In this study we inquired into the qualifications of public secondary school teachers by examining whether or not teachers met the No Child Left Behind Act's ([NCLB] 2002) definition of "highly qualified" immediately prior to the law's enactment. We examined this by core academic subjects (English, social studies, math, and science) and, particularly, in the subfields of science (chemistry, earth science, life science, physical science, and physics). We also inquired into the distribution of teachers who were identified as highly qualified in their main teaching assignments by school locations (urban, suburban, and rural) and by schools with different levels of minority student enrollment. In this study, a highly qualified teacher has at least a bachelor's degree, full state certification, and a major in the subject taught. We analyzed data extracted from the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Results revealed that the percentages of highly qualified teachers in the core subjects, especially in the subfields of the sciences, were far from satisfactory. Overall the percentage of highly qualified teachers in their main assignments was 72.8. However, the percentage of qualified teachers in the subfield of earth science was only 15.7, when determined by every subject a teacher teaches. Urban schools were less likely to have highly qualified teachers than suburban or rural schools. We also found that the greater percentage of minority students a school served, the lower the percentage of highly qualified teachers employed in that school. There was a 10 percent gap in highly qualified teachers between schools with low numbers of minority students and high numbers. The findings suggest that the situation poses a serious challenge for implementing the NCLB's mandate of highly qualified teachers in secondary schools. Furthermore, the findings raise an equity issue in staffing across schools.
Aim: To evaluate the regulatory landscape underlying the active enhancer marked by H3K27ac in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rats. Materials & methods: H3K27ac chromatin immunoprecipitation and high-throughput RNA sequencing to construct regulatory profiles and transcriptome of liver from NAFLD rat model induced by HFD. De novo motif analysis for differential H3K27ac peaks. Functional enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway and protein–protein interaction network were examined for differential peak–genes. The mechanism was further verified by western blot, chromatin immunoprecipitation-quantitative PCR and real-time PCR. Results: A total of 1831 differential H3K27ac peaks were identified significantly correlating with transcription factors and target genes ( CYP8B1, PLA2G12B, SLC27A5, CYP7A1 and APOC3) involved in lipid and energy homeostasis. Conclusion: Altered acetylation induced by HFD leads to the dysregulation of gene expression, further elucidating the epigenetic mechanism in the etiology of NAFLD.
Original evaluation practice in China can be dated back to the ancient time of 2200 B.C when the Chinese used essay examinations to help select civil service employees or to choose the most talented learner to serve in the civic administration (Drummond, 2003). Modern evaluation practice is still mostly succeeding the early practice that government-sponsored evaluation plays a decisive role in evaluating all kinds of national development activities. Evaluation conducted by NGO (non-government organization) has not yet exercised any influence on the current evaluation practice. In the past two decades, China has seen rapid growth of a significant number of government-sponsored evaluation organizations established and a lot of evaluation activities conducted, suggesting that the important role of evaluation in national development has been highly recognized. The evaluation defined as providing information for decision making (Cronbach, 1963;Stufflebeam, et al., 1971) has been well accepted by various evaluation organizations. Deng Nan, vice-minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology (People's Daily, November 1, 1999) said that evaluation system can be of great help to the government and can function in the following four aspects: 1) improving the decision making process; 2) enhancing the macro-level management of technology; 3) promoting innovation in the science and technology management system; 4) and reinforcing the authority of the making and implementation of the national science plan. However, according to Bao, Zhang
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