Analysis of Compelling and Constraining Forces Experienced by Georgia High School Principals Implementing Smaller Learning Communities

The research on smaller learning communities is extensive, and the benefits are documented, compelling, and persuasive. While the practice can become the engine for higher achievement, stakeholders must adjust to a new paradigm of school operations. In many cases, prior procedures and traditions must be abandoned to achieve academic, social, and school environmental goals. Several unknown factors exist in Georgia\u27s high schools as administrators attempt to find programs and procedures to meet the needs of rapidly growing and diverse student populations. First, little is known about the experiences of Georgia high school principals implementing smaller learning communities, nor the forces surrounding the transitions. Second, little is known of the strategies used by administrators for dealing with the constraining forces of restructuring their organizations. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with administrators in nine Georgia high schools. Based on Kert Levin\u27s work with force field analysis and using Bolman and Deal\u27s frameworks for categorizing restructuring strategies, the researcher analyzed the compelling and constraining forces as well as strategies used by administrators to overcome the constraining forces. The researcher categorized the strategies utilized by 2 administrators to overcome constraining forces into four categories of change: structural; human resources; political; and symbolic. The researcher identified seven compelling forces for Georgia high school principals implementing SLCs, including: accountability; achievement; affiliation/belonging; data-driven decision making; equity; teacher attitudes and satisfaction; and truancy and dropouts. Seven constraining forces for Georgia high school principals implementing SLCs were identified, including: cultural expectations; demands on staff; fiscal and physical constraints; implementation strategies; large numbers within smaller learning communities; laws, regulations, policies, and procedures; and rigidity, defensiveness, and low expectations. In analyzing the strategies utilized by administrators to overcome constraining forces, the researcher found that the majority of strategies fell within the human resource framework. The second largest group of responses fell within the structural framework followed by the symbolic framework and lastly the political framework. The analysis of these strategies for reframing organizations may provide a better understanding for administrators seeking to implement smaller learning communities or other forms of comprehensive high school reorganization

Anthropocene: its stratigraphic basis

As officers of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG; J.Z. and C.W.) and chair of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS; M.J.H.) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), we note that the AWG has less power than Erle Ellis and colleagues imply (Nature 540, 192–193; 2016). Its role is merely advisory — to evaluate the Anthropocene as a formal unit in the geological timescale. Proposals must pass scrutiny by the AWG, the SQS and the ICS before being ratified by the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences

Mål- og resultatstyring i grunnskolen: Bidrar mål- og resultatstyring til gode resultater?

Mål- og resultatstyring har blitt innført i mange norske kommuner som et verktøy for å virkeliggjøre kommunens strategi og kvalitetssikre kommunens tjenester. Forskningsspørsmålet i denne oppgaven har vært om bruk av mål- og resultatstyring faktisk bidrar til gode resultater. Forskningsobjektet har vært grunnskolesektoren, representert ved et utvalg av skoler med ungdomstrinn (8.-10. trinn). Rektorene ble stilt spørsmål om graden av mål- og resultatstyring både i forhold til den kommunale ledelsen og internt i skolene, og svarene sammenlignet med skolens resultater i nasjonale prøver. I analysene er det forsøkt å kontrollere for relevante bakgrunnsvariabler som også kan påvirke resultatene. Skolens resultater ble representert av tre variabler: Gjennomsnittsresultatene fra nasjonale prøver på 9. trinn i 2012, utviklingen i resultater fra nasjonale prøver på 8. trinn fra 2008 til 2012, og utviklingen i resultatene til et årskull som tok nasjonale prøver på 8. trinn i 2011 og på 9. trinn i 2012. Analysen støtter noen tidligere funn, bl.a. at utdanningsnivået i befolkningen er den viktigste faktoren for å forklare elevenes resultatoppnåelse. Allikevel er det noe som tyder på at bruk av mål- og resultatstyring kan ha betydning for utviklingen av skolenes resultater over tid. I tillegg viser det seg at skoler hvor rektoren har tatt en egen rektorutdannelse har en bedre utvikling over tid enn andre. På den andre siden er det en negativ sammenheng mellom bruk av mål- og resultatstyring internt i skolen, og resultatoppnåelsen. Dette kan bero på at skoler med svakere resultater har mer behov for aktiv styring.Master i styring og ledels

