School Finance Systems and Their Responsiveness to Performance Pressures: A Case Study of Texas

Details the mechanisms of and influences on the state's school finance system, changes caused by increased performance pressures, local officials' ability to allocate resources as deemed appropriate, and obstacles to linking resources to student learning

School Finance Systems and Their Responsiveness to Performance Pressures: A Case Study of North Carolina

Details the mechanisms of and influences on the state's school finance system, changes caused by increased performance pressures, local officials' views on alternative allocation of resources, and obstacles to linking resources to student learning

Study of the ammonia ice cloud layer in the north tropical zone of Jupiter from the infrared interferometric experiment on Voyager

An average of 51 Voyager 1 IRIS spectra of Jupiter's North Tropical Zone was analyzed to infer the abundance, vertical extent, and size distribution of the particles making up the ammonia cloud in this region. It is assumed that the cloud base coincides with the level at which 100% saturation of ammonia vapor occurs. The vertical distribution of particulates above this level is determined by assuming a constant total ammonia mixing ratio and adjusting the two phases so that the vapor is saturated throughout the cloud. A constant scaling factor then adjusts the base number density. A radiative transfer program is used that includes the effects of absorption and emission of all relevant gases as well as anisotropic scattering by cloud particles. Mie scattering from a gaussian particle size distribution is assumed. The vertical thermal structure is inferred from a temperature retrieval program that utilizes the collision induced S(0) and S(1) molecular hydrogen lines between 300 and 700.cm, and the 1304.cm methane band

THE HOME AS A SITE OF FAMILY COMMUNICATED NARRATIVE SENSE-MAKING: GRIEF, MEANING, AND IDENTITY THROUGH “CLEANING OUT THE CLOSET”

This study utilized communicated narrative sense-making theory to explore the process of sorting through a deceased loved one’s belongings and changing the home after loss (referred to as “cleaning out the closet”), as the site of family communication and storytelling. Through storytelling, families make order of the disordered experience that is bereavement by negotiating meaning, identity, and family. The stories told about and within the process of “cleaning out the closet” elicit rich insight on each family’s experience with bereavement, loss, and life with each other. “Cleaning out the closet” narratives shed light on the interactions that occur between family members experiencing grief across a timeline, providing insight on grief communication, sense-making, and communal identity performance. “Cleaning out the closet” narratives provide insight on the discursive and material influences upon grief experiences and storytelling processes. Finally, analyzing storytelling content and processes of “cleaning out the closet” yield awareness of broader themes within the family and grief communication, providing translational implications for scholars, practitioners, and grieving families alike. Through 14 semi-structured interviews, retrospective storytelling content and interactional storytelling behaviors are identified. Family stories about “cleaning out the closet” included content of motivations, communication, and impacts. Storytelling interactions are discussed, including engagement, turn-taking, perspective-taking, and coherence. The findings suggest that the home is not merely a backdrop where grief takes place, but a dynamic and polysemic place imbedded in sense-making, identity, grief, and family. Changing the home, then, is an agentic and rhetorical act: a dense and significant story within the family’s whole grief narrative

Interleukin 2 activation of natural killer cells rapidly induces the expression and phosphorylation of the Leu-23 activation antigen.

IL-2 potentiates both growth and cytotoxic function of T lymphocytes and NK cells. Resting peripheral blood NK cells can respond directly to rIL-2, without requirement for accessory cells or cofactors, and enhanced cytotoxicity can be measured within a few hours after exposure to this lymphokine. In this study, we describe an activation antigen, Leu-23, that is rapidly induced and phosphorylated after IL-2 stimulation of NK cells and a subset of low buoyant density T lymphocytes. Previously, it has been uncertain whether all NK cells or only a subset are responsive to IL-2. Since within 18 h after exposure to IL-2, essentially all NK cells express Leu-23, these findings indicate that all peripheral blood NK cells are responsive to stimulation by IL-2. The Leu-23 antigen is a disulfide-bonded homodimer, composed of 24-kD protein subunits with two N-linked oligosaccharides. Appearance of this glycoprotein on NK cells is IL-2 dependent and closely parallels IL-2-induced cytotoxicity against NK-resistant solid tumor cell targets

Bifurcated polarization rotation in bismuth-based piezoelectrics

ABO3 perovskite-type solid solutions display a large variety of structural and physical properties, which can be tuned by chemical composition or external parameters such as temperature, pressure, strain, electric, or magnetic fields. Some solid solutions show remarkably enhanced physical properties including colossal magnetoresistance or giant piezoelectricity. It has been recognized that structural distortions, competing on the local level, are key to understanding and tuning these remarkable properties, yet, it remains a challenge to experimentally observe such local structural details. Here, from neutron pair-distribution analysis, a temperature-dependent 3D atomic-level model of the lead-free piezoelectric perovskite Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) is reported. The statistical analysis of this model shows how local distortions compete, how this competition develops with temperature, and, in particular, how different polar displacements of Bi3+ cations coexist as a bifurcated polarization, highlighting the interest of Bi-based materials in the search for new lead-free piezoelectrics

Sociología y violencia

En el intermedio entre dos investigaciones empíricas, decidí aprovechar la oportunidad de un año sabático para volver sobre parte de la extensa literatura teórica que tiene que ver con el tema de la violencia en una perspectiva fundamentalmente, aunque no exclusivamente, sociológica. En este documento de trabajo se presenta el resultado inicial de este esfuerzo que me deja profundamente insatisfecho aunque igualmente motivado para seguir con el ejercicio teórico. Consideré conveniente la publicación en esta modalidad de Documento de Trabajo para indicar precisamente su carácter provisional y al mismo tiempo no perder la oportunidad de que llegue a la lectura de algunos interesados en el tema que puedan contribuir con sus comentarios y críticas al desarrollo de mi preocupación teórica. A pesar de que creo haber realizado un esfuerzo centrado en la literatura sociológica, es fundamental explicitar que buena parte de mis preocupaciones surgieron de textos de filosofía política, en particular el ensayo de Hannah Arendt sobre violencia. Igualmente precisar que sobre la diversidad de problemáticas sociológicas que pueden vincularse con el fenómeno de la violencia, el texto tiene un sesgo particular hacia lo que se ha denominado usualmente como las acciones colectivas, sus bases sociales y los resultados de la acción en configuraciones institucionales sociales y políticas