57 research outputs found
Student attendance and educational outcomes: every day counts
Regular attendance at school provides children with opportunities to develop the basic skills for learning, and assists in the development of social skills including communication, self-esteem, teamwork and friendship building.Attendance is a precursor for learning and onward skill development. Understanding how patterns of attendance are established in the early years of school and the nature of the relationship between attendance and achievement, can help maximise learning opportunities for all students.We used data from the WA Department of Education on school enrolment, attendance and NAPLAN (literacy and numeracy) achievement from 2008 to 2012 to assess the attendance patterns of over 415,000 primary and secondary students across the 5-year period. We also examined how these patterns vary for students with different characteristics. We examined the extent to which authorised and unauthorised absences from school related to NAPLAN achievement after controlling for a range of factors.We investigated how absence rates in previous years relate to current achievement levels and whether there is a "safe" threshold of absence where students could catch up on missed schooling without affecting their overall achievement. The results of the study are described in the final report. Authors: Kirsten J. Hancock, Carrington C. J. Shepherd, David Lawrence & Stephen R. Zubrick.This report has been prepared by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia for the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
Elliptic aspects of statistical mechanics on spheres
Our earlier results on the temperature inversion properties and the
ellipticisation of the finite temperature internal energy on odd spheres are
extended to orbifold factors of odd spheres and then to other thermodynamic
quantities, in particular to the specific heat. The behaviour under modular
transformations is facilitated by the introduction of a modular covariant
derivative and it is shown that the specific heat on any odd sphere can be
expressed in terms of just three functions. It is also shown that the free
energy on the circle can be written elliptically.Comment: 22 pages. JyTe
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Using spectral indices to estimate water content and GPP in Sphagnum moss and other peatland vegetation
Peatlands provide important ecosystem services including carbon stroage and biodiversity conservation. Remote sensing shows potential for monitoring peatlands, but most off-the-shelf data produces are developed for unsaturated environments and it is unclear how well they can perform in peatland ecosystems. Sphagnum moss is an important peatland genus with specific characteristics which can affect spectral reflectance, and we hypothesized that the prevalence of Sphagnum in a peatland could affect the spectral signature of the area. This study combines results from both laboratory and field experiments to assess the relationship between spectral indices and the moisture content and GPP of peatland (blanket bog) vegetation species. The aim was to consider how well the selected indices perform under a range of conditions, and whether Sphagnum has a significant impact on the relationships tested. We found that both water indices tested (NDWI and fWBI) were sensitive to the water content changes in Sphagnum moss in the laboratory, and there was little difference between them. Most of the vegetation indices tested (the NDVI, EVI, SIPI and CIm) were found to have a strong relationship with GPP both in the laboratory and in the field. The NDVI and EVI are useful for large-scale estimation of GPP, but are sensitive to the proportion of Sphagnum present. The CIm is less affected by different species proportions and might therefore be the best to use in areas where species cover is unknown. The PRI is shown to be best suited to small-scale studies of single species
Determinants on lens spaces and cyclotomic units
The Laplacian functional determinants for conformal scalars and coexact
one-forms are evaluated in closed form on inhomogeneous lens spaces of certain
orders, including all odd primes when the essential part of the expression is
given, formally as a cyclotomic unitComment: 18 pages, 1 figur
Educational inequality across three generations in Australia
The transfer of advantage and disadvantage across multiple generations is receiving increasing attention in the international literature; however, transfers of resources across multiple generations in Australian families are less well understood. Using a longitudinal dataset of Australian children, we have the opportunity to not only investigate the transfer of educational resources across three generations in Australia, but also investigate the gendered nature of these transfers, which has been a limitation of other studies. We find no evidence of individual grandparent education effects on numeracy and reading scores for grandchildren in Year 3, independent of parent educational attainment and other covariates. However, significant effects on numeracy and reading scores were observed for children in families where both the grandmother and grandfather in maternal and paternal grandparent sets had high educational attainment (a diploma or university qualification), and where either or both the mother and father had a university qualification. These results suggest that the contribution of grandparents to the academic achievement of grandchildren cannot be fully explained by the parent generation and that the concentration of human capital in families contributes to educational inequalities across multiple generations that can be observed by eight years of age
Mental health problems among 4–17-year-olds with hearing problems : results from a nationally representative study
OBJECTIVE : This study aimed to characterize the risk of mental health problems among a representative sample of 6,310 4–17-year-olds, 147 of whom had parent-reported hearing problems. METHODS : The study used data from the Young Minds Matter survey. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-IV) assessed prevalence of mood, anxiety and behavioural disorders. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) assessed social and emotional problems. Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds of having mental health problems adjusting for child factors (speech and language problems, global health, age and gender), family factors (family structure, parent income, education, financial strain and psychological distress) and school-related factors (bullying, school liking, school absence). RESULTS : In unadjusted analyses, children and young people with hearing problems had substantially higher odds of most mental health problems. Hearing problems were not associated with any mental health problem among 4–11-year-olds after adjusting for other child factors. After adjustments for child, family and school-related factors, 12–17-year-olds with a hearing problem remained at greater risk of social phobia and generalized anxiety (DISC-IV), and of peer and emotional problems (SDQ). CONCLUSIONS : Clinicians caring for children and young people with hearing problems should be alert for heightened risk of specific mental health problems based on age and the nature of hearing problems. Understanding a wider range of correlates associated with the higher prevalence of mental health problems may allow health professionals to be more informed about the nature of mental health problems that are comorbid to hearing problems.KJH was supported by the Australian Research Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course [grant No. CE140100027]. AL was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellowship [grant No. 1072593]. The Young Minds Matter survey was initiated and funded by the Australian Government Department of Health.https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ihbc202018-05-16hj2018Speech-Language Pathology and Audiolog
Mitochondrial physiology
As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery
Mitochondrial physiology
As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery
Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome
The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead
The gap in life expectancy from preventable physical illness in psychiatric patients in Western Australia: retrospective analysis of population based registers
Objective To examine the mortality experience of psychiatric patients in Western Australia compared with the general population
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