Coalitions and Cliques in the School Choice Problem

The school choice mechanism design problem focuses on assignment mechanisms matching students to public schools in a given school district. The well-known Gale Shapley Student Optimal Stable Matching Mechanism (SOSM) is the most efficient stable mechanism proposed so far as a solution to this problem. However its inefficiency is well-documented, and recently the Efficiency Adjusted Deferred Acceptance Mechanism (EADAM) was proposed as a remedy for this weakness. In this note we describe two related adjustments to SOSM with the intention to address the same inefficiency issue. In one we create possibly artificial coalitions among students where some students modify their preference profiles in order to improve the outcome for some other students. Our second approach involves trading cliques among students where those involved improve their assignments by waiving some of their priorities. The coalition method yields the EADAM outcome among other Pareto dominations of the SOSM outcome, while the clique method yields all possible Pareto optimal Pareto dominations of SOSM. The clique method furthermore incorporates a natural solution to the problem of breaking possible ties within preference and priority profiles. We discuss the practical implications and limitations of our approach in the final section of the article

School Choice as a One-Sided Matching Problem: Cardinal Utilities and Optimization

The school choice problem concerns the design and implementation of matching mechanisms that produce school assignments for students within a given public school district. Previously considered criteria for evaluating proposed mechanisms such as stability, strategyproofness and Pareto efficiency do not always translate into desirable student assignments. In this note, we explore a class of one-sided, cardinal utility maximizing matching mechanisms focused exclusively on student preferences. We adapt a well-known combinatorial optimization technique (the Hungarian algorithm) as the kernel of this class of matching mechanisms. We find that, while such mechanisms can be adapted to meet desirable criteria not met by any previously employed mechanism in the school choice literature, they are not strategyproof. We discuss the practical implications and limitations of our approach at the end of the article

Sexually literate social workers : a review of a staple of social work professional training, continuing education, indicates a lack of basic training on human sexuality

Background and Purpose:Having sexually literate social workers is essential to providing quality services, yet, sexuality content is either missing or offered only as an elective in many social work programs. As a result, continuing education (CE) is the main institution to ensure continued skill development for social workers post-graduation. To better prepare sexually literate social work practitioners, we must understand the current landscape of training. In this exploratory study, we review a sample of CE trainings to answer the questions: A) What is the sexuality-related content of the professional CE training for licensed social workers? and B) Does CE training provide a foundational course bridging the lack of academic preparation? Methods: The sample for review of CE opportunities was three-fold: five state chapters of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), five of the top 10 schools of social work, and five national providers of CE. We sampled universities that were included in both the Gourman Report and the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the top ten social work schools. A convenience sample of national CE Providers was selected that provided in-person training. The following search terms to focus our search for relevant workshops: sex, sexuality, LGBT, gender, intimacy, sexual trauma, reproduction, sexual pleasure, sexual orientation, body image, sexual desire, sexual issues, lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual. Upon collection of available CE opportunities, we compiled the title, and workshop descriptions into a list of 43 sexuality related CEs for coding. Of the 43 reviewed, 5 did not contain significant content related to sexuality and were excluded. The remaining 38 CE opportunities were coded by two independent reviewers to identify topic areas. Results:Results of coding revealed 16 topic areas related to sexuality. Those areas were: sexual trauma/abuse, LGBTQI, couple’s intimacy, aging and sexuality, sexual compulsivity/ addiction, emotional intimacy, sexuality across the lifespan, cultural attitudes, values, biases, pleasure enhancement, conception/pregnancy/childbirth, dysfunction vs normative sexual behaviors, parenting, desire, polyamory, ethical issues and sexuality, and generalist sexuality awareness raising. Nineteen of the CE opportunities were provided by university schools of social work, 11 were by third party national CE providers, and 8 were provided by NASW state chapters. The content area that was represented the most was sexual trauma/abuse, followed by LGBTQI and couples/intimacy. Conclusions and Implications: As suggested by the 16 topical areas, current CE opportunities are based on the assumption that social workers have baseline skills and a working knowledge of sexuality, and a preliminary understanding of their attitudes and comfort around sexuality. Of the 38 CE courses reviewed, only one addressed fundamentals such as basic values clarification. The topic specific CE offerings are important but these offerings should be preceded with basic training on sexuality content and values clarification. Based on the results of this exploratory study, there is not a systemic and consistent way for social workers to increase their sexual literacy. We suggest further exploration of this issue and make recommendations for a human sexuality foundational CE course

