Search

Background Arginine methylation is a posttranslational modification mediated by protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs). Although previous studies have shown that PRMT1 contributes to the severity of allergic airway inflammation or asthma, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Objective This study aimed to explore the role of PRMT1 and its relevant mechanism in the development of allergic rhinitis (AR). Methods The expression levels of PRMTs and cytokines were determined by RT-PCR, and the localization of PRMT1 was determined by immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. The levels of house dust mite (HDM)-specific immunoglobulins in serum and of cytokines in nasal lavage fluids were determined by ELISA. PRMT1 inhibition was achieved by siRNA and treatment with the pan PRMT inhibitor arginine N-methyltransferase inhibitor-1. Results PRMT1 expression was significantly increased in the nasal mucosa of patients and mice with AR. The degree of eosinophilic infiltration in the nasal mucosa was reduced in PRMT1+/− AR mice compared with wild-type mice. PRMT1 haploinsufficiency reduced the levels of HDM-specific immunoglobulins in serum and those of TH2 (IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13) and epithelial (thymic stromal lymphopoietin [TSLP], IL-25, and IL-33) cytokines in the nasal lavage fluids of AR mice. In nasal epithelial cells, HDM and IL-4 cooperate to enhance PRMT1 expression through a mitogen-activated protein kinase–dependent pathway. In addition, PRMT1 was essential for the production of TSLP, IL-25, and IL-33 in response to HDM and IL-4. Arginine N-methyltransferase inhibitor-1 treatment alleviated AR in the mouse model. Conclusions PRMT1 plays an important role in AR development by regulating epithelial-derived cytokine production and might be a new therapeutic target for AR.

This study examines concerns of early childhood teachers about inclusive education (IE) in infant through 3rd-grade classrooms in the United States and the associated role of teachers’ background v...

The purpose of the study is to investigate how pre-service elementary teachers’ orientation about science inquiry impacts their implementation of inquiry-based instruction. Teaching orientation is one of the levels of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) which impacts on teachers’ instructional practice. With thirty-one pre-service teachers, data are collected using a survey and three vignettes and are analyzed using a correlational coefficient. The results show that (a) there is a moderate relationship between pre-service teachers’ view of inquiry-based instruction and their willingness to implement it; (b) pre-service teachers’ confidence in implementing inquiry-based instruction increases as they gain experience with inquiry-based methods through coursework; (c) the participants favor using inquiry methods, but they feel more comfortable with a more teacher-centered approach. It implies that one science method course may not suffice to produce teachers who are self-efficacious about teaching inquiry-based science. Thus, they need additional instruction to implement a more student-centered inquiry approach.

This case study explores young children’s understanding and application of the concept of volume through the practices of engineering design in a STEM activity. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, engineering stands out as a challenging area to implement. In addition, most early engineering education research centers on curriculum and instruction rather than students’ understanding and application of models and content knowledge to a design project (Johri and Olds, Journal of Engineering Education, 100(1):151–185, 2011). For this study, we created a play-based STEM activity which helps students understand and apply the concept of volume in creating clay boats through the practices of engineering design. Three students voluntarily participated in this study. Data sources included interviews, photocopies of boats, and observation field notes which were analyzed using a comprehensive cross-case analysis. Findings indicate that the common pattern is rather intuitive when students define engineering problems using different criteria. Also, students’ solutions to engineering problems are associated with their experiential ideas of reality. How students express their understanding of volume is correlated to the way of their structuring volume. Lastly, students understand the concept of volume gradually while going through the practices of engineering design. Implications are discussed in terms of how engineering education contributes to students’ understanding of volume.

The purpose of this study was to examine beliefs of early childhood teachers about their readiness for teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with a focus on testing for heterogeneity of such beliefs and differential effects of teacher-related factors. The results from latent class analysis of survey data revealed two latent classes of teachers, not known a priori, with significant differences in levels of teachers’ beliefs about readiness to teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The teachers’ teaching experience and their awareness of the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and potential challenges in teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics played a differential role in the classification of teachers into latent classes. In addition, the analysis of two open-ended survey questions revealed several themes in the early childhood teachers’ opinions about early childhood science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Study findings support the necessity for professional development practices that will enhance teachers’ understanding of the importance of early childhood science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, as well as their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines and potential challenges of teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Before science can be completely understood, one of the fundamental skills that must be developed is observation. Improving descriptive writing and investigating students’ observational skills in the classroom is the purpose of this study. The study was designed to determine if such skills, practiced through modeling activities, serve as a way to improve students’ descriptive directional writing skills. Participating in this study were two groups of seventh (N = 12) and eighth graders (N = 12) at a middle school in the Midwest, USA. The students participating in the study each received a set of materials to construct an item (a 3D object) in an isolated area within the room for privacy. After constructing the item, the student was to write a set of directions on how to construct the item that they had made. A second student was then given the same set of materials along with the first student’s instructions on how to construct it. This activity was repeated four times over a 4-week period. Results indicated that over time students made a significant improvement in their descriptive writing skills and observational skills. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the characteristics of middle school students’ skills and knowledge of descriptive writing and observation.

