\u27Massa Day Done:\u27 Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962

This thesis examined the manner in which West Indies cricket became a catalyzing force for West Indians in moving towards political independence from Britain during the period 1950-1962. West Indians took a game that was used as a means of social control during the colonial era, and refashioned that game into a political weapon to exact sporting and especially political revenge on their colonial masters. Analyses (CDA, narrative analysis, examination of calypsos and cartoons) of the historic cricket tour to England in 1950, the decolonization movement, and the appointment of Frank Worrell as the first black captain of the team, among other significant indicators and events, revealed recurring narratives that linked the success of West Indies cricket to a readiness for political independence from Britain. These narratives reflected a feeling that “the time was now” for West Indians to forge a political identity for themselves separate from the subservient pupil of the British master. Politicians utilized rhetorical strategies that appealed to feelings of racial unity to fuel their push for political independence. Taken together, the overriding narrative revealed by this analysis applied to selected newspaper articles and political speeches, could be encapsulated in the epithet, “massa day done”. The discourse emanating from the success of West Indies cricket set West Indians on a course toward political autonomy from Britain

Control of Phragmites communis using low rate glyphosate applications and TopFilm adjuvant

An experiment to test the hypothesis that the addition of TopFilm adjuvant would reduce the effective concentration of glyphosate required to control Phragmites communis, the common reed

The Role of the Common Core in the Gubernatorial Elections of 2014

After the Spring 2014 primaries, the Common Core State Standards were viewed as a political hot potato. As former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said, “the Common Core has become toxic, I think it’s radioactive…It has become an incredibly controversial topic on both the left and the right.” Even so, the Common Core turned out to play a role in some of the governor’s races in November 2014. In this analysis of candidate positions and the role of the Common Core across the 36 gubernatorial races of 2014, CPRE researchers Bobbi Newman, Jonathan Supovitz and Arial Smith used campaign websites, debate transcripts, State of the State addresses, Twitter accounts, and candidate interviews, to identify the positions of 62 of the 81 candidates (including 3rd party representatives). Our findings show that support for, and opposition to, the Common Core was pretty evenly split, mostly across party lines. Arguments in support of the Common Core tended to emphasize economic benefits, while opposition emphasized Federal intrusion and the importance of local control. In a few races, the Common Core became a substantial issue

From the Inside In: An Examination of Common Core Knowledge & Communication in Schools

In this report, CPRE researchers explore how Common Core knowledge and influence are distributed inside of schools and how these configurations may help teachers to engage with the Common Core and influence their understanding and implementation. To do so, we used a mixed-method approach to examine knowledge and influence in eight schools, including five elementary schools and three middle schools. Our central method was a survey of knowledge and influence of all faculty members in a sample of eight schools. These data are supplemented with interview data from a purposeful sample of teachers and administrators in the eight schools. Sponsored by the General Electric Foundation, which also provides support to New York City through its Developing FuturesTM in Education Program, the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at the University of Pennsylvania has examined Common Core implementation in New York City in a series of studies. In 2013 CPRE released the findings of two investigations, one which described how the district constructed the 2011-12 Citywide Instructional Expectations (CIEs) for teachers, which were a small number of assignments for school faculties to complete during the school year to facilitate their engagement with the new Common Core (Supovitz, 2013). The second report examined how a diverse sample of 16 schools understood and implemented these CIEs and how their choices influenced their levels of engagement (Goldsworthy, Supovitz, & Riggan, 2013). A third report is a companion to the current report, focusing on teacher collaboration as a means of cultivating and transferring knowledge about the Common Core

