The problem of hole localization in inner-shell states of N2 and CO2 revisited with complete active space self-consistent field approach.

PubMed

Rocha, Alexandre B; de Moura, Carlos E V

2011-12-14

Potential energy curves for inner-shell states of nitrogen and carbon dioxide molecules are calculated by inner-shell complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method, which is a protocol, recently proposed, to obtain specifically converged inner-shell states at multiconfigurational level. This is possible since the collapse of the wave function to a low-lying state is avoided by a sequence of constrained optimization in the orbital mixing step. The problem of localization of K-shell states is revisited by calculating their energies at CASSCF level based on both localized and delocalized orbitals. The localized basis presents the best results at this level of calculation. Transition energies are also calculated by perturbation theory, by taking the above mentioned MCSCF function as zeroth order wave function. Values for transition energy are in fairly good agreement with experimental ones. Bond dissociation energies for N(2) are considerably high, which means that these states are strongly bound. Potential curves along ground state normal modes of CO(2) indicate the occurrence of Renner-Teller effect in inner-shell states. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

44 CFR 302.5 - Allocations and reallocations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PREPAREDNESS CIVIL DEFENSE-STATE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE... share of necessary and essential civil defense personnel and administrative expenses of the State and... state of development of civil defense readiness of the State” (State and local levels). (2) Thirty-three...

44 CFR 302.5 - Allocations and reallocations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PREPAREDNESS CIVIL DEFENSE-STATE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE... share of necessary and essential civil defense personnel and administrative expenses of the State and... state of development of civil defense readiness of the State” (State and local levels). (2) Thirty-three...

44 CFR 302.5 - Allocations and reallocations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PREPAREDNESS CIVIL DEFENSE-STATE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE... share of necessary and essential civil defense personnel and administrative expenses of the State and... state of development of civil defense readiness of the State” (State and local levels). (2) Thirty-three...

44 CFR 302.5 - Allocations and reallocations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PREPAREDNESS CIVIL DEFENSE-STATE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE... share of necessary and essential civil defense personnel and administrative expenses of the State and... state of development of civil defense readiness of the State” (State and local levels). (2) Thirty-three...

44 CFR 302.5 - Allocations and reallocations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PREPAREDNESS CIVIL DEFENSE-STATE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE... share of necessary and essential civil defense personnel and administrative expenses of the State and... state of development of civil defense readiness of the State” (State and local levels). (2) Thirty-three...

State and Local Responsibility for Promoting Learning Environments of Equity and Equality: A Conceptual Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willie, Charles V.

This paper presents a conceptual analysis of the different responsibilities that State and local levels should assume in promoting the purposes of education. It is their responsibility to provide learning environments that promote equity and equality. The problem for State and local authorities with reference to desegregated education is that of…

Better parks through law and policy: a legal analysis of authorities governing public parks and open spaces.

PubMed

Henderson, Ana; Fry, Christine R

2011-01-01

Improving parks in low income and minority neighborhoods may be a key way to increase physical activity and decrease overweight and obesity prevalence among children at the greatest risk. To advocate effectively for improved recreation infrastructure, public health advocates must understand the legal and policy landscape in which public recreation decisions are made. In this descriptive legal analysis, we reviewed federal, state, and local laws to determine the authority of each level of government over parks. We then examined current practices and state laws regarding park administration in urban California and rural Texas. We identified several themes through the analysis: (1) multiple levels of governments are often involved in parks offerings in a municipality, (2) state laws governing parks vary, (3) local authority may vary substantially within a state, and (4) state law may offer greater authority than local jurisdictions use. Public health advocates who want to improve parks need to (1) think strategically about which levels of government to engage; (2) identify parks law and funding from all levels of government, including those not typically associated with local parks; and (3) partner with advocates with similar interests, including those from active living and school communities.

The Impact of State Preemption of Local Smoking Restrictions on Public Health Protections and Changes in Social Norms

PubMed Central

Mowery, Paul D.; Babb, Steve; Hobart, Robin; Tworek, Cindy; MacNeil, Allison

2012-01-01

Introduction. Preemption is a legislative or judicial arrangement in which a higher level of government precludes lower levels of government from exercising authority over a topic. In the area of smoke-free policy, preemption typically takes the form of a state law that prevents communities from adopting local smoking restrictions. Background. A broad consensus exists among tobacco control practitioners that preemption adversely impacts tobacco control efforts. This paper examines the effect of state provisions preempting local smoking restrictions in enclosed public places and workplaces. Methods. Multiple data sources were used to assess the impact of state preemptive laws on the proportion of indoor workers covered by smoke-free workplace policies and public support for smoke-free policies. We controlled for potential confounding variables. Results. State preemptive laws were associated with fewer local ordinances restricting smoking, a reduced level of worker protection from secondhand smoke, and reduced support for smoke-free policies among current smokers. Discussion. State preemptive laws have several effects that could impede progress in secondhand smoke protections and broader tobacco control efforts. Conclusion. Practitioners and advocates working on other public health issues should familiarize themselves with the benefits of local policy making and the potential impact of preemption. PMID:22654921

Minigrants to Local Health Departments: An Opportunity to Promote Climate Change Preparedness.

PubMed

Grossman, Elena; Hathaway, Michelle; Bush, Kathleen F; Cahillane, Matthew; English, Dorette Q; Holmes, Tisha; Moran, Colleen E; Uejio, Christopher K; York, Emily A; Dorevitch, Samuel

2018-06-20

Human health is threatened by climate change. While the public health workforce is concerned about climate change, local health department (LHD) administrators have reported insufficient knowledge and resources to address climate change. Minigrants from state to LHDs have been used to promote a variety of local public health initiatives. To describe the minigrant approach used by state health departments implementing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework, to highlight successes of this approach in promoting climate change preparedness at LHDs, and to describe challenges encountered. Cross-sectional survey and discussion. State-level recipients of CDC funding issued minigrants to local public health entities to promote climate change preparedness, adaptation, and resilience. The amount of funding, number of LHDs funded per state, goals, selection process, evaluation process, outcomes, successes, and challenges of the minigrant programs. Six state-level recipients of CDC funding for BRACE framework implementation awarded minigrants ranging from $7700 to $28 500 per year to 44 unique local jurisdictions. Common goals of the minigrants included capacity building, forging partnerships with entities outside of health departments, incorporating climate change information into existing programs, and developing adaptation plans. Recipients of minigrants reported increases in knowledge, engagement with diverse stakeholders, and the incorporation of climate change content into existing programs. Challenges included addressing climate change in regions where the topic is politically sensitive, as well as the uncertainty about the long-term sustainability of local projects beyond the term of minigrant support. Minigrants can increase local public health capacity to address climate change. Jurisdictions that wish to utilize minigrant mechanisms to promote climate change adaptation and preparedness at the local level may benefit from the experience of the 6 states and 44 local health programs described.

The Changing School Finance Scene: Local, State, and Federal Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cambron-McCabe, Nelda H.

This chapter provides an overview of recent school finance litigation at the local, state, and federal levels. The first section addresses legal challenges to state school finance systems and reviews decisions from Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New York, and West Virginia. Litigation attacking states' methods of funding public…

Impacts of National Decarbonization Targets for Subnational Societal Priorities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, W.; Iyer, G.

2017-12-01

Carbon mitigation has well-recognized linkages with other environmental and socioeconomic priorities, such as air pollution, economic development, employment, etc. While climate change is a global issue, many other societal priorities are local concerns. Since local efforts form the pillars of achieving co-benefits and avoiding dis-benefits at the national level, it is critical to go beyond national-level analyses and focus on the synergies and tradeoffs at the subnational level. Here we use the United States as an example to evaluate the impacts of mid-century national-level deep decarbonization target for state-level societal priorities. Based on the Global Change Assessment Model with state-level details for the US (GCAM-USA), we design two mid-century scenarios: A Reference scenario that assumes the U.S. undertakes no additional climate mitigation policy, and a Deep Decarbonization Scenario that assumes the U.S. achieves the NDC goal through 2025 (26-28% reduction relative to 2005 levels) and then follows a straight-line trajectory to 80% reductions in economy-wide GHG emissions by 2050 relative to 2005. We then compare these two scenarios for a variety of metrics of carbon mitigation and other societal priorities in 2050. We highlight two findings. First, the synergies and tradeoffs of carbon mitigation with other societal goals at the subnational level can be quite different from the national level. For example, while deep decarbonization could improve national energy security by reducing the overall dependence on energy imports, it may exacerbate energy independence goals for some states by increasing inter-state electricity imports. Second, achieving national-level decarbonization target could result in unequal regional impacts across states. We find uneven geographic impacts for air pollution (more co-reductions occur in the eastern states), economic costs (energy prices increase more in the northeastern states) and employment (jobs increase in the western states where renewable capacity scales up, and decrease in the northeast due to reduced mining activities). Therefore, local decision makers may find decarbonization in line or contradicting with the most urgent local priority to address, highlighting the importance of evaluating the synergies and tradeoffs at the subnational level.

20 CFR 658.410 - Establishment of State agency JS complaint system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... JS complaint system. At the local office level, the local office manager shall be responsible for the... Manager or Administrator of the local or State office taking the complaint shall ensure that a central... (JS or non-JS related), the local office manager shall transmit a copy of that portion of the log...

20 CFR 658.410 - Establishment of State agency JS complaint system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... JS complaint system. At the local office level, the local office manager shall be responsible for the... Manager or Administrator of the local or State office taking the complaint shall ensure that a central... (JS or non-JS related), the local office manager shall transmit a copy of that portion of the log...

20 CFR 658.410 - Establishment of State agency JS complaint system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... JS complaint system. At the local office level, the local office manager shall be responsible for the... Manager or Administrator of the local or State office taking the complaint shall ensure that a central... (JS or non-JS related), the local office manager shall transmit a copy of that portion of the log...

Associations among state and local organizational contexts: Use of evidence-based practices in the criminal justice system.

PubMed

Henderson, Craig E; Young, Douglas W; Farrell, Jill; Taxman, Faye S

2009-08-01

This study used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine the extent to which the organizational characteristics of state corrections agencies and local criminal justice facilities interacted in their associations with the extent to which local facilities are using evidence-based substance abuse treatment practices (EBPs). The study used data collected from two nationally representative surveys - one of state executives and the other of local prison wardens, justice administrators, and treatment directors - which were conducted as part of the National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices survey [NCJTP; Taxman, F.S., Young, D., Wiersema, B., Mitchell, S., Rhodes, A.G., 2007. The National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices Survey: Multi-level survey methods and procedures. J. Subst. Abuse Treat. 32, 225-238], and includes both adult criminal and juvenile justice samples. Results indicated that several state organizational characteristics were either associated with more EBP use or interacted with local organizational characteristics in associations with EBP use, including: (1) systems integration at the state level was associated with greater EBP use; (2) state staffing adequacy and stability accentuated the association between local training and resources for new programs and EBP use (i.e., in states with better staffing, the relationship between training/resources and EBP use in local facilities was stronger); and (3) state executives' attitudes regarding the missions and goals of corrections tended to diminish the extent to which corresponding local administrator attitudes were associated with EBP use. The study has implications for future research focused on EBP diffusion and implementation in correctional environments, particularly attempts to influence EBP use by working through state agencies.

Vaccination coverage among children in kindergarten - United States, 2013-14 school year.

PubMed

Seither, Ranee; Masalovich, Svetlana; Knighton, Cynthia L; Mellerson, Jenelle; Singleton, James A; Greby, Stacie M

2014-10-17

State and local vaccination requirements for school entry are implemented to maintain high vaccination coverage and protect schoolchildren from vaccine-preventable diseases. Each year, to assess state and national vaccination coverage and exemption levels among kindergartners, CDC analyzes school vaccination data collected by federally funded state, local, and territorial immunization programs. This report describes vaccination coverage in 49 states and the District of Columbia (DC) and vaccination exemption rates in 46 states and DC for children enrolled in kindergarten during the 2013-14 school year. Median vaccination coverage was 94.7% for 2 doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; 95.0% for varying local requirements for diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine; and 93.3% for 2 doses of varicella vaccine among those states with a 2-dose requirement. The median total exemption rate was 1.8%. High exemption levels and suboptimal vaccination coverage leave children vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases. Although vaccination coverage among kindergartners for the majority of reporting states was at or near the 95% national Healthy People 2020 targets for 4 doses of DTaP, 2 doses of MMR, and 2 doses of varicella vaccine, low vaccination coverage and high exemption levels can cluster within communities. Immunization programs might have access to school vaccination coverage and exemption rates at a local level for counties, school districts, or schools that can identify areas where children are more vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases. Health promotion efforts in these local areas can be used to help parents understand the risks for vaccine-preventable diseases and the protection that vaccinations provide to their children.

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 Catchments (Version 2.1) for the Conterminous United States: Base Flow Index

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset represents the base flow index values within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds. Attributes of the landscape layer were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. (See Supplementary Info for Glossary of Terms) The base-flow index (BFI) grid for the conterminous United States was developed to estimate (1) BFI values for ungaged streams, and (2) ground-water recharge throughout the conterminous United States (see Source_Information). Estimates of BFI values at ungaged streams and BFI-based ground-water recharge estimates are useful for interpreting relations between land use and water quality in surface and ground water. The bfi (%) was summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a continuous data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description).

Hot Topics: Cities, Energy Use, and Local Energy Decision Making | State,

Science.gov Websites

Making Hot Topics: Cities, Energy Use, and Local Energy Decision Making August 08, 2015 by Alexandra United States, read Alexandra's paper titled City-Level Energy Decision Making: Data Use in Energy Local, and Tribal Governments | NREL Hot Topics: Cities, Energy Use, and Local Energy Decision

Special Education Finance at the Federal, State and Local Levels. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Education Reform of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, Second Session.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

This document presents the transcript of a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Education Reform concerning special education finance at the federal, state, and local levels as part of the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Highlights of the testimony include: how states are allocating the increased federal aid…

76 FR 13342 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request-National School...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-11

... from State child nutrition (CN) and education agencies, as well as local education agencies (LEAs). The...: (1) CN staff at the State level; (2) education staff at the State level; (3) State SNAP, Medicaid... agency officials; 7 State education staff; 7 State SNAP officials; 7 State Medicaid agency officials; 7...

Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government in the United States. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 462

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laubach, Thomas

2005-01-01

This paper discusses the current state of fiscal relations between the federal, state and local governments in the United States and suggests directions for improvement. The significant degree of fiscal autonomy of the states and, to a lesser extent, of local governments has had several beneficial effects, including the responsiveness of public…

45 CFR 400.60 - Payment levels.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Payment levels. 400.60 Section 400.60 Public... Assistance § 400.60 Payment levels. (a) Under the public/private RCA program, States and the local... the State's TANF payment for the same sized family unit. In States that have TANF payment levels that...

Making Sense, Making Do: Local District Implementation of a New State Induction Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Chad D.

2016-01-01

Connecticut's Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) program is in its early stages of implementation. This study examined how local school districts implemented TEAM and identified factors that affected implementation. It was based on interviews with twenty-two participants at the state, district, and local school levels. The intentions of the…

Associations among state and local organizational contexts: Use of evidence-based practices in the criminal justice system

PubMed Central

Henderson, Craig E.; Young, Douglas W.; Farrell, Jill; Taxman, Faye S.

2016-01-01

This study used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine the extent to which the organizational characteristics of state corrections agencies and local criminal justice facilities interacted in their associations with the extent to which local facilities are using evidence-based substance abuse treatment practices (EBPs). The study used data collected from two nationally representative surveys – one of state executives and the other of local prison wardens, justice administrators, and treatment directors – which were conducted as part of the National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices survey [NCJTP; Taxman, F.S., Young, D., Wiersema, B., Mitchell, S., Rhodes, A.G., 2007. The National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices Survey: Multi-level survey methods and procedures. J. Subst. Abuse Treat. 32, 225–238], and includes both adult criminal and juvenile justice samples. Results indicated that several state organizational characteristics were either associated with more EBP use or interacted with local organizational characteristics in associations with EBP use, including: (1) systems integration at the state level was associated with greater EBP use; (2) state staffing adequacy and stability accentuated the association between local training and resources for new programs and EBP use (i.e., in states with better staffing, the relationship between training/resources and EBP use in local facilities was stronger); and (3) state executives’ attitudes regarding the missions and goals of corrections tended to diminish the extent to which corresponding local administrator attitudes were associated with EBP use. The study has implications for future research focused on EBP diffusion and implementation in correctional environments, particularly attempts to influence EBP use by working through state agencies. PMID:19174321

Applying a New Model for Sharing Population Health Data to National Syndromic Influenza Surveillance: DiSTRIBuTE Project Proof of Concept, 2006 to 2009.

PubMed

Olson, Donald R; Paladini, Marc; Lober, William B; Buckeridge, David L

2011-08-02

The Distributed Surveillance Taskforce for Real-time Influenza Burden Tracking and Evaluation (DiSTRIBuTE) project began as a pilot effort initiated by the International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) in autumn 2006 to create a collaborative electronic emergency department (ED) syndromic influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance network based on existing state and local systems and expertise. DiSTRIBuTE brought together health departments that were interested in: 1) sharing aggregate level data; 2) maintaining jurisdictional control; 3) minimizing barriers to participation; and 4) leveraging the flexibility of local systems to create a dynamic and collaborative surveillance network. This approach was in contrast to the prevailing paradigm for surveillance where record level information was collected, stored and analyzed centrally. The DiSTRIBuTE project was created with a distributed design, where individual level data remained local and only summarized, stratified counts were reported centrally, thus minimizing privacy risks. The project was responsive to federal mandates to improve integration of federal, state, and local biosurveillance capabilities. During the proof of concept phase, 2006 to 2009, ten jurisdictions from across North America sent ISDS on a daily to weekly basis year-round, aggregated data by day, stratified by local ILI syndrome, age-group and region. During this period, data from participating U.S. state or local health departments captured over 13% of all ED visits nationwide. The initiative focused on state and local health department trust, expertise, and control. Morbidity trends observed in DiSTRIBuTE were highly correlated with other influenza surveillance measures. With the emergence of novel A/H1N1 influenza in the spring of 2009, the project was used to support information sharing and ad hoc querying at the state and local level. In the fall of 2009, through a broadly collaborative effort, the project was expanded to enhance electronic ED surveillance nationwide.

Factors Influencing Low Level of Women Participation in Literacy Programme in Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daniel, Aminchi

2015-01-01

This study was designed to determine the extent to which poverty, gender stereotype, socio-cultural belief and lack of awareness influence low level of women participation in literacy programme in Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Survey designed was adopted for the study and a sample consisting of three hundred (300) women who were…

Final report : evaluation of microcomputer applications in transportation engineering.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1984-01-01

This study investigated areas where microcomputers can aid in the effectiveness of transportation engineering at state and local levels. A survey of the microcomputer needs of transportation professionals in state and local agencies in Virginia was c...

Role of intermediate state in the excited state dynamics of highly efficient TADF molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hosokai, Takuya; Matsuzaki, Hiroyuki; Furube, Akihiro; Tokumaru, Katsumi; Tsutsui, Tetsuo; Nakanotani, Hajime; Yahiro, Masayuki; Adachi, Chihaya

2016-09-01

We hereby report the results of our direct investigation into the excited-state dynamics of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules in solution using pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS). We found that the charge-transfer (CT) state commonly stated for TADF molecules encompasses two forms: localized and delocalized CT states. A highly efficient TADF molecule, 4CzIPN [Uoyama et al., Nature, 492, 234-238 (2012)], showed both the localized and delocalized CT states, while an inefficient TADF molecule, 2CzPN, exhibited only a localized CT state. By analyzing the time profile of triplet species observed in TAS, we propose that the reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) of 4CzIPN occurs via a mutual interaction in multiple energy levels of localized neutral and CT states, and delocalized CT states.

Application of local policy to prevent alcohol problems: experiences from a community trial.

PubMed

Holder, H D; Reynolds, R I

1997-06-01

Alcohol policy conventionally has been established at the national or regional, state and provincial levels. Alcohol policy at any level is not actually limited to the regulation and control of alcohol production, wholesale distribution, and retail sales. There are a number of alternatives for setting alcohol policies within a local community. Building upon existing national and state/provincial laws, policy makers at the community level can set priorities for allocating resources and enforcing laws related to drinking and driving, underage alcohol sales, alcohol serving practices of bars and restaurants and geographical density of alcohol outlets in the community. This paper concludes from the Community Trials Project that policies established at the local level can reduce alcohol problems.

Making an Educational Innovation Stick: Building State Networks to Support Experience-Based Career Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bridgeford, Nancy; Douglas, Marcia

A study assessed the activities of five state networks that were designed to transfer experience-based career education (EBCE) ownership to appropriate state and local institutions and to develop a state-level support system for continued implementation of EBCE in local districts. Focus of the analysis was on factors contributing to EBCE entry,…

State Level Intelligence Doctrine: Bridging the Gap

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-01

intelligence operations that transcend the local/federal membrane and perceived glass ceilings . Currently, articles specifically give New York state police...oriented policing to most effectively conduct domestic intelligence operations. Currently, most state and local fusion centers operate as a...and effective as guidance and direction is clearly defined and prescribed. RESEARCH QUESTION How can state police agencies, in conjunction with DHS

California's Transition to the Common Core State Standards: The State's Role in Local Capacity Building

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, Paul; Murphy, Patrick

2014-01-01

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Local Control Funding Formula are introducing major changes to California's K-12 system. Implementation of new curricula and instruction is under way at the district level, but California started its transition relatively late and it has taken a more decentralized approach than most other states.…

Local energy governance in vermont: an analysis of energy system transition strategies and actor capacity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rowse, Tarah

While global, national, and regional efforts to address climate and energy challenges remain essential, local governments and community groups are playing an increasingly stronger and vital role. As an active state in energy system policy, planning and innovation, Vermont offers a testing ground for research into energy governance at the local level. A baseline understanding of the energy planning and energy organizing activities initiated at the local level can support efforts to foster a transition to a sustainable energy system in Vermont. Following an inductive, applied and participatory approach, and grounded in the fields of sustainability transitions, energy planning, and community energy, this research project identifies conditions for change, including opportunities and challenges, within Vermont energy system decision-making and governance at the local level. The following questions are posed: What are the main opportunities and challenges for sustainable energy development at the town level? How are towns approaching energy planning? What are the triggers that will facilitate a faster transition to alternative energy systems, energy efficiency initiatives, and localized approaches? In an effort to answer these questions two studies were conducted: 1) an analysis of municipal energy plans, and 2) a survey of local energy actors. Study 1 examined Vermont energy planning at the state and local level through a review and comparison of 40 municipal plan energy chapters with the state 2011 Comprehensive Energy Plan. On average, municipal plans mentioned just over half of the 24 high-level strategies identified in the Comprehensive Energy Plan. Areas of strong and weak agreement were examined. Increased state and regional interaction with municipal energy planners would support more holistic and coordinated energy planning. The study concludes that while municipalities are keenly aware of the importance of education and partnerships, stronger policy mechanisms and financial stimulus are essential if Vermont hopes to increase strategic energy planning alignment and spur whole-scale energy system change. Study 2 examined local energy actors to assess their ability to develop and sustain energy action on the local level. A survey of 120 municipalities collected statewide baseline data covering the structures, processes, and activities of local energy actors. The analysis examined the role that various forms of capacity play in local energy activity. The results show that towns with higher incomes are more likely to have local energy actors and towns with higher populations have higher aggregate energy activity levels. Structurally, energy actors that had both an energy coordinator and an energy committee were more active, and municipal committees were more active than independent committees. Access to a budget and volunteer engagement were both associated with higher activity levels. The network of local energy actors in Vermont consists of committed and knowledgeable volunteers. Yet, the capacity of these local energy actors to implement sustainable energy change is limited due to resource constraints of time and money. In most cases, the scope of municipal energy planning strategy is modest. Prioritization of strategy and action at the central and local levels, along with increased interaction and coordination, is necessary to increase the regional compatibility and pace of energy system transformation.

On the Consideration of Adoption and Implementation of The Next Generation Science Standards in a Local-Control Context: Supporting the Epistemology of Science through Education Policy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lazzaro, Christopher C.

On the Consideration of Adoption and Implementation of The Next Generation Science Standards in a Local-Control Context: Supporting the Epistemology of Science through Education Policy. Christopher C Lazzaro. The primary purpose of this research is to understand how and why members at each of the three levels of the education system within a local-control state made the decisions they did in supporting or hindering the adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards. This research concentrates on three levels of the education system in a local-control state; 1) the state level, 2) the district level, and 3) the school/teacher level, while investigating the following questions: 1. To what extent, and in what ways, do members in each of the three levels of the state education system advocate for adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards? 2. Are the members in each of the three levels motivated or compelled to consider adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards, why or why not? 3. To what extent, and in what ways, do the members in each of the three levels take into account science epistemology in their overall consideration of adoption/implementation of the NGSS? The data drew from a series of interviews from a prior study, "Challenges of Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards in Local-Control States in the U.S." (Sevian, Foster, & Scheff, 2012). After these data were coded and analyzed around the three research questions, this phenomenographic research study identified four key findings: Key Finding 1 - As the District Coordinators are uniquely situated within the state education system to be able to see both the on-the-ground practical implications and the high-level policy pressures of adopting and implementing the NGSS, they reflect the deepest level of awareness of how to best advocate for adoption and implementation of the NGSS. Key Finding 2 - Motivation to adopt and implement the NGSS is highly nuanced. The most significant factor influencing motivation to adopt or implement the NGSS at each level is related to assessment. The reasons assessment affects motivation is different at each level. Key Finding 3 - Each interviewee at each level demonstrated awareness that the NGSS are significantly different from prior standards in some way. While teachers and SSCs sometimes cited the science practices as the critical difference, they were not able to meaningfully elaborate on what "science practices" are. Conversely, the District Coordinators demonstrated a deeper level of awareness and were able to comment more specifically on the practices and how they would affect science education in their state. Key Finding 4 - Regardless of level, the better a participant reflected an awareness of epistemology, the more likely they were to advocate for adoption and implementation of the NGSS. Similarly, the better a participant reflected an awareness of epistemology, the more likely they were motivated to consider adoption and implementation of the NGSS. The implications of the findings in this current study can; inform the supplemental materials and dissemination of information by standards writers, help policy makers engage stakeholders appropriately at each level by illustrating how national reform efforts play out in local-control states, and aid school based employees by identifying how and where they can participate in state level policy discussion and where their input could be valuable.

Collaborations between the State and Local Colleges: Sleeping with the Enemy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brand, Elizabeth Cox

2014-01-01

This chapter describes the characteristics of successful partnerships between a state-level department and local community colleges. Particular focus is paid to the lack of mandated collaboration between the entities and the elements necessary for motivation and sustainability.

7 CFR 251.10 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... program at the State and local level. State and local costs must be identified separately. The data must... warehousing practices, inventory controls, approval of distribution sites, reporting and recordkeeping... in which the maintenance-of-effort requirement became effective, whichever is later. (i) Data...

7 CFR 251.10 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... program at the State and local level. State and local costs must be identified separately. The data must... warehousing practices, inventory controls, approval of distribution sites, reporting and recordkeeping... in which the maintenance-of-effort requirement became effective, whichever is later. (i) Data...

7 CFR 251.10 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... program at the State and local level. State and local costs must be identified separately. The data must... warehousing practices, inventory controls, approval of distribution sites, reporting and recordkeeping... in which the maintenance-of-effort requirement became effective, whichever is later. (i) Data...

7 CFR 251.10 - Miscellaneous provisions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... program at the State and local level. State and local costs must be identified separately. The data must... warehousing practices, inventory controls, approval of distribution sites, reporting and recordkeeping... in which the maintenance-of-effort requirement became effective, whichever is later. (i) Data...

The future of urban health: needs, barriers, opportunities, and policy advancement at large urban health departments.

PubMed

Hearne, Shelley; Castrucci, Brian C; Leider, Jonathon P; Rhoades, Elizabeth K; Russo, Pamela; Bass, Vicky

2015-01-01

More than 2800 local health departments (LHDs) provide public health services to more than 300 million individuals in the United States. This study focuses on departments serving the most populous districts in the nation, including the members of the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) in 2013. To systematically gather leadership perspectives on the most pressing issues facing large, urban health departments. In addition, to quantify variation in policy involvement between BCHC LHDs and other LHDs. We used a parallel mixed-methods approach, including interviews with 45 leaders from the BCHC departments, together with secondary data analysis of the National Association of County & City Health Officials' (NACCHO) 2013 Profile data. Forty-five local health officials, chiefs of policy, and chief science/medical officers from 16 BCHC LHDs. The BCHC departments are more actively involved in policy at the state and federal levels than are other LHDs. All BCHC members participated in at least 1 of the 5 policy areas that NACCHO tracks at the local level, 89% at the state level, and 74% at the federal level. Comparatively, overall 81% of all LHDs participated in any of the 5 areas at the local level, 57% at the state level, and 15% at the federal level. The BCHC leaders identified barriers they face in their work, including insufficient funding, political challenges, bureaucracy, lack of understanding of issues by key decision makers, and workforce competency. As more people in the United States are living in metropolitan areas, large, urban health departments are playing increasingly important roles in protecting and promoting public health. The BCHC LHDs are active in policy change to improve health, but are limited by insufficient funding, governmental bureaucracy, and workforce development challenges.

The Future of Urban Health: Needs, Barriers, Opportunities, and Policy Advancement at Large Urban Health Departments

PubMed Central

Hearne, Shelley; Castrucci, Brian C.; Leider, Jonathon P.; Rhoades, Elizabeth K.; Russo, Pamela; Bass, Vicky

2015-01-01

Context: More than 2800 local health departments (LHDs) provide public health services to more than 300 million individuals in the United States. This study focuses on departments serving the most populous districts in the nation, including the members of the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) in 2013. Objective: To systematically gather leadership perspectives on the most pressing issues facing large, urban health departments. In addition, to quantify variation in policy involvement between BCHC LHDs and other LHDs. Design: We used a parallel mixed-methods approach, including interviews with 45 leaders from the BCHC departments, together with secondary data analysis of the National Association of County & City Health Officials' (NACCHO) 2013 Profile data. Participants: Forty-five local health officials, chiefs of policy, and chief science/medical officers from 16 BCHC LHDs. Results: The BCHC departments are more actively involved in policy at the state and federal levels than are other LHDs. All BCHC members participated in at least 1 of the 5 policy areas that NACCHO tracks at the local level, 89% at the state level, and 74% at the federal level. Comparatively, overall 81% of all LHDs participated in any of the 5 areas at the local level, 57% at the state level, and 15% at the federal level. The BCHC leaders identified barriers they face in their work, including insufficient funding, political challenges, bureaucracy, lack of understanding of issues by key decision makers, and workforce competency. Conclusions: As more people in the United States are living in metropolitan areas, large, urban health departments are playing increasingly important roles in protecting and promoting public health. The BCHC LHDs are active in policy change to improve health, but are limited by insufficient funding, governmental bureaucracy, and workforce development challenges. PMID:25423056

Molecular gap and energy level diagram for pentacene adsorbed on filled d-band metal surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baldacchini, Chiara; Mariani, Carlo; Betti, Maria Grazia; Gavioli, L.; Fanetti, M.; Sancrotti, M.

2006-10-01

The authors present a combined photoemission and scanning-tunneling spectroscopy study of the filled electronic states, the molecular energy gap, and the energy level diagram of highly ordered arrays of pentacene deposited on the Cu(119) vicinal surface. The states localized at the interface are clearly singled out, comparing the results at different pentacene thicknesses and with gas-phase photoemission data. The molecular gap of 2.35eV, the hole injection barrier of 1.05eV, and the electron injection barrier of 1.30eV determine the energy level diagram of the states localized at the pentacene molecules.

Principals' Perceptions of Public Schools' Professional Development Changes during NCLB

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wieczorek, Douglas

2017-01-01

This study investigated public school principals' reports of professional development implementation at the school level while working in different state- and local-level contexts (state accountability level, geographic locations, socioeconomic status, demographics, and grade levels). I attempted to measure principals' reported changes in levels…

All health is local: state and local planning for physical activity promotion.

PubMed

Kohl, Harold W; Satinsky, Sara B; Whitfield, Geoffrey P; Evenson, Kelly R

2013-01-01

Physical activity is a leading cause of death in the world. Although state and local public health planning is a useful strategy to address noncommunicable disease health concerns such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity, physical activity frequently is subsumed in such disease-centric planning efforts. This strategy could dilute broader efforts to promote physical activity, create administrative silos that may be trying to accomplish similar goals, and weaken efforts to more collectively address a variety of noncommunicable diseases. Currently, few stand-alone state plans directed specifically at physical activity exist. The reasons and barriers for this situation are not understood. In 2011, we surveyed public health care practitioners to describe state and local efforts for physical activity planning. Cross-sectional study. Survey of physical activity practitioners in the United States. A total of 227 former or current members of the US National Society of Physical Activity Practitioners in Public Health who completed a survey. Overall, 48.0% of respondents indicated that they were aware of public health plans for physical activity promotion in their state, whereas 36.6% indicated that they did not know. Respondents at the state level more frequently reported awareness of a plan (62.1%) than those with local-level (52.4%) or other job responsibilities (36.0%). A greater proportion of respondents reported that stand-alone physical activity plans existed in their state than actually did exist in the respective states. Integration with the National Physical Activity Plan was least often identified as a moderately or extremely relevant aspect of a state-level physical activity plan, although it was chosen at a high percentage (75.7%). Respondents identified financial support (88.0%) and political will and support (54.6%) most frequently as very or somewhat difficult barriers to moving forward with state-level physical activity plans. These data suggest that despite efforts to increase development and use of stand-alone physical activity plans, most practitioners rely on existing chronic disease- or obesity-related plans to guide their efforts. Barriers to developing stand-alone physical activity plans must be addressed to develop such plans.

The Forgotten Minority: An Analysis of American Indian Employment Patterns in State and Local Governments, 1991-2005

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, Valerie H.; Kerr, Brinck; Ketcher, Linda K.; Murphy, Jennifer

2010-01-01

The purpose of this article is to address a gap in the empirical literature by analyzing levels of proportional representation of American Indians over time in state and local government bureaucracies in key states. The authors limit their analysis to six states with the largest percentages of American Indian populations in 2000: Alaska, Arizona,…

Highlights of Fire in the United States: Deaths, Injuries, Dollar Loss, and Incidents at the National, State, and Local Levels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Fire Prevention and Control Administration (DOC), Washington, DC. National Fire Data Center.

This report provides fire departments, federal and state governments, and others active in the fire protection field with information which can be used to improve the efficacy and targeting of fire prevention programs. As a byproduct, it illustrates ways that state and local governments might analyze their own fire problems. The report describes…

Differential Modulation of Spontaneous and Evoked Thalamocortical Network Activity by Acetylcholine Level In Vitro

PubMed Central

Wester, Jason C.

2013-01-01

Different levels of cholinergic neuromodulatory tone have been hypothesized to set the state of cortical circuits either to one dominated by local cortical recurrent activity (low ACh) or to one dependent on thalamic input (high ACh). High ACh levels depress intracortical but facilitate thalamocortical synapses, whereas low levels potentiate intracortical synapses. Furthermore, recent work has implicated the thalamus in controlling cortical network state during waking and attention, when ACh levels are highest. To test this hypothesis, we used rat thalamocortical slices maintained in medium to generate spontaneous up- and down-states and applied different ACh concentrations to slices in which thalamocortical connections were either maintained or severed. The effects on spontaneous and evoked up-states were measured using voltage-sensitive dye imaging, intracellular recordings, local field potentials, and single/multiunit activity. We found that high ACh can increase the frequency of spontaneous up-states, but reduces their duration in slices with intact thalamocortical connections. Strikingly, when thalamic connections are severed, high ACh instead greatly reduces or abolishes spontaneous up-states. Furthermore, high ACh reduces the spatial propagation, velocity, and depolarization amplitude of evoked up-states. In contrast, low ACh dramatically increases up-state frequency regardless of the presence or absence of intact thalamocortical connections and does not reduce the duration, spatial propagation, or velocity of evoked up-states. Therefore, our data support the hypothesis that strong cholinergic modulation increases the influence, and thus the signal-to-noise ratio, of afferent input over local cortical activity and that lower cholinergic tone enhances recurrent cortical activity regardless of thalamic input. PMID:24198382

Efficient Nonlocal M-Control and N-Target Controlled Unitary Gate Using Non-symmetric GHZ States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Li-Bing; Lu, Hong

2018-03-01

Efficient local implementation of a nonlocal M-control and N-target controlled unitary gate is considered. We first show that with the assistance of two non-symmetric qubit(1)-qutrit(N) Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, a nonlocal 2-control and N-target controlled unitary gate can be constructed from 2 local two-qubit CNOT gates, 2 N local two-qutrit conditional SWAP gates, N local qutrit-qubit controlled unitary gates, and 2 N single-qutrit gates. At each target node, the two third levels of the two GHZ target qutrits are used to expose one and only one initial computational state to the local qutrit-qubit controlled unitary gate, instead of being used to hide certain states from the conditional dynamics. This scheme can be generalized straightforwardly to implement a higher-order nonlocal M-control and N-target controlled unitary gate by using M non-symmetric qubit(1)-qutrit(N) GHZ states as quantum channels. Neither the number of the additional levels of each GHZ target particle nor that of single-qutrit gates needs to increase with M. For certain realistic physical systems, the total gate time may be reduced compared with that required in previous schemes.

Vaccination coverage among children in kindergarten - United States, 2012-13 school year.

PubMed

2013-08-02

State and local school vaccination requirements are implemented to maintain high vaccination coverage and minimize the risk from vaccine preventable diseases. To assess school vaccination coverage and exemptions, CDC annually analyzes school vaccination coverage data from federally funded immunization programs. These awardees include 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC), five cities, and eight U.S.-affiliated jurisdictions. This report summarizes vaccination coverage from 48 states and DC and exemption rates from 49 states and DC for children entering kindergarten for the 2012-13 school year. Forty-eight states and DC reported vaccination coverage, with medians of 94.5% for 2 doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; 95.1% for local requirements for diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccination; and 93.8% for 2 doses of varicella vaccine among awardees with a 2-dose requirement. Forty-nine states and DC reported exemption rates, with the median total of 1.8%. Although school entry coverage for most awardees was at or near national Healthy People 2020 targets of maintaining 95% vaccination coverage levels for 2 doses of MMR vaccine, 4 doses of DTaP† vaccine, and 2 doses of varicella vaccine, low vaccination and high exemption levels can cluster within communities, increasing the risk for disease. Reports to CDC are aggregated at the state level; however, local reporting of school vaccination coverage might be accessible by awardees. These local-level data can be used to create evidence-based health communication strategies to help parents understand the risks for vaccine-preventable diseases and the benefits of vaccinations to the health of their children and other kindergarteners.

Building the Capacity of States to Ensure Inclusion of Rural Communities in State and Local Primary Violence Prevention Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook-Craig, Patricia G.; Lane, Karen G.; Siebold, Wendi L.

2010-01-01

Rural, frontier, and geographically isolated communities face unique challenges associated with ensuring that they are equal partners in capacity-building and prevention planning processes at the state and local level despite barriers that can inhibit participation. By their nature, rural, frontier, and geographically isolated communities and…

The Evaluation and Steering of English Academy Schools through Inspection and Examinations: National Visions and Local Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kauko, Jaakko; Salokangas, Maija

2015-01-01

The article analyses the redefinition and distribution of powers between central governance and local actors in English independent state-funded schooling. Earlier research on governance confirms the importance of the local and the school level in reshaping national-level reforms and steering policies. The research draws on data from interviews…

Parameters of Quality Control and Decision Making At the State Level.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merkel-Keller, Claudia

The recommendation is made that Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I data should be subjected to quality control procedures at local, state, and national levels. An industrial quality control model may provide a useful approach, particularly at the state level. A brief description of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System is given,…

Climate Change Adaptation Support for Transportation Practitioners: 2013 Volpe Center Innovation Challenge Project.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-09-30

The nature of the U.S. transportation system requires that actions to adapt to climate change impacts occur primarily at the State and local levels. Federal agencies support State, regional, and local agencies and they work hard to provide frameworks...

Sudden death of entanglement and non-locality in two- and three-component quantum systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ann, Kevin

2011-12-01

Quantum entanglement and non-locality are non-classical characteristics of quantum states with phase coherence that are of central importance to physics, and relevant to the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information science. This thesis examines quantum entanglement and non-locality in two- and three-component quantum states with phase coherence when they are subject to statistically independent, classical, Markovian, phase noise in various combinations at the local and collective level. Because this noise reduces phase coherence, it can also reduce quantum entanglement and Bell non-locality. After introducing and contextualizing the research, the results are presented in three broad areas. The first area characterizes the relative time scales of decoherence and disentanglement in 2 x 2 and 3 x 3 quantum states, as well as the various subsystems of the two classes of entangled tripartite two-level quantum states. In all cases, it was found that disentanglement time scales are less than or equal to decoherence time scales. The second area examines the finite-time loss of entanglement, even as quantum state coherence is lost only asymptotically in time due to local dephasing noise, a phenomenon entitled "Entanglement Sudden Death" (ESD). Extending the initial discovery in the simplest 2 x 2 case, ESD is shown to exist in all other systems where mixed-state entanglement measures exist, the 2 x 3 and d x d systems, for finite d > 2. The third area concerns non-locality, which is a physical phenomenon independent of quantum mechanics and related to, though fundamentally different from, entanglement. Non-locality, as quantified by classes of Bell inequalities, is shown to be lost in finite time, even when decoherence occurs only asymptotically. This phenomenon was named "Bell Non-locality Sudden Death" (BNSD).

Quantum-secret-sharing scheme based on local distinguishability of orthogonal multiqudit entangled states

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jingtao; Li, Lixiang; Peng, Haipeng; Yang, Yixian

2017-02-01

In this study, we propose the concept of judgment space to investigate the quantum-secret-sharing scheme based on local distinguishability (called LOCC-QSS). Because of the proposing of this conception, the property of orthogonal mutiqudit entangled states under restricted local operation and classical communication (LOCC) can be described more clearly. According to these properties, we reveal that, in the previous (k ,n )-threshold LOCC-QSS scheme, there are two required conditions for the selected quantum states to resist the unambiguous attack: (i) their k -level judgment spaces are orthogonal, and (ii) their (k -1 )-level judgment spaces are equal. Practically, if k

Protective Services for Abused and Neglected Children and Their Families. A Guide for State and Local Department of Public Social Services on the Delivery of Protective Services.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Community Research Applications, Inc., New York, NY.

Provided is a guide to assist state and local agencies in improving the administration and management of services to abused and neglected children and their families. Protective services at the state level are covered in the first section, including such topics as organization; initiating and reacting to proposed state legislation; developing…

State Enabling Legislation for Commercial-Scale Wind Power Siting and the Local Government Role

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McElfish, J.M.; Gersen, S.

Siting of commercial-scale wind facilities (>5MW) is determined primarily by state laws. State laws either leave siting regulation to local governments, prescribe and constrain the role for local governments, establish state standards, or preempt local governance by having state institutions govern siting. Siting regulation is extremely important to the advancement of wind generation in the United States. Major siting decisions lie ahead for state and local governments as the nation diversifies its energy portfolio. An increase in the number of new wind facilities, siting in more locations and in more heavily populated areas, will require attention to the laws andmore » regulations that govern siting. Local governments exercise some authority over commercial-scale wind facility siting in 48 of the 50 states. In 34 states, local governments have substantial autonomy to regulate the siting of most or all commercial-scale wind facilities. A few states authorize local governments to regulate wind facility siting, but make the scope of local regulation subject to limitations defined by state law. Eleven states set size thresholds for state regulatory involvement with local governments in these states regulating smaller facilities and state boards regulating larger ones (either exclusively or concurrently with local governments). In just under a third of the states, siting of most or all commercial-scale wind facilities requires approval by both state and local government bodies. Only a few states reserve the regulation of siting of all or virtually all commercial-scale wind facilities to state boards and commissions. The content of the applicable regulations is more important, in general, than the level of government responsible for the decision. Several states that assign siting responsibilities to local governments have specified some of the content and the limits of local regulation. About 1/5 of the states have directed boards and commissions to develop statewide regulations to deal with wind facility siting issues subject to state approval. These requirements most often specify standards for setbacks, wildlife, noise, decommissioning, and other issues.« less

Interpreting federal policy at the local level: the wildland-urban interface concept in wildfire protection planning in the eastern United States

Treesearch

Stephanie A. Grayzeck-Souter; Kristen C. Nelson; Rachel F. Brummel; Pamela Jakes; Daniel R. Williams

2009-01-01

In 2003, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) called for USA communities at risk of wildfire to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) requiring local, state and federal actors to work together to address hazardous fuels reduction and mitigation efforts. CWPPs can provide the opportunity for local government to influence actions on adjacent public...

