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

THE Government’s ambition to reach a daily target of 100,000 tests across the UK by the end of the month will, as Matt Hancock admitted, require a “huge amount of work”.

AS expected, the UK and Scottish governments have decided, after the first three weeks of restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus, that they should remain in place. Strictly speaking, that is not an extension, but the default position; the legislation allows for the lockdown to continue for six months (when it must then be renewed by the parliaments). Interim reviews are to see whether the circumstances allow for relaxation, or indeed, require tightening of the measures.

WE should be wary of comparing the crisis of war with the crisis of coronavirus, but the 75th anniversary of VE Day is a reminder of what a national emergency can do to a leader. It can reveal their weaknesses and end their career, or it can highlight the qualities and skills that are needed in a time of trouble.

Has any recent laptop announcement excited you? Me neither. With no innovations on the horizon, laptop makers should focus on making them sturdier and cheaper.

It's resulted in a creepy Orwellian environment where Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others have replaced Big Brother.

Poor feedback, ineffective guidance and instructions, and lack of adaptivity are some of the key shortcomings identified by researchers in a study of 171 popular mobile learning apps for 3-5 year olds.

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

The Center for American Progress has released a set of recommendations for governors in 2019 that includes things such as full-day universal preschool and the study of pre-term births, which can cause learning difficulties.

A five-part series on mistakes made by school administrators is wrapped-up today with commentaries from Dr. Lynell Powell, Stuart Ablon, Alisha Pollastri, Diane Mora and many comments from readers

Pasi Sahlberg explores a central role play has inside and outside the school context as a foundation for positive child development.

The largest experiment to date comparing commercial math curricula gives a slight edge to two popular programs.

Amid the Trump administration's push to slash federal red tape, educators, advocates, and parents tell the U.S. secretary of education they're worried about the effect that could have on historically overlooked groups of students.

Research shows demands put on school principals are increasing when it comes to instructional leadership. Greater demands bring out increasing gaps, and a need for better leadership development.

While state school-finance systems have not changed much over time, they are devoting more targeted help to English language learners and student from low-income backgrounds than in the past, a new study finds.

The California district rolled out a culturally-specific program to support black male students, and the program has led to positive outcomes for students who had an opportunity to participate.

Being a school leader is difficult. They are meant to focus on improvement while also negotiating their way through adult behavior. Can leadership coaching help them focus on what truly matters?

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.

Community groups and sports not connected to school can help students stay more connected academically during a critical transition period, according to a study of low-income students in New York City.

The move to middle school can be a rougher adjustment for students who were high achievers at their elementary schools, finds a new study.

Celebrated artist and wood sculptor, Tim Stead, may be best known for public works such as the Millennium Clock in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, the furniture in Glasgow's Cafe Gandolfi and the North Sea Oil Industries Memorial Chapel in Aberdeen, but his masterpiece is closer to home.

IT was impossible to escape a heart-sinking feeling this week when reading reports that a senior UK Government source believed people were “addicted” to the furlough scheme.

Lopsided votes in the U.S. Senate and House obscure stark differences in their bills to overhaul the outdated Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

A group of prominent researchers on English-learners is forcefully challenging the findings of a recent working paper that posits that 3rd grade retention was a benefit to struggling English-learners in Florida.

"I will forever be grateful for the opportunity and privilege I have been given to serve my country and its learners," Viana wrote in an email to supporters this week.

Rooting out teacher bias and focusing on family engagement are some of the steps schools can take to identify more English-language learners for gifted and talented education.

A federal appeals court panel in St. Louis rules that a police officer did not violate the rights of a 7-year-old when he handcuffed the student for 20 minutes.

The Houston school district has settled a federal lawsuit brought by the teacher's union over the school system's controversial teacher evaluation system, which involved a secret algorithm.

Matto Christ Church in Ishikawa prefecture experienced many answers to prayer since they were introduced to prayer walking by an OMer.

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: 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: EFE Verde - La ex secretaria de cambio climático de la ONU que alcanzó el Acuerdo de París y actual directora del proyecto Misión 2020, Christiana Figueres, subraya que EE.UU. "se queda rezagado y pierde competitividad" abandonando el Acuerdo de París y cediendo a otros países el liderazgo de la economía baja en carbono.

The extent to which young adults' laboratory-confirmed sexually transmitted disease results and self-reported sexual behaviors are consistent has not been assessed in a nationally representative sample.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether young adults' reports of recent sexual behavior (presence of penile/vaginal sex in the previous 12 months) correspond with the presence of laboratory-confirmed nonviral STDs assessed by nucleic acid amplification testing. (Read the full article)

Corticosteroids inhibit the expression of many proinflammatory cytokines released during the course of community-acquired pneumonia infection. Corticosteroids have been found in some studies to be associated with improved clinical outcomes in adults with pneumonia. No studies have investigated corticosteroid use in children with pneumonia.

