Empowering Elementary and Middle Level Science Educators: Keeping Pace with Instructional Trends in Science Education for the 21st Century

This article emphasizes current pedagogical themes that are important for elementary and middle school science instruction. Discussion topics include the following: (1) Integration (2) Differentiating for Young Learners (3 ) Creating a Balanced Classroom: Person-Centered Instruction (Freiberg, 2002) (4) Inquiry-Based Instruction (5) Maximizing the “Aha” Moment of Learning (6) Cognitive Benefits from Classroom Discourse (7) Including Purposeful Content (8) Integrating Technology (9) Standards-Based Instruction (10) Working Cooperatively in the Science Classroom (11) Authentic Science and (12) Understanding the Methods of Science

CD19 + CD21lo/neg cells are increased in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The purpose of this study was to examine recirculating lymphocytes from SSc patients for potential biomarkers of interstitial lung disease (ILD). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from patients with SSc and healthy controls enrolled in the Vanderbilt University Myositis and Scleroderma Treatment Initiative Center cohort between 9/2017-6/2019. Clinical phenotyping was performed by chart abstraction. Immunophenotyping was performed using both mass cytometry and fluorescence cytometry combined with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding analysis and traditional biaxial gating. This study included 34 patients with SSc-ILD, 14 patients without SSc-ILD, and 25 healthy controls. CD2

Migration and Evolution of giant ExoPlanets (MEEP) I: Nine Newly Confirmed Hot Jupiters from the TESS Mission

Hot Jupiters were many of the first exoplanets discovered in the 1990s, but in the decades since their discovery, the mysteries surrounding their origins remain. Here, we present nine new hot Jupiters (TOI-1855 b, TOI-2107 b, TOI-2368 b, TOI-3321 b, TOI-3894 b, TOI-3919 b, TOI-4153 b, TOI-5232 b, and TOI-5301 b) discovered by NASA's TESS mission and confirmed using ground-based imaging and spectroscopy. These discoveries are the first in a series of papers named the Migration and Evolution of giant ExoPlanets (MEEP) survey and are part of an ongoing effort to build a complete sample of hot Jupiters orbiting FGK stars, with a limiting Gaia $G$-band magnitude of 12.5. This effort aims to use homogeneous detection and analysis techniques to generate a set of precisely measured stellar and planetary properties that is ripe for statistical analysis. The nine planets presented in this work occupy a range of masses (0.55 Jupiter masses (M$_{\rm{J}}$) $<$ M$_{\rm{P}}$ $<$ 3.88 M$_{\rm{J}}$) and sizes (0.967 Jupiter radii (R$_{\rm{J}}$) $<$ R$_{\rm{P}}$ $<$ 1.438 R$_{\rm{J}}$) and orbit stars that range in temperature from 5360 K $<$ Teff $<$ 6860 K with Gaia $G$-band magnitudes ranging from 11.1 to 12.7. Two of the planets in our sample have detectable orbital eccentricity: TOI-3919 b ($e = 0.259^{+0.033}_{-0.036}$) and TOI-5301 b ($e = 0.33^{+0.11}_{-0.10}$). These eccentric planets join a growing sample of eccentric hot Jupiters that are consistent with high-eccentricity tidal migration, one of the three most prominent theories explaining hot Jupiter formation and evolution.Comment: 35 pages, 7 tables, and 14 figures. Submitted to AAS Journals on 2023 Dec 2

Another Shipment of Six Short-Period Giant Planets from TESS

We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting giant planets from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) -- TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642), TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), & TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467). All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 <G< 11.8, 7.7 <K< 10.1). Using a combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group, we have determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (R$_{P}$ = 1.00-1.45 R$_{J}$), have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.35 M$_{J}$, and orbit F, G, and K stars (4753 $<$ T$_{eff}$ $<$ 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 days, $e$ = $0.220\pm0.053$), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 days, $e$ = $0.182^{+0.039}_{-0.049}$), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 days, $e$ = $0.196^{+0.059}_{-0.053}$). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host stars (3.8 $<$ $\log$ g $<$4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained by the high mass of the planets; $5.35^{+0.32}_{-0.35}$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2145 b) and $5.21\pm0.52$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries contribute to the larger community effort to use {\it TESS} to create a magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with well-determined parameters for future detailed studies.Comment: 20 Pages, 6 Figures, 8 Tables, Accepted by MNRA

Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients With Severe COVID-19: The REMAP-CAP COVID-19 Corticosteroid Domain Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Evidence regarding corticosteroid use for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is limited. Objective: To determine whether hydrocortisone improves outcome for patients with severe COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: An ongoing adaptive platform trial testing multiple interventions within multiple therapeutic domains, for example, antiviral agents, corticosteroids, or immunoglobulin. Between March 9 and June 17, 2020, 614 adult patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled and randomized within at least 1 domain following admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory or cardiovascular organ support at 121 sites in 8 countries. Of these, 403 were randomized to open-label interventions within the corticosteroid domain. The domain was halted after results from another trial were released. Follow-up ended August 12, 2020. Interventions: The corticosteroid domain randomized participants to a fixed 7-day course of intravenous hydrocortisone (50 mg or 100 mg every 6 hours) (n = 143), a shock-dependent course (50 mg every 6 hours when shock was clinically evident) (n = 152), or no hydrocortisone (n = 108). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was organ support-free days (days alive and free of ICU-based respiratory or cardiovascular support) within 21 days, where patients who died were assigned -1 day. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model that included all patients enrolled with severe COVID-19, adjusting for age, sex, site, region, time, assignment to interventions within other domains, and domain and intervention eligibility. Superiority was defined as the posterior probability of an odds ratio greater than 1 (threshold for trial conclusion of superiority >99%). Results: After excluding 19 participants who withdrew consent, there were 384 patients (mean age, 60 years; 29% female) randomized to the fixed-dose (n = 137), shock-dependent (n = 146), and no (n = 101) hydrocortisone groups; 379 (99%) completed the study and were included in the analysis. The mean age for the 3 groups ranged between 59.5 and 60.4 years; most patients were male (range, 70.6%-71.5%); mean body mass index ranged between 29.7 and 30.9; and patients receiving mechanical ventilation ranged between 50.0% and 63.5%. For the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively, the median organ support-free days were 0 (IQR, -1 to 15), 0 (IQR, -1 to 13), and 0 (-1 to 11) days (composed of 30%, 26%, and 33% mortality rates and 11.5, 9.5, and 6 median organ support-free days among survivors). The median adjusted odds ratio and bayesian probability of superiority were 1.43 (95% credible interval, 0.91-2.27) and 93% for fixed-dose hydrocortisone, respectively, and were 1.22 (95% credible interval, 0.76-1.94) and 80% for shock-dependent hydrocortisone compared with no hydrocortisone. Serious adverse events were reported in 4 (3%), 5 (3%), and 1 (1%) patients in the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with severe COVID-19, treatment with a 7-day fixed-dose course of hydrocortisone or shock-dependent dosing of hydrocortisone, compared with no hydrocortisone, resulted in 93% and 80% probabilities of superiority with regard to the odds of improvement in organ support-free days within 21 days. However, the trial was stopped early and no treatment strategy met prespecified criteria for statistical superiority, precluding definitive conclusions. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02735707

