Educational attainment and household location: the case of Chicago's lakefront

The authors focus on the relationship between being a college graduate (that is, having a bachelor’s degree or higher) and household location in the city of Chicago’s lakefront neighborhoods, other parts of the city, and the suburbs in Illinois. Overall, their results indicate that being a college graduate is associated with living in the city’s lakefront neighborhoods relative to the suburbs. These results hold for non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Hispanics across the metropolitan region.Education - Middle West - Chicago (Ill.) ; Education - Economic aspects

Private schools and school enrollment in Chicago

Does enrollment in private school increase educational attainment? After reviewing some research on national trends concerning private (versus public) schooling, the author examines how private school options in the Chicago metropolitan area might affect academic achievement for various demographic groups.Education - Middle West - Chicago (Ill.) ; Education

Religious Participation versus Shopping: What Makes People Happier?

In this paper, we first explore how an exogenous increase in the opportunity cost of religious participation affects individuals' religious participation and reported happiness using data from the General Social Survey. The exogenous shift in the cost of religious participation is a result of repealing of so-called blue laws which restrict retail activity on Sundays. We find that repealing blue laws causes a significant decline in the level of religious participation of white women and in their happiness. We do not observe any significant decline in reported happiness of other groups whose religious participation was not significantly affected by repeal. We also use repeal as an instrumental variable (IV) for church attendance and provide direct evidence that church attendance has a significant positive effect on happiness, especially for women.religious participation, happiness, blue laws

RELIGIOSITY AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOL CHOICE: CAUSE OR EFFECT?

In this paper, we examine the effect of religiosity as measured by attendance at religious services on religious school choice. Particular attention is given to the possibly endogenous relationship between school choice and religiosity. IV probit estimates indicate that religiosity is substantially biased downward in probit estimates of parochial school choice. Data from the National Opinion Research Center’s “General Social Survey” are used.Education, Parochial Schools, Endogeneity

Teachers and student achievement in the Chicago public high schools

We match administrative data on Chicago public high school students and teachers at the classroom level to estimate the importance of teachers to mathematics test score gains. We show that sampling variation and other measurement issues are important drivers of naïve estimates of teacher effects, in some cases accounting for the majority of dispersion in teacher quality. However, correcting for these problems, teachers are still economically and statistically influential. Replacing a teacher with another that is rated two standard deviations superior in quality can add 0.35 to 0.45 grade equivalents, or 30 to 40 percent of an average school year, to a student's math score performance. Furthermore, the teacher quality ratings are relatively stable within an individual instructor over time and reasonably consistent across most student types, with the notable exception of the lowest achieving students, where the same two standard deviation improvement in teacher quality adds only 0.20 grade equivalents. Finally, we relate our measured teacher effects to observable characteristics of the instructors and show that the vast majority is unexplained by standard observable characteristics of teachers, including those that are typically used for compensation purposesAchievement tests - Illinois ; Education

Religion, Religiosity and Private Schools

The effects of religion and religiosity as measured by attendance at weekly religious services on the demand for private schooling is assessed. It is shown that Catholics, fundamentalist/evangelical Protestants, and respondents who attend religious services more often have a higher demand for private schooling. Data from the National Opinion Research Center’s “General Social Survey” are used

Quantitative analysis of metabolic pathways in Catharanthus roseus hairy roots metabolically engineered for terpenoid indole alkaloid overproduction

