Immune cells gobble up healthy but idle brain cells

USE it or lose it: a class of immune cell demolishes idle circuits and connections in the brain, even a healthy one. Understanding more about the process could help prevent the onset of degenerative brain diseases.

Until now, microglia have been dismissed as simple immune cells that do little more than protect brain cells from damage and tidy up in the aftermath of disease.

"The idea they can clean up brain debris has been well established in studies of brain disease," says http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site2674/mainpageS2674P0.html Beth Stevens of Boston Children's Hospital. "But now, even without damage, we've found them to respond to subtle changes in synaptic function."

Stevens and her colleagues manipulated mice to make one eye more active than the other, creating a disparity in activity between the two neural circuits linking the eyes to the brain.

With the help of dyes to distinguish the signals from the left and right eyes, they saw in post-mortems that microglia had preferentially pruned the connections, or synapses, from circuits serving the underactive eye. Synapses were marked out for destruction through labelling with an immune chemical called C3 (Neuron, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.03/026).

"We think C3 is an 'eat me' signal," says Stevens.

Finding out why some synapses but not others are earmarked for elimination could point to ways of preventing degenerative brain diseases.

"Early synapse loss is a feature of many neurodegenerative diseases," says Stevens. "So there's lots of excitement about finding out what the trigger is."

"Microglia were considered to be just garbage collectors," says Francesca Peri of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. "They are turning out to be far more interesting - but before we can understand their role in disease, we need to understand what these cells do normally."

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

pepper spraying cop pepper spraying cop somaya reece juelz santana juelz santana greg halman greg halman

NCTQ Study of Assessment in Teacher Preparation Courses Flunks

?

In May, 2012, the National Council on Teacher Quality?(NCTQ)?issued a report entitled: What Teacher Education Programs Teach About K ? 12 Assessment. ? Anthony Cody mentioned this study in a recent post entitled?Payola Policy:?NCTQ Prepares its Hit on Schools of Education.

The title intrigued me, so I went over to the NCTQ website, and read and studied the report which is about what education courses teach about assessment. ?This post is my review of the NCTQ study, and I hope after you finish reading the post you will realize how bogus reports like these are, especially given the quality of research that professors of education have been doing for decades. ?The study reviewed here would never have been published in a reputable journal of research in education, not only in the U.S., but in any other country in the world. ? I?ll make it clear in this post why I make this claim.

The NCTQ

The National Council on Teacher Quality is conservative think-tank that publishes reports on education that the council claims to be research studies in the field of education. ?The subhead for the group on their website is: ?A research and policy group working to ensure that every child has an effective teacher.? ?The NCTQ has a staff of 18, an advisory group of 36 people, and a 13 member board of directors. ? The individuals on these various committees come from the corporate, educational, and consulting worlds. ?Some of the organizations represented include:?Pearson Publishing, Teach Plus, KIPP Schools, the Hoover Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Core Knowledge, Piton Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Thomas Fordham Foundation, N.F.L Players Association, B & D Consulting, Students First, Abell Foundation, Teach for America, New Schools Venture Fund, and others including a few universities and two public schools.

Many of these groups have worked very hard to denigrate teachers, insist that the Common Core State Standards be adopted by all states, believe that teaching and learning should be data-driven, and that student achievement data on high-stakes tests should be used to make decisions about student, teacher and principal effectiveness, and school success.

The NCTQ publishes reports with titles such as Building Better Teachers, Student Teaching in the Nation, and the most recent one What Prep Programs Teach About Assessment.

According to Anthony Cody?s post, the NCTQ was founded by the Thomas Fordham Institute, a conservative think-tank that publishes non-peer reviewed reports on education, and has an appalling opinion of teacher education institutions. And of course, the Thomas Fordham Foundation has membership on the NCTQ Board of Directors.

I?ve reviewed two reports previously published by the Thomas Fordham Institute. ?You can read my reviews of these reports here:

In each report I found the methodology weak, the results misleading, and both reports were published as non-peer reviewed research. ?The NCGQ study on assessment in teacher education uses the same methodology as the Fordham studies. ?Even with such a poorly designed study and unreliable data,?think tanks get away with publishing their works in this fashion, and because of the financial resources, and the identities of their funding agencies, they carry a good deal of clout. ?The Fordham Foundation and the NCTQ are two such foundations.

Is teacher education going to take hit? ?Probably so. ?The NCTQ organization has the resources and the connections to make trouble for university teacher education programs. ?There is a movement to hold teacher education institutions accountable for the achievement test scores and gains that their graduates produce in their students once they begin teaching. ?As absurd as this sounds, the U.S. Secretary of Education is supportive of such an idea. ?Organizations such as NCTQ are on the accountability bandwagon, and carry weight at the the policy level in education.