Moving beyond Compliance: Promoting Research-Based Professional Discretion in the Implementation of the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodard, Rebecca; Kline, Sonia

2015-01-01

State- and local-level mandates are currently being implemented to ensure strict compliance to the new national Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS for ELA) and related assessments. These standards provide many potential opportunities to improve literacy education nationally and locally. However, the CCSS for ELA will…

"A False Dilemma": Should Decisions about Education Resource Use Be Made at the State or Local Level?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timar, Thomas B.; Roza, Marguerite

2010-01-01

Over the past 30 years, states have assumed a greater role in financing education. The presumption of local control has been superseded by systems of state control. This shift in authority raises several critical questions. Chief among them is, "What effect has centralization of education financing had on the capacity of school districts to…

Education Policy and Family Values: A Critical Analysis of Initiatives from the Right

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumashiro, Kevin K.

2009-01-01

This article analyzes current education policy initiatives from the political Right in the United States, focusing on initiatives at the federal level (standards and testing), the state level (funding), the local level (alternative certification), and the campus level (censorship). Each initiative has received wide bipartisan and public support,…

Utilizing a State Level Volunteer Recognition Program at the County Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCall, Fran Korthaus; Culp, Ken, III

2013-01-01

Volunteer recognition is an important component of Extension programs. Most land-grant universities have implemented a state volunteer recognition program. Extension professionals, however, are too overburdened with meetings, programs, and activities to effectively recognize volunteers locally. Utilizing a state model is an efficient means of…

Functional hemispheric asymmetries of global/local processing mirrored by the steady-state visual evoked potential.

PubMed

Martens, Ulla; Hübner, Ronald

2013-03-01

While hemispheric differences in global/local processing have been reported by various studies, it is still under dispute at which processing stage they occur. Primarily, it was assumed that these asymmetries originate from an early perceptual stage. Instead, the content-level binding theory (Hübner & Volberg, 2005) suggests that the hemispheres differ at a later stage at which the stimulus information is bound to its respective level. The present study tested this assumption by means of steady-state evoked potentials (SSVEPs). In particular, we presented hierarchical letters flickering at 12Hz while participants categorised the letters at a pre- cued level (global or local). The information at the two levels could be congruent or incongruent with respect to the required response. Since content-binding is only necessary if there is a response conflict, asymmetric hemispheric processing should be observed only for incongruent stimuli. Indeed, our results show that the cue and congruent stimuli elicited equal SSVEP global/local effects in both hemispheres. In contrast, incongruent stimuli elicited lower SSVEP amplitudes for a local than for a global target level at left posterior electrodes, whereas a reversed pattern was seen at right hemispheric electrodes. These findings provide further evidence for a level-specific hemispheric advantage with respect to content-level binding. Moreover, the fact that the SSVEP is sensitive to these processes offers the possibility to separately track global and local processing by presenting both level contents with different frequencies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

75 FR 36016 - Community Reinvestment Act Regulations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-24

... tracts affected by high levels of loan delinquencies and foreclosures. Among the many consequences of... homes in default or delinquency in each State or unit of general local government. Under NSP1, each of... Congressional intent that the funds have maximum impact and be targeted to States and local communities with the...

Perceptions of Secondary School Teachers and Administrators on Effective Professional Development Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherrod, Ginnie

2014-01-01

Effective professional development programs have been linked with rigorous state standards and district school improvement goals. Despite efforts of local districts to meet state standards and district school improvement goals, there has been limited research at the local level that has compared administrators' and teachers' perceptions of…

9/11 Ten Years After: Command, Control, Communications Remain an Issue

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-02-09

must respond, manage forces, and provide critical support as a cohesive team. These organizations span the gamut of local, tribal, state, and federal...and provide critical support as a cohesive team. These organizations span the gamut of local, tribal, state, and federal levels of government and of

Multi-domain electromagnetic absorption of triangular quantum rings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sitek, Anna; Thorgilsson, Gunnar; Gudmundsson, Vidar; Manolescu, Andrei

2016-06-01

We present a theoretical study of the unielectronic energy spectra, electron localization, and optical absorption of triangular core-shell quantum rings. We show how these properties depend on geometric details of the triangle, such as side thickness or corners’ symmetry. For equilateral triangles, the lowest six energy states (including spin) are grouped in an energy shell, are localized only around corner areas, and are separated by a large energy gap from the states with higher energy which are localized on the sides of the triangle. The energy levels strongly depend on the aspect ratio of the triangle sides, i.e., thickness/length ratio, in such a way that the energy differences are not monotonous functions of this ratio. In particular, the energy gap between the group of states localized in corners and the states localized on the sides strongly decreases with increasing the side thickness, and then slightly increases for thicker samples. With increasing the thickness the low-energy shell remains distinct but the spatial distribution of these states spreads. The behavior of the energy levels and localization leads to a thickness-dependent absorption spectrum where one transition may be tuned in the THz domain and a second transition can be tuned from THz to the infrared range of electromagnetic spectrum. We show how these features may be further controlled with an external magnetic field. In this work the electron-electron Coulomb repulsion is neglected.

Multi-domain electromagnetic absorption of triangular quantum rings.

PubMed

Sitek, Anna; Thorgilsson, Gunnar; Gudmundsson, Vidar; Manolescu, Andrei

2016-06-03

We present a theoretical study of the unielectronic energy spectra, electron localization, and optical absorption of triangular core-shell quantum rings. We show how these properties depend on geometric details of the triangle, such as side thickness or corners' symmetry. For equilateral triangles, the lowest six energy states (including spin) are grouped in an energy shell, are localized only around corner areas, and are separated by a large energy gap from the states with higher energy which are localized on the sides of the triangle. The energy levels strongly depend on the aspect ratio of the triangle sides, i.e., thickness/length ratio, in such a way that the energy differences are not monotonous functions of this ratio. In particular, the energy gap between the group of states localized in corners and the states localized on the sides strongly decreases with increasing the side thickness, and then slightly increases for thicker samples. With increasing the thickness the low-energy shell remains distinct but the spatial distribution of these states spreads. The behavior of the energy levels and localization leads to a thickness-dependent absorption spectrum where one transition may be tuned in the THz domain and a second transition can be tuned from THz to the infrared range of electromagnetic spectrum. We show how these features may be further controlled with an external magnetic field. In this work the electron-electron Coulomb repulsion is neglected.

State preemption of local smoke-free laws in government work sites, private work sites, and restaurants - United States, 2005-2009.

PubMed

2010-02-05

Smoke-free policies (i.e., policies that completely eliminate smoking in indoor workplaces and public places) result in health benefits, including preventing heart attacks. Preemptive legislation at the state level prohibits localities from enacting laws that vary from state law or are more stringent. A Healthy People 2010 objective (27-19) is to eliminate state laws that preempt stronger local tobacco control laws. A 2005 CDC review found that little progress was being made toward reducing the number of state laws preempting local smoking restrictions in three indoor settings: government work sites, private-sector work sites, and restaurants. These three settings were selected for analysis because they are settings that often are addressed by state and local smoking restrictions and because they are major settings where nonsmoking workers and patrons are exposed to secondhand smoke. This report updates the previous analysis and summarizes changes that occurred from December 31, 2004, to December 31, 2009, in state laws that preempt local smoke-free laws for the same three settings. During that period, the number of states preempting local smoking restrictions in at least one of these three settings decreased from 19 to 12. In contrast with the 2005 findings, this decrease indicates progress toward achieving the goal of eliminating state laws preempting local smoking restrictions. Further progress could result in additional reductions in secondhand smoke exposure.

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 Catchments (Version 2.1) for the Conterminous United States: 2010 US Census Road Density

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset represents the road density within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds. Attributes of the landscape layer were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. (See Supplementary Info for Glossary of Terms) This data set is derived from TIGER/Line Files of roads in the conterminous United States. Road density describes how many kilometers of road exist in a square kilometer. A raster was produced using the ArcGIS Line Density Tool to form the landscape layer for analysis. (see Data Sources for links to NHDPlusV2 data and Census Data) The (kilometer of road/square kilometer) was summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a continuous data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description).

Promoting healthy food consumption: a review of state-level policies to improve access to fruits and vegetables.

PubMed

Hood, Carlyn; Martinez-Donate, Ana; Meinen, Amy

2012-12-01

Research indicates poor nutrition is a leading determinant of the development of chronic disease, and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is one method for decreasing obesity. Many policies have focused on increasing the demand for fruits and vegetables through price reductions and coupons. However, without ensuring a stable supply, increased demand can continue to raise prices, crowding out individuals who may otherwise have purchased fruits and vegetables and ultimately leading to continued disparities in access. This paper presents a review of selected state-level policy options recently proposed or implemented in states across the United States, and provides an evidence-based lens through which food access policy can be shaped in the Midwest. This review and potential framework uses Wisconsin to illustrate the feasibility of different state-level decisions and their potential impact on particular populations. Future supply-side policies to consider include expanding Electronic Benefit Transfer to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC),program and farmers markets, incentivizing the purchase of locally grown produce, assisting local specialty farmers directly, and/or establishing a state-level food policy council. This review reveals that a food policy council would create a more sustainable policy analysis process to better ensure future policy adoption is truly comprehensive, encompassing the production, distribution and purchase of locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Fast probe of local electronic states in nanostructures utilizing a single-lead quantum dot

PubMed Central

Otsuka, Tomohiro; Amaha, Shinichi; Nakajima, Takashi; Delbecq, Matthieu R.; Yoneda, Jun; Takeda, Kenta; Sugawara, Retsu; Allison, Giles; Ludwig, Arne; Wieck, Andreas D.; Tarucha, Seigo

2015-01-01

Transport measurements are powerful tools to probe electronic properties of solid-state materials. To access properties of local electronic states in nanostructures, such as local density of states, electronic distribution and so on, micro-probes utilizing artificial nanostructures have been invented to perform measurements in addition to those with conventional macroscopic electronic reservoirs. Here we demonstrate a new kind of micro-probe: a fast single-lead quantum dot probe, which utilizes a quantum dot coupled only to the target structure through a tunneling barrier and fast charge readout by RF reflectometry. The probe can directly access the local electronic states with wide bandwidth. The probe can also access more electronic states, not just those around the Fermi level, and the operations are robust against bias voltages and temperatures. PMID:26416582

A Framework for Bridging Scientists, Knowledge Brokers and Local Decision Makers in State-level Climate Assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galford, G. L.; Nash, J. L.

2016-12-01

Large-scale analyses like the National Climate Assessment (NCA) contain a wealth of information critical to national and regional responses to climate change but tend to be insufficiently detailed for action at state or local levels. Many states now develop assessments (SCAs) to provide relevant, actionable information to state and local authorities. These assessments generate new or additional primary information, build networks and inform stakeholders. Based on our experience in the Vermont Climate Assessment (VCA), we present a SCA framework to engage local decision makers, using a fluid network of scientific experts and knowledge brokers to conduct subject area prioritization, data analysis, and writing. Knowledge brokers bridged the scientific and stakeholder communities, providing a two-way flow of information by capitalizing on their existing networks. Rich citizen records of climate and climate change impacts associated a human voice, a memorable story, or personal observation with a climate record, improving climate information salience. This engagement process that created salient climate information perceived as credible and legitimate by local and state decision makers. We present this framework as an effective structure for SCAs to foster interaction among scientists, knowledge brokers and stakeholders. We include a qualitative impact evaluation and lessons learned for future SCAs.

An approach to developing local climate change environmental public health indicators, vulnerability assessments, and projections of future impacts.

PubMed

Houghton, Adele; English, Paul

2014-01-01

Environmental public health indicators (EPHIs) are used by local, state, and federal health agencies to track the status of environmental hazards; exposure to those hazards; health effects of exposure; and public health interventions designed to reduce or prevent the hazard, exposure, or resulting health effect. Climate and health EPHIs have been developed at the state, federal, and international levels. However, they are also needed at the local level to track variations in community vulnerability and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance community resilience. This review draws on a guidance document developed by the U.S. Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists' State Environmental Health Indicators Collaborative climate change working group to present a three-tiered approach to develop local climate change EPHIs. Local climate change EPHIs can assist local health departments (LHDs) in implementing key steps of the 10 essential public health services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Building Resilience Against Climate Effects framework. They also allow LHDs to incorporate climate-related trends into the larger health department planning process and can be used to perform vulnerability assessments which can be leveraged to ensure that interventions designed to address climate change do not exacerbate existing health disparities.

An Approach to Developing Local Climate Change Environmental Public Health Indicators, Vulnerability Assessments, and Projections of Future Impacts

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Environmental public health indicators (EPHIs) are used by local, state, and federal health agencies to track the status of environmental hazards; exposure to those hazards; health effects of exposure; and public health interventions designed to reduce or prevent the hazard, exposure, or resulting health effect. Climate and health EPHIs have been developed at the state, federal, and international levels. However, they are also needed at the local level to track variations in community vulnerability and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance community resilience. This review draws on a guidance document developed by the U.S. Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists' State Environmental Health Indicators Collaborative climate change working group to present a three-tiered approach to develop local climate change EPHIs. Local climate change EPHIs can assist local health departments (LHDs) in implementing key steps of the 10 essential public health services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Building Resilience Against Climate Effects framework. They also allow LHDs to incorporate climate-related trends into the larger health department planning process and can be used to perform vulnerability assessments which can be leveraged to ensure that interventions designed to address climate change do not exacerbate existing health disparities. PMID:25349621

Racial Isolation, Poverty, and the Limits of Local Control in Oakland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noguera, Pedro A.

2004-01-01

Historically, schools in the United States have been governed at the local level by elected school boards, and finances have been raised primarily through local property taxes. While local control theoretically allows for greater responsiveness to local concerns, it does not take into account the vast inequality among and between communities in…

Dual nature of acceptors in GaN and ZnO: The curious case of the shallow MgGa deep state

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lany, Stephan; Zunger, Alex

2010-04-01

Employing a Koopmans corrected density functional method, we find that the metal-site acceptors Mg, Be, and Zn in GaN and Li in ZnO bind holes in deep levels that are largely localized at single anion ligand atoms. In addition to this deep ground state (DGS), we observe an effective-masslike delocalized state that can exist as a short lived shallow transient state (STS). The Mg dopant in GaN represents the unique case where the ionization energy of the localized deep level exceeds only slightly that of the shallow effective-mass acceptor, which explains why Mg works so exceptionally well as an acceptor dopant.

Geographic variation in opinions on climate change at state and local scales in the USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howe, Peter D.; Mildenberger, Matto; Marlon, Jennifer R.; Leiserowitz, Anthony

2015-06-01

Addressing climate change in the United States requires enactment of national, state and local mitigation and adaptation policies. The success of these initiatives depends on public opinion, policy support and behaviours at appropriate scales. Public opinion, however, is typically measured with national surveys that obscure geographic variability across regions, states and localities. Here we present independently validated high-resolution opinion estimates using a multilevel regression and poststratification model. The model accurately predicts climate change beliefs, risk perceptions and policy preferences at the state, congressional district, metropolitan and county levels, using a concise set of demographic and geographic predictors. The analysis finds substantial variation in public opinion across the nation. Nationally, 63% of Americans believe global warming is happening, but county-level estimates range from 43 to 80%, leading to a diversity of political environments for climate policy. These estimates provide an important new source of information for policymakers, educators and scientists to more effectively address the challenges of climate change.

Local patches of turbulent boundary layer behaviour in classical-state vertical natural convection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ng, Chong Shen; Ooi, Andrew; Lohse, Detlef; Chung, Daniel

2016-11-01

We present evidence of local patches in vertical natural convection that are reminiscent of Prandtl-von Kármán turbulent boundary layers, for Rayleigh numbers 105-109 and Prandtl number 0.709. These local patches exist in the classical state, where boundary layers exhibit a laminar-like Prandtl-Blasius-Polhausen scaling at the global level, and are distinguished by regions dominated by high shear and low buoyancy flux. Within these patches, the locally averaged mean temperature profiles appear to obey a log-law with the universal constants of Yaglom (1979). We find that the local Nusselt number versus Rayleigh number scaling relation agrees with the logarithmically corrected power-law scaling predicted in the ultimate state of thermal convection, with an exponent consistent with Rayleigh-Bénard convection and Taylor-Couette flows. The local patches grow in size with increasing Rayleigh number, suggesting that the transition from the classical state to the ultimate state is characterised by increasingly larger patches of the turbulent boundary layers.

Are farm-to-school programs more common in states with farm-to-school-related laws?

PubMed

Schneider, Linda; Chriqui, Jamie; Nicholson, Lisa; Turner, Lindsey; Gourdet, Camille; Chaloupka, Frank

2012-05-01

Farm-to-School programs (FTSPs) connect schools with locally grown food. This article examines whether FTSPs are more common in public elementary schools (ESs) in states with a formal, FTSP law or with a related, locally grown procurement law. A pooled, cross-sectional analysis linked nationally representative samples of 1872 public ESs (across 47 states) for the 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 school years with state laws effective as of the beginning of September of each year that were collected and analyzed for all states. Multivariate logistic regression models examined the impact of state law on school FTSP participation, controlling for year and school-level race/ethnicity, region, locale, free-reduced lunch participation, and school size. The percentage of schools located in a state with a FTSP-specific law increased from 7.3% to 20.4% over the 3-year period, while the percentage of schools located in a state with a locally grown procurement law was approximately 30% across all years. The percentage of schools with FTSPs has more than tripled over the last 3 years (from 4.9% to 17.7%). After adjusting for all covariates except year, FTSPs were significantly more likely in states with a FTSP-specific law (OR = 2.45, 95% CI = 1.28-4.67); once adjusting for year, the results were marginally significant (OR = 1.72, 95% CI = .91-3.25). School-level FTSPs were not related to state locally grown procurement laws. Although the percentage of schools with FTSPs is relatively small, these programs are becoming more common, particularly in states with FTSP-specific laws. © 2012, American School Health Association.

Comprehensive smoke-free laws--50 largest U.S. cities, 2000 and 2012.

PubMed

2012-11-16

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and several health conditions in children. Only completely eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from SHS. State and local laws can provide this protection in enclosed workplaces and public places by completely eliminating smoking in these settings. CDC considers a smoke-free law to be comprehensive if it prohibits smoking in all indoor areas of private workplaces, restaurants, and bars, with no exceptions. In response to growing evidence on the health effects of SHS, communities and states have increasingly adopted comprehensive smoke-free (CSF) laws in recent years. To assess trends in protecting the population from SHS exposure, CDC and the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation (ANRF) compared coverage by local or state CSF laws in the 50 largest U.S. cities as of December 31, 2000, and October 5, 2012. The analysis focused on smoking restrictions in the 50 largest cities because these cities represent an important indicator of nationwide trends in local and state policy and because they are home to an estimated 47 million persons, or nearly 15% of the U.S. population. The analysis found that the number of these cities covered by local and/or state CSF laws increased from one city (2%) in 2000 to 30 cities (60%) in 2012. A total of 20 cities (40%) were not covered by a CSF law at either the local or state level in 2012, although 14 of these cities had 100% smoke-free provisions in place at the local or state level in at least one of the three settings considered. The results of this analysis indicate that substantial progress has been achieved during 2000-2012 in implementing CSF laws in the 50 largest U.S. cities. However, gaps in coverage, especially in the southern United States and in states with laws that preempt local smoking restrictions, are contributing to disparities in SHS protections.

Probabilistic Teleportation of One-Particle State of S-level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Feng-Li; Bai, Yan-Kui

2003-09-01

A scheme for probabilistically teleporting an unknown one-particle state of S-level by a group of pairs of partially entangled 2-level particle state is proposed. In this scheme unitary transformation and local measurement take the place of Bell state measurement, then proper unitary transformation and the measurement on an auxiliary qubit with the aid of classical communication are performed. In this way the unknown one-particle state of S-level can be transferred onto a group of remote 2-level particles with certain probability. Furthermore, the receiver can recover the initial signal state on an S-level particle at his hand. The project supported by Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province of China

ESEA Title I Migrant Administration Manual Project Preparation and Program Management.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seurynck, John L.; Hicks, Garlin A.

The manual outlines information on design and operation of the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) Title I Migrant Education Program at the state and local levels. Part I outlines information on the state level: legislative authorization and general responsibilities of the state education agency (SEA); annual program plan and budget;…

Modeling resting-state functional networks when the cortex falls asleep: local and global changes.

PubMed

Deco, Gustavo; Hagmann, Patric; Hudetz, Anthony G; Tononi, Giulio

2014-12-01

The transition from wakefulness to sleep represents the most conspicuous change in behavior and the level of consciousness occurring in the healthy brain. It is accompanied by similarly conspicuous changes in neural dynamics, traditionally exemplified by the change from "desynchronized" electroencephalogram activity in wake to globally synchronized slow wave activity of early sleep. However, unit and local field recordings indicate that the transition is more gradual than it might appear: On one hand, local slow waves already appear during wake; on the other hand, slow sleep waves are only rarely global. Studies with functional magnetic resonance imaging also reveal changes in resting-state functional connectivity (FC) between wake and slow wave sleep. However, it remains unclear how resting-state networks may change during this transition period. Here, we employ large-scale modeling of the human cortico-cortical anatomical connectivity to evaluate changes in resting-state FC when the model "falls asleep" due to the progressive decrease in arousal-promoting neuromodulation. When cholinergic neuromodulation is parametrically decreased, local slow waves appear, while the overall organization of resting-state networks does not change. Furthermore, we show that these local slow waves are structured macroscopically in networks that resemble the resting-state networks. In contrast, when the neuromodulator decrease further to very low levels, slow waves become global and resting-state networks merge into a single undifferentiated, broadly synchronized network. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Horodecki, Michal; Sen, Aditi; Sen, Ujjwal

The impossibility of cloning and deleting of unknown states constitute important restrictions on processing of information in the quantum world. On the other hand, a known quantum state can always be cloned or deleted. However, if we restrict the class of allowed operations, there will arise restrictions on the ability of cloning and deleting machines. We have shown that cloning and deleting of known states is in general not possible by local operations. This impossibility hints at quantum correlation in the state. We propose dual measures of quantum correlation based on the dual restrictions of no local cloning and nomore » local deleting. The measures are relative entropy distances of the desired states in a (generally impossible) perfect local cloning or local deleting process from the best approximate state that is actually obtained by imperfect local cloning or deleting machines. Just like the dual measures of entanglement cost and distillable entanglement, the proposed measures are based on important processes in quantum information. We discuss their properties. For the case of pure states, estimations of these two measures are also provided. Interestingly, the entanglement of cloning for a maximally entangled state of two two-level systems is not unity.« less

Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems, 1990.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fowler, William J., Jr.

The purpose of this guidebook is to reflect the changes that have occurred since 1973 in governmental accounting and education finance. This document serves as a vehicle for program cost accounting at the local and intermediate levels. Although not required by federal law, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) encourages state and…

Generic tripartite Bell nonlocality sudden death under local phase noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ann, Kevin; Jaeger, Gregg

2008-11-01

We definitively show, using an explicit and broadly applicable model, that local phase noise that is capable of eliminating state coherence only in the infinite-time limit is capable of eliminating nonlocality in finite time in three two-level systems prepared in the Bell-nonlocal tripartite states of the generic entanglement class.

Understanding the Promise: A Typology of State and Local College Promise Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perna, Laura W.; Leigh, Elaine W.

2018-01-01

Over the past decade, but especially in the past few years, programs with a "promise" label have been advanced at the local, state, and federal levels. To advance understanding of the design, implementation, and impact of the many different versions of emerging programs, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers need an organizing…

Community Education Proven Practices II: Networking Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arkansas State Dept. of Education, Little Rock.

Designed to be used by those who wish to initiate or further develop community education programs at the state and local levels, this publication is one of a series of "Proven Practices" developed by federally-funded state and local community education projects. The booklet describes the administrative design and the process used to…

77 FR 28399 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, National...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-14

... standardized reporting methods to collect and analyze fire incident data at the Federal, State, and local levels. Data analysis helps local fire departments and States to focus on current problems, predict..., effort and resources used by respondents to respond) and cost, and the actual data collection instruments...

Supervision Manual: Social Studies Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szabo, Lester John

This manual is designed to help school personnel implement a social studies program in grades K-12 in New York State. It provides the State mandates for social studies, recommends the scope and sequence of the social studies program, and suggests a procedure for implementing social studies revisions at the local level. How to form a local social…

Learning How To Develop a Local Health Ministry Program & Linking with State and National Agendas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilton, Wanda L.

This paper describes the involvement of faith in healthy community efforts, highlighting Nebraska's plan to strengthen and transform public health at the state and local level. This involved expanding health promotion and disease prevention programs into nontraditional settings (schools, worksites, and churches). A faith team was organized to…

Effects of B site doping on electronic structures of InNbO4 based on hybrid density functional calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, M. F.; Zhou, C. P.; Li, Q. Q.; Zhang, C. L.; Shi, H. F.

2018-01-01

In order to improve the photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation, we adopted first principle calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) to calculate the electronic structures of B site transition metal element doped InNbO4. The results indicated that the complete hybridization of Nb 4d states and some Ti 3d states contributed to the new conduction band of Ti doped InNbO4, barely changing the position of band edge. For Cr doping, some localized Cr 3d states were introduced into the band gap. Nonetheless, the potential of localized levels was too positive to cause visible-light reaction. When it came to Cu doping, the band gap was almost same with that of InNbO4 as well as some localized Cu 3d states appeared above the top of VB. The introduction of localized energy levels benefited electrons to migrate from valence band (VB) to conduction band (CB) by absorbing lower energy photons, realizing visible-light response.

Automated Information Services in Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cantoni, Mary

While most information dissemination activity in education is taking place at the national level within systems that emphasize documents, such as ERIC, the most important developments for individual teachers should take place at the state and local levels. SEEKER III, a local automated system in Michigan, is tied in with the Michigan Department of…

40 CFR 141.11 - Maximum contaminant levels for inorganic chemicals.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... until January 23, 2006. (c) [Reserved] (d) At the discretion of the State, nitrate levels not to exceed..., including continuous posting of the fact that nitrate levels exceed 10 mg/l and the potential health effects of exposure; and (3) Local and State public health authorities will be notified annually of nitrate...

Role of State Tsunami Geoscientists during Emergency Response Activities: Example from the State of California (USA) during September 29, 2009, Samoa Tsunami Event

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, R. I.; Dengler, L. A.; Goltz, J. D.; Legg, M.; Miller, K. M.; Parrish, J. G.; Whitmore, P.

2009-12-01

California tsunami geoscientists work closely with federal, state and local government emergency managers to help prepare coastal communities for potential impacts from a tsunami before, during, and after an event. For teletsunamis, as scientific information (forecast model wave heights, first-wave arrival times, etc.) from NOAA’s West Coast and Alaska’s Tsunami Warning Center is made available, state-level emergency managers must help convey this information in a concise and comprehendible manner to local officials who ultimately determine the appropriate response activities for their jurisdictions. During the Samoa Tsunami Advisory for California on September 29, 2009, geoscientists from the California Geological Survey and Humboldt State University assisted the California Emergency Management Agency in this information transfer by providing technical assistance during teleconference meetings with NOAA and other state and local emergency managers prior to the arrival of the tsunami. State geoscientists gathered additional background information on anticipated tidal conditions and wave heights for areas not covered by NOAA’s forecast models. The participation of the state geoscientists in the emergency response process resulted in clarifying which regions were potentially at-risk, as well as those having a low risk from the tsunami. Future tsunami response activities for state geoscientists include: 1) working closely with NOAA to simplify their tsunami alert messaging and expand their forecast modeling coverage, 2) creation of “playbooks” containing information from existing tsunami scenarios for local emergency managers to reference during an event, and 3) development of a state-level information “clearinghouse” and pre-tsunami field response team to assist local officials as well as observe and report tsunami effects.

Community-level policy responses to state marijuana legalization in Washington State.

PubMed

Dilley, Julia A; Hitchcock, Laura; McGroder, Nancy; Greto, Lindsey A; Richardson, Susan M

2017-04-01

Washington State (WA) legalized a recreational marijuana market - including growing, processing and retail sales - through voter initiative 502 in November 2012. Legalized recreational marijuana retail sales began in July 2014. In response to state legalization of recreational marijuana, some cities and counties within the state have passed local ordinances that either further regulated marijuana markets, or banned them completely. The purpose of this study is to describe local-level marijuana regulations on recreational retail sales within the context of a state that had legalized a recreational marijuana market. Marijuana-related ordinances were collected from all 142 cities in the state with more than 3000 residents and from all 39 counties. Policies that were in place as of June 30, 2016 - two years after the state's recreational market opening - to regulate recreational marijuana retail sales within communities were systematically coded. A total of 125 cities and 30 counties had passed local ordinances to address recreational marijuana retail sales. Multiple communities implemented retail market bans, including some temporary bans (moratoria) while studying whether to pursue other policy options. As of June 30, 2016, 30% of the state population lived in places that had temporarily or permanently banned retail sales. Communities most frequently enacted zoning policies explicitly regulating where marijuana businesses could be established. Other policies included in ordinances placed limits on business hours and distance requirements (buffers) between marijuana businesses and youth-related land use types or other sensitive areas. State legalization does not necessarily result in uniform community environments that regulate recreational marijuana markets. Local ordinances vary among communities within Washington following statewide legalization. Further study is needed to describe how such local policies affect variation in public health and social outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Guide to State and Local-Level Indicators of Child Well-Being Available through the Federal Statistical System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Brett V.; Botsko, Christopher

Over the last several years there has been a steadily growing interest in the availability of data that can be used to track the well-being of children, largely due to national and state Kids Count projects. This report reviews 15 federal data sources from which child indicators can be assessed and tracked over time for many states and localities.…

Information technology systems for critical care triage and medical response during an influenza pandemic: a review of current systems.

PubMed

Bandayrel, Kristofer; Lapinsky, Stephen; Christian, Michael

2013-06-01

To assess local, state, federal, and global pandemic influenza preparedness by identifying pandemic plans at the local, state, federal, and global levels, and to identify any information technology (IT) systems in these plans to support critical care triage during an influenza pandemic in the Canadian province of Ontario. The authors used advanced MEDLINE and Google search strategies and conducted a comprehensive review of key pandemic influenza Web sites. Descriptive data extraction and analysis for IT systems were conducted on all of the included pandemic plans. A total of 155 pandemic influenza plans were reviewed: 29 local, 62 state, 63 federal, and 1 global. We found 70 plans that examined IT systems (10 local, 33 state, 26 federal, 1 global), and 85 that did not (19 local, 29 state, 37 federal). Of the 70 plans, 64 described surveillance systems (10 local, 32 state, 21 federal, 1 global), 2 described patient data collection systems (1 state, 1 federal); 4 described other types of IT systems (4 federal), and none were intended for triage. Although several pandemic plans have been drafted, the majority are high-level general documents that do not describe IT systems. The plans that discuss IT systems focus strongly on surveillance, which fails to recognize the needs of a health care system responding to an influenza pandemic. The best examples of the types of IT systems to guide decision making during a pandemic were found in the Kansas and the Czech Republic pandemic plans, because these systems were designed to collect both patient and surveillance data. Although Ontario has yet to develop such an IT system, several IT systems are in place that could be leveraged to support critical care triage and medical response during an influenza pandemic.

Disparities in Charter School Resources--The Influence of State Policy and Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodine, Edward; Fuller, Bruce; Gonzalez, Maria-Fernanda; Huerta, Luis; Naughton, Sandra; Park, Sandra; Teh, Laik Woon

2008-01-01

Recent findings show that students attending charter schools in the United States achieve at comparable or lower levels to those enrolled in regular public schools, perhaps due to uneven quality and disparities in the levels of resources acquired by charter schools. But little is known as to what state and local factors contribute to disparate…

Invisible Ink in Collective Bargaining: Why Key Issues Are Not Addressed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Emily; Walsh, Kate; Biddle, RiShawn

2008-01-01

In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) takes a close look at the governance of the teaching profession and finds that state legislators and other state-level policymakers crafting state laws and regulation, not those bargaining at the local level, decide some of the most important rules governing the teaching profession.…

More Money for More Opportunity: Financial Support of Community College Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wattenbarger, James L.; Cage, Bob N.

The main thesis presented is that the need for state-level planning for the community college requires increased state-level financial support, yet, at the same time essential local autonomy must be preserved. Areas such as cost-analysis and program-budgeting techniques that govern state support, the way cost-benefit decisions affect the ideal of…

Wisconsin Workplace Partnership Training Program (National Workplace Literacy Program). June 1, 1992-December 31, 1993. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wisconsin State Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education, Madison. Wisconsin Technical Coll. System.

The Wisconsin Workplace Partnership Training Program involved the state's technical college system board, state chapter of the AFL-CIO, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and Madison Center on Education and Work. The state-level education-labor-management partnership was mirrored at the local level in 28 worksite education centers. Instruction…

The Challenges in Measuring Local Immunization Coverage: A Statewide Case Study

PubMed Central

Rowhani-Rahbar, Ali; Duchin, Jeffrey; DeHart, M. Patricia; Opel, Douglas

2016-01-01

There are many forms of existing immunization surveillance in the United States and Washington state, but all are limited in their ability to provide timely identification of clusters of unimmunized individuals and assess the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. This article aims to: (1) describe challenges to measuring immunization coverage at a local level in the United States using Washington State as a case study; and (2) propose improvements to existing surveillance systems that address the challenges identified. PMID:27244807

Predicting Periodontitis at State and Local Levels in the United States.

PubMed

Eke, P I; Zhang, X; Lu, H; Wei, L; Thornton-Evans, G; Greenlund, K J; Holt, J B; Croft, J B

2016-05-01

The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of periodontitis at state and local levels across the United States by using a novel, small area estimation (SAE) method. Extended multilevel regression and poststratification analyses were used to estimate the prevalence of periodontitis among adults aged 30 to 79 y at state, county, congressional district, and census tract levels by using periodontal data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2012, population counts from the 2010 US census, and smoking status estimates from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2012. The SAE method used age, race, gender, smoking, and poverty variables to estimate the prevalence of periodontitis as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/American Academy of Periodontology case definitions at the census block levels and aggregated to larger administrative and geographic areas of interest. Model-based SAEs were validated against national estimates directly from NHANES 2009-2012. Estimated prevalence of periodontitis ranged from 37.7% in Utah to 52.8% in New Mexico among the states (mean, 45.1%; median, 44.9%) and from 33.7% to 68% among counties (mean, 46.6%; median, 45.9%). Severe periodontitis ranged from 7.27% in New Hampshire to 10.26% in Louisiana among the states (mean, 8.9%; median, 8.8%) and from 5.2% to 17.9% among counties (mean, 9.2%; median, 8.8%). Overall, the predicted prevalence of periodontitis was highest for southeastern and southwestern states and for geographic areas in the Southeast along the Mississippi Delta, as well as along the US and Mexico border. Aggregated model-based SAEs were consistent with national prevalence estimates from NHANES 2009-2012. This study is the first-ever estimation of periodontitis prevalence at state and local levels in the United States, and this modeling approach complements public health surveillance efforts to identify areas with a high burden of periodontitis. © International & American Associations for Dental Research 2016.

Powered ankle-foot prosthesis to assist level-ground and stair-descent gaits.

PubMed

Au, Samuel; Berniker, Max; Herr, Hugh

2008-05-01

The human ankle varies impedance and delivers net positive work during the stance period of walking. In contrast, commercially available ankle-foot prostheses are passive during stance, causing many clinical problems for transtibial amputees, including non-symmetric gait patterns, higher gait metabolism, and poorer shock absorption. In this investigation, we develop and evaluate a myoelectric-driven, finite state controller for a powered ankle-foot prosthesis that modulates both impedance and power output during stance. The system employs both sensory inputs measured local to the external prosthesis, and myoelectric inputs measured from residual limb muscles. Using local prosthetic sensing, we first develop two finite state controllers to produce biomimetic movement patterns for level-ground and stair-descent gaits. We then employ myoelectric signals as control commands to manage the transition between these finite state controllers. To transition from level-ground to stairs, the amputee flexes the gastrocnemius muscle, triggering the prosthetic ankle to plantar flex at terminal swing, and initiating the stair-descent state machine algorithm. To transition back to level-ground walking, the amputee flexes the tibialis anterior muscle, triggering the ankle to remain dorsiflexed at terminal swing, and initiating the level-ground state machine algorithm. As a preliminary evaluation of clinical efficacy, we test the device on a transtibial amputee with both the proposed controller and a conventional passive-elastic control. We find that the amputee can robustly transition between the finite state controllers through direct muscle activation, allowing rapid transitioning from level-ground to stair walking patterns. Additionally, we find that the proposed finite state controllers result in a more biomimetic ankle response, producing net propulsive work during level-ground walking and greater shock absorption during stair descent. The results of this study highlight the potential of prosthetic leg controllers that exploit neural signals to trigger terrain-appropriate, local prosthetic leg behaviors.

Community-level policy responses to state marijuana legalization in Washington State

PubMed Central

Dilley, Julia A.; Hitchcock, Laura; McGroder, Nancy; Greto, Lindsey A.; Richardson, Susan M.

2017-01-01

Background Washington State (WA) legalized a recreational marijuana market -- including growing, processing and retail sales -- through voter initiative 502 in November 2012. Legalized recreational marijuana retail sales began in July 2014. In response to state legalization of recreational marijuana, some cities and counties within the state have passed local ordinances that either further regulated marijuana markets, or banned them completely. The purpose of this study is to describe local-level marijuana regulations on recreational retail sales within the context of a state that had legalized a recreational marijuana market. Methods Marijuana-related ordinances were collected from all 142 cities in the state with more than 3,000 residents and from all 39 counties. Policies that were in place as of June 30, 2016 - two years after the state’s recreational market opening - to regulate recreational marijuana retail sales within communities were systematically coded. Results A total of 125 cities and 30 counties had passed local ordinances to address recreational marijuana retail sales. Multiple communities implemented retail market bans, including some temporary bans (moratoria) while studying whether to pursue other policy options. As of June 30, 2016, 30% of the state population lived in places that had temporarily or permanently banned retail sales. Communities most frequently enacted zoning policies explicitly regulating where marijuana businesses could be established. Other policies included in ordinances placed limits on business hours and distance requirements (buffers) between marijuana businesses and youth-related land use types or other sensitive areas. Conclusions State legalization does not necessarily result in uniform community environments that regulate recreational marijuana markets. Local ordinances vary among communities within Washington following statewide legalization. Further study is needed to describe how such local policies affect variation in public health and social outcomes. PMID:28365192

A Local School District Implements a State Mandated Instructional Program on AIDS Prevention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Janie L.

Implementation of an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) education program in Oklahoma is briefly outlined in the areas of the state mandate, local implementation, teacher training, parent meetings, and short and long courses. A study of the level of student knowledge about AIDS before and after instruction is described. Subjects were 7,145…

A School District Financial Condition Assessment System and Its Application to Pennsylvania School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruck, W. Earl; Miltenberger, Lauren

2013-01-01

The funding of public education in America has been a primary concern for government officials at the federal, state, and local levels for several generations. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, this expenditure accounts for the single largest allocation in most state and local government operating budgets (Stanley and…

Stakeholder involvement in agri-environmental policy making--learning from a local- and a state-level approach in Germany.

PubMed

Prager, Katrin; Freese, Jan

2009-02-01

Recent European regulations for rural development emphasise the requirement to involve stakeholder groups and other appropriate bodies in the policy-making process. This paper presents two cases involving stakeholder participation in agri-environmental development and policy making, targeted at different policy-making levels. One study was undertaken in Lower Saxony where a local partnership developed and tested an agri-environmental prescription, which was later included in the state's menu of agri-environmental schemes. In Sachsen-Anhalt, state-facilitated stakeholder workshops including a mathematical model were used to optimise the programme planning and budget allocation at the state level. Both studies aimed at improving the acceptance of agri-environmental schemes. The authors gauge the effectiveness of the two approaches and discuss what lessons can be learned. The experience suggests that the approaches can complement one another and could also be applied to rural policy making.

Effect of highways and local activities on the quality of underground water in Ogun State, Nigeria: a case study of three districts in Ogun State, Nigeria.

PubMed

Odukoya, Olusegun O; Onianwa, Percy C; Sanusi, Olanrewaju I

2010-09-01

The effect of highways and local activities on the quality of groundwater in Ogun State, Nigeria was investigated. This was done by collecting groundwater samples from three different districts in the state, located in Southwestern Nigeria. The water samples collected at 5 m from the highway and control samples collected at 3 km from the highway were analyzed for the following physicochemical parameters: pH, conductivity, chemical oxygen demand, alkalinity, total hardness, total solid, suspended solid, dissolved solid, chloride, sulfate, phosphate, nitrate, phenol, and the metals-lead, zinc, iron, aluminum, sodium, and potassium. The levels of chromium, copper, and cadmium in the samples were below the detectable limit. The levels of the parameters show that there are significant differences between those in the samples and the controls (F test) except for phosphate and phenol. Also, anthropogenic sources (local activities) elevate the levels of different specific parameters, which are related to these activities. Good correlation was observed between traffic density and lead levels as well as between conductivity and dissolved solids. Comparisons with the World Health Organization guidelines indicate that most of the water samples are not suitable for human consumption.

State-level variations in income-related inequality in health and health achievement in the US.

PubMed

Xu, Ke Tom

2006-07-01

The objective of this study was to examine state-level variations in income-related inequality in health and overall health achievement in the US. Data that were representative of the US and each state in 2001 were extracted from the Current Population Survey 2001. Income-related inequality in health and health achievement were measured by Health Concentration and Health Achievement Indices, respectively. Significant variations were found across states in income-related inequality in health and health achievement. In particular, states in the south and east regions, on average, experienced a higher degree of health inequality and lower health achievement. About 80% of the state-level variation in health achievement could be explained by demographics, economic structure and performance, and state and local government spending and burden. In contrast, medical care resource indicators were not found to contribute to health achievement in states. States with better health achievement were more urbanized, had lower proportions of minority groups, females and the elderly, fewer individuals below the poverty line, larger primary industry, and lower unemployment rates. Also, per capita state and local government spending, particularly the proportion spent on public health, was positively associated with better health achievement. Because of the direct implications of health level and distribution in resource allocation and social norms, states with a lower level of health achievement need to prioritize efforts in increasing and reallocating resources to diminish health inequality and to improve population health.

Local density of states in two-dimensional topological superconductors under a magnetic field: Signature of an exterior Majorana bound state

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Shu-Ichiro; Kawaguchi, Yuki; Tanaka, Yukio

2018-04-01

We study quasiparticle states on a surface of a topological insulator (TI) with proximity-induced superconductivity under an external magnetic field. An applied magnetic field creates two Majorana bound states: a vortex Majorana state localized inside a vortex core and an exterior Majorana state localized along a circle centered at the vortex core. We calculate the spin-resolved local density of states (LDOS) and demonstrate that the shrinking of the radius of the exterior Majorana state, predicted in R. S. Akzyanov et al., Phys. Rev. B 94, 125428 (2016), 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.125428, under a strong magnetic field can be seen in LDOS without smeared out by nonzero-energy states. The spin-resolved LDOS further reveals that the spin of the exterior Majorana state is strongly spin-polarized. Accordingly, the induced odd-frequency spin-triplet pairs are found to be spin-polarized as well. In order to detect the exterior Majorana states, however, the Fermi energy should be closed to the Dirac point to avoid contributions from continuum levels. We also study a different two-dimensional topological-superconducting system where a two-dimensional electron gas with the spin-orbit coupling is sandwiched between an s -wave superconductor and a ferromagnetic insulator. We show that the radius of an exterior Majorana state can be tuned by an applied magnetic field. However, on the contrary to the results at a TI surface, neither the exterior Majorana state nor the induced odd-frequency spin-triplet pairs are spin-polarized. We conclude that the spin polarization of the Majorana state is attributed to the spin-polarized Landau level, which is characteristic for systems with the Dirac-like dispersion.

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2(Version 2.1) Catchments Riparian Buffer for the Conterminous United States: 2010 US Census Road Density

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset represents the road density within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds riparian buffers. Attributes of the landscape layer were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. (See Supplementary Info for Glossary of Terms) This data set is derived from TIGER/Line Files of roads in the conterminous United States. Road density describes how many kilometers of road exist in a square kilometer. A raster was produced using the ArcGIS Line Density Tool to form the landscape layer for analysis. (see Data Sources for links to NHDPlusV2 data and Census Data) The (kilometer of road/square kilometer) was summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a continuous data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description).

Forecasting state-level premature deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicides using Google Trends data.

