Does Immigration Affect the Long-Term Educational Outcomes of Natives? Quasi-Experimental Evidence

This paper uses the mass migration wave to Israel in the 1990s to examine the impact of immigrant concentration in elementary school on the long-term academic outcomes of native students in high school. To identify the causal effect of immigrant children on their peers, we exploit random variation in the number of immigrants across grades within the same school. The results suggest that the overall presence of immigrants had essentially no effect on the quality of the high school attended by native Israelis and on dropout rates, and at most a mild negative effect on high school matriculation rates. However, when we break up the sample by parents' education and by ethnic origin, we find that disadvantaged children were more likely to have been adversely affected by a higher immigrant concentration in elementary school. Focusing on the impact of Ethiopian immigrants who are from a much lower socio-economic background, we find stronger evidence of adverse effects, especially for disadvantaged students and in classes where immigrant concentration was particularly high.

A strategic integrated healthcare facility management model

The requirement to reduce expenditure on “non‐core” activities, along with building's owners’ expectations for improved performance, are the main dilemmas with which a facility manager deals on a regular basis. The primary objective of this research was to identify the effect of defined parameters, such as the actual age of a building and its level of occupancy, on the performance of facilities and their systems. This study contributed to the development of a model capable of integrating these parameters into a Facility Management (FM) tactical and strategic decision‐making process, referred to as the Integrated Healthcare Facility Management Model (IHFMM). The model's guidelines may be outlined for the methodological design and operation of facilities from a life cycle perspective. The paper presents the architecture of the developed model, and four of the 15 procedures that comprise the heart of this model. Strateginis integruotas sveikatos priežiūros pastatų ūkio valdymo modelis Santrauka Reikalavimas mažinti „neesmines“ veiklos išlaidas bei pastato savininkų lūkesčiai dėl geresnių rezultatų – su tokiomis pagrindinėmis dilemomis reguliariai susiduriapastatų ūkio valdymo vadybininkas. Šio tiriamojo darbo pagrindinis uždavinys yra nustatyti, koks yra apibrėžtaparametrų, tokių kaip realus pastato amžius ir jo užimtumolygis, poveikis pastatų ir jų sistemų rezultatyvumui. Šistyrimas prisidėjo kuriant modelį, kuris leidžia šiuosparametrus integruoti į taktinių ir strateginių pastatų ūkiovaldymo sprendimų priėmimo procesą ir yra vadinamas integruotu sveikatos priežiūros pastatų ūkio valdymo modeliu. Modelio rekomendacijas galima taikyti vykdantmetodologinį pastatų projektavimą ir eksploatavimą išgyvavimo ciklo perspektyvos. Šiame darbe pristatoma sukurto modelio architektūra ir keturios iš penkiolikos procedūrų, sudarančių šio modelio šerdį. First published online: 18 Oct 201

Inside the Black of Box of Ability Peer Effects: Evidence from Variation in the Proportion of Low Achievers in the Classroom

In this paper, we estimate the extent of ability peer effects in the classroom and explore the underlying mechanisms through which these peer effects operate. We identify as low ability students those who are enrolled at least one year behind their birth cohort (“repeaters”). We show that there are marked differences between the academic performance and behavior of repeaters and regular students. The status of repeaters is mostly determined by first grade; therefore, it is unlikely to have been affected by their classroom peers, and our estimates will not suffer from the reflection problem. Using within school variation in the proportion of these low ability students across cohorts of middle and high school students in Israel, we find that the proportion of low achieving peers has a negative effect on the performance of regular students, especially those located at the lower end of the ability distribution. An exploration of the underlying mechanisms of these peer effects shows that, relative to regular students, repeaters report that teachers are better in the individual treatment of students and in the instilment of capacity for individual study. However, a higher proportion of these low achieving students results in a deterioration of teachers’ pedagogical practices, has detrimental effects on the quality of inter-student relationships and the relationships between teachers and students, and increases the level of violence and classroom disruptions.

Sixty Years after the Magic Carpet Ride: The Long-Run Effect of the Early Childhood Environment on Social and Economic Outcomes

This paper estimates the effect of the childhood environment on a large array of social and economic outcomes lasting almost 60 years, for both the affected cohorts and for their children. To do this, we exploit a natural experiment provided by the 1949 Magic Carpet operation, where over 50,000 Yemenite immigrants were airlifted to Israel. The Yemenites, who lacked any formal schooling or knowledge of a western-style culture or bureaucracy, believed that they were being "redeemed," and put their trust in the Israeli authorities to make decisions about where they should go and what they should do. As a result, they were scattered across the country in essentially a random fashion, and as we show, the environmental conditions faced by immigrant children were not correlated with other factors that affected the long-term outcomes of individuals. We construct three summary measures of the childhood environment: 1) whether the home had running water, sanitation and electricity; 2) whether the locality of residence was in an urban environment with a good economic infrastructure; and 3) whether the locality of residence was a Yemenite enclave. We find that children who were placed in a better environment (i.e. with better sanitary and infrastructure conditions) were more likely to obtain higher education, marry at an older age, have fewer children, and work at age 55. They were also more likely to be assimilated into Israeli society, to be less religious, and have more worldly tastes in music and food. The estimated effects are much more pronounced for women than for men. We find weaker and somewhat mixed effects on health outcomes, and no effect on political views. We do find an effect on the next generation – children who lived in a better environment grew up to have children who achieved higher educational attainment.

