The influence of parents, places and poverty on educational attitudes and aspirations

This report aims to better understand the relationship between young people 19s aspirations and how they are formed. There is a high degree of interest among politicians and policymakers in aspirations, driven by two concerns: raising the education and skills of the UK population, and tackling social and economic inequality. High aspirations are often seen as one way to address these concerns, but how aspirations contribute to strong work and educational outcomes is not well understood. Based on longitudinal research in three locations in the UK, the report investigates aspirations and contributes empirical evidence to the debate

The Visual Page

All printed texts convey meaning through both linguistic and graphic signs, but existing tools for computational text analysis focus only on the linguistic content. The Visual Page will develop a prototype application to identify and analyze visual features in digitized Victorian books of poetry, such as margin space, line indentation, and typeface attributes. This will enable scholars to compare documents, identify distinctive or typical books, and track historical changes and influence over very large sets of digitized texts. Current research into such questions is limited by our human capacity to view and compare only a fairly small number of texts at one time. Thus our understanding of their historical significance is based on limited information. Computer analysis can point to significant patterns and trends over a much larger set of texts, which will ultimately transform our understanding of Victorian print culture and the humanities at large

VARIETAL SALES AND QUALITY DIFFERENTIATION: THE CASE OF CERTIFIED SOYBEAN SEED IN THE SOUTHEASTERN U.S.

Variation in annual soybean plantings contributes to uncertainty in supplies of and demand for soybean seed in the southeastern U.S. This study used an expenditure valuation approach in an hedonic analysis framework to estimate returns to soybean seed quality differentiation. Analysis of pooled cross-sectional and time series observations narrowed important quality characteristics to yield and disease resistance attributes. In general, unexpected environmental factors affect seed crops over time, and the demand for other performance attributes is less predictable than for expected yield attributes. The results also suggest that geographical location is not significantly related to sales of varietal soybean seed in the study area.Crop Production/Industries,

Effects of congenital hearing loss and cochlear implantation on audiovisual speech perception in infants and children

Purpose: Cochlear implantation has recently become available as an intervention strategy for young children with profound hearing impairment. In fact, infants as young as 6 months are now receiving cochlear implants (CIs), and even younger infants are being fitted with hearing aids (HAs). Because early audiovisual experience may be important for normal development of speech perception, it is important to investigate the effects of a period of auditory deprivation and amplification type on multimodal perceptual processes of infants and children. The purpose of this study was to investigate audiovisual perception skills in normal-hearing (NH) infants and children and deaf infants and children with CIs and HAs of similar chronological ages. Methods: We used an Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm to present the same woman\u27s face articulating two words ( judge and back ) in temporal synchrony on two sides of a TV monitor, along with an auditory presentation of one of the words. Results: The results showed that NH infants and children spontaneously matched auditory and visual information in spoken words; deaf infants and children with HAs did not integrate the audiovisual information; and deaf infants and children with CIs initially did not initially integrate the audiovisual information but gradually matched the auditory and visual information in spoken words. Conclusions: These results suggest that a period of auditory deprivation affects multimodal perceptual processes that may begin to develop normally after several months of auditory experience

The Working in Health Access Programme (WHAP): impact on school leaving exam results and applications to Medicine

Introduction: Pupils from backgrounds wit socio-economic deprivation are less likely to apply to study medicine than those from more affluent backgrounds. It is unclear whether those who might have the potential to be doctors can be identified at a time when they can be exposedto awareness raising activities to enhance their likelihood of success. Methods: Sixty nine schools from all parts of Scotland with below average participation rates in Higher Education took part. More than 2000 pupils sat tests of cognitive ability (Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale and Raven’s Progressive Matrices) as well as non-cognitive tests assessing characteristics that could influence success as a doctor. Results: The results of the cognitive tests correlated closely with Standard Grade Examinations (sat in Year 11) and less so with Highers (sat in Year 12). The numbers applying to and being admitted to Medicine rose 80% and 300% respectively over the duration of the project. Those receiving an offer differed in personality from those who didn’t. Discussion: Widening Participation activities of the type used in our project successfully increased application and offers for Medicine. The value of psychometric tests in the context of Widening Participation requires further research

Optimális éves viselkedési modellek: út a fiziológiától a populációkig? = Optimal annual routines: a path from physiology to populations?

A pályázat fő célja annak kiderítése volt, hogy a különböző állapotváltozók hogyan befolyásolják az optimális viselkedést, speciálisan a hogyan befolyásolják a fő életmenet események időzítését az éves cikluson belül. E cél elérése érdekében több modellt fejlesztettünk, és változatos terepi megfigyeléseket és aviáriumi kísérleteket folytattunk. Fő modelljeink azt mutatják, hogy az állapotváltozók (pl. tollminőség, energiatartalékok) jelentősen befolyásolhatják a vedlés és vándorlás időzítését, de a táplálékforrás időbeli eloszlása és szezonalitása is jelentős hatással lehet. Fő empirikus eredményeink szerint a táplálék minősége és a paraziták fertőzése jelentősen befolyásolhatja a tollminőséget. Egy komparatív vizsgálatban kimutattuk, hogy a vándorlás időzítését a különféle életmenet jellemzők jelentősen befolyásolják, de a szexuálisan szelektált jellegeknek nincs ilyen hatása. | The main aim of the project was to investigate how state variables effect optimal behaviour in general, and the optimal timing of major life history events over the annual cycle, in particular. To accomplish this aim we developed a couple of annual routine models and performed various field observations and aviary experiments. Our main models show that state variables (quality of feathers, energy reserves) can significantly influence the timing of optimal behaviour (moult, migration) but they also underline the importance of the temporal distribution and seasonality of food sources. Our main empirical results show that diet quality and parasite infection influence feather quality considerably. By a comparative study we found that life history traits (e.g. migration distance and diet) but not sexually selected traits influence the timing of migration

Improved laboratory gradiometer can be a field survey instrument

Improvements made to quartz gradiometer minimize or eliminate disturbing effects from known error sources and permit sensitivity of + or - 1 times 10 to the minus 9th power/sec sq or better and measuring accuracy of + or - 5 times 10 to the minus 9th power/sec sq

Does litomosoides sigmodontis synthesize dimethylethanolamine from choline?

Juvenile female Litomosoides sigmodontis secrete a protein (Juv-p120) highly modified with dimethylethanolamine (DMAE). In an attempt to establish the source of this decoration worms were pulsed with [3H]-choline and [3H]-ethanolamine and the radio-isotope labelled products analysed. Both isotope labels were successfully taken up by the worms, as demonstrated by labelling of phospholipids with [3H]-choline, being predominantly incorporated into phosphatidylcholine and [3H]-ethanolamine into phosphatidylethanolamine. Isotope labelling of phosphatidylethanolamine was particularly striking with the worms taking up ~30 times as much labelled ethanolamine as choline. It was possible to detect faint labelling of Juv-p120 with [3H]-ethanolamine after prolonged exposure periods but, unlike the situation with the phospholipids, it was much more readily labelled with [3H]-choline. When pulsing with [3H]-ethanolamine it was also possible to detect isotope-labelled phosphatidylcholine, which may ultimately account for the low levels of labelling of Juv-p120. Overall our results raise the previously unconsidered but intriguing possibility that in L. sigmodontis, choline may be the precursor of DMAE