Spatial Competition: Roughening of an Experimental Interface

Limited dispersal distance generates spatial aggregation. Intraspecific interactions are then concentrated within clusters, and between-species interactions occur near cluster boundaries. Spread of a locally dispersing invader can become motion of an interface between the invading and resident species, and spatial competition will produce variation in the extent of invasive advance along the interface. Kinetic roughening theory offers a framework for quantifying the development of these fluctuations, which may structure the interface as a self-affine fractal, and so induce a series of temporal and spatial scaling relationships. For most clonal plants, advance should become spatially correlated along the interface, and width of the interface (where invader and resident compete directly) should increase as a power function of time. Once roughening equilibrates, interface width and the relative location of the most advanced invader should each scale with interface length. We tested these predictions by letting white clover (Trifolium repens) invade ryegrass (Lolium perenne). The spatial correlation of clover growth developed as anticipated by kinetic roughening theory, and both interface width and the most advanced invader’s lead scaled with front length. However, the scaling exponents differed from those predicted by recent simulation studies, likely due to clover’s growth morphology. In many plant communities, limited dispersal aggregates conspecific individuals1. In particular, most invasive plants are clonal and propagate vegetatively2, so that invaders initially cluster among residents3. Aggregation of conspecifics has consequences for population interactions. Individual plants usually compete at the nearest-neighbor scale4,5. When different species each aggregate spatially and interact locally, intraspecific competition will predominate within clusters, while interspecific competition will localize at the interface between clusters6,7,8. This interaction geometry implies that the advance versus extinction of an invasive species may depend on development and subsequent movement of a between-species interface9,10. An invading species’ local density declines from positive equilibrium to rarity across the width of an ecological interface11. As a competitively superior invader excludes the resident species within the interface width, the front is pushed forward. Dispersal limitation promotes spatially correlated invasive advance along the interface. These correlations, generated through lateral growth, invite application of the theory of kinetic roughening, a framework for identifying quantitative characteristics shared by different interface-growth processes12. Previous applications of the theory span materials science13, temporal pattern in parallel-computing14,15, and ecological invasion11,16. Kinetic roughening theory predicts power-law scaling relationships governing both the development and the equilibrium statistical structure of an invader-resident interface. Our analyses emphasize scaling of both the interface width and the relative position of the “front-runner,” the most advanced invader, a metric used at both local and regional scales17,18,19. Interestingly, the exponents of scaling relationships predicted by kinetic roughening sometimes identify an interface as a member of a particular universality class. That is, quite distinct local processes may exhibit the same dependence of interface roughening on time, and the equilibrium width may exhibit the same dependence on interface length; universality implies powerful generality13. Previously, we modeled the front produced when a dispersal limited, but competitively superior, invader advances across a habitat occupied by a resident species11,20. That model’s kinetic roughening belongs to the KPZ universality class, for Kardar-Parisi-Zhang12. We begin by analyzing spatial competition as a problem for kinetic roughening theory, and then report a field experiment testing the predictions. We let Dutch white clover (Trifolium repens) advance into plots of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). We monitored the development of spatial correlations along the fronts, and estimated a series of power-law scaling relationships from roughened fronts of different lengths. The exponents implied by the observed scaling allowed us, in addition, to ask if the experimental interface belonged to the KPZ universality class12,13

Permutation of Two-Term Local Quadrat Variance Analysis: General Concepts for Interpretation of Peaks

Many ecological studies use Two-Term Local Quadrat Variance Analysis (TTLQV) and its derivatives for spatial pattern analysis. Currently, rules for determining variance peak significance are arbitrary. Variance peaks found at block size 1 and at \u3e 50 % of the transect length are the only peaks whose use is explicitly prohibited. Although the use of variance peaks found at block sizes \u3e 10 % of the transect length have also been warned against, many researchers interpret them regardless. We show in this paper that variance peaks derived from TTLQV are subject to additional ‘rules of thumb’. Through the use of randomization and permutation analyses on real and simulated data of species abundance in contiguous plots along a single transect, we show that variance peaks found at block sizes 1, 2 and 3 occur frequently by chance and thus likely do not indicate biologically meaningful patterns. The use of multiple replicate transects decreases the probability of Type II error

Gender Differences in Calls to 9-1-1 During an Acute Coronary Syndrome

Calling 911 during acute coronary syndromes (ACS) decreases time to treatment and may improve prognosis. Women may have more atypical ACS symptoms compared to men, but few data are available on differences in gender and ACS symptoms in calling 911. In this study, patient interviews and structured chart reviews were conducted to determine gender differences in calling 911. Calls to 911 were assessed by self-report and validated by medical chart review. Of the 476 patients studied, 292 (61%) were diagnosed with unstable angina and 184 (39%) with myocardial infarctions (MIs). Overall, only 23% of patients called 911. Similar percentages of women and men with unstable angina called 911 (15% and 13%, respectively, p = 0.59). In contrast, women with MIs were significantly more likely to call 911 than men (57% vs 28%, p <0.001). After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, health insurance status, history of MI, the left ventricular ejection fraction, Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score, and ACS symptoms, women were 1.79 times more likely to call 911 during an MI than men (prevalence ratio 1.79, 95% confidence interval 1.22 to 2.64, p <0.01). In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggest that initiatives to increase calls to 911 are needed for women and men

Evaluation of the GE Foundation-Supported Coaching & Demonstration Schools Initiative in Erie Public Schools, SY 2012-2013

This evaluation report summarizes the evidence of the implementation and early impacts of the General Electric Foundation’s (GEF) Demonstration Schools Initiative in the Erie Public School district (EPS) conducted by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) during the 2012-2013 school year. The Demonstration Schools Initiative provided intensive support to four schools (two elementary, one middle, and one high) implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in mathematics and English language arts. Concurrently during the 2012- 2013 school year, EPS also continued their implementation of another GEF-supported initiative— the Coaching Initiative—using a cadre of instructional coaches in mathematics, science, and ELA for the other schools in the district. In both the Coaching and Demonstration School Initiatives, instructional coaches are key agents of change. Their function is to target and customize the support needed at the building, grade, and teacher levels to shift teachers’ understanding and practice to align to the CCSS. For the Demonstration Schools Initiative, coaches also focused much of their time trying to develop professional learning communities (PLCs) within their schools. This evaluation was designed to answer three overarching questions: Did teachers in the Demonstration Schools gain more knowledge of the CCSS as a result of their participation in the GEF-supported initiative? What were the impacts of the initiative for the teachers in the GEF- Foundation supported Demonstration Schools compared to the rest of the district? How did teachers perceive their respective coaches throughout the district