Editor’s note: This event has been canceled as a result of the statewide response to the global coronavirus outbreak.

When can schools use federal funds to help students with disabilities prepare for life after special education? A new resource from the federal education department offers a road map.

Several of the already existing restrictions on U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' authority to waive federal education law deal with school funding.

Very carefully, experts say, while understanding that federal laws governing special education were not written with online education in mind.

Source: theweek.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
1. The Labor Department on Friday said that 20.5 million jobs were lost in April, and the unemployment rate climbed to 14.7 percent. The staggering report showed that a decade of job gains were wiped out in just one month. The report also notes that if it included workers classified as furloughed or temporarily laid off, "the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher than reported." The Labor Department's March report showed the unemployment rate climbing to 4.4 percent, from 3.5 percent in February. Weekly data previously showed that more than 33 million Americans have filed initial jobless claims over the course of seven weeks, a number that's equivalent to about 21 percent of the labor force. The ADP National Employment Report also said earlier this week that 20.2 million private sector jobs were lost from March to April. President Trump, who was live on Fox & Friends the moment the report was released, described the unemployment numbers as "fully expected" and "no surprise." [ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , The Washington Post ] 2. The Office of Special Counsel is recommending that ousted vaccine official Dr. Rick Bright be reinstated while it investigates his case, his lawyers announced Friday. Bright, while leading coronavirus vaccine development, was recently removed from his position as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Devel

Source: www.businessinsider.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Many superyacht crew members have been stuck on their vessels after lockdowns and travel bans were instated due to the coronavirus pandemic. We spoke to crew members who felt 'lucky' to be quarantined in such luxury digs — and grateful to still have jobs and secure wages. There is still plenty of work to be done, but workers also described trivia games, sundeck BBQs, and hot tub nights they're using to pass the time and bond with colleagues. Strict new hygiene and sanitation rules have also been put into place. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories . In late March, billionaire businessman David Geffen posted a shot on Instagram taken from his 452-foot superyacht Rising Sun. It was hastily deleted — but not before it had raised more than a few eyebrows and stirred discourse around the 1% and their self-isolation privilege. But it's not just the rare billionaire who is bunkering down on their yacht during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is another group of people for whom this is a new reality: the yacht's crews.  Before this crisis, there were around 80,000 people employed on pleasure craft around the globe, according to Laurence Lewis, CEO of YPI Crew, a yacht recruitment agency. As countries rushed to close their borders, ports were closed — and overnight, many found themselves unable to travel to get to or leave their yachts.  For many, a superyacht sounds like the dream scenario to see out lockdown. But is it?  "Ther

Just like grocery stores offer free food samples, technology companies, such as VoiceThread, offer free accounts for educators who want to try their products.

Education Week reporters Alyson Klein and Sean Cavanagh discuss the races to watch.

As I attended the annual Storage Visions conference a couple of weeks ago, I was struck again by just how much flash is being used in enterprise systems, and what the potential is for future uses going forward.

If you're avoiding commercial synch-and-backup services, but also think NAS is too complicated, Western Digital has just the product for you.

Former Newcastle defender Philippe Albert reveals the tactics of the English club's memorable victory against Barcelona in 1997.

An inside look (and listen) at a recent conversation Tom had with David Michael Slater about his new book, We're Doing It Wrong: 25 Ideas in Education That Just Don't Work--And How to Fix Them. In the book, Slater exposes some bad assumptions and makes the case for how good ideas have gone bad. Lis

Integrating technology requires a significant investment of time and money, but the resources are well-spent if the focus is improving instruction, writes educational consultant Matthew Lynch.

Many teachers are tapped to teach physics without prior training or experience. A new study explores a possible solution.

In rural Kentucky, teachers and students are awarded innovation grants to solve a challenge facing their community or classroom.

Even the best intentioned educators often harbor blind spots, write Re-Imagining Migration's Adam Strom and Veronica Boix Mansilla.

Nationally, at least five million children have at least one parent who is undocumented. Supporting those children should be a priority if the threat of a raid is not imminent, advocates said.

Like many in Angola, Tchipangu did not have the financial means for an education. But this changed when a company decided to invest in her.

Saudi Arabian equities slumped on concern the U.S. may take measures against the kingdom if it’s linked to the disappearance of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi.

United States President Donald Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes that he would added pressure on Saudi Arabia, vowing "severe punishment" should the kingdom’s leaders be linked to the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

An op-ed in Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news has warned of repercussions should the US impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has “blood on his hands” in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a top aide to Turkey’s president said, in his country’s first direct accusation against the power behind the Saudi throne.

Political power is a slippery thing. Even in an absolute monarchy, it can get away from you with one wrong move.

Finance ministers meeting in Brussels will try to push forward a legislative proposal for a levy on the European sales of companies with a global annual revenue of $853m or more, such as Facebook, Alphabet and Amazon.