Examining Faculty Attitudes and Strategies that Support Successful Flipped Teaching

In this NSF-funded project, a team of experienced STEM educators & researchers designed, developed, and studied the implementation of flipped teaching by faculty in their STEM classrooms at two institutions: here at SIUE and at St. Louis Community College. Flipped teaching is an instructional practice where traditional teaching is reversed, with instruction occurring outside of class time, allowing classroom time to be focused on the application of content. By employing mixed methods, including in-depth interviewing of faculty participants, a rich dataset was gathered and analyzed, advancing the understanding of the aspects of successful flipped teaching implementation, as well as the barriers to engaging STEM faculty in the adoption of this teaching strategy. This project also produced a set of design principles for flipped teaching and a flipped teaching model applicable to these two common yet different types of higher education institutions. The project also supported the successful implementation of flipped teaching by 24 faculty members over the three years of the project. This program is headed by Dr. Chaya Gopalan of the Department of Applied Health. The project had three overarching research questions: How do faculty perceive and implement flipped teaching? How does faculty implementation of flipped teaching at a four-year master’s university compare with faculty implementation at a two-year community college? What are the essential design principles for implementing a successful flipped classroom at each type of institution

Comparison of Background Parenchymal Enhancement at Contrast-enhanced Spectral Mammography and Breast MR Imaging.

Purpose To assess the extent of background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) at contrast material-enhanced (CE) spectral mammography and breast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, to evaluate interreader agreement in BPE assessment, and to examine the relationships between clinical factors and BPE. Materials and Methods This was a retrospective, institutional review board-approved, HIPAA-compliant study. Two hundred seventy-eight women from 25 to 76 years of age with increased breast cancer risk who underwent CE spectral mammography and MR imaging for screening or staging from 2010 through 2014 were included. Three readers independently rated BPE on CE spectral mammographic and MR images with the ordinal scale: minimal, mild, moderate, or marked. To assess pairwise agreement between BPE levels on CE spectral mammographic and MR images and among readers, weighted κ coefficients with quadratic weights were calculated. For overall agreement, mean κ values and bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The univariate and multivariate associations between BPE and clinical factors were examined by using generalized estimating equations separately for CE spectral mammography and MR imaging. Results Most women had minimal or mild BPE at both CE spectral mammography (68%-76%) and MR imaging (69%-76%). Between CE spectral mammography and MR imaging, the intrareader agreement ranged from moderate to substantial (κ = 0.55-0.67). Overall agreement on BPE levels between CE spectral mammography and MR imaging and among readers was substantial (κ = 0.66; 95% confidence interval: 0.61, 0.70). With both modalities, BPE demonstrated significant association with menopausal status, prior breast radiation therapy, hormonal treatment, breast density on CE spectral mammographic images, and amount of fibroglandular tissue on MR images (P < .001 for all). Conclusion There was substantial agreement between readers for BPE detected on CE spectral mammographic and MR images. © RSNA, 2016

Comparison of Background Parenchymal Enhancement at Contrast-enhanced Spectral Mammography and Breast MR Imaging

PURPOSE: To assess the extent of background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) at contrast material–enhanced (CE) spectral mammography and breast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, to evaluate interreader agreement in BPE assessment, and to examine the relationships between clinical factors and BPE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective, institutional review board–approved, HIPAA-compliant study. Two hundred seventy-eight women from 25 to 76 years of age with increased breast cancer risk who underwent CE spectral mammography and MR imaging for screening or staging from 2010 through 2014 were included. Three readers independently rated BPE on CE spectral mammographic and MR images with the ordinal scale: minimal, mild, moderate, or marked. To assess pairwise agreement between BPE levels on CE spectral mammographic and MR images and among readers, weighted κ coefficients with quadratic weights were calculated. For overall agreement, mean κ values and bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The univariate and multivariate associations between BPE and clinical factors were examined by using generalized estimating equations separately for CE spectral mammography and MR imaging. RESULTS: Most women had minimal or mild BPE at both CE spectral mammography (68%–76%) and MR imaging (69%–76%). Between CE spectral mammography and MR imaging, the intrareader agreement ranged from moderate to substantial (κ = 0.55–0.67). Overall agreement on BPE levels between CE spectral mammography and MR imaging and among readers was substantial (κ = 0.66; 95% confidence interval: 0.61, 0.70). With both modalities, BPE demonstrated significant association with menopausal status, prior breast radiation therapy, hormonal treatment, breast density on CE spectral mammographic images, and amount of fibroglandular tissue on MR images (P < .001 for all). CONCLUSION: There was substantial agreement between readers for BPE detected on CE spectral mammographic and MR images. (©) RSNA, 201

