Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Substantial Growth (substantial + growth)
Selected AbstractsInclusive Achievement Testing for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Test Takers: Essential Considerations for Test Developers and Decision MakersEDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009Shelley B. Fairbairn Substantial growth in the numbers of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States and Canada in recent years has significantly affected the educational systems of both countries. This article focuses on critical issues and concerns related to the assessment of ELLs in U.S. and Canadian schools and emphasizes assessment approaches for test developers and decision makers that will facilitate increased equity, meaningfulness, and accuracy in assessment and accountability efforts. It begins by examining the crucial issue of defining ELLs as a group. Next, it examines the impact of testing originating from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) in the U.S. and government-mandated standards-driven testing in Canada by briefly describing each country's respective legislated testing requirements and outlining their consequences at several levels. Finally, the authors identify key points that test developers and decision makers in both contexts should consider in testing this ever-increasing group of students. [source] Could rising aquatic carbon dioxide concentrations favour the invasion of elodeids in isoetid-dominated softwater lakes?FRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Issue 9 2009P. SPIERENBURG Summary 1. During the past century, isoetid vegetation types in softwater lakes have often been invaded by faster-growing elodeids. In these C-limited systems, this may be related to rising aquatic CO2 levels. 2. In a laboratory experiment we tested the growth response of two elodeid species, Myriophyllum alterniflorum and Callitriche hamulata, at four different CO2 levels, ranging from 20 to 230 ,mol L,1. In addition, we tested the effect of the nutrient status of the sediment on the growth of C. hamulata at the different CO2 levels. 3. Shoot and root growth increased with rising CO2 availability. Irrespective of sediment type, growth was minimal to negative at the lowest CO2 treatment level, while becoming positive at CO2 levels around 40,50 ,mol L,1. Substantial growth was only obtained when the macrophytes were growing on mesotrophic sediments. The plants reached close to maximal growth at CO2 levels of c. 100 ,mol L,1. 4. Within this experiment, the growth of C. hamulata at CO2 levels above 90 ,mol L,1 may have been limited by N and P availability in both sediment types. The growth rate of M. alterniflorum did not seem to be limited by N and P availability, most likely due to its much higher relative root production. 5. The experimental results show that neither M. alterniflorum nor C. hamulata is able to invade isoetid-dominated softwater lakes at very low aquatic CO2 concentrations. However, if the sediments contain enough nutrients, a rise in aquatic CO2 could allow the invasion of elodeid species leading to the subsequent disappearance of slow-growing isoetids. [source] What Happens When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: An Empirical Analysis of the Discount Retailing IndustryECONOMETRICA, Issue 6 2008Panle Jia In the past few decades multistore retailers, especially those with 100 or more stores, have experienced substantial growth. At the same time, there is widely reported public outcry over the impact of these chain stores on other retailers and local communities. This paper develops an empirical model to assess the impact of chain stores on other discount retailers and to quantify the size of the scale economies within a chain. The model has two key features. First, it allows for flexible competition patterns among all players. Second, for chains, it incorporates the scale economies that arise from operating multiple stores in nearby regions. In doing so, the model relaxes the commonly used assumption that entry in different markets is independent. The lattice theory is exploited to solve this complicated entry game among chains and other discount retailers in a large number of markets. It is found that the negative impact of Kmart's presence on Wal-Mart's profit was much stronger in 1988 than in 1997, while the opposite is true for the effect of Wal-Mart's presence on Kmart's profit. Having a chain store in a market makes roughly 50% of the discount stores unprofitable. Wal-Mart's expansion from the late 1980s to the late 1990s explains about 40,50% of the net change in the number of small discount stores and 30,40% for all other discount stores. Scale economies were important for Wal-Mart, but less so for Kmart, and the magnitude did not grow proportionately with the chains' sizes. [source] Doing harm reduction better: syringe exchange in the United StatesADDICTION, Issue 9 2009Don C. Des Jarlais ABSTRACT Objective To trace the growth of syringe exchange programs (SEPs) in the United States since 1994,95 and assess the current state of SEPs. Methods Annual surveys of US SEPs known to North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN). Surveys mailed to executive directors with follow-up interviews by telephone and/or e-mail. Response rates have varied between 70% and 88% since surveys were initiated in 1996. Results The numbers of programs known to NASEN have increased from 68 in 1994,95 to 186 in 2007. Among programs participating in the survey, numbers of syringes exchanged have increased from 8.0 million per year to 29.5 million per year, total annual budgets have increased from $6.3 to $19.6 million and public funding (from state and local governments) has increased from $3.9 to $14.4 million. In 2007, 89% of programs permitted secondary exchange and 76% encouraged it. Condoms, referrals to substance abuse treatment, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) counseling and testing and naloxone for overdose were among the most commonly provided services in addition to basic syringe exchange. Each of these services was provided by 40% or more of SEPs in 2007. Conclusions While syringe exchange has remained controversial in the United States, there