A Case Study On Ethical Decision Making By Legislative Leaders And Their Motion To Approve The North Carolina Charter School Bill Of 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the role that equity and ethics played in decision making by examining the perspectives of elected leaders in a case where members of the North Carolina legislature decided to lift the cap on charter schools by enacting the 2011 North Carolina Charter School Bill. The analysis was based on triangulated qualitative data from historical documents, written documents from the state’s legislative library, and interviews from consenting legislative leaders of North Carolina. The researcher used Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenological data analysis protocol to explore and understand the participants’ lived experiences. Finally, a pattern matching analytic technique called explanation building was used to establish an understanding of a single five point predicted theoretical pattern to build an explanation about the case. The triangulated data points provided empirically based patterns that were paralleled to identify causal links between the predicted and empirical patterns. Causal links provided an explanation of the phenomenon of decision making and how equity and ethics impact decision making. There were four major findings in this study. Participant interpretations of the law provided challenges to understanding how charter commissions would evaluate measures of accountability. Perceptions of decision making presented disconnects between the law and delivery of ethics and equity when decisions were rendered. Participants identified principles which highlighted fairness and care as essential when making ethical decisions. The results of this study showed that participants’ interpretations of the law provided challenges to understanding how the charter commission would evaluate internal and external measures of accountability

Assessing written work by determining competence to achieve the module-specific learning outcomes.

This chapter describes lasers and other sources of coherent light that operate in a wide wavelength range. First, the general principles for the generation of coherent continuous-wave and pulsed radiation are treated including the interaction of radiation with matter, the properties of optical resonators and their modes as well as such processes as Q-switching and mode-locking. The general introduction is followed by sections on numerous types of lasers, the emphasis being on todayʼs most important sources of coherent light, in particular on solid-state lasers and several types of gas lasers. An important part of the chapter is devoted to the generation of coherent radiation by nonlinear processes with optical parametric oscillators, difference- and sum-frequency generation, and high-order harmonics. Radiation in the extended ultraviolet (EUV) and x-ray ranges can be generated by free electron lasers (FEL) and advanced x-ray sources. Ultrahigh light intensities up to 1021 W/cm2 open the door to studies of relativistic laser–matter interaction and laser particle acceleration. The chapter closes with a section on laser stabilization

Mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

The genetic make-up of an individual contributes to the susceptibility and response to viral infection. Although environmental, clinical and social factors have a role in the chance of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and the severity of COVID-191,2, host genetics may also be important. Identifying host-specific genetic factors may reveal biological mechanisms of therapeutic relevance and clarify causal relationships of modifiable environmental risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection and outcomes. We formed a global network of researchers to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity. Here we describe the results of three genome-wide association meta-analyses that consist of up to 49,562 patients with COVID-19 from 46 studies across 19 countries. We report 13 genome-wide significant loci that are associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection or severe manifestations of COVID-19. Several of these loci correspond to previously documented associations to lung or autoimmune and inflammatory diseases3,4,5,6,7. They also represent potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection. Mendelian randomization analyses support a causal role for smoking and body-mass index for severe COVID-19 although not for type II diabetes. The identification of novel host genetic factors associated with COVID-19 was made possible by the community of human genetics researchers coming together to prioritize the sharing of data, results, resources and analytical frameworks. This working model of international collaboration underscores what is possible for future genetic discoveries in emerging pandemics, or indeed for any complex human disease