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In 1997, the Santiago office of UNESCO implemented an assessment of student achievement in Latin America, working in collaboration with 13 Latin American ministries of education. Using a common sampling methodology and survey instruments, researchers in each country collected representative samples of data on third- and fourth-grade achievement in language and mathematics, as well as background surveys from students, parents, teachers, and principals. This article uses these data and multilevel modeling to assess the relative effectiveness of private and public schools in 10 of these countries. In particular, the article argues that many prior studies have misrepresented the private school effect by failing to control for the characteristics of student peer groups. In these studies, the achievement gap between the two sectors may partly or entirely reflect the effects of better peer group characteristics, as opposed to any substantive impact of private school practices or efficiency on the outcomes of their students. The results suggest that conditioning on a complete set of student, family, and peer characteristics explains a large portion of the observed difference in achievement between public and private schools. Across the 10 countries considered in this article, the mean private school effect is approximately zero, ranging between -0.2 and 0.2 standard deviations. The relative consistency of the findings is striking, given the diversity in the size and institutional features of the private sector across countries.

In March 2020, at the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States, the Southern California Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Consortium was formed. The consortium included physicians and coordinators from the 4 ECMO centers in San Diego County. Guidelines were created to ensure that ECMO was delivered equitably and in a resource effective manner across the county during the pandemic. A biomedical ethicist reviewed the guidelines to ensure ECMO use would provide maximal community benefit of this limited resource. The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency further incorporated the guidelines into its plans for the allocation of scarce resources. The consortium held weekly video conferences to review countywide ECMO capacity (including census and staffing), share data, and discuss clinical practices and difficult cases. Equipment exchanges between ECMO centers maximized regional capacity. From March 1 to November 30, 2020, consortium participants placed 97 patients on ECMO. No eligible patients were denied ECMO due to lack of resources or capacity. The Southern California ECMO Consortium may serve as a model for other communities seeking to optimize ECMO resources during the current COVID-19 or future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Findings from several international studies have shown that there is a significant relationship between literacy skills and socioeconomic status (SES). Research has also shown that schools differ considerably in their student outcomes, even after taking account of students' ability and family background. The context or learning environment of a school or classroom is an important determinant of the rate at which children learn. The literature has traditionally used school composition, particularly the mean SES of the school, as a proxy for context. Focus of Study: This study examines the relationships among school composition, several aspects of school and classroom context, and students' literacy skills in science. Population: The study uses data from the 2006 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) for 57 countries. PISA assesses the knowledge and life skills of 15-year-old youth as they approach the end of their compulsory period of schooling. Research Design: Secondary analyses of the data describe the socioeconomic gradient (the relationship between a student outcome and SES) and the school profile (the relationship between average school performance and school composition) using data for the United States as an example. The analyses demonstrate two important relationships between school composition and the socioeconomic gradient and distinguish between two types of segregation, referred to as horizontal and vertical segregation. The analyses discern the extent to which school composition and classroom and school context separately and jointly account for variation in student achievement. Findings: The results show that school composition is correlated with several aspects of school and classroom context and that these factors are associated with students' science literacy. Literacy performance is associated with the extent to which school systems are segregated "horizontally," based on the distribution among schools of students from differing SES backgrounds, and "vertically," due mainly to mechanisms that select students into different types of schools. Conclusions: An understanding of socioeconomic gradients and school profiles for a school system is critical to discerning whether reform efforts should be directed mainly at improving the performance of particular schools or at striving to alter policies and practices within all schools. Both horizontal and vertical segregation are associated with lower student outcomes; therefore, we require a better understanding of the mechanisms through which students are allocated to schools. When the correlation of school composition with a particular contextual variable is strong, it calls for policies aimed at increasing inclusion or differentially allocating school and classroom resources among schools serving students of differing status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatitis A (HA) is a low-incidence, non-endemic disease in Canada and the United States (US). However, a large difference in HA incidence between Canada and HA-endemic countries has made travel an important contributor to hepatitis A prevalence in Canada. There is also a (smaller) incidence differential between Canada and the US. Although the US has only moderately higher HA incidence, the volume of travel by Canadians to the US is many times higher than travel volume to endemic countries. Hence, travel to the US may constitute a source of low to moderate risk for Canadian travelers. To our knowledge, travel to the US has never been included as a potential risk factor for HA infection in Canadian epidemiologic analyses. The objective of this study was to use dynamic models to investigate the possible effects on hepatitis A incidence in Canada due to (1) implementing vaccination in the US, and (2) varying the volume of travel by Canadians to the US. Methods: We developed and analyzed age-structured compartmental models for the transmission and vaccination of hepatitis A, for both Canada and the US. Models were parameterized using data on seroprevalence, case reporting, and travel patterns. The potential effect of hepatitis A prevalence in the US on hepatitis A prevalence in Canada was captured through a term representing infection of Canadians due to travel in the US. Results: The model suggests that approximately 22% of HA cases in Canada in the mid 1990s may have been attributable to travel to the US. A universal vaccination programme