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Teacher education and training vary across the world, yet research from diverse cultures supports the development of reflective teachers. Claiming that the complex dynamics of the 21st-century classroom can be managed best by reflective teachers. Through the reflective process, teachers are empowered as change agents to modify learning environments to benefit their students. Teachers hold the power to influence student learning. Therefore, it is important to understand the training processes that serve to produce reflective practitioners. In conducting rigorous cross-cultural comparative research, identifying common evaluative indicators underpinned by a theoretical framework is critical. Hence, the principles of the pre-service emerging reflective teacher training (PERTT) model were explored quantitatively and explained qualitatively to specifically focus on teachers' perceptions of their experiences of the psychosocial interpersonal process outcomes of the teacher-training environment (i.e. reflective practices, instructional scaffolding, guidance and support, modelled behaviours and reinforcement) provided during their teacher training. Such an exploration is critical because the philosophical underpinnings of the PERTT model have not been interrogated outside of Barbados. The findings demonstrate that there is merit to key theoretical principles of the PERTT model based on the lived experiences of the teachers in Antigua and Barbuda, England, and Canada during their teacher training.

hermodynamics has predicted many different kinds of microbial metabolism by determining which pairs of electron acceptors and donors will react to produce an exergonic reaction (a negative net change in Gibbs free energy). In energy-limited environments, such as the deep subsurface, such an approach can reveal the potential for unexpected or counter-intuitive energy sources for microbial metabolism. Up until recently, these thermodynamic calculations have been carried out with the assumption that chemical species appearing on the reactant and product side of a reaction formula have a constant concentration, and thus do not count towards net concentration changes and the overall direction of the reaction. This assumption is reasonable considering microorganisms are too small (~1 μm) for any significant differences in concentration to overcome diffusion. However, recent discoveries have demonstrated that the reductive and oxidative halves of reactions can be separated by much larger distances, from millimetres to centimetres via conductive filamentous bacteria, mineral conductivity, and biofilm conductivity. This means that the concentrations of reactants and products can indeed be different, and that concentration differences can contribute to the net negative change in Gibbs free energy. It even means that the same redox reaction, simultaneously running in forward and reverse, can drive energy conservation, in an ElectroMicrobiological Concentration Cell (EMCC). This paper presents a model to investigate this phenomenon and predict under which circumstances such concentration-driven metabolism might take place. The specific cases of oxygen concentration cells, sulfide concentration cells, and hydrogen concentration cells are examined in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cable bacteria are filamentous bacteria that couple the oxidation of sulfide in sediments to the reduction of oxygen via long-distance electron transport over centimeter distances through periplasmic wires. However, the capability of cable bacteria to perform extracellular electron transfer to acceptors, such as electrodes, has remained elusive. In this study, we demonstrate that living cable bacteria actively move toward electrodes in different bioelectrochemical systems. Carbon felt and carbon fiber electrodes poised at +200 mV attracted live cable bacteria from the sediment. When the applied potential was switched off, cable bacteria retracted from the electrode. qPCR and scanning electron microscopy corroborated this finding and revealed cable bacteria in higher abundance present on the electrode surface compared with unpoised controls. These experiments raise new possibilities to study metabolism of cable bacteria and cultivate them in bioelectrochemical devices for bioelectronic applications, such as biosensing and bioremediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between parental involvement and a proximal student academic outcome-active engagement, for a cohort of 160 students on their transition to secondary school and at three subsequent time periods. The student-reported measures were assessed using the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2005) instrument. Results provide clear evidence of the "secondary slump" phenomenon with a consistent decline in each of the four parental involvement subscales (parent modeling, parent instruction, parent encouragement, parent reinforcement) and with female students reported significantly higher levels of parental involvement than males. A similar pattern of decline emerged for students' level of active engagement across the three years of the study; however, no gender differences were seen. In addition, the findings suggest a significant positive relationship between each of the four parental involvement constructs and active engagement. In discussing ways to address this "secondary slump", discussions focused on a revision of the parental involvement instrument to include items which are more reflective of today's increased use of the Internet and social media to facilitate interactions between parents and schools.

Background: 1H‐magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H‐MRS) may provide a direct index for the testing of medicines for neuroprotection and drug mechanisms in multiple sclerosis (MS) through measures of total N‐acetyl‐aspartate (tNAA), total creatine (tCr), myo‐inositol (mIns), total‐choline (tCho), and glutamate + glutamine (Glx). Neurometabolites may be associated with clinical disability with evidence that baseline neuroaxonal integrity is associated with upper limb function and processing speed in secondary progressive MS (SPMS). Purpose: To assess the effect on neurometabolites from three candidate drugs after 96‐weeks as seen by 1H‐MRS and their association with clinical disability in SPMS. Study‐Type: Longitudinal. Population: 108 participants with SPMS randomized to receive neuroprotective drugs amiloride [mean age 55.4 (SD 7.4), 61% female], fluoxetine [55.6 (6.6), 71%], riluzole [54.6 (6.3), 68%], or placebo [54.8 (7.9), 67%]. Field Strength/Sequence: 3‐Tesla. Chemical‐shift‐imaging 2D‐point‐resolved‐spectroscopy (PRESS), 3DT1. Assessment: Brain metabolites in normal appearing white matter (NAWM) and gray matter (GM), brain volume, lesion load, nine‐hole peg test (9HPT), and paced auditory serial addition test were measured at baseline and at 96‐weeks. Statistical Tests: Paired t‐test was used to analyze metabolite changes in the placebo arm over 96‐weeks. Metabolite differences between treatment arms and placebo; and associations between baseline metabolites and upper limb function/information processing speed at 96‐weeks assessed using multiple linear regression models. P‐value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In the placebo arm, tCho increased in GM (mean difference = −0.32 IU) but decreased in NAWM (mean difference = 0.13 IU). Compared to placebo, in the fluoxetine arm, mIns/tCr was lower (β = −0.21); in the riluzole arm, GM Glx (β = −0.25) and Glx/tCr (β = −0.29) were reduced. Baseline tNAA(β = 0.22) and tNAA/tCr (β = 0.23) in NAWM were associated with 9HPT scores at 96‐weeks. Data Conclusion: 1H‐MRS demonstrated altered membrane turnover over 96‐weeks in the placebo group. It also distinguished changes in neuro‐metabolites related to gliosis and glutaminergic transmission, due to fluoxetine and riluzole, respectively. Data show tNAA is a potential marker for upper limb function. Level of Evidence: 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 4 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]