The Effects of Personal Goal Setting in Music Ensembles

This research explores the use of guided personal and class goal setting and its effect on students’ comprehension of the material that is taught in any given lesson. The project was staged in two classes of roughly the same size, with an average of 25 responses per survey; demographics in each class consisted of approximately 90% minority students, with only 2-4 males per class. Surveys were taken twice a week for the four week experimental period; one group was given guided goal worksheets for weeks three and four while the other did not receive goal guidance. The findings show that the guided goal system had little or no influence in the self-reported comprehension of the material to be learned in class. Further extensive testing would be necessary with a broader test group to determine if a guided goal worksheet would positively influence students’ comprehension of classroom learning goal

The Effects of a Rapidly-Fluctuating Random Environment on Systems of Interacting Species

Some models of interacting species in a random environment are analyzed. Approximate solutions of the stochastic differential or delay-differential equations describing the systems are obtained, on the assumption that the random environment is fluctuating rapidly

Detached from their homeland: the Latter-day Saints of Chihuahua, Mexico

Over the past few decades, the homeland concept has received an ever-increasing amount of attention by cultural geographers. While the debate surrounding the necessity and applicability of the concept continues, it is more than apparent that no other geographic term (including culture areas or culture regions) captures the essence of peoples’ attachment to place better than homeland. The literature, however, provides few examples of the deep-seated loyalty people have for a homeland despite being physically detached from that space. Employing land use mapping and informal interviews, this paper seeks to help fill that gap by exemplifying how the daily lives of Mormons living in Chihuahua, Mexico reflect their connection to the United States and the Mormon Homeland. Our research revealed that, among other things, the Anglo residents perpetuate their cultural identity through their unique self-reference, exhibit territoriality links reflected in their built environment, and demonstrate unconditional bonding to their homeland through certain holiday celebrations. It is clear to us, as the Anglo-Mormon experience illustrates, that the homeland concept deserves a place within the geographic lexicon

Natural gauge mediation with a bino NLSP at the LHC

Natural models of supersymmetry with a gravitino LSP provide distinctive signatures at the LHC. For a neutralino NLSP, sparticles can decay to two high energy photons plus missing energy. We use the ATLAS diphoton search with 4.8 fb^{-1} of data to place limits in both the stop-gluino and neutralino-chargino mass planes for this scenario. If the neutralino is heavier than 50 GeV, the lightest stop must be heavier than 580 GeV, the gluino heavier than 1100 GeV and charginos must be heavier than approximately 300-470 GeV. This provides the first nontrivial constraints in natural gauge mediation models with a neutralino NLSP decaying to photons, and implies a fine tuning of at least a few percent in such models.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; v2: updated figure 3, version published in PR

Mafia and Globalization: The Consequences of Economic Integration Without Legal Symmetry

This project will examine the relationship between mafia and globalization through the lenses of two case studies, focusing on the Calabrian criminal organization known as ‘Ndrangheta. The first case study revolves around the Port of Gioia Tauro, which serves as the drug trafficking hub of ‘Ndrangheta and is emblematic of the overall trends in global commercial traffic and security deficits. The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate how ‘Ndrangheta exploits the advanced economic integration that began in the 1990s and continues to exist in the gap between frantic commercial activity and limited government oversight. This case study begins with a brief history of the port, including its initial development as a state-funded project in the 1970s and eventual privately funded transformation into a commercial transshipment hub in the 1990s. The case study lays out the unique features of the port, such as its expansive size, enormous levels of traffic, and limited security infrastructure. Finally, the Port of Gioia Tauro case study analyzes the criminal history of the port, initial attempts by ‘Ndrangheta to extort its financers, and the port’s continued use as a drug trafficking hub. This case study analyzes economic trends and how they facilitate drug trafficking, and why the port is particularly vulnerable to this exploitation. Important sources in this section include the European Commission’s published evaluation of the port, EU drug seizure data, the literature on ‘Ndrangheta drug trafficking deals and methods, commentary on crime and commerce from Gomorra, and several news reports documenting criminal activity relating to the port. The project features an intermediate section linking the two case studies, which discusses ‘Ndrangheta structure and how it gives them an advantage in exploiting global economic integration and insufficient global legal integration. This intermediate section relies on the criminal analysis of Calabria’s head anti-mafia prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri. ‘Ndrangheta uses a horizontal structure that can be readily replicated in Calabrian communities around the world, primarily those in Canada, Australia, Germany, and Argentina. ‘Ndrangheta clans can make independent business arrangements and specialize in different types of criminal enterprise, adapting to different environments and legal systems around the world. The ability to operate outside of Italy also helps protect ‘Ndrangheta operations from Italian law enforcement, as demonstrated by the second case study. The second case study focuses on an incident from 2011 in which Italian law enforcement attempted to extradite former Australian mayor Tony Vallelonga for his association with ‘Ndrangheta. The extradition request was ultimately not granted by the Australian government, as extradition treaties require dual criminality and Tony Vallelonga, a citizen of Australia and Italy, had not broken any Australian laws. This case demonstrates the severe gap between advanced economic integration and insufficient legal integration. Without legal symmetry between states, organizations like ‘Ndrangheta will continue to exist in states without the advanced anti-mafia institutions like those in the United States or Italy