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The current phenomenological study was undertaken, during the COVID-19 pandemic induced school closures, with the purpose to explore successes and challenges of implementing virtual education and collecting suggestions for improving virtual teaching practice. Data was collected using purposive sampling via social media, using open-ended survey. 141 teachers, teaching kindergarten and elementary school, from different regions submitted their responses. In our research findings, three success themes and five major challenges have emerged from the voice of teachers experiencing a rapid and unprepared shift to virtual education. Suggestions for improving digital education revolved around engagement strategies, training, access, school policies and collaboration among teachers. The finding of the research can help in informing areas of focus for reimagining the approach to education for an uncertain future.

Objectives Declines in mortality have historically been associated with improvements in physical health across generations. While life expectancy in most high-income countries continues to increase, there is evidence that younger generations, particularly in the United States, are less healthy than previous generations at the same age. We compared generational trends in physical health in the United States, England, and continental Europe to explore whether other regions have experienced a similar pattern of worsening health across cohorts. Methods Using data from nationally representative studies of adults aged ≥50 years from the United States (Health and Retirement Study, n = 26,939), England (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, n = 14,992) and 11 continental European countries (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, n = 72,595), we estimated differences in the age-adjusted prevalence of self-reported chronic disease and disability and observer-measured health indicators across pseudo-birth cohorts (born <1925, 1925–1935, 1936–1945, 1946–1954, 1955–1959). Results Age-adjusted prevalence of doctor-diagnosed chronic disease increased across successive cohorts in all regions. Trends in disability prevalence were more regionally varied. Still, in both the United States and Europe, we observed a structural break in disability trends, with declines observed in prewar cohorts slowing, stalling, or reversing for cohorts born since 1945. Discussion In all regions, we found evidence for worsening health across cohorts, particularly for those born since 1945. While more chronic disease in younger cohorts need not necessarily translate to worse quality of life or higher rates of functional limitation, there is some suggestion that worsening chronic disease morbidity may be spilling over into worsening disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient microbial genomes can illuminate pathobiont evolution across millenia, with teeth providing a rich substrate. However, the characterization of prehistoric oral pathobiont diversity is limited. In Europe, only preagricultural genomes have been subject to phylogenetic analysis, with none compared to more recent archaeological periods. Here, we report well-preserved microbiomes from two 4,000-year-old teeth from an Irish limestone cave. These contained bacteria implicated in periodontitis, as well as Streptococcus mutans , the major cause of caries and rare in the ancient genomic record. Despite deriving from the same individual, these teeth produced divergent Tannerella forsythia genomes, indicating higher levels of strain diversity in prehistoric populations. We find evidence of microbiome dysbiosis, with a disproportionate quantity of S. mutans sequences relative to other oral streptococci. This high abundance allowed for metagenomic assembly, resulting in its first reported ancient genome. Phylogenetic analysis indicates major postmedieval population expansions for both species, highlighting the inordinate impact of recent dietary changes. In T. forsythia , this expansion is associated with the replacement of older lineages, possibly reflecting a genome-wide selective sweep. Accordingly, we see dramatic changes in T. forsythia 's virulence repertoire across this period. S. mutans shows a contrasting pattern, with deeply divergent lineages persisting in modern populations. This may be due to its highly recombining nature, allowing for maintenance of diversity through selective episodes. Nonetheless, an explosion in recent coalescences and significantly shorter branch lengths separating bacteriocin-carrying strains indicate major changes in S. mutans demography and function coinciding with sugar popularization during the industrial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common ash (Faxinus excelsior L.) in Europe is declining on a continental scale due to the action of Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, an invasive forest pathogen that causes ash dieback disease leading to the collapse and eventual death of ash trees through shoot infection in the crown and through stem collar infection. This study confirms for the first time lenticels as entry points for pathogens to enter shoot bark. Results show the impact of lenticel infection at a very early stage of invasion by H. fraxineus in a F. excelsior provenance trial and its correlation values with other factors such as shoot dieback, canker-like lesions and bud burst. No significant provenance effects were observed for incidence of shoot dieback, lenticel necrosis or canker-like lesions on shoots, but provenance effects were significant for bud burst phenology. The strongest correlation was observed between lenticel necrosis and canker-like lesions on the lenticels of shoots. Boheremia spp. were most frequently isolated from necrotic ash lenticels and confirmed by ITS sequencing, but also species of Diaporthe, Epicoccum, Aspergillus, Neonectria, Didymella and Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. Finally, lenticel density was similar in sets of ash genotypes that were characterized as having a high and low susceptibility to ash dieback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global investment in biomedical research has grown significantly over the last decades, reaching approximately a quarter of a trillion US dollars in 2010. However, not all of this investment is distributed evenly by gender. It follows, arguably, that scarce research resources may not be optimally invested (by either not supporting the best science or by failing to investigate topics that benefit women and men equitably). Women across the world tend to be significantly underrepresented in research both as researchers and research participants, receive less research funding, and appear less frequently than men as authors on research publications. There is also some evidence that women are relatively disadvantaged as the beneficiaries of research, in terms of its health, societal and economic impacts. Historical gender biases may have created a path dependency that means that the research system and the impacts of research are biased towards male researchers and male beneficiaries, making it inherently difficult (though not impossible) to eliminate gender bias. In this commentary, we - a group of scholars and practitioners from Africa, America, Asia and Europe - argue that gender-sensitive research impact assessment could become a force for good in moving science policy and practice towards gender equity. Research impact assessment is the multidisciplinary field of scientific inquiry that examines the research process to maximise scientific, societal and economic returns on investment in research. It encompasses many theoretical and methodological approaches that can be used to investigate gender bias and recommend actions for change to maximise research impact. We offer a set of recommendations to research funders, research institutions and research evaluators who conduct impact assessment on how to include and strengthen analysis of gender equity in research impact assessment and issue a global call for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a brief history of European anti-Americanism. First clear statement of anti-Americanism by French Simon Linguet in the 1780s; Adam Smith's 1776 assessment of Great Britain's breakaway North American colonies; Religious fervor in the U.S. according to French Alexis de Tocqueville.

