Improvements and Future Challenges for the Research Infrastructure in the Field of “Preschool Education”

Given the importance of the early stage of a child`s life and taking into account that there various initiatives underway to improve preschool programs in German, it is remarkable that there are only a few microdatasets covering the field of preschool education in Germany - even less if the focus is on nationally representative datasets. The majority of these at least provide information on attendance of preschool programs. In principle there are two main groups of data: data that comprise part of the official statistics and survey data. However, there are hardly any data which allow a linkage between preschool program information and child outcome data. Furthermore, better data for children up to three years are needed, as well as data for children from migrant families. In particular, there is a need for good panel data allowing to match individual data and institutional information Given the developments in the German data infrastructure, the potentials for preschool education research will certainly improve. Nevertheless there remain a number of gaps. Among the mentioned recommendations the paper recommend improvements in fields, such as better data on the quality of preschool programs, better data on the family context and the costs of preschool education and finally the paper addresses the need for detailed intervention studies (on a representative (generalizable) level, which help to learn more about the most effective and efficient parameters of preschool programs.preschool education, day care, child outcomes

Endocytosis of the ASGP receptor H1 is reduced by mutation of tyrosine-5 but still occurs via coated pits

The clustering of plasma membrane receptors in clathrin-coated pits depends on determinants within their cytoplasmic domains. In several cases, individual tyrosine residues were shown to be necessary for rapid internalization. We have mutated the single tyrosine at position 5 in the cytoplasmic domain of the major subunit H1 of the asialoglycoprotein receptor to alanine. Expressed in fibroblasts cells, the mutant protein was accumulated in the plasma membrane, and its rate of internalization was reduced by a factor of four. The residual rate of endocytosis, however, was still significantly higher than that of resident plasma membrane proteins. Upon acidification of the cytoplasm, which specifically inhibits the formation of clathrin-coated vesicles but not uptake of the fluid phase marker Lucifer yellow, residual endocytosis was blocked. By immunoelectron microscopy mutant H1 could be directly demonstrated in coated pits. The fraction of wild-type and mutant H1 present in coated pits as determined by immunogold localization correlated well with the respective rates of internalization. Thus, mutation of tyrosine-5 only partially inactivates recognition of H1 for incorporation into coated pits

Does Distance Determine Who Attends a University in Germany?

We analyze the role of distance from a university in the decision to attend higher education in Germany. Students who live near a university can avoid moving and the increased living expenses by commuting. Thus, transaction cost arguments would suggest that the greater the distance to the nearest university, the lower the participation in higher education. We analyze this hypothesis by combining data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) with a database from the German Rectors’ Conference on university postal codes. Based on a discrete time hazard rate model we show that distance to the next university at the time of completing high school significantly affects the decision to enrol in tertiary education. Controlling for many other socio-economic and regional variables, we find that 1 kilometre distance decreases the probability to enrol in higher education by 0.2-0.3 percentage points.competing risk model, distance to university, higher education

European Mothers' Time with Children: Differences and Similarities across Nine Countries

We use data from the 1996 wave of the European Community Household Panel to present and compare the weekly number of hours mothers of children less than 16 years of age reported looking after children in nine European countries in 1996. In addition, we explore to what extent cross-country differences in socio-demographic characteristics and parents' employment status contribute to differences in maternal time with children across the nine countries. We find cross-country differences in the mean of the amount of time mothers reported looking after children. Only a small portion of these differences is explained by differences in socio-demographic characteristics and employment status across countries in Europe. For three country pairs, we use a Oaxaca decomposition to investigate whether behaviour differences or differences in sample characteristics explain more of the observed differences in mothers' time looking after children. According to our results, the differences between Ireland and the UK can be explained mainly by behaviour differences. The results for Germany vs. Austria and Denmark vs. Greece, however, depend on the weights used.

The Bigger the Children, the Bigger the Worries: Are Preschoolers and Adolescents Affected Differently by Family Instability with Regard to Non-cognitive Skills?

Substantial research on the relationship between family structures and child outcomes represents a considerable part of the literature. However, family structure provides a rather static view of the relationship of children's living arrangements and their well-being, revealing hardly anything about the stability of a family for a longer period. This paper focuses on the impact of family instability on children. In light of human capital accumulation, we hypothesize that a stable family (either a two parent or a single parent family) might be beneficial for child outcomes, in particular for non-cognitive skills. We use skills, such as socio-emotional behavior or locus of control, as our primary measure of child outcomes. The paper focuses on the potential impact of family instability occurring at different childhood stages on non-cognitive skills of preschoolers (aged five to six) and of adolescents (aged seventeen). Our analysis is based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). Family instability is defined by yearly observed maternal partnership variations. Our results suggest that differences in family stability account for some of the gradient in social-behavioral difficulties for preschool children. By using sibling differences for our adolescents' sample, we find that multiple partnership transitions experienced early in life are negatively correlated with non-cognitive skills in adolescence, e.g., such adolescents are less likely to be active or self-determined in life.Child development, family dynamics, locus of control, non-cognitive skills

