Factors affecting learning of Mexican primary school children

This paper isolates factors affecting Mexican primary school children's grade repetition rates and their educational outcomes, as measured by reading and math scores on a standardized test. We estimate an econometric production function for primary school education where the endogenous variables are language achievement, math achievement and grade repetition for individual children. The empirical results indicate that gender, socioeconomic status, parental education levels and past repetition of a grade are significant and common determinants of the endogenous variables. This study also shows that more teaching hours and increased student-teacher interaction, coupled with improved facilities and libraries, improve children's math and language achievement scores. Policy implications flowing from these results are outlined.

Married women´s labor force participation in developing counties: The case of México

This study investigates the effect of cultural and structural features of Mexico on women's labor force determination. Our findings show that the major factors influencing married women's participation in the formal sector in Mexico are similar to those affecting married women's participation in industrialized countries. However, the study indicates that factors driving the decision Mexican women to work in the informal sector may be different from those driving decisions to work in the formal sector. An important result is that the reservation wage for married women appears to be higher in Mexico than in more industrialized countries.

Gender does not influence the response to the combination of salmeterol and fluticasone propionate in COPD

AbstractThe prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in women is increasing worldwide. Women may have greater susceptibility to COPD progression than men, and differences in efficacy and safety of respiratory medications by gender are largely unexplored. We aimed to determine whether the response to treatment in women with COPD differed from men in a large, 1-year double-blind trial (‘TRISTAN’). In a sensitivity analysis, we compared 539 male and 180 female COPD patients, who were randomized to the salmeterol/fluticasone combination 50/500mcg bid or placebo for 12 months. Combination therapy improved pre-treatment FEV1 significantly more than placebo in women by 152ml (95% confidence interval 95–208) and in men by 127ml (94–159). Similarly, a reduction in COPD exacerbation rates of 31% in women (9–48%) and of 23% in men (8–35%) was observed. Combination therapy reduced COPD exacerbations requiring treatment with oral corticosteroids by 36% in women and by 41% in men. Finally, combination treatment produced a better improvement in health status than placebo with a decrease in the SGRQ scores in women by −2.3 (−4.6 – 0.1) and in men by −2.1 (−3.5 to −0.8). No gender interaction was found for any outcome. Treatments were well tolerated with no difference in the frequency of adverse events in women and men. In this trial, therapy with the salmeterol/fluticasone combination produced significant improvements compared to placebo on all main endpoints and the magnitude of these improvements was similar for both men and women

Framework for Leadership and Training of Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory Workers

One-sentence summary for table of contents: Training should include theoretical consideration of biocontainment principles, practical hands-on training, and mentored on-the-job experience

Spin Waves in Canted Phases: An Application to Doped Manganites

We present the effective lagrangian for low energy and momentum spin waves in canted phases at next to leading order in the derivative expansion. The symmetry breaking pattern SU(2) --> 1 of the internal spin group and that of the crystallographic space group imply that there is one ferromagnetic and one antiferromagnetic spin wave. The interaction of the spin waves with the charge carriers is also discussed for canted, ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. All this together allows us to write the doping dependence of the dispersion relation parameters for doped manganites. We point out that the spin waves posses distinctive characteristics which may allow us to experimentally differentiate canted phases from phase separation regions in doped manganites.Comment: 34 pages, latex file, 1 eps included figure. Minor changes, published versio

Some Like It Fat: Comparative Ultrastructure of the Embryo in Two Demosponges of the Genus Mycale (Order Poecilosclerida) from Antarctica and the Caribbean

0000-0002-7993-1523© 2015 Riesgo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [4.0], which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Prospects for heavy supersymmetric charged Higgs boson searches at hadron colliders

We investigate the production of a heavy charged Higgs boson at hadron colliders within the context of the MSSM. A detailed study is performed for all important production modes and basic background processes for the t\bar{t}b\bar{b} signature. In our analysis we include effects of initial and final state showering, hadronization, and principal detector effects. For the signal production rate we include the leading SUSY quantum effects at high \tan\beta>~ mt/mb. Based on the obtained efficiencies for the signal and background we estimate the discovery and exclusion mass limits of the charged Higgs boson at high values of \tan\beta. At the upgraded Tevatron the discovery of a heavy charged Higgs boson (MH^+ >~ 200 GeV) is impossible for the tree-level cross-section values. However, if QCD and SUSY effects happen to reinforce mutually, there are indeed regions of the MSSM parameter space which could provide 3\sigma evidence and, at best, 5\sigma charged Higgs boson discovery at the Tevatron for masses M_H^+<~ 300 GeV and M_H^+<~ 250 GeV, respectively, even assuming squark and gluino masses in the (500-1000) GeV range. On the other hand, at the LHC one can discover a H^+ as heavy as 1 TeV at the canonical confidence level of 5\sigma; or else exclude its existence at 95% C.L. up to masses ~ 1.5 TeV. Again the presence of SUSY quantum effects can be very important here as they may shift the LHC limits by a few hundred GeV.Comment: Latex2e, 44 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables, uses JHEP3.sty, axodraw.sty. Comments added. Discussion on QCD factors clarified. Added discussion on uncertainties. Change of presentation of Tables 4 and 5 and Fig.6. Results and conclusions unchanged. Version accepted in JHE

Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project

The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the sensitivity of existing gravitational-wave search algorithms using numerically generated waveforms and to foster closer collaboration between the numerical relativity and data analysis communities. We describe the results of the first NINJA analysis which focused on gravitational waveforms from binary black hole coalescence. Ten numerical relativity groups contributed numerical data which were used to generate a set of gravitational-wave signals. These signals were injected into a simulated data set, designed to mimic the response of the Initial LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Nine groups analysed this data using search and parameter-estimation pipelines. Matched filter algorithms, un-modelled-burst searches and Bayesian parameter-estimation and model-selection algorithms were applied to the data. We report the efficiency of these search methods in detecting the numerical waveforms and measuring their parameters. We describe preliminary comparisons between the different search methods and suggest improvements for future NINJA analyses.Comment: 56 pages, 25 figures; various clarifications; accepted to CQ

Recommendations for the use of common outcome measures in pediatric traumatic brain injury research

This article addresses the need for age-relevant outcome measures for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research and summarizes the recommendations by the inter-agency Pediatric TBI Outcomes Workgroup. The Pediatric Workgroup\u27s recommendations address primary clinical research objectives including characterizing course of recovery from TBI, prediction of later outcome, measurement of treatment effects, and comparison of outcomes across studies. Consistent with other Common Data Elements (CDE) Workgroups, the Pediatric TBI Outcomes Workgroup adopted the standard three-tier system in its selection of measures. In the first tier, core measures included valid, robust, and widely applicable outcome measures with proven utility in pediatric TBI from each identified domain including academics, adaptive and daily living skills, family and environment, global outcome, health-related quality of life, infant and toddler measures, language and communication, neuropsychological impairment, physical functioning, psychiatric and psychological functioning, recovery of consciousness, social role participation and social competence, social cognition, and TBI-related symptoms. In the second tier, supplemental measures were recommended for consideration in TBI research focusing on specific topics or populations. In the third tier, emerging measures included important instruments currently under development, in the process of validation, or nearing the point of published findings that have significant potential to be superior to measures in the core and supplemental lists and may eventually replace them as evidence for their utility emerges