Analysis of ISER 2008-2009 Survey Data

In September 2008, the superintendent of the Anchorage School District and the mayor of Anchorage sent a letter to the governor of Alaska, reporting what they thought might be an influx of students into Anchorage from rural communities. Enrollment in the school district was higher than expected, and it coincided with the largest-ever Alaska Permanent Fund dividend and with a one-time payment of $1,200 the state made per person, to help offset high energy costs. Researchers at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at UAA have a longstanding interest in migration patterns in Alaska and the Arctic, and they saw the increased enrollment in Anchorage schools as a potential opportunity to better understand: • If rural Alaskans are moving to Anchorage • Where they are coming from • Why they are moving So with the cooperation of the Anchorage School District, ISER conducted a survey of the parents or guardians of students who had enrolled in Anchorage in the 2007-2008 or 2008-2009 school years and who had transferred in from other Alaska school districts. Besides finding out where students were coming from—and why—another purpose of the study was to provide the Anchorage School District and the Municipality of Anchorage with information about what they could do to help students and families who are new to the city. To our knowledge, this may be the first survey ever conducted to find out why people move to Anchorage from other areas of Alaska.University of Alaska Foundation. BP-Conoco Phillips Charter AgreementExecutive Summary / Introduction / Methods / Where are Alaskan's Moving From? / Organization of Survey Findings / Migration Patterns / Who is Moving? / Challenges and Transitions / Conclusions and Recommendations / References / Appendix A. Survey For

Primary care-led commissioning and public involvement in the English National Health Service. Lessons from the past.

Background: Patient and Public involvement (PPI) in health care occupies a central place in Western democracies. In England, this theme has been continuously prominent since the introduction of market reforms in the early 1990s. The health care reforms implemented by the current Coalition Government are making primary care practitioners the main commissioners of health care services in the National Health Service, and a duty is placed on them to involve the public in commissioning decisions and strategies. Since implementation of PPI initiatives in primary care commissioning is not new, we asked how likely it is that the new reforms will make a difference. We scanned the main literature related to primary care-led commissioning and found little evidence of effective PPI thus far. We suggest that unless the scope and intended objectives of PPI are clarified and appropriate resources are devoted to it, PPI will continue to remain empty rhetoric and box ticking. Aim: To examine the effect of previous PPI initiatives on health care commissioning and draw lessons for future development. Method: We scanned the literature reporting on previous PPI initiatives in primary careled commissioning since the introduction of the internal market in 1991. In particular, we looked for specific contexts, methods and outcomes of such initiatives. Findings: 1. PPI in commissioning has been constantly encouraged by policy makers in England. 2. Research shows limited evidence of effective methods and outcomes so far. 3. Constant reconfi- guration of health care structures has had a negative impact on PPI. 4. The new structures look hardly better poised to bring about effective public and patient involvement

Educational strategies meet the needs of Juvenile offenders

This study shows how correctional educators incorporate traditional as well as nontraditional teaching methods to address the specific problems associated with juvenile offenders

Thinking through performance: Children make sense of characters and social relationships through a gesture-based theatre convention (Tableau)

This inquiry considers a gesture-based theatre convention called tableau as used by first and second graders during language arts instruction. I argue that tableau acts as a medium of thinking, used to make sense of literary text and of social relationships. Tableau is largely non-language-based; it augments instructional practices that are primarily language-based. Tableau reveals sophisticated understandings children cannot yet put into language. As such, tableau offers educators a means to cast children as capable analysts of literature. Qualitatively oriented, this inquiry uses instrumental case study methods of observation and data analysis coupled with a concurrent conceptual study of the implications of the children\u27s actions. However, unlike many case studies, I took the role of teacher-researcher to bring first hand experience using tableau pedagogically. Information was gathered and analyzed through videotapes, audiotapes and still photographs of the children\u27s planning, enactment and follow-up discussion about each tableau. Inductive analyses identified patterns while taking into account the mutually shaping influences within the study environment. Established related theories were studied and modified based on the data collected, thereby grounding the theories in children\u27s actions. This inquiry suggests three ways tableau acts as a means of thinking. First, through tableau, children think through the non-language-based sign system of performative gesture. Secondly, children use emotion-based cognitive systems to interpret the point of view of characters as well as relationships between characters. Thirdly, to create a tableau, children negotiate meaning and control with their peers and through the sociocultural environment, employing intellectual, emotional and social labor. In addition, tableau reveals personal beliefs and underlying sociocultural values about social relationships and provides occasion to discuss multiple perspective taking, positioning and negotiation. Tableau acts as a microcosm reflecting the tensions of the larger social world. Within this microcosm, children use tableau to think through relationships written into literary text and to negotiate a position in the immediate social world. Children use the space of tableau as a three-dimensional canvass that bridges reasoning non-verbally and reasoning through language

Recreating the Law School to Increase Minority Participation: The Conceptual Law School

