Effective Pre-school Provision Northern Ireland (EPPNI): pre-school experience and key stage 2 performance in English and mathematics (research report; No 52)

Research report on a "... longitudinal study that has investigated the development of children between the ages of 3 and 11 years. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to explore the effects of pre-school experience on children’s attainment and progress on cognitive and social/behavioural development. In addition to pre-school effects, the study investigates the contribution to children’s development of individual and family characteristics such as gender, family size, parental education and socio-economic status. A parallel study is being carried out in England (Effective Pre-school & Primary Education – EPPE).." - overview

Preschool affects longer term literacy and numeracy: results from a general population longitudinal study in Northern Ireland

The Effective Pre-school Provision in Northern Ireland (EPPNI) project is a longitudinal study of child development from 3 to 11 years. It is one of the first large-scale UK projects to investigate the effects of different kinds of preschool provision, and to relate experience in preschool to child development. In EPPNI, 683 children were randomly selected from 80 preschools, and 151 children were recruited without preschool experience. Progress was then followed from age 3 to age 11. Preschool experience was related to age 11 performance in English and mathematics. High-quality preschools show consistent effects that are reflected not only in improved attainment in Key Stage 2 English and mathematics but also in improved progress in mathematics over primary school. Children who attended high-quality preschools were 2.4 times more likely in English, and 3.4 times more likely in mathematics, to attain Level 5 than children without preschool experience

Identifying and monitoring changes in special educational needs in the early years

This longitudinal study assesses the attainment and development of children followed from the age of 3 until the end of Key Stage 1 (age 8). Over 700 children were recruited to the study during 1998 and 1999 from 80 pre-school centres in Northern Ireland. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to explore the effects of pre-school experience on children\u27s cognitive attainment and social/behavioural development at entry to school and any continuing effects on such outcomes up to 8 years of age. In addition to the effects of pre-school experience, the study investigates the contribution to children\u27s development of individual and family characteristics such as gender, family size, parental education and employment. This overview describes the research design and discusses a variety of research issues (methodological and practical) in investigating the impact of pre-school provision on children\u27s developmental progress. A parallel study is being carried out in England (EPPE)

Session B8- Evaluating Diadromous Fish Passage at Lower Shannock Falls Dam Removal and Nature-like Weir Installation, Pawcatuck River, Rhode Island

The Lower Shannock Falls dam, a defunct, run-of-the river timber-crib dam situated on bedrock ledge, and located on the Pawcatuck River in southwestern Rhode Island, was removed in summer 2010. The target species for this fish passage restoration include river herring, American shad, American eel, and Atlantic salmon, as well as resident trout. Besides dam removal, additional construction work activities were completed for purposes of improving target species passage efficiency: three nature-like stone weirs were constructed for purposes of providing backwatering effects downstream of the dam removal; and bedrock ledge was modified to eliminate significant hydraulic drops. During construction, test flows were released through the weirs and restored river reach to evaluate hydraulics of the passage site. Based on test flows, several large boulders were installed as adaptive measures to improve upon site hydraulics. Post-construction velocity and depth measurements were completed in fall 2010 and spring 2011 to evaluate passage performance. This presentation will compare the results of the field monitoring with the as-built features and HEC-RAS and Fish Flow modeled hydraulic conditions for the site. Discussion will also include upstream passage conditions that resulted from impoundment drawdown and channel restoration. This project exemplifies Northeastern U.S. dam removals where underlying bedrock may have an effect on passage efficiency, and in-channel work activities may be beneficial to improving upon historic passage conditions. The project is being evaluated as a case study site for a web-based fish passage manual being developed jointly by NOAA-USGS-USFWS, scheduled for release in 2012

Family History of Cancer in Benign Brain Tumor Subtypes Versus Gliomas

Purpose: Family history is associated with gliomas, but this association has not been established for benign brain tumors. Using information from newly diagnosed primary brain tumor patients, we describe patterns of family cancer histories in patients with benign brain tumors and compare those to patients with gliomas. Methods: Newly diagnosed primary brain tumor patients were identified as part of the Ohio Brain Tumor Study. Each patient was asked to participate in a telephone interview about personal medical history, family history of cancer, and other exposures. Information was available from 33 acoustic neuroma (65%), 78 meningioma (65%), 49 pituitary adenoma (73.1%), and 152 glioma patients (58.2%). The association between family history of cancer and each subtype was compared with gliomas using unconditional logistic regression models generating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals. Results: There was no significant difference in family history of cancer between patients with glioma and benign subtypes. Conclusion: The results suggest that benign brain tumor may have an association with family history of cancer. More studies are warranted to disentangle the potential genetic and/or environmental causes for these diseases

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment