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The mechanical properties of anisotropic carbons such as the pyrocarbon (pyC) matrices in C/C composites remain poorly documented, especially at elevated temperatures where these materials find most of their applications. We provide here a comprehensive molecular dynamics investigation of the high temperature – up to 4000 K – elastic behavior of six nanoscale pyC models in the context of fast temperature increases, not allowing for major structural modifications such as graphitization. We show that the structure of the most anisotropic and less disordered carbons, like the rough laminar (RL) pyC, is mostly not affected by annealing at the nanosecond timescale, aside from healing unstable defects like two-coordinated atoms at graphene edges. Conversely, highly disordered and less anisotropic carbons like the smooth laminar (SL) pyC show some significant rearrangements at grain boundaries and the development of some limited microporosity. The elastic constants of all highly anisotropic models moderately decrease with increasing temperature, somehow similarly to what is observed for graphite. Elastic constants of the SL pyC show a stronger decrease at high temperature, due to the decrease in density even though all models retain an important degree of stiffness up to 4000 K.

Abstract Increasing evidence supports a role for small extracellular vesicles (sEV, including exosomes) in Diffuse Large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) progression and resistance to treatment. CD20 and PD-L1 are found on DLBCL-derived sEV, but little is known about their patient-level heterogeneity. Moreover, the capacity of PD-L1+ sEV to modulate T cells needs to be clarified. Herein we analyzed sEV produced by human DLBCL cell lines and EBV-transformed B cell-lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs), a model allowing autologous T cell co-cultures. We determined CD20 and PD-L1 levels on plasma sEV from patient samples vs healthy volunteers (HV). sEV functional relevance was also investigated on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. sEV derived from all cell lines showed an enrichment of CD20 and a high glycosylated PD-L1 expression when compared to cell lysates. High PD-L1 expression on LCL-derived sEV was associated with higher CD4+ and CD8+ T cell apoptosis. In patients, plasma sEV concentration was higher vs HV. Compared to sEV-CD20 level that seemed higher in patients, PD-L1 level in sEV was not different from those of HV. A high glycosylated PD-L1 level was shown in sEV from both patients and HV plasma samples, that was associated with the same inhibiting effect on activated T cells. We conclude that sEV derived from EBV-transformed B cells realize an immunosuppressive role that involved cell–cell interaction and probably at least PD-L1. Furthermore, our findings suggest the potential of circulating sEV as a source of biomarkers in DLBCL, notably to have information on immunotherapeutic target levels of parental tumor cells.

Issues of chronology are central to inferences pertaining to relationships between both contemporaneous and successive prehistoric typo-technological entities (i.e., archaeological cultures), culture–environment relationships, and ultimately the mechanisms at play behind cultural changes observed through time in the archaeological record. We refine the chronology of Upper Paleolithic archaeological cultures between 35–18 calibrated kiloanni before the present in present-day France by incorporating recently published radiocarbon data along with new 14C ages that we obtained from several Gravettian archaeological contexts. We present the results of a Bayesian age model that includes these new radiometric data and that, more importantly, separates Gravettian contexts in regions north of the Garonne River into two successive cultural phases: The Northern Noaillian and the Rayssian, respectively. This new age model places the beginning of the Noaillian during Greenland Stadial 5.2. The appearance of contexts containing assemblages associated with the Rayssian lithic technical system occurs immediately prior to the termination of Greenland Interstadial 5.1, and it is present throughout Heinrich Event 3 (GS-5.1) and into the following GI-4 climatic amelioration. Despite the Rayssian’s initial appearance during the brief and relatively weakly expressed Greenland Interstadial 5.1, its duration suggests that Rayssian lithic technology was well-suited to the environmental conditions of Greenland Stadial 5.1.