The Decision to Award Punitive Damages: An Empirical Study

Empirical studies have consistently shown that punitive damages are rarely awarded, with rates of about 3 to 5 percent of plaintiff trial wins. Using the 2005 data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Civil Justice Survey, this article shows that knowing in which cases plaintiffs sought punitive damages transforms the picture of punitive damages. Not accounting for whether punitive damages were sought obscures the meaningful punitive damages rate, the rate of awards in cases in which they were sought, by a factor of nearly 10, and obfuscates a more explicable pattern of awards than has been reported. Punitive damages were surprisingly infrequently sought, with requests found in about 10 percent of tried cases that plaintiffs won. State laws restricting access to punitive damages were significantly associated with rates of seeking punitive damages. Punitive damages were awarded in about 30 percent of the plaintiff trial wins in which they were sought. Awards were most frequent in cases of intentional tort, with a punitive award rate of over 60 percent. Greater harm corresponded to a greater probability of an award: the size of the compensatory award was significantly associated with whether punitive damages were awarded, with a rate of approximately 60 percent for cases with compensatory awards of $1 million or more. Regression models correctly classify about 70 percent or more of the punitive award request outcomes. Judge-jury differences in the rate of awards exist, with judges awarding punitive damages at a higher rate in personal injury cases and juries awarding them at a higher rate in nonpersonal injury cases. These puzzling adjudicator differences may be a consequence of the routing of different cases to judges and juries

A Gaia-PS1-SDSS (GPS1) Proper Motion Catalog Covering 3/4 of the Sky

We combine Gaia DR1, PS1, SDSS and 2MASS astrometry to measure proper motions for 350 million sources across three-fourths of the sky down to a magnitude of $m_r\sim20$\,. Using positions of galaxies from PS1, we build a common reference frame for the multi-epoch PS1, single-epoch SDSS and 2MASS data, and calibrate the data in small angular patches to this frame. As the Gaia DR1 excludes resolved galaxy images, we choose a different approach to calibrate its positions to this reference frame: we exploit the fact that the proper motions of stars in these patches are {\it linear}. By simultaneously fitting the positions of stars at different epochs of -- Gaia DR1, PS1, SDSS, and 2MASS -- we construct an extensive catalog of proper motions dubbed GPS1. GPS1 has a characteristic systematic error of less than 0.3 \masyr\, and a typical precision of $1.5-2.0$\masyr. The proper motions have been validated using galaxies, open clusters, distant giant stars and QSOs. In comparison with other published faint proper motion catalogs, GPS1's systematic error ($<0.3$ \masyr) should be nearly an order of magnitude better than that of PPMXL and UCAC4 ($>2.0$ \masyr). Similarly, its precision ($\sim 1.5$ \masyr) is a four-fold improvement relative to PPMXL and UCAC4 ($\sim 6.0$ \masyr). For QSOs, the precision of GPS1 is found to be worse ($\sim 2.0-3.0$\masyr), possibly due to their particular differential chromatic refraction (DCR). The GPS1 catalog will be released on-line and available via the VizieR Service and VO Service. (===GPS1 is available with VO TAP Query now, see http://www2.mpia-hd.mpg.de/~tian/GPS1/ for details=== )Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures, published on-line in ApJS (GPS1 is available with VO TAP Query now

Contemporary habitat discontinuity and historic glacial ice drive genetic divergence in Chilean kelp

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>South America's western coastline, extending in a near-straight line across some 35 latitudinal degrees, presents an elegant setting for assessing both contemporary and historic influences on cladogenesis in the marine environment. Southern bull-kelp (<it>Durvillaea antarctica</it>) has a broad distribution along much of the Chilean coast. This species represents an ideal model taxon for studies of coastal marine connectivity and of palaeoclimatic effects, as it grows only on exposed rocky coasts and is absent from beaches and ice-affected shores. We expected that, along the central Chilean coast, <it>D. antarctica </it>would show considerable phylogeographic structure as a consequence of the isolating effects of distance and habitat discontinuities. In contrast, we hypothesised that further south - throughout the region affected by the Patagonian Ice Sheet at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) - <it>D. antarctica </it>would show relatively little genetic structure, reflecting postglacial recolonisation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mitochondrial (COI) and chloroplast (<it>rbc</it>L) DNA analyses of <it>D. antarctica </it>from 24 Chilean localities (164 individuals) revealed two deeply divergent (4.5 - 6.1% for COI, 1.4% for <it>rbc</it>L) clades from the centre and south of the country, with contrasting levels and patterns of genetic structure. Among populations from central Chile (32° - 44°S), substantial phylogeographic structure was evident across small spatial scales, and a significant isolation-by-distance effect was observed. Genetic disjunctions in this region appear to correspond to the presence of long beaches. In contrast to the genetic structure found among central Chilean populations, samples from the southern Chilean Patagonian region (49° - 56°S) were genetically homogeneous and identical to a haplotype recently found throughout the subantarctic region.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Southern (Patagonian) Chile has been recolonised by <it>D. antarctica </it>relatively recently, probably since the LGM. The inferred trans-oceanic ancestry of these Patagonian populations supports the notion that <it>D. antarctica </it>is capable of long-distance dispersal via rafting. In contrast, further north in central Chile, the correspondence of genetic disjunctions in <it>D. antarctica </it>with long beaches indicates that habitat discontinuity drives genetic isolation among established kelp populations. We conclude that rafting facilitates colonisation of unoccupied shores, but has limited potential to enhance gene-flow among established populations. Broadly, this study demonstrates that some taxa may be considered to have either high or low dispersal potential across different temporal and geographic scales.</p

