Elizabeth I and the ‘Sovereign Arts’: Essays in Literature, History, and Culture

Elizabeth I and the ‘Sovereign Arts’ brings together eighteen wide-ranging and accessible essays on the queen and her extraordinary methods as a ruler. Focusing less on the usual sites of government than on more peripheral places where Elizabeth presented herself to her people and the world, the volume takes up early interactions with her family, popular representations of her as a mother, her use of poetry and oratory to persuade, her aims in elevating favorite men, and her constant interplay with her people through travels, tournaments, portraits, and literary works depicting her as a wise and divinely ordained ruler.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/engl_books/1008/thumbnail.jp

Developing Effective Principals: What Kind of Learning Matters?

Effective principals can generate better outcomes for the teachers, students and the schools they lead. But great principals don't grow on trees; they receive high-quality development and ongoing support.In this report, researchers synthesize two decades of research on principal pre-service preparation and professional development and describe results of their own additional studies. They find that high-quality learning programs for future and current principals are associated with improved outcomes such as princip?als' feelings of preparedness, teacher satisfaction and retention, and student achievement.  Evidence also suggests that a focus on equity-oriented leadership has the potential to improve principals' ability to meet the needs of diverse learners.The research was led by Linda Darling-Hammond, who was also lead author of an influential report?, released 15 years ago, describing the key characteristics of effective principal preparation and professional development.  The report finds that high-quality pre-service preparation programs have common elements:Rigorous recruitment of candidates into the program;Close school district-university partnerships;Groupings of enrollees into cohorts;Experiences where candidates apply what they learn, guided by experienced mentors or coaches; andA focus on important content, with the five most important areas being leading instruction, managing change, developing people, shaping a positive school culture and meeting the needs of diverse learners.Mentoring and coaching were influential and valuable for current principals, along with collegial learning networks and applied learning, the report finds.Researchers found via a national survey that principals' access to high-quality learning opportunities appears to have improved over the last decade, with more than two-thirds of principals today reporting having had at least minimal access to learning across the five key content areas. At the same time, there are clearly gaps. One example: "Few principals have access to authentic, job-based learning opportunities during preparation, and high-quality internships are still relatively rare," the report says. In addition, access to learning opportunities varies greatly across states and by school poverty level, an indicator that also tends to reflect the racial demographics of a school. Principals in high-poverty schools were much less likely to report that they had professional development on important topics including redesigning schools for deeper learning and designing professional learning opportunities for teachers and other staff, for example. And only 10 percent of principals in high-poverty schools reported having had a mentor or coach in the last two years versus 24 percent in low-poverty schools.Across the country, most principals reported wanting more professional development in nearly all topics, but faced obstacles in pursuing learning opportunities, including lack of time and insufficient money.The authors emphasize that state policies can make a difference in the availability and quality of leadership preparation programs. In states and districts that overhauled standards and used them to inform principal preparation, learning opportunities, and assessment, there is evidence that the quality of principal learning has improved.To foster high-quality principal learning, the authors suggest that policymakers can:Develop and better use state principal licensing and program approval standards;Fund statewide efforts, such as leadership academies, paid internships and mentor training; andEncourage greater attention to equity by, for example, allocating professional development resources to schools that need them most or funding high-quality preparation for prospective principals of high-poverty schools.The report is the third of three research syntheses commissioned by Wallace. The first, released in February 2021, examined the critical role of principals in student learning and other outcomes. The second examined the increasingly important role of assistant principals and was released in April 2021.

Humoral immune responses to Pneumocystis jirovecii antigens in HIV-infected and uninfected young children with pneumocystis pneumonia

BACKGROUND: Humoral immune responses in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and uninfected children with Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) are poorly understood. METHODS: Consecutive children hospitalized with acute pneumonia, tachypnea, and hypoxia in South Africa were investigated for PcP, which was diagnosed by real-time polymerase chain reaction on lower respiratory tract specimens. Serum antibody responses to recombinant fragments of the carboxyl terminus of Pneumocystis jirovecii major surface glycoprotein (MsgC) were analyzed. RESULTS: 149 children were enrolled of whom 96 (64%) were HIV-infected. PcP occurred in 69 (72%) of HIV-infected and 14 (26%) of HIV-uninfected children. HIV-infected children with PcP had significantly decreased IgG antibodies to MsgC compared to HIV-infected patients without PcP, but had similar IgM antibodies. In contrast, HIV-uninfected children with PcP showed no change in IgG antibodies to MsgC, but had significantly increased IgM antibodies compared to HIV-uninfected children without PCP. Age was an independent predictor of high IgG antibodies, whereas PcP was a predictor of low IgG antibodies and high IgM antibodies. IgG and IgM antibody levels to the most closely related MsgC fragments were predictors of survival from PcP. CONCLUSIONS: Young HIV-infected children with PcP have significantly impaired humoral immune responses to MsgC, whereas HIV-uninfected children with PcP can develop active humoral immune responses. The children also exhibit a complex relationship between specific host factors and antibody levels to MsgC fragments that may be related to survival from PcP