The socioeconomic gap in participation at university is an enduring policy issue in South Korea, as in many other countries. However, less attention has been paid to the socioeconomic gap in the outcomes from tertiary education. This paper addresses this gap in the literature, using the Korean Education and Employment Panel (KEEP) data to investigate the extent to which the wages of Korean graduates who attended similar higher education institutions vary by socioeconomic background. The results show that a degree appears to largely level the playing field, in terms of earnings, between male graduates from poor and rich backgrounds. For females, by contrast, family background is still a strong predictor of earnings, even after allowing for institution attended and discipline of degree. Further, the wage premium for 2-year and 4-year college degrees also varies by family background. Four-year college degrees, contrary to popular belief, do not always attract a higher wage premium than 2-year college degrees, particularly for men from poorer family backgrounds.

Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio-economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle-income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We reveal wide variability in higher education participation between the four countries, with a common pattern of a very strong association between early learning and later higher education participation, even after allowing for a range of demographic characteristics. Whilst early learning is important in predicting later higher education participation, we also find that significant barriers to higher education participation remain for low socio-economic status groups, even if they initially show good levels of learning. We track the trajectories of children who have initial good levels of learning, and hence arguably the potential to progress to higher education, and assess the extent to which socio-economic background plays a mediating role in these trajectories. Pupils with initially good levels of learning at primary school age, but who are from poor backgrounds, fall back in terms of their relative attainment during secondary schooling years. This implies that socio-economic status continues to be a barrier to educational attainment throughout these children's lives. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy initiatives aimed at narrowing inequalities in higher education access in poorer countries.

Previous studies have often demonstrated that educational television can have a positive effect on learning outcomes in low-income countries when delivered in controlled settings. However, existing research in low-resource contexts has scarcely considered the association between child outcomes and viewing in usual environments (ie, at their home, a friend's home or a relative's home). This lack of research is striking, as evidence from controlled settings might provide limited information on the effects of normal television exposure. This paper, therefore, investigates the relationship between normal exposure to a popular Tanzania-produced cartoon, "Ubongo Kids" and mathematics capability, as represented by plausible values derived from an item response theory model applied to children's test responses. Cross-sectional investigation of a sample of 38 682 Tanzanian children suggested normal educational television exposure to be significantly associated with mathematics capability, when controlling for age, sex, school enrolment, Kiswahili attainment and household fixed effects. While cross-sectional results are not necessarily causal, the findings in this paper broadly correspond with those from previous designs using repeated observations. What is more, considering association results alongside cost and viewership estimates suggests television-based interventions to be highly cost effective.

School segregation by socio-economic background is a feature of most education systems and impacts negatively on educational outcomes for poor children. Evidence on this issue is lacking for the Spanish primary education system and in particular the extent to which a) poor and rich students sort into different types of school and b) the extent of segregation within different school types. We measure the level of segregation of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds into public and semiprivate schools and within these two types of school using the Hutchens Index. The analysis is based on data for students attending 5th grade in the largest region in Spain (Andalusia). Our results indicate significant differences in the level of segregation across and within both school types. Students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to attend semiprivate schools. This provides evidence of the inequity of providing public funding for semiprivate schools that are then disproportionately attended by wealthier students.

Greater “emotional fit” with one's cultural group is often associated with positive psychological and relational outcomes. However, the few empirical studies on this link have been limited to the comparison of Anglo-Western, independent, and East Asian, interdependent cultural contexts. In the current paper, we conceptually replicated findings from three studies on the link between emotional fit and well-being in Anglo-Western and East Asian contexts, using different methods and more comprehensive samples. Moreover, we expanded emotional fit research to the understudied Mediterranean region, characterized by an emphasis on “honor” and a distinct blend of independence and interdependence. We collected data from N = 3,097 participants from 12 countries and asked participants to report their emotional experience in 10 hypothetical situations and to rate their well-being in different domains. Our results largely replicated established positive links between emotional fit and well-being in the Anglo-West and East-Asia, as i) experiencing more culturally valued emotions (from which we infer cultural fit) was linked to better general well-being; ii) actual, calculated emotional fit in relationship-focused situations predicted better relational well-being; and iii) only in East Asia calculated emotional fit in culturally central contexts predicted psychological well-being and thriving. Our exploratory analyses on the Mediterranean region showed a non-homogenous pattern: while general well-being was consistently most strongly predicted by the intensity of disengaging emotions, relational and psychological well-being were differentially predicted by calculated emotional fit in relationship-focused situations across different Mediterranean sub-regions. The current work consolidates insights into how our well-being is shaped by the interplay between culture and emotional fit and strengthens evidence that there may be ‘universalism without uniformity’.

