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Arizona and New Jersey high school graduation policy discourse analysis for Hispanic and Native American students
No full textThis qualitative case study uses comparative case study methodology with discourse analysis to compare Arizona and New Jersey regulations, policies, procedures, and practices influencing high school graduation rates for Hispanic and Native American youth. National and state reports (NCES, 2019) indicated a gap between high school graduation rates for Hispanic and Native American students with European American peers, but questions remain about the graduation rate gap phenomenon from the perspective of policy and superintendents who actively engage in finding solutions. The qualitative, discursive results indicate asset-building discourse from superintendents brought forth missing information in policy beyond the deficit model of students and the overreliance on assessments and cost analysis of intervention programs. Extant research focuses on the national or state policies (macro) or the effect of policies using accountability test scores in school (micro) level when making policy decisions. Highly experienced superintendents who participated in the study know there are many more factors that contribute to student success beyond testing, such as all the variables that influence student test results. Multiple sources were used in the discourse analysis, including artifacts, policy documents, and superintendent panel discussions. From the findings, asset-building discourse promoted solutions that are often difficult to apply due to competing political agendas in funding, curriculum, and assessment policies. In summary, a shift from deficit model policies to asset-based policy approaches is needed to increase Native American and Hispanic high school graduation rates. The main findings include: 1. Using collaborative or distributed leadership, including governance partnerships, along with community businesses, colleges, and organizations that align to collaborate on federal, state, and local policies, 2. Promote a welcoming environment for students and families without A-F labels, 3. Flexibility in federal and state funding and instructional time especially related to grants, and 4. Asset-based use of assessments and curriculum to tailor to students’ interests and bridge learning pathways beyond high school to create a meaningful learning experience, which is especially needed in rural communities. Moreover, qualitative focus groups with superintendents indicated concerns that Native Americans and Hispanic youth have internalized the failures of educational deficit policies for too long. The dissertation concludes with implications for research, policy, and practices that support and empower students, and the asset-based policies to guide future generations
Analysis of triassic volcanic rocks in two pendants, eastern Sierra Nevada, California with implications for continental arc paleogeography and volcanology
Get PDFThe continental passive margin along the west coast of Laurentia transitioned from transpressional faulting to a subduction zone and continental magmatic arc in Pennsylvanian to Permian time, but the exact timing of initial arc magmatism, eruptive styles and sequences, and the depositional setting remain poorly understood. Several pendants in the Sierra Nevada in California preserve the transition from passive margin to active magmatic arc in early Triassic time. Mapping and facies analysis, whole-rock and zircon trace element geochemical data, and three new zircon U-Pb ages from pyroclastic rocks in the Ritter Range and Mount Morrison pendants provide insight into the timing and style of the initial stages of Triassic arc development at ~37°N.
A series of tuffs in the Agnew Meadows area in the Ritter Range pendant are poorly sorted deposits of juvenile and accidental lithic clasts and broken quartz and feldspar phenocrysts in a fine-grained groundmass and were emplaced by pyroclastic density currents. A pumice conglomerate unit within this sequence is composed of elongate pumice clasts in a volcanic ash matrix and is the result of the effusive emplacement of a subaqueous silicic dome in the Agnew Meadows area. Compositionally similar rocks crop out along strike in the Mount Morrison pendant to the southeast; lithic clast and phenocryst sizes increase southward and the tuff of Skelton Lake becomes more chaotic in the farthest southeast corner of the pendant. The Red and White Spur area in the southwest corner of the Mount Morrison pendant exposes a thick unit containing caldera-wall megabreccia in fine-grained tuff of Skelton Lake. The tuff of San Joaquin Mountain in the Ritter Range pendant, the tuff of Skelton Lake at Skelton Lake, and the lithic-rich facies in the Red and White Spur area are compositionally similar, suggestive of cogenesis.
Previous studies of zircon in pyroclastic rocks in the Mount Morrison, Saddlebag Lake, and Ritter Range pendants yielded crystallization ages of 232 to 217 2 Ma, which marks the earliest arc volcanism in this area. To determine eruptive sequences and constrain the relation between similar pyroclastic units across these pendants, new zircon U-Pb samples were collected and analyzed from two pyroclastic units in the Ritter Range and one in the Mount Morrison pendant. All three samples revealed identical ages within error centered at ca 220 2 Ma, suggesting these units are coeval. Textural, stratigraphic, and whole-rock and zircon geochemical data collectively suggest these units are also cogenetic. Zircon geochemical signatures indicate contamination by continental crust in a convergent-margin setting.
