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Over the past few decades there has been a rise in the number of federally funded large scientific research initiatives, with increased calls to evaluate their processes and outcomes. This article describes efforts to evaluate such initiatives in one agency within the U.S. federal government. The authors introduce the Evaluation of Large Initiatives (ELI) project, a preliminary effort to explore how to accomplish such evaluation. They describe a pilot effort of this project to evaluate the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC) initiative of the National Cancer Institute. They present a summary of this pilot evaluation including the methods used (concept mapping, logic modeling, a detailed researcher survey, content analysis and systematic peer-evaluation of progress reports, bibliometric analysis and peer evaluation of publications and citations, and financial expenditures analysis) and a brief overview of results. Finally, they discuss several important lessons and recommendations that emerged from this work. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, and 6 notes.)

Neuroblastoma prognosis is dependent on both the differentiation state and stromal content of the tumor. Neuroblastoma tumor stroma is thought to suppress neuroblast growth via release of soluble differentiating factors. Here, we identified critical growth-limiting components of the differentiating stroma secretome and designed a potential therapeutic strategy based on their central mechanism of action. We demonstrated that expression of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), including TβRIII, GPC1, GPC3, SDC3, and SDC4, is low in neuroblasts and high in the Schwannian stroma. Evaluation of neuroblastoma patient microarray data revealed an association between TGFBR3, GPC1, and SDC3 expression and improved prognosis. Treatment of neuroblastoma cell lines with soluble HSPGs promoted neuroblast differentiation via FGFR1 and ERK phosphorylation, leading to upregulation of the transcription factor inhibitor of DNA binding 1 (ID1). HSPGs also enhanced FGF2-dependent differentiation, and the anticoagulant heparin had a similar effect, leading to decreased neuroblast proliferation. Dissection of individual sulfation sites identified 2-O, 3-O-desulfated heparin (ODSH) as a differentiating agent, and treatment of orthotopic xenograft models with ODSH suppressed tumor growth and metastasis without anticoagulation. These studies support heparan sulfate signaling intermediates as prognostic and therapeutic neuroblastoma biomarkers and demonstrate that tumor stroma biology can inform the design of targeted molecular therapeutics., Introduction Neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in infancy (1), arises from neural crest-derived sympathoadrenal precursor cells. Survival rates in late-stage disease are below 40% (2), due to disease recurrence and [...]

Describes the new medium of e-mail as a sort of hybrid combining of print and speech. Argues that writing teachers must not ignore this new medium. Includes an e-mail update to "Elements of Style" and a description of how one teacher uses e-mail. (SR)

Describes the available computer network resources and some of the relevant terms, practices, and notions that are quickly evolving with the growth of the so-called information superhighway. Covers the historical trends and considers future challenges to be faced in view of changing technologies. (HB)

Describes the Polaroid Education Program. Discusses ways to incorporate instant photography and writing into a range of subject areas. (SR)

Focuses on design issues of HyperCard and introduces a variety of design-related topics to raise issues and to point to resources. (MG)

Discusses computers and related technologies as a significant means for acquiring language arts skills. Samples a wide array of uses for educational computing in English and language arts classes. (SR)

Describes how to transform a Rubik's cube into a tool for thinking and writing about literature. Notes how the six faces of the cube are labeled with common examples of theme, character, method, "world,""change," and reader perspective. Describes how, after shuffling, each face includes examples from each perspective. (RS)

In recent years, deep learning has achieved tremendous success in image segmentation for computer vision applications. The performance of these models heavily relies on the availability of large-scale high-quality training labels (e.g., PASCAL VOC 2012). Unfortunately, such large-scale high-quality training data are often unavailable in many real-world spatial or spatiotemporal problems in earth science and remote sensing (e.g., mapping the nationwide river streams for water resource management). Although extensive efforts have been made to reduce the reliance on labeled data (e.g., semi-supervised or unsupervised learning, few-shot learning), the complex nature of geographic data such as spatial heterogeneity still requires sufficient training labels when transferring a pre-trained model from one region to another. On the other hand, it is often much easier to collect lower-quality training labels with imperfect alignment with earth imagery pixels (e.g., through interpreting coarse imagery by non-expert volunteers). However, directly training a deep neural network on imperfect labels with geometric annotation errors could significantly impact model performance. Existing research that overcomes imperfect training labels either focuses on errors in label class semantics or characterizes label location errors at the pixel level. These methods do not fully incorporate the geometric properties of label location errors in the vector representation. To fill the gap, this article proposes a weakly supervised learning framework to simultaneously update deep learning model parameters and infer hidden true vector label locations. Specifically, we model label location errors in the vector representation to partially reserve geometric properties (e.g., spatial contiguity within line segments). Evaluations on real-world datasets in the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) refinement application illustrate that the proposed framework outperforms baseline methods in classification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We examined the pathways to smoking cessation between late adolescence and young adulthood. Methods. We obtained data from a sample of urban African American and Puerto Rican young adults (N=242), mean age 19 years, who reported tobacco use and determined cessation rates between late adolescence and young adulthood. We used structural equation modeling to examine the pathways of positive family relations, family smoking, maladaptive personality attributes, and substance use to smoking cessation. Results. A mediational pathway linked the absence of positive family relations with maladaptive personality attributes, both of which were related to substance use and ultimately smoking cessation. Substance use mediated the path between family smoking and smoking cessation. Conclusions. The results suggest that a positive relationship with one's parents, less smoking in the family, conventional personality attributes, and little or no other substance use facilitate smoking cessation among young adults. (Am J Public Health. 2007;97:1444-1448. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2006.101212)

