The Functions of The County Superintendent of Public Instruction In The State of Kansas

The purpose of this study is to reveal the true status of the present incumbents in the offices of county superintendent of public instruction in Kansas. This involves three problems: first, to show the age, sex, salary, tenure of office, and the qualifications; second , to show the duties of the county superintendent and the distribution of time allotted to each; and, third, to show the methods, the objectives, and the outcomes of supervision

Debt, Deflation, and Debacle: Of Private Debt Write-Down and Public Recovery

Most public discussion of the world’s continuing financial and macroeconomic troubles focuses rightly on debt. It focuses wrongly, however, on public debt. The real source of our ills is global-trade-related private debt overhang among millions of households below the top of the wealth distribution in the “developed” world. That is the provenance of both (a) the asset price bubbles and busts in whose aftermath we still struggle, and (b) the fact that we’re still struggling. Public sector debt growth in the developed world since 2009 is merely a symptom – the product of thus far failed treatment – of this fundamental condition. In sum, then, we are now living with over three decades’ postponed secular stagnation on the part of the global middle class and the economies whose growth they once fueled, the destructive consequences of which we simply put off to, and accordingly concentrated into, the present moment. This is why times are so tough and so volatile. What then to do? Relative to the state of the public discussion, the answer is lamentably obvious. In the immediate term, private debt must be massively restructured and largely forgiven on a scale commensurate with those asset price plummets that were the crash. In the longer term, the structural conditions that render us debt-dependent have to be radically, even if incrementally, altered, while financial regulation for its part must become forthrightly macroprudential in character. This is the only sustainable way to eliminate our now crippling private debt overhang and prevent a recurrence. The only alternatives are intolerable: (a) continuing slump, with all of the waste and continuing tragedy it entails; or (b) further asset price bubbles and busts, of the sort in which all efforts to pare overhang artificially from the asset side of the balance sheet alone – e.g., through non-supplemented monetary policy – ultimately issue. This paper aims to head-off these intolerable alternatives. It begins by elaborating more fully on the role played by inequality and private debt in fomenting financial crisis and then underwriting post-crisis slump, first modeling the mechanism through which this occurs, then empirically corroborating the presence and operation of this mechanism in the nation’s most devastating bubbles, busts, and ensuing deflations. The paper then documents the magnitude of that post-bubble private debt overhang with which we now struggle. It shows that this overhang is by far the most salient cause of our ongoing troubles. The paper then turns to elaborating a full menu of shorter and longer term policy actions that must be taken to eliminate private debt overhang and restore healthy growth to the macroeconomy. These include carefully integrated debt write-down, capital-ownership-spreading, finance-regulatory, and global currency reform measures

Debt, Deflation, and Debacle: Of Private Debt Write-Down and Public Recovery

Most public discussion of the world’s continuing financial and macroeconomic troubles focuses rightly on debt. It focuses wrongly, however, on public debt. The real source of our ills is global-trade-related private debt overhang among millions of households below the top of the wealth distribution in the “developed” world. That is the provenance of both (a) the asset price bubbles and busts in whose aftermath we still struggle, and (b) the fact that we’re still struggling. Public sector debt growth in the developed world since 2009 is merely a symptom – the product of thus far failed treatment – of this fundamental condition. In sum, then, we are now living with over three decades’ postponed secular stagnation on the part of the global middle class and the economies whose growth they once fueled, the destructive consequences of which we simply put off to, and accordingly concentrated into, the present moment. This is why times are so tough and so volatile. What then to do? Relative to the state of the public discussion, the answer is lamentably obvious. In the immediate term, private debt must be massively restructured and largely forgiven on a scale commensurate with those asset price plummets that were the crash. In the longer term, the structural conditions that render us debt-dependent have to be radically, even if incrementally, altered, while financial regulation for its part must become forthrightly macroprudential in character. This is the only sustainable way to eliminate our now crippling private debt overhang and prevent a recurrence. The only alternatives are intolerable: (a) continuing slump, with all of the waste and continuing tragedy it entails; or (b) further asset price bubbles and busts, of the sort in which all efforts to pare overhang artificially from the asset side of the balance sheet alone – e.g., through non-supplemented monetary policy – ultimately issue. This paper aims to head-off these intolerable alternatives. It begins by elaborating more fully on the role played by inequality and private debt in fomenting financial crisis and then underwriting post-crisis slump, first modeling the mechanism through which this occurs, then empirically corroborating the presence and operation of this mechanism in the nation’s most devastating bubbles, busts, and ensuing deflations. The paper then documents the magnitude of that post-bubble private debt overhang with which we now struggle. It shows that this overhang is by far the most salient cause of our ongoing troubles. The paper then turns to elaborating a full menu of shorter and longer term policy actions that must be taken to eliminate private debt overhang and restore healthy growth to the macroeconomy. These include carefully integrated debt write-down, capital-ownership-spreading, finance-regulatory, and global currency reform measures