Primary volcanic textures suggest subaqueous silicic dome carapace pumice and pyroclastic deposits in the Ritter Range pendant, and thick (>1 km) intra-caldera and caldera-wall breccia in the Mount Morrison pendant, indicating a caldera with a diameter of at least 13 km centered in the southeastern portion of this pendant. The earliest volcanic activity related to the Late Triassic arc involved large silicic systems of calderas and domes, which likely erupted subaqueously, producing vesicular pumiceous clasts that floated in the water column before settling into pyroclastic material from coeval eruptions. Studies of these volcanic sections provide insight into juvenile volcanic arc evolution, paleogeography, and volcanism in an induced-subduction initiation setting
Effectiveness of community college retention programs for marginalized students
No full textThe purpose of this proposed study was to address the issue of the effectiveness of community college retention programs, particularly their impact on poor or low-income students. Indeed, this study sought to identify actions and events that contributed to students choosing to drop out and the positive impact that college retention programs did or did not have in helping them decide whether to leave college. It sought to understand students’ point of view as it pertains to why they left college and the role that college programs may have played in dissuading them from doing so. This study sought to identify the factors that contributed to students leaving school, how community college retention programs addressed these factors, and how these programs could be improved.
A qualitative approach was selected for this study to gather detailed information about participants’ feelings about the challenges they face and the support they do and do not receive and how both impact the decision to remain enrolled or leave college. A phenomenological research design was used. Rooted in the philosophy of Edmund Husserl, this research method is fundamentally interested in the experience of a group as experienced by that group with the intent of obtaining a description of a specific act or event (Creswell & Poth, 2017). The phenomenological approach holds that to do so, the researcher must go directly to those who have experienced the phenomenon first-hand; in this case, they are community college students
Pennsylvanian-permian lithostratigraphy, chemostratigaphy, and astrochronology of the Western Laurentian margin, California and Nevada, U.S.A.
No full textWaxing and waning of continental ice sheets on Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age induced high-magnitude eustatic sea-level fluctuations from the mid Mississippian to early Permian that have been long-attributed to orbitally-driven insolation variation. These changes are recorded in cyclic marine strata worldwide, and are particularly prominent in North America, where a series of basins contains the deposits of paleoequatorial seas. To better understand orbital forcing, glacial-interglacial cycles, and the expression of shelf and slope lithofacies across a deep- to shallow-marine stratigraphic transect, we measured several thick sections of conodont-bearing upper Pennsylvanian through lower Permian strata along the western Laurentian margin. Decimeter-scale stratigraphy and a gamma ray log of the Keeler Canyon Formation were measured at Ubehebe Mine, CA, adding to an existing record at Cerro Gordo, CA. These strata are a thick succession of intercalated gravity flow deposits, turbidites, and marlstones. We also documented the coeval shallow marine Bird Spring Formation at Arrow Canyon, NV, and collected 150 carbonate samples at 0.5-meter intervals across the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary. Cyclicity at Ubehebe Mine is expressed by prominent oscillations between intervals of debrites and turbidites and thinner intervals of silty marlstones, whereas at Arrow Canyon, shallow water carbonate facies predominate, and compositional cyclicity is less prominent. δ13C values vary between 1‰ and 4‰ across the section at the 5 to 40 meter scale and likely correspond to oscillations in global marine waters between interglacial sea-level highstands and glacial sea-level lowstands. During the Pleistocene icehouse, higher δ13C values in marine carbonates have been widely interpreted to correspond to enhanced oceanic productivity during the onset of glaciation, whereas lower δ13C values are typically interpreted to represent decreased oceanic productivity from less vigorous thermohaline circulation during interglacial periods. The highest δ13C values and shallowest lithofacies from the Arrow Canyon section occur in early Asselian strata, consistent with a glacial period and sea-level lowstand, and global Pennsylvanian-Permian δ13C records. Coarse-grained turbidites and debrites from the Keeler Canyon Formation often record higher δ13C values, which are consistent with an increase in shelf instability and gravity-flow processes during sea-level lowstand. Marlstone intervals typically have lower δ13C values, and record intervals during which the shelf was inundated and deposition was focused up-dip. Silt in these intervals may record enhanced aeolian transport. Correlations between the Cerro Gordo and Ubehebe Mine sections suggest that both the outer and mid apron sections record depositional cyclicity, consistent with allocyclic forcing due to glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations. Systematic changes in sediment accumulation rate can be correlated across the Keeler Canyon Formation from sections ~40 km apart, including lulls at the Kasimovian-Gzhelian and Pennsylvanian-Permian boundaries. The lull across the Pennsylvanian -Permian boundary could record the transition from a shelf-proximal setting to a sediment-starved foredeep basin, and also coincides with contractile deformation in northern Nevada. Spectral analysis of gamma ray and δ13C time series reveal prominent bundled periodicities that closely match predicted Late Paleozoic orbital cycles and