Hundreds of teachers across the Sacramento Unified school district walked out of their classrooms and onto picket lines last week for the first time in 30 years, staging a one-day strike alleging unfair labor practices by the California district.

It’s not that I would be without the pyramids. Nor do I think that the Taj Mahal is a waste of good stone. These tombs, monuments to the departed are treasures beyond price. But can you name the pharaohs or the Mughal empress whose death they mark? No, nor can I without the help of Google.

School board members in Tucson, Ariz., acted after learning that a controversial economics textbook that hadn't been properly vetted.

As an attempt to mitigate a persistent school supply problem, New Mexico plans to give some 23,000 teachers prepaid gift cards for use on classroom materials. One local union calls it a distraction from larger funding issues.

For the first time, the World Health Organization has officially designated "gaming disorder" among its list of mental-health addictive behaviors.

School-based health clinics for teachers and their families can significantly lower a district's health care costs and slightly reduce teacher absenteeism, a new study finds.

The money is better spent on sincere and hardworking teachers.

Expert says labels, books, and writing centers all help with skill development

Indiana's state Senate has approved a measure that would create access for middle-income families for private-school vouchers. As it stands, it's one of the most ambitious voucher proposals ever offered in the states.

A new version of the federal research site allows users to find research related to specific school populations.

Six teacher-authors discuss what they learned over the past year and a half as they wrote books that are set to be published in the coming weeks.

Marlo Warburton, a 7th and 8th grade math teacher at Longfellow Arts and Technology Middle School in Berkeley, Calif., shares how greeting her students in the morning and expressing appreciation during dismissal are valuable opportunities for character building and for fostering teacher-student rela

William Leou, a 6th grade science teacher at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, uses an organizational worksheet to help students draw arguments from evidence.

Chris Knutson, an 8th grade history teacher at Horning Middle School in Waukesha, Wis., shares how he incorporates learning conferences into his lessons.

Rocker’s bum note

Leung Wai, from Hong Kong, is burned to pray for Japan after dressing as Santa Claus and being warmly greeted by passers-by last December.

Source: Public News Service - Economists warn that the costs of climate change in the U.S. – including from the health impacts of air pollution and natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires – could top $350 billion annually in the next 10 years.

Source: Retema - La Comisión Europea ha aprobado un conjunto de inversiones por valor de 222 millones de euros procedentes del presupuesto de la UE para facilitar la transición de Europa hacia un futuro más sostenible e hipocarbónico en el marco del programa LIFE de medio ambiente y acción por el clima. La financiación de la UE movilizará inversiones adicionales con las que se llegará a un total de 379 millones de euros destinados a 139 nuevos proyectos en 20 Estados miembros.

Source: The Weather Channel - A majority of Americans say they believe climate change contributed to the severity of the hurricanes that devastated Florida, Texas and parts of the Caribbean over the past six weeks, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Source: The Irish Times - Harold Kingston, who runs a dairy farm in Courtmacsharry, Co Cork, with 160 cattle, is typical of the new generation of smart farmers, who have adjusted how they work in response to climate change.

Source: Ámbito - A dos meses de la cumbre mundial que este año tendrá lugar en Bonn, el cambio climático volvió a irrumpir con toda su fuerza y la temperatura amenaza con convertir a 2017 en el año más caluroso desde que se tiene registro. En nuestro país, la fatídica serie de inundaciones sobre la cuenca del río Salado dejó miles de hectáreas bajo las aguas en La Pampa, el sur de Córdoba y el oeste de Buenos Aires. "El cambio climático está afectando y afectará el desarrollo de los países y Argentina es una de las economías emergentes más vulnerables", alertaron especialistas del Banco Mundial.

Source: El Periódico - Las políticas climáticas que se centran en la agricultura y los bosques podrían llevar al aumento de los precios de los alimentos, pero reducir la deforestación e incrementar la captura de carbono en la agricultura podría reducir significativamente las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, evitando riesgos para la seguridad alimentaria, según un nuevo estudio publicado en 'Environmental Research Letters'.

