211 research outputs found
Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity
We provide a measure of equality of educational opportunity in 54 countries, estimated as the effect of family background on student performance in two international TIMSS tests. We then show how organizational features of the education system affect equality of educational opportunity. Our model predicts that late tracking and a long pre-school cycle are beneficial for equality, while pre-school enrollment is detrimental at low levels of enrollment and beneficial at higher levels. Using cross-country variations in education policies and their interaction with family background at the student level, we provide empirical evidence supportive of these predictions.equality of opportunity, educational production, family background, student performance, tracking, pre-school, efficiency-equity tradeoff
Dafne : auff desz durchlauchtigen ... Herrn Georgen, Landegrafen zu Hessen ... vnd der durchlauchtigen ... Fräwlein Sophien Eleonoren ... / Beylager: durch Heinrich Schützen ... ausz mehrentheils eigener Erfindung geschrieben Martin Opitzen
Textbuch. Einheitssachtitel: Dafne : Libretto Bibliogr. Nachweis: Thiel, Libretti Nr. 513; Dünnhaupt, Opitz Nr. 89. Vorlageform des Erscheinungsvermerks: In Verlegung David Müllers/ Buchführers in Breßlaw . Anmerkung: Sekundärausg Binder's title: Martini Opitii Deutsche Poemata Based on Ottavio Rinuccini's opera of the same name Lacks music Faber du Faur ; no.210 OCLC: 18-05-8
Reconstruction on trees and spin glass transition
Consider an information source generating a symbol at the root of a tree
network whose links correspond to noisy communication channels, and
broadcasting it through the network. We study the problem of reconstructing the
transmitted symbol from the information received at the leaves. In the large
system limit, reconstruction is possible when the channel noise is smaller than
a threshold.
We show that this threshold coincides with the dynamical (replica symmetry
breaking) glass transition for an associated statistical physics problem.
Motivated by this correspondence, we derive a variational principle which
implies new rigorous bounds on the reconstruction threshold. Finally, we apply
a standard numerical procedure used in statistical physics, to predict the
reconstruction thresholds in various channels. In particular, we prove a bound
on the reconstruction problem for the antiferromagnetic ``Potts'' channels,
which implies, in the noiseless limit, new results on random proper colorings
of infinite regular trees.
This relation to the reconstruction problem also offers interesting
perspective for putting on a clean mathematical basis the theory of glasses on
random graphs.Comment: 34 pages, 16 eps figure
Towards a model for protein production rates
In the process of translation, ribosomes read the genetic code on an mRNA and
assemble the corresponding polypeptide chain. The ribosomes perform discrete
directed motion which is well modeled by a totally asymmetric simple exclusion
process (TASEP) with open boundaries. Using Monte Carlo simulations and a
simple mean-field theory, we discuss the effect of one or two ``bottlenecks''
(i.e., slow codons) on the production rate of the final protein. Confirming and
extending previous work by Chou and Lakatos, we find that the location and
spacing of the slow codons can affect the production rate quite dramatically.