What Teacher Preparation Programs Teach About K-12 Assessment

This report was released in May, 2012, and according to the preface of the report, it provides information ?on the preparation provided to teacher candidates from teacher training programs?so that they can fully use assessment data to improve classroom instruction.? ?The results reported in the final document were based on reading and analyzing 450 syllabi received from 98 institutions of higher education representing 180 teacher preparation programs.

Why This Study?: The First Disagreement

The purpose of the study was to find out what professors in teacher education are teaching their students about assessment so that when they begin teaching in the classroom they will be able to use assessment data to improve classroom instruction.

To rationalize their study, the NCTQ authors, Julie Greenberg, and Kate Walsh impress upon the reader the importance of assessment in today?s schools, and the need for prospective teachers to know how to use assessment in their future classrooms. ?The authors say,

Effective instruction requires that teachers have a well grounded sense of student proficiency in order to make a daunting number of ?instructional decisions, such as making snap judgments in the midst of interactions with students, and planning lessons,?be they for the next day, the next unit or the entire school year.

The purpose and rationale for this study was not based on previous research, or a review of the literature. ?The authors allotted less than one page on ?previous research.? ?Three references were cited. ?One of the references they cited is research done by Black and Wiliam, two of the leading assessment researchers in the field of education. ?The authors of the NCTQ study rejected the Black and Wiliam research,which is extensive, published in peer-reviewed journals, and highly cited, BECAUSE the NCTQ researchers said that the research was old (1998), and back then education research had weaker designs, and THEREFORE those studies are suspect.

The researchers fail to tell the reader that Black and Wiliam are leading research proponents of formative assessment as a way to improve instruction and learning and have been publishing research for decades. ?Even now. And if they were concerned that the studies were old (>1998), all they have to do is a Google search, or link to Dr. Black?s or Dr.Wiliam?s site for their research on assessment.

Greenberg and Walsh claim that education studies prior to 1998 used weaker designs. ?I did my Ph.D. work in the late 1960?s in science education at The Ohio State University, and let me tell you the research designs and methodologies that my colleagues in graduate school, and in the literature used in their research were quite robust, not weak. ?The research in education is compelling, and its a testament to the incompetence or bias of Greenberg and Walsh that they couldn?t cite more than three studies.

The rationale of ?the NCTQ study is rooted in political and ideological beliefs in schooling rather than one that builds upon previous research. ?For example they make this claim:

The evidence for the connection between using data to drive instruction and student performance is emerging, just as the practice of using data is emerging.

There is no previous research cited in their report that helps establish this claim, and help us see how their work is connected to other scholars. ?Instead they were cherry picking any research that would support their view, or downplaying or dismissing research that might have questioned their intentions.

Biased Questions?

The researchers were bent on showing that teacher educators weren?t doing the job of teaching their students about assessment. ?And they undertook this task with the clarion call that there is new focus on ?data driven instruction,? and they cite examples of schools that prove that using data to drive instruction will reduce the achievement gap among low-income and high-income students. ?And sure enough, they cite two Broad Prize Winners, Charlotte-Mechklenburg Schools, NC, and Adline Independent Schools, TX as examples. Teachers in these schools, according to Greenberg and Walsh, were trained in using data to drive instruction, and that is what led to such positive test results. And by the way, the Broad Foundation is a major funding source for NCTQ.

But here is the problem. ?Instead of trying to document or uncover what is being taught about assessment in teacher preparation programs, the researchers decided what they thought was important and then go and compare what teacher preparation program are doing compared to their own ideas. ?The researchers started with three categories of assessment that they thought ought to be included in teacher prep programs. ?They identified three categories, which turned into their research questions as follows:

• How adequately does coursework address Assessment Literacy?
• How adequately does teacher preparation program coursework address Analytic Skills?
• How adequately does teacher preparation program coursework address Instructional Decision Making?

You might think this is legitimate. ?But it is not really helping with the inquiry. ?If the researchers were really interested in making a contribution to the field they would have approached the problem inductively. ?That is, they would have worked their way up from the syllabi to generalizations that they could make based on their observations of the syllabi.

The inductive method is a scientific method that educators have used for decades to make generalizations about educational phenomena, such as the types of questions that teachers ask during class. ?In this case, data analysis would have been determined by multiple readings (of the syllabi) and interpretations of the raw data. ?Because the researchers would be looking for evidence of assessment in the syllabi, they would identify specific parts of the syllabi and label these parts to create categories (e.g. diagnostic methods, formative techniques, using computers to analyse test data, etc.)

The point is that instead of starting with the three categories that the researchers at NCTQ thought should be taught in teacher preparation programs, they could have uncovered what the syllabi reveal about the teaching of assessment, and report that data. ?There is more to say about this kind of research, such as teaching the researchers how to code, the use of computer programs to make the task easier, assessing the trustworthiness of the data, and reporting the findings. ?We?ll leave that for another day.

