Student and School Indicators for Youth in California's Central Valley

Provides a statistical portrait of elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education in the Central Valley. Examines trends in school resources, course enrollment, and student achievement in the region, and compares to trends in the rest of the state

More time is better : an evaluation of the fulltime school program in Uruguay

This paper estimates the impact of the full-time school program in Uruguay on standardized test scores of 6th grade students. The program lengthened the school day from a half day to a full day, and provided additional inputs to schools to make this possible, such as additional teachers and construction of classrooms. The program was not randomly placed, but targeted poor urban schools. Using propensity score matching, the authors construct a comparable group of schools, and show that students in very disadvantaged schools improved in their test scores by 0.07 of a standard deviation per year of participation in the full-time program in mathematics, and 0.04 in language. While the program is expensive, it may, if well targeted, help address inequalities in education in Uruguay, at an increase in cost per student not larger than the current deficit in spending between Uruguay and the rest of the region.Tertiary Education,Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Secondary Education

Spending More or Spending Better: Improving education financing in Indonesia

Indonesia has made a clear commitment to education - passing a constitutional mandate to allocate at least 20 percent of the total government budget to education (the "20 percent rule"). This has led to a large increase in resources, more than doubling education spending in real terms since the passage of the constitutional amendment in 2002. The rule's mandate was fully met for the first time in 2009, when the government allocated more than 20 percent of the state budget to education. The goal of this report is to understand how these additional resources were spent and the extent to which they have translated into educational outcomes.The report provides recommendations to improve the quality of spending by improving the education financing system. \ud The"20 percent rule" has resulted in a rapid increase in the education budget, but has also complicated budget management. One of the biggest drawbacks of the 20 percent rule isthat earmarking funds reduces the incentives to optimize their use.The link between policy planning and resources isbroken; large exogenous increases to the budget (regardless of results and independent of planning) can create inefficiencies in spending. Earmarking funds also creates rigidities in the budget and limits the capacity of the government to optimize the allocation of resources across sectors. Lastly, because the rule applies to both the planned and the revised budgets, it makes the education budget unpredictable and creates large budget "windfalls": with the budget highly dependent on the price of oil due to fuel subsidies, every adjustment to oil prices results in large fluctuations in total government spending. These windfalls have proven difficult to manage, despite Government of Indonesia (GOI)'s creation of the National Education Development Fund. \ud The biggest payoff for this increase in spending has been in terms of access and equity, but access to senior secondary and tertiary education still remains extremely low for the poor. There has been rapid progress in access and equity, with children from poor families enrolling earlier and staying in school longer. The share of 15 year olds from the poorest consumption quintile who are enrolled in school increased from 60 to 80 percent between 2006 and 2010. However, beyond the age of 15, enrollment from this quintile drops dramatically, and by higher education, falls to less than 2 percent. \ud Learning outcomes are still poor and show some worrisome trends in math and science. Meanwhile, the share of top performers is extremely low. Indonesia generally scores on the bottom on international tests (TIMMS, PIRLS and PISA), including compared with other countries in the region. On the PISA, the test with the most recent result and the longest time trend, the scores are mixed: while reading scores have shown steady improvement since 2000, math and science scores have not. In math, a promising increase in scores between \ud 2000 and 2006 was set back in 2009, when scores declined for all socioeconomic deciles. In science, the trend has been flat since 2000. Equally alarming isthe small number of top performers on both the TIMSS and the PIRLS, while on PISA, no student in the sample performed at level 6 (the highest) in math or science in 2009. Given recent evidence linking PISA scores and the share of top performers with GDP growth, it isevident that increasing quality of education must be apriority

Shade delays flowering in Medicago sativa

Shade intolerant plants respond to the decrease in the red (R) to far-red light (FR) ratio (R:FR) occurring under shade by elongating stems and petioles and re-positioning leaves, in a race to out-compete neighbors for the sunlight resource. In some annual species, these shade-avoidance responses (SAS) are accompanied by the early induction of flowering. Anticipated flowering is viewed as a strategy to set seeds before the resources become severely limiting. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms of SAS in perennial forage crops like alfalfa (Medicago sativa). To study SAS in alfalfa, we exposed alfalfa plants to simulated shade by supplementing with FR. Low R:FR produced a classical SAS, such as increased internode and petiole length but, unexpectedly, delayed flowering. To understand the molecular mechanisms involved in uncoupling SAS from early flowering, we used a transcriptomic approach. SAS were likely mediated by increased expression of msPIF3 and msHB2 in low R:FR. Constitutive expression of these genes in Arabidopsis led to SAS, including early flowering, strongly suggesting their roles are conserved. Delayed flowering was likely to be mediated by the downregulation of msSPL3, which promotes flowering in both Arabidopsis and alfalfa. Shade-delayed flowering in alfalfa may be important to extend the vegetative phase under sub-optimal light conditions and thus assure the accumulation of reserves necessary to resume growth after the next season. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Fil: Lorenzo, Christian Damián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Iserte, Javier Alonso. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Sanchez Lamas, Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Antonietti, Mariana Sofía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Gagliardi, Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Hernando, Carlos Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Dezar, Carlos Alberto Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Casal, Jorge José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Yanovsky, Marcelo Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Cerdan, Pablo Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Improvement of alfalfa forage quality and management through the down-regulation of MsFTa1

