A Wall Hanging a Batik Worker

This article reviews the political and empirical record within music education surrounding the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and reports a new study evaluating the effects of the law on music and arts education policies in U.S. high schools. School-level data (N = 670 schools) from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 were independently pooled to estimate the effects of Goals 2000 on the number of unique music courses high schools offered, the probability that schools would enforce a local arts graduation requirement, and the number of arts courses required for graduation. Results showed no effect on the number of unique music courses offered. However, for schools in states that prior to Goals 2000 had no arts education mandate or had a flexible arts education mandate, Goals 2000 significantly increased the probability of schools requiring the arts, as well as the number of arts credits required for graduation. The article concludes with implications for the arts in the current Common Core Standards movement.     

Stealing sugar from the honey fungus

This article comments on: GeSUT4 mediates sucrose import at the symbiotic interface for carbon allocation of heterotrophic Gastrodia elata (Orchidaceae)     

Metabolic reprogramming in response to cold stress is like real estate,it's all about location

This article comments on: Subcellular reprogramming of metabolism during cold acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana     

A blooming interest in the hydraulic traits of flowers

This article comments on : Water relations of Calycanthus flowers: Hydraulic conductance, capacitance, and embolism resistance     

A new NO ledge in Chlamydomonas: when the old nitrate reductase meets amidoxime reducing component to produce nitric oxide

This article comments on: A dual system formed by the ARC and NR molybdoenzymes mediates nitrite‐dependent NO production in Chlamydomonas     

A case of genetic polyandry in the shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus

This article documents a case of genetic polyandry in the oceanic and pelagic shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus and briefly comments on the implications of this finding.     

Adaptation genomics: The angel is in the details

This article comments on : Genome‐wide signatures of flowering adaptation to climate temperature: Regional analyses in a highly diverse native range of Arabidopsis thaliana     

Comments by Peniston

The author responds to the comments by Graap and Freides (1998) raised in regards to the Peniston/Kulkosky clinical data. Items are clarified, errors acknowledged, and more current findings summarized.     

A method for quantifying differentiation between populations at multi-allelic loci and its implications for investigating identity and paternity

A method is proposed for allowing for the effects of population differentiation, and other factors, in forensic inference based on DNA profiles. Much current forensic practice ignores, for example, the effects of coancestry and inappropriate databases and is consequently systematically biased against defendants. Problems with the ‘product rule’ for forensic identification have been highlighted by several authors, but important aspects of the problems are not widely appreciated. This arises in part because the match probability has often been confused with the relative frequency of the profile. Further, the analogous problems in paternity cases have received little attention. The proposed method is derived under general assumptions about the underlying population genetic processes. Probabilities relevant to forensic inference are expressed in terms of a single parameter whose values can be chosen to reflect the specific circumstances. The method is currently used in some UK courts and has important advantages over the ‘Ceiling Principle’ method, which has been criticized on a number of grounds. Editor's comments The authors' work offers a sound approach to accommodating the effects of population structure, based on use of Wright'sF _ST . Their equations 1 and 2 are very convenient, and are good approximations to the exact results given by Weir (1994). As they point out, good estimates ofF _ST are needed. The comments about the ‘generally mixed’ results of independence tests may be met, in part, by the paper of Maiste and Weir in this volume. The authors cite Kraneet al. (1992) but had not seen the subsequent rebuttal by Budowleet al. (1994). The work of Wallet al. (1993) contained errors, as noted in Greenhalghet al. (1994). An erratum to this article is available at .     

A forest‐specialist carnivore in the middle of the desert?Comments on Anabalon et al. 2019

We present comments on an article recently published in Ecology and Evolution (“High‐resolution melting of the cytochrome B gene in fecal DNA: A powerful approach for fox species identification of the Lycalopex genus in Chile”) by Anabalon et al. that reported the presence of Darwin's fox (Lycalopex fulvipes), a temperate forest specialist, in the hyperarid Atacama Desert of northern Chile. We argue that this putative record lacks ecological support in light of ongoing research on this endangered species, and contains numerous methodological flaws and omissions related to the molecular identification of the species. Based on these issues, we suggest the scientific community and conservation decision‐makers disregard the alleged presence of the Darwin's fox in the Atacama Desert.     

