This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.

The court declined to take up an appeal backed by school groups of a ruling allowing some property taxpayers challenge their assessments in federal court.

Purdue women's basketball suffered its first defeat of the season on Sunday night as No. 6 Notre Dame came into Mackey Arena and handed the Boilermakers a 102-58 loss. The Boilermakers have now lost nine straight games to the Fighting Irish, since taking a 14-5 lead in the series back in 2005. The in-state rivalry was halted, playing just once between 2012 and 2023, but the Fighting Irish resumed their success over the Boilermakers in each of the last two seasons.

If an opponent isn't contending for an ACC or national championship, Notre Dame is likely to run it out of the gym. That's exactly what happened during the Irish's first road game of the season against Purdue. Much like with the football team less than two months earlier,…

Hannah Hidalgo scored 11 of her 28 points in the first 7-plus minutes and No. 6 Notre Dame led by double figures for more than 35 minutes Sunday night as the Fighting Irish beat Purdue 102-58 for their 10th consecutive win over the Boilermakers. Notre Dame (2-0) has a 15-14 lead in its all-time series with Purdue. Olivia Miles added 17 points and Sonia Citron scored 14.

Dazzling first with a relentless hawking defense that helped force 22 turnovers, then adding an almost frantic-paced offensive assault, the 2-0 No. 6-ranked Irish overwhelmed Purdue (1-1), 102-58, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. Dynamo guard Hannah Hidalgo was slapping, diving and picking pockets all night, making life miserable for any Boilermaker stuck bringing the ball up the floor. ► Snap Counts: Here's who played for Notre Dame football against Florida St.

Nov. 10—STORRS — Paige Bueckers headed to the bench for her first break of the game just 35 seconds before halftime Sunday at sold-out Gampel Pavilion. Judging by the way the UConn star almost effortlessly dominated play, Bueckers still looked fairly fresh. She already had piled up 19 points. Then again, South Florida certainly must have been tired of watching Bueckers score in a variety of ...

While the Lady Vols volunteered at the Girls Inc. basketball clinic, they reminded Nicky Anosike of her own Tennessee teammates

South Carolina a unanimous No. in women's AP Top 25 after 2 wins to open repeat bid; Stanford, Oregon crack rankings.

The Gamecocks earned a hard-fought six-point win over Michigan in Las Vegas to open the season and beat then-No. 9 North Carolina State on Sunday by 14. The two victories made the defending champions a unanimous choice from the 31-member national media panel. In the preseason poll, No. 2 UConn got two first-place votes and No. 3 USC one.

UConn women’s basketball freshman Sarah Strong earned the first Big East Freshman of the Week honors of her career on Monday after a pair of impressive performances in the Huskies’ Week 1 wins. Strong was the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2024 and lived up to her elite billing with a game-high 17 points in her college debut against Boston University on Thursday. She also led the team with six ...

Nov. 11—CHAMPAIGN — The Illinois women's basketball team's season-opening win against Florida State, plus Sunday's grind-it-out victory against Marquette, pushed the Illini into the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday. Illinois makes its season debut in the poll at No. 23 and knocked the Seminoles out of the top 25 with the 83-74 victory. Adding a 65-53 win against the Golden Eagles assured the ...

The No. 4 Texas Longhorns kicked off their season with a 119-47 win over Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) on Sunday at Moody Center. This victory marked Texas' 13th consecutive home opener win, establishing a strong start to the 2024-2

Some big games on the horizon as Notre Dame women's basketball is at No. 5 in latest Coaches Poll

Nov. 11—Class 3A preseason No. 1 Greensburg opened the season Friday with an 81-23 victory over Jac-Cen-Del. The Lady Pirates opened the scoring with a steal and layup by Mylie Wilkison. After buckets by Clarie Larrison, Mary Harmon, Wilkison and Leah West, the Lady Pirates led 10-0. JCD got on the board with a 3-pointer by Brooklyn Simon. It was all Greensburg from there in the first quarter. ...