Debt, Deflation, and Debacle: Of Private Debt Write-Down and Public Recovery

Most public discussion of the world’s continuing financial and macroeconomic troubles focuses rightly on debt. It focuses wrongly, however, on public debt. The real source of our ills is global-trade-related private debt overhang among millions of households below the top of the wealth distribution in the “developed” world. That is the provenance of both (a) the asset price bubbles and busts in whose aftermath we still struggle, and (b) the fact that we’re still struggling. Public sector debt growth in the developed world since 2009 is merely a symptom – the product of thus far failed treatment – of this fundamental condition. In sum, then, we are now living with over three decades’ postponed secular stagnation on the part of the global middle class and the economies whose growth they once fueled, the destructive consequences of which we simply put off to, and accordingly concentrated into, the present moment. This is why times are so tough and so volatile. What then to do? Relative to the state of the public discussion, the answer is lamentably obvious. In the immediate term, private debt must be massively restructured and largely forgiven on a scale commensurate with those asset price plummets that were the crash. In the longer term, the structural conditions that render us debt-dependent have to be radically, even if incrementally, altered, while financial regulation for its part must become forthrightly macroprudential in character. This is the only sustainable way to eliminate our now crippling private debt overhang and prevent a recurrence. The only alternatives are intolerable: (a) continuing slump, with all of the waste and continuing tragedy it entails; or (b) further asset price bubbles and busts, of the sort in which all efforts to pare overhang artificially from the asset side of the balance sheet alone – e.g., through non-supplemented monetary policy – ultimately issue. This paper aims to head-off these intolerable alternatives. It begins by elaborating more fully on the role played by inequality and private debt in fomenting financial crisis and then underwriting post-crisis slump, first modeling the mechanism through which this occurs, then empirically corroborating the presence and operation of this mechanism in the nation’s most devastating bubbles, busts, and ensuing deflations. The paper then documents the magnitude of that post-bubble private debt overhang with which we now struggle. It shows that this overhang is by far the most salient cause of our ongoing troubles. The paper then turns to elaborating a full menu of shorter and longer term policy actions that must be taken to eliminate private debt overhang and restore healthy growth to the macroeconomy. These include carefully integrated debt write-down, capital-ownership-spreading, finance-regulatory, and global currency reform measures

Midwives' experiences of working with women in labour: interpreting the meaning of pain

A key midwifery activity is the support of a woman in labour. Pain in labour has been extensively researched from the woman's perspective, but less has been explored in relation to the midwife and her approach to pain. The way in which the midwife works with a woman and her pain in labour is the focus of this qualitative study, using Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology. This philosophical approach seeks to uncover or illuminate aspects of the midwife's practice which are frequently taken for granted in their everydayness. Seven midwives, including both independent practitioners and hospital-employed, were interviewed. Their narratives were analysed to uncover the meaning of the way in which midwives work with women and their pain in labour. The findings of this thesis suggest that midwives work by interpreting the woman's pain. Before the pain begins, they 'leap ahead' to help them anticipate the pain and how they will confront it. During labour, midwives give pain meaning by translating its purpose in that context. They 'leap in' when required, sometimes using 'self as an intervention. Midwives interpret women's pain through their understanding of lived time. They know how the perception of time passing changes depending on the setting for labour or the amount of anxiety and pain the woman is experiencing. Midwives use time in their work. They break it down to help a woman focus on a single contraction rather than looking too far ahead toward the unknown. Time can be a midwife's friend when the arrival of the baby replaces the urgent need for pain relief. It can also be her enemy if her interpretation of a woman's pain differs from the woman's perception. The memory of pain may persist for the woman, after labour has finished, with a backlash for the midwife. Some midwives believe in the process of birth and the woman's ability to labour with such conviction that they gain a woman's complete trust. At her most vulnerable time, they encourage the woman to call upon inner reserves and be truly empowered by her experience

