What is the Cost of a Preschool Program?

State and local governments that wish to establish or improve preschool programs need cost estimates to evaluate the magnitude of appropriations required. Yet even a casual scrutiny of available expenditure data reveals an enormous variance between the most expensive and least expensive preschool provisions. The purpose of this paper is to delineate the root causes of differences in per-student costs of states’ preschool programs and to suggest cost tradeoffs as different features such as smaller class size or longer school days are introduced or substituted for each other. These cost findings are contrasted with recent meta-analyses of the effectiveness of different program provisions. The goal of this paper is to advance the still nascent body of research on preschool cost effectiveness, and to aid state or local governments to assess the mix of characteristics that are most effective for any given budget constraint. The paper builds partially on the authors’ previous analysis of international preschool programs

Comparing Costs of Early Childhood Care and Education Programs: An International Perspective

The purpose of this article is to outline the determinants of early childhood care and education (EccE) costs as well as a method for measuring them, and to set out available cost data provided by countries for their EccE endeavors. The analysis is based upon comparison of available data for 17 countries. We first address why costs may differ significantly for EccE from country to country. Second, we address why existing reporting of costs is highly inconsistent and typically incomplete, including an examination of disparities in reported EccE expenditures across countries. Third, we outline an appropriate way, known as the “ingredients method”, for determining costs that can provide consistent measurement for comparative purposes

A scan statistic for identifying chromosomal patterns of SNP association

We have developed a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) association scan statistic that takes into account the complex distribution of the human genome variation in the identification of chromosomal regions with significant SNP associations. This scan statistic has wide applicability for genetic analysis, whether to identify important chromosomal regions associated with common diseases based on whole-genome SNP association studies or to identify disease susceptibility genes based on dense SNP positional candidate studies. To illustrate this method, we analyzed patterns of SNP associations on chromosome 19 in a large cohort study. Among 2,944 SNPs, we found seven regions that contained clusters of significantly associated SNPs. The average width of these regions was 35 kb with a range of 10–72 kb. We compared the scan statistic results to Fisher's product method using a sliding window approach, and detected 22 regions with significant clusters of SNP associations. The average width of these regions was 131 kb with a range of 10.1–615 kb. Given that the distances between SNPs are not taken into consideration in the sliding window approach, it is likely that a large fraction of these regions represents false positives. However, all seven regions detected by the scan statistic were also detected by the sliding window approach. The linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns within the seven regions were highly variable indicating that the clusters of SNP associations were not due to LD alone. The scan statistic developed here can be used to make gene-based or region-based SNP inferences about disease association. Genet. Epidemiol . 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55838/1/20173_ftp.pd

Host and viral determinants for MxB restriction of HIV-1 infection

Background: Interferon-induced cellular proteins play important roles in the host response against viral infection. The Mx family of dynamin-like GTPases, which include MxA and MxB, target a wide variety of viruses. Despite considerable evidence demonstrating the breadth of antiviral activity of MxA, human MxB was only recently discovered to specifically inhibit lentiviruses. Here we assess both host and viral determinants that underlie MxB restriction of HIV-1 infection. Results: Heterologous expression of MxB in human osteosarcoma cells potently inhibited HIV-1 infection (~12-fold), yet had little to no effect on divergent retroviruses. The anti-HIV effect manifested as a partial block in the formation of 2-long terminal repeat circle DNA and hence nuclear import, and we accordingly found evidence for an additional post-nuclear entry block. A large number of previously characterized capsid mutations, as well as mutations that abrogated integrase activity, counteracted MxB restriction. MxB expression suppressed integration into gene-enriched regions of chromosomes, similar to affects observed previously when cells were depleted for nuclear transport factors such as transportin 3. MxB activity did not require predicted GTPase active site residues or a series of unstructured loops within the stalk domain that confer functional oligomerization to related dynamin family proteins. In contrast, we observed an N-terminal stretch of residues in MxB to harbor key determinants. Protein localization conferred by a nuclear localization signal (NLS) within the N-terminal 25 residues, which was critical, was fully rescuable by a heterologous NLS. Consistent with this observation, a heterologous nuclear export sequence (NES) abolished full-length MxB activity. We additionally mapped sub-regions within amino acids 26–90 that contribute to MxB activity, finding sequences present within residues 27–50 particularly important. Conclusions: MxB inhibits HIV-1 by interfering with minimally two steps of infection, nuclear entry and post-nuclear trafficking and/or integration, without destabilizing the inherent catalytic activity of viral preintegration complexes. Putative MxB GTPase active site residues and stalk domain Loop 4 -- both previously shown to be necessary for MxA function -- were dispensable for MxB antiviral activity. Instead, we highlight subcellular localization and a yet-determined function(s) present in the unique MxB N-terminal region to be required for HIV-1 restriction. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12977-014-0090-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Near-invariant blur for depth and 2D motion via time-varying light field analysis

Recently, several camera designs have been proposed for either making defocus blur invariant to scene depth or making motion blur invariant to object motion. The benefit of such invariant capture is that no depth or motion estimation is required to remove the resultant spatially uniform blur. So far, the techniques have been studied separately for defocus and motion blur, and object motion has been assumed 1D (e.g., horizontal). This article explores a more general capture method that makes both defocus blur and motion blur nearly invariant to scene depth and in-plane 2D object motion. We formulate the problem as capturing a time-varying light field through a time-varying light field modulator at the lens aperture, and perform 5D (4D light field + 1D time) analysis of all the existing computational cameras for defocus/motion-only deblurring and their hybrids. This leads to a surprising conclusion that focus sweep, previously known as a depth-invariant capture method that moves the plane of focus through a range of scene depth during exposure, is near-optimal both in terms of depth and 2D motion invariance and in terms of high-frequency preservation for certain combinations of depth and motion ranges. Using our prototype camera, we demonstrate joint defocus and motion deblurring for moving scenes with depth variation

Major impacts of climate change on deep-sea benthic ecosystems

The deep sea encompasses the largest ecosystems on Earth. Although poorly known, deep seafloor ecosystems provide services that are vitally important to the entire ocean and biosphere. Rising atmospheric greenhouse gases are bringing about significant changes in the environmental properties of the ocean realm in terms of water column oxygenation, temperature, pH and food supply, with concomitant impacts on deep-sea ecosystems. Projections suggest that abyssal (3000–6000 m) ocean temperatures could increase by 1°C over the next 84 years, while abyssal seafloor habitats under areas of deep-water formation may experience reductions in water column oxygen concentrations by as much as 0.03 mL L–1 by 2100. Bathyal depths (200–3000 m) worldwide will undergo the most significant reductions in pH in all oceans by the year 2100 (0.29 to 0.37 pH units). O2 concentrations will also decline in the bathyal NE Pacific and Southern Oceans, with losses up to 3.7% or more, especially at intermediate depths. Another important environmental parameter, the flux of particulate organic matter to the seafloor, is likely to decline significantly in most oceans, most notably in the abyssal and bathyal Indian Ocean where it is predicted to decrease by 40–55% by the end of the century. Unfortunately, how these major changes will affect deep-seafloor ecosystems is, in some cases, very poorly understood. In this paper, we provide a detailed overview of the impacts of these changing environmental parameters on deep-seafloor ecosystems that will most likely be seen by 2100 in continental margin, abyssal and polar settings. We also consider how these changes may combine with other anthropogenic stressors (e.g., fishing, mineral mining, oil and gas extraction) to further impact deep-seafloor ecosystems and discuss the possible societal implications

Species replacement dominates megabenthos beta diversity in a remote seamount setting

Seamounts are proposed to be hotspots of deep-sea biodiversity, a pattern potentially arising from increased productivity in a heterogeneous landscape leading to either high species co-existence or species turnover (beta diversity). However, studies on individual seamounts remain rare, hindering our understanding of the underlying causes of local changes in beta diversity. Here, we investigated processes behind beta diversity using ROV video, coupled with oceanographic and quantitative terrain parameters, over a depth gradient in Annan Seamount, Equatorial Atlantic. By applying recently developed beta diversity analyses, we identified ecologically unique sites and distinguished between two beta diversity processes: species replacement and changes in species richness. The total beta diversity was high with an index of 0.92 out of 1 and was dominated by species replacement (68%). Species replacement was affected by depth-related variables, including temperature and water mass in addition to the aspect and local elevation of the seabed. In contrast, changes in species richness component were affected only by the water mass. Water mass, along with substrate also affected differences in species abundance. This study identified, for the first time on seamount megabenthos, the different beta diversity components and drivers, which can contribute towards understanding and protecting regional deep-sea biodiversity

Transcriptome Analysis and SNP Development Can Resolve Population Differentiation of Streblospio benedicti, a Developmentally Dimorphic Marine Annelid