C57BL/6N mice are inbred strains widely used in biomedical research. Hence, a large amount of basic data has been accumulated. However, in the field of histopathology, spontaneous data for relatively younger mice that are used more frequently are not yet abundant, in contrast to data for older mice and their neoplastic lesions. To acquire the essential background data required by various research and toxicological assessments, 120 mice of the C57BL/6N strain (10 and 13 weeks of age) were collected from two institutions (From Korea and Japan) and subjected to histopathological analyses of the major organs (liver, spleen, kidney, thymus, heart, testis, epididymis). The results showed significantly higher incidence of sperm granulomas in the epididymides (10–56%) of these mice, compared with that in other strains or species of lab animals. Upon closer inspection, oligospermia/clear cell hyperplasia, cellular debris, and tubular vacuolation were also observed in the epididymides with sperm granulomas. Moreover, diseased organs were significantly heavier than healthy ones. Immunohistochemical staining showed a significant increase in the chromatic figures of cysteine-dependent aspartate-directed proteases-3 (caspase-3) and cleaved-poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (c-PARP), and damages to the tubule due to spontaneous apoptosis, which may have led to the sperms leaking out of the tubule, causing the granuloma. To conclude, spontaneous sperm granuloma can occur in 10- and 13-week-old C57BL/6N mice and may thus affect the results of various studies using these mice. Therefore, sperm granuloma in epididymis needs to be carefully considered as an important factor when design the study using C57BL/6N.

This study examined the differences of the nature of science (NOS) conceptions portrayed by preservice teachers in Korea (N=42) and the United States (N=50). We conducted a survey of preservice elementary science teachers’ NOS conceptions followed by interviews in both countries to further investigate their viewpoints. The NOS domains of this investigation were Relativism versus Positivism, Inductivism versus Deductivism, Contextualism versus Decontextualism, Process versus Content, and Instrumentalism versus Realism. Findings indicated that preservice elementary science teachers’ images of science were dominated by Relativism and Process in both countries. The conceptions of preservice teachers were different, however, in Inductivism versus Deductivism, Contextualism versus Decontextualism, and Instrumentalism versus Realism. Implications of these findings are discussed at the end of this article.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of EarthComm implementation in the U.S. high schools in terms of demographic background including school size, urban/rural area, and teachers` teaching experiences. In addition, this study examined impact of students` higher-order thinking skills by using the visions of National Science Education Standards. Two modular of the EarthComm curriculum were used for this purpose with thirty one teachers and around thousand students involved across four states. Findings were that EarthComm did not significantly impact student achievement differentially in schools of varying sizes and school location, i.e., urban and rural areas. The years of teaching experiences did not impact student achievement scores for Module I but did significantly impact for Module II. It is noted that the two results seemingly conflict with each other similar to other research findings (Ferguson, 1998; Yager et al., 1988). Student higher-order thinking skills, on the other hand, were significantly improved as a result of studying with EarthComm. Implications were discussed at the end of the paper.

This study investigated how the metacognitive practice of reflective journal writing affected the development of science teachers’ pedagogical reasoning in professional development program. Secondary-level Korean biology teachers were provided advanced biological science content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge of biological science, and academic and cultural experiences in the USA by way of an overseas Korean Science Teachers’ Professional Development program. The study utilized a qualitative methodology with purposeful sampling design. Two female volunteer teachers were selected for this case study, one with 15 years of high school teaching experience and the other with 10 years of middle school teaching experience. Three data sources were collected including a pedagogical reasoning practice worksheet, a post-survey, and a lesson plan. These data were analyzed using analytic techniques of pattern matching, explanation building, and time series analysis. Member checking and triangulation methods were used to secure the reliability and validity of research credibility to ensure that we captured the true meaning of the teachers’ experiences. The results of the study showed that the teachers with the journal writing practice during and after the program significantly improved their pedagogical reasoning skills. Through the metacognitive practice of reflective journal writing, teachers came up with a repertoire of teaching ideas socially and culturally relevant to their students. Implications and suggestions are made on how professional development programs that are held in overseas countries can help teachers develop their pedagogical reasoning to deliver “good teaching.”