A taxonomic history of Japanese endemic <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fritillaria</Emphasis> (Liliaceae)

To resolve the current taxonomic status of Japanese endemic Fritillaria L., their taxonomic history is retraced. All taxonomic papers are evaluated, together with more recent genetic observations. To determine the wider acceptance of various taxonomic revisions, a range of Floras are also examined. It is evident that articles published in Japanese have not been fully considered by the wider botanical community. Moreover, rivalries between the Tokyo and Kyoto schools of botany and an over-reliance on herbarium material by many authors have undermined the current classification of the Fritillaria ‘japonica group’.     

Understanding Public Perceptions of the HPV Vaccination Based on Online Comments to Canadian News Articles

Background

Given the variation in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage across Canada, and debate regarding delivery of HPV vaccines in Catholic schools, we studied online comments on Canadian news websites to understand public perceptions of HPV and HPV vaccine.

Methods

We searched English- and French-language Canadian news websites for 2012 articles that contained the terms “HPV” or “human papillomavirus.” Articles about HPV vaccinations that contained at least one comment were included. Two researchers independently coded comments, analyzing them for emerging themes.

Results

We identified 3073 comments from 1198 individuals in response to 71 news articles; 630 (52.6%) individuals expressed positive sentiments about HPV vaccination (2.5 comments/individual), 404 (33.7%) were negative (3.0 comments/individual), 34 (2.8%) were mixed (1.5 comments/individual) and 130 (10.8%) were neutral (1.6 comments/individual). Vaccine-supportive commenters believed the vaccine is safe and effective. Common themes in negative comments included concerns regarding HPV vaccine safety and efficacy, distrust of pharmaceutical companies and government, and belief that school-age children are too young for HPV vaccine. Many comments focused on whether the Catholic Church has the right to inform health policy for students, and discussion often evolved into debates regarding HPV and sexual behaviour. We noted that many individuals doubted the credibility of vaccine safety information.

Conclusion

The majority of commenters do not appear to be against HPV vaccination, but public health messaging that focuses on both the vaccine’s safety profile, and its use as a means to prevent cancer rather than sexually transmitted HPV infection may facilitate its acceptance.     

Comparing Alternate Approaches to Calculating Reliability for Dichotomous Data: The Sample Case of Adolescent Selection,Optimization, and Compensation

With the growing interest in the development of purpose in youth, one important role that requires attention is the school teacher. The current article explores student perceptions of the role teachers can play in fostering purpose in their students in the mid- and late adolescent years, and the teacher competencies that facilitate purpose development. The present investigation posits and tests a structural model in which student perceptions of teacher support predicts youth purpose, mediated by student perceptions of teacher competencies; in turn, youth purpose predicts broader positive youth development. Two samples of demographically diverse young people ages 13–18 were surveyed in the United States (n = 381) and Finland (n = 336). Results showed support for the role of teachers in fostering purpose, and provided evidence for the hypothesized model with some cross-cultural differences. Implications of these findings for developing purpose in schools are discussed.     

Risk of predation,hydrodynamic efficiency and their influence on school structure

Synopsis Laboratory studies were conducted on 15 schools of blackchin shiners, Notropis heterodon, to determine if they altered their structure in response to changing environmental demands. The hypothesis tested was that fish schools should sacrifice a flat, hydrodynamically efficient structure in favour of an unobstructed visual field in the presence of a predator by staggering in the vertical plane. Ten schools were exposed for two weeks to a simple environment with only a current. For the next two-week period a predator was added. Five control schools were exposed to the simple environment for both two-week periods. Six of the ten treated schools increased their staggering in the vertical dimension as predicted while none of the control schools changed. This result was suggestive that hydrodynamic advantages were sacrificed. Respirometer experiments indicated these fish were capable of achieving some hydrodynamic benefits from schooling but these benefits may be a function of fish size.     

The minority culture of mobility of France's upwardly mobile descendants of North African immigrants

This article examines the challenges associated with the experience of upward educational mobility among descendants of North African immigrants in France. Drawing on in-depth, open-ended interviews with students and graduates of the prestigious grandes écoles, it sheds light on three specific ways in which class-based and ethno-racial inequalities intersect to shape the mobility costs that our respondents outline: (1) feelings of isolation resulting from being one of the only bursar recipients and ethno-racial minorities of their schools; (2) perceived conflation of their minority background with counter-elite dispositions; and (3) difficulties of adjusting to a student life reflecting the cultural styles of the predominantly white, upper-middle-class group. The article suggests that our respondents deploy a minority culture of mobility rooted in class and ethno-racial processes to overcome these challenges. It finally discusses implications for future research, stressing the need to examine the intersecting effect of multiple social categories in informing complex mobility experiences.     

