Choosing secondary school by moving house: school quality and the formation of neighbourhoods

This paper uses the pupil census in England to explore how family house moves contribute to school and residential segregation. We track the moves of a single cohort as it approaches the secondary school admission age. We also combine a number of cohorts and estimate a dynamic nonlinear model for house moving with unobserved effects. These approaches yield the same result: moving is significantly negatively correlated with school quality, and segregation does increase as a cohort reaches age 11. However, this relationship is weak: the increase in segregation is slight and quantitative significance of the estimated relationship is low.school quality, moving, segregation, neighbourhoods

Searching for alternative hosts and determining the variation in the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of Phakopsora pachyrhizi and the implications for currently used molecular diagnostic assays: subtitle

Phakopsora pachyrhizi, the causal agent of soybean rust (SBR), is a serious disease on soybeans.The objectives of this project were to identify additional alternative and possible overwintering hosts of the SBR pathogen and to validate the current detection assays for SBR. For the first objective, we attempted to identify naturalized Louisiana legume(s) that can serve as hosts and overwintering sites for P. pachyrhizi. It was theorized that New Iberia and Iberville Parishes in south Louisiana are usually the first locations of soybean infection in the spring. This suggests that there may be alternative leguminous hosts located in these parishes that may serve as overwintering hosts for P. pachyrhizi. Over 100 species of naturalized legumes were tested in field experiments to identify susceptible alternative hosts of the pathogen from November to May. For the second project, samples of P. pachyrhizi were collected from different parishes across Louisiana and sequenced across the ITS locus.These sequences were analyzed for variability within the locus and compared to the standard used in the current assay for pathogen detection. The Frederick et al. (2002) assay discriminates between P. pachyrhizi and P. meibomiae, a closely related mildly virulent species on soybeans in the US. A second assay, Barnes et al. (2009), was designed to detect a single spore of P. pachyrhizi in rain wash material, to monitor spore deposition and predict the movement of SBR in major soybean-producing states. However, the Barnes et al. (2009) assay has been shown to produce false positive and false negative results when used to detect the presence of P. pachyrhizi in North America. We tested five other Phakopsora spp. by both assays and found that only the Barnes et al. (2009) assay was able to detect all other Phakopsora spp. that were tested. Furthermore, the DNA segments used in the Barnes et al. (2009) assay, the primers had base pairs similarities that were 100% with other Phakopsora spp. and more than 60% with the specific P. pachyrhizi probe. In addition, we had determine that neither assay was placed in variable regions of the ITS locus

Report from the Public Health Information Group’s meeting. National Central Library of Rome 14th EAHIL Conference. 11-13 June 2014, Rome

The Public Health Information Group met on the first official day of the conference with the meeting led by the cochairsTomas Allen (WHO, Switzerland) and Sue Thomas (Health Promotion Library Wales) with seventeenparticipants. The countries represented at the meeting were the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Denmark, Italy,Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. There was a strong representation fromdifferent organisations with different perspectives on public health

Report from Public Health Information Group’s Meeting in EAHIL 2015 Edinburgh Workshop

The Public Health Information Group gathered on Thursday 11th in the Main Library. The meeting was led by Co-Chairs Tomas Allen (WHO, Switzerland) and Sue Thomas (Wales, UK). We had 19 participants and the countries represented were Czech Republic, Finland, The Netherlands, Dutch Caribbean, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda and United Kingdom

A instalação de um sistema de light-rail como catalisador da recuperação urbana: avaliação do caso Metro do Porto

O light-rail moderno é reconhecido como elemento potenciador do desenvolvimento urbano, podendo ter acção fundamental numa estratégia de sustentabilidade das cidades. A avaliação dos seus impactos no território é algo interessante para a comunidade científica como para decisores políticos. Uma análise custo-benefício está frequentemente sujeita a erros e empolamento, não se mostrando isenta e rigorosa. O projecto Sintropher criou uma metodologia inovadora para avalliação de impactos dum projecto light-rail, procurando a simplicidade, transparência e facilidade de comunicação ao público. A investigacao que estamos a desenvolver, pretende avaliar os méritos do light-rail do Porto e seu contributo para a regeneracao urbana; iremos comparar resultados com os casos de estudo Sintropher, sugerindo caminhos a seguir para futuros projectos semelhantes.Modern light-rail systems are recognized as potential catalysts for urban regeneration and can have a significant role in a sustainability strategy for urban agglomerations. Transit infrastructures territorial impact assessment has great interest both for the cientific community and for public decision makers. However, a cost-benefit analysis can be stilted and results are fragile, frequently failing to be rigorous and independent. Sintropher project created an innovative assessment methodology that aims to be simple, transparent and effective communicating with the public. Our research aims to evaluate Porto’s light-rail merits and its contribution to urban regeneration; we will compare results with Sintropher’s case studies, trying to point directions to be followed by similar projects in the future