重上“江湖”

几个月前朋友向我介绍了“无极江湖”,这是个不错的聊天室(网址是http://hoho.cc)。可是自从它改版之后,我却无法进入聊天室了。我十分纳闷,难道是因为改版?可别人都可以进去。我杀了一遍毒,什么病毒也没查出。重装一遍Win98,但是重启后故障照旧。也许是Win98的问题?我又安装了WinXP,可结果还是一样。我苦思冥想也没想出个所以然来。后来又猜测会不会是浏览器软件有问题?我重装了IE6和IE6 SP1补丁也无济于事。还有什么与网页有关系呢?对了,也许是《金山毒霸2003》!它有一个网页防火墙,如果禁用它……果不出我所料,退出《金山毒霸2003》…     

Considerations in Assessment of Children with Severe Disabilities including Deaf‐Blindness and Autism

This paper will discuss the difficulties in assessment of autistic and deaf‐blind children with such severe difficulties in communication that they are often labelled as untestable and subsequently misdiagnosed as severely to profoundly mentally retarded. It will go on to make the case for nonintrusive assessment and appropriate intervention as the most relevant procedures for helping this population advance educationally and in life skills. While this paper will focus on children, the points made apply to individuals of all ages.     

Portfolio Assessment as National Policy: the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and its quest for a pedagogical revolution

The National Council for Vocational Qualifications established assessment procedures for qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in which portfolios play a central role. The relevant qualifications (National Vocational Qualifications and General National Vocational Qualifications) have been taken by large numbers of young people in upper secondary schooling, and young people and adults in work or in government training schemes; and are intended to have labour market currency and to provide routes into further and higher education. The use of portfolios derives from a commitment to direct and comprehensive assessment of the whole ‘syllabus’, but also from a belief in certain pedagogical approaches and in enhancing students' independence and initiative. There is evidence that the approach has affected learning styles, but major problems have arisen relating to the manageability of the approach and the reliability of assessor judgements.     

Parent and Student Voices on the First Year of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program

In January 2004 President Bush authorized the DC School Choice Incentive Act, an initiative funded at $14 million that created a scholarship program providing 1,700 low-income Washington, DC, children the opportunity to attend participating K–12 nonpublic schools in the district. In addition to offering opportunities to participating children, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program opens a door for examining the implications when more families are given the opportunity to select private schools for their children. This article reviews the results of a qualitative assessment aimed at understanding how families experienced their first year in the program. Referencing direct quotes from families that took part in focus groups, we address the following areas of participants' experience: reaction to the choice opportunity, motivation for participation, what was valued in schools, how information was received, selection of final school, reaction to new school environment, parent responses to new challenges, student–school responses to new challenges, financial policies, and overall satisfaction. Each section contains family responses juxtaposed with popular literature on school choice. This report is the first in a series that will monitor the experiences of families during the first 5 years of this program.     

Simultaneous changes in seed size,oil content and protein content driven by selection of SWEET homologues during soybean domestication

Soybean accounts for more than half of the global production of oilseed and more than a quarter of the protein used globally for human food and animal feed. Soybean domestication involved parallel increases in seed size and oil content, and a concomitant decrease in protein content. However, science has not yet discovered whether these effects were due to selective pressure on a single gene or multiple genes. Here, re-sequencing data from >800 genotypes revealed a strong selection during soybean domestication on GmSWEET10a. The selection of GmSWEET10a conferred simultaneous increases in soybean-seed size and oil content as well as a reduction in the protein content. The result was validated using both near-isogenic lines carrying substitution of haplotype chromosomal segments and transgenic soybeans. Moreover, GmSWEET10b was found to be functionally redundant with its homologue GmSWEET10a and to be undergoing selection in current breeding, leading the the elite allele GmSWEET10b, a potential target for present-day soybean breeding. Both GmSWEET10a and GmSWEET10b were shown to transport sucrose and hexose, contributing to sugar allocation from seed coat to embryo, which consequently determines oil and protein contents and seed size in soybean. We conclude that past selection of optimal GmSWEET10a alleles drove the initial domestication of multiple soybean-seed traits and that targeted selection of the elite allele GmSWEET10b may further improve the yield and seed quality of modern soybean cultivars.