How California\u27s Teacher Residencies Are Helping to Solve Teacher Shortages and Strengthen Schools

With significant state investment teacher residencies are spreading throughout California. These vignettes highlight two California teacher residencies and how they are helping to address shortages and support both students and teachers. These examples also spotlight creative funding strategies that can help California’s investments in teacher residencies become sustainable over time.https://educate.bankstreet.edu/pt/1005/thumbnail.jp

Sustainable Strategies for Funding Teacher Residencies: Lessons From California

With significant state investment, teacher residencies are spreading throughout California To sustain these efforts after the initial state investment programs are using creative funding strategies. To learn about how teacher residencies across the state are funding their work, the Learning Policy Institute and Prepared To Teach at Bank Street College of Education partnered to examine the current state of practice around residency sustainability. The report highlights California teacher residencies with known financial sustainability efforts in which partners are leveraging local resources to support residents and mentor teachers. These concrete examples of creative residency funding strategies are meant to help California’s new investments in teacher residencies become sustainable over time. They also offer valuable lessons for residencies in any community context.https://educate.bankstreet.edu/pt/1004/thumbnail.jp

Translating the Statistical Representation of the Effects of Education Interventions Into More Readily Interpretable Forms

This paper is directed to researchers who conduct and report education intervention studies. Its purpose is to stimulate and guide them to go a step beyond reporting the statistics that emerge from their analysis of the differences between experimental groups on the respective outcome variables. With what is often very minimal additional effort, those statistical representations can be translated into forms that allow their magnitude and practical significance to be more readily understood by the practitioners, policymakers, and even other researchers who are interested in the intervention that was evaluated

A compendium of chromatin contact maps reveals spatially active regions in the human genome

The three-dimensional configuration of DNA is integral to all nuclear processes in eukaryotes, yet our knowledge of the chromosome architecture is still limited. Genome-wide chromosome conformation capture studies have uncovered features of chromatin organization in cultured cells, but genome architecture in human tissues has yet to be explored. Here, we report the most comprehensive survey to date of chromatin organization in human tissues. Through integrative analysis of chromatin contact maps in 21 primary human tissues and cell types, we find topologically associating domains highly conserved in different tissues. We also discover genomic regions that exhibit unusually high levels of local chromatin interactions. These frequently interacting regions (FIREs) are enriched for super-enhancers and are near tissue specifically expressed genes. They display strong tissue-specificity in local chromatin interactions. Additionally, FIRE formation is partially dependent on CTCF and the Cohesin complex. We further show that FIREs can help annotate the function of non-coding sequence variants

Evaluation of JNJ-54717793 a Novel Brain Penetrant Selective Orexin 1 Receptor Antagonist in Two Rat Models of Panic Attack Provocation

Orexin neurons originating in the perifornical and lateral hypothalamic area are highly reactive to anxiogenic stimuli and have strong projections to anxiety and panic-associated circuitry. Recent studies support a role for the orexin system and in particular the orexin 1 receptor (OX1R) in coordinating an integrative stress response. However, no selective OX1R antagonist has been systematically tested in two preclinical models of using panicogenic stimuli that induce panic attack in the majority of people with panic disorder, namely an acute hypercapnia-panic provocation model and a model involving chronic inhibition of GABA synthesis in the perifornical hypothalamic area followed by intravenous sodium lactate infusion. Here we report on a novel brain penetrant, selective and high affinity OX1R antagonist JNJ-54717793 (1S,2R,4R)-7-([(3-fluoro-2-pyrimidin-2-ylphenyl)carbonyl]-N-[5-(trifluoromethyl)pyrazin-2-yl]-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-amine). JNJ-54717793 is a high affinity/potent OX1R antagonist and has an excellent selectivity profile including 50 fold versus the OX2R. Ex vivo receptor binding studies demonstrated that after oral administration JNJ-54717793 crossed the blood brain barrier and occupied OX1Rs in the rat brain. While JNJ-54717793 had minimal effect on spontaneous sleep in rats and in wild-type mice, its administration in OX2R knockout mice, selectively promoted rapid eye movement sleep, demonstrating target engagement and specific OX1R blockade. JNJ-54717793 attenuated CO2 and sodium lactate induced panic-like behaviors and cardiovascular responses without altering baseline locomotor or autonomic activity. These data confirm that selective OX1R antagonism may represent a novel approach of treating anxiety disorders, with no apparent sedative effects

The ETO2 transcriptional cofactor maintains acute leukemia by driving a MYB/EP300‐dependent stemness program

Transcriptional cofactors of the ETO family are recurrent fusion partners in acute leukemia. We characterized the ETO2 regulome by integrating transcriptomic and chromatin binding analyses in human erythroleukemia xenografts and controlled ETO2 depletion models. We demonstrate that beyond its well‐established repressive activity, ETO2 directly activates transcription of MYB, among other genes. The ETO2‐activated signature is associated with a poorer prognosis in erythroleukemia but also in other acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemia subtypes. Mechanistically, ETO2 colocalizes with EP300 and MYB at enhancers supporting the existence of an ETO2/MYB feedforward transcription activation loop (e.g., on MYB itself). Both small‐molecule and PROTAC‐mediated inhibition of EP300 acetyltransferases strongly reduced ETO2 protein, chromatin binding, and ETO2‐activated transcripts. Taken together, our data show that ETO2 positively enforces a leukemia maintenance program that is mediated in part by the MYB transcription factor and that relies on acetyltransferase cofactors to stabilize ETO2 scaffolding activity

Periodontal treatment to improve glycaemic control in diabetic patients: study protocol of the randomized, controlled DIAPERIO trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Periodontitis is a common, chronic inflammatory disease caused by gram-negative bacteria leading to destruction of tissues supporting the teeth. Epidemiological studies have consistently shown increased frequency, extent and severity of periodontitis among diabetic adults. More recently, some controlled clinical trials have also suggested that periodontal treatment could improve glycaemic control in diabetic patients. However current evidence does not provide sufficient information on which to confidently base any clinical recommendations. The main objective of this clinical trial is to assess whether periodontal treatment could lead to a decrease in glycated haemoglobin levels in metabolically unbalanced diabetic patients suffering from chronic periodontitis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The DIAPERIO trial is an open-label, 13-week follow-up, randomized, controlled trial. The total target sample size is planned at 150 participants, with a balanced (1:1) treatment allocation (immediate treatment vs delayed treatment). Periodontal treatment will include full mouth non-surgical scaling and root planing, systemic antibiotherapy, local antiseptics (chlorhexidine 0.12%) and oral health instructions. The primary outcome will be the difference in change of HbA1c between the two groups after the 13-weeks' follow-up. Secondary outcomes will be the difference in change of fructosamine levels and quality of life between the two groups.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The DIAPERIO trial will provide insight into the question of whether periodontal treatment could lead to an improvement in glycaemic control in metabolically unbalanced diabetic patients suffering from periodontitis. The results of this trial will help to provide evidence-based recommendations for clinicians and a draft framework for designing national health policies.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN15334496</p

New Generation of Educators Initiative: Transforming teacher preparation.

The focus of the New Generation of Educators Initiative (NGEI) was to answer the question "What would it take to transform teacher education?" From 2016 to 2019, with support from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, teacher education programs at 10 California State University (CSU) campuses partnered with local school districts to design and demonstrate innovative practices that could transform teacher preparation. This report documents the learnings from multiple participants in this transformative work, including Foundation program staff and representatives from partnerships between universities and school districts