that attained 70% coverage in young children in the US in the mid 1990s could have reduced Canadian incidence by 21% within 5 years. Conclusion: Since not all necessary data were available to parameterize the model, the results should be considered exploratory. However, the analysis shows that, under plausible assumptions, the US may be more important for determining HA prevalence in Canada than is currently supposed. As international travel continues to grow, making vaccination policies ever more relevant to populations beyond a country's borders, such multi-country models will most likely come into wider use as predictive aids for policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The indicators of parental involvement in children's education vary considerably across studies, most of which treat parental involvement as a unidimensional construct. This study identified four dimensions of parental involvement and assessed the relationship of each dimension with parental background and academic achievement for a large representative sample of U.S. middle school students. The findings provide little support for the conjecture that parents with low socioeconomic status are less involved in their children`s schooling than are parents with higher socioeconomic status. Furthermore, although schools varied somewhat in parental involvement associated with volunteering and attendance at meetings of parent-teacher organizations, they did not vary substantially in levels of involvement associated with home supervision, discussion of school-related activities, or parent-teacher communication. Yet the discussion of school-related activities at home had the strongest relationship with academic achievement. Parents' participation at school had a moderate effect on reading achievement, but a negligible effect on mathematics achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current techniques do not provide a reproducible, reliable, or valid basis for assessing clinical skills. The need for large-scale direct observation and standardized assessment procedures has precluded development of better techniques. A project using standardized patients presenting with common clinical problems evaluated the skills of 336 internal medicine residents at 14 New England residency programs in 1289 standardized patient and resident encounters. Results indicated that reproducible assessment of the clinical skills could be achieved in approximately 1 day of testing time using standardized patients. Resident performance improved with years of training, and senior residents and those from programs with stronger reputations performed better and were more homogeneous in ability. Low correlations between standardized-patient-based measures of clinical skills and other evaluation techniques suggested that standardized patients provided unique information. Reactions of residents and faculty to standardized-patient-based evaluations were favorable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposals for national assessments of educational performance provide opportunities to develop valuable social indicators, but they also pose important problems of methodology and interpretation. Researchers in the U.S. have emphasized the importance of analyzing and reporting indicator data at the school level, mainly because much of the variation in schooling outcomes is at the school level, and because findings at this level are particularly relevant to policy and practice. We do not refute this, but contend that indicator data should be analyzed and reported also at state and district levels. We present an analysis of British data that shows there is important variation at higher levels of the system, and that it is possible to examine whether this variation is related to national or district-level policies. The article discusses the issues involved in conducting analyses at higher levels. We identify three kinds of indicators: gross productivity, net productivity, and inequality. Our analysis indicates the degree of inter district variation in Great Britain on all of these measures and the extent to which organizational features of the districts' programs help explain that variation. Recommendations are made regarding the necessary features of any educational assessment if it is to produce useful social indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an overview of the reading materials of an internist. Importance of reading in the medical profession.

Abstract: The US Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) conducted a Research Needs Workshop, referred to as ReNeW, in June 2009. The information developed at this workshop will help OFES develop a plan for US fusion research during the ITER era, roughly the next two decades. The workshop was organized in five Themes, one of which was Harnessing Fusion Power (or Fusion Power for short). The top level goal of the Fusion Power Theme was to identify the research needed to develop the knowledge to design and build, with high confidence, robust and reliable systems that can convert fusion products to useful forms of energy in a reactor environment, including a self-sufficient supply of tritium fuel. Each Theme was subsequently subdivided into Panels to address specific topics. The Fusion Power Panel topics were: Fusion Fuel Cycle; Power Extraction; Materials Science; Safety and Environment; and Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Inspectability (RAMI). Here we present the key findings of the Fusion Power Theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A testing strategy and corresponding test plan have been presented for the two proposed US candidate breeder blankets: (1) a helium-cooled solid breeder concept with ferritic steel structure and Be neutron multiplier, but without a fully independent TBM and (2) a dual-coolant helium-cooled ferritic steel structure with self-cooled LiPb breeding zone that uses a flow channel insert as MHD and thermal insulator. Example test module designs and configuration choices for each line of ITER TBM are shown and discussed in the paper. In addition, near-term R&D items for decision-making on testing of both solid breeder and dual-coolant PbLi liquid breeder blanket concepts in ITER are identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Fusion nuclear technology (FNT) research in the United States encompasses many activities and requires expertise and capabilities in many different disciplines. The US Enabling Technology program is divided into several task areas, with aspects of magnet fusion energy (MFE) fusion nuclear technology being addressed mainly in the Plasma Chamber, Neutronics, Safety, Materials, Tritium and Plasma Facing Component Programs. These various programs work together to address key FNT topics, including support for the ITER basic machine and the ITER Test Blanket Module, support for domestic plasma experiments, and development of DEMO relevant material and technological systems for blankets, shields, and plasma facing components. In addition, two inertial fusion energy (IFE) research programs conducting FNT-related research for IFE are also described. While it is difficult to describe all these activities in adequate detail, this paper gives an overview of critical FNT activities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]