Pupil mobility, attainment and progress in secondary school

This paper is the second of two articles arising from a study of the association between pupil mobility and attainment in national tests and examinations in an inner London borough. The first article (Strand & Demie, 2006) examined the association of pupil mobility with attainment and progress during primary school. It concluded that pupil mobility had little impact on performance in national tests at age 11, once pupils’ prior attainment at age 7 and other pupil background factors such as age, sex, special educational needs, stage of fluency in English and socio-economic disadvantage were taken into account. The present article reports the results for secondary schools (age 11-16). The results indicate that pupil mobility continues to have a significant negative association with performance in public examinations at age 16, even after including statistical controls for prior attainment at age 11 and other pupil background factors. Possible reasons for the contrasting results across school phases are explored. The implications for policy and further research are discussed

Educational aspirations in inner city schools

The research aimed to assess the nature and level of pupils’ educational aspirations and to elucidate the factors that influence these aspirations. A sample of five inner city comprehensive secondary schools were selected by their Local Authority because of poor pupil attendance, below average examination results and low rates of continuing in full-time education after the age of 16. Schools were all ethnically mixed and co-educational. Over 800 pupils aged 12-14 completed a questionnaire assessing pupils’ experience of home, school and their peers. A sub-sample of 48 pupils selected by teachers to reflect ethnicity and ability levels in individual schools also participated in detailed focus group interviews. There were no significant differences in aspirations by gender or year group, but differences between ethnic groups were marked. Black African, Asian Other and Pakistani groups had significantly higher educational aspirations than the White British group, who had the lowest aspirations. The results suggest the high aspirations of Black African, Asian Other and Pakistani pupils are mediated through strong academic self-concept, positive peer support, a commitment to schooling and high educational aspirations in the home. They also suggest that low educational aspirations may have different mediating influences in different ethnic groups. The low aspirations of White British pupils seem to relate most strongly to poor academic self-concept and low educational aspirations in the home, while for Black Caribbean pupils disaffection, negative peers and low commitment to schooling appear more relevant. Interviews with pupils corroborated the above findings and further illuminated the factors students described as important in their educational aspirations. The results are discussed in relation to theories of aspiration which stress its nature as a cultural capacity

Photometric and Spectroscopic Analysis of Cool White Dwarfs with Trigonometric Parallax Measurements

A photometric and spectroscopic analysis of 152 cool white dwarf stars is presented. The discovery of 7 new DA white dwarfs, 2 new DQ white dwarfs, 1 new magnetic white dwarf, and 3 weak magnetic white dwarf candidates, is reported, as well as 19 known or suspected double degenerates. The photometric energy distributions, the Halpha line profiles, and the trigonometric parallax measurements are combined and compared to model atmosphere calculations to determine the effective temperature and the radius of each object, and also to constrain the atmospheric composition. New evolutionary sequences with C/O cores with thin and thick hydrogen layers are used to derive masses and ages. We confirm the existence of a range in Teff between 5000 and 6000K where almost all white dwarfs have H-rich atmospheres. There is little evidence for mixed H/He dwarfs, with the exception of 2 He-rich DA stars, and 5 C2H white dwarfs which possibly have mixed H/He/C atmospheres. The DQ sequence terminates near 6500K, below which they are believed to turn into C2H stars. True DC stars slightly above this temperature are found to exhibit H-like energy distributions despite the lack of Halpha absorption. Attempts to interpret the chemical evolution show the problem to be complex. Convective mixing is necessary to account for the non-DA to DA ratio as a function of temperature. The presence of helium in cool DA stars, the existence of the non-DA gap, and the peculiar DC stars are also explained in terms of convective mixing, although our understanding of how this mechanism works needs to be revised. The oldest object in our sample is about 7.9 Gyr or 9.7 Gyr old depending on whether thin or thick hydrogen layer models are used. The mean mass of our sample is 0.65 +/- 0.20 Msun.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Suppl (~April 2001); 79 pages incl. 25 figure

The limits of social class in explaining ethnic gaps in educational attainment

This paper reports an analysis of the educational attainment and progress between age 11 and age 14 of over 14,500 students from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). The mean attainment gap in national tests at age 14 between White British and several ethnic minority groups were large, more than three times the size of the gender gap, but at the same time only about one-third of the size of the social class gap. Socio-economic variables could account for the attainment gaps for Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students, but not for Black Caribbean students. Further controls for parental and student attitudes, expectations and behaviours indicated minority ethnic groups were on average more advantaged on these measures than White British students, but this was not reflected proportionately in their levels of attainment. Black Caribbean students were distinctive as the only group making less progress than White British students between age 11 and 14 and this could not be accounted for by any of the measured contextual variables. Possible explanations for the White British-Black Caribbean gap are considered

