Effect of wind gusts on the motion of a balloon-borne observation platform

The effect of wind gusts on the magnitude of the pendulation angles of a balloon-borne observation platform is determined. A system mathematical model is developed and the solution of this model is used to determine the magnitude of the observation platforms pendulation angles

Increased mRNA Expression for the α\u3csub\u3e1\u3c/sub\u3e Subunit of the GABA\u3csub\u3eA\u3c/sub\u3e Receptor Following Nitrous Oxide Exposure in Mice

The mechanisms by which nitrous oxide (N2O) produces physical dependence and withdrawal seizures are not well understood, but both N2O and ethanol exert some of their effects via the GABAA receptor and several lines of evidence indicate that withdrawal from N2O and ethanol may be produced through similar mechanisms. Expression levels of mRNA transcripts encoding several GABAA receptor subunits change with chronic ethanol exposure and, therefore, we hypothesized that N2O exposure would produce changes in mRNA expression for the α1 subunit. Male, Swiss–Webster mice, 10–12 weeks of age, were exposed for 48 h to either room air or a 75%:25% N2O:O2 environment. Brains were sectioned and mRNA for the a subunit was detected by in situ hybridization using an 35S-labelled cRNA probe. N2O exposure produced a significant increase in expression levels of the α1 subunit mRNA in the cingulate cortex, the CA1/2 region of the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, the subiculum, the medial septum, and the ventral tegmental area. These results lend support to the hypothesis that N2O effects are produced, at least in part, through the GABAA receptor and that N2O produces these effects through actions in the cingulate cortex, hippocampus, ventral tegmental area and medial septum. These results are also further evidence that ethanol and N2O produce dependence and withdrawal through common mechanisms

TRPV1-expressing primary afferents generate behavioral responses to pruritogens via multiple mechanisms

The mechanisms that generate itch are poorly understood at both the molecular and cellular levels despite its clinical importance. To explore the peripheral neuronal mechanisms underlying itch, we assessed the behavioral responses (scratching) produced by s.c. injection of various pruritogens in PLCβ3- or TRPV1-deficient mice. We provide evidence that at least 3 different molecular pathways contribute to the transduction of itch responses to different pruritogens: 1) histamine requires the function of both PLCβ3 and the TRPV1 channel; 2) serotonin, or a selective agonist, α-methyl-serotonin (α-Me-5-HT), requires the presence of PLCβ3 but not TRPV1, and 3) endothelin-1 (ET-1) does not require either PLCβ3 or TRPV1. To determine whether the activity of these molecules is represented in a particular subpopulation of sensory neurons, we examined the behavioral consequences of selectively eliminating 2 nonoverlapping subsets of nociceptors. The genetic ablation of MrgprD^+ neurons that represent ≈90% of cutaneous nonpeptidergic neurons did not affect the scratching responses to a number of pruritogens. In contrast, chemical ablation of the central branch of TRPV1+ nociceptors led to a significant behavioral deficit for pruritogens, including α-Me-5-HT and ET-1, that is, the TRPV1-expressing nociceptor was required, whether or not TRPV1 itself was essential. Thus, TRPV1 neurons are equipped with multiple signaling mechanisms that respond to different pruritogens. Some of these require TRPV1 function; others use alternate signal transduction pathways

Composing Research: A Contextualist Paradigm for Rhetoric and Composition

In Composing Research, Cindy Johanek offers a new perspective on the ideological conflict between qualitative and quantitative research approaches, and the theories of knowledge that inform them. With a paradigm that is sensitive to the context of one\u27s research questions, she argues, scholars can develop less dichotomous forms that invoke the strengths of both research traditions. Context-oriented approaches can lift the narrative from beneath the numbers in an experimental study, for example, or bring the useful clarity of numbers to an ethnographic study.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1125/thumbnail.jp

The Public Purposes of Public Education: The Evolution of Community-Centered Schooling at Benjamin Franklin High School, 1934-1944

In 1934, Italian immigrant Leonard Covello and others set up Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Its purpose was to coordinate the educational influences emanating the neighborhood\u27s many institutions, and to inform local citizen decision-making with intensive local social research. A leader in urban education, Benjamin Franklin High pioneered a distinctive community-centered schooling. Covello insisted that education for social living be based on solving real community problems in order to prepare students for leadership and civic participation. Problems ranging from poor housing to leisure opportunities to intergroup relations were channeled through Franklin\u27s system of school-community committees. This dissertation describes the evolution of the vision, one of active public purpose, that inspired Benjamin Franklin High in its early years. How did the ideas that guided such an unusual school mission evolve? How were they shaped and changed by their interaction with local events, national trends, demographics, personalities, and social conditions? Though an institutional history, this essay attempts to capture the interplay among a wide configuration of educating agents, in particular the messy dynamics of a public school\u27s relationship to its community. Fundamental tensions regarding the nature of the public purposes of schooling, as well as whose purposes are pursued, underlie this intensely local struggle. Chapter I describes the social, economic, and political context of East Harlem in the early 1930s, including the campaign to establish Benjamin Franklin. Chapter II sets out the broader conversation about community schooling in the early 1930s. Chapter III presents the life of Leonard Covello, examining the complex interplay of religious, intellectual, and personal experiences that influenced his vision of public. schooling for East Harlem. In Chapters IV and V, the challenges of promoting cultural democracy - through local research, storefront units, adult education, teacher training, curriculum and public rallies - flesh out the idea of community-centered schooling as it evolved in East Harlem. Drawing upon varied traditions of community research, early urban sociology, social Christianity and settlement house traditions, Covello shaped a distinct vision of schooling\u27s public role in the democratic development of a diverse people. Implications for current education policy are suggested

