New York’s School Teachers Say No to the Status Quo! A Chronicle of New York State’s Teachers Union’s (NYSUT) First Contested Election

Other than a scattered mentioning on educational blogs, and a few uninspired national references, the New York State United Teacher’s (NYSUT) April 2014 first contested election in its four decade history did not seem to matter very much. We saw it differently at Cornell’s ILR School. NYSUT is known as a highly efficient, top down, union powerhouse, yet we learned that this election saw school teachers and their local union leaders utilizing their organization’s design and structure for the members’ advantage in a stunning “bottom up” political victory. This surprising outcome is why we decided to research how this occurred and write this report. Along the way, we met brilliant strategists, courageous political novitiates, remarkable communication specialists, and never-ending tenacity wrapped in purposefulness that ensured school-based leaders their electoral success. In doing so, they joined their insurgent teacher colleagues in Massachusetts, Milwaukee, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Paul and elsewhere, affirming that school teacher trade unionists can and will respond to the attacks upon them and public education. The following pages chart why this contested election occurred and how the insurgents proceeded. The information is based primarily upon extensive interviews with rank and file leaders and discussions with former and newly elected leaders. There are also specific references to observations shared by the defeated President, Richard Iannuzzi, who graciously offered his candor in explaining how he saw what was happening to the union and why he acted as he did in the period leading up to his defeat. This report begins with some brief comments about NYSUT’s history, placement of the election in both a national and New York state context, and an explanation about how NYSUT’s structure had so much to do with the election. The bulk of the writing describes how rank and file forces slowly but molecularly developed into a force able to successfully challenge the president and leadership team of the largest state union in America. Throughout, the detail presented suggests that power wielded by rank and file union members of the teaching profession is the best hope to restore balance to public education in the country. The next few years will tell us whether this “suggestion” is so

Comprehensive Monosynaptic Rabies Virus Mapping of Host Connectivity with Neural Progenitor Grafts after Spinal Cord Injury.

Neural progenitor cells grafted to sites of spinal cord injury have supported electrophysiological and functional recovery in several studies. Mechanisms associated with graft-related improvements in outcome appear dependent on functional synaptic integration of graft and host systems, although the extent and diversity of synaptic integration of grafts with hosts are unknown. Using transgenic mouse spinal neural progenitor cell grafts expressing the TVA and G-protein components of the modified rabies virus system, we initiated monosynaptic tracing strictly from graft neurons placed in sites of cervical spinal cord injury. We find that graft neurons receive synaptic inputs from virtually every known host system that normally innervates the spinal cord, including numerous cortical, brainstem, spinal cord, and dorsal root ganglia inputs. Thus, implanted neural progenitor cells receive an extensive range of host neural inputs to the injury site, potentially enabling functional restoration across multiple systems

High Temperature Expansion Study of the Nishimori multicritical Point in Two and Four Dimensions

We study the two and four dimensional Nishimori multicritical point via high temperature expansions for the $\pm J$ distribution, random-bond, Ising model. In $2d$ we estimate the the critical exponents along the Nishimori line to be $\gamma=2.37\pm 0.05$, $\nu=1.32\pm 0.08$. These, and earlier $3d$ estimates $\gamma =1.80\pm 0.15$, $\nu=0.85\pm 0.08$ are remarkably close to the critical exponents for percolation, which are known to be $\gamma=43/18$, $\nu=4/3$ in $d=2$ and $\gamma=1.805\pm0.02$ and $\nu=0.875\pm 0.008$ in $d=3$. However, the estimated $4d$ Nishimori exponents $\gamma=1.80\pm 0.15$, $\nu=1.0\pm 0.1$, are quite distinct from the $4d$ percolation results $\gamma=1.435\pm 0.015$, $\nu=0.678\pm 0.05$.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex, 3 postscript files; To appear in Physical Review

Deconfinement and Percolation

Using percolation theory, we derive a conceptual definition of deconfinement in terms of cluster formation. The result is readily applicable to infinite volume equilibrium matter as well as to finite size pre-equilibrium systems in nuclear collisions.Comment: 13 pages, latex, six figures include

On Effective Superpotentials and Compactification to Three Dimensions

We study four dimensional N=2 SO/SP supersymmetric gauge theory on R^3\times S^1 deformed by a tree level superpotential. We will show that the exact superpotential can be obtained by making use of the Lax matrix of the corresponding integrable model which is the periodic Toda lattice. The connection between vacua of SO(2N) and SO(2kN-2k+2) can also be seen in this framework. Similar analysis can also be applied for SO(2N+1) and SP(2N).Comment: 18 pages, latex file, v2: typos corrected, refs adde

Quantum Holonomy in Three-dimensional General Covariant Field Theory and Link Invariant

We consider quantum holonomy of some three-dimensional general covariant non-Abelian field theory in Landau gauge and confirm a previous result partially proven. We show that quantum holonomy retains metric independence after explicit gauge fixing and hence possesses the topological property of a link invariant. We examine the generalized quantum holonomy defined on a multi-component link and discuss its relation to a polynomial for the link.Comment: RevTex, 12 pages. The metric independence of path integral measure is justified and the case of multi-component link is discussed in detail. To be published in Physical Review

Occam's Higgs: A Phenomenological Solution to the Electroweak Hierarchy Problem

We propose a phenomenological solution to the Electroweak hierarchy problem. It predicts no new particles beyond those in the Standard Model. The Higgs is arbitrarily massive and slow-roll inflation can be implemented naturally. Loop corrections will be negligible even for large cutoffs.Comment: 7 pp., 2 figs., LaTeX. Slight rewordin

Transverse Pressure and Strangeness Dynamics in Relativistic Heavy Ion Reactions

Transverse hadron spectra from proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions from 2 AGeV to 21.3 ATeV are investigated within two independent transport approaches (HSD and UrQMD). For central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions at energies above $E_{\rm lab}\sim$ 5 AGeV, the measured $K^{\pm}$ transverse mass spectra have a larger inverse slope parameter than expected from the default calculations. The additional pressure - as suggested by lattice QCD calculations at finite quark chemical potential $\mu_q$ and temperature $T$ - might be generated by strong interactions in the early pre-hadronic/partonic phase of central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions. This is supported by a non-monotonic energy dependence of $v_2/$ in the present transport model.Comment: Proceedings of Strange Quark Matter 200

Nuclear Modification Factor for Charged Pions and Protons at Forward Rapidity in Central Au+Au Collisions at 200 GeV

We present spectra of charged pions and protons in 0-10% central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV at mid-rapidity ($y=0$) and forward pseudorapidity ($\eta=2.2$) measured with the BRAHMS experiment at RHIC. The spectra are compared to spectra from p+p collisions at the same energy scaled by the number of binary collisions. The resulting nuclear modification factors for central Au+Au collisions at both $y=0$ and $\eta=2.2$ exhibit suppression for charged pions but not for (anti-)protons at intermediate $p_T$. The $\bar{p}/\pi^-$ ratios have been measured up to $p_T\sim 3$ GeV/$c$ at the two rapidities and the results indicate that a significant fraction of the charged hadrons produced at intermediate $p_T$ range are (anti-)protons at both mid-rapidity and $\eta = 2.2$