Informing High School Choices: The Progress & Challenges of Small High Schools in Philadelphia

In the School District of Philadelphia in 2007-08, almost one third of high school students attend one of the district's 32 small high schools. Of these, 26 have been newly created or significantly changed since 2002. These small schools have a range of admissions criteria with two thirds being selective admission and one third neighborhood high schools. Along with this increase in high school options has been a growing interest in high school choice, with 73% of eighth graders applying to high schools outside their neighborhood in 2006. However, within the School District of Philadelphia, there is only one 'choice'-the neighborhood high school-for the 51% of rising ninth graders who try to exercise choice but are not accepted to any of their preferred choices. For those students who do attend small high schools, our research suggests that this more personalized environment is demonstrating promising outcomes with regard to improved school climate, improved interpersonal relationships between adults and students and student-to-student, and students' perceptions of their school experience. The small high school model is particularly promising for neighborhood high schools where positive relationships may help stem high dropout rates. Among our five case study high schools, the one small neighborhood high school reported great improvements in climate compared to its previous large configuration, although some lingering climate challenges remained. While positive relationships and improved climate create the conditions for learning, principals and teachers at all five case study schools reported that more was needed to develop and maintain a rigorous academic program for all students. They described the need for common faculty planning time to strengthen their academic program and more flexibility and resources to meet the unique staffing and rostering challenges of small high schools

Making A Difference: Year Two Report of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative

This report examines the implementation of the second year of three for the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative (PAHSCI). Funded by the Annenberg Foundation, this initiative focuses on literacy and math coaches providing support to teachers from across the major subject areas to create literacy-rich classrooms in which students actively engage in learning tasks that deepen their content knowledge and strengthen their abilities to think critically and communicate well. This report presents findings from the first two years of research. It includes survey research as well as in-depth qualitative research in participating schools and districts and provides recommendations for PAHSCI stakeholders as they refine the program and for other education reformers as they consider the benefits of instructional coaching as a strategy for improving high schools and student achievement

Links to Learning and Sustainability: Year Three Report of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative

At the request of the Accountability Review Council, Research for Action identified effective organizational practices used by better performing schools serving substantial numbers of low income middle and high school students in the School District of Philadelphia. These practices are organized into three spheres: Conditions for Teaching, Student-Centered School Community, and Instructional Program. For each sphere, the report offers broad strategies and specific practices to enact the strategies. Nuanced school case studies show how the practices can work synergistically and coherently in schools to help students succeed

State business: gender, sex and marriage in Tajikistan

This article examines the relation of the state to masculinity and sexuality by way of an exploration of the sexual problems of a young man and his wife in Tajikistan at the end of the Soviet era. It suggests that the regime’s inattention to this kind of issue was bound up with the importance to the state of projecting appropriate versions of masculinity. It further posits the idea that the continued refusal of the independent Tajik state to offer appropriate treatments for sexual dysfunction is consistent with the image of modernity President Rahmon wishes to present to the world. The article shows that as masculinity discursively occupies the superior gender position, with men expected to dominate, the state is itself impotent to respond when they are, in fact, unable to do so in sexual practice. However, the myth of male dominance persists to the point that it may prevent women from seeing beyond their subordination and finding mutually beneficial solutions in their familial and sexual relationships

Differential molecular response of monodehydroascorbate reductase and glutathione reductase by nitration and S-nitrosylation

The ascorbate–glutathione cycle is a metabolic pathway that detoxifies hydrogen peroxide and involves enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Proteomic studies have shown that some enzymes in this cycle such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDAR), and glutathione reductase (GR) are potential targets for post-translational modifications (PMTs) mediated by nitric oxide-derived molecules. Using purified recombinant pea peroxisomal MDAR and cytosolic and chloroplastic GR enzymes produced in Escherichia coli, the effects of peroxynitrite (ONOO–) and S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) which are known to mediate protein nitration and S-nitrosylation processes, respectively, were analysed. Although ONOO– and GSNO inhibit peroxisomal MDAR activity, chloroplastic and cytosolic GR were not affected by these molecules. Mass spectrometric analysis of the nitrated MDAR revealed that Tyr213, Try292, and Tyr345 were exclusively nitrated to 3-nitrotyrosine by ONOO–. The location of these residues in the structure of pea peroxisomal MDAR reveals that Tyr345 is found at 3.3 Å of His313 which is involved in the NADPbinding site. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed Tyr345 as the primary site of nitration responsible for the inhibition of MDAR activity by ONOO–. These results provide new insights into the molecular regulation of MDAR which is deactivated by nitration and S-nitrosylation. However, GR was not affected by ONOO– or GSNO, suggesting the existence of a mechanism to conserve redox status by maintaining the level of reduced GSH. Under a nitro-oxidative stress induced by salinity (150 mM NaCl), MDAR expression (mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity levels) was increased, probably to compensate the inhibitory effects of S-nitrosylation and nitration on the enzyme. The present data show the modulation of the antioxidative response of key enzymes in the ascorbate–glutathione cycle by nitric oxide (NO)- PTMs, thus indicating the close involvement of NO and reactive oxygen species metabolism in antioxidant defence against nitro-oxidative stress situations in plants.Spanish GovernmentERDF - Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness BIO2012-33904Junta de Andalucía BIO286 BIO19