Effect of a standardized meal on the threshold of exercise-induced myocardial ischemia in patients with stable angina

AbstractObjectives. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of a standardized meal on the ischemie threshold and exercise capacity in a series of 20 patients with stable angina, exerciseinduced ischemia and reversible exercise-induced perfusion defects.Background. It is generally accepted that exercise tolerance in patients with angina is reduced after a meal. However, studies that have addressed this phenomenon have yielded results that are contradictory and inconclusive.Methods. Two exercise tests using the Brace protocol with technetium-99m (99mTc)-sestamibi were performed on consecutive days in a randomized order. One test was performed in the fasting state and the other 30 min after a 1,000-calorle meal.Results. In the postprandial state, exercise time to ischemia was reduced by 20% from 248 ± 93 s to 197 ±87 s (p = 0.0007), time to angina by 15% from 340 ± 82 s to 287 ± 94 s (p = 0.002) and exercise tolerance by 9% from 376 ± 65 s to 344 ± 86 s (p = 0.002). Rate-pressure products at these exercise test end points were not significantly different in the fasting and postprandial tests, and the quantitative 99mTc-sestamibi ischemia score was unchanged.Conclusions. In patients with stable angina, a 1,000-calorie meal significantly reduced tine to ischemia, time to angina and exercise tolerance because of a more rapid increase in myocardial oxygen demand with exercise. The extent and severity of exerciseinduced ischemia were unchanged

Antikaon Production in Proton-Nucleus Reactions and the K−K^- properties in nuclear matter

We calculate the momentum-dependent potentials for $K^+$ and $K^-$ mesons in a dispersion approach at nuclear density $\rho_0$ using the information from the vacuum $K^+ N$ and $K^- N$ scattering amplitudes, however, leaving out the resonance contributions for the in-medium analysis. Whereas the $K^+$ potential is found to be repulsive ($\approx$ + 30 MeV) and to show only a moderate momentum dependence, the $K^-$ selfenergy at normal nuclear matter density turns out to be $\approx$ - 200 MeV at zero momentum in line with kaon atomic data, however, decreases rapidly in magnitude for higher momenta. The antikaon production in p + A reactions is calculated within a coupled transport approach and compared to the data at KEK including different assumptions for the antikaon potentials. Furthermore, detailed predictions are made for $p + ^{12}C$ and $p + ^{207}Pb$ reactions at 2.5 GeV in order to determine the momentum dependent antikaon potential experimentally.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, including 14 ps-figures, UGI-98-1

Deficits in agency in schizophrenia, and additional deficits in body image, body schema, and internal timing, in passivity symptoms

Individuals with schizophrenia, particularly those with passivity symptoms, may not feel in control of their actions, believing them to be controlled by external agents. Cognitive operations that contribute to these symptoms may include abnormal processing in agency as well as body representations that deal with body schema and body image. However, these operations in schizophrenia are not fully understood, and the questions of general versus specific deficits in individuals with different symptom profiles remain unanswered. Using the projected-hand illusion (a digital video version of the rubber-hand illusion) with synchronous and asynchronous stroking (500 ms delay), and a hand laterality judgment task, we assessed sense of agency, body image, and body schema in 53 people with clinically stable schizophrenia (with a current, past, and no history of passivity symptoms) and 48 healthy controls. The results revealed a stable trait in schizophrenia with no difference between clinical subgroups (sense of agency) and some quantitative (specific) differences depending on the passivity symptom profile (body image and body schema). Specifically, a reduced sense of self-agency was a common feature of all clinical subgroups. However, subgroup comparisons showed that individuals with passivity symptoms (both current and past) had significantly greater deficits on tasks assessing body image and body schema, relative to the other groups. In addition, patients with current passivity symptoms failed to demonstrate the normal reduction in body illusion typically seen with a 500 ms delay in visual feedback (asynchronous condition), suggesting internal timing problems. Altogether, the results underscore self-abnormalities in schizophrenia, provide evidence for both trait abnormalities and state changes specific to passivity symptoms, and point to a role for internal timing deficits as a mechanistic explanation for external cues becoming a possible source of self-body input