The Effect of Federal and State-Level Policy on Undocumented Childhood Arrivals

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) provides a 2-year reprieve from deportation and a work permit for eligible undocumented childhood arrivals. It does not provide a pathway to citizenship or confer rights or protections enjoyed by those with permanent legal status leaving recipients in a constant state of legal limbo. State-level policy can mitigate or exacerbate obstacles faced by this population. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore how federal and state-level policy in a conservative location shaped experiences of membership or exclusion. Responses were examined using segmented assimilation theory to identify layered contexts of reception. The central research question was “how has the intersection of DACA and related state-level policy affected participants’ perceptions of their social exclusion as reflected in their educational access, employment opportunities, and perceptions of belonging in Wisconsin?” Phone interviews were conducted with five DACA recipients and DACA-eligible individuals with thematic coding for data analysis. Results revealed a combination of positive and negative nested contexts among federal, state, and local levels. DACA removed barriers to employment and a driver’s license, while state policy increased obstacles in higher education through higher tuition costs and lack of state financial aid. Institutional and local contexts were instrumental in alleviating the cost of higher education and fostering a sense of belonging. There is a social change opportunity for advocacy at the state and national levels for more inclusive policy and creation of a pathway to permanent legal status for undocumented childhood arrivals

The Effect of Federal and State-Level Policy on Undocumented Childhood Arrivals

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) provides a 2-year reprieve from deportation and a work permit for eligible undocumented childhood arrivals. It does not provide a pathway to citizenship or confer rights or protections enjoyed by those with permanent legal status leaving recipients in a constant state of legal limbo. State-level policy can mitigate or exacerbate obstacles faced by this population. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore how federal and state-level policy in a conservative location shaped experiences of membership or exclusion. Responses were examined using segmented assimilation theory to identify layered contexts of reception. The central research question was “how has the intersection of DACA and related state-level policy affected participants’ perceptions of their social exclusion as reflected in their educational access, employment opportunities, and perceptions of belonging in Wisconsin?” Phone interviews were conducted with five DACA recipients and DACA-eligible individuals with thematic coding for data analysis. Results revealed a combination of positive and negative nested contexts among federal, state, and local levels. DACA removed barriers to employment and a driver’s license, while state policy increased obstacles in higher education through higher tuition costs and lack of state financial aid. Institutional and local contexts were instrumental in alleviating the cost of higher education and fostering a sense of belonging. There is a social change opportunity for advocacy at the state and national levels for more inclusive policy and creation of a pathway to permanent legal status for undocumented childhood arrivals

The Sandia Fracture Challenge: blind round robin predictions of ductile tearing

Existing and emerging methods in computational mechanics are rarely validated against problems with an unknown outcome. For this reason, Sandia National Laboratories, in partnership with US National Science Foundation and Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, launched a computational challenge in mid-summer, 2012. Researchers and engineers were invited to predict crack initiation and propagation in a simple but novel geometry fabricated from a common off-the-shelf commercial engineering alloy. The goal of this international Sandia Fracture Challenge was to benchmark the capabilities for the prediction of deformation and damage evolution associated with ductile tearing in structural metals, including physics models, computational methods, and numerical implementations currently available in the computational fracture community. Thirteen teams participated, reporting blind predictions for the outcome of the Challenge. The simulations and experiments were performed independently and kept confidential. The methods for fracture prediction taken by the thirteen teams ranged from very simple engineering calculations to complicated multiscale simulations. The wide variation in modeling results showed a striking lack of consistency across research groups in addressing problems of ductile fracture. While some methods were more successful than others, it is clear that the problem of ductile fracture prediction continues to be challenging. Specific areas of deficiency have been identified through this effort. Also, the effort has underscored the need for additional blind prediction-based assessments

Alexandre Tansman’s Ballet Music: Sources and Research Perspectives

Po dekadach nieobecności w polskiej kulturze muzycznej, twórczość Aleksandra Tansmana powraca na rodzime sale koncertowe. Do bogatego i różnorodnego dorobku kompozytora chętnie sięgają orkiestry, zespoły kameralne i soliści. Jego muzyka jest również coraz częściej tematem badań naukowych i różnego rodzaju opracowań. Pomimo rosnącego zainteresowania Tansmanem, wciąż jednak pozostają obszary, które nie zostały należycie zbadane. Do nich należy z pewnością jego twórczość baletowa. Celem niniejszego komunikatu jest próba uporządkowania dotychczasowej wiedzy na temat baletów Aleksandra Tansmana, wykazanie podstawowych źródeł do ich opracowania oraz zarysowanie perspektyw badawczych. Liczne argumenty pozwalają przypuszczać, że balet był ważnym obszarem działalności kompozytora. Należą do nich chociażby wybitne nazwiska choreografów, z którymi współpracował (Rudolf Laban, Kurt Jooss, Jean Börlin), czy sceny, na których były wystawiane jego dzieła (Metropolitan Opera w Nowym Jorku, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées w Paryżu). Niektóre, tak jak Sextuor czy La Grande Ville (The Big City), osiągnęły ogromną popularność i były wielokrotnie prezentowane na scenach Europy i Stanów Zjednoczonych. Oprócz komponowania baletów z muzyką oryginalną, Tansman w porozumieniu z choreografami adaptował również swoją muzykę symfoniczną do przedstawień tanecznych. Niebagatelne znaczenie w kontekście baletu mogła mieć także jego bliska, trwająca wiele lat przyjaźń z Igorem Strawińskim. Pierwsze kwerendy, przeprowadzone dzięki wsparciu córek kompozytora, wykazały źródła będące podstawą do dalszych badań. Przechowywane w Bibliothèque nationale de France autografy muzyczne, zarówno szkicowe jak i edycyjne, a także wydania partytur, nagrania oraz dokumenty historyczne, takie jak listy, recenzje czy materiał ikonograficzny, mimo pewnych braków, mogą w przyszłości posłużyć do przeprowadzenia pełnowymiarowego opracowania twórczości baletowej Aleksandra Tansmana.After decades of absence from Polish musical culture, the music of Alexandre Tansman is now returning to the country’s concert halls. Orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists are eagerly turning to his rich and varied output, which is also increasingly being explored in academic research and studies of various kinds. Despite this growing interest, there are still some areas of Tansman’s legacy that have not been adequately researched. They certainly include his ballet music. This brief report aims to systematise existing knowledge concerning Tansman’s ballets, list the key sources for their study, and outline research perspectives. There are numerous arguments to support the thesis that ballet was an important field of work for this composer. Among other things, he collaborated with eminent choreographers (Rudolf Laban, Kurt Jooss, Jean Börlin), and his ballets were staged at famous venues (Metropolitan Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées). Some of them, such as Sextuor and La Grande Ville [The big city], gained immense popularity and were repeatedly performed in Europe and the United States. Apart from composing original ballet music, Tansman worked with choreographers to adapt his symphonic works for dance spectacles. His enduring friendship with Igor Stravinsky may also have been significant in the context of his ballet output. Preliminary archive research conducted thanks to the support of the composer’s daughters has turned up sources that may serve as the basis for further studies. Music autographs kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (both sketches and engraver’s manuscripts), as well as score editions, recordings and such historical records as letters, reviews and iconography may, despite some gaps, make a full-scale study of Alexandre Tansman’s ballet output possible in the future

The folk songs from the region of Podhale as an object of scientific research and an artistic inspiration for the Polish composers from the 19th century till today.

The thesis presents the history of the study of folk songs from the region of Podhale and the influence of highlander folk music on works of Polish composers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The first chapter presents a brief history of Zakopane and its emerging cultural center. It is an attempt to explain the phenomenon of Polish Highlanders folklore, which influenced the Polish composers using the elements in their works. The second chapter presents the state of research on vocal and vocal-instrumental music conducted by ethnographers, ethnologists and ethnomusicologists in Podhale region. It contains information about publications, containing texts and melodies of songs, including: the amount of examples, description of songs’ classification, as well as the accuracy of the transcript of the original folk. It also mentions the problem of research methods and published scientific dissertations on the songs of Podhale. Its folk music is presented then in two perspectives: artistic, as a source of inspiration, and scientific, as an attempt to consolidate it for future generations.Praca przedstawia historię badania pieśni ludowych Podhala oraz wpływu muzyki góralskiej na twórczość polskich kompozytorów muzyki w XIX i XX wieku. Pierwszy rozdział prezentuje krótką historię Zakopanego i tworzącego się w nim ośrodka kulturalnego. Jest próbą wyjaśnienia fenomenu folkloru góralskiego, który oddziaływał na kompozytorów polskich, wykorzystujących jego elementy we własnych dziełach. Rozdział drugi prezentuje stan badań nad muzyką wokalną i wokalno-instrumentalną prowadzonych przez etnografów, etnologów i etnomuzykologów w regionie podhalańskim. Zawiera informacje o wydanych publikacjach tekstów słownych i melodii pieśni, w tym: ilość zawartych przykładów, opis klasyfikacji pieśni, a także dokładność zapisu względem autentyku ludowego. Porusza również problem metod badawczych oraz wydanych prac naukowych dotyczących pieśni podhalańskiej. Folklor muzyczny Podhala ukazany jest zatem z dwóch perspektyw: artystycznej, jako źródło inspiracji oraz naukowej, jako próbę utrwalenia go dla następnych pokoleń