Facility maintenance and management: a health care case study

Contemporary trends in healthcare services provision tend toward the increased use of community based healthcare centers. This study on the concepts of healthcare provision hypothesizes that in the future, the main source of healthcare services will be a network of community based clinics which will be responsible for the majority of primary and ambulatory care. This concept implies that a network of community clinics equipped with state of the art telemedicine will be established with a wide geographical dispersion. The implications for healthcare facilities in terms of the resources and performance of the built environment are investigated by reference to the Israeli healthcare system. This paper reflects the results of research on healthcare facility management over the past 10 years. Comparison of the performance and maintenance of hospital facilities and community clinics reveals that the maintenance and performance of clinic facilities have the potential to combine improved healthcare facility services with cost-effective facility management and maintenance

Evidence of distinct RELN and TGFB1 genetic associations in familial and non-familial otosclerosis in a British population

Otosclerosis is a common form of hearing loss which typically presents in young adults. The disease has a familial, monogenic form and a non-familial form with a more complex aetiology. A previous genome wide association study identified evidence that variants within RELN are associated with the condition. Other genes in which an association has been reported include BMP2, COL1A1, FGF2, PPP2R5B and TGFB1. However, follow up studies have often failed to replicate initial positive results. The aim of this study was to establish if an association exists between eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these six previously implicated genes and otosclerosis in a British case-control cohort (n = 748). Evidence of an association between rs1800472 in TGFB1 and otosclerosis was found (p = 0.034), this association was strongest amongst non-familial cases (p = 0.011). No evidence of an association was detected with variants in COL1A1, FGF2, BMP2, and PPP2R5B. No association between variation in RELN and otosclerosis was observed in the whole cohort. However, a significant association (p = 0.0057) was detected between one RELN SNP (rs39399) and otosclerosis in familial patients. Additionally, we identify expression of one RELN transcript in 51 of 81 human stapes tested, clarifying previous conflicting data as to whether RELN is expressed in the affected tissue. Our findings strengthen the association of TGFB1 (rs1800472) with otosclerosis and support a relationship between RELN and familial otosclerosis only, which may explain previous variable replications

Mutations and altered expression of SERPINF1 in patients with familial otosclerosis

Otosclerosis is a relatively common heterogenous condition, characterized by abnormal bone remodelling in the otic capsule leading to fixation of the stapedial footplate and an associated conductive hearing loss. Although familial linkage and candidate gene association studies have been performed in recent years, little progress has been made in identifying disease-causing genes. Here, we used whole-exome sequencing in four families exhibiting dominantly inherited otosclerosis to identify 23 candidate variants (reduced to 9 after segregation analysis) for further investigation in a secondary cohort of 84 familial cases. Multiple mutations were found in the SERPINF1 (Serpin Peptidase Inhibitor, Clade F) gene which encodes PEDF (pigment epithelium-derived factor), a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis and known regulator of bone density. Six rare heterozygous SERPINF1 variants were found in seven patients in our familial otosclerosis cohort; three are missense mutations predicted to be deleterious to protein function. The other three variants are all located in the 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of an alternative spliced transcript SERPINF1-012 RNA-seq analysis demonstrated that this is the major SERPINF1 transcript in human stapes bone. Analysis of stapes from two patients with the 5'-UTR mutations showed that they had reduced expression of SERPINF1-012 All three 5'-UTR mutations are predicted to occur within transcription factor binding sites and reporter gene assays confirmed that they affect gene expression levels. Furthermore, RT-qPCR analysis of stapes bone cDNA showed that SERPINF1-012 expression is reduced in otosclerosis patients with and without SERPINF1 mutations, suggesting that it may be a common pathogenic pathway in the disease

A simple method to assess the oxidative susceptibility of low density lipoproteins

BACKGROUND: Oxidative modification of low density lipoproteins (LDL) is recognized as one of the major processes involved in atherogenesis. The in vitro standardized measurement of LDL oxidative susceptibility could thus be of clinical significance. The aim of the present study was to establish a method which would allow the evaluation of oxidative susceptibility of LDL in the general clinical laboratory. RESULTS: LDL was isolated from human plasma by selective precipitation with amphipathic polymers. The ability of LDL to form peroxides was assessed by measuring thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) after incubation with Cu(2+) and H(2)O(2). Reaction kinetics showed a three-phase pattern (latency, propagation and decomposition phases) which allowed us to select 150 min as the time point to stop the incubation by cooling and EDTA addition. The mixture Cu(2+)/H(2)O(2) yielded more lipoperoxides than each one on its own at the same time end-point. Induced peroxidation was measured in normal subjects and in type 2 diabetic patients. In the control group, results were 21.7 ± 1.5 nmol MDA/mg LDL protein, while in the diabetic group results were significantly increased (39.0 ± 3.0 nmol MDA/mg LDL protein; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: a simple and useful method is presented for the routine determination of LDL susceptibility to peroxidation in a clinical laboratory