Valerian Mader and his little draught ox

ObjectivesTo describe Action Schools! BC (AS! BC) from efficacy to scale-up.Participants/settingEducation and health system stakeholders and children in grades 4–6 from elementary schools in British Columbia, Canada.InterventionAt the provincial level,...

Several scholars have recently recommended a transition from focusing on Internet access (access divide) and Internet use (use divide) to the tangible outcomes of Internet use (outcome divide). This study evaluates the utility of this perspective in China for investigating digital inequalities across provinces. Despite having the world’s largest ICT market, digital disparities persist at the provincial, city, and county levels. This paper establishes an explanatory conceptual model of the digital divide (DD) at the provincial level and applies mapping through ArcGIS software to investigate spatial agglomeration. Spatial autocorrelation (Moran-i) is used to reveal high significance and multivariate analysis is used to investigate the key correlates. Among the provinces, a significant DD was found, which shows that provinces that are administratively sophisticated (such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandon, and Zhejiang) having a high digital development index score (IDI). Concomitantly, poverty-stricken regions and rural areas, mostly in southwest, central, and western China, have low IDI values. The factors found by this study to be most influential for improved ICT usage and outcomes are residential income (urban), e-government, literacy rate (secondary gross enrollment), and the working-age population. This indicates that socio-economic problems should be addressed first instead of institutional and innovational considerations. This study is the first to develop a conceptual model of the third-level digital divide (3-LDD) (ICT outcome) at the provincial level and utilize spatial analysis and mapping to supplement traditional methodologies.

This study examines the relationships among the school intellectual capital,the school innovation management and school competitiveness of the elementary and junior high schools, the brand-molding, and the differences of school competitiveness. The research subjects are the principals, directors, low leader and teachers of th Yilan County junior high and elementary schools. The research results are deducted from the analysis of the findings, the survey of the questionnaires, and the focus group interviews catering to the research purposes and research questions. The analysis results provide suggestions for future researches for the educational administrative institutes, for the junior high and elementary schools , and teachers. Based on previous researches, a research theoretical scaffolding was built with the focus group analysis technique. The questionnaire of the school intellectual capital,the school innovation management and school competitiveness the elementary and junior high schools, was used to draw random samples of the 1,006 principals, directors, low leader and teachers of the Yilan County. There were 886 effective questionnaires. The dada was analyzed by the Windows SPSS 18.0 statistics analysis software, analyzing the mean value and standard deviations of the view points of the subjects school intellectual capital,the school innovation management and school competitiveness the elementary and junior high schools. Analysis of variance and the Scheffe method were conducted to compare subjects from different school backgrounds and community backgrounds to decide if they have obvious differences upon school competitiveness, school intellectual capital,the school innovation management. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used in analyzing school intellectual capital,the school innovation management and the school competitiveness. With the analyzed data from the questionnaires along with the researches and the information acquired from the interviews, the following conclusions are formed after comprehensive discussions： 1. Schools intellectual capital, innovation management research for school competitive with the times, the value and applicability. 2. Schools intellectual capital, innovation management and development of the school competitive with theoretical support. 3. Master dissertation domestic capital for innovative business school research and competitive intelligence school, are taking a positive conclusion. 4. The elementary and junior high schools intellectual capital, innovative business schools, schools at all levels are competitive and are performance level. 5. Performance in terms of male educators school intellectual capital, senior and young teachers, principals, and full-time or subject teachers, new schools and a short history of the school educational personnel, representing a higher level of consciousness of other educational personnel. 6. Higher principals than other educational personnel at the school level of perceived innovation management. 7. The degree of intellectual capital, the higher the degree of innovative business schools, their schools more competitive good. 8. Elementary, city (towns and villages) Center Area and mountainous and remote areas, relationship capital, the higher the degree of schools' competitiveness of its high schools. 9. Educators 'Masters and Ph.D.' qualifications, the lower level of consciousness competitiveness. 10. The higher the degree of intellectual capital schools, their school innovation more favorable operating performance. 11. Young and senior education officers perceived a higher degree of innovative business school, rural areas schools, moderate size of the school, the school innovation more favorable operating performance. 12. The elementary and junior high schools intellectual capital of highly positive correlation between the level of competitiveness and schools at all levels. 13. The elementary and junior high schools innovation management of highly positive correlation between the level of competitiveness and schools at all levels. 14. The elementary and junior high schools at all levels of intellectual capital and innovation management schools reached a high positive correlation between the levels. 15. The elementary and junior high schools explanatory power of intellectual capital on highly competitive schools predictive power. 16. The elementary and junior high schools to explain the power of innovative business school is highly competitive predictive power. 17. The elementary and junior high schools to explain the power of intellectual capital is a highly innovative business schools predict. 18. The elementary and junior high schools relational model of intellectual capital, innovation management and competitiveness in school, school innovation management as a mediator. Another study based on the conclusions put forward concrete proposals to enable the competent educational authority, the national primary and secondary schools, teachers and researchers subsequent reference.

