Inclusion for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Philosophical Reconstruction of the Student to Expand Access and Its Benefits

This dissertation attempts a philosophical rethinking of the concept of the student in educationally relevant disability law for the sake of expanding access to general education settings for students with intellectual disabilities (ID), without committing to the approach known as full inclusion. I show that students with ID receive significantly less access to general education settings in comparison to other student populations, and that empirical studies show this to be harmful to their learning and developmental outcomes. Discussion of this problem in the inclusion literature assumes one of two positions that separately support either maintaining the status quo regarding the access to general education settings that students with ID receive, or changing educational policy and practice to enable the full inclusion of all students. I argue that adherents of the status quo fail to fully acknowledge the problem as such, and adherents of full inclusion do not adequately attend to the practical issues related to using a one-size-fits-all model of educational practice. Furthermore, I argue that both positions fail to consider the ontological and epistemological dimensions of the problem, and doing so could provide a middle theoretical and practical position that would support expanding the inclusion of students with ID, without committing to their full inclusion. Using philosophical resources from John Dewey\u27s work, I argue that there are two key philosophical assumptions inherent to educational policy that collectively produce an a priori and liberal conception of the student that governs the distribution of access to educational resources for students with ID. The liberal conception of the student does this by positing them as an individualized and rational being whose core features of learning and development are accessible to educational evaluations. The value and use of these evaluations forms the cornerstone of the educational rights of students with ID that require the provision of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to all students identified with a disability. I show that the centrality of educational evaluations for providing FAPE establishes at least three conditions that are not satisfied in educational practice. I also show that educational evaluations prioritize forms of learning and development that students with ID often struggle to demonstrate, which increases the likelihood that they get placed in separate special education settings. Together, both points reveal the necessity of reconceptualizing the student for potentially resolving the problem. Finally, I develop an alternative conception of the student and conduct a thought experiment that shows plausible ways that aspects of educational decision-making, educational rights, and the purpose of special education services can be interpreted and function differently in response to reconceptualizing the student. This demonstration serves to provisionally trace out a theoretical and practical middle ground between the dominant positions assumed by adherents of the status quo and full inclusion, respectively. Overall, my analysis shows that the problem can be productively framed and analyzed by emphasizing the ontological dimensions of educational policy and practice. Furthermore, I show that the problem can be potentially resolved by reconceptualizing the student in order to increase opportunities for students with ID to access general education resources and their associated benefits

Leasebacks in Commercial and Family Transactions

Leaseback

A novel scanned mask imaging system for high resolution solid state laser ablation

A technology gap has emerged between the sub-micron semiconductor manufacturing technologies used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and the semi-additive processes used to manufacture advanced chip packages which are currently limited to feature sizes greater than 10 µm. Embedding conductors in laser ablated circuit features is one of the proposed solutions to address this technology gap in the advanced chip packaging industry. Excimer laser systems are currently the only available production tools capable of the high throughput laser ablation of circuit features down to 2 µm. In this thesis I have developed an ablative, solid state laser, mask imaging system for the high volume 3D structuring of organic dielectrics. This system enables the ablation of circuit features down to 2 µm which are of comparable quality to excimer laser ablation. The system architecture has a throughput exceeding that of an excimer laser production system. I have developed an illumination system, which I have tested at both a feasibility stage and at a prototype stage, with custom designed optical components. The illumination system consists of a galvanometer scan head which is used to raster scan a solid state laser beam across a binary mask, the image of which is then projected onto the substrate. The system I present enables the use of multimode, UV, solid state lasers in well-developed and high resolution mask imaging optical systems. Through the use of a less expensive laser technology, the system I have developed has a cost of ownership estimated to be less than 50% of that of an excimer production system, thus reducing the cost of high resolution, high throughput laser ablation

Realizing XML Driven Algorithm Visualization

AbstractIn this paper we describe work in progress on JHAVÉ-II, a new generation of the client-server based algorithm visualization system JHAVÉ. We believe this to be the first algorithm visualization system to be totally XML driven. We describe the XML scripting language visualization authors can use with JHAVÉ-II to define the sequence of graphical snapshots, integrated pop-up questions, synchronized pseudocode, and supplemental information that comprise a particular algorithm visualization. JHAVÉ-II then uses these scripts to render visualizations and support student exploration of algorithms