PubMed

Parker, Jason; Cuthbertson, Courtney; Loveridge, Scott; Skidmore, Mark; Dyar, Will

2017-04-15

Vital statistics on the number of, alcohol-induced death (AICD) drug-induced death (DICD), and suicides at the local-level are only available after a substantial lag of up to two years after the events occur. We (1) investigate how well Google Trends search data explain variation in state-level rates in the US, and (2) use this method to forecast these rates of death for 2015 as official data are not yet available. We tested the degree to which Google Trends data on 27 terms can be fit to CDC data using L 1 -regularization on AICD, DICD, and suicide. Using Google Trends data, we forecast 2015 AICD, DICD, and suicide rates. L 1 -regularization fit the pre-2015 data much better than the alternative model using state-level unemployment and income variables. Google Trends data account for substantial variation in growth of state-level rates of death: 30.9% for AICD, 23.9% for DICD, and 21.8% for suicide rates. Every state except Hawaii is forecasted to increase in all three of these rates in 2015. The model predicts state, not local or individual behavior, and is dependent on continued availability of Google Trends data. The method predicts state-level AICD, DICD, and suicide rates better than the alternative model. The study findings suggest that this methodology can be developed into a public health surveillance system for behavioral health-related causes of death. State-level predictions could be used to inform state interventions aimed at reducing AICD, DICD, and suicide. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

7 CFR 1466.6 - State allocation and management.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LOANS, PURCHASES, AND OTHER OPERATIONS ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INCENTIVES PROGRAM... the State and local level; (2) The availability of human resources, incentive programs, educational...

At-Risk Youth: Considerations for State-Level Policymakers, Including a Summary of Recent State-Level Actions in the Region.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast & Islands, Andover, MA.

In response to the growing dropout problem, most of the northeastern states (and islands) and many of their local districts have implemented policies and programs designed to reduce the number of students leaving school. This paper presents some observations, culled from various reports, for policymakers' consideration. Section I offers a set of…

Subregional Nowcasts of Seasonal Influenza Using Search Trends.

PubMed

Kandula, Sasikiran; Hsu, Daniel; Shaman, Jeffrey

2017-11-06

Limiting the adverse effects of seasonal influenza outbreaks at state or city level requires close monitoring of localized outbreaks and reliable forecasts of their progression. Whereas forecasting models for influenza or influenza-like illness (ILI) are becoming increasingly available, their applicability to localized outbreaks is limited by the nonavailability of real-time observations of the current outbreak state at local scales. Surveillance data collected by various health departments are widely accepted as the reference standard for estimating the state of outbreaks, and in the absence of surveillance data, nowcast proxies built using Web-based activities such as search engine queries, tweets, and access of health-related webpages can be useful. Nowcast estimates of state and municipal ILI were previously published by Google Flu Trends (GFT); however, validations of these estimates were seldom reported. The aim of this study was to develop and validate models to nowcast ILI at subregional geographic scales. We built nowcast models based on autoregressive (autoregressive integrated moving average; ARIMA) and supervised regression methods (Random forests) at the US state level using regional weighted ILI and Web-based search activity derived from Google's Extended Trends application programming interface. We validated the performance of these methods using actual surveillance data for the 50 states across six seasons. We also built state-level nowcast models using state-level estimates of ILI and compared the accuracy of these estimates with the estimates of the regional models extrapolated to the state level and with the nowcast estimates published by GFT. Models built using regional ILI extrapolated to state level had a median correlation of 0.84 (interquartile range: 0.74-0.91) and a median root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.01 (IQR: 0.74-1.50), with noticeable variability across seasons and by state population size. Model forms that hypothesize the availability of timely state-level surveillance data show significantly lower errors of 0.83 (0.55-0.23). Compared with GFT, the latter model forms have lower errors but also lower correlation. These results suggest that the proposed methods may be an alternative to the discontinued GFT and that further improvements in the quality of subregional nowcasts may require increased access to more finely resolved surveillance data. ©Sasikiran Kandula, Daniel Hsu, Jeffrey Shaman. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 06.11.2017.

Emergency response and field observation activities of geoscientists in California (USA) during the September 29, 2009, Samoa Tsunami

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Rick I.; Dengler, Lori A.; Goltz, James D.; Legg, Mark R.; Miller, Kevin M.; Ritchie, Andy; Whitmore, Paul M.

2011-07-01

State geoscientists (geologists, geophysicists, seismologists, and engineers) in California work closely with federal, state and local government emergency managers to help prepare coastal communities for potential impacts from a tsunami before, during, and after an event. For teletsunamis, as scientific information (forecast model wave heights, first-wave arrival times, etc.) from NOAA's West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center is made available, federal- and state-level emergency managers must help convey this information in a concise, comprehensible and timely manner to local officials who ultimately determine the appropriate response activities for their jurisdictions. During the September 29, 2009 Tsunami Advisory for California, government geoscientists assisted the California Emergency Management Agency by providing technical assistance during teleconference meetings with NOAA and other state and local emergency managers prior to the arrival of the tsunami. This technical assistance included background information on anticipated tidal conditions when the tsunami was set to arrive, wave height estimates from state-modeled scenarios for areas not covered by NOAA's forecast models, and clarifying which regions of the state were at greatest risk. Over the last year, state geoscientists have started to provide additional assistance: 1) working closely with NOAA to simplify their tsunami alert messaging and expand their forecast modeling coverage; 2) creating "playbooks" containing information from existing tsunami scenarios for local emergency managers to reference during an event; and, 3) developing a state-level information "clearinghouse" and pre-tsunami field response team to assist local officials as well as observe and report tsunami effects. Activities of geoscientists were expanded during the more recent Tsunami Advisory on February 27, 2010, including deploying a geologist from the California Geological Survey as a field observer who provided information back to emergency managers.

Maryland State and Local Governments: An Instructional Unit for the Eighth Grade Social Studies Course "Maryland Studies."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Wanda B.; Stamm, Michael J.

An eighth grade social studies unit on Maryland state and local governments contains three sections. In the first section, a two-column chart matches grade level objectives related to Maryland governments to specific activities discussed in the next section. A content outline is divided into sections on introductory materials, including vocabulary…

Leveraging the Common Core to Support College and Career Readiness in California

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Venezia, Andrea; Lewis, Jodi

2015-01-01

The early years of the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in California were complicated by the Great Recession as well as by a significant devolution of finance and programmatic control to the local level through the Local Control Funding Formula. The state charted a steady course and took a systematic approach to CCSS…

Charter School Funding: Inequity in the City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Patrick J.; Maloney, Larry D.; May, Jay F.; DeAngelis, Corey A.

2017-01-01

Public charter schools increasingly are part of both the national conversation about education policy and the local urban scene in America. Previous studies of public charter schools have examined their achievement effects focused on both the state and metropolitan levels, and funding disparities focused on the state levels. This is the first…

Adult Education and the Challenges of Regional Development: Policy and Sustainability in North Denmark

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasmussen, Palle; Staugaard, Hans Jørgen

2016-01-01

Adult education is governed at many levels--internationally, nationally and locally. The authors of this paper look at the challenges, structures and practices of adult education policy at the local level, more specifically in North Denmark (Northern Jutland), one of the five administrative regions of the Danish nation-state. In many ways, the…

[Dental fluorosis prevalence in Mexican localities of 27 states and the D.F.: six years after the publication of the Salt Fluoridation Mexican Official Regulation].

PubMed

Betancourt-Lineares, Armandor; Irigoyen-Camacho, María Esther; Mejía-González, Adriana; Zepeda-Zapeda, Marco; Sánchez-Pérez, Leonor

2013-01-01

To identify the prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis in communities located in 28 states of Mexico. The National Dental Caries Survey 2001 (NDCS2001) data base was analyzed. The information of 26,893 students, ages 12 and 15 years old, of 27 states and the Federal District was examined. Dean's dental fluorosis index was applied by standardized examiners. The fluorosis prevalence and the Community Fluorosis Index (FCI) were calculated. The fluorosis prevalence was 27.9% (95% CI 24.4, 28.5). A statistical significance difference in the fluorosis prevalence was observed among the states studied (p < 0.0001). The lowest prevalence was detected in Morelos (3.2%) and the highest in Durango (88.8%). In 18 (64.3%) of the states included more than 90% of the participants showed very mild or lower levels of the dental fluorosis index. A low level of the FCI was found in the localities belonging to 19 (67.9%) of the states studied (FCI < 0.4). The lowest FCI was found in Colima, Yucatán and Morelos. The highest FCI were found in Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosí (1 ≤ ICF). This information indicates that in these states dental fluorosis is a public health problem. Two-thirds of the states had localities with low prevalence of dental fluorosis; however, approximately, one-third of the states investigated the fluorosis levels showed the need of a reduction in fluoride exposure among the young population.

Workforce turnover at local health departments: nature, characteristics, and implications.

PubMed

Newman, Sarah J; Ye, Jiali; Leep, Carolyn J

2014-11-01

Employee turnover, defined as total separations from employment, is expensive, can result in lost capacity, and can limit local health departments' (LHDs') ability to respond to public health needs. Despite the importance of workforce capacity in public health, little is known about workforce turnover in LHDs. To examine the extent to which LHDs experience turnover and identify LHD characteristics that are associated with turnover. A cross-sectional data set of employee turnover and LHD characteristics from the 2013 National Profile of LHDs was analyzed. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were conducted in 2014 on turnover rates. The effect of the following LHD characteristics on turnover rates were examined: population size, governance type, degree of urbanization, top executive experience level, expenditures per capita, and LHD budget cuts. In 2013, LHDs experienced a mean turnover rate of 9.88%; approximately one third of turnover was due to retirements. LHDs with shared state and local governance experienced a higher turnover rate than LHDs with exclusive state or local governance. LHDs that are units of state agencies had a significantly higher retirement rate than those governed by local authorities. Top executive experience level, per capita expenditures, and LHD budget cuts were also related to turnover rates. LHDs experienced a lower overall turnover rate than state health departments in 2011 and lower than all local and state government agencies in 2012. Strengthening leadership skills of new top executives and ensuring adequate funding may reduce turnover in LHDs. Copyright © 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Appearing like a state: Oil companies and local violence in the Niger Delta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mattner, Mark

What determines the extent to which communities in the Niger Delta experience violence? The dissertation addresses this question by focusing on the role of multinational oil companies in local governance, where state institutions are weak. The available literature often overlooks this important dimension. Specifically, the dissertation evaluates whether the choice of community relation policies by oil companies accounts for variations in local violence. These policies often include community development projects and attempts at strengthening local institutions. The main hypothesis is that where projects are allocated and implemented through participatory processes, informal institutions are created which substitute for weak local governments and reduce violence. The dissertation tests this contention by comparing four cases which were selected according to differences in their levels of violence. It concludes that the hypothesis is valid only in highly specific circumstances. In most cases, levels of repression and the relationship between companies and local elites are more significant explanations for violence. This is because oil companies and the state continue to rely primarily on repression and co-optation in their relationship with local communities. Community development and corporate social responsibility are secondary concerns. The central implication of this analysis is that a solution to the crisis in the Niger Delta is unlikely to lie in self-regulation and non-binding commitments by corporate actors. More promising approaches are strengthening local governments by ensuring the integrity of local elections and more stringent regulation of oil company conduct.

Four Steps to Being a Local Advocate for Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, K. Andrew R.

2015-01-01

Although advocacy can also take place at the state and national levels, the foundation of advocacy is high-quality teaching and local initiatives. The purpose of this article is to review four steps that can be taken by PE teachers who are interested in engaging in local advocacy efforts.

American Schools and the Future of Local Control.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doyle, Denis P.; Finn, Chester E., Jr.

1984-01-01

Analyzes the concept of local control against a background of rising state control. Focuses on school funding, equity, the excellence movement, and diversity and proposes a statewide educational voucher system. Concludes that the traditional conception of local control must be updated, but that school-level control is essential to improving…

Dynamic Neural State Identification in Deep Brain Local Field Potentials of Neuropathic Pain.

PubMed

Luo, Huichun; Huang, Yongzhi; Du, Xueying; Zhang, Yunpeng; Green, Alexander L; Aziz, Tipu Z; Wang, Shouyan

2018-01-01

In neuropathic pain, the neurophysiological and neuropathological function of the ventro-posterolateral nucleus of the thalamus (VPL) and the periventricular gray/periaqueductal gray area (PVAG) involves multiple frequency oscillations. Moreover, oscillations related to pain perception and modulation change dynamically over time. Fluctuations in these neural oscillations reflect the dynamic neural states of the nucleus. In this study, an approach to classifying the synchronization level was developed to dynamically identify the neural states. An oscillation extraction model based on windowed wavelet packet transform was designed to characterize the activity level of oscillations. The wavelet packet coefficients sparsely represented the activity level of theta and alpha oscillations in local field potentials (LFPs). Then, a state discrimination model was designed to calculate an adaptive threshold to determine the activity level of oscillations. Finally, the neural state was represented by the activity levels of both theta and alpha oscillations. The relationship between neural states and pain relief was further evaluated. The performance of the state identification approach achieved sensitivity and specificity beyond 80% in simulation signals. Neural states of the PVAG and VPL were dynamically identified from LFPs of neuropathic pain patients. The occurrence of neural states based on theta and alpha oscillations were correlated to the degree of pain relief by deep brain stimulation. In the PVAG LFPs, the occurrence of the state with high activity levels of theta oscillations independent of alpha and the state with low-level alpha and high-level theta oscillations were significantly correlated with pain relief by deep brain stimulation. This study provides a reliable approach to identifying the dynamic neural states in LFPs with a low signal-to-noise ratio by using sparse representation based on wavelet packet transform. Furthermore, it may advance closed-loop deep brain stimulation based on neural states integrating multiple neural oscillations.

Dynamic Neural State Identification in Deep Brain Local Field Potentials of Neuropathic Pain

PubMed Central

Luo, Huichun; Huang, Yongzhi; Du, Xueying; Zhang, Yunpeng; Green, Alexander L.; Aziz, Tipu Z.; Wang, Shouyan

2018-01-01

In neuropathic pain, the neurophysiological and neuropathological function of the ventro-posterolateral nucleus of the thalamus (VPL) and the periventricular gray/periaqueductal gray area (PVAG) involves multiple frequency oscillations. Moreover, oscillations related to pain perception and modulation change dynamically over time. Fluctuations in these neural oscillations reflect the dynamic neural states of the nucleus. In this study, an approach to classifying the synchronization level was developed to dynamically identify the neural states. An oscillation extraction model based on windowed wavelet packet transform was designed to characterize the activity level of oscillations. The wavelet packet coefficients sparsely represented the activity level of theta and alpha oscillations in local field potentials (LFPs). Then, a state discrimination model was designed to calculate an adaptive threshold to determine the activity level of oscillations. Finally, the neural state was represented by the activity levels of both theta and alpha oscillations. The relationship between neural states and pain relief was further evaluated. The performance of the state identification approach achieved sensitivity and specificity beyond 80% in simulation signals. Neural states of the PVAG and VPL were dynamically identified from LFPs of neuropathic pain patients. The occurrence of neural states based on theta and alpha oscillations were correlated to the degree of pain relief by deep brain stimulation. In the PVAG LFPs, the occurrence of the state with high activity levels of theta oscillations independent of alpha and the state with low-level alpha and high-level theta oscillations were significantly correlated with pain relief by deep brain stimulation. This study provides a reliable approach to identifying the dynamic neural states in LFPs with a low signal-to-noise ratio by using sparse representation based on wavelet packet transform. Furthermore, it may advance closed-loop deep brain stimulation based on neural states integrating multiple neural oscillations. PMID:29695951

The dynamics of local quantum uncertainty and trace distance discord for two-qubit X states under decoherence: a comparative study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slaoui, A.; Daoud, M.; Laamara, R. Ahl

2018-07-01

We employ the concepts of local quantum uncertainty and geometric quantum discord based on the trace norm to investigate the environmental effects on quantum correlations of two bipartite quantum systems. The first one concerns a two-qubit system coupled with two independent bosonic reservoirs. We show that the trace discord exhibits frozen phenomenon contrarily to local quantum uncertainty. The second scenario deals with a two-level system, initially prepared in a separable state, interacting with a quantized electromagnetic radiation. Our results show that there exists an exchange of quantum correlations between the two-level system and its surrounding which is responsible for the revival phenomenon of non-classical correlations.

Is Social Categorization the Missing Link Between Weak Central Coherence and Mental State Inference Abilities in Autism? Preliminary Evidence from a General Population Sample.

PubMed

Skorich, Daniel P; May, Adrienne R; Talipski, Louisa A; Hall, Marnie H; Dolstra, Anita J; Gash, Tahlia B; Gunningham, Beth H

2016-03-01

We explore the relationship between the 'theory of mind' (ToM) and 'central coherence' difficulties of autism. We introduce covariation between hierarchically-embedded categories and social information--at the local level, the global level, or at both levels simultaneously--within a category confusion task. We then ask participants to infer the mental state of novel category members, and measure participants' autism-spectrum quotient (AQ). Results reveal a positive relationship between AQ and the degree of local/global social categorization, which in turn predicts the pattern of mental state inferences. These results provide preliminary evidence for a causal relationship between central coherence and ToM abilities. Implications with regard to ToM processes, social categorization, intervention, and the development of a unified account of autism are discussed.

Markov-chain model of classified atomistic transition states for discrete kinetic Monte Carlo simulations.

PubMed

Numazawa, Satoshi; Smith, Roger

2011-10-01

Classical harmonic transition state theory is considered and applied in discrete lattice cells with hierarchical transition levels. The scheme is then used to determine transitions that can be applied in a lattice-based kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) atomistic simulation model. The model results in an effective reduction of KMC simulation steps by utilizing a classification scheme of transition levels for thermally activated atomistic diffusion processes. Thermally activated atomistic movements are considered as local transition events constrained in potential energy wells over certain local time periods. These processes are represented by Markov chains of multidimensional Boolean valued functions in three-dimensional lattice space. The events inhibited by the barriers under a certain level are regarded as thermal fluctuations of the canonical ensemble and accepted freely. Consequently, the fluctuating system evolution process is implemented as a Markov chain of equivalence class objects. It is shown that the process can be characterized by the acceptance of metastable local transitions. The method is applied to a problem of Au and Ag cluster growth on a rippled surface. The simulation predicts the existence of a morphology-dependent transition time limit from a local metastable to stable state for subsequent cluster growth by accretion. Excellent agreement with observed experimental results is obtained.

42 CFR 431.205 - Provision of hearing system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... hearing at the local level, with a right of appeal to a State agency hearing. (c) The agency may offer local hearings in some political subdivisions and not in others. (d) The hearing system must meet the...

Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McNamara, Joan T.

In August of 2007, the Los Angeles Police Department pioneered a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) program that enabled local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to, for the first time, gather and share information about suspicious activities with a possible nexus to terrorism. The SAR program established an information platform at the local level that previously didn’t exist and had the potential to connect many of the country’s police departments, thus shifting local law enforcement’s approach to terrorism from a reactive to a preventative model. It also essentially flipped the age-old paradigm in which information was pushed from the federal to the local level. Now local police departments are valuable players in the information sharing process and are increasingly relied on to provide their federal partners with an accurate picture of what is happening at the local level.

Supercomputer modelling of an electronic structure for KCl nanocrystal with edge dislocation with the use of semiempirical and nonempirical models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Timoshenko, Yu K.; Shunina, V. A.; Shashkin, A. I.

2018-03-01

In the present work we used semiempirical and non-empirical models for electronic states of KCl nanocrystal containing edge dislocation for comparison of the obtained results. Electronic levels and local densities of states were calculated. As a result we found a reasonable qualitative correlation of semiempirical and non-empirical results. Using the results of computer modelling we discuss the problem of localization of electronic states near the line of edge dislocation.

Emergency Food Delivery: A State-of-the-Art Assessment

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-01

category are prescriptive in nature and are intended to support national preparedness (Billheimer et al . 1978; FEMA 1980b, 1983a, 1985b; Sullivan 1979...existing offices at the state and local levels (Billheimer et al . 1978, USDA 1983). The fact that the state and local USDA offices have ongoing and well...Ellis 1974, FEMA 1980b, Friesema 1979, Greene et al . 1979, Katz 1982, McMasters 1978). 3-20 There may be exceptions to this conclusion. For example

Has the Shift to Managed Care Reduced Medicaid Expenditures? Evidence from State and Local-Level Mandates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duggan, Mark; Hayford, Tamara

2013-01-01

From 1991 to 2009, the fraction of Medicaid recipients enrolled in HMOs and other forms of Medicaid managed care (MMC) increased from 11 percent to 71 percent. This increase was largely driven by state and local mandates that required most Medicaid recipients to enroll in an MMC plan. Theoretically, it is ambiguous whether the shift from…

How Nonpartisan Ballot Design Conceals Partisanship: A Survey Experiment of School Board Members in Two States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Evan

2017-01-01

Studies suggest that between one-fourth and one-third of localities elect their leaders on partisan ballots. Does the presence of a party label on the ballot affect the level of partisanship in local office? I leverage the fact that within select states, school boards vary as to whether their members are elected on partisan or nonpartisan ballots.…

Evaluating Social Programs at the State and Local Level. The JTPA Evaluation Design Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blalock, Ann Bonar, Ed.; And Others

This book on evaluating social programs is an outcome of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Evaluation Design Project, which produced a set of 10 guides for the evaluation of state and local JTPA programs. This book distills ideas from these guides and applies them to a larger context. Part 1 presents a general approach to program evaluation…

Research and Information on Employment and Training: Local, State and Federal Communications, Results and Utilization. Proceedings of a symposium (Hershey, Pennsylvania, June 9-10, 1975).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franchak, Stephen J., Ed.

The document contains the proceedings of a conference on manpower research at the Federal, State, and local levels. Two papers from the opening general session focus on the interrelationship of economic, demographic, and educational changes based on its effects on occupational education. J. C. Pettinger's keynote speech presented issues regarding…

How Much Do We Spend? Creating Historical Estimates of Public Health Expenditures in the United States at the Federal, State, and Local Levels.

PubMed

Leider, Jonathon P; Resnick, Beth; Bishai, David; Scutchfield, F Douglas

2018-04-01

The United States has a complex governmental public health system. Agencies at the federal, state, and local levels all contribute to the protection and promotion of the population's health. Whether the modern public health system is well situated to deliver essential public health services, however, is an open question. In some part, its readiness relates to how agencies are funded and to what ends. A mix of Federalism, home rule, and happenstance has contributed to a siloed funding system in the United States, whereby health agencies are given particular dollars for particular tasks. Little discretionary funding remains. Furthermore, tracking how much is spent, by whom, and on what is notoriously challenging. This review both outlines the challenges associated with estimating public health spending and explains the known sources of funding that are used to estimate and demonstrate the value of public health spending.

SEE Action Guide for States: Energy Efficiency as a Least-Cost Strategy to Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollution and Meet Energy Needs in the Power Sector

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwartz, Lisa; Leventis, Greg; Schiller, Steven R.

This guide is designed to provide information to state decision makers and staff on options to advance energy efficiency through strategies designed or implemented at the state and local levels of government and in the private sector.1 The information in this guide is intended to be useful to a wide variety of partners and stakeholders involved in energy-related discussions and decision-making at state and local levels. These energy efficiency options, or “pathways” as they are identified in this guide, can assist states in using energy efficiency to meet air pollution reduction and other policy objectives such as energy affordability andmore » reliability. A pathway is a set of interdependent actions that results in measurable energy savings streams and associated avoided air emissions and other benefits over a period of time. These activities can include state, local, or private sector regulations, policies, programs and other activities. For each of five broad pathways that offer sizable cost-effective energy savings, the guide addresses likely questions policy makers and regulators face when screening for the best opportunities to advance energy efficiency in their state.« less

Renewable Fuel Standards | State, Local, and Tribal Governments | NREL

Science.gov Websites

renewable fuels to be incorporated at these different levels each year. Depending on how the policy is cross-sector policy. States' experiences with the RFS will be very different depending on geography , resources, and the set goals. For example, different levels of incentives for production and distribution

76 FR 15342 - Workforce Investment Act; Lower Living Standard Income Level

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-21

... period that does not exceed the higher level of the poverty line or 70 percent of the LLSIL. This... Services ``Poverty Guidelines.'' DATES: Effective Date: This notice is effective on the date of publication... terms of the poverty line or LLSIL for State formula allotments. The Governor and State/local workforce...

Magnetic-field-induced mixed-level Kondo effect in two-level systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wong, Arturo; Ngo, Anh T.; Ulloa, Sergio E.

2016-10-17

We consider a two-orbital impurity system with intra-and interlevel Coulomb repulsion that is coupled to a single conduction channel. This situation can generically occur in multilevel quantum dots or in systems of coupled quantum dots. For finite energy spacing between spin-degenerate orbitals, an in-plane magnetic field drives the system from a local-singlet ground state to a "mixed-level" Kondo regime, where the Zeeman-split levels are degenerate for opposite-spin states. We use the numerical renormalization group approach to fully characterize this mixed-level Kondo state and discuss its properties in terms of the applied Zeeman field, temperature, and system parameters. Under suitable conditions,more » the total spectral function is shown to develop a Fermi-level resonance, so that the linear conductance of the system peaks at a finite Zeeman field while it decreases as a function of temperature. These features, as well as the local moment and entropy contribution of the impurity system, are commensurate with Kondo physics, which can be studied in suitably tuned quantum dot systems.« less

Local thermodynamics and the generalized Gibbs-Duhem equation in systems with long-range interactions.

PubMed

Latella, Ivan; Pérez-Madrid, Agustín

2013-10-01

The local thermodynamics of a system with long-range interactions in d dimensions is studied using the mean-field approximation. Long-range interactions are introduced through pair interaction potentials that decay as a power law in the interparticle distance. We compute the local entropy, Helmholtz free energy, and grand potential per particle in the microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical ensembles, respectively. From the local entropy per particle we obtain the local equation of state of the system by using the condition of local thermodynamic equilibrium. This local equation of state has the form of the ideal gas equation of state, but with the density depending on the potential characterizing long-range interactions. By volume integration of the relation between the different thermodynamic potentials at the local level, we find the corresponding equation satisfied by the potentials at the global level. It is shown that the potential energy enters as a thermodynamic variable that modifies the global thermodynamic potentials. As a result, we find a generalized Gibbs-Duhem equation that relates the potential energy to the temperature, pressure, and chemical potential. For the marginal case where the power of the decaying interaction potential is equal to the dimension of the space, the usual Gibbs-Duhem equation is recovered. As examples of the application of this equation, we consider spatially uniform interaction potentials and the self-gravitating gas. We also point out a close relationship with the thermodynamics of small systems.

20 CFR 658.410 - Establishment of State agency JS complaint system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... system. At the local office level, the local office manager shall be responsible for the management of... related), the local office manager shall transmit a copy of that portion of the log containing the... established for the handling of complaints and files relating to the handling of complaints. The Manager or...

Job Creation: The Role of Local and State Leaders in Vocational Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Earl B.

Vocational education can contribute to the creation of new jobs through educational programs for employers or prospective employers and through collaborative efforts with community leaders. Local leadership is the most essential ingredient in successful job creation programs at the community level. Local leaders can work to obtain baseline…

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 Catchments (Version 2.1) for the Conterminous United States: Soil Erodibility (KFFACT)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset represents the adjusted soil erodibility factor within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds. Attributes of the landscape layer were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. (See Supplementary Info for Glossary of Terms) The STATSGO Layer table specifies two soil erodibility factors for each component layer, KFFACT and KFACT. The STATSGO documentation describes KFFACT as a soil erodibility factor which quanitifies the susceptibility of soil particles to detachment and movement by water. This factor is used in the Universal Soil Loss Equation to caluculate soil loss by water. KFACT is described as a soil erodibility factor which is adjusted for the effect of rock fragments. The average value of each of these soil erodibility factors was determined for the top (surface) layer for each map unit of each state.The base-flow index (BFI) grid for the conterminous United States was developed to estimate (1) BFI values for ungaged streams, and (2) ground-water recharge throughout the conterminous United States (see Data Source). Estimates of BFI values at ungaged streams and BFI-based ground-water recharge estimates are useful for interpreting relations between land use and water quality in surface and ground water. The soil erodibility factor was summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metri

15 CFR 923.42 - State establishment of criteria and standards for local implementation-Technique A.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... implemented directly by the State. This requirement can be met if a State can exercise any one of the... described above. This alternative cannot be used where the intermediate level of government lacks the legal...

Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors for Solid Waste

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA’s 1997 report, “Measuring Recycling: A Guide for State and Local Governments”, was a guide to facilitate standardization of MSW data collection at the local level. This document provides updates to the factors found in the report.

Findings from case studies of state and local immunization programs.

PubMed

Fairbrother, G; Kuttner, H; Miller, W; Hogan, R; McPhillips, H; Johnson, K A; Alexander, E R

2000-10-01

As part of its examination of federal support for immunization services during the past decade, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Immunization Finance Policies and Practices (IFPP) commissioned eight case studies of the states of Alabama, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington; and a two-county study of Los Angeles and San Diego in California. Specifically, the IOM Committee and these studies reviewed the use of Section 317 grants by the states. Section 317 is a discretionary grant program that supports vaccine purchase and other immunization-related program activities. These studies afforded the Committee an in-depth look at local policy choices, the performance of immunization programs, and federal and state spending for immunization during the past decade. The case-study reports were developed through interviews with state and local health department officials, including immunization program directors, Medicaid agency staff, budget analysts, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public health advisors to the jurisdiction. Other sources included state and federal administrative records and secondary sources on background factors and state-level trends. The case studies were supplemented by site visits to Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, and San Diego. The nature of immunization "infrastructure" supported by the Section 317 program is shifting from primarily service delivery to a broader set of roles that puts the public effort at the head of a broad immunization partnership among public health, health financing, and other entities in both the public and private sectors. The rate and intensity of transition vary across the case-study areas. In the emerging pattern, service delivery increasingly takes place in the private sector and is related to managed care. "Infrastructure" is moving beyond supporting a core state staff and local health department service delivery to include such activities as immunization registries, quality improvement, and coordination with programs outside public health agencies. At the same time, the recent decline in federal Section 317 support is forcing difficult choices between old and new activities at the state and local levels. Immunization programs function as an organic component of the local health care financing and delivery systems of which they are a part. Immunization efforts are organized and conducted within distinctive state and local fiscal, economic, and health care contexts. Section 317 Financial Assistance grants, while playing a vital role in supporting immunization "infrastructure," have been too unstable and unpredictable to elicit the strategic planning, programming, and own-source spending that would be optimal for state and local programs. The predominant immunization function of state and local public health agencies is becoming assurance of age-appropriate immunization throughout the lifespan. To be successful in this emerging role, the health agencies must be supported with appropriate staffing, interagency collaboration, and clearly articulated authority.

Variation in strontium isotope ratios of archaeological fauna in the Midwestern United States: a preliminary study

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hedman, Kristin M.; Curry, B. Brandon; Johnson, Thomas M.; Fullagar, Paul D.; Emerson, Thomas E.

2009-01-01

Strontium isotope values (87Sr/86Sr) in bone and tooth enamel have been used increasingly to identify non-local individuals within prehistoric human populations worldwide. Archaeological research in the Midwestern United States has increasingly highlighted the role of population movement in affecting interregional cultural change. However, the comparatively low level of geologic variation in the Midwestern United States might suggest a corresponding low level of strontium variation, and calls into question the sensitivity of strontium isotopes to identify non-local individuals in this region. Using strontium isotopes of archaeological fauna, we explore the degree of variability in strontium ratios across this region. Our results demonstrate measurable variation in strontium ratios and indicate the potential of strontium analysis for addressing questions of origin and population movement in the Midwestern United States.

Legionellosis on the Rise: A Review of Guidelines for Prevention in the United States

PubMed Central

Parr, Alyssa; Whitney, Ellen A.; Berkelman, Ruth L.

2015-01-01

Context: Reported cases of legionellosis more than tripled between 2001 and 2012 in the United States. The disease results primarily from exposure to aerosolized water contaminated with Legionella. Objective: To identify and describe policies and guidelines for the primary prevention of legionellosis in the US. Design: An Internet search for Legionella prevention guidelines in the United States at the federal and state levels was conducted from March to June 2012. Local government agency guidelines and guidelines from professional organizations that were identified in the initial search were also included. Setting: Federal, state, and local governing bodies and professional organizations. Results: Guidelines and regulations for the primary prevention of legionellosis (ie, Legionnaires' disease and Pontiac fever) have been developed by various public health and other government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels as well as by professional organizations. These guidelines are similar in recommending maintenance of building water systems; federal and other guidelines differ in the population/institutions targeted, the extent of technical detail, and support of monitoring water systems for levels of Legionella contamination. Conclusions: Legionellosis deserves a higher public health priority for research and policy development. Guidance across public health agencies for the primary prevention of legionellosis requires strengthening as this disease escalates in importance as a cause of severe morbidity and mortality. We recommend a formal and comprehensive review of national public health guidelines for prevention of legionellosis. PMID:25203696

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 (Version 2.1) Catchments for the Conterminous United States: PRISM Normals Data

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset represents climate observations within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds. Attributes of the landscape layer were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. (See Supplementary Info for Glossary of Terms) PRISM is a set of monthly, yearly, and single-event gridded data products of mean temperature and precipitation, max/min temperatures, and dewpoints, primarily for the United States. In-situ point measurements are ingested into the PRISM (Parameter elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model) statistical mapping system. The PRISM products use a weighted regression scheme to account for complex climate regimes associated with orography, rain shadows, temperature inversions, slope aspect, coastal proximity, and other factors. (see Data Sources for links to NHDPlusV2 data and USGS Data) These data are summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a continuous data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description).

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 Catchments (Version 2.1) for the Conterminous United States: PRISM Data

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset represents climate observations within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds. Attributes of the landscape layer were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. (See Supplementary Info for Glossary of Terms) PRISM is a set of monthly, yearly, and single-event gridded data products of mean temperature and precipitation, max/min temperatures, and dewpoints, primarily for the United States. In-situ point measurements are ingested into the PRISM (Parameter elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model) statistical mapping system. The PRISM products use a weighted regression scheme to account for complex climate regimes associated with orography, rain shadows, temperature inversions, slope aspect, coastal proximity, and other factors. (see Data Sources for links to NHDPlusV2 data and USGS Data) These data are summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a continuous data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description).

Multi-Sensor Optimal Data Fusion Based on the Adaptive Fading Unscented Kalman Filter

PubMed Central

Gao, Bingbing; Hu, Gaoge; Gao, Shesheng; Gu, Chengfan

2018-01-01

This paper presents a new optimal data fusion methodology based on the adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. This methodology has a two-level fusion structure: at the bottom level, an adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter based on the Mahalanobis distance is developed and serves as local filters to improve the adaptability and robustness of local state estimations against process-modeling error; at the top level, an unscented transformation-based multi-sensor optimal data fusion for the case of N local filters is established according to the principle of linear minimum variance to calculate globally optimal state estimation by fusion of local estimations. The proposed methodology effectively refrains from the influence of process-modeling error on the fusion solution, leading to improved adaptability and robustness of data fusion for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. It also achieves globally optimal fusion results based on the principle of linear minimum variance. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology for INS/GNSS/CNS (inertial navigation system/global navigation satellite system/celestial navigation system) integrated navigation. PMID:29415509

Multi-Sensor Optimal Data Fusion Based on the Adaptive Fading Unscented Kalman Filter.

PubMed

Gao, Bingbing; Hu, Gaoge; Gao, Shesheng; Zhong, Yongmin; Gu, Chengfan

2018-02-06

This paper presents a new optimal data fusion methodology based on the adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. This methodology has a two-level fusion structure: at the bottom level, an adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter based on the Mahalanobis distance is developed and serves as local filters to improve the adaptability and robustness of local state estimations against process-modeling error; at the top level, an unscented transformation-based multi-sensor optimal data fusion for the case of N local filters is established according to the principle of linear minimum variance to calculate globally optimal state estimation by fusion of local estimations. The proposed methodology effectively refrains from the influence of process-modeling error on the fusion solution, leading to improved adaptability and robustness of data fusion for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. It also achieves globally optimal fusion results based on the principle of linear minimum variance. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology for INS/GNSS/CNS (inertial navigation system/global navigation satellite system/celestial navigation system) integrated navigation.

Income inequality, socioeconomic deprivation and depressive symptoms among older adults in Mexico.

PubMed

Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo; Manrique-Espinoza, Betty Soledad; Bojorquez-Chapela, Ietza; Salinas-Rodríguez, Aarón

2014-01-01

Depression is the second most common mental disorder in older adults (OA) worldwide. The ways in which depression is influenced by the social determinants of health - specifically, by socioeconomic deprivation, income inequality and social capital - have been analyzed with only partially conclusive results thus far. The objective of our study was to estimate the association of income inequality and socioeconomic deprivation at the locality, municipal and state levels with the prevalence of depressive symptoms among OA in Mexico. Cross-sectional study based on a nationally representative sample of 8,874 OA aged 60 and over. We applied the brief seven-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to determine the presence of depressive symptoms. Additionally, to select the principal context variables, we used the Deprivation Index of the National Population Council of Mexico at the locality, municipal and state levels, and the Gini Index at the municipal and state levels. Finally, we estimated the association of income inequality and socioeconomic deprivation with the presence of depressive symptoms using a multilevel logistic regression model. Socioeconomic deprivation at the locality (OR = 1.28; p<0.10) and municipal levels (OR = 1.16; p<0.01) correlated significantly with the presence of depressive symptoms, while income inequality did not. The results of our study confirm that the social determinants of health are relevant to the mental health of OA. Further research is required, however, to identify which are the specific socioeconomic deprivation components at the locality and municipal levels that correlate with depression in this population group.

Local and Global Resting State Activity in the Noradrenergic and Dopaminergic Pathway Modulated by Reboxetine and Amisulpride in Healthy Subjects

PubMed Central

Wiegers, Maike; Walter, Martin; Abler, Birgit; Graf, Heiko

2016-01-01

Background: Various psychiatric populations are currently investigated with resting state fMRI, with the aim of individualizing diagnostics and treatment options and improving treatment outcomes. Many of these studies are conducted in large naturalistic samples, providing rich insights regarding disease-related neural alterations, but with the common psychopharmacological medication limiting interpretations of the results. We therefore investigated the effects of common noradrenergic and anti-dopaminergic medications on local and global resting state activity (rs-activity) in healthy volunteers to further the understanding of the respective effects independent from disease-related alterations. Methods: Within a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design, we investigated 19 healthy male subjects by resting state fMRI after the intake of reboxetine (4mg/d), amisulpride (200mg/d), and placebo for 7 days each. Treatment-related differences in local and global rs-activity were measured by the fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC). Results: fALFF revealed alterations of local rs-activity within regions of the core noradrenergic pathway, including the locus coeruleus under reboxetine, correlated with its plasma levels. Moreover, reboxetine led to increased rs-FC between regions within this pathway, i.e. the locus coeruleus, tectum, thalamus, and amygdala. Amisulpride modulated local rs-activity of regions within the dopaminergic pathway, with the altered signal in the putamen correlating with amisulpride plasma levels. Correspondingly, amisulpride increased rs-FC between regions of the dopaminergic pathway comprising the substantia nigra and putamen. Conclusion: Our data provide evidence of how psychopharmacological agents alter local and global rs-activity within the respective neuroanatomical pathways in healthy subjects, which may help with interpreting data in psychiatric populations. PMID:26209860

Should states and local governments regulate dietary supplements?

PubMed

Starr, Ranjani

2016-01-01

Federal regulation of dietary supplements in the United States is governed by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. The law has been criticized as weak and ineffective. Alarming research has emerged demonstrating that supplements may be mislabelled, contaminated, adulterated with dangerous or unknown compounds, or sold at toxic doses. As a result, the health community has raised concerns about the safety and quality of dietary supplements. Increased federal oversight is an important avenue for improving supplement safety; however, states and local governments may also pursue strategies to strengthen the overall regulatory control of dietary supplements. States and local governments have substantial experience in regulating other products that pose a risk to public health, such as tobacco. Additionally, much has been learned about the tactics the tobacco industry has employed to protect its interests. Lessons learned may be applied to new regulatory efforts aimed at improving the safety of dietary supplements at the state and local levels. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Optical Data Storage system

DOEpatents

Vo-Dinh, T.

1994-06-28

An improved Surface-Enhanced Raman Optical Data Storage System (SERODS) is disclosed. In the improved system, entities capable of existing in multiple reversible states are present on the storage device. Such entities result in changed Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) when localized state changes are effected in less than all of the entities. Therefore, by changing the state of entities in localized regions of a storage device, the SERS emissions in such regions will be changed. When a write-on device is controlled by a data signal, such a localized regions of changed SERS emissions will correspond to the data written on the device. The data may be read by illuminating the surface of the storage device with electromagnetic radiation of an appropriate frequency and detecting the corresponding SERS emissions. Data may be deleted by reversing the state changes of entities in regions where the data was initially written. In application, entities may be individual molecules which allows for the writing of data at the molecular level. A read/write/delete head utilizing near-field quantum techniques can provide for a write/read/delete device capable of effecting state changes in individual molecules, thus providing for the effective storage of data at the molecular level. 18 figures.

Surface-enhanced raman optical data storage system

DOEpatents

Vo-Dinh, Tuan

1994-01-01

An improved Surface-Enhanced Raman Optical Data Storage System (SERODS) is disclosed. In the improved system, entities capable of existing in multiple reversible states are present on the storage device. Such entities result in changed Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) when localized state changes are effected in less than all of the entities. Therefore, by changing the state of entities in localized regions of a storage device, the SERS emissions in such regions will be changed. When a write-on device is controlled by a data signal, such a localized regions of changed SERS emissions will correspond to the data written on the device. The data may be read by illuminating the surface of the storage device with electromagnetic radiation of an appropriate frequency and detecting the corresponding SERS emissions. Data may be deleted by reversing the state changes of entities in regions where the data was initially written. In application, entities may be individual molecules which allows for the writing of data at the molecular level. A read/write/delete head utilizing near-field quantum techniques can provide for a write/read/delete device capable of effecting state changes in individual molecules, thus providing for the effective storage of data at the molecular level.

Development of the Inventory Management and Tracking System (IMATS) to Track the Availability of Public Health Department Medical Countermeasures During Public Health Emergencies

PubMed Central

Sahar, Liora; Faler, Guy; Hristov, Emil; Hughes, Susan; Lee, Leslie; Westnedge, Caroline; Erickson, Benjamin; Nichols, Barbara

2015-01-01

Objective To bridge gaps identified during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic by developing a system that provides public health departments improved capability to manage and track medical countermeasures at the state and local levels and to report their inventory levels to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Materials and Methods The CDC Countermeasure Tracking Systems (CTS) program designed and implemented the Inventory Management and Tracking System (IMATS) to manage, track, and report medical countermeasure inventories at the state and local levels. IMATS was designed by CDC in collaboration with state and local public health departments to ensure a “user-centered design approach.” A survey was completed to assess functionality and user satisfaction. Results IMATS was deployed in September 2011 and is provided at no cost to public health departments. Many state and local public health departments nationwide have adopted IMATS and use it to track countermeasure inventories during public health emergencies and daily operations. Discussion A successful response to public health emergencies requires efficient, accurate reporting of countermeasure inventory levels. IMATS is designed to support both emergency operations and everyday activities. Future improvements to the system include integrating barcoding technology and streamlining user access. To maintain system readiness, we continue to collect user feedback, improve technology, and enhance its functionality. Conclusion IMATS satisfies the need for a system for monitoring and reporting health departments’ countermeasure quantities so that decision makers are better informed. The “user-centered design approach” was successful, as evident by the many public health departments that adopted IMATS. PMID:26392843

Low eigenvalues of the entanglement Hamiltonian, localization length, and rare regions in one-dimensional disordered interacting systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berkovits, Richard

2018-03-01

The properties of the low-lying eigenvalues of the entanglement Hamiltonian and their relation to the localization length of a disordered interacting one-dimensional many-particle system are studied. The average of the first entanglement Hamiltonian level spacing is proportional to the ground-state localization length and shows the same dependence on the disorder and interaction strength as the localization length. This is the result of the fact that entanglement is limited to distances of order of the localization length. The distribution of the first entanglement level spacing shows a Gaussian-type behavior as expected for level spacings much larger than the disorder broadening. For weakly disordered systems (localization length larger than sample length), the distribution shows an additional peak at low-level spacings. This stems from rare regions in some samples which exhibit metalliclike behavior of large entanglement and large particle-number fluctuations. These intermediate microemulsion metallic regions embedded in the insulating phase are discussed.