Viltskadestatistik 2020 : skador av fredat vilt på tamdjur, hundar och gröda

Staten får i mån av tillgång på medel lämna bidrag för att förebygga skador av vilt och ersätta inträffade skador. Detta regleras i Viltskadeförordningen (2001:724) och Naturvårdsverkets föreskrifter och allmänna råd om bidrag och ersättningar för viltskador (NFS 2008:16/NFS 2018:05) samt i Föreskrifter om bidrag och ersättning för rovdjursförekomst i samebyar (STFS 2007:9). Bidrag och ersättningar för viltskador utgår endast för vilt som inte får jagas under allmän jakttid. Sedan våren 2010 lämnar länsstyrelserna bidrag till förebyggande åtgärder från Viltskadeanslaget till betesmarker på icke blocklagd mark. Bidrag till beteshagar på blocklagd mark ska istället sökas som miljöinvestering och finansieras med särskilda medel som anslagits av Jordbruksverkets Landsbygdsprogram. Medel från Landsbygdsprogrammet får endast användas till rovdjursavvisande stängsel på blocklagda betesmarker. Medlen används i första hand i län med fast förekomst av varg, där angreppen förväntas bli flest. För att få en kontinuerlig bild av vilka belopp som lagts på att förebygga rovdjursangrepp på tamdjur har vi sedan 1997 redovisat vilka medel som beviljats ur Viltskadeanslaget (Naturvårdsverket) och Landsbygdsprogrammet (Jordbruksverket) i samma tabeller och grafer i denna rapport. Från och med 2014 redovisas utbetalda bidrag istället för beviljade bidrag, eftersom alla beviljade bidrag inte utnyttjas. Observera att summorna för förebyggande åtgärder och ersättningar är avrundade till närmaste tusental, varför en del totalsummor inte alltid går jämt ut i tabellernas rader och kolumner. I denna rapport redovisas de skador och bidrag som länsstyrelserna har registrerat. Av olika skäl kan enskilda länsstyrelser i enstaka fall vara försenade med registreringen vilket leder till att redovisningen blir ofullständig

Surveys of Cancer Patients and Cancer Health Care Providers Regarding Complementary Therapy Use, Communication, and Information Needs

Background. Complementary therapies (CTs) are increasingly utilized by cancer patients. Nonetheless, patients report insufficient support from health care practitioners (HCPs) and there is a general lack of patient-practitioner communication about CT use. Best care practices suggest that HCPs should address the needs of patients, including CT use. This study examined current practices of patients and HCPs as well as their interactions relating to CTs. Methods. A total of 481 cancer outpatients and 100 HCPs completed questionnaires. Patient questions addressed CT use and information needs; HCP questions addressed knowledge, opinions and beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine. Patient-practitioner communication around CT was also examined. Results. 47% of patients reported using CTs since diagnosis. Many commenced CT use to improve quality of life (65%) based on recommendations from family or friends. Patients acknowledged the need for trusted sources of information and would attend a hospital-based education program (72%). HCPs reported limited training about CTs but most (90%) expressed interested in receiving more training. The majority of HCPs (\u3e80%) reported limited knowledge about the role of CTs in cancer care or evidence to support CT use. Questions about communication and interactions revealed that 80% of patients reported not having had an HCP speak to them about CTs. However, 63% of HCPs reported addressing CT use. Conclusion. Results demonstrate a need for improved CT education and training for patients and HCPs. increasing HCP knowledge and clinical skills will ensure patients information needs about CTs are acknowledged and attended to, thereby providing safer and comprehensive cancer care

Estrogen receptor β2 and β5 are associated with poor prognosis in prostate cancer, and promote cancer cell migration and invasion

Estrogens play a pivotal role in the development and progression of prostate cancer (PCa). Their actions are mediated by estrogen receptors (ERs), particularly ERβ in the prostate epithelium. With the discovery of ERβ isoforms, data from previous studies that focused principally on the wild-type ERβ (ERβ1) may not be adequate in explaining the still controversial role of ERβ(s) in prostate carcinogenesis. In this study, using newly generated isoform-specific antibodies, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed on a tumor microarray comprised of 144 specimens. IHC results were correlated with pathological and clinical follow-up data to delineate the distinct roles of ERβ1, ERβ2, and ERβ5 in PCa. ERβ2 was commonly found in the cytoplasm and was the most abundant isoform followed by ERβ1 localized predominantly in the nucleus, and ERβ5 was primarily located in the cytoplasm. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that nuclear ERβ2 (nERβ2) is an independent prognostic marker for prostate specific antigen (PSA) failure and postoperative metastasis (POM). In a Kaplan–Meier analysis, the combined expression of both nERβ2 and cytoplasmic ERβ5 identified a group of patients with the shortest POM-free survival. Cox proportional hazard models revealed that nERβ2 predicted shorter time to POM. In concordance with IHC data, stable, ectopic expression of ERβ2 or ERβ5 enhanced PCa cell invasiveness but only PCa cells expressing ERβ5 exhibited augmented cell migration. This is the first study to uncover a metastasis-promoting role of ERβ2 and ERβ5 in PCa, and show that the two isoforms, singularly and conjointly, have prognostic values for PCa progression. These findings may aid future clinical management of PCa