Tennessee soccer earned an NCAA Tournament berth for the fourth straight season and will face No. 7 seed Virginia Tech in the first round Friday

Elisa Mevius and Nani Falatea each scored 11 points and No. 25 Oregon routed North Texas 66-35 on Tuesday for its fourth straight victory. Mevius scored the final four points of the first quarter to give Oregon a 14-4 lead as North Texas was just 2 of 11 from the field. Falatea made the first field goal of the second quarter for a 17-6 lead and the Ducks led by double figures the rest of the way.

Janiah Barker had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Lauren Betts had 17 points and 12 rebounds and the No. 5 UCLA women rolled past Pepperdine 91-54 on Tuesday. The Bruins (3-0) started the game with an 18-0 run. Ornela Muca, who led Pepperdine (1-2) with 20 points, made a 3-pointer to stop the run.

Notre Dame sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo is on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Wade Watch List. She's among 15 players being watched as a potential winner of the oldest, most prestigious player of the year award. She was a Region I finalist for…

Chance Gray scored 14 of her career-high 31 points in the third quarter and she tied a program-best with nine 3-pointers to help No. 12 Ohio State beat Charlotte 94-53 on Tuesday night. Gray finished 9 of 14 from 3-point range to top her previous best of six makes. Gray scored 11 points in the first half after making all three of her 3-pointers to help Ohio State build a 43-17 lead.

Nov. 12—The Gonzaga women's basketball team has much to learn after a challenging loss at Stanford on Sunday. Losses have a way of exposing a team's shortcomings. And there is much to learn from the worst loss (89-58) in coach Lisa Fortier's 11 seasons. Stanford, unranked in the preseason poll for the first time since 1999-2000, is unranked no more. The Cardinal (3-0) entered at No. 24 in the ...

Alexis Markowski scored 22 points, Natalie Potts had a double-double and No. 21 Nebraska cruised to an 84-58 win over Southern on Tuesday night. Potts had 17 points and 12 rebounds, eight on the offensive end, for the Cornhuskers (3-0). Alberte Rimdal added 12 points.

JuJu Watkins had 21 points, nine assists and six steals to help No. 3 Southern California trounce Cal State Northridge 124-39 on Tuesday night. The Trojans (3-0) had six players in double figures, including Kiki Iriafen with 15 points and Kayleigh Heckel with 14 points off the bench. All 13 Trojans who played scored.

Lauren M. Hablitz
Sep 15, 2021; 41:7698-7711
Review

Sharon G. Kujawa
Nov 11, 2009; 29:14077-14085
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Elena Neumann
Oct 9, 2024; 44:e0591242024-e0591242024
Systems/Circuits

Lindsay P. Cameron
Nov 8, 2023; 43:7472-7482
Symposium and Mini-Symposium

Tessa E.S. Charlesworth
Sep 11, 2019; 39:7228-7243
Viewpoints

Evdokia Menelaou
Aug 8, 2012; 32:10925-10939
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Danilo De Gregorio
Feb 3, 2021; 41:891-900
Symposium and Mini-Symposium

Kyle E. Mathewson
Mar 4, 2009; 29:2725-2732
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Jennifer L. Zamanian
May 2, 2012; 32:6391-6410
Neurobiology of Disease

Bradley Voytek
Sep 23, 2015; 35:13257-13265
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