According to the authors, and the opionions of their experts in the field, teacher education institutions have not figured out what knowledge a new teacher needs in order to enter a classroom with the ability to use data to improve classroom instruction. ?Their review of the literature certainly didn?t lead them to this opinion. ?They have no basis for saying this, other than they can, and it supports the basis for their study.

The purpose of their study was to show that teacher preparation program coursework does not adequately prepare students to use assessment methods with K-12 students. ?Their study does not shed new light on the teaching of assessment in teacher prep, but it does shed light on how research can be biased from the start by asking questions based on your beliefs and ideologies, rather than research in the field.

The Study Sample: Found Wanting

According to the report, NCTQ obtained course syllabi from 180 teacher education programs in 98 institutions of higher education in 30 states. ?Using the open records requests, the reporters used the states? course syllabi from colleges that first responded to their request. ?The ?researchers? don?t tell us if they actually contacted any of these institutions, tried to talk with any of the professors, or perhaps visit a few institutions so that they could interview not only professors, but students, and cooperating teachers with whom these institutions worked. ?None of this was done. ?Or at least it wasn?t stated in the their report. ?They got their data by requiring the institutions to hand over their course syllabi.

All of the data is embedded in the course syllabi they received. ?I don?t know about you, but course syllabi vary from one course to another. ?Some professors create very detailed course syllabi, have well developed websites, use course software such as Blackboard,?textbooks, and online data bases. ?All of these sources should have been examined if the NCQT researchers wanted get a full picture of these courses. ?This was not done.

They only looked at the paper they received. ?On the basis of this alone, the data that the researchers used for this report is incomplete. ?Syllabi are no doubt inconsistent in design and scope from one institution to the next. ?And relying solely on a paper syllabus does the research study an injustice, and makes the analysis and conclusions invalid.

The syllabi they selected had to have the word ?assessment? in the course title, or it had to be a methods course, e.g. science methods. ?Other syllabi were thrown out, and not analyzed. Somehow, the researchers perused the course syllabi looking for ?evidence? or lack of for assessment by reading the objectives, lectures (if they were included in the syllabi), assignments, textbooks and readings. ?Whether the researchers actually looked at the texts is unknown. ?They said they looked at the publishers? descriptions of the content of the required texts. ?And then they looked for ?capstone projects,? such as work samples or portfolios.

The sample that the researchers report in their study does NOT represent teacher preparation institutions in the U.S. ?It only represents the 98 institutions that responded to the open records request of NCTQ. ?Their ?finding? can not be generalized beyond the sample they studied. ?I don?t trust the sample that they are basing their findings on. ?For one thing, there didn?t seem to be an open two-way exchange between the NCTQ and the universities cited in the report. ?How do we know if the syllabi the researchers received is a true record of the course syllabi for these teacher prep institutions.

It?s possible that NCTQ is making decisions for some universities based on one syllabus, and for others using multiple syllabi. ?We have no idea, however, because the researchers did not report this in their report. ?The universities in the study have been short changed, and even worse have been lumped together in a report that paints a negative picture of teacher preparation programs.

If you take a look online at examples of teacher education programs, you?ll find that if they are graduate level teacher preparation programs leading to a masters degree and certification, there are at least 10 courses that should be examined to evaluate the coursework. ?At the undergraduate level, there are as many as 19 courses that should be evaluated. ?The researchers at NCTQ failed in giving a real picture of a university?s teacher prep program if they only reviewed a few courses.

Methodology

The researchers over-laid three rubrics on the course syllabi to find out to what extent professors were teaching (1) assessment literacy (2) analytic skills and (3) instructional decision making. ? Assessment literacy meant searching the syllabi for key words including diagnostic, formative and summative. ?Analytic skills meant looking for key words such as dissect, describe or display data from assessment. ?Instructional decision-making meant looking for evidence that teacher educators helped their students use assessment data to drive instruction.

The rubrics were very simple using a Likert measuring scale from ?0? to ?4.? ?A ?0? meant there was no evidence, while a ?4? meant the criteria were met at a high degree. ?For example to evaluate the syllabi for assessment literacy, the scale used was as follows (you can view all of the rubrics here):

0?There is no or almost no?instruction or practice?on the various types of?assessment (inadequate)

1?Instruction on the various?types of assessment is?very limited and there is?no or almost no practice (slightly adequate)

2?Case 1: The scope of Instruction on the various types of assessment is not comprehensive and practice is very limited to adequate. ?OR?Case 2: The scope of instruction on the various types of assessment is comprehensive, but practice is very limited or limited.