Source: El tiempo - Una subida de 2°C altera la metilación del ADN y la expresión de genes claves para la supervivencia y el desarrollo. Este estudio ofrece una nueva visión sobre las consecuencias del cambio climático en los peces a través de modificaciones epigenéticas en todo el genoma

Source: Infobae - El cambio climático es probablemente el mayor desafío ambiental y social que enfrenta la humanidad, y que fue generado por el ser humano. Es un problema global que se resuelve en forma global, en donde existen muchos matices que hacen difícil el consenso entre los países respecto a las decisiones que deben tomarse. Sin embargo, todos reconocen el siguiente principio como marco de discusión: principio de responsabilidades comunes pero diferenciadas. Este principio reconoce que todos los países tienen responsabilidad común de solucionar el problema, aunque no todos en el mismo nivel y grado, ya que históricamente los países desarrollados han contaminado más a efecto de construir sus economías que aquellos que están en vías de desarrollo. Y no todos los países tienen la misma capacidad y recursos para enfrentar la problemática.

Autism has been associated with pregnancy and birth complications that may indicate a suboptimal prenatal environment. Although the interpregnancy interval (IPI) may affect the prenatal environment, the association between the IPI and risk for autism is not known.

Using full-sibling pairs from a large population, the authors examined the association between autism and IPIs. Second-born children conceived after an IPI of <12 months had more than threefold increased odds of autism relative to those with IPIs of ≥36 months. (Read the full article)

Cardiovascular risk factors predict the development of premature atherosclerosis. As the number of risk factors increases, so does the extent of these lesions. Assessment of cardiovascular risk factors is an accepted practice in adults but is not used in pediatrics.

In this study, the authors discuss how the presence of ≥2 cardiovascular risk factors is associated with vascular changes in adolescents. The findings were compared with the Patholobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth risk score to demonstrate that a simple method of clustering is a reliable tool to use in clinical practice. (Read the full article)

Gallbladder disease in children is an evolving entity and studies suggest an increasing frequency of symptomatic pediatric gallbladder disease and resultant cholecystectomies.

Hispanic ethnicity and obesity are epidemiologically significant risk factors for symptomatic gallbladder disease in the pediatric population. (Read the full article)

The prevalence of asthma and smoking among adolescents in Jordan is high. Well-designed, school-based, peer-led education programs can have a positive impact on asthma self-management in adolescents. Student peer leaders can be useful and responsible partners in health promotion programs.

A peer-led asthma education program —Adolescent Asthma Action—for adolescents developed in Australia was adapted to suit non–English-speaking cultures in the Middle East. Peer-led education led to improved self-management of asthma and motivated students to avoid smoking. (Read the full article)

Clinical trials in children with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are challenging. To date, no work has been published that permits clinical investigators to estimate the number and compositional features of sites from which to recruit children with severe TBI into clinical trials.

Children with severe TBI are infrequent. Less than 5% of all US hospitals discharged more than 78% of severe TBI cases. To maximize enrollment efficiency for future clinical trials, attention has to be paid to selecting appropriate hospital sites. (Read the full article)

Available clinical prediction rules to identify children with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis at low risk for Lyme meningitis include headache duration, cranial nerve palsy, and percent cerebrospinal fluid mononuclear cells. These rules require independent validation.

These clinical prediction rules accurately identify patients at low risk for Lyme meningitis in our large multicenter cohort. Children at low risk may be considered for outpatient management while awaiting Lyme serology. (Read the full article)

Pertussis is a poorly controlled vaccine-preventable disease. Verifying outbreaks is challenging owing to nonspecific clinical presentations and imperfect diagnostic tests. Exclusive reliance on highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction has been associated with pseudo-outbreaks.

