School Safety in North Carolina: Realities, Recommendations & Resources

The primary mission of North Carolina schools is to provide students an excellent education. To fully achieve this mission, schools must not only be safe, but also developmentally appropriate, fair, and just.Unfortunately, many so-called "school safety" proposals in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut have been shortsighted measures inspired by political expediency but unsupported by data. We aim to provide a more thoughtful approach informed by decades of research and centered on the mission of public schools.This issue brief responds to the newly established N.C. Center for Safer Schools, which has requested public input on "local concerns and challenges related to school safety" and has made available the opportunity to submit written comments.The first section of the brief debunks common myths and provides essential facts that must provide the backdrop for the school safety debate. The second section offers proven methods of striving for safe, developmentally appropriate, fair, and just public schools. It also provides examples of reforms from other cities and states. The third section makes note of resources that we encourage Center staff to study carefully.This brief rests on several key premises. First, "school safety" includes both physical security of students as well as their emotional and psychological well-being. Many of the proposals following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have had an overly narrow focus on physical security at the expense of this broader picture of holistic student well-being. Second, public education in this state needs more funding in order for schools to even have a chance of achieving their core mission. North Carolina consistently ranks among the worst states in the country for funding of public education.Schools need more resources to implement measures that can truly ensure student safety. Third, student well-being depends on a coordinated effort by all the systems that serve youth. For example, school safety will be helped by laws that keep guns off school property and by full funding of the child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems. Finally, this issue brief is not intended to be a comprehensive set of suggestions. Instead, our focus is on providing the Center important context that we view as missing from the current debate

Special topic: The association between pulse ingredients and canine dilated cardiomyopathy: addressing the knowledge gaps before establishing causation.

In July 2018, the Food and Drug Administration warned about a possible relationship between dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs and the consumption of dog food formulated with potatoes and pulse ingredients. This issue may impede utilization of pulse ingredients in dog food or consideration of alternative proteins. Pulse ingredients have been used in the pet food industry for over 2 decades and represent a valuable source of protein to compliment animal-based ingredients. Moreover, individual ingredients used in commercial foods do not represent the final nutrient concentration of the complete diet. Thus, nutritionists formulating dog food must balance complementary ingredients to fulfill the animal's nutrient needs in the final diet. There are multiple factors that should be considered, including differences in nutrient digestibility and overall bioavailability, the fermentability and quantity of fiber, and interactions among food constituents that can increase the risk of DCM development. Taurine is a dispensable amino acid that has been linked to DCM in dogs. As such, adequate supply of taurine and/or precursors for taurine synthesis plays an important role in preventing DCM. However, requirements of amino acids in dogs are not well investigated and are presented in total dietary content basis which does not account for bioavailability or digestibility. Similarly, any nutrient (e.g., soluble and fermentable fiber) or physiological condition (e.g., size of the dog, sex, and age) that increases the requirement for taurine will also augment the possibility for DCM development. Dog food formulators should have a deep knowledge of processing methodologies and nutrient interactions beyond meeting the Association of American Feed Control Officials nutrient profiles and should not carelessly follow unsubstantiated market trends. Vegetable ingredients, including pulses, are nutritious and can be used in combination with complementary ingredients to meet the nutritional needs of the dog

El dossier copia/sur: problemas económicos, políticos, e ideológicos del copyright (derecho de autor) en el sur global

In 2005, a group of scholars and activists, mostly from the global South, created the Copy/South Research Group to analyse, criticise, and confront the oppressive nature of current global copyright regimes, such as those defended by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and similar ones around the globe. In May 2006, 22 of us, including 15 people from the global South, published THE COPY/SOUTH DOSSIER: Issues in the economics, politics, and ideology of copyright in the global South. The aim of the Dossier was to open up a critical and radical debate on the real impact of copyright laws and how they affect the daily lives of people living in more than 150 developing countries of the global South. We also highlighted issues that are not unique to the Global South, but also affect both sides of the North-South divide. This publication of more than 50 articles was addressed to researchers, educators, librarians, musicians, activists, organizations concerned about access to knowledge, and all of those who want to learn more about the oppressive global role of copyright laws and, in particular, their largely negative role in the developing countries of the global South. Given the democratic objectives of the Copy/South Research Group, the Dossier was not restricted by copyright. Therefore, it has been accessed openly and freely in both electronic and paper formats by thousands of readers from around the world in English. But English is not spoken by all citizens in the global South. With this in mind, the entire 200-page Dossier was translated into Spanish in late 2007 by an enthusiastic team of voluntary translators from Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela. As for this Spanish version, made with the support of the Intellectual Property Automous Service (SAPI), from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, we must acknowledge the prior SAPI's General Director Eduardo Samán for promoting the making of this translation. Besides the general revision of Gerardo Cárdenas and his labor as main translator, some other volunteers translated or revised important sections of the Spanish edition: María Jesús Morillo (Spain), Oscar Pérez Peña and Gilda Gil (Cuba), Edgardo Civallero (Argentina) and Rafael Carreño (Venezuela), who coordinated the process of translation in 2007. Also it is worth to mention the additional colaboration of Ana Lía López (Bolivia), Richard Castro, Rafael Bellota and Carmen Chirinos (Venezuela), Zapopan Muela and Gonzalo Lara (Mexico), and Lilian Álvarez (Cuba). But what is still more extraordinary about this Spanish translation is that it was completely coordinated and edited by the Servicio Autonomo de la Propiedad Intelectual (SAPI) of the democratic government of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic. The Dossier provides “useful material to introduce this topic to teachers and students” and does a good job of “summarizing a complex and conflicting situation” for developing countries, Jumersi La Rosa, SAPI’s new director, said last week in announcing the release of the Spanish edition. She has written a special new introduction for the Spanish-language edition. The Copy South Research Group is very pleased that the radical message of resistance found in the Dossier can now be read by thousands of Spanish-language speakers who are questioning the current copyright regime and who hopefully will be ignited by the ideas in the Dossier to take up the fight against oppressive regimes based on copyright. You can get a copy of the Dossier in Spanish and English by downloading it, free of charge, at http://www.copysouth.org . We also still have a limited number of printed and bound copies of the English-language version of the Dossier. If you would to be mailed a copy of the English-language version, which contains eight posters, send us an e-mail ([email protected]) and include your full postal details. COPY/SOUTH RESEARCH GROUP, 28 April 2008