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is one of the most important forage crops worldwide. As a perennial, alfalfa is cut several times each year. Farmers face a dilemma: If cut earlier, forage nutritive value is much higher but regrowth is affected and the longevity of the stand is severely compromised. On the other hand, if alfalfa is cut later at full flower, stands persist longer, more biomass may be harvested, but the nutritive value diminishes. Alfalfa is a strict long‐days plant. We reasoned that by manipulating the response to photoperiod, we could delay flowering to improve forage quality and widen each harvesting window, facilitating management. With this aim, we functionally characterised the FLOWERING LOCUS T family of genes, represented by five members: MsFTa1, MsFTa2, MsFTb1, MsFTb2 and MsFTc. The expression of MsFTa1 correlated with photoperiodic flowering and its downregulation led to severe delayed flowering. Altogether, with late flowering, low expression of MsFTa1 led to changes in plant architecture resulting in increased leaf to stem biomass ratios and forage digestibility. By manipulating photoperiodic flowering we were able to improve the quality of alfalfa forage and management, which may allow farmers to cut alfalfa of high nutritive value without compromising stand persistence.Fil: Lorenzo, Christian Damián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Gagliardi, Raul Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Antonietti, Mariana Sofía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Sanchez Lamas, Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Mancini, Estefania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Dezar, Carlos Alberto Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Watson, Geronimo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Yanovsky, Marcelo Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Cerdan, Pablo Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentin

MEJORAMIENTO GENÉTICO EN PLANTAS AUTÓGAMAS

El avance de los métodos tradicionales y modernos para el mejoramiento de las plantas autógamas se ha incrementado en las últimas décadas, ambos métodos son las principales herramientas para conseguir incrementar la producción de los cultivos. Entre los métodos tradicionales más usados se tiene a la hibridación que se basa en el cruzamiento de individuos con diferentes genotipos, la selección; entre ellas a la selección masal, la selección por pedigree y el retrocruzamiento. En los métodos modernos tenemos: Selección asistida por marcadores moleculares, que combina muy bien con el mejoramiento tradicional; así también la Inducción de mutaciones cuando la variabilidad genética es baja; el cultivo de tejidos in vitro, la Ingeniería Genética y Mejoramiento de Genes. En el presente trabajo explicamos algunos ejemplos en plantas autógamas como en el caso de Phaseolus vulgaris “frijol” orientándose a mejora en condiciones de sequía principalmente, así como el mejoramiento genético de la Quinua, la cual presenta alogamia frecuente (0,5 a 17%), y por último tenemos el mejoramiento genético en el cultivo de arroz, utilizando marcadores moleculares para etiquetar los genes de interés. En conclusión, los métodos genéticos tradicionales nos dan alternativas sencillas y de bajo costo, aunque toman un mayor tiempo, por lo cual se está orientando a combinar los métodos tradicionales con métodos modernos. Palabras clave: Plantas autógamas, selección, hibridación, retrocruzamiento, mejoramiento genético. Abstract The advance of traditional and modern methods for the improvement of self-pollinated plants has increased in recent decades, both methods are the main tools to achieve increased crop production. Among the most widely used traditional methods, hybridization is based on the crossing of individuals with different genotypes, selection; including mass selection, pedigree selection and backcrossing. In modern methods we have: Selection assisted by molecular markers, which combines very well with traditional breeding; thus also the Induction of mutations when the genetic variability is low; in vitro tissue culture, Genetic Engineering and Gene Improvement. In the present work we explain some examples in autogamous plants such as in the case of Phaseolus vulgaris "bean", mainly oriented towards improvement in drought conditions, as well as the genetic improvement of Quinoa, which frequently presents allogamy (0.5 to 17%), and finally we have genetic improvement in rice cultivation, using molecular markers to label the genes of interest. In conclusion, traditional genetic methods give us simple and low-cost alternatives, although they take a longer time, so it is being oriented to combine traditional methods with modern methods. Keywords: Autogamous plants, selection, hybridization, backcrossing, genetic improvement. * Autor de correspondencia: E mail: [email protected] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17268/rebiol.2021.41.01.1

Regulatory sites for splicing in human basal ganglia are enriched for disease-relevant information

Genome-wide association studies have generated an increasing number of common genetic variants associated with neurological and psychiatric disease risk. An improved understanding of the genetic control of gene expression in human brain is vital considering this is the likely modus operandum for many causal variants. However, human brain sampling complexities limit the explanatory power of brain-related expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and allele-specific expression (ASE) signals. We address this, using paired genomic and transcriptomic data from putamen and substantia nigra from 117 human brains, interrogating regulation at different RNA processing stages and uncovering novel transcripts. We identify disease-relevant regulatory loci, find that splicing eQTLs are enriched for regulatory information of neuron-specific genes, that ASEs provide cell-specific regulatory information with evidence for cellular specificity, and that incomplete annotation of the brain transcriptome limits interpretation of risk loci for neuropsychiatric disease. This resource of regulatory data is accessible through our web server, http://braineacv2.inf.um.es/