Unable to host their senior capstone showcase as an on-campus celebration of their work with family and friends in attendance, graduating students in the Graphic Design undergraduate program in the Stuckeman School at Penn State are turning to Instagram to highlight their design work in a creative way to an even larger potential audience during the week of May 4-8.

A studio course for architecture and landscape architecture students in the Stuckeman School prepares students for the collaborative design process they will take part in once they begin careers in their respective fields by blurring the boundaries between the disciplines in the college setting.

There's something distinctly un-sexy about the BFA Index by sector.

There’s always been massive inequality in South Africa, but those who have the money and power still aren’t getting it, says Carmen Williams.

The future choices made by airlines matter a great deal for the oil market, say Liam Denning and Brooke Sutherland.

Where businesses are fighting to survive, agility is the name of the game, says Mignon Reynecke.

Strategic partnerships could be used to create win-win outcomes, says Sifiso Skenjana.

Trees, shrubs and woody vines are among the top food sources for honey bees in urban environments, according to an international team of researchers. By using honey bees housed in rooftop apiaries in Philadelphia, the researchers identified the plant species from which the honey bees collected most of their food, and tracked how these food resources changed from spring to fall. The findings may be useful to homeowners, beekeepers and urban land managers who wish to sustain honey bees and other bee and pollinator species.

A $450,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut Research will aid researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences as they explore the potential to empower women farmers in northern Ghana through peanut production.

Burundi is back in the spotlight of the world’s media and the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. As recently as two years ago, the country was considered a success story in peacebuilding circles, but now the news is firmly of a negative variety. The UN is trying to prevent a new civil war in a region still haunted by the Rwandan genocide. How did success so quickly turn to failure?

Federal law requires states to report student test scores in achievement levels, but leaders in the Golden State want to take a different approach.

If we continue to focus on student growth and improvement as learners, keep track of that progress, and watch its impact on standard test results, will we be able to know if what we are doing is helping students develop as learners and thinkers.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess the safety of early oral switch (EOS) prior to 14 days for low-risk Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (LR-SAB), which is the primary treatment strategy employed at our institution. Usually recommended therapy is 14 days of intravenous (IV) antibiotics.

Methods. All patients with SAB at our hospital were identified between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018. Those meeting low-risk criteria (healthcare-associated, no evidence of deep infection or demonstrated involvement of prosthetic material, and no further positive blood cultures after 72-hours) were included in the study. The primary outcome was occurrence of a SAB-related complication within 90 days.

Results. There were 469 SAB episodes during the study period, 100 (21%) of whom met inclusion criteria. EOS was performed in 84 patients. In this group, line infection was the source in 79%, methicillin-susceptible S. aureus caused 95% of SABs and 74% of patients received IV flucloxacillin. The median duration of IV and oral antibiotics in the EOS group was 5 (IQR 4-6) and 10 days (IQR 9-14), respectively. Seventy-one percent of patients received flucloxacillin as their EOS agent. Overall, 86% of oral step-down therapy was with beta-lactams. One patient (1%) undergoing EOS had SAB relapse within 90 days. No deaths attributable to SAB occurred within 90 days.

Conclusions. In this low MRSA prevalence LR-SAB cohort, EOS was associated with a low incidence of SAB-related complications. This was achieved with oral beta-lactam therapy in most patients. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Since 2012, single low dose of primaquine (SLDPQ, 0.25mg/kg) has been recommended with artemisinin-based combination therapies, as first-line treatment of acute uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, to interrupt its transmission, especially in low transmission settings of multidrug, including artemisinin, resistance. Policy makers in Cambodia have been reluctant to implement this recommendation due to primaquine safety concerns and lack of data on its efficacy.

In this randomized controlled trial, 109 Cambodians with acute uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria received dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) alone or combined with SLDPQ on the first treatment day. Transmission-blocking efficacy of SLDPQ was evaluated on Days 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28 and recrudescence by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) (gametocyte prevalence) and membrane-feeding assays with Anopheles minimus mosquitoes (gametocyte infectivity). Without the influence of recrudescent infections, DP+SLDPQ reduced gametocyte carriage 3 fold compared to DP. Of 48 patients tested on Day 0, only three patients were infectious to mosquitoes (~6%). Post-treatment, three patients were infectious: on D14 (3.5%, 1/29), and on the first and seventh day of recrudescence (8.3%, 1/12 for each); this overall low infectivity precluded our ability to assess its transmission blocking efficacy.

Our study confirms effective gametocyte clearance of SLDPQ when combined with DP in multidrug resistant P. falciparum and the negative impact of recrudescent infections due to poor DP efficacy. Artesunate-mefloquine (ASMQ) has replaced DP and ASMQ-SLDPQ has been deployed to treat all P. falciparum symptomatic patients to further support the elimination of multidrug resistant P. falciparum in Cambodia.

