For the Public Good: Quality Preparation for Every Teacher

The goal is to ensure that teachers enter the profession ready for the demands of the 21st-century classroom. The first report from Bank Street College of Education's Sustainable Funding Project  looks at ways of reaching that goal through yearlong co-teaching experiences, commonly referred to as residencies, in classroom settings with experienced mentors.The report—"For the Public Good: Quality Preparation for Every Teacher"—also identifies public funding streams to support residency programs nationwide and outlines how teacher preparation providers and school districts can establish mutually beneficial partnerships to support high-quality teacher preparation

Biosynthesis of selenate reductase in <i>Salmonella enterica</i>:critical roles for the signal peptide and DmsD

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a Gram-negative bacterium with a flexible respiratory capability. Under anaerobic conditions, S. enterica can utilize a range of terminal electron acceptors, including selenate, to sustain respiratory electron transport. The S. enterica selenate reductase is a membrane-bound enzyme encoded by the ynfEFGH-dmsD operon. The active enzyme is predicted to comprise at least three subunits where YnfE is a molybdenum-containing catalytic subunit. The YnfE protein is synthesized with an N-terminal twin-arginine signal peptide and biosynthesis of the enzyme is coordinated by a signal peptide binding chaperone called DmsD. In this work, the interaction between S. enterica DmsD and the YnfE signal peptide has been studied by chemical crosslinking. These experiments were complemented by genetic approaches, which identified the DmsD binding epitope within the YnfE signal peptide. YnfE signal peptide residues L24 and A28 were shown to be important for assembly of an active selenate reductase. Conversely, a random genetic screen identified the DmsD V16 residue as being important for signal peptide recognition and selenate reductase assembly

Association between postnatal dexamethasone for treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia and brain volumes at adolescence in infants born very preterm

OBJECTIVES: To compare brain volumes in adolescents who were born extremely preterm (<28 weeks gestation) who had received postnatal dexamethasone, and to determine if there was a postnatal dexamethasone dose–response effect on brain volumes. STUDY DESIGN: Geographical cohort study of extremely preterm adolescents born in 1991-1992 in Victoria, Australia. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging was performed at 18 years of age. Segmented and parcellated brain volumes were calculated using an automated segmentation method (FreeSurfer) and compared between groups, with and without adjustment for potential confounders. The relationships between total postnatal dexamethasone dose and brain volumes were explored using linear regression. RESULTS: Of the 148 extremely preterm participants, 55 (37%) had received postnatal dexamethasone, with a cumulative mean dose of 7.7 mg/kg. Compared with participants who did not receive postnatal dexamethasone, those who did had smaller total brain tissue volumes (mean difference −3.6%, 95% CI [−7.0%, −0.3%], P value = .04) and smaller white matter, thalami, and basal ganglia volumes (all P < .05). There was a trend of smaller total brain and white matter volumes with increasing dose of postnatal dexamethasone (regression coefficient −7.7 [95% CI −16.2, 0.8] and −3.2 [−6.6, 0.2], respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Extremely preterm adolescents who received postnatal dexamethasone in the newborn period had smaller total brain tissue volumes than those who did not receive postnatal dexamethasone, particularly white matter, thalami, and basal ganglia. Vulnerability of brain tissues or structures associated with postnatal dexamethasone varies by structure and persists into adolescence

Contribution of brain size to IQ and educational underperformance in extremely preterm adolescents

OBJECTIVES:Extremely preterm (EP) survivors have smaller brains, lower IQ, and worse educational achievement than their term-born peers. The contribution of smaller brain size to the IQ and educational disadvantages of EP is unknown. This study aimed (i) to compare brain volumes from multiple brain tissues and structures between EP-born (< 28 weeks) and term-born (≥ 37 weeks) control adolescents, (ii) to explore the relationships of brain tissue volumes with IQ and basic educational skills and whether this differed by group, and (iii) to explore how much total brain tissue volume explains the underperformance of EP adolescents compared with controls. METHODS:Longitudinal cohort study of 148 EP and 132 term controls born in Victoria, Australia in 1991-92. At age 18, magnetic resonance imaging-determined brain volumes of multiple tissues and structures were calculated. IQ and educational skills were measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and the Wide Range Achievement Test(WRAT-4), respectively. RESULTS:Brain volumes were smaller in EP adolescents compared with controls (mean difference [95% confidence interval] of -5.9% [-8.0, -3.7%] for total brain tissue volume). The largest relative differences were noted in the thalamus and hippocampus. The EP group had lower IQs(-11.9 [-15.4, -8.5]), spelling(-8.0 [-11.5, -4.6]), math computation(-10.3 [-13.7, -6.9]) and word reading(-5.6 [-8.8, -2.4]) scores than controls; all p-values<0.001. Volumes of total brain tissue and other brain tissues and structures correlated positively with IQ and educational skills, a relationship that was similar for both the EP and controls. Total brain tissue volume explained between 20-40% of the IQ and educational outcome differences between EP and controls. CONCLUSIONS:EP adolescents had smaller brain volumes, lower IQs and poorer educational performance than controls. Brain volumes of multiple tissues and structures are related to IQ and educational outcomes. Smaller total brain tissue volume is an important contributor to the cognitive and educational underperformance of adolescents born EP

Circulating ketone bodies and mortality in heart failure: a community cohort study

BackgroundThe relationship between ketone bodies (KB) and mortality in patients with heart failure (HF) syndrome has not been well established.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to assess the distribution of KB in HF, identify clinical correlates, and examine the associations between plasma KB and all-cause mortality in a population-based HF cohort.MethodsThe plasma KB levels were measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine associations between clinical correlates and KB levels. Proportional hazard regression was employed to examine associations between KB (represented as both continuous and categorical variables) and mortality, with adjustment for several clinical covariates.ResultsAmong the 1,382 HF patients with KB measurements, the median (IQR) age was 78 (68, 84) and 52% were men. The median (IQR) KB was found to be 180 (134, 308) μM. Higher KB levels were associated with advanced HF (NYHA class III–IV) and higher NT-proBNP levels (both P &lt; 0.001). The median follow-up was 13.9 years, and the 5-year mortality rate was 51.8% [95% confidence interval (CI): 49.1%–54.4%]. The risk of death increased when KB levels were higher (HRhigh vs. low group 1.23; 95% CI: 1.05–1.44), independently of a validated clinical risk score. The association between higher KB and mortality differed by ejection fraction (EF) and was noticeably stronger among patients with preserved EF.ConclusionsMost patients with HF exhibited KB levels that were consistent with those found in healthy adults. Elevated levels of KB were observed in patients with advanced HF. Higher KB levels were found to be associated with an increased risk of death, particularly in patients with preserved EF

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements