234 research outputs found
Qualitative case study of teachersâ morale in a turnaround school
A small Southeastern high school that had undergone a turnaround or conservatorship process experienced a lower than average teacher retention rate. The authors conducted a qualitative case study to investigate teachersâ experiences and perceptions of how turnaround strategies may have influenced their morale and how that effect on morale may have affected the teachersâ retention. Banduraâs self-efficacy theory provided the conceptual framework for this study. The research questions addressed teachersâ perspectives of morale as well as their views and experiences with the conservatorship process. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 8 teachers who were actively employed at the school before the conservatorship process and who were subsequently retained by the district. Interview results produced 6 themes relating to factors that influence teachersâ perspectives of morale: (a) powerlessness, (b) excessive visitations, (c) loss of confidence, (d) ineffective instructional practices, (e) stress and burnout, and (f) ineffective professional development opportunities. This qualitative research study identified factors that may potentially affect teachersâ morale positively and promote social change in in turnaround schools by fostering an environment where stakeholders work collaboratively to increase teachersâ retention and further school success
Successes and Failures of Hospital Ethics Committees: A National Survey of Ethics Committee Chairs
In 1992, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) passed a mandate that all its approved hospitals put in place a means for addressing ethical concerns. Although the particular process the hospital uses to address such concernsâethics consultant, ethics forum, ethics committeeâmay vary, the hospital or healthcare ethics committee (HEC) is used most often. In a companion study to that reported here, we found that in 1998 over 90% of U.S. hospitals had ethics committees, compared to just 1% in 1983, and that many have some and a few have sweeping clinical powers in hospitals
Deciphering Spectral Fingerprints of Habitable Extrasolar Planets
In this paper we discuss how we can read a planets spectrum to assess its
habitability and search for the signatures of a biosphere. After a decade rich
in giant exoplanet detections, observation techniques have now reached the
ability to find planets of less than 10 MEarth (so called Super-Earths) that
may potentially be habitable. How can we characterize those planets and assess
if they are habitable? The new field of extrasolar planet search has shown an
extraordinary ability to combine research by astrophysics, chemistry, biology
and geophysics into a new and exciting interdisciplinary approach to understand
our place in the universe. The results of a first generation mission will most
likely result in an amazing scope of diverse planets that will set planet
formation, evolution as well as our planet in an overall context.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, Astrobiology, 10, 1, 201
Successes and Failures of Hospital Ethics Committees: A National Survey of Ethics Committee Chairs
Jingoism, Public Opinion, and the New Imperialism:Newspapers and imperial rivalries at the fin de siĂšcle
Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts
Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas
Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN
- âŠ