The Voting Age Should Not Be Eighteen

Non-fiction by David Flower

In Preparation for Creating a Servant Leadership Curriculum for Young Adults

The critical essay seeks to establish a foundation for creating a servant leadership curriculum for high school and college students. The essay is divided into six sections. Section one, A Leadership Disconnect, contains a presentation of how our educational systems operate in support of prevailing leadership behaviors in a culture of global economic and social dysfunction. Section two, The Leadership We Have, contains an explanation of how current leadership constructs find their source in an archetypal transactional paradigm of competition and conflict. Section three, Re-thinking the Leadership Lessons Young People Receive, addresses how leadership lessons, messages and practices, in our schools are formed from an underlying paradigm of market forces, transactional authority, competition, and object based measures of success and failure. Servant leadership is introduced as a modern alternative leadership paradigm. Section Four, Tenets of Servant Leadership Literacy, contains an overview of servant leadership theory, themes and practice\u27s as they have developed in the past 42 years. Section Five, Interdisciplinary Insights for Servant Leadership, provides examples of current servant leadership applications in traditional academic disciplines. Section Six provides a summary of key concepts from the preceding sections. It also provides foundational questions addressing the subject matter of each section from which a servant leadership curriculum can be designed

Predicting Enzyme Targets for Optimization of Metabolic Networks under Uncertainty

Recently, ensemble modeling was applied to metabolic networks for the sake of predicting the effects of genetic manipulations on the observed phenotype of the system. The ensemble of models is generated from experimental wild-type flux data and screened using phenotypic data from gene overexpression and knockout experiments, leaving predictive models. The need for data from multiple genetic perturbation experiments is an inherent limitation to this approach. In this investigation, ensemble modeling is used alongside elementary mode analysis to attempt to predict those enzymatic perturbations that are most likely to result in an increase in a target yield and a target flux when only the wild-type flux distribution is known. Elementary mode analysis indicates the maximum theoretical yield and its associated steady-state flux distribution(s), and the minimal cut set knockouts are determined that eliminate all but the highest-yield elementary modes. These knockouts and other perturbations are simulated using all of the ensemble models, and the distributions of predicted fluxes and yields over the models are compared to elucidate which reactions and metabolites most likely limit the target yield and flux. Additionally, a systematic method is developed to simultaneously identify multiple reactions that are responsible for bottlenecks after the minimal cut set knockouts are performed. These methods are applied to a metabolic network that models 3-deoxy-D-arabinoheptulosonate-7-phosphate (DAHP) production in E. coli. Results show that pyruvate accumulation due to glucose uptake and erythrose-4-phosphate (E4P) shortages resulting from the slow reaction rate of transketolase (tkt) limit DAHP production. These results are consistent with published data, indicating that a detailed understanding of metabolic networks can be obtained with minimal experimental data. Additionally, the systematic method identifies four enzymes (Tkt, Tal, Pps, and AroG) that, when overexpressed experimentally, increase yield to nearly the maximum theoretical limit. Systematic analysis of a toy network also correctly identifies the post-MCS overexpression that results in the largest increases in yield and absolute fluxes. These results indicates that wild-type steady-state flux data can be used to accurately identify enzyme perturbation targets for increasing yield and target flux values

The floriculture industry in Malta

The floriculture industry in Malta is relatively small when compared to that of other European countries. However, despite several constraints, a number of growers deal exclusively with the production of floriculture products for local use. In the early 1970s, a locally based company was much involved in the export of floricultural products to the United Kingdom. This year (2002), four local growers initiated the growing and export of gladioli flowers to Italy.peer-reviewe

Spectrum

Spectrum is a multispectral fluorescence imager designed for capturing in vivo genetic expression in a variety of biological organisms, providing a capability that does not currently exist on the International Space Station (ISS). Researching organisms that have been transformed with in vivo reporter genes ligated with fluorescent proteins allows the scientific community to further understand the fundamental biological responses of these organisms when subjected to space environments. Model organisms that may utilize multispectral imaging on the ISS include unicellular organisms (e.g. Saccharomyces cerevisiae), plants (e.g. Arabidopsis thaliana), and invertebrates (e.g. Caenorhabditis elegans)

The Socialization and Academic Engagement of Black Males in a Christian High School