Race, Gender and Ethnicity in the United States History Survey: \u3cem\u3eIntroduction\u3c/em\u3e

It is one of the great pleasures and challenges of the Advanced Placement Program that many of the central enduring dilemmas of a discipline insist upon resolution. The sort of matters that can provoke the wry smiles of seasoned colleagues across a faculty meeting require concrete resolution for the real-world operation of this large-scale liberal arts enterprise seeking to span the realms of school and college. These matters can not be for us, in that lamentable popular expression, an academic question. Courses need to be taught, teachers supported, students challenged, work assessed. And what are these dilemmas? Our authors have set some of these on the table for us: What constitutes the survey, and what are its central goals? How do we reconcile the tyranny of generalization with the anarchy of the particular as Jonathan Chu so nicely puts it? How do we ensure that new research in women\u27s history - or any other new threads of scholarship for that matter - gets integrated into college and AP high school courses, and avoids the add women and stir recipe approach Mary Frederickson so aptly captured? (I do note it is a cooking metaphor, but will leave it there). How do we get beyond the basic mantra of patriarchal hegemony, as Mary argues, and destabilize the survey a bit, even perhaps transforming it by letting go of chronology some, by subverting the tyranny of coverage, and by stopping cleaning up the dirty mess that is our wonderful human heritage, arriving someday, just maybe, beyond the unsexed and neutered stories, learning more richly about women and men? How do we move ethnicity and immigration beyond, as Diane Vecchio urges, their bounded period units and beyond their association with problems ? And in all of this, how can we insure, as Uma Venkateswaran has illustrated, that the way we assess student achievement fairly reflects what we\u27re after, and also helps us understand what in fact is happening in classrooms around the country, so that we can inform ourselves more accurately of the status of this noble craft? For the survey, and therefore for the AP United States history course, these questions get answered whether explicitly addressed or not. AP is a mirror, if you will, as faithful as our approaches allow, to the answers made by faculty on their own

Rise and Fall of an Information Technology Outsourcing Program: A Qualitative Analysis of a Troubled Corporate Initiative

Information technology outsourcing (ITO) is a common business practice and a widely studied topic in academic literature. However, far less attention is paid to the implications and social dynamics of executives’ pursuit of personal career achievement through the implementation of ITO programs. Focused mainly on gaining organizational power for career advancement and accomplishment, executives can create unintended consequences for their employees, their suppliers, their company, their shareholders, and their own careers. This research focused on a large information technology outsourcing program from its inception to early implementation at a single Fortune 1000 firm. The time span covered was just over five years, which included the two years prior and more than three years of the initiative’s lifespan. The data for this study included fifty-two interviews conducted with employees and executives over eighteen months as well as my personal observations and field notes. The uniqueness of this study compared to other published research stems from my dual role as both researcher and executive at the firm throughout this work. The data informed a grounded theory of how and why the ITO initiative unfolded as it did, while giving equal voice to the employees and executives involved. The central theoretical premises of this analysis relied on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, and fields in conjunction with Bruce Lincoln’s taxonomies and anomalies within social structures. The study’s analysis was further informed by Brown and Duguid’s infocentrism, Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy, impression management, and moral career, along with Thomas Kuhn’s paradigms within the structure of scientific revolutions, Jackall’s bureaucratic ethic and Harvey’s Abilene Paradox. Analysis of the data identified the organization’s habitus as a collection of visible and shadow social practices, mental models, and organizational rules for accumulating power. The habitus shaped employees’ and executives’ behaviors toward each other and toward their ITO provider. As this study ended, the ITO initiative was in its fourth year, significantly delayed, and its chances of success doubtful

Review of Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, \u3cem\u3eAn Elusive Science: The Troubling History of Education Research\u3c/em\u3e

Brutish and bloody ethnic slaughter across the globe. Dangerous environmental degradation. Stifling cultural ennui with rampant turbo-consumerism. Menacing saber rattling from Gaza to the Taiwan Strait. Narrow problematics in education research

Accounting for Citizenship: Are our expectations for civic education too modest?

In an era of tests and standards, how do our schools score in preparing citizens? Are any superintendents worrying about their jobs because of low civic scores on state assessments? There is no more central purpose to schools in a democracy than the preparation of citizens, yet you would hardly know it from how we hold these key public institutions accountable. Questions about the health of our civic life underlie many of today\u27s central campaign issues, from taxes to foreign policy. What sort of democracy are we, and what do we expect every citizen to be able to do

The Evolution of College Entrance Examinations

Over the last 150 years, one of the hallmarks of American education has been the testing of increasingly large groups of people through processes of growing sophistication made possible by continuing advances in the technology of information processing. Much of this testing has been largely external to the instructional process, driven by the interests of policymakers and governments, especially vis-à-vis grades K-12, and has served various ends