Teenage mothers and young people with special needs : evidence from the Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots Database

This report uses quantitative data collected as part of the evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Pilots to follow the life course trajectories of two groups of vulnerable young people as they aged from 16 to 18. Part A investigates the experiences of young women who had a child, or were pregnant, when they were first interviewed a few months after finishing compulsory education. Part B outlines the transitions of young people who had special educational needs and/or a health problem that limited their daily lives. The EMA evaluation was designed to yield a random sample of two cohorts of young people in ten pilot areas and 11 control areas. The two cohorts finished compulsory education in the summers of 1999 and 2000 respectively and were interviewed three times at yearly intervals, that is, when they were approximately 16, 17 and 18 years old. About a quarter of the young people in the full sample were ineligible for EMA on the grounds that the income of their parents exceeded £30,000 a year. These relatively affluent young people were excluded from this report for two reasons. Firstly, this facilitates an exploration of how EMA affects the choices made by vulnerable young people. Secondly, the two vulnerable groups tended to have parents with low or moderate incomes; consequently, the removal of high-income households increases the similarities between vulnerable and non-vulnerable young people. This selection process resulted in a sample of 7415 young women and 7319 young men. This sample has been weighted to be representative of all EMA eligible young people (from these cohorts) in the pilot and control areas. In both parts of the report, the analysis commences with a retrospective look at the Year 11 experiences of the vulnerable group and compares their situation to that of their ‘nonvulnerable’ counterparts (respectively, young women who were neither mothers nor pregnant (Part A) and young people who had neither special needs nor a limiting health condition (Part B)). This is followed by an account of their economic activity a few months after the end compulsory education. Finally, the report concentrates on the experiences of young people who remained in the study until the age of 18

Einstein Gravity on a Brane in 5D Non-compact Flat Spacetime -DGP model revisited-

We revisit the 5D gravity model by Dvali, Gabadadze, and Porrati (DGP). Within their framework it was shown that even in 5D non-compact Minkowski space $(x^\mu,z)$, the Newtonian gravity can emerge on a brane at short distances by introducing a brane-localized 4D Einstein-Hilbert term $\delta(z)M_4^2\sqrt{|\bar{g}_4|}\bar{R}_4$ in the action. Based on this idea, we construct simple setups in which graviton standing waves can arise, and we introduce brane-localized $z$ derivative terms as a correction to $\delta(z)M_4^2\sqrt{|\bar{g}_4|}\bar{R}_4$. We show that the gravity potential of brane matter becomes $-\frac{1}{r}$ at {\it long} distances, because the brane-localized $z$ derivative terms allow only a smooth graviton wave function near the brane. Since the bulk gravity coupling may be arbitrarily small, strongly interacting modes from the 5D graviton do not appear. We note that the brane metric utilized to construct $\delta(z)M_4^2\sqrt{|\bar{g}_4|}\bar{R}_4$ can be relatively different from the bulk metric by a conformal factor, and show that the graviton tensor structure that the 4D Einstein gravity predicts are reproduced in DGP type models.Comment: 1+12 pages, no figure, to appear in JHE

Alterations in serum amino acid concentrations in dogs with protein-losing enteropathy

BackgroundCertain amino acids are decreased in humans with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and supplementation with the same amino acids has shown beneficial effects in animal models of IBD. Currently, the amino acid status of dogs with protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) is unknown.Hypothesis/objectiveTo determine if serum amino acid concentrations are abnormal in dogs with PLE and correlated with clinical and laboratory variables and outcome.AnimalsThirty client-owned dogs diagnosed with PLE and 12 apparently healthy dogs seen at Bristol Veterinary School.MethodsRetrospective study using stored residual serum from fasted dogs with PLE, collected at the time of diagnostic investigation and from apparently healthy dogs. Serum was analyzed for 30 amino acids using an automated high-performance liquid chromatography amino acid analyzer.ResultsSerum tryptophan concentrations were significantly decreased in dogs with PLE (median, 22 nmol/mL; range, 1-80 nmol/mL) compared with apparently healthy control dogs (median, 77.5 nmol/mL; range, 42-135 nmol/mL, P < .001). There were no significant differences in the remaining 29 serum amino acids between dogs with PLE and apparently healthy. Serum tryptophan concentrations were also significantly correlated with serum albumin concentrations in dogs with PLE (P = .001, R2 = 0.506).Conclusions and clinical importanceDecreased serum tryptophan concentration might play a role in the pathogenesis of canine PLE or be a consequence of the disease

Education Maintenance Allowance Transport Pilots – quantitative findings from year 1 and 2 (2000-2001/2001-2002)

This report contains a summary of quantitative evidence from an evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance Transport (EMA(T)) pilots, commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES)

Constrained Perturbative Expansion of the DGP Model

We address the vDVZ discontinuity of the 5D DGP model which consists of a 3-brane residing in a flat, infinite-volume bulk. Following a suggestion by Gabadadze [hep-th/0403161], we implement a constrained perturbative expansion parametrized by brane gauge parameters. We explore the parameter space and show that the DGP solution exhibiting the vDVZ discontinuity corresponds to a set of measure zero.Comment: 12 pages incl. 1 figure. v2: expanded discussion on poles of propagator; to appear in Phys. Lett.

