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Introduction Most post-9/11 Veterans have completed at least 1 combat deployment—a known factor associated with adverse health outcomes. Such Veterans are known to have unmet health care needs, and the emergency department (ED) may serve as a safety net, yet little is known about whether combat status is associated with more frequent ED use. We sought to evaluate the relationship between combat status and frequency of ED use among post-9/11 Veterans and assess the most common reasons for ED visits. Materials and Methods This retrospective cohort study consisted of post-9/11 Veterans who enrolled in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) care between fiscal years (FYs) 2005 and 2015. Data were obtained from the VA Corporate Data Warehouse. Incidence rates for ED visits for combat and non-combat Veterans were compared from FY 2010 to 2019 using zero-inflated negative binomial regression. The most frequent reasons for ED visits were determined using International Classification of Diseases codes. This study was approved by the Stanford Institutional Review Board. Results Among 1.3 million Veterans included in analyses, 70.4% had deployed to a combat zone. The mean (SD) age of our cohort was 32.6 (5.0) years and 83.5% of Veterans were male. After controlling for other factors, combat Veterans had 1.84 times the rate of ED visits compared to non-combat Veterans (95% CI, 1.83-1.85). Only combat Veterans had a mental health-related ED visit (suicidal ideations) among the top 3 reasons for ED presentation. Conclusions Those who deployed to a combat zone had a significantly higher rate of ED use compared to those who did not. Further, mental health-related ED diagnoses appeared to be more prevalent in combat Veterans. These findings highlight the unique health care needs faced by combat Veterans and emphasize the importance of tailored interventions and support services for this specific population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article features Paul Edelman, a former teacher who develops the teacherspayteachers.com to bring experienced educators' battle-tested classroom materials to other teachers willing to pay for them. Putting course materials online is not a revolutionary idea--many other sites offer curriculum resources for teachers. What's new and different is the notion, expressed in the site's URL, that teachers can do something with their valuable materials at the end of the year besides chuck or give them away: Sell them. Because buyers can customize the products, rate them on the site, and send written feedback, Edelman maintains that TPT actually encourages better teaching materials, and ultimately, better teaching. In this article, the author describes how the idea came to Edelman and how the site has helped teachers find quality teaching materials.

Almost since the moment the Berlin Wall crumbled, American schools' interest in teaching Russian did likewise. But precisely because the numbers of Russian learners fell off sharply, Glastonbury and the few other schools that have stuck with the language are finding their students very much in demand. In this article, the author reports how despite of the reduced educational allocation for Russian language instruction, Glastonbury has continued to provide Russian lessons to their students through educational technology. The author also reports how students who know the language have gone on to wonderful careers in multinational corporations seeing investment opportunities in Russia.

In this article, the author features Todd Eric Allen, an acclaimed ballet dancer, who returns home to Florida's so-called Redneck Riviera and opens a magnet school for dance. When asked the inevitable question of what an internationally known ballet dancer is doing teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in Fort Walton Beach, he simply replies in a way that resonates more deeply--and more painfully--than it might for most people: He grew up here. The Northwest Florida Ballet Academie he founded is, in a way, his answer to all the boys who chased him home from dance school yelling and calling him names. Allen is gearing up for a different sort of performance: showing about 20 primary school boys and girls a basic ballet move. Here, the author describes how the students, in spite of the academy's emphasis on fine arts over academics, have scored remarkably well in Florida's all-important standardized tests. Allen, who serves as the school's artistic director and also teaches some classes, sees no contradiction in acing tests by focusing on the fine arts. His students' dancing improves their academics, he says, for the same reason he kept dancing in the face of epithets. "If you study ballet," the 38-year-old says, "you give a lot of hours to it and you become very disciplined. You take that into your schooling."

The article focuses on quantum technology innovations. Topics discussed include views of David Awschalom, physicist at the University of Chicago, in Illinois, on quantum information science, challenges in creating a quantum computer and views of Chris Monroe, physicist at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, on quantum particles.