Stories We Don’t Tell: Research’s Limited Accounting of Rural Schools

To help build capacity among PK-12 school leaders and policymakers whose decisions can impact rural settings, often without full understanding of the nuances most salient to rural places, this study asked (1) To what extent do education researchers account for geographic locale in their reporting? (2) Do highly ranked journals account for geographic locale in their reporting more readily than education research in general? Hybridizing three systematic approaches to literature review—rapid, mapping, and scoping—the study examined a population-level dataset of nearly 109,000 school-focused, peer-reviewed articles in ERIC during a 10-year period and dove deeper into 4,001 articles from highly ranked journals. Overall, we found that more than 85% of the literature base ignores geographic locale entirely. Next, we revealed stunning overrepresentation of city/urban schools, proportionality in towns, and underrepresentation for suburbs, but especially clear neglect for rurality and remoteness. Furthermore, more than 90% of the few studies that invoked “rural” never defined the term. Ultimately, our findings support recommendations for school leaders and policymakers to only employ research that clarifies the ‘who’ and ‘where’ of studies, aiding their determinations of whether research can be adapted for—or should be entirely discounted from—local use. We also advocate that researchers embrace geographic locale as an essential, measurable school characteristic; standardize use of National Center for Education Statistics’ Urban-Centric codes as a definitional framework; and avoid imaginary urban-rural dichotomies

Influential Spheres: Examining Actors’ Perceptions of Education Governance

Many layers of education governance press upon U.S. schools, so we separated state actors into those internal to and those external to the system. In the process, we unpacked the traditional state–local dichotomy. Using interview data (n = 45) from six case-study states, we analyzed local leaders’, state-internal actors’, and state-external players’ perceptions of implementation flexibility and hindrances across several policy areas. We observed how interviewees’ spheres of influence linked to which policy areas they viewed as salient or not, and their relative emphaseson who and what within state education systems contributed to implementation flexibility and/or hindrances, and how these factors played out. We found important differences by sphere: the local sphere produced the most coherent findings, and state-internal was least coherent. We discuss implications for education governance research, applications for practitioners and policymakers, and a methodological contribution

Opportunities and conditions to learn (OCL): A conceptual framework

“Opportunity to learn” has evolved into an umbrella phrase for describing a large range of settings, resources, structures, and processes. The aim of this study is to develop a conceptual framework that can accommodate a wide range of opportunities to learn, not just those provided by teachers in classrooms. An inclusive framework can bring together diverse studies about opportunity to learn, increasing synergies and uncovering interconnections, and making more visible marginalized forms of learning. It can also be used as a framework for holding governments, education authorities, and policy makers accountable for providing equitable opportunities and conditions to learn. This article presents a three-dimensional conceptual framework of opportunities and conditions to learn (OCL) that captures (a) notions of what opportunities exist and where those opportunities exist and opportunities offered by whom, as well as (b) a spate of conditions that can shape those opportunities

MicroRNAs Are Indispensable for Reprogramming Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts into Induced Stem Cell-Like Cells

MicroRNAs play a pivotal role in cellular maintenance, proliferation, and differentiation. They have also been implicated to play a key role in disease pathogenesis, and more recently, cellular reprogramming. Certain microRNA clusters can enhance or even directly induce reprogramming, while repressing key proteins involved in microRNA processing decreases reprogramming efficiency. Although microRNAs clearly play important roles in cellular reprogramming, it remains unknown whether microRNAs are absolutely necessary. We endeavored to answer this fundamental question by attempting to reprogram Dicer-null mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) that lack almost all functional microRNAs using a defined set of transcription factors. Transduction of reprogramming factors using either lentiviral or piggyBac transposon vector into two, independently derived lines of Dicer-null MEFs failed to produce cells resembling embryonic stem cells (ESCs). However, expression of human Dicer in the Dicer-null MEFs restored their reprogramming potential. Our study demonstrates for the first time that microRNAs are indispensable for dedifferentiation reprogramming

The Advanced Study Program in Science: challenging, motivating and inspiring our best science students

The Advanced Study Program in Science is an enrichment program for science students at The University of Queensland (UQ) which targets highly motivated, high achieving students with an interest in research and a career in science. The program is coordinated across the full three years of the degree with the core aims of: • providing a cohort experience with a group of like-minded individuals which becomes a closely bonded learning community throughout the undergraduate experience and beyond; • exposing motivated and interested students to the research culture of the university and the myriad of career opportunities in science; • allowing these students to gain genuine research laboratory experience earlier and more intensely than in a regular undergraduate degree program; and • challenging these students to develop complex problem solving skills. The program has an enrolment of approximately 40 students per year and these students participate in a number of cohort building exercises including science camps, team assignments and social activities. The students gain academic credit for three specific courses, one in each year, which consist of seminar attendance, research projects, discussion groups and advanced laboratory exercises. The results of the research projects completed in second and third year are presented within an authentic science context at an Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium as either oral or poster presentations. The Advanced Study Program has been very successful in providing immediate and accessible links between the science research occurring at UQ and the undergraduate learning environment

