Teacher Candidates\u27 Perspectives on Self-Care: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

How are teacher candidates conceptualizing self-care during the COVID 19 pandemic? We initiated focused attention on educator self-care for teacher candidates after identifying this content as a missing yet necessary component of trauma-informed teaching (Authors, 2019). In the fall of 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting every element of candidates’ lives including our now remotely-delivered course, we reconsidered how that content needed to fit into the realities of learning to teach during a pandemic. Following these revisions, we explored the research question, how are candidates conceptualizing self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic? We describe findings and provide recommendations and resources for educator preparation programs (EPP) to include self-care content during COVID -19 and afterward

A common variant associated with dyslexia reduces expression of the KIAA0319 gene

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (MYD, SP, TSS, JCK, RWM, PC, SB, and APM), the Intramural Research Programs of the National Human Genome Research Institute (MYD and EDG) and National Cancer Institute (MPO), and the NIH/Ox-Cam Graduate Partnership Program (MYD).Numerous genetic association studies have implicated the KIAA0319 gene on human chromosome 6p22 in dyslexia susceptibility. The causative variant(s) remains unknown but may modulate gene expression, given that (1) a dyslexia-associated haplotype has been implicated in the reduced expression of KIAA0319, and (2) the strongest association has been found for the region spanning exon 1 of KIAA0319. Here, we test the hypothesis that variant(s) responsible for reduced KIAA0319 expression resides on the risk haplotype close to the gene's transcription start site. We identified seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms on the risk haplotype immediately upstream of KIAA0319 and determined that three of these are strongly associated with multiple reading-related traits. Using luciferase-expressing constructs containing the KIAA0319 upstream region, we characterized the minimal promoter and additional putative transcriptional regulator regions. This revealed that the minor allele of rs9461045, which shows the strongest association with dyslexia in our sample (max p-value = 0.0001), confers reduced luciferase expression in both neuronal and non-neuronal cell lines. Additionally, we found that the presence of this rs9461045 dyslexia-associated allele creates a nuclear protein-binding site, likely for the transcriptional silencer OCT-1. Knocking down OCT-1 expression in the neuronal cell line SHSY5Y using an siRNA restores KIAA0319 expression from the risk haplotype to nearly that seen from the non-risk haplotype. Our study thus pinpoints a common variant as altering the function of a dyslexia candidate gene and provides an illustrative example of the strategic approach needed to dissect the molecular basis of complex genetic traits.PostprintPeer reviewe

Comparing families of dynamic causal models

Mathematical models of scientific data can be formally compared using Bayesian model evidence. Previous applications in the biological sciences have mainly focussed on model selection in which one first selects the model with the highest evidence and then makes inferences based on the parameters of that model. This “best model” approach is very useful but can become brittle if there are a large number of models to compare, and if different subjects use different models. To overcome this shortcoming we propose the combination of two further approaches: (i) family level inference and (ii) Bayesian model averaging within families. Family level inference removes uncertainty about aspects of model structure other than the characteristic of interest. For example: What are the inputs to the system? Is processing serial or parallel? Is it linear or nonlinear? Is it mediated by a single, crucial connection? We apply Bayesian model averaging within families to provide inferences about parameters that are independent of further assumptions about model structure. We illustrate the methods using Dynamic Causal Models of brain imaging data

Generation of mice with a conditional allele for the p75 NTR neurotrophin receptor gene

The p75 NTR neurotrophin receptor has been implicated in multiple biological and pathological processes. While significant advances have recently been made in understanding the physiologic role of p75 NTR , many details and aspects remain to be determined. This is in part because the two existing knockout mouse models (Exons 3 or 4 deleted, respectively), both display features that defy definitive conclusions. Here we describe the generation of mice that carry a conditional p75 NTR (p75 NTR‐FX ) allele made by flanking Exons 4–6, which encode the transmembrane and all cytoplasmic domains, by loxP sites. To validate this novel conditional allele, both neural crest‐specific p75 NTR /Wnt1‐Cre mutants and conventional p75 NTR null mutants were generated. Both mutants displayed abnormal hind limb reflexes, implying that loss of p75 NTR in neural crest‐derived cells causes a peripheral neuropathy similar to that seen in conventional p75 NTR mutants. This novel conditional p75 NTR allele will offer new opportunities to investigate the role of p75 NTR in specific tissues and cells. genesis 49:862–869, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88029/1/20747_ftp.pd

