The Dog ATE my Economics Homework! Estimates of the Average Effect of Treating Hawaii’s Public High School Students with Economics*

Hawaii is one of 27 states that do not require testing of public high school students regarding their understanding of economics. We report results for the first economics test administered to a large sample of students in Hawaii public high schools during the Spring 2004 semester. Our analysis focuses on evaluating the impact of a semester-long course in economics on student scores on a 20-question, multiple-choice economics test. We specify and estimate a regression analysis of exam scores that controls for other factors that could influence student performance on the exam. While student scores on the economics exam are relatively low, completion of an economics course and participation in a stock market simulation game each add about one point to student scores.economic education, high school economics, stock market simulation

The Impact of Civil Unions on Hawai`i’s Economy and Government

On 29 April 2010, the Hawai`i State Legislature passed HB 444, a measure that allows same-sex and opposite-sex couples to enter into civil unions. This report provides quantitative and qualitative measures of the impact of civil unions on the Hawai`i economy, Hawai`i businesses, and the State of Hawai`i’s budget. More specifically, we examine the effect of civil unions on tourism arrivals to Hawai`i; state government revenues and expenditures; employer provision of health insurance to civil union partners and their dependents; and the family with civil union partners. We conclude that the Legalization of civil unions in Hawai`i will have only a very minimal impact on any aspect of Hawai`i’s economy and state government operations.civil union, health insurance, visitor arrivals, Hawai`i

Economic Education’s Roller Coaster Ride In Hawaii, 1956-2006

During the early 1960s a few of Hawaii’s public high schools began to offer economics courses, and they gradually became popular social studies electives. By 1999, over 46% of public high school seniors completed a one-semester course in economics. From this peak, enrollment rates would plummet to just 11% in 2003, before rebounding to 27% in 2005 and 2007. Our analysis searches for an explanation by identifying large changes in key variables and public policies that determine demand for and supply of economic education in Hawaii’s schools. We conclude that changes in the incentives facing large Hawaii businesses, University of Hawaii faculty and administrators, and bureaucrats in the State of Hawaii Department of Education have reduced the supply of qualified teachers and student enrollment rates.economic education, Hawaii, enrollment, network externality

Opportunities and challenges for big data ornithology

Recent advancements in information technology and data acquisition have created both new research opportunities and new challenges for using big data in ornithology. We provide an overview of the past, present, and future of big data in ornithology, and explore the rewards and risks associated with their application. Structured data resources (e.g., North American Breeding Bird Survey) continue to play an important role in advancing our understanding of bird population ecology, and the recent advent of semistructured (e.g., eBird) and unstructured (e.g., weather surveillance radar) big data resources has promoted the development of new empirical perspectives that are generating novel insights. For example, big data have been used to study and model bird diversity and distributions across space and time, explore the patterns and determinants of broad-scale migration strategies, and examine the dynamics and mechanisms associated with geographic and phenological responses to global change. The application of big data also holds a number of challenges wherein high data volume and dimensionality can result in noise accumulation, spurious correlations, and incidental endogeneity. In total, big data resources continue to add empirical breadth and detail to ornithology, often at very broad spatial extents, but how the challenges underlying this approach can best be mitigated to maximize inferential quality and rigor needs to be carefully considered. Los avances recientes en la tecnolog´ıa de la informaci ´on y la adquisici ´on de datos han creado tanto nuevas oportunidades de investigaci ´on como desaf´ıos para el uso de datos masivos (big data) en ornitolog´ıa. Brindamos una visi ´on general del pasado, presente y futuro de los datos masivos en ornitolog´ıa y exploramos las recompensas y desaf´ıos asociados a su aplicaci ´ on. Los recursos de datos estructurados (e.g., Muestreo de Aves Reproductivas de Am´erica del Norte) siguen jugando un rol importante en el avance de nuestro entendimiento de la ecolog´ıa de poblaciones de las aves, y el advenimiento reciente de datos masivos semi-estructurados (e.g., eBird) y desestructurados (e.g., radar de vigilancia clima´tica) han promovido el desarrollo de nuevas perspectivas emp´ıricas que esta´n generando miradas novedosas. Por ejemplo, los datos masivos han sido usados para estudiar y modelar la diversidad y distribuci ´on de las aves a trav´es del tiempo y del espacio, explorar los patrones y los determinantes de las estrategias de migraci ´on a gran escala, y examinar las dina´micas y los mecanismos asociados con las respuestas geogra´ficas y fenol ´ ogicas al cambio global. La aplicaci ´on de datos masivos tambi´en contiene una serie de desaf´ıos donde el gran volumen de datos y la dimensionalidad pueden generar una acumulaci ´on de ruido, correlaciones espurias y endogeneidad incidental. En total, los recursos de datos masivos contin ´uan agregando amplitud y detalle emp´ırico a la ornitolog´ıa, usualmente a escalas espaciales muy amplias, pero necesita considerarse cuidadosamente c ´omo los desaf´ıos que subyacen este enfoque pueden ser mitigados del mejor modo para maximizar su calidad inferencial y rigor