Maritime Strike Operations Tactics Development and Evaluation, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Final Environmental Assessment

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-01

Regulation The Proposed Action would not affect local government comprehensive plans. Requires local governments to prepare, adopt, and implement...state-level planning efforts. Requires the development of special statewide plans governing water use, land development, and transportation...cleared area in state waters. However, avoidance of this area would not be significantly burdensome for tourists or recreational users of the Gulf, as

Effect of strong disorder on three-dimensional chiral topological insulators: Phase diagrams, maps of the bulk invariant, and existence of topological extended bulk states

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Juntao; Fine, Carolyn; Prodan, Emil

2014-11-01

The effect of strong disorder on chiral-symmetric three-dimensional lattice models is investigated via analytical and numerical methods. The phase diagrams of the models are computed using the noncommutative winding number, as functions of disorder strength and model's parameters. The localized/delocalized characteristic of the quantum states is probed with level statistics analysis. Our study reconfirms the accurate quantization of the noncommutative winding number in the presence of strong disorder, and its effectiveness as a numerical tool. Extended bulk states are detected above and below the Fermi level, which are observed to undergo the so-called "levitation and pair annihilation" process when the system is driven through a topological transition. This suggests that the bulk invariant is carried by these extended states, in stark contrast with the one-dimensional case where the extended states are completely absent and the bulk invariant is carried by the localized states.

The supply and demand for pollution control: Evidence from wastewater treatment

USGS Publications Warehouse

McConnell, V.D.; Schwarz, G.E.

1992-01-01

This paper analyzes the determination of pollution control from wastewater treatment plants as an economic decision facing local or regional regulators. Pollution control is measured by plant design effluent concentration levels and is fully endogenous in a supply- and-demand model of treatment choice. On the supply side, plant costs are a function of the design treatment level of the plant, and on the demand side, treatment level is a function of both the costs of control and the regional or regulatory preferences for control. We find evidence that the economic model of effluent choice by local regulators has a good deal of explanatory power. We find evidence that wastewater treatment plant removal of biological oxygen demand (BOD) is sensitive to many local factors including the size of the treatment plant, the flow rate of the receiving water, the population density of the surrounding area, regional growth, state sensitivity to environmental issues, state income, and the extent to which the damages from pollution fall on other states. We find strong evidence that regulators are sensitive to capital costs in determining the design level of BOD effluent reduction at a plant. Thus, proposed reductions in federal subsidies for wastewater treatment plant construction are likely to have significant adverse effects on water quality. ?? 1992.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

This first edition of the Atlas provides, in reference form, a central source of information to consumers on key contacts concerned with energy in the US. Energy consumers need information appropriate to local climates and characteristics - best provided by state and local governments. The Department of Energy recognizes the authority of state and local governments to manage energy programs on their own. Therefore, emphasis has been given to government organizations on both the national and state level that influence, formulate, or administer policies affecting energy production, distribution, and use, or that provide information of interest to consumers and non-specialists.more » In addition, hundreds of non-government energy-related membership organizations, industry trade associations, and energy publications are included.« less

Magnon localization and Bloch oscillations in finite Heisenberg spin chains in an inhomogeneous magnetic field.

PubMed

Kosevich, Yuriy A; Gann, Vladimir V

2013-06-19

We study the localization of magnon states in finite defect-free Heisenberg spin-1/2 ferromagnetic chains placed in an inhomogeneous magnetic field with a constant spatial gradient. Continuous transformation from the extended magnon states to the localized Wannier-Zeeman states in a finite spin chain placed in an inhomogeneous field is described both analytically and numerically. We describe for the first time the non-monotonic dependence of the energy levels of magnons, both long and short wavelength, on the magnetic field gradient, which is a consequence of magnon localization in a finite spin chain. We show that, in contrast to the destruction of the magnon band and the establishment of the Wannier-Stark ladder in a vanishingly small field gradient in an infinite chain, the localization of magnon states at the chain ends preserves the memory of the magnon band. Essentially, the localization at the lower- or higher-field chain end resembles the localization of the positive- or negative-effective-mass band quasiparticles. We also show how the beat dynamics of coherent superposition of extended spin waves in a finite chain in a homogeneous or weakly inhomogeneous field transforms into magnon Bloch oscillations of the superposition of localized Wannier-Zeeman states in a strongly inhomogeneous field. We provide a semiclassical description of the magnon Bloch oscillations and show that the correspondence between the quantum and semiclassical descriptions is most accurate for Bloch oscillations of the magnon coherent states, which are built from a coherent superposition of a large number of the nearest-neighbour Wannier-Zeeman states.

Levels of Job Satisfaction and Performance of Sports Officers in Lagos State Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Onifade, Ademola; Keinde, Idou; Kehinde, Eunice

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between job satisfaction levels of sports officers and sports performance of secondary schools in Lagos State. Data were collected from 200 subjects across 10 Local Education Districts. Job Descriptive Index was used to determine job satisfaction while performance in the Principals' Soccer…

34 CFR 462.44 - Which educational functioning levels must States and local eligible providers use to measure and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF VOCATIONAL AND ADULT EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MEASURING EDUCATIONAL GAIN IN THE NATIONAL REPORTING SYSTEM FOR... 34 Education 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Which educational functioning levels must States and...

Financing nutrition services in a competitive market.

PubMed

Egan, M C; Kaufman, M

1985-02-01

Budget deficits and inflationary medical care costs threaten nutrition services, which until recently have been funded largely by federal, state, and local revenues. Nutritionists and dietitians responding to demands in the marketplace should develop innovative programs and pursue new sources for financing through the private sector, third-party payers, business/industry health promotion, and consumer fees for their services, as well as targeted federal, state, and locally funded food assistance, nutrition education, and health care programs. Trail-blazing dietitians are successfully offering their services in health maintenance organizations (HMOs), hospital or industry fitness programs, private practice, voluntary health agencies, and official agency programs. With the new federalism, nutritionists must articulate their role in comprehensive health care and market their services at the state and local levels in addition to the federal level. Nutrition services are defined to include assessment, planning, counseling, education, and referral to supportive agencies. Data management, managerial, and marketing skills must be developed for dietitians to compete effectively. Basic educational preparation and continuing education for practicing professionals must develop these competencies.

First Principles Electronic Structure of Mn doped GaAs, GaP, and GaN Semiconductors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schulthess, Thomas C; Temmerman, Walter M; Szotek, Zdzislawa

We present first-principles electronic structure calculations of Mn doped III-V semiconductors based on the local spin-density approximation (LSDA) as well as the self-interaction corrected local spin density method (SIC-LSD). We find that it is crucial to use a self-interaction free approach to properly describe the electronic ground state. The SIC-LSD calculations predict the proper electronic ground state configuration for Mn in GaAs, GaP, and GaN. Excellent quantitative agreement with experiment is found for magnetic moment and p-d exchange in (GaMn)As. These results allow us to validate commonly used models for magnetic semiconductors. Furthermore, we discuss the delicate problem of extractingmore » binding energies of localized levels from density functional theory calculations. We propose three approaches to take into account final state effects to estimate the binding energies of the Mn-d levels in GaAs. We find good agreement between computed values and estimates from photoemisison experiments.« less

Team Nutrition e-Newsletter, February 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Agriculture, 2009

2009-01-01

The Team Nutrition (TN) e-Newsletter is published periodically to share TN resources developed by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and/or by State agencies, and to share ideas for promoting healthy eating and physical activity through Team Nutrition at the State and local levels. This February 2009 issue includes: (1) State Developed…

EPA's control technology approach to assisting states and regions with air toxics problems: Five case studies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nolen, S.L.; Dimmick, W.F.

1990-10-01

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in June 1985 a new strategy to reduce public exposure to toxic air pollutants in the ambient air. Over the next 5-8 years, the strategy called for State and Local authorities to take on more of the lead regulatory role, with the Agency providing technical and financial assistance to their efforts. The shift in emphasis and responsibility from the Federal level to State and Local air toxics programs and the need to transfer expertise from the Federal level to the appropriate State or Local level prompted EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) andmore » EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) to develop and implement an innovative technical assistance program. This program is called the Control Technology Center (CTC). It has since been expanded to include technical assistance in the area of control of air toxics, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs); emission measurements; and other areas where expertise is available to ORD and OAQPS. During the CTC's first year of operation, operating guidelines were developed and three categories of technical assistance were established. These categories are telephone HOTLINE calls, direct engineering assistance, and technical guidance projects. The CTC HOTLINE is a special telephone number which State and Local Agencies can call for easy access to EPA personnel who can provide prompt assistance in a variety of ways including discussions, references to pertinent literature, and referrals to other EPA personnel. In some cases, a HOTLINE call will require more in-depth engineering analysis indicating a need for direct engineering assistance.« less

Young People’s More Permissive Views About Marijuana: Local Impact of State Laws or National Trend?

PubMed Central

Jacobs, Laurie M.; Spetz, Joanne

2016-01-01

Objectives. To determine whether state medical marijuana laws “send the wrong message,” that is, have a local influence on the views of young people about the risks of using marijuana. Methods. We performed multilevel, serial, cross-sectional analyses on 10 annual waves of the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2004–2013) nationally and for states with marijuana laws using individual- and state-level controls. Results. Living in medical marijuana states was associated with more permissive views regarding marijuana across 5 different measures. However, these associations became non–statistically significant after we adjusted for state-level differences. By contrast, there was a consistent and significant national time trend toward more permissive attitudes, which was less pronounced among children of middle school age than it was among their older counterparts. Conclusions. Passing medical marijuana laws does not seem to directly affect the views of young people in medical marijuana states. However, there is a national trend toward young people taking more permissive views about marijuana independent of any effects within states. PMID:27196657

Drought planning and water allocation: an assessment of local capacity in Minnesota.

PubMed

Pirie, Rebecca L; de Loë, Rob C; Kreutzwiser, Reid

2004-10-01

Water allocation systems are challenged by hydrologic droughts, which reduce available water supplies and can adversely affect human and environmental systems. To address this problem, drought management mechanisms have been instituted in jurisdictions around the world. Historically, these mechanisms have involved a crisis management or reactive approach. An important trend during the past decade in places such as the United States has been a shift to a more proactive approach, emphasizing drought preparedness and local involvement. Unfortunately, local capacity for drought planning is highly variable, with some local governments and organizations proving to be more capable than others of taking on new responsibilities. This paper reports on a study of drought planning and water allocation in the State of Minnesota. Factors facilitating and constraining local capacity for drought planning were identified using in-depth key informant interviews with state officials and members of two small Minnesota cities, combined with an analysis of pertinent documentation. A key factor contributing to the effectiveness of Minnesota's system is a water allocation system with explicit priorities during shortages, and provisions for restrictions. At the same time, the requirement that water suppliers create Public Water Supply Emergency Conservation Plans (PWSECP) clarifies the roles and responsibilities of key local actors. Unfortunately, the research revealed that mandated PWSECP are not always implemented, and that awareness of drought and drought planning measures in general may be poor at the local level. From the perspective of the two cities evaluated, factors that contributed to local capacity included sound financial and human resources, and (in some cases) effective vertical and horizontal linkages. This analysis of experiences in Minnesota highlights problems that can occur when senior governments establish policy frameworks that increase responsibilities at the local level without also addressing local capacity.

Radiological incident preparedness: planning at the local level.

PubMed

Tan, Clive M; Barnett, Daniel J; Stolz, Adam J; Links, Jonathan M

2011-03-01

Radiological terrorism has been recognized as a probable scenario with high impact. Radiological preparedness planning at the federal and state levels has been encouraging, but translating complex doctrines into operational readiness at the local level has proved challenging. Based on the authors' experience with radiological response planning for the City of Baltimore, this article describes an integrated approach to municipal-level radiological emergency preparedness planning, provides information on resources that are useful for radiological preparedness planning, and recommends a step-by-step process toward developing the plan with relevant examples from the experience in Baltimore. Local governmental agencies constitute the first line of response and are critical to the success of the operation. This article is intended as a starting framework for local governmental efforts toward developing a response plan for radiological incidents in their communities.

Moving from local to State water governance to resolve a local conflict between irrigated agriculture and commercial forestry in South Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillet, Virginie; McKay, Jennifer; Keremane, Ganesh

2014-11-01

In the Lower Limestone Coast, South Australia, a unique water allocation plan has been under consideration for several years. This plan is the first in Australia to consider forestry as a water affecting activity. Indeed, forestry plantations have a twofold impact on water-rainfall or aquifer recharge interception and direct extraction of groundwater in shallow water table areas-and alter the available water for irrigation as a result of the previous water budget. This paper examines how water is allocated across the competing requirements for water but also across the competing legal, economic and administrative scales embodied by the competing water users; and thus it also details the pre-judicial mechanism used to resolve the conflict over these competing scales. Qualitative and quantitative content analysis in Nvivo was applied to: (i) 180 local newspaper articles on the planning process, (ii) 65 submission forms filled in by the community during a public consultation on the draft water plan and (iii) 20 face-to-face interviews of keys stakeholders involved in the planning process. The social sustainability perspective taken in this study establishes the legal, economic and administrative competitive scales at stake in the conflict regarding water between forestry and irrigation. It also evidences the special feature of this paper, which is that to overcome these competitions and resolve the local conflict before judicial process, the water governance moved up in the administrative scale, from local/regional to State level. Initiated and initially prepared at regional level through the local Natural Resources Management Board, the water planning process was taken up to State level through the formation of an Interdepartmental Committee and the establishment of a Taskforce in charge of developing a policy. These were supported by an amendment of a State legislation on Natural Resources Management to manage the water impacts of forestry plantations.

Novel Intrinsic Ignition Method Measuring Local-Global Integration Characterizes Wakefulness and Deep Sleep

PubMed Central

Tagliazucchi, Enzo; Sanjuán, Ana

2017-01-01

Abstract A precise definition of a brain state has proven elusive. Here, we introduce the novel local-global concept of intrinsic ignition characterizing the dynamical complexity of different brain states. Naturally occurring intrinsic ignition events reflect the capability of a given brain area to propagate neuronal activity to other regions, giving rise to different levels of integration. The ignitory capability of brain regions is computed by the elicited level of integration for each intrinsic ignition event in each brain region, averaged over all events. This intrinsic ignition method is shown to clearly distinguish human neuroimaging data of two fundamental brain states (wakefulness and deep sleep). Importantly, whole-brain computational modelling of this data shows that at the optimal working point is found where there is maximal variability of the intrinsic ignition across brain regions. Thus, combining whole brain models with intrinsic ignition can provide novel insights into underlying mechanisms of brain states. PMID:28966977

A Machine-Checked Proof of A State-Space Construction Algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Catano, Nestor; Siminiceanu, Radu I.

2010-01-01

This paper presents the correctness proof of Saturation, an algorithm for generating state spaces of concurrent systems, implemented in the SMART tool. Unlike the Breadth First Search exploration algorithm, which is easy to understand and formalise, Saturation is a complex algorithm, employing a mutually-recursive pair of procedures that compute a series of non-trivial, nested local fixed points, corresponding to a chaotic fixed point strategy. A pencil-and-paper proof of Saturation exists, but a machine checked proof had never been attempted. The key element of the proof is the characterisation theorem of saturated nodes in decision diagrams, stating that a saturated node represents a set of states encoding a local fixed-point with respect to firing all events affecting only the node s level and levels below. For our purpose, we have employed the Prototype Verification System (PVS) for formalising the Saturation algorithm, its data structures, and for conducting the proofs.

Novel Intrinsic Ignition Method Measuring Local-Global Integration Characterizes Wakefulness and Deep Sleep.

PubMed

Deco, Gustavo; Tagliazucchi, Enzo; Laufs, Helmut; Sanjuán, Ana; Kringelbach, Morten L

2017-01-01

A precise definition of a brain state has proven elusive. Here, we introduce the novel local-global concept of intrinsic ignition characterizing the dynamical complexity of different brain states. Naturally occurring intrinsic ignition events reflect the capability of a given brain area to propagate neuronal activity to other regions, giving rise to different levels of integration. The ignitory capability of brain regions is computed by the elicited level of integration for each intrinsic ignition event in each brain region, averaged over all events. This intrinsic ignition method is shown to clearly distinguish human neuroimaging data of two fundamental brain states (wakefulness and deep sleep). Importantly, whole-brain computational modelling of this data shows that at the optimal working point is found where there is maximal variability of the intrinsic ignition across brain regions. Thus, combining whole brain models with intrinsic ignition can provide novel insights into underlying mechanisms of brain states.

Protecting West Virginians from secondhand smoke through regulation at the local level.

PubMed

Whitworth, Catherine M; Holley, Garland; Mickey, Christina B

2014-01-01

West Virginia's communities have made substantial progress in protecting citizens from secondhand smoke exposure (SHS) through adoption of local regulations through county boards of health. The EPA and the U.S. Surgeon General have confirmed exposure to SHS causes serious disease and death in nonsmoking adults and children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends enactment of federal, state and local policies to reduce exposure among nonsmokers and to reduce smoking prevalence. West Virginia's local boards of health have regulated smoking in workplaces and public spaces since 1992 and their authority to do so has been affirmed in state courts. Early smoke free regulations covered primarily non-hospitality workplaces. Mounting evidence of the public health risk of SHS exposure accelerated local efforts to prohibit smoking in all workplaces and public establishments. Every West Virginia county has adopted a smoke free regulation, though levels of protection vary. Forty-seven counties comprising 90.2% of the population, prohibit smoking in non-hospitality workplaces and restaurants. Twenty-six counties, (52% of the population), prohibit smoking in all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and gaming establishments. In the presence of strong smoking bans, the state has observed a decline in hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome, a reduction in smoking prevalence among youth, and changes in beliefs and behaviors regarding secondhand smoke among adults. To build on West Virginia's success in this area of public health, increased state and community efforts are needed to strengthen and maintain existing smoke free policies.

Challenging and Preventing Policies That Prohibit Local Civil Rights Protections for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People.

PubMed

Pomeranz, Jennifer L

2018-01-01

Discrimination causes health inequities for stigmatized groups. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, in particular, are at significantly increased risk for disparate health outcomes when they reside in states that fail to extend equal protections to them or that actively deprive equal rights to them. Several states and the federal government have proposed or enacted laws that permit residents to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. One such law, Arkansas's Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act of 2015, preempts or prohibits local governments from enacting civil rights protections for LGBTQ individuals that are also lacking at the state level. State laws such as Arkansas's undermine local control, damage the economy, and create injustices that harm LGBTQ people. I set forth 2 constitutional arguments to challenge such laws, and I provide information to help advocates support evidence-based policymaking and prevent the passage of similar laws in their states.

Building a Community Framework for Adaptation to Sea Level Rise and Inundation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Culver, M. E.; Schubel, J.; Davidson, M. A.; Haines, J.

2010-12-01

Sea level rise and inundation pose a substantial risk to many coastal communities, and the risk is projected to increase because of continued development, changes in the frequency and intensity of inundation events, and acceleration in the rate of sea-level rise. Calls for action at all levels acknowledge that a viable response must engage federal, state and local expertise, perspectives, and resources in a coordinated and collaborative effort. Representatives from a variety of these agencies and organizations have developed a shared framework to help coastal communities structure and facilitate community-wide adaptation processes and to help agencies determine where investments should be made to enable states and local governments to assess impacts and initiate adaptation strategies over the next decade. For sea level rise planning and implementation, the requirements for high-quality data and information are vast and the availability is limited. Participants stressed the importance of data interoperability to ensure that users are able to apply data from a variety of sources and to improve availability and confidence in the data. Participants were able to prioritize the following six categories of data needed to support future sea level rise planning and implementation: - Data to understand land forms and where and how water will flow - Monitoring data and environmental drivers - Consistent sea level rise scenarios and projections across agencies to support local planning - Data to characterize vulnerabilities and impacts of sea level rise - Community characteristics - Legal frameworks and administrative structure. To develop a meaningful and effective sea level rise adaptation plan, state and local planners must understand how the availability, scale, and uncertainty of these types of data will impact new guidelines or adaptation measures. The tools necessary to carry-out the adaptation planning process need to be understood in terms of data requirements, assumptions of the method, and the reliability and utility of the outputs. This type of information will assist the community in choosing among the available options. Communities have experience with storm and hazardous events, and the response typically is to return to pre-event conditions. With sea level rise, there will need to be a shift in perception and response from storm events, and the people must collectively arrive at a new vision for their community in light of a changing environment. Understanding the possible scenarios and the uncertainty or probability of those scenarios is a critical component in the adaptation process. Although there is a broad constituency that does not know the issue well, many communities are savvy about the impacts of sea level rise. Armed with the available information and resources and an understanding of the uncertainties, many communities are ready to take action. Successful adaptation planning will require that all sectors — local, state, federal, academic, nongovernmental, and the private sector — work together throughout the process to provide local communities with resources, scientific and political support.

Tobacco smoke exposure and impact of smoking legislation on rural and non-rural hospitality venues in North Dakota.

PubMed

Buettner-Schmidt, Kelly; Lobo, Marie L; Travers, Mark J; Boursaw, Blake

2015-08-01

The purpose of this cross-sectional study in a stratified random sample of 135 bars and restaurants in North Dakota was to describe factors that influenced tobacco smoke pollution levels in the venues; to compare the quantity of tobacco smoke pollution by rurality and by presence of local ordinances; and to assess compliance with state and local laws. In data collection in 2012, we measured the indoor air quality indicator of particulate matter (2.5 microns aerodynamic diameter or smaller), calculated average smoking density and occupant density, and determined compliance with state and local smoking ordinances using observational methods. As rurality increased, tobacco smoke pollution in bars increased. A significant association was found between stringency of local laws and level of tobacco smoke pollution, but the strength of the association varied by venue type. Compliance was significantly lower in venues in communities without local ordinances. Controlling for venue type, 69.2% of smoke-free policy's impact on tobacco smoke pollution levels was mediated by observed smoking. This study advances scientific knowledge on the factors influencing tobacco smoke pollution and informs public health advocates and decision makers on policy needs, especially in rural areas. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comparisons of predicted steady-state levels in rooms with extended- and local-reaction bounding surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hodgson, Murray; Wareing, Andrew

2008-01-01

A combined beam-tracing and transfer-matrix model for predicting steady-state sound-pressure levels in rooms with multilayer bounding surfaces was used to compare the effect of extended- and local-reaction surfaces, and the accuracy of the local-reaction approximation. Three rooms—an office, a corridor and a workshop—with one or more multilayer test surfaces were considered. The test surfaces were a single-glass panel, a double-drywall panel, a carpeted floor, a suspended-acoustical ceiling, a double-steel panel, and glass fibre on a hard backing. Each test surface was modeled as of extended or of local reaction. Sound-pressure levels were predicted and compared to determine the significance of the surface-reaction assumption. The main conclusions were that the difference between modeling a room surface as of extended or of local reaction is not significant when the surface is a single plate or a single layer of material (solid or porous) with a hard backing. The difference is significant when the surface consists of multilayers of solid or porous material and includes a layer of fluid with a large thickness relative to the other layers. The results are partially explained by considering the surface-reflection coefficients at the first-reflection angles.

Fast food restaurant locations according to socioeconomic disadvantage, urban-regional locality, and schools within Victoria, Australia.

PubMed

Thornton, Lukar E; Lamb, Karen E; Ball, Kylie

2016-12-01

Features of the built environment provide opportunities to engage in both healthy and unhealthy behaviours. Access to a high number of fast food restaurants may encourage greater consumption of fast food products. The distribution of fast food restaurants at a state-level has not previously been reported in Australia. Using the location of 537 fast food restaurants from four major chains (McDonald׳s, KFC, Hungry Jacks, and Red Rooster), this study examined fast food restaurant locations across the state of Victoria relative to area-level disadvantage, urban-regional locality (classified as Major Cities, Inner Regional, or Outer Regional), and around schools. Findings revealed greater locational access to fast food restaurants in more socioeconomically disadvantaged areas (compared to areas with lower levels of disadvantage), nearby to secondary schools (compared to primary schools), and nearby to primary and secondary schools within the most disadvantaged areas of the major city region (compared to primary and secondary schools in areas with lower levels of disadvantage). Adjusted models showed no significant difference in location according to urban-regional locality. Knowledge of the distribution of fast food restaurants in Australia will assist local authorities to target potential policy mechanisms, such as planning regulations, where they are most needed.

Including English Learners in Your State Title I Accountability Plan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hakuta, Kenji; Pompa, Delia

2017-01-01

Since the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, state teams have been preparing their state plans aligned with ESSA for submission in April or September 2017 to the U.S. Department of Education. Because ESSA lands much of the decision-making and responsibility in education at the state and local levels, state education leaders…

Team Nutrition e-Newsletter, October 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Agriculture, 2009

2009-01-01

The Team Nutrition (TN) e-Newsletter is published periodically to share TN resources developed by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and/or by State agencies, and to share ideas for promoting healthy eating and physical activity through Team Nutrition at the State and local levels. This issue includes: (1) Materials Developed by…

Income Inequality, Socioeconomic Deprivation and Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults in Mexico

PubMed Central

Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo; Manrique-Espinoza, Betty Soledad; Bojorquez-Chapela, Ietza; Salinas-Rodríguez, Aarón

2014-01-01

Objective Depression is the second most common mental disorder in older adults (OA) worldwide. The ways in which depression is influenced by the social determinants of health – specifically, by socioeconomic deprivation, income inequality and social capital - have been analyzed with only partially conclusive results thus far. The objective of our study was to estimate the association of income inequality and socioeconomic deprivation at the locality, municipal and state levels with the prevalence of depressive symptoms among OA in Mexico. Methods Cross-sectional study based on a nationally representative sample of 8,874 OA aged 60 and over. We applied the brief seven-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to determine the presence of depressive symptoms. Additionally, to select the principal context variables, we used the Deprivation Index of the National Population Council of Mexico at the locality, municipal and state levels, and the Gini Index at the municipal and state levels. Finally, we estimated the association of income inequality and socioeconomic deprivation with the presence of depressive symptoms using a multilevel logistic regression model. Results Socioeconomic deprivation at the locality (OR = 1.28; p<0.10) and municipal levels (OR = 1.16; p<0.01) correlated significantly with the presence of depressive symptoms, while income inequality did not. Conclusions The results of our study confirm that the social determinants of health are relevant to the mental health of OA. Further research is required, however, to identify which are the specific socioeconomic deprivation components at the locality and municipal levels that correlate with depression in this population group. PMID:25250620

Local Medicaid home- and community-based services spending and nursing home admissions of younger adults.

PubMed

Thomas, Kali S; Keohane, Laura; Mor, Vincent

2014-11-01

We used fixed-effect models to examine the relationship between local spending on home- and community-based services (HCBSs) for cash-assisted Medicaid-only disabled (CAMOD) adults and younger adult admissions to nursing homes in the United States during 2001 through 2008, with control for facility and market characteristics and secular trends. We found that increased CAMOD Medicaid HCBS spending at the local level is associated with decreased admissions of younger adults to nursing homes. Our findings suggest that states' efforts to expand HCBS for this population should continue.

An Explanation of Pupil Transportation Costs, Seattle School District No. 1. Report No. 78-29.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collister, Larry

The state of Washington is moving towards the assumption of the full costs of public school student transportation. This move has increased interest at the state level in transportation costs originating at the local district level. These costs have been relatively high in the Seattle school district, complicated by the city's geographic and…

Modernizing "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez": How Evolving Supreme Court Jurisprudence Changes the Face of Education Finance Litigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saleh, Matthew

2011-01-01

This article aims to "modernize" the current legal debate over inequitable public school funding at the state and local level. The 1973 Supreme Court case of "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez" established precedent, allowing for property-tax based education funding programs at the state-level--a major source…

Finding the gap: revealing local disparities in coverage of maternal, newborn and child health services in South Sudan using lot quality assurance sampling.

PubMed

Valadez, Joseph J; Berendes, Sima; Lako, Richard; Gould, Simon; Vargas, William; Milner, Susan

2015-12-01

We adapted a rapid monitoring method to South Sudan, a new nation with one of the world's highest maternal and child mortality rates, aiming to assess coverage of maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) services at the time of independence, and introducing a monitoring and evaluation system (M&E) for equity-sensitive tracking of progress related to Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5 at national, state and county levels to detect local variability. We conducted a national cross-sectional household survey among women from six client populations in all, but six of South Sudan's 79 counties. We used lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) to measure coverage with diverse MNCH indicators to obtain information for national-, state- and county-level health system management decision-making. National coverage of MNCH services was low for all maternal and neonatal care, child immunisation, and child care indicators. However, results varied across states and counties. Central Equatoria State (CES), where the capital is located, showed the highest coverage for most indicators (e.g. ≥4 antenatal care visits range: 4.5% in Jonglei to 40.1% in CES). Urban counties often outperformed rural ones. This adaptation of LQAS to South Sudan demonstrates how it can be used in the future as an M&E system to track progress of MDGs at national, state and county levels to detect local disparities. Overall, our data reveal a desperate need for improving MNCH service coverage in all states. © 2015 The Authors.Tropical Medicine & International Health Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Local Control in Action: Learning from the CORE Districts' Focus on Measurement, Capacity Building, and Shared Accountability. Policy Brief 16-4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsh, Julie; Bush-Mecenas, Susan; Hough, Heather

2016-01-01

California and the nation are at the crossroads of a major shift in school accountability policy. At the state level, California's Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) encourages the use of multiple measures of school performance used locally to support continuous improvement and strategic resource allocation. Similarly, the federal Every…

A Resource Cost Model: Implications for Local School District Planning in Comprehensive School Finance Reform Efforts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lows, Raymond L.

This paper describes the current and proposed systems for state and local financing of public education in Illinois and discusses the ramifications for local educational planners of a change from a foundation level program to a resource cost model approach. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of the finance reform effort that began…

Global agenda, local health: including concepts of health security in preparedness programs at the jurisdictional level.

PubMed

Eby, Chas

2014-01-01

The Global Health Security Agenda's objectives contain components that could help health departments address emerging public health challenges that threaten the population. As part of the agenda, partner countries with advanced public health systems will support the development of infrastructure in stakeholder health departments. To facilitate this process and augment local programs, state and local health departments may want to include concepts of health security in their public health preparedness offices in order to simultaneously build capacity. Health security programs developed by public health departments should complete projects that are closely aligned with the objectives outlined in the global agenda and that facilitate the completion of current preparedness grant requirements. This article identifies objectives and proposes tactical local projects that run parallel to the 9 primary objectives of the Global Health Security Agenda. Executing concurrent projects at the international and local levels in preparedness offices will accelerate the completion of these objectives and help prevent disease epidemics, detect health threats, and respond to public health emergencies. Additionally, future funding tied or related to health security may become more accessible to state and local health departments that have achieved these objectives.

Race to the Top. Delaware Report. Year 1: School Year 2010-2011. [State-Specific Summary Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2012

2012-01-01

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Delaware's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. Delaware created new structures at the State level to support both State and LEA (local education agency) Race…

Race to the Top. North Carolina. Year 1: School Year 2010-2011. [State-Specific Summary Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Education, 2012

2012-01-01

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of North Carolina's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. Delaware created new structures at the State level to support both State and LEA (local education…

Hospital Community Benefit in the Context of the Larger Public Health System: A State-Level Analysis of Hospital and Governmental Public Health Spending Across the United States.

PubMed

Singh, Simone R; Bakken, Erik; Kindig, David A; Young, Gary J

2016-01-01

Achieving meaningful population health improvements has become a priority for communities across the United States, yet funding to sustain multisector initiatives is frequently not available. One potential source of funding for population health initiatives is the community benefit expenditures that are required of nonprofit hospitals to maintain their tax-exempt status. In this article, we explore the importance of nonprofit hospitals' community benefit dollars as a funding source for population health. Hospitals' community benefit expenditures were obtained from their 2009 IRS (Internal Revenue Service) Form 990 Schedule H and complemented with data on state and local public health spending from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the National Association of County & City Health Officials. Key measures included indicators of hospitals' community health spending and governmental public health spending, all aggregated to the state level. Univariate and bivariate statistics were used to describe how much hospitals spent on programs and activities for the community at large and to understand the relationship between hospitals' spending and the expenditures of state and local health departments. Tax-exempt hospitals spent a median of $130 per capita on community benefit activities, of which almost $11 went toward community health improvement and community-building activities. In comparison, median state and local health department spending amounted to $82 and $48 per capita, respectively. Hospitals' spending thus contributed an additional 9% to the resources available for population health to state and local health departments. Spending, however, varied widely by state and was unrelated to governmental public health spending. Moreover, adding hospitals' spending to the financial resources available to governmental public health agencies did not reduce existing inequalities in population health funding across states. Hospitals' community health investments represent an important source for public health activities, yet inequalities in the availability of funding across communities remain.

Continuity of operations/continuity of government for state-level transportation organizations.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-09-01

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 (HSPD-20) requires all local, state, tribal and territorial government agencies, : and private sector owners of critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) to create a Continuity of Operations/Con...

Maintaining traffic sign retroreflectivity : impacts on state and local agencies

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-04-01

This report analyzes the impacts that might be expected from the adoption of proposed minimum maintained retroreflectivity levels for traffic signs to improve night visibility. The report evaluates the broad spectrum of concerns expressed by State an...

Political realities of statewide smoking legislation: the passage of California's Assembly Bill 13.

PubMed

Macdonald, H R; Glantz, S A

1997-01-01

To prepare a history of the enactment of California Assembly Bill 13 (AB 13), a state law prohibiting smoking in most workplaces passed in 1994, and to discuss its initial impacts. Data were gathered from open ended interviews with representatives of voluntary health organisations, local government organisations, and principal legislators involved in the process, as well as observers around the state who could provide insight into the legislative process. Information was also obtained from legislative hearings and debates, public documents, letters and personal communications, internal memoranda, and news reports. The success of local tobacco control legislation in California led to a situation in which some health groups were willing to accept state preemption in order to attract the support of the state restaurant association for a bill. The decision to accept this preemption compromise was made by the state level offices of the voluntary health agencies without consulting the broader tobacco control community within California. In contrast, local tobacco control advocates did not accept this compromise, in part because of their belief that local legislation was a better device to educate the public, generate media coverage, and build community support for enforcement and implementation of clean indoor air and other tobacco control laws. Enactment of AB 13 was associated with a slowing of all local tobacco control legislation, including youth oriented laws. Because its supporters initially doubted that AB 13 would pass, there was never an effort to reconcile the policy differences between state oriented and locally oriented tobacco control policies. This lack of consensus, combined with the political realities inherent in passing any state legislation, led to a bill with ambiguous preemption language which replaced the "patchwork of local laws" with a "patchwork of local enforcement."

The Great Recession and America’s Geography of Unemployment

PubMed Central

Thiede, Brian C.; Monnat, Shannon M.

2017-01-01

Background The Great Recession of 2007–2009 was the most severe and lengthy economic crisis in the U.S. since the Great Depression. The impacts on the population were multi-dimensional, but operated largely through local labor markets. Objective To examine differences in recession-related changes in county unemployment rates and assess how population and place characteristics shaped these patterns. Methods We calculate and decompose Theil Indexes to describe recession-related changes in the distribution of unemployment rates between counties and states. We use exploratory spatial statistics to identify geographic clusters of counties that experienced similar changes in unemployment. We use spatial regression to evaluate associations between county-level recession impacts on unemployment and demographic composition, industrial structure, and state context. Results The recession was associated with increased inequality between county labor markets within states, but declining between-state differences. Counties that experienced disproportionate recession-related increases in unemployment were spatially clustered and characterized by large shares of historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic minority populations, low educational attainment, and heavy reliance on pro-cyclical industries. Associations between these sources of vulnerability were partially explained by unobserved state-level factors. Conclusions The local consequences of macroeconomic trends are associated with county population characteristics, as well as the structural contexts and policy environments in which they are embedded. The recession placed upward pressure on within-state inequality between local labor market conditions. Contribution To present new estimates of the recession’s impact on local labor markets, quantify how heterogeneous impacts affected the distribution of unemployment prevalence, and identify county characteristics associated with disproportionately large recession-related increases in unemployment. PMID:28663712

77 FR 11132 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Improving Food...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-24

...The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain information by the Agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA), Federal Agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on a survey entitled ``Improving Food Safety and Defense Capacity of the State and Local Level: Review of State and Local Capacities.'' The data collection will obtain knowledge of State and local capacities including food safety defense staffing and expertise, laboratory capacities, and information systems to support food and feed safety and defense.

State-Level Point-of-Sale Tobacco News Coverage and Policy Progression Over a 2-Year Period.

PubMed

Myers, Allison E; Southwell, Brian G; Ribisl, Kurt M; Moreland-Russell, Sarah; Bowling, J Michael; Lytle, Leslie A

2018-01-01

Mass media content may play an important role in policy change. However, the empirical relationship between media advocacy efforts and tobacco control policy success has rarely been studied. We examined the extent to which newspaper content characteristics (volume, slant, frame, source, use of evidence, and degree of localization) that have been identified as important in past descriptive studies were associated with policy progression over a 2-year period in the context of point-of-sale (POS) tobacco control. We used regression analyses to test the relationships between newspaper content and policy progression from 2012 to 2014. The dependent variable was the level of implementation of state-level POS tobacco control policies at Time 2. Independent variables were newspaper article characteristics (volume, slant, frame, source, use of evidence, and degree of localization) and were collected via content analysis of the articles. State-level policy environment contextual variables were examined as confounders. Positive, significant bivariate relationships exist between characteristics of news content (e.g., high overall volume, public health source present, local quote and local angle present, and pro-tobacco control slant present) and Time 2 POS score. However, in a multivariate model controlling for other factors, significant relationships did not hold. Newspaper coverage can be a marker of POS policy progression. Whether media can influence policy implementation remains an important question. Future work should continue to tease out and confirm the unique characteristics of media content that are most associated with subsequent policy progression, in order to inform media advocacy efforts.

Using Interorganizational Partnerships to Strengthen Public Health Laboratory Systems

PubMed Central

Kimsey, Paul; Buehring, Gertrude

2013-01-01

Due to the current economic environment, many local and state health departments are faced with budget reductions. Health department administrators and public health laboratory (PHL) directors need to assess strategies to ensure that their PHLs can provide the same level of service with decreased funds. Exploratory case studies of interorganizational partnerships among local PHLs in California were conducted to determine the impact on local PHL testing services and capacity. Our findings suggest that interorganizational forms of cooperation among local PHLs can help bolster laboratory capacity by capturing economies of scale, leveraging scarce resources, and ensuring access to affordable, timely, and quality laboratory testing services. Interorganizational partnerships will help local and state public health departments continue to maintain a strong and robust laboratory system that supports their role in communicable disease surveillance. PMID:23997305

Energy loss, range, and bremsstrahlung yield for 10-keV to 100-MeV electrons in various elements and chemical compounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pages, Lucien; Bertel, Evelyne; Joffre, Henri; Sklavenitis, Laodamas

2012-12-01

Even though the United States lacks a national climate policy, significant action has occurred at the local and regional levels. Some of the most aggressive climate change policies have occurred at the state and local levels and in interagency cooperation on specific management issues. While there is a long history of partnerships in dealing with a wide variety of policy issues, the uncertainty and the political debate surrounding climate change has generated new challenges to establishing effective policy networks. This paper investigates the formation of climate policy networks in the State of Nevada. It presents a methodology based on social network analysis for assessing the structure and function of local policy networks across a range of substantive climate impacted resources (water, landscape management, conservation, forestry and others). It draws from an emerging literature on federalism and climate policy, public sector innovation, and institutional analysis in socio-ecological systems. Comparisons across different policy issue networks in the state are used to highlight the influence of network structure, connectivity, bridging across vertical and horizontal organizational units, organizational diversity, and flows between organizational nodes.

Achieving Intelligence Proliferation: Policies and Programs for Leveraging Intelligence Support to State, Local and Tribal Law Enforcement

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

by the attacks of 9-11. Terrorism cuts across all levels of society through loss of life , economic chaos and inhibiting freedoms. The horrific loss of... life cannot be minimized or discounted, but the damage goes further and its effects are enduring. Estimates of the future economic impact of...PROLIFERATION: POLICIES AND PROGRAMS FOR LEVERAGING INTELLIGENCE SUPORT TO STATE, LOCAL AND TRIBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT James A. Dahl Captain, United

State-to-State Internal Energy Relaxation Following the Quantum-Kinetic Model in DSMC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liechty, Derek S.

2014-01-01

A new model for chemical reactions, the Quantum-Kinetic (Q-K) model of Bird, has recently been introduced that does not depend on macroscopic rate equations or values of local flow field data. Subsequently, the Q-K model has been extended to include reactions involving charged species and electronic energy level transitions. Although this is a phenomenological model, it has been shown to accurately reproduce both equilibrium and non-equilibrium reaction rates. The usefulness of this model becomes clear as local flow conditions either exceed the conditions used to build previous models or when they depart from an equilibrium distribution. Presently, the applicability of the relaxation technique is investigated for the vibrational internal energy mode. The Forced Harmonic Oscillator (FHO) theory for vibrational energy level transitions is combined with the Q-K energy level transition model to accurately reproduce energy level transitions at a reduced computational cost compared to the older FHO models.

Toward More Local Control: Financial Reform for Public Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Education, 1983

1983-01-01

The report of the presidential Advisory Panel on Financing Elementary and Secondary Education presents the panel's philosophy, describes current problems, and recommends (1) returning financial autonomy to state and local levels, (2) dismantling the Department of Education, (3) deregulating public schools, and (4) encouraging school-based…

Technology, Innovation, and Regional Economic Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Office of Technology Assessment.

In recent years state and local governments, universities, and private sector groups have become increasingly active in promoting technological innovation and technology-based business development in their local economies. These efforts have resulted in productive new forms of partnership and cooperation at all levels. While federal programs have…

Evidence for carrier localization in the pseudogap state of cuprate superconductors from coherent quench experiments

PubMed Central

Madan, I.; Kurosawa, T.; Toda, Y.; Oda, M.; Mertelj, T.; Mihailovic, D.

2015-01-01

A ‘pseudogap' was introduced by Mott to describe a state of matter that has a minimum in the density of states at the Fermi level, deep enough for states to become localized. It can arise either from Coulomb repulsion between electrons, and/or incipient charge or spin order. Here we employ ultrafast spectroscopy to study dynamical properties of the normal to pseudogap state transition in the prototype high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. We perform a systematic temperature and doping dependence study of the pseudogap photodestruction and recovery in coherent quench experiments, revealing marked absence of critical behaviour of the elementary excitations, which implies an absence of collective electronic ordering beyond a few coherence lengths on short timescales. The data imply ultrafast carrier localization into a textured polaronic state arising from a competing Coulomb interaction and lattice strain, enhanced by a Fermi surface instability. PMID:25891310

Generic continuity of operations/continuity of government plan for state-level transportation agencies.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-08-01

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 (HSPD-20) requires all local, state, tribal and territorial government agencies, and private sector owners of critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) to create a Continuity of Operationsl:onti...

Biodiversity conservation in local planning.

PubMed

Miller, James R; Groom, Martha; Hess, George R; Steelman, Toddi; Stokes, David L; Thompson, Jan; Bowman, Troy; Fricke, Laura; King, Brandon; Marquardt, Ryan

2009-02-01

Local land-use policy is increasingly being recognized as fundamental to biodiversity conservation in the United States. Many planners and conservation scientists have called for broader use of planning and regulatory tools to support the conservation of biodiversity at local scales. Yet little is known about the pervasiveness of these practices. We conducted an on-line survey of county, municipal, and tribal planning directors (n =116) in 3 geographic regions of the United States: metropolitan Seattle, Washington; metropolitan Des Moines, Iowa; and the Research Triangle, North Carolina. Our objectives were to gauge the extent to which local planning departments address biodiversity conservation and to identify factors that facilitate or hinder conservation actions in local planning. We found that biodiversity conservation was seldom a major consideration in these departments. Staff time was mainly devoted to development mandates and little time was spent on biodiversity conservation. Regulations requiring conservation actions that might benefit biodiversity were uncommon, with the exception of rules governing water quality in all 3 regions and the protection of threatened and endangered species in the Seattle region. Planning tools that could enhance habitat conservation were used infrequently. Collaboration across jurisdictions was widespread, but rarely focused on conservation. Departments with a conservation specialist on staff tended to be associated with higher levels of conservation actions. Jurisdictions in the Seattle region also reported higher levels of conservation action, largely driven by state and federal mandates. Increased funding was most frequently cited as a factor that would facilitate greater consideration of biodiversity in local planning. There are numerous opportunities for conservation biologists to play a role in improving conservation planning at local scales.

Assessing local planning to control groundwater depletion: California as a microcosm of global issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, Rebecca L.

