Search

Racial-ethnic and low-income youth have differential access to key educational resources that promote learning and college readiness. College readiness programs provide activities, resources, and experiences that support learning. Yet little is known about the influence of adults and peers in shaping students' beliefs and expectations as learners. This study examined the extent to which GEAR UP adolescent self-regulated learning was influenced by perceptions of adult and peer behavioral expectations. Among the 118 adolescent participants, perceived behavioral expectations of a parent or guardian was found to be the strongest determinant of self-regulated learning. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Numerous national and state endeavors have advocated for approaches, funding, and programs focused on expanding the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce of the nation and investing in education to cultivate a more diverse and impactful cohort of students who pursue STEM pathways. Educators, support personnel, and policymakers are in a position to engage in discussions about expanding STEM college readiness (STEM-CR) and participation. However, few are cognizant that STEM-CR is a progression that students strive for in developing skills, behaviors, and attitudes that spans over time. The current study established and validated a measurement model of student STEM-CR in mathematics and science utilizing the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. The model was created based on a multidimensional and theoretical perspective of college readiness using a confirmatory factor analysis and modeling approach that accounted for measurement invariance. The sample (N = 16,044) comes from a racialized/ethnoracial and socioeconomically diverse high school population in the United States. The findings confirmed that STEM-CR involves four related yet distinct dimensions of Think, Know, Act, and Go. Results also demonstrated soundness of these STEM-CR dimensions by race and gender (key learning skills and techniques/Act). Academic self-efficacy was the strongest dimension of our STEM-CR model and strongly predicted academic achievement and college enrollment. Research and practice implications are discussed.

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder primarily caused by heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in the X-linked gene MECP2 that is a global transcriptional regulator. Mutations in the methyl-CpG binding domain (MBD) of MECP2 disrupt its interaction with methylated DNA. Here, we investigate the effect of a novel MECP2 L124W missense mutation in the MBD of an atypical RTT patient with preserved speech in comparison to severe MECP2 null mutations. L124W protein had a limited ability to disrupt heterochromatic chromocenters due to decreased binding dynamics. We isolated two pairs of isogenic WT and L124W induced pluripotent stem cells. L124W induced excitatory neurons expressed stable protein, exhibited increased input resistance and decreased voltage-gated Na+ and K+ currents, and their neuronal dysmorphology was limited to decreased dendritic complexity. Three isogenic pairs of MECP2 null neurons had the expected more extreme morphological and electrophysiological phenotypes. We examined development and maturation of L124W and MECP2 null excitatory neural network activity using micro-electrode arrays. Relative to isogenic controls, L124W neurons had an increase in synchronous network burst frequency, in contrast to MECP2 null neurons that suffered a significant decrease in synchronous network burst frequency and a transient extension of network burst duration. A biologically motivated computational neural network model shows the observed changes in network dynamics are explained by changes in intrinsic Na+ and K+ currents in individual neurons. Our multilevel results demonstrate that RTT excitatory neurons show a wide spectrum of morphological, electrophysiological and circuitry phenotypes that are dependent on the severity of the MECP2 mutation.

College access programs (CAPs) aim to promote college readiness for adolescents, particularly those who may be the first in their family to go to college. Self-regulated learning is a critical component of college readiness. There is limited information about how self-regulated learning beliefs or intentions influence adolescent engagement in CAPs. Using the theory of planned behavior as a guiding framework, the purpose of this study was to examine direct and indirect effects of adolescent self-regulated learning beliefs (i.e., attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control) and intentions on participation in activities offered by a regional, federally funded CAP program (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs; GEAR UP). Structural equation modeling was the analytic technique. We found positive relationships between self-regulated learning beliefs (perceived behavioral control), intentions, and GEAR UP participation. Implications and directions for future research on self-regulated learning within the context of CAP initiatives are discussed.

In the United States, the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) fosters relationships between racial-ethnic and low-income adolescents and adults and peers who help them and their families take formal steps toward pursuing a college degree. However, the extent to which GEAR UP students seek teachers, counselors, parents, or friends to prepare for college during program participation is underexplored in the literature. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action as a guiding framework, this study examined the extent to which GEAR UP participant attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions influenced whether participants sought academic support from teachers, counselors, parents, or friends during an academic semester. Strong direct and indirect effects were found in structural equation models examining GEAR UP student subjective norms, intentions, and behaviors regarding seeking academic support from friends. The data on students seeking academic support from school personnel and parents were less conclusive. Participation in GEAR UP activities influenced these relationships. Implications for how practitioners and researchers support the college readiness of adolescents in GEAR UP are discussed.

