To Imagine a Future: A Social Entrepreneurship Program for Youth in High Risk Environments in Carpinteria, California

This research project seeks to examine the opportunity gaps facing the adolescents of Carpinteria for the purpose of suggesting a program that intends to address these challenges, in fitting with the mission statement to create pathways for children and youth to flourish, for the Pro Deo Foundation to fund and operate. Section One examines the problem that this dissertation seeks to address, specifically describing the difficult realities that teenagers in Carpinteria face in their everyday lives. Through research with human participants, including community members, leaders and administrators, this section gives the context of the subject matter, its history and the current opportunity gaps that exist for adolescents. Carpinteria is a unique small town with a complex biracial history. Section Two details the ways in which various leaders and institutions have been seeking to address the opportunity gaps in Carpinteria. From government-funded after school programs, to non-profits and faith communities, this section describes the needs that are currently being addressed. This research reveals where gaps continue to be present, posing a new opportunity for the community. Section Three uses socio-cultural and developmental theory as dialogue partners for practical theology. In light of the insights gained from local research, this section proposes a thesis that integrates place identity, discovery of passion, and development of vocation as a pathway for teenagers in high risk environments to imagine a positive future for themselves. This thesis calls for a new Christian social entrepreneurship program for adolescents, in the heart of the community. Section Four describes this program as the artifact, including the vision, values, design, budget, and all components of the program. The program includes mentoring, micro-business, financial education, product-making, and family services

Adaptations to drought: evidence from ag producer survey

July 2013.Colorado's ongoing drought is in its significant geographic reach and economic impacts. For Ncondition, reduces cow condition and leads to difficulty in locating critical feed inputs. These production losses generally reduce revenues although declining receipts may be partially offset by higher prices. Yet, the drought's impacts to the farm or ranch business are not contained within a single season. Much like reservoir levels that are drawn down and may take years to replenish, the impact of a drought can reduce a farm or ranch's equity position making it difficult to service debt or take advantage of future investment opportunities. Equity erosion may take years to rebuild. In this article, recent drought survey responses are described in order to characterize the potential longer term impacts of drought. Emphasis is placed on production losses and producers' mitigating actions. While it is difficult to forecast the length of the recovery period for Colorado farmers and ranchers, their adaptations and changing production activities in 2012 do indicate the severity and persistence of financial stress

2012 drought in Colorado: estimates of foregone revenues, indirect and induced economic activity for the crop sector

August 2013.Precipitation, whether realized as rain showers during the growing season or stored as snowmelt in reservoirs, is critical for crop and pasture production in Colorado. Drought is the persistent absence of precipitation, and this lack of moisture results in reduced yields, fewer harvested acres and less forage for livestock. Since October of 2010, extreme drought has plagued agricultural producers throughout much of Southern Colorado, and in May of 2012 the drought advanced to encompass the entire state. Agriculture is absorbing faced with economic hardship and drought impacts statewide. The primary objective of this research is to describe and quantify the broader economic impacts of the drought on agricultural productivity and allied economic activity in Colorado. The scope of the analysis takes three forms: a description of agricultural production and prices received for important Colorado crops; calculation of actual 2012 crop revenues juxtaposed against what might have been received if harvested acres and yields were consistent with historical averages; and a broader estimate of the drought's economic impact by accounting for reduced input purchases and wages spent locally

Perceptions of Alabama School Personnel of Research-based Instructional Strategies to Improve Student Achievement

This study was designed to explore the perceptions of school personnel concerning the use of research-based instructional strategies as outlined in School Improvement Plans of selected Alabama school districts to improve student achievement. The principal and School Improvement Chairperson at 281 Alabama public secondary schools, identified for School Improvement as mandated by NCLB, composed the population. All subjects received a mailed survey developed by the researcher. Collected data were analyzed with SPSS 11.0 using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, multiple regression, and Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation. A significant positive correlation was found between the implementation and perceived importance for each of the nine research-based instructional strategies presented in the study. Alabama educators also indicated a need for more time for planning, increased budgets for professional development, and extra resources for achieving school goals

Neural networks for classification

CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) Thesis documentIn many applications, ranging from character recognition to signal detection to automatic target identification, the problem of signal classification is of interest. Often, for example, a signal is known to belong to one of a family of sets C sub 1..., C sub n and the goal is to classify the signal according to the set to which it belongs. The main purpose of this thesis is to show that under certain conditions placed on the sets, the theory of uniform approximation can be applied to solve this problem. Specifically, if we assume that sets C sub j are compact subsets of a normed linear space, several approaches using the Stone-Weierstrass theorem give us a specific structure for classification. This structure is a single hidden layer feedforward neural network. We then discuss the functions which comprise the elements of this neural network and give an example of an applicationhttp://www.archive.org/details/neuralnetworksfo00pritCIVIN

The Total Synthesis of (–)-Scabrolide A

The first total synthesis of the norcembranoid diterpenoid scabrolide A is disclosed. The route begins with the synthesis of two chiral pool-derived fragments, which undergo a convergent coupling to expediently introduce all 19 carbon atoms of the natural product. An intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction and an enone–olefin cycloaddition/fragmentation sequence are then employed to construct the fused [5–6–7] linear carbocyclic core of the molecule and complete the total synthesis

Cluster Multi-spacecraft Determination of AKR Angular Beaming

Simultaneous observations of AKR emission using the four-spacecraft Cluster array were used to make the first direct measurements of the angular beaming patterns of individual bursts. By comparing the spacecraft locations and AKR burst locations, the angular beaming pattern was found to be narrowly confined to a plane containing the magnetic field vector at the source and tangent to a circle of constant latitude. Most rays paths are confined within 15 deg of this tangent plane, consistent with numerical simulations of AKR k-vector orientation at maximum growth rate. The emission is also strongly directed upward in the tangent plane, which we interpret as refraction of the rays as they leave the auroral cavity. The narrow beaming pattern implies that an observer located above the polar cap can detect AKR emission only from a small fraction of the auroral oval at a given location. This has important consequences for interpreting AKR visibility at a given location. It also helps re-interpret previously published Cluster VLBI studies of AKR source locations, which are now seen to be only a subset of all possible source locations. These observations are inconsistent with either filled or hollow cone beaming models.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Geophys. Res. Letters (accepted

The Total Synthesis of (–)-Scabrolide A

The first total synthesis of the norcembranoid diterpenoid scabrolide A is disclosed. The route begins with the synthesis of two chiral pool-derived fragments, which undergo a convergent coupling to expediently introduce all 19 carbon atoms of the natural product. An intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction and an enone–olefin cycloaddition/fragmentation sequence are then employed to construct the fused [5–6–7] linear carbocyclic core of the molecule and complete the total synthesis

What have birth cohort studies asked about genetic, pre- and perinatal exposures and child and adolescent onset mental health outcomes? : A systematic review

Peer reviewedPreprin