Contamination of specimens with vaccine derived Bordetella pertussis DNA from pediatric clinic surfaces likely resulted in misdiagnoses. Standard practices, liquid transport medium, and lack of polymerase chain reaction cutoffs for discerning weakly positive (contaminant) DNA are contributory, but modifiable factors. (Read the full article)

High-grade vesicoureteral reflux is a risk factor for impaired renal function. Diagnosis by voiding cystourethrography is invasive and highly uncomfortable. As only a minority of children show high-grade vesicoureteral reflux, this exposes the majority to unnecessary distress.

This case-control study proved that high-grade vesicoureteral reflux is identifiable with high sensitivity using urinary proteome analysis, based on capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry in a cohort suspected of having vesicoureteral reflux, thus sparing the majority of children from invasive diagnostics. (Read the full article)

Candidate genes involved in thrombophilia, inflammation, and preterm birth have previously been associated with cerebral palsy. Most studies to date have included small cohorts, did not allow for multiple testing, and require replication.

This study of children with cerebral palsy and their mothers did not confirm previously reported candidate gene associations. Prothrombin gene mutation was associated with hemiplegia in children born at term to mothers with a reported infection during pregnancy. (Read the full article)

Delayed umbilical cord clamping in premature infants has been associated with decreased rates of intraventricular hemorrhage; however, the mechanisms that explain this finding have not been described.

Premature infants with delayed umbilical cord clamping have improved superior vena cava blood flow over the first days of life. This may provide one of the mechanism(s) by which this technique reduces the incidence in intraventricular hemorrhage in this at-risk population. (Read the full article)

The demographics of trials that use antenatal consent may not be representative of the populations that they are intended to study.

This study analyzes the difference in clinical outcomes between the enrolled and eligible but not enrolled populations of a trial that required antenatal consent. (Read the full article)

Few studies have examined the reliability of clinical findings in pediatric appendicitis. Clinical prediction rules are most useful if the included variables are reliable across practice settings and practitioners.

Among children who present with possible appendicitis, the interrater reliability varied considerably for patient history and physical examination variables. Those variables with the highest degree of reliability may be best suited for inclusion in appendicitis clinical prediction rules. (Read the full article)

Strategies to assist patients in achieving optimal chronic disease self-management are critical. The complex family and regimen issues surrounding pediatric type 1 diabetes management suggest the need to integrate such strategies into routine clinical care.

This study demonstrates the efficacy of a practical, low-intensity behavioral intervention delivered during routine care for improving glycemic outcomes. Findings indicate that the approach may offer a potential model for integrating medical and behavioral sciences to improve health care. (Read the full article)

Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis incidence varies over different regions and time periods. Recently, a decline was reported in the United States, Sweden (concurrent with a decline in sudden infant death syndrome), Scotland, and Denmark. The etiology remains unclear; therefore, epidemiologic data are valuable.

A decline in the incidence of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in Germany from 2000 to 2008 was noted but with wide regional variations. The regional distribution of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis was different from that of sudden infant death syndrome. (Read the full article)

Evaluating dehydration severity is a challenging task. Clinical dehydration scores that combine multiple clinical findings are promising. One clinical dehydration scale score has been developed and subsequently evaluated; however, few participants in the derivation and validation studies were significantly dehydrated.

In children requiring intravenous rehydration, the dehydration scale displayed moderate reliability and weak associations with objective measures. Thus, although the scale can assist in assessing dehydration, it should not be used in isolation to dictate interventions (eg, intravenous rehydration, hospitalization). (Read the full article)

Existing clinical research policy does not guarantee availability of results. Registration on the Web site ClinicalTrials.gov and the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act improved transparency in pediatric clinical research. Registration and publication remain voluntary for many trials involving children.

Only 29% of completed registered studies and 53% of National Institutes of Health–funded trials involving children were published. Numbers of studies are increasing. Registration and posting of results on ClinicalTrials.gov should be mandatory for all studies involving children. (Read the full article)

Preterm infants are at a high risk for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Several postnatal factors are well known to be associated with ROP. However, the relationships between antenatal or maternal risk factors and ROP are poorly understood.

