Impact Philanthropy to Improve Teaching Quality: Focus on High-Need Secondary Students

Offers models for improving teachers' skills, including through apprenticeships and in-school mentoring; for creating an environment for great teaching through better leadership and whole-school reform; and guidance for donors on the policy environment

Coping with acculturative stress and depression among international students: A cultural perspective

Although literature suggests that international students are more likely to experience high levels of acculturative stresses hence are more prone to psychological distress such as depression (e.g., Mori, 2000; Pedersen, 1991; Sam and Eide, 1991), little is known about how salient depression is among this cultural population. Moreover, the paucity of coping research among international students also presents a salient problem. Even fewer researches focused on the role of culture in the stress and coping process. Given this group’s idiosyncratic characteristics, there is a need to study their cultural orientations to better inform cultural specific practices. The purposes of this study were to investigate international students’ depression prevalence rate and to explore the relationships among stress, coping, cultural orientation, and depression. A stress measure, a depression scale, a coping measure, a cultural orientation measure, and a demographic questionnaire were administered to international students studying at an elite northeastern university. A total of 648 international students from 74 countries and areas responded to the survey. Results found that 22.6% of the participants were clinically depressed. This depression prevalence rate is around twice as high as those reported for domestic students. International students also reported high levels of acculturative stresses such as academic burdens, language barriers, financial difficulties, concerns over the future, cultural shocks, and racial discrimination. A series of ANOVA and MANOVA analyses found that students holding F-1 visas, those expressing religious beliefs, and those from collectivistically oriented regions were more likely to experience depression. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that Emotion Oriented Coping, Academic Burdens, Cultural Shock, Task Oriented Coping, Avoidance Oriented Coping, English Proficiency, and Horizontal Individualism significantly predict depression. Emotion Oriented Coping, Task Oriented Coping, and Vertical Individualism were identified as significant moderators between stress and depression. Furthermore, there is also some evidence that Task Oriented Coping and Vertical Individualism may serve as mediators between certain components of stress and depression. Finally, implications for cultural specific interventions for both practitioners and administrators and suggestions for further research are discussed

Structure and Ubiquitination-Dependent Activation of TANK-Binding Kinase 1

Upon stimulation by pathogen-associated inflammatory signals, TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) induces type I interferon expression and modulates nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling. Here, we describe the 2.4 Å-resolution crystal structure of nearly full-length TBK1 in complex with specific inhibitors. The structure reveals a dimeric assembly created by an extensive network of interactions among the kinase, ubiquitin-like, and scaffold/dimerization domains. An intact TBK1 dimer undergoes K63-linked polyubiquitination on lysines 30 and 401, and these modifications are required for TBK1 activity. The ubiquitination sites and dimer contacts are conserved in the close homolog inhibitor of κB kinase ∊ (IKK∊) but not in IKKβ, a canonical IKK that assembles in an unrelated manner. The multidomain architecture of TBK1 provides a structural platform for integrating ubiquitination with kinase activation and IRF3 phosphorylation. The structure of TBK1 will facilitate studies of the atypical IKKs in normal and disease physiology and further the development of more specific inhibitors that may be useful as anticancer or anti-inflammatory agents