Exoanal ultrasound of the anal sphincter: normal anatomy and sphincter defects

To describe the sonographic appearance of normal anal sphincter anatomy and sphincter defects evaluated with a conventional 5 MHz convex transducer placed on the perineum. Design Prospective, single-blind study. Setting Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan Medical Center, USA. Population Twenty-five women with symptoms of faecal incontinence, 11 asymptomatic nulliparous women, and 32 asymptomatic parous women. Methods A convex scanner was placed on the perineum with the woman in lithotomy position. Images were taken at three levels of the sphincter canal. Pictures were evaluated by two examiners who were blinded to the case history of the women and to the results of each other for the presence or absence of sphincter defects. Main outcome measures Description of anal sphincter appearance on endoanal ultrasound. Reproducibilty of the evaluation of sphincter defects. Results The internal anal sphincter is visible as a hypoechoic circle; the external anal sphincter shows a hyperechoic pattern. Proximally the sling of the puborectalis muscle is visible. Sphincter defects were detected in 20 women. In all five women who subsequently underwent surgery, the presence and location of the defect was confirmed at the time of surgery. Examiners were in agreement 100% of the time on the presence or absence of internal defects. They disagreed in one patient on the presence of an external defect. Conclusion Exoanal ultrasound provides information on normal anatomy and on defects of the anal sphincter.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75125/1/j.1471-0528.1997.tb12056.x.pd

Optimized RNA Extraction and Northern Hybridization in Streptomycetes

Northern blot hybridization is a useful tool for analyzing transcript patterns. To get a picture of what really occurs in vivo, it is necessary to use a protocol allowing full protection of the RNA integrity and recovery and unbiased transfer of the entire transcripts population. Many protocols suffer from severe limitations including only partial protection of the RNA integrity and/or loss of small sized molecules. Moreover, some of them do not allow an efficient and even transfer in the entire sizes range. These difficulties become more prominent in streptomycetes, where an initial quick lysis step is difficult to obtain. We present here an optimized northern hybridization protocol to purify, fractionate, blot, and hybridize Streptomyces RNA. It is based on grinding by a high-performance laboratory ball mill, followed by prompt lysis with acid phenol-guanidinium, alkaline transfer, and hybridization to riboprobes. Use of this protocol resulted in sharp and intense hybridization signals relative to long mRNAs previously difficult to detect

Data Integration Model for Air Quality: A Hierarchical Approach to the Global Estimation of Exposures to Ambient Air Pollution

