Opening the Gates to AP Equity: A Case Study of a Central Virginia High School’s Practices, Policies, and Characteristics Toward Proportional Black Student Representation in Advanced Placement Enrollment

Advanced Placement (AP) courses engage high school students with college curriculum taught by trained high school teachers, with an opportunity for students to earn college credit by passing the end-of-course AP exam. AP has evolved into an indicator of school quality, instructional rigor, and a consideration in the college admissions process. AP enrollment and exam performance outcomes for White students disproportionately surpass those for Black students. This study attempts to inform practice, policy, and programming toward more equitable enrollment outcomes for Black students through a single case study. The selected case school was the only high school among 38 in central Virginia serving a significant proportion of both Black and White students demonstrating proportional AP enrollment between the Black and White student populations. Evidence gathered in the single case study through interviews and document review was analyzed to answer the research question: how do school-level practices and policies influence proportional AP enrollment for Black and White students at a central Virginia high school? Coding and narrative analysis were used to assess the case school’s practices, policies, and characteristics in the context of the four categories of school-based factors associated with equitable AP enrollment established by prior literature: curriculum characteristics, teacher training and awareness, family engagement and outreach, and student identification and recommendation processes. Equity was defined using overlapping social, racial, and educational equity frameworks within education and public administration. Findings showed that course recommendation processes, teacher training, unique school-based programming, course scheduling, instructional techniques toward increased rigor, and parent outreach are among the most significant school-level factors distinguishing the case school in its achievement of equitable AP enrollment between Black and White students, but that those school-level factors must be administered, executed, and nurtured in a school characterized by positive and encouraging relationships among students, staff, and leadership. It is recommended that equitable outcomes become a clear feature and requirement of local, state, and federal policy to prompt school personnel to work toward equity between Black and White students in AP enrollment and in the various processes and outcomes within public education. It is further recommended that policies and practices place an explicit premium on the power of relationships among stakeholders in each school in achieving equitable outcomes

Constructions for cyclic sieving phenomena

We show how to derive new instances of the cyclic sieving phenomenon from old ones via elementary representation theory. Examples are given involving objects such as words, parking functions, finite fields, and graphs.Comment: 18 pages, typos fixed, to appear in SIAM J. Discrete Mat

The Roll of the Burgh Courts of Aberdeen, August-October 1317

Publisher PD

Hatteras Transverse Canyon, Hatteras Outer Ridge and environs of the U.S. Atlantic margin: A view from multibeam bathymetry and backscatter

Previously unknown features in Hatteras Transverse Canyon and environs were recently mapped during multibeam surveys of almost the entire eastern U.S. Atlantic continental margin. The newly identified features include (1) extensive landslide scarps on the walls of Hatteras Transverse and Hatteras Canyons, (2) an area of multiple landslide deposits that block lower Hatteras Transverse Canyon, (3) a large depositional feature down-canyon from the landslide deposits that rises 100 m above the uppermost Hatteras Fan and has buried the transition from the mouth of Hatteras Transverse Canyon to uppermost Hatteras Fan, (4) a zone of cyclic steps on upper Hatteras Fan that suggests super critical turbidity currents performed a series of hydraulic jumps and formed large upstream-migrating bedforms, (5) several knickpoints in the channel thalwegs of both Hatteras Transverse Canyon and Hatteras Canyon, one 40 m high, that suggest both canyon channels are out of equilibrium and are in the process of readjusting, either to the channel blockage by the extensive landslide deposits or by a readjustments to increased sedimentation during the last eustatic lowstand, (6) a large area of outcrop on the lower margin between Pamlico and Hatteras Canyons that previously was interpreted as an area of slumps, blocky slide debris and mud waves, (7) headward erosion in the head region of Hatteras Transverse Canyonwhere it has intercepted the lowest reaches of Albemarle Canyon channel as well as headward erosion in a small side channel that has eroded into Hatteras Outer Ridge and (8) sections of bedforms on Hatteras Outer Ridge that are partially buried by sediment from Washington–Norfolk Canyon channel as well as by sediment transported from Hatteras Abyssal Plain. The newly discovered features add a new level of detail to understand the recent processes that have profoundly affected Hatteras Transverse Canyon, Hatteras Canyon and, to a lesser degree, Hatteras Outer Ridge

Australian adults use complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of chronic illness: a national study

