Understanding Racial Inequities In Coproduction: The Case Of Public Education

This dissertation investigates the prevalence and mechanism of racial inequities in coproduction within public education: parent involvement. Also, it evaluates the effectiveness of the government initiatives, managerial approaches to promote coproduction, on alleviating the inequities. Using National Household Education Survey (NHES) 2012-19, the study primarily conducted logit regressions with Jackknife replication method. Results showed that the co-delivery and co-commissioning activities at school offer unequal access to racial minority parents, and the racial disparities were bigger for co-commissioning than co-delivery. Racial gaps in abilities and resources primarily explained the racial disparities in coproduction, yet the contributing factors varied by race. Finally, the government initiatives had different impacts on improving inequities. Providing information on coproduction did not necessarily improve unequal access for racial minority parents. In contrast, providing translated materials and interpreters effectively alleviated the racial inequities in co-commissioning. The findings contribute to improving our insufficient understanding of identifying and resolving coproduction’s negative effects on equity. Moreover, the dissertation provides important guides for studying the issues of (racial) inequities and exclusions in coproduction. First, more scholarly attention is necessary to the disparities in coproduction, especially in co-commissioning. Second, research should investigate unequal access and inclusions across various coproduction activities by policy cycle and context. Third, a one-size fits all approach would not work for examining and alleviating the racial inequities in coproduction. Lastly, when assessing effectiveness of coproduction and government initiatives, racial equity should be one of the primary outcomes. The empirical evidence also offers some useful policy implications. Practitioners should address unequal access and inclusions separately for different coproduction activities and racial groups. Especially, they should put more effort into recognizing and improving racial gaps in decision-making coproduction activities, co-commissioning at school, so as not to exclude minority students’ service needs

Laboratory Experiments of Entrainment in Dry Convective Boundary Layers

Entrainment in dry convective boundary layers was studied. A saline convection tank set-up was used as a laboratory model for a dry convective atmospheric boundary layer. The entrainment flux was measured using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). It was found that the entrainment flux reveals a much stronger dependence on the inversion strength than large eddy simulations tend to do

Integration of tomato reproductive developmental landmarks and expression profiles, and the effect of SUN on fruit shape

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Universally accepted landmark stages are necessary to highlight key events in plant reproductive development and to facilitate comparisons among species. Domestication and selection of tomato resulted in many varieties that differ in fruit shape and size. This diversity is useful to unravel underlying molecular and developmental mechanisms that control organ morphology and patterning. The tomato fruit shape gene <it>SUN </it>controls fruit elongation. The most dramatic effect of <it>SUN </it>on fruit shape occurs after pollination and fertilization although a detailed investigation into the timing of the fruit shape change as well as gene expression profiles during critical developmental stages has not been conducted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We provide a description of floral and fruit development in a red-fruited closely related wild relative of tomato, <it>Solanum pimpinellifolium </it>accession LA1589. We use established and propose new floral and fruit landmarks to present a framework for tomato developmental studies. In addition, gene expression profiles of three key stages in floral and fruit development are presented, namely floral buds 10 days before anthesis (floral landmark 7), anthesis-stage flowers (floral landmark 10 and fruit landmark 1), and 5 days post anthesis fruit (fruit landmark 3). To demonstrate the utility of the landmarks, we characterize the tomato shape gene <it>SUN </it>in fruit development. <it>SUN </it>controls fruit shape predominantly after fertilization and its effect reaches a maximum at 8 days post-anthesis coinciding with fruit landmark 4 representing the globular embryo stage of seed development. The expression profiles of the NILs that differ at <it>sun </it>show that only 34 genes were differentially expressed and most of them at a less than 2-fold difference.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The landmarks for flower and fruit development in tomato were outlined and integrated with the effect of <it>SUN </it>on fruit shape. Although we did not identify many genes differentially expressed in the NILs that differ at the <it>sun </it>locus, higher or lower transcript levels for many genes involved in phytohormone biosynthesis or signaling as well as organ identity and patterning of tomato fruit were found between developmental time points.</p

