Everyday Enactments of Resistance : Portraits of Secondary Public School Teachers Navigating New Professionalism

New professionalism has changed the roles and responsibilities of teachers. It has created a professional culture that prioritizes managerialism, bureaucracy, standardization and assessment, and performance review. This shift has created tension and anxiety amongst teachers, but a population of teachers continue to openly question, resist, or protest directives that do not align with their goals and values. The goal of this study was to gain understanding of the lived experiences of veteran, secondary, public school teachers who have attempted to find ways to navigate and resist new professionalism. Using Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s portraiture method, participants’ narratives bring life to the ways these veteran teachers have endeavored to make decisions about their profession. The insights gained from these participants’ portraits have implications for teacher education and future research on veteran teacher resistance

Improved annotation of the insect vector of citrus greening disease: Biocuration by a diverse genomics community

The Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri Kuwayama) is the insect vector of the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), the pathogen associated with citrus Huanglongbing (HLB, citrus greening). HLB threatens citrus production worldwide. Suppression or reduction of the insect vector using chemical insecticides has been the primary method to inhibit the spread of citrus greening disease. Accurate structural and functional annotation of the Asian citrus psyllid genome, as well as a clear understanding of the interactions between the insect and CLas, are required for development of new molecular-based HLB control methods. A draft assembly of the D. citri genome has been generated and annotated with automated pipelines. However, knowledge transfer from well-curated reference genomes such as that of Drosophila melanogaster to newly sequenced ones is challenging due to the complexity and diversity of insect genomes. To identify and improve gene models as potential targets for pest control, we manually curated several gene families with a focus on genes that have key functional roles in D. citri biology and CLas interactions. This community effort produced 530 manually curated gene models across developmental, physiological, RNAi regulatory and immunity-related pathways. As previously shown in the pea aphid, RNAi machinery genes putatively involved in the microRNA pathway have been specifically duplicated. A comprehensive transcriptome enabled us to identify a number of gene families that are either missing or misassembled in the draft genome. In order to develop biocuration as a training experience, we included undergraduate and graduate students from multiple institutions, as well as experienced annotators from the insect genomics research community. The resulting gene set (OGS v1.0) combines both automatically predicted and manually curated gene models.Peer reviewedBiochemistry and Molecular BiologyEntomology and Plant Patholog

Models of classroom assessment for course-based research experiences

Course-based research pedagogy involves positioning students as contributors to authentic research projects as part of an engaging educational experience that promotes their learning and persistence in science. To develop a model for assessing and grading students engaged in this type of learning experience, the assessment aims and practices of a community of experienced course-based research instructors were collected and analyzed. This approach defines four aims of course-based research assessment—(1) Assessing Laboratory Work and Scientific Thinking; (2) Evaluating Mastery of Concepts, Quantitative Thinking and Skills; (3) Appraising Forms of Scientific Communication; and (4) Metacognition of Learning—along with a set of practices for each aim. These aims and practices of assessment were then integrated with previously developed models of course-based research instruction to reveal an assessment program in which instructors provide extensive feedback to support productive student engagement in research while grading those aspects of research that are necessary for the student to succeed. Assessment conducted in this way delicately balances the need to facilitate students’ ongoing research with the requirement of a final grade without undercutting the important aims of a CRE education

Lo Que Pasa En Las Vegas No Siempre Se Queda En Las Vegas: Negociar El Curriculum Conlleva Proactividad y Cambio

Through a self-study methodology, six doctoral students and a professor examine how our semester long doctoral level class became a transformative space for all participants. We investigate how each individual was able to participate in the construction of a powerful and meaningful learning community, which led to a re-visioning of ourselves as women and teacher educators. Feminist pedagogy and positioning theory provide a guiding framework for both the class and our own reflective research. Our findings include, but are not limited to, showing how negotiating the curriculum led to a doctoral class becoming a safe space and how this negotiation led to transferring democratic practices to our teaching and the tensions associated with that. This work contributes to the field of teacher education as it focuses on the importance of fostering classroom and school cultures where knowledge production is facilitated through democratized practices. Our study highlights the value of creating a learning community where all members, both students and teacher, share power, privilege, and voice. It is in these types of positive educational environments that true meaning making and change can occur

In silico characterization of chitin deacetylase genes in the Diaphorina citri genome

Chitin deacetylases (CDAs) are one of the least understood components of insect chitin metabolism. The partial deacetylation of chitin polymers appears to be important for the proper formation of higher order chitin structures, such as long fibers and bundles, which contribute to the integrity of the insect exoskeleton and other structures. Some CDAs may also be involved in bacterial defense. Here, we report the manual annotation of four CDA genes from the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri, laying the groundwork for future study of these genes

Annotation of chitin biosynthesis genes in Diaphorina citri, the Asian citrus psyllid

The polysaccharide chitin is critical for the formation of many insect structures, including the exoskeleton, and is required for normal development. Here we report the annotation of three genes from the chitin synthesis pathway in the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Liviidae), the vector of Huanglongbing (citrus greening disease). Most insects have two chitin synthase (CHS) genes but, like other hemipterans, D. citri has only one. In contrast, D. citri is unusual among insects in having two UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase (UAP) genes. One of the D. citri UAP genes is broadly expressed, while the other is expressed predominantly in males. Our work helps pave the way for potential utilization of these genes as pest control targets to reduce the spread of Huanglongbing

The future of food and nutrition in ELIXIR

Non-communicable diseases are on the rise and are often related to food choices; nutrition affects infectious diseases too. Therefore, there is growing interest in research on public and personal health, as related to food, nutrition behaviour and well-being of consumers throughout the life cycle. These concepts and their relations are complex and only partially understood – more data is needed to improve our understanding. The required data include deep geno- and phenotyping data from human nutritional studies, covering metabolic and health, but also including behavioural and socio-economic data. The aim of this white paper is to provide a guiding framework for the future contributions of ELIXIR’s recently established Food & Nutrition (F&N) Community. This white paper is the direct result of a strategy meeting that took place in September 2019 in The Hague (NL) and involved representatives of 14 countries representing the ELIXIR Nodes. The meeting led to the definition of F&N related bioinformatics challenges, including the use of standards for data reuse and sharing, and for interoperability of data, tools and services, advocacy and training. Resolving these bioinformatics challenges makes it possible to address a wide range of F&N-related challenges, such as definition of an individual health status, individual dietary needs, and finding complex intake biomarkers (to replace questionnaires). Here, we provide suggestions on how to align these tasks within the ELIXIR Platforms, other ELIXIR Communities/Focus Groups and the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures