Childcare Affordability Pilots (CAP09): 100% Costs Pilot: the importance of cost as a driver of family decisions about work and childcare: a data analysis report

"This pilot looked to assess whether increasing the childcare element of tax credits acted as an incentive for people to move into work. Data analysis in this evaluation shows that cost is not a single, critical, factor influencing family decisions as to whether to move into work and childcare. It may however have importance in terms of the childcare chosen and is certainly one of a number of factors a family will consider before making the decision to work. Where this data analysis report explains the bare numbers of what families did over the pilot period please also refer to the research element of the Childcare Affordability Pilot (CAP09) project which assesses the reasons behind their behaviours and provides clarity as to the decision processes families go through." - Page 2

Small-noise analysis and symmetrization of implicit Monte Carlo samplers

Implicit samplers are algorithms for producing independent, weighted samples from multi-variate probability distributions. These are often applied in Bayesian data assimilation algorithms. We use Laplace asymptotic expansions to analyze two implicit samplers in the small noise regime. Our analysis suggests a symmetrization of the algo- rithms that leads to improved (implicit) sampling schemes at a rel- atively small additional cost. Computational experiments confirm the theory and show that symmetrization is effective for small noise sampling problems

Profiling Institutional Estrangement: Contours and Consequences of Gendered Mistreatment in College

This dissertation integrates intersectionality with person-centered methods to explore how multidimensional gendered mistreatment in college is associated with students’ institutional estrangement. Here, gendered mistreatment includes: incivility (i.e., identity-ambiguous rudeness); heterosexist and gender harassment (i.e., identity-specific derogation); and sexually advancing harassment (i.e., coercive invitations, inappropriate touch). Survey data were collected in two waves (n = 4,023) from undergraduate (81.9%) and graduate students (18.1%) at a small public university in the rural Northwest, with 11% sexual minorities. Here, institutional relations encompass students’ attitudes (i.e., satisfaction, trust, safety) and academic engagement. I hypothesized that strained institutional relations would be associated with gender, sexuality, and mistreatment. I identified four mistreatment groups using k-means cluster analysis. Most reported Minimal (n = 2,397) mistreatment. The Hetero/Sexist group (n = 716) experienced predominantly identity-specific mistreatment. The Uncivil group (n = 660) recounted predominantly identity-ambiguous mistreatment. The minority (n = 250) reported globally High Victimization. Chi-square analyses determined that gender-sexuality subgroups were unevenly distributed among mistreatment groups, χ2 (9) = 113.14, p < .001. Sexual minority men (12.30%) and women (12.71%) were over twice as likely to report High Victimization compared to heterosexual men (4.97%) and women (6.04%). Finally, multiple ANOVAs revealed sociodemographic and mistreatment associations with institutional relations. College satisfaction was lower among sexual minorities (M = 5.34, SD = 1.51) compared to heterosexuals (M = 5.64, SD = 1.33), F(1, 3947) = 15.38, p < .001, 2 = .004; Uncivil and High Victimization were similarly deleterious, F(3, 3947) = 20.82, p < .001, 2= .016. Only High Victimization eroded trust in harassment reporting mechanisms, F(3, 3278) = 3.31, p = .019, 2 = .003. These students reported the least safety on campus (M = 5.13, SD = 1.56), F(3, 3941) = 26.41, p < .001, 2 = .020, and lowest academic engagement (M = 5.47, SD = 1.13), F(3, 3937) = 30.61, p < .001, 2 = .023. The Uncivil group (M = 5.40, SD = 1.46) felt less safety than the Hetero/Sexist group (M = 5.73, SD = 1.37). Women (M = 5.03, SD = 1.45) felt less safe than men (M = 6.32, SD = 0.85), F(1, 2941) = 339.20, p < .001, 2 = .080. Sexual minorities (M = 5.32, SD = 1.52) felt less safe than heterosexuals (M = 5.71, SD = 1.33) overall, F(1, 2941) = 25.66, p < .001, 2 = .006, and within mistreatment groups, F(3, 2941) = 6.78, p < .001, 2 = .005. Sexual minorities (M = 5.83, SD = 0.90), F(1, 3937) = 14.25, p < .001, 2 = .004, and men (M = 5.96, SD = 0.86), F(1, 3937) = 19.47, p < .001, 2 = .005, were less engaged compared to heterosexuals (M = 6.04, SD = 0.82) and women (M = 6.07, SD = 0.80). Highly victimized women (M = 5.62, SD = 1.01) had resilient engagement compared to similarly targeted men (M = 5.29, M = 1.23), F(3, 3937) = 4.10, p = .007, 2 = .003. While victimized and marginalized students’ diminished institutional relations could be characterized by disconnection (Tinto, 1975), they may simultaneously rely on this university to live, learn, work, and socialize (Smith & Freyd, 2014). College students’ strained attitudes and disengagement alongside gendered mistreatment might be best characterized as institutional estrangement, whereby they navigate simultaneous alienation and dependency.PHDPsychology and Women's StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143896/1/goodmake_1.pd

