Promoting social-emotional learning in Chinese schools : a feasibility study of PATHS implementation in Hong Kong

This paper describes a pilot study of a reduced version of the PATHS Curriculum, a USdeveloped evidence-based SEL program, among schools in Hong Kong SAR (China). Three hundred and sixteen 12th grade students in three elementary schools participated in the study. A limited number of first grade PATHS lessons were adapted and translated into Chinese. Twelve teachers learned and adopted these lessons in their teaching. Students in these classrooms learned about different emotions and practiced self-control. The intervention lasted four months. After the intervention, students showed improvement in emotion understanding, emotion regulation and prosocial behavior. No change was observed in the level of children’s problem behaviors. Over 65% of the teachers reported a high degree of satisfaction and willingness to adopt the intervention. The effects of the intervention varied among schools, with variations in the level of intervention and principal support, but not in the quality of implementation. Discussion is focused on the factors that could shape the adoption and implementation of SEL programs, especially the role of the difference in school systems between Hong Kong and the United States.peer-reviewe

Loss of Yeast Peroxiredoxin Tsa1p Induces Genome Instability through Activation of the DNA Damage Checkpoint and Elevation of dNTP Levels

Peroxiredoxins are a family of antioxidant enzymes critically involved in cellular defense and signaling. Particularly, yeast peroxiredoxin Tsa1p is thought to play a role in the maintenance of genome integrity, but the underlying mechanism is not understood. In this study, we took a genetic approach to investigate the cause of genome instability in tsa1Δ cells. Strong genetic interactions of TSA1 with DNA damage checkpoint components DUN1, SML1, and CRT1 were found when mutant cells were analyzed for either sensitivity to DNA damage or rate of spontaneous base substitutions. An elevation in intracellular dNTP production was observed in tsa1Δ cells. This was associated with constitutive activation of the DNA damage checkpoint as indicated by phosphorylation of Rad9/Rad53p, reduced steady-state amount of Sml1p, and induction of RNR and HUG1 genes. In addition, defects in the DNA damage checkpoint did not modulate intracellular level of reactive oxygen species, but suppressed the mutator phenotype of tsa1Δ cells. On the contrary, overexpression of RNR1 exacerbated this phenotype by increasing dNTP levels. Taken together, our findings uncover a new role of TSA1 in preventing the overproduction of dNTPs, which is a root cause of genome instability

The Guardian, April 9, 1982

Eight page issue of The Guardian, the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. The Guardian has been published regularly since March of 1965.https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/guardian/1998/thumbnail.jp

Made in Amsterdam : a 1771 cittern by Benoit Joseph Boussu

Cittern-family instruments enjoyed popularity in the second half of the 18th century, most notably in the British Isles and France. Many such instruments from these countries have survived in museums and private collections. This ‘guittar’ fashion also took root in the Netherlands, although very few Dutch-made, late 18th-century citterns have survived. The recent rediscovery of an Amsterdam-made cittern by Benoit Joseph Boussu, previously only known about from written sources, adds another example to this small but important group of Dutch-made instruments. In this article, the Boussu cittern is comprehensively described, based on visual observations, endoscopy and CT-scanning, techniques that also enable a detailed analysis of its inner construction. The instrument’s provenance and the biography of its maker are also discussed. These analyses lead to the conclusion that a cittern, of equal quality and appearance to British and French instruments, had already been built in the Netherlands as early as 1771, and included in its design an innovative watch-key tuning mechanism

An Epstein-Barr virus–encoded microRNA targets PUMA to promote host cell survival

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a herpesvirus associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), gastric carcinoma (GC), and other malignancies. EBV is the first human virus found to express microRNAs (miRNAs), the functions of which remain largely unknown. We report on the regulation of a cellular protein named p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) by an EBV miRNA known as miR-BART5, which is abundantly expressed in NPC and EBV-GC cells. Modulation of PUMA expression by miR-BART5 and anti–miR-BART5 oligonucleotide was demonstrated in EBV-positive cells. In addition, PUMA was found to be significantly underexpressed in ∼60% of human NPC tissues. Although expression of miR-BART5 rendered NPC and EBV-GC cells less sensitive to proapoptotic agents, apoptosis can be triggered by depleting miR-BART5 or inducing the expression of PUMA. Collectively, our findings suggest that EBV encodes an miRNA to facilitate the establishment of latent infection by promoting host cell survival

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

A study on teacher's attributions and helping behaviours for students with behavioural problems

published_or_final_versionabstracttocEducational PsychologyMasterMaster of Social Science

Better Working Memory and Motor Inhibition in Children Who Delayed Gratification

10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01098FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY7JU