Background. CLSI and EUCAST susceptibility breakpoints for voriconazole and C. albicans differ by one dilution (≤0.125 and ≤0.06 mg/l, respectively) whereas the epidemiological cutoff values (ECOFF/ECV) with both methodologies are the same (0.03 mg/L). We therefore determined the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) breakpoints of voriconazole against C. albicans for both methodologies with an in vitro PK/PD model, which was validated using existing animal PK/PD data.

Methods. Four clinical wild-type and non-wild-type C. albicans isolates (voriconazole MICs 0.008-0.125 mg/l) were tested in an in vitro PK/PD model. For validation purposes, mouse PK were simulated and in vitro PD were compared with in vivo outcome. Human PK were simulated and the exposure-effect relationship fAUC_0-24/MIC was described for EUCAST and CLSI24/48h methods. PK/PD breakpoints were determined using the fAUC_0-24/MIC associated with half-maximal activity (EI₅₀) and Monte Carlo simulation analysis.

Results. The in vitro 24h-PD EI₅₀ of voriconazole against C. albicans were 2.5-5 (1.5-17) fAUC/MIC. However, the 72h-PD were higher, 133 (51-347) fAUC/MIC for EUCAST and 94 (35-252) fAUC/MIC for CLSI. The mean (95% confidence interval) probability of target attainment (PTA) was 100(95-100)%, 97(72-100)%, 83(35-99)%, and 49(8-91)% and 100(97-100)%, 99(85-100)%, 91(52-100)% and 68(17-96)% for EUCAST and CLSI MICs 0.03, 0.06, 0.125, and 0.25 mg/L, respectively. Significantly, >95% PTAs were found for EUCAST/CLSI MICs ≤0.03 mg/ll. For MICs 0.06-0.125 mg/l trough levels 1-4 mg/ll would be required.

Conclusion. A PK/PD breakpoint of C. albicans voriconazole at the ECOFF/ECV of 0.03 mg/L was determined for both EUCAST/CLSI methods, indicating the need for breakpoint harmonization for the reference methodologies.

The human diseases caused by the fungal pathogens Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii are associated with high indices of mortality, and toxic and/or cost-prohibitive therapeutic protocols. The need for affordable antifungals to combat cryptococcal disease is unquestionable. Previous studies suggested benzimidazoles as promising anti-cryptococcal agents combining low cost and high antifungal efficacy, but their therapeutic potential has not been demonstrated so far. In this study, we investigated the antifungal potential of fenbendazole, the most effective anti-cryptococcal benzimidazole. Fenbendazole was inhibitory against 17 different isolates of C. neoformans and C. gattii at a low concentration. The mechanism of anti-cryptococcal activity of fenbendazole involved microtubule disorganization, as previously described for human parasites. In combination with fenbendazole, the concentrations of the standard antifungal amphotericin B required to control cryptococcal growth were lower than those required when this antifungal was used alone. Fenbendazole was not toxic to mammalian cells. During macrophage infection, the anti-cryptococcal effects of fenbendazole included inhibition of intracellular proliferation rates and reduced phagocytic escape through vomocytosis. Fenbendazole deeply affected the cryptococcal capsule. In a mice model of cryptococcosis, the efficacy of fenbendazole to control animal mortality was similar to that observed for amphotericin B. These results indicate that fenbendazole is a promising candidate for the future development of an efficient and affordable therapeutic tool to combat cryptococcosis.

Pharmacokinetic changes are often seen in patients with severe infections. Administration by continuous infusion has been suggested to optimize antibiotic exposure and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) target attainment for β-lactams. In an observational study, unbound piperacillin concentrations (n=196) were assessed in 78 critically ill patients following continuous infusion of piperacillin/tazobactam (ratio 8:1). The initial dose of 8, 12 or 16 g (piperacillin component) was determined by individual creatinine clearance (CRCL). Piperacillin concentrations were compared to the EUCAST clinical breakpoint MIC for Pseudomonas aeruginosa (16 mg/L), and the following PK/PD targets were evaluated: 100% fT>1xMIC and 100% fT>4xMIC. A population pharmacokinetic model was developed using NONMEM 7.4.3 consisting of a one-compartment disposition model with linear elimination separated into non-renal and renal (linearly increasing with patient CRCL) clearances. Target attainment was predicted and visualized for all individuals based on the utilized CRCL dosing algorithm. The target of 100% fT>1xMIC was achieved for all patients based on the administered dose, but few patients achieved the target of 100% fT>4xMIC. Probability of target attainment for a simulated cohort of patients showed, that increasing the daily dose by 4 g increments (piperacillin component) did not result in substantially improved target attainment for the 100% fT>4xMIC target. To conclude, in patients with high CRCL combined with high-MIC bacterial infections, even a CI regimen with a daily dose of 24 g may be insufficient to achieve therapeutic concentrations.