Teacher and School Characteristics: Predictors of Student Achievement in Georgia Public Schools

Student achievement of fifth-grade students in 106 Georgia public schools in CRCT reading and mathematics was examined as a function of five characteristics of teachers and schools. The five independent variables used as predictors of CRCT scores were Title I status, teachers’ education level, teachers’ average years of experience, class size, and computer to student ratio. Designation as a Title I school was the strongest predictor of student achievement. When compared to non-Title I schools, Title I school status resulted in a higher percentage of students meeting CRCT standards in both reading and math and a lower percentage of students exceeding standards in both reading and mathematics. However, Title I school status also resulted in a higher percentage of students meeting standards on both the CRCT reading and mathematics. Class size seemed to have very little relationship to the overall achievement of fifth-grade students. Teacher quality revealed mixed, though generally positive results when correlated with student achievement. Even though Title I designation is indicative of positive outcomes for CRCT scores, these positive outcomes do not hold for every predictor

Examining Rhetorics of Play in Curricula in Five Provinces: Is Play at Risk in Canadian Kindergartens?

In this article, school division and Ministry of Education–based early childhood consultants and university researchers respond to the question of whether play is at risk in kindergartens in five Canadian provinces by analyzing current and previous kindergarten curricula using Sutton-Smith’s framework of rhetorics of play. We find that play is integral to kindergarten curricula in Saskatchewan and Ontario, but only implicitly mentioned in the Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba curricula where support documents provide more support for play. The rhetoric of play as progress is the dominant discourse of current kindergarten curricula

Patient Perception of Midlevel Providers in Pediatric Diabetes Care

The purpose of this study was to evaluate patient perception of the role of mid-level providers among pediatric type 1 diabetes (T1DM) patients

Ecdysozoan mitogenomics: evidence for a common origin of the legged invertebrates, the Panarthropoda

Ecdysozoa is the recently recognized clade of molting animals that comprises the vast majority of extant animal species and the most important invertebrate model organisms—the fruit fly and the nematode worm. Evolutionary relationships within the ecdysozoans remain, however, unresolved, impairing the correct interpretation of comparative genomic studies. In particular, the affinities of the three Panarthropoda phyla (Arthropoda, Onychophora, and Tardigrada) and the position of Myriapoda within Arthropoda (Mandibulata vs. Myriochelata hypothesis) are among the most contentious issues in animal phylogenetics. To elucidate these relationships, we have determined and analyzed complete or nearly complete mitochondrial genome sequences of two Tardigrada, Hypsibius dujardini and Thulinia sp. (the first genomes to date for this phylum); one Priapulida, Halicryptus spinulosus; and two Onychophora, Peripatoides sp. and Epiperipatus biolleyi; and a partial mitochondrial genome sequence of the Onychophora Euperipatoides kanagrensis. Tardigrada mitochondrial genomes resemble those of the arthropods in term of the gene order and strand asymmetry, whereas Onychophora genomes are characterized by numerous gene order rearrangements and strand asymmetry variations. In addition, Onychophora genomes are extremely enriched in A and T nucleotides, whereas Priapulida and Tardigrada are more balanced. Phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated amino acid coding sequences support a monophyletic origin of the Ecdysozoa and the position of Priapulida as the sister group of a monophyletic Panarthropoda (Tardigrada plus Onychophora plus Arthropoda). The position of Tardigrada is more problematic, most likely because of long branch attraction (LBA). However, experiments designed to reduce LBA suggest that the most likely placement of Tardigrada is as a sister group of Onychophora. The same analyses also recover monophyly of traditionally recognized arthropod lineages such as Arachnida and of the highly debated clade Mandibulata

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure

TBCRC009: A Multicenter Phase II Clinical Trial of Platinum Monotherapy With Biomarker Assessment in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

The identification of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) who are expected to benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy is of interest. We conducted a single-arm phase II clinical trial of single-agent platinum for mTNBC with biomarker correlates

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts