Effect of age upon achievement of boys and girls in the seventh and eighth grades at the Needham School in Lodi, California

The problem for this study may be stated in two questions: (1) What effect does chronological age have on achievement in reading and arithmetic for boys and girls in the seventh and eighth grades at the Needham School in Lodi, California?; (2) Are boys in the Grades VII and VIII able to do as well scholastically as girls of the same age working in the same grade? The purpose of this study is to compare the scholastic achievement of a group of children who are young for their grade placement, less than twelve and thirteen years of age in Grades VII and VIII, respectively, with children who are older, and to determine if there is a valid reason for requiring a child to take an extra year of elementary school work because he happens to be in the youngest quartile age group of his class

Early school-leaving: causes - development - prevention - results of research carried out in the States and in Germany

Schulabbruch oder Dropout spielt in der Diskussion der deutschen Erziehungswissenschaft bisher nur eine marginale Rolle. Die Belege sind jedoch eindeutig, dass ein fehlender Schulabschluss wie auch der häufig damit verknüpfte Schulabsentismus wesentliche Risikofaktoren für Devianz, Gesundheitsprobleme, Armut und Arbeitslosigkeit darstellen. Der Beitrag referiert mit Blick auf die USA und die Europäische Union die Begrifflichkeiten, zeigt Daten zur Prävalenz auf, fasst die empirischen Befunde zu den relevanten Risikofaktoren zusammen und weist auf evidenzbasierte Verfahren zur Prävention, gerade auch im schulischen Kontext, hin. Aus diesem Überblick lassen sich fundierte Leitlinien zur schulbasierten Prävention von Schulabbruch gewinnen. (DIPF/Orig.)Early school-leaving or drop-out play but a marginal role in the debates within German educational science. Yet, evidence clearly shows that the lack of a school-leaving certificate as well as the often connected absenteeism constitute essential risk factors regarding deviance, health problems, poverty, and unemployment. Referring to both the United States and the European Union, the authors sketch the terminology, present data on the prevalence of these phenomena, summarize empirical findings regarding relevant risk factors, and point out evidence-based strategies of prevention within the school context, in particular. This survey provides well-founded guidelines for a school-based prevention of early school-leaving. (DIPF/Orig.

Проблемы информационного обеспечения физической культуры и спорта

A formation process for semiconductor quantum dots based on a surface instability induced by ion sputtering under normal incidence is presented. Crystalline dots 35 nanometers in diameter and arranged in a regular hexagonal lattice were produced on gallium antimonide surfaces. The formation mechanism relies on a natural self-organization mechanism that occurs during the erosion of surfaces, which is based on the interplay between roughening induced by ion sputtering and smoothing due to surface diffusion

KEGGtranslator: visualizing and converting the KEGG PATHWAY database to various formats

Summary: The KEGG PATHWAY database provides a widely used service for metabolic and nonmetabolic pathways. It contains manually drawn pathway maps with information about the genes, reactions and relations contained therein. To store these pathways, KEGG uses KGML, a proprietary XML-format. Parsers and translators are needed to process the pathway maps for usage in other applications and algorithms

Reduction of Femoral Fractures in Long-Term Care Facilities: The Bavarian Fracture Prevention Study

BACKGROUND: Hip fractures are a major public health burden. In industrialized countries about 20% of all femoral fractures occur in care dependent persons living in nursing care and assisted living facilities. Preventive strategies for these groups are needed as the access to medical services differs from independent home dwelling older persons at risk of osteoporotic fractures. It was the objective of the study to evaluate the effect of a fall and fracture prevention program on the incidence of femoral fracture in nursing homes in Bavaria, Germany. METHODS: In a translational intervention study a fall prevention program was introduced in 256 nursing homes with 13,653 residents. The control group consisted of 893 nursing homes with 31,668 residents. The intervention consisted of staff education on fall and fracture prevention strategies, progressive strength and balance training, and on institutional advice on environmental adaptations. Incident femoral fractures served as outcome measure. RESULTS: In the years before the intervention risk of a femoral fracture did not differ between the intervention group (IG) and control group (CG). During the one-year intervention period femoral fracture rates were 33.6 (IG) and 41.0/1000 person years (CG), respectively. The adjusted relative risk of a femoral fracture was 0.82 (95% CI 0.72-0.93) in residents exposed to the fall and fracture prevention program compared to residents from CG. CONCLUSIONS: The state-wide dissemination of a multi-factorial fall and fracture prevention program was able to reduce femoral fractures in residents of nursing homes

