IF you’re anything like me, these weird alcohol-free January fads are to be avoided so let's raise a glass to a guilt-free month and kick it off with a look at something clean and refreshing to wash the season of excess away.

IT only seems like yesterday that we were in the season to be jolly and, all of a sudden, romance is in the air. Before we know it, we’ll all be rolling eggs down a hill but, in the meantime, I guess we should take a look at rose, the wines of love.

With the Six Nations rugby in full flow (come on, Scotland – I’m forever the optimist) now is a great time to look at amazing beverages from all the nations competing.

WEEK two of the lockdown and I don't know about you, but I’m feeling a bit playful, so how about instead of a boring old wine column, we take a look at a drink that can be fun for all the family?

While lockdown has seen some people turn to DIY, it doesn't all have to be on the home or garden.

THE Scottish Government has been formally approached by Swedish architects proposing that a bridge to Northern Ireland can be built ... and combined with 140 wind turbines to power hundreds of thousands of homes.

With the Janus case looming before the Supreme Court, teachers' unions are knocking on doors to try to boost membership and mitigate financial loss.

The change to the Title II program will benefit Southern states, while Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania, among others, will see their allocations shrink.

Teachers say the technology ecosystems they experience in their schools are largely characterized by incremental, rather than transformational, changes.

Gov. Jeb Bush has warned that Florida won't meet class-size limits without taking such steps as expanding private school vouchers, lifting restrictions on the number of charter schools, and moving to year-round schedules.

RIGHT now, Tori Amos says, the big thing is to resist despondency. “That is an illness,” she tells me near the end of our conversation. “That is cancerous. And it can spread through your whole being and you don’t even realise. You’re in a mental war and you don’t know how to get out of it, and you do have to have words with yourself.”

Middle and high schools principals shared stories about trying to replace As, Bs, and Cs with more meaningful measures of student learning, but ran into obstacles and pushback at every step.

Marc Tucker explores why and how U.S. teacher education is holding our teachers, the profession and our schools back.

Building off of his piece last week, Marc Tucker looks at how the economics of higher education and lacking state governance combine to weaken schools of education.

Adults born at very low birth weight (VLBW) (<1.5 kg) have higher blood pressure and higher fasting insulin levels than their peers born at term. However, they show no signs of endothelial dysfunction in childhood and in adolescence.

Adults born at a VLBW showed no endothelial dysfunction compared with term adults. They had, however, a thicker intima-media layer in relation to lumen size. More rapid growth during their first weeks of life was associated with better endothelial function. (Read the full article)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends routine alcohol screening for all adolescents. Problem-based substance use screens for adolescents exist, but have limitations. A consumption-based alcohol screen could provide an empirically validated, very brief method to screen youth for alcohol-related problems.

National sample data indicate that frequency of alcohol use has high sensitivity and specificity in identifying youth with alcohol-related problems. A range of age-specific frequency cut scores perform well; specific cut points can be selected based on the screening context. (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)

Some studies reveal an association between exposure to alcohol consumption in movies and youth drinking, but the evidence is sparse.

Exposure to alcohol consumption in movies is associated with youth binge drinking, is little influenced by cultural differences between countries (Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and Scotland), and is specific to movie alcohol, not movie smoking, depictions. (Read the full article)

First drink before age 15 greatly increases the likelihood for later alcohol abuse or dependence. Separate investigations have linked many variables to alcohol initiation, but few have attempted to identify the optimal combination of predictors for age of alcohol initiation.

This article supports the screening questions selected in the joint National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the American Academy of Pediatrics initiative to identify and initiate intervention in youth at risk for early use of alcohol. (Read the full article)

Evidence regarding effectively screening and counseling adolescents about unhealthy alcohol use is accumulating. Young adults aged 18 to 24, those most at risk for excess alcohol consumption, are often not asked or counseled by physicians about unhealthy alcohol use.

In 2010 among US 10th graders (age 16), 36% drank, 28% binged, and 23% were drunk in the past month; although 82% saw a doctor, 54% were asked about drinking but only 17% were advised to reduce or stop drinking. (Read the full article)

Evaluating for elevations in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is a common screening test for the presence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is less common among non-Hispanic blacks. Better predictors of NAFLD are needed to identify individuals in most need of screening.

Relative to other ethnicities, metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance performed poorly at identifying non-Hispanic black adolescents with ALT elevations. The presence of metabolic syndrome may therefore not be an adequate trigger for NAFLD screening. Triglyceride elevations performed similarly between groups in identifying ALT elevations. (Read the full article)

More than 70% of all preterm deliveries are late-preterm (34–36 weeks of gestation). Compared with those born at term, those born late-preterm have higher risk for medical and neurodevelopmental disabilities and suffer more often from mental and behavioral problems.

Late-preterm birth is associated with considerable lifetime socioeconomic disadvantages across the adult years. These disadvantages are not explained by childhood parental socioeconomic position. (Read the full article)

Several experimental and observational studies reveal an association between exposure to alcohol consumption in movies and youth drinking, but little is known about the effect of such exposure on drinking onset among low-risk adolescents.

In a longitudinal study, exposure to alcohol consumption in movies was associated with drinking initiation in a sample of adolescents from 6 European countries who had never drunk alcohol and were attitudinally nonsusceptible to future use at the time of exposure. (Read the full article)

Frequency of influenza vaccination is low, partially because of missed opportunities to vaccinate. Barriers to implementing successful influenza vaccination reminders in the electronic health record include alert fatigue and incomplete vaccination information due to scattered records.

