Disparity by Design: How Drug-free Zone Laws Impact Racial Disparity -- and Fail to Protect Youth

Thanks to the work of concerned policymakers and reform advocates across the country, public discussions have been sparked in many states about the fairness and efficacy of drug-free zone laws. This report is designed to inform those discussions by reviewing empirical findings, primarily from three states -- Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut -- where enough information is available to answer key questions. The report also documents efforts by policymakers and advocates in a few other states -- Illinois, Utah, and Washington -- to challenge long-held assumptions that drug-free zone laws are protecting children and enhancing public safety

Guidelines on fibrinogen assays

No abstract available

"Just coming in the door was hard": supporting students with mental health difficulties

A student in your writing center displays such high level of anxiety that it also begins to impact on those working in the writing center. The student's behavior might tip over into the unacceptably aggressive and thus provoke a sharp response from the writing center director. Is this just everyone having a bad day or could it indicate a much deeper problem?. Students with mental health difficulties have been a growing concern for us in recent years in our study support team in a UK university. The UK Higher Education Statistics Agency indicates that, in 2003-4, 12.03% of the total numbers of students declaring a disability disclosed a mental health problem. In our college, LCC (London College of Communication, University of the Arts London), our statistics showed that 29.5% of our students, declaring a disability, had disclosed a mental health issue by the end of the same academic year. We are at present half way through our 2005-6 academic year and that number has increased to 37.14% of our students with disabilities. Students will frequently not disclose their disability before they apply because they are worried that they may not be accepted onto the program or even because the initial onse

Neutrality, Proselytism and Religious Minorities at the European Court of Human Rights and the US Supreme Court

The paper examines the way the US Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights have dealt with the discriminatory treatment of religious minorities in relation to proselytism, and the role played by the principle of neutrality in arguments supporting the invalidation of statutes which restrict religious canvassing

When the shoe doesn’t fit: supporting students who are challenged by online educational technologies

Taking an action research approach, this paper explores the experiences of graduate level students who found a technology enabled classroom challenging. After taking part in an online orientation activity, the students began their studies in a three week face-to-face residency, followed by two distance learning sessions. At the end of the second session, 15% of the students had either taken a leave of absence, or left the program permanently. Current literature focuses on several issues that have a negative influence on students’ ability to achieve their educational goals in an online environment. These issues include isolation, lack of preparedness, and feeling overwhelmed. Building on this, we explored the following question: How can educational technology be used to increase retention for students enrolled in an online course? Aimed at identifying approaches to overcoming some of the problems associated with studying online, we sought to examine the perceptions of MBA students by asking the participants to take part in a focus group discussion. This paper will discuss the challenges found by the graduate level students who worked in a computer-mediated educational environment, as well as highlight some of the solutions aimed at increasing student retention by enhancing the online classroom. Findings revealed that technologies aimed at encouraging student presence in the online classroom, as well as those that allow them to interact socially online could positively increase student retention. In addition, employing tools that support the students’ desire to repeat and reflect on material serves to improve the experience for those studying online. Finally, instructors who display comfort with the use of technology also have a positive impact on student learning. By providing a heightened awareness of the issues faced by graduate students working online, as well as spotlighting some key solutions, this study underscores the importance of targeting appropriate technologies when designing the online classroom. Further studies in this area could explore undergraduate engagement, generational differences, as well as learning preferences in the context of online learning

Skylab Trash Airlock

The Skylab Trash Airlock (TAL) used throughout the Skylab mission to transfer trash materials that could support microbial growth from the pressurized cabin to the unpressurized waste tank is described. The TAL, which uses several basic mechanisms, was successfully operated daily for the 170 days of manned missions for a total of 637 cycles

Landau-Khalatnikov phonon damping in strongly interacting Fermi gases

We derive the phonon damping rate due to the four-phonon Landau-Khalatnikov process in low temperature strongly interacting Fermi gases using quantum hydrodynamics, correcting and extending the original calculation of Landau and Khalatnikov [ZhETF, 19 (1949) 637]. Our predictions can be tested in state-of-the-art experiments with cold atomic gases in the collisionless regime.Comment: 7 pages, final versio

The Home Entertainment Industry & the Hyper-consumer: Consumption with or without Industrial Participation

ICT enabled the development of disruptive technologies, which – so the proposition – are having a potential that participants on various levels of the Home Entertainment Industry and its value chain may face discontinuous conditions due to shifting consumption preferences (Christensen et al. 2004, Chesbrough. 2006, Trott. 2008, Kusek et al. 2006, Tidd. 2005). ICT-technology allows consumers to exclude the established industry, which offers pre-recorded content, most times on media, whose content cannot be altered and forces consumers to purchase the content, which this industry has pre-selected, while download platforms offer a huge variety of content, which can be selected due to individual taste and preferences fuelling the experiential prosumer and community concepts of hyper-consumers (Lipovetsky. 2009, Antorini, 2009, Benghozi, 2006, Benghozi et al. 2000, 2005). Permanently decreasing sales quantities of pre-recorded content are confronted with increasing downloads and exchange quantities on c2c and P2P level (RIAA. 2006, 2006, IFPI. 2006, musik.woche, 2007). So far, legal barriers and copy protection have proved to be an obstacle, but unable to prevent consumers from developing different forms of business outside the established distribution paths (Eras, 2007, Renaud, 2007). At the same time industry’s love marks and customer relationships are decreasing and deteriorating due to corporate behaviour. This paper, based on primary and secondary research, studies different approaches suggesting some explanations and reasons, why the Home Entertainment Industry is increasingly set apart of content consumption and may put its existence on stake, unless a change of strategies may help to regain some of its lost territory. Key words: Hyper-consumer, P2P, c2c, discontinuous change, disruptive technologie

Ecofeminism in the 21st Century

This paper considers the influence of ecofeminism on policy concerning gender (in)equality and the environment during the past 20 years. It reviews the broad contours of the ecofeminist debate before focusing on the social construction interpretation of women's relationship with the environment. It will argue that there have been substantial policy shifts in Europe and the UK in both the environmental and equalities fields, and that this is in part a result of lobbying at a range of scales by groups informed by ecofeminist debates. Nevertheless, the paper cautions that these shifts are largely incremental and operate within existing structures, which inevitably limit their capacity to create change. As policy addresses some of the concerns highlighted by ecofeminism, academic discourse and grass roots activity have been moving on to address other issues, and the paper concludes with a brief consideration of contemporary trajectories of ecofeminism and campaigning on issues that link women's, feminist and environment concerns