Quantifying the impact of teaching quality on pupil learning, and understanding what teacher characteristics or practices are likely to improve student achievement, are pressing research questions in all countries. Empirical evidence also needs to be context specific since different education systems are likely to have different facilitators and barriers to good teaching. Existing evidence, largely from the US, suggests a number of strong research designs that enable researchers to model the impact of teaching on pupil achievement. However, operationalising these models in more resource-constrained contexts is challenging. In this paper we describe our attempt to model the impact of teachers and their practices on pupil achievement using the quantitative data generated for this research (household and school surveys with a teacher survey and an attempt to assess teacher knowledge). We describe the challenges when trying to implement this approach in the Indian and Pakistan context and the methodological adaptions needed. We reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our approach. We note that existing literature tends to provide relatively minimal descriptions of the specific research design and instruments used to model teacher quality and hence provides a partial picture of methodological considerations. In this paper we contribute a detailed and frank account of developing a workable research design and the challenges we encountered.

Pakistan's Punjab province has witnessed numerous education reforms in recent years. Many of these reforms have been aimed at improving the well-documented low levels of learning by focusing on improving teaching quality. The rhetoric suggests that government schools, particularly those in rural areas with a more disadvantaged pupil base, are especially ineffective at imparting learning. This paper seeks to investigate whether children in rural Punjab are learning literacy and numeracy over the course of a year, and if so, are some pupils progressing more than others. Using recently collected data, it finds that children in our sample are making progress. Variation in progress is found to be greater within schools rather than across them. The competence and qualifications of a teacher also makes a significant difference to a child's academic progress. The paper further finds differential progress for rich and poor students within schools, suggesting an important role for education policy to put in place targeted support towards those from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure improvements in their learning keep pace with their peers.

We study school choice in England using a new dataset containing the choices of all parents seeking a school place in state secondary schools. We provide new empirical evidence to inform how the school choice market functions, including the number of choices made, whether the nearest school is the first choice and the probability of an offer from the first choice school. These indicators show that school choice is actively used by many households in England. We use the rich data available to describe how choices vary by pupil, school and neighbourhood characteristics and how school choice is used differently by different groups and in different parts of the country. For the first time, we are able to present national data on how the school choices made by parents vary according to pupils' ethnic group and across urban and rural areas. We show, contrary to some existing literature that has relied on smaller and less representative samples of parents and pupils, that school choices do not vary significantly by social background. We show that parents pro-actively use the choice system and present new evidence on the extent to which the current school admissions criteria that prioritise distance penalise poorer families.

Shopping behaviour in response to extreme events is often characterized as "panic buying" which connotes irrationality and loss of control. However, "panic buying" has been criticized for attributing shopping behaviour to people's alleged psychological frailty while ignoring other psychological and structural factors that might be at play. We report a qualitative exploration of the experiences and understandings of shopping behaviour of members of the public at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 23 participants, we developed three themes. The first theme addresses people's understandings of "panic buying". When participants referred to "panic buying" they meant observed product shortages (rather than the underlying psychological processes that can lead to such behaviours), preparedness behaviours, or emotions such as fear and worry. The second theme focuses on the influence of the media and other people's behaviour in shaping subsequent shopping behaviours. The third theme addresses the meaningful motivations behind increased shopping, which participants described in terms of preparedness; some participants reported increased shopping behaviours as a response to other people stockpiling, to reduce their trips to supermarkets, or to prepare for product shortages and longer stays at home. Overall, despite frequently using the term 'panic', the irrationalist connotations of "panic buying" were largely absent from participants' accounts. Thus, "panic buying" is not a useful concept and should not be used as it constructs expected responses to threat as irrational or pathological. It can also facilitate such behaviours, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In this paper, we set out the first step towards the measurement of learning gain in higher education by putting forward a conceptual framework for understanding learning gain that is relevant across disciplines. We then introduce the operationalisation of this conceptual framework into a new set of measurement tools. With the use of data from a large-scale survey of 11 English universities and over 4,500 students, we test the reliability and validity of the measurement instrument empirically. We find support in the data for the reliability of most of the measurement scales we put forward, as well as for the validity of the conceptual framework. Based on these results, we reflect on the conceptual framework and associated measurement tools in the context of at-scale deployment and the potential implications for policy and practice in higher education.