This paper estimates the impact of the conditional cash transfer program, Red de Oportunidades, on human capital outcomes in areas with different incidences of poverty: indigenous and rural non-indigenous areas of Panama. The analysis relies on data from the Living Standards Measurement Survey of 2008. It uses a propensity score matching technique to identify the impact of the program by replicating the selection criteria followed by the government. Our results show that the program increased school enrollment and was able to reduce child labor in both areas. In rural areas, the impact of the program on education outcomes was restricted to enrollment in middle school where we estimated an increase of 10.2 percentage points (pp). The program also increased the proportion of children that completed elementary school by 13.8 pp, although it did not have an impact on enrollment in elementary or high school. In indigenous areas, the impact of the program on education outcomes was restricted to enrollment in elementary school where we estimate an increase of 7.9 pp. Additionally, the results show that the program reduced child labor in children ages 12 to 15 in both areas: by 10.1 pp in rural areas and 15.8 pp in indigenous areas. With regard to preventive health care services, we found no evidence of impact on the numbers of visits to health care providers or the number of vaccines that children received. However, we estimated that the proportion of women who had a Papanicolau test screening because of the program increased by 11.7 pp in rural areas and 14.7 pp in indigenous areas. Sadly, we found that the program might also have led to an increase in the number of pregnancies in rural areas: the proportion of pregnant women in 2008 was 3.2 pp higher in the beneficiary group than in the control group, and the number of pregnancies since the beginning of the program increased by 0.44 among beneficiaries – despite the fact that the number of children ages 3 to 6, who were born before the implementation of the program, was not statistically different between the groups.

Background: Before the revolution, the gap between rural and urban areas of Iran was enormous and the socio-economic condition in rural areas was substantially different from the condition of their urban counterparts. Over the past 35 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has made a considerable investment in infrastructures to reduce inequalities between rural and urban areas. Therefore, we evaluated the regional status of health infrastructure development between 1976 and 2011 in rural and urban areas. Methods: We selected piped water, electricity, piped gas, bathrooms, and health houses as the investigated variables. We used the national population and housing data in Iran obtained in 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2011, as well as the health house census data. We constructed variables for consistent geographic areas in STATA software. The share of the variables was calculated at the county level and the mean and standard deviation was calculated at the provincial level. Results: The gap between rural and urban areas and between different regions of the country was great in access to piped water and electricity in 1976 before the Islamic revolution. In addition, the speed of health houses construction was very slow and households of urban and rural areas did not have piped gas, at all. Between the 1986 and 1996 census, infrastructure variables, except piped gas, experienced a good improvement, especially in rural areas. After the war, the ascending trend continued with a higher speed so that the gap between rural and urban areas decreased sharply. Conclusions: Although involved in a war with Iraq between 1980 and 1988, Iran had a great development in infrastructure variables. In that period, simultaneously several voluntary organizations began their activities in the rural areas; therefore, the sharp progress could be a result of these activities. Although the gap between rural and urban areas has decreased over time, inequity between provinces still is high and this issue calls for more attention.

