The effects of Peru's push to improve education

From the mid-1950s to the 1960s, the Government of Peru undertook a major expansion of public education, increasing the number of schools, requiring primary schools that offered an incomplete cycle to add grades, and increasing school inputs (principally teachers and textbooks). The paper examines the effects of Peru's educational policies, and the effects of family background and community characteristics on the schooling levels of a number of adults. Data on males and females were analyzed seperately by birth cohort.Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Gender and Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Education Reform and Management

Gains in the education of Peruvian women, 1940 to 1980

Since the mid 1950s, Peru's education policies have been designed to raise skill levels and make education available to more of the population. Those policies rested mainly on expanding the number of schools and as a result, school enrollment rates and attainment levels rose. However, an apparent parental preference to educate sons more than daughters meant that boys'schooling levels rose more quickly than girls'. Policies were not enough to bring girls'schooling even with boys', especially in rural areas. School quality, measured crudely by the supply of textbooks and the number of teachers, appears to have improved the schooling of women. Peru's education policies have reduced the direct costs associated with going to school. However, time allocation patterns reveal that the opportunity cost to the family of school attendance could be an effective barrier to further improvements in school enrollment and continuation rates. Even at a young age, girls - especially in rural families - participate in the labor market and contribute substantially to productive work at home.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Population&Development

Promoting girls'and women's education : lessons from the past

Many societies underinvest in girls'and women's education for three main reasons: high direct, indirect, and cultural costs; too few private benefits; and parent's failure to consider the social benefits of education. Strategies that have increased female enrollment are those that: lower the costs of education by providing culturally appropriate facilities, scholarships, and alternative schools that offer classes in the early morning or evening; and those that train girls and women in growth sectors of the economy at the same time that they make strong recruitment and placement efforts. Strategies that have failed include those that distribute school uniforms and offer vocational training that is not directly linked to employment. Too little information is available to assess the effectiveness of programmed learning, day care, home technologies, information campaigns, school meals, and the revamping of curricula and textbooks to introduce broader roles for women. More research is needed on: 1) the importance parents and girls attach to the quality of available education when making their schooling decisions; 2) girls'and women's participation in educational programs; and 3) individual, family, community, and school factors that limit girls'and women's participation and achievement. There should also be more experiments with different approaches and more evaluation of program outcomes.Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Girls Education

Mass media campaigns and the 'file drawer problem': A mixed methods study of how to avoid campaign failure.

Mass media campaigns are frequently used to address public health issues. Considering the considerable cost, there has been little analysis of why campaigns sometimes fail. This study used a sequential mixed methods approach to explore the mechanisms that can lead to failure and to identify what can be done to avoid or overcome common mistakes in campaign planning, implementation, and evaluation. We conducted interviews and a survey with 28 public health social marketing and mass media campaign experts over three rounds of research and analysed the data thematically, generating themes inductively. We identified four systemic factors that drive success: long-term strategic thinking and commitment, understanding the campaign context, doing and learning from evaluation, and fostering strong relationships. The factors did not operate in isolation, rather good (or poor) execution in one area was likely to influence performance in another. The experts also emphasised that a change of political context could drastically affect one or more of the identified factors. Our analysis showed that campaign failures are not simply individuals making mistakes. Systemic issues throughout the planning, execution, and evaluation phases need to be addressed if campaign outcomes are to improve

Impact of the Make Healthy Normal mass media campaign (Phase 1) on knowledge, attitudes and behaviours.

Objective: To determine the impact of the first phase of the Make Healthy Normal mass media campaign on NSW adults’ active living and healthy eating knowledge, attitudes, intentions and behaviour. Methods: Cohort design with NSW adults, followed up three times over 12 months, with n=939 participants completing all three waves. We used generalised linear mixed models to examine campaign awareness, knowledge, attitudes, intentions and behaviours over time. Results: Campaign recognition built to a reasonable level (45% at Wave 3), although unprompted recall was low (9% at Wave 3). There were significant increases in knowledge of physical activity recommendations (46% to 50%), the health effects of obesity (52% to 64%), and weight loss benefits (53% to 65%), with stronger effects in campaign recognisers. Conversely, we found declines in self-efficacy and intention to increase physical activity (39% to 31%) and decrease soft drink consumption (31% to 24%). Conclusions: Overall, there are some positives for the campaign but intentions need to be a focus of future campaign phases. Continued investment over the medium- to long-term is needed. Implications: Mass media campaigns can play a role in obesity prevention but robust evaluations are needed to identify the characteristics of effective campaigns

Large, Wafer-Thin Optical Apertures Leveraging Photonic Integrated Circuits to Replace Telescopes for Communications

