Rocky Mountain High, Medium & Low

Join us to learn about mountain hikes, abundant wildlife, and breathtaking places of beauty in Rocky Mountain National Park! Listen to a fascinating lecture and view stunning photographs and short videos. As a bonus, come hear harrowing stories of moose encounters, ferocious marmots, and cliff-hanging episodes along the trails

The Case for Financial Sector Liberalization in Ethiopia

This paper focuses on issues of financial sector liberalization in Ethiopia, with reference in particular to the Ethiopian banking sector. We identify two factors that may constrain Ethiopia’s financial development. One is the closed nature of the Ethiopian financial sector in which there are no foreign banks, a non-competitive market structure, and strong capital controls in place. The other is the dominant role of state-owned banks. Our observations suggest that the Ethiopian economy would benefit from financial sector liberalization, especially from the entry of foreign banks and the associated privatization of state-owned banks.foreign banks, state-owned banks, financial sector liberalization, Africa, Ethiopia

From camps to communities: Neets'ąįį Gwich'in planning and development in a pre- and post-settlement context

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018This study focuses on the Neets'aii Gwich'in, whose traditional territory is located in the northeastern interior of Alaska, and their experiences with planning and development. Prior to settling into permanent villages, the Neets'ąįį lived in widely scattered camps moving in relation to seasonal subsistence resources. Equipped with extensive knowledge of their country, Neets'ąįį people knew at any given time where the best places for certain animals and resources were and thus would camp closer to those areas. According to Neets'ąįį oral history, life in the "those days" was preoccupied with basic survival. Planning ahead, being prepared, and adapting to changing conditions were some of the key strategies that enabled the Neets'ąįį to survive from one generation to the next in one of the harshest climates in the world. The past 170 years has brought unprecedented change to the Neets'ąįį. The socio-economic and political context which historically defined the experience of the Neets'ąįį shifted dramatically as a result of colonization, the establishment of permanent settlements and the ensuing need for community infrastructure. Today, the Neets'ąįį are centralized in two villages, Vashrąįį K'ǫǫ (Arctic Village) and Vįįhtąįį (Venetie), located within the boundaries of the 1.8 million-acre Venetie Indian Reserve. The transition from Neets'ąįį camps to permanent communities has introduced many new needs including landfills, roads, power generation, etc. Whereas Neets'ąįį ancestors traditionally used planning as a survival strategy, their descendants today use planning to attract external investment for much needed infrastructure. This dissertation explores the ways in which the Neets'ąįį Gwich'in have engaged in planning and development in a pre- and post-settlement context

The impact of leadership on school improvement

The last few years have produced a substantial amount of literature on leadership, school improvement and change. Some of this has been reviewed and discussed with reference to general education. There is a paucity of research in this country on leadership in Jewish Supplementary Education, although some important studies have been done in North America and Canada to discover how current practice and recent innovations have impacted the field. There is currently no research which specifically looks at the impact of leadership on Jewish Supplementary Schools. The aim of this research is to discover more about the impact of leadership on school improvement with reference to Jewish Supplementary Schools. The study focuses on leadership teams from five different Jewish Supplementary Schools, attached to Synagogues in the Greater London area.Rabbis, Head Teachers and Chairs of Education Committees were interviewed in each of the communities to learn more about: how they work together to effect change; the impact of each of their leadership roles on the improvement that they have tried to bring about; and the role of parents and other stakeholders as lay leaders. The transcripts from semi structured interviews were analysed with reference to the literature review and the research questions.The findings show that each individual interviewed had high leadership competencies and this did impact school improvement in terms of surface change. They had the potential to effect deep change but due to power, control and communication issues their leadership impact was diminished. Each of the schools has been through a change process in order to improve teaching and learning as well as to increase parental involvement. This research shows the importance of each role within the leadership team, both separately and collectively on school improvement.The study concludes with some recommendations as to how leadership could create a deeper impact on Jewish Supplementary School improvement

Comments

The subject for this issue’s Comments section represents a significant departure from what we have previously published. International Journal of Advertising Editor, Douglas West, recently presented awards for reviewing excellence to two members of the Editorial Review Board, Barbara Stern at Rutgers University and Albert Caruana at the University of Malta. It was our feeling that their views on the reviewing process would be of interest not only to potential contributors, but also to other members of our Editorial Review Board. Having been a reviewer for a number of journals over the past 20 years, I am always happy to see how others approach the reviewing process. We can always learn from the best. Barbara posits a meaningful series of steps in the review process from an assessment of the references to a final evaluation decision, while Albert discusses the particular challenges faced by every reviewer. Albert stresses the need for the reviewer to put themselves in the mindset of the authors and to allow time after the initial completion of the review to think over the suggestions for the authors before sending them out. We hope you will find these essays both informative and valuable. These different perspectives are really quite complementary. As always, we would welcome your comments at [email protected]