If a modern inhabitant of Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, or Prague came to spend some time in Greece, they would observe expressions of religious life no longer seen in their own country, and, if they were young, they would not even have the memory of such things. The distinctive priestly garb is in evidence everywhere, people crossing themselves in front of churches, baptisms for nearly all children, church burials, and religious memorial services; these are some of the daily characteristics of religion in Greece. At patronal feasts icons are carried in procession through the streets, with local dignitaries and usually many politicians processing behind. At national day parades, the local bishop is always flanked by political figures on the podium. At Theophany (in the Orthodox Church, the Feast of the Baptism of Christ), when a cross is thrown into the sea, a lake, or a river during the service of the Great Blessing of the Waters, attracting huge crowds, literally every single political figure will be there — from the president of the democracy and the prime minister down to the last local dignitary, who at the end will always make a statement containing a forced link between politics and the meaning of the Feast. Whereas in the countries of central and northern Europe the word Easter generally no longer holds any meaning, in the cities and villages of Greece there is hardly a soul who does not go to church, if only for a short while, on Good Friday and Easter Saturday for the midnight service of the Resurrection.

A national House of Traditional Leaders and provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders have been established in terms of Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993. The role of Traditional leaders at provincial and national level in the National House of Traditional Leaders and the Provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders has not yet been clearly defined in South Africa.
 The National and Provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders experience various problems that hamper their functioning. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significant role of the National House of Traditional Leaders and the Provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders as Constitutional institutions at national and provincial levels and to make proposals regarding their future role and functioning.
 It can be expected of Constitutional institutions to function properly and effectively. 
 That is, however, not the case with the National House and the various provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders. In the rural areas are the poorest of the poor. This is a result not only of the former apartheid policy but also of a lack of interest by former governments to invest in rural areas. Attention and investment were focused mostly on the development of urban areas. People in rural areas had no voice. It should be ensured that their comments on legislation are for example taken seriously and are not discarded as a mere formality.
 The 1996 Constitution gives them this voice, but for the intended institutions to function properly, they must be effective.
 In this article a brief overview of the recognition of traditional institutions in the 1993 and 1996 Constitutions is given, whereafter the National House and Provinical Houses of Traditional Leaders are discussed with regard to their composition, role and the problems they experience in order to make recommendations with regard to their problems and future role.

Land use changes and conflicts have recently become a major issue in newly developed regions of Indonesia, since the implementation of regional autonomy policies, which put emphasis on decentralization of land use governance. In South Sulawesi, there are two main issues related to land use conflict. First is the invasion on protected forest land in rural areas, and second is the growing spread of urban development into rural areas which has created many types of conflicts over land use. The primary aim of this paper is to assess land use conflict within these two contexts in terms of unsuitable spatial location of existing land use with land use functions in the spatial regulation at two different scales: provincial and regency. At a provincial level, a careful detection was done at some selected area in South Sulawesi, while at regency level, some forms of conflict were assessed in the southern parts of South Sulawesi. The study employed integrated techniques of spatial data analyses and interviews, and the data were analyzed in geographic information systems (GIS). This study indicates that, at a provincial level significant areas of dry land agriculture, estate plantation, mining, and residential were found in the land designated as protected forest, and within GIS data base it can be identified a total areas of 2,075 ha, 677 ha, 1,415 ha, and 193 ha, respectively. At a regency level, conflicts occurred between existing land use and land functions in local spatial planning regulation, particularly at agriculture and urban-suburban areas. Results of interviews and questionnaires by purposive sampling with the community indicate several factors causing land use change include: a) low incomes of local community, b) increasing of price of basic needs, c) attempts to gain more revenue from land use, c) land use existed before spatial regulation being implemented, and d) ecological condition that forces farmers to practice shifting cultivation. The results of this study will give insights into how to design future land use policies both at provincial and regency levels in this region.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of mature plasma cells. Environmental risk factors identified for this malignancy, among others, include farming and exposure to pesticides. Using 3 independent population-based databases (the Canadian Cancer Registry, le Registre Québécois du Cancer, and Canadian Vital Statistics), this study analyzed patients' clinical characteristics and the incidence, mortality, and geographic distribution of MM cases in Canada during 1992-2015. In total, ~32,065 patients were identified, and 53.7% were male. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 70±12.1years. The average incidence rate in Canada was 54.29 cases per million individuals per year, and linear regression modeling showed a steady rise in the annual rate of 0.96 cases per million individuals per year. At the provincial level, Quebec and Ontario had significantly higher incidence rates than the rest of Canada. An analysis of individual municipalities and postal codes showed lower incidence rates in large metropolitan areas and in high-latitude regions of the country, whereas high incidence rates were observed in smaller municipalities and rural areas. Land use analysis demonstrated increased density of crop farms and agricultural industries in high-incidence areas. A comparison with the available data from 2011-2015 showed several consistent trends at provincial, municipal, and regional levels. These results provide a comprehensive analysis of the MM burden in Canada. Large metropolitan cities as well as high-latitude regions were associated with lower MM incidence. Higher incidence rates were noted in smaller cities and rural areas and were associated with increased density of agricultural facilities.