This study used a large cohort database to study the influence of maternal gestational hypertension and preeclampsia on ROP in preterm infants. The results showed that preeclampsia, but not gestational hypertension, was associated with a reduced risk of ROP in preterm births. (Read the full article)

Most mothers in the United States do not meet recommendations for exclusive breastfeeding; however, little is known about how long mothers intend to exclusively breastfeed or how hospital practices affect achieving these intentions.

Most mothers who want to exclusively breastfeed intend to do so for ≥3 months, but the majority are not meeting their intended duration. Mothers are more likely to achieve their intended duration when their infant is not supplemented in the hospital. (Read the full article)

Providers who speak Spanish, regardless of their proficiency level, may use Spanish for clinical care without seeking professional interpretation. Failure to use professional interpretation increases the risk for miscommunication and can lead to patient harm.

Providing residents with objective feedback on Spanish language proficiency decreased willingness to use Spanish in straightforward clinical scenarios. Language proficiency testing, coupled with institutional policies requiring professional interpretation, may improve care for patients with limited English proficiency. (Read the full article)

Previous studies show beneficial effects of cycled lighting in neonatal care on infant day–night activity, sleep behavior, and postnatal growth. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend neonatal care under cycled lighting conditions.

This study found that cycled lighting during neonatal care reduces infant’s fussing and crying behavior at 5 and 11 weeks’ corrected age and improves growth during neonatal period. These findings support the introduction of cycled lighting in neonatal care practice. (Read the full article)

Persistent facial nerve palsy is a well-described neurologic deficit after Lyme neuroborreliosis and occurs in 13% to 20% of children. Other neurologic deficits are less closely described. Nonspecific subjective symptoms are reported as often among patients as controls in previous short-term follow-up studies.

Persistent neurologic deficits, other than facial nerve palsy, were found in 14% of patients, causing impaired fine motor skills, poor balance, or persistent pain. Nonspecific subjective symptoms were reported as often among patients as controls in this long-term follow-up study and should not be considered as sequelae after Lyme neuroborreliosis. (Read the full article)

Percentile charts for birth weight are used to assess the somatic development of neonates (small, appropriate, or large for gestational age).

A systematic error was identified in the majority of birth weight percentile charts. As a consequence, small for gestational age rates are overestimated and large for gestational age rates are underestimated; ~5% of neonates are misclassified. (Read the full article)

There is evidence from both developed and developing countries that antiretroviral treatment significantly reduces mortality in HIV-infected children. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, numerous health system, financial, and human resource obstacles make delivering quality pediatric HIV care a challenge.

We describe the experience of the Baylor International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative in Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Despite challenges delivering pediatric treatment in these countries, mortality and clinical outcomes approaching those from developed countries are feasible. (Read the full article)

Rotavirus is a major cause of acute gastroenteritis among children worldwide. Vaccines targeting rotavirus have been demonstrated to be highly efficacious against severe disease in clinical trials and postlicensure studies. Vaccine impact on mild gastroenteritis has not been well studied.

We used a novel surveillance platform consisting of telephone triage data to capture mild gastroenteritis not detected in other surveillance systems. Since rotavirus vaccine licensure, gastroenteritis-related call proportions have declined, and peak gastroenteritis-related calls are correlated with community norovirus circulation. (Read the full article)

Critics argue that pediatric research without the potential for clinical benefit treats children as mere means to benefit others. Yet, there are no data to assess whether adolescents who participate in research, or their parents, agree with this view.

Respondents felt that by participating in research the adolescents were making important contributions to help others, and the adolescents felt proud to be doing so. These findings support the view that nonbeneficial pediatric research involves a type of charitable activity. (Read the full article)

Despite numerous preventive strategies including prophylaxis with 400 IU/day of vitamin D in recent years, the deficiency of vitamin D in infants is still a global health problem.

This study reveals that the risk of vitamin D deficiency is high in exclusively breastfed infants, especially in winter, despite vitamin D supplementation. Therefore, it is suggested that an adjustment of vitamin D dosage for seasonal variation might be necessary. (Read the full article)