The sexual stories of adults who have lived in out-of-home care as young people : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Listed in 2019 Dean's List of Exceptional ThesesYoung people who are in out-of-home care occupy a space in which what is public and what is intimate intersect. Families, sexuality and reproduction are interconnected and subjected to implicit and explicit government regulation. In contemporary liberal societies, the emphasis on parents caring for their children leads to discourses that call into question the worth of children who are not looked after by their parents. In 17th century Europe, these beliefs were associated with moralism; in contemporary New Zealand, these beliefs are associated with neoliberalism. Sexual stories are “simply the narratives of the intimate life, focussed especially around the erotic, the gendered and the relational” Plummer (1995, p. 6). Utilising a narrative methodology, this research involved a series of interviews with ten adults who had spent time in out-of-home care as young people to explore the sexual stories of those who have been in out-of-home care to consider three research questions: firstly, how the public and the intimate converge at the intersection between sexuality and the provision of out-of-home care, secondly, the intersection between experiences of out-of-home care, sexual and romantic relationships, and lastly the meaning that adults who have been in out-of-home care have made of their lives. The responses to these questions were underpinned by the theory of meaning making, which describes “a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between the psychological and the social, between the past and the present, and between emotion and thought” (Kegan, 1982, p. 15). Participants were aware of being positioned as existing outside of dominant social discourses and being perceived as less worthy because they had been in out-of-home care. The stigma associated with being in out-of-home care intersected with sexual stigma that they experienced. Participants actively sought power, agency and inclusion and imagined that if they were to have socially acceptable relationships with socially acceptable partners, they would experience a sense of social inclusion that they had not experienced before. Relationships were made more challenging by the fact that participants had to discover how to have a healthy relationship when they had seen few examples of these in their own lives. Making meaning was more challenging for adult participants who have been in out-of-home care as young people, as not only did they have very complex lives and relationships of which to make meaning, they often lacked relationships with key family members to help them make this meaning. Participants who had made meaning of their experiences in out-of-home care before entering a relationship expressed more satisfaction within their relationships than those who had not made meaning. This research calls into question the neoliberal foundations on which the New Zealand child protection system is predicated but acknowledges that in the immediate future young people will come into out-of-home care. Thus, based on the findings of this research this thesis makes several recommendations to improve that system. The first is a system that promotes better connection between young people in out-of-home care and their caregivers and social workers. The second recommendation is the prioritisation of life-story work with young people in out-of-home care. Both deeper connections and more opportunities for young people in out-of-home care to make meaning of the lives will provide a foundation in which social workers and caregivers are able to engage in meaningful sex and relationship education with the young people that they care for. These changes, as with any development of policy and practice should be informed by the voices of those who are in, or who have been in, out-of-home care

C-peptide, Na+,K+-ATPase, and Diabetes

Na+,K+-ATPase is an ubiquitous membrane enzyme that allows the extrusion of three sodium ions from the cell and two potassium ions from the extracellular fluid. Its activity is decreased in many tissues of streptozotocin-induced diabetic animals. This impairment could be at least partly responsible for the development of diabetic complications. Na+,K+-ATPase activity is decreased in the red blood cell membranes of type 1 diabetic individuals, irrespective of the degree of diabetic control. It is less impaired or even normal in those of type 2 diabetic patients. The authors have shown that in the red blood cells of type 2 diabetic patients, Na+,K+-ATPase activity was strongly related to blood C-peptide levels in non–insulin-treated patients (in whom C-peptide concentration reflects that of insulin) as well as in insulin-treated patients. Furthermore, a gene-environment relationship has been observed. The alpha-1 isoform of the enzyme predominant in red blood cells and nerve tissue is encoded by the ATP1A1 gene.Apolymorphism in the intron 1 of this gene is associated with lower enzyme activity in patients with C-peptide deficiency either with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but not in normal individuals. There are several lines of evidence for a low C-peptide level being responsible for low Na+,K+-ATPase activity in the red blood cells. Short-term C-peptide infusion to type 1 diabetic patients restores normal Na+,K+-ATPase activity. Islet transplantation, which restores endogenous C-peptide secretion, enhances Na+,K+-ATPase activity proportionally to the rise in C-peptide. This C-peptide effect is not indirect. In fact, incubation of diabetic red blood cells with C-peptide at physiological concentration leads to an increase of Na+,K+-ATPase activity. In isolated proximal tubules of rats or in the medullary thick ascending limb of the kidney, C-peptide stimulates in a dose-dependent manner Na+,K+-ATPase activity. This impairment in Na+,K+-ATPase activity, mainly secondary to the lack of C-peptide, plays probably a role in the development of diabetic complications. Arguments have been developed showing that the diabetesinduced decrease in Na+,K+-ATPase activity compromises microvascular blood flow by two mechanisms: by affecting microvascular regulation and by decreasing red blood cell deformability, which leads to an increase in blood viscosity. C-peptide infusion restores red blood cell deformability and microvascular blood flow concomitantly with Na+,K+-ATPase activity. The defect in ATPase is strongly related to diabetic neuropathy. Patients with neuropathy have lower ATPase activity than those without. The diabetes-induced impairment in Na+,K+-ATPase activity is identical in red blood cells and neural tissue. Red blood cell ATPase activity is related to nerve conduction velocity in the peroneal and the tibial nerve of diabetic patients. C-peptide infusion to diabetic rats increases endoneural ATPase activity in rat. Because the defect in Na+,K+-ATPase activity is also probably involved in the development of diabetic nephropathy and cardiomyopathy, physiological C-peptide infusion could be beneficial for the prevention of diabetic complications

Exploring the Tuning Range of Channel Filters for Satellite Applications Using Electromagnetic-Based Computer Aided Design Tools

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.[EN] The objective of this paper is to use electromagnetic-based computer-aided design (CAD) tools to investigate the maximum tuning range of channel filters, typically used in satellite payloads. Both circular and rectangular waveguide technologies are investigated. The results of the investigation show that single-mode rectangular waveguide implementations offer substantially wider tuning range, as opposed to classical dual-mode circular waveguide implementations. In addition to simulations, measurements are also presented indicating very good agreement with theory, thereby fully validating the CAD procedure.This work was supported in part by MINECO (Spanish Government) under Research and Development Project TEC2016-75934-C4-1-R and in part by Research and Development Technicians under Grant PTA2015-10839-I.Ossorio-García, J.; Vague Cardona, JJ.; Boria Esbert, VE.; Guglielmi, M. (2018). Exploring the Tuning Range of Channel Filters for Satellite Applications Using Electromagnetic-Based Computer Aided Design Tools. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 66(2):717-725. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2017.2769083S71772566

Substrate Integrated Waveguide Diplexer Based on Circular Triplet Combline Filters

The design of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) diplexers, based on combline triplet sections with transmission zeros (TZs) placed below and above the passband, is presented. In order to control the location of the TZs, positive and negative couplings are conveniently provided. A highly compact implementation based on circular substrate integrated coaxial resonators is proposed. An X band diplexer with channel center frequencies at 9.5 and 10.5 GHz and absolute bandwidths of 400 MHz is designed. The structure shows important advantages in terms of size reduction, while keeping good insertion losses as well as high rejection and isolation levels.This work was supported by MINECO (Spanish Government) under projects TEC2103-47037-C5-1-R and TEC2013-48036-C3-3-R.Sirci, S.; Martínez Pérez, JD.; Vague Cardona, JJ.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2015). Substrate Integrated Waveguide Diplexer Based on Circular Triplet Combline Filters. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters. 25(7):430-432. doi:10.1109/LMWC.2015.2427516S43043225