%, -3%]). CONCLUSIONS : These are among the first data regarding anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations relative to pesticides and indoor air pollution. Our results are suggestive of decreased ovarian reserve associated with exposure to pyrethroid pesticides, which is consistent with laboratory animal data.http://journals.lww.com/epidem/pages/default.aspx2016-05-31hb201

Cluster M Mycobacteriophages Bongo, PegLeg, and Rey with Unusually Large Repertoires of tRNA Isotopes

Genomic analysis of a large set of phages infecting the common hostMycobacterium smegmatis mc2155 shows that they span considerable genetic diversity. There are more than 20 distinct types that lack nucleotide similarity with each other, and there is considerable diversity within most of the groups. Three newly isolated temperate mycobacteriophages, Bongo, PegLeg, and Rey, constitute a new group (cluster M), with the closely related phages Bongo and PegLeg forming subcluster M1 and the more distantly related Rey forming subcluster M2. The cluster M mycobacteriophages have siphoviral morphologies with unusually long tails, are homoimmune, and have larger than average genomes (80.2 to 83.7 kbp). They exhibit a variety of features not previously described in other mycobacteriophages, including noncanonical genome architectures and several unusual sets of conserved repeated sequences suggesting novel regulatory systems for both transcription and translation. In addition to containing transfer-messenger RNA and RtcB-like RNA ligase genes, their genomes encode 21 to 24 tRNA genes encompassing complete or nearly complete sets of isotypes. We predict that these tRNAs are used in late lytic growth, likely compensating for the degradation or inadequacy of host tRNAs. They may represent a complete set of tRNAs necessary for late lytic growth, especially when taken together with the apparent lack of codons in the same late genes that correspond to tRNAs that the genomes of the phages do not obviously encode

Experimental Evidence of Radiation Reaction in the Collision of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse with a Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Electron Beam

The dynamics of energetic particles in strong electromagnetic fields can be heavily influenced by the energy loss arising from the emission of radiation during acceleration, known as radiation reaction. When interacting with a high-energy electron beam, today's lasers are sufficiently intense to explore the transition between the classical and quantum radiation reaction regimes. We present evidence of radiation reaction in the collision of an ultrarelativistic electron beam generated by laser-wakefield acceleration (μ 500 MeV) with an intense laser pulse (a0>10). We measure an energy loss in the postcollision electron spectrum that is correlated with the detected signal of hard photons (γ rays), consistent with a quantum description of radiation reaction. The generated γ rays have the highest energies yet reported from an all-optical inverse Compton scattering scheme, with critical energy >30 MeV

Stereocilia-staircase spacing is influenced by myosin III motors and their cargos espin-1 and espin-like

Hair cells tightly control the dimensions of their stereocilia, which are actin-rich protrusions with graded heights that mediate mechanotransduction in the inner ear. Two members of the myosin-III family, MYO3A and MYO3B, are thought to regulate stereocilia length by transporting cargos that control actin polymerization at stereocilia tips. We show that eliminating espin-1 (ESPN-1), an isoform of ESPN and a myosin-III cargo, dramatically alters the slope of the stereocilia staircase in a subset of hair cells. Furthermore, we show that espin-like (ESPNL), primarily present in developing stereocilia, is also a myosin-III cargo and is essential for normal hearing. ESPN-1 and ESPNL each bind MYO3A and MYO3B, but differentially influence how the two motors function. Consequently, functional properties of different motor-cargo combinations differentially affect molecular transport and the length of actin protrusions. This mechanism is used by hair cells to establish the required range of stereocilia lengths within a single cell

Stereocilia-staircase spacing is influenced by myosin III motors and their cargos espin-1 and espin-like

Hair cells tightly control the dimensions of their stereocilia, which are actin-rich protrusions with graded heights that mediate mechanotransduction in the inner ear. Two members of the myosin-III family, MYO3A and MYO3B, are thought to regulate stereocilia length by transporting cargos that control actin polymerization at stereocilia tips. We show that eliminating espin-1 (ESPN-1), an isoform of ESPN and a myosin-III cargo, dramatically alters the slope of the stereocilia staircase in a subset of hair cells. Furthermore, we show that espin-like (ESPNL), primarily present in developing stereocilia, is also a myosin-III cargo and is essential for normal hearing. ESPN-1 and ESPNL each bind MYO3A and MYO3B, but differentially influence how the two motors function. Consequently, functional properties of different motor-cargo combinations differentially affect molecular transport and the length of actin protrusions. This mechanism is used by hair cells to establish the required range of stereocilia lengths within a single cell

Stereocilia-staircase spacing is influenced by myosin III motors and their cargos espin-1 and espin-like

Hair cells tightly control the dimensions of their stereocilia, which are actin-rich protrusions with graded heights that mediate mechanotransduction in the inner ear. Two members of the myosin-III family, MYO3A and MYO3B, are thought to regulate stereocilia length by transporting cargos that control actin polymerization at stereocilia tips. We show that eliminating espin-1 (ESPN-1), an isoform of ESPN and a myosin-III cargo, dramatically alters the slope of the stereocilia staircase in a subset of hair cells. Furthermore, we show that espin-like (ESPNL), primarily present in developing stereocilia, is also a myosin-III cargo and is essential for normal hearing. ESPN-1 and ESPNL each bind MYO3A and MYO3B, but differentially influence how the two motors function. Consequently, functional properties of different motor-cargo combinations differentially affect molecular transport and the length of actin protrusions. This mechanism is used by hair cells to establish the required range of stereocilia lengths within a single cell