has been very substantial growth in numbers of programs, syringes exchange and program budgets. Utilizing secondary exchange to reach large numbers of injecting drug users and utilizing SEPs as a new platform for providing health and social services beyond basic syringe exchange have been the two major organizational strategies in the growth of SEPs in the United States. [source] The Argentine welfare state: enduring and resisting changeINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2010Ernesto Aldo Isuani Isuani EA. The Argentine welfare state: enduring and resisting change Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 104,114 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. It is widely accepted that during the 1990s, the Argentine state experienced a general retrenchment. This article shows that, though this may have been true in the economic realm, this retrenchment did not take place in the diverse arenas of social policy. While privatisations and labour market flexibility dismantled the foundations of Keynesianism, the components of the welfare state experienced substantial growth. At the same time, the changes experienced by the welfare state in the past quarter century have not included a transformation of its basic principles, despite the profound changes experienced by Argentine society during this period. [source] Student-Run Health Clinic: Novel Arena to Educate Medical Students on Systems-Based PracticeMOUNT SINAI JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: A JOURNAL OF PERSONALIZED AND TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, Issue 4 2009Yasmin S. Meah MD Abstract In recent decades, the United States has experienced substantial growth in the number of student-run clinics for the indigent. Today, over 49 medical schools across the country operate over 110 student-run outreach clinics that provide primary care services to the poor and uninsured. Despite this development, little research has been published on the educational value of such student-led endeavors. Although much has been surmised, no general methodology for categorizing the learning experience in these clinics has been established. This article represents the first literature review of the novel method of educating students through the operation of a clinic for the underserved. It highlights the student-run clinic as a unique enhancement of medical education that may supplant current curricular arenas in teaching students about systems-based practice principles such as cost containment and financing, resource allocation, interdisciplinary collaboration, patient advocacy, and monitoring and delivery of quality care. The novelty of the student-run clinic is that students place themselves at the forefront of problem solving and system navigation to effectively care for severely disadvantaged populations. This article underscores the student-run clinic as a potentially ideal experiential learning method for preparing young physicians to confront a US healthcare system currently facing crises in cost, quality of care, and high rates of uninsurance. The article stresses the need for outcomes research on the long-term effectiveness of the student-run clinic experience in affecting medical student practice behaviors and attitudes in patient care settings that extend beyond the student-run clinic. Mt Sinai J Med 76:344,356, 2009. © 2008 Mount Sinai School of Medicine [source] Neighborhood search heuristics for selecting hierarchically well-formulated subsets in polynomial regressionNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010Michael J. Brusco Abstract The importance of subset selection in multiple regression has been recognized for more than 40 years and, not surprisingly, a variety of exact and heuristic procedures have been proposed for choosing subsets of variables. In the case of polynomial regression, the subset selection problem is complicated by two issues: (1) the substantial growth in the number of candidate predictors, and (2) the desire to obtain hierarchically well-formulated subsets that facilitate proper interpretation of the regression parameter estimates. The first of these issues creates the need for heuristic methods that can provide solutions in reasonable computation time; whereas the second requires innovative neighborhood search approaches that accommodate the hierarchical constraints. We developed tabu search and variable neighborhood search heuristics for subset selection in polynomial regression. These heuristics are applied to a classic data set from the literature and, subsequently, evaluated in a simulation study using synthetic data sets. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010 [source] Enhanced Bactericidal Activity of Modified Titania in Sunlight against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Water-Borne PathogenPHOTOCHEMISTRY & PHOTOBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2010S. Swetha Photocatalyst-mediated inactivations generate reactive oxygen species and OH radicals, which induce oxidative destruction of membrane integrity, causing damage to membrane phospholipids of gram negative bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Nanosized TiO2 was synthesized by gel to crystalline conversion and Zr-doped TiO2 was synthesized by pulverization using appropriate precursor. The doped nanocrystals retained the anatase phase with a marginal increase in crystallite size, averaging at 25 nm. SEM,EDX analysis of the doped sample depicts the substantial growth of grain size with 1.33 atomic weight % of zirconium. The created electron states in the doped sample act as charge carrier traps suppressing recombination which later detraps the same to the surface of the catalyst causing enhanced interfacial charge transfer. Zr-doped TiO2 at the molecular scale exhibits better photocatalytic activity with lower bandgap energy that can respond to visible light. The redshift caused by the dopants in absorption spectra of TiO2 facilitated the nonintrinsic sample to exhibit nearly 2-fold enhancement of photoinactivation in sunlight. Extent of photoinactivation of P. aeruginosa was observed to be complete (100%) within 150 min of sunlight exposure in the presence of modified TiO2. [source] | |||||||||||||