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Research using school discipline and infraction data has contributed to public policy conversations by helping elucidate the effects of and disproportionate experience of school disciplinary outcomes. This research brief presents results from an analysis of the public availability of such data from state departments of education. Findings suggest that while public availability of discipline data has not changed significantly over the past decade, states are more likely to disaggregate such data by subgroups. Unfortunately, such data remain generally focused on a small number of exclusionary practices rather than nonpunitive or nonexclusionary alternatives. Infraction data are slightly less available than discipline data and significantly less likely to be disaggregated by subgroup.

The Metropolitan Cooperative Library System in California is a group of 17 autonomous community libraries which have joined together to provide better services to their patrons. This survey of the reference resources and services of the system was conducted by personal interviews at each of the member libraries. The focus is upon reader oriented services, i.e., good reference and reading collections; staffs available to help library users; and, reciprocal borrowing privileges. Based on the information gathered through the interviews, recommendations are made for long and short range goals for future planning, with the purpose of increasing service to the public. (SG)

The relationship between the security of a state and the health of its people is complex and multifaceted. Fragile states present unique challenges to health care systems.

Considerable variety in how patients respond to treatments, driven by differences in their geno- and/ or phenotypes, calls for a more tailored approach. This is already happening, and will accelerate with developments in personalized medicine. However, its promise has not always translated into improvements in patient care due to the complexities involved. There are also concerns that advice for tests has been reversed, current tests can be costly, there is fragmentation of funding of care, and companies may seek high prices for new targeted drugs. There is a need to integrate current knowledge from a payer’s perspective to provide future guidance. Multiple findings including general considerations ; influence of pharmacogenomics on response and toxicity of drug therapies ; value of biomarker tests ; limitations and costs of tests ; and potentially high acquisition costs of new targeted therapies help to give guidance on potential ways forward for all stakeholder groups. Overall, personalized medicine has the potential to revolutionize care. However, current challenges and concerns need to be addressed to enhance its uptake and funding to benefit patients

Background: Recent expansion of the newborn screening panels has presented an interesting challenge to specialty care centers, especially the clinical genetics community. Some of the conditions in the core and secondary newborn screening panels have extremely variable clinical presentations; others are so rare that only a handful of newborns have been diagnosed with them to date (Region 4 Collaborative MS/MS project— http://region4genetics.org/msms_data_project/data_project_home.aspx ). Definition of some disorders is problematic—does continued abnormality of the screening analyte constitute diagnosis or is further testing necessary? Methods: A work group of the New York Mid-Atlantic Consortium for Genetic and Newborn Screening Services (region 2), one of seven regional collaboratives funded by the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration and administered by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (U22MC03956), has developed guidelines for the confirmation of diagnosis of the conditions in the newborn screening panels for use by the specialty care centers. Discussion: The diagnostic guidelines are a work in progress and are being reviewed and revised regularly as our understanding of the newborn screened disorders improves. The aim is to make it a relevant guide for specialty care physicians and other healthcare professionals in the diagnostic workup of these patients.

SUMMARY: This paper deals with taxonomic problems caused by the occurrence in nature of forms of Mallomonas species which are considered to be stages in development. They are called ‘imperfect’ forms; that is, forms that lack features that have been included in the diagnosis. These individuals might be described as separate species except when intermediate forms are noticed which link them with the perfect form of diagnosed species. The fine details of their scales are the same as in the perfect form.

SUMMARY: A new species of the torquata group of the genus Mallomonas is described by light and electron microscopes. A list is given of those members of the torquata group which have been published with illustrations obtained with the use of light and electron microscopes. A few of the torquata group which have been published only with light microscope illustrations are listed and discussed. It is considered that no clear decision about their nomenclature can be reached without an electron micrograph of the scales.

SUMMARY The microanatomy of Sphalerornuntis tetragona has been investigated in a preliminary way from wild material. The organism is shown to be heterokont with a short hind flagellum carrying a complex photoreceptor, of which a preliminary description is given. Both flagella are covered with scales identical with those on the subtending cell. These scales are in a single layer and their shape is highly characteristic. The origin of the scales from the cisternae of the single large Golgi body is demonstrated. Other cell components, notably the single curved chloroplast, the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria are illustrated only to the extent needed to confirm the essential correctness of the position of the organism within Chromophyta (sensu Christensen) and not within Chlorophyta (notably Prasinophyceae) t o which all other known monads with scaly flagella belong. The taxonomic implications of these findings are discussed in a preliminary way.

