The Waterfall of Tiers: A Relocation Cost-Based Theory of Municipal Insolvency and a Proposal for a New Municipal Bankruptcy Regime

The \u27non-liquidation assumption\u27 presumes that municipal bankruptcy law exists to provide municipalities a \u27breathing spell\u27 from creditors and disallows the liquidation of municipalities. This assumption rests on the notion that chapter 9 exists solely to help municipalities continue to provide essential public services. This approach runs counter to the prevailing theory of corporate bankruptcy\u27that bankruptcy exists to resolve collection action problems among creditors and maximize social welfare. This Article rejects the \u27non-liquidation assumption\u27 and applies a modified theory of municipal bankruptcy based on corporate bankruptcy theory. This Article further proposes a waterfall bidding alternative municipal bankruptcy regime that looks to promote an efficient market-based allocation of resources

Data-rich reporting and standards setting following rules-based marking

There has been a lot of movement in recent years towards computer-based assessment, or e-assessment. This has tended towards the conversion of paper test models for use on-screen, mimicking existing test construction and question writing processes and data collection models

Communicating across the pond: Evaluating perceptions of dialectal divergence among American student sojourners in England

Although at first glance the differences between British English and American English seem trivial, “apartment” vs. “flat” or “color” vs. “colour, these dialectal divergences immediately create an othering effect. Subtle changes are representative of the deeper implications of this issue; altered language impacts perceptions about the validity and correctness of a written work. My research seeks to understand how the differences between British English and American English impact American student sojourners during an abroad experience in England. Examining how American sojourners perceive dialectal differences and adapt their written rhetoric to match that of a British audience offers valuable insight into the audience awareness of American students. Using a phenomenological research approach, I conducted 13 semi-structured interviews to study audience awareness. Through concept coding, three main themes emerged: sociolinguistic prestige, language globalization and media influence, and visual language variation. Each theme speaks to how American sojourners perceive and approach written language differences during an abroad experience. In a time when language is increasingly divisive and difference is regarded with suspicion, it is critical to consider how language alters perceptions. My research approaches difference with a mindset that respects dialectal divergences and works to form global connections

The Effects of Cultural Competency Training on Providers Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes Towards the Latino Population

Background: Providers in the United States (U.S.) healthcare system need to understand the cultural values, beliefs, and traditions of the growing Latino population. As a result, academic institutions are incorporating cultural competency training in their curricula. However, a noticeable knowledge gap exists for those currently practicing in the healthcare arena, impacting patient and provider satisfaction and healthcare outcomes. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to obtain a baseline assessment of the cultural competence of a select group of Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) caring for the Latino population at the University of Kentucky and provide a targeted educational intervention, followed by a post-intervention assessment utilizing the same evidence-based tool. Conceptual Framework: Schim and Miller’s Cultural Competence Model (CCM) was utilized as the framework for this study. Methodology: This study used a one-group pre-test post-test design to examine the effect of a cultural competency educational module for APPs on their knowledge related to cultural diversity, awareness, and sensitivity. Results: Thirteen participants completed the pre-survey and 11 completed the post-survey. Seven participants completed both the pre and post-surveys. There was no change in the pre and post self-reported overall cultural competency assessment scores in relation to the educational intervention, which was expected with a small sample size. However, it is important to note that the cultural competence behavior (CCB) scores were higher after the educational intervention. Conclusion: The implementation of cultural competency training for Advanced Practice Providers did result in increased CCB scores. However, this study needs to be replicated with a larger, more inclusive sample size

Current Perspective on the Location and Function of Gamma- Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) and its Metabolic Partners in the Kidney.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter located in the mammalian central nervous system, which binds to GABAA and GABAB receptors to mediate its neurological effects. In addition to its role in the CNS, an increasing number of publications have suggested that GABA might also play a role in the regulation of renal function. All three enzymes associated with GABA metabolism; glutamic acid decarboxylase, GABA ?-oxoglutarate transaminase (GABA-T) and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) have been localised to the kidney providing the necessary machinery for localised GABA synthesis and metabolism. Moreover GABA receptors have been localised to both tubular and vascular structures in the kidney, and GABA is excreted in urine (~3 ?M) in humans. Despite the collective evidence describing the presence of a GABA system in the kidney, the precise function of such a system requires further clarification. Here we provide an overview of the current renal GABA literature and provide novel data that indicates GABA can act at contractile pericyte cells located along vasa recta capillaries in the renal medulla to potentially regulate medullary blood flow

