Voices from the Field: What Special Education Teachers Want Their Principals to Know

Special education in the public-school setting is designed to support students with disabilities by providing them specially designed instruction to meet their unique needs. This cannot be achieved without special education teachers who undergo specialized training to enable students with a disability to reach their maximum potential. Special education teachers' job duties differ greatly from that of a general education teacher, and they require specialized supports from their administrators. This qualitative study was designed for three purposes: (a) to understand the current teacher evaluation system along with the state and local policies from which the evaluation system is created; (b) to define the unique roles and responsibilities of the special education teacher that the current evaluation process may be failing to identify; and (c) to give special education teachers a voice to describe their experiences with the current teacher evaluation system. A document review of the current Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) evaluation rubric and of current state and local teacher evaluation policies preceded focus groups of high school special education teachers from three special education settings: inclusion, self-contained, and resource. Findings showed that teachers across all three settings agreed that T-TESS is not a true reflection of their job and was not created with diversity in mind, thereby failing students with disabilities. When evaluating the T-TESS rubric, only two out of the 16 dimensions uses language that acknowledges diverse learners in the teacher performance grading standards while no dimension mentions working with students with disabilities. This indicates that across all areas of T-TESS, even the most distinguished teacher is not being evaluated on their ability to work and support students with disabilities

Quantitative proteomics screen identifies a substrate repertoire of rhomboid protease RHBDL2 in human cells and implicates it in epithelial homeostasis

This deposit is composed by the main article plus the supplementary materials of the publication.Rhomboids are intramembrane serine proteases conserved in all kingdoms of life. They regulate epidermal growth factor receptor signalling in Drosophila by releasing signalling ligands from their transmembrane tethers. Their functions in mammals are poorly understood, in part because of the lack of endogenous substrates identified thus far. We used a quantitative proteomics approach to investigate the substrate repertoire of rhomboid protease RHBDL2 in human cells. We reveal a range of novel substrates that are specifically cleaved by RHBDL2, including the interleukin-6 receptor (IL6R), cell surface protease inhibitor Spint-1, the collagen receptor tyrosine kinase DDR1, N-Cadherin, CLCP1/DCBLD2, KIRREL, BCAM and others. We further demonstrate that these substrates can be shed by endogenously expressed RHBDL2 and that a subset of them is resistant to shedding by cell surface metalloproteases. The expression profiles and identity of the substrates implicate RHBDL2 in physiological or pathological processes affecting epithelial homeostasis.Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic grant: (Purkyne Fellowship); EMBO grant: (Installation Grant no. 2329); Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic grants: (projects no. LK11206 and LO1302); Marie Curie Career Integration grant: (project no. 304154); National Subvention for Development of Research Organisations grant: (RVO: 61388963); Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Worldwide Cancer Research grant: (14–1289); Marie Curie Career Integration grant: (project no. 618769); Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologica (FCT, PTDC/BEX-BCM/3015/2014); European Crohn’s and Colitis organization (ECCO); COST BM1406; Wellcome Trust grant: (101035/Z/13/Z); Medical Research Council grant: (programme number MC_U105178780).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bub1 Kinase and Sgo1 Modulate Pericentric Chromatin in Response to Altered Microtubule Dynamics

Tension sensing of bi-oriented chromosomes is essential for the fidelity of chromosome segregation. The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) conveys lack of tension or attachment to the anaphase promoting complex. Components of the SAC (Bub1) phosphorylate histone H2A (S121) and recruit the protector of cohesin, Shugoshin (Sgo1) to the inner centromere. How the chromatin structural modifications of the inner centromere are integrated into the tension sensing mechanisms and the checkpoint are not known

Tension-dependent nucleosome remodeling at the pericentromere in yeast

Dynamics of histones under tension in the pericentromere depends on RSC and ISW2 chromatin remodeling. The underlying pericentromeric chromatin forms a platform that is required to maintain kinetochore structure when under spindle-based tension.Nucleosome positioning is important for the structural integrity of chromosomes. During metaphase the mitotic spindle exerts physical force on pericentromeric chromatin. The cell must adjust the pericentromeric chromatin to accommodate the changing tension resulting from microtubule dynamics to maintain a stable metaphase spindle. Here we examine the effects of spindle-based tension on nucleosome dynamics by measuring the histone turnover of the chromosome arm and the pericentromere during metaphase in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We find that both histones H2B and H4 exhibit greater turnover in the pericentromere during metaphase. Loss of spindle-based tension by treatment with the microtubule-depolymerizing drug nocodazole or compromising kinetochore function results in reduced histone turnover in the pericentromere. Pericentromeric histone dynamics are influenced by the chromatin-remodeling activities of STH1/NPS1 and ISW2. Sth1p is the ATPase component of the Remodels the Structure of Chromatin (RSC) complex, and Isw2p is an ATP-dependent DNA translocase member of the Imitation Switch (ISWI) subfamily of chromatin-remodeling factors. The balance between displacement and insertion of pericentromeric histones provides a mechanism to accommodate spindle-based tension while maintaining proper chromatin packaging during mitosis

Associations between metabolic syndrome components and markers of inflammation in Welsh school children

We investigated the multivariate dimensionality and strength of the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and inflammation in children. Caucasian school children (N = 229; 12-14 yr) from Wales were tested on several health indicators including measures of body composition, inflammation, fasting glucose regulation, blood pressure and lipids. The multivariate associationbetween MetS and inflammation was investigated via canonical correlation analysis. Data were corrected for non-normality by log transformation, and sex-specific z-scores computed for variables where there was a significant sex difference. Structure r’s were interpreted to determine the dimensions of MetS and inflammation responsible for significant canonical variates. The overallmultivariate association between MetS and inflammation was significant (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.54, p < 0.001). The relationship was explained primarily by the waist circumference dimension of MetS (CC = 0.87) and inflammatory markers of fibrinogen (CC = 0.52) and C-reactive protein (CC = 0.50). The pattern of results was similar regardless of whether variables were adjusted for sex differences.Conclusions: Central adiposity is the strongest predictor of the inflammatory aspect of cardiovascular disease risk in Caucasian adolescents. Future research into MetS and cardiometabolic risk should consider multivariate statistical approaches, in order to identify the separate contributions of each dimension in interrelationships and to identify which dimensions are influenced by preventive interventions

A 3D Map of the Yeast Kinetochore Reveals the Presence of Core and Accessory Centromere-Specific Histone

The budding yeast kinetochore is ~68nm in length with a diameter slightly larger than a 25nm microtubule [1]. The kinetochores from the 16 chromosomes are organized in a stereotypic cluster encircling central spindle microtubules. Quantitative analysis of the inner kinetochore cluster (Cse4, COMA) reveals structural features not apparent in singly attached kinetochores. The cluster of Cse4 containing kinetochores is physically larger perpendicular to the spindle axis relative to the cluster of Ndc80 molecules [2]. If there were a single Cse4 (molecule or nucleosome) at the kinetochore attached to each microtubule plus-end, the cluster of Cse4 would appear geometrically identical to Ndc80. Thus, the structure of the inner kinetochore at the surface of the chromosomes remains unsolved