The Graduate Education Initiative: Description and Preliminary Findings

[Excerpt] In1991 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched the Graduate Education Initiative (hereafter GEI) to improve the structure and organization of PhD programs in the humanities and social sciences. Such changes were seen as necessary to combat high rates of student attrition and long times-to-degree in these programs. While attrition and time-to-degree were deemed to be important in and of themselves, and of great significance to degree seekers, they were also seen more broadly as indicators of the effectiveness of graduate programs. Several characteristics of doctoral programs were earmarked as contributing to high attrition and long degree time, including: unclear expectations, a proliferation of courses, elaborate and sometimes conflicting requirements, intermittent supervision, epistemological disagreements on fundamentals and not least, inadequate funding. Projections that faculty shortages would occur in the late 1990s in the humanities made the goals of reducing student attrition and time-to-degree particularly timely if an adequate number of PhDs were to be available. This was far from the first such effort to reduce times-to degree-and rates of attrition. Earlier programs, which provided grants in aid to individual students or to graduate schools to distribute as they saw fit, had failed conspicuously. Based on data which showed that there were marked differences among departments and on a great deal of experience on the ground, the architects of the GEI determined that to improve graduate education would require departments to make changes in their PhD programs. As such, the Foundation shifted much of its support for doctoral education, which had previously gone directly to students, to block grants that would be awarded to departments within major universities

An Endemic Commensal Leucothoid Discovered in the Tunicate Cnemidocarpa bicornuta, from New Zealand (Crustacea, Amphipoda)

Precise descriptions and comprehensive taxonomies of species and their ecology are essential in monitoring changes in marine biodiversity at multiple spatial scales. A currently undescribed species of commensal amphipod in the genus Leucothoe is reported from New Zealand, collected from the endemic tunicate Cnemidocarpa bicornuta. This species differs from others in the genus in having a one-articulate first maxilla palp and an apically produced tuberculate lobe on the inner margin of the outer plate of the maxilliped. Previous taxonomic surveys in New Zealand waters did not document this species, indicating that it may be a recent arrival. This research highlights the importance of biodiversity monitoring and taxonomic surveys to record occurrences of undescribed or recently-arrived taxa

A formal model of the Document Object Model

This is the final version. Available from AFP via the link in this recordIn this AFP entry, we formalize the core of the Document Object Model (DOM). At its core, the DOM defines a tree-like data structure for representing documents in general and HTML documents in particular. It is the heart of any modern web browser. Formalizing the key concepts of the DOM is a prerequisite for the formal reasoning over client-side JavaScript programs and for the analysis of security concepts in modern web browsers. We present a formalization of the core DOM, with focus on the node-tree and the operations defined on node-trees, in Isabelle/HOL. We use the formalization to verify the functional correctness of the most important functions defined in the DOM standard. Moreover, our formalization is 1) extensible, i.e., can be extended without the need of re-proving already proven properties and 2) executable, i.e., we can generate executable code from our specification

FEDERAL PROCEDURE-JURISDICTION-REMOVAL UNDER SECTION 1441(C) OF TITLE 28 BY NONRESIDENT DEFENDANT WHERE JOINT TORTS CAUSE A SINGLE INJURY

Plaintiff, a citizen of Utah, brought a joint action for damages in a state court of Utah against Powell, also a citizen of Utah, and the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Company, a Delaware corporation. Plaintiff alleged both an assault and battery by Powell in the depot of the railroad company, and negligence of the railroad company in failing to take action to prevent or arrest this assault. The railroad company had the entire action removed to the federal district court under section 1441(c) of the Judicial Code. Upon motion of the railroad company, the claim against it was severed, and eventually compromised and dismissed. Plaintiff then filed a motion to remand his remaining action against Powell, which was denied. After judgment went for Powell, plaintiff appealed. The court of appeals held, remanded with instructions to vacate the judgment against Powell and remand this action to the state court. Under section 1441(c) of the Judicial Code, no separate and independent claim or cause of action existed as there was but a single injury for which relief was sought. Snow v. Powell, (10th Cir. 1951) 189 F. (2d) 172

