An Exploration of Experiences and Outcomes of Alaska Native Graduates of Mt. Edgecumbe High School

In Alaska’s schools, indigenous1 students are the most at risk of any ethnic group of failing to thrive; they drop out more frequently, are less likely to graduate, and generally have lower educational attainment than non-Native students(Martin and Hill, 2009). Indeed, the situation appears to be worsening. The dropout rate of Alaska Native students living in all areas of Alaska besides Anchorage has risen from 0.7 percent in 1996 to 3.3 percent in 2001 (Goldsmith et al. 2004). Dropout rates among all Native students in Alaska increased from 5 percent to almost 10 percent between 1998 and 2001, while the dropout rate among non-Native students increased from about 3 percent to 5 percent (ibid). In addition, low test scores are preventing many students from graduating from high school—almost half of Alaska Native students are not passing the reading section of the High-School Graduation Qualifying Exam. The educational system in Alaska is failing to provide Alaska Native students the skills necessary either for postsecondary academic work or success in the job market, if that is what they desire. However, one secondary school, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, a boarding school located in Southeast Alaska that serves predominately rural and Alaska Native students, has produced students that consistently outperform their peers, both indigenous and non- Native. The reputation of the school has been strong for decades, based on both historic and recent accomplishments of its alumni. However, the experiences of recent alumni at the school and their professional and educational attainment after high school had not been looked at systematically for a number of years. This paper is the result of a study conducted by the authors on recent graduates of Mt. Edgecumbe High School (MEHS), at the suggestion of school administrators. Our case study attempts to capture the educational, social, and cultural experiences of the students while they attended the boarding school, and the impacts the school has had on their lives. With this research we hope to inform the decisions o f policymakers and educators, indigenous and non-Native alike, regarding rural secondary schooling options in Alaska for indigenous children across the state.Rasmuson Foundation

Rational reasoning or adaptive behavior? Evidence from two-person beauty contest games

Many experiments have shown that human subjects do not necessarily behave in line with game theoretic assumptions and solution concepts. The reasons for this non-conformity are multiple. In this paper we study the argument whether a deviation from game theory is because subjects are rational, but doubt that others are rational as well, compared to the argument that subjects, in general, are boundedly rational themselves. To distinguish these two hypotheses, we study behavior in repeated 2-person and many-person Beauty- Contest-Games which are strategically different from one another. We analyze four different treatments and observe that convergence toward equilibrium is driven by learning through the information about the other player’s choice and adaptation rather than self-initiated rational reasoning.Beauty contest, Guessing game, Bounded rationality, Weak dominance, Learning

Hybrids (2010) at the MIC Media and Interdisciplinary Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.

MIC Toi Rerehiko is pleased to present Hybrids, an exhibition featuring nine local and international artists who integrate rapid prototyping processes with other media. Rapid prototyping technology has largely been used by industrial manufacturers and has since been adopted by architects and digital media artists. Considered within an artmaking sphere, the process raises issues over ontology, authenticity and place amongst others. The works in the exhibition seek to address these while still embracing their own materiality, in model making technology and digitalculture. As the title Hybrids suggests, the works comprise a combination of these ideas with a range of media including live performance, social and formal sculpture, video installation and painting. Hybrids articulates itself as an extension of Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs, which plays on the ontological properties of an object. His theory on the unification of concept and realisation has been re-interpreted, taking into account the undefined and evolving limitations of rapid prototyping. Kosuth’s statement that art is to embody an idea that remains constant despite changes to its elements will be tested within a digital framework. Concerns of the exhibition curators include existence and what constitutes the identity of an object, authorship of digitally created work, the fluidity of transformation from data set to three dimensional object, and the relational aspect between prototyping,audiences and real-time. Hybrids investigates the ability of rapid prototyping to blur the interface between manufactured truth and objective reality

Relative payoffs and happiness: An experimental study

Some current utility models presume that people are concerned with their relative standing in a reference group. If this is true, do certain types care more about this than others? Using simple binary decisions and self-reported happiness, we investigate both the prevalence of ``difference aversion'' and whether happiness levels influence the taste for social comparisons. Our decision tasks distinguish between a person’s desire to achieving the social optimum, equality or advantageous relative standing. Most people appear to disregard relative payoffs, instead typically making choices resulting in higher social payoffs. While we do not find a strong general correlation between happiness and concern for relative payoffs, we do observe that a willingness to lower another person’s payoff below one’s own (competitive preferences) seems correlated with unhappiness.Happiness, relative payoffs, social preferences, subjective well-being, Leex

Oncologic Emergencies: Immune-Based Cancer Therapies and Complications

Cancer therapies have undergone several recent advancements. Current cancer treatments include immune-based therapies comprised of checkpoint inhibitors, and adoptive immunotherapy; each treatment has the potential for complications that differ from chemotherapy and radiation. This review evaluates immune-based therapies and their complications for emergency clinicians. Therapy complications include immune-related adverse events (irAE), cytokine release syndrome (CRS), autoimmune toxicity, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell-related encephalopathy syndrome (CRES). Immune-related adverse events are most commonly encountered with checkpoint inhibitors and include dermatologic complications, pneumonitis, colitis/diarrhea, hepatitis, and endocrinopathies. Less common irAEs include nephritis, myocardial injury, neurologic toxicity, ocular diseases, and musculoskeletal complications. CRS and CRES are more commonly associated with CAR T-cell therapy. CRS commonly presents with flu-like illness and symptoms resembling sepsis, but severe myocardial and pulmonary disease may occur. Critically ill patients require resuscitation, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and hematology/oncology consultation

Is the Breast Best for Business?: The Implications of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act

In June of 2009, the 111th Congress was asked again to consider the Breastfeeding Promotion Act. During that year, for the first time in history, the Senate also took up consideration of the issue, and the President of the United States signed into legislation a portion of the Act as included in a healthcare bill. The Breastfeeding Promotion Act is meant to protect a woman’s right to breastfeed in the workplace. The Act accomplishes this goal by: amending the Civil Rights Act to ensure that breastfeeding will be considered a protected act in the workplace, amending the Fair Labor Standards Act to require large employers to provide space and time for breastfeeding when it is reasonable to do so, and providing a tax credit to businesses that adopt workplace friendly breastfeeding support measures. This Note examines the benefits of breastfeeding, why breastfeeding is an issue in the workplace, and which portions of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act sufficiently respond to the issues women face without unnecessary governmental interference. This Note will also discuss the ways in which the Act goes too far and would impose a burden on society that likely does not match the benefits to be gained from its provisions. Namely, this Note will conclude that the tax credit provisions suggested in the Breastfeeding Promotion Act would impose too great a financial burden on the American taxpayers in light of the inconclusive nature of many breastfeeding studies. This Note concludes that the appropriate measure for workplace breastfeeding support is exactly as it stands—federal support in the form of equitable relief for those obstructing a woman\u27s right to breastfeed, with financial support left to an employer\u27s individual discretion