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Abstract: We evaluated the effects of socioeconomic status and school type on academic achievement based on data from two million students over a 10 year period through three national transition systems in Turkey. Each of the three transition systems has its own national examination, and the data includes only students who took these exams. We used covariance analysis to compare the mean scores of public schools and private schools after controlling the effect of students' socioeconomic levels. We found that students in private schools, who were socioeconomically stronger, had significantly higher academic achievement levels in language, mathematics, and science tests, and this finding was valid across all three transition systems. These effects were further exuberated when all the students were tracked by means of a national exam and placed into different high schools. It was found that the negative impact of one's socioeconomic level on students' scores reached its maximum value when all students were placed into high schools by means of a national exam. In all systems, the mean scores of private school students decreased significantly when the socioeconomic level was controlled. Our research has important implications for school tracking policies, specifically indicating that it would be better to omit or at least delay their deployment to post high-school education.
Keywords: school tracking, socioeconomic status, academic achievement, school type, transition systems
Published in DKUM: 23.12.2024; Views: 0; Downloads: 2
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Abstract: We propose a novel, demonstrably effective, utmost versatile and computationally highly efficient pseudo-rigid body approach for tracking the barycenter and shape dynamics of soft, i.e. nonlinearly deformable micro-particles dilutely suspended in viscous flow. Pseudo-rigid bodies are characterized by affine deformation and thus represent a first-order extension to the kinematics of rigid bodies. Soft particles in viscous flow are ubiquitous in nature and sciences, prominent examples, among others, are cells, vesicles or bacteria. Typically, soft particles deform severely due to the mechanical loads exerted by the fluid flow. Since the shape dynamics of a soft particle - a terminology that shall here also include its orientation dynamics - also affects its barycenter dynamics, the resulting particle trajectory as a consequence is markedly altered as compared to a rigid particle. Here, we consider soft micro-particles of initially spherical shape that affinely deform into an ellipsoidal shape. These kinematic conditions are commensurate with i) the affine deformation assumption inherent to a pseudo-rigid body and ii) the celebrated Jeffery-Roscoe model for the traction exerted on an ellipsoidal particle due to creeping flow conditions around the particle. Without loss of generality, we here focus on non-linear hyperelastic particles for the sake of demonstration. Our novel numerical approach proves to accurately capture the particular deformation pattern of soft particles in viscous flow, such as for example tank-treading, thereby being completely general regarding the flow conditions at the macro-scale and, as an option, the constitutive behavior of the particle. Moreover, our computational method is highly efficient and allows straightforward integration into established Lagrangian tracking algorithms as employed for the point-particle approach to track rigid particles in dilute viscous flow.
Keywords: soft particles, pseudo-rigid bodies, Barycenter and shape dynamics, Lagrangian particle tracking
Published in DKUM: 19.09.2024; Views: 0; Downloads: 11
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Abstract: Identifying primary sources of fecal pollution is important for assessing public health risks and implementing effective remediation strategies. To date, one of the main molecular approaches for identifying sources of fecal pollution relies on detecting molecular markers within bacterial, viral, or mitochondrial nucleic acids, that are indicative of a particular host. With a primary focus on identifying fecal pollution originating from humans, the field of fecal source tracking often places less emphasis on livestock sources, frequently leaving the problem of wildlife fecal pollution unaddressed. In this review, we summarize 55 previously published and validated molecular assays and describe methods for the detection of molecular markers that are indicative of non-human hosts. They cover a range of 15 animal species/groups with a primary focus on domestic animals including cattle, pigs, dogs, and poultry. Among assays associated with wild animals, the majority are designed to detect bird feces, while the availability of assays for detecting feces of other wild animals is limited. Both domestic and wild animals can represent a zoonotic reservoir of human enteropathogens, emphasizing the importance of their role in public health. This review highlights the need to address the complexity of fecal contamination and to include a broader range of animal species into assay validation and marker identification.
Keywords: fecal source tracking, microbial source tracking, fecal pollution, host-specific markers, animals
Published in DKUM: 27.05.2024; Views: 165; Downloads: 16
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Abstract: This paper presents a thorough review of state-of-the-art research and literature in the field of photovoltaic tracking systems for the production of electrical energy. A review of the literature is performed mainly for the field of solar photovoltaic tracking systems, which gives this paper the necessary foundation. Solar systems can be roughly divided into three fields: the generation of thermal energy (solar collectors), the generation of electrical energy (photovoltaic systems), and the generation of electrical energy/thermal energy (hybrid systems). The development of photovoltaic systems began in the mid-19th century, followed shortly by research in the field of tracking systems. With the development of tracking systems, di%erent types of tracking systems, drives, designs, and tracking strategies were also defined. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of photovoltaic tracking systems, as well as the latest studies that have been done in recent years. The review will be supplemented with a factual presentation of the tracking systems used at the Institute of Energy Technology of the University of Maribor.
Keywords: solar energy, photovoltaic tracking system, tracking strategies, drive system, degree of freedom
Published in DKUM: 15.11.2023; Views: 436; Downloads: 36
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Keywords: 2D sledenje ultrazvočnega vzorca., deformacija miokarda, ehokardiografija, hipertrofična kardiomiopatija, zgodnja diagnoza, zdravljenje, otrok, 2D speckle tracking, strain, echocardiography, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, early diagnosis, treatment, children
Published in DKUM: 22.01.2023; Views: 606; Downloads: 61
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