Unbiased next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches enable comprehensive pathogen detection in the clinical microbiology laboratory and have numerous applications for public health surveillance, outbreak investigation, and the diagnosis of infectious diseases. However, practical deployment of the technology is hindered by the bioinformatics challenge of analyzing results accurately and in a clinically relevant timeframe. Here we describe SURPI (''sequence-based ultrarapid pathogen identification''), a computational pipeline for pathogen identification from complex metagenomic NGS data generated from clinical samples, and demonstrate use of the pipeline in the analysis of 237 clinical samples comprising more than 1.1 billion sequences. Deployable on both cloud-based and standalone servers, SURPI leverages two state-of-the-art aligners for accelerated analyses, SNAP and RAPSearch, which are as accurate as existing bioinformatics tools but orders of magnitude faster in performance. In fast mode, SURPI detects viruses and bacteria by scanning data sets of 7-500 million reads in 11 min to 5 h, while in comprehensive mode, all known microorganisms are identified, followed by de novo assembly and protein homology searches for divergent viruses in 50 min to 16 h. SURPI has also directly contributed to real-time microbial diagnosis in acutely ill patients, underscoring its potential key role in the development of unbiased NGS-based clinical assays in infectious diseases that demand rapid turnaround times.

The purpose of this article is to examine the literature concerning the connections between performer and teacher selves in the formation of a music teacher’s identity. This article begins by framing an issue facing preservice and in-service music teachers, namely, the tension between a performer identity and a teacher identity. An overview is provided of (a) the literature documenting preservice music teacher identities that privileges the performer identity and (b) the literature that focuses on balancing and negotiating the performer and teacher identities. To understand aspects of the current debate about music teacher identities, the author develops five themes based on a critical analysis of the selected literature: teacher versus performer identity conflict, personal and professional benefits of music making, holistic view of musical identities, roles and situated identities, and defining music teacher identity. The author concludes by synthesizing the commonalities of the recent research and suggesting approaches and topics for future research on music teacher identity.

In response to recent concern regarding music education major retention and as an effort to contribute to the “lives of teachers” scholarship in music education, the primary research question for this study was: How do undergraduate students describe their lived experiences within the instrumental music education community? Data included a questionnaire from sophomore, junior, and senior undergraduate students ( N = 34); researcher journals; 12 undergraduate student interviews; an undergraduate student focus group; and 6 study team meetings. What the authors learned from this inquiry is organized by the following themes: (a) participants perceive themselves as “different” from other music students; (b) participants perceive music education to be “different” within the music school; and (c) participants’ musician/ teacher identity changed throughout their experience.

During this heuristic phenomenological inquiry, we examined our lived experiences as five women (three doctoral students, two early career faculty) in the process of becoming music teacher educators participating in a year-long, online, group-facilitated professional development community (PDC). Data included recorded meetings via Skype, journal entries via a private Facebook blog, and written introductory and final reflection statements. The three core themes that emerged from the data were as follows: (a) self-doubt and fear of failure as researchers; (b) struggle to establish balance; and (c) the PDC as a safe place. The essence of our lived experience in the group was developing our identities as music teacher educators through interactions in our PDC, which was a safe place for us to discuss our thoughts, concerns, and insecurities. We offer

Although much has been written about professional development in general education and music education literature, little has addressed the benefits of music-making as meaningful professional development for music teachers. For music teachers, music-making and meanings of music-making have been connected with teachers' identity, well-being, beliefs, and effectiveness, as well as being a powerful pedagogical tool and a way to develop presence in teaching. Presence in teaching is linked with self-awareness, attentiveness, and pedagogical knowledge. The purpose of this article is to explore the benefits of music-making for music teachers in order to convince policymakers of the value of music-making as a professional development activity for music teachers. This article explores theories from psychology and education that link engagement, well-being, and identity to lay the foundation for a justification of broadening professional development policies. Then, literature is presented that connects teachers' art-making experiences (past and present), identity, teaching, and student learning. The third section draws on my previous work to illustrate the intersections between teachers' music-making and teaching. Then, suggestions for implementing professional development programs with music-making components are made. Although there are many ways musicmaking could be included as professional development, I offer four suggestions: including music-making in departmental or district-wide meetings, granting professional development credit to music teachers who make music outside of the classroom, setting up in-classroom reflection opportunities/action research based on integrating music-making and music teaching, and initiating a collaborative teacher study group that includes chamber music collaboration.