Policymakers have invested significant resources in financial education to improve financial literacy of the poor, reduce bad financial decision-making, and increase take-up of financial services and products. Yet, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions, especially in developing countries. This paper provides evidence from a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) where a relatively light financial education program (one day of training) was offered to a large sample of women (n = 1,281) from poor households in informal community settings. The educational intervention was a significant departure from the more costly traditional classroom-style adult education interventions. It was based on simple "rules of thumb" and used a goal-oriented and action-focused approach, targeted at changing behaviors. We find evidence of modest, positive treatment effects for some outcomes including an increase in personal savings, achieved at a relatively low cost of training per participant.

PurposeWe examined the association between the school policy, social and physical environment and change in adolescent physical activity (PA) and explored how sex and socioeconomic status modified potential associations.MethodsData from the GoActive study were used for these analyses. Participants were adolescents (n = 1765, mean age±SD 13.2±0.4y) from the East of England, UK. Change in longitudinal accelerometer assessed moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was the outcome. School policy, social and physical environment features (n = 267) were exposures. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator variable selection method (LASSO) was used to determine exposures most relevant to the outcome. Exposures selected by the LASSO were added to a multiple linear regression model with estimates of change in min/day of MVPA per 1-unit change in each exposure reported. Post-hoc analyses, exploring associations between change in variables selected by the LASSO and change in MVPA, were undertaken to further explain findings.FindingsNo school policy or physical environment features were selected by the LASSO as predictors of change in MVPA. The LASSO selected two school social environment variables (participants asking a friend to do physical activity; friend asking a participant to do physical activity) as potential predictors of change in MVPA but no significant associations were found in subsequent linear regression models for all participants (β [95%CI] -1.01 [-2.73;0.71] and 0.65 [-2.17;0.87] min/day respectively). In the post-hoc analyses, for every unit increase in change in participants asking a friend to do PA and change in a friend asking participants to do PA, an increase in MVPA of 2.78 (1.55;4.02) and 1.80 (0.48;3.11) min/day was predicted respectively.ConclusionsThe school social environment is associated with PA during adolescence. Further exploration of how friendships during adolescence may be leveraged to support effective PA promotion in schools is warranted.

Whether someone has ever had free school meal (FSM) eligibility over a six-year period is the measure of socio-economic disadvantage currently used in the English school system. It is used to monitor the socio-economic gap in achievement in the education system, to identify particular children at risk of low achievement and to direct funding to particular children and schools. In this paper we assess how well this measure predicts pupil attainment in secondary school in comparison to other measures of socio-economic background known to influence pupil attainment, such as parental education or income. We ask whether the FSM measure is an adequate proxy for a pupil's socio-economic disadvantage in an educational context. To do this we draw on the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England and matched administrative data. We find that the FSM eligibility measure correlates highly with other measures of socio-economic disadvantage, however it does not identify all children living in what would be deemed deprived households. We then compare the extent to which the FSM eligibility measure predicts educational achievement relative to other measures of deprivation and find that its predictive power is only marginally lower than many richer survey measures. This provides some reassurance on its use in policy.