2012-01-01

Groundwater pumping has caused excessive groundwater depletion around the world, yet regulating pumping remains a profound challenge. California uses more groundwater than any other U.S. state, and serves as a microcosm of the adverse effects of pumping felt worldwide—land subsidence, impaired water quality, and damaged ecosystems, all against the looming threat of climate change. The state largely entrusts the control of depletion to the local level. This study uses internationally accepted water resources planning theories systematically to investigate three key aspects of controlling groundwater depletion in California, with an emphasis on local-level action: (a) making decisions and engaging stakeholders; (b) monitoring groundwater; and (c) using mandatory, fee-based and voluntary approaches to control groundwater depletion (e.g., pumping restrictions, pumping fees, and education about water conservation, respectively). The methodology used is the social science-derived technique of content analysis, which involves using a coding scheme to record these three elements in local rules and plans, and State legislation, then analyzing patterns and trends. The study finds that Californian local groundwater managers rarely use, or plan to use, mandatory and fee-based measures to control groundwater depletion. Most use only voluntary approaches or infrastructure to attempt to reduce depletion, regardless of whether they have more severe groundwater problems, or problems which are more likely to have irreversible adverse effects. The study suggests legal reforms to the local groundwater planning system, drawing upon its empirical findings. Considering the content of these recommendations may also benefit other jurisdictions that use a local groundwater management planning paradigm.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pandit, Bill; Jackson, Nicholas E.; Zheng, Tianyue

Rational design strategies for controlling the energetics of conjugated “donor–acceptor” copolymers are ubiquitous in the literature, as they allow for simple energy-level tuning strategies to be employed for photovoltaic and transistor applications. Utilizing the recently reported PTRn series of conjugated polymers closely related to the widely implemented material PTB7, we investigate the effect of local copolymer block energetics on the generation of transient excitonic and charge carrier species. It is clearly demonstrated that local copolymer block energetics play a much larger role than is apparent from simple energy-level tuning arguments, and drastically affect the ultrafast generation of free-charge carrier andmore » trap state populations. Specifically, we observe an almost complete reversal in the efficient generation of free-charge in PTB7 to the ultrafast creation of a high percentage of trapped pseudo charge-transfer states. The implications of this secondary effect of “donor–acceptor” energy level tuning are discussed, along with strategies for avoiding the generation of trap states in “donor–acceptor” copolymers.« less

Technology and Economics, Inc. Technology Application Team

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ballard, T.; Macfadyen, D. J.

1981-01-01

Technology + Economics, Inc. (T+E), under contract to the NASA Headquarters Technology Transfer Division, operates a Technology Applications Team (TATeam) to assist in the transfer of NASA-developed aerospace technology. T+E's specific areas of interest are selected urban needs at the local, county, and state levels. T+E contacts users and user agencies at the local, state, and county levels to assist in identifying significant urban needs amenable to potential applications of aerospace technology. Once viable urban needs have been identified in this manner, or through independent research, T+E searches the NASA technology database for technology and/or expertise applicable to the problem. Activities currently under way concerning potential aerospace applications are discussed.

Explaining rISC and 100% efficient TADF (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monkman, Andrew P.; Etherington, Marc; Graves, David; Data, Przemyslaw; Dos Santos, Paloma Lays; Nobuyasu, Roberto; Baiao Dias, Fernando M.

2016-09-01

Detailed photophysical measurements of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) states have been made both in solution and solid state. Temperature dependent time resolved emission, delayed emission and photoinduced absorption are used to map the energy levels involved in molecule decay, and through detailed kinetic modelling of the thermally activated processes observed, true electron exchange energies and other energy barriers of the systems determined with the real states involved in the reversed intersystem crossing mechanism elucidated. For specific donor acceptor molecules, the CT singlet and local triplet states (of donor or acceptor) are found to be the lowest lying excited states of the molecule with very small energy barrier between them ? kT. In these cases the decay kinetics of the molecules become significantly different to normal molecules, and the effect of rapid recycling between CT singlet and local triplet states is observed which gives rise to the true triplet harvesting mechanism in TADF. Using a series of different TADF emitters we will show how the energy level ordering effects or does not effect TADF and how ultimate OLED performance is dictated by energy level ordering, from 5% to 22% external quantum efficiency. From this understanding, we are able to define three criterion for TADF in different molecules and these will be discussed.

A Time for Priorities: Financing the Schools for the 70's.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Education Association, Washington, DC.

This document contains papers on: (1) proposals for national foundation programs; (2) state support of education; (3) tax reform at Federal, state, and local levels; and (4) contemporary problems in school finance, including equal educational opportunity, urban school finance, grants-in-aid, Federal income tax rebates to the States, voter behavior…

Fiscal Restraints and the Burden of Local and State Taxes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Tray, Dennis; And Others

Researchers gathered data on all state, city, and property taxes in ten cities in three states to find whether tax limitation measures have changed the distribution of tax burdens among income classes. The ten cities--representing a range of tax rates, economic bases, income levels, demographic characteristics, and revenue systems--comprised…

The Public Understanding of Assessment in Educational Reform in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brookhart, Susan M.

2013-01-01

The United States education system depends on legislation and funding at the federal, state and local levels. Public understanding of assessment therefore is important to educational reform in the USA. Educational reformers often invoke assessment information as a reason for reform, typically by citing unacceptable achievement on some measure or…

Strategic Global Advantage: The Career Academy/Technical College State Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lakes, Richard D.; Burns, Janet Z.

2012-01-01

Georgia's legislators have approved a plan whereby public school districts in the state could convert to charter schools to tailor programs for local educational communities. The state has authorized funds for five secondary-level charter career academies that are to be positioned regionally and partnered with a postsecondary community or…

Federalism and social justice: implications for social work.

PubMed

Linhorst, Donald M

2002-07-01

Federalism is a system of government that divides power between two or more levels of government. During the current conservative political climate in the United States, power has shifted increasingly from the federal government to states, a move that has implications for the achievement of social justice. Consequently, it is now necessary for social workers to engage in political activity at the state and local levels, in addition to the federal level, to promote social justice. Implications for social work policy practice, research, and education for advancing social justice within the federal system of government are explored.

The effect of state-level funding on energy efficiency outcomes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Downs, Anna

Increasingly, states are formalizing energy efficiency policies. In 2010, states required utilities to budget $5.5 billion through ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs, investing in both electricity and natural gas programs. However the size and spread of energy efficiency programs was strikingly different from state to state. This paper examines how far each dollar of state-level energy efficiency funding goes in producing efficiency gains. Many states have also pursued innovative policy actions to conserve electricity. Measures of policy effort are also included in this study, along with average electricity prices. The only variable that is consistently correlated with energy usage intensity across all models is electricity price. As politicians at local, state, and Federal levels continue to push for improved energy efficiency, the models in this paper provide a convincing impetus for focusing on strategies that raise energy prices.

Climate change and local public health in the United States: preparedness, programs and perceptions of local public health department directors.

PubMed

Maibach, Edward W; Chadwick, Amy; McBride, Dennis; Chuk, Michelle; Ebi, Kristie L; Balbus, John

2008-07-30

While climate change is inherently a global problem, its public health impacts will be experienced most acutely at the local and regional level, with some jurisdictions likely to be more burdened than others. The public health infrastructure in the U.S. is organized largely as an interlocking set of public agencies at the federal, state and local level, with lead responsibility for each city or county often residing at the local level. To understand how directors of local public health departments view and are responding to climate change as a public health issue, we conducted a telephone survey with 133 randomly selected local health department directors, representing a 61% response rate. A majority of respondents perceived climate change to be a problem in their jurisdiction, a problem they viewed as likely to become more common or severe over the next 20 years. Only a small minority of respondents, however, had yet made climate change adaptation or prevention a top priority for their health department. This discrepancy between problem recognition and programmatic responses may be due, in part, to several factors: most respondents felt personnel in their health department--and other key stakeholders in their community--had a lack of knowledge about climate change; relatively few respondents felt their own health department, their state health department, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had the necessary expertise to help them create an effective mitigation or adaptation plan for their jurisdiction; and most respondents felt that their health department needed additional funding, staff and staff training to respond effectively to climate change. These data make clear that climate change adaptation and prevention are not currently major activities at most health departments, and that most, if not all, local health departments will require assistance in making this transition. We conclude by making the case that, through their words and actions, local health departments and their staff can and should play a role in alerting members of their community about the prospect of public health impacts from climate change in their jurisdiction.

Climate Change and Local Public Health in the United States: Preparedness, Programs and Perceptions of Local Public Health Department Directors

PubMed Central

Maibach, Edward W.; Chadwick, Amy; McBride, Dennis; Chuk, Michelle; Ebi, Kristie L.; Balbus, John

2008-01-01

While climate change is inherently a global problem, its public health impacts will be experienced most acutely at the local and regional level, with some jurisdictions likely to be more burdened than others. The public health infrastructure in the U.S. is organized largely as an interlocking set of public agencies at the federal, state and local level, with lead responsibility for each city or county often residing at the local level. To understand how directors of local public health departments view and are responding to climate change as a public health issue, we conducted a telephone survey with 133 randomly selected local health department directors, representing a 61% response rate. A majority of respondents perceived climate change to be a problem in their jurisdiction, a problem they viewed as likely to become more common or severe over the next 20 years. Only a small minority of respondents, however, had yet made climate change adaptation or prevention a top priority for their health department. This discrepancy between problem recognition and programmatic responses may be due, in part, to several factors: most respondents felt personnel in their health department–and other key stakeholders in their community–had a lack of knowledge about climate change; relatively few respondents felt their own health department, their state health department, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had the necessary expertise to help them create an effective mitigation or adaptation plan for their jurisdiction; and most respondents felt that their health department needed additional funding, staff and staff training to respond effectively to climate change. These data make clear that climate change adaptation and prevention are not currently major activities at most health departments, and that most, if not all, local health departments will require assistance in making this transition. We conclude by making the case that, through their words and actions, local health departments and their staff can and should play a role in alerting members of their community about the prospect of public health impacts from climate change in their jurisdiction. PMID:18665266

New Perspectives on School Improvement: A Summary of Research Findings on Approaches to Educational Reform and the Management of School Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organizational Analysis and Practice, Inc., Ithaca, NY. Educational Systems Div.

Although educational reform approaches have varied from state to state, most efforts have shared some common elements: (1) concentration of educational policymaking in state capitols by state-level officials; (2) a widespread conviction that schools of education, local school officials, and teachers are unwilling or unable to "reform"…

Teleportation with insurance of an entangled atomic state via cavity decay

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chimczak, Grzegorz; Tanas, Ryszard; Miranowicz, Adam

2005-03-01

We propose a scheme to teleport an entangled state of two {lambda}-type three-level atoms via photons. The teleportation protocol involves the local redundant encoding protecting the initial entangled state and allowing for repeating the detection until quantum information transfer is successful. We also show how to manipulate a state of many {lambda}-type atoms trapped in a cavity.

A Massachusetts Career Education Staff Development Research Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chase, Elizabeth C. R., Ed.; McLain, Thomas W., Ed.

Designed as a resource manual for use in conjunction with state and/or local level career education staff development training sessions, this handbook also provides local practitioners with information to develop new or improved career education programs. Chapter 1 overviews the concept, rationale, goals, and objectives of career education in…

Assessing the Feasibility of Performing an Air Accountability Study in New Haven, CT

EPA Science Inventory

The main objective of this EPA study was to examine the feasibility of conducting a local (e.g., city level) assessment of the public health impacts of cumulative air pollution reduction activities (a.k.a. accountability) from the federal, state, local and voluntary actions in t...

Federal Funds for Public Child Care: Boon or Bust?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garrett, Larry N.; Garrett, C. Joanne

This pamphlet discusses issues related to the question of whether and how the federal government should finance prekindergarten public child care. Specifically, several policy statements are explored: (1) Financial apparatus should include input from federal, state, and local levels; (2) There should be local autonomy in management/implementation…

Doing Your Community Education Evaluation: A Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Malcolm B.; And Others

Intended to assist in the evaluation of community education programs, this guide is for program decision makers, primarily at the local level, including staff of school districts, park and recreation departments, other local and state agencies, and private citizens serving on community education boards and councils. Part 1, Evaluation and…

Communicating Evidence-Based Information on Cancer Prevention to State-Level Policy Makers

PubMed Central

Dodson, Elizabeth A.; Stamatakis, Katherine A.; Casey, Christopher M.; Elliott, Michael B.; Luke, Douglas A.; Wintrode, Christopher G.; Kreuter, Matthew W.

2011-01-01

Background Opportunities exist to disseminate evidence-based cancer control strategies to state-level policy makers in both the legislative and executive branches. We explored factors that influence the likelihood that state-level policy makers will find a policy brief understandable, credible, and useful. Methods A systematic approach was used to develop four types of policy briefs on the topic of mammography screening to reduce breast cancer mortality: data-focused brief with state-level data, data-focused brief with local-level data, story-focused brief with state-level data, and story-focused brief with local-level data. Participants were recruited from three groups of state-level policy makers—legislative staff, legislators, and executive branch administrators— in six states that were randomly chosen after stratifying all 50 states by population size and dominant political party in state legislature. Participants from each of the three policy groups were randomly assigned to receive one of the four types of policy briefs and completed a questionnaire that included a series of Likert scale items. Primary outcomes—whether the brief was understandable, credible, likely to be used, and likely to be shared—were measured by a 5-point Likert scale according to the degree of agreement (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Data were analyzed with analysis of variance and with classification trees. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results Data on response to the policy briefs (n = 291) were collected from February through December 2009 (overall response rate = 35%). All three policy groups found the briefs to be understandable and credible, with mean ratings that ranged from 4.3 to 4.5. The likelihood of using the brief (the dependent variable) differed statistically significantly by study condition for staffers (P = .041) and for legislators (P = .018). Staffers found the story-focused brief containing state-level data most useful, whereas legislators found the data-focused brief containing state-level data most useful. Exploratory classification trees showed distinctive patterns for brief usefulness across the three policy groups. Conclusion Our results suggest that taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach when delivering information to policy makers may be less effective than communicating information based on the type of policy maker. PMID:21212381

Local level epidemiological analysis of TB in people from a high incidence country of birth.

PubMed

Massey, Peter D; Durrheim, David N; Stephens, Nicola; Christensen, Amanda

2013-01-22

The setting for this analysis is the low tuberculosis (TB) incidence state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Local level analysis of TB epidemiology in people from high incidence countries-of-birth (HIC) in a low incidence setting has not been conducted in Australia and has not been widely reported. Local level analysis could inform measures such as active case finding and targeted earlier diagnosis. The aim of this study was to use a novel approach to identify local areas in an Australian state that have higher TB rates given the local areas' country of birth profiles. TB notification data for the three year period 2006-2008 were analysed by grouping the population into those from a high-incidence country-of-birth and the remainder. During the study period there were 1401 notified TB cases in the state of NSW. Of these TB cases 76.5% were born in a high-incidence country. The annualised TB notification rate for the high-incidence country-of-birth group was 61.2/100,000 population and for the remainder of the population was 1.8/100,000. Of the 152 Local Government Areas (LGA) in NSW, nine had higher and four had lower TB notification rates in their high-incidence country-of-birth populations when compared with the high-incidence country-of-birth population for the rest of NSW. The nine areas had a higher proportion of the population with a country of birth where TB notification rates are >100/100,000. Those notified with TB in the nine areas also had a shorter length of stay in Australia than the rest of the state. The areas with higher TB notification rates were all in the capital city, Sydney. Among LGAs with higher TB notification rates, four had higher rates in both people with a high-incidence country of birth and people not born in a high-incidence country. The age distribution of the HIC population was similar across all areas, and the highest differential in TB rates across areas was in the 5-19 years age group. Analysing local area TB rates and possible explanatory variables can provide useful insights into the epidemiology of TB. TB notification rates that take country of birth in local areas into account could enable health services to strategically target TB control measures.

Help Wanted: More Cosmopolitan Managers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayden, Rose L.

The government role in internationalizing business education in the United States is minimal for several reasons: the limited federal role in public education curriculum, limited government-industry collaboration at state and local levels, little effort to standardize the international dimension of college business administration programs, and…

Preparedness for climate change among local health department officials in New York state: a comparison with national survey results.

PubMed

Carr, Jessie L; Sheffield, Perry E; Kinney, Patrick L

2012-01-01

Climate-change adaptation strategies that address locally specific climate hazards are critical for preventing negative health outcomes, and local public health care officials are key foci for adaptation planning. To assess New York State Local Health Department officials' perceptions and preparedness related to climate-sensitive health areas, and compare these with a national sample. Online survey instrument, originally used in a national survey of local health department (LHD) officials. New York State. Eligible participants included all New York State city and county LHD officials, 1 respondent per LHD. LHD officials' perceptions of (1) local climate-related public health effects, (2) preparation status and programming areas of LHDs, and (3) necessary resources to better address climate-related health risks. : Survey participants, representing a 54% response rate (with 93% of respondents completing more than 90% of the questions), perceived climate change as relevant to public health, and most noted that some of their existing programs already use or are planning to use climate adaptation strategies. Overall, fewer New York State respondents identified concerns or related expertise compared with the previous national survey. Many respondents expressed uncertainty regarding necessary additional resources. This type of assessment makes clear the high variability in perceived impacts and capacity at the level of LHD jurisdictions, and underscores the importance of sustained support for local climate-change preparedness programming. The implications of these findings are germane to other states with similar decentralized jurisdiction of public health. Findings from such surveys can bolster existing LHD programs, as well as inform long-term and emergency planning for climate change.

Developing a holistic strategy for integrated waste management within municipal planning: challenges, policies, solutions and perspectives for Hellenic municipalities in the zero-waste, low-cost direction.

PubMed

Zotos, G; Karagiannidis, A; Zampetoglou, S; Malamakis, A; Antonopoulos, I-S; Kontogianni, S; Tchobanoglous, G

2009-05-01

The present position paper addresses contemporary waste management options, weaknesses and opportunities faced by Hellenic local authorities. It focuses on state-of-the-art, tested as well as innovative, environmental management tools on a municipal scale and identifies a range of different collaboration schemes between local authorities and related service providers. Currently, a policy implementation gap is still experienced among Hellenic local authorities; it appears that administration at the local level is inadequate to manage and implement many of the general policies proposed; identify, collect, monitor and assess relevant data; and safeguard efficient and effective implementation of MSWM practices in the framework of integrated environmental management as well. This shortfall is partly due to the decentralisation of waste management issues to local authorities without a parallel substantial budgetary and capacity support, thus resulting in local activity remaining often disoriented and isolated from national strategies, therefore yielding significant planning and implementation problems and delays against pressing issues at hand as well as loss or poor use of available funds. This paper develops a systemic approach for MSWM at both the household and the non-household level, summarizes state-of-the-art available tools and compiles a set of guidelines for developing waste management master plans at the municipal level. It aims to provide a framework in the MSWM field for municipalities in Greece as well as other countries facing similar problems under often comparable socioeconomic settings.

The Legal Implications of Administrative Decision-Making.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bender, Louis W.

Administrative decision-making encompasses three levels on which increasing legal challenges and liability and their implications need to be considered. At the local level, this may involve violations of procedural due process. A second level concerns state laws and regulations. Line administrators, who frequently make decisions on programs,…

Technology Transfer: Use of Federally Funded Research and Development

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-03-19

private sector ; the government’s requirements for products and processes to operate effectively and efficiently; and the demand for increased goods and services at the state and local level. Congress has established a system to facilitate the transfer of technology to the private sector and to state and local governments. Despite this, use of federal R&D results has remained restrained, although there has been a significant increase in private sector interest and activities over the past several years. Critics argue that

Sociological survey in a municipality with a high level separate collection programme in an area of historic unpopularity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

De Feo, Giovanni, E-mail: g.defeo@unisa.it

2014-08-15

Highlights: • Behaviours, opinions and knowledge of citizens on MSW management were investigated. • The knowledge level was better than that of nearby university students and citizens. • The higher the education level, the greater the level of knowledge was. • The local authority showed a leading role in terms of waste management. • Trust is the key to any social program success including waste management programs. - Abstract: Behaviours, opinions and knowledge of citizens on MSW and separate collection were investigated in the city of Mercato San Severino (about 22,000 people), in the Campania region of Southern Italy thatmore » is an area suffering from a serious solid waste emergency that has lasted over 17 years due to the absence of treatment facilities. The image of heaps of rubbish in the streets of Naples and other nearby cities is only one side of the coin. Mercato San Severino has adopted an effective kerbside collection system since 2001 and a pay-as-you-throw program during 2005, guaranteeing more than the minimum level of recycling required by the Italian legislation. Structured questionnaires were administered to a sample of 500 people in 2010. Chi-square tests of independence were applied to state whether the differences were statistically significant (5%). About 90% of the sample stated that the success of the separate collection program was due to either the citizens and local authority or only the local authority, highlighting the leading role of the local authority and confirming that trust is the key to any social program success. The registered level of knowledge was better than that of nearby university students and citizens. The higher the education level, the greater the level of knowledge was.« less

The Effect of Cigarette Taxation on Prices: An Empirical Analysis Using Local-Level Data

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

index (COLI) and from the Tax Burden on Tobacco ( TBT ) to measure the relative effects of city, county and state excise cigarette taxation on cigarette...Researchers Association (ACCRA) cost of living index (COLI) and from the Tax Burden on Tobacco ( TBT ) to measure the relative effects of city, county and...Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. In addition to the local-level data, we utilize the Tax Burden on Tobacco ( TBT ) dataset to analyze

States of Cybersecurity: Electricity Distribution System Discussions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pena, Ivonne; Ingram, Michael; Martin, Maurice

State and local entities that oversee the reliable, affordable provision of electricity are faced with growing and evolving threats from cybersecurity risks to our nation's electricity distribution system. All-hazards system resilience is a shared responsibility among electric utilities and their regulators or policy-setting boards of directors. Cybersecurity presents new challenges and should be a focus for states, local governments, and Native American tribes that are developing energy-assurance plans to protect critical infrastructure. This research sought to investigate the implementation of governance and policy at the distribution utility level that facilitates cybersecurity preparedness to inform the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),more » Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis; states; local governments; and other stakeholders on the challenges, gaps, and opportunities that may exist for future analysis. The need is urgent to identify the challenges and inconsistencies in how cybersecurity practices are being applied across the United States to inform the development of best practices, mitigations, and future research and development investments in securing the electricity infrastructure. By examining the current practices and applications of cybersecurity preparedness, this report seeks to identify the challenges and persistent gaps between policy and execution and reflect the underlying motivations of distinct utility structures as they play out at the local level. This study aims to create an initial baseline of cybersecurity preparedness within the distribution electricity sector. The focus of this study is on distribution utilities not bound by the cybersecurity guidelines of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to examine the range of mechanisms taken by state regulators, city councils that own municipal utilities, and boards of directors of rural cooperatives.« less

Optical pumping of a single hole spin in a p-doped quantum dot coupled to a metallic nanoparticle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antón, M. A.; Carreño, F.; Melle, Sonia; Calderón, Oscar G.; Cabrera-Granado, E.; Singh, Mahi R.

2013-05-01

The preparation of quantum states with a defined spin is analyzed in a hybrid system consisting of a p-doped semiconductor quantum dot (QD) coupled to a metallic nanoparticle. The quantum dot is described as a four-level atom-like system using the density matrix formalism. The lower levels are Zeeman-split hole spin states and the upper levels correspond to positively charged excitons containing a spin-up, spin-down hole pair and a spin electron. A metallic nanoparticle with spheroidal geometry is placed in close proximity to the quantum dot, and its effects are considered in the quasistatic approximation. A linearly polarized laser field drives two of the optical transitions of the QD and produces localized surface plasmons in the nanoparticle which act back upon the QD. The frequencies of these localized plasmons are very different along the two principal axes of the nanoparticle, thus producing an anisotropic modification of the spontaneous emission rates of the allowed optical transitions which is accompanied by local-field corrections. This effect translates into a preferential acceleration of some of the optical pathways and therefore into a fast initialization of the QD by excitation with a short optical pulse. The population transfer between the lower levels of the QD and the fidelity is analyzed as a function of the nanoparticle's aspect ratio, the external magnetic field, and the Rabi frequency of the driving field. It is also shown that the main effect of the local-field corrections is a lengthening of the time elapsed to reach the steady-state. The hole spin is predicted to be successfully cooled from 5 to 0.04 K at a magnetic field of 4.6 T applied in the Voigt geometry.

Schools and Libraries Program: Update on State-Level Funding by Category of Service. Report to the Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV, U.S. Senate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Czerwinski, Stanley J.

This report provides state-level data on the amount of funds committed to the following three categories of eligible services for each of the first three years of the Federal Communications Commission's e-rate program for schools and libraries: (1) telecommunications service, such as local, long-distance, and international telephone service, as…

High-precision two-dimensional atom localization from four-wave mixing in a double-Λ four-level atomic system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shui, Tao; Yang, Wen-Xing; Chen, Ai-Xi; Liu, Shaopeng; Li, Ling; Zhu, Zhonghu

2018-03-01

We propose a scheme for high-precision two-dimensional (2D) atom localization via the four-wave mixing (FWM) in a four-level double-Λ atomic system. Due to the position-dependent atom-field interaction, the 2D position information of the atoms can be directly determined by the measurement of the normalized light intensity of output FWM-generated field. We further show that, when the position-dependent generated FWM field has become sufficiently intense, efficient back-coupling to the FWM generating state becomes important. This back-coupling pathway leads to competitive multiphoton destructive interference of the FWM generating state by three supplied and one internally generated fields. We find that the precision of 2D atom localization can be improved significantly by the multiphoton destructive interference and depends sensitively on the frequency detunings and the pump field intensity. Interestingly enough, we show that adjusting the frequency detunings and the pump field intensity can modify significantly the FWM efficiency, and consequently lead to a redistribution of the atoms. As a result, the atom can be localized in one of four quadrants with holding the precision of atom localization.

Responsibility for Curriculum Evaluation in Centralized Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deschamp, Phil; McGaw, Barry

1979-01-01

While responsibility for curriculum development in Australia is devolving to the local level, the state systems, in the name of accountability, are retaining responsibility for curriculum evaluation. This article examines the curriculum centralization/decentralization patterns in Australia's states, points out the paradoxes in such systems, and…

Guidelines, site selection, and design for implementing truck parking/rest facilities in Chicago's south suburbs.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-11-01

This study proposes a network of overnight truck parking facilities in south suburban Chicago intended to : accomplish a wide range of federal, state, and local policy objectives. At the federal and state levels, this : reports policy objectives s...

42 CFR 405.505 - Determination of locality.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... subdivision of a State, or a group of States. It should include a cross section of the population with respect to economic and other characteristics. Where people tend to gravitate toward certain population... population density, economic level, and other major factors affecting charges for services. Carriers...

42 CFR 405.505 - Determination of locality.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... subdivision of a State, or a group of States. It should include a cross section of the population with respect to economic and other characteristics. Where people tend to gravitate toward certain population... population density, economic level, and other major factors affecting charges for services. Carriers...

42 CFR 405.505 - Determination of locality.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... subdivision of a State, or a group of States. It should include a cross section of the population with respect to economic and other characteristics. Where people tend to gravitate toward certain population... population density, economic level, and other major factors affecting charges for services. Carriers...

Recent Local and State Action in Arizona to Maintain Sky Quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall, Jeffrey C.; Shankland, P. D.; Green, R. F.; Jannuzi, B.

2014-01-01

The large number of observatories in Arizona has led to the development of a number of lighting control ordinances around the state, some quite strict. Several factors are now contributing to an increased need for active effort at the local, County, and State levels in maintaining the quality of these codes; these factors include an expansion of competing interests in the state, the increasing use of LED lighting, and the potential for major new investments through projects such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and enhancements to the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer. I will review recent strategies Arizona's observatories have used to effect maintenance of ordinances and preserve sky quality; cases include (1) a statewide effort in 2012 to curb a proliferation of electronic billboards and (2) engagement of a broad group of local, County, and State officials, as well as individuals from the private sector, in support of projects like CTA, including awareness of and support for dark-sky preservation.

Saddle point localization of molecular wavefunctions.

PubMed

Mellau, Georg Ch; Kyuberis, Alexandra A; Polyansky, Oleg L; Zobov, Nikolai; Field, Robert W

2016-09-15

The quantum mechanical description of isomerization is based on bound eigenstates of the molecular potential energy surface. For the near-minimum regions there is a textbook-based relationship between the potential and eigenenergies. Here we show how the saddle point region that connects the two minima is encoded in the eigenstates of the model quartic potential and in the energy levels of the [H, C, N] potential energy surface. We model the spacing of the eigenenergies with the energy dependent classical oscillation frequency decreasing to zero at the saddle point. The eigenstates with the smallest spacing are localized at the saddle point. The analysis of the HCN ↔ HNC isomerization states shows that the eigenstates with small energy spacing relative to the effective (v1, v3, ℓ) bending potentials are highly localized in the bending coordinate at the transition state. These spectroscopically detectable states represent a chemical marker of the transition state in the eigenenergy spectrum. The method developed here provides a basis for modeling characteristic patterns in the eigenenergy spectrum of bound states.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schultz, Peter A.

For the purposes of making reliable first-principles predictions of defect energies in semiconductors, it is crucial to distinguish between effective-mass-like defects, which cannot be treated accurately with existing supercell methods, and deep defects, for which density functional theory calculations can yield reliable predictions of defect energy levels. The gallium antisite defect GaAs is often associated with the 78/203 meV shallow double acceptor in Ga-rich gallium arsenide. Within a conceptual framework of level patterns, analyses of structure and spin stabilization can be used within a supercell approach to distinguish localized deep defect states from shallow acceptors such as B As. Thismore » systematic approach determines that the gallium antisite supercell results has signatures inconsistent with an effective mass state and cannot be the 78/203 shallow double acceptor. Lastly, the properties of the Ga antisite in GaAs are described, total energy calculations that explicitly map onto asymptotic discrete localized bulk states predict that the Ga antisite is a deep double acceptor and has at least one deep donor state.« less

Ohio's statewide land use inventory: An operational approach for applying LANDSAT data to state, regional and local planning programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baldridge, P. E.; Geosling, P. H.; Leone, F.; Minshall, C.; Rodgers, R. H.; Wilhelm, C. L.

1975-01-01

The programmatic, technical, user application, and cost factors associated with the development of an operational, statewide land use inventory from LANDSAT data are described. The LANDSAT multispectral data are subjected to geometrical and categorical processing to produce map files for each of the 200 fifteen (15) minute quads covering Ohio. Computer compatible tapes are rescanned to produce inventory tapes which identify eight (8) Level I land use categories and a variety of Level II categories. The inventory tapes are processed through a series of ten (10) software programs developed by the State of Ohio. The net result is a computerized inventory which can be displayed in map or tabular form for various geographic units, at a variety of scales and for selected categories of usage. The computerized inventory data files are applied to technical programs developed by the various state agencies to be used in state, regional, and local planning programs.

20 CFR 627.503 - Recipient-level review.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Recipient-level review. 627.503 Section 627... GOVERNING PROGRAMS UNDER TITLES I, II, AND III OF THE ACT Grievances Procedures at the State and Local Level § 627.503 Recipient-level review. (a) If a complainant does not receive a decision at the SDA or the SSG...

An Assessment of Information Exchange Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities to Support US Disease Surveillance in 3 States.

PubMed

Garcia, Macarena C; Garrett, Nedra Y; Singletary, Vivian; Brown, Sheereen; Hennessy-Burt, Tamara; Haney, Gillian; Link, Kimberly; Tripp, Jennifer; Mac Kenzie, William R; Yoon, Paula

2017-12-07

State and local public health agencies collect and use surveillance data to identify outbreaks, track cases, investigate causes, and implement measures to protect the public-s health through various surveillance systems and data exchange practices. The purpose of this assessment was to better understand current practices at state and local public health agencies for collecting, managing, processing, reporting, and exchanging notifiable disease surveillance information. Over an 18-month period (January 2014-June 2015), we evaluated the process of data exchange between surveillance systems, reporting burdens, and challenges within 3 states (California, Idaho, and Massachusetts) that were using 3 different reporting systems. All 3 states use a combination of paper-based and electronic information systems for managing and exchanging data on reportable conditions within the state. The flow of data from local jurisdictions to the state health departments varies considerably. When state and local information systems are not interoperable, manual duplicative data entry and other work-arounds are often required. The results of the assessment show the complexity of disease reporting at the state and local levels and the multiple systems, processes, and resources engaged in preparing, processing, and transmitting data that limit interoperability and decrease efficiency. Through this structured assessment, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a better understanding of the complexities for surveillance of using commercial off-the-shelf data systems (California and Massachusetts), and CDC-developed National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System. More efficient data exchange and use of data will help facilitate interoperability between National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance Systems.

Keeping Up with California: The Impact of Massachusetts' Proposition 2-1/2 on Local Children's Services [Chapter Three].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Karl E.

This analysis is the third of a series of seven reports on the ways that the urban fiscal crisis has affected children. There has been little reorganization of government services on the state, regional, or local level to compensate for the benefits to children lost as a result of local property tax limitations enacted under Proposition 2-1/2 in…

Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged: The Case of Kentucky

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGuinness, Aims C., Jr.

2008-01-01

The Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with among the lowest levels of per capita income and education attainment in the United States, embarked on an ambitious set of higher education reforms in 1997 aimed at elevating the state to the national average of educational attainment by 2020. At the time of their enactment, the Kentucky reforms were…

Rankings & Estimates: Rankings of the States 2010 and Estimates of School Statistics 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Education Association Research Department, 2010

2010-01-01

The data presented in this combined report--"Rankings & Estimates"--provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States--with respect to economics, geography, and politics--the level of commitment to…

Rankings & Estimates: Rankings of the States 2015 and Estimates of School Statistics 2016

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Education Association, 2016

2016-01-01

The data presented in this combined report--"Rankings & Estimates"--provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States--with respect to economics, geography, and politics--the level of commitment to…

One Language for the United States? (Un Idioma para Los Estados Unidos?) CSG Backgrounder.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Mark L.

The United States has become increasingly multilingual in recent decades, and while English is the most commonly spoken language, almost 11 percent of Americans prefer to speak another language at home. Bilingualism is promoted by governmental units at the federal, state, and local levels through a variety of programs, particularly in education…

Misinterpreting School Reform: The Dissolution of a Dual-Immersion Bilingual Program in an Urban New England Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warhol, Larisa; Mayer, Anysia

2012-01-01

This article explores local state bilingual-education policy vis-a-vis pervasive dominant-language ideologies about language-education policy and practice. State-level language-education policy, especially for English Language Learners (ELs), spans a wide range, from states that through policy legally require some form of bilingual education to…

Racial Insurgency, the State, and Welfare Expansion: Local and National Level Evidence from the Postwar United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isaac, Larry; Kelly, William R.

1981-01-01

This article addresses the relationship between insurgent political action and state-supported social services, with particular emphasis on the relationship between urban riots and welfare. Findings from analysis of activism and welfare since the Second World War indicate that urban riots played an important role nationally in short-term expansion…

The Janus Report: A Report on the Changing Social Setting in the United States with Implications for New Roles for State and Local Vocational Education Personnel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bregman, Ralph; And Others

The report on the implications of social changes in the United States for vocational education personnel contains five recommendations aimed at helping vocational education personnel at all educational and administrative levels in the various States to better maintain, enhance, and adjust their services to target populations within the changing…

Orbital liquid in three-dimensional mott insulator: LaTiO3

PubMed

Khaliullin; Maekawa

2000-10-30

We present a theory of spin and orbital states in Mott insulator LaTiO3. The spin-orbital superexchange interaction between d(1)(t(2g)) ions in cubic crystal suffers from a pathological degeneracy of orbital states at the classical level. Quantum effects remove this degeneracy and result in the formation of the coherent ground state, in which the orbital moment of t(2g) level is fully quenched. We find a finite gap for orbital excitations. Such a disordered state of local degrees of freedom on unfrustrated, simple cubic lattice is highly unusual. Orbital liquid state naturally explains observed anomalies of LaTiO3.

The Minnesota Adolescent Community Cohort Study: Design and Baseline Results

PubMed Central

Forster, Jean; Chen, Vincent; Perry, Cheryl; Oswald, John; Willmorth, Michael

2014-01-01

The Minnesota Adolescent Community Cohort (MACC) Study is a population-based, longitudinal study that enrolled 3636 youth from Minnesota and 605 youth from comparison states age 12 to 16 years in 2000–2001. Participants have been surveyed by telephone semi-annually about their tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. The goals of the study are to evaluate the effects of the Minnesota Youth Tobacco Prevention Initiative and its shutdown on youth smoking patterns, and to better define the patterns of development of tobacco use in adolescents. A multilevel sample was constructed representing individuals, local jurisdictions and the entire state, and data are collected to characterize each of these levels. This paper presents the details of the multilevel study design. We also provide baseline information about MACC participants including demographics and tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. This paper describes smoking prevalence at the local level, and compares MACC participants to the state as a whole. PMID:21360063

USING A LIFE-CYCLE APPROACH TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN THE UNITED STATES

EPA Science Inventory

The paper discusses a computer-based decision support tool that has been developed to assist local governments in evaluating the cost and environmental performance of integrated municipal solid waste (MSW) managment systems. ongoing case studies of the tool at the local level are...

Colorado Department of Education Abbreviated Information Management Annual Plan (CDE IMAP).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laughlin, Richard

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE), including Access Colorado Library and Information Network (ACLIN) and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, provides state- level guidance and resources for Colorado's local school districts, local and regional libraries, and special populations. Technology is the enabler that offers basic,…

Teaching Comparative Local History: Upper Mississippi River Towns.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crozier, William L.

Intended to engage students in a comparative look at local history in two upper Mississippi river towns (Winona, Minnesota and Dubuque, Iowa), this paper describes the computer-assisted component of an upper-level American Studies course. With emphasis on the 19th century, students examine the transition made by the United States from a…

Industrial Hygiene Technology: A Curriculum Planning Resource Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heath, Walter D.; Spetz, Sally H.

This curriculum resource guide, one of seven developed by the State of Illinois to present information on new and emerging curricula existing in the nation, can be used as a basis for local educators to determine the resources needed to offer industrial hygiene technician curricula and to initiate curriculum development at the local level.…

National Roster of Local Practices in the Integration of Vocational and Academic Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, Mark E.; Tsuzuki, Mayo

This catalog describes local programs in the eight models of academic/vocational curriculum integration on the secondary level identified by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE). The roster highlights models from nearly every state, representing a cross-section of rural, suburban, and urban school districts. Each model…

A feasibility study on assessing public health impacts of cumulative air pollution reduction activities in a small geographic area

EPA Science Inventory

Background and Objective: The rnain objective ofthis study was to examine the feasibility ofconducting a local (e.g., city level) assessment ofthe public health impacts ofcumulative air pollution reduction activities (a.k.a. accountability) from the federal, state, local and vo...

Social Capital, Organic Agriculture, and Sustainable Livelihood Security: Rethinking Agrarian Change in Mexico

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Getz, Christy

2008-01-01

This paper explores the relevance of extra local market linkages and local-level social capital to sustainable livelihood outcomes in two agrarian communities on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Contextualized by the specificity of Mexico's transition from state-directed rural development to neoliberally-guided rural development in the 1990s, findings…

Coaches' Voices Bring 6 Lessons to Light

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Cheryl H.

2007-01-01

In 1996, the Kansas City (Kan.) Public Schools, a largely poor, urban system, was facing a crisis. Talk at local and state levels was about closing a number of poor-performing schools. The author discusses how the district took matters in hand to make significant changes. Partnering with the local National Education Association leadership,…

The Language of Fund-Raising Direct Mail: Differences between Letters for National and Local Constituencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ringer, R. Jeffrey

A study examined differences in the language of direct mail advertising used by political campaigns at different levels--national state, and local. Seventeen direct mail fund-raising political campaign letters were content analyzed with Wiseman and Schenck-Hamlin's typology of compliance-gaining techniques, language style and readability. The…

The role of community policies in defensible space compliance

Treesearch

Greg Winter; Sarah McCaffrey; Christine A. Vogt

2009-01-01

Recently enacted federal and state policies provide incentives, including financial assistance, for local jurisdictions to manage risks associated with wildland fire. This has led to an array of local-level policies designed to encourage homeowners to create fire-safe landscapes. This qualitative study collected data from focus group interviews with homeowners in three...

Toward Effective Water Pipe Tobacco Control Policy in the United States: Synthesis of Federal, State, and Local Policy Texts.

PubMed

Colditz, Jason B; Ton, Jessica N; James, A Everette; Primack, Brian A

2017-07-01

Water pipe tobacco smoking (WTS) is growing in popularity among U.S. young adults and is associated with health risks similar to those of cigarette smoking. The purpose of this study is to examine existing tobacco control policies (TCPs) in order to investigate how they engage WTS. A systematic synthesis of content and legal interactions among federal, state, and local TCP documents. Pennsylvania, which represents a politically and demographically diverse microcosm of the United States. No human subjects. Federal and state TCPs were retrieved via public legal repositories. Local policy searches were conducted via county/municipal Web sites, inclusive of 13 localities that had autonomous health departments or existing TCPs based on a National Cancer Institute report. Full-text TCPs were double coded within a grounded theory framework for health policy analysis. Emergent codes were used to compare and contrast policy texts and to examine legal interactions among TCPs. Examination of policy categories including youth access, use restrictions, and taxation revealed WTS as largely omitted from current TCPs. WTS was sometimes addressed as an "other" tobacco product under older TCPs, though ambiguities in language led to questionable enforceability. State preemptions have rolled back or prevented well-tailored reforms at the local level. Federal preemptions have likewise constrained state TCPs. Outdated, preempted, and unclear policies limit the extent to which TCPs engage WTS. Health advocates might target these aspects of TCP reform.

Continuous light exposure causes cumulative stress that affects the localization oscillation dynamics of the transcription factor Msn2p.

PubMed

Bodvard, Kristofer; Wrangborg, David; Tapani, Sofia; Logg, Katarina; Sliwa, Piotr; Blomberg, Anders; Kvarnström, Mats; Käll, Mikael

2011-02-01

Light exposure is a potentially powerful stress factor during in vivo optical microscopy studies. In yeast, the general transcription factor Msn2p translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in response to illumination. However, previous time-lapse fluorescence microscopy studies of Msn2p have utilized a variety of discrete exposure settings, which makes it difficult to correlate stress levels and illumination parameters. We here investigate how continuous illumination with blue light, corresponding to GFP excitation wavelengths, affects the localization pattern of Msn2p-GFP in budding yeast. The localization pattern was analyzed using a novel approach that combines wavelet decomposition and change point analysis. It was found that the Msn2p nucleocytoplasmic localization trajectories for individual cells exhibit up to three distinct and successive states; i) Msn2p localizes to the cytoplasm; ii) Msn2p rapidly shuttles between the cytoplasm and the nucleus; iii) Msn2p localizes to the nucleus. Many cells pass through all states consecutively at high light intensities, while at lower light intensities most cells only reach states i) or ii). This behaviour strongly indicates that continuous light exposure gradually increases the stress level over time, presumably through continuous accumulation of toxic photoproducts, thereby forcing the cell through a bistable region corresponding to nucleocytoplasmic oscillations. We also show that the localization patterns are dependent on protein kinase A (PKA) activity, i.e. yeast cells with constantly low PKA activity showed a stronger stress response. In particular, the nucleocytoplasmic oscillation frequency was found to be significantly higher for cells with low PKA activity for all light intensities. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The politics of hope and despair: the effect of presidential election outcomes on suicide rates.

PubMed

Classen, Timothy J; Dunn, Richard A

2010-01-01

This article examines the effect of election outcomes on suicide rates by combining the theory of social integration developed by Durkheim with the models of rational choice used in economics. Theory predicts that states with a greater percentage of residents who supported the losing candidate would tend to exhibit a relative increase in suicide rates. However, being around others who also supported the losing candidate may indicate a greater degree of social integration at the local level, thereby lowering relative suicide rates. We therefore use fixed-effects regression of state suicide rates from 1981 to 2005 on state election outcomes during presidential elections to determine which effect is stronger. We find that the local effect of social integration is dominant. The suicide rate when a state supports the losing candidate will tend to be lower than if the state had supported the winning candidate-4.6 percent lower for males and 5.3 percent lower for females. Social integration works at many levels; it not only affects suicide risk directly, but can mediate other shocks that influence suicide risk.

Spatial variations of the local density of states modified by CDWs in 1 T- TaS2- xSex

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasegawa, T.; Yamaguchi, W.; Kim, J.-J.; Wei, W.; Nantoh, M.; Ikuta, H.; Kitazawa, K.; Manivannan, A.; Fujishima, A.; Uchinokura, K.

