Lessons of Resilience from Our Founding Mothers: An Examination of Women from 1776 to 1830

The role of women in American society during its first 50 years (1776-1830) varied. Women, however, built and maintained the Republic but were not granted access to the Academy (Nash, 2005, Kerber, 1997). At the threshold of the Revolutionary War, women served not only their home, family, and husbands, they began to serve the broader country. In the first third of the 19th century, white women of wealth engaged in political acts of service and in acts of disruption (Kerber, 1997). The rest of this paper examines how women leaders of early America laid the foundation for women’s access to chartered institutions of higher education and the influences of this foundation. I assert that the women of 1776-1830, through their resilience and what I have coined the capacity- social capital-finance framework, paved a path for the women to come (e.g., Catherine Beecher, Mary Lyon, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells). Through historical research, I explore the philosophical underpinnings of 1776 through 1830 and explain women’s capacity, their social capital, and the eventual access to their own money. I also apply this framework to current day standards

Investigation of In-Service Teachers\u27 Use of Video during a Critical Friends Group

Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) were established in 1995 as a form of professional development for teachers. The current study employed the use of video as a medium for documenting the effects of CFG participation on teaching practices. This allowed links to be drawn between CFG participation and teaching practice, a critical gap in the literature. This qualitative case study drew upon Knowles’s Adult Learning Theory to help provide a framework for thinking about Critical Friends Groups and analyzing the findings. The 9 participants in this study included 1 third grade Early Intervention Program teacher and 8 CFG members from an urban elementary school. Multiple data sources were analyzed including classroom teaching practice videos, focal teacher\u27s and CFG members’ written reflections, CFG meeting verbatim transcriptions, focal teacher and CFG member interviews, and researcher memos. Data analysis was iterative and axial coding led to a code book depicting the final 6 key themes: change in teacher attitude toward the use of video, shared teaching practice, pedagogical-driven conversations, change in pupil engagement, captured classroom practice and promotion of teacher reflection. Barriers to the use of video in a CFG included logistics and teacher resistance. The researcher used data triangulation, member-checking and an audit trail to assure the trustworthiness of the study. Teachers reported that they learned from watching one another’s practices and from discussing each other’s ideas. The use of video in this study appeared to offer a viable innovation in an already prevalent model of professional development, CFGs. Video appeared to have much potential at the in-service level as it helped to cultivate knowledge, skills, and attitudes among teachers

Average distance in growing trees

Two kinds of evolving trees are considered here: the exponential trees, where subsequent nodes are linked to old nodes without any preference, and the Barab\'asi--Albert scale-free networks, where the probability of linking to a node is proportional to the number of its pre-existing links. In both cases, new nodes are linked to $m=1$ nodes. Average node-node distance $d$ is calculated numerically in evolving trees as dependent on the number of nodes $N$. The results for $N$ not less than a thousand are averaged over a thousand of growing trees. The results on the mean node-node distance $d$ for large $N$ can be approximated by $d=2\ln(N)+c_1$ for the exponential trees, and $d=\ln(N)+c_2$ for the scale-free trees, where the $c_i$ are constant. We derive also iterative equations for $d$ and its dispersion for the exponential trees. The simulation and the analytical approach give the same results.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Int. J. Mod. Phys. C14 (2003) - in prin

Enhancement of bulk second-harmonic generation from silicon nitride films by material composition

We present a comprehensive tensorial characterization of second-harmonic generation from silicon nitride films with varying composition. The samples were fabricated using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and the material composition was varied by the reactive gas mixture in the process. We found a six-fold enhancement between the lowest and highest second-order susceptibility, with the highest value of approximately 5 pm/V from the most silicon-rich sample. Moreover, the optical losses were found to be sufficiently small (below 6 dB/cm) for applications. The tensorial results show that all samples retain in-plane isotropy independent of silicon content, highlighting the controllability of the fabrication process.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; Re-submitted to Optics Letter

Ferroelectric AgNa(NO2)2 crystals as novel highly efficient nonlinear optical material: Phase matched second harmonic generation driven by a spontaneous and electric field induced polarizations

Paper reports the second harmonic generation(SHG) in ferroelectric AgNa ( NO 2 ) 2 crystals being driven by the spontaneous and electric field induced polarizations. Obtained results are interpreted within the phenomenological theory which considers the free energy describing the interaction between the spontaneous or electric field induced polarizations and spatially inhomogeneous electric polarizations resulted from propagating optical waves. Relatively high magnitudes of the effective second order nonlinear optical (NLO) susceptibilities in these crystals are combined with several phase matching geometries which allows to consider them as high-performance materials for potential NLO applications, such as parametric generation and amplification, frequency doubling, or other applications that require high-efficient frequency conversion. In addition, an anomalously large response of NLO susceptibilities with respect to an applied electric field has been found in the vicinity of the Curie point. This may also have a number of applications, especially in those devices where an efficient tunable control of SHG intensity is demanded

Nonlinear optical properties of thiazolidinone derivatives

Thiazolidinone derivatives were synthesized and their physicochemical properties are determined by absorption, H NMR spectroscopies. The third order nonlinear optical properties of thiazolidinone containing compounds were investigated in solutions using degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM) method at 532 nm

Strategies and outcomes of HIV status disclosure in HIV-positive young women with abuse histories

Young women with HIV and histories of physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood may be vulnerable to difficulties with disclosure to sexual partners. Abuse in childhood is highly prevalent in HIV-positive women, and has been associated with poorer communication, low assertiveness, low self worth, and increased risk for sexual and other risk behaviors that increase the risk of secondary transmission of HIV. HIV disclosure may be an important link between abuse and sexual risk behaviors. Qualitative interviews with 40 HIV-positive young women with childhood physical and/or sexual abuse were conducted; some women had also experienced adult victimization. Results suggest that HIV-positive women with abuse histories use a host of strategies to deal with disclosure of HIV status, including delaying disclosure, assessing hypothetical responses of partners, and determining appropriate stages in a relationship to disclose. Stigma was an important theme related to disclosure. We discuss how these disclosure processes impact sexual behavior and relationships and discuss intervention opportunities based on our findings