Efficiency of public and publicly-subsidised high schools in Spain. Evidence from PISA 2006

The purpose of this paper is to compare the efficiency of the Spanish public and publicly-subsidised private high schools using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) fed by the results provided by a hierarchical linear model (HLM) applied to PISA-2006 (Programme for International Students Assessment) microdata. This study places special emphasis on the estimation of the determinants of school outcomes, the educational production function being estimated through an HLM that takes into account the nested nature of PISA data. Inefficiencies are then measured through the DEA and decomposed into managerial (related to individual performance) and programme (related to structural differences between management models), following Silva Portela and Thanassoulis (2001) approach. Once differences in pupils’ background and individual management inefficiencies have been eliminated, results reveal that Spanish public high schools are more efficient than publicly-subsidised private ones

Education, age and skills: an analysis using the PIAAC survey [WP]

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of adult skills, as captured by cognitive competencies assessed in the PIAAC, across age cohorts, explicitly taking into account that the quality of schooling might change from one cohort to another. We estimate a model that relates numeracy and literacy competencies to age, schooling, gender and variables related to both family background and labour market performance. The specification allows us to control for changes in the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into competencies when drawing age-skill profiles. Our results show that the effect of ageing on skills, once isolated from cohort effects related to schooling, decreases monotonically across consecutive cohorts. The evolution of the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into both numeracy and literacy skills shows a remarkably similar pattern. Nonetheless, this evolution differs substantially between education levels, with the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills showing a steadier profile for intermediate than it does for higher education. Finally, empirical evidence is provided for the decomposition of the differences in the skill levels of the older vs. the prime age generations. The results suggest that the progressive expansion of schooling across younger generations partially offsets the negative effect of the irrepressible ageing of society on skills

Education, age and skills: An analysis using PIAAC data

The main aim of this article is to analyse the change of adult skills, as captured by cognitive skills assessed in PIAAC, across age cohorts, taking into account that the quality of schooling may change from one cohort to another. We estimate a model that relates numeracy and literacy skills to age, schooling, gender and variables related to both family background and labour market performance. The specification allows us to control for changes in the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills when drawing age‐skill profiles. Our results show that the effect of ageing on skills, once isolated from cohort effects related to schooling, decreases monotonically across consecutive cohorts. The change of the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into both numeracy and literacy skills shows a remarkably similar pattern. Nonetheless, this change differs substantially between education levels, with the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills showing a steadier profile for intermediate than for higher education. Finally, empirical evidence is provided for the decomposition of the differences in the skill levels of the older vs. the prime age generations. The results suggest that the progressive expansion of schooling across younger generations partially offsets the negative effect of the irrepressible ageing of society on skills.safety

Tourism, Competitiveness and Economic Growth: A New Analytical Model

This study reviews the theories relating to competitiveness and the indicators used for its measurement on the one hand and the studies that relate tourism and growth on the other, with the purpose of establishing the links that exist between both concepts. This enables a model to be defined in which some factors that affect tourism competitiveness combine with capital and work to determine economic growth. The provision of inherited tourism resources, together with the provision of productive resources, and the links between them are the determining elements of the capacity of an economy to produce and therefore to grow

Comparison of Inter and Intra-Operator Differences for Cephalometric Landmark Identification on Three-Dimensional CBCT Images using Pro Plan CMF

Objective: To establish reliability of cephalometric landmark identification in threedimensions using ProPlan CMF software. Methods: Two orthodontist identified a series of 33 cephalometric landmarks on 20 CBCT scans of Class I, pre-orthodontic patients and repeated the landmark identification about two months later. Intraclass correlations (ICC) were calculated by landmark in the X, Y, and Z dimensions and F-test were used to assess difference in landmark location in the X, Y, and Z dimensions. Results: The majority of landmarks had good to excellent ICC for both inter- and intraobserver reliability. F-test also showed the majority of landmarks had no significant difference between the observers. Conclusion: Most landmarks showed good to very good reliability and reproducibility using ProPlan CMF, with some landmarks proving more reliable than others and further research is needed to establish the utility and practicality of three-dimensional cephalometrics as a common diagnostic tool in orthodontics

Safety, tolerability and clinical implementation of 'ready-to-use' 68gallium-DOTA0-Tyr3-octreotide (68Ga-DOTATOC) (SomaKIT TOC) for injection in patients diagnosed with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs)

BACKGROUND: 68Ga-DOTA0-Tyr3-octreotide (68Ga-DOTATOC) positron emission tomography-CT (PET-CT) has superior diagnostic performance compared to the licensed tracer OctreoScan single photon emission CT-CT in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs). A new preparation of 68Ga-DOTATOC using a new 'ready-to-use' 68Ga-DOTATOC formulation for injection has been developed (68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC)). OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the safety and tolerability of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) and evaluate the feasibility and robustness of implementing it in a NET clinical imaging service. METHODS: A first-in-human phase I/II multicentre, open-label study of a single dose of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) 2 MBq/kg±10% (range 100-200 MBq) in patients with biopsy-proven grade 1-2 GEP-NETs. PET-CT was performed post injection. Patients were followed up for 28 days. We next implemented this new synthesis methodology in a clinical service assessed over 11 months. RESULTS: Twenty consenting patients were recruited; 14 males, 6 females; mean (SD) age 58 years (12); NET grade 1 (70%), grade 2 (30%); and 75% with stage IV disease. Twelve patients experienced at least one adverse event (AE) during the study with no grade 3-4 toxicities. Only four AEs were classified as possibly (headache (n=1; 4%), nausea (1; 4%)) or probably (dysgeusia (1; 4%), paraesthesia (1; 4%)) related to the study preparation. One hundred thirteen vials of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) were synthesised with the 'kit' over a period of 11 months for clinical utility. Only 2/113 vials (1.77%) were rejected. CONCLUSIONS: The new ready-to-use preparation of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) for injection was safe and well tolerated. This has led to the world's first (EMA) licensed 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) radiopharmaceutical for the utility of PET imaging in patients with NETs. This preparation can be robustly implemented into routine clinical practice

Effects of heavy Majorana neutrinos on lepton flavor violating processes

The observation of lepton flavor violating processes at colliders could be a clear signal of a non-minimal neutrino sector. We define a 5-parameter model with a pair of TeV fermion singlets and arbitrary mixings with the three active neutrino flavors. Then we analyze several flavor violating transitions (ℓ→ℓ′γ,ℓ′ℓ′′ℓ¯′′′ or μ−e conversions in nuclei) and Z→ℓ¯ℓ′ decays induced by the presence of heavy neutrinos. In particular, we calculate all the one-loop contributions to these processes and present their analytic expressions. We focus on the genuine effects of the heavy Majorana masses, comparing the results in that case with the ones obtained when the two heavy neutrinos define a Dirac field. Finally, we use our results to update the bounds on the heavy-light mixings in the neutrino sector.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, under Grant No. FPA2016-78220-C3-1,2,3- P (fondos FEDER), and Junta de Andalucía, Grants No. FQM 101 and No. SOMM17/6104/UGR. G. H. T. wants to acknowledge financial support from Conacyt through the program “Estancia Postdoctoral en el Extranjero.” The work of P. R. has been partially funded by Conacyt through the Project No. 250628 (Ciencia Básica) and Fondo SEP-Cinvestav 2018 (Project No. 142)