3?The scope of instruction on various types of assessment is comprehensive and there is adequate practice.

4?The scope of instruction on the various types of assessment is comprehensive, including concepts such as ?validity? and ?reliability,? and there is adequate practice ( adequate)

The researchers rated each syllabus on three criteria and judged each criteria as inadequate (0)to adequate (4) using the 0 ? 4 point scale. ?They were then able average scores on the syllabi from each teacher education program. ?Presumably either the two researchers did the actual rating, or they hired raters. ?Whether they did or not, the researchers failed to provide data on inter-rater reliability. ?We have to question the trustworthiness of the data.

As mentioned above, NCTQ started with a biased set of questions, and used these questions to analyze the syllabi of the teacher prep coursework. ?On face value, the findings only reflect their own biases and way of assuming how and what teacher prep courses should include about assessment.

In this study, 455 courses were evaluated, anywhere from one to six courses per institution. The only average mentioned was that 2.5 courses per program reference assessment. ?This statistic is difficult to believe given our knowledge of teacher education courses. ?If they looked at methods courses, the chances are very high that assessment was included in these courses. ?I don?t know if these researchers examined course syllabi for internships or student teaching, but all of these experiences would have included assessment strategies as part of the experience. ?So you have wonder about the validity of their data.

Results: ?Did the Teacher Education Programs Reach the Bar

The results of this study have to be examined cautiously and with reluctance. ?In my own opinion, the data that was collected in this study is inadequate to answer the questions posed in the study. ?Firstly, the institutions did not directly participate in the study. ?There is no evidence that there was any attempt to contact the deans of these colleges, or department heads to ask them to provide additional documentation on their teacher education courses. ?Nor is there evidence that the researchers made any attempt to seek out course websites that would have included more details and content of the courses.

It seems to me that the researchers wanted to limit the data, yet make sweeping statements about teacher education programs, and make recommendations based on such an inadequate study.

According to the researchers, ?the bar to earn a passing rating in this study was set low.? ?They said they did this to give institutions the benefit of the doubt. ?Actually, it was a way out for the researchers because they were dealing with very limited data, a few course syllabi from major institutions of higher education, and they were going to use this meager data to make decisions about how assessment was being taught to future teachers.

According to this study only 3% of teacher preparation programs adequately teach the content of assessment in their courses. ?But actually all they can say is that in their opinion only 3% of the syllabi they received reflected this value. ?And given my critiques, this statistic has no meaning in the reality of teacher prep.

The sample they used in their study was biased from the start. ?Why did these universities respond to the open records request? ?Why did universities refuse to respond to the open records request? ?Did the researchers treat the universities with any respect, and try and open up a dialog on teacher preparation content?

One More Thing

There are quality teacher education programs in the United States. ?Linda Darling-Hammond, in her book Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs, documents seven highly successful teacher education programs, and discusses the way in which teacher education has changed to create more clinically based teacher education programs.

The researchers of the NTCQ study are stuck in a 19th-century model of teaching, and simply want to hold accountable teacher education institutions to the principles and practices that teacher education rocketed through years ago.

But at the same time, the NTCQ study cleverly uses percentages and numbers in such a way to convince some that teacher education programs are inadequate, and need to be regulated in ways that satisfy the researchers? interests. ?If you look at their sources of funding, and the names of individuals who sit on their boards, you will see the conservative agenda in action in this organization.

My advice is to call them to task on this study. ?Tell them that their study in no ways sheds any light on how assessment is taught in teacher education programs. ?The only light that is shed is on their own deficiencies as a research organization.

What do you think about the NTCQ study? ?Do think their study is to be taken as a valuable contribution to the literature of teacher education?

?

?

?

About?Jack Hassard

Jack Hassard is a former high school science teacher and Professor Emeritus of Science Education, Georgia State University. While at Georgia State he was coordinator of science education, and was involved in the development of several science teacher education programs, including the design & implementation of TEEMS, a clinically based masters program for mathematics, science, and engineering majors. He was director of the Global Thinking Project, an Internet-based environmental program linking schools between Russia and U.S.A at first, and then many countries around the world. He also conducted seminars around the country on science teaching, inquiry and technology for the Bureau of Education and Research and for school districts' staff development programs. He is author of more than 20 books including The Whole Cosmos Catalog of Science, Science Experiences, Adventures in Geology, and most recently The Art of Teaching Science, 2nd Edition and Science as Inquiry, 2nd Edition.

http://www.artofteachingscience.org

Tags: Assessment, data driven instruction, National Council for Teacher Quality, NCTQ, qualitative research, Teacher Ed programs

rupaul drag race walking dead comic kratom broncos broncos lehigh walking dead season finale

