The Makings of a Peer: Evidence on Within-Classroom Heterogeneities in Peer Effects

This dissertation consists of three essays on peer effects in elementary school classrooms using data from New York City (NYC) public schools. Each chapter explores a different component of within-classroom interactions in order to build towards an understanding of what makes a peer relevant. The first chapter proxies for the social network using a set of shared characteristics (homophily). In this coauthored work, we are not interested in measuring the classroom peer effect, but rather we estimate and then rank each network\u27s effect on academic spillovers. This answers the question: which characteristics are socially important, and by how much? The second chapter uses a novel method to measure the social importance of classmates based on student proximity in the lunch line over the course of the school year. The result is a revealed friendship network which I use to estimate peer effects. To my knowledge, this is the first paper to measure the social importance of classmates and use this to estimate classroom peer effects. In the third chapter, I use reduced form models to test for the existence of obesity spillovers in elementary school classrooms. I find evidence of significant causal social effects in both BMI and exposure to overweight and obese students

Forgetting Foucault? Anonymity, death and the author

The title 'Forgetting Foucault?', minus the question mark (a very important omission, of course), is one I have borrowed from Baudrillard's famous paper of 1980 which tries to cut Foucault's thesis about power/knowledge down to size but fails to tell us exactly why Foucault should be forgotten'. 1 Racevskis describes the Baudrillard article as 'a fairly abstruse poetico-philosophic essay that indicts Foucault for collusion with prevailing myth-making strategies. Foucault,' Racevskis continues, 'is shown by Baudrillard to have become infatuated with the imagi- nary force of his own discourse, and his genealogy is depicted as a system satisfying a certain hegemonic logic of reason. ' 2 In effect, not only has Foucault not been forgotten, the contrary is the case; a Foucault industry has grown over the ten years since his death with a Centre for Foucauldian Studies set up in Paris. What were Foucault's own views about his posterity? Why would Baudrillard want us to forget Foucault and what is this continuing presence his memory constitutes?peer-reviewe

Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Distinguished Lecture: Consciousness, “Symbolic Healing,” and the Meaning Response

Symbolic healing, that is, responding to meaningful experiences in positive ways, can facilitate human healing. This process partly engages consciousness and partly evades consciousness completely (sometimes it partakes of both simultaneously). This paper, presented as the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Distinguished Lecture at the 2011 AAA meeting in Montreal, reviews recent research on what is ordinarily (and unfortunately) called the “placebo effect.” The author makes the argument that language use should change, and the relevant portions of what is often called the placebo effect should be referred to as the “meaning response.”Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93714/1/anoc1061.pd

Collusion in Peer-to-Peer Systems

Peer-to-peer systems have reached a widespread use, ranging from academic and industrial applications to home entertainment. The key advantage of this paradigm lies in its scalability and flexibility, consequences of the participants sharing their resources for the common welfare. Security in such systems is a desirable goal. For example, when mission-critical operations or bank transactions are involved, their effectiveness strongly depends on the perception that users have about the system dependability and trustworthiness. A major threat to the security of these systems is the phenomenon of collusion. Peers can be selfish colluders, when they try to fool the system to gain unfair advantages over other peers, or malicious, when their purpose is to subvert the system or disturb other users. The problem, however, has received so far only a marginal attention by the research community. While several solutions exist to counter attacks in peer-to-peer systems, very few of them are meant to directly counter colluders and their attacks. Reputation, micro-payments, and concepts of game theory are currently used as the main means to obtain fairness in the usage of the resources. Our goal is to provide an overview of the topic by examining the key issues involved. We measure the relevance of the problem in the current literature and the effectiveness of existing philosophies against it, to suggest fruitful directions in the further development of the field

A Writer, an Editor, an Instructor, and an Alumna Walk into the Writing Center

As the writing center director, I believe our professional tutors provide valuable expert perspectives to student writers. They also help me mentor the peer tutors and push me to reevaluate our practices. They add staffing stability to the center (whose peer tutors never stay for more than three years). Finally, these trusted writing experts professionalize the writing center’s status among administration, faculty, and students. In the following paragraphs, Amy, Ellen, Chris, and Lindsey illustrate the rich variety of skills and perspectives professional writing tutors can contribute to a writing centerUniversity Writing Cente

Judging the scientific quality of applied lighting research

Applied lighting research is inherently interdisciplinary. Any one study in which investigators seek to understand the effects of light may involve expertise drawn from fields as varied as psychology, physiology, photobiology, vision science, engineering, physics, horticulture, and architecture. Despite differences in the specifics of research methods, data management, data analysis, and presentation, the logic of scientific thinking is a common thread. This is the basis on which the peer review system operates. This article leads readers through the criteria used by journal reviewers and editors to determine the acceptability of papers for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This is done by review of the 1941 paper by Kruithof in which he described the now-famous “Kruithof curve” relating preferred light source color temperatures and illuminances: How would one review the original Kruithof paper today, and what would we expect to be told about this work in order to judge the validity of the conclusions

Something to Say: Success Principles for Afterschool Arts Programs From Urban Youth and Other Experts

Engagement in the arts can help youth in myriad ways: as a vehicle for self expression, acquiring skills, and developing focus and teamwork. Unfortunately, with the develine of arts education in public schools, few urban, low-income young people have high-quality engaging art experiences at school. Alternatives outside of school, such as private lessons or arts camps, are typically limited to children of families with the resources and savvy to get access to them. What narrow arts experiences low-income youth have are often dull arts and crafts projects where they are instructed to follow a prototype, rather than create something from their own imagination. Consequently, many urban, low-income youth grow up without even a cursory understanding of what high-quality arts programs are like, or what benefits may accrue from participation. Even when there is awareness or interest in out-of-school time (OST) arts programs, many young people choose other activities for a variety of reasons. Further, community groups often report a steep drop-off in teen OST engagement and participation. That finding points to the importance of captivating young people's interest prior to the teen years when, as tweens, they are more willing to try new OST experiences. This report attempts to answer the following questions: How can urban, low-income tweens and teens gain equal access to high quality arts experiences? Is there a model of practices that could provide a blueprint for community based organizations to emulate, so that proven approaches could be deployed in more places, more often? Is there a way to approach the analysis of these problems that respects and honors the young people as consumers who make informed choices? and how do the insights of what tweens and teens want align with what other experts say they need

Characterization and Defect Analysis of Machined Regions in Al-SiC Metal Matrix Composites Using an Abrasive Water Jet Machining Process

Metal matrix composite (MMC) materials are increasingly used in industrial sectors such as energy, structural, aerospace, and automotive. This is due to the improvement of properties by the addition of reinforcements. Thus, it is possible to obtain properties of higher strength, better rigidity, controlled thermal expansion, and elevated wear resistance. However, due to the extreme hardness achieved during their manufacture, these composites pose a challenge to the conventional machining industry due to the rapid deterioration experienced by cutting tools. This article therefore proposes the use of an unconventional machining method that is becoming increasingly widely used: abrasive water jet cutting. This process is characterized by high production rates, absence of wear, and environmental friendliness, among other advantages. Experimental tests were carried out in order to analyze results that minimize the formation of defects in the machining of metal matrix composite consisting of aluminium matrix with silicon carbide (Al-SiC MMC). To this end, results were analyzed using Scanning Optical and Electron Microscope (SOM/SEM) techniques, the taper angle was calculated, and areas with different surface quality were detected by measuring the roughness