Viscoelastic Behavior of Embroidered Scaffolds for ACL Tissue Engineering Made of PLA and P(LA-CL) After In Vitro Degradation

A rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most common knee ligament injury. Current applied reconstruction methods have limitations in terms of graft availability and mechanical properties. A new approach could be the use of a tissue engineering construct that temporarily reflects the mechanical properties of native ligament tissues and acts as a carrier structure for cell seeding. In this study, embroidered scaffolds composed of polylactic acid (PLA) and poly(lactic-co-"-caprolactone) (P(LA-CL)) threads were tested mechanically for their viscoelastic behavior under in vitro degradation. The relaxation behavior of both scaffold types (moco: mono-component scaffold made of PLA threads, bico: bi-component scaffold made of PLA and P(LA-CL) threads) was comparable to native lapine ACL. Most of the lapine ACL cells survived 32 days of cell culture and grew along the fibers. Cell vitality was comparable for moco and bico scaffolds. Lapine ACL cells were able to adhere to the polymer surfaces and spread along the threads throughout the scaffold. The mechanical behavior of degrading matrices with and without cells showed no significant differences. These results demonstrate the potential of embroidered scaffolds as an ACL tissue engineering approach. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Scalable Declarative HEP Analysis Workflows for Containerised Compute Clouds

We describe a novel approach for experimental High-Energy Physics (HEP) data analyses that is centred around the declarative rather than imperative paradigm when describing analysis computational tasks. The analysis process can be structured in the form of a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), where each graph vertex represents a unit of computation with its inputs and outputs, and the graph edges describe the interconnection of various computational steps. We have developed REANA, a platform for reproducible data analyses, that supports several such DAG workflow specifications. The REANA platform parses the analysis workflow and dispatches its computational steps to various supported computing backends (Kubernetes, HTCondor, Slurm). The focus on declarative rather than imperative programming enables researchers to concentrate on the problem domain at hand without having to think about implementation details such as scalable job orchestration. The declarative programming approach is further exemplified by a multi-level job cascading paradigm that was implemented in the Yadage workflow specification language. We present two recent LHC particle physics analyses, ATLAS searches for dark matter and CMS jet energy correction pipelines, where the declarative approach was successfully applied. We argue that the declarative approach to data analyses, combined with recent advancements in container technology, facilitates the portability of computational data analyses to various compute backends, enhancing the reproducibility and the knowledge preservation behind particle physics data analyses.Peer reviewe

Catch-up-ESUS - follow-up in embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS) in a prospective, open-label, observational study: study protocol and initial baseline data

Introduction. So far there is no uniform, commonly accepted diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm for patients with embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS). Recent clinical trials on secondary stroke prevention in ESUS did not support the use of oral anticoagulation. As ESUS comprises heterogeneous subgroups including a wide age-range, concomitant patent foramen ovale (PFO), and variable probability for atrial fibrillation (AF), an individualised approach is urgently needed. This prospective registry study aims to provide initial data towards an individual, structured diagnostic and therapeutic approach in ESUS patients. Methods and analysis. The open-label, investigator-initiated, prospective, single-centre, observational registry study (Catch-up-ESUS) started in 01/2018. Consecutive ESUS patients ≥18 years who give informed consent are included and will be followed up for 3 years. Stratified by age <60 or ≥60 years, the patients are processed following a standardised diagnostic and treatment algorithm with an interdisciplinary design involving neurologists and cardiologists. Depending on the strata, patients receive a transesophageal echocardiogram; all patients receive an implantable cardiac monitor. Patients <60 years with PFO and without evidence of concomitant AF are planned for PFO closure within 6 months after stroke. The current diagnostic and therapeutic workup of ESUS patients requires improvement by both standardisation and a more individualised approach. Catch-up-ESUS will provide important data with respect to AF detection and PFO closure and will estimate stratified stroke recurrence rates after ESUS. Ethics and dissemination. The study has been approved by the responsible ethics committee at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany (project number 17–685). Catch-Up-ESUS is conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All patients will have to give written informed consent or, if unable to give consent themselves, their legal guardian will have to provide written informed consent for their participation. The first observation period of the registry study is 1 year, followed by the first publication of the results including follow-up of the patients. Further publications will be considered according the predefined individual follow-up dates of the stroke patients up to 36 months