Teachers unions are scapegoats for low student performance.

In Tuesday night's Republican primary in West Virginia, Robert Karnes, a West Virginia Republican state senator who lashed out at teachers during their nine-day strike, lost to pro-labor candidate Bill Hamilton.

Lawmakers effectively killed the controversial education bill that had prompted the second statewide strike in two years.

Three stars from Iowa women's basketball's 71-52 victory vs. Virginia Tech.

FSU women's basketball improves to 2-1 after a dominating victory over FAMU on Monday.

Holly Oakley
Oct 4, 2006; 26:10129-10140
Neurobiology of Disease

Martijn P. van den Heuvel
Nov 2, 2011; 31:15775-15786
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Holly Oakley
Oct 4, 2006; 26:10129-10140
Neurobiology of Disease

Reelin, a secreted glycoprotein, plays a crucial role in guiding neocortical neuronal migration, dendritic outgrowth and arborization, and synaptic plasticity in the adult brain. Reelin primarily operates through the canonical lipoprotein receptors apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (Apoer2) and very low-density lipoprotein receptor (Vldlr). Reelin also engages with noncanonical receptors and unidentified coreceptors; however, the effects of which are less understood. Using high-throughput tandem mass tag (TMT) liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomics and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), we identified both shared and unique intracellular pathways activated by Reelin through its canonical and noncanonical signaling in primary murine neurons of either sex during dendritic growth and arborization. We observed pathway cross talk related to regulation of cytoskeleton, neuron projection development, protein transport, and actin filament-based process. We also found enriched gene sets exclusively by the noncanonical Reelin pathway including protein translation, mRNA metabolic process, and ribonucleoprotein complex biogenesis suggesting Reelin fine-tunes neuronal structure through distinct signaling pathways. A key discovery is the identification of aldolase A, a glycolytic enzyme and actin-binding protein, as a novel effector of Reelin signaling. Reelin induced de novo translation and mobilization of aldolase A from the actin cytoskeleton. We demonstrated that aldolase A is necessary for Reelin-mediated dendrite growth and arborization in primary murine neurons and mouse brain cortical neurons. Interestingly, the function of aldolase A in dendrite development is independent of its known role in glycolysis. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the Reelin-dependent signaling pathways and effector proteins that are crucial for dendritic development.

Odor information arrives first in the main olfactory bulb and is then broadcasted to the olfactory cortices and striatum. Downstream regions have unique cellular and connectivity architectures that may generate different coding patterns to the same odors. To reveal region-specific response features, tuning and decoding of single-unit populations, we recorded responses to the same odors under the same conditions across regions, namely, the main olfactory bulb (MOB), the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON), the anterior piriform cortex (aPC), and the olfactory tubercle of the ventral striatum (OT), of awake male mice. We focused on chemically closely related aldehydes that still create distinct percepts. The MOB had the highest decoding accuracy for aldehydes and was the only region encoding chemical similarity. The MOB had the highest fraction of inhibited responses and narrowly tuned odor-excited responses in terms of timing and odor selectivity. Downstream, the interconnected AON and aPC differed in their response patterns to the same stimuli. While odor-excited responses dominated the AON, the aPC had a comparably high fraction of odor-inhibited responses. Both cortices share a main output target that is the MOB. This prompted us to test if the two regions convey also different net outputs. Aldehydes activated AON terminals in the MOB as a bulk signal but inhibited those from the aPC. The differential cortical projection responses generalized to complex odors. In summary, olfactory regions reveal specialized features in their encoding with AON and aPC differing in their local computations, thereby generating inverse net centrifugal and intercortical outputs.

Key event-related potentials (ERPs) of perceptual decision-making such as centroparietal positivity (CPP) elucidate how evidence is accumulated toward a given choice. Furthermore, this accumulation can be impacted by visual target selection signals such as the N2 contralateral (N2c). How these underlying neural mechanisms of perceptual decision-making are influenced by the spatial congruence of distractors relative to target stimuli remains unclear. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) in humans of both sexes to investigate the effect of distractor spatial congruency (same vs different hemifield relative to targets) on perceptual decision-making. We confirmed that responses for perceptual decisions were slower for spatially incongruent versus congruent distractors of high salience. Similarly, markers of target selection (N2c peak amplitude) and evidence accumulation (CPP slope) were found to be lower when distractors were spatially incongruent versus congruent. To evaluate the effects of congruency further, we applied drift diffusion modeling to participant responses, which showed that larger amplitudes of both ERPs were correlated with shorter nondecision times when considering the effect of congruency. The modeling also suggested that congruency's effect on behavior occurred prior to and during evidence accumulation when considering the effects of the N2c peak and CPP slope. These findings point to spatially incongruent distractors, relative to congruent distractors, influencing decisions as early as the initial sensory processing phase and then continuing to exert an effect as evidence is accumulated throughout the decision-making process. Overall, our findings highlight how key electrophysiological signals of perceptual decision-making are influenced by the spatial congruence of target and distractor.

The early polygraph machine was considered the most scientific way to detect deception—but that was a myth

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today praised UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon for his support in the fight against hunger at a meeting with FAO member countries, the Committee [...]

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva will be away from Rome during the next few weeks. During this period he will be involved in a range of [...]

The [...]

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today appointed Jacques Diouf as Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.

In his new role, the former Director-General Jacques Diouf will [...]