Fine-Grained Hodoscopes Based on Scintillating Optical Fibers

In order to exploit the high event rates at ISABELLE, it will be necessary to have fast detection with fine spatial resolution. The authors are currently constructing a prototype fine-grained hodoscope, the elements of which are scintillating optical fibers. The fibers have been drawn from commercially available plastic scintillator which has been clad with a thin layer of silicone. So far it has been demonstrated with one mm diameter fibers, that with a photodetector at each end, the fibers are more than 99% efficient for lengths of about 60 cm. The readout will be accomplished either with small diameter photomultiplier tubes or avalanche photodiodes used either in the linear or Geiger mode. The program of fiber development and evaluation is described. The status of the APD as a readout element is discussed, and an optical encoding readout scheme is described for events of low multiplicity

Extensive spontaneous plasticity of corticospinal projections after primate spinal cord injury.

Although axonal regeneration after CNS injury is limited, partial injury is frequently accompanied by extensive functional recovery. To investigate mechanisms underlying spontaneous recovery after incomplete spinal cord injury, we administered C7 spinal cord hemisections to adult rhesus monkeys and analyzed behavioral, electrophysiological and anatomical adaptations. We found marked spontaneous plasticity of corticospinal projections, with reconstitution of fully 60% of pre-lesion axon density arising from sprouting of spinal cord midline-crossing axons. This extensive anatomical recovery was associated with improvement in coordinated muscle recruitment, hand function and locomotion. These findings identify what may be the most extensive natural recovery of mammalian axonal projections after nervous system injury observed to date, highlighting an important role for primate models in translational disease research

Sleep Disturbances and Glucose Metabolism in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.

ObjectiveWe examined the associations of symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), which was defined as loud snoring, stopping breathing for a while during sleep, and daytime sleepiness, and insomnia with glucose metabolism and incident type 2 diabetes in older adults.Research design and methodsBetween 1989 and 1993, the Cardiovascular Health Study recruited 5,888 participants ≥65 years of age from four U.S. communities. Participants reported SDB and insomnia symptoms yearly through 1989-1994. In 1989-1990, participants underwent an oral glucose tolerance test, from which insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity were estimated. Fasting glucose levels were measured in 1989-1990 and again in 1992-1993, 1994-1995, 1996-1997, and 1998-1999, and medication use was ascertained yearly. We determined the cross-sectional associations of sleep symptoms with fasting glucose levels, 2-h glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion using generalized estimated equations and linear regression models. We determined the associations of updated and averaged sleep symptoms with incident diabetes in Cox proportional hazards models. We adjusted for sociodemographics, lifestyle factors, and medical history.ResultsObserved apnea, snoring, and daytime sleepiness were associated with higher fasting glucose levels, higher 2-h glucose levels, lower insulin sensitivity, and higher insulin secretion. The risk of the development of type 2 diabetes was positively associated with observed apnea (hazard ratio [HR] 1.84 [95% CI 1.19-2.86]), snoring (HR 1.27 [95% CI 0.95-1.71]), and daytime sleepiness (HR 1.54 [95% CI 1.13-2.12]). In contrast, we did not find consistent associations between insomnia symptoms and glucose metabolism or incident type 2 diabetes.ConclusionsEasily collected symptoms of SDB are strongly associated with insulin resistance and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in older adults. Monitoring glucose metabolism in such patients may prove useful in identifying candidates for lifestyle or pharmacological therapy. Further studies are needed to determine whether insomnia symptoms affect the risk of diabetes in younger adults

Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research at a Liberal Arts College on Computational Biology

ABSTRACT This paper focuses in presenting several aspects of the interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and research at a liberal arts college. In particular, it presents courses and research projects in the computational biology area, which naturally call for collaborative work between faculty members from mathematics & computer science and biology departments. It further discusses (1) challenges arising when doing interdisciplinary work, (2) the interaction between interdisciplinary teaching, research, and communication, (3) possible outcomes of such interdisciplinary training for both students and faculty members, and (4) how interdisciplinary training fits within the liberal arts philosophy