An increasing number of schools are replacing snow days with remote learning, but some plan to stick with the snow day tradition for now.

Collaboration doesn’t require turning parents into math experts, classroom teachers say.

Data suggest low-income communities are hit much harder than affluent ones, writes researcher Heather C. Hill.

A state department leader outlines the challenges and benefits of partnering with researchers in school turnaround efforts in Tennessee.

A statewide survey of educators in Tennessee provides critical insights into connections that exist between standards, curriculum, professional development, and ultimately student success.

Acellus Learning Accelerator, used by 6,000 schools nationwide, is under fire for lessons that parents and educators have decried as racist, sexist, and age-inappropriate.

Recent Census data finds households in the South and Midwest lagging those in other regions in access to remote learning technologies and learning interactions with teachers and family members.

Stephanie Hirsh recently visited several schools in Delaware to see first-hand the impact of the state's redesigned professional learning system.

In this seventh installment on the growth in dual-language learning, two experts from Delaware explore how state education leaders can build capacity to support both students and educators.

Although public and educators' concerns are growing about testing, performance assessment done well can strengthen instruction and enhance learning, says Linda Darling-Hammond.

Best known in education circles for its performance assessment, New Hampshire is a hotbed of innovation around personalized learning, writes Adriana Martinez of the Innovation Lab Network.

Chief technology officers are facing an unprecedented test of digital preparedness due to the coronavirus pandemic, struggling with shortfalls of available learning devices and huge Wi-Fi access challenges.

A veteran teacher shares how he puts the latest research on growth mindset into action for his students in this guest blog by Jamie M. Carroll and David Yeager.

In three days of rock climbing, orienteering, and other challenging outdoor experiences, principals get to examine their own—and others’—strengths and weaknesses as leaders.

Educators who work in personalized learning schools are adjusting instruction for remote, hybrid, and in-person learning.

In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.

A handful of districts and other groups are reshaping the after-school space to provide a wide range of social and linguistic supports for newcomer students.

In the Green Mountain State, education leaders discuss their focus on the whole child.

The rocky shift to remote learning has exacerbated inequities for the nation's 5 million English-learners. An army of multilingual liaisons work round the clock to plug widening gaps.

Recent Census data finds households in the South and Midwest lagging those in other regions in access to remote learning technologies and learning interactions with teachers and family members.

The principal of an elementary school in Washington, DC, describes how she and her staff broadened the focus of the school towards broader, more holistic goals for students.

The principal of a school in Washington, DC, describes a shift toward equity, diversity, and inclusion.

In this third installment on the growth in dual-language learning, one expert says broad access to programs is important, but that students need an early start to reap the benefits.

A handful of districts and other groups are reshaping the after-school space to provide a wide range of social and linguistic supports for newcomer students.

Sharon G. Kujawa
Nov 11, 2009; 29:14077-14085
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Prithviraj Rajebhosale
Oct 23, 2024; 44:e0063242024-e0063242024
Cellular

Jordan A. Taylor
Feb 19, 2014; 34:3023-3032
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Neuronal cytotoxic edema is implicated in neuronal injury and death, yet mitigating brain edema with osmotic and surgical interventions yields poor clinical outcomes. Importantly, neuronal swelling and its downstream consequences during early brain development remain poorly investigated, and new treatment approaches are needed. We explored Ca²⁺-dependent downstream effects after neuronal cytotoxic edema caused by diverse injuries in mice of both sexes using multiphoton Ca²⁺ imaging in vivo [Postnatal Day (P)12–17] and in acute brain slices (P8–12). After different excitotoxic insults, cytosolic GCaMP6s translocated into the nucleus after a few minutes in a subpopulation of neurons, persisting for hours. We used an automated morphology-detection algorithm to detect neuronal soma and quantified the nuclear translocation of GCaMP6s as the nuclear to cytosolic intensity (N/C ratio). Elevated neuronal N/C ratios occurred concurrently with persistent elevation in Ca²⁺ loads and could also occur independently from neuronal swelling. Electron microscopy revealed that the nuclear translocation was associated with the increased nuclear pore size. The nuclear accumulation of GCaMP6s in neurons led to neocortical circuit dysfunction, mitochondrial pathology, and increased cell death. Inhibiting calpains, a family of Ca²⁺-activated proteases, prevented elevated N/C ratios and neuronal swelling. In summary, in the developing brain, we identified a calpain-dependent alteration of nuclear transport in a subpopulation of neurons after disease-relevant insults leading to long-term circuit dysfunction and cell death. The nuclear translocation of GCaMP6 and other cytosolic proteins after acute excitotoxicity can be an early biomarker of brain injury in the developing brain.

Cochlear hair cells (HCs) sense sound waves and allow us to hear. Loss of HCs will cause irreversible sensorineural hearing loss. It is well known that DNA damage repair plays a critical role in protecting cells in many organs. However, how HCs respond to DNA damage and how defective DNA damage repair contributes to hearing loss remain elusive. In this study, we showed that cisplatin induced DNA damage in outer hair cells (OHCs) and promoted OHC loss, leading to hearing loss in mice of either sex. Cisplatin induced the expression of Brca1, a DNA damage repair factor, in OHCs. Deficiency of Brca1 induced OHC and hearing loss, and further promoted cisplatin-induced DNA damage in OHCs, accelerating OHC loss. This study provides the first in vivo evidence demonstrating that cisplatin mainly induces DNA damage in OHCs and that BRCA1 promotes repair of DNA damage in OHCs and prevents hearing loss. Our findings not only demonstrate that DNA damage–inducing agent generates DNA damage in postmitotic HCs but also suggest that DNA repair factors, like BRCA1, protect postmitotic HCs from DNA damage–induced cell death and hearing loss.

Neuregulin1 (Nrg1) signaling is critical for neuronal development and function from fate specification to synaptic plasticity. Type III Nrg1 is a synaptic protein which engages in bidirectional signaling with its receptor ErbB4. Forward signaling engages ErbB4 phosphorylation, whereas back signaling engages two known mechanisms: (1) local axonal PI3K-AKT signaling and (2) cleavage by -secretase resulting in cytosolic release of the intracellular domain (ICD), which can traffic to the nucleus (Bao et al., 2003; Hancock et al., 2008). To dissect the contribution of these alternate signaling strategies to neuronal development, we generated a transgenic mouse with a missense mutation (V₃₂₁L) in the Nrg1 transmembrane domain that disrupts nuclear back signaling with minimal effects on forward signaling or local back signaling and was previously found to be associated with psychosis (Walss-Bass et al., 2006). We combined RNA sequencing, retroviral fate mapping of neural stem cells, behavioral analyses, and various network analyses of transcriptomic data to investigate the effect of disrupting Nrg1 nuclear back signaling in the dentate gyrus (DG) of male and female mice. The V₃₂₁L mutation impairs nuclear translocation of the Nrg1 ICD and alters gene expression in the DG. V₃₂₁L mice show reduced stem cell proliferation, altered cell cycle dynamics, fate specification defects, and dendritic dysmorphogenesis. Orthologs of known schizophrenia (SCZ)-susceptibility genes were dysregulated in the V₃₂₁L DG. These genes coordinated a larger network with other dysregulated genes. Weighted gene correlation network analysis and protein interaction network analyses revealed striking similarity between DG transcriptomes of V₃₂₁L mouse and humans with SCZ.