A noninterruptive, immunization information system–linked influenza vaccination reminder can increase vaccination late in the winter when fewer vaccine doses are usually administered. Tailoring the reminder to clinicians’ needs can increase its use. (Read the full article)

Youth drinking is associated with adult drinking. Alcohol policies can influence youth and adult drinking. However, it is unknown whether alcohol policies influence youth drinking patterns directly or through their effect on adult drinking.

Alcohol policies, including population-oriented policies, are protective for youth drinking. The effect of population-oriented policies may be mediated though effects on adults. These findings suggest that efforts to reduce youth drinking should rely on policies that address all age groups. (Read the full article)

Intervention strategies are needed to reduce underage drinking. Meta-analyses of youth alcohol brief interventions (BIs) conclude that therapist-delivered BIs are efficacious; however, to maximize public health impact, recommendations include using technology to streamline intervention delivery, for which evidence is lacking.

A single-session BI, delivered by a computer or therapist in the emergency department, shows promise for underage drinkers. Findings for the stand-alone computer BI are particularly appealing given the ease of future implementation. (Read the full article)

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.

Government went to war against Covid-19 with very low supplies in citizen trust and financial reserves, says Solly Moeng.

All this foreign involvement has failed to prevent the recent coup or stabilize its aftermath. BINUCA has not been able to implement a disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration program, and it failed to convince Bozizé’s regime to reform the security sector or consolidate the peace. ECCAS has been unable to restore order in one of the smallest capitals of Africa, and troop-contributing countries have proved unable to deliver the 600 extra soldiers they committed to provide in April. Paradoxically, France, while securing Bangui’s airport, is also hosting ousted president Bozizé, who declared from exile in Paris his wish to retake power by force with the “support” of private actors.

The crisis that has been occurring in CAR is certainly the most dramatic in its history: more than 600 000 Central Africans are internally displaced or sought refuge in neighbouring countries; according to the United Nations, 1.7 million live in a constant situation of food insecurity and 878 000 need immediate medical assistance; Muslim communities are fleeing Bangui and the western region, subsistence economy no longer exists and the de facto partition of the country, caused by the sectarian violence, is gradually becoming a reality.

Test-based accountability has not generated the significant gains in student achievement that proponents intended, Helen F. Ladd contends.

In number 10 in our countdown, I tried to offer a few thoughts to funders as they embraced new agendas and looked to avoid repeating yesterday's missteps.

Instability in local and international stock markets – mainly due to concerns over the impact of the coronavirus – might have you concerned about preserving your retirement savings.

Amazon is offering up to 30 percent off Acer laptops, desktops, and monitors. Plus, you can save $930 on the 65-inch Vizio P-Series Quantum X 4K TV.

Thanks to its compact, fanless design, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n Nano IoT is a tiny and silent mini PC with enough power for basic office and media-streaming tasks, as well as vertical-market and digital-signage use.

The TP-Link Archer AX6000 is an 802.11ax router that delivers relatively fast throughput speeds and packs a lot of tech into its sizable frame. Just note that it's not yet Wi-Fi 6 certified.

Usually priced at $79.99, it's available now for just $51.99.

The D-Link EXO AC3000 is a tri-band router that delivered speedy throughput in our tests and offers solid parental controls, malware protection, and mesh technology.

Young adults born prematurely with very low birth weight (≤1500 g) have higher blood pressure than do their counterparts born at term. We tested whether they also have higher blood pressure reactivity to psychosocial stress, which may be a more-specific predictor of long-term cardiovascular morbidity. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels for 44 very low birth weight adults (mean age: 23.1 years; SD: 2.3 years) and 37 control subjects (mean age: 23.6 years; SD: 2.0 years) were measured through noninvasive finger photoplethysmography during a standardized psychosocial stress challenge (Trier Social Stress Test). Baseline and task values and their difference (ie, reactivity) served as outcome variables. In comparison with the control group, the very low birth weight group had 7.9 mm Hg higher diastolic blood pressure during the task and 4.8 mm Hg higher diastolic reactivity, with adjustment for gender and age, height, and BMI at testing. A similar trend was seen for systolic blood pressure during the baseline period and the task, but the group differences were not statistically significant. Our results indicate that very low birth weight is associated with elevated blood pressure reactivity to psychosocial stress and, therefore, may increase the risk of cardiovascular morbidity.

Inkjet printers can produce outstanding photos, crisp multi-page office documents, and everything in between. Find your ideal inkjet with these handy shopping tips and our top-rated reviews.

The Los Angeles school district wants to pay teachers based on how much they improve their students' scores on standardized tests, an idea that has provoked a negative reaction from the teachers' union.

When we talk about VPNs, it's often in the context of unsafe situations. Senior Security Analyst Max Eddy argues that these tools are still valuable, even when the risk is low.

Don't expect Amazon to use this Print-Color display in a new Kindle any time soon, but we could see Print-Color eReaders in some form by mid-2020.

'We need to be actively engaged in questioning what the algorithms do, what the results mean, and how inherent bias in the training set can affect the results,' says MIT Professor Bernhardt Trout. But it doesn't always work out that way.

During OM France’s last LinkUp, an interdenominational event for all teens and young adults in the Nantes region, OMers focused on the theme of sexuality.

The JBL Link Portable speaker offers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity along with AirPlay 2, Chromecast, and hands-free Google Assistant support in a waterproof design with solid audio performance for its size.

Open resources, old textbooks, content controversies: How much do you know about what's happening in the world of curriculum and instruction?