That is the situation. Nonetheless, the purpose of this Article is not to criticize the current law school model. It is a model that has, in many respects, served society well, having produced thousands of competent lawyers over the years since it became the dominant model. It is the model that has produced all of the minority lawyers that are currently members of the profession. Moreover, to their credit, faculty and administration at many law schools are very motivated to improve the situation but are constrained in their efforts by the law and other factors. This Article is not meant to be unduly critical of the current law school model. In addition, this is not meant to be yet another article arguing that law schools need to increase skills training. Rather, the simple question put forth is whether a different model for legal education might serve as an alternative to the traditional law school model and, in conjunction with the efforts of the traditional law schools, aid in increasing the numbers of minorities licensed to practice law

Blood Platelets and Proteolytic Enzymes

This thesis gives an account of the investigation of the effect of a variety of proteolytic enzymes on platelet aggregation. The discovery of platelets in blood and the recognition of their importance in haemostasis and thrombus formation is described in an historical introduction, which is followed by an account of materials and methods used, including three in vitro tests designed to estimate the ability of platelets to aggregate. Techniques for the preparation, purification and characterization of degradation products formed by proteolytic digestion of fibrinogen are also described. The experimental section of the thesis begins with an account of the assessment in vitro of the effect of fibrinogenolytic agents, particularly streptokinase and trypsin, and of products of fibrinogenolytic activity on platelet aggregation and adhesion. Platelet aggregation was assessed in two ways; by an artificial circulation system - the Chandler tube system, which measures the rate of formation of platelet aggregates in flowing recalcified citrated plasma, and by a turbidimetric method which measures the ability of platelets in response to adenosine-di-phosphate (ADP). As a measure of platelet adhesion, the diminution in platelet count as a result of passage of citrated whole blood or platelet-rich plasma through a column of glass beads was used (modified Hellem technique). Platelet clumping, as estimated by all methods, was enhanced by both streptokinase and trypsin although the concentrations of each enzyme required to produce this effect varied in the different assay systems. Streptokinase, at a concentration producing maximum lytic activity, accelerated the rate of formation of platelet aggregates in the Chandler tube and produced a marked increase in platelet adhesiveness in the Hellem-type technique. An increase in platelet ADP reactivity was only detected in the turbidimetric system after the plasma antiplasmin had been destroyed. Trypsin, at a concentration of 10 ug/ml sample produced a significant increase in the rate of formation of platelet aggregates in the Chandler tube system and an increase in platelet adhesiveness in the Hellem-type technique, but the concentration of enzyme had to be increased to 100 ug/ml sample before an increase in platelet ADP reactivity was detected. Neither streptokinase nor trypsin influence platelet aggregation by a direct action on the platelet; streptokinase produces no significant enhancement and trypsin produces almost total inhibition of aggregation of washed platelets resuspended in buffer. The effect on platelet aggregation of other proteolytic enzymes -urokinase, ficin, and chymotrypsin was also investigated, but none of these produced any enhancement of platelet reactivity to ADP in the turbidimetric system. These enzymes were however examined in less detail than streptokinase and trypsin. Heparin was also studied and at the concentrations of 0.05 units and 10 units per ml plasma was found to cause significant enhancement of ADP induced! aggregation in the turbidimetric system, but when present at a concentration of 500 units per ml plasma caused significant inhibition of ADP reactivity. The enhancement of platelet aggregation by streptokinase and trypsin was associated with marked fibrinogenolysis; several fibrinogen degradation products were prepared and their effect on platelet aggregation and adhesion examined. The degradation products were prepared by incubation of fibrinogen with either trypsin or urokinase-activated plasminogen followed by fractionation of the protein components of the incubation mixture on a DEAE cellulose column. The ultracentrifugal and electrophoretic properties of the breakdown products were determined and the number of peptide bonds broken during formation of two of the products determined. The effect on platelet aggregation and adhesion was examined of three products of tryptic digestion of fibrinogen; the product of least digestion (molecular weight apprximately 83,000) produced no significant effect on platelet ADP reactivity or platelet adhesiveness, the product of prolonged digestion (molecular weight less than 13,000) inhibited ADP induced platelet aggregation while the product of intermediate digestion (molecular weight 25,000) enhanced the rate of formation of platelet aggregates, ADP reactivity and platelet adhesiveness. A product prepared by digestion with urokinase-activated plasminogen enhanced both the rate of formation of platelet aggregates in the Chandler tube and ADP induced platelet aggregation. The two larger fragments produced by trypsin both exhibited a marked 'antithrombin' effect. The three in vitro methods used to study platelet aggregation and adhesion were compared. No mathematical correlations were found between the results obtained with the different methods; however the effect of trypsin and streptokinase could be detected with each method and the observations made with each method could to some extent be influenced by the concentration of ADP in the system. The experimental data presented demonstrate that under certain circumstances the enzymes streptokinase and trypsin can produce enhancement of platelet aggregation