Queer Americans and Unions: Redefining Equality at Work

Throughout the twentieth century and continuing into the modern era, labor unions in the United States have advocated for the members’ rights within and outside of the workplace. Labor unions are uniquely positioned to further advocate for the rights of marginalized people because they exist as regulatory bodies outside of governmental structures and derive their power from their membership. Looking specifically at equality for LGBTQ+ employees, labor unions have consistently been ahead of the rest of America. As early as the 1930’s ,unions with substantial queer membership were strong advocates for fair and equal treatment within the workplace. ‘Queer work,’ or jobs that are held primarily by queer individuals, provide unique avenues for advocacy, as the majority interests within the union are the minority interests outside of it. In other unions, smaller coalitions of queer workers pushed the policies and politics further to the left, eventually having national impact. The queer communities within labor unions propelled a new idea of equality at work that shaped the labor movement throughout the twentieth century

Sulfate Burial Constraints on the Phanerozoic Sulfur Cycle

The sulfur cycle influences the respiration of sedimentary organic matter, the oxidation state of the atmosphere and oceans, and the composition of seawater. However, the factors governing the major sulfur fluxes between seawater and sedimentary reservoirs remain incompletely understood. Using macrostratigraphic data, we quantified sulfate evaporite burial fluxes through Phanerozoic time. Approximately half of the modern riverine sulfate flux comes from weathering of recently deposited evaporites. Rates of sulfate burial are unsteady and linked to changes in the area of marine environments suitable for evaporite formation and preservation. By contrast, rates of pyrite burial and weathering are higher, less variable, and largely balanced, highlighting a greater role of the sulfur cycle in regulating atmospheric oxygen

Aerobic Exercise and its Effect on Students’ Readiness to Learn

The purpose of this research was to test if aerobic exercise done before academic work would improve student learning readiness which includes increased alertness, longer periods of concentration and a resilience in doing work. The six-week study incorporated twenty-minutes of aerobic exercise every morning and involved 26 students between the ages of 9 and 12 years in a Montessori classroom. Data collection included pre and post surveys on student energy levels, exercise logs filled out by each student daily, on-task observation sheets and levels of attention observation sheets done by myself daily for the first thirty-minutes to evaluate students’ depth of focus on their first works. Results from the post survey showed that most students’ felt that the exercise increased their energy levels and improved their ability to do academic work. The majority of students recorded an increase in energy after exercise on their daily exercise logs. The data showed a positive correlation between aerobic exercise and student learning readiness in children ages 9 to 12. Suggestions for future research include testing if student physical fitness impacts learning outcomes and an extended research period

The Influence of Strategic Focus & Gender on Performance: An Examination of Small Businesses

This study examines the extent to which strategic focus (internal versus external) and the gender of small business owners are predictive of perceived organizational performance. Utilizing a sample of 237 small business owners in the southeastern region of the U.S., a factorial ANOVA was used to test hypotheses related to both constructs. Results indicate that a main effect exists for organizational strategic focus, but not for gender. While female business owners who utilize an internal strategy had the highest levels of perceived performance, the interaction effect was not statistically significant

A Meta-Analysis of Supplemental Educational Services (SES) Provider Effects on Student Achievement

The 2001 renewal of the United States\u27 Title I program, which provides federal funds to schools with large populations of low-income students, instituted the Supplemental Educational Services (SES) program in which schools in their third year of failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) are required to offer after-school tutoring in core subjects to low-income students, provided by public or private tutoring agencies. States are responsible for implementing, overseeing, and evaluating the SES programs; currently, several states and large local school districts have performed evaluations, with many more in the process of publishing results from statewide SES studies. Although state and district-level provider evaluations have measured SES provider effects on student achievement, there has been no comprehensive synthesis of overall program effects across states, and there is little information that relates provider characteristics to variation in student achievement outcomes. The proposed study will synthesize provider effects reported in the extant body of SES provider evaluations to generate an estimate of the overall effectiveness of the SES policy in terms of improving student achievement, and will seek to identify provider characteristics that are associated with variation in student achievement effects using a fixed effects model

Effect of Annealing Temperature on The Some Electrical Properties of InSb:Bi Thin Films