OR13-3 Effects of Iron Isomaltoside versus Ferric Carboxymaltose on Hormonal Control of Phosphate Homeostasis: The PHOSPHARE-IDA04/05 Randomized Controlled Trials

Iron isomaltoside (IIM) and ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) are newer intravenous iron preparations that can be administered in high-doses to rapidly correct iron deficiency anemia (IDA). FCM can cause hypophosphatemia due to fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) mediated renal phosphate wasting, which has been associated with osteomalacia, but the comparative effects of IIM are unknown. In two separate, identically designed, open label randomized controlled trials, we 1:1 randomized 245 adults with IDA to receive IIM (single infusion of 1000 mg) or FCM (FDA-approved dosing schedule: 2 infusions of 750 mg administered 1 week apart). We compared the incidence, severity and duration of hypophosphatemia, and effects on renal phosphate excretion, FGF23, PTH, vitamin D, and biomarkers of bone turnover measured in blood and urine samples collected at study visits at baseline (day 0) and on days 1, 7, 8, 14, 21, and 35. In pooled analyses of both trials, the incidence of hypophosphatemia 35 days. FCM but not IIM also induced changes in vitamin D and calcium homeostasis that triggered secondary hyperparathyroidism, which likely contributed to persistence of hypophosphatemia. Consistent with case reports of pathological fractures following FCM use, FCM also induced significant elevations of biomarkers of bone turnover that are associated with osteomalacia

Scottish saints cults and pilgrimage from the Black Death to the Reformation, c.1349-1560

This thesis is an examination of the most important Scottish saints’ cults and pilgrimage centres in the period c.1349-1560. Specifically, this project locates the role of this group within the wider devotional practices of the late medieval kingdom. Through analysis of liturgical calendars, ecclesiastical dedications, contemporary literature and naming and pilgrimage patterns, it identifies and explains the distinctive features of the veneration of national saints in late medieval Scotland in the two centuries from the first appearance of the Black Death in 1349 to the Reformation in 1560. The key theme of this thesis is the consideration of the manner in which external factors, such as general Western European social and religious developments, and distinctly local phenomena such as the intermittent warfare with England and the varied agendas of interest groups like shrine custodians, the national church and the crown, impacted upon the saintly landscape of the late medieval kingdom and the popular piety of its people. The medieval cult of the saints is a subject of considerable value for historians because it was a movement in a constant state of flux. It adapted to the socio-religious context of the societies in which it operated. Although never neglected as an area of study, the cult of the saints in Scotland has received further attention in recent years through the influence of the Survey of Dedications to Saints in Medieval Scotland project carried out at the University of Edinburgh from 2004-7. However, studies on the role and function of national and local saints, those believed by contemporaries to have had a Scottish provenance or a hagiographical connection to the medieval kingdom, have tended to focus on two specific periods. These were the so called ‘age of the saints’, the period between the fourth and eighth centuries in which the majority of these men and women were thought to have been active, or the twelfth and thirteenth centuries from when the main Latin hagiographical sources originate. The role and function of this group in the later middle ages has been either neglected or subject to the pervasive influence of a 1968 article by David McRoberts which argued that church- and crown- sponsored patriotism was the main factor in shaping popular piety in this period. This thesis will question this premise and provide the first indepth study of the cults of St Andrew, Columba of Iona/Dunkeld, Kentigern of Glasgow and Ninian of Whithorn in a late medieval Scottish context, as well as the lesser known northern saint, Duthac of Tain

Materials characterization on efforts for ablative materials

Experimental efforts to develop a new procedure to measure char depth in carbon phenolic nozzle material are described. Using a Shor Type D Durometer, hardness profiles were mapped across post fired sample blocks and specimens from a fired rocket nozzle. Linear regression was used to estimate the char depth. Results are compared to those obtained from computed tomography in a comparative experiment. There was no significant difference in the depth estimates obtained by the two methods

Royal academy of medicine in Ireland

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