Circles of Influence: Rational decision-making, strategic positioning, and the formation of charter school clusters in New Jersey

A major focus of charter school research has been the potential impact of increased school choice on student sorting by race/ethnicity and socio-economic status. Researchers have argued that charter schools may increase segregation by allowing families to separate into more homogeneous school communities. Yet surprisingly, little attention has been paid to the role charter schools themselves may play in determining student enrollments. Emerging evidence suggests that charter schools may frequently take into account nearby educational and demographic characteristics when choosing school locations and avoid neighborhoods with high-proportions of at-risk students who are more costly and challenging to educate. While this behavior is not incompatible with traditional notions of how education marketplaces function, such "positioning strategies" serve as important reminders that charter schools benefit most by locating in areas where they hold clear competitive advantages, not necessarily areas of greatest demand or educational need. In this dissertation, I examined the potential for New Jersey charter schools to effectively distribute educational opportunities to all students, particularly those most frequently targeted by previous approaches to school reform, across varied and often segregated landscapes. Drawing on rational choice theory and previous research into the profit maximizing behavior of firms, I argued that charter schools have strong incentives to locate in areas that allow them to effectively balance consumer demand with the potential negative effects of increased competition in high needs areas. I used geographic information systems (GIS) and logistic regression to map the location of charter schools in New Jersey and examine potential associations with supply side factors. New Jersey's charter school supply showed two distinct clustering patterns. First, charter schools tended to circle Abbott districts or low-performing school districts in a narrow five mile band characterized by greater educational need and, presumably, consumer demand. Second, charter schools in Abbott districts tended to circle, but not locate within, neighborhoods with higher levels of educational and economic disadvantage, and particularly neighborhoods with higher proportions of African American residents. Logistic regression confirmed statistically significant associations among charter school clusters and proxies for market demand, educational need, and neighborhood diversity, although estimates for race/ethnicity were less conclusive. Further analysis indicated that observed clustering patterns were primarily driven by more market savvy or entrepreneurial schools partnered with charter management organizations (CMOs)

Ostensive signals support learning from novel attention cues during infancy

Social attention cues (e.g., head turning, gaze direction) highlight which events young infants should attend to in a busy environment and, recently, have been shown to shape infants' likelihood of learning about objects and events. Although studies have documented which social cues guide attention and learning during early infancy, few have investigated how infants learn to learn from attention cues. Ostensive signals, such as a face addressing the infant, often precede social attention cues. Therefore, it is possible that infants can use ostensive signals to learn from other novel attention cues. In this training study, 8-month-olds were cued to the location of an event by a novel non-social attention cue (i.e., flashing square) that was preceded by an ostensive signal (i.e., a face addressing the infant). At test, infants predicted the appearance of specific multimodal events cued by the flashing squares, which were previously shown to guide attention to but not inform specific predictions about the multimodal events (Wu and Kirkham, 2010). Importantly, during the generalization phase, the attention cue continued to guide learning of these events in the absence of the ostensive signal. Subsequent experiments showed that learning was less successful when the ostensive signal was absent even if an interesting but non-ostensive social stimulus preceded the same cued events

Development and Validity of the Teachers' Attitude, Comfort and Training Scale (TACTS) on Sexuality Education

The purpose of the study was to design and validate an instrument designed to investigate teachers' attitudes in regard to adolescent sexuality education. Test development adhered to the guidelines of Aligna and Crocker. Cronbach alpha was performed on the entire instrument and determined the reliability to be .8003, thus the instrument was consistent in measuring the domain areas. A panel of experts assessed content validity of items. A principal component factor analysis and a Pearson's product moment correlation were used for construct validity. Teacher concerns about curriculum implementation, teacher comfort with the subject matter, course-specific teacher attitudes, teacher interest about curriculum content, and teacher attitudes toward sexuality were found to be the constructs of the TACTS

Mondialisation et souveraineté de l'état : le projet souverainiste québécois est-il toujours pertinent?

Ce mémoire a pour but d'explorer les effets de la mondialisation sur la souveraineté de l'État ainsi que les défis qu'elle lui pose. Il porte principalement sur l'angle économique du phénomène de mondialisation. Nous voulons apporter des éléments de réflexion au débat sur la pertinence de la souveraineté politique du Québec dans le contexte de la mondialisation. Nous avançons que cette avenue politique est une option toujours pertinente dans le contexte mondial actuel et qu'elle est même souhaitable pour le développement futur du Québec. Nous exposons d'abord le cadre théorique sur lequel nous nous appuyons tout au long de ce mémoire. Ensuite, nous vérifions si la multiplication des organisations et des accords internationaux représentent effectivement une menace à la souveraineté de l'État. Pour ce faire, nous étudions les effets contraignants du Fonds monétaire international, de l'Organisation mondiale du commerce et de l'Accord de libre-échange Nord-Américain. Nous nous penchons aussi sur l'impératif de compétitivité qui incombe aux États dans le contexte de mondialisation. Finalement, nous voyons comment le Québec peut prendre exemple sur certains petits États européens comme l'Autriche ou les Pays-Bas qui connaissent des succès malgré leur grande ouverture économique, et ce, grâce à leur flexibilité et leur capacité d'adaptation face aux pressions extérieures de l'économie. Nous étudions les pratiques néocorporatistes qui caractérisent le fonctionnement interne de ces pays et nous nous penchons sur l'importance de la solidarité sociale dans le succès de ces pratiques. Nous découvrons comment il est possible de favoriser cette solidarité en nous appuyant sur le concept de capital social et nous terminons par la proposition de faire de la langue française l'élément identitaire rassembleur qui puisse renforcer les arrangements néocorporatistes et permettre un meilleur développement socioéconomique du Québec. Nous concluons que l'État n'est pas complètement contraint par la mondialisation mais que celle-ci comporte son lot de défis auxquels il doit répondre pour assurer sa prospérité dans une économie mondialisée. Nous croyons que le Québec possède des atouts majeurs pour assurer son développement et que la souveraineté politique lui permettrait de mieux les exploiter. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Mondialisation, Souveraineté, Québec, Capital social