Next-generation sequencing technology is now frequently being used to develop genomic tools for non-model organisms, which are generally important for advancing studies of evolutionary ecology. One such species, the marine annelid Streblospio benedicti, is an ideal system to study the evolutionary consequences of larval life history mode because the species displays a rare offspring dimorphism termed poecilogony, where females can produce either many small offspring or a few large ones. To further develop S. benedicti as a model system for studies of life history evolution, we apply 454 sequencing to characterize the transcriptome for embryos, larvae, and juveniles of this species, for which no genomic resources are currently available. Here we performed a de novo alignment of 336,715 reads generated by a quarter GS-FLX (Roche 454) run, which produced 7,222 contigs. We developed a novel approach for evaluating the site frequency spectrum across the transcriptome to identify potential signatures of selection. We also developed 84 novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for this species that are used to distinguish coastal populations of S. benedicti. We validated the SNPs by genotyping individuals of different developmental modes using the BeadXPress Golden Gate assay (Illumina). This allowed us to evaluate markers that may be associated with life-history mode

Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylase, Epoxide Hydrolase, and Benzo[a]pyrene Metabolism in Human Epidermis: Comparative Studies in Normal Subjects and Patients with Psoriasis

Prior studies have shown that human skin possesses a cytochrome P-450-dependent microsomal enzyme that is capable of metabolizing drugs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) carcinogens. This study characterized benzo[a]pyrene (BP) metabolism in human epidermis of normal and psoriatic individuals. The basal level of the cytochrome P-450-dependent microsomal enzyme aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) and epoxide hydrolase (EH) were measured in freshly keratomed epidermis from 12 normal individuals and from uninvolved skin sites of 12 patients with psoriasis. The induction response of AHH following the in vitro addition of the PAH benz[A]anthracene (BA) was also assessed. The basal activity (mean ± SE) of AHH in normal epidermis was 62.1 ± 5.6 units (fmol 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene, 3-OH-BP/min/mg protein) whereas the activity in uninvolved skin of psoriatic individuals was 62.9 ± 5.1 units (NS), Epoxide hydrolase activity was 25.1 ± 1.1 (pmol BP 4,5-diol/min/mg protein) units in normal epidermis and 24.8 ± 2.1 units in epidermis from patients with psoriasis (NS). Following addition of BA (100μM), in vitro, AHH activity in normal epidermis increased by a mean value of 165% whereas activity in nonlesional epidermis of psoriatic individuals increased 320%. Kinetic studies in normal epidermis revealed that the AHH reaction was linear up to 60 min and to 50 μg protein, had a pH optimum of 7.4, and the Km for BP was 0.62 MM. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) confirmed that the pattern of metabolism of BP was quite similar in epidermal microsomes prepared from normal and psoriatic individuals, insofar as the formation of diols, phenols, and quinones was concerned. These studies indicate that human epidermis is capable of metabolizing BP and that there is no significant difference between normal individuals and patients with psoriasis insofar as basal AHH activity or total BP metabolism is concerned. Furthermore, the epidermal enzyme system in patients with psoriasis has a greater responsiveness to environmental PAH than does that of normal individuals

Behaviour sequelae following acute Kawasaki disease.

BACKGROUND: Kawasaki disease is a systemic vasculitis and may affect cerebral function acutely. The aim of the present study was to measure a number of behaviour and social parameters within a cohort of Kawasaki disease patients. METHODS: Parents of children with past diagnosis of Kawasaki disease were recruited to complete several behaviour screening questionnaires. Sixty five sets of questionnaires relating to the patient cohort received were eligible for inclusion. Two control groups were used, a hospital (HC) control and a sibling control (SC) group. RESULTS: 40% of the Kawasaki disease group showed elevated internalising scores in the clinical or borderline-clinical range. This compared with 18% of hospital controls and 13% of sibling controls. Additionally, the Kawasaki disease (KD) group were shown to be experiencing greater overall total difficulties when compared with the controls (KD 13.7, HC 8.6, SC 8.9). The KD group attained higher behavioural scores within the internalising sub-categories of somatic problems (KD 61, HC 57, SC 54) and withdrawn traits (KD 56, HC 53, SC 51). The KD group were also shown to be suffering more thought problems (KD 57, HC 53, SC 50) compared with the controls. Further difficulties relating to conduct (KD 3.3, HC 1.4) and social interactions (KD 6.7, HC 8.3) are also highlighted for the KD group compared with hospital controls. Positron emission tomograms were performed on nine patients to investigate severe behavioural problems. Three showed minor changes, possibly a resolving cerebral vasculopathy. CONCLUSION: Kawasaki disease can be associated with significant behavioural sequelae. This is an important consideration in the long-term follow up and referral to a clinical psychologist may be necessary in selected patients