Another shipment of six short-period giant planets from TESS

We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting giant planets from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) – TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642), TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), and TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467). All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 &lt;G &lt; 11.8, 7.7 &lt;K &lt; 10.1). Using a combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program Working Group, we have determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (RP = 0.99–1.45 RJ), have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.26 MJ, and orbit F, G, and K stars (4766 ≤ Teff ≤ 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 d, 0.394+0.035-0.038), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 d, e = 0.208+0.034-0.047), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 d, e = 0.195+0.043-0.040). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host stars (3.8 &lt; log g &lt;4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained by the high mass of the planets; 5.26+0.38-0.37 MJ (TOI-2145 b) and 4.82 ± 0.41 MJ (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries contribute to the larger community effort to use TESS to create a magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with well-determined parameters for future detailed studies. © 2023 The Author(s).80NSSC20K0250; LE140100050; FEUZ-2020-0038, PGC2018-098153-B-C31; National Science Foundation, NSF: 1516242, 1608203, 2007811, AST-1751874, AST-1907790; David and Lucile Packard Foundation, DLPF; National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA: GN-2018B-LP-101, NNX13AM97A, XRP 80NSSC22K0233; W. M. Keck Foundation, WMKF; New York Community Trust, NYCT; Research Corporation for Science Advancement, RCSA; Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, PSGC; Ames Research Center, ARC; George Mason University, GMU; University of North Carolina, UNC; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT; University of Pennsylvania; Ohio State University, OSU; California Institute of Technology, CIT; University of Florida, UF; Michigan State University, MSU; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC-CH; Pennsylvania State University, PSU; University of Montana, UM; University of Texas at Austin, UT; Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, SAO; Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020: 1952545, 724427; Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation; Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center, ABC-UTC; National Centres of Competence in Research SwissMAP; Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition, DPAC; European Research Council, ERC; European Space Agency, ESA; Australian Research Council, ARC: DP180100972, DP210103119, DP220100365, FL220100117, LE160100001; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG: HA 3279/12-1, SPP1992; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, KAKEN: JP18H05439; University of New South Wales, UNSW; University of Southern Queensland, USQ; Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, FONDECYT: 11200751, 1210718, 14ENI2-26865, IC120009; Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, CREST: JPMJCR1761; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Minobrnauka: 075-15-2020-780, N13.1902.21.0039; Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, MCTI; University of Toronto, U of T; Université de Genève, UNIGE; Ministry of Economy; Nanjing University, NJU; Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, IAC; NCCR Catalysis, NCCRThe authors thank the CHIRON team members, including Todd Henry, Leonardo Paredes, Hodari James, Azmain Nisak, Rodrigo Hinojosa, Roberto Aviles, Wei-Chun Jao, and CTIO staffs, for their work in acquiring RVs with CHIRON at CTIO. This research has made use of SAO/NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia ( https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia ), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium ). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. Based in part on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações (MCTI/LNA) do Brasil, the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU).Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission directorate. The authors acknowledge the use of public TESS Alert data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which are operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission, which are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). This paper includes observations obtained under Gemini program GN-2018B-LP-101. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. This publication makes use of The Data and Analysis Center for Exoplanets (DACE), which is a facility based at the University of Geneva (CH) dedicated to extrasolar planets data visualisation, exchange and analysis. DACE is a platform of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, federating the Swiss expertise in Exoplanet research. The DACE platform is available at https://dace.unige.ch .LC, KS, EA, JR, JER, JAR, PW, and EZ are grateful for support from NSF grants AST-1751874 and AST-1907790, along with a Cottrell Fellowship from the Research Corporation. CZ is supported by a Dunlap Fellowship at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, funded through an endowment established by the Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. T.H. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program via the ERC Advanced Grant Origins 83 24 28. JVS acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project Four Aces; grant agreement No. 724427). PR acknowledges support from NSF grant No. 1952545. RB and AJ acknowledges support from FONDECYT Projects 11200751 and 1210718 and from the CORFO project N◦14ENI2-26865. AJ, RB and MH acknowledge support from project IC120009 ‘Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)’ of the Millenium Science Initiative, Chilean Ministry of Economy. The Pennsylvania State University Eberly College of Science. The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by the Pennsylvania State University, the Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. KKM gratefully acknowledges support from the New York Community Trust’s Fund for Astrophysical Research. LG and AG are supported by NASA Massachusetts Space Grant Fellowships. EWG, ME, and PC acknowledge support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant HA 3279/12-1 within the DFG Schwerpunkt SPP1992, Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets. BSG was partially supported by the Thomas Jefferson Chair for Space Exploration at the Ohio State University. CD acknowledges support from the Hellman Fellows Fund and NASA XRP via grant 80NSSC20K0250. BSS, MVG, and AAB acknowledge the support of Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under the grant 075-15-2020-780 (N13.1902.21.0039). BA is supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP180100972. TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119). TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119 and FL220100117). The authors thank the CHIRON team members, including Todd Henry, Leonardo Paredes, Hodari James, Azmain Nisak, Rodrigo Hinojosa, Roberto Aviles, Wei-Chun Jao, and CTIO staffs, for their work in acquiring RVs with CHIRON at CTIO. This research has made use of SAO/NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. Based in part on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações (MCTI/LNA) do Brasil, the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission directorate. The authors acknowledge the use of public TESS Alert data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which are operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission, which are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). This paper includes observations obtained under Gemini program GN-2018B-LP-101. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. This publication makes use of The Data and Analysis Center for Exoplanets (DACE), which is a facility based at the University of Geneva (CH) dedicated to extrasolar planets data visualisation, exchange and analysis. DACE is a platform of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, federating the Swiss expertise in Exoplanet research. The DACE platform is available at https://dace.unige.ch. MINERVA-Australis is supported by Australian Research Council LIEF Grant LE160100001 (Discovery Grant DP180100972 and DP220100365) Mount Cuba Astronomical Foundation, and institutional partners University of Southern Queensland, UNSW Sydney, MIT, Nanjing University, George Mason University, University of Louisville, University of California Riverside, University of Florida, and The University of Texas at Austin. The authors respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of all lands throughout Australia and recognize their continued cultural and spiritual connection to the land, waterways, cosmos, and community. The authors pay our deepest respects to all Elders, ancestors and descendants of the Giabal, Jarowair, and Kambuwal nations, upon whose lands the MINERVA-Australis facility at Mt Kent is situated. MINERVA-North is a collaboration among the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Montana, the University of Southern Queensland, University of Pennsylvania, and George Mason University. It is made possible by generous contributions from its collaborating institutions and Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (EPSCOR grant NNX13AM97A, XRP 80NSSC22K0233), the Australian Research Council (LIEF grant LE140100050), and the National Science Foundation (grants 1516242, 1608203, and 2007811). This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. This work is partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grants PGC2018-098153-B-C31.The work of VK was supported by the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation, topic FEUZ-2020-0038. This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18H05439, JST CREST Grant Number JPMJCR1761. This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide.Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.This article is based on observations made with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. This work is partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness through grants PGC2018-098153-B-C31.The work of VK was supported by the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation, topic FEUZ-2020-0038.LC, KS, EA, JR, JER, JAR, PW, and EZ are grateful for support from NSF grants AST-1751874 and AST-1907790, along with a Cottrell Fellowship from the Research Corporation. CZ is supported by a Dunlap Fellowship at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, funded through an endowment established by the Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. T.H. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program via the ERC Advanced Grant Origins 83 24 28. JVS acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project Four Aces; grant agreement No. 724427). PR acknowledges support from NSF grant No. 1952545. RB and AJ acknowledges support from FONDECYT Projects 11200751 and 1210718 and from the CORFO project N°14ENI2-26865. AJ, RB and MH acknowledge support from project IC120009 ‘Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)’ of the Millenium Science Initiative, Chilean Ministry of Economy. The Pennsylvania State University Eberly College of Science. The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by the Pennsylvania State University, the Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. KKM gratefully acknowledges support from the New York Community Trust’s Fund for Astrophysical Research. LG and AG are supported by NASA Massachusetts Space Grant Fellowships. EWG, ME, and PC acknowledge support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant HA 3279/12-1 within the DFG Schwerpunkt SPP1992, Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets. BSG was partially supported by the Thomas Jefferson Chair for Space Exploration at the Ohio State University. CD acknowledges support from the Hellman Fellows Fund and NASA XRP via grant 80NSSC20K0250. BSS, MVG, and AAB acknowledge the support of Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under the grant 075-15-2020-780 (N13.1902.21.0039). BA is supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP180100972. TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119). TRB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210103119 and FL220100117).Minerva -Australis is supported by Australian Research Council LIEF Grant LE160100001 (Discovery Grant DP180100972 and DP220100365) Mount Cuba Astronomical Foundation, and institutional partners University of Southern Queensland, UNSW Sydney, MIT, Nanjing University, George Mason University, University of Louisville, University of California Riverside, University of Florida, and The University of Texas at Austin. The authors respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of all lands throughout Australia and recognize their continued cultural and spiritual connection to the land, waterways, cosmos, and community. The authors pay our deepest respects to all Elders, ancestors and descendants of the Giabal, Jarowair, and Kambuwal nations, upon whose lands the Minerva -Australis facility at Mt Kent is situated.MINERVA-North is a collaboration among the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Montana, the University of Southern Queensland, University of Pennsylvania, and George Mason University. It is made possible by generous contributions from its collaborating institutions and Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (EPSCOR grant NNX13AM97A, XRP 80NSSC22K0233), the Australian Research Council (LIEF grant LE140100050), and the National Science Foundation (grants 1516242, 1608203, and 2007811)