China border towns hope for boom, face backlash

In this May 26, 2012 photo, Yang Shihan, 20-year-old grandson of the business's owner of the Yang family's car parts and hardware store attends a customer in Houqiao, near the Myanmar border, Yunnan Province, China. Many still expect that the lifting of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Myanmar will boost trade from China's industrial regions through Ruili and other border areas in Yunnan, a mostly mountainous province that has close ties with all its Southeast Asian neighbors. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this May 26, 2012 photo, Yang Shihan, 20-year-old grandson of the business's owner of the Yang family's car parts and hardware store attends a customer in Houqiao, near the Myanmar border, Yunnan Province, China. Many still expect that the lifting of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Myanmar will boost trade from China's industrial regions through Ruili and other border areas in Yunnan, a mostly mountainous province that has close ties with all its Southeast Asian neighbors. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this May 26, 2012 photo, a man and a woman ride a motorcycle past deforested and tree-planted mountain in Houqiao, near Myanmar border, Yunnan Province, China. Many still expect that the lifting of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Myanmar will boost trade from China's industrial regions through Ruili and other border areas in Yunnan, a mostly mountainous province that has close ties with all its Southeast Asian neighbors. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this May 26, 2012 photo, a local woman plants rice in Yingjiang, near Myanmar border, Yunnan Province, China. Many still expect that the lifting of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Myanmar will boost trade from China's industrial regions through Ruili and other border areas in Yunnan, a mostly mountainous province that has close ties with all its Southeast Asian neighbors. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this May 26, 2012 photo, local man carries young rice plant in Yingjiang, near Myanmar border, Yunnan Province, China. Many still expect that the lifting of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Myanmar will boost trade from China's industrial regions through Ruili and other border areas in Yunnan, a mostly mountainous province that has close ties with all its Southeast Asian neighbors. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this May 26, 2012 photo, a vender, left, weights corn for a customer, right, at a market in Yingjiang, near Myanmar border, Yunnan Province, China. Many still expect that the lifting of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Myanmar will boost trade from China's industrial regions through Ruili and other border areas in Yunnan, a mostly mountainous province that has close ties with all its Southeast Asian neighbors. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

RUILI, China (AP) ? This remote southwestern Chinese city of about 140,000 nestled in a river valley on the Myanmar border amassed huge wealth over decades of trade and smuggling of drugs, timber and jade. Now, China's main trading gateway to its long-isolated neighbor is waiting for a new boom that may never come.

Along the river, lush golf courses and luxury villas evince gold-rush expectations. A sprawling 16 billion yuan ($2.5 billion), five-star resort is rising above the city, the showcase of a local tycoon.

In fields along a still-uncompleted expressway stand stacks of big black pipes for a 770 kilometer (480 mile) pipeline to carry Middle East gas and oil shipped through the Indian Ocean from Myanmar to thirsty Chinese industries far to the east.

But the legions of gem and jewelry, electronics and household goods shops in Ruili's export zone are almost deserted. Cars and trucks with black Myanmar plates trickle through the border checkpoint, hauling televisions and computers, construction materials and household goods for which there are few buyers.

"Business is not going so well. The rent is getting higher and higher and there are more and more business people, but not so many customers," said Li Qingsan, manager of Sanxing Trading, which sells bicycles and bike parts.

The malaise stretching from crisis-stricken Europe all the way to the remotest corners of China is partly to blame. Fierce fighting between Myanmar forces and the Kachin ethnic minority in the north of the country, which was known as Burma until 1989, is also putting a damper on their border trade.

The robust trade with China that brought wealth to Ruili is also bringing a backlash. As Myanmar's government reaches out to foreign investors, and tentatively opens its markets, it is also reassessing ties with the Chinese, who for years provided succor to Myanmar's reviled generals while amassing ever greater economic influence.

"The whole relationship is very difficult right now. For decades China was the only country Burma could do business with, and the Burmese people are very unhappy with their treatment," said Sean Turnell, an economist at Australia's Macquarie University. "The Burmese are anxious to reassert their sovereignty."

That desire was evident in Myanmar's decision to cancel the Myitsone hydropower dam on the Irrawaddy River, which the project's contractor, China Power International Corp., is lobbying to have resurrected.

Beijing has invested billions in the impoverished country, building mines and dams, roads and pipelines and making deep inroads into restive northern areas. Chinese trade with Myanmar hit $6.5 billion in 2011, according to International Monetary Fund figures, up almost 50 percent from a year earlier, with China running a surplus of $3.1 billion.

But dislocation and environmental damage from those projects has helped fuel renewed fierce fighting between government forces and ethnic Kachin insurgents, analysts say.

Recent protests over chronic power shortages, and over the gas pipeline, highlighted resentment in Myanmar over energy and infrastructure deals that have earmarked big shares of the country's abundant natural gas and hydroelectric power for use in China while failing to redress Myanmar's own energy crisis.