Objectives. Smokeless tobacco has many adverse health effects. We analyzed long-term national trends in smokeless tobacco use. Methods. We used 1987 to 2000 National Health Interview Survey data for adults aged 18 years and older, 1986 to 2003 data from Monitoring the Future surveys of adolescents, and 1991 to 2003 data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey for 9th- to 12th-grade students to examine overall and demographic-specific trends. Results. Smokeless tobacco use among adult and adolescent females was low and showed little change. Smokeless tobacco use among men declined slowly (relative decline = 26%), with the largest declines among those aged 18 to 24 years or 65 years and older, Blacks, residents of the South, and persons in more rural areas. Overall and demographic-specific data for adolescent boys indicate that smokeless tobacco use increased for 12th-grade students from 1986 until the early 1990s, but has subsequently declined rapidly in all grades since then (range of relative overall declines = 43% to 48%). Conclusions. Smokeless tobacco use has declined sharply, especially among adolescent boys. Ongoing prevention and cessation efforts are needed to continue this trend.

Discusses the difficulty of figuring out how to show (not tell) someone what a compelling vision of education might be. Makes predictions about how technology will affect the teaching of writing. Asks readers to formulate their own predictions. (RS)

Reviews some of the attitudes and activities basic to the National Writing Project's Technology Network. (SR)

Outlines the various kinds of innovations in computers and telecommunications technology available to educators. Considers the everyday needs of teachers. Argues that teachers should learn to use fully any systems already available to them. (HB)

Argues for the value of technology, particularly computers, in the educational setting. Questions whether computers actually help improve student writing skills. Concludes that these questions are fraught with difficulties but that much further research should lead to clearer answers. (HB)

Recasts and expands the working assumptions of the National Writing Project to make explicit their applicability to technology-related issues. Discusses levels of involvement, levels of use, the Writing Project/Technology Project Alliance, and the futures of new technologies in the writing classroom. (RS)

Discusses issues surrounding virtual reality and "virtual books." Suggests that those who are exploring the territory of virtual realities are already helping to expand and enrich expectations and visions for integrating technology into reading and writing. (RS)

Provides an update and expansion of an earlier "Delphi Study" which predicted changes that might occur resulting from the impact of technology on the teaching of writing. Provides comments based on recent research. Discusses two books that focus specifically on technology and writing. (MG)

Discusses, in part four of a series on HyperCard, the general issue of innovation as it relates to HyperCard, and presents some of the "savvy" regarding HyperCard that has developed in the course of its use in the classroom and in teacher training. (SR)

Abstract Background Over the past decade, tobacco companies have introduced cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products (known as Potential Reduced Exposure Products, PREPs) with purportedly lower levels of some toxins than conventional cigarettes and smokeless products. It is essential that public health agencies monitor awareness, interest, use, and perceptions of these products so that their impact on population health can be detected at the earliest stages. Methods This paper reviews and critiques existing strategies for measuring awareness of PREPs from 16 published and unpublished studies. From these measures, we developed new surveillance items and subjected them to two rounds of cognitive testing, a common and accepted method for evaluating questionnaire wording. Results Our review suggests that high levels of awareness of PREPs reported in some studies are likely to be inaccurate. Two likely sources of inaccuracy in awareness measures were identified: 1) the tendency of respondents to misclassify "no additive" and "natural" cigarettes as PREPs and 2) the tendency of respondents to mistakenly report awareness as a result of confusion between PREPs brands and similarly named familiar products, for example, Eclipse chewing gum and Accord automobiles. Conclusion After evaluating new measures with cognitive interviews, we conclude that as of winter 2006, awareness of reduced exposure products among U.S. smokers was likely to be between 1% and 8%, with the higher estimates for some products occurring in test markets. Recommended measurement strategies for future surveys are presented.

Describes a simple computer game for writing poetry. Notes the advantages and limitations of such computer assisted English instruction. (RL)