States of Change

States of Change documents efforts by state policymakers and local practitioners to devise useful approaches to helping low-income job seekers stay employed and begin advancing. It draws, in part, from our experiences working on these issues since 1997 with five states -- Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma and Florida -- as well as on examples and lessons in several other states. In general, states are trying a number of retention strategies, but few have been tested. Therefore, we expect that many strategies discussed will soon be modified or replaced with new approaches. We hope that States of Change encourages this process of testing and innovation by providing a sense of what is being tried and learned around the country, and what challenges remain

Sustainable strategic change in practice

This investigation looks at what Head Teachers are doing to make strategic change sustainable. It seeks to determine the ways in which senior leaders are using strategic approaches to build in systems and procedures that will secure improvement over the longer term alongside the short term leadership and operational challenges.The research focuses upon the key theoretical perspectives and conceptualframework for strategic leadership and sustainable improvement in schools today and the review of the literature looks at the concepts of strategy and strategic leadership to articulate how strategic management is central to sustainability. In developing a theory for action it draws upon the literature to build the main areas of research.This qualitative emergent study generates data from semi-structured interviews with ten secondary Lincolnshire Head Teachers. The researchlooks at the situation of the individual schools and semi-structured interviews incorporate both subjective and objective information to demonstrate subjective meanings of events, processes and strategic change measures to enhance sustainable progress within schools.The findings highlight that sustainability is about sustaining all that is good in a school and demonstrate that there is no single solution for achieving sustainable strategic change in schools today. A taxonomy of nine key principles for achieving sustainable strategic change is articulated in the closing chapter and the conclusions reached within this thesis demonstrate that the main driver of sustainable strategic leadership is having a clear moral purpose around which strategic change revolves. This extends to the wider moral purpose of developing partnerships and sharing responsibility across the community. Sustainable strategic change begins within the school with school leaders sharing the vision, developing the people and working to achieve both the short and longer term goals and then binding this together with external partnerships that renew and revive the creative energies of all concerned

Sustainable strategic change in practice

This investigation looks at what Head Teachers are doing to make strategic change sustainable. It seeks to determine the ways in which senior leaders are using strategic approaches to build in systems and procedures that will secure improvement over the longer term alongside the short term leadership and operational challenges.The research focuses upon the key theoretical perspectives and conceptualframework for strategic leadership and sustainable improvement in schools today and the review of the literature looks at the concepts of strategy and strategic leadership to articulate how strategic management is central to sustainability. In developing a theory for action it draws upon the literature to build the main areas of research.This qualitative emergent study generates data from semi-structured interviews with ten secondary Lincolnshire Head Teachers. The researchlooks at the situation of the individual schools and semi-structured interviews incorporate both subjective and objective information to demonstrate subjective meanings of events, processes and strategic change measures to enhance sustainable progress within schools.The findings highlight that sustainability is about sustaining all that is good in a school and demonstrate that there is no single solution for achieving sustainable strategic change in schools today. A taxonomy of nine key principles for achieving sustainable strategic change is articulated in the closing chapter and the conclusions reached within this thesis demonstrate that the main driver of sustainable strategic leadership is having a clear moral purpose around which strategic change revolves. This extends to the wider moral purpose of developing partnerships and sharing responsibility across the community. Sustainable strategic change begins within the school with school leaders sharing the vision, developing the people and working to achieve both the short and longer term goals and then binding this together with external partnerships that renew and revive the creative energies of all concerned

Simul.

My work stems from a process-heavy and researched-based art practice. Many of the sculptures I create are biomorphic forms that invoke a sense of physicality and a body, while slipping in and out of renderings of natural and post-natural environmental landscapes. In this space of elusive identification, I aim to find merging points for the personal and political, as well as for feminism and environmentalism. My interest in the narrative histories, as well as emotional references of objects, drives my selection of materials. Often pulling from deposited trash, altered through natural processes as well as my own hand, I aim to cultivate a curiosity: in what we discard and how it becomes reclaimed or repurposed. Thus, I create an intersection between the synthetic and organic, while introducing a seam between image recognition and material abstraction. How a piece of plastic is turned over and excavated and then reburied until it almost embodies the image of moss

An anthropological study of war crimes against children in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s