In Ruili's market, jade trader Huang Shishou, bored and eager for conversation, enthusiastically sprayed water on several football-sized stones brought in from Myanmar, holding a flashlight against their dull surfaces to show the emerald translucence within.

"Here, have a seat! Take a look! You don't have to buy," Huang said.

In the city's dusty, ramshackle industrial zones, the yards of timber mills large and small are stacked high with rosewood and teak from Myanmar's dwindling forests.

"It used to be that we had so much work, we had trouble finding people to do it," said Xie Wenhua, manager of a workshop that turns blocks of rosewood from Myanmar into intricately carved chairs, tables and bookshelves.

"Now, it's just a bit of work at a time. Only rich people can afford to buy this, and people don't seem to want to spend money right now."

Many still expect that the lifting of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Myanmar will boost trade from China's industrial regions through Ruili and other border areas in Yunnan, a mostly mountainous province that has close ties with all its Southeast Asian neighbors.

For centuries, commerce thrived along this southwestern Silk Road, helped by ties between indigenous ethnic groups and Chinese on both sides trading opium and heroin, jade, rubies and timber.

The Yang family's car parts and hardware store, in the frontier town of Houqiao, once did a booming business, in the days when trucks loaded with precious teak from Myanmar rolled through, often breaking down along the winding old Burma Road.

These days, the cross-border timber trade in these parts is mostly clandestine, and the renewed fighting with the Kachins is disrupting trading, local residents say.

"When they cracked down on the logging trade, the trucks stopped coming. These days, there's almost no traffic because of fighting across the border," said Yang Shihan, 20-year-old grandson of the business's owner.

Houqiao, whose name means "monkey bridge" in Chinese, is just 155 kilometers from the Myanmar city Myitkyina and vital rail and water links to the rest of the country. It's 550 kilometers to the Indian city Ledo.

During World War II, the town's strategic location lent it a critical role, as Allied and Chinese forces fought the invading Japanese. Families like the Yangs are scattered across the borders: several of Yang's grandfather's siblings fled to Myanmar during the tumultuous 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, and an elder brother to India.

The region's abundant minerals and other resources could make it a hub for growth, but only if the fighting is brought under control, says Macquaire University's Turnell.

"Those are all areas of immense potential, but they must reach a broader political settlement," he said.

Like Ruili and other border towns, for now it is an outpost in limbo.

Unfinished streets lead to a future industrial park and warehousing, trading and exhibition zone. Up the road lie checkpoints and an army base tasked with keeping Myanmar's conflict within its own borders.

Myanmar is renewing efforts to seek a cease-fire with the Kachine rebels. Without peace, any new infrastructure in the region would be prone to attack, said Jan Zalewski, an analyst with IHS Global Insight.

Yang, who opted to join the family business instead of seeking work further inland, has pinned his hopes on an expressway, under construction 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, which could eventually link Houqiao and the rest of China to northern Myanmar, India and Bangladesh.

"Once they build the road we will be able to sell much more than we can now, even to India," said Yang.

Associated Press

the duchess the duchess spice katy perry mike starr ufc 141 fight card gli

The AJC reviews The Pullman, Kirkwood | Food and More with John ...

$-$$

Back in the late 2000s, 1992 Hosea Williams Drive was home to the quintessential Kirkwood bar, Aces Bar & Grill. Representative of the influx of young gentrifiers, the smoky dive bar served the local 20-somethings well. But times change and 20-somethings grow up. Enter The Pullman.

Review by Jon Watson

Partners and Kirkwood locals Heidi Shonkwiler and Dan Wingate set out to open a community-centric gastropub to match the evolving demographic of Kirkwood. When the pair learned that Aces was going under ?after a weeks-long stint as the kid-friendly Jak?s All In,? they saw their opportunity to build the pub the neighborhood needed. No longer an adults-only dive bar, The Pullman aims to offer a place to share a few pints with friends, as well as a place to park your stroller while you do it.

The Pullman walks that 30-something line between family-friendly enough to bring the kids along for dinner, but young enough to draw the crowd back in for drinks once the little ones are in bed. Wingate and Shonkwiler teamed up with chef Lotinza Clark from Radial Cafe to create a sampling of seasonal pub grub, offering a late-night menu most nights until midnight or later.

Unlike many self-declared gastropubs, shareable small plates are not the focus here, concentrating instead on sandwiches and entrees. The Oh George ($10), the house burger, comes with a man-sized half-pound patty of local beef, thick bacon slices, manchego cheese and a remarkably fresh yet mild jalapeno mayo. I?m pleasantly surprised by the special of the day: a fried chicken sandwich ($10) on toast, topped with tomato and mixed greens, oozing on all sides with melted pimento cheese.