This is the author accepted manuscript. Available from arXiv via the URL in this record.Air pollution is a major risk factor for global health, with both ambient and household air pollution contributing substantial components of the overall global disease burden. One of the key drivers of adverse health effects is fine particulate matter ambient pollution (PM2:5) to which an estimated 3 million deaths can be attributed annually. The primary source of information for estimating exposures has been measurements from ground monitoring networks but, although coverage is increasing, there remain regions in which monitoring is limited. Ground monitoring data therefore needs to be supplemented with information from other sources, such as satellite retrievals of aerosol optical depth and chemical transport models. A hierarchical modelling approach for integrating data from multiple sources is proposed allowing spatially-varying relationships between ground measurements and other factors that estimate air quality. Set within a Bayesian framework, the resulting Data Integration Model for Air Quality (DIMAQ) is used to estimate exposures, together with associated measures of uncertainty, on a high resolution grid covering the entire world. Bayesian analysis on this scale can be computationally challenging and here approximate Bayesian inference is performed using Integrated Nested Laplace Approximations. Model selection and assessment is performed by cross-validation with the final model offering substantial increases in predictive accuracy, particularly in regions where there is sparse ground monitoring, when compared to previous approaches: root mean square error (RMSE) reduced from 17.1 to 10.7, and population weighted RMSE from 23.1 to 12.1 gm3. Based on summaries of the posterior distributions for each grid cell, it is estimated that 92% of the world’s population reside in areas exceeding the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines.Matthew Lloyd Thomas is supported by a scholarship from the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Statistical Applied Mathematics at Bath (SAMBa), under the project EP/L015684/1. Amelia Jobling was supported for this work by WHO contracts APW 201255146 and 201255393

Mediterranean Jellyfish Venoms: A Review on Scyphomedusae

The production of natural toxins is an interesting aspect, which characterizes the physiology and the ecology of a number of marine species that use them for defence/offence purposes. Cnidarians are of particular concern from this point of view; their venoms are contained in specialized structures–the nematocysts–which, after mechanical or chemical stimulation, inject the venom in the prey or in the attacker. Cnidarian stinging is a serious health problem for humans in the zones where extremely venomous jellyfish or anemones are common, such as in temperate and tropical oceanic waters and particularly along several Pacific coasts, and severe cases of envenomation, including also lethal cases mainly induced by cubomedusae, were reported. On the contrary, in the Mediterranean region the problem of jellyfish stings is quite modest, even though they can have anyhow an impact on public health and be of importance from the ecological and economic point of view owing to the implications on ecosystems and on some human activities such as tourism, bathing and fishing. This paper reviews the knowledge about the various aspects related to the occurrence and the stinging of the Mediterranean scyphozoan jellyfish as well as the activity of their venoms

Increased Seroreactivity to Glioma-Expressed Antigen 2 in Brain Tumor Patients under Radiation

Background: Surgery and radiation are the mainstays of therapy for human gliomas that are the most common primary brain tumors. Most recently, cell culture and animal studies provided the first convincing evidence that radiation not only eliminates tumor cells, but also modulates the immune response and likely improves anti-tumor immunotherapy. Methology/Pricipal Findings: We present an in vivo study that analyzes the effects of radiation on the immune response in tumor patients. As readout system, we utilized the reactivity of glioma patients ’ sera against antigen GLEA2 as the most frequent antigen immunogenic in glioblastoma patients. We established an ELISA assay to analyze reactivity of 24 glioblastoma patients over a period of several months. As control we used 30 sera from healthy donors as well as 30 sera from lung cancer patients. We compared the course of GLEA2 seroreactivity at different times prior, during and after radiation. The GLEA2 seroreactivity was increased by the time of surgery, decreased after surgery, increased again under radiation, and slightly decreased after radiation. Conclusions/Significance: Our results provide in vivo evidence for an increased antibody response against tumor antigens under radiation. Antigens that become immunogenic with an increased antibody response as result of radiation can serv

“Other” possibilities? Assessing regional and extra-regional dental affinities of populations in the Portuguese Estremadura to explore the roots of Iberia’s Late Neolithic-Copper Age

The relationship between the development of social complexity in the Iberian Peninsula during the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE (Late Neolithic and Copper Age) and population movement has been a longstanding question. Biological affinity analyses were used to explore Iberian demographic dynamics, and specifically, to discern whether there is evidence for migration and gene flow between northwest African, eastern Mediterranean, and Iberian populations. Affinities based on comparisons of nonmetric traits from the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System were estimated among samples of burial populations from three key Late Neolithic-Copper Age sites in the Portuguese Estremadura: Cova da Moura (3700-2300 BCE), Bolores (2800-2600 BCE), and Pai Mogo I (2800-2600 BCE). Results indicate: 1) the possibility of genetic exchange with African and other Mediterranean peoples, 2) some measure of population continuity over time in the Estremadura, and 3) possible local isolation of populations, given distinctive patterning at the site of Pai Mogo, located 23 km north of Cova da Moura and Bolores