Brain ageing in schizophrenia: evidence from 26 international cohorts via the ENIGMA Schizophrenia consortium

Schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with an increased risk of life-long cognitive impairments, age-related chronic disease, and premature mortality. We investigated evidence for advanced brain ageing in adult SZ patients, and whether this was associated with clinical characteristics in a prospective meta-analytic study conducted by the ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group. The study included data from 26 cohorts worldwide, with a total of 2803 SZ patients (mean age 34.2 years; range 18–72 years; 67% male) and 2598 healthy controls (mean age 33.8 years, range 18–73 years, 55% male). Brain-predicted age was individually estimated using a model trained on independent data based on 68 measures of cortical thickness and surface area, 7 subcortical volumes, lateral ventricular volumes and total intracranial volume, all derived from T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Deviations from a healthy brain ageing trajectory were assessed by the difference between brain-predicted age and chronological age (brain-predicted age difference [brain-PAD]). On average, SZ patients showed a higher brain-PAD of +3.55 years (95% CI: 2.91, 4.19; I2 = 57.53%) compared to controls, after adjusting for age, sex and site (Cohen’s d = 0.48). Among SZ patients, brain-PAD was not associated with specific clinical characteristics (age of onset, duration of illness, symptom severity, or antipsychotic use and dose). This large-scale collaborative study suggests advanced structural brain ageing in SZ. Longitudinal studies of SZ and a range of mental and somatic health outcomes will help to further evaluate the clinical implications of increased brain-PAD and its ability to be influenced by interventions

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for wound healing in diabetic rats: Varying efficacy after a clinically-based protocol

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a clinical treatment in which a patient breathes pure oxygen for a limited period of time at an increased pressure. Although this therapy has been used for decades to assist wound healing, its efficacy for many conditions is unproven and its mechanism of action is not yet fully clarified. This study investigated the effects of HBOT on wound healing using a diabetes-impaired pressure ulcer rat model. Seven weeks after streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats (n = 55), a pressure ulcer was created on dorsal skin. Subsequently, animals received HBOT during 6 weeks following a standard clinical protocol (HBOT group with varying endpoints up to 42 days post-wounding) versus controls without HBOT. Capillary venous oxygen saturation (SO2) showed a significant increase in the HBOT group on day 24; however, this increase was significant at this time point only. The quantity of hemoglobin in the micro-blood vessels (rHB) showed a significant decrease in the HBOT group on days 21 and 42, and showed a trend to decrease on day 31. Blood flow in the microcirculation showed a significant increase on days 17, 21 and 31 but a significant decrease on days 24 and 28. Inflammation scoring showed significantly decreased CD68 counts in the HBOT group on day 42, but not in the early stages of wound healing. Animals in the HBOT group showed a trend for an increase in mean wound breaking strength on day 42

Простір публічних комунікацій сучасних релігійних організацій

Porous aluminum oxide (PAO) is a nanoporous material used for various (bio)­technological applications, and tailoring its surface properties via covalent modification is a way to expand and refine its application. Specific and complex chemical modification of the PAO surface requires a stepwise approach in which a secondary reaction on a stable initial modification is necessary to achieve the desired terminal molecular architecture and reactivity. We here show that the straightforward initial modification of the bare PAO surface with bromo-terminated phosphonic acid allows for the subsequent preparation of PAO with a wide scope of terminal reactive groups, making it suitable for (bio)­functionalization. Starting from the initial bromo-terminated PAO, we prepared PAO surfaces presenting various terminal functional groups, such as azide, alkyne, alkene, thiol, isothiocyanate, and <i>N</i>-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS). We also show that this wide scope of easily accessible tailored reactive PAO surfaces can be used for subsequent modification with (bio)­molecules, including carbohydrate derivatives and fluorescently labeled proteins