Party membership and campaign activity in Britain: The impact of electoral performance

The article examines the impact of electoral results on party membership and activity. Previous studies have focused on the long-term effects of electoral success or failure, suggesting that they may produce a spiral of demobilization or mobilization. The article shows that the dramatic change of electoral fortunes experienced by British parties at the 1997 general election broke this spiral, with the outcome leading to significant changes in the health and activity of local parties. It is concluded that dramatic election results can have significant implications for party organization

From foot-slogging to call centres and direct mail: A framework for analysing the development of district-level campaigning

Drawing upon ideas formulated with national-level campaigning in mind and also analyses of district or local-level campaigning, a conceptual framework to assist in analysing the development of district-level campaigning is presented. The proposed framework is further amplified, explained and tested using quantitative and qualitative data collected at British General Elections between 1992 and 2005. Various aspects of district (constituency) campaigning in Britain are examined and the extent of change over four General Elections analysed. In broad terms, the data show a good fit with the framework, which offers a useful way of thinking about developments in campaigning both within and across countries

Alternate approaches to vibration and shock analysis using NASTRAN

A method that derives an approximate equivalent static load to a base excitation shock analysis is described. The transient analysis in the current level of NASTRAN, level 16, does not directly provide for either input acceleration forcing functions or enforced boundary displacement. In the suggested alternate analysis format, equivalent force input functions are applied to the constrained locations by using the artifice of placing a large mass, with respect to the total system mass, at the desired acceleration input points. This shortcut static analysis approach is presented to approximate the expensive and time consuming dynamics analysis approach to the base excitation shock analysis

Learning causal models that make correct manipulation predictions with time series data

One of the fundamental purposes of causal models is using them to predict the effects of manipulating various components of a system. It has been argued by Dash (2005, 2003) that the Do operator will fail when applied to an equilibrium model, unless the underlying dynamic system obeys what he calls Equilibration-Manipulation Commutability. Unfortunately, this fact renders most existing causal discovery algorithms unreliable for reasoning about manipulations. Motivated by this caveat, in this paper we present a novel approach to causal discovery of dynamic models from time series. The approach uses a representation of dynamic causal models motivated by Iwasaki and Simon (1994), which asserts that all “causation across time" occurs because a variable’s derivative has been affected instantaneously. We present an algorithm that exploits this representation within a constraint-based learning framework by numerically calculating derivatives and learning instantaneous relationships. We argue that due to numerical errors in higher order derivatives, care must be taken when learning causal structure, but we show that the Iwasaki-Simon representation reduces the search space considerably, allowing us to forego calculating many high-order derivatives. In order for our algorithm to discover the dynamic model, it is necessary that the time-scale of the data is much finer than any temporal process of the system. Finally, we show that our approach can correctly recover the structure of a fairly complex dynamic system, and can predict the effect of manipulations accurately when a manipulation does not cause an instability. To our knowledge, this is the first causal discovery algorithm that has demonstrated that it can correctly predict the effects of manipulations for a system that does not obey the EMC condition

The Importance of Differentiated Leadership and Leading for Equity in Higher Education: How Higher Education Transformed My Life

Statistically speaking, I should have become a lot of things I am not. I grew up homeless (low socio-economic status), lived in battered women shelters (witness to domestic abuse), fatherless (single-parent household), was a father at 16 years old (teen pregnancy), attended six different elementary schools in four different states (California, Texas, Ohio, and Tennessee) by the time I was in fifth grade (student mobility), and was the first in my family to graduate from college (first- generation college student). A quick search on research with regards to any one of these demographics or characteristics will yield statistics on who I should have become. However, the aim of my essay is to share how my experiences in higher education truly transformed my life. Through a whole lot of grit, a loving and hardworking mother, caring professors, and sometimes, what I call “tough love”, I was able to overcome such impediments. It is my hope by sharing my story in this essay, that others, with similar backgrounds, will find hope for a better future, either through higher education, or by other means that directly align with their deepest passion and upmost long-term goals. In addition, and perhaps just importantly, I hope by sharing my story that individuals serving in higher education understand the importance of their leadership and how it can affect the students and/or staff in which they lead and serve

Amixicile as a novel antimicrobial treatment for periodontitis: A pilot study in the non-human primate, Macaca mulatta

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease with a bacterial etiology in a susceptible host. Given the bacterial etiology, a selective antimicrobial agent with minimal side effects could be a useful adjunct to traditional therapy. Amixicile is a novel antimicrobial that targets the pyruvate: ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) which is an enzyme that is critical for anaerobic bacterial metabolism. It has been found to have no effect on commensal, aerobic microbes and has little to no side-effects thus far in animal models. In this study, two nonhuman primates of the Macaca mulatta species with naturally occurring mild chronic periodontitis were studied before and after a two-week course of systemic administration of amixicile and at 3- and 6-months post-treatment. Periodontal charting including probing depths, clinical attachment levels, presence of bleeding on probing, and presence of plaque was recorded at each visit in addition to collecting saliva and subgingival plaque samples. The microbial composition of the plaque and saliva was evaluated based on 16s rDNA analysis. Both animals’ clinical conditions saw a reduction in probing depths and clinical inflammation. In the saliva samples a reduction in Porphyromonas, Fusobacterium, and Alloprevotella, all anaerobes, was seen with a concomitant increase in Streptococcus, Haemophilus, Gemella, and Escherichia, all aerobes, was observed. Subgingival plaque samples showed similar alterations in microbial composition. Reduction of Porphyromonas, Fusobacterium, Prevotella, Veillonella, and Alloprevotella, all anaerobes, was observed with concomitant increase of known aerobes. These changes generally take place immediately post-treatment but return to baseline levels by 6-months. Thus, it was concluded that due to its selectivity for anaerobic periodontal pathogens and lack of side effects, amixicile is a strong candidate as a viable antimicrobial option for the treatment of periodontal disease

The Ethics of Educational Leadership

“No issue has captured the interest and imagination of the American public more than the subject of ethics, particularly in relation to leadership in the public sector” (Rebore, 2000, p.v). One of the most universal questions in educational leadership is “What is the relationship of ethics as it relates to educational leadership?” The answer can be very complex. Many authors who have written on the subject of ethics in educational leadership have tried to answer this question. All major branches of ethics must be considered when attempting to answer this question. These branches include metaethics, normative ethics, applied ethics, moral psychology, and descriptive ethics and how each relates to the moral dimension of leadership. Research suggests that ethical leadership remains largely unexplored offering researchers opportunities for new discoveries and leaders opportunities to improve their effectiveness. In treating the subject of ethics as it relates to educational leadership, the material and argumentation Rebore uses in The Ethics of Educational Leadership (2000) in this text are organized in such a way that they support Standard Five of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards for School Leaders and help answer this very question. Standard Five of the ISLLC states that a school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner (ethical leadership)