The Water Poverty Index: an International Comparison

This paper reports on the construction of an International Water Poverty Index, part of the first phase of a research project into building a locally based version of the index. The purpose of the Water Poverty Index is to express an interdisciplinary measure which links household welfare with water availability and indicates the degree to which water scarcity impacts on human populations. Such an index makes it possible to rank countries and communities within countries taking into account both physical and socio-economic factors associated with water scarcity. This enables national and international organisations concerned with water provision and management to monitor both the resources available and the socio-economic factors which impact on access and use of those resources. This paper presents details of the methodology used and the results obtained for 140 countries covering measures of resources, access, capacity, use and environment.Indicators, water, environment, water poverty, income poverty

Unsatisfactory Progress: The Pursuit of Good Schools in Suburban America, 1940-1980

This project is a case study of educational politics in Montgomery County, Maryland, an affluent suburban county bordering Washington, D.C., from 1940 to 1980. Following World War Two the county experienced significant population growth due to the baby boom and migration, transforming it into a thriving suburb. Concurrently, state party control over the county's school system was replaced by a pluralist system characterized by local grassroots activism, allowing groups of citizens to articulate and organize around distinct educational visions influenced by attitudes about race, class, and political ideology. Citizens debated the meaning of good schools and discussed the best way to achieve them, and over time conflicts between proponents of different educational philosophies revealed clearly defined segments of people within the county. These divisions developed within a consensual yearning for excellent public schools, and this dissertation explores the tension between the shared desire for educational excellence and the specific, competing desires of activists to define educational quality and influence educational policy. Current scholarship on the history of education in America focuses on urban schools or examines particular issues, like desegregation or teacher unionization, in isolation. This investigation highlights suburban educational politics and explores how suburbanites confronted numerous challenges simultaneously as they worked to make good schools in their community. Four groups of county residents emerged and sorted themselves into associations and activist organizations during the postwar decades: liberals, African Americans, conservatives, and teachers. Members of competing activist organizations defined good schools differently and employed different strategies to implement their preferences, including lobbying, electoral activism, petitioning at public hearings, and direct action such as protests and strikes. Cooperation between activists seemed possible initially, but over time the democratic mechanisms of pluralist educational politics helped cultivate suspicion in the minds of many citizens, splintering the consensus about the quality of the school system and prompting people to view public schools as a limited resource, with benefits available only to some, as opposed to a common good. In this way, the democratization of educational politics constrained what these suburbanites thought public schools could achieve and tempered their hopes for the future

Mindset Perfect

Mindset Perfect is a short story collection about the residents who live in the fictional city of Lincoln, Mississippi. Centering mostly on the Moore family, this collection of stories explores themes like religion, gossip, death, and marriage. This collection gives readers an insight into what it is like to live in a small Southern town, where everyone tends to know everyone. Beginning with Mr. Tansey\u27s Daughter, a story about a prodigal child returning to her hometown after a long absence, and ending with The Redemption of Donald McCoy, which features a life long resident of Lincoln finally leaving his hometown for good, these stories are intended to explore the human condition. In the spirit of Winesburg, Ohio and Dubliners, this collection shows the different types of people who live in the American South

Slow EdTech: Pedagogical principles, collaborative explorations, and persistent challenges

This article describes two “Slow EdTech” initiatives, using this label to denote a focus on learning and the development of capacities for learning along with a mindful approach to the uptake of new digital tools that become available. One initiative, dating from 2001, is a set of guidelines about specific situations and specific ways in which specific educational technologies are of significant pedagogical benefit. The other, dating from 2013, is online Collaborative Explorations (CEs) for moderate-sized open online collaborative learning. The tools and processes used in CEs for inquiry, dialogue, reflection, and collaboration are designed to be readily learned by participants so they can translate them into their own settings to support the inquiries of others. Reflection on both initiatives points to the deeper source of challenges for Slow EdTech, namely, the political, economic and cultural context in which U.S. education is embedded

Photon Number Resolving Detection with a Single-Photon Detector and Adaptive Storage Loop

Photon number resolving (PNR) measurements are beneficial or even necessary for many applications in quantum optics. Unfortunately, PNR detectors are usually large, slow, expensive, and difficult to operate. However, if the input signal is multiplexed, photon "click" detectors, that lack an intrinsic photon number resolving capability, can still be used to realize photon number resolution. Here, we investigate the operation of a single click detector, together with a storage line with tunable outcoupling. Using adaptive feedback to adjust the storage outcoupling rate, the dynamic range of the detector can in certain situations be extended by up to an order of magnitude relative to a purely passive setup. An adaptive approach can thus allow for photon number variance below the quantum shot noise limit under a wider range of conditions than using a passive multiplexing approach. This can enable applications in quantum enhanced metrology and quantum computing.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

Junior Recital: Jacob Greifinger, trumpet

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Greifinger studies trumpet with Douglas Lindsey and Michael Tiscione.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2070/thumbnail.jp

Disassortative Age-Mixing Does Not Explain Differences in HIV Prevalence between Young White and Black MSM: Findings from Four Studies

Objective Age disassortativity is one hypothesis for HIV disparities between Black and White MSM. We examined differences in age mixing by race and the effect of partner age difference on the association between race and HIV status. Design We used data from four studies of MSM. Participants reported information about recent sexual partners, including age, race, and sexual behavior. Two studies were online with a US sample and two focused on MSM in Atlanta. Methods We computed concordance correlation coefficients (CCCs) by race across strata of partner type, participant HIV status, condom use, and number of partners. We used Wilcoxon ranksum tests to compare Black and White MSM on partner age differences across five age groups. Finally, we used logistic regression models using race, age, and partner age difference to determine the odds ratio of HIV-positive serostatus. Results Of 48 CCC comparisons, Black MSM were more age-disassortative than White MSM in only two. Furthermore, of 20 comparisons of median partner age, Black and White MSM differed in two age groups. One indicated larger age gaps among the Black MSM (18-19). Prevalent HIV infection was associated with race and age. Including partner age difference in the model resulted in a 2% change in the relative odds of infection among Black MSM. Conclusions Partner age disassortativity and partner age differences do not differ by race. Partner age difference offers little predictive value in understanding prevalent HIV infection among Black and White MSM, including diagnosis of HIV-positive status among self-reported HIVnegative individuals

Concerted adoption as an emerging strategy for digital transformation of healthcare - lessons from Australia, Canada, and England

Objectives: With an increasing focus on the digitalization of health and care settings, there is significant scope to learn from international approaches to promote concerted adoption of electronic health records. Materials and methods: We review three large-scale initiatives from Australia, Canada, and England, and extract common lessons for future health and social care transformation strategy. Results: In doing so, we discuss how, despite differences in contexts, concerted adoption enables sharing of experience and learning to streamline the digital transformation of health and care. Discussion and conclusion: Concerted adoption can be accelerated through building communities of expertise and partnerships promoting knowledge transfer and circulation of expertise, commonalities in geographical and cultural contexts, and commonalities in technological systems