To aid in driving down the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of space-based optical communications terminals, we present a large-aperture telescope-replacement technology that reshapes a beam from a single-mode fiber to ~5 cm and larger apertures on a silicon wafer by using photonic integrated circuit (PIC) components. We achieve multi-centimeter apertures by sacrificing wide-angle steering in favor of good beam quality and manageable controls. Light from a single-mode fiber is coupled to a silicon chip consisting of low-loss silicon nitride waveguides for signal distribution to large phase-controlled emitters. Our demonstrations of beam phasing across a 1.8-cm-diameter, 16-emitter phased array show excellent agreement with simulations. We have designed and simulated a 4.7 cm, 64-emitter array and have begun fabrication as of 2023. This architecture removes the need for beam expansion optics, free-space propagation for beam expansion, and the support structure and housing used in traditional telescope assemblies. Its low size and weight make it compatible with current and future beam steering mechanisms, and its reduced loading provides added potential for size and weight reductions in those subsystems. We believe the architecture can eventually be expanded to larger apertures of 10 cm or more without significantly increasing thickness

Envelope: interactive software for modeling and fitting complex isotope distributions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An important aspect of proteomic mass spectrometry involves quantifying and interpreting the isotope distributions arising from mixtures of macromolecules with different isotope labeling patterns. These patterns can be quite complex, in particular with <it>in vivo </it>metabolic labeling experiments producing fractional atomic labeling or fractional residue labeling of peptides or other macromolecules. In general, it can be difficult to distinguish the contributions of species with different labeling patterns to an experimental spectrum and difficult to calculate a theoretical isotope distribution to fit such data. There is a need for interactive and user-friendly software that can calculate and fit the entire isotope distribution of a complex mixture while comparing these calculations with experimental data and extracting the contributions from the differently labeled species.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Envelope has been developed to be user-friendly while still being as flexible and powerful as possible. Envelope can simultaneously calculate the isotope distributions for any number of different labeling patterns for a given peptide or oligonucleotide, while automatically summing these into a single overall isotope distribution. Envelope can handle fractional or complete atom or residue-based labeling, and the contribution from each different user-defined labeling pattern is clearly illustrated in the interactive display and is individually adjustable. At present, Envelope supports labeling with ²H, ¹³C, and ¹⁵N, and supports adjustments for baseline correction, an instrument accuracy offset in the m/z domain, and peak width. Furthermore, Envelope can display experimental data superimposed on calculated isotope distributions, and calculate a least-squares goodness of fit between the two. All of this information is displayed on the screen in a single graphical user interface. Envelope supports high-quality output of experimental and calculated distributions in PNG or PDF format. Beyond simply comparing calculated distributions to experimental data, Envelope is useful for planning or designing metabolic labeling experiments, by visualizing hypothetical isotope distributions in order to evaluate the feasibility of a labeling strategy. Envelope is also useful as a teaching tool, with its real-time display capabilities providing a straightforward way to illustrate the key variable factors that contribute to an observed isotope distribution.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Envelope is a powerful tool for the interactive calculation and visualization of complex isotope distributions for comparison to experimental data. It is available under the GNU General Public License from <url>http://williamson.scripps.edu/envelope/</url>.</p

BioSunMS: a plug-in-based software for the management of patients information and the analysis of peptide profiles from mass spectrometry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With wide applications of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS), statistical comparison of serum peptide profiles and management of patients information play an important role in clinical studies, such as early diagnosis, personalized medicine and biomarker discovery. However, current available software tools mainly focused on data analysis rather than providing a flexible platform for both the management of patients information and mass spectrometry (MS) data analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we presented a plug-in-based software, BioSunMS, for both the management of patients information and serum peptide profiles-based statistical analysis. By integrating all functions into a user-friendly desktop application, BioSunMS provided a comprehensive solution for clinical researchers without any knowledge in programming, as well as a plug-in architecture platform with the possibility for developers to add or modify functions without need to recompile the entire application.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>BioSunMS provides a plug-in-based solution for managing, analyzing, and sharing high volumes of MALDI-TOF or SELDI-TOF MS data. The software is freely distributed under GNU General Public License (GPL) and can be downloaded from <url>http://sourceforge.net/projects/biosunms/</url>.</p

A high-resolution versatile focused ion implantation platform for nanoscale engineering

The ability to spatially control and modify material properties on the nanoscale, including within nanoscale objects themselves, is a fundamental requirement for the development of advanced nanotechnologies. The development of a platform for nanoscale advanced materials engineering (P-NAME) designed to meet this demand is demonstrated. P-NAME delivers a high-resolution focused ion beam system with a coincident scanning electron microscope and secondary electron detection of single-ion implantation events. The isotopic mass-resolution capability of the P-NAME system for a wide range of ion species is demonstrated, offering access to the implantation of isotopes that are vital for nanomaterials engineering and nanofunctionalization. The performance of the isotopic mass selection is independently validated using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) for a number of species implanted into intrinsic silicon. The SIMS results are shown to be in good agreement with dynamic ion implantation simulations, demonstrating the validity of this simulation approach. The wider performance capabilities of P-NAME, including sub-10 nm ion beam imaging resolution and the ability to perform direct-write ion beam doping and nanoscale ion lithography, are also demonstrated