Near-bottom seismic profiling: High lateral variability, anomalous amplitudes, and estimates of attenuation

For almost a decade the Marine Physical Laboratory of Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been conducting near‐bottom geophysical surveys involving quantitative seismic profiling. Operating initially at 4 kHz and more recently at 6 kHz, this system has provided a wealth of fine scale quantitative data on the acoustic properties of ocean sediments. Over lateral distances of a few meters, 7‐dB changes in overall reflected energy as well as 10‐dB changes from individual reflectors have been observed. Anomalously high amplitudes from deep reflectors have been commonly observed, suggesting that multilayer interference is prevalent in records from such pulsed cw profilers. This conclusion is supported by results from sediment core physical property work and related convolution modeling, as well as by the significant differences observed between 4‐ and 6‐kHz profiles. In general, however, lateral consistency has been adequate in most areas surveyed to permit good estimates of acoustic attenuation from returns from dipping reflectors and sediment wedges

The reverse protraction factor in the induction of bone sarcomas in radium-224 patients

More than 50 bone sarcomas have occurred among a collective of about 800 patients who had been injected in Germany after World War II with large activities of radium-224 for the intended treatment of bone tuberculosis and ankylosing spondylitis.^In an earlier analysis it was concluded that, at equal mean absorbed doses in the skeleton, patients with longer exposure time had a higher incidence of bone sarcomas.^The previous analysis was based on approximations; in particular, it did not account for the varying times at risk of the individual patients.^In view of the implications of a reverse protraction factor for basic considerations in radiation protection, the need was therefore felt to reevaluate the data from the continued follow-up by more rigorous statistical methods.^A first step of the analysis demonstrates the existence of the reverse dose-rate effect in terms of a suitably constructed rank-order test.^In a second step of the analysis it is concluded that the data are consistent with a linear no-threshold dose dependence under the condition of constant exposure time, while there is a steeper than linear dependence on dose when the exposure times increase proportionally to dose.^A maximum likelihood fit of the data is then performed in terms of a proportional hazards model that includes the individual parameters, dose, treatment duration, and age at treatment.^The fit indicates proportionality of the tumor rates to mean skeletal dose with an added factor (1 + 0.18.tau), where tau is the treatment time in months.^This indicates that a protraction of the injections over 15 months instead of 5 months doubles the risk of bone sarcoma

Improvements and future Challenges for the Research Infrastructure in the Field of “Preschool Education”

"Given the importance of the early stage of a child`s life and taking into account that there various initiatives underway to improve preschool programs in German, it is remarkable that there are only a few microdatasets covering the field of preschool education in Germany - even less if the focus is on nationally representative datasets. The majority of these at least provide information on attendance of preschool programs. In principle there are two main groups of data: data that comprise part of the official statistics and survey data. However, there are hardly any data which allow a linkage between preschool program information and child outcome data. Furthermore, better data for children up to three years are needed, as well as data for children from migrant families. In particular, there is a need for good panel data allowing to match individual data and institutional information. Given the developments in the German data infrastructure, the potentials for preschool education research will certainly improve. Nevertheless there remain a number of gaps. Among the mentioned recommendations the paper recommend improvements in fields, such as better data on the quality of preschool programs, better data on the family context and the costs of preschool education and finally the paper addresses the need for detailed intervention studies (on a representative (generalizable) level, which help to learn more about the most effective and efficient parameters of preschool programs." [author's abstract

Analysis of a method for precisely relating a seafloor point to a distant point on land

A study of the environmental constraints and engineering aspects of the acoustic portion of a system for making geodetic ties between undersea reference points and others on land is described. Important areas in which to make such observations initially would be from the California mainland out to oceanic points seaward of the San Andreas fault, and across the Aleutian Trench. The overall approach would be to operate a GPS receiver in a relative positioning (interferometric) mode to provide the long range element of the baseline determination (10 to 1,000 km) and an array of precision sea floor acoustic transponders to link the locally moving sea surface GPS antenna location to a fixed sea floor point. Analyses of various environmental constrants (tides, waves, currents, sound velocity variations) lead to the conclusion that, if one uses a properly designed transponder having a remotely controllable precise retransmission time delay, and is careful with regard to methods for installing these on the sea floor, one should, in many ocean locations, be able to achieve sub-decimeter overall system accuracy. Achievements of cm accuracy or better will require additional understanding of time and space scales of variation of sound velocity structure in the ocean at relevant locations