SYNOPSIS The species of the genus Mallomonas, classed amongst the algae, are small cells covered with characteristic silica scales and bristles. These are of considerable importance in the classification of the species, but only the coarser details are visible under the optical microscope. A direct electron microscope study yields much information about the fine markings on the scales, but the use of carbon replicas produces clearer, more easily interpreted micrographs, and permits the examination of the exterior of a complete organism. The scales and bristles of nine species, three of which are new, are described, and some variations in the markings within a single species are illustrated.

SUMMARY: Sphaleromantis tetragona Skuja, which has not been previously reported for Britain, is described with the use of the optical and the electron microscopes. The organism possesses an elaborate sheath which is not visible with the optical microscope; the sheath is probably made of organic material. Cell division and cyst formation are described. The cyst, not previously known, is described as seen with the optical microscope.

SUMMARY: Species of Mallomonas known with the electron microscope are arranged in a new scheme of classification, extending that previously proposed. A number of new species are described and some known ones examined for the first time with the electron microscope. The development and internal structure of the scales of certain species is described. The proposed scheme of classification was developed as a result of the high resolving power of the electron microscope which enabled us to interpret features which can be faintly seen with the optical microscope. The scheme can, we believe, be used where the optical microscope alone is available. The feature which we have selected as the basis of classification differ from those selected by workers with the optical microscope only.

This paper gives general observations on four species of Mallomonas. The chromatophore is single in all, but deeply divided into two lobes. The bristles are always hinged and readily movable. The following new features are described: in M. leboimii, the cyst; in M. lychenensis, the shredding of the scales and growth of small individuals; in M. teilingii, the stages leading to cyst development and in M. intermedia var. gesticulans var. nov. the structure of the scale and various growth and reproductive stages. Two internal parasites, ? Protozoa, are described, one on M. teilingii and one on M. intermedia var. gesticulans. These are of importance in destroying a population and in forming cysts which have been mistaken for Mallomonas cysts, one forming the basis of a new species of Mallomonas. SUMMARY 1 Certain aspects of the ecology, structure and life history of four species of Mallomonas are described. 2 M. intermedia Kisselew var. gesiiculans var. nov. and the cyst of M. leboimii Bourrelly are described. 3 The chromatophore in all four species is single and deeply lobed. 4 Several stages of the life cycle of M. intermedia var. gesticulans and M. lychenensis Conrad are described (some of them seem to be new), and also cyst formation in M, teilingii Conrad. 5 The tripartite scale and bristle attachment, and also the movement of bristles, are described for M. intermedia var. gesticulans. 6 The scale arrangement is described for M. intermedia var. gesticulans and M. lychenensis Conrad, and the shedding of the scales for M. lychenensis. 7 Two internal parasites are described, one affecting M. intermedia var. gesticulans and one affecting M, teilingii.

SUMMARY: Two species of Mallomonas (Chrysophyceae), M. insignis Penard and M. akrokomos Pascher ex Ruttner manuscript were investigated with optical and with electron microscopes. Carbon replicas have now made it possible to learn how the scales fit together in the armour and in particular how the tail, in each species, is constructed. Direct electron micrographs in conjunction with replicas have given much additional information about the scales. Developmental stages of M. insignis have been noted.

SUMMARY: This paper deals with variability within certain species of the genus Mallomonas as revealed under the electron microscope. New varieties and two new species are described (M. annulata; M. pillula), one of these having previously been considered a variety, partly through confusion. An attempt is made to consider different kinds of variability and to make a decision on what range can be tolerated within the limits of a species. The importance of examining the whole organism under the electron microscope as well as a few scales is now realized. It is desirable also to examine the flagellum since several species which have been described as belonging to the genus Mallomonas must be separated from it because they prove to have two flagella.

SUMMARY: The genus Mallomonopsis (Chrysomonadales) is discussed and five taxa are described from observations with the electron microscope: M. elliptica, M. elliptica var. salina, M. elliptica var. oviformis (formerly Mallomonas oviformis), M. peroneides sp.nov. and M. ouradion (formerly Mallomonas ouradion). The two flagella, which distinguish Mallomonopsis from Mallomonas, comprise a stout one with mastigonemes and a slender one which is smooth and has a photoceptor at its base. The silica scales are compared in detail and are shown to differ in construction as well as in appearance in the different species and are considered to provide the only satisfactory basis for specific separation.