Adaptive step ODE algorithms for the 3D simulation of electric heart activity with graphics processing units

In this paper we studied the implementation and performance of adaptive step methods for large systems of ordinary differential equations systems in graphics processing units, focusing on the simulation of three-dimensional electric cardiac activity. The Rush-Larsen method was applied in all the implemented solvers to improve efficiency. We compared the adaptive methods with the fixed step methods, and we found that the fixed step methods can be faster while the adaptive step methods are better in terms of accuracy and robustness. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been partially funded by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through Programa de Apoyo a la InvestigaciOn y Desarrollo (PAID-06-11) and (PAID-05-12), by Generalitat Valenciana through projects PROMETEO/2009/013 and Ayudas para la realizacion de proyectos de I+D para grupos de investigacion emergentes GV/2012/039, and by Ministerio Espafiol de Economia y Competitividad through project TEC2012-38142-004.García Mollá, VM.; Liberos Mascarell, A.; Vidal Maciá, AM.; Guillem Sánchez, MS.; Millet Roig, J.; González Salvador, A.; Martínez Zaldívar, FJ.... (2014). Adaptive step ODE algorithms for the 3D simulation of electric heart activity with graphics processing units. Computers in Biology and Medicine. 44:15-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2013.10.023S15264

PPDB, the Plant Proteomics Database at Cornell

The Plant Proteomics Database (PPDB; http://ppdb.tc.cornell.edu), launched in 2004, provides an integrated resource for experimentally identified proteins in Arabidopsis and maize (Zea mays). Internal BLAST alignments link maize and Arabidopsis information. Experimental identification is based on in-house mass spectrometry (MS) of cell type-specific proteomes (maize), or specific subcellular proteomes (e.g. chloroplasts, thylakoids, nucleoids) and total leaf proteome samples (maize and Arabidopsis). So far more than 5000 accessions both in maize and Arabidopsis have been identified. In addition, more than 80 published Arabidopsis proteome datasets from subcellular compartments or organs are stored in PPDB and linked to each locus. Using MS-derived information and literature, more than 1500 Arabidopsis proteins have a manually assigned subcellular location, with a strong emphasis on plastid proteins. Additional new features of PPDB include searchable posttranslational modifications and searchable experimental proteotypic peptides and spectral count information for each identified accession based on in-house experiments. Various search methods are provided to extract more than 40 data types for each accession and to extract accessions for different functional categories or curated subcellular localizations. Protein report pages for each accession provide comprehensive overviews, including predicted protein properties, with hyperlinks to the most relevant databases

The PEX7-Mediated Peroxisomal Import System Is Required for Fungal Development and Pathogenicity in Magnaporthe oryzae

In eukaryotes, microbodies called peroxisomes play important roles in cellular activities during the life cycle. Previous studies indicate that peroxisomal functions are important for plant infection in many phytopathogenic fungi, but detailed relationships between fungal pathogenicity and peroxisomal function still remain unclear. Here we report the importance of peroxisomal protein import through PTS2 (Peroxisomal Targeting Signal 2) in fungal development and pathogenicity of Magnaporthe oryzae. Using an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation library, a pathogenicity-defective mutant was isolated from M. oryzae and identified as a T-DNA insert in the PTS2 receptor gene, MoPEX7. Gene disruption of MoPEX7 abolished peroxisomal localization of a thiolase (MoTHL1) containing PTS2, supporting its role in the peroxisomal protein import machinery. ΔMopex7 showed significantly reduced mycelial growth on media containing short-chain fatty acids as a sole carbon source. ΔMopex7 produced fewer conidiophores and conidia, but conidial germination was normal. Conidia of ΔMopex7 were able to develop appressoria, but failed to cause disease in plant cells, except after wound inoculation. Appressoria formed by ΔMopex7 showed a defect in turgor generation due to a delay in lipid degradation and increased cell wall porosity during maturation. Taken together, our results suggest that the MoPEX7-mediated peroxisomal matrix protein import system is required for fungal development and pathogenicity M. oryzae