Reseñas

Obra ressenyada: Annette MÜLBERGER, Thomas Sturm (Guest Editors), Psychology, A Science in Crisis? A Century of Reflections and Debates. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Special Section II, 2012

Student Achievement, Spending, and Accountability in Charter Schools, Virtual Schools, and Traditional Schools

This paper explores the student achievement, spending, and accountability in charter schools and virtual schools across the nation, as well as Michigan-specific information. The articles vary in their approaches to assessing student achievement, but most utilized state assessments to compare charter and virtual schools to traditional schools and state reports to measure spending. A review of the current literature found that charter schools, on average, perform at a similar level to their traditional school counterparts. Virtual schools, specifically K-12 Inc., are performing significantly below traditional schools. In terms of spending, the current literature found that charter schools and virtual schools are not held to the same spending transparency as traditional and are spending large amounts of money on administration costs. The literature focused on stricter regulations and guidelines that require charter and virtual schools to reach specific standards regarding achievement and spending to renew charters and stay open. Fourth more, charter schools and virtual schools should be required to utilize research-based practices in each of their specific settings

Surface characterisation of modified pan based carbon fibres.

This thesis examines the surfaces of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based high strength (HT) carbon fibres modified by electrochemical and ultra-violet ozone (UV/O3) treatment methods. The surface and bulk study was conducted by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. In addition, immersion calorimetry in polar and non-polar liquids, as well as dilute resins, is used to investigate fibre surface energies while temperature programmed desorption (TPD) is used to investigate adsorption of linear alcohols (C1 to C4) on the fibres. One of the main aims of the work is to understand the reaction mechanisms that take place between the surface oxygen functionalities on treated carbon fibres and the resin molecules that are used in forming composites. UV/O3 treatments were shown to produce significant levels of oxygen on the fibre surface. Anodic treatments did not alter the surface morphology, while UV/O3 treatments were seen to increase surface areas six fold. Immersion calorimetry measurements showed similar trends to carbon black materials but, due to the small surface areas of the fibre (typically 1 m2/g), the rush-in effect and heat of ampoule breakage was found to overshadow the signal from the fibre. TPD measurements showed that alcohol adsorption was considerably enhanced by the presence of surface oxygen. In addition a relationship between the acidity scale of the alcohols in the gas phase and the extent of their dissociative adsorption at room temperature was established. Overall this work has shown UV/O3 to be a successful surface treatment method, superior to electrochemical treatments and TPD to be a promising method for investigating bonding

Improving Vaccination Rates in Pediatric Primary Care

Objectives: In a small, rural pediatric primary care clinic, the effectiveness of electronic patient portal reminders were evaluated at improving vaccination rates for school required immunizations. Methods: A quality improvement project was initiated utilizing The Social Ecological Model. All pediatric patients were sent reminders who were under-immunized. This QI project evaluated the effectiveness of vaccine reminders on the improvement of immunization rates in the clinic Results: Total number of fully-vaccinated patients within the practice improved (2%) and patients under-immunized decreased by 1%. 87 immunizations were given to patients were given to patients who were under-immunized and an average of 10% of recorded un-vaccinated patient prior to intervention received at least one immunization. Conclusions: Implementation of vaccine reminders into a rural primary care pediatric practice improved patient compliance with school-required vaccines. Although immunization rates improved, the practice continues to see higher rates of under-immunized patients compared to state reporting data. Key Words: Vaccines, improvement, pediatric, primary care, portal reminder, vaccination rate

Using Data Analytics Tools to Supplement Traditional Research and Analysis in Forecasting Case Outcomes

Companies are now developing legal research tools that employ the power of data analytics to aid case forecasting. These tools hold significant promise as a supplement to the traditional element-focused predictive analysis. Instead of having to rely solely on their own experience to balance the results of the traditional element-focused analysis, lawyers may soon be able to rely on software products that mine data about past cases, and then run the data through algorithms to detect patterns. Those patterns can then inform predictions about likely case outcomes, based upon similarities between the facts, the courts, the individual judges, etc

Damage Caps: Recent Trends in American Tort Law

Damage caps and other limitations on damages have become increasingly important in American tort law during the past thirty years. This trend shows no signs of abating; in fact, it has gained increasing momentum since President Bush took office in 2001. This chapter traces the evolution of damage caps and other limitations on damages and provides a summary of recent developments in this area

Introducing Marijuana Law into the Legal Writing Curriculum

Interest in marijuana law continues to grow, due in large part to the complicated and rapidly evolving landscape of marijuana laws in the United States. Nearly every day, newspapers report on new or proposed legislation and the legal controversies that have arisen with regard to this evolving landscape. There are now several marijuana-law blogs on the Internet, Congress is considering sweeping legislation that would essentially grant significant deference to the individual states, and public opinion continues to move in favor of increased legalization. For the last two years, Newsweek magazine has published special editions devoted exclusively to marijuana law and the movement toward legalization, with cover captions “WEED NATION,” and featuring a large red, white, and blue cannabis leaf. In light of this growing interest in marijuana law, we propose that the topic is ripe for the legal writing classroom. Not only is marijuana law a rapidly evolving area of law, and therefore a fertile source of new legal issues, it also is an area of significant interest for many students, and it raises many fascinating legal issues—civil, criminal, and constitutional. This article therefore proposes that legal writing professors consider incorporating marijuana law issues into their first-year courses, and it offers some ideas for how they might create marijuana-related legal writing problems

Introducing Marijuana Law into the Legal Writing Curriculum

Interest in marijuana law continues to grow, due in large part to the complicated and rapidly evolving landscape of marijuana laws in the United States. Nearly every day, newspapers report on new or proposed legislation and the legal controversies that have arisen with regard to this evolving landscape. There are now several marijuana-law blogs on the Internet, Congress is considering sweeping legislation that would essentially grant significant deference to the individual states, and public opinion continues to move in favor of increased legalization. For the last two years, Newsweek magazine has published special editions devoted exclusively to marijuana law and the movement toward legalization, with cover captions “WEED NATION,” and featuring a large red, white, and blue cannabis leaf. In light of this growing interest in marijuana law, we propose that the topic is ripe for the legal writing classroom. Not only is marijuana law a rapidly evolving area of law, and therefore a fertile source of new legal issues, it also is an area of significant interest for many students, and it raises many fascinating legal issues—civil, criminal, and constitutional. This article therefore proposes that legal writing professors consider incorporating marijuana law issues into their first-year courses, and it offers some ideas for how they might create marijuana-related legal writing problems

Outcome Prediction in the Practice of Law

Business forecasters typically use time-series models to predict future demands, the forecasts informing management decision making and guiding organizational planning. But this type of forecasting is merely a subset of the broader field of predictive analytics, models used by data scientists in all manner of applications, including credit approvals, fraud detection, product-purchase and music-listening recommendations, and even the real-time decisions made by self-driving vehicles. The practice of law requires decisions that must be based on predictions of future legal outcomes, and data scientists are now developing forecasting methods to support the process. In this article, Mark Osbeck and Mike Gilliland first examine the traditional tools lawyers employ along with the limitations that prevent these tools from consistently delivering accurate predictions. They then describe how new data-science approaches, including AI, are starting to alter the way law firms operate