Die Nutzung von Tagesschulangeboten an deutschschweizer Tagesschulen

There is an expectation that all-day schools – schools that provide regular compulsory school instruction and in addition extended education offerings for voluntary participation – will reduce existing education inequality. This study focuses on whether utilization of extended education offerings varies in dependency on family background (migration background and socioeconomic status) or whether all-day schools are utilized equally by all students. In the framework of the research project EduCare-TaSe – All-Day Schools and School Success? this study examined utilization of extended education offerings in 1,099 students in Grade 1 at 53 all-day schools in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The main finding is that the odds of utilizing extended education offerings are higher for students with a migration background and, further, that the odds of utilizing extended education offerings increase with higher socioeconomic status. Among children who utilize extended education offerings, intensity of utilization was higher for students with a migration background and for students with low socioeconomic status. But there are no indications that these two (risk) factors mutually influence each other with respect to intensity of utilization. For children at risk in the Swiss education system that have both migration background and low socioeconomic status only an additive effect can be detected. (DIPF/Orig.)Eine Erwartung an Tagesschulen – eine Schule, die neben dem obligatorischen Unterricht auch freiwillige Angebote führt – ist die Verringerung von bestehenden Bildungsungleichheiten. In der vorliegenden Studie wird die Frage fokussiert, ob das Tagesschulangebot in Abhängigkeit vom familiären Hintergrund (Migrationshintergrund und sozioökonomischer Status) unterschiedlich genutzt wird oder ob es der Tagesschule gelingt, alle Schülerinnen und Schüler gleich gut zu erreichen. Im Rahmen der Studie EduCare-TaSe – Tagesschule und Schulerfolg? wurden in der Deutschschweiz 1099 Erstklässlerinnen und Erstklässler aus 53 Tagesschulen hinsichtlich deren Nutzung des Tagesschulangebots untersucht. Zentraler Befund ist, dass Nutzende des Tagesschulangebots mit Migrationshintergrund einerseits und Nutzende mit einem niedrigen sozioökonomischen Status andererseits das Tagesschulangebot intensiver nutzen als Schülerinnen und Schüler ohne Migrationshintergrund bzw. mit hohem sozioökonomischem Status. Es gibt jedoch keine Hinweise darauf, dass sich diese beiden (Risiko-) Faktoren bezüglich der Nutzungsintensität gegenseitig beeinflussen. Bei den Risikokindern des Schweizer Bildungssystems, die sowohl einen Migrationshintergrund als auch einen niedrigen sozioökonomischen Status aufweisen, lässt sich somit lediglich ein additiver Effekt hinsichtlich deren Nutzung von Tagesschulangeboten feststellen. (DIPF/Orig.

An adaptive routing approach for personal rapid transit

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is a public transportation mode, in which small automated vehicles transport passengers on demand. Central control of the vehicles leads to interesting possibilities for optimized routings. The complexity of the involved routing problems together with the fact that routing algorithms for PRT essentially have to run in real-time often leads to the choice of fast greedy approaches. The most common routing approach is arguably a sequential one, where upcoming requests are greedily served in a quickest way without interfering with previously routed vehicles. The simplicity of this approach stems from the fact that a chosen route is never changed later. This is as well the main drawback of it, potentially leading to large detours. It is natural to ask how much one could gain by using a more adaptive routing strategy. This question is the main motivation of this article. In this paper, we first suggest a simple mathematical model for PRT, and then introduce a new adaptive routing algorithm that repeatedly uses solutions to an LP as a guide to route vehicles. Our routing approach incorporates new requests in the LP as soon as they appear, and reoptimizes the routing of all currently used vehicles, contrary to sequential routing. We provide preliminary computational results that give first evidence of the potential gains of an adaptive routing strategy, as used in our algorithm.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grants CCF-1115849 and CCF-0829878)United States. Office of Naval Research (Grants N00014-11-1-0053 and N00014-09-1-0326

The Cdc20 (Fzy)/Cdh1-related protein, Cort, cooperates with Fzy in cyclin destruction and anaphase progression in meiosis I and II in Drosophila

Skip to Next Section Meiosis is a highly specialized cell division that requires significant reorganization of the canonical cell-cycle machinery and the use of meiosis-specific cell-cycle regulators. The anaphase-promoting complex (APC) and a conserved APC adaptor, Cdc20 (also known as Fzy), are required for anaphase progression in mitotic cells. The APC has also been implicated in meiosis, although it is not yet understood how it mediates these non-canonical divisions. Cortex (Cort) is a diverged Fzy homologue that is expressed in the female germline of Drosophila, where it functions with the Cdk1-interacting protein Cks30A to drive anaphase in meiosis II. Here, we show that Cort functions together with the canonical mitotic APC adaptor Fzy to target the three mitotic cyclins (A, B and B3) for destruction in the egg and drive anaphase progression in both meiotic divisions. In addition to controlling cyclin destruction globally in the egg, Cort and Fzy appear to both be required for the local destruction of cyclin B on spindles. We find that cyclin B associates with spindle microtubules throughout meiosis I and meiosis II, and dissociates from the meiotic spindle in anaphase II. Fzy and Cort are required for this loss of cyclin B from the meiotic spindle. Our results lead to a model in which the germline-specific APCCort cooperates with the more general APCFzy, both locally on the meiotic spindle and globally in the egg cytoplasm, to target cyclins for destruction and drive progression through the two meiotic divisions