1994-07-01

Spatial variations of the local density of states (LDOS) near the Fermi level have been observed on the layered dichalcogenides 1 T- TaS2- xSex ( x = 0, 0.2, 2) for the first time. The tunneling spectra on the cleaved surfaces were measured by atomic-site tunneling (AST) spectroscopy technique at room temperature. In 1T-TaS 2, the LDOS was substantially different among the three inequivalent Ta atomic sites induced by the CDW formation. However, the surface electronic structure became homogeneous, as the Se content was increased. By substituting Se for S, the minimum position of the LDOS was systematically shifted to a higher energy side above the Fermi level.

20 CFR 658.601 - State agency responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... Cost Accounting Reports shall be compared to planned levels. Variances between achievement and plan... district office, a report describing local office performance within the area or district jurisdiction... System (ESARS) tables and Cost Accounting Reports shall be compared to planned levels. Variances between...

20 CFR 658.601 - State agency responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... Cost Accounting Reports shall be compared to planned levels. Variances between achievement and plan... district office, a report describing local office performance within the area or district jurisdiction... System (ESARS) tables and Cost Accounting Reports shall be compared to planned levels. Variances between...

20 CFR 658.601 - State agency responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... Cost Accounting Reports shall be compared to planned levels. Variances between achievement and plan... district office, a report describing local office performance within the area or district jurisdiction... System (ESARS) tables and Cost Accounting Reports shall be compared to planned levels. Variances between...

Estimation of geographic variation in human papillomavirus vaccine uptake in men and women: an online survey using facebook recruitment.

PubMed

Nelson, Erik J; Hughes, John; Oakes, J Michael; Pankow, James S; Kulasingam, Shalini L

2014-09-01

Federally funded surveys of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake are important for pinpointing geographically based health disparities. Although national and state level data are available, local (ie, county and postal code level) data are not due to small sample sizes, confidentiality concerns, and cost. Local level HPV vaccine uptake data may be feasible to obtain by targeting specific geographic areas through social media advertising and recruitment strategies, in combination with online surveys. Our goal was to use Facebook-based recruitment and online surveys to estimate local variation in HPV vaccine uptake among young men and women in Minnesota. From November 2012 to January 2013, men and women were recruited via a targeted Facebook advertisement campaign to complete an online survey about HPV vaccination practices. The Facebook advertisements were targeted to recruit men and women by location (25 mile radius of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States), age (18-30 years), and language (English). Of the 2079 men and women who responded to the Facebook advertisements and visited the study website, 1003 (48.2%) enrolled in the study and completed the survey. The average advertising cost per completed survey was US $1.36. Among those who reported their postal code, 90.6% (881/972) of the participants lived within the previously defined geographic study area. Receipt of 1 dose or more of HPV vaccine was reported by 65.6% women (351/535), and 13.0% (45/347) of men. These results differ from previously reported Minnesota state level estimates (53.8% for young women and 20.8% for young men) and from national estimates (34.5% for women and 2.3% for men). This study shows that recruiting a representative sample of young men and women based on county and postal code location to complete a survey on HPV vaccination uptake via the Internet is a cost-effective and feasible strategy. This study also highlights the need for local estimates to assess the variation in HPV vaccine uptake, as these estimates differ considerably from those obtained using survey data that are aggregated to the state or federal level.

Estimation of Geographic Variation in Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Uptake in Men and Women: An Online Survey Using Facebook Recruitment

PubMed Central

Hughes, John; Oakes, J Michael; Pankow, James S; Kulasingam, Shalini L

2014-01-01

Background Federally funded surveys of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake are important for pinpointing geographically based health disparities. Although national and state level data are available, local (ie, county and postal code level) data are not due to small sample sizes, confidentiality concerns, and cost. Local level HPV vaccine uptake data may be feasible to obtain by targeting specific geographic areas through social media advertising and recruitment strategies, in combination with online surveys. Objective Our goal was to use Facebook-based recruitment and online surveys to estimate local variation in HPV vaccine uptake among young men and women in Minnesota. Methods From November 2012 to January 2013, men and women were recruited via a targeted Facebook advertisement campaign to complete an online survey about HPV vaccination practices. The Facebook advertisements were targeted to recruit men and women by location (25 mile radius of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States), age (18-30 years), and language (English). Results Of the 2079 men and women who responded to the Facebook advertisements and visited the study website, 1003 (48.2%) enrolled in the study and completed the survey. The average advertising cost per completed survey was US $1.36. Among those who reported their postal code, 90.6% (881/972) of the participants lived within the previously defined geographic study area. Receipt of 1 dose or more of HPV vaccine was reported by 65.6% women (351/535), and 13.0% (45/347) of men. These results differ from previously reported Minnesota state level estimates (53.8% for young women and 20.8% for young men) and from national estimates (34.5% for women and 2.3% for men). Conclusions This study shows that recruiting a representative sample of young men and women based on county and postal code location to complete a survey on HPV vaccination uptake via the Internet is a cost-effective and feasible strategy. This study also highlights the need for local estimates to assess the variation in HPV vaccine uptake, as these estimates differ considerably from those obtained using survey data that are aggregated to the state or federal level. PMID:25231937

Associations between state-level soda taxes and adolescent body mass index.

PubMed

Powell, Lisa M; Chriqui, Jamie; Chaloupka, Frank J

2009-09-01

Soft drink consumption has been linked with higher energy intake, obesity, and poorer health. Fiscal pricing policies such as soda taxes may lower soda consumption and, in turn, reduce weight among U.S. adolescents. This study used multivariate linear regression analyses to examine the associations between state-level grocery store and vending machine soda taxes and adolescent body mass index (BMI). We used repeated cross-sections of individual-level data on adolescents drawn from the Monitoring the Future surveys combined with state-level tax data and local area contextual measures for the years 1997 through 2006. The results showed no statistically significant associations between state-level soda taxes and adolescent BMI. Only a weak economic and statistically significant effect was found between vending machine soda tax rates and BMI among teens at risk for overweight. Current state-level tax rates are not found to be significantly associated with adolescent weight outcomes. It is likely that taxes would need to be raised substantially to detect significant associations between taxes and adolescent weight.

A study of incentives to support and promote public health accreditation.

PubMed

Thielen, Lee; Leff, Marilyn; Corso, Liza; Monteiro, Erinn; Fisher, Jessica Solomon; Pearsol, Jim

2014-01-01

Accreditation of public health agencies through the Public Health Accreditation Board is voluntary. Incentives that encourage agencies to apply for accreditation have been suggested as important factors in facilitating participation by state and local agencies. The project describes both current and potential incentives that are available at the federal, state, and local levels. Thirty-nine key informants from local, state, tribal, federal, and academic settings were interviewed from March through May 2012. Through open-ended interviews, respondents were asked about incentives that were currently in use in their settings and incentives they thought would help encourage participation in Public Health Accreditation Board accreditation. Incentives currently in use by public health agencies based on interviews include (1) financial support, (2) legal mandates, (3) technical assistance, (4) peer support workgroups, and (5) state agencies serving as role models by seeking accreditation themselves. Key informants noted that state agencies are playing valuable and diverse roles in providing incentives for accreditation within their own states. Key informants also identified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other players, such as private foundations, public health institutes, national and state associations, and academia as providing both technical and financial assistance to support accreditation efforts. State, tribal, local, and federal agencies, as well as related organizations can play an important role by providing incentives to move agencies toward accreditation.

Political factors affecting the enactment of state-level clean indoor air laws.

PubMed

Tung, Gregory Jackson; Vernick, Jon S; Stuart, Elizabeth A; Webster, Daniel W

2014-06-01

We examined the effects of key political institutional factors on the advancement of state-level clean indoor air laws. We performed an observational study of state-level clean indoor air law enactment among all 50 US states from 1993 to 2010 by using extended Cox hazard models to assess risk of enacting a relevant law. During the 18-year period from 1993 to 2010, 28 states passed a law covering workplaces, 33 states passed a law covering restaurants, 29 states passed a law covering bars, and 16 states passed a law covering gaming facilities. States with term limits had a 2.15 times greater hazard (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.27, 3.65; P = .005) of enacting clean indoor air laws. The presence of state-level preemption of local clean indoor air laws was associated with a 3.26 times greater hazard (95% CI = 1.11, 9.53; P = .031) of state-level policy enactment. In the presence of preemption, increased legislative professionalism was strongly associated (hazard ratio = 3.28; 95% CI = 1.10, 9.75; P = .033) with clean indoor air law enactment. Political institutional factors do influence state-level clean indoor air law enactment and may be relevant to other public health policy areas.

Geographic variation in public health spending: correlates and consequences.

PubMed

Mays, Glen P; Smith, Sharla A

2009-10-01

To examine the extent of variation in public health agency spending levels across communities and over time, and to identify institutional and community correlates of this variation. Three cross-sectional surveys of the nation's 2,900 local public health agencies conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials in 1993, 1997, and 2005, linked with contemporaneous information on population demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, and health resources. A longitudinal cohort design was used to analyze community-level variation and change in per-capita public health agency spending between 1993 and 2005. Multivariate regression models for panel data were used to estimate associations between spending, institutional characteristics, health resources, and population characteristics. The top 20 percent of communities had public health agency spending levels >13 times higher than communities in the lowest quintile, and most of this variation persisted after adjusting for differences in demographics and service mix. Local boards of health and decentralized state-local administrative structures were associated with higher spending levels and lower risks of spending reductions. Local public health agency spending was inversely associated with local-area medical spending. The mechanisms that determine funding flows to local agencies may place some communities at a disadvantage in securing resources for public health activities.

On the Vertical Distribution of Local and Remote Sources of Water for Precipitation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bosilovich, Michael G.

2001-01-01

The vertical distribution of local and remote sources of water for precipitation and total column water over the United States are evaluated in a general circulation model simulation. The Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) general circulation model (GCM) includes passive constituent tracers to determine the geographical sources of the water in the column. Results show that the local percentage of precipitable water and local percentage of precipitation can be very different. The transport of water vapor from remote oceanic sources at mid and upper levels is important to the total water in the column over the central United States, while the access of locally evaporated water in convective precipitation processes is important to the local precipitation ratio. This result resembles the conceptual formulation of the convective parameterization. However, the formulations of simple models of precipitation recycling include the assumption that the ratio of the local water in the column is equal to the ratio of the local precipitation. The present results demonstrate the uncertainty in that assumption, as locally evaporated water is more concentrated near the surface.

34 CFR 300.230 - SEA flexibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true SEA flexibility. 300.230 Section 300.230 Education... DISABILITIES Local Educational Agency Eligibility § 300.230 SEA flexibility. (a) Adjustment to State fiscal... SEA, notwithstanding §§ 300.162 through 300.163 (related to State-level nonsupplanting and maintenance...

34 CFR 300.230 - SEA flexibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false SEA flexibility. 300.230 Section 300.230 Education... DISABILITIES Local Educational Agency Eligibility § 300.230 SEA flexibility. (a) Adjustment to State fiscal... SEA, notwithstanding §§ 300.162 through 300.163 (related to State-level nonsupplanting and maintenance...

34 CFR 300.230 - SEA flexibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false SEA flexibility. 300.230 Section 300.230 Education... DISABILITIES Local Educational Agency Eligibility § 300.230 SEA flexibility. (a) Adjustment to State fiscal... SEA, notwithstanding §§ 300.162 through 300.163 (related to State-level nonsupplanting and maintenance...

Some Aspects of Childrearing Practices in Three Minority Subcultures in the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Herma B.; Williams, Eric

1979-01-01

Discusses cultural differences in child-rearing practices and values among Blacks, Mexican Americans, and American Indians. Outlines implications for schooling, including the incorporation of multicultural experiences into the classroom situation, and policy recommendations on the local, state, and federal levels. (GC)

Multi-scale environmental accounting: methodological lessons from the application of NAMEA at sub-national levels.

PubMed

Dalmazzone, Silvana; La Notte, Alessandra

2013-11-30

Extending the application of integrated environmental and economic accounts from the national to the local level of government serves several purposes. They can be used not only as an instrument for communicating on the state of the environment and reporting the results of policies, but also as an operational tool - for setting the objectives and designing policies - if made available to the local authorities who have responsibility over the administration of natural resources, land use and conservation policies. The aim of the paper is to test the feasibility of applying hybrid flow accounts at the intermediate and local government levels. As an illustration, NAMEA for air emissions and wastes is applied to a Region, a Province and a Municipality, thus covering the three nested levels of local government in Italy. The study identifies the main issues raised by multi-scale environmental accounting and provides an applied discussion of feasible solutions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Variational Level Set Approach Based on Local Entropy for Image Segmentation and Bias Field Correction.

PubMed

Tang, Jian; Jiang, Xiaoliang

2017-01-01

Image segmentation has always been a considerable challenge in image analysis and understanding due to the intensity inhomogeneity, which is also commonly known as bias field. In this paper, we present a novel region-based approach based on local entropy for segmenting images and estimating the bias field simultaneously. Firstly, a local Gaussian distribution fitting (LGDF) energy function is defined as a weighted energy integral, where the weight is local entropy derived from a grey level distribution of local image. The means of this objective function have a multiplicative factor that estimates the bias field in the transformed domain. Then, the bias field prior is fully used. Therefore, our model can estimate the bias field more accurately. Finally, minimization of this energy function with a level set regularization term, image segmentation, and bias field estimation can be achieved. Experiments on images of various modalities demonstrated the superior performance of the proposed method when compared with other state-of-the-art approaches.

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 Catchments (Version 2.1) for the Conterminous United States: Surficial Lithology in Watershed

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset represents the density of 18 USGS lithology classes within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds(see Data Sources for links to NHDPlusV2 data and USGS). Attributes were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and then accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics for USGS lithology data. This data set is derived from the USGS raster map of 18 lithology classes (categorical data type) for the conterminous USA. The map was produced based on texture, internal structure, thickness, and environment of deposition or formation of materials. These 18 lithology classes were summarized by local catchment and by watershed to produce 18 local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a categorical data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description of each metric).

High spatial correspondence at a columnar level between activation and resting state fMRI signals and local field potentials.

PubMed

Shi, Zhaoyue; Wu, Ruiqi; Yang, Pai-Feng; Wang, Feng; Wu, Tung-Lin; Mishra, Arabinda; Chen, Li Min; Gore, John C

2017-05-16

Although blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI has been widely used to map brain responses to external stimuli and to delineate functional circuits at rest, the extent to which BOLD signals correlate spatially with underlying neuronal activity, the spatial relationships between stimulus-evoked BOLD activations and local correlations of BOLD signals in a resting state, and whether these spatial relationships vary across functionally distinct cortical areas are not known. To address these critical questions, we directly compared the spatial extents of stimulated activations and the local profiles of intervoxel resting state correlations for both high-resolution BOLD at 9.4 T and local field potentials (LFPs), using 98-channel microelectrode arrays, in functionally distinct primary somatosensory areas 3b and 1 in nonhuman primates. Anatomic images of LFP and BOLD were coregistered within 0.10 mm accuracy. We found that the point spread functions (PSFs) of BOLD and LFP responses were comparable in the stimulus condition, and both estimates of activations were slightly more spatially constrained than local correlations at rest. The magnitudes of stimulus responses in area 3b were stronger than those in area 1 and extended in a medial to lateral direction. In addition, the reproducibility and stability of stimulus-evoked activation locations within and across both modalities were robust. Our work suggests that the intrinsic resolution of BOLD is not a limiting feature in practice and approaches the intrinsic precision achievable by multielectrode electrophysiology.

High spatial correspondence at a columnar level between activation and resting state fMRI signals and local field potentials

PubMed Central

Shi, Zhaoyue; Wu, Ruiqi; Yang, Pai-Feng; Wang, Feng; Wu, Tung-Lin; Mishra, Arabinda; Chen, Li Min; Gore, John C.

2017-01-01

Although blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI has been widely used to map brain responses to external stimuli and to delineate functional circuits at rest, the extent to which BOLD signals correlate spatially with underlying neuronal activity, the spatial relationships between stimulus-evoked BOLD activations and local correlations of BOLD signals in a resting state, and whether these spatial relationships vary across functionally distinct cortical areas are not known. To address these critical questions, we directly compared the spatial extents of stimulated activations and the local profiles of intervoxel resting state correlations for both high-resolution BOLD at 9.4 T and local field potentials (LFPs), using 98-channel microelectrode arrays, in functionally distinct primary somatosensory areas 3b and 1 in nonhuman primates. Anatomic images of LFP and BOLD were coregistered within 0.10 mm accuracy. We found that the point spread functions (PSFs) of BOLD and LFP responses were comparable in the stimulus condition, and both estimates of activations were slightly more spatially constrained than local correlations at rest. The magnitudes of stimulus responses in area 3b were stronger than those in area 1 and extended in a medial to lateral direction. In addition, the reproducibility and stability of stimulus-evoked activation locations within and across both modalities were robust. Our work suggests that the intrinsic resolution of BOLD is not a limiting feature in practice and approaches the intrinsic precision achievable by multielectrode electrophysiology. PMID:28461461

Sleep: A synchrony of cell activity-driven small network states

PubMed Central

Krueger, James M.; Huang, Yanhua; Rector, David M.; Buysse, Daniel J.

2013-01-01

We posit a bottom-up sleep regulatory paradigm in which state changes are initiated within small networks as a consequence of local cell activity. Bottom-up regulatory mechanisms are prevalent throughout nature, occurring in vastly different systems and levels of organization. Synchronization of state without top-down regulation is a fundamental property of large collections of small semi-autonomous entities. We posit that such synchronization mechanisms are sufficient and necessary for whole organism sleep onset. Within brain we posit that small networks of highly interconnected neurons and glia, e.g. cortical columns, are semi-autonomous units oscillating between sleep-like and wake-like states. We review evidence showing that cells, small networks, and regional areas of brain share sleep-like properties with whole animal sleep. A testable hypothesis focused on how sleep is initiated within local networks is presented. We posit that the release of cell activity-dependent molecules, such as ATP and nitric oxide, into the extracellular space initiates state changes within the local networks where they are produced. We review mechanisms of ATP induction of sleep regulatory substances (SRS) and their actions on receptor trafficking. Finally, we provide an example of how such local metabolic and state changes provide mechanistic explanations for clinical conditions such as insomnia. PMID:23651209

Entanglement complexity in quantum many-body dynamics, thermalization, and localization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Zhi-Cheng; Hamma, Alioscia; Giampaolo, Salvatore M.; Mucciolo, Eduardo R.; Chamon, Claudio

2017-07-01

Entanglement is usually quantified by von Neumann entropy, but its properties are much more complex than what can be expressed with a single number. We show that the three distinct dynamical phases known as thermalization, Anderson localization, and many-body localization are marked by different patterns of the spectrum of the reduced density matrix for a state evolved after a quantum quench. While the entanglement spectrum displays Poisson statistics for the case of Anderson localization, it displays universal Wigner-Dyson statistics for both the cases of many-body localization and thermalization, albeit the universal distribution is asymptotically reached within very different time scales in these two cases. We further show that the complexity of entanglement, revealed by the possibility of disentangling the state through a Metropolis-like algorithm, is signaled by whether the entanglement spectrum level spacing is Poisson or Wigner-Dyson distributed.

Non-locality of non-Abelian anyons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brennen, G. K.; Iblisdir, S.; Pachos, J. K.; Slingerland, J. K.

2009-10-01

Entangled states of quantum systems can give rise to measurement correlations of separated observers that cannot be described by local hidden variable theories. Usually, it is assumed that entanglement between particles is generated due to some distance-dependent interaction. Yet anyonic particles in two dimensions have a nontrivial interaction that is purely topological in nature. In other words, it does not depend on the distance between two particles, but rather on their exchange history. The information encoded in anyons is inherently non-local even in the single subsystem level making the treatment of anyons non-conventional. We describe a protocol to reveal the non-locality of anyons in terms of correlations in the outcomes of measurements in two separated regions. This gives a clear operational measure of non-locality for anyonic states and it opens up the possibility to test Bell inequalities in quantum Hall liquids or spin lattices.

Migrants from central and eastern Europe: local geographies.

PubMed

Bauere, Viktorija; Densham, Paul; Millar, Jane; Salt, John

2007-01-01

This article seeks to develop our geographical knowledge of labour migration into the UK by adopting a local authority approach, using data from the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) for the period May 2004-December 2006. WRS enables us to view at local level the distribution of new national groups (based on citizenship not country of birth as in the Census) and to identify some of the major characteristics of the new flows at local level, including nationality, industry, hours worked and hourly pay. The data allow only a partial view of the picture of immigration from the eight accession states and there are dangers in drawing detailed inferences about local situations. However, it appears that there are distinct geographies associated with this group of immigrants as a whole, with different national groups and in their economic characteristics.

Obesity and diabetes, the built environment, and the 'local' food economy in the United States, 2007.

PubMed

Salois, Matthew J

2012-01-01

Obesity and diabetes are increasingly attributed to environmental factors, however, little attention has been paid to the influence of the 'local' food economy. This paper examines the association of measures relating to the built environment and 'local' agriculture with U.S. county-level prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Key indicators of the 'local' food economy include the density of farmers' markets and the presence of farms with direct sales. This paper employs a robust regression estimator to account for non-normality of the data and to accommodate outliers. Overall, the built environment is associated with the prevalence of obesity and diabetes and a strong local' food economy may play an important role in prevention. Results imply considerable scope for community-level interventions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fano-shaped impurity spectral density, electric-field-induced in-gap state, and local magnetic moment of an adatom on trilayer graphene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zu-Quan; Li, Shuai; Lü, Jing-Tao; Gao, Jin-Hua

2017-08-01

Recently, the existence of local magnetic moment in a hydrogen adatom on graphene was confirmed experimentally [González-Herrero et al., Science 352, 437 (2016), 10.1126/science.aad8038]. Inspired by this breakthrough, we theoretically investigate the top-site adatom on trilayer graphene (TLG) by solving the Anderson impurity model via self-consistent mean field method. The influence of the stacking order, the adsorption site, and external electric field are carefully considered. We find that, due to its unique electronic structure, the situation of TLG is drastically different from that of the monolayer graphene. First, the adatom on rhombohedral stacked TLG (r-TLG) can have a Fano-shaped impurity spectral density, instead of the normal Lorentzian-like one, when the impurity level is around the Fermi level. Second, the impurity level of the adatom on r-TLG can be tuned into an in-gap state by an external electric field, which strongly depends on the direction of the applied electric field and can significantly affect the local magnetic moment formation. Finally, we systematically calculate the impurity magnetic phase diagrams, considering various stacking orders, adsorption sites, doping, and electric field. We show that, because of the in-gap state, the impurity magnetic phase of r-TLG will obviously depend on the direction of the applied electric field as well. All our theoretical results can be readily tested in experiment, and may give a comprehensive understanding about the local magnetic moment of an adatom on TLG.

Prevalence, Gender and Level of Schooling Differences in Secondary School Students Level of Shyness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Onukwufor, Jonathan N.; Iruloh, Betty-Ruth Ngozi

2017-01-01

This study was conducted to ascertain the prevalence, gender and level of schooling differences in secondary school students' level of shyness in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State. Population of the study comprised all the senior secondary school class two (SSS II) and all the Junior Secondary school class two (JSS II) students in the…

Beyond Section 508: The Spectrum of Legal Requirements for Accessible e-Government Web Sites in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jaeger, Paul T.

2004-01-01

In the United States, a number of federal laws establish requirements that electronic government (e-government) information and services be accessible to individuals with disabilities. These laws affect e-government Web sites at the federal, state, and local levels. To this point, research about the accessibility of e-government Web sites has…

What State Supply and Demand Studies Tell Us about Special Education Personnel Needs. Practice Brief. Spring 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muller, Eve

2011-01-01

Critical to any comprehensive plan for addressing personnel shortages in the field of special education is the gathering of data on supply and demand at the state and local education agency (LEA) levels. Many states now conduct regular supply and demand studies in order to inform decisions regarding the recruitment, preparation and retention of…

Linkages among Education, Health, and Social Services Systems in States That Are Creating New Governance Structures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mutchler, Sue E.; Pollard, Joyce S.

As they work to develop integrated, community-driven service systems that meet the constellation of needs of children and families, several states are beginning to develop new governance structures at the local level. This paper describes the ways in which states are creating or supporting linkages among education, health, and human services. A…

The State of Diabetes Care Provided to Medicare Beneficiaries Living in Rural America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weingarten, Joseph P.; Brittman, Susan; Hu, Wenrong; Przybyszewski, Chris; Hammond, Judith M.; FitzGerald, Dawn

2006-01-01

Context: Diabetes poses a growing health burden in the United States, but much of the research to date has been at the state and local level. Purpose: To present a national profile of diabetes care provided to Medicare beneficiaries living in urban, semirural, and rural communities. Methods: Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes aged 18-75 were…

A decision-support framework for using value capture to fund public transit : lessons from project-specific analyses.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-05-01

Local and state governments provide 75 percent of transit funds in the United States. With all levels of governments under significant fiscal stress, any new transit funding mechanism is welcome. Value capture (VC) is one such mechanism. Based on the...

Professional Development in the Field of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Jeanne L. Hager

2009-01-01

The process of continual growth and development in the teaching profession represents a common value among education professionals. Federal and state laws maintain that teachers must continue to study. These mandates, pronounced at federal, state, and local levels to create high academic standards for students, must be met through quality…

Politics, Planning and Regionalism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zukosky, Jerome

The concept of regionalism identifies the issues in public affairs pertaining to a region and develops structures through which citizens can participate in the decisionmaking process. This speech describes educational decisions in the State of New York as affected by local decentralization and by concentration of power at the State level. Relevant…

75 FR 79278 - Community Reinvestment Act Regulations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-20

... tracts, affected by high levels of loan delinquencies and foreclosures. Among the many consequences of... homes in default or delinquency in each State or unit of general local government. Under NSP1, each of... rates, subprime mortgages, and home mortgage defaults and delinquencies and each State will receive not...

Implementing Charitable Choice at the State and Local Levels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haberkern, Rachel M.

2002-01-01

The 1998 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was the first federal legislation to contain a "charitable choice" provision allowing faith-based organizations (FBOs) to compete for state and federal government funds on the same basis as secular providers. For FBOs that consider pursuit of government…

Navigating School Safety Law and Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaillancourt, Kelly; Rossen, Eric

2012-01-01

Initiatives designed to improve school safety and conditions for learning have become central to education reform efforts at the local, state, and national levels. These efforts often target the reduction and prevention of bullying, discrimination, and harassment in schools. While most states currently have some form of law or policy designed to…

Steps for Implementing a State-Level Professional Development Plan for Secondary Transition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazzotti, Valerie L.; Rowe, Dawn A.; Simonsen, Monica; Boaz, Bonnie; VanAvery, Cynthia

2018-01-01

To scale up and sustain the use of evidence-based practices, it is imperative that state education agencies systematically implement professional development that represents best practice. By delivering quality professional development to local districts, it is more likely that transition personnel will implement transition programs and practices…

The Political Limits to School Finance Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Michael A.; And Others

This study focuses on the political feasibility of some of the alternatives open to States for raising educational revenue and allocating funds to local school districts. Eight states -- California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Oregon -- were chosen for study, to represent a range in (1) the level of State…

The Politics of Education at the Local, State and Federal Levels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirst, Michael W., Ed.

The contents of this book are organized in three parts, the first of which is divided into two sections. Part I. Political Influence in Local Education Policy Making. Section A. Politics of education in large cities: "Schools and politics in the big city," Robert H. Salisbury; "Fiscal status and school policy making in six large…

Podiatric Assisting: A Curriculum Planning and Resource Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heath, Walter D.; Spetz, Sally H.

This curriculum resource guide, one of seven developed by the State of Illinois to present information on new and emerging curricula existing in the nation, can be used as a basis for local educators to determine the resources needed to offer podiatric assistant curricula and to initiate curriculum development at the local level. Chapters 1 and 2…

Solar Energy Technology: A Curriculum Planning and Resource Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas-Gordon, Sandy L.; Spetz, Sally H.

This curriculum resource guide, one of seven developed by the State of Illinois to present information on new and emerging curricula existing in the nation, can be used as a basis for local educators to determine the resources needed to offer solar technology curricula and to initiate curriculum development at the local level. Chapters 1 and 2…

Swine Confinement Management: A Curriculum Planning and Resource Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heath, Walter D.; Spetz, Sally H.

This curriculum resource guide, one of seven developed by the State of Illinois to present information on new and emerging curricula existing in the nation, can be used as a basis for local educators to determine the resources needed to offer swine confinement management curricula and to initiate curriculum development at the local level. Chapters…

Functional Hemispheric Asymmetries of Global/Local Processing Mirrored by the Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martens, Ulla; Hubner, Ronald

2013-01-01

While hemispheric differences in global/local processing have been reported by various studies, it is still under dispute at which processing stage they occur. Primarily, it was assumed that these asymmetries originate from an early perceptual stage. Instead, the content-level binding theory (Hubner & Volberg, 2005) suggests that the hemispheres…

At the Forefront of the New Accountability Era: Early Implementation Findings from the CORE Waiver Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsh, Julie A.; Bush-Mecenas, Susan; Hough, Heather J.; Park, Vicki; Allbright, Taylor; Hall, Michelle; Glover, Holly

2016-01-01

California and the nation are at the crossroads of a major shift in school accountability policy. At the state level, California's Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) encourages the use of multiple measures of school performance used locally to support continuous improvement and strategic resource allocation. Similarly, the federal Every…

[Methodologies for Ascertaining Local Education Needs and for Allocating and Developing Resources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bellott, Fred

A survey of 125 school systems in the United States was conducted to investigate methodologies used for developing needs assessment programs at a local level. Schools were asked to reply to a questionnaire which attempted to detail and identify how needs assessment programs are set up, what methodologies are employed, the number of resultant…

Characteristics of dielectric properties and conduction mechanism of TlInS2:Cu single crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El-Nahass, M. M.; Ali, H. A. M.; El-Zaidia, E. F. M.

2013-12-01

Single crystals of TlInS2:Cu were grown by the modified Bridgman method. The dielectric behavior of TlInS2:Cu was investigated using the impedance spectroscopy technique. The real (ε1), imaginary (ε2) parts of complex dielectric permittivity and ac conductivity were measured in the frequency range (42-2×105) Hz with a variation of temperature in the range from 291 K to 483 K. The impedance data were presented in Nyquist diagrams for different temperatures. The frequency dependence of σtot (ω) follows the Jonscher's universal dynamic law with the relation σtot (ω)=σdc+Aωs, (where s is the frequency exponent). The mechanism of the ac charge transport across the layers of TlInS2:Cu single crystals was referred to the hopping over localized states near the Fermi level. The examined system exhibits temperature dependence of σac (ω), which showed a linear increase with the increase in temperature at different frequencies. Some parameters were calculated as: the density of localized states near the Fermi level, NF, the average time of charge carrier hopping between localized states, τ, and the average hopping distance, R.

The integration of object levels and their content: a theory of global/local processing and related hemispheric differences.

PubMed

Hübner, Ronald; Volberg, Gregor

2005-06-01

This article presents and tests the authors' integration hypothesis of global/local processing, which proposes that at early stages of processing, the identities of global and local units of a hierarchical stimulus are represented separately from information about their respective levels and that, therefore, identity and level information have to be integrated at later stages. It further states that the cerebral hemispheres differ in their capacities for these binding processes. Three experiments are reported in which the integration hypothesis was tested. Participants had to identify a letter at a prespecified level with the viewing duration restricted by a mask. False reporting of the letter at the nontarget level was predicted to occur more often when the integration of identity and level could fail. This was the case. Moreover, visual-field effects occurred, as expected. Finally, a multinomial model was constructed and fitted to the data. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).

Adult education and the challenges of regional development: Policy and sustainability in North Denmark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rasmussen, Palle; Staugaard, Hans Jørgen

2016-10-01

Adult education is governed at many levels - internationally, nationally and locally. The authors of this paper look at the challenges, structures and practices of adult education policy at the local level, more specifically in North Denmark (Northern Jutland), one of the five administrative regions of the Danish nation-state. In many ways, the current educational challenges in this remote region of Europe are similar to what can be observed worldwide and especially in countries which are generally considered welfare states. The authors see the growing social and educational divide between the region's peripheral areas and its largest city centre as a major challenge - for society as a whole and for adult education in particular. It is from this perspective that the authors describe the present structures of adult education in the region and the strategies employed by local authorities and educational institutions. This is followed by an evaluation of both structures and efforts in terms of their ability to cope with the challenges.

The Obesity Prevention Initiative: A Statewide Effort to Improve Child Health in Wisconsin.

PubMed

Adams, Alexandra K; Christens, Brian; Meinen, Amy; Korth, Amy; Remington, Patrick L; Lindberg, Sara; Schoeller, Dale

2016-11-01

Obesity rates have increased dramatically, especially among children and disadvantaged populations. Obesity is a complex issue, creating a compelling need for prevention efforts in communities to move from single isolated programs to comprehensive multisystem interventions. To address these issues, we have established a childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (Initiative) for Wisconsin. This Initiative seeks to test community change frameworks that can support multisystem interventions and provide data for local action as a means for influencing policies, systems, and environments that support individuals’ healthy eating and physical activity. The Initiative is comprised of three components: (1) infrastructure to support a statewide obesity prevention and health promotion network with state- and local-level public messaging and dissemination of evidence-based solutions (healthTIDE); (2) piloting a local, multisetting community-led intervention study in 2 Wisconsin counties; and (3) developing a geocoded statewide childhood obesity and fitness surveillance system. This Initiative is using a new model that involves both coalition action and community organizing to align resources to achieve health improvement at local and state levels. We expect that it will help lead to the implementation of cohesive and sustainable policy, system, and environment health promotion and obesity prevention strategies in communities statewide, and it has the potential to help Wisconsin become a national model for multisetting community interventions to address obesity. Addressing individual-level health through population-level changes ultimately will result in reductions in the prevalence of childhood obesity, current and future health care costs, and chronic disease mortality.

The Obesity Prevention Initiative: A Statewide Effort to Improve Child Health in Wisconsin.

PubMed

Adams, Alexandra K; Christens, Brian; Meinen, Amy; Korth, Amy; Remington, Patrick L; Lindberg, Sara; Schoeller, Dale

2016-11-01

Obesity rates have increased dramatically, especially among children and disadvantaged populations. Obesity is a complex issue, creating a compelling need for prevention efforts in communities to move from single isolated programs to comprehensive multisystem interventions. To address these issues, we have established a childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (Initiative) for Wisconsin. This Initiative seeks to test community change frameworks that can support multisystem interventions and provide data for local action as a means for influencing policies, systems, and environments that support individuals' healthy eating and physical activity. The Initiative is comprised of three components: (1) infrastructure to support a statewide obesity prevention and health promotion network with state- and local-level public messaging and dissemination of evidence-based solutions (healthTIDE); (2) piloting a local, multisetting community-led intervention study in 2 Wisconsin counties; and (3) developing a geocoded statewide childhood obesity and fitness surveillance system. This Initiative is using a new model that involves both coalition action and community organizing to align resources to achieve health improvement at local and state levels. We expect that it will help lead to the implementation of cohesive and sustainable policy, system, and environment health promotion and obesity prevention strategies in communities statewide, and it has the potential to help Wisconsin become a national model for multisetting community interventions to address obesity. Addressing individual-level health through population-level changes ultimately will result in reductions in the prevalence of childhood obesity, current and future health care costs, and chronic disease mortality.

Quantum Theories of Self-Localization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernstein, Lisa Joan

In the classical dynamics of coupled oscillator systems, nonlinearity leads to the existence of stable solutions in which energy remains localized for all time. Here the quantum-mechanical counterpart of classical self-localization is investigated in the context of two model systems. For these quantum models, the terms corresponding to classical nonlinearities modify a subset of the stationary quantum states to be particularly suited to the creation of nonstationary wavepackets that localize energy for long times. The first model considered here is the Quantized Discrete Self-Trapping model (QDST), a system of anharmonic oscillators with linear dispersive coupling used to model local modes of vibration in polyatomic molecules. A simple formula is derived for a particular symmetry class of QDST systems which gives an analytic connection between quantum self-localization and classical local modes. This formula is also shown to be useful in the interpretation of the vibrational spectra of some molecules. The second model studied is the Frohlich/Einstein Dimer (FED), a two-site system of anharmonically coupled oscillators based on the Frohlich Hamiltonian and motivated by the theory of Davydov solitons in biological protein. The Born-Oppenheimer perturbation method is used to obtain approximate stationary state wavefunctions with error estimates for the FED at the first excited level. A second approach is used to reduce the first excited level FED eigenvalue problem to a system of ordinary differential equations. A simple theory of low-energy self-localization in the FED is discussed. The quantum theories of self-localization in the intrinsic QDST model and the extrinsic FED model are compared.

A multistate examination of partnership activity among local public health systems using the National Public Health Performance Standards.

PubMed

Barnes, Priscilla A; Curtis, Amy B; Hall-Downey, Laura; Moonesinghe, Ramal

2012-01-01

This study examines whether partnership-related measures in the second version of the National Public Health Performance Standards (NPHPS) are useful in evaluating level of activity as well as identifying latent constructs that exist among local public health systems (LPHSs). In a sample of 110 LPHSs, descriptive analysis was conducted to determine frequency and percentage of 18 partnership-related NPHPS measures. Principal components factor analysis was conducted to identify unobserved characteristics that promote effective partnerships among LPHSs. Results revealed that 13 of the 18 measures were most frequently reported at the minimal-moderate level (conducted 1%-49% of the time). Coordination of personal health and social services to optimize access (74.6%) was the most frequently reported measure at minimal-moderate levels. Optimal levels (conducted >75% of the time) were reported most frequently in 2 activities: participation in emergency preparedness coalitions and local health departments ensuring service provision by working with state health departments (67% and 61% of respondents, respectively) and the least optimally reported activity was review partnership effectiveness (4% of respondents). Factor analysis revealed categories of partnership-related measures in 4 domains: resources and activities contributing to relationship building, evaluating community leadership activities, research, and state and local linkages to support public health activities. System-oriented public health assessments may have questions that serve as proxy measures to examine levels of interorganizational partnerships. Several measures from the NPHPS were useful in establishing a national baseline of minimal and optimal activity levels as well as identifying factors to enhance the delivery of the 10 essential public health services among organizations and individuals in public health systems.

Use of sediment-trace element geochemical models for the identification of local fluvial baseline concentrations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Horowitz, A.J.; Elrick, K.A.; Demas, C.R.; Demcheck, D.K.

1991-01-01

Studies have demonstrated the utility of fluvial bed sediment chemical data in assesing local water-quality conditions. However, establishing local background trace element levels can be difficult. Reference to published average concentrations or the use of dated cores are often of little use in small areas of diverse local petrology, geology, land use, or hydrology. An alternative approach entails the construction of a series of sediment-trace element predictive models based on data from environmentally diverse but unaffected areas. Predicted values could provide a measure of local background concentrations and comparison with actual measured concentrations could identify elevated trace elements and affected sites. Such a model set was developed from surface bed sediments collected nationwide in the United States. Tests of the models in a small Louisiana basin indicated that they could be used to establish local trace element background levels, but required recalibration to account for local geochemical conditions outside the range of samples used to generate the nationwide models.

Policy Making for American Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Roald F.; Layton, Donald H.

This monograph studies the policy-making process of public schools at the elementary and secondary levels. Variables include legislative bodies and courts at the local, State, and national levels and special interest groups (e.g., labor unions and religious bodies, professional educators, and qualified voters). Public expectations have contributed…

77 FR 13566 - DoDEA Grants to Military Connected Local Educational Agencies for Academic and Support Programs...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-07

... enrollment at the district level. Eligible schools must have at least a 15 percent military dependent student... may be teaching and learning strategies that often cut across all content areas and all grade levels... grade levels will not have state norm- or criterion-referenced tests to demonstrate need and reveal...

23 CFR Appendix E to Part 1240 - Determination of Federal Medical Savings

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... existing injury levels to determine the impact of increasing seat belt use on motor vehicle safety. Using... Economic Cost of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 1994,” 2 NHTSA measured both the medical costs and payment sources... individual State income levels to reflect local cost levels. These per-case costs will be further adjusted...

40 CFR 63.99 - Delegated Federal authorities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... lists the specific source categories that have been delegated to the air pollution control agencies in... Generic MACT: Control Devices SS X X X Eq. Leaks—Level 1 TT X X X Eq. Leaks—Level 2 UU X X X Tanks—Level 2... General Provisions Authorities to State and Local Air Pollution Control Agencies.” 2 Alaska received...

40 CFR 63.99 - Delegated Federal authorities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... lists the specific source categories that have been delegated to the air pollution control agencies in... Generic MACT: Control Devices SS X X X Eq. Leaks—Level 1 TT X X X Eq. Leaks—Level 2 UU X X X Tanks—Level 2... General Provisions Authorities to State and Local Air Pollution Control Agencies.” 2 Alaska received...

Surging Seas Risk Finder: A Simple Search-Based Web Tool for Local Sea Level Rise Projections, Coastal Flood Risk Forecasts, and Inundation Exposure Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strauss, B.; Dodson, D.; Kulp, S. A.; Rizza, D. H.

2016-12-01

Surging Seas Risk Finder (riskfinder.org) is an online tool for accessing extensive local projections and analysis of sea level rise; coastal floods; and land, populations, contamination sources, and infrastructure and other assets that may be exposed to inundation. Risk Finder was first published in 2013 for Florida, New York and New Jersey, expanding to all states in the contiguous U.S. by 2016, when a major new version of the tool was released with a completely new interface. The revised tool was informed by hundreds of survey responses from and conversations with planners, local officials and other coastal stakeholders, plus consideration of modern best practices for responsive web design and user interfaces, and social science-based principles for science communication. Overarching design principles include simplicity and ease of navigation, leading to a landing page with Google-like sparsity and focus on search, and to an architecture based on search, so that each coastal zip code, city, county, state or other place type has its own webpage gathering all relevant analysis in modular, scrollable units. Millions of users have visited the Surging Seas suite of tools to date, and downloaded thousands of files, for stated purposes ranging from planning to business to education to personal decisions; and from institutions ranging from local to federal government agencies, to businesses, to NGOs, and to academia.

Sociological survey in a municipality with a high level separate collection programme in an area of historic unpopularity.

PubMed

De Feo, Giovanni

2014-08-01

Behaviours, opinions and knowledge of citizens on MSW and separate collection were investigated in the city of Mercato San Severino (about 22,000 people), in the Campania region of Southern Italy that is an area suffering from a serious solid waste emergency that has lasted over 17 years due to the absence of treatment facilities. The image of heaps of rubbish in the streets of Naples and other nearby cities is only one side of the coin. Mercato San Severino has adopted an effective kerbside collection system since 2001 and a pay-as-you-throw program during 2005, guaranteeing more than the minimum level of recycling required by the Italian legislation. Structured questionnaires were administered to a sample of 500 people in 2010. Chi-square tests of independence were applied to state whether the differences were statistically significant (5%). About 90% of the sample stated that the success of the separate collection program was due to either the citizens and local authority or only the local authority, highlighting the leading role of the local authority and confirming that trust is the key to any social program success. The registered level of knowledge was better than that of nearby university students and citizens. The higher the education level, the greater the level of knowledge was. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Graphene quantum blisters: A tunable system to confine charge carriers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullah, H. M.; Van der Donck, M.; Bahlouli, H.; Peeters, F. M.; Van Duppen, B.

2018-05-01

Due to Klein tunneling, electrostatic confinement of electrons in graphene is not possible. This hinders the use of graphene for quantum dot applications. Only through quasi-bound states with finite lifetime has one achieved to confine charge carriers. Here, we propose that bilayer graphene with a local region of decoupled graphene layers is able to generate bound states under the application of an electrostatic gate. The discrete energy levels in such a quantum blister correspond to localized electron and hole states in the top and bottom layers. We find that this layer localization and the energy spectrum itself are tunable by a global electrostatic gate and that the latter also coincides with the electronic modes in a graphene disk. Curiously, states with energy close to the continuum exist primarily in the classically forbidden region outside the domain defining the blister. The results are robust against variations in size and shape of the blister which shows that it is a versatile system to achieve tunable electrostatic confinement in graphene.

Light-Nuclei Spectra from Chiral Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piarulli, M.; Baroni, A.; Girlanda, L.; Kievsky, A.; Lovato, A.; Lusk, Ewing; Marcucci, L. E.; Pieper, Steven C.; Schiavilla, R.; Viviani, M.; Wiringa, R. B.

2018-02-01

In recent years local chiral interactions have been derived and implemented in quantum Monte Carlo methods in order to test to what extent the chiral effective field theory framework impacts our knowledge of few- and many-body systems. In this Letter, we present Green's function Monte Carlo calculations of light nuclei based on the family of local two-body interactions presented by our group in a previous paper in conjunction with chiral three-body interactions fitted to bound- and scattering-state observables in the three-nucleon sector. These interactions include Δ intermediate states in their two-pion-exchange components. We obtain predictions for the energy levels and level ordering of nuclei in the mass range A =4 - 12 , accurate to ≤2 % of the binding energy, in very satisfactory agreement with experimental data.