Emerging key roles for P2X receptors in the kidney

P2X ionotropic non-selective cation channels are expressed throughout the kidney and are activated in a paracrine or autocrine manner following the binding of extracellular ATP and related extracellular nucleotides. Whilst there is a wealth of literature describing a regulatory role of P2 receptors (P2R) in the kidney, there are significantly less data on the regulatory role of P2X receptors (P2XR) compared with that described for metabotropic P2Y. Much of the historical literature describing a role for P2XR in the kidney has focused heavily on the role of P2X1R in the autoregulation of renal blood flow. More recently, however, there has been a plethora of manuscripts providing compelling evidence for additional roles for P2XR in both kidney health and disease. This review summarizes the current evidence for the involvement of P2XR in the regulation of renal tubular and vascular function, and highlights the novel data describing their putative roles in regulating physiological and pathophysiological processes in the kidney

Sympathetic nerve-derived ATP regulates renal medullary vasa recta diameter via pericyte cells: a role for regulating medullary blood flow?

Pericyte cells are now known to be a novel locus of blood flow control, being able to regulate capillary diameter via their unique morphology and expression of contractile proteins. We have previously shown that exogenous ATP causes constriction of vasa recta via renal pericytes, acting at a variety of membrane bound P2 receptors on descending vasa recta (DVR), and therefore may be able to regulate medullary blood flow (MBF). Regulation of MBF is essential for appropriate urine concentration and providing essential oxygen and nutrients to this region of high, and variable, metabolic demand. Various sources of endogenous ATP have been proposed, including from epithelial, endothelial, and red blood cells in response to stimuli such as mechanical stimulation, local acidosis, hypoxia, and exposure to various hormones. Extensive sympathetic innervation of the nephron has previously been shown, however the innervation reported has focused around the proximal and distal tubules, and ascending loop of Henle. We hypothesize that sympathetic nerves are an additional source of ATP acting at renal pericytes and therefore regulate MBF. Using a rat live kidney slice model in combination with video imaging and confocal microscopy techniques we firstly show sympathetic nerves in close proximity to vasa recta pericytes in both the outer and inner medulla. Secondly, we demonstrate pharmacological stimulation of sympathetic nerves in situ (by tyramine) evokes pericyte-mediated vasoconstriction of vasa recta capillaries; inhibited by the application of the P2 receptor antagonist suramin. Lastly, tyramine-evoked vasoconstriction of vasa recta by pericytes is significantly less than ATP-evoked vasoconstriction. Sympathetic innervation may provide an additional level of functional regulation in the renal medulla that is highly localized. It now needs to be determined under which physiological/pathophysiological circumstances that sympathetic innervation of renal pericytes is important

The Children's Film Foundation: an investigation into the decline and fall of a unique British institution

The Children's Film Foundation (the CFF) was a unique institution in British cinema history, created in 1952 to provide content solely for the Saturday matinee film shows and junior cinema clubs that were provided by cinema chains right up to the middle of the 1980s. It was non-profitmaking and funded by an annual grant from the industry, raised by a cinema seat tax - the Eady Levy. The Foundation, which was the second largest producer of films in Britain, behind only Hammer Films, has had scant coverage by film historians. Only two titles have been published on the Foundation's history, and neither centred on the fight for survival and eventual demise of the CFF as the matinee market collapsed when the television stations targeted their traditional Saturday morning slots, and the British film industry floundered in the late 1970s. This thesis builds on the previous works by Terry Staples and Robert Shail by utilising the unpublished CFF archive at the British Film Institute. I was lucky enough to be the only researcher to be allowed access to the archive for over thirty years, since the archive was donated to the BFI, and this research is the basis of this new history and analysis of this underreported area of British film history. I have ordered this thesis chronologically, foregrounding the story and development of the British children's film, to trace the trends that the CFF had to adapt to, as the mainstream cinema audience and in particular, the matinee audience on which the Foundation depended, shrank in the face of television domination. The early chapters deal with the history of the children's film and the forerunner to the CFF, Lord Rank's CEF. The research is then ordered by decade - tracing the development of the Foundation, with specific and relevant productions subject to close scrutiny. Use of film reviews, CFF documents from the archives and close inspection of the texts and storylines, along with detailed analysis of the personnel of the films, build to give more than a basic synopsis of the important films and serials. The final chapters are a detailed investigation into the efforts of the CFF board to ensure survival, again with previously unpublished documents from the archive giving a more complete picture of the intense pressures and the supreme efforts of the board to try to remain a producer of children's content, for cinema, or more pertinently, television. The main research question is "could the CFF have been saved as a production entity as its main audience disappeared" and is addressed in the final chapters, centring on the board's reaction and their concerted efforts to remain in business, and an analysis of their 'co-production' deals with terrestrial television stations, which proved less than satisfactory and only served to hasten the Foundation’s demise