Recollections of My Research in Developing the Heart-Lung Machine at Jefferson Medical College

A personal memoir written by Dr. Bernard J. Miller about his introduction to and interest in medical research as well as his experiences working on the heart-lung machine. He focuses specifically on his working relationship with John H. Gibbon, Jr., the development of a viable oxygenator and ventilator, and early testing of the machine on animal

A MORE OBJECTIVE PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING ECONOMIC SUBREGIONS: CLUSTER ANALYSIS

Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Perceptions and Practice: An Investigation of Urban Teachers\u27 Perceived and Observed Teaching Dispositions

The importance of teacher dispositions has quickly become commonplace in the preparation of teachers. Unlike other well-established domains of teacher education, like knowledge and skills, the evolving concept continues to challenge those mandated to identify, nurture, and assess the dispositions of teachers. The purpose of this study was to expand the conversation on teacher dispositions by examining connections between perceived dispositions and dispositions-in-action using Argyris and Schön’s (1974) theory of action framework. Case studies of two experienced elementary classroom teachers working in high-needs urban schools provided information on how teachers perceive their teaching dispositions compared with dispositions evidenced in their classroom practices. Data for this multiple case study included a validated self-assessment disposition instrument, the Diversity Disposition Index, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations. The study found evidence of congruence and incongruity between the participants’ perceived and observed teaching dispositions. While both teachers shared similar self-reported teaching dispositions, such an enthusiasm for content, importance of classroom management, and attention to expectations for students, their enactment of those teaching dispositions varied greatly in their classrooms despite similarities in context. Implications are provided for teachers working in high-needs urban schools who face unique challenges and for teacher education programs designed to prepare and support new urban educators

A kind of democracy: Political domination in the problematic development

This thesis proposes to answer the question of how despite Cambodia having an election in 1993 in which the Cambodian people elected a government that adopted a constitution based on democratic principles, one party, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) led by prime minister Hun Sen, has continued to dominate Cambodian politics in a political environment so biased in its favour that it calls into question the credibility of democracy in Cambodia. This thesis contends that Hun Sen and the CPP’s political domination of Cambodia is the result of a combination of historical, cultural, and political factors that together have created Cambodia’s current political environment. These factors include (a) inherent cultural traits that have made the state susceptible to authoritarian rule by placing an emphasis on the development of patronage networks that are anti-democratic by nature, (b) historical and political developments that have made the state’s elite hostile to political opposition and participation, (c) psychological and economic damage caused by decades of civil war and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s wanton destruction of Cambodian society, (d) an imposed transition to democracy supervised by the United Nations and lacking an indigenous origin, (e) a political economy designed to the advantage of the CPP, (f) fragmented opposition parties that have failed to provide a viable alternative to the CPP, and (g) perhaps most importantly, the determination of Hun Sen and the CPP to remain in power regardless of the cost to democracy. This thesis builds upon a theoretical framework derived from a survey of the literature addressing democracy and democratisation and proceeds to analyse historical and political developments chronologically in order to emphasise the progressive nature of political domination in Cambodia. Although it does not offer any easy solutions to the complex and often intractable problems hindering the development of democracy in Cambodia, by analysing the nature of political domination in that country it adds to the understanding of present-day Cambodia

SOME EVIDENCE ON PECUNIARY ECONOMIES OF SIZE FOR FARM FIRMS

Agricultural Finance,

Modeling kicks from the merger of generic black-hole binaries

Recent numerical relativistic results demonstrate that the merger of comparable-mass spinning black holes has a maximum ``recoil kick'' of up to \sim 4000 \kms. However the scaling of these recoil velocities with mass ratio is poorly understood. We present new runs showing that the maximum possible kick perpendicular to the orbital plane does not scale as $\sim\eta^2$ (where $\eta$ is the symmetric mass ratio), as previously proposed, but is more consistent with $\sim\eta^3$, at least for systems with low orbital precession. We discuss the effect of this dependence on galactic ejection scenarios and retention of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables. Version published in Astrophys. J. Let