Between 1991 and 1999 war broke out across Former Yugoslavia. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed and many more were internally displaced or forcibly expelled from their countries. In 1993 the United Nations established the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to investigate war crimes allegedly committed in the region. Its work is still ongoing. This research comprises an anthropological study of the children in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina who were killed as a direct result of war crimes perpetrated during the conflicts of the 1990s. It is based on primary forensic data collected by investigators and scientists on behalf of ICTY between the dates of 1996 and 2000. From this data, a single integrated database was created which allowed the numbers of child deaths, causes of death, demographic profiles of the deceased, and post-mortem treatment of their remains to be analysed. As well as examining these factors within each country a significant aspect of the research included comparative analysis between the crimes committed against children in Kosovo and those in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Broad comparisons were also made between adult and child data in both countries. The findings from the research were analysed within their wider socio-political context and an assessment was made of how closely the forensic evidence supported accounts from other literary sources. In its current form, the research can be used as a historical and scientific resource by those wishing to study both the events surrounding the wars in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the scientific methods used by experts in the field to investigate the crimes. The methodology employed during the research, including the creation of the database, is described in detail and is directly transferrable to other studies of a similar nature. Solutions employed to address the considerable problems encountered during the construction of the database can be applied to other similarly large and unmanageable datasets. The database itself can be expanded to include the forensic evidence collected in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo since 2001, when ICTY handed over responsibility for the exhumations to local government agencies. It can also be used to examine other aspects of the wars, and adapted to analyse data from other countries. Ultimately it is hoped that this research will be of use in formulating pro-active strategies which might assist in protecting children involved in future conflicts

Reproductive isolation in smooth and palmate newts (Triturus vulgaris vulgaris and T. helveticus helveticus)

This thesis reports a study of reproductive isolation between two closely related sympatric British species of amphibian, the Smooth newt, Triturus vulgaris vulgaris and the Palmate newt, T, helveticus helveticus. Investigation shows that reproductive isolation is not attributable to differences in habitat, the timing of courtship or the failure of spermatophores to adhere to the cloaca of a heterospecific female and it is demonstrated that a proportion of FI hybrid larvae are capable of survival beyond metamorphosis; by elimination, the lack of naturally occurring hybrids is primarily a consequence of sexual isolation. Techniques for distinguishing both purebred and hybrid larvae and adult newts of both sexes and species based on differences in their external morphology are evaluated. The most suitable distinguishing characters (on which visual discrimination in newts may be based) are described. The variation in the courtship behaviour of T. h. helveticus is described in detail and compared to that of T. v, vulgaris. The similarity in form and transition of male acts suggests that qualitative differences in display and order of acts are not the primary source of information on which female discrimination is based. Quantitative differences in the proportion of acts performed probably serve to emphasise species-specific cues which play a direct role in sexual isolation. À causal analysis is carried out on a relatively recently recognised I. h. helveticus display act, the wiggle. Evidence is presented that the function of this act is to re- attract a female that is becoming unreceptive and it does not appear to contribute to reproductive isolation. Interspecific mating trials show that female J. h. helveticus are less receptive to heterospecific courtship than conspecific courtship. Male T. V. vulgaris display less vigorously to heterospecific females manipulated by means of a harness to perform positive behaviour than to conspecific females. It is demonstrated that male T. h. helveticus show selectivity towards conspecific females over heterospecific females on the basis of both visual and olfactory cues alone, whereas in male T. v. vulgaris and female T. v, vulgaris, the same preference is only observed on the basis of olfaction. When presented with an artificial fanning tail mimic, females of both species preferred the faster (T. h. helveticus) fan speed. It is suggested that sexual isolation is the consequence of a dual system in which males fail to recognise, or are less receptive to the olfactory and/or visual cues produced by heterospecific females and consequently do not initiate courtship with them. Where interspecific courtship does occur, the stimulation produced by the male is inadequate to raise the receptivity of the female at a high enough rate for the encounter to progress to spermatophore transfer

Legal Action

In mock trial, the courtroom becomes a classroom and students experience judicial proceedings firsthand

GREEN MEANS GO: TRIBES RUSH TO REGULATE CANNABIS IN INDIAN COUNTRY

During the Obama administration, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a series of memos stating that the federal government would not interfere with state laws legalizing cannabis. The United States Attorney General later expressly extended this policy to Indian Country. As a result, tribes began debating potential advantages and disadvantages of participating in the cannabis market. Then, in January 2018, the DOJ rescinded the memos and publicly recommitted itself to prosecuting the possession, cultivation, and distribution of marijuana. Consequently, tribes should approach “The Green Rush” as an exercise of their sovereignty; when a tribe decides to legalize or criminalize cannabis within its territory, the tribe protects its dominion vis-à-vis both federal and state governments. This assertion of sovereignty will, in turn, encourage the federal government to decisively clarify its cannabis policy in Indian Country. Several articles exist already discussing the intersection of tribal, state, and federal law, and how the three conflict in the cannabis market. This paper introduces a missing element to the analysis: the tribal debates about whether legalizing cannabis presents economic opportunity or a grave threat to Native communities. This lens gives insight into two points. First, the federal government’s undefined policy regarding cannabis products in Indian Country created the environment for tribes to make their own decisions regarding legalization. Second, tribal debates and decisions regarding participating in the cannabis market are opportunities for tribes to exercise and protect their sovereignty against interference from both state and the federal governments. This study brings tribal perspectives on cannabis in Indian Country to the forefront