Cloud analysis using NOAA-7 AVHRR multispectral imagery

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, 1984.Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science.Bibliography: leaves 78-79.by Robert Paul d'Entremont.M.S

DEVELOPMENT OF A SLURRY-FED IN-CAN MELTER FOR NUCLEAR DEFENSE WASTE

The Savannah River Plant (SRP) has about 30 million gallons of high-level, radioactive, liquid waste stored in large waste tanks. This waste is a by-product of the production of nuclear defense materials at SRP. Plans are to build the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at SRP to convert this waste into solid form. A key step in the planned DWPF process is the vitrification or glassmaking step, in which the radionuclides are incorporated in borosilicate glass. Two types of glass melters have been developed for this step. The planned melter design for the DWPF is a slurry-fed, continuous, joule-heated melter. The backup melter design is an in-can melter. Previous plans were to dry and partially calcine the radioactive waste sludge before feeding it to the in-can melter. However, it was desirable to eliminate the drying step and feed the waste sludge as a liquid. Eliminating the drying step simplified the process and reduced the project cost. At the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL), a full-scale in-can melter of the former dry-fed design was converted to slurry feeding by adding appropriate feed and off-gas systems. Five experimental runs were made with this process from August to December 1981. The purpose of this program was to demonstrate the basic process, determine key process variables such as rate and off-gas system requirements, and identify potential problems with long-term operation. A full-scale, nonradioactive process has been studied in which a slurry of waste sludge and glass formers is fed to a heated can. Saturated steam is used to cool the off-gas. Initial results show the concept to be technically adequate

Canadian Estimate of Bird Mortality Due to Collisions and Direct Habitat Loss Associated with Wind Turbine Developments

We estimated impacts on birds from the development and operation of wind turbines in Canada considering both mortality due to collisions and loss of nesting habitat. We estimated collision mortality using data from carcass searches for 43 wind farms, incorporating correction factors for scavenger removal, searcher efficiency, and carcasses that fell beyond the area searched. On average, 8.2 ± 1.4 birds (95% C.I.) were killed per turbine per year at these sites, although the numbers at individual wind farms varied from 0 - 26.9 birds per turbine per year. Based on 2955 installed turbines (the number installed in Canada by December 2011), an estimated 23,300 birds (95% C.I. 20,000 - 28,300) would be killed from collisions with turbines each year. We estimated direct habitat loss based on data from 32 wind farms in Canada. On average, total habitat loss per turbine was 1.23 ha, which corresponds to an estimated total habitat loss due to wind farms nationwide of 3635 ha. Based on published estimates of nest density, this could represent habitat for ~5700 nests of all species. Assuming nearby habitats are saturated, and 2 adults displaced per nest site, effects of direct habitat loss are less than that of direct mortality. Installed wind capacity is growing rapidly, and is predicted to increase more than 10-fold over the next 10-15 years, which could lead to direct mortality of approximately 233,000 birds / year, and displacement of 57,000 pairs. Despite concerns about the impacts of biased correction factors on the accuracy of mortality estimates, these values are likely much lower than those from collisions with some other anthropogenic sources such as windows, vehicles, or towers, or habitat loss due to many other forms of development. Species composition data suggest that < 0.2% of the population of any species is currently affected by mortality or displacement from wind turbine development. Therefore, population level impacts are unlikely, provided that highly sensitive or rare habitats, as well as concentration areas for species at risk, are avoided

The effects of seasonal and annual differences in prey and environmental conditions on a colonial seabird at the southern limit of its breeding range

The Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) is the largest seabird breeding in the North Atlantic Ocean. Their breeding colonies stretch across a broad geographical range, and colonies near the southern extent of their breeding range have recently exhibited poor productivity. Gannets are opportunistic, generalist foragers and consume a wide range of prey including Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), capelin (Mallotus villosus), Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) and Atlantic saury (Scomberesox saurus). The distribution and availability of these pelagic fishes depend on ocean temperature. In this thesis, I fill in critical knowledge gaps on how gannets nesting at their southernmost colony at Cape St. Mary’s, NL respond to differences in prey availability and sea surface temperature. In Chapter 2, I examine the effects of prey availability and sea surface temperature during the breeding season on gannet productivity over a multi-decadal timespan. I found that declines in mackerel availability and warming waters in late chick-rearing were associated with depressed productivity. In Chapter 3, I examine the foraging behaviour of gannets and how it differs between and within years. Gannets switched their foraging tactics from preying on capelin in early chick-rearing to larger pelagics in late chick-rearing. Gannets exhibited greater foraging effort during early chick-rearing in 2020 than 2019 which was associated with lowered capelin availability. Overall, gannets were negatively impacted by lowered prey availability and warming sea surface temperatures