the existing record of Late Paleozoic orbital cycles. The 405, 123, and 95 Ky eccentricity cycles were identified at all locations, and obliquity and precession are apparent in several densely-sampled portions of the Keeler Canyon Formation. Additionally, the average durations between intervals of the debrite and coarse-grained turbidite lithofacies are consistent with the periods of long-and short-eccentricity, respectively. This suggests that orbital forcing, and particularly eccentricity cycles, modulated the Late Paleozoic glacial-interglacial oscillations, glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations, and cyclostratigraphic marine deposition. Biostratigraphic age-control, apparently continuous and relatively high sediment accumulation rates, and a detailed lithostatigraphic and astrochronologic record, make the Keeler Canyon Formation at Ubehebe Mine a potential candidate to be the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) to define the base of the Gzhelian Stage in the global chronostratigraphic scale
Surveilling the skies: a sociological analysis of the unidentified flying object discourse in american society
No full textThe unidentified flying object (UFO) phenomenon has survived marginalization by developing within and challenging the discourses of politics, science, and religion in a very specific historicity. Using the Foucauldian concept of discourse and utilizing Critical Theory as a frame to analyze the development of the UFO phenomenon in America, I seek to explain how the shift in society from modernity to postmodernity enabled the UFO to transform into its own object while also creating its own concepts and system of power by borrowing ideas from politics, science, and religion, and transforming them into its own discourse. It is in this particular historical context that the UFO phenomenon was able to advance from marginalized knowledge to mainstream discourses regardless of criticism and ridicule.
Keywords: unidentified flying objects; UAP; politics; science; religion; modernity; postmodernity; sociology; Critical Theory; Foucault; discourse; knowledge; powe
Patterns of climate sensitivity and memory differ between trees that survive and trees that die during drought
No full textRecent increases in the intensity, frequency, and spatial extent of drought have caused forest dieback in regions around the world. Understanding what predisposes trees to drought-related mortality is becoming a major concern. Leveraging a dataset of ring-width measurements obtained from trees impacted by drought, I attempt to detect early warning signs of drought-related tree mortality in the form of altered climate sensitivity and memory in trees that succumbed to drought. By fitting a Bayesian, mixed-effects model implemented in the stochastic antecedent modeling (SAM) framework to tree growth and climate data, I was able to assess differences in climate sensitivity, as well as the length, strength, and temporal pattern of climate memory in three ecologically relevant tree species: Abies lasiocarpa, Pinus sylvestris, and Populus tremuloides. Differences in climate sensitivity between living trees and trees that later died were species-specific but living trees of all three species showed increased sensitivity to precipitation when temperatures were high, suggesting that they are better able to utilize antecedent precipitation to mitigate the impacts of high temperatures. The length of climate memory did not differ much between living and dead trees, but the species-specific patterns in the importance of the timing of antecedent climate showed trees that survived and those that later died were sensitive to precipitation and temperature at different times of year. These results indicate that clear differences exist in the climate sensitivity and climate memory of trees that survive and those likely to die during drought, which may help identify those trees that are particularly vulnerable
The relationship between principal leadership styles and school culture as perceived by southern Arizona K-12 teachers
No full textThe 21st century public school principal is faced with complex challenges and issues as would be expected to befall a key influencer of student success. Among others, these challenges include accountability demonstrated through high stakes testing, data-driven decision making, effectively incorporating innovative technology, recruiting and retaining teachers, and finally, ensuring a safe, nurturing and inspiring school culture. As the administrative role has increasingly evolved from manager to instructional leader, the impact and positive influence an effective principal can have on teachers and school culture stands to be their most important overall contribution, aside from hiring the best teachers in the first place (Hughes, 2014). Therein, effective schools require engaged leadership that actively inspires teachers to invest in realizing what is possible instead of settling for the targets that are most easily attained. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the leadership style of public school principals and school culture as assessed by public school teachers. A total of 43 principals and 314 teachers from elementary, middle school, and high schools located in Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties in Southern Arizona were selected and agreed to participate in this study. Data for this study were collected using the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 2004) to classify the leadership styles of principals as transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire. Additionally, the School Culture Survey by Gruenert and Valentine (1998) was used to assess the following six factors of school culture: collaborative leadership, teacher collaboration, unity of purpose, professional development, collegial support, and learning partnership. The means, standard deviations, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, and linear regressions were used to examine the relationship between the variables.
