Politics, administration and social science : the case of some area based approaches to urban poverty in Britain and the United States

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D41716/82 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Charter School Governance: An Exploration of Autonomy and Board Effectiveness

Despite the increased numbers of charter schools each year, we understand very little about their governing boards. According to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation (2004) factors that correlate with charter school success such as accountability, public support, and institutional capacity to progress toward established goals are typically under the management of a charter school governing board. While there is no shortage of governance recommendations for charter schools, there are few empirically validated prescriptions. There are empirically validated characteristics of successful Non-Profit Organization (NPO) governing boards (Herman & Renz, 2008). The methodology for this research was designed to determine if governance practices of successful NPO governing boards impact charter school outcomes. A charter school’s governing board has tremendous power. A governing board can help optimize the educational outcomes of the school it serves. The theoretical framework that supports this research involves institutional theory; schools are open systems. Schools are impacted by external factors that may advance or challenge institutional goals. The Board Effectiveness Quick Check is a valid and reliable governance survey that can provide a small non-profit governing board with information about their quality of governance, areas of strength, and areas in need of improvement. This study analyzed the relationship between charter school governance and student progress on the Board Effectiveness Quick Check scores between two groups of schools: schools whose student growth exceeds the district average and schools whose student growth falls below the district average. The results from this study provide evidence that there is a correlation and a moderate effect size between governance practices and student academic growth

Project Management for Virginia Seafood Council’s Economic Analysis of Triploid C. ariakensis Aquaculture (Year 1 and 2)

The Virginia Seafood Council (VSC) project for 2003-2005 focused on industry field trials with genetic triploid Crassoslrea ariakensis. This entailed deployment of approximately 100,000 C. ariakensis at each often industry participants\u27 private oyster grounds to test aquaculture grow-out methods and marketability. In addition deployment of genetic triploid C. virginica allowed for a side-by-side comparison

Long Persistence and Other Aspects of Variants of False Mayweed, Tripleurospermum maritima, at Sackville, New Brunswick

Over a 25-year period, plants of Tripleurospermum maritima with aberrant inflorescences have been observed growing without cultivation by Crescent Street in Sackville, New Brunswick. Aberrant plants varied between years in locations, suggesting reproduction by seed. Plants with variant inflorescences comprised about one percent of total plants in counted samples. As many as 100 variant plants were found in a year. The site may have received toxic waste disposal causing a mutation that resulted in observed aberrations. The inflorescence aberrations are primarily of two kinds; those with only white rays throughout, and those with some yellow disc flowers that later were concealed by white rays. A third aberration involved inflorescences that appeared nearly normal when first seen, but later developed to the second preceding form. Plants with aberrant inflorescences did not differ from normal plants in morphology or flowering time. Aberrant inflorescences appeared somewhat later in the flowering period than flowering in plants with normal inflorescences

Folds, fields, and fauna: A Deleuzo-Guattarian approach to the socialising power of religious experiences in Ancient Near Eastern landscapes

Archaeological approaches to socialisation are underdeveloped. As interpretative models are most often borrowed from other disciplines, rather than developed with a material-focus at their centre, archaeologists are left without effective object-centred frameworks with which to examine how individuals interacted with and learnt about their world. This thesis addresses these issues with a new approach, drawing upon Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, who offer many analytical tools that can directly connect highly theoretical interpretations of ancient societies to archaeological data. By stressing how humans understand the world through their accumulated previous experiences, Deleuze and Guattari direct the archaeologist to consider how identifiable human interactions with objects and places informed their subsequent experiences, and therefore their developing perceptions of their surroundings. This approach is tested against three case studies, in the 3rd Millennium Jazira, 2nd Millennium Anatolia, and 1st Millennium Southern Levant, that stress the intersection of landscapes and religious practice, both of which are frequently highlighted as powerful agents of socialisation. The varying forms and resolutions available for these case studies allow for a comprehensive exploration of a Deleuzo-Guattarian framework’s effectiveness in reconstructing and understanding ancient experiences of the world, and new interpretations of how ancient individuals both shaped and were shaped by their experiences of religiously-loaded landscapes

Barriers to Healthcare Access and Patient Outcomes After a Hospitalization for an Acute Coronary Syndrome and Other Acute Conditions

Background: Guideline-concordant therapies for survivors of an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) hospitalization require healthcare access, something that millions of Americans lack. Methods and Results: Using data from a prospective cohort study of over 2,000 survivors of a hospitalization for an ACS in central Massachusetts and Georgia from 2011 to 2013, the first two aims of this thesis sought to identify the post-discharge consequences for survival and health status of having: 1) financial barriers to healthcare, 2) no usual source of care, and 3) transportation barriers. We found that patients lacking a usual source of care and having a transportation barrier were more likely to have died within two years following hospital discharge compared to those without such barriers. Also, patients with financial barriers to healthcare were more likely to experience clinically meaningful declines in physical and mental health-related quality of life over the six months after hospital discharge. The third aim sought to better understand factors influencing the success of care transitions home after an unplanned hospitalization through a qualitative study of 22 patients. Participants described how adequate healthcare access, particularly having insurance and transportation to clinical appointments, facilitated the receipt of follow-up care and adherence to treatments. Conclusions: Limitations in healthcare access may contribute to poorer survival, health-related quality of life, and survival. Additional research is needed to identify interventions to improve healthcare access and test whether improved access leads to better patient outcomes

Mineral exploration potential of ERTS-1 data

The author has identified the following significant results. Preliminary analysis of a mosaic composing eight individual ERTS frames (1:1,000,000) extending well beyond the test site has revealed a number of tectonic structural trends that are controlled by regional lineations. So far most of the regional lineations fall into three general directions: east by northeast, northwest, and north-south. From preliminary examination, it appears that the older Precambrian basement predominates in the NE-bearing structural trends, whereas the predominate NW trend is most likely associated with the Texas Structural Zone, and the north-south trend being the Utah-Arizona belt and/or part of the southern Basin and Range Province. One major lineation, made up of many parallel lineations, is noticeable just north of Lake Pleasant which extends for approximately 100 miles in a northern direction out of the target area. This feature corresponds to a Precambrian schist formation shown on the USGS geologic map of Arizona

Thaan Vuzha Nilam Tharisu: the land without a farmer becomes barren

This report forms a part of the international research project on policy and sustainable agriculture, Policies that Work for Sustainable Agriculture and Regenerated Rural Economies. The report details the findings of one of the constituent studies, undertaken by an Indian NGO, the Society for People's Education and Economic Change (SPEECH). The Importance of this project is that it concentrated on rainfed rather than irrigated agriculture - i.e. the sharp end of rural development in India, and that the focus was very much on the micro-level, looking at policy as seen from the ground. One of the recurring themes throughout the research was the importance of appreciating people as individuals, and in this spirit some of the personal qualities of the research team are shared. The research covers events in sites in the Virudhunagar district of Tamilnadu: Tiruchuli Panchayat Union and the Villur chain of tanks. This is an essentially rural area, where the need for sustainable forms of agriculture and rural livelihoods is clear. The political landscape is fractured and complex (§2.3), and the officials with the responsibility of implementing policy face significant obstacles and disincentives in doing so in response to the needs of local communities