School-Based Deworming Program Yields Small Improvement in Growth of Zanzibari School Children After one Year.

Efficacy trials of antihelminthic therapies conducted in Africa have reported improvements in children's growth, but nutritional evaluations of large-scale deworming programs are lacking. We evaluated the first-year effect on growth of a school-based deworming program in Zanzibar, where growth retardation occurs in school children. Children in four primary schools were given thrice-yearly mebendazole (500 mg) and compared with children in four schools that received twice-yearly mebendazole and children in four non-program schools. Evaluation schools were randomly selected and allocated to control, twice-yearly or thrice-yearly deworming. Approximately 1000 children in each program group completed the 1-y follow-up. Children <10 y old gained 0.27 kg more weight (P < 0.05) and 0.13 cm more height (P = 0.20) in the twice-yearly group, and 0. 20 kg more weight (P = 0.07) and 0.30 cm more height (P < 0.01) in the thrice-yearly group, compared with the control group. Children <10 y old with higher heights-for-age at baseline had higher weight and height gains in response to deworming. In children >/=10 y old, overall program effects on height or weight gains were not significant. But in this age range, younger boys had significant improvements in height gain with thrice-yearly deworming, and children with higher heights-for-age had greater improvements in weight gain with deworming. We conclude that the deworming program improved the growth of school children, especially children who were younger and less stunted, but the improvements were small. More effective antihelminthic regimens or additional dietary or disease control interventions may be needed to substantially improve the growth of school children in areas such as Zanzibar

Limited financial market participation: a transaction cost-based explanation

This paper focuses on the issue of limited financial market participation and determines a lower bound on the level of fixed transaction costs that are required to reconcile observed portfolio choices with asset returns within an isoelastic utility framework. The bound is determined from the set of conditions that ensure the optimality of consumption behavior by financial market non-participants. It represents the lowest possible cost rationalizing observed non-participation choices by providing a measure of the forgone utility gains from participation for observed non-participants. Such gains are related both to the magnitude of financial market returns and to the opportunity of smoothing consumption, with the benefits of the former decreasing in the degree of relative risk aversion and those of the latter increasing in it. Using the US Consumer Expenditure Survey, I find that a yearly cost of at least 70 is needed to rationalize non-participation for a consumer with log utility and who can trade in the S&P500 CI. This lower bound declines rapidly in risk aversion for levels of risk aversion up to two/three; for higher values, it levels off. A yearly cost of at least 31 is needed to rationalize non-participation for a consumer with log utility and who can trade in US Treasury Bills. This lower bound rises steadily in risk aversion

Friendly Endeavor, June 1941

Friendly Endeavor, June 1941. Dr. Henry Edwin McGrew to Deliver Commencement Address to Pacific College; First Friends Boys\u27 Camp to be Held July 5-12; Pacific College Objectives Outlined by President Gulley; Idaho Holds Eleventh Annual Conference at Quaker Hill; Missionaries Report Gains for Year; Yearly Meeting Viewed by Missionaries on Furlough. Publication of the Oregon Yearly Meeting of Friends, later known as the Northwest Yearly Meeting.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/nwym_endeavor/1233/thumbnail.jp

A model for the simulation of energy gains when using distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) in photovoltaic arrays

Over the past years, the photovoltaic (PV) market has been invaded with numerous power optimizers and micro-inverters that claim large energy gains when used in PV generators with shading or module mismatch. These products provide distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT), normally at module level, allowing the maximum power to be extracted from each PV module. This topology can be beneficial in situations where the PV generator is shaded or when there is large module mismatch. However, it is not clear that this power gain will result in energy improvements over a whole year or the lifetime of the system. This paper presents a very detailed and precise model for simulating energy gains with DMPPT as well as its verification and simulation results with different shading profiles, showing the possible energy gain over a whole year. Simulation results show that the yearly energy gain is much lower than the maximum power gain. However, interesting yearly gains of up to 12% are obtained in one of the simulations

Measuring Student Gains on the Connecticut Mastery Test

The implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002 led to an accountability system in schools based on high-stakes standardized tests (Orlich, 2004). NCLB measures schools’ performance on tests based on the percentage of students performing at proficiency level. Due to the need to reach proficiency, Connecticut has placed an emphasis on reporting static yearly test scores on the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT), without indicating gains made by students as they transition from one grade level to the next. This research study used independent student-level data to calculate gains on the CMT across three continuous school years for students in grades three to eight. It was found that notable gains were made on particular subtests of the CMT, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed based on the public data currently being released by the state of Connecticut. Additionally, in Hartford Public Schools, residential mobility resulted in losses on test scores and English Language Learners exhibited higher gains than non-English Language Learner students on the CMT. In conclusion, as opposed to static yearly scores, gain indicators provide more accurate information in regards to the gains and losses being made on standardized tests. This better information from the use of gain indicators would lead to more effective educational reforms contributing to improvements in student and school performance

Northwest Friend, January 1943

Northwest Friend, January 1943. True Patriotism; 1943 - All Out For God; Medford Work Gains; Boise Has Revival; Middleton Quakers Work; Have Community Thanks; Gospel Band Visits; Use Holidays for Christ. Publication of the Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/nwym_nwfriend/1004/thumbnail.jp

Does School Choice Increase School Quality?

Federal No Child Left Behind' legislation, which enables students of low-performing schools to exercise public school choice, exemplies a widespread belief that competing for students will spur public schools to higher achievement. We investigate how the introduction of school choice in North Carolina, via a dramatic increase in the number of charter schools across the state, affects the performance of traditional public schools on statewide tests. We find test score gains from competition that are robust to a variety of specifications. The introduction of charter school competition causes an approximate one percent increase in the score, which constitutes about one quarter of the average yearly growth.

Personal Saving and Social Security in Italy: Fresh Evidence from a Time Series Analysis

The paper provides an econometric analysis of the aggregate saving function of Italian households in the vein of the life cycle theory. Results from an ECM representation based on yearly data for 1951-1998 point to depressive effects on private consumption of recent reforms of social security, actual and expected for next few years. In order to compensate for both reductions in actual pension payments and increased uncertainty about their future claims, households stepped up accumulation of real and financial assets since the beginning of the nineties. First estimates of capital gains do not show a significant impact on consumption demand, in the short and in the long period: their high volatility has likely hindered a fair assessment of their contribution to personal purchasing power on the part of households. Demographic changes, while in the long run not seemingly determined in conjunction with the economic variables we consider, turn out to play a significant role in the evolution of consumption demand.life cycle, saving, pension wealth, capital gains, demographic changes

Cull Dry Edible Beans in Growing Calf Rations

Including cull dry edible beans into diets for steer calves in two yearly trials produced slightly different results. In the first year, calculated net energy levels were higher in diets with 5 or 10% dry beans and daily gains were equal or better than for the no-bean diets. In the second year, with equal net energy values in rations containing 0, 7.5 or 15% dry beans, daily gains and feed intake decreased linearly with dry bean additions. Feed efficiency was improved as bean level increased

Cull Dry Edible Beans in Growing Calf Rations

Including cull dry edible beans into diets for steer calves in two yearly trials produced slightly different results. In the first year, calculated net energy levels were higher in diets with 5 or 10% dry beans and daily gains were equal or better than for the no-bean diets. In the second year, with equal net energy values in rations containing 0, 7.5 or 15% dry beans, daily gains and feed intake decreased linearly with dry bean additions. Feed efficiency was improved as bean level increased