Sriracha wings (photos by Becky Stein)

Among the appetizers, a plate of the Sriracha wings ($8) makes for a great starter to split with friends. The sweet and spicy glazed wings keep just enough of the unmistakable kick of the rooster sauce, tempered just enough to satisfy heat lovers without alienating more timid palates. I was more than happy to hog most of our plate of chicken livers ($6), enjoying the light, flash-fried batter dusted with fresh herbs.

You?ll hear no complaints of small portions when the server airlifts the barbecue short ribs ($13) to your table. This impossibly large slab of slow-roasted beef arrives slathered with peach barbecue sauce atop a sweet potato and plantain hash, and can easily feed two adults. At seeing the shocked look in my eyes my server swears, almost apologetically, that I received the largest rib she?d seen them serve. This eats almost like a moist, braised brisket. Taken in human-sized portions, each bite is excellent, but I couldn?t help but picture some starving child across the world as I returned a plate with 2 pounds of meat still on it.

Peach BBQ Short Rib

For a place claiming the gastropub title, I wish the beer selection was a little more extensive, currently offering 12 draft beers and a handful of bottles. However, half of the taps are dedicated to local breweries, and the rest offer a rotating selection of some more obscure beers that should keep most craft brew-heads interested.

Cocktails also get the seasonal treatment, and regularly change. The current menu offers multiple light libations, like the Palace ($8), a summery mix of gin, St. Germain and ginger ale, perfect for sipping on a warm afternoon. Or, spice things up a bit with the tequila-based Lightning Slinger ($8), mixed with pineapple juice, ginger liqueur and a dash of coarse ground black pepper.

A few missteps hint that the crew is still getting their feet under them . The blue cheese mayo is noticeably absent from my blackened chicken sandwich ($9) when I peel back the bun, and a bowl of spinach, artichoke and smoked gouda dip ($7) begs for a few more shakes of salt.

While the service is consistently attentive, I couldn?t help but notice the kitchen fall behind at seemingly odd times. One crowded Sunday brunch, I had no trouble getting my plate of peppered steak and eggs ($12), but on a slow Tuesday evening with only a handful of occupied tables, a plate of falafel and hummus ($7) arrives as we pay our check (for which our repentant server did not charge us.)

The Pullman aims to be the pub where all walks of the community can gather, and at that, they surely succeed. Shonkwiler and Wingate know their neighbors well, and have crafted a cozy little neighborhood tavern that everyone in the Kirkwood area should check out.

THE PULLMAN 1992 Hosea Williams Drive N.E., Kirkwood, 404-371-1115

Food: Seasonal pub grub
Service: Friendly, but still working out the kinks
Best dishes: Oh George and Sriracha wings
Vegetarian selections: Most appetizers and salads, and many can be made veggie by request
Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard and Discover
Hours: 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Mondays-Wednesdays, 4 p.m.-3 a.m. Thursdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-
3 a.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.-midnight Sundays.
Children: more than welcome
Parking: technically, street parking only and can get very tight.
Reservations: no
Wheelchair access: yes
Smoking: no
Noise level: moderate to loud
Patio: no
Takeout: yes

the grey machine gun kelly saul alinsky annapolis trisomy wwe royal rumble leon panetta

Acne scar treatment over the counter - Health and Fitness

2. 15. Create a paste of turmeric powder in mint juice. With some research and talks with your dermatologist, youre sure to find a procedure that suits you. It can happen to just about anyone, and it? s hard to determine whether your acne will result in scarring. It is generally assumed that heal in about a year the and disappear altogether. Despite this warning, scar the chemical cause of these conditions had yet to be documented. You can maintain taking medications or use acne creams to deal with these factors, which are only the surface of the problem. Laser treatments are mainly recommended when dealing with peroxide the pitted scars but will definitely cost a lot of cash. In just a minute or two, we will include a variety of ideas that will work best for ones acne . They work to acne unclog the pores and also have antibacterial properties to them that fight acne. It will pass. Felix Owns has been a leading voice in the world of all natural skin care for quite a few years. Now splash cold water on your face to close open skin pores. Acne is a result of the hormones action on counter over the skin? s oil glands ( the sebaceous gland) which leads to clogged pores and outbreak of lesions like pimples, blemishes or acne. Regardless of how well textured your skin is and even if acne scar treatment over the counter you no are a celeb with access to various forms of body lotions and creams, you will even get access to the very effective scars removers but fact is acne that a significant number of the scars will still remain. You don? t have to wear anything extremely expensive but try to avoid purchasing the cheap stuff just because of the price. These expended cells can become lodged in the skin pores along with the existing oils and block them. You would naturally think that the products you were being provided would be safe for you to absorb into your skin, but nine times out of ten when it comes to cosmetics this is not the case. And these are just a few of the best all natural ingredients out there in acne scar products. 5. Because of this you are probably going to find many treatment reports that claim that some acne creams are scams. They will make it easyer for the dead cells to block the benzoyl pore and begin the inflammation that will start the acne. Find a mild cleanser acne treatment no benzoyl peroxide that is specifically designed for acne, like B. Your acne health skin care should not be oil free, but must contain natural oils and extracts that will help to control the production of excess amount of sebum. Withdrawal from social events, over compensation in dress, negative self image and poor body posture are other negative effects of acne. Skin care for men those are acne prone may be slightly different from the women? s in a few acne scar treatment over the counter treatment distinct ways. There are several people who live under the misconception that a moisturizer works well for only dry skin.

