Race and sex: teachers' views on who gets ahead in schools?

The research reported here was part of a large study of the impact of age, disability, race and sex on the teaching profession in England. The basic question asked in this research was how do these factors interact with career aspirations and achievements of classteachers, promoted teachers and headteachers? There were three different data sources: a large postal survey drawn from diverse geographic regions across England with over 2000 respondents; face‐to‐face individual interviews with over 100 teachers in 18 case study schools from across all of the main regions of England; discussions with special interest groups of teachers. Not surprisingly, the answer to the above question was complex. Nonetheless, the paper's conclusion highlights some of the noteworthy themes across this broad sample of teachers from primary, secondary and special schools

Improving hypertension control through a collaboration between an academic medical center and a chain community pharmacy

IntroductionApproximately one-third of adults in the United States have hypertension (HTN), leading to increased morbidity and mortality.ObjectivesThis quality improvement intervention was designed to improve HTN control among community-dwelling adults through collaboration between patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) within an academic medical center and chain community pharmacies.MethodsFour PCMH sites in Ann Arbor, Michigan that were in close proximity to two Meijer pharmacies participated in this study between September 2016 and March 2017, which compared HTN outcomes for patients seen at two community pharmacies where the pharmacists received training on HTN management for patients who received usual care at their PCMH. The primary outcome was percent of patients who met their blood pressure (BP) goal of either <140/90-mmHg or-<-150/90-mmHg compared with matched controls who received usual care at the PCMH. Secondary outcomes included number of medication recommendations made, percent of recommendations accepted by the primary care provider (PCP), and patient satisfaction.ResultsPatients who received care at the community pharmacy (n = 155) had a higher rate of BP control at 3-months than matched controls (61.8% vs 47.7%, P = 0.013). A total of 29 medication recommendations were made by community pharmacists and 26 were accepted by the PCP. Nearly 95% of patients rated the care they received as excellent or very good and over 95% stated that they would recommend the pharmacist at the Meijer pharmacy to their family and friends.ConclusionPatients who received HTN management services as part of a collaboration between an academic medical center and chain community pharmacy were significantly more likely to have controlled BP at 3-months compared with matched controls who received standard care. This model shows promise as being a strategy to expand access to care for patients while being mutually beneficial for community pharmacies and health systems.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151336/1/jac51158_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151336/2/jac51158.pd

HII regions in spiral galaxies: Size distribution, luminosity function, and new isochrone diagnostics of density wave kinematics

We investigate the relationship of the HII region luminosity function (HII LF) to the HII region size distribution and density wave triggering in grand-design spiral galaxies. We suggest that the differential nebular size distribution is described by a power law of slope ~ -4, with flattening at radii below ~ 130 pc. This contrasts with the conventional exponential description, but it is physically and quantitatively consistent with the typical observed value of -2 for the HII LF slope. We have developed an interactive code that computes spatial isochrones for the evolving loci of spiral density waves in disk galaxies. This allows comparison of the nebular spatial distribution with the spatial isochrones for simple rotation curve parameters. Our comparisons for four grand-design galaxies suggest that the corotation radius r_co coincides with the outer ends of the star-forming arms. This value for r_co yields the best spatial correspondence between the HII regions and the isochrones, and also appears to yield a coincidence between the Inner Lindblad Resonance with the radial onset of star formation in the arms. Thus, we suggest that isochrones offer a new, simple, and effective technique for determining r_co, and thus the spiral pattern speed. However, application of the isochrones also demonstrates that evolution of the nebular population is difficult to spatially isolate in these galaxies.Comment: 15 pp, 8 figs, uses emulateapj. Accepted to A