GABAergic neurons and GABA_A receptors (GABA_ARs) are critical elements of almost all neuronal circuits. Most GABA_ARs of the CNS are heteropentameric ion channels composed of two α, two β, and one subunits. These receptors serve as important drug targets for benzodiazepine (BDZ) site agonists, which potentiate the action of GABA at GABA_ARs. Most GABA_AR classifications rely on the heterogeneity of the α subunit (α1–α6) included in the receptor complex. Heterogeneity of the subunits (1–3), which mediate synaptic clustering of GABA_ARs and contribute, together with α subunits, to the benzodiazepine (BDZ) binding site, has gained less attention, mainly because 2 subunits greatly outnumber the other subunits in most brain regions. Here, we have investigated a potential role of non-2 GABA_ARs in neural circuits of the spinal dorsal horn, a key site of nociceptive processing. Female and male mice were studied. We demonstrate that besides 2 subunits, 1 subunits are significantly expressed in the spinal dorsal horn, especially in its superficial layers. Unlike global 2 subunit deletion, which is lethal, spinal cord-specific loss of 2 subunits was well tolerated. GABA_AR clustering in the superficial dorsal horn remained largely unaffected and antihyperalgesic actions of HZ-166, a nonsedative BDZ site agonist, were partially retained. Our results thus suggest that the superficial dorsal horn harbors functionally relevant amounts of 1 subunits that support the synaptic clustering of GABA_ARs in this site. They further suggest that 1 containing GABA_ARs contribute to the spinal control of nociceptive information flow.

Vertebrate nervous systems use the axon initial segment (AIS) to initiate action potentials and maintain neuronal polarity. The microtubule-associated protein tripartite motif containing 46 (TRIM46) was reported to regulate axon specification, AIS assembly, and neuronal polarity through the bundling, or fasciculation, of microtubules in the proximal axon. However, these claims are based on TRIM46 knockdown in cultured neurons. To investigate TRIM46 function in vivo, we examined male and female TRIM46 knock-out mice. Contrary to previous reports, we find that TRIM46 is dispensable for axon specification and AIS formation. TRIM46 knock-out mice are viable, have normal behavior, and have normal brain structure. Thus, TRIM46 is not required for AIS formation, axon specification, or nervous system function. However, we confirm that TRIM46 is required for microtubule fasciculation. We also show TRIM46 enrichment in the first ~100 μm of axon occurs independently of ankyrinG (AnkG) in vivo, although AnkG is required to restrict TRIM46 only to the AIS. Our results highlight the need for further investigation of the mechanisms by which the AIS and microtubules interact to shape neuronal structure and function.

Reelin, a secreted glycoprotein, plays a crucial role in guiding neocortical neuronal migration, dendritic outgrowth and arborization, and synaptic plasticity in the adult brain. Reelin primarily operates through the canonical lipoprotein receptors apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (Apoer2) and very low-density lipoprotein receptor (Vldlr). Reelin also engages with noncanonical receptors and unidentified coreceptors; however, the effects of which are less understood. Using high-throughput tandem mass tag (TMT) liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomics and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), we identified both shared and unique intracellular pathways activated by Reelin through its canonical and noncanonical signaling in primary murine neurons of either sex during dendritic growth and arborization. We observed pathway cross talk related to regulation of cytoskeleton, neuron projection development, protein transport, and actin filament-based process. We also found enriched gene sets exclusively by the noncanonical Reelin pathway including protein translation, mRNA metabolic process, and ribonucleoprotein complex biogenesis suggesting Reelin fine-tunes neuronal structure through distinct signaling pathways. A key discovery is the identification of aldolase A, a glycolytic enzyme and actin-binding protein, as a novel effector of Reelin signaling. Reelin induced de novo translation and mobilization of aldolase A from the actin cytoskeleton. We demonstrated that aldolase A is necessary for Reelin-mediated dendrite growth and arborization in primary murine neurons and mouse brain cortical neurons. Interestingly, the function of aldolase A in dendrite development is independent of its known role in glycolysis. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the Reelin-dependent signaling pathways and effector proteins that are crucial for dendritic development.