Focuses on the international relations between the U.S. and Europe in the 21st century. Comparison between the European Union (EU) constitution and the U.S. constitution; Consideration of transatlantic partnership as an essential ingredient both to the security of the U.S. and to the security of the modern world; Impact of EU internal foreign-policy disagreements on the transatlantic community and the U.S. security.

Bourdieu clearly articulates how cultural capital works at the macro-level and how it leads to the reproduction and legitimation of inequality. He is less clear about other levels of analysis. We address this gap by drawing on social psychological theories and by suggesting that cultural capital is best treated as a multi-level concept - with "cultural capital" produced at the macro- level, "subcultural capital" produced at the meso-level, and "multicultural capital" produced at the micro-level. We illustrate with an exploratory analysis of an advertising agency in Eastern Europe, thereby highlighting legitimacy processes occurring among its departments and personnel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on whether Europe needs a Federal Reserve system. Alternative routes to economic and monetary union; Benefits of European monetary union; Exchange rates concerns; Alternatives to a European central bank; Inflation concerns.

The article offers information on the function of single European currency in promoting economic growth within European states. The establishment of single market program became a turning point for the European monetary union to remove legislative barriers that affects movement of capital within the neighboring markets. The principle behind single European currency is to lead the stronger currencies to displace the weaker ones. Great Britain announced its stiffed opposition on the single monetary policy, claiming that there is no reason to believe that it would address the problem of inflation. A single European currency makes no difference, although it singles out the intention of Germany to control the European monetary policy.

This article presents an economic model on currency competition, network externalities and switching costs. Recent developments in Europe have once again made currency competition and monetary union very topical issues for economists. Existing economic models are nonetheless very unsatisfactory, and it is questionable that they can be relied upon to give robust answers for those who wish to use them to guide policy-makers. The paper explains why agents are often reluctant to switch currencies, even when the currency they are using appears to be manifestly inferior to some other. It highlights the problems posed by agents' expectations of what other agents will do, and explores the extent to which expectations of currency switches can be self-fulfilling. It also sheds light on the nature of currency competition and the effect of legal restrictions. Finally, it examines the circumstances in which common currencies improve on separate ones and compares different procedures to establish a common currency. The last section of the paper then suggests some extensions to other monetary issues, and to other areas such as the economics of language. The analytical framework set out by the paper can be developed in a number of directions, monetary and non-monetary. One promising extension is to use it to analyse currency substitution.

• One in six residents of nursing homes use strong anticholinergic medications. • There was a 20-fold variation in prevalence across the 12 countries. • Antipsychotics and antidepressants were the most common strong anticholinergics. There is a need to balance the benefits and risks associated with strong anticholinergic medications in older adults, particularly among those with frailty and cognitive impairment. This study explored the international prevalence of strong anticholinergic medication use in residents of nursing homes with and without cognitive impairment and frailty. Secondary, cross-sectional analyses of data from 5,800 residents of 106 nursing homes in Australia, China, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, and Spain were conducted. Strong anticholinergic medications were defined as medications with a score of 2 or 3 on the Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden scale. Dementia or cognitive impairment was defined as a documented diagnosis or using a validated scale. Frailty was defined using the FRAIL-NH scale as 0–2 (non-frail), 3–6 (frail) and 7–14 (most-frail). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Overall, 17.4 % (n = 1010) residents used ≥1 strong anticholinergic medication, ranging from 1.3 % (n = 2) in China to 27.1 % (n = 147) in Italy. The most prevalent strong anticholinergics were quetiapine (n = 290, 5.0 % of all residents), olanzapine (132, 2.3 %), carbamazepine (102, 1.8 %), paroxetine (88, 1.5 %) and amitriptyline (87, 1.5 %). Prevalence was higher among residents with cognitive impairment (n = 602, 17.9 %) compared to those without (n = 408, 16.8 %), and among residents who were most frail (n = 553, 17.9 %) compared to those who were frail (n = 286, 16.5 %) or non-frail (n = 171, 17.5 %). One in six residents who were most frail and living with cognitive impairment used a strong anticholinergic. However, there was a 20-fold variation in prevalence across the 12 countries. Targeted deprescribing interventions may reduce potentially avoidable medication-harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]