The Predictive Power of Out-of-School Community and Family Level Demographic Factors on District Level Student Performance on the New Jersey PARCC in Algebra 1 and Grade 10 English Language Arts/Literacy

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive accuracy of community and family demographic variables, which are found through the use of the 2010 U.S. Census data, on the percentage of students at a district level who are Meeting or Exceeding Expectations on the 2016 New Jersey PARCC in Algebra 1 and Grade 10 English Language Arts/Literacy. The results of this study support the past research and existing literature that has found out-of-school community and family demographics affect and predict how students will perform on state standardized assessments. Based on this study, we can conclude that out certain combinations of out-of- school variables found in the 2010 U.S. Census can be used to predict with accuracy the percentage of students at a district level who are Meeting or Exceeding Expectations on the 2016 New Jersey PARCC in Algebra 1 and Grade 10 English Language Arts/Literacy

The Exact Point Spectrum and Eigenvector of the Unique Continuous L2(R2)^2(\mathbb{R}^2) Bound State Solution to the Dirac Delta Schrodinger Potential in Two Dimensions

Analyzing the point spectrum, i.e. bound state energy eigenvalue, of the Dirac delta function in two and three dimensions is notoriously difficult without recourse to regularization or renormalization, typically both. The reason for this in two dimensions is two fold; 1) the coupling constant, together with the mass and Planck's constant form an unitless quantity. This causes there to be a missing anomalous length scale. 2) The immediately obvious L$^2$ solution is divergent at the origin, where the Dirac Delta potential has its important point of support as a measure. Due to the uniqueness of the solution presented here, it is immediate that the linear operator (the two dimensional Laplace operator on all of $\mathbb{R}^2$), with the specialized domain constructed here, ensures that the point spectrum has exactly one element. This element is determined precisely, and a natural mathematically rigorous resolution to the anomalous length scale arises. In this work, there is no recourse to renormalization or regularization of any kind.Comment: 13 pages total, 12 pages of content, 1 page of reference

SYSTEMATIC ASSEMBLY OF AN INFECTIOUS cDNA CLONE OF MHV-1 AND OPTIMIZATION OF VIRAL RESCUE

The Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) caused a severe atypical pneumonia in humans with close to a 10% mortality rate, and caused a global outbreak in 2003. To better understand the pathogenesis of coronavirus pneumovirulence, a related coronavirus model is being developed, Murine Hepatitis Virus 1 (MHV-1). A complete reverse genetic system for MHV-1 is in the process of being completed. The reverse genetic system uses 7 cDNA fragments that cover the entire MHV-1 genome. These fragments are recovered from reverse transcribed viral RNA, and unique restriction sites were added to flank each fragment in order to allow systematic assembly of the complete genomic cDNA. The genomic cDNA can be transcribed, and the recovered RNA can be transfected into susceptible mammalian cells to rescue virus. The transfection process is currently being optimized by investigating the benefits of different electroporation techniques and different overlay cell confluences on amount of infectious centers produced from each attempt of viral recovery. Once the reverse genetic system is complete and tested the system will be used to generate mutant virus, impossible to make with out the reverse genetic system

Beirut modernism: theoretical framework and case study

The main question that this research poses is: Where does Lebanese modernist architecture stand in terms of modernist architecture in general terms? The proliferation of modern architecture in Lebanon between the 1940s and the 1970s has been significantly neglected as a subject of research, documentation, analysis and criticism. This research attempts to fill a gap in the theoretical framework of understanding modern architecture in Lebanon. The research first establishes a rudimentary understanding of modernism in general terms, then explores the various theoretical approaches that the architectural discourse utilizes to address modernism in locales such as Beirut, namely “Orientalism”, “Critical Regionalism” and “Third World Modernism”. The research then explores the history of the development of architecture in Lebanon in three phases from 1860 till 1920, when Lebanon was under Ottoman rule; then from 1920 till 1943 when Lebanon was under the French Mandate, and then from 1943 till 1975 which are the modernist years after independence. The research will then focus of the modernist architecture of Beirut in a broad sense, then on Hamra District in a more specific venue, and then at the architecture of Hamra Street to get a more intimate picture of the development of modern architecture in the city of Beirut. In light of this investigation, a phase of reassessment of modernism itself is attempted, as well as a reassessment of the three modes of understanding, i.e. orientalism, critical regionalism and third world modernism. The findings of this reassessment are then considered in an attempt to establish a preliminary theoretical framework for understanding the development of modern architecture in Beirut

More than Birds: Developing a New Environmental Jurisprudence Through the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

This year marks the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, one of the oldest environmental regulatory statutes in the United States. It is illegal to “take” or “kill” any migratory bird covered by the Act. But many of the economic and industrial assumptions that undergirded the Act in 1918 have changed dramatically. Although it is undisputed that hunting protected birds is prohibited, circuit courts split on whether so-called “incidental takings” fall within the scope of the Act. The uncertainty inherent in this disagreement harms public and private interests alike—not to mention migratory birds. Many of the most important environmental statutes are also aging and may soon face similar interpretive issues. This Note argues that, to address inherent problems with aging environmental statutes, courts should adopt a jurisprudential preference for fidelity to each statute’s purpose

SYSTEMATIC ASSEMBLY OF AN INFECTIOUS cDNA CLONE OF MHV-1 AND OPTIMIZATION OF VIRAL RESCUE

The Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) caused a severe atypical pneumonia in humans with close to a 10% mortality rate, and caused a global outbreak in 2003. To better understand the pathogenesis of coronavirus pneumovirulence, a related coronavirus model is being developed, Murine Hepatitis Virus 1 (MHV-1). A complete reverse genetic system for MHV-1 is in the process of being completed. The reverse genetic system uses 7 cDNA fragments that cover the entire MHV-1 genome. These fragments are recovered from reverse transcribed viral RNA, and unique restriction sites were added to flank each fragment in order to allow systematic assembly of the complete genomic cDNA. The genomic cDNA can be transcribed, and the recovered RNA can be transfected into susceptible mammalian cells to rescue virus. The transfection process is currently being optimized by investigating the benefits of different electroporation techniques and different overlay cell confluences on amount of infectious centers produced from each attempt of viral recovery. Once the reverse genetic system is complete and tested the system will be used to generate mutant virus, impossible to make with out the reverse genetic system

Whistle-blowing by external auditors: seeking legitimacy for the South African audit profession?

Auditing is often cited as playing an important role in managing agency-related costs and, accordingly, being integral to the sound functioning of capital markets. There may, however, be more to the attest function than a technical rational practice. By virtue of relying heavily on claims to technical expertise, professionalism, prudential judgement and public confidence, auditing is both a source of legitimacy for organisations and, paradoxically, dependent on claims to legitimacy for its continued existence. From this perspective, recent regulatory developments, purportedly enacted to increase arms-length control over the profession, may not only be about improving perceived audit quality and practice but also about ensuring continued faith in the well-established ‘rituals’ of the assurance function. A reporting duty imposed on South African external auditors, akin to whistle-blowing, is used as a case study to explore this perspective. In doing so, this paper contributes to the scant body of interpretive research on auditing, simultaneously offering one of the first insights into auditing regulation from an African perspective