Exploring the Feasibility of Value Added Measures as an Alternative Method to Measure Public Junior High School Performance in the Context of China

With increasing international pressure to improve school education quality, accurate measures of school performance become crucial. Although raw attainment measures are commonly employed in China, value-added measures (VAMs) are considered a more scientific approach. VAMs aim to adjust for school intake differences and separate schools' influence on student outcomes from external factors (OECD, 2008). However, there is limited research on VAMs in China. This study aims to examine school and class academic performance in four student outcomes (senior high school entrance examination scores in Total, Chinese, Mathematics, and English) in Chinese public junior high schoolsusing VAMs. Considering the challenge of implementing VAMs locally, this study also explores stakeholder perspectives on the potential benefits, disadvantages, and implementation of VAMs in the local context.This study employs a mixed-method research design in the W district of Southwest China, including 11 public junior high schools and 46 classes. Quantitative research uses a dataset with longitudinal data to estimate student progress over time. Primary (e.g., students’ questionnaires) and secondaryquantitative data were collected for modelling. The analysis employs different multilevel models (raw, value-added, and contextual value-added models), all structured with three levels (student, class, school level). Adjustments for external factors demonstrate a decline in the size of school and class effects, underscoring the applicability of VAMs. Qualitative findings indicate that school evaluation results primarily serve internal accountability and improvement purposes. Policymakers show a relatively strong motivation to implement VAMs, driven by several factors. However, challenges related to other education policies, methodological concerns, and operational difficulties may hinderVAMs implementation.Despite its limited scale, this study contributes to the methodology and practical knowledge of school evaluation in China. Unlike previous Chinese studies relying mainly on quantitative methods (Guo & Wang, 2021), this study provides richer evidence on VAMs and their implementation. However, further research with a larger sample and more diverse contexts is necessary to validate and reinforce the findings. Additionally, the insights of more practitioners are required to enhance understanding and effective implementation of VAMs

A New Deterministic Algorithm for Fully Dynamic All-Pairs Shortest Paths

We study the fully dynamic All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) problem in undirected edge-weighted graphs. Given an $n$-vertex graph $G$ with non-negative edge lengths, that undergoes an online sequence of edge insertions and deletions, the goal is to support approximate distance queries and shortest-path queries. We provide a deterministic algorithm for this problem, that, for a given precision parameter $\epsilon$, achieves approximation factor $(\log\log n)^{2^{O(1/\epsilon^3)}}$, and has amortized update time $O(n^{\epsilon}\log L)$ per operation, where $L$ is the ratio of longest to shortest edge length. Query time for distance-query is $O(2^{O(1/\epsilon)}\cdot \log n\cdot \log\log L)$, and query time for shortest-path query is $O(|E(P)|+2^{O(1/\epsilon)}\cdot \log n\cdot \log\log L)$, where $P$ is the path that the algorithm returns. To the best of our knowledge, even allowing any $o(n)$-approximation factor, no adaptive-update algorithms with better than $\Theta(m)$ amortized update time and better than $\Theta(n)$ query time were known prior to this work. We also note that our guarantees are stronger than the best current guarantees for APSP in decremental graphs in the adaptive-adversary setting.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2109.0562

Technology-Driven FDI by Emerging Multinationals in Europe

The article is aimed at understanding the dynamics and consequences of technology-driven foreign direct investments, undertaken predominantly with the aim of accessing and learning to master technologies by Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) in Europe, with a particular focus on India and China. The results are grounded on a database, which contains all the investment deals by EMNEs in the EU between 2003 and 2011. It shows that agglomeration economies play a key role in attracting investments from emerging economies, which tend to concentrate in areas with a massive presence of firms in the same industries

Musical Robots For Children With ASD Using A Client-Server Architecture

Presented at the 22nd International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2016)People with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are known to have difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions, which affects their social integration. Leveraging the recent advances in interactive robot and music therapy approaches, and integrating both, we have designed musical robots that can facilitate social and emotional interactions of children with ASD. Robots communicate with children with ASD while detecting their emotional states and physical activities and then, make real-time sonification based on the interaction data. Given that we envision the use of multiple robots with children, we have adopted a client-server architecture. Each robot and sensing device plays a role as a terminal, while the sonification server processes all the data and generates harmonized sonification. After describing our goals for the use of sonification, we detail the system architecture and on-going research scenarios. We believe that the present paper offers a new perspective on the sonification application for assistive technologies

Efficacy and safety of minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy(MPCNL) and standard channel percutaneous nephrolithotomy(SPCNL) in the treatment of kidney stones:A meta analysis

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy(MPCNL) standard channel percutaneous nephrolithotomy(SPCNL) in the treatment of kidney stones. Methods: We searched pubmed, Cochrane Liabrary, CNKI, VIP , Wangfang database from January 1, 1992 to April 1, 2015. Screening of the two methods of treatment of kidney stones randomized controlled trials (RCT) and quality assessment, using revman5.2 software for statistical analysis. Results: A total of nine RCT, 1017 patients, 508 cases in MPCNL group, 509 cases in SPCNL group. The results show: the stones clearance , MPCNL group was lower than SPCNL group [OR=0.62, 95%CI(0.43, 0.91), P=0.01]; in terms of operative time, MPCNL group was longer than SPCNL group [MD = 14.23 , 95% CI (6.30, 22.16), P = 0.0004]; hospitalization time, blood loss, total complications, were no significant difference between the two group, the results are [MD = 0.88, 95% CI (-0.69 , 2.44), P = 0.27], [MD =-19.87, 95% CI (-64.36, 24.61), P = 0.38], [OR=1.28, 95%CI(0.90, 1.84), P=0.17]. Conclusion: the stone clearance rate:MPCNL group was lower than SPCNL group, the operative time of MPCNL group was longer which may affect postoperative recovery, the complications, hospital stay, blood loss, the two groups had no significant difference. So , we tend to standard channel percutaneous nephrolithotomy in the treatment of common type of kidney stones

Pharmacological Effects of Two Novel Bombesin-Like Peptides from the Skin Secretions of Chinese Piebald Odorous Frog (Odorrana schmackeri) and European Edible Frog (Pelophylax kl. esculentus) on Smooth Muscle

Bombesin-like peptides, which were identified from a diversity of amphibian skin secretions, have been demonstrated to possess several biological functions such as stimulation of smooth muscle contraction and regulation of food intake. Here, we report two novel bombesin-like peptides, bombesin-OS and bombesin-PE, which were isolated from Odorrana schmackeri and Pelophylax kl. esculentus, respectively. The mature peptides were identified and structurally confirmed by high performance Scliquid chromatography (HPLC) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Subsequently, the effects of these purified chemically-synthetic peptides on smooth muscle were determined in bladder, uterus, and ileum. The synthetic replications were revealed to have significant pharmacological effects on these tissues. The EC50 values of bombesin-OS for bladder, uterus and ileum, were 10.8 nM, 33.64 nM, and 12.29 nM, respectively. Furthermore, compared with bombesin-OS, bombesin-PE showed similar contractile activity on ileum smooth muscle and uterus smooth muscle, but had a higher potency on bladder smooth muscle. The EC50 value of bombesin-OS for bladder was around 1000-fold less than that of bombesin-PE. This suggests that bombesin-OS and bombesin-PE have unique binding properties to their receptors. The precursor of bombesin-OS was homologous with that of a bombesin-like peptide, odorranain-BLP-5, and bombesin-PE belongs to the ranatensin subfamily. We identified the structure of bombesin-OS and bombesin-PE, two homologues peptides whose actions may provide a further clue in the classification of ranid frogs, also in the provision of new drugs for human health