InSb alloy was prepared then InSb:Bi films have been prepared successfully by thermal evaporation technique on glass substrate at Ts=423K. The variation of activation energies(Ea1,Ea2)of d.c conductivity with annealing temperature (303, 373, 423, 473, 523 and 573)K were measured, it is found that its values increases with increasing annealing temperature. To show the type of the films, the Hall and thermoelectric power were measured. The activation energy of the thermoelectric power is much smaller than for d.c conductivity and increases with increasing annealing temperature .The mobility and carrier concentration has been measured also

Climate change and the selective signature of the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Selectivity patterns provide insights into the causes of ancient extinction events. The Late Ordovician mass extinction was related to Gondwanan glaciation; however, it is still unclear whether elevated extinction rates were attributable to record failure, habitat loss, or climatic cooling. We examined Middle Ordovician-Early Silurian North American fossil occurrences within a spatiotemporally explicit stratigraphic framework that allowed us to quantify rock record effects on a per-taxon basis and assay the interplay of macrostratigraphic and macroecological variables in determining extinction risk. Genera that had large proportions of their observed geographic ranges affected by stratigraphic truncation or environmental shifts at the end of the Katian stage were particularly hard hit. The duration of the subsequent sampling gaps had little effect on extinction risk, suggesting that this extinction pulse cannot be entirely attributed to rock record failure; rather, it was caused, in part, by habitat loss. Extinction risk at this time was also strongly influenced by the maximum paleolatitude at which a genus had previously been sampled, a macroecological trait linked to thermal tolerance. A model trained on the relationship between 16 explanatory variables and extinction patterns during the early Katian interval substantially underestimates the extinction of exclusively tropical taxa during the late Katian interval. These results indicate that glacioeustatic sea-level fall and tropical ocean cooling played important roles in the first pulse of the Late Ordovician mass extinction in Laurentia

An overview to the investigative approach to species testing in wildlife forensic science

The extent of wildlife crime is unknown but it is on the increase and has observable effects with the dramatic decline in many species of flora and fauna. The growing awareness of this area of criminal activity is reflected in the increase in research papers on animal DNA testing, either for the identification of species or for the genetic linkage of a sample to a particular organism. This review focuses on the use of species testing in wildlife crime investigations. Species identification relies primarily on genetic loci within the mitochondrial genome; focusing on the cytochrome b and cytochrome oxidase 1 genes. The use of cytochrome b gained early prominence in species identification through its use in taxonomic and phylogenetic studies, while the gene sequence for cytochrome oxidase was adopted by the Barcode for Life research group. This review compares how these two loci are used in species identification with respect to wildlife crime investigations. As more forensic science laboratories undertake work in the wildlife area, it is important that the quality of work is of the highest standard and that the conclusions reached are based on scientific principles. A key issue in reporting on the identification of a particular species is a knowledge of both the intraspecies variation and the possible overlap of sequence variation from one species to that of a closely related species. Recent data showing this degree of genetic separation in mammalian species will allow greater confidence when preparing a report on an alleged event where the identification of the species is of prime importance. The aim of this review is to illustrate aspects of species testing in wildlife forensic science and to explain how a knowledge of genetic variation at the genus and species level can aid in the reporting of results

Applying Theoretical Frameworks to Explicate Physician Acceptance of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)

This paper reports the findings of a pilot study undertaken to ascertain the feasibility of incorporating the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Taxonomy of Work Values into the explanation of physician technology acceptance of a new organizational technology – Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE). While Davis’s Technology Acceptance Model has received much empirical support, we posit that certain complexities associated with the physician population and the hospital environment warrant the inclusion of other theoretical models as a means of furthering our understanding of technology acceptance. Although preliminary in nature, this study finds support for the inclusion of both the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Taxonomy of Work Values in further research examining this complex phenomenon

Customer perceptions about family firms and their effects on customer behaviors

The current is an exploratory project exploring the associations and impressions evoked by the term “family-owned business” (FOBs) and how these impressions affect intentions to buy from a family firm. Four studies were conducted to assess the perceptions about family firms. Based on signaling theory and the theory of reason action, it was predicted that the family nature of firms would act as a signal that consumers will use to determine perceptions, attitudes towards family firms, and intentions to buy from family firms. Results indicate that, in general, participants had positive perceptions about organizational values and neutral perceptions about products and services offered by family firms. As suggested by the Theory of Reasoned Action, these perceptions affected attitudes and intentions towards FOBs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed