Caution and Cooperation: The American Civil War in British-American Relations

The Diplomatic History of the Civil War Few subjects in U.S. diplomatic history have received more attention than Union and Confederate relations with Great Britain during the Civil War. Ephraim D. Adams, Richard J. M. Blackett, D. P. Crook, Norman B. Ferris, Charles M. Hubbard, Brian J...

A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico

A New Approach to the Mexican-American War Amy S. Greenberg’s A Wicked War provides an unusual synthesis of the U.S. - Mexican War by interweaving five biographies, with some “six degrees of separation interconnections among them, through a narrative, beginning with the U.S. ann...

Evil Necessity: Slavery and Political Culture in Antebellum Kentucky

Freedom fight Historian deciphers complex and conflicting attitudes toward the peculiar institution Historians have long acknowledged that fissures in antebellum southern society regarding the slavery question lasted long after positive good pronouncements displaced necessary ev...

Student Task Persistence in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study: A Major Source of Achievement Differences at the National, Classroom, and Student Levels

Since the release of results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1996, scholars have recognized that the central importance of TIMSS lies in its contribution to a better understanding of factors that are responsible for cross-national differences in average student achievement. Among many such factors may be differences in student ability and motivation to perform the task of completing the TIMSS achievement tests in math and science. In fact, national differences in math and science achievement scores may be determined more by differences in student test-taking ability and motivation than by . differences in student knowledge of math and science content. This possibility is explored in the research reported here

The Ecological Fallacy in Comparative and International Education Research: Discovering More From TIMSS Through Multilevel Modeling

The ecological fallacy is the assumption that empirical relationships observed at the group level generalize to individuals within the groups, and vice versa, without empirical evidence supporting this assumption. When international data are analyzed, relationships can be uncovered not only at the student or school-levels, but also at the national-level. And the factors that explain differences between nations do not necessarily provide any information about the relationships between schools or students within those nations, or vice versa. Using data from TIMSS, several examples illustrating this point are presented, and the implications for comparative education research are discussed

Expansion Potential for Irrigation within the Mississippi Delta Region

17.6 million acres, or 73 percent, of the Mississippi Delta Region is currently cropland and possesses the physical characteristics of slope, texture and soil type which are recommended for irrigation. Economic feasibility of expanding irrigation by flood, furrow and center pivot methods were examined under 24 scenarios representing two sets of crop prices, yield levels, production costs, opportunity costs and six crop rotations. Irrigation was economically feasible for 56 to 100 percent of the cropland across all scenarios. Approximately 88 percent of the cropland can be economically irrigated with flood or furrow in its present form, 8 percent yield highest net returns if furrow irrigated following land forming and 4 percent can be economically irrigated only with center pivot systems

Correlated interaction fluctuations in photosynthetic complexes

The functioning and efficiency of natural photosynthetic complexes is strongly influenced by their embedding in a noisy protein environment, which can even serve to enhance the transport efficiency. Interactions with the environment induce fluctuations of the transition energies of and interactions between the chlorophyll molecules, and due to the fact that different fluctuations will partially be caused by the same environmental factors, correlations between the various fluctuations will occur. We argue that fluctuations of the interactions should in general not be neglected, as these have a considerable impact on population transfer rates, decoherence rates and the efficiency of photosynthetic complexes. Furthermore, while correlations between transition energy fluctuations have been studied, we provide the first quantitative study of the effect of correlations between interaction fluctuations and transition energy fluctuations, and of correlations between the various interaction fluctuations. It is shown that these additional correlations typically lead to changes in interchromophore transfer rates, population oscillations and can lead to a limited enhancement of the light harvesting efficiency

Predictors of National Differences in Mathematics and Science Achievement: Data From TIMSS for Eighth Grade Students

There is widespread belief that national economic productivity is related to student performance in mathematics and science. With the advent in the 1960s of international surveys of student achievement in math and science, cross-national comparisons have become possible and nations have aspired to become world class in this respect. A major national policy issue in the U.S. and elsewhere is to identify and implement actions to attain and maintain a high level of student achievement in math and science in international comparisons. The math and science project reported here was designed to capitalize on the potential for cross-national research with the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). TIMSS demonstrated that there are wide differences among nations in average student knowledge of math and science at several grade levels. Accordingly, a major research problem is to explain the sources of these national differences; that is, to identify the national-level variables that are the strongest predictors of national differences in average achievement scores. This problem was investigated to generate new research-based knowledge relevant to policy making about math and science education

Collection and submission of samples for fish-kill investigation and toxic-substance analysis (2011)

Fish kills occur in natural and cultured populations. They can be due to disease, poor water quality or a toxic substance. Fish kills represent emergencies, and producers must be prepared for them in advance.New 11/94; Revised 05/11/Web