Purpose: This study was performed to examine the sanitary knowledge level and degree of HACCP (hazard analysis critical control point) practice in school culinary staff in order to provide basic information for improving hygiene of school meals. Methods: Exactly 305 culinary staff members were selected from elementary, middle, and high schools in 14 cities and rural areas, including whole administrative districts in Chungnam province. Surveyed schools were selected by convenience sampling, and one subject was selected randomly from each school. Surveys were taken by self-administered questionnaires developed by researchers and questionnaire were distributed and collected by postal mail. Results: Sanitary education administered by school dietitians to culinary staff was more frequent and longer in elementary schools, followed by middle and high schools (p ＜ 0.001). Sanitary knowledge level and degree of HACCP practice, except for a few CCP or CP of culinary staff, were highest in elementary schools and middle school followed by high schools (p ＜ 0.05), respectively. School class was negatively correlated with sanitary knowledge level of culinary staff (p ＜ 0.01), and frequency of sanitary education was positively correlated with sanitary knowledge level of culinary staff (p ＜ 0.01). Sanitary knowledge level of culinary staff was positively correlated with degree of HACCP practice (p ＜ 0.01). School class, daily frequency of meal service, work experience, rice washing machine, and total score of sanitary knowledge were significant variables influencing degree of HACCP practice in culinary staff. Conclusion: The above results show that the following points should be considered to improve hygiene of school meals. Sanitary education should be administered more frequently by school dietitians to culinary staff, especially to those in high schools, which showed the lowest sanitary knowledge level and degree of HACCP practice. In addition, facilities and equipment required for HACCP practice should be supported in small-sized elementary schools.

The authors sought to explore the availability of mental health supports within public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic by using survey data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. K-12 public schools collected in October-November 2021. The prevalence of 11 school-based mental health supports was examined within the sample (N=437 schools). Chi-square tests and adjusted logistic regression models were used to identify associations between school-level characteristics and mental health supports. School characteristics included level (elementary, middle, or high school), locale (city, town, suburb, or rural area), poverty level, having a full-time school nurse, and having a school-based health center. Universal mental health programs were more prevalent than more individualized and group-based supports (e.g., therapy groups); however, prevalence of certain mental health supports was low among schools (e.g., only 53% implemented schoolwide trauma-informed practices). Schools having middle to high levels of poverty or located in rural areas or towns and elementary schools and schools without a health infrastructure were less likely to implement mental health supports, even after analyses were adjusted for school-level characteristics. For example, compared with low-poverty schools, mid-poverty schools had lower odds of implementing prosocial skills training for students (adjusted OR [AOR]=0.49, 95% CI=0.27-0.88) and providing confidential mental health screening (AOR=0.42, 95% CI=0.22-0.79). Implementation levels of school-based mental health supports leave substantial room for improvement, and numerous disparities existed by school characteristics. Higher-poverty areas, schools in rural areas or towns, and elementary schools and schools without a health infrastructure may require assistance in ensuring equitable access to mental health supports.