The effect of age, size of target, and cognitive factors on accommodative responses of children with Down Syndrome

purpose. To investigate possible factors that may be implicated in the poor accommodative responses of individuals with Down syndrome. This article evaluates the effect of age, angular size of target, and cognitive factors on accommodation. methods. Seventy-seven children with Down syndrome who are participating in an ongoing study of visual development were assessed. One hundred thirty-one developmentally normal children took part in a previous study and provided control data. Accommodation was measured using a modified Nott dynamic retinoscopy technique. results. Children with Down syndrome showed considerably poorer accommodative responses than normally developing children. No target used in the present study produced an improved response in children with Down syndrome. Age, angular subtense of target, and cognitive factors could not fully account for the poor accommodation in children with Down syndrome. conclusions. Poor accommodation is a common feature of Down syndrome, regardless of the target used. The etiology of the deficit has yet to be established. It is imperative that educators and clinicians are aware that near vision is out of focus for these children

Somatic activating mutations in Pik3ca cause sporadic venous malformations in mice and humans.

Venous malformations (VMs) are painful and deforming vascular lesions composed of dilated vascular channels, which are present from birth. Mutations in the TEK gene, encoding the tyrosine kinase receptor TIE2, are found in about half of sporadic (nonfamilial) VMs, and the causes of the remaining cases are unknown. Sclerotherapy, widely accepted as first-line treatment, is not fully efficient, and targeted therapy for this disease remains underexplored. We have generated a mouse model that faithfully mirrors human VM through mosaic expression of Pik3ca(H1047R), a constitutively active mutant of the p110α isoform of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), in the embryonic mesoderm. Endothelial expression of Pik3ca(H1047R)resulted in endothelial cell (EC) hyperproliferation, reduction in pericyte coverage of blood vessels, and decreased expression of arteriovenous specification markers. PI3K pathway inhibition with rapamycin normalized EC hyperproliferation and pericyte coverage in postnatal retinas and stimulated VM regression in vivo. In line with the mouse data, we also report the presence of activating PIK3CA mutations in human VMs, mutually exclusive with TEK mutations. Our data demonstrate a causal relationship between activating Pik3ca mutations and the genesis of VMs, provide a genetic model that faithfully mirrors the normal etiology and development of this human disease, and establish the basis for the use of PI3K-targeted therapies in VMs.Postdoctoral fellowships were from EMBO (A LTF 165-2013) to S.D.C, EU Marie Curie (MEIF-CT-2005-010264) to E.T. and EU Marie Curie (PIIF-GA-2009-252846) to I.M.B. M.Z.-T. is supported by the EPSRC Early Career Fellowship of T.L.K. (EP/L006472/1). D.J.S. is a BHF Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellow (FS/15/33/31608). A.L.D is supported by the UK NIHR Joint UCL/University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. V.E.R.P. was supported by the Wellcome Trust (097721/Z/11/Z). R.K.S. is supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT098498), the Medical Research Council (M RC_MC_UU_12012/5). R.G.K. is supported by the NIHR Rare Diseases Translational Research Collaboration. V.W. is supported by the European FPVI Integrated Project ‘Eurostemcell’. M.F.L. and A.B. are supported by the King’s College London and UCL Comprehensive Cancer Imaging Centre CR-UK and EPSRC, in association with the MRC and DoH (England). W.A.P. is supported by funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia. Work in the laboratory of M.G. is supported by research grants SAF2013-46542-P and SAF2014-59950-P from MICINN (Spain), 2014-SGR-725 from the Catalan Government, the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/ (REA grant agreement 317250), the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISC III) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the integrated Project of Excellence no. PIE13/00022 (ONCOPROFILE). Work in the laboratory of B.V. is supported by Cancer Research UK (C23338/A15965) and the UK NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Association for the Advancement of Science via http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aad998

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. Over 100 non-syndromic hearing loss genes have been identified in mouse and human, but we remain ignorant of the full extent of the genetic landscape involved in auditory dysfunction. As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, we undertook a hearing loss screen in a cohort of 3006 mouse knockout strains. In total, we identify 67 candidate hearing loss genes. We detect known hearing loss genes, but the vast majority, 52, of the candidate genes were novel. Our analysis reveals a large and unexplored genetic landscape involved with auditory function

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

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

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

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment