Related Services Research Project to Support the Education of Students with Deaf-Blindness: Final Report.

This Final Report documents the activities and products of the . Related Services Research Project to Support the Education of Students with Deafblindness, a four-year research project funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. This report provides an introduction to the project followed by: (a) the project\u27s objectives; (b) a conceptual framework and description of VISTA; (c) the research questions and studies conducted by project staff; (d) a bibliography of other project products; (e) major findings and continuing concerns; (f) dissemination and impact; (g) ongoing activities; and (h) an assurance of distribution

Final report: Project EVOLVE (Expanding and validating options for learning through variations in education).

Final Report of Project EVOLVE (Expanding and Validating Options for Learning in Education). The project developed and field-tested alternatives to inappropriate utilization or overreliance on paraprofessionals

Disparities in Assets and Ownership: Limitations to the American Dream in Communities of Color

The disparities in assets and ownership seen between communities of color and whites perpetuate a troubling problem in Illinois. Thousands of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, American Indians and other communities of color are denied access to opportunities for wealth building and future prosperity.Wealth-building activities are crucial to securing personal well-being and increasing economic mobility. Wealth is calculated as the total value of what one owns minus any remaining outstanding debt.Assets, a means to build wealth, provide an array of benefits including social influence, political participation, household stability and an orientation toward the future.Gaining wealth through asset ownership -- home ownership, retirement savings accounts, entrepreneurship, advanced college education -- provides the footing for individuals to move up the socioeconomic ladder

On the cyclicity of the rational points group of abelian varieties over finite fields

We propose a simple criterion to know if an abelian variety $A$ defined over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ is cyclic, i.e., it has a cyclic group of rational points; this criterion is based on the endomorphism ring End$_{\mathbb{F}_q}(A)$. We also provide a criterion to know if an isogeny class is cyclic, i.e., all its varieties are cyclic; this criterion is based on the characteristic polynomial of the isogeny class. We find some asymptotic lower bounds on the fraction of cyclic $\mathbb{F}_q$-isogeny classes among certain families of them, when $q$ tends to infinity. Some of these bounds require an additional hypothesis. In the case of surfaces, we prove that this hypothesis is achieved and, over all $\mathbb{F}_q$-isogeny classes with endomorphism algebra being a field and where $q$ is an even power of a prime, we prove that the one with maximal number of rational points is cyclic and ordinary.Comment: 13 pages, this is a preliminary version, comments are welcom

On string integrability. A journey through the two-dimensional hidden symmetries in the AdS/CFT dualities

One of the main topics in the modern String Theory are the AdS/CFT dualities. Proving such conjectures is extremely difficult since the gauge and string theory perturbative regimes do not overlap. In this perspective, the discovery of infinitely many conserved charges, i.e. the integrability, in the planar AdS/CFT has allowed us to reach immense progresses in understanding and confirming the duality. We review the fundamental concepts and properties of integrability in two-dimensional sigma-models and in the AdS/CFT context. The first part is focused on the AdS_5/CFT_4 duality, especially the classical and quantum integrability of the type IIB superstring on AdS_5 x S^5 are discussed in both pure spinor and Green-Schwarz formulations. The second part is dedicated to the AdS_4/CFT_3 duality with particular attention to the type IIA superstring on AdS_4 x CP^3 and its integrability. This review is based on a shortened and revised version of the author's PhD thesis, discussed at Uppsala University in September 2009.Comment: 116 pages, 11 figures, to be published in Advances in High Energy Physics, Special Issue on ''Gauge/String Duality'

Project L.I.F.E. (Lifelong Impact from Education): Final report.

Project L.I.F.E. (Lifelong Impact From Education) was a three year projectfunded from October 1, 1991 to December 31, 1994 by the United StatesDepartment of Education, Office of Special Education and RehabilitativeServices in the funding category: Innovations for Educating Children andYouth with Deaf-Blindness in General Education Settings (CFDA 84.025F).The purpose of Project L.I.F.E. was to develop, field-test, and disseminate acollaborative model that increases the capacity of neighborhood schools and local education agencies to provide appropriate educational services to children with deaf-blindness in general education settings and improve students\u27 individually determined valued life outcomes. The final report includes: (a) goals and objectives of the project, (b) the conceptual framework & description of the Project L.I.F.E. model, (c) description of research studies, (d) methodological and logistical problems, (e) annotated bibliography of major project products, and (I) dissemination and impact of the project