Measuring education inequality - Gini coefficients of education

The authors use a Gini index to measure inequality in educational attainment. They present two methods (direct and indirect) for calculating an education Gini index, and generate a quinquennial data set on education Gini indexes for the over-15-population in 85 countries (1960-90). Preliminary empirical analysis suggests that: 1) Inequality in education in most of the countries declined over the three decades, with a few exceptions. 2) Inequality in education as measured by the education Gini index is negatively associated with average years of schooling, implying that countries with higher educational attainment are more likely to achieve equality in education, than those with lower attainment. 3) A clear pattern of an education Kuznets curve exists if the standard deviation of education is used. 4) Gender gaps are clearly related to education inequality, and over time, the association between gender gaps, and inequality becomes stronger. 5) Increases in per capita GDP (adjusted for purchasing power parity) seem to be negatively associated with education inequality, and positively related to labor force's average years of schooling, after controlling for initial income levels.Curriculum&Instruction,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Education and Society,Primary Education

Development and Application of Computer Assisted Breeding System in Rabbit Breeding Farm

International audienceIn order to meet the requirement of national modern rabbit husbandry and breeding management, based on animal breeding theory and the computer application technology, the Modern Rabbit Management Software that can run on Windows9X/Me/NT/2000 /XP was programmed with Visual FoxPro9.0, which could enhance veracity and efficiency of selection & breeding of rabbit. The software could perform the selection of rabbit, the request of breeding and the tasks of production management for different scale rabbit farms. The software show it’s convenience to operation and efficiency to breeding management from the using in six rabbit farms, which had great auto-action to implement production management automatization of rabbit farms and improve the efficiency of breeding

Dual-Modality Monitoring of Tumor Response to Cyclophosphamide Therapy in Mice with Bioluminescence Imaging and Small-Animal Positron Emission Tomography

The purpose of this study was to noninvasively monitor the therapeutic efficacy of cyclophosphamide (CTX) in a mouse model by dual-modality molecular imaging: positron emission tomography (PET) and bioluminescence imaging (BLI). Firefly luciferase (fLuc) transfected HCC-LM3-fLuc human hepatocellular carcinoma cells were injected subcutaneously into BALB/c nude mice to establish the experimental tumor model. Two groups of HCC-LM3-fLuc tumor-bearing mice ( n = 7 per group) were treated with saline or CTX (100 mg/kg on days 0, 2, 5, and 7). BLI and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG) PET scans were done to evaluate the treatment efficacy. CTX induced a 25.25 ± 13.13% and 35.91 ± 25.85% tumor growth inhibition rate on days 9 and 12 posttreatment, respectively, as determined by BLI. A good linear correlation was found between the tumor sizes measured by caliper and the BLI signals determined by optical imaging ( R 2 = .9216). 18 F-FDG imaging revealed a significant uptake reduction in the tumors of the CTX-treated group compared to that in the saline control group (5.30 ± 1.97 vs 3.00 ± 2.11% ID/g) on day 16 after CTX treatment. Dual-modality molecular imaging using BLI and small-animal PET can play important roles in the process of chemotherapy and will provide noninvasive and reliable monitoring of the therapeutic response

Dual-Modality Monitoring of Tumor Response to Cyclophosphamide Therapy in Mice with Bioluminescence Imaging and Small-Animal Positron Emission Tomography

The purpose of this study was to noninvasively monitor the therapeutic efficacy of cyclophosphamide (CTX) in a mouse model by dual-modality molecular imaging: positron emission tomography (PET) and bioluminescence imaging (BLI). Firefly luciferase (fLuc) transfected HCC-LM3-fLuc human hepatocellular carcinoma cells were injected subcutaneously into BALB/c nude mice to establish the experimental tumor model. Two groups of HCC-LM3-fLuc tumor-bearing mice ( n = 7 per group) were treated with saline or CTX (100 mg/kg on days 0, 2, 5, and 7). BLI and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG) PET scans were done to evaluate the treatment efficacy. CTX induced a 25.25 ± 13.13% and 35.91 ± 25.85% tumor growth inhibition rate on days 9 and 12 posttreatment, respectively, as determined by BLI. A good linear correlation was found between the tumor sizes measured by caliper and the BLI signals determined by optical imaging ( R 2 = .9216). 18 F-FDG imaging revealed a significant uptake reduction in the tumors of the CTX-treated group compared to that in the saline control group (5.30 ± 1.97 vs 3.00 ± 2.11% ID/g) on day 16 after CTX treatment. Dual-modality molecular imaging using BLI and small-animal PET can play important roles in the process of chemotherapy and will provide noninvasive and reliable monitoring of the therapeutic response

Nuclear lamina erosion-induced resurrection of endogenous retroviruses underlies neuronal aging

Summary: The primate frontal lobe (FL) is sensitive to aging-related neurocognitive decline. However, the aging-associated molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, using physiologically aged non-human primates (NHPs), we depicted a comprehensive landscape of FL aging with multidimensional profiling encompassing bulk and single-nucleus transcriptomes, quantitative proteome, and DNA methylome. Conjoint analysis across these molecular and neuropathological layers underscores nuclear lamina and heterochromatin erosion, resurrection of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), activated pro-inflammatory cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) signaling, and cellular senescence in post-mitotic neurons of aged NHP and human FL. Using human embryonic stem-cell-derived neurons recapitulating cellular aging in vitro, we verified the loss of B-type lamins inducing resurrection of ERVs as an initiating event of the aging-bound cascade in post-mitotic neurons. Of significance, these aging-related cellular and molecular changes can be alleviated by abacavir, a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, either through direct treatment of senescent human neurons in vitro or oral administration to aged mice