An Unfinished Canvas: Allocating Funding and Instructional Time for Elementary Arts Education

An Unfinished Canvas found that California's elementary schools face unique challenges inproviding all students with sequential, standards-based arts education. In particular, elementary principals identified inadequate funding and insufficient instructional time as significant barriers to the provision of arts education. For this study, we sought to further understand the impact of funding and time on elementary arts education. To do so, we examined the allocation of funding and instructional time in 10 schools across five states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and California)

Obstacles to International Accounting Standards Convergence

Given the recent changes in the international sector, along with the similarities in the conceptual frameworks of the FASB and IASC, the relatively swift convergence of US GAAP and International Accounting Standards is a distinct possibility. This article contends convergence is possible, and reviews 3 key areas that could hinder or foster it: 1. the general organization, in terms of form and topical content, of the frameworks, 2. a significant pervasive difference between the frameworks, and 3. specific differences within the major topical areas of the frameworks

The High Road

Discusses the obstacles to international accounting standards convergence. Effort of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) to promote to convergence theme; Comparison between the convergence frameworks of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board; Sections of the \u27Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements\u27 document issued by the IASC

Using photovoice as a tool for community engagement to assess the environment and explore environmental health disparities

Photovoice was used as a participatory research method to document perceived local environmental hazards, pollution sources, and potential impact on health among community members to address environmental health disparities. A convenience sample of 16 adults in Orangeburg, South Carolina participated in Photovoice. Photos depicted positive and negative implications of the environment across seven themes: recreation and leisure; food access; hazards and pollution; health, human, and social services; economic issues; beautification; and accommodation and accessibility. Positive and negative photos demonstrated a high level of interest among community members in considering how the environment influences health and health disparities

Characteristics of service users and provider organisations associated with experience of out of hours general practitioner care in England: population based cross sectional postal questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the experience of users of out of hours general practitioner services in England, UK. DESIGN: Population based cross sectional postal questionnaire survey. SETTING: General Practice Patient Survey 2012-13. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Potential associations between sociodemographic factors (including ethnicity and ability to take time away from work during working hours to attend a healthcare consultation) and provider organisation type (not for profit, NHS, or commercial) and service users' experience of out of hours care (timeliness, confidence and trust in the out of hours clinician, and overall experience of the service), rated on a scale of 0-100. Which sociodemographic/provider characteristics were associated with service users' experience, the extent to which any observed differences could be because of clustering of service users of a particular sociodemographic group within poorer scoring providers, and the extent to which observed differences in experience varied across types of provider. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 35%; 971,232/2,750,000 patients returned surveys. Data from 902,170 individual service users were mapped through their registered practice to one of 86 providers of out of hours GP care with known organisation type. Commercial providers of out of hours GP care were associated with poorer reports of overall experience of care, with a mean difference of -3.13 (95% confidence interval -4.96 to -1.30) compared with not for profit providers. Asian service users reported lower scores for all three experience outcomes than white service users (mean difference for overall experience of care -3.62, -4.36 to -2.89), as did service users who were unable to take time away from work compared with service users who did not work (mean difference for overall experience of care -4.73, -5.29 to -4.17). CONCLUSIONS: Commercial providers of out of hours GP care were associated with poorer experience of care. Targeted interventions aimed at improving experience for patients from ethnic minorities and patients who are unable to take time away from work might be warranted

Character Displacement in the Midst of Substantial Background Evolution in Anolis Lizard Island Populations

Negative interactions between species can generate divergent selection that causes character displacement. However, other processes cause similar divergence. We use spatial and temporal replication across island populations of Anolis lizards to assess the importance of negative interactions in driving trait shifts. Previous work showed that the establishment of Anolis sagrei on islands drove resident Anolis carolinensis to perch higher and evolve larger toepads. To further test the interaction\u27s causality and predictability, we resurveyed a subset of islands nine years later. Anolis sagrei had established on one island between surveys. We found that A. carolinensis on this island now perch higher and have larger toepads. However, toepad morphology change on this island was not distinct from shifts on six other islands whose Anolis community composition had not changed. Thus, the presence of A. sagrei only partly explains A. carolinensis trait variation across space and time. We also found that A. carolinensis on islands with previously established A. sagrei now perch higher than a decade ago, and that current A. carolinensis perch height is correlated with A. sagrei density. Our results suggest that character displacement likely interacts with other evolutionary processes in this system, and that temporal data are key to detecting such interactions

Intragenic copy number variation within filaggrin contributes to the risk of atopic dermatitis with a dose-dependent effect

Loss-of-function variants within the filaggrin gene (FLG) increase the risk of atopic dermatitis. FLG also demonstrates intragenic copy number variation (CNV), with alleles encoding 10, 11, or 12 filaggrin monomers; hence, CNV may affect the amount of filaggrin expressed in the epidermis. A total of 876 Irish pediatric atopic dermatitis cases were compared with 928 population controls to test the hypothesis that CNV within FLG affects the risk of atopic dermatitis independently of FLG-null mutations. Cases and controls were screened for CNV and common FLG-null mutations. In this population the 11-repeat allele was most prevalent (allele frequency 51.5%); the 10-repeat allele frequency was 33.9% and the 12-repeat allele frequency was 14.6%. Having excluded FLG mutation carriers, the control group had a significantly higher number of repeats than cases (χ2P=0.043), and the odds ratio of disease was reduced by a factor of 0.88 (95% confidence interval 0.78–0.98, P=0.025) for each additional unit of copy number. Breakdown products of filaggrin were quantified in tape-stripped stratum corneum from 31 atopic dermatitis patients and urocanic acid showed a positive correlation with total copy number. CNV within FLG makes a significant, dose-dependent contribution to atopic dermatitis risk, and therefore treatments to increase filaggrin expression may have therapeutic utility