Related Post Acne scar treatment over the counter

Fresh fruits and vegetables, less spicy or fried or oily foods can assist. Unfortunately, not all acne specialists are familiar with this type of There are severalapproachesto take good care of your skin even if you have pimples, but many individuals fail to notice the criticalfactors that need This is the first acne most aloe vera gel for acne common myth about acne. One of the things that you can do is Keep your hands away from your acne, though the urge to scratch your face may be great, remember that your hands can further contaminate One of the most beneficial vitamins for treating acne is claimed to be the vitamin B group and in particular, vitamin B5 or Pantothenic

jerry lewis tampa bay bucs cowboys cowboys slim dunkin slim dunkin will rogers

Two propaganda flops in less than two weeks: Is Beijing losing its touch?

The official Chinese media appear to have it in for US Ambassador Gary Locke. But their angry attacks against him are backfiring with Chinese Twitterati.

By Peter Ford,?Staff writer / May 15, 2012

In this May 2 file photo, blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng (c.) holds hands with US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, at a hospital in Beijing.

U.S. Embassy Beijing Press Office/AP

Enlarge

The official Chinese media really have it in for US Ambassador Gary Locke. But now their angry attacks against him are backfiring.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "off"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Ever since he arrived here last August, Mr. Locke?s image as a ?regular guy? has won widespread admiration from Chinese bloggers and, it seems, irked the authorities.

The way he tried to get a discount at Starbucks with a coupon en route to Beijing, and carried his own backpack, is the polar opposite of the way aloof and pampered Chinese officials behave. So when Chinese citizens praise him, by implication they are criticizing their own leaders.

Lashing out at the US ambassador earlier this month for his role in protecting blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, the Beijing Daily published a strongly worded criticism of his ?little tricks.?

But readers? reactions to the editorial were so negative that within hours ?Beijing Daily? was a banned search word on the Chinese Internet, effectively closing down social media debate on the article.

That setback does not appear to have chastened Beijing Daily, however, and today the paper put its foot in it again.

Editors used the daily?s account on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, to post a snide request, responding to another post about Locke?s wealth.

?Will Gary Locke please disclose his personal assets?? it asked.

The question was, perhaps, conceived as a sideways commentary on the lively debate currently underway in China about the need for top officials here ? often accused of corruption ? to disclose their wealth.

But of course, the editors simply revealed their ignorance. As scornful readers quickly informed them, Locke HAS disclosed his personal assets, just like every other member of the US government. (According to his 2010 declaration, he is worth between $1,356,025 and $7,615,999, which makes him the sixth richest person in the executive branch.)

?Of course Gary Locke?s personal assets have been disclosed,? read one comment on the Beijing Daily post. ?And what about the assets of those imperial officials [of ours]?

Within hours, Beijing Daily?s original post and all comments on it had been deleted from Sina Weibo, according to David Bandurski of Hong Kong University?s China Media Project, who tracked the incident in real time.

Two propaganda flops in less than two weeks: Beijing Daily is losing its touch.

danny o brien alicia silverstone park slope food coop anchorman sequel safety not guaranteed lifehouse al gore

worldbeatCanada radio podcast for June 1, 2012 | Calcopyrite ...

I like a ukelele.? You like a ukelele.? And Cal Koat likes a ukelele or two?.as he shows on worldbeatCanada radio program for June 1.

Speaking of which?. listen to this week?s worldbeatCanada radio podcast at the player here, or at the worldbeatcanada.com website,?here. Or, get the show at the?iTunes?store. And now on?Mixcloud.

Hear these artists, and visit their websites by clicking on their names in the list below.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tags: Cal Koat, world music, world music podcast, worldbeat music, worldbeatcanada radio podcast, worldbeatcanada.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2012 at 6:02 am and is filed under Radio Production, World music podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

norad how to carve a turkey how to cook a turkey yorkshire pudding larry the cable guy miracle on 34th street santa tracker