Though a relative small part of the school sector, private schools have an important role in British society, and there are policy concerns about their negative effect on social mobility. Other studies show that individuals who have attended a private school go on to have higher levels of educational achievement, are more likely to secure a high-status occupation and also have higher wages. In this article we contribute new evidence on the magnitude of the wage premium, and address a puzzle found in previous studies: how to explain the direct pay premium whereby privately educated male workers have higher wages even than their similarly educated peers. It is commonly conjectured that the broader curriculum that private schools are able to deliver, coupled with the peer pressures of a partially segregated section of society, help to inculcate cultural capital, including some key "non-cognitive" attributes. We focus here on leadership, organisational participation and an acceptance of hard work. We find that privately educated workers are in jobs that require significantly greater leadership skills, offer greater organisational participation and require greater work intensity. These associations are partially mediated by educational achievement. Collectively these factors contribute little, however, to explaining the direct pay premium. Rather, a more promising account arises from the finding that inclusion of a variable for industry reduces the private school premium to an insignificant amount, which is consistent with selective sorting of privately educated workers into high-paying industries.

In this paper, we examine the trajectories of initially higher- and lower-achieving children from lower and higher socio-economic status families from primary school through to university in England for the first time. We also explore what explains these trajectories. This enables us to provide new insights into when and why the performance of children with similar initial achievement diverges on the basis of their socio-economic background. Our results indicate that pupils from poor backgrounds who are higher achievers in primary school fall behind their better-off but lower-achieving peers during secondary school. This suggests that secondary school may be a critical period to intervene to prevent poor children from falling behind their richer peers. Our analysis suggests that there is less divergence in performance between pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds who attend the same schools. This result is particularly strong for children with low initial achievement. While we remain cautious about the implications of these findings, they provide suggestive evidence that schools (or the sorting of pupils into schools) play an important role in explaining why the test scores of richer and poorer children diverge over time.

The advantage of using porous materials for biofuel cells and biosensors is their very large internal surface area (where electron exchange takes place) compared to the overall material volume, yielding much larger current densities than on a bare solid electrode of the same size. However, limitations occur because of mass transfer resistance through the pores. We describe here a bottom-up approach to optimize the design of such materials, through the analysis and modeling of their porous structure. Electrodes prepared by replicating stacked Langmuir-Blodgett films, with 1-μm diameter interconnected spherical pores, were studied. Since pore window dimensions are around 100 nm, Focused Ion Beam-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM) has been performed to obtain a 3D reconstruction of the porous medium. Then, a determination of the geometrical characteristics has been achieved through image analysis. The structure of the sphere packing, the shape and size of the connections between spheres, the distances between spheres, the sphere diameters and the specific surface area have been analyzed. The porous medium is close to a face-centered cubic arrangement of spherical pores, but several deviations from ideality are present: missing pores (point defects), stacking errors (dislocations), and incomplete connection between spheres (only 50% of the ideal sphere connections are present). The consequence of such defects on transport is studied through image-based simulations of mass diffusion in the actual porous medium and in similar ideal media.

The chemical supercritical fluid infiltration process is a recent variation of the chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) process that allows rapid and efficient manufacturing of ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs), albeit still needing optimization. This article proposes a quantitative assessment of the process dynamics through experiments and modeling. The kinetics of carbon deposition were determined through two sets of experiments: CVD on a single filament at pressures between 10 and 50 bar and infiltration at pressures ranging between 50 and 120 bar. The CVI experiments were conducted under important thermal gradients and were interpreted using a model-based reconstitution of these gradients. We found that (i) the kinetic law has to incorporate the potential effect of the reverse reaction (i.e., etching of C by H2); (ii) the activation energy and pre-exponential factor both decrease with pressure up to 50 bar, then remain roughly constant, and (iii) although the apparent activation energy is modest, a favorable situation occurs in which an infiltration front builds up and travels from the hottest to the coldest part of the preform due to the presence of sufficient heat flux. A numerical simulation of the process, based on the solution of momentum, heat, and mass balance equations, fed with appropriate laws for the effective transfer properties of the porous medium and their evolution with infiltration progress, was performed and validated by comparing the simulated and actual infiltration profiles.

