A DIRICHLET PROCESS MIXTURE OF HIDDEN MARKOV MODELS FOR PROTEIN STRUCTURE PREDICTION

By providing new insights into the distribution of a protein's torsion angles, recent statistical models for this data have pointed the way to more efficient methods for protein structure prediction. Most current approaches have concentrated on bivariate models at a single sequence position. There is, however, considerable value in simultaneously modeling angle pairs at multiple sequence positions in a protein. One area of application for such models is in structure prediction for the highly variable loop and turn regions. Such modeling is difficult due to the fact that the number of known protein structures available to estimate these torsion angle distributions is typically small. Furthermore, the data is "sparse" in that not all proteins have angle pairs at each sequence position. We propose a new semiparametric model for the joint distributions of angle pairs at multiple sequence positions. Our model accommodates sparse data by leveraging known information about the behavior of protein secondary structure. We demonstrate our technique by predicting the torsion angles in a loop from the globin fold family. Our results show that a template-based approach can now be successfully extended to modeling the notoriously difficult loop and turn regions.     

Coexisting principles and logics of elder care: Help to self‐help and consumer‐oriented service?

Healthy and active ageing has become an ideal in Western societies. In the Nordic countries, this ideal has been supported through a policy of help to self‐help in elder care since the 1980s. However, reforms inspired by New Public Management (NPM) have introduced a new policy principle of consumer‐oriented service that stresses the wishes and priorities of older people. We have studied how these two principles are applied by care workers in Denmark. Is one principle or logic replacing the other, or do they coexist? Do they create tensions between professional knowledge and the autonomy of older people? Using neo‐institutional theory and feminist care theory, we analysed the articulation of the two policy principles in interviews and their logics in observations in four local authorities. We conclude that help to self‐help is the dominant principle, that it is deeply entrenched in the identity of the professional care worker and that it coexists with consumer‐oriented service and without major tensions in the logics identified in their practices.     

The pen,the receiver and the pump: Exploring young children's experiences of having a parent with type 1 diabetes

In this article, we explore young children's experiences of having a parent with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In our research we found that the children's knowledge about T1D was not age related, and that some had more in-depth knowledge than others. This seemed related to how and what the parents taught them about diabetes, the individual child's curiosity and interest, and the parent's history with fluctuating blood sugar levels. Several children were affected by their parents' diabetes in their daily life. Our research contributes to knowledge about how children's lives can be affected by having a parent with chronic illness.     

How Funding of Non-profit Social Organizations Affects the Number of Volunteers

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In recent decades, significant changes have occurred to how charities and non-profit organizations are funded. However,...     

Incomplete equalization: The effect of tracking in secondary education on educational inequality

This paper tests whether the existence of vocationally oriented tracks within a traditionally academically oriented upper education system reduces socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment. Based on a statistical model of educational transitions and data on two entire cohorts of Danish youth, we find that (1) the vocationally oriented tracks are less socially selective than the traditional academic track; (2) attending the vocationally oriented tracks has a negative effect on the likelihood of enrolling in higher education; and (3) in the aggregate the vocationally oriented tracks improve access to lower-tier higher education for low-SES students. These findings point to an interesting paradox in that tracking has adverse effects at the micro-level but equalizes educational opportunities at the macro-level. We also discuss whether similar mechanisms might exist in other educational systems.     

Paths,Punctuations and Policy Learning—Comparing Patterns of European use of Scientific Expertise during the Covid-19 Crisis

Public Organization Review - The article examines changes in the role and position of experts in policy making in the EU member states and four additional West European mature democracies during...     

Unemployment and economic security for young adults in Finland,Norway and Sweden: From unemployment protection to poverty relief

In this study, we investigated if there has been a displacement in the type and coverage of welfare services available for young unemployed adults in Finland, Norway and Sweden over the last two decades. This question is important because a number of studies have argued that the generous unemployment benefits and extensive labour market intervention found in the Nordic welfare states shield young people from the most severe consequences of economic inactivity. In this article, we instead show that during this period, less generous means‐tested unemployment and social assistance benefits have become the most important form of income protection for young people. In evidence, earnings‐related unemployment benefits now cover only 10 per cent of unemployed Swedes and Finns and 45 per cent of unemployed Norwegians aged 24 years or younger. This development marks a significant change in our understanding of unemployment protection for young people in Nordic countries.     

Welfare risks in early adulthood: A longitudinal analysis of social assistance transitions in Norway

Lorentzen T, Dahl E, Harsløf I. Welfare risks in early adulthood: a longitudinal analysis of social assistance transitions in Norway This study assessed the significance of critical life events and socio‐economic background in relation to the likelihood of young Norwegians receiving social assistance, asking how each of these factors contributes both independently and interactively. The data set was derived from a nationwide, longitudinal register and includes the entire 18‐year‐old cohort in 1993. A discrete‐time proportional hazard rate analysis controlling for unobserved heterogeneity was applied. The results indicate that both socio‐economic background and indicators of critical life events have strong independent effects on the likelihood of receiving social assistance. Significant interaction effects between socio‐economic background and certain indicators of critical life events were detected. However, contrary to our expectations, under certain circumstances, coming from a group with low socio‐economic status does not seem to ameliorate the effect of being exposed to critical life events.     

Children's Voices: The Views of Vulnerable Children on Their Service Providers and the Relevance of Services They Receive

This paper describes and analyses the views of vulnerable childrenof eleven years and under on the relevance of services theyreceived. The two research questions posed were, first, whatare effective practices for engaging with vulnerable children;and, second, how can the voices of vulnerable children be usedto influence the development of policy? The first question wasaddressed through a systematic review of existing literatureon effective strategies for interviewing vulnerable childrenand revealed that few studies that focus on interviewing youngchildren are designed to address effectiveness. As yet, notall young children are asked for their views by those makingdecisions about their lives, though their involvement increaseswith age. The second question was addressed through focus groupsand interviews which revealed that children hold many validviews related to their roles and relationships with serviceproviders and decisions being made concerning their lives. Itwas concluded that whilst children’s lived experienceof services they receive could contribute to the creation ofmore democratic communities in which children and their familiesparticipate, it remains to be seen whether the new Green Paper,Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003), increases their sense of autonomyor merely extends the degree to which they are controlled.