First-principles modeling of localized d states with the GW@LDA+U approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Hong; Gomez-Abal, Ricardo I.; Rinke, Patrick; Scheffler, Matthias

2010-07-01

First-principles modeling of systems with localized d states is currently a great challenge in condensed-matter physics. Density-functional theory in the standard local-density approximation (LDA) proves to be problematic. This can be partly overcome by including local Hubbard U corrections (LDA+U) but itinerant states are still treated on the LDA level. Many-body perturbation theory in the GW approach offers both a quasiparticle perspective (appropriate for itinerant states) and an exact treatment of exchange (appropriate for localized states), and is therefore promising for these systems. LDA+U has previously been viewed as an approximate GW scheme. We present here a derivation that is simpler and more general, starting from the static Coulomb-hole and screened exchange approximation to the GW self-energy. Following our previous work for f -electron systems [H. Jiang, R. I. Gomez-Abal, P. Rinke, and M. Scheffler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 126403 (2009)10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.126403] we conduct a systematic investigation of the GW method based on LDA+U(GW@LDA+U) , as implemented in our recently developed all-electron GW code FHI-gap (Green’s function with augmented plane waves) for a series of prototypical d -electron systems: (1) ScN with empty d states, (2) ZnS with semicore d states, and (3) late transition-metal oxides (MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO) with partially occupied d states. We show that for ZnS and ScN, the GW band gaps only weakly depend on U but for the other transition-metal oxides the dependence on U is as strong as in LDA+U . These different trends can be understood in terms of changes in the hybridization and screening. Our work demonstrates that GW@LDA+U with “physical” values of U provides a balanced and accurate description of both localized and itinerant states.

Investigating the Effects of a Structured Writing Program in a Math Classroom: A Quantitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Girsa, Heather

2016-01-01

In a northeastern state eighth grade math students are struggling with meeting adequate yearly progress in math. The state's math proficiency in the school year 2013-2014 for eighth grade students showed that only 56% scored at grade level or above. The local problem addressed in this study is that 44% of a northeastern state's eighth graders are…

Marginalization of Local Varieties in the L2 Classroom: The Case of U.S. Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Katharine E.

2018-01-01

The United States is one of the world's most populous Hispanophone countries, with over 35 million Spanish-speakers. In addition, Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the United States, with more students enrolled in Spanish at the higher-education level than in all other modern languages combined. How, then, is the United States'…

State Decision-Makers Guide for Hazardous Waste Management: Defining Hazardous Wastes, Problem Recognition, Land Use, Facility Operations, Conceptual Framework, Policy Issues, Transportation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corson, Alan; And Others

Presented are key issues to be addressed by state, regional, and local governments and agencies in creating effective hazardous waste management programs. Eight chapters broadly frame the topics which state-level decision makers should consider. These chapters include: (1) definition of hazardous waste; (2) problem definition and recognition; (3)…

The StreamCat Dataset: Accumulated Attributes for NHDPlusV2 Catchments (Version 2.1) for the Conterminous United States: State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset (STATSGO_Set1 and STATSGO_Set2) represents the soil characteristics within individual, local NHDPlusV2 catchments and upstream, contributing watersheds based on the STATSGO dataset (see Data Sources for links to NHDPlusV2 data and STATSGO data). Attributes were calculated for every local NHDPlusV2 catchment and accumulated to provide watershed-level metrics. This data set is derived from the STATSGO landscape rasters for the conterminous USA. Individual rasters (Landscape Layers) of organic material (om), permeability (perm), water table depth (wtdep), depth to bedrock (rckdep), percent clay (clay), and percent sand (sand) were used to calculate soil characteristics for each NHDPlusV2 catchment. The soil characteristics were summarized to produce local catchment-level and watershed-level metrics as a continuous data type (see Data Structure and Attribute Information for a description). The STATSGO data are distributed in two sets, STATSGO_Set1 and STATSGO_Set2, based on common NoData locations in each set of soil GIS layers (see ***link to ReadMe html with NoData map here***).

Routine Immunization Consultant Program in Nigeria: A Qualitative Review of a Country-Driven Management Approach for Health Systems Strengthening.

PubMed

O'Connell, Meghan; Wonodi, Chizoba

2016-03-01

Since 2002, the Nigerian government has deployed consultants to states to provide technical assistance for routine immunization (RI). RI consultants are expected to play a role in supportive supervision of health facility staff, capacity building, advocacy, and monitoring and evaluation. We conducted a retrospective review of the RI consultant program's strengths and weaknesses in 7 states and at the national level from June to September 2014 using semi-structured interviews and online surveys. Participants included RI consultants, RI program leaders, and implementers purposively drawn from national, state, and local government levels. Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data from the interviews, which were triangulated with results from the quantitative surveys. At the time of data collection, 23 of 36 states and the federal capital territory had an RI consultant. Of the 7 states visited during the study, only 3 states had present and visibly working consultants. We conducted 84 interviews with 101 participants across the 7 states and conducted data analysis on 70 interviews (with 82 individuals) that had complete data. Among the full sample of interview respondents (N = 101), most (66%) were men with an average age of 49 years (±5.6), and the majority were technical officers (63%) but a range of other roles were also represented, including consultants (22%), directors (13%), and health workers (2%). Fifteen consultants and 44 program leaders completed the online surveys. Interview data from the 3 states with active RI consultants indicated that the consultants' main contribution was supportive supervision at the local level, particularly for collecting and using RI data for decision making. They also acted as effective advocates for RI funding. In states without an RI consultant, gaps were highlighted in data management capacity and in monitoring of RI funds. Program design strengths: the broad terms of reference and autonomy of the consultants allowed work to be tailored to the local context; consultants were often integrated into state RI teams but could also work independently when necessary; and recruitment of experienced consultants with strong professional networks, familiarity with the local context, and ability to speak the local language facilitated advocacy efforts. Key programmatic challenges were related to inadequate and inconsistent inputs (salaries, transportation means, and dedicated office space) and gaps in communication between consultants and national leadership and in management of consultants, including lack of performance feedback, lack of formal orientation at inception, and no clear job performance targets. While weaknesses in managerial and material inputs affect current performance of RI consultants in Nigeria, the design of the RI consultant program employs a unique problem-focused, locally led model of development assistance that could prove valuable in strengthening the capacity of the government to implement such technical assistance on its own. Despite the lack of uniform deployment and implementation of RI consultants across the country, some consultants appear to have contributed to improved RI services through supportive supervision, capacity building, and advocacy. © O’Connell and Wonodi.

Routine Immunization Consultant Program in Nigeria: A Qualitative Review of a Country-Driven Management Approach for Health Systems Strengthening

PubMed Central

O’Connell, Meghan; Wonodi, Chizoba

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Background: Since 2002, the Nigerian government has deployed consultants to states to provide technical assistance for routine immunization (RI). RI consultants are expected to play a role in supportive supervision of health facility staff, capacity building, advocacy, and monitoring and evaluation. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of the RI consultant program’s strengths and weaknesses in 7 states and at the national level from June to September 2014 using semi-structured interviews and online surveys. Participants included RI consultants, RI program leaders, and implementers purposively drawn from national, state, and local government levels. Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data from the interviews, which were triangulated with results from the quantitative surveys. Findings: At the time of data collection, 23 of 36 states and the federal capital territory had an RI consultant. Of the 7 states visited during the study, only 3 states had present and visibly working consultants. We conducted 84 interviews with 101 participants across the 7 states and conducted data analysis on 70 interviews (with 82 individuals) that had complete data. Among the full sample of interview respondents (N = 101), most (66%) were men with an average age of 49 years (±5.6), and the majority were technical officers (63%) but a range of other roles were also represented, including consultants (22%), directors (13%), and health workers (2%). Fifteen consultants and 44 program leaders completed the online surveys. Interview data from the 3 states with active RI consultants indicated that the consultants’ main contribution was supportive supervision at the local level, particularly for collecting and using RI data for decision making. They also acted as effective advocates for RI funding. In states without an RI consultant, gaps were highlighted in data management capacity and in monitoring of RI funds. Program design strengths: the broad terms of reference and autonomy of the consultants allowed work to be tailored to the local context; consultants were often integrated into state RI teams but could also work independently when necessary; and recruitment of experienced consultants with strong professional networks, familiarity with the local context, and ability to speak the local language facilitated advocacy efforts. Key programmatic challenges were related to inadequate and inconsistent inputs (salaries, transportation means, and dedicated office space) and gaps in communication between consultants and national leadership and in management of consultants, including lack of performance feedback, lack of formal orientation at inception, and no clear job performance targets. Conclusions: While weaknesses in managerial and material inputs affect current performance of RI consultants in Nigeria, the design of the RI consultant program employs a unique problem-focused, locally led model of development assistance that could prove valuable in strengthening the capacity of the government to implement such technical assistance on its own. Despite the lack of uniform deployment and implementation of RI consultants across the country, some consultants appear to have contributed to improved RI services through supportive supervision, capacity building, and advocacy. PMID:27016542

Pure state consciousness and its local reduction to neuronal space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duggins, A. J.

2013-01-01

The single neuronal state can be represented as a vector in a complex space, spanned by an orthonormal basis of integer spike counts. In this model a scalar element of experience is associated with the instantaneous firing rate of a single sensory neuron over repeated stimulus presentations. Here the model is extended to composite neural systems that are tensor products of single neuronal vector spaces. Depiction of the mental state as a vector on this tensor product space is intended to capture the unity of consciousness. The density operator is introduced as its local reduction to the single neuron level, from which the firing rate can again be derived as the objective correlate of a subjective element. However, the relational structure of perceptual experience only emerges when the non-local mental state is considered. A metric of phenomenal proximity between neuronal elements of experience is proposed, based on the cross-correlation function of neurophysiology, but constrained by the association of theoretical extremes of correlation/anticorrelation in inseparable 2-neuron states with identical and opponent elements respectively.

Local Network-Level Integration Mediates Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation.

PubMed

Fuscà, Marco; Ruhnau, Philipp; Neuling, Toralf; Weisz, Nathan

2018-05-01

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has been proposed as a tool to draw causal inferences on the role of oscillatory activity in cognitive functioning and has the potential to induce long-term changes in cerebral networks. However, effectiveness of tACS underlies high variability and dependencies, which, as previous modeling works have suggested, may be mediated by local and network-level brain states. We used magnetoencephalography to record brain activity from 17 healthy participants at rest as they kept their eyes open (EO) or eyes closed (EC) while being stimulated with sham, weak, or strong alpha-tACS using a montage commonly assumed to target occipital areas. We reconstructed the activity of sources in all stimulation conditions by means of beamforming. The analysis of resting-state brain activity revealed an interaction of the external stimulation with the endogenous alpha power increase from EO to EC. This interaction was localized to the posterior cingulate, a region remote from occipital cortex. This suggests state-dependent (EO vs. EC) long-range effects of tACS. In a follow-up analysis of this online-tACS effect, we find evidence that this state-dependency effect is mediated by functional network changes: connection strength from the precuneus was significantly correlated with the state-dependency effect in the posterior cingulate during tACS. No analogous correlation could be found for alpha power modulations in occipital cortex. Altogether, this is the first strong evidence to illustrate how functional network architectures can shape tACS effects.

Native Transformations in the Pacific Northwest: A strength-based model of protection against substance use disorder.

PubMed

Rasmus, Stacy; Allen, James; Connor, William; Freeman, William; Skewes, Monica

2016-01-01

This paper presents findings from the Native Transformations Project, an exploratory community-based participatory research study that aims to identify sources of strength and protection against substance use disorder in three tribal communities in the coastal Pacific Northwest. Preliminary results from the study describe the specific settings, acts, and behaviors that build strengths and provide protection at the family, community, individual, and spiritual levels within coastal Pacific Northwest local tribal cultures. Findings from this study give voice to stated community preferences for grassroots Native intervention programs based in local cultural knowledge, worldviews, values, and theories of change, that operate at the local level on their own terms.

NATIVE TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: A STRENGTH-BASED MODEL OF PROTECTION AGAINST SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER

PubMed Central

Rasmus, Stacy; Allen, James; Connor, William; Freeman, William; Skewes, Monica

2016-01-01

This paper presents findings from the Native Transformations Project, an exploratory community-based participatory research study that aims to identify sources of strength and protection against substance use disorder in three tribal communities in the coastal Pacific Northwest. Preliminary results from the study describe the specific settings, acts, and behaviors that build strengths and provide protection at the family, community, individual, and spiritual levels within coastal Pacific Northwest local tribal cultures. Findings from this study give voice to stated community preferences for grassroots Native intervention programs based in local cultural knowledge, worldviews, values, and theories of change, that operate at the local level on their own terms. PMID:27383091

Politics in Fiction & Film: An Introduction & Appreciation. A Team-Taught Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krukones, Michael G.; And Others

An interdisciplinary course integrating political science, literature, and film is used at Bellarmine College in Kentucky as a vehicle for examining politics on the local, state, national and international levels. Four novels and their analogous films are used, corresponding to the respective political level--"The Last Hurrah,""All…

BARRIERS TO CHANGE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CARLSON, RICHARD O.

THREE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SLOW CHANGE FACILITY OF EDUCATION ARE EXAMINED. (1) THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM LACKS A PROFESSIONAL INNOVATOR. COUNTY AND STATE LEVELS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION LARGELY CONFINE THEIR ROLE TO REGULATION AND NEGLECT THE ADVOCATION OF CHANGE. ON THE LOCAL LEVEL, THE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT IS EXPECTED TO OPERATE BOTH AS A CENTRAL…

Develop Education Systems that Integrate All Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiker, Jason

2007-01-01

During the last few years, the development of seamless education systems to promote students' postsecondary success has been discussed by policymakers at the local, state and federal levels as well as reform-minded individuals. Florida, Washington, Iowa, Georgia and California either have statewide integrated systems or are moving quickly toward…

National Emergency Communications Plan

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-07-01

Los Angeles Police Department ( LAPD ), Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia (MPDC), New York Police Department (NYPD) National...priorities at the national level and establishes departmental responsibilities and processes related to national preparedness and emergency...and emergency management community, both public and private, at the Federal, State, tribal, Territorial, regional, and local levels .

ANNUAL FARM LABOR REPORT - 1962.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LENHART, MARGOT WAKEMAN

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE FARM PLACEMENT SERVICE WHICH INCLUDED ORGANIZATION, STAFF, OFFICES, ASSOCIATES AND ADVISORS, AND MEETINGS WAS PRESENTED. AT THE STATE LEVEL, THERE WAS A RISE IN OVERALL CROP PRODUCTION AND A DECREASE IN TOTAL CROPLAND HARVEST. AT THE LOCAL LEVEL, URBAN ENCROACHMENT CHANGED THE NATURE OF PRODUCTION IN SOME AREAS AND…

Transition from the adiabatic to the sudden limit in core-level photoemission: A model study of a localized system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, J. D.; Gunnarsson, O.; Hedin, L.

1999-09-01

We consider core electron photoemission in a localized system, where there is a charge transfer excitation. Examples are transition metal and rare earth compounds, chemisorption systems, and high-Tc compounds. The system is modeled by three electron levels, one core level, and two outer levels. In the initital state the core level and one outer level is filled (a spinless two-electron problem). This model system is embedded in a solid state environment, and the implications of our model system results for solid state photoemission are discussed. When the core hole is created, the more localized outer level (d) is pulled below the less localized level (L). The spectrum has a leading peak corresponding to a charge transfer between L and d (``shakedown''), and a satellite corresponding to no charge transfer. The model has a Coulomb interaction between these levels and the continuum states into which the core electron is emitted. The model is simple enough to allow an exact numerical solution, and with a separable potential an analytic solution. Analytic results are also obtained in lowest order perturbation theory, and in the high-energy limit of the semiclassical approximation. We calculate the ratio r(ω) between the weights of the satellite and the main peak as a function of the photon energy ω. The transition from the adiabatic to the sudden limit is found to take place for quite small kinetic energies of the photoelectron. For such small energies, the variation of the dipole matrix elements is substantial and described by the energy scale E~d. Without the coupling to the photoelectron, the corresponding ratio r0(ω) shows a smooth turn-on of the satellite intensity, due to the turn on of the dipole matrix element. The characteristic energy scales are E~d and the satellite excitation energy δE. When the interaction potential with the continuum states is introduced an energy scale E~s=1/(2R~2s) enters, where R~s is a length scale of the interaction (scattering) potential. At threshold there is typically a (weak) constructive interference between intrinsic and extrinsic contributions, and the ratio r(ω)/r0(ω) is larger than its limiting value for large ω. The interference becomes small or weakly destructive for photoelectron energies of the order E~s. For larger photoelectron energies r(ω)/r0(ω) therefore typically has a weak undershoot. If this undershoot is neglected, r(ω)/r0(ω) reaches its limiting value on the energy scale E~s for the parameter range considered here. In a ``shake-up'' scenario, where the two outer levels do not cross as the core hole is created, we instead find that r(ω)/r0(ω) is typically reduced for small ω by interference effects, as in the case of plasmon excitation. Even for this shake-down case, however, the results are very different from those for a simple metal, where plasmons dominate the picture. In particular, the adiabatic to sudden transition takes place at much lower energies in the case of a localized excitation. The reasons for the differences are briefly discussed.

Redesigning Federal Grant Programs. Occasional Paper #24.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLoone, Eugene P.

When taxation is based on ability to pay and programs are targeted at a minimum service level, every state with any population that requires the service must participate. States and localities receive grants only because groups and individuals are to be treated equally. The role of the recipient government is the provision of the minimum…

Out of Aprons and into the Job Market.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spiegel, Susan

1981-01-01

Identifies ways in which laws at the local, state, and federal level protect the right of women to choose an occupation or profession according to her abilities and interests. Information is presented on the history of legal discrimination (i.e., past court decisions) in the United States, protective labor laws, and recent laws recognizing…

Quality Rating and Improvement System State Evaluations and Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferguson, Daniel

2016-01-01

A quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) is a method used by states and local jurisdictions to assess the level of quality of child care and early education programs, improve quality, and convey quality ratings to parents and other consumers. A typical QRIS incorporates the following components: quality standards for participating providers;…

Implementing Perkins

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyslop, Alisha

2008-01-01

This is the first in a yearlong series that examines the implementation of Perkins in the states. Several changes were made to the specific performance indicators that states and local programs will have to report on under the 2006 Perkins Act. At the secondary level, academic attainment will now have to be measured by the academic assessments a…

Articulation and the State Foreign Language Association.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woloshin, David J.

This paper discusses current problems in the teaching of foreign languages, suggests reasons for its present decline, and proposes a program to be developed at the local level which could serve as a model for a state-wide curriculum. After discussing enrollment trends and causes for the lack of articulation in foreign language instruction at all…

School Property Insurance: Experiences at State Level. Bulletin, 1956, No. 7

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Viles, N. E., Sr.

1956-01-01

School insurance programs often present major problems in school administration. School insurance of various types is one means of preventing or limiting financial loss from property damage or the claims of individuals for injury or damage payments. In varying degrees the States have delegated to certain local administrative school units and/or…

Evaluation Strategies for Vocational Program Redesign. ERIC Digest No. 84.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halasz, Ida M.

Much of the evaluation of vocational education at the state and local levels has been conducted in response to federal legislation. Although some of the evaluative information has been useful for program improvement, much has been collected only for compliance with federal and state mandates. The educational reform movement has prompted school…

Intervention in Deficient School Districts: Re-Establishing Effective Local Control.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooperman, Saul

In the wake of January 1988 takeover legislation to improve education in the State of New Jersey, this paper describes and justifies the strict state three-tier monitoring system of school district educational standards. School districts that need improvement after the first level of monitoring must develop an improvement plan to overcome their…

SLIIDEA: Positive Approaches for Addressing Behavioral Issues. inForum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Misra, Sunil

2006-01-01

When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997, it authorized an evaluation to track progress at the state and local levels on the legislative goals of IDEA. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) commissioned a national longitudinal study, the Study of State and Local…

The Role of Professional Development in Bridging Research and Practice in Adult Literacy and Basic Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Cristine

2016-01-01

In this brief article, Cristine Smith discusses the development and use of professional development activities at the national, state and local program level. Professional development systems and funding exist in every state, and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) has prioritized high-quality professional development for…

Race to Top Buy-In Level Examined

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeil, Michele

2010-01-01

States significantly increased buy-in from local teachers' unions in round two of the Race to the Top competition, but made far less progress in enlisting districts or expanding the number of students affected by the states' education reform plans. Those patterns emerged from an "Education Week" analysis of applications from 29 states…

75 FR 46899 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request-In-Depth Case...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-04

... conduct interviews of SNAP staff at all levels, visit multiple local offices, hold focus groups with... vendors that contract with State SNAP agencies. Tailored protocols will be used for the interviews... States will receive remuneration of $75,000 to offset the costs of participating in the study. Interview...

Toward mapping crop progress at field scales through fusion of Landsat and MODIS imagery

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Crop progress and condition are required for crop management and yield estimation. In the United States, they are reported weekly at state or district level by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) using the field observations provided by local far...

Discriminating a deep gallium antisite defect from shallow acceptors in GaAs using supercell calculations

DOE PAGES

Schultz, Peter A.

2016-03-01

For the purposes of making reliable first-principles predictions of defect energies in semiconductors, it is crucial to distinguish between effective-mass-like defects, which cannot be treated accurately with existing supercell methods, and deep defects, for which density functional theory calculations can yield reliable predictions of defect energy levels. The gallium antisite defect GaAs is often associated with the 78/203 meV shallow double acceptor in Ga-rich gallium arsenide. Within a conceptual framework of level patterns, analyses of structure and spin stabilization can be used within a supercell approach to distinguish localized deep defect states from shallow acceptors such as B As. Thismore » systematic approach determines that the gallium antisite supercell results has signatures inconsistent with an effective mass state and cannot be the 78/203 shallow double acceptor. Lastly, the properties of the Ga antisite in GaAs are described, total energy calculations that explicitly map onto asymptotic discrete localized bulk states predict that the Ga antisite is a deep double acceptor and has at least one deep donor state.« less

Compensating wage differentials and the impact of health insurance in the public sector on wages and hours.

PubMed

Qin, Paige; Chernew, Michael

2014-12-01

This paper examines the trade-off between wages and employer spending on health insurance for public sector workers, and the relationship between coverage and hours worked. Our primary approach compares trends in wages and hours for public employees with and without state/local government provided health insurance using individual-level micro-data from the 1992-2011 CPS. To adjust for differences between insured and uninsured public sector employees, we create a matched sample based on an employee's propensity to receive health insurance. We assess the relationship between state contribution to the health plan premium, state-level healthcare spending, and the wages and hours of state and local government employees. We find modest reductions in wages are associated with having employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI), although this effect is not precisely measured. The reduction in wages associated with having ESHI is larger among non-unionized workers. Further, we find little evidence that provision of health insurance increases hours worked. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A hybrid density functional study of silicon and phosphorus doped hexagonal boron nitride monolayer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mapasha, R. E.; Igumbor, E.; Chetty, N.

2016-10-01

We present a hybrid density functional study of silicon (Si) and phosphorus (P) doped hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). The local geometry, electronic structure and thermodynamic stability of Si B , Si N , P B and P N are examined using hybrid Heyd-Scuseria- Ernzerhof (HSE) functional. The defect induced buckling and the local bond distances around the defect are sensitive to charge state modulation q = -2, -1, 0, +1 and +2. The +1 charge state is found to be the most energetically stable state and significantly reduces the buckling. Based on the charge state thermodynamic transition levels, we noted that the Si N , Si N and P B defects are too deep to be ionized, and can alter the optical properties of h-BN material.

Partnerships in the New Employment and Training System. Survey Report II. Job Training Partnership Act Research Findings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Elaine

A study examined the level and type of integration and coordination that exist among local employment and training practitioners and local and state educational agencies and institutions in the delivery of employment and training services as mandated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). To gather data for the study, researchers conducted…

Putting the Pieces Together: Toward a Comprehensive Program of Social Reform (Reformulating Our Approaches to School Governance).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, Luvern L.

1991-01-01

Basic tenets of citizen control of education at state and local levels are well established historically and remain intact after three centuries of U.S. educational experience. This paper advocates substantial change in the structure and management of local governments. Too many change proposals are cosmetic. Kentucky and Memphis-Shelby County are…

HIV Services Provided by STD Programs in State and Local Health Departments - United States, 2013-2014.

PubMed

Cuffe, Kendra M; Esie, Precious; Leichliter, Jami S; Gift, Thomas L

2017-04-07

The incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the United States is higher among persons with other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and the incidence of other STDs is increased among persons with HIV infection (1). Because infection with an STD increases the risk for HIV acquisition and transmission (1-4), successfully treating STDs might help reduce the spread of HIV among persons at high risk (1-4). Because health department STD programs provide services to populations who are at risk for HIV, ensuring service integration and coordination could potentially reduce the incidence of STDs and HIV. Program integration refers to the combining of STD and HIV prevention programs through structural, service, or policy-related changes such as combining funding streams, performing STD and HIV case matching, or integrating staff members (5). Some STD programs in U.S. health departments are partially or fully integrated with an HIV program (STD/HIV program), whereas other STD programs are completely separate. To assess the extent of provision of HIV services by state and local health department STD programs, CDC analyzed data from a sample of 311 local health departments and 56 state and directly funded city health departments derived from a national survey of STD programs. CDC found variation in the provision of HIV services by STD programs at the state and local levels. Overall, 73.1% of state health departments and 16.1% of local health departments matched STD case report data with HIV data to analyze possible syndemics (co-occurring epidemics that exacerbate the negative health effects of any of the diseases) and overlaps. Similarly, 94.1% of state health departments and 46.7% of local health departments performed site visits to HIV care providers to provide STD information or public health updates. One fourth of state health departments and 39.4% of local health departments provided HIV testing in nonclinical settings (field testing) for STD contacts, and all of these programs linked HIV cases to care. STD programs are providing some HIV services; however, delivery of certain specific services could be improved.

Project-Level Conformity and Hot-Spot Analyses

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page contains policy guidance issued by EPA and/or the U.S. Department of Transportation to assist state and local transportation and air quality agencies implement the transportation conformity program.

Local quantum uncertainty guarantees the measurement precision for two coupled two-level systems in non-Markovian environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Shao-xiong; Zhang, Yang; Yu, Chang-shui

2018-03-01

Quantum Fisher information (QFI) is an important feature for the precision of quantum parameter estimation based on the quantum Cramér-Rao inequality. When the quantum state satisfies the von Neumann-Landau equation, the local quantum uncertainty (LQU), as a kind of quantum correlation, present in a bipartite mixed state guarantees a lower bound on QFI in the optimal phase estimation protocol (Girolami et al., 2013). However, in the open quantum systems, there is not an explicit relation between LQU and QFI generally. In this paper, we study the relation between LQU and QFI in open systems which is composed of two interacting two-level systems coupled to independent non-Markovian environments with the entangled initial state embedded by a phase parameter θ. The analytical calculations show that the QFI does not depend on the phase parameter θ, and its decay can be restrained through enhancing the coupling strength or non-Markovianity. Meanwhile, the LQU is related to the phase parameter θ and shows plentiful phenomena. In particular, we find that the LQU can well bound the QFI when the coupling between the two systems is switched off or the initial state is Bell state.

The Politics of Hope and Despair: The Effect of Presidential Election Outcomes on Suicide Rates*

PubMed Central

Classen, Timothy J.; Dunn, Richard A.

2010-01-01

Objectives This article examines the effect of election outcomes on suicide rates by combining the theory of social integration developed by Durkheim with the models of rational choice used in economics. Methods Theory predicts that states with a greater percentage of residents who supported the losing candidate would tend to exhibit a relative increase in suicide rates. However, being around others who also supported the losing candidate may indicate a greater degree of social integration at the local level, thereby lowering relative suicide rates. We therefore use fixed-effects regression of state suicide rates from 1981 to 2005 on state election outcomes during presidential elections to determine which effect is stronger. Results We find that the local effect of social integration is dominant. The suicide rate when a state supports the losing candidate will tend to be lower than if the state had supported the winning candidate—4.6 percent lower for males and 5.3 percent lower for females. Conclusion Social integration works at many levels; it not only affects suicide risk directly, but can mediate other shocks that influence suicide risk. PMID:20645463

Training maternal and child health epidemiologists: leaders for the twenty first century.

PubMed

Handler, Arden; Klaus, Jaime; Rankin, Kristin; Rosenberg, Deborah

2015-02-01

This paper reports on the structure, implementation and outcomes of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Epidemiology (MCHEPI) program at the University of Illinois School of Public Health (UIC-SPH) and discusses the successes and challenges in developing MCH Epidemiology leaders for the local, state, and national public health workforce. The MCHEPI program at UIC-SPH offers both the MPH and PhD degree and is based on six key components: integration across school divisions, competency-based training, tailored curricula, practica/dissertations with public health agencies, personal leadership training and development, and socialization. Based on data from the 1998-2012 cohorts, all former and current MCHEPI MPH students (n = 28) have participated in practica with local or state public health agencies and former and current MCHEPI doctoral students at the dissertation stage (12 out of 15) have partnered with local, state or national public health agencies in conducting their dissertations. The alumni of the MCHEPI MPH program (n = 25) appear to serve in higher level positions in their second compared to their first placements post-graduation. All MCHEPI doctoral alumni (n = 8) serve at the emerging senior level or senior scientist level upon graduation, in local, state and federal agencies, or in academe. Explicit linkage of MCHEPI students to practice through tailored curricula, practica, and dissertations with public health agencies, and the development of an identity as a member of the MCHEPI field appear to be important to the generation of epidemiology leaders for the MCH workforce. Leadership development is a lifelong process and as such, snapshots of current students and alumni at any one point in time do not provide the entire picture of the impact of MCH epidemiology training programs. Examining the trajectories of emerging leaders over time is essential for evaluating the true success of Maternal and Child Health Bureau workforce and training investments.

Health system's barriers hindering implementation of public-private partnership at the district level: a case study of partnership for improved reproductive and child health services provision in Tanzania.

PubMed

Kamugumya, Denice; Olivier, Jill

2016-10-21

Public-private partnership (PPP) has been suggested as a tool to assist governments in lower to middle income countries fulfil their responsibilities in the efficient delivery of health services. In Tanzania, although the idea of PPP has existed for many years in the health sector, there has been limited coordination, especially at a district level - which has contributed to limited health gains or systems strengthening obviously seen as a result of PPP. This case study was conducted in the Bagamoyo district of Tanzania, and employed in-depth interviews, document reviews, and observations methods. A stakeholder analysis was conducted to understand power distribution and the interests of local actors to engage non-state actors. In total 30 in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants that were identified from a stakeholder mapping activity. The initial data analysis guided further data collection in an iterative process. The provision of Reproductive and Child Health Services was used as a context. This study draws on the decision-space framework. Study findings reveal several forms of informal partnerships, and the untapped potential of non-state actors. Lack of formal contractual agreements with private providers including facilities that receive subsidies from the government is argued to contribute to inappropriate distribution of risk and reward leading to moral hazards. Furthermore, findings highlight weak capacity of governing bodies to exercise oversight and sanctions, which is acerbated by weak accountability linkages and power differences. Disempowered Council Health Services Board, in relation to engaging non-state actors, is shown to impede PPP initiatives. Effective PPP policy implementation at a local level depends on the capacity of local government officials to make choices that would embrace relational elements dynamics in strategic plans. Orientation towards collaborative efforts that create value and enable its distribution is argued to facilitate healthy partnership, and in return, strengthen a district health system. This study highlights a need for new social contracts that will support integrative collaboration at the local level and bring all non-state actors to the centre of the district health system.

High magnetic field theory for the local density of states in graphene with smooth arbitrary potential landscapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Champel, Thierry; Florens, Serge

2010-07-01

We study theoretically the energy and spatially resolved local density of states (LDoS) in graphene at high perpendicular magnetic field. For this purpose, we extend from the Schrödinger to the Dirac case a semicoherent-state Green’s-function formalism, devised to obtain in a quantitative way the lifting of the Landau-level degeneracy in the presence of smooth confinement and smooth disordered potentials. Our general technique, which rigorously describes quantum-mechanical motion in a magnetic field beyond the semiclassical guiding center picture of vanishing magnetic length (both for the ordinary two-dimensional electron gas and graphene), is connected to the deformation (Weyl) quantization theory in phase space developed in mathematical physics. For generic quadratic potentials of either scalar (i.e., electrostatic) or mass (i.e., associated with coupling to the substrate) types, we exactly solve the regime of large magnetic field (yet at finite magnetic length, formally, this amounts to considering an infinite Fermi velocity) where Landau-level mixing becomes negligible. Hence, we obtain a closed-form expression for the graphene Green’s function in this regime, providing analytically the discrete energy spectra for both cases of scalar and mass parabolic confinement. Furthermore, the coherent-state representation is shown to display a hierarchy of local energy scales ordered by powers of the magnetic length and successive spatial derivatives of the local potential, which allows one to devise controlled approximation schemes at finite temperature for arbitrary and possibly disordered potential landscapes. As an application, we derive general analytical nonperturbative expressions for the LDoS, which may serve as a good starting point for interpreting experimental studies. For instance, we are able to account for many puzzling features of the LDoS recently observed by high magnetic field scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments on graphene, such as a roughly m increase in the mth Landau-level linewidth in the LDoS peaks at low temperatures, together with a flattening of the spatial variations in the Landau-level effective energies at increasing m .

Is Social Categorization the Missing Link between Weak Central Coherence and Mental State Inference Abilities in Autism? Preliminary Evidence from a General Population Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skorich, Daniel P.; May, Adrienne R.; Talipski, Louisa A.; Hall, Marnie H.; Dolstra, Anita J.; Gash, Tahlia B.; Gunningham, Beth H.

2016-01-01

We explore the relationship between the "theory of mind" (ToM) and "central coherence" difficulties of autism. We introduce covariation between hierarchically-embedded categories and social information--at the local level, the global level, or at both levels simultaneously--within a category confusion task. We then ask…

Substituent effects on the redox states of locally functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes revealed by in situ photoluminescence spectroelectrochemistry.

PubMed

Shiraishi, Tomonari; Shiraki, Tomohiro; Nakashima, Naotoshi

2017-11-09

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with local chemical modification have been recognized as a novel near infrared (NIR) photoluminescent nanomaterial due to the emergence of a new red-shifted photoluminescence (PL) with enhanced quantum yields. As a characteristic feature of the locally functionalized SWNTs (lf-SWNTs), PL wavelength changes occur with the structural dependence of the substituent structures in the modified aryl groups, showing up to a 60 nm peak shift according to an electronic property difference of the aryl groups. Up to now, however, the structural effect on the electronic states of the lf-SWNTs has been discussed only on the basis of theoretical calculations due to the very limited amount of modifications. Herein, we describe the successfully-determined electronic states of the aryl-modified lf-SWNTs with different substituents (Ar-X SWNTs) using an in situ PL spectroelectrochemical method based on electrochemical quenching of the PL intensities analyzed by the Nernst equation. In particular, we reveal that the local functionalization of (6,5)SWNTs induced potential changes in the energy levels of the HOMO and the LUMO by -23 to -38 meV and +20 to +22 meV, respectively, compared to those of the pristine SWNTs, which generates exciton trapping sites with narrower band gaps. Moreover, the HOMO levels of the Ar-X SWNTs specifically shift in a negative potential direction by 15 meV according to an enhancement of the electron-accepting property of the substituents in the aryl groups that corresponds to an increase in the Hammet substituent constants, suggesting the importance of the dipole effect from the aryl groups on the lf-SWNTs to the level shift of the frontier orbitals. Our method is a promising way to characterize the electronic features of the lf-SWNTs.

Calculation of the electron structure of vacancies and their compensated states in III-VI semiconductors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mehrabova, M. A., E-mail: Mehrabova@mail.ru; Madatov, R. S.

2011-08-15

The Green's functions theory and the bond-orbital model are used as a basis for calculations of the electron structure of local defects-specifically, vacancies and their compensated states in III-VI semiconductors. The energy levels in the band gap are established, and the changes induced in the electron densities in the GaS, GaSe, and InSe semiconductors by anion and cation vacancies and their compensated states are calculated. It is established that, if a vacancy is compensated by an atom of an element from the same subgroup with the same tetrahedral coordination and if the ionic radius of the compensating atom is smallermore » than that of the substituted atom, the local levels formed by the vacancy completely disappear. It is shown that this mechanism of compensation of vacancies provides a means not only for recovering the parameters of the crystal, but for improving the characteristics of the crystal as well.« less

A moving target: responding to magnetic and structural disorder in lanthanide- and actinide-based superconductors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bauer, Eric D; Mitchell, Jeremy N; Booth, C H

2009-01-01

The effects of various chemical substitutions and induced lattice disorder in the Ce- and Pu-based 115 superconductors are reviewed, with particular emphasis on results from x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements. The competition between spin, charge, and lattice interactions is at the heart of many of the strongly-correlated ground states in materials of current interest, such as in colossal magnetoresistors and high-temperature superconductors. This relationship is particularly strong in the CeTIn{sub 5} and PuTGa{sub 5} series (T = Co, Rh, Ir) of heavy-fermion superconductors. In these systems (figure 1), competition between bulk magnetic and non-magnetic ground states, as well asmore » between superconducting and normal states, are directly related to local properties around the lanthanide or actinide ion, such as the nearest-neighbor bond lengths and the local density of states at the Fermi level. Tiny changes in the latter values can easily tip the balance from one ground state to another. This paper reviews recent work by the authors exploring the relationship between local crystal and electronic structure and ground state magnetic and conducting properties in the Ce- and Pu-based 115 materials.« less

An analysis of local government health policy against state priorities and a social determinants framework.

PubMed

Browne, Geoffrey R; Davern, Melanie T; Giles-Corti, Billie

2016-04-01

Victorian local governments are required to develop Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plans that incorporate state-level health planning priorities and address the social determinants of health. This paper describes a novel method for evaluating councils' performance against these requirements. Deductive content analysis was used to categorise all actions in 14 local government MPHWPs against Victorian state priorities as well as against social determinants of health policy areas. More than 1,000 actions were identified. However, fewer than half directly addressed a state priority, with many actions addressing policy areas known to be broader determinants of health. In particular, there was a marked focus on leisure and culture, and on building social cohesion through changes to living and working conditions. Councils are working beyond state priorities and there was a clear emphasis on addressing the diverse upstream 'causes of the causes' of health, rather than health promotion behaviour change programs. The approach for data analysis and presentation provides a useful method for rapid appraisal of health and wellbeing actions relative to councils', and the State's, responsibility and efficacy in public health. © 2015 Public Health Association of Australia.

Heralded Quantum Gate between Remote Quantum Memories

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-25

emission fre- quency. Second, the geometrical modes from the two fibers are matched to better than 98% as characterized with laser light. Third, the...remains in the trap for several weeks. Doppler-cooling by laser light slightly red detuned from the 2S1=2 $ 2P1=2 transition at 369.5 nm localizes the ions...state decays to the metastable 2D3=2 level. This level is depopulated with a laser near 935.2 nm to maintain efficient cooling and state detection. We

Effects of correlated hybridization in the single-impurity Anderson model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Líbero, Valter; Veiga, Rodrigo

2013-03-01

The development of new materials often dependents on the theoretical foundations which study the microscopic matter, i.e., the way atoms interact and create distinct configurations. Among the interesting materials, those with partially filled d or f orbitals immersed in nonmagnetic metals have been described by the Anderson model, which takes into account Coulomb correlation (U) when a local level (energy Ed) is doubled occupied, and an electronic hybridization between local levels and conduction band states. In addition, here we include a correlated hybridization term, which depends on the local-level occupation number involved. This term breaks particle-hole symmetry (even when U + 2Ed = 0), enhances charge fluctuations on local levels and as a consequence strongly modifies the crossover between the Hamiltonian fixed-points, even suppressing one or other. We exemplify these behaviors showing data obtained from the Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) computation for the impurity temperature-dependent specific heat, entropy and magnetic susceptibility. The interleaving procedure is used to recover the continuum spectrum after the NRG-logarithmic discretization of the conduction band. Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - FAPESP.

Surging Seas Risk Finder: A Tool for Local-Scale Flood Risk Assessments in Coastal Cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulp, S. A.; Strauss, B.

2015-12-01

Local decision makers in coastal cities require accurate, accessible, and thorough assessments of flood exposure risk within their individual municipality, in their efforts to mitigate against damage due to future sea level rise. To fill this need, we have developed Climate Central's Surging Seas Risk Finder, an interactive data toolkit which presents our sea level rise and storm surge analysis for every coastal town, city, county, and state within the USA. Using this tool, policy makers can easily zoom in on their local place of interest to receive a detailed flood risk assessment, which synthesizes a wide range of features including total population, socially vulnerable population, housing, property value, road miles, power plants, schools, hospitals, and many other critical facilities. Risk Finder can also be used to identify specific points of interest in danger of exposure at different flood levels. Additionally, this tool provides localized storm surge probabilities and sea level rise projections at tidal gauges along the coast, so that users can quickly understand the risk of flooding in their area over the coming decades.

Effective strategies for comprehensive corridor management

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2004-10-01

Despite the increasing importance of comprehensive corridor management at the state and local government level, questions remain regarding effective methods for developing and implementing corridor management plans. Further insight is also needed int...

Building versatile bipartite probes for quantum metrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farace, Alessandro; De Pasquale, Antonella; Adesso, Gerardo; Giovannetti, Vittorio

2016-01-01

We consider bipartite systems as versatile probes for the estimation of transformations acting locally on one of the subsystems. We investigate what resources are required for the probes to offer a guaranteed level of metrological performance, when the latter is averaged over specific sets of local transformations. We quantify such a performance via the average skew information (AvSk), a convex quantity which we compute in closed form for bipartite states of arbitrary dimensions, and which is shown to be strongly dependent on the degree of local purity of the probes. Our analysis contrasts and complements the recent series of studies focused on the minimum, rather than the average, performance of bipartite probes in local estimation tasks, which was instead determined by quantum correlations other than entanglement. We provide explicit prescriptions to characterize the most reliable states maximizing the AvSk, and elucidate the role of state purity, separability and correlations in the classification of optimal probes. Our results can help in the identification of useful resources for sensing, estimation and discrimination applications when complete knowledge of the interaction mechanism realizing the local transformation is unavailable, and access to pure entangled probes is technologically limited.

Adequate Facilities for All: Reforming New York State's System for Providing Building Aid to School Districts and for Meeting Schools' Urgent Capital Needs. Part II. [Sound Basic Education Task Force Proposal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc., 2004

2004-01-01

In recent years, court mandates in education adequacy cases have resulted in substantial increases in state-level support for local building needs in a number of states. The Court of Appeals' decision in "CFE v. State of New York" has made clear that extensive facilities deficiencies in New York City constitute a major constitutional…

Tip-induced reduction of the resonant tunneling current on semiconductor surfaces.

PubMed

Jelínek, Pavel; Svec, Martin; Pou, Pablo; Perez, Ruben; Cháb, Vladimír

2008-10-24

We report scanning tunneling microscope measurements showing a substantial decrease of the current, almost to zero, on the Si(111)-(7x7) reconstruction in the near-to-contact region under low bias conditions. First principles simulations for the tip-sample interaction and transport calculations show that this effect is driven by the substantial local modification of the atomic and electronic structure of the surface. The chemical reactivity of the adatom dangling bond states that dominate the electronic density of states close to the Fermi level and their spatial localization result in a strong modification of the electronic current.

In-depth interviews with state public health practitioners on the United States National Physical Activity Plan

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The United States National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP; 2010), the country’s first national plan for physical activity, provides strategies to increase population-level physical activity to complement the 2008 physical activity guidelines. This study examined state public health practitioner awareness, dissemination, use, challenges, and recommendations for the NPAP. Methods In 2011–2012, we interviewed 27 state practitioners from 25 states. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded using a standard protocol, verified and reconciled by an independent coder, and input into qualitative software to facilitate development of common themes. Results NPAP awareness was high among state practitioners; dissemination to local constituents varied. Development of state-level strategies and goals was the most frequently reported use of the NPAP. Some respondents noted the usefulness of the NPAP for coalitions and local practitioners. Challenges to the plan included implementation cost, complexity, and consistency with other policies. The most frequent recommendation made was to directly link examples of implementation activities to the plan. Conclusions These results provide early evidence of NPAP dissemination and use, along with challenges encountered and suggestions for future iterations. Public health is one of eight sectors in the NPAP. Further efforts are needed to understand uptake and use by other sectors, as well as to monitor long-term relevance, progress, and collaboration across sectors. PMID:23731829

Public Health Policy and Experience of the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic in Pune, India

PubMed Central

Purohit, Vidula; Kudale, Abhay; Sundaram, Neisha; Joseph, Saju; Schaetti, Christian; Weiss, Mitchell G.

