Serrano v. Priest’s Inputs and Outputs

A report on the litigation strategies and cost-quality issues involved in the Serrano V Priest case in which the California Supreme Court ruled that spending for a child\u27s publicly financed education should not be a function of wealth. Also discussed are the relevance of the Supreme Court\u27s Rodriquez decision as well as the response of the California legislature

Fast liquid chromatography/electrochemistry/mass spectrometry of ferrocenecarboxylic acid esters

Rapid liquid chromatographic separations of ferrocenecarboxylic esters of various alcohols and phenols have been achieved on reversed-phase columns of 20 mm length. After separation, the ferrocene derivatives are oxidized electrochemically under formation of the charged ferrocinium species, which are easily detected by mass spectrometry using an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization source operated in the heated nebulizer mode. While a series of nine phenol derivatives was separated within less than 1.5 min, six alcohol derivatives eluted within 1 min. Limits of detection using a single quadrupole mass analyzer ranged from 60 to 190 nmol/l. Additional work was directed on the use of a graphite in-line filter instead of a silica-based reversed-phase column to achieve the separation

Discussing equity and social exclusion in accessibility evaluations

Ex ante evaluations of transport policy options (including infrastructure plans) are generally based on cost-benefit analyses (CBA). Accessibility changes are included in such analyses indirectly, via a utilitarian perspective. But accessibility is broader than is assumed by this perspective and also incorporates equity and related distribution effects as well as social exclusion. This paper aims to give an overview of the relevance of distribution effects and equity, and social exclusion for accessibility, based on the literature. The most important conclusions of our paper is that the two subjects are poorly addressed in transport appraisal in general, and in CBA in particular. Additional ethical theories could add value to the utilitarian perspective, egalitarian theories being a major competitor. Equity analysis is however complex because there are several types of equity, various ways to categorize people for equity analysis, numerous impacts to consider, and various ways of measuring these impacts. And such analysis requires normative judgements, in addition to simply presenting distribution effects. Several options are available to express distribution effects. Important choices to be made if such effects need to be reported relate to the unit of comparison (e.g. the household versus the individual), the indicator to be used, and the value of each unit to be compared (e.g. accessibility) for all units of comparison (e.g. households). We also conclude that CBA is not suitable for evaluating social exclusion policies. Based on this overview we propose an agenda for potential future research in the area of ethics and accessibility

Mathematical approaches to scale degrees and harmonic functions in analytical dialogue

Published versio

Phaseolus vulgaris leuco-agglutinin immunohistochemistry. A comparison between autoradiographic and lectin tracing of neuronal efferents

The autoradiographic pattern of anterograde labeling as a result from injections with tritiated amino acids is compared to the labeling of efferents with Phaseolus vulgaris leuco-agglutinin after lectin injections in the same nucleus visualized by immunohistochemical methods. This comparison is made for efferents from the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus to the amygdaloid body.

Machine Learning Optimizes a Survey of Dark Energy

Measuring the history of cosmic expansion via the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale from a three-dimensional galaxy map is a well established technique to probe the nature of dark energy. In fact, a forthcoming galaxy redshift survey, the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), is designed mainly for this purpose. An essential optimization problem in such galaxy redshift surveys is the target selection. Namely, it is not clear how we should select our targets to maximize the number of galaxies which provide successful redshift measurement in a desired cosmic epoch, while avoiding other galaxies. Taking PFS as an example, we apply a modern machine learning algorithm to the target selection problem. In this project we analyze how well machine learning could optimize the PFS survey target selection compared to more conventional methods, and show that our new approach could play a crucial role in understanding dark energy

The Effects of ENVoY on the Middle School Social Studies Classroom Behaviors

The aim of this study was to determine if ENVoY is an effective classroom management tool to use in a 7th-grade social studies classroom. There was a need to reduce the amount of time spent on stopping unwanted classroom behaviors, such as blurting and being off task. This research was completed over a six-week period in a suburban school. Data was collected using four different methods and completed multiple times throughout the research period. Classroom observations were conducted and behaviors were tallied. Students completed self-assessments asking them to reflect on four different behavioral criteria. Data was also collected using teacher-student conferences as well as a teacher journal. It was determined that ENVoY can be an effective method of classroom management when implemented consistently. This determination has led to the continuation of the method in my classroom