Identification of novel risk loci, causal insights, and heritable risk for Parkinson's disease: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies

Background Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in Parkinson's disease have increased the scope of biological knowledge about the disease over the past decade. We aimed to use the largest aggregate of GWAS data to identify novel risk loci and gain further insight into the causes of Parkinson's disease. Methods We did a meta-analysis of 17 datasets from Parkinson's disease GWAS available from European ancestry samples to nominate novel loci for disease risk. These datasets incorporated all available data. We then used these data to estimate heritable risk and develop predictive models of this heritability. We also used large gene expression and methylation resources to examine possible functional consequences as well as tissue, cell type, and biological pathway enrichments for the identified risk factors. Additionally, we examined shared genetic risk between Parkinson's disease and other phenotypes of interest via genetic correlations followed by Mendelian randomisation. Findings Between Oct 1, 2017, and Aug 9, 2018, we analysed 7·8 million single nucleotide polymorphisms in 37 688 cases, 18 618 UK Biobank proxy-cases (ie, individuals who do not have Parkinson's disease but have a first degree relative that does), and 1·4 million controls. We identified 90 independent genome-wide significant risk signals across 78 genomic regions, including 38 novel independent risk signals in 37 loci. These 90 variants explained 16–36% of the heritable risk of Parkinson's disease depending on prevalence. Integrating methylation and expression data within a Mendelian randomisation framework identified putatively associated genes at 70 risk signals underlying GWAS loci for follow-up functional studies. Tissue-specific expression enrichment analyses suggested Parkinson's disease loci were heavily brain-enriched, with specific neuronal cell types being implicated from single cell data. We found significant genetic correlations with brain volumes (false discovery rate-adjusted p=0·0035 for intracranial volume, p=0·024 for putamen volume), smoking status (p=0·024), and educational attainment (p=0·038). Mendelian randomisation between cognitive performance and Parkinson's disease risk showed a robust association (p=8·00 × 10−7). Interpretation These data provide the most comprehensive survey of genetic risk within Parkinson's disease to date, to the best of our knowledge, by revealing many additional Parkinson's disease risk loci, providing a biological context for these risk factors, and showing that a considerable genetic component of this disease remains unidentified. These associations derived from European ancestry datasets will need to be followed-up with more diverse data. Funding The National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (USA), The Michael J Fox Foundation, and The Parkinson's Foundation (see appendix for full list of funding sources)

Identification of candidate Parkinson disease genes by integrating genome-wide association study, expression, and epigenetic data sets

Importance Substantial genome-wide association study (GWAS) work in Parkinson disease (PD) has led to the discovery of an increasing number of loci shown reliably to be associated with increased risk of disease. Improved understanding of the underlying genes and mechanisms at these loci will be key to understanding the pathogenesis of PD. Objective To investigate what genes and genomic processes underlie the risk of sporadic PD. Design and Setting This genetic association study used the bioinformatic tools Coloc and transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) to integrate PD case-control GWAS data published in 2017 with expression data (from Braineac, the Genotype-Tissue Expression [GTEx], and CommonMind) and methylation data (derived from UK Parkinson brain samples) to uncover putative gene expression and splicing mechanisms associated with PD GWAS signals. Candidate genes were further characterized using cell-type specificity, weighted gene coexpression networks, and weighted protein-protein interaction networks. Main Outcomes and Measures It was hypothesized a priori that some genes underlying PD loci would alter PD risk through changes to expression, splicing, or methylation. Candidate genes are presented whose change in expression, splicing, or methylation are associated with risk of PD as well as the functional pathways and cell types in which these genes have an important role. Results Gene-level analysis of expression revealed 5 genes (WDR6 [OMIM 606031], CD38 [OMIM 107270], GPNMB [OMIM 604368], RAB29 [OMIM 603949], and TMEM163 [OMIM 618978]) that replicated using both Coloc and TWAS analyses in both the GTEx and Braineac expression data sets. A further 6 genes (ZRANB3 [OMIM 615655], PCGF3 [OMIM 617543], NEK1 [OMIM 604588], NUPL2 [NCBI 11097], GALC [OMIM 606890], and CTSB [OMIM 116810]) showed evidence of disease-associated splicing effects. Cell-type specificity analysis revealed that gene expression was overall more prevalent in glial cell types compared with neurons. The weighted gene coexpression performed on the GTEx data set showed that NUPL2 is a key gene in 3 modules implicated in catabolic processes associated with protein ubiquitination and in the ubiquitin-dependent protein catabolic process in the nucleus accumbens, caudate, and putamen. TMEM163 and ZRANB3 were both important in modules in the frontal cortex and caudate, respectively, indicating regulation of signaling and cell communication. Protein interactor analysis and simulations using random networks demonstrated that the candidate genes interact significantly more with known mendelian PD and parkinsonism proteins than would be expected by chance. Conclusions and Relevance Together, these results suggest that several candidate genes and pathways are associated with the findings observed in PD GWAS studies