In this paper, we consider whether certain countries are particularly adept (or particularly poor) at getting children from disadvantaged homes to study for a bachelor's degree. A series of university access models are estimated for four English-speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the USA), which include controls for comparable measures of academic achievement at age 15. Our results suggest that socioeconomic differences in university access are more pronounced in England and Canada than Australia and the USA and that cross-national variation in the socioeconomic gap remains even once we take account of differences in academic achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for the creation of more socially mobile societies.

INTRODUCTION: Soil-transmitted helminth infections (STHs) and schistosomiasis have serious consequences for the health, education and nutrition of children in developing countries. As Loum is known as a highly endemic commune for these infections, several deworming campaigns have been carried out in the past. The purpose of this study was to determine any changes that have occurred since then in the characteristics of these infections among schoolchildren in this site. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2016 on 289 schoolchildren. Stool and urine samples were collected and examined to determine the prevalence and intensity of helminth infections. RESULTS: the highest prevalence was noted for Schistosoma haematobium (34.2%), followed by Ascaris lumbricoides (8.6%), S. mansoni (4.9%) and Trichuris trichiura (4.9%) in decreasing order. A prevalence of less than 2% was noted for each of the other two helminths. The highest mean intensity was found for S. haematobium (39.6 eggs/10 ml of urine), followed by A. lumbricoides (24.2 eggs per gram of faeces: epg), Strongyloides stercoralis (16.6 epg) and Schistosoma mansoni (12.3 epg). The prevalence of T. trichiura was significantly higher in boys and that of S. haematobium in children aged 10 years or older, while the differences between other values of prevalence or between egg burdens were not significant. CONCLUSION: compared with values reported in 2003, the prevalence and intensity of Schistosomiases and STH infections in Loum has sharply decreased in 2016. Confirmation of this decrease in the years to come allowed to space deworming campaigns among schoolchildren.

The present study is focused on the application of a ceramic tubular high temperature heat exchanger with engineered cellular architectures. Thermal design and optimization to maximise the radiative heat transfer has been investigated both experimentally and computationally. Numerical models were designed involving various arrangements of cells and their different sizes (while the total heat transfer area remains constant). They were 3D-printed by Stereolithography (SLA) and subsequently sintered. Heat transfer tests were performed both with a high temperature pressure drop test and by CFD simulations on 2D and 3D models. The computational results agree with the experimental data. We found that radial heat transfer in a tube increases by 160% to 280%, if a ceramic lattice is inserted, in respect of an empty tube. Moreover, the arrangement of cells and their size significantly influences the radiative heat transfer showing (for a given array) its top performances above 773 K. Geometries with large cells outside and small cells inside in the radial direction allow radiation to penetrate better through the core of the porous body. With this engineered ceramic lattices it is possible to reduce the tube length by one third to obtain more compact heat exchangers than an empty tubular solution. Keywords: Porous ceramic, Alumina, Heat exchange, Additive manufacturing

By the time children leave primary school there is a large socio-economic gap in their reading proficiency. There are a number of potential explanations for this socio-economic gap and in this paper we investigate the role of three particular genes and gene-environment interactions in determining children's reading skills, using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) dataset. We find that whilst these genes are indeed correlated with reading outcomes, effect sizes are small and sensitive to the choice of test used and the sample selected. Our results suggest that these leading candidate genes can jointly explain just 2% of the socio-economic gap in children's reading test scores. We conclude that the influence of these three genes on children's reading ability is limited, and their role in producing socio-economic gaps in reading ability is even more limited still.

