The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement

Understanding the consequences of growing up poor for a child's well-being is an important research question, but one that is difficult to answer due to the potential endogeneity of family income. Past estimates of the effect of family income on child development have often been plagued by omitted variable bias and measurement error. In this paper, we use a fixed effect instrumental variables strategy to estimate the causal effect of income on children's math and reading achievement. Our primary source of identification comes from the large, non-linear changes in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) over the last two decades. The largest of these changes increased family income by as much as 20%, or approximately $2,100. Using a panel of over 6,000 children matched to their mothers from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth datasets allows us to address problems associated with unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous transitory income shocks as well as measurement error in income. Our baseline estimates imply that a$1,000 increase in income raises math test scores by 2.1% and reading test scores by 3.6% of a standard deviation. The results are even stronger when looking at children from disadvantaged families who are affected most by the large changes in the EITC, and are robust to a variety of alternative specifications.

GSK-3 protein and the heart: friend or foe?

Metabolic syndrome manifesting as obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus is currently pandemic. Each of these, in its own right, is strongly related to the development of cardiovascular disease. The cardiomyopathy associated with these disorders is characterised by curtailed glucose uptake and utilisation, elevated risk of damage after ischaemia and contractile dysfunction. Current research have indicated that the serine/threonine kinase, glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3), may play a central role in the development of all these dysfunctions. The development of new generations of inhibitors of this kinase, has renewed interest in its utilisation as therapeutic target. This review has therefore focused on the role of GSK-3 in the development of the obesity-related cardiomyopathy and has highlighted and discussed the detrimental as well as beneficial effects of the GSK-3 inhibitors that are currently available. We have discussed the different roleplayers such as the insulin signalling pathway, modulation of apoptosis and mitochondrial function, SERCA2 expression and regulation of the development of hypertrophy in the context of GSK-3 activity

A Frequency-Controlled Magnetic Vortex Memory

Using the ultra low damping NiMnSb half-Heusler alloy patterned into vortex-state magnetic nano-dots, we demonstrate a new concept of non-volatile memory controlled by the frequency. A perpendicular bias magnetic field is used to split the frequency of the vortex core gyrotropic rotation into two distinct frequencies, depending on the sign of the vortex core polarity $p=\pm1$ inside the dot. A magnetic resonance force microscope and microwave pulses applied at one of these two resonant frequencies allow for local and deterministic addressing of binary information (core polarity)

Predictors of distress and anxiety during pregnancy

Objective: There is a high incidence of distressing psychological symptoms including anxiety in pregnancy. Nevertheless, predictors of distress and anxiety during pregnancy have not been well characterized. We determined whether temperament and character, trait anxiety, resilience, and social support predicted distress and anxiety symptoms in pregnancy.Method: Pregnant women (n=105) with low risk singleton pregnancies were recruited from Midwife Obstetric Units. Assessments of distress (usingthe K-10) and anxiety (using the Spielberger State Inventory) were undertaken in trimester 2 and 3. Measures of temperament and character, trait anxiety, resilience and social support were undertaken at the same time points. Regression analyses were used to determine predictors of distress and anxiety at each trimester.Results: Predictors of distress and anxiety were lower selfdirectedness,higher harm avoidance, higher trait anxiety, lower resilience, and lower social support, at each time point.Conclusion: Understanding predictors of distress and anxiety in pregnancy may be useful in developing interventions for addressing such symptoms, as well as perhaps in preventing potential sequelae such as anxiety and mood disorders.Keywords: Distress; Anxiety; Self-directedness; Harm avoidance; Resilience; Social suppor

Motivating Reluctant Learners with a Big Bang

We present results of a collaboration between a media specialist, a science teacher, and an astronomer to bring a modern astronomy topic to at-risk, emotionally disabled students who have experienced little success. These normally unengaged students became highly motivated because they were given an authentic task of presenting research on an intriguing science topic, and because they witnessed a collaboration brought together on their behalf This experience demonstrates that sophisticated astronomy topics can be used to motivate at-risk students

Sex as a spectrum: Inclusive anatomical education and the translation thereof into clinical practice

Biomedical Sciences: Anatomy and Histolog

Bistability of vortex core dynamics in a single perpendicularly magnetized nano-disk

Microwave spectroscopy of individual vortex-state magnetic nano-disks in a perpendicular bias magnetic field, $H$, is performed using a magnetic resonance force microscope (MRFM). It reveals the splitting induced by $H$ on the gyrotropic frequency of the vortex core rotation related to the existence of the two stable polarities of the core. This splitting enables spectroscopic detection of the core polarity. The bistability extends up to a large negative (antiparallel to the core) value of the bias magnetic field $H_r$, at which the core polarity is reversed. The difference between the frequencies of the two stable rotational modes corresponding to each core polarity is proportional to $H$ and to the ratio of the disk thickness to its radius. Simple analytic theory in combination with micromagnetic simulations give quantitative description of the observed bistable dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, 16 references. Submitted to Physical Review Letters on December 19th, 200

Spin excitations and the Fermi surface of superconducting FeS

High-temperature superconductivity occurs near antiferromagnetic instabilities and nematic state. Debate remains on the origin of nematic order in FeSe and its relation with superconductivity. Here, we use transport, neutron scatter- ing and Fermi surface measurements to demonstrate that hydro-thermo grown superconducting FeS, an isostructure of FeSe, is a tetragonal paramagnet without nematic order and with a quasiparticle mass significantly reduced from that of FeSe. Only stripe-type spin excitation is observed up to 100 meV. No direct coupling between spin excitation and superconductivity in FeS is found, suggesting that FeS is less correlated and the nematic order in FeSe is due to competing checkerboard and stripe spin fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 page