Das Kopernikus-Projekt ENavi - Die Transformation des Stromsystems mit Fokus Kohleausstieg

In diesem Bericht wird die Transformation des Stromsystems als zentrale Stellschraube zur Erreichung der Klimaziele analysiert. Dabei wird die Dekarbonisierung, insbesondere der Ausstieg aus der Kohleverstromung, in den Fokus gerückt. Anhand einer systematischen Vorgehensweise werden Transformationsszenarien für das deutsche Energiesystem identifiziert, analysiert und bewertet. Die Analyse erfolgt mithilfe unterschiedlicher computergestützter Modelle, um die Auswirkungen im gesamten System abschätzen zu können. Es werden sowohl Wechselwirkungen im Stromsystem und im Energiesystem, als auch im Wirtschaftssystem und im Bereich Ressourcen und Umwelt untersucht

Phenotyping in the era of genomics: MaTrics—a digital character matrix to document mammalian phenotypic traits

A new and uniquely structured matrix of mammalian phenotypes, MaTrics (Mammalian Traits for Comparative Genomics) in a digital form is presented. By focussing on mammalian species for which genome assemblies are available, MaTrics provides an interface between mammalogy and comparative genomics. MaTrics was developed within a project aimed to find genetic causes of phenotypic traits of mammals using Forward Genomics. This approach requires genomes and comprehensive and recorded information on homologous phenotypes that are coded as discrete categories in a matrix. MaTrics is an evolving online resource providing information on phenotypic traits in numeric code; traits are coded either as absent/present or with several states as multistate. The state record for each species is linked to at least one reference (e.g., literature, photographs, histological sections, CT scans, or museum specimens) and so MaTrics contributes to digitalization of museum collections. Currently, MaTrics covers 147 mammalian species and includes 231 characters related to structure, morphology, physiology, ecology, and ethology and available in a machine actionable NEXUS-format*. Filling MaTrics revealed substantial knowledge gaps, highlighting the need for phenotyping efforts. Studies based on selected data from MaTrics and using Forward Genomics identified associations between genes and certain phenotypes ranging from lifestyles (e.g., aquatic) to dietary specializations (e.g., herbivory, carnivory). These findings motivate the expansion of phenotyping in MaTrics by filling research gaps and by adding taxa and traits. Only databases like MaTrics will provide machine actionable information on phenotypic traits, an important limitation to genomics. MaTrics is available within the data repository Morph·D·Base (www.morphdbase.de)

Toward a 21st-century health care system: Recommendations for health care reform

The coverage, cost, and quality problems of the U.S. health care system are evident. Sustainable health care reform must go beyond financing expanded access to care to substantially changing the organization and delivery of care. The FRESH-Thinking Project (www.fresh-thinking.org) held a series of workshops during which physicians, health policy experts, health insurance executives, business leaders, hospital administrators, economists, and others who represent diverse perspectives came together. This group agreed that the following 8 recommendations are fundamental to successful reform: 1. Replace the current fee-for-service payment system with a payment system that encourages and rewards innovation in the efficient delivery of quality care. The new payment system should invest in the development of outcome measures to guide payment. 2. Establish a securely funded, independent agency to sponsor and evaluate research on the comparative effectiveness of drugs, devices, and other medical interventions. 3. Simplify and rationalize federal and state laws and regulations to facilitate organizational innovation, support care coordination, and streamline financial and administrative functions. 4. Develop a health information technology infrastructure with national standards of interoperability to promote data exchange. 5. Create a national health database with the participation of all payers, delivery systems, and others who own health care data. Agree on methods to make de-identified information from this database on clinical interventions, patient outcomes, and costs available to researchers. 6. Identify revenue sources, including a cap on the tax exclusion of employer-based health insurance, to subsidize health care coverage with the goal of insuring all Americans. 7. Create state or regional insurance exchanges to pool risk, so that Americans without access to employer-based or other group insurance could obtain a standard benefits package through these exchanges. Employers should also be allowed to participate in these exchanges for their employees' coverage. 8. Create a health coverage board with broad stakeholder representation to determine and periodically update the affordable standard benefit package available through state or regional insurance exchanges