Orderly and synergistic development of urban-rural integration based on evolutionary game model: A case study in the Jiangxi Province, China

Quality education is one of UNESCO’s goals for sustainable development, including in the science area. In order to achieve this goal, experimental activities are needed to produce dynamic, interactive, and more effective teaching. Brazil is a continental country with problems in assures education for all. In this work, with the aim of identifying student conceptions about the importance of practical classes, we performed a literature review and developed a research questionnaire for using with elementary school students from the municipal and state public schools in a Brazilian small town in the mountain region, located in the north-central region of the state of Bahia. The questionnaire contains subjective, semi-subjective and objective questions divided into categories: Profile (gender, age, grade) and Practical Classes (concept, importance, achievement). The questionnaire was applied to all elementary and high schools of the municipal and state public network located in this small town, together with the Free and Informed Consent Term (FICT), for the personal consent of students over 18 years of age, and in the case of underage students, the consent of parents and/or guardians. The results with the students from the final grades, respectively 9th year of 2 elementary schools in the urban area and 5 in the rural area, which made up all the elementary schools of this city at the time of the research, and students of the 3rd year of a high school revealed that they do miss practical class and know what is necessary to have those, despite their knowledge about of “what is a practical class” is not linked directly to disciplines such as biology. This work may contribute to stimulate the investment in laboratories at elementary schools not only in this small city, from a Northwestern state, one of the poorest countryside areas of Brazil, but also in other cities in developing countries. Thus, this may help them to improve their scientific ability to develop themselves thus improving the quality of life of their own citizens.

Substantial inequalities in healthcare utilisation are reported in Indonesia. To develop appropriate health policies and interventions, we need to better understand geographical patterns in inequalities and any contributing factors. This study investigates geographical inequalities in healthcare utilisation across 497 districts in Indonesia and whether compositional factors - wealth, education, health insurance - contribute to such inequalities. Using data from a nationally representative Basic Health Research survey, from 2013 (N = 694,625), we applied multilevel logistic regressions, adjusted for need, to estimate associations of compositional factors with outpatient and inpatient care utilisation and to assess variability at province and district levels. We observed large variation of healthcare utilisation at district level and smaller variations at province level. Cities had higher utilisation rates than rural districts. Compositional factors contributed only modestly to geographical inequalities in healthcare utilisation. The effect of compositional factors on individual healthcare utilisation was stronger in rural areas as compared to cities and other areas with higher population densities. Unexplained district variation was substantial, comparable to that associated with health insurance. In policies to tackle inequalities in healthcare utilisation, addressing geographical factors such as service availability and infrastructures may be as important as improving compositional factors like health insurance.

POST-COMMUNIST TRANSFORMATION CONFRONTS all countries involved with questions of state redefinition. The strains that can be generated by these questions have been most evident, and most examined, in states newly emerged from the Czechoslovak, Soviet or Yugoslav federations and/or those with significant ethnic minorities. However, even in relatively old and ethnically homogeneous states, these issues cannot be tackled without engaging varying understandings of the national identity and the relationship between state and nation.! This article investigates the conceptions of the nature and purpose of the state presented by party political elites in one such state, Hungary. Hungary's relative ethnic homogeneity means that there has been no significant practical contestation about which national group the post-communist state is 'of and for', in Brubaker's terms.2 That is, questions have not arisen about public language use, for example (as between the language of the state's titular nationality and another, minority, national group), as has occurred in several other post-communist countries with larger and less assimilated minorities. Similarly, Hungary's well-established status has obviated any need to excavate a little-known national past to legitimate the state's existence. As then Prime Minister Viktor Orbtin commented in 1999, Hungarians could 'forget the word, invent Hungary. Hungary was invented quite well enough a thousand years ago, by St Stephen himself'.3 However, a 'national question' has consistently been identified as the single dominant dimension of the country's post-communist party competition.4 Partly, this dimension comprises familiar left-right differences over secularism and progressivism versus religiosity and cultural and social traditionalism. However, in the Hungarian context, as in many others, these differences also encompass divergent understandings of the national identity and of the nature and value of nationhood in general." In this respect, elite political competition since 1990 in part continues a central debate of modem Hungarian political and intellectual life, about what the Hungarian nation is and what its relationship to the Hungarian state should be.6 Prior to the 1920 Treaty of Trianon this debate indeed partly concerned the relationship between Hungarians, groups by then identified as being of other nationalities, and the Hungarian state. Since the