Economic evaluation of the eradication program for bovine viral diarrhea in the Swiss dairy sector

The aim of this study was to conduct an economic evaluation of the BVD eradication program in the Swiss dairy sector. The situation before the start of the program (herd-level prevalence: 20%) served as a baseline scenario. Production models for three dairy farm types were used to estimate gross margins as well as net production losses and expenditures caused by BVD. The total economic benefit was estimated as the difference in disease costs between the baseline scenario and the implemented eradication program and was compared to the total eradication costs in a benefit-cost analysis. Data on the impact of BVD virus (BVDV) infection on animal health, fertility and production parameters were obtained empirically in a retrospective epidemiological case-control study in Swiss dairy herds and complemented by literature. Economic and additional production parameters were based on benchmarking data and published agricultural statistics. The eradication costs comprised the cumulative expenses for sampling and diagnostics. The economic model consisted of a stochastic simulation in @Risk for Excel with 20,000 iterations and was conducted for a time period of 14 years (2008–2021)

Patterning: JAK-STAT Signalling in the Drosophila Follicular Epithelium

AbstractDuring Drosophila oogenesis the follicular epithelium becomes subdivided into distinct cell populations. New reports have established that the Janus kinase (JAK) signalling pathway plays an important role in this process

Stay alert: probability of African Swine Fever introduction from Eastern Asia is almost as high as from Eastern Europe.

African Swine Fever (ASF) is a severe viral disease infecting all suid species. Since the first outbreak in Georgia in 2007, it has slowly spread towards Western Europe and reached the European Union when first cases were detected in Poland and the Baltic States in 2014. ASF was first reported in China in 2018 and since then, it has spread to 14 countries within two years. This study aimed to estimate the introduction probability of ASF from Eastern Asia in a qualitative risk assessment, and to compare it to the probability from Eastern Europe, which was assessed in an earlier risk assessment. A high probability of introduction was estimated for the import of meat and meat products, which was found to be the most likely route of introduction. Less important routes were introduction by human contamination (low probability) or import of feed or blood products (very low probability). Import of domestic pigs or free-ranging wild boar, contaminated means of transport, or infected semen, embryo or ticks were all estimated to be negligible. For Eastern Europe, import of meat and meat products was also estimated to pose a high risk and was therefore the most likely route of introduction. Higher probabilities were estimated for import of live pigs, contaminated feed or means of transport and human contamination. Overall, the probability of introduction from Eastern Asia is only slightly lower than from Eastern Europe. As it is important to detect the first case as quickly as possible, it is important not to fall victim to habituation effects, but to remain vigilant

Extended education in Germany between complementation and compensation. An analysis of extracurricular primary school offerings with regard to content, frequency, and range, in connection with the composition of the student body

All-day schools, the most common school form with extended education offerings in Germany, are expected to complement regular hours of school instruction with a wide array of offers and to compensate for origin-related educational gaps by providing specific offerings for disadvantaged students. Complementation and compensation can only be achieved by providing extracurricular offerings within the all-day school program suitable for the respective student body. This study empirically investigates the extracurricular offerings at 300 German primary schools with regard to their content, frequency, and range, in connection with the composition of the student body. Descriptive findings show high prevalence of homework assistance, remedial teaching, sports, and music/art. Conducting latent profile analysis, three distinct profiles of extracurricular school programs were identified depending on the extracurricular offerings provided. Schools with a student body with lower levels of linguistic competence and higher amounts of immigrant students were more likely schools providing homework assistance and a broad range of offerings. Our results suggest that offerings partially meet the specific needs of the student body, but that the potential is not yet fully exploited in order to bring about complementation and compensation. (DIPF/Orig.

Experimental evidence for a new transmission route in a parasitic mite and its mucus-dependent orientation towards the host snail

The route of transmission and host finding behaviour are fundamental components of a parasite's fitness. Riccardoella limacum, a haematophagous mite, lives in the mantle cavity of helicid land snails. To date it has been assumed that this parasitic mite is transmitted during courtship and mating of the host. Here we present experimental evidence for a new transmission route in the host snail Arianta arbustorum. Parasite-free snails were kept on soil on which previously infected host snails had been maintained for 6 weeks. R. limacum was successfully transmitted via soil without physical contact among hosts in 10 out of 22 (45·5%) cases. In a series of experiments we also examined the off-host locomotion of R. limacum on snail mucus and control substrates using an automated camera system. Parasitic mites showed a preference to move on fresh mucus. Our results support the hypothesis that R. limacum uses mucus trails to locate new hosts. These findings should be considered in commercial snail farming and when examining the epidemiology of wild population