Curriculum Wars and Cold War Politics: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Higher Education

During the early 1960s, in the formative years of Florida\u27s newest university, the University of South Florida located in Tampa, the Florida Investigative Committee in true McCarthy-era style, set up its Star Chamber interviews with students and others at local motels near the University. The purpose of these interviews was to ferret out information about university administrators and instructors which would point to either their innocence or their guilt in terms of communist party membership, homosexuality, or the teaching of atheism. After an exhaustive process which left the intellectual community on Florida\u27s West Coast shaken and dismayed at what it collectively believed was a misguided mission and waste of taxpayer dollars, academic communities in other university towns throughout Florida responded with outrage over the intrusion of politicians and perceived anti-intellectuals into the business of higher education. Some had already run the investigative committee\u27s gauntlet, others likely feared they would follow. In what could have resulted in the sudden demise of the infant university, its leaders and faculty emerged from the experience, not as victors, but rather as survivors of a bitter battle over academic freedom. This study serves to fill the growing body of research on the McCarthy era and its influence on education. It will cover as a case study the entire struggle of the university over the issue of academic freedom and the attempts of well-meaning citizens to control what is taught and in what way it is taught at the most sacred of investigative places—the university

Comparative vegetative anatomy and systematics of Oncidiinae (Maxillarieae, Orchidaceae)

Subtribe Oncidiinae comprises a vegetatively heterogeneous assemblage of species that has persistently been incapable of organization. Anatomy was considered to be a possible means to resolve the perplexity of relationships amongst the constituent taxa. The consistent occurrence of a foliar hypodermis, homogeneous mesophyll, conical silica bodies in stegmata, and ubiquitous fibre bundles in leaves provides a matrix for linking the taxa, as do the parenchymatous pith and O-thickened endodermal cell walls in roots. However, the strict consensus of the 40 genera studied was completely unresolved, suggesting that vegetative characters alone are insufficient to assess the relationships amongst these taxa, a conclusion also reached for the remainder of Maxillarieae

Comparative vegetative anatomy and systematics of Laeliinae (Orchidaceae)

Laeliinae are one of the most prominent orchid subtribes, with c. 40 genera and nearly 1500 species, and contain a disparate group of taxa with widely varying morphological features. There does not appear to be a complex of characters to which one can refer in order to delineate the subtribe as a whole. Thus, it was thought that vegetative anatomy might provide clues to the monophyly of the group. The microscopic structure of the leaves, stems and roots of representatives of most of the genera was studied. It was concluded that the anatomy lacks overall uniformity and that vegetative characters alone are insufficient to assess the relationships amongst the genera. The only nearly consistent anatomical feature was the abaxial row of fibre bundles in the leaves. Thus, anatomically, as well as morphologically, Laeliinae are a mixed bag

Comparative vegetative anatomy and systematics of Oncidiinae (Maxillarieae, Orchidaceae)

Subtribe Oncidiinae comprises a vegetatively heterogeneous assemblage of species that has persistently been incapable of organization. Anatomy was considered to be a possible means to resolve the perplexity of relationships amongst the constituent taxa. The consistent occurrence of a foliar hypodermis, homogeneous mesophyll, conical silica bodies in stegmata, and ubiquitous fibre bundles in leaves provides a matrix for linking the taxa, as do the parenchymatous pith and O-thickened endodermal cell walls in roots. However, the strict consensus of the 40 genera studied was completely unresolved, suggesting that vegetative characters alone are insufficient to assess the relationships amongst these taxa, a conclusion also reached for the remainder of Maxillarieae

Introduction – Rethinking Impact Evaluation for Development

This IDS Bulletin is the first of two special issues presenting contributions from the event ‘Impact Innovation and Learning: Towards a Research and Practice Agenda for the Future’, organised by IDS in March 2013. The initiative, as well as these two issues, represent a ‘rallying cry’ for impact evaluation to rise to the challenges of a post?MDG/post?2015 development agenda. This introduction articulates first what these challenges are, and then goes on to summarise how the contributors propose to meet these challenges in terms of methodological and institutional innovation. Increasingly ambitious development goals, multiple layers of governance and lines of accountability require adequate causal inference frameworks and less ambitious expectations on the span of direct influence single interventions can achieve, as well as awareness of multiple bias types. Institutions need to be researched and become more impact?oriented and learning?oriented