A Mouse Model for Osseous Heteroplasia

GNAS/Gnas encodes Gsa that is mainly biallelically expressed but shows imprinted expression in some tissues. In Albright Hereditary Osteodystrophy (AHO) heterozygous loss of function mutations of GNAS can result in ectopic ossification that tends to be superficial and attributable to haploinsufficiency of biallelically expressed Gsa. Oed-Sml is a point missense mutation in exon 6 of the orthologous mouse locus Gnas. We report here both the late onset ossification and occurrence of benign cutaneous fibroepithelial polyps in Oed-Sml. These phenotypes are seen on both maternal and paternal inheritance of the mutant allele and are therefore due to an effect on biallelically expressed Gsa. The ossification is confined to subcutaneous tissues and so resembles the ossification observed with AHO. Our mouse model is the first with both subcutaneous ossification and fibroepithelial polyps related to Gsa deficiency. It is also the first mouse model described with a clinically relevant phenotype associated with a point mutation in Gsa and may be useful in investigations of the mechanisms of heterotopic bone formation. Together with earlier results, our findings indicate that Gsa signalling pathways play a vital role in repressing ectopic bone formation

A software metric set for program maintenance management

Operations Directorate (MOD) at the Johnson Space Center wanted to increase their insight into the cost, schedule, and quality of the software-intensive systems maintained for the Space Shuttle programs. We defined and imple-mented a software metrics set that contains thirteen metrics related to corrective and adaptive maintenance actions. Management support and tools were necessary for effective implementation. The start-up cost was low because much of the data is already collected by the projects. Management’s ability to make decisions and take actions to improve software quality and reduce software maintenance costs have made early results encouraging