Beam Loss Control for the Fermilab Main Injector

From 2005 through 2012, the Fermilab Main Injector provided intense beams of 120 GeV protons to produce neutrino beams and antiprotons. Hardware improvements in conjunction with improved diagnostics allowed the system to reach sustained operation at 400 kW beam power. Losses were at or near the 8 GeV injection energy where 95% beam transmission results in about 1.5 kW of beam loss. By minimizing and localizing loss, residual radiation levels fell while beam power was doubled. Lost beam was directed to either the collimation system or to the beam abort. Critical apertures were increased while improved instrumentation allowed optimal use of available apertures. We will summarize the impact of various loss control tools and the status and trends in residual radiation in the Main Injector.Comment: 5 p

Locating Local Education Funds: A Conceptual Framework for Describing LEFs' Contribution to Public Education

With support and leadership from the Public Education Network (PEN), local education funds (LEFs) have worked for two decades to 1) educate and mobilize their communities so that citizen voices are influential in education policy discussions; and 2) support effective partnerships between school district insiders and outsiders to improve the quality of children's education. However, as Useem's study of local education funds points out, it has been difficult to identify the many roles that LEFs play in their communities, the work that they undertake, the obstacles that they encounter, and the contributions that they make. Useem also suggests why the work of LEFs defies simple description. As brokers, LEFs work behind the scenes and in partnership with others, which contributes to their invisibility as catalysts and supporters of educational improvement. LEFs also are highly adaptive organizations that typically customize their change strategies to particular communities. Such attention to local context results in tremendous variation in the organization, work, and accomplishments of LEFs. At the same time, the highly individual nature of each LEF often obscures the overarching values, purposes, and goals that these organizations share, thus obscuring a collective identity.As they mark 20 years of work in public education, LEF and PEN leaders are prescient in their insistence on further research into the role and accomplishments of local education funds in shaping the landscape of public schooling. In August 2003, at the request of PEN, Research for Action (RFA) began work on developing a conceptual framework for: 1) understanding the role and work of LEFs and the many factors that influence what they do and how they do it; and 2) assessing their contributions to public education.This framework will be used to guide future empirical research on LEFs and to develop tools that LEFs themselves can use in a process of self-assessment. Continued research and assessment will provide public education stakeholders with credible evidence and a deeper understanding about how LEFs carry out their missions and demonstrate successes. At the same time, it will provide firm ground for LEF and PEN leaders to chart the next generation of work. This report was prepared for Public Education Network by Research for Action

A process-oriented language for describing aspects of reading comprehension

Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-38)The research described herein was supported in part by the National Institute of Education under Contract No. MS-NIE-C-400-76-011

A systems thinking perspective on change processes in a Teacher Professional Development programme

This article discusses the developing practice of Foundation Phase teachers involved in a three-yearprofessional development programme. A number of substantive changes in practice were notedover this period and these changes were supported and maintained by the interaction of a number ofdifferent factors. The article takes a systems thinking perspective to formulate and analyse thesechanges and their interactions, as a complex system of change. This analysis enabled theidentification of a number of closed loop interaction effects that supported and maintained thechanges in practice. As well as providing insight into the particular change processes in thisprofessional development programme, the article demonstrates the efficacy of this analyticalperspective both for the analysis of the complex systems of change arising in professionaldevelopment, and for the identification of processes and principles relevant to professionaldevelopment programmes in general