Genome-wide association study identifies peanut allergy-specific loci and evidence of epigenetic mediation in US children

Food allergy (FA) affects 2%-10% of US children and is a growing clinical and public health problem. Here we conduct the first genome-wide association study of well-defined FA, including specific subtypes (peanut, milk and egg) in 2,759 US participants (1,315 children and 1,444 parents) from the Chicago Food Allergy Study, and identify peanut allergy (PA)-specific loci in the HLA-DR and -DQ gene region at 6p21.32, tagged by rs7192 (P=5.5 × 10 -8) and rs9275596 (P=6.8 × 10 -10), in 2,197 participants of European ancestry. We replicate these associations in an independent sample of European ancestry. These associations are further supported by meta-analyses across the discovery and replication samples. Both single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with differential DNA methylation levels at multiple CpG sites (

El dossier copia/sur: problemas económicos, políticos, e ideológicos del copyright (derecho de autor) en el sur global

In 2005, a group of scholars and activists, mostly from the global South, created the Copy/South Research Group to analyse, criticise, and confront the oppressive nature of current global copyright regimes, such as those defended by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and similar ones around the globe. In May 2006, 22 of us, including 15 people from the global South, published THE COPY/SOUTH DOSSIER: Issues in the economics, politics, and ideology of copyright in the global South. The aim of the Dossier was to open up a critical and radical debate on the real impact of copyright laws and how they affect the daily lives of people living in more than 150 developing countries of the global South. We also highlighted issues that are not unique to the Global South, but also affect both sides of the North-South divide. This publication of more than 50 articles was addressed to researchers, educators, librarians, musicians, activists, organizations concerned about access to knowledge, and all of those who want to learn more about the oppressive global role of copyright laws and, in particular, their largely negative role in the developing countries of the global South. Given the democratic objectives of the Copy/South Research Group, the Dossier was not restricted by copyright. Therefore, it has been accessed openly and freely in both electronic and paper formats by thousands of readers from around the world in English. But English is not spoken by all citizens in the global South. With this in mind, the entire 200-page Dossier was translated into Spanish in late 2007 by an enthusiastic team of voluntary translators from Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela. As for this Spanish version, made with the support of the Intellectual Property Automous Service (SAPI), from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, we must acknowledge the prior SAPI's General Director Eduardo Samán for promoting the making of this translation. Besides the general revision of Gerardo Cárdenas and his labor as main translator, some other volunteers translated or revised important sections of the Spanish edition: María Jesús Morillo (Spain), Oscar Pérez Peña and Gilda Gil (Cuba), Edgardo Civallero (Argentina) and Rafael Carreño (Venezuela), who coordinated the process of translation in 2007. Also it is worth to mention the additional colaboration of Ana Lía López (Bolivia), Richard Castro, Rafael Bellota and Carmen Chirinos (Venezuela), Zapopan Muela and Gonzalo Lara (Mexico), and Lilian Álvarez (Cuba). But what is still more extraordinary about this Spanish translation is that it was completely coordinated and edited by the Servicio Autonomo de la Propiedad Intelectual (SAPI) of the democratic government of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic. The Dossier provides “useful material to introduce this topic to teachers and students” and does a good job of “summarizing a complex and conflicting situation” for developing countries, Jumersi La Rosa, SAPI’s new director, said last week in announcing the release of the Spanish edition. She has written a special new introduction for the Spanish-language edition. The Copy South Research Group is very pleased that the radical message of resistance found in the Dossier can now be read by thousands of Spanish-language speakers who are questioning the current copyright regime and who hopefully will be ignited by the ideas in the Dossier to take up the fight against oppressive regimes based on copyright. You can get a copy of the Dossier in Spanish and English by downloading it, free of charge, at http://www.copysouth.org . We also still have a limited number of printed and bound copies of the English-language version of the Dossier. If you would to be mailed a copy of the English-language version, which contains eight posters, send us an e-mail ([email protected]) and include your full postal details. COPY/SOUTH RESEARCH GROUP, 28 April 2008