Development of education in Kansas

Citation: Smith, Charles F. Development of education in Kansas. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1902.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: Preparatory to bringing the western land into market, sections numbered 16 and 36 in each township were to be reserved for the benefit of the schools of the country. The act of 1861 admitting Kansas as a state, in addition to the above, set apart 72 sections of land in the state for the support of a state university. Educational advantages were thus early to be provided. It was the intention that all children, male and female shall have equal educational opportunities. Before schools could be provided for, however, the settlers at once began the instruction of their children at home. Out of this land appropriated to the state by the General Government has grown what is called the State Permanent School Fund which now amounts to about eight million dollars (8,000,000). This is invested in bonds of the state or counties or in those of the United States. The income from these bonds is distributed semi-annually to the proper counties of the state in proportion to the school population. This fund now amounts to about $650,000 annually. This amount divided by 650,000, an estimate of the school population of the state, gives the amount received for each pupil. Thus we see that when Kansas was admitted as a state, the Common Schools and the State University were provided for. Out of the university provision has grown the State Agricultural College and the State Normal School. These will each be taken up later in their turn. As soon as any small portion of a country becomes sufficiently settled, the attention is always turned to the establishment of a Common Public School. To meet this natural inclination the state constitution has provided for the organization of such a settlement, by the County Superintendent, into a School District

X-ray Dust Scattering at Small Angles: The Complete Halo around GX13+1

The exquisite angular resolution available with Chandra should allow precision measurements of faint diffuse emission surrounding bright sources, such as the X-ray scattering halos created by interstellar dust. However, the ACIS CCDs suffer from pileup when observing bright sources, and this creates difficulties when trying to extract the scattered halo near the source. The initial study of the X-ray halo around GX13+1 using only the ACIS-I detector done by Smith, Edgar & Shafer (2002) suffered from a lack of sensitivity within 50'' of the source, limiting what conclusions could be drawn. To address this problem, observations of GX13+1 were obtained with the Chandra HRC-I and simultaneously with the RXTE PCA. Combined with the existing ACIS-I data, this allowed measurements of the X-ray halo between 2-1000''. After considering a range of dust models, each assumed to be smoothly distributed with or without a dense cloud along the line of sight, the results show that there is no evidence in this data for a dense cloud near the source, as suggested by Xiang et al. (2005). Finally, although no model leads to formally acceptable results, the Weingartner & Draine (2001) and nearly all of the composite grain models from Zubko, Dwek & Arendt (2004) give poor fits.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Quantitative Effects of Iron Chelators on Hydroxyl Radical Production by the Superoxide-Driven Fenton Raction

Iron bound to certain chelators is known to promote the conversion of superoxide radicals (O2) to hydroxyl radicals (HO\u27) by the superoxide-driven Fenton reaction. The production of HO\u27 by various iron chelates was studied using the reaction of dimethyl sulfoxide and HO\u27 to produce methane sulphinic acid. Methane sulphinic acid was quantified by use of a simple colorimetric assay and used to determine the amounts of HO\u27 produced. Superoxide was generated from 200 M hypoxanthine and 0.05 U/ml xanthine oxidase in the presence of 0-100 M iron and 100 M of each chelator. The results of this preliminary investigation illustrate that, at physiological pH, the superoxide-driven Fenton reaction is significantly promoted by iron chelated to EDTA, nitrilotriacetate, and citrate, but is not promoted by the other anions studied

Non-equilibrium dynamics and floral trait interactions shape extant angiosperm diversity.

Why are some traits and trait combinations exceptionally common across the tree of life, whereas others are vanishingly rare? The distribution of trait diversity across a clade at any time depends on the ancestral state of the clade, the rate at which new phenotypes evolve, the differences in speciation and extinction rates across lineages, and whether an equilibrium has been reached. Here we examine the role of transition rates, differential diversification (speciation minus extinction) and non-equilibrium dynamics on the evolutionary history of angiosperms, a clade well known for the abundance of some trait combinations and the rarity of others. Our analysis reveals that three character states (corolla present, bilateral symmetry, reduced stamen number) act synergistically as a key innovation, doubling diversification rates for lineages in which this combination occurs. However, this combination is currently less common than predicted at equilibrium because the individual characters evolve infrequently. Simulations suggest that angiosperms will remain far from the equilibrium frequencies of character states well into the future. Such non-equilibrium dynamics may be common when major innovations evolve rarely, allowing lineages with ancestral forms to persist, and even outnumber those with diversification-enhancing states, for tens of millions of years

White matter integrity and vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease: Preliminary findings and future directions

AbstractNeuroimaging biomarkers that precede cognitive decline have the potential to aid early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A body of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) work has demonstrated declines in white matter (WM) microstructure in AD and its typical prodromal state, amnestic mild cognitive impairment. The present review summarizes recent evidence suggesting that WM integrity declines are present in individuals at high AD-risk, prior to cognitive decline. The available data suggest that AD-risk is associated with WM integrity declines in a subset of tracts showing decline in symptomatic AD. Specifically, AD-risk has been associated with WM integrity declines in tracts that connect gray matter structures associated with memory function. These tracts include parahippocampal WM, the cingulum, the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and the splenium of the corpus callosum. Preliminary evidence suggests that some AD-risk declines are characterized by increases of radial diffusivity, raising the possibility that a myelin-related pathology may contribute to AD onset. These findings justify future research aimed at a more complete understanding of the neurobiological bases of DTI-based declines in AD. With continued refinement of imaging methods, DTI holds promise as a method to aid identification of presymptomatic AD. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Imaging Brain Aging and Neurodegenerative disease

Residential radon exposure and lung cancer: variation in risk estimates using alternative exposure scenarios

The most direct way to derive risk estimates for residential radon progeny exposure is through epidemiologic studies that examine the association between residential radon exposure and lung cancer. However, the National Research Council concluded that the inconsistency among prior residential radon case-control studies was largely a consequence of errors in radon dosimetry. This paper examines the impact of applying various epidemiologic dosimetry models for radon exposure assessment using a common data set from the Iowa Radon Lung Cancer Study (IRLCS). The IRLCS uniquely combined enhanced dosimetric techniques, individual mobility assessment, and expert histologic review to examine the relationship between cumulative radon exposure, smoking, and lung cancer. The a priori defined IRLCS radon-exposure model produced higher odds ratios than those methodologies that did not link the subject\u27s retrospective mobility with multiple, spatially diverse radon concentrations. In addition, the smallest measurement errors were noted for the IRLCS exposure model. Risk estimates based solely on basement radon measurements generally exhibited the lowest risk estimates and the greatest measurement error. The findings indicate that the power of an epidemiologic study to detect an excess risk from residential radon exposure is enhanced by linking spatially disparate radon concentrations with the subject\u27s retrospective mobility

K+ to pi-mu+mu+ and doubly-charged Higgs

The rate for the lepton-number-violating decay K+ to pi- mu+mu+ is calculated in a model which incorporates doubly-charged Higgs bosons. We find that for reasonable values of the parameters the decay branching ratio may be as large as 2E-16. Although this is a discouragingly small number, it is of the same order of magnitude as the rate mediated by massive Majorana neutrinos.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex, Figure1 is P