The results of this study were evaluated through the SPSS platform. Outcomes indicated that there was a weak significant linear correlation between the three leadership styles (transformational, transactional, laissez-faire) and school culture. More specifically, of the three leadership models under consideration, only transformational leadership showed a positive correlation through Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients
Prescriptions and practice in Prescott, Arizona: medicine in the 1920s and 1930s
No full textUsing prescription records from the Owl Drug and Candy Store and the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Hospital #20 in Prescott, Arizona, I compare the therapies prescribed by physicians in Prescott to national and international trends in medicine. I produced a catalog of the drugs used, based on these prescription slips, and created a guide for the dates when the most popular drugs from Prescott were developed and popularized nationally. This allowed me to compare the state of medicine in Prescott in the early twentieth century to the state of medicine in the United States at large. Between the 1920s and 1930s, physicians in Prescott, Arizona followed national and global trends in medicine, staying at the cutting-edge of medical practice. Prescott attracted physicians trained in regular, or orthodox, medicine, as well as homeopathic doctors. Physicians from both schools appeared to have mutual respect in Prescott and prescribed similar therapies to their patients. Prescott pharmacies provided drugs to patients which chemical manufacturers developed only a few years before. The Owl Drug and Candy Store provided iron and thiamine tonics to patients in the earliest days of the vitamin theory, with prescriptions dating to 1936, the same year as the first synthesis of thiamine (Carpenter 2000:113). Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), or aspirin, gained prominence among physicians in Prescott by 1921, concurrent with the rest of the world (McTavish 1987:337). Bromides remained popular in Prescott into the 1930s, despite the availability of barbiturates, which became the dominant seizure medication globally (López-Muñoz, Ucha-Udabe, and Alamo 2005:337). However, barbiturate use increased in Prescott as well. Doctors prescribed barbiturates to patients within two years of the development of the drugs. Two barbiturates, Seconal and Evipal were introduced to the market in 1934 and in use therapeutically in Prescott by 1936
Antimicrobial activity of novel ionic liquids/deep eutectic solvents help to resist biofouling
No full textMost nosocomial infections, or patient carrying diseases, arise from antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and these organisms can create a number of medically relevant concerns. Pathogenic organisms can impact wound healing, tissue transportation, or medical grade equipment used in clinical settings and around at-risk patient populations. An example of surface contamination in wound healing wound be diabetic patients whose wounds are unmanaged are at risk of amputation due to the progression of nonhealing diabetic ulcers that are contaminated by antibiotic resistant pathogens in the wound beds. New methods to address these microbial contaminations are needed. In the tissue transplantation industry, pathogen surveillance is necessary to ensure procedures remain aseptic post-harvest, during transportation, and up to the point of transplantation to the recipient. Decontamination of medical equipment or medical devices such as urinary catheters are another space where pathogen contamination can present compounding complications. Clean medical grade equipment, such as medical catheter tubing, also pose a risk of transporting external microbes to internal sensitive tissues. Taking advantage of known antimicrobial solutions that would manage infected tissues used for transplantation, such as ionic liquids/deep eutectic solvents (IL/DES), would prove beneficial for the tissue transplantation process. IL/DES have been developed as antiseptic agents with antimicrobial properties used for disrupting the structure of biofilms in antibiotic resistant microbes. In this study, antimicrobial IL/DES were characterized using a dose-response assessment to determine cellular compatibility and antimicrobial properties. The PrestoBlue and CyQUANT assays were used in growth media for adult human dermal fibroblasts cells to determine biocompatibility and in microbroth dilution antibiotic assays for antibiotic resistant microbes to determine the antimicrobial properties. Current results demonstrated promising cellular compatibility when using low doses of IL/DES on human dermal fibroblast cells. The antimicrobial activity results depict the activity is present in the novel IL/DES and retained when pre-treating medical grade equipment to reduce or eliminate antibiotic resistant infections
Online learning: perceptions of secondary teachers in northern Utah
No full textIn the beginning months of 2020, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was causing a worldwide pandemic, affecting individuals, families, communities, and nations. Many lives were drastically affected when governments decided to shut down to prevent the spreading of this virus. Teachers and students had to quickly adapt to learning online or in blended delivery formats. Schools and districts did their best to accommodate students who didn't have the necessary access to computers and the Internet. Many students faced the dilemma of finishing up the school year without lucid communication with their teacher, the ability to access assignments and assessments, and the school's crucial social connections. Few researchers have examined the perceptions that teachers have of online learning. Some researchers who have studied teachers’ perceptions of online learning have focused on helping administrators in their role to facilitate better an online program (Gaytan, 2015; Huss, 2007). Other studies have included teachers’ perceptions of online learning and students’ perceptions in the same research (Gaytan, 2015; Journell, 2010). There is also a lack of online learning research at the secondary level in general (Brown, 2016), but especially of the online learning perceptions of secondary teachers. As online learning is rapidly advancing in both secondary and post-secondary education environments, there is a need to include the perspectives of secondary teachers in the online learning discussion. Doing so will provide school districts with a greater context of current issues facing teachers in online classrooms and provide more significant insights and solutions to those issues