The important anticancer pharmaceuticals, vinblastine and vincristine, are produced by Catharanthus roseus. Given their cytotoxicity, these valuable alkaloids are produced in very small quantities within the aerial parts of the plant. The high cost of isolating the drugs has led to research efforts to increase the alkaloid content of C. roseus cell cultures, tissue cultures, and seedlings. The metabolic engineering of C. roseus strives to overcome the strict regulation of the biosynthetic pathways. Seedlings of C. roseus were elicited with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) to induce expression of octadecanoid–responsive Catharanthus AP2–domain 3 (ORCA3), a transcription regulator of several biosynthetic genes. ORCA3 exhibited increases up to 25–fold observed 0.5 h after MeJA treatment with the transcript levels of biosynthetic genes following with variable timing. The amounts of certain terpenoid indole alkaloid (TIA) metabolites, including the important vinblastine precursors, catharanthine and vindoline, were increased significantly. Three hairy root cultures of C. roseus were investigated. The ASAB–1 line expressing a feedback–resistant anthranilate synthase (AS) α subunit from Arabidopsis under the control of a glucocorticoid–inducible promoter and an ASβ subunit from Arabidopsis under the control of the constitutive CaMV 35S promoter, the EHIDXS–4–1 line expressing 1–deoxy–D–xylulose 5–phosphate synthase (DXS) under the control of a glucocorticoid–inducible promoter, and the EHIT16H–34–1 line tabersonine 16–hydroxylase (T16H) under the control of a glucocorticoid–inducible promoter. These lines were used to investigate the regulatory nature of the biosynthetic network by quantifying the effect of light–adaptation, biosynthetic enzyme overexpression, and the combination of these two factors on the production of TIAs. Comprehensive metabolite profiling and a stoichiometric model were employed to reveal mechanisms of regulation. The results point towards controlling metabolite degradation as a potential focus for metabolic engineering efforts. A proof of concept of a method for the introduction of 13C–labeling at the time of gene induction and preliminary results are presented. This method allows for the creation of metabolic flux maps of central carbon metabolism before and after the gene has been induced. The flux maps will reveal limitations in central carbon metabolism that affect the production potential of secondary metabolism. The long term stability of a transgenic C. roseus hairy root line containing the inducible expression of a feedback–insensitive ASα is reported. After 5 years in liquid culture, the presence and inducible expression of the inserted AS gene was confirmed. This report also demonstrates that it may take as long as two years for the metabolite profile to stabilize. Transgenic C. roseus hairy root lines were created that individually overexpress DXS and geraniol 10–hydroxylase (G10H) under the control of a glucocorticoid–inducible promoter. Double overexpression lines that overexpress DXS and ASα subunit or DXS and G10H with both genes under control of a glucocorticoid–inducible promoter were also created. The double overexpression lines displayed pertinent increases in TIA levels, surpassing the single overexpression lines. The value of ultraviolet (UV) and mass spectra in identifying compounds in chromatographic methods is presented. The UV and mass spectra of important C. roseus secondary metabolites are included. A method for the isolation of important C. roseus alkaloids is presented. A biomass extraction and analytical HPLC protocol was adapted for semi–preparative scale in order to obtain tabersonine, lochnericine, and hyrhammericine standards. Previously unidentified tabersonine–like compounds were also isolated for future identification

Movement of Triazine Herbicides in Conventional, Reduced Tillage, and No-Tillage Corn Production

Herbicides are applied to over 90 percent of the corn acreage in Kentucky and triazine herbicides are used the most. Conservation tillage methods are often used to prevent soil erosion and to conserve soil water. However, as tillage is decreased the dependence on herbicides for weed control often increases. Minimizing herbicide movement from the application sites to non-target areas, such as ground and surface waters, is necessary to maintain optimum water quality

Potential of Surface Water Contamination from Three Triazine Herbicides

The movement of atrazine, cyanazine, and simazine from the site of application was monitored under conventional, reduced, and no-tillage conditions. Less water and soil was lost from the no-tillage and reduced tillage conditions. Conventional tillage conditions had about 66,000 L/ha runoff in 1986-87 and about 123,000 L/ha runoff in 1987-88. Seasonal rainfall was 885 mm in 1986-87 and 397 mm in 1987-88. The rainfall intensity was greater during the first two events in 1987 than the corresponding events in 1986. The first rainfall event in 1986 accounted for 91, 89, and 78% of the total seasonal loss of atrazine, cyanazine, and simazine, respectively. More simazine was found in the surface runoff water than was atrazine or cyanazine

State transitions in the statistically stable place cell population correspond to rate of perceptual change

The hippocampus occupies a central role in mammalian navigation and memory. Yet an understanding of the rules that govern the statistics and granularity of the spatial code, as well as its interactions with perceptual stimuli, is lacking. We analyzed CA1 place cell activity recorded while rats foraged in different large-scale environments. We found that place cell activity was subject to an unexpected but precise homeostasis-the distribution of activity in the population as a whole being constant at all locations within and between environments. Using a virtual reconstruction of the largest environment, we showed that the rate of transition through this statistically stable population matches the rate of change in the animals’ visual scene. Thus, place fields near boundaries were small but numerous, while in the environment’s interior, they were larger but more dispersed. These results indicate that hippocampal spatial activity is governed by a small number of simple laws and, in particular, suggest the presence of an information-theoretic bound imposed by perception on the fidelity of the spatial memory system