Subjective sleep problems in Huntington's disease: A pilot investigation of the relationship to brain structure, neurocognitive, and neuropsychiatric function

Subjective reports of sleep disturbance are a common feature of Huntington's disease (HD); however, there is limited research investigating the relationship between sleep problems with changes in brain and behaviour. This study aimed to investigate whether subjective reports of sleep problems in HD are associated with brain volume, neurocognitive decline, and neuropsychiatric symptoms. This retrospective pilot study used brain volume, neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric data from premanifest (pre-HD) and symptomatic HD (symp-HD). Subjective sleep problem was measured using the sleep item of the Beck's Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Pre-HD individuals reporting sleep problems had significantly poorer neuropsychiatric outcomes compared to those not reporting sleep problems. In the symp-HD group, those with sleep problems had significantly accelerated thalamic degeneration and poorer neuropsychiatric outcomes compared to those without sleep problems. There was no relationship between subjective sleep problems and neurocognitive measures. These findings suggest an association between subjective sleep disturbance, neuropathology, and development of neuropsychiatric symptoms in HD. Further studies using quantitative EEG-based monitoring of sleep in HD and changes in the brain and behaviour will be necessary to establish the causal nature of this relationship

Gain-of-function and loss-of-function variants in GRIA3 lead to distinct neurodevelopmental phenotypes

International audienceAbstract AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid) receptors (AMPARs) mediate fast excitatory neurotransmission in the brain. AMPARs form by homo- or heteromeric assembly of subunits encoded by the GRIA1-GRIA4 genes, of which only GRIA3 is X-chromosomal. Increasing numbers of GRIA3 missense variants are reported in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), but only a few have been examined functionally. Here, we evaluated the impact on AMPAR function of one frameshift and 43 rare missense GRIA3 variants identified in patients with NDD by electrophysiological assays. Thirty-one variants alter receptor function and show loss-of-function (LoF) or gain-of-function (GoF) properties, whereas 13 appeared neutral. We collected detailed clinical data from 25 patients (from 23 families) harbouring 17 of these variants. All patients had global developmental impairment, mostly moderate (9/25) or severe (12/25). Twelve patients had seizures, including focal motor (6/12), unknown onset motor (4/12), focal impaired awareness (1/12), (atypical) absence (2/12), myoclonic (5/12), and generalized tonic-clonic (1/12) or atonic (1/12) seizures. The epilepsy syndrome was classified as developmental and epileptic encephalopathy in eight patients, developmental encephalopathy without seizures in 13 patients, and intellectual disability with epilepsy in four patients. Limb muscular hypotonia was reported in 13/25, and hypertonia in 10/25. Movement disorders were reported in 14/25, with hyperekplexia or non-epileptic erratic myoclonus being the most prevalent feature (8/25). Correlating receptor functional phenotype with clinical features revealed clinical features for GRIA3-associated NDDs and distinct NDD phenotypes for LoF and GoF variants. GoF variants were associated with more severe outcomes: patients were younger at the time of seizure onset (median age one month), hypertonic, and more often had movement disorders, including hyperekplexia. Patients with LoF variants were older at the time of seizure onset (median age 16 months), hypotonic, and had sleeping disturbances. LoF and GoF variants were disease-causing in both sexes but affected males often carried de novo or hemizygous LoF variants inherited from healthy mothers, whereas all but one affected females had de novo heterozygous GoF variants