Size-assortative Schooling in Free-ranging Sticklebacks

Schooling behaviour is known to be advantageous for individual fish in many respects, including both foraging and predator avoidance. It has been repeatedly predicted by theory that to benefit most from schooling, individuals should associate together non-randomly according to their phenotype. Obeying the predictions of theory, several fish species exhibit size-assortative schooling in the laboratory, but unequivocal evidence for size-assorted schools in the wild is largely lacking. To ascertain the existence of size-assorted schools in the wild, we quantified the body-size distribution of individuals in schools of wild threespine stickleback. Gasterosteus aculeatus, a species that is known to readily form size-assorted schools under experimental conditions. Data were collected from 24 separate schools of juvenile fish in late summer 1994. The fish in those wild schools were size-assorted, confirming the previous laboratory findings and, in accordance with current theory, suggesting that the phenotypic characteristics of individuals may be of importance when schools are formed.     

Inhibition of Mg2+ current by single-gene mutation in Paramecium

Eccentric is a newly-isolated mutant of Paramecium tetraurelia that fails to swim backwards in response to Mg²⁺. In the wild type, this backward swimming results from Mg²⁺ influx via a Mg²⁺-specific ion conductance (I _Mg. Voltage-clamp analysis confirmed that, as suspected, step changes in membrane potential over a physiological range fail to elicit I _Mg from eccentric. Further electrophysiological investigation revealed a number of additional ion-current defects in eccentric: (i) The Ca²⁺ current activated upon depolarization inactivates more slowly in eccentric than in the wild type, and it requires longer to recover from this inactivation. (ii) The Ca²⁺-dependent Na⁺ current deactivates significantly faster in the mutant, (iii) The two K⁺ currents observed upon hyperpolarization are reduced by >60% in eccentric. It is difficult to envision how these varied pleiotropic effects could result from loss of a single ion current. Rather, they suggest that the eccentric mutation affects a global regulatory system. Two plausible hypotheses are discussed.We are grateful to Dr. Yoshiro Saimi for his comments and suggestions on this work, and for the support of the Lucille P. Markey Charitable trust and the National Institutes of Health (GM22714 and GM38646).     

Direct and indirect racial discrimination of Roma people in Bulgaria,the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation

In this article, a methodological approach to the topic of the racial discrimination of Roma people in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation draws on three models of modus vivendi between Roma people and the majority, including the concepts and forms of direct and indirect discrimination. The core methodology employed in this article is the legal and sociological analysis of various national and international statistics as well as practices of the courts, which are focused upon throughout. The fieldwork within this article deals with the various attitudes of Roma parents to the introduction of Roma assistants in primary schools in the Czech Republic and is enriched with in-depth interviews conducted with Roma teaching assistants. Data from original research in three Czech elementary schools are compared with forms of discrimination in Bulgaria and in the Russian Federation regarding their educational systems.     

Energy accounting: Some new proposals

This article presents a concept of energy accounting that is novel because of two features. One is the valuation of human labor in terms of the workers' shares of their societies' energy use, which allows that workers in different societies or time periods may be more or less intensive energy users. The other is the valuation of resources in units of renewal time, which allows renewable resources to be treated as less ecologically costly than depletable ones. These new proposals are used for a reconsideration of the energy balances of Spanish agriculture.This article is an outcome of my doctoral thesis. I am grateful to J. M. Naredo for inspiration and to J. Martinez-Alier and P. J. Richerson for detailed comments.     

Why do extracurricular activities prevent dropout more effectively in some high schools than in others? A mixed-method examination of organizational dynamics

Abstract

This study describes policies and practices implemented in 12 high schools (Quebec, Canada) that more or less effectively leveraged extracurricular activities (ECA) to prevent dropout among vulnerable students. Following an explanatory sequential mixed design, three school profiles (Effective, Ineffective, and Mixed) were derived based on quantitative student-reported data. Qualitative interviews with frontline staff revealed that in Effective schools, ECA had a unique overarching goal: to support school engagement and perseverance among all students, including vulnerable ones. Moreover, in these schools staff had access to sufficient resources—human and material—and implemented inclusive practices. In Ineffective schools, ECA were used as a means to attract well-functioning students from middle-class families, and substantial resources were channeled toward these students, with few efforts to include vulnerable ones. Schools with a Mixed profile had both strengths and weakness. Recommendations for school-level policies that bolster ECA’s ability to support students’ perseverance are provided.