Results showed that corticosteroid treatment in children with pneumonia is common and its use is highly variable across institutions. Although corticosteroid therapy may benefit children with acute wheezing treated with β-agonists, corticosteroid therapy may lead to worse outcomes for children without wheezing. (Read the full article)

Optimism later in life is protective against a range of health problems. It has commonly been a focus in adolescent mental health promotion. Cross-sectional studies suggest a protective effect against adolescent health risks, but prospective studies have been lacking.

Optimism is somewhat protective against adolescent health risks; the strongest effect was seen against the onset of new depressive symptoms. Its protective effect against heavier substance use and antisocial behavior was modest and only for the highest categories compared to the lowest. Promoting optimism along with other positive aspects of psychological and emotional style has a role in mental health promotion that is likely to be enhanced if an intervention also addresses risk and protective factors in an adolescent's social context. (Read the full article)

The associations between food insecurity and child well-being have been well studied on the basis of household levels of food insecurity, as reported by heads of households.

Household measures, however, may not capture gender biases in food insecurity and morbidity. This study assessed adolescents' own experience with food insecurity and how it was associated with morbidity and the effect of gender in this process. (Read the full article)

Few epidemiological studies, which included varied exposure assessment, have investigated the relation between drinking-water–disinfection byproducts such as trihalomethanes and hypospadias, and their results have been inconclusive.

Little evidence was found for an association between trihalomethanes and hypospadias, but a novel association between water consumption and hypospadias was found. Factors that influence maternal water consumption, or other contaminants in tap or bottled water, might explain this finding. (Read the full article)

Internet use has rapidly become a commonplace activity, especially among adolescents. Poor mental health and several somatic health problems are associated with heavy Internet use by adolescents.

Results of this study provide evidence of a U-shaped relationship between intensity of Internet use and poorer mental health of adolescents. Heavy Internet users were also confirmed to be at increased risk for somatic health problems in this nationally representative sample of adolescents. (Read the full article)

It has been well documented that exposure to tobacco marketing is a risk factor for smoking initiation among youth. However, few studies have tested the specificity of this association.

This study extends findings from other studies and shows (from a longitudinal design) that exposure to cigarette advertising is significantly associated with youth smoking initiation, whereas exposure to advertising for other commercial products is not. (Read the full article)

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)

Preventive asthma medications (PAMs) are a primary management strategy to control asthma morbidity. Little is known about changes over time in prevalence of PAM use among children and adolescents in the United States.

Our analysis demonstrates an increase in use of PAMs among children and adolescents with current asthma in the United States from 1988–1994 to 2005–2008, but racial and ethnic disparities in use of PAMs persist. (Read the full article)

Over 500 000 children in the United States sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year. Headaches are commonly reported after TBI in adults, but little is known about the epidemiology of headache after pediatric TBI.

Headaches are more common 3 months after pediatric TBI than after arm injury. The frequency of headache after TBI is related to patient gender, age, and injury severity. Headaches after mild TBI were most common among girls and teenagers. (Read the full article)

Primary hypertension is a growing concern in adolescents due to its association with the obesity epidemic. Recent studies have examined underdetection and underdiagnosis of hypertension in adolescents but medical management of primary hypertension in adolescents is not well-described.

Our study describes patterns of antihypertensive prescribing for adolescents with primary hypertension including the use of monotherapy versus combination therapy by physicians of different specialties and factors associated with receipt of antihypertensive therapy over a multi-year period. (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)

Conduct problems, substance use, substance use problems, and depressive symptoms increase as black adolescents enter high school. Although family-centered prevention programs deter these problems during middle school, no such programs have been developed and evaluated for black high school students.

This study demonstrates that participation in a family-centered preventive intervention reduces conduct problems, substance use, and substance use problems among black adolescents by more than 30% compared with adolescents in an attention control condition across nearly 2 years. (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)

Very low birth weight (VLBW) male neonates appear to have increased mortality. VLBW female neonates appear to have better long-term outcomes.

VLBW male neonates have increased mortality and poorer neurological outcome. This gender difference appears to disappear at weeks' gestation. (Read the full article)

The quality of the relationship between mother and child affects the child’s neurodevelopment, emotion regulation, and stress response. Extreme or sustained stress responses are associated with dysregulation of physiologic systems involved in energy balance, which could lead to obesity.

The prevalence of obesity in adolescence was more than twice as high among those youth who in early childhood had poor-quality relationships with their mothers compared with those with better relationships. (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)

Eating disorders are characterized by preoccupation with weight and shape, which is manifested by a refusal to maintain a normal weight. An exact determination of expected body weight (EBW) is critical for diagnosis and clinical management of these disorders.

The McLaren and Moore methods present with several limitations when calculating EBW for adolescents with eating disorders. A commonly agreed upon method for EBW calculation such as the BMI percentile method is recommended for clinical and research purposes. (Read the full article)