FAO Director-General Graziano da Silva today opened the 150th session of the FAO Council, highlighting the successful conclusion of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), held last month in [...]

5 December 2014, Rome – At the closure of the FAO Council held today, the [...]

Berlin- FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva has highlighted some of the most important events on the organization’s 2015 calendar during meetings with agriculture ministers who attended the Global Forum [...]

Just announced by the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean Countries (GRULAC)

The Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) of FAO in Rome is pleased to endorse the [...]

Rome - José Graziano da Silva, the [...]

Rome, The Africa Regional Group of Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives accredited  to the Rome based UN Agencies have announced the endorsement of the candidature of Dr. José Graziano da Silva [...]

Rome, 02 March 2015 - In a letter addressed to the Director-General, the Chairperson of the Near East Regional Group has announced their endorsement of the candidature [...]

In a letter addressed to the Director-General, the Ambassador of Malaysia to FAO, on behalf of the Chair of the Asia Group, has announced the endorsement of the [...]

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva has been selected as one of the world's most influential Latin Americans for his work against hunger and malnutrition in the world. In its [...]

The Pre-Summit will bring together the global efforts to shape the transformation of agri-food systems.

The Tripartite organizations (FAO, OIE, WHO) invite partners to join public discussion on the establishment of the AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform.

Click here to access the presentation by QU Dongyu.

This newly-released report highlights the progress made since FAO’s Strategy for Private Sector Engagement 2021-2025 was approved during the 165th session of the Council in December 2020. It discusses important [...]

A statement by FAO Director-General QU Dongyu

FAO member nations to choose head of the UN specialized agency in July during the 43rd session of the FAO Conference

This newly-released annual report charts progress in FAO's work with the private sector in 2022. It highlights developments across FAO's portfolio of private sector engagements, documents major achievements and lessons learned [...]

This annual report charts progress in FAO's work with the private sector in 2022. It highlights developments across FAO's portfolio of private sector engagements, documents major achievements and lessons [...]

The  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is happy to announce significant updates and upgrades to the FAO CONNECT CRM Database section [...]

In this episode, FAO urges immediate access to Gaza; the UN Climate Summit ; the fourth annual World Food Forum 

Your feedback on the First Continental Congress, Douglas MacArthur and England's tangled history

Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter interviews the co-founder of MIT’s Little Devices Lab about democratizing health technology

The octopus places the arm in its mouth, treating it like food.

Have you ever wondered whether lie detectors actually...work? Join us as we delve into the history and science behind these devices - from how they measure "deception" to the controversies surrounding their use. This video is the first episode of the National Treasure series, where we share behind-the-scenes stories of objects in the Smithsonian Collections. --------- To learn more about the exhibition "Forensic Science on Trial" at Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, read below: What a 100-Year-Old Lie Detector and 150-Year-Old Arsenic Tests Tell Us About Forensic Science Today https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/what-a-100-year-old-lie-detector-and-150-year-old-arsenic-tests-tell-us-about-forensic-science-today-180984623/ Forensic Science on Trial https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/forensic-science-trial Digital Editorial Director: Brian Wolly Supervising Producer & Scriptwriter: Michelle Mehrtens Producer: Nicki Marko Producer & Editor: Sierra Theobald Motion Designer: Ricardo Jaimes Original Footage: Cade Martin

Watch Dr. Suzan Murray perform her morning rounds (Kenneth R. Fletcher)

While camouflaged on the ocean floor off the coast of Israel in the Red Sea, octopods use their arms to grab unsuspecting prey

Rather than pouncing on its prey, the larger Pacific striped octopus extends a tentacle and taps its victim, startling it into the octopus's deadly embrace. (Video courtesy Roy Caldwell, UC Berkeley)

Read more about FDR at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/From-the-Castle-FDRs-Stamps.html A stamp collector since childhood, Franklin Roosevelt designed postage stamps to help promote his presidential agenda.

David Lynch | Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 American Ingenuity Award Winner for Education As a filmmaker, Lynch has a reputation for creating dark, surreal movies such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart as well as the TV show “Twin Peaks.” In the education world, he's becoming known for something very different: promoting inner peace. Over the past decade, the David Lynch Foundation has sponsored Transcendental Meditation classes for half a million children in places as far-flung as the Bronx, Detroit, Los Angeles, Congo and the West Bank. The program, called Quiet Time, is now at the center of one of the largest-ever studies of meditation for children—a 6,800-pupil research project conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago and designed to learn if meditation can help kids in highly stressful environments fare better at home and in school. Read more about Lynch’s work: http://smithmag.co/9sHhtm | #IngenuityAwards And more about the American Ingenuity Awards: http://smithmag.co/77xPqy

The collaboration across species reveals a surprising social behavior of octopuses, researchers say

Experts say that the trove of silver currency is official treasure and includes coins from England and Ireland

A woman who says she was repeatedly denied emergency care last spring is blasting the Newfoundland and Labrador health-care system, saying she’s been left psychologically scarred after being told several times that her gangrenous appendix was simply anxiety or constipation.

RCMP are investigating after officers discovered human remains in an abandoned, burned vehicle in Greenhill, N.S.

By raising her son to be curious about the natural world, this mother helped shape the trajectory of the National Museum of Natural History

After he was forced off the German stage in 1934 by antisemitic hecklers, Leo Reuss found a daring way to hide in plain sight