The genetic code: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

This issue is a tribute to Har Gobind Khorana who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for the elucidation of the Genetic Code. Here we present our view of the changing and ever-challenging perception of the genetic code over the last 50 years.     

EDITOR'S COMMENTS

At the outset, it seems appropriate to ask: Why does the topic of Israel-diaspora education relationships surface annually? One would think that after 34 years of statehood, the patterns of relationships would be established firmly, and that all one would have to do from time to time is to modify and strengthen those patterns according to the changing needs of the diaspora and Israeli scenes.     

AFTER RABIN'S DEATH: LESSONS FOR ISRAELIS AND AMERICAN JEWS

Introduction

In the arena of the human condition, the Jew walks precariously, now as before, on an existential tightrope, seeking to balance the integrity of his wholeness. The footsteps of his past, indelibly impressed upon the inventory of his memory shadows his movement in time, haunting him with a lingering urge to survive. No matter where he has trodden or been allowed to rest, his acceptance in the human family has been but punctuated moments in historical time. He has been a veritable stranger, whom Simmel has described as “the person who comes today and stays tomorrow.” For his todays and tomorrows, like his yesterdays, offer only the occasional respite from the twisting agonies only the stranger knows. Alone in his separateness, the Jew looks out into the space of human distance between others and himself, knowing there is a social infinity. Whatever he does to narrow the gap, there is the distance, and he is the stranger in the inseparable dimension of time and space.     

Modeling Unproductive Behavior in Online Homework in Terms of Latent Student Traits: An Approach Based on Item Response Theory

Homework is an important component of most physics courses. One of the functions it serves is to provide meaningful formative assessment in preparation for examinations. However, correlations between homework and examination scores tend to be low, likely due to unproductive student behavior such as copying and random guessing of answers. In this study, we attempt to model these two counterproductive learner behaviors within the framework of Item Response Theory in order to provide an ability measurement that strongly correlates with examination scores. We find that introducing additional item parameters leads to worse predictions of examination grades, while introducing additional learner traits is a more promising approach.