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have associated intronic variants in PDE4B, encoding cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B), with increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as schizophrenia and substance use disorders that are often comorbid with it. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms of genetic risk involving PDE4B are poorly understood. To examine the effects of PDE4B variation on phenotypes with translational relevance to psychiatric disorders, we focused on PDE4B missense variant M220T, which is present in the human genome as rare coding variant rs775201287. When expressed in HEK-293 cells, PDE4B1-M220T exhibited an attenuated response to a forskolin-elicited increase in the intracellular cAMP concentration. In behavioral tests, homozygous Pde4b^M220T male mice with a C57BL/6JJcl background exhibited increased reactivity to novel environments, startle hyperreactivity, prepulse inhibition deficits, altered cued fear conditioning, and enhanced spatial memory, accompanied by an increase in cAMP signaling pathway-regulated expression of BDNF in the hippocampus. In response to a traumatic event (10 tone–shock pairings), neuronal activity was decreased in the cortex but enhanced in the amygdala and hippocampus of Pde4b^M220T mice. At 24 h post-trauma, Pde4b^M220T mice exhibited increased startle hyperreactivity and decreased plasma corticosterone levels, similar to phenotypes exhibited by PTSD patients. Trauma-exposed Pde4b^M220T mice also exhibited a slower decay in freezing at 15 and 30 d post-trauma, demonstrating enhanced persistence of traumatic memories, similar to that exhibited by PTSD patients. These findings provide substantive mouse model evidence linking PDE4B variation to PTSD-relevant phenotypes and thus highlight how genetic variation of PDE4B may contribute to PTSD risk.

Dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) have been repeatedly implicated in neuropsychiatric vulnerability, in part via their roles in mediating the decision-making processes. Although two neuromodulators share a synthesis pathway and are coactivated under states of arousal, they engage in distinct circuits and modulatory roles. However, the specific role of each neuromodulator in decision-making, in particular the exploration–exploitation tradeoff, remains unclear. Revealing how each neuromodulator contributes to exploration–exploitation tradeoff is important in guiding mechanistic hypotheses emerging from computational psychiatric approaches. To understand the differences and overlaps of the roles of these two catecholamine systems in regulating exploration, a direct comparison using the same dynamic decision-making task is needed. Here, we ran male and female mice in a restless two-armed bandit task, which encourages both exploration and exploitation. We systemically administered a nonselective DA antagonist (flupenthixol), a nonselective DA agonist (apomorphine), a NE beta-receptor antagonist (propranolol), and a NE beta-receptor agonist (isoproterenol) and examined changes in exploration within subjects across sessions. We found a bidirectional modulatory effect of dopamine on exploration. Increasing dopamine activity decreased exploration and decreasing dopamine activity increased exploration. The modulatory effect of beta-noradrenergic receptor activity on exploration was mediated by sex. Reinforcement learning model parameters suggested that dopamine modulation affected exploration via decision noise and norepinephrine modulation affected exploration via sensitivity to outcome. Together, these findings suggested that the mechanisms that govern the exploration–exploitation transition are sensitive to changes in both catecholamine functions and revealed differential roles for NE and DA in mediating exploration.

Estimating the direction of functional connectivity (FC) can help further elucidate complex brain function. However, the estimation of directed FC at the voxel level in fMRI data, and evaluating its performance, has yet to be done. We therefore developed a novel directed seed-based connectivity analysis (SCA) method based on normalized pairwise Granger causality that provides greater detail and accuracy over ROI-based methods. We evaluated its performance against 145 cortical retrograde tracer injections in male and female marmosets that were used as ground truth cellular connectivity on a voxel-by-voxel basis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated for each injection, and we achieved area under the ROC curve of 0.95 for undirected and 0.942 for directed SCA in the case of high cell count threshold. This indicates that SCA can reliably estimate the strong cellular connections between voxels in fMRI data. We then used our directed SCA method to analyze the human default mode network (DMN) and found that dlPFC (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and temporal lobe were separated from other DMN regions, forming part of the language-network that works together with the core DMN regions. We also found that the cerebellum (Crus I-II) was strongly targeted by the posterior parietal cortices and dlPFC, but reciprocal connections were not observed. Thus, the cerebellum may not be a part of, but instead a target of, the DMN and language-network. Summarily, our novel directed SCA method, visualized with a new functional flat mapping technique, opens a new paradigm for whole-brain functional analysis.

Seven guest collaborators bring new eyes to a Smithsonian museum founder’s collection of American art

A new study from Smithsonian scientists analyzes ant and fungus species, and uncovers the origins of their close partnership

The work of Diné artist DY Begay, now on view at the National Museum of the American Indian, blends tradition and modernity