Black males in a metropolitan private Christian high school (PCHS) in the Midwest encounter unique sociocultural experiences that may be associated with racial microaggressions and the struggles of fitting in that can negatively impact academic success. The problem that was addressed in this study was the need for more specific information on how Black males fit socially into the local PCHS, and their attitudes towards academic achievement. Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and Tajfel’s social identity theory were used in this case study to explore the sociocultural experiences of 6 former Black male students and 5 members of the school staff. The research questions focused on the views of former Black male students on their sociocultural experiences at PCHS, the school’s influence on their academic outcomes, and the practices staff at the school used to support their social and academic needs. Findings from data collected from interviews indicated specific academic and social support programs were needed pertaining to achievement, social experiences, student/staff interactions, support programs and practices. The resulting project was a policy recommendation paper designed to provide information for proposed strategies, supports, resources and partnerships to school staff and administration to incorporate into daily practices and interactions. Policy recommendations include suggested changes to existing programs, policies, and strategies. The project contributes to the positive social change by providing educators with insight into the experiences of these former students from their perspective and allowing administration and school staff to provide better support and services to the meet the educational needs of all students

Intern and Mentor Perceptions of the Internship Experience

For more than twenty-five years reform efforts have been pervasively pursued across the nation to improve student achievement at the K-12 level. It is generally agreed that the impetus for these reform efforts was the publication of the report, A Nation at Risk, in 1983(National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). This report, which concluded that a “rising tide of mediocrity” was sweeping across the educational system served as the clarion call that spurned the national efforts to reform and improve America’s schools. Although these reform efforts have covered nearly every aspect of schooling and taken a variety of forms, fundamentally they have addressed how schools are governed, organized, and operated for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. Additionally, and most important, these reform efforts have focused upon the quality of personnel in the schools, especially teachers and administrators, because reformers have argued that they are the most important resource for effecting significant school improvement. Given the emphasis on the quality of personnel, many of the reform efforts have addressed the quality of both pre-service and professional development programs for teachers and administrators. Of these, the focus, structure, content, and quality of the preservice programs have received the most attention

Principal Interns’ Level of Involvement and Perceived Knowledge and Skills Developed During the Internship Process

The review of the literature clearly shows that the exploration of a critical question is missing from the analysis of internships: Do interns who experience higher levels of involvement develop higher levels of knowledge and skills? In this study, learning experiences are defined as the type of involvement (i.e., low-involvement or high-involvement). The purpose of this study is to examine if higher levels of intern involvement result in the acquisition of higher levels of perceived knowledge and skills. Survey research method was used to assess the principle interns’ level of involvement in a set of specified activities and to assess the relative importance of each kind of involvement

Implementation of a three degree of freedom, motor/brake hybrid force output device for virtual environment control tasks

The advent of high resolution, physical model based computer graphics has left a gap in the design of input/output technology appropriate for interacting with such complex virtual world models. Since virtual worlds consist of physical models, it is appropriate to output the inherent force information necessary for the simulation to the user. The detailed design, construction, and control of a three degree freedom force output joystick will be presented. A novel kinematic design allows all three axes to be uncoupled, so that the system inertia matrix is diagonal. The two planar axes are actuated through an offset gimbal, and the third through a sleeved cable. To compensate for friction and inertia effects, this transmission is controlled by a force feedforward and a closed force feedback proportional loop. Workspace volume is a cone of 512 cubic inches, and the device bandwidth is maximized at 60 Hz for the two planar and 30 Hz for the third axis. Each axis is controlled by a motor/proportional magnetic particle brake combination fixed to the base. The innovative use of motors and brakes allows objects with high resistive torque requirements to be simulated without the stability and related safety issues involved with high torque, energy storing motors alone. Position, velocity, and applied endpoint force are sensed directly. Different control strategies are discussed and implemented, with an emphasis on how virtual environment force information, generated by the MIT Media Lab Computer Graphics and Animation Group BOLIO system, is transmitted to the device controller. The design constraints for a kinesthetic force feedback device can be summarized as: How can the symbiosis between the sense of presence in the virtual environment be maximized without compromising the interaction task under the constraints of the mechanical device limitations? Research in this field will yield insights to the optimal human sensory feedback mix for a wide spectrum of control and interaction problems. A flexible research tool that is designed as an easily reproducible product prototype has been constructed to explore the variety of possible force interaction