Educational outreach visits to improve venous thromboembolism prevention in hospitalised medical patients: a prospective before-and-after intervention study

BACKGROUND: Despite the availability of evidence-based guidelines on venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention clinical audit and research reveals that hospitalised medical patients frequently receive suboptimal prophylaxis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the acceptability, utility and clinical impact of an educational outreach visit (EOV) on the provision of VTE prophylaxis to hospitalised medical patients in a 270 bed acute care private hospital in metropolitan Australia. METHODS: The study used an uncontrolled before-and-after design with accompanying process evaluation. The acceptability of the intervention to participants was measured with a post intervention survey; descriptive data on resource use was collected as a measure of utility; and clinical impact (prophylaxis rate) was assessed by pre and post intervention clinical audits. Doctors who admit >40 medical patients each year were targeted to receive the intervention which consisted of a one-to-one educational visit on VTE prevention from a trained peer facilitator. The EOV protocol was designed by a multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals using social marketing theory. RESULTS: Nineteen (73%) of 26 eligible participants received an EOV. The majority (n = 16, 85%) felt the EOV was effective or extremely effective at increasing their knowledge about VTE prophylaxis and 15 (78%) gave a verbal commitment to provide evidence-based prophylaxis. The average length of each visit was 15 minutes (IQ range 15 to 20) and the average time spent arranging and conducting each visit was 92 minutes (IQ range 78 to 129). There was a significant improvement in the proportion of medical patients receiving appropriate pharmacological VTE prophylaxis following the intervention (54% to 70%, 16% improvement, 95% CI 5 to 26, p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: EOV is effective at improving doctors’ provision of pharmacological VTE prophylaxis to hospitalised medical patients. It was also found to be an acceptable implementation strategy by the majority of participants; however, it was resource intensive requiring on average 92 minutes per visit

"Audio Collage Assignment"

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This four- to six-minute audio collage assignment is designed, as Jean Bessette describes in an article from the 2016 issue of Computers and Composition, to “explore a focused, complex, and nuanced topic in gender and sexuality” (75). Here, students select and assemble materials from an online archive of gay liberation radio shows. In the article, she interprets two case studies of student projects and highlights the emergence of their personal and rhetorical inquiry within the confines of the assignment. In addition to the model assignment, however, Bessette makes a larger argument about the outcomes of the approach. The process of listening to prepare to make the collage involves both listening widely to a number of elements in the archive and listening iteratively in the selection and editing processes. These, she contends, contribute not only to students’ increased engagement with the texts but also to an openness toward difference when the archival material is far from students’ experience and comfort zones

Contribution of Chlorophyll Fluorescence to the Apparent Reflectance of Vegetation

Current strategies for monitoring the physiologic status of terrestrial vegetation rely on remote sensing reflectance (R) measurements, whi ch provide estimates of relative vegetation vigor based primarily on chlorophyll content. Vegetation chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) offers a non-destructive alternative and a more direct approach for diagnosis of vegetation stress before a significant reduction in chlorophyll content has occurred. Thus, monitoring of vegetation vigor based on CF may allow earlier stress detection and more accurate carbon sequestra tion estimates, than is possible using R data alone. However, the observed apparent vegetation reflectance (Ra) in reality includes contrib utions from both the reflected and fluoresced radiation. The aim of t his study is to determine the relative R and CF fractions contributing to Ra from the vegetation in the red to near-infrared region of the spectrum. The practical objectives of the study are to: 1) evaluate t he relationship between CF and R at the foliar level for corn, soybean, maple; and 2) for corn, determine if the relationship established f or healthy (optimal N) vegetation changes under N defiiency. To obtai n generally applicable results, experimental measurements were conducted on unrelated crop and tree species (maple, soybean and corn), unde r controlled conditions and a gradient of inorganic N fertilization l evels. Optical R spectra and actively induced CF emissions were obtained on the same foliar samples, in conjunction with measurements of p hotosynthetic function, pigment levels, and C and N content. The comm on spectral trends or similarities were examined. On average, 10-20% of apparent R at 685 nm was actually due to CF. The spectral trends in steady and maximum F varied significantly, with Fs (especially red) showing higher ability for species and treatment separation. The relative contribution of ChF to R varied significantly among species, with maple emitting much higher F amounts, as compared to corn and soybea n. Fs individual red and far-red bands and their ratio exhibited consistent species separations. For corn, the relative CF fraction increased in concert with the nutrient stress levels from 7% for severely nutrient deficient plants. F685s provide d optimal treatment separation. This study confirms the trends in F68 5sE740s associated with N deficiency and vegetation stress, established usmg single narrow band excitation

Resonant steps and spatiotemporal dynamics in the damped dc-driven Frenkel-Kontorova chain

Kink dynamics of the damped Frenkel-Kontorova (discrete sine-Gordon) chain driven by a constant external force are investigated. Resonant steplike transitions of the average velocity occur due to the competitions between the moving kinks and their radiated phasonlike modes. A mean-field consideration is introduced to give a precise prediction of the resonant steps. Slip-stick motion and spatiotemporal dynamics on those resonant steps are discussed. Our results can be applied to studies of the fluxon dynamics of 1D Josephson-junction arrays and ladders, dislocations, tribology and other fields.Comment: 20 Plain Latex pages, 10 Eps figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Copy This Class (The Art of the Remix)

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Julie Levin Russo’s undergraduate film studies course takes remix as its central topic. Through the assigned reading, media, and experiences each week, students are introduced to remix from a historical perspective and a philosophical one. Russo’s course plays through an array of contexts that highlight the variety and complexity of remix as object and as a set of practices (e.g., appropriation, authorship, sampling, “playbor”—a combination of play and labor). Collaborative student remix projects comprise a significant portion of the semester, making evident the core value of participation and peer engagement in remix culture. Finally, in a knowing wink to our own habits of syllabus composition, Russo cites the syllabi and assignments that she has remixed to create this course