Childcare Affordability Pilots (CAP09): Actual Costs Pilot: the impact of real time reporting of childcare costs on families: a data analysis report

"The primary aims of the Actual Costs pilot focus not on take-up as with the 100% and the Disabled Children pilots, but more on the experiences and behaviour of families under the piloted system of reporting and payment. The Actual Costs pilot looks at whether an alternative process whereby families do not have to average, and can claim a proportion of their actual last month’s childcare costs, helps families to budget better, and results in a lower level of error and fraud overall. There is no enhancement of benefits in this pilot, rather families are offered the opportunity to budget for their costs better with more frequent contact. The aims of this report are to assess whether the CAP09 Actual Costs pilot resulted in a reported improvement in families’ ability to know which costs to report to HMRC, and to do so more accurately." - https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFE-RR10

Childcare Affordability Pilots (CAP09): Disabled Children's Pilot: the importance of cost as a driver of family decisions about work and childcare: a data analysis report

"This pilot looked to assess whether increasing the maximum limits of the childcare element of tax credits for families with disabled children acted as an incentive to move into work. In the event whilst 191 customers registered an interest in the pilot (and 59 families registered an interest from the control group) only 16 actually moved into work and childcare via the Childcare Affordability Pilot (CAP09) process, of these only 5 customers had childcare costs that were above the existing tax credits limits. As a result, it must be concluded that the low take-up of the pilot and control offers indicates that raising the childcare limits for disabled children, in itself, had a negligible effect on moving families into work and childcare. However the small numbers allow for very little analysis beyond this conclusion." - Page 2

Effect Of A ‘Look-Ahead’ Problem On Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Concept Comprehension

In an effort to motivate undergraduate engineering students to prepare for class by reviewing material before lectures, a ‘Look–Ahead’ problem was utilized. Students from two undergraduate engineering courses; Statics and Electronic Circuits, were assigned problems from course material that had not yet been covered in class. These assignments were collected and assessed. Grades from the ‘Look–Ahead’ problems, collected over a sixteen-week semester, were compared to overall exam performance. In addition, exam problem scores from specific correlating concepts/topics were compared with ‘Look–Ahead’ problem scores. Surprisingly, the data show very low correlation between student performance on ‘Look–Ahead’ problems and exams.

Expanding DP4: application to drug compounds and automation.

The DP4 parameter, which provides a confidence level for NMR assignment, has been widely used to help assign the structures of many stereochemically-rich molecules. We present an improved version of the procedure, which can be downloaded as Python script instead of running within a web-browser, and which analyses output from open-source molecular modelling programs (TINKER and NWChem) in addition to being able to use output from commercial packages (Schrodinger's Macromodel and Jaguar; Gaussian). The new open-source workflow incorporates a method for the automatic generation of diastereomers using InChI strings and has been tested on a range of new structures. This improved workflow permits the rapid and convenient computational elucidation of structure and relative stereochemistry.The authors wish to thank Medivir for the generous financial support.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Royal Society of Chemistry via https://doi.org/10.1039/C6OB00015

The optimal DFT approach in DP4 NMR structure analysis - pushing the limits of relative configuration elucidation.

What computational methods should be used to achieve the most reliable result in computational structure elucidation? A study on the effect of quality and quantity of geometries on computational NMR structure elucidation performance is reported. Semi-empirical, HF and DFT methods were explored, and B3LYP optimized geometries in combination with mPW1PW91 shifts and M06-2X conformer energies was found to be best. The required number of conformers considered has also been investigated, as well as several methods for the reduction of this number. Clear guidelines for the best computational NMR structure elucidation methods for different levels of available computing power are provided.Medivir, Leverhulme Trust and Isaac Newton Trus