In particular, we observe a novel ``edge'' effect, i.e., an interaction of a
single slow codon with the system boundary. We focus in detail on ribosome
density profiles and provide a simple explanation for the length scale which
controls the range of these interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Adhesion of membranes via receptor-ligand complexes: Domain formation, binding cooperativity, and active processes
Cell membranes interact via anchored receptor and ligand molecules. Central
questions on cell adhesion concern the binding affinity of these
membrane-anchored molecules, the mechanisms leading to the receptor-ligand
domains observed during adhesion, and the role of cytoskeletal and other active
processes. In this review, these questions are addressed from a theoretical
perspective. We focus on models in which the membranes are described as elastic
sheets, and the receptors and ligands as anchored molecules. In these models,
the thermal membrane roughness on the nanometer scale leads to a cooperative
binding of anchored receptor and ligand molecules, since the receptor-ligand
binding smoothens out the membranes and facilitates the formation of additional
bonds. Patterns of receptor domains observed in Monte Carlo simulations point
towards a joint role of spontaneous and active processes in cell adhesion. The
interactions mediated by the receptors and ligand molecules can be
characterized by effective membrane adhesion potentials that depend on the
concentrations and binding energies of the molecules.Comment: Review article, 13 pages, 9 figures, to appear in Soft Matte
AGO recommendations for the surgical therapy of the axilla after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: 2021 Update
For many decades, the standard procedure to treat breast cancer included complete dissection of the axillary lymph nodes. The aim was to determine histological node status, which was then used as the basis for adjuvant therapy, and to ensure locoregional tumour control. In addition to the debate on how to optimise the therapeutic strategies of systemic treatment and radiotherapy, the current discussion focuses on improving surgical procedures to treat breast cancer. As neoadjuvant chemotherapy is becoming increasingly important, the surgical procedures used to treat breast cancer, whether they are breast surgery or axillary dissection, are changing. Based on the currently available data, carrying out SLNE prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy is not recommended. In contrast, surgical axillary management after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is considered the procedure of choice for axillary staging and can range from SLNE to TAD and ALND. To reduce the rate of false negatives during surgical staging of the axilla in pN+(CNB) stage before NACT and ycN0 after NACT, targeted axillary dissection (TAD), the removal of > 2 SLNs (SLNE, no untargeted axillary sampling), immunohistochemistry to detect isolated tumour cells and micro-metastases, and marking positive lymph nodes before NACT should be the standard approach. This most recent update on surgical axillary management describes the significance of isolated tumour cells and micro-metastasis after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the clinical consequences of low volume residual disease diagnosed using SLNE and TAD and provides an overview of this year's AGO recommendations for surgical management of the axilla during primary surgery and in relation to neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Modeling Translation in Protein Synthesis with TASEP: A Tutorial and Recent Developments
The phenomenon of protein synthesis has been modeled in terms of totally
asymmetric simple exclusion processes (TASEP) since 1968. In this article, we
provide a tutorial of the biological and mathematical aspects of this approach.
We also summarize several new results, concerned with limited resources in the
cell and simple estimates for the current (protein production rate) of a TASEP
with inhomogeneous hopping rates, reflecting the characteristics of real genes.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure
Distribution Analysis of Hydrogenases in Surface Waters of Marine and Freshwater Environments
Background
Surface waters of aquatic environments have been shown to both evolve and consume hydrogen and the ocean is estimated to be the principal natural source. In some marine habitats, H2 evolution and uptake are clearly due to biological activity, while contributions of abiotic sources must be considered in others. Until now the only known biological process involved in H2 metabolism in marine environments is nitrogen fixation.
Principal Findings
We analyzed marine and freshwater environments for the presence and distribution of genes of all known hydrogenases, the enzymes involved in biological hydrogen turnover. The total genomes and the available marine metagenome datasets were searched for hydrogenase sequences. Furthermore, we isolated DNA from samples from the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Baltic Sea, and two fresh water lakes and amplified and sequenced part of the gene encoding the bidirectional NAD(P)-linked hydrogenase. In 21% of all marine heterotrophic bacterial genomes from surface waters, one or several hydrogenase genes were found, with the membrane-bound H2 uptake hydrogenase being the most widespread. A clear bias of hydrogenases to environments with terrestrial influence was found. This is exemplified by the cyanobacterial bidirectional NAD(P)-linked hydrogenase that was found in freshwater and coastal areas but not in the open ocean.
Significance
This study shows that hydrogenases are surprisingly abundant in marine environments. Due to its ecological distribution the primary function of the bidirectional NAD(P)-linked hydrogenase seems to be fermentative hydrogen evolution. Moreover, our data suggests that marine surface waters could be an interesting source of oxygen-resistant uptake hydrogenases. The respective genes occur in coastal as well as open ocean habitats and we presume that they are used as additional energy scavenging devices in otherwise nutrient limited environments. The membrane-bound H2-evolving hydrogenases might be useful as marker for bacteria living inside of marine snow particles
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