From Ally to Activist: Embracing Activism as an essential component of Social Justice Educational Leadership to Combat Injustice in American Schools

Educational leaders must embrace activism as central to their efforts to combat racism and other unjust policies in schools. Social justice activism is an intentional action with the goal of bringing about positive social change. It requires leaders to accept their responsibility to actively resist exclusion, prejudice and injustice in our educational system, despite internal or external pressure from others who may thwart their efforts to promote social justice. The aim of this article is to bring to the forefront how social justice education leadership and social activism must be coupled as essential tools within the blueprint to end injustice. This article begins with defining the terms: ally (alliance), advocate (advocacy) or activist (activism) as they relate to social justice leadership in education and places them upon a newly constructed continuum (Social Justice Action Continuum) to battle overt racism and the “New Racism”. The continuum recognizes that educational leaders need an objective measure of their level of commitment to lead social change to fully understand the benefits and consequences.  The article proposes a paradigm shift in educational leader preparation, which focuses on social justice activism

Chartered sites of exception : problematizing the construction of bare life for exceptional populations in the United States educational system

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of deregulation policies in charter schools through a site of exception analysis and the resulting effect on exceptional populations in these schools

Removal and Recovery of Carbon Disulfide Emitted by the Viscose Process

HWRIC Project No. RRT-1

RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS ESTIMATION OF GEORGIA SOYBEAN ACREAGE RESPONSE

The general method of moments procedure is used for estimating a soybean acreage response function assuming the producers hold rational expectations. Results indicate that soybean, corn, and wheat futures prices, lagged acreage, and government programs are significant factors for determining soybean plantings. Implications of the results are that crop acreage selection by Georgia producers is not very responsive to demand shocks. Thus, producers in other regions are more likely to absorb impacts from these shocks on crop acreage selection.Soybeans, GMM, Elasticities, Crop Production/Industries,

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

A review of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.&nbsp

Alpha9 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and the treatment of pain

Chronic pain is a vexing worldwide problem that causes substantial disability and consumes significant medical resources. Although there are numerous analgesic medications, these work through a small set of molecular mechanisms. Even when these medications are used in combination, substantial amounts of pain often remain. It is therefore highly desirable to develop treatments that work through distinct mechanisms of action. While agonists of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) have been intensively studied, new data suggest a role for selective antagonists of nAChRs. α-Conotoxins are small peptides used offensively by carnivorous marine snails known as Conus. A subset of these peptides known as α-conotoxins RgIA and Vc1.1 produces both acute and long lasting analgesia. In addition, these peptides appear to accelerate the recovery of function after nerve injury, possibly through immune mediated mechanisms. Pharmacological analysis indicates that RgIA and Vc1.1 are selective antagonists of α9α10 nAChRs. A recent study also reported that these α9α10 antagonists are also potent GABA-B agonists. In the current study, we were unable to detect RgIA or Vc1.1 binding to or action on cloned GABA-B receptors expressed in HEK cells or Xenopus oocytes. We review the background, findings and implications of use of compounds that act on α9* nAChRs.11* indicates the possible presence of additional subunits.Fil: McIntosh, J. Michael. University of Utah; Estados UnidosFil: Absalom, Nathan. The University of Sydney; AustraliaFil: Chebib, Mary. The University of Sydney; AustraliaFil: Elgoyhen, Ana Belen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Farmacología; ArgentinaFil: Vincler, Michelle. Wake Forest University Health Sciences; Estados Unido

Chronic Nicotine Selectively Enhances α4β2* Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in the Nigrostriatal Dopamine Pathway

These electrophysiological experiments, in slices and intact animals, study the effects of in vivo chronic exposure to nicotine on functional α4β2* nAChRs in the nigrostriatal dopaminergic (DA) pathway. Recordings were made in wild-type and α4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunit knock-out mice. Chronic nicotine enhanced methyllycaconitine citrate hydrate-resistant, dihydro-β-erythroidine hydrobromide-sensitive nicotinic currents elicited by 3–1000 µM ACh in GABAergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), but not in DA neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). This enhancement leads to higher firing rates of SNr GABAergic neurons and consequently to increased GABAergic inhibition of the SNc DA neurons. In the dorsal striatum, functional α4* nAChRs were not found on the neuronal somata; however, nicotine acts via α4β2* nAChRs in the DA terminals to modulate glutamate release onto the medium spiny neurons. Chronic nicotine also increased the number and/or function of these α4β2* nAChRs. These data suggest that in nigrostriatal DA pathway, chronic nicotine enhancement of α4β2* nAChRs displays selectivity in cell type and in nAChR subtype as well as in cellular compartment. These selective events augment inhibition of SNc DA neurons by SNr GABAergic neurons and also temper the release of glutamate in the dorsal striatum. The effects may reduce the risk of excitotoxicity in SNc DA neurons and may also counteract the increased effectiveness of corticostriatal glutamatergic inputs during degeneration of the DA system. These processes may contribute to the inverse correlation between tobacco use and Parkinson's disease

Conodipine-M, a novel phospholipase A2 isolated from the venom of the marine snail Conus magus

Journal ArticleWe describe the purification and first biochemical characterization of an enzymatic activity in venom from the marine snail Conus magus. This enzyme, named conodipine-M, is a novel phospholipase A2 with a molecular mass of 13.6 ĸDa and is comprised of two polypeptide chains linked by one or more disulfide bonds

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ligand of unique specificity, α-conotoxin ImI

Journal ArticleWe report the isolation, characterization, and total synthesis of a small peptide ligand for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). It is highly active against the neuromuscular receptor in frog but noitn mice. In contrast, it induces seizures when injected centrally in mice and rats, suggesting that it may target neuronal nAChRs in mammals. Although such receptors may be important in both normal cognition and the pathophysiology of several neuropsychiatric disorders, there are few ligands to discriminate between the multiple receptor subtypes

Initial test of a Bayesian approach to solar flare prediction

A test of a new Bayesian approach to solar flare prediction (Wheatland 2004a) is presented. The approach uses the past history of flaring together with phenomenological rules of flare statistics to make a prediction for the probability of occurrence of a large flare within an interval of time, or to refine an initial prediction (which may incorporate other information). The test of the method is based on data from the Geostationary Observational Environmental Satellites (GOES), and involves whole-Sun prediction of soft X-ray flares for 1976-2003. The results show that the method somewhat over-predicts the probability of all events above a moderate size, but performs well in predicting large events.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Astronomical Society of Australia meeting in Brisbane, July 2004; revised versio