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to identify the prevalence of the use of vitamin/mineral supplements or natural/herbal remedies, concurrent use of pharmaceutical medication, and to profile those most likely to use these complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in the treatment of five chronic conditions identified as national health priorities (asthma, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, heart or circulatory condition) within the Australian adult population. Methods: Analysis of the Australian National Health Survey database, 2004–05. Results: Approximately 24% (1.3 million) of Australian adults with a chronic condition regularly applied CAM to treatment. CAM was most often used exclusively or in combination with pharmaceutical medicine in the treatment of arthritis and osteoporosis. Fewer than 10% of adults with asthma, diabetes or a heart or circulatory condition used CAM, most preferring pharmaceutical medicine. Regular CAM users were more likely to be aged ≥60, female, have a secondary school education and live in households with lower incomes than non-users. Non-users were more likely to be 30–59 years old and tertiary educated. Conclusion and implications: Arthritis, osteoporosis and, to a lesser extent, heart or circulatory conditions are illnesses for which doctors should advise, and patients need to be most aware about the full effects of CAM and possible interactive effects with prescribed medicine. They are also conditions for which research into the interactive effects of CAM and pharmaceutical medication would seem of most immediate benefit

Lower crustal zircons reveal Neogene metamorphism beneath the Pannonian Basin (Hungary)

Neogene alkaline intraplate volcanic deposits in the Pannonian Basin (Hungary) contain many lower crustal granulite-facies xenoliths. U-Pb ages have been determined for zircons separated from a metasedimentary xenolith, using LA-ICPMS and SHRIMP techniques. The zircons show typical metamorphic characteristics and are not related to the hostmagmatism. The oldest age recorded is late Devonian, probably related to Variscan basement lithologies. Several grains yield Mesozoic dates for their cores, which may correspond to periods of orogenic activity. Most of the zircons show young ages, with some being Palaeocene-Eocene, but the majority being younger than 30Ma. The youngest zircons are Pliocene (5.1-4.2 Ma) and coincide with the age of eruptions of the host alkali basalts. Such young zircons, so close to the eruption age, are unusual in lower crustal xenoliths, and imply that the heat flow in the base of the Pannonian Basin was sufficiently high to keep many of them close to their blocking temperature. This suggests that metamorphism is continuing in the lower crust of the region at the present day

A Participatory Action Research Study of the Collaborative Learning Process

The purpose of this participatory action research project was to identify attributes that contribute to a successful collaborative learning experience. Data analysis revealed the following emergent themes to be important: reflection and dialogue, interpersonal relationships, and group and individual responsibilities

Cerebrospinal fluid cortisol levels are higher in patients with delirium versus controls

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High plasma cortisol levels can cause acute cognitive and neuropsychiatric dysfunction, and have been linked with delirium. CSF cortisol levels more closely reflect brain exposure to cortisol, but there are no studies of CSF cortisol levels in delirium. In this pilot study we acquired CSF specimens at the onset of spinal anaesthesia in patients undergoing hip fracture surgery, and compared CSF and plasma cortisol levels in delirium cases versus controls.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Delirium assessments were performed the evening before or on the morning of operation with a standard battery comprising cognitive tests, mental status assessments and the Confusion Assessment Method. CSF and plasma samples were obtained at the onset of the operation and cortisol levels measured. Twenty patients (15 female, 5 male) aged 62 - 93 years were studied. Seven patients were diagnosed with delirium. The mean ages of cases (81.4 (SD 7.2)) and controls (80.5 (SD 8.7)) were not significantly different (p = 0.88). The median (interquartile range) CSF cortisol levels were significantly higher in cases (63.9 (40.4-102.1) nmol/L) than controls (31.4 (21.7-43.3) nmol/L; Mann-Whitney U, p = 0.029). The median (interquartile range) of plasma cortisol was also significantly higher in cases (968.8 (886.2-1394.4) nmol/L, than controls (809.4 (544.0-986.4) nmol/L; Mann Whitney U, p = 0.036).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings support an association between higher CSF cortisol levels and delirium. This extends previous findings linking higher plasma cortisol and delirium, and suggests that more definitive studies of the relationship between cortisol levels and delirium are now required.</p

Balancing employee needs, project requirements and organisational priorities in team deployment

The 'people and performance' model asserts that performance is a sum of employee ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO). Despite extensive evidence of this people-performance link within manufacturing and many service sectors, studies within the construction industry are limited. Thus, a recent research project set out to explore the team deployment strategies of a large construction company with the view of establishing how a balance could be achieved between organisational strategic priorities, operational project requirements and individual employee needs and preferences. The findings suggested that project priorities often took precedence over the delivery of the strategic intentions of the organisation in meeting employees' individual needs. This approach is not sustainable in the long term because of the negative implications that such a policy had in relation to employee stress and staff turnover. It is suggested that a resourcing structure that takes into account the multiple facets of AMO may provide a more effective approach for balancing organisational strategic priorities, operational project requirements and individual employee needs and preferences more appropriately in the future