This study investigates differences between a curriculum based on the National Science Education Standards and curricula following two traditional textbooks. Earth System Science in the Community (EarthComm) and the “most used” high school earth science textbooks in the United States and Korea were analysed in terms of general features, questioning style, and level of laboratory activities by two experts using Textbook Questioning Strategies Assessment Instrument and Herron's four levels of activities. The inter-rater reliability varied from 0.91 to 0.97 for questioning style depending on each individual book and 0.99 for laboratory activities. The results showed that the standards-based curriculum EarthComm included the largest number of pages and laboratory activities with the least number of chapters and concepts among the three textbooks compared. The standards-based curriculum included by far more questions and the largest percentage of experiential questions compared to both of the most-used traditi...

(2002). A Scooter Inquiry: An Integrated Science, Mathematics, and Technology Activity. Science Activities: Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 27-32.

This article introduces a satellite technology, High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT), for a science activity. HRPT is a digital data stream transmitted from environmental satellites. The HRPT imagery is capable of providing real-time studies of regional geology, glacial processes, atmospheric processes, ocean circulation, coastal processes, hydrology, and so on. Obtaining and manipulating HRPT data creates a variety of exciting experiences in science classrooms. A Science and Technology for Individuals, Societies, and the Environment (STISE) teaching model was developed to use satellite technologies for science activities. STISE is a conceptual model for addressing key cognitive and affective parameters when designing science lessons. STISE is designed to encourage students to understand science and technology from their levels of cognition, then relate their understanding to the environment, levels of societies, and their lives. Relationships among science, technology, and society become both obvious and interesting to students as they process and interpret the HRPT imagery.

Since the 1980s, over a thousand Korean science teachers and supervisors visited western countries to participate in overseas in-service training programs. This study reports the evaluation of the effect of the University of Iowa's program on the development of teachers' constructivist philosophies by participating teachers. A total of 70 high school teachers who participated during the fall of 1995 and the summer of 1996 were surveyed. The Constructivist Learning Environment Survey was translated into Korean and administered to the participants three times: at the beginning and the end of the workshops and again three months after. Analysis indicated that the effect of the workshop was significant and that the learning was retained. Ways of encouraging teachers to continue improvement in the use of constructivist practices are discussed in light of the realities of Korean science education.

This study examines how the curriculum is in alignment with the reform standards using the questioning style and level of inquiry activities, which are key components of the National Science Education Standards [NSES], in terms of the inquiry milieu (National Research Council [NRC], 1996). Two countries’ textbooks were chosen for analysis in this study: Physica (meaning physics in Greek) of Finland and Active Physics of the United States’ high school physics, which are products of reform efforts in science education. In 2003, Finland undertook a major change in the curriculum at the national level, which produced the “National Core Curriculum” (FNBE, 2003), whereas the United States went through a major reform in science education in the past decade, which produced the “National Science Education Standards” (NRC, 1996). Physica of Finland was developed as a high school physics textbook based on the National Core Curriculum for Science Education, and Active Physics of the US high school curriculum was developed based on the National Science Education Standards. The United States developed a new curriculum based on the national standards as an alternative to the traditional curriculum. Finnish Physica was developed based on a “traditional” national level curriculum, which includes aims for upper secondary physics and short descriptions of core content (FNBE, 2003). However, a study of how those particular curriculums have met the visions espoused by the National Science Education Standards is yet to be studied.

Nonhuman primates are increasingly used in biomedical research since they are highly homologous to humans compared to other rodent animals. However, there is limited reliable reference data of the clinical pathology parameters in cynomolgus monkeys, and in particular, only some coagulation and urinalysis parameters have been reported. Here, we reported the reference data of clinical chemical, hematological, blood coagulation, and urinalysis parameters in cynomolgus monkeys. The role of sex differences was analyzed and several parameters (including hematocrit, hemoglobin, red blood cell, blood urea nitrogen, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine kinase, gamma-glutamyl tranferase, and lactate dehydrogenase) significantly differed between male and female subjects. In addition, compared to previous study results, lactate dehydrogenase, creatinine kinase, and aspartate aminotransferase showed significant variation. Interstudy differences could be affected by several factors, including age, sex, geographic origin, presence/absence of anesthetics, fasting state, and the analytical methods used. Therefore, it is important to deliberate with the overall reference indices. In conclusion, the current study provides a comprehensive and updated reference data of the clinical pathology parameters in cynomolgus monkeys and provides improved assessment criteria for evaluating preclinical studies or biomedical research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate in what ways the inquiry task of teaching and learning in earth science textbooks reflect the unique characteristics of earth science inquiry methodology, and how it provides students with opportunities to develop their scientific reasoning skills. This study analyzes a number of inquiry activities in both Korean and American earth science curriculums by using an analysis framework of earth science inquiry methodology. Results suggest that Earth science activities in Korean textbooks appropriately reflect comprehensive earth science methodologies and provide students with more opportunities to develop their earth scientific literacy, while the American curriculum used in the U.S. included only a small number of inquiry-based activities.