Collaboration and school reform: a twenty-first-century perspective.

Collaboration and school reform are current social-political issues that affect many individuals and school districts. In this series summary, the authors examine national goals, federal legislation, and local reform practices. A twenty-first-century perspective predicting the integration of collaboration and school reform may help to guide future teaching, research, and/or service efforts. How families and professionals work together today will affect how we educate students during the next century.

Novel members of the eph receptor tyrosine kinase subfamily expressed during Xenopus development.

Three cDNAs encoding receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) of the eph-subfamily have been identified based on their homology to Pagliaccio (Winning and Sargent, 1994, Mech. Dev. 46:219-229). These have been named TCK, Xelk (Xenopus homologue of elk), and PL7a (pag-like clone 7a). Each of these genes is expressed in a distinctive, tissue specific manner during early development. TCK is expressed in pre-somitic mesoderm, caudal somites, midbrain and cement gland. Xelk is expressed in the brain and spinal cord and in the first and fourth visceral arches. PL7a cDNA is expressed throughout the head and in the tip of the tail. All of the genes are represented in maternal mRNA, and are expressed in adult tissues. The Xelk cDNA encodes a protein which is 94% identical to rat elk and therefore is likely to represent the Xenopus homologue of this gene. TCK and PL7a are less related to previously identified eph-subfamily RTKs. The inability to unambiguously assign TCK and PL7a as Xenopus homologues of any previously identified eph RTK leads us to conclude that these cDNAs represent novel members of this family.

Developmental regulation of transcription factor AP-2 during Xenopus laevis embryogenesis.

We have isolated a cDNA clone encoding the Xenopus homologue of the transcription factor AP-2 (XAP-2). The predicted amino acid sequence derived from the Xenopus cDNA shows very strong conservation with the amino acid sequence of human AP-2, suggesting that this protein is evolutionarily conserved, at least among vertebrates. This is further substantiated by the demonstration that an in vitro translation product of XAP-2 cDNA bound specifically to an AP-2 binding site from the human MT-IIA gene. Northern blot analysis of Xenopus embryo RNA revealed the existence of three major XAP-2 mRNA species that were only detectable after the midblastula transition (when embryonic transcription is activated), with peak accumulation of the transcripts occurring during gastrulation. Therefore, in contrast to other Xenopus transcription factors, XAP-2 is not maternally derived but arises exclusively from zygotic transcription. Unlike the situation in cultured human teratocarcinoma (NT2) cells, retinoic acid treatment did not induce XAP-2 mRNA in Xenopus embryos, even though the treatment had a pronounced morphogenetic effect on the embryos. Our results suggest that XAP-2 may play a distinctive role during Xenopus embryogenesis.

A profile of NFP acceptors in Egypt.

PIP: A follow-up studies of Egyptian women who attended a class on natural family planning indicates that the women who completed the course and were motivated to avoid or delay pregnancy were successful at it. Begun in 1982, the Natural Family Planning (Billings)/Egypt (NFPB/Egypt) program offers training in the Ovulation (Billings) Method, which can be used to both achieve and avoid pregnancy. To complete the course, women needed to have charted 6 menstrual cycles. In 1985, the program decided to conduct a follow-study, and it contacted 203 of the approximately 500 women who had attended at least some of the classes. Of the 203 women, 41% (84) had taken the classes to achieve pregnancy, 18% (36) to space or delay pregnancy, and 41% (83) to avoid pregnancy. 76% of this group had actually completed the course. While 15 of the women who had dropped out of the course did so because they had become pregnant, all of the unwanted pregnancies in this group were among women who were breastfeeding or in the post-pill period. Among the women who had finished the course and whose aim was to delay or avoid pregnancy, 8 had become pregnancies, but 4 of the women said that they had in fact wanted the pregnancy. The other 4 were unwanted pregnancies. NFPB/Egypt also conducted interviews with 25 of the women. 19 of them continued to use the Billings Method, 13 of whom were using it to avoid pregnancy. Of the 6 women no longer practicing the Billings Method, 3 had had an IUD inserted, and the other 3 were trying to achieve pregnancy.^ieng