CIVIL PROCEDURE-JUDGMENTS--PLEA OF GUILTY IN CRIMINAL ACTION AS BASIS FOR COLLATERAL ESTOPPEL IN LATER CIVIL ACTION

Defendant had pleaded guilty to specific criminal charges under the False Claims Act. The United States then sued defendant to recover civil damages under the Contract Settlement Act on the same fact situation. When defendant attempted to contest the verity of facts to which he had pleaded guilty in the earlier criminal action, the United States attempted to have defendant estopped as a matter of res judicata, asking the court for a directed verdict as to the issues decided in the criminal action. Held, directed verdict as to those issues to which the defendant had pleaded guilty would be granted when separated from matters based on new issues and facts. United States v. Bower, (D.C. Tenn. 1951) 95 F. Supp. 19

Rapid progesterone actions on thymulin-secreting epithelial cells cultured from rat thymus

Many soluble factors of neural, endocrine, paracrine and autocrine origin are present in the thymus and modulate its function. Long-term effects of sex steroids have! been documented for thymocytes and cells of the thymic microenvironment. In this report we examine rapid actions of progesterone upon aspects of epithelial cell physiology. Progesterone (0.1-10 mu M) was applied to cultured thymulin-secreting thymic epithelial cells (TS-TEC) and changes in transmembrane potential, transmembrane current, intracellular calcium levels and thymulin secretion were assessed. Rapid changes in electrophysiology and intracellular calcium provide evidence for a membrane-bound progesterone receptor in these cells, in addition to classical cytoplasmic receptors. Application of progesterone to TS-TEC caused electrophysiological changes in 56% of cells (n = 40), activating an inward current (-24 +/- 9 pA at 1 mu M, n = 7, p < 0.02) and dose-dependent depolarization (7.1 +/- 1.8 mV at 1 mu M, n = 19, p < 0.01). Intracellular calcium levels, monitored by the ratiometric fluorescent calcium indicator fura-2, increased within seconds of progesterone (1 mu M) application. Progesterone(1 mu M) increased thymulin levels in supernatant, as measured by ELISA, above the levels in the preapplication period (142 +/- 16% of the preapplication period, n = 3, p < 0.02). This effect was reduced in the presence of cobalt chloride which blocks voltage-dependent calcium channels. In addition, TS-IEC in culture were immunoreactive to antibody AG7. This antibody was raised to a membrane-bound antigen involved in calcium influx subsequent to progesterone binding in sperm. thus we suggest that progesterone acts upon many aspects of TS-TEC physiology through both cytoplasmic and membrane-bound receptors

FEDERAL PROCEDURE-JURISDICTION-NO APPEAL ALLOWED UNDER RULE 54(b) WHEN SEPARATED CLAIM NOT FINAL

Flegenheimer sued Manitoba Sugar Co., a Canadian Corporation, in a Vermont state court for breach of an employment contract to gain jurisdiction, Flegenheimer attached parcels of beet pulp which he claimed were the property of the Manitoba Co. After this action was removed to the federal district court, General Mills, Inc., was granted leave to intervene to establish ownership of the beet pulp. The claim of General Mills was dismissed after being heard on the merits. The order dismissing the claim contained a determination that no just reason for delay existed, and it therefore directed an entry of judgment under federal rule 54(b). From this order General Mills appealed. The Court of Appeals on its own motion held, appeal dismissed. Rule 54(b) was not intended to give the district courts power to make final, and therefore appealable, that which was not final before. Since the dismissal on the merits of an intervenor\u27s claim would not be a final\u27\u27 order, the determination and direction by the district court would be of no avail. Flegenheimer v. General Mills, (2d Cir. 1951) 191 F.(2d) 237

FEDERAL PROCEDURE-VENUE-TRANSFER UNDER SECTION 1404(a) TO DISTRICT WHERE VENUE ORIGINALLY WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPROPER

Civil anti-trust actions were properly brought against defendants in the Federal District Court for the District of Delaware. Defendants sought a transfer of the suits to a district court in Texas under section 1404(a) of the Judicial Code, which allows a transfer when requirements of convenience are met to any district where the suit might have been brought Although venue in the Texas District Court would not have been proper when the suits were originally instituted, defendants claimed that their express waiver of improper venue removed the bar to transfer. The district court ruled that it lacked the power to make the transfer. On petition to the court of appeals for a writ of mandamus, held, two judges dissenting, that transfer can be made if the district court feels that it would serve the convenience of parties and witnesses and would be in the interest of justice. Paramount Pictures v. Rodney, (3d Cir. 1950) 186 F. (2d) 111