The use of fixed (FE) and random effects (RE) in two-level hierarchical linear regression is discussed in the context of education research. We compare the robustness of FE models with the modelling flexibility and potential efficiency of those from RE models. We argue that the two should be seen as complementary approaches. We then compare both modelling approaches in our empirical examples. Results suggest a negative effect of special educational needs (SEN) status on educational attainment, with selection into SEN status largely driven by pupil level rather than school-level factors.

Background: Education systems rely on both teacher and test-based assessments. Where these assessments are used for summative purposes particularly, it is important to understand why, and for which groups of students, teachers' assessments may produce different results from test-based assessments. Purpose: This paper assesses whether the difference between teacher and test-based summative assessment at age 11 and 15--as a measure of bias or uncertainty in assessment--is linked systematically to observable pupil characteristics. We also consider the important question of whether these measures of uncertainty and bias in assessment have any relationship with pupils' subsequent educational choices at age 16. Sample: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper focused on the Spanish educational system that has compared teacher and test-based assessments for school-age children. The sample consists of 3000 primary and secondary students. Design and methods: This research is conducted using regression analysis on quantitative data, comparing teacher and test-based assessments conducted during the academic year 2009/10. Results: The gap between test scores and teacher assessments is particularly large for female students in mathematics, who obtain significantly higher teacher assessments compared with their test scores. Students from semi-private schools ("concertadas"), who are more likely to be socially advantaged, gain higher test scores in relation to their teachers' assessments. This is particularly noticeable in reading. Conclusions: This finding is consistent with the notion that teachers overestimate the achievement of girls in mathematics, relative to their test scores. Teachers tend to assess pupils in a relative way and hence teachers in semi-private schools (with higher achieving pupils) underestimate the achievement of their pupils.

The present article introduces a model based on cognitive consistency principles to predict how new identities become integrated into the self-concept, with consequences for intergroup attitudes. The model specifies four concepts (self-concept, stereotypes, identification, and group compatibility) as associative connections. The model builds on two cognitive principles, balance–congruity and imbalance–dissonance, to predict identification with social groups that people currently belong to, belonged to in the past, or newly belong to. More precisely, the model suggests that the relative strength of self-group associations (i.e., identification) depends in part on the (in)compatibility of the different social groups. Combining insights into cognitive representation of knowledge, intergroup bias, and explicit/implicit attitude change, we further derive predictions for intergroup attitudes. We suggest that intergroup attitudes alter depending on the relative associative strength between the social groups and the self, which in turn is determined by the (in)compatibility between social groups. This model unifies existing models on the integration of social identities into the self-concept by suggesting that basic cognitive mechanisms play an important role in facilitating or hindering identity integration and thus contribute to reducing or increasing intergroup bias.

Higher education (HE) has the potential to be transformative: for individuals, local communities and for the wider society.[...]

The uncertainty brought about by COVID-19 in times of mass migration adds an extra layer of perceived threat and competition for resources among host residents in migrant-receiving societies. This convergence of perceived threat potentially exacerbates implicit stereotypes about immigrants and can increase intergroup discord. We used panel data and a linear structural equation model to assess the distinct indirect effects of prejudice, as well as positive and negative intergroup emotions, within the associations of contact with immigrants and perceived COVID-19 threat (not directly related to immigrants) among host residents from 7 European countries, the United States, and Colombia (total N = 13,645). In addition, we examined potential underlying explanations regarding the role that implicit stereotypes of immigrants as disease carriers/spreaders (spillover effect) may play within the aforementioned associations. We introduce the concept of incidental intergroup threat to refer to the spillover of implicit immigrant stereotypes as disease spreaders onto emotional responses related to the presence of newcomers and pandemic threat perceptions. Our findings offer novel evidence that intergroup emotions exert indirect effects, above and beyond the effects of prejudice, vis-à-vis the association between intergroup contact and incidental pandemic threat. These results also suggest that, during global health disasters, spillover effects may yield incidental intergroup threats. Future interventions designed to address intergroup exclusionary reactions during disease pandemics could benefit from integrating threat regulation strategies into efforts to prevent spillover effects and incidental intergroup threats within immigrantreceiving societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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