Teacher Candidates’ Emerging Perspectives on Trauma Informed Teaching

A transdisciplinary team of candidates with teacher and social work educators describe their perspectives of trauma-informed teaching and intentions to use evidence-based practices in classrooms. We studied classroom management from a trauma-informed perspective in the first course in the program, then reflected back on these through a professional learning community created to intentionally focus on trauma informed teaching. We highlight findings around candidates’ perspectives and specific actions they attended to in order to incorporate those practices

Classroom Management through Teacher Candidates’ Lenses: Transforming Learning Communities Through a Community of Practice

To better prepare teacher candidates for classroom management through attention to learning communities that affirm and support diverse students, including those effected by trauma, four instructors redesigned a required, undergraduate course. This study describes findings from three teacher candidate co-authors who were enrolled in that course. One semester after completing a course on classroom management and building community, candidates were asked to review their course products and other artifacts to consider what they learned and build upon their prior knowledge. Candidates used stimulated recall to respond to prompts on community building and relationships, gender and racial inclusivity, trauma sensitive practices, and the school to prison pipeline. Their perspectives contribute to understandings about how candidates engage in sense-making regarding classroom communities and classroom management

Cytoskeletal variations in an asymmetric cell division support diversity in nematode sperm size and sex ratios

Asymmetric partitioning is an essential component of many developmental processes. As spermatogenesis concludes, sperm are streamlined by discarding unnecessary cellular components into cellular wastebags called residual bodies (RBs). During nematode spermatogenesis, this asymmetric partitioning event occurs shortly after anaphase II, and both microtubules and actin partition into a central RB. Here, we use fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy to elucidate and compare the intermediate steps of RB formation in Caenorhabditis elegans, Rhabditis sp. SB347 (recently named Auanema rhodensis) and related nematodes. In all cases, intact microtubules reorganize and move from centrosomal to non-centrosomal sites at the RB-sperm boundary whereas actin reorganizes through cortical ring expansion and clearance from the poles. However, in species with tiny spermatocytes, these cytoskeletal changes are restricted to one pole. Consequently, partitioning yields one functional sperm with the X-bearing chromosome complement and an RB with the other chromosome set. Unipolar partitioning may not require an unpaired X, as it also occurs in XX spermatocytes. Instead, constraints related to spermatocyte downsizing may have contributed to the evolution of a sperm cell equivalent to female polar bodies

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

Regional nutrient decrease drove redox stabilisation and metazoan diversification in the late Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia

The late Ediacaran witnessed an increase in metazoan diversity and ecological complexity, marking the inception of the Cambrian Explosion. To constrain the drivers of this diversification, we combine redox and nutrient data for two shelf transects, with an inventory of biotic diversity and distribution from the Nama Group, Namibia (similar to 550 to similar to 538 Million years ago; Ma). Unstable marine redox conditions characterised all water depths in inner to outer ramp settings from similar to 550 to 547Ma, when the first skeletal metazoans appeared. However, a marked deepening of the redoxcline and a reduced frequency of anoxic incursions onto the inner to mid-ramp is recorded from similar to 547Ma onwards, with full ventilation of the outer ramp by similar to 542Ma. Phosphorus speciation data show that, whilst anoxic ferruginous conditions were initially conducive to the drawdown of bioavailable phosphorus, they also permitted a limited degree of phosphorus recycling back to the water column. A long-term decrease in nutrient delivery from continental weathering, coupled with a possible decrease in upwelling, led to the gradual ventilation of the Nama Group basins. This, in turn, further decreased anoxic recycling of bioavailable phosphorus to the water column, promoting the development of stable oxic conditions and the radiation of new mobile taxa.Peer reviewe

Kassiopeia: A Modern, Extensible C++ Particle Tracking Package

The Kassiopeia particle tracking framework is an object-oriented software package using modern C++ techniques, written originally to meet the needs of the KATRIN collaboration. Kassiopeia features a new algorithmic paradigm for particle tracking simulations which targets experiments containing complex geometries and electromagnetic fields, with high priority put on calculation efficiency, customizability, extensibility, and ease of use for novice programmers. To solve Kassiopeia's target physics problem the software is capable of simulating particle trajectories governed by arbitrarily complex differential equations of motion, continuous physics processes that may in part be modeled as terms perturbing that equation of motion, stochastic processes that occur in flight such as bulk scattering and decay, and stochastic surface processes occuring at interfaces, including transmission and reflection effects. This entire set of computations takes place against the backdrop of a rich geometry package which serves a variety of roles, including initialization of electromagnetic field simulations and the support of state-dependent algorithm-swapping and behavioral changes as a particle's state evolves. Thanks to the very general approach taken by Kassiopeia it can be used by other experiments facing similar challenges when calculating particle trajectories in electromagnetic fields. It is publicly available at https://github.com/KATRIN-Experiment/Kassiopei