School Education and the Lack of Parent Information

Many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries publish school rankings annually, based on the aggregated student performance of different schools in the (high-stakes) board examinations. The literature cites two reasons in favour of the public availability of information on school performance: first, the highly valued imperative of providing parents information that will enable them to make more informed school choices for their children, and, second, the idea that when parents are better informed, poorly performing schools are under greater pressure to be accountable for improving their quality in order to compete to attract students. Detractors fear that rankings reflect not only the schools’ quality but also the family backgrounds of their students. This article examines evidence for the claim that when school rankings are published, school quality increases. It also examines the ways in which countries ensure that school rankings reflect school quality and not the home backgrounds of their students. The article shows how school rankings based on subject performance can help principals diagnose the teaching of which subjects needs strengthening, and reveals how rankings can help parents choose from among all the schools in the neighbourhood of a city. The article also demonstrates that objective school rankings (based on exam results) and subjective school rankings (based on the perceptions of principals and parents of ‘academic reputation’) differ substantially, with a correlation coefficient of only around 0.6–0.7. This suggests that subjective ‘academic reputation’ rankings are not a good substitute for objective rankings, and that stakeholders are not well informed about the actual academic standards of schools, a situation that strengthens the case for the public provision of information about school results. The article argues for the need for a healthy debate in India about the efficacy and relevance of school rankings as a way of improving school accountability and raising standards

Chemical examination of the roots of Cissampelos pareira. IV. Structure and stereochemistry of hayatin

This article does not have an abstract

Azi-isoflurane, a Photolabel Analog of the Commonly Used Inhaled General Anesthetic Isoflurane

Volatility and low-affinity hamper an ability to define molecular targets of the inhaled anesthetics. Photolabels have proven to be a useful approach in this regard, although none have closely mimicked contemporary drugs. We report here the synthesis and validation of azi-isoflurane, a compound constructed by adding a diazirinyl moiety to the methyl carbon of the commonly used general anesthetic isoflurane. Azi-isoflurane is slightly more hydrophobic than isoflurane, and more potent in tadpoles. This novel compound inhibits Shaw2 K⁺ channel currents similarly to isoflurane and binds to apoferritin with enhanced affinity. Finally, when irradiated at 300 nm, azi-isoflurane adducts to residues known to line isoflurane-binding sites in apoferritin and integrin LFA-1, the only proteins with isoflurane binding sites defined by crystallography. This reagent should allow rapid discovery of isoflurane molecular targets and binding sites within those targets

Simultaneous Evaluation of Lung Anatomy and Ventilation Using 4D Respiratory-Motion-Resolved Ultrashort Echo Time Sparse MRI.

Computed tomography (CT) and spirometry are the current standard methods for assessing lung anatomy and pulmonary ventilation, respectively. However, CT provides limited ventilation information and spirometry only provides global measures of lung ventilation. Thus, a method that can enable simultaneous examination of lung anatomy and ventilation is of clinical interest. To develop and test a 4D respiratory-resolved sparse lung MRI (XD-UTE: eXtra-Dimensional Ultrashort TE imaging) approach for simultaneous evaluation of lung anatomy and pulmonary ventilation. Prospective. In all, 23 subjects (11 volunteers and 12 patients, mean age = 63.6 ± 8.4). 3T MR; a prototype 3D golden-angle radial UTE sequence, a Cartesian breath-hold volumetric-interpolated examination (BH-VIBE) sequence. All subjects were scanned using the 3D golden-angle radial UTE sequence during normal breathing. Ten subjects underwent an additional scan during alternating normal and deep breathing. Respiratory-motion-resolved sparse reconstruction was performed for all the acquired data to generate dynamic normal-breathing or deep-breathing image series. For comparison, BH-VIBE was performed in 12 subjects. Lung images were visually scored by three experienced chest radiologists and were analyzed by two observers who segmented the left and right lung to derive ventilation parameters in comparison with spirometry. Nonparametric paired two-tailed Wilcoxon signed-rank test; intraclass correlation coefficient, Pearson correlation coefficient. XD-UTE achieved significantly improved image quality compared both with Cartesian BH-VIBE and radial reconstruction without motion compensation (P < 0.05). The global ventilation parameters (a sum of the left and right lung measures) were in good correlation with spirometry in the same subjects (correlation coefficient = 0.724). There were excellent correlations between the results obtained by two observers (intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.8855-0.9995). Simultaneous evaluation of lung anatomy and ventilation using XD-UTE is demonstrated, which have shown good potential for improved diagnosis and management of patients with heterogeneous lung diseases. 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019;49:411-422