Racial inequities in retention and graduation rates are a top concern in higher education, yet scholars and practitioners rarely look to racism to explain these disparities. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a vehicle to reveal and challenge power and oppression dynamics between racialized groups. This article proposes a practical model for student affairs professionals to leverage CRT concepts to address racial inequities in student outcomes and experiences.

Cystic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is almost certainly overdiagnosed and overtreated. Efforts to diagnose and treat RCC at a curable stage result in many benign neoplasms and indolent cancers being resected without clear benefit. This is especially true for cystic masses, which compared with solid masses are more likely to be benign and, when malignant, less aggressive. For more than 30 years, the Bosniak classification has been used to stratify the risk of malignancy in cystic renal masses. Although it is widely used and still effective, the classification does not formally incorporate masses identified at MRI or US or masses that are incompletely characterized but are highly likely to be benign, and it is affected by interreader variability and variable reported malignancy rates. The Bosniak classification system cannot fully differentiate aggressive from indolent cancers and results in many benign masses being resected. This proposed update to the Bosniak classification addresses some of these shortcomings. The primary modifications incorporate MRI, establish definitions for previously vague imaging terms, and enable a greater proportion of masses to enter lower-risk classes. Although the update will require validation, it aims to expand the number of cystic masses to which the Bosniak classification can be applied while improving its precision and accuracy for the likelihood of cancer in each class.

Is it structure or the selection of knowledge that makes writing historical narrative so difficult? Where does a conceptual focus on change, or causation, come in? James Ellis set out to explore the challenges his Year 9 pupils faced in writing historical narratives about change. Inspired by the work of Orlando Figes, he put together a scheme of work interweaving a macro-narrative with micro-narratives of individuals in Stalin's Russia, and using Figes's own text as a model of narrative writing. Ellis unpicks here the outcomes his pupils produced, and what their responses reveal about the challenges of structure, selection and argument inherent in constructing a coherent historical narrative.

"Scientific argumentation," defined as the ability to develop and analyze scientific claims, support claims with evidence from investigations of the natural world, and explain and evaluate the reasoning that connects the evidence to the claim, is a critical component of current science standards and is consistent with "Common Core State Standards." Consequently, science teachers, researchers and program evaluators often include the process of scientific argumentation among their objectives for instruction and assessment. This paper describes the development of a valid, reliable and practical classroom measure of scientific argumentation. Based on Toulmin's (2003) theoretical framework of scientific argumentation, the 36-item test creates both a total score and subscores covering the ability to identify claims and "qualifiers" in a claim, the ability to distinguish among a "claim," "fact," "opinion," and "data," the ability to distinguish among "authority," "logic" and "theory" as possible reasons one accepts a claim, and the ability to identify "rebuttals" and "counter-arguments." Evidence for the measures validity and reliability is presented. Scores on the full "Test of Scientific Argumentation" were internally reliable (a = 0.82) and subscore reliability estimates ranged from 0.49 to 0.88. The total score and subscale scores correlated moderately with an existing critical thinking measure.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine the frequency in which the pelvis component of an abdominopelvic CT provides information that would influence clinical management in two separate groups of patients: those with previously resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) and those with locally advanced unresectable PDA.MethodsThis institutional review-board approved HIPAA compliant retrospective study with waived informed consent included 247 subjects with histologically proven PDA, including 153 subjects post-pancreaticoduodenectomy and 94 subjects with locally advanced unresectable disease. Imaging reports interpreted between January 2005 and December 2013 were obtained from our institution's Radiology Information System by searching a Cancer Registry database of PDA patients separately for the words "whipple" and "unresectable." CT findings were separated by location in the abdomen or pelvis, and subsequently reviewed and graded for their likelihood of representing metastatic disease. The probability of pelvic CT influencing clinical management-i.e., of finding isolated pelvic metastatic disease-was determined using 95% binomial proportion confidence intervals for both the post-pancreaticoduodenectomy and locally advanced unresectable groups.ResultsNo subjects who had undergone pancreaticoduodenectomy had an isolated pelvic metastasis on follow-up imaging (0%; 95% CI 0-2.38, p = 0.0004); 33 had metastatic disease in the abdomen, and 120 had no or equivocal evidence of abdominopelvic metastatic disease. One subject with locally advanced unresectable PDA had a possible isolated pelvic metastasis on follow-up imaging (1.1%; 95% CI 0.03-5.79, p = 0.048); 20 had metastatic disease in the abdomen, and 73 had no or equivocal evidence of abdominopelvic metastatic disease.ConclusionIsolated pelvic metastatic disease rarely occurs in patients with PDA who have had prior pancreaticoduodenectomy or have a locally advanced unresectable primary tumor, suggesting routine pelvic CT in follow-up imaging of these patients may not be necessary.