2018-01-01

Background: Prior experience and the persisting threat of influenza pandemic indicate the need for global and local preparedness and public health response capacity. The pandemic of 2009 highlighted the importance of such planning and the value of prior efforts at all levels. Our review of the public health response to this pandemic in Pune, India, considers the challenges of integrating global and national strategies in local programmes and lessons learned for influenza pandemic preparedness. Methods: Global, national and local pandemic preparedness and response plans have been reviewed. In-depth interviews were undertaken with district health policy-makers and administrators who coordinated the pandemic response in Pune. Results: In the absence of a comprehensive district-level pandemic preparedness plan, the response had to be improvised. Media reporting of the influenza pandemic and inaccurate information that was reported at times contributed to anxiety in the general public and to widespread fear and panic. Additional challenges included inadequate public health services and reluctance of private healthcare providers to treat people with flu-like symptoms. Policy-makers developed a response strategy that they referred to as the Pune plan, which relied on powers sanctioned by the Epidemic Act of 1897 and resources made available by the union health ministry, state health department and a government diagnostic laboratory in Pune. Conclusion: The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) global strategy for pandemic control focuses on national planning, but state-level and local experience in a large nation like India shows how national planning may be adapted and implemented. The priority of local experience and requirements does not negate the need for higher level planning. It does, however, indicate the importance of local adaptability as an essential feature of the planning process. Experience and the implicit Pune plan that emerged are relevant for pandemic preparedness and other public health emergencies. PMID:29524939

The level of serotonin in the superficial masseter muscle in relation to local pain and allodynia.

PubMed

Ernberg, M; Hedenberg-Magnusson, B; Alstergren, P; Kopp, S

1999-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate if serotonin is present in the human masseter muscle and if so, whether it is involved in the modulation of local muscle pain or allodynia. Thirty-five patients with pain and tenderness of the masseter muscle as well as ten healthy individuals were included in the study. Of the patients, 18 suffered from fibromyalgia and 17 had localized myalgia, e.g. myofascial pain in the temporomandibular system. The participants were examined clinically with special consideration to the masseter muscle and the pressure pain threshold as well as tolerance levels of this muscle were assessed. Intramuscular microdialysis was performed in order to sample serotonin and a venous blood sample was collected for analysis of the serum level of serotonin. Serotonin was present in the masseter muscle and the level was significantly higher in the initial sample than in the sample collected during steady state. The level of serotonin in the masseter muscle in relation to the level of serotonin in the blood serum was calculated. This fraction of serotonin was higher in the patients with fibromyalgia than in healthy individuals and high level of serotonin was associated with pain as well as allodynia of the masseter muscle. In conclusion, the results of this study show that serotonin is present in the human masseter muscle both immediately following puncture and in a subsequent steady state and that it is associated with pain and allodynia. The origin of the serotonin seems partly to be the blood, but our results indicate that peripheral release also occurs.

Creating a state medical response system for medical disaster management: the North Carolina experience.

PubMed

Kearns, Randy D; Skarote, Mary Beth; Peterson, Jeff; Hubble, Michael W; Winslow, James E

2014-09-01

The purpose of this work was to examine the creation and evolution of the North Carolina state medical response system (SMRS). During the past 30 years, states and local communities have developed a somewhat incongruent patchwork of medical disaster response systems. Several local or regional programs participated in the National Disaster Medical System; however, aside from the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, most of these local resources lacked national standards and national direction. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in Washington, DC and New York, and the anthrax-laced letters mailed to prominent individuals in the US media and others (bioterrorism) in the months that followed were tragic, but they served as both a tipping point and a unifying factor to drive preparedness activities on a national level. Each state responded to the September 11, 2001 attacks by escalating planning and preparedness efforts for a medical disaster response. The North Carolina SMRS was created based on the overall national direction and was tailored to meet local needs such as hurricane response. This article reviews the accomplishments to date and examines future aims. From regional medical response teams to specialty programs such as ambulance strike teams, burn surge planning, electronic inventory and tracking systems, and mobile pharmacy resources, the North Carolina SMRS has emerged as a national leader. Each regional coalition, working with state leadership, has developed resources and has used those resources while responding to disasters in North Carolina. The program is an example of how national leadership can work with state and local agencies to develop a comprehensive and effective medical disaster response system.

Public policies for managing urban growth and protecting open space: policy instruments and lessons learned in the United States

Treesearch

David N. Bengston; Jennifer O. Fletcher

2003-01-01

The public sector in the United States has responded to growing concern about the social and environmental costs of sprawling development patterns by creating a wide range of policy instruments designed to manage urban growth and protect open space. These techniques have been implemented at the local, regional, state and, to a limited extent, national levels. This...

Long-Range Plan for Technology in Elementary and Secondary Education in New York State. Using Technology To Pursue Excellence in Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York State Education Dept., Albany. Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The intent of this long-range plan is to provide direction for local, regional, and state level planning so that technology can be applied more effectively to enhance the teaching/learning environment and to improve the management of schools in the state of New York. The plan expands the statement of direction outlined in the "Statement of…

The future of transportation starts here

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-05-01

The report provides the U.S. DOT Intelligent Transportation Systems deployment community with information describing transportation investment decision-making at the state and local level and specific insight into the ITS deployment opportunities and...

Model Information Exchange System (MIXS).

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-08-01

Many travel demand forecast models operate at state, regional, and local levels. While they share the same physical network in overlapping geographic areas, they use different and uncoordinated modeling networks. This creates difficulties for models ...

Theme: Delivering Agricultural Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reed, Warren D.; And Others

1990-01-01

Eight articles in this theme issue deal with the nationwide implementation of agricultural literacy programs--discovering how to do it. Discussed are experiences in planning and conducting agricultural literacy programs at state and local levels. (JOW)

47 CFR 11.53 - Dissemination of Emergency Action Notification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... origination point to broadcast stations and other entities participating in the PEP system. It is then... cable systems. (3) Other entities voluntarily participating in EAS. (b) State level and Local Area...

47 CFR 11.53 - Dissemination of Emergency Action Notification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... origination point to broadcast stations and other entities participating in the PEP system. It is then... cable systems. (3) Other entities voluntarily participating in EAS. (b) State level and Local Area...

Water Resources Data, Florida, Water Year 2003, Volume 4. Northwest Florida

USGS Publications Warehouse

prepared by Blum, Darlene A.; Alvarez, A. Ernie

2004-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, obtains a large amount of data on the water resources of the State of Florida each water year. These data, accumulated during many water years, constitute a valuable database that is used by water-resources managers, emergency-management officials, and many others to develop an improved understanding of water resources within the State. This report series for the 2003 water year for the state of Florida consists of records for continuous or daily discharge for 385 streams, periodic discharge for 13 streams, continuous or daily stage for 255 streams, periodic stage for 13 streams, peak stage and discharge for 36 streams, continuous or daily elevations for 13 lakes, periodic elevations for 46 lakes, continuous ground-water levels for 441 wells, periodic ground-water levels for 1,227 wells, and quality-of-water for 133 surface-water sites and 308 wells. This volume (Volume 4, Northwest Florida)contains records of continuous or daily discharge for 72 streams, periodic discharge for 3 stream, continuous or daily stage for 13 streams, periodic stage for 0 stream, peak stage and discharge for 28 streams, continuous or daily elevations for 1 lake, periodic elevations for 0 lakes, continuous ground-water levels for 3 wells, periodic ground-water levels for 0 wells, and quality-of-water for 3 surface-water sites and 0 wells. These data represent the National Water Data System records collected by the U.S. Geological Survey and cooperating local, State, and Federal agencies in Florida.

Discovering Coherent Structures Using Local Causal States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rupe, Adam; Crutchfield, James P.; Kashinath, Karthik; Prabhat, Mr.

2017-11-01

Coherent structures were introduced in the study of fluid dynamics and were initially defined as regions characterized by high levels of coherent vorticity, i.e. regions where instantaneously space and phase correlated vorticity are high. In a more general spatiotemporal setting, coherent structures can be seen as localized broken symmetries which persist in time. Building off the computational mechanics framework, which integrates tools from computation and information theory to capture pattern and structure in nonlinear dynamical systems, we introduce a theory of coherent structures, in the more general sense. Central to computational mechanics is the causal equivalence relation, and a local spatiotemporal generalization of it is used to construct the local causal states, which are utilized to uncover a system's spatiotemporal symmetries. Coherent structures are then identified as persistent, localized deviations from these symmetries. We illustrate how novel patterns and structures can be discovered in cellular automata and outline the path from them to laminar, transitional and turbulent flows. Funded by Intel through the Big Data Center at LBNL and the IPCC at UC Davis.

Jamming and Localization of Interacting Run-and-Tumble Particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blythe, Richard; Evans, Martin; Slowman, Alexander

Certain species of bacteria, notably Escherichia coli, exhibit a characteristic run-and-tumble motion comprising a sequence of straight-line runs at constant velocity interspersed with tumble events that randomize the direction of motion. In a many-body setting, this nonequilibrium dynamics can generate the phenomenon of motility-induced phase separation, which is also seen for a wide variety of self-propelled particles more generally. Whilst the propensity of self-propelled particles to phase separate is understood at a mesoscopic level, the origin of this behaviour in the inelastic collisions between particles implied by the microscopic dynamics is not. Here we present exact results for run-and-tumble particles in one dimension that reveal a richly-structured stationary state that comprises a superposition of three distinct physical states whose relative weights vary with the run and tumble rates, namely a jammed state, a localized state and a delocalized state.

The Incidence of the Property Tax on Homeowners: Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ihlanfeldt, Keith Ray

1979-01-01

The direct estimates of the relationship between permanent income and property tax payments presented here suggest that the property tax on homeowners is progressive at the national level and generally proportional at the local level. Available from NTA-TIA, 21 East State Street, Columbus, OH 43215. (Author)

Accountability and Alignment under No Child Left Behind: Multi-Level Perspectives for Educational Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Daniel

2011-01-01

Educational leaders have faced the challenges of trying to align schoolwide reforms priorities with accountability demands under the No Child Left Behind law. This article examines the barriers that complicate meaningful alignment among federal, state and local levels. This article also offers the following recommendations: Schools and districts…

Trends in Community College Enrollment and Completion Data, 2015

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juszkiewicz, Jolanta

2015-01-01

This is the second of a series of reports on trends in national community college enrollments. National community college enrollments continue to decrease, with variations at the state and local levels. The report also examines completion rates published by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) based on institutional level reporting, and those…

24 CFR 9.130 - General prohibitions against discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... same benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement as that provided to others; (iv) Provide... benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement. (3) The agency may not deny a qualified individual... alleviated by any State or local law or other requirement that, based on disability, imposes inconsistent or...

Toward Strategic Independence: Policy Considerations for Enhancing School Effectiveness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finn, Chester E., Jr.

The central problem in educational improvement at the state and local level is the tension between school-level autonomy and systemwide uniformity; educational change is limited by three special conditions: (1) inertial autonomy, (2) essential uniformity of public schools, and (3) the fact that effective schools have characteristics that cannot be…

An Agent Allocation System for the West Virginia University Extension Service

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dougherty, Michael John; Eades, Daniel

2015-01-01

Extension recognizes the importance of data in guiding programming decisions at the local level. However, allocating personnel resources and specializations at the state level is a more complex process. The West Virginia University Extension Service has adopted a data-driven process to determine the number, location, and specializations of county…

34 CFR 462.41 - How must tests be administered in order to accurately measure educational gain?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... identified in its State's assessment policy. (c) Post-test. A local eligible provider must— (1) Administer a post-test to measure a student's educational functioning level after a set time period or number of instructional hours; (2) Administer the post-test to students at a uniform time, according to its State's...

34 CFR 462.41 - How must tests be administered in order to accurately measure educational gain?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... identified in its State's assessment policy. (c) Post-test. A local eligible provider must— (1) Administer a post-test to measure a student's educational functioning level after a set time period or number of instructional hours; (2) Administer the post-test to students at a uniform time, according to its State's...

34 CFR 462.41 - How must tests be administered in order to accurately measure educational gain?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... identified in its State's assessment policy. (c) Post-test. A local eligible provider must— (1) Administer a post-test to measure a student's educational functioning level after a set time period or number of instructional hours; (2) Administer the post-test to students at a uniform time, according to its State's...

34 CFR 462.41 - How must tests be administered in order to accurately measure educational gain?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... identified in its State's assessment policy. (c) Post-test. A local eligible provider must— (1) Administer a post-test to measure a student's educational functioning level after a set time period or number of instructional hours; (2) Administer the post-test to students at a uniform time, according to its State's...

34 CFR 462.41 - How must tests be administered in order to accurately measure educational gain?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... identified in its State's assessment policy. (c) Post-test. A local eligible provider must— (1) Administer a post-test to measure a student's educational functioning level after a set time period or number of instructional hours; (2) Administer the post-test to students at a uniform time, according to its State's...

State-Level Support for Comprehensive School Reform: Implications for Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Brett; Gracia, Susan

2005-01-01

In the current context of standards-based reform and heightened accountability for school performance, state education agencies (SEAs) have an important, but not yet well-articulated, role to play in local school improvement efforts. This article starts to articulate such a role by examining the variety of approaches and strategies used by 7 SEAs…

Mitigating Community Impacts of Energy Development: Some Examples for Coal and Nuclear Generating Plants in the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peelle, Elizabeth

The Hartsville, Tennessee nuclear reactor site, the coal plant at Wheatland, Wyoming, and the nuclear plant at Skagit, Washington have mitigation plans developed in response to a federal, state, and local regulatory agency, respectively; the three mitigation plans aim at internalizing community-level social costs and benefits during the…

Emerging Themes and Lessons Learned: The First Year of Smart Start.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maxwell, Kelly; Bryant, Donna; Adkins, Amee; McCadden, Brian; Noblit, George

Smart Start is North Carolina's partnership between state government and local leaders, service providers, and families to better serve children under 6 years of age and their families. A formative evaluation of the Smart Start process, to inform the current state-level decision-making processes for future Smart Start efforts, was devised from a…

Consultation-Conference on Developmental Disabilities and Gerontology. Proceedings of a Conference (Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 8-10, 1978).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Segal, Robert M., Ed.

This document contains the proceedings from the National Conference on Developmental Disabilities and Gerontology, a conference designed to develop guidelines for program development on national, state, and local levels; develop and disseminate a proceedings publication; and provide an interface between professionals working at national, state,…

Reporting and Analysis Tools: Helping Mine Education Data for Information Riches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steiny, Julia; Smith, Nancy J.

2007-01-01

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), state education agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) have stepped up activities to broadly expand their data collection and reporting systems. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has advocated strongly for states to build robust student-level longitudinal data systems based on…

Examining the Need for Chinese Language Programs in Mid-Atlantic Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uhey, Ruth Ann Johnson

2012-01-01

Public education reform designed for K-12 and higher education exists to transform teaching and learning within the United States in order to graduate today's student. One specific initiative on the federal, state, and local levels is the implementation of Chinese language programs. Some of the Chinese language programs in the K-12 education…

Immigrant Families and Child Care Subsidies: What Federal Law and Guidance Says

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Hannah

2010-01-01

One in four young children in the United States lives in an immigrant family. Federal law establishes policies on immigrant eligibility for child care assistance, yet questions regarding eligibility remain at the state and local level. Most child care assistance is funded through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and the Temporary…

Screening Young Children for Lead Poisoning: Guidance for State and Local Public Health Officials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (DHHS/PHS), Atlanta, GA.

Noting that too many children with elevated lead levels are not being identified in the United States, this report presents policy guidelines for increasing screening and follow-up care of children who most need these services, and for helping communities pursue the most appropriate approach to preventing childhood lead poisoning. Following an…

Outcome-Based Education: Its Relevance to State and National Decision Making. Synthesis Report 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massanari, Carol B.

This paper on identifying education outcomes for students with disabilities proposes a framework for applying an outcome-based approach throughout the education system, by looking at the needs of the three major levels of the system (local, state, and national); defining different uses for the term "outcome" in order to achieve consensus…

The Illinois Alcoholism Prevention Initiative: A State-Wide Health Promotion and Primary Prevention Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floyd, Jerald D.

Two resource centers were funded by the Illinois Alcoholism Prevention Initiative to facilitate primary prevention and health promotion efforts at the local level. Located in DeKalb and Springfield, the centers assisted the Illinois State Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Division of Alcoholism in building a body of…

New York State 1974-75 ESEA Title I Annual Report. Section I: Program Descriptors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York State Education Dept., Albany. Bureau of Urban and Community Programs Evaluation.

The data contained in this document, summarized from local educational agencies' (LEAs') reports, provide an overview of the descriptive characteristics of the projects at the statewide level. During fiscal year 1975, 796 projects approved by the New York State Education Department were conducted in 725 districts. There were 512,755 reported…

Career and Vocational Education in Ohio for the 1980's and Beyond.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Kathleen T.

Ohio's economic future and the needs of its youth as they prepare for adult roles demand strong leadership at state and local levels as well as cooperation between schools, government, and private enterprise. Leaders should be aware that the state's economic development is tied to vocational education and that vocational education and career…

SLIIDEA: Increasing Involvement of Parents of Children with Disabilities. inForum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Misra, Sunil

2006-01-01

When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997, it authorized an evaluation to track progress at the state and local levels on the legislative goals of IDEA. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) commissioned a national longitudinal study, the Study of State and Local…

SLIIDEA: Placing and Serving Children with Disabilities in the LRE. inForum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Misra, Sunil

2006-01-01

When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997, it authorized an evaluation to track progress at the state and local levels on the legislative goals of IDEA. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) commissioned a national longitudinal study, the Study of State and Local…

40 CFR 63.99 - Delegated Federal authorities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... delegated to the air pollution control agencies in each State under the procedures described in this subpart... (Combustion sources) MM X X X 27 Generic MACT: Control Devices SS X X X Eq. Leaks—Level 1 TT X X X Eq. Leaks... of 40 CFR Part 63 General Provisions Authorities to State and Local Air Pollution Control Agencies...

Strength and Comprehensiveness of District School Wellness Policies Predict Policy Implementation at the School Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Marlene B.; Henderson, Kathryn E.; Falbe, Jennifer; Novak, Sarah A.; Wharton, Christopher M.; Long, Michael W.; O'Connell, Meghan L.; Fiore, Susan S.

2012-01-01

Background: In 2006, all local education agencies in the United States participating in federal school meal programs were required to establish school wellness policies. This study documented the strength and comprehensiveness of 1 state's written district policies using a coding tool, and tested whether these traits predicted school-level…

Funding Sources for Community and Economic Development 1997: A Guide to Current Sources for Local Programs and Projects. Third Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

1997

This guide contains information on 2,086 funding programs that provide support on national, state, and local levels for economic and community development, social services, and the humanities. The guide begins with "A Guide to Proposal Planning and Writing" (Lynn E. Miner), which includes strategies for locating information on public and private…

The Official Knowledge and Adult Education Agents: An Ethnographic Study of the Adult Education Team of a Local Development-Oriented Nongovernmental Organization in the North of Portugal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loureiro, Armando Paulo Ferreira; Cristovao, Artur Fernando Arede Correia

2010-01-01

Nongovernmental organizations, particularly those related to development work (local development-oriented nongovernmental organizations; LDNGO), and their agents have been assuming, in Portugal, an important role in the field of adult education. These organizations develop with the State, at the national level, and with supranational institutions…

Avoiding Legal Hassles: What School Administrators Really Need To Know. Successful Schools: Guidebooks to Effective Educational Leadership. Volume 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streshly, William A.; Frase, Larry E.

Information to help school administrators avoid legal problems is provided in this guidebook. Chapter 1 explains the governance of public education at the federal, state, and local levels, with a focus on the role of local school boards. Chapter 2 outlines the major legal issues facing schools today, with a focus on the broad drift of…

Structural phase transition and 5f-electrons localization of PuSe explored by ab initio calculations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cui Shouxin, E-mail: shouxincui@yahoo.co; Feng Wenxia; Hu Haiquan

2010-04-15

An investigation into the structural phase transformation, electronic and optical properties of PuSe under high pressure was conducted by using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals (FP-LAPW+lo) method, in the presence and in the absence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Our results demonstrate that there exists a structural phase transition from rocksalt (B 1) structure to CsCl-type (B 2) structure at the transition pressure of 36.3 GPa (without SOC) and 51.3 GPa (with SOC). The electronic density of states (DOS) for PuSe show that the f-electrons of Pu are more localized and concentrated in a narrow peakmore » near the Fermi level, which is consistent with the experimental studies. The band structure shows that B 1-PuSe is metallic. A pseudogap appears around the Fermi level of the total density of states of B 1 phase PuSe, which may contribute to its stability. The calculated reflectivity R(omega) shows agreement with the available experimental results. Furthermore, the absorption spectrum, refractive index, extinction coefficient, energy-loss spectrum and dielectric function were calculated. The origin of the spectral peaks was interpreted based on the electronic structures. - Abstract: Graphical Abstract Legend (TOC Figure): 5f-electrons are more localized by the analysis of the density of states (SOC). The origin spectra peaks was interpreted based on electronic structures.« less

Block-localized wavefunction (BLW) method at the density functional theory (DFT) level.

PubMed

Mo, Yirong; Song, Lingchun; Lin, Yuchun

2007-08-30

The block-localized wavefunction (BLW) approach is an ab initio valence bond (VB) method incorporating the efficiency of molecular orbital (MO) theory. It can generate the wavefunction for a resonance structure or diabatic state self-consistently by partitioning the overall electrons and primitive orbitals into several subgroups and expanding each block-localized molecular orbital in only one subspace. Although block-localized molecular orbitals in the same subspace are constrained to be orthogonal (a feature of MO theory), orbitals between different subspaces are generally nonorthogonal (a feature of VB theory). The BLW method is particularly useful in the quantification of the electron delocalization (resonance) effect within a molecule and the charge-transfer effect between molecules. In this paper, we extend the BLW method to the density functional theory (DFT) level and implement the BLW-DFT method to the quantum mechanical software GAMESS. Test applications to the pi conjugation in the planar allyl radical and ions with the basis sets of 6-31G(d), 6-31+G(d), 6-311+G(d,p), and cc-pVTZ show that the basis set dependency is insignificant. In addition, the BLW-DFT method can also be used to elucidate the nature of intermolecular interactions. Examples of pi-cation interactions and solute-solvent interactions will be presented and discussed. By expressing each diabatic state with one BLW, the BLW method can be further used to study chemical reactions and electron-transfer processes whose potential energy surfaces are typically described by two or more diabatic states.

Examining the target levels of state renewable portfolio standards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helwig, Laurence Douglas

At present 37 U.S. states have passed Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) or have a legislative driven goal that supports investment in renewable energy (RE) technologies. Previous research has identified economic, governmental, ideological and infrastructural characteristics as key predictors of policy adoption and renewable energy deployment efforts (Carley, 2009; Davis & Davis, 2009; Bohn & Lant, 2009; Lyon & Yin, 2010). To date, only a few studies have investigated the target levels of renewable portfolio standards. Carley & Miller (2012) found that policies of differing stringencies were motivated by systematically different factors that included governmental ideology. The purpose of this dissertation is to replicate and expand upon earlier models that predicted RPS adoption and RE deployment efforts by adding regulatory, infrastructural and spatial characteristics to predict RPS target levels. Hypotheses were tested using three alternative measurements of RPS target level strength to determine to what extent a combination of explanatory variables explain variation in policy target levels. Multivariate linear regression and global spatial autocorrelation results indicated that multiple state internal determinants influenced RPS target level including average electricity price, state government ideology and to a lesser extent actual RE potential capacity. In addition, some diffusion effects were found to exist that indicated that states are setting their RPS target levels lower than their neighboring states and a local geo-spatial clustering effect was observed in the target levels for a grouping of northeastern states.

Electrical conductivity and dielectric properties of TlInS2 single crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El-Nahass, M. M.; Youssef, S. B.; Ali, H. A. M.; Hassan, A.

2011-07-01

TlInS2 single crystals were grown by using Bridgman-Stockbauer technique. Measurements of DC conductivity were carried out in parallel (σ//) and perpendicular (σ⊥) directions to the c-axis over a temperature range from 303 to 463 K. The anisotropic behaviour of the electrical conductivity was also detected. AC conductivity and dielectric measurements were studied as a function of both frequency (102-106 Hz) and temperature (297-375 K). The frequency dependence of the AC conductivity revealed that σac(ω) obeys the universal law: σac(ω) = Aωs. The mechanism of the ac charge transport across the layers of TlInS2 single crystals was referred to the hopping over localized states near the Fermi level in the frequency range >3.5 × 103 Hz. The temperature dependence of σac(ω) for TlInS2 showed that σac is thermally activated process. Both of ɛ1 and ɛ2 decrease by increasing frequency and increase by increasing temperature. Some parameters were calculated as: the density of localized states near the Fermi level NF = 1.5 × 1020 eV-1 cm-3, the average time of charge carrier hoping between localized states τ = 3.79 μs and the average hopping distance R = 6.07 nm.

Anderson localization of electrons in single crystals: LixFe7Se8

PubMed Central

Ying, Tianping; Gu, Yueqiang; Chen, Xiao; Wang, Xinbo; Jin, Shifeng; Zhao, Linlin; Zhang, Wei; Chen, Xiaolong

2016-01-01

Anderson (disorder-induced) localization, proposed more than half a century ago, has inspired numerous efforts to explore the absence of wave diffusions in disordered media. However, the proposed disorder-induced metal-insulator transition (MIT), associated with the nonpropagative electron waves, has hardly been observed in three-dimensional (3D) crystalline materials, let alone single crystals. We report the observation of an MIT in centimeter-size single crystals of LixFe7Se8 induced by lattice disorder. Both specific heat and infrared reflectance measurements reveal the presence of considerable electronic states in the vicinity of the Fermi level when the MIT occurs, suggesting that the transition is not due to Coulomb repulsion mechanism. The 3D variable range hopping regime evidenced by electrical transport measurements at low temperatures indicates the localized nature of the electronic states on the Fermi level. Quantitative analyses of carrier concentration, carrier mobility, and simulated density of states (DOS) fully support that LixFe7Se8 is an Anderson insulator. On the basis of these results, we provide a unified DOS picture to explain all the experimental results, and a schematic diagram for finding other potential Anderson insulators. This material will thus serve as a rich playground for both theoretical and experimental investigations on MITs and disorder-induced phenomena. PMID:26989781

Practitioner perspectives on foundational capabilities.

PubMed

Leider, Jonathon P; Juliano, Chrissie; Castrucci, Brian C; Beitsch, Leslie M; Dilley, Abby; Nelson, Rachel; Kaiman, Sherry; Sprague, James B

2015-01-01

National efforts are underway to classify a minimum set of public health services that all jurisdictions throughout the United States should provide regardless of location. Such a set of basic programs would be supported by crosscutting services, known as the "foundational capabilities" (FCs). These FCs are assessment services, preparedness and disaster response, policy development, communications, community partnership, and organizational support activities. To ascertain familiarity with the term and concept of FCs and gather related perspectives from state and local public health practitioners. In fall 2013, we interviewed 50 leaders from state and local health departments. We asked about familiarity with the term "foundational capabilities," as well as the broader concept of FCs. We attempted to triangulate the utility of the FC concept by asking respondents about priority programs and services, about perceived unique contributions made by public health, and about prevalence and funding for the FCs. Telephone-based interviews. Fifty leaders of state and local health departments. Practitioner familiarity with and perspectives on the FCs, information about current funding streams for public health, and the likelihood of creating nationwide FCs that would be recognized and accepted by all jurisdictions. Slightly more than half of the leaders interviewed said that they were familiar with the concept of FCs. In most cases, health departments had all of the capabilities to some degree, although operationalization varied. Few indicated that current funding levels were sufficient to support implementing a minimum level of FCs nationally. Respondents were not able to articulate the current or optimal levels of services for the various capabilities, nor the costs associated with them. Further research is needed to understand the role of FCs as part of the foundational public health services.

Spectroscopic analysis of electron trapping levels in pentacene field-effect transistors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Chang Bum

2014-08-01

Electron trapping phenomena have been investigated with respect to the energy levels of localized trap states and bias-induced device instability effects in pentacene field-effect transistors. The mechanism of the photoinduced threshold voltage shift (ΔVT) is presented by providing a ΔVT model governed by the electron trapping. The trap-and-release behaviour functionalized by photo-irradiation also shows that the trap state for electrons is associated with the energy levels in different positions in the forbidden gap of pentacene. Spectroscopic analysis identifies two kinds of electron trap states distributed above and below the energy of 2.5 eV in the band gap of the pentacene crystal. The study of photocurrent spectra shows the specific trap levels of electrons in energy space that play a substantial role in causing device instability. The shallow and deep trapping states are distributed at two centroidal energy levels of ˜1.8 and ˜2.67 eV in the pentacene band gap. Moreover, we present a systematic energy profile of electron trap states in the pentacene crystal for the first time.

Cerebral responses to local and global auditory novelty under general anesthesia

PubMed Central

Uhrig, Lynn; Janssen, David; Dehaene, Stanislas; Jarraya, Béchir

2017-01-01

Primate brains can detect a variety of unexpected deviations in auditory sequences. The local-global paradigm dissociates two hierarchical levels of auditory predictive coding by examining the brain responses to first-order (local) and second-order (global) sequence violations. Using the macaque model, we previously demonstrated that, in the awake state, local violations cause focal auditory responses while global violations activate a brain circuit comprising prefrontal, parietal and cingulate cortices. Here we used the same local-global auditory paradigm to clarify the encoding of the hierarchical auditory regularities in anesthetized monkeys and compared their brain responses to those obtained in the awake state as measured with fMRI. Both, propofol, a GABAA-agonist, and ketamine, an NMDA-antagonist, left intact or even enhanced the cortical response to auditory inputs. The local effect vanished during propofol anesthesia and shifted spatially during ketamine anesthesia compared with wakefulness. Under increasing levels of propofol, we observed a progressive disorganization of the global effect in prefrontal, parietal and cingulate cortices and its complete suppression under ketamine anesthesia. Anesthesia also suppressed thalamic activations to the global effect. These results suggest that anesthesia preserves initial auditory processing, but disturbs both short-term and long-term auditory predictive coding mechanisms. The disorganization of auditory novelty processing under anesthesia relates to a loss of thalamic responses to novelty and to a disruption of higher-order functional cortical networks in parietal, prefrontal and cingular cortices. PMID:27502046

Zooming into creativity: individual differences in attentional global-local biases are linked to creative thinking.

PubMed

Zmigrod, Sharon; Zmigrod, Leor; Hommel, Bernhard

2015-01-01

While recent studies have investigated how processes underlying human creativity are affected by particular visual-attentional states, we tested the impact of more stable attention-related preferences. These were assessed by means of Navon's global-local task, in which participants respond to the global or local features of large letters constructed from smaller letters. Three standard measures were derived from this task: the sizes of the global precedence effect, the global interference effect (i.e., the impact of incongruent letters at the global level on local processing), and the local interference effect (i.e., the impact of incongruent letters at the local level on global processing). These measures were correlated with performance in a convergent-thinking creativity task (the Remote Associates Task), a divergent-thinking creativity task (the Alternate Uses Task), and a measure of fluid intelligence (Raven's matrices). Flexibility in divergent thinking was predicted by the local interference effect while convergent thinking was predicted by intelligence only. We conclude that a stronger attentional bias to visual information about the "bigger picture" promotes cognitive flexibility in searching for multiple solutions.

Health-related quality of life among adults 65 years and older in the United States, 2011-2012: a multilevel small area estimation approach.

PubMed

Lin, Yu-Hsiu; McLain, Alexander C; Probst, Janice C; Bennett, Kevin J; Qureshi, Zaina P; Eberth, Jan M

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop county-level estimates of poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among aged 65 years and older U.S. adults and to identify spatial clusters of poor HRQOL using a multilevel, poststratification approach. Multilevel, random-intercept models were fit to HRQOL data (two domains: physical health and mental health) from the 2011-2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Using a poststratification, small area estimation approach, we generated county-level probabilities of having poor HRQOL for each domain in U.S. adults aged 65 and older, and validated our model-based estimates against state and county direct estimates. County-level estimates of poor HRQOL in the United States ranged from 18.07% to 44.81% for physical health and 14.77% to 37.86% for mental health. Correlations between model-based and direct estimates were higher for physical than mental HRQOL. Counties located in the Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi exhibited the worst physical HRQOL scores, but this pattern did not hold for mental HRQOL, which had the highest probability of mentally unhealthy days in Illinois, Indiana, and Vermont. Substantial geographic variation in physical and mental HRQOL scores exists among older U.S. adults. State and local policy makers should consider these local conditions in targeting interventions and policies to counties with high levels of poor HRQOL scores. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modeling spatial accessibility to parks: a national study.

PubMed

Zhang, Xingyou; Lu, Hua; Holt, James B

2011-05-09

Parks provide ideal open spaces for leisure-time physical activity and important venues to promote physical activity. The spatial configuration of parks, the number of parks and their spatial distribution across neighborhood areas or local regions, represents the basic park access potential for their residential populations. A new measure of spatial access to parks, population-weighted distance (PWD) to parks, combines the advantages of current park access approaches and incorporates the information processing theory and probability access surface model to more accurately quantify residential population's potential spatial access to parks. The PWD was constructed at the basic level of US census geography - blocks - using US park and population data. This new measure of population park accessibility was aggregated to census tract, county, state and national levels. On average, US residential populations are expected to travel 6.7 miles to access their local neighborhood parks. There are significant differences in the PWD to local parks among states. The District of Columbia and Connecticut have the best access to local neighborhood parks with PWD of 0.6 miles and 1.8 miles, respectively. Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming have the largest PWDs of 62.0, 37.4, and 32.8 miles, respectively. Rural states in the western and Midwestern US have lower neighborhood park access, while urban states have relatively higher park access. The PWD to parks provides a consistent platform for evaluating spatial equity of park access and linking with population health outcomes. It could be an informative evaluation tool for health professionals and policy makers. This new method could be applied to quantify geographic accessibility of other types of services or destinations, such as food, alcohol, and tobacco outlets.

Tsunami Preparedness, Response, Mitigation, and Recovery Planning in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, K.; Wilson, R. I.; Johnson, L. A.; Mccrink, T. P.; Schaffer, E.; Bower, D.; Davis, M.

2016-12-01

In California officials of state, federal, and local governments have coordinated to implement a Tsunami Preparedness and Mitigation Program. Building upon past preparedness efforts carried out year-round this group has leveraged government support at all levels. A primary goal is for everyone who lives at or visits the coast to understand basic life-safety measures when responding to official tsunami alerts or natural warnings. Preparedness actions include: observation of National Tsunami Preparedness Week, local "tsunami walk" drills, scenario-based exercises, testing of notification systems for public alert messaging, outreach materials, workshops, presentations, and media events.Program partners have worked together to develop emergency operations, evacuation plans, and tsunami annexes to plans for counties, cities, communities, and harbors in 20 counties along the coast. Working with the state and federal partner agencies, coastal communities have begun to incorporate sophisticated tsunami "Playbook" scenario information into their planning. These innovative tsunami evacuation and response tools provide detailed evacuation maps and associated real-time response information for identifying areas where flooding could occur. This is critical information for evacuating populations on land, near the shoreline.Acting on recommendations from the recent USGS-led, multi-discipline Science Application for Risk Reduction Tsunami Scenario report on impacts to California and American Society of Civil Engineering adoption proposals to the International Building Code, the state has begun to develop a strategy to incorporate probabilistic tsunami findings into state level policy recommendations for addressing building code adoption, as well as approach land use planning and building code implementation in local jurisdictions. Additional efforts, in the context of sustained community resiliency, include developing recovery planning guidance for local communities.

Financing public health: diminished funding for core needs and state-by-state variation in support.

PubMed

Levi, Jeffrey; Juliano, Chrissie; Richardson, Maxwell

2007-01-01

This article documents the instability and variation in public financing of public health functions at the federal and state levels. Trust for America's Health has charted federal funding for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, which in turn provides a major portion of financing for state and local public health departments, and has compiled information about state-generated revenue commitments to public health activities nationwide. The federal-level analysis shows that funding has been marked by diminished support for "core" public health functions. The state-level analysis shows tremendous variation in use of state revenues to support public health functions. The combination of these factors results in very different public health capacities across the country, potentially leaving some states more vulnerable, while simultaneously posing a general threat to the nation since public health problems do not honor state borders. On the basis of this analysis, the authors suggest changes in the financing arrangements for public health, designed to assure a more stable funding stream for core public health functions and a more consistent approach to financing public health activities across the country.

Phase transitions in local equation-of-state approximation and anomalies of spatial charge profiles in non-uniform plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chigvintsev, A. Yu; Zorina, I. G.; Noginova, L. Yu; Iosilevskiy, I. L.

2018-01-01

Impressive appearance of discontinuities in equilibrium spatial charge profiles in non-uniform Coulomb systems is under discussions in wide number of thermoelectrostatics problems. Such discontinuities are considered as peculiar micro-level manifestation of phase transitions and intrinsic macro-level non-ideality effects in local equation of state (EOS), which should be used for description of non-ideal ionic subsystem in frames of local-density (or “pseudofluid”, or “jellium” etc) approximation. Such discontinuities were discussed already by the authors for electronic subsystems. Special emphasis is made in present paper on the mentioned above non-ideality effects in non-uniform ionic subsystems, such as micro-ions profile within screening “cloud” around macro-ion in complex (dusty, colloid etc) plasmas, equilibrium charge profile in ionic traps or (and) in the neighborhood vicinity of “charged wall” etc). Multiphase EOS for simplified ionic model of classical charged hard spheres on uniformly compressible electrostatic compensating background was constructed and several illustrative examples of discussed discontinuous ionic profiles were calculated.

Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) Models | NREL

Science.gov Websites

estimate the economic impacts of constructing and operating power generation and biofuel plants at the local and state levels. Using JEDI, you can analyze the energy impacts of wind, biofuels, concentrating

Business Education Professional Leadership Roster

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Business Education Forum, 1975

1975-01-01

The directories of key personnel in business and distributive leadership positions have been compiled by the National Business Education Association and includes the names and addresses of personnel at the local, State, regional, and national levels. (MW)

Traffic Management Plan Effectiveness Study, Final Report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1993-05-28

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PLANS (TMPS) HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY ACCEPTED BY TRANSPORTATION PROFESSIONALS, STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND THE PUBLIC AS A VIABLE MEANS OF MAINTANING ACCEPTABLE LEVELS OF TRAFFIC FLOW DURING PERIODS OF TRAFFI...

Evaluating County-Level Heat Vulnerability and Social Inequity in the United States through Climate and Socioeconomic Indices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gannon, C.

2016-12-01

Climate change will have many impacts on human health, perhaps most directly through extreme heat. High temperature and humidity combinations inhibit the body's ability to cool through physiological responses such as sweating. In conjunction with extended periods of extreme heat and shifted seasonality, these conditions are particularly dangerous. Current research and literature can be used to show where dangerous heat and humidity conditions are likely to be most prevalent, or where populations vulnerable to heat stress reside. To provide a better assessment of overall heat vulnerability, however, many complex factors, such as relative changes in temperature patterns or local socioeconomic conditions, must also be considered. Here, we utilize a multivariate approach to establish county-level risk scores by combining the most relevant indicators for heat vulnerability with climate model projections of wet bulb globe temperature, a metric useful for understanding how the human body will respond to conditions of high heat and humidity. We present our findings as an ESRI ArcOnline Story Map with data aggregated at the county-level in the continental United States. This format allows users to access maps showing each county's score in four categories related to heat vulnerability: heat and humidity hazards, population vulnerability, medical access, and physical infrastructure. A final map showcases a composite heat vulnerability score for each county, with comparisons to state and national averages. Our tool, part of the White House's Climate Data Initiative, is presented as a series of maps with a normalized scoring system to provide clear and easy access to the indicators most relevant to evaluating heat vulnerability at a local level. Ultimately, this readily available tool with general indices helps community decision makers communicate heat vulnerability and identify which resilience factors are most critical to improving local resilience.

The Pattern of Indoor Smoking Restriction Law Transitions, 1970–2009: Laws Are Sticky

PubMed Central

Sanders-Jackson, Ashley; Gonzalez, Mariaelena; Zerbe, Brandon; Song, Anna V.

2013-01-01

Objectives. We examined the pattern of the passage of smoking laws across venues (government and private workplaces, restaurants, bars) and by strength (no law to 100% smoke-free). Methods. We conducted transition analyses of local and state smoking restrictions passed between 1970 and 2009, with data from the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights Ordinance Database. Results. Each decade, more laws were enacted, from 18 passed in the 1970s to 3172 in the first decade of this century, when 91% of existing state laws were passed. Most laws passed took states and localities from no law to some level of smoking restriction, and most new local (77%; 5148/6648) and state (73%; 115/158) laws passed in the study period did not change strength. Conclusions. Because these laws are “sticky”—once a law has passed, strength of the law and venues covered do not change often—policymakers and advocates should focus on passing strong laws the first time, rather than settling for less comprehensive laws with the hope of improving them in the future. PMID:23763408

Valency configuration of transition metal impurities in ZnO

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Petit, Leon; Schulthess, Thomas C; Svane, Axel

2006-01-01

We use the self-interaction corrected local spin-density approximation to investigate the ground state valency configuration of transition metal (TM=Mn, Co) impurities in n- and p-type ZnO. We find that in pure Zn{sub 1-x}TM{sub x}O, the localized TM{sup 2+} configuration is energetically favored over the itinerant d-electron configuration of the local spin density (LSD) picture. Our calculations indicate furthermore that the (+/0) donor level is situated in the ZnO gap. Consequently, for n-type conditions, with the Fermi energy {epsilon}F close to the conduction band minimum, TM remains in the 2+ charge state, while for p-type conditions, with {epsilon}F close to themore » valence band maximum, the 3+ charge state is energetically preferred. In the latter scenario, modeled here by co-doping with N, the additional delocalized d-electron charge transfers into the entire states at the top of the valence band, and hole carriers will only exist, if the N concentration exceeds the TM impurity concentration.« less

FY 2011 United States Army Corps of Engineers Annual Financial Report. America’s Army: At a Strategic Crossroads.

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

Management Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, aff ected state agencies...history, the United States has relied on the Civil Works program for help in times of national disaster. Emergency management continues to be an...agencies) and demonstrate the fact that project management , operations, and maintenance activities are performed at the local (district) level . Th e

School closure as an influenza mitigation strategy: how variations in legal authority and plan criteria can alter the impact.

PubMed

Potter, Margaret A; Brown, Shawn T; Cooley, Phillip C; Sweeney, Patricia M; Hershey, Tina B; Gleason, Sherrianne M; Lee, Bruce Y; Keane, Christopher R; Grefenstette, John; Burke, Donald S

2012-11-14

States' pandemic influenza plans and school closure statutes are intended to guide state and local officials, but most faced a great deal of uncertainty during the 2009 influenza H1N1 epidemic. Questions remained about whether, when, and for how long to close schools and about which agencies and officials had legal authority over school closures. This study began with analysis of states' school-closure statutes and pandemic influenza plans to identify the variations among them. An agent-based model of one state was used to represent as constants a population's demographics, commuting patterns, work and school attendance, and community mixing patterns while repeated simulations explored the effects of variations in school closure authority, duration, closure thresholds, and reopening criteria. The results show no basis on which to justify statewide rather than school-specific or community-specific authority for school closures. Nor do these simulations offer evidence to require school closures promptly at the earliest stage of an epidemic. More important are criteria based on monitoring of local case incidence and on authority to sustain closure periods sufficiently to achieve epidemic mitigation. This agent-based simulation suggests several ways to improve statutes and influenza plans. First, school closure should remain available to state and local authorities as an influenza mitigation strategy. Second, influenza plans need not necessarily specify the threshold for school closures but should clearly define provisions for early and ongoing local monitoring. Finally, school closure authority may be exercised at the statewide or local level, so long as decisions are informed by monitoring incidence in local communities and schools.

Smoke-free laws in bars and restaurants: does support among teens and young adults change after a statewide smoke-free law?

PubMed

Fabian, Lindsey E A; Bernat, Debra H; Lenk, Kathleen M; Shi, Qun; Forster, Jean L

2011-01-01

We assessed changes in levels of support for smoke-free bars and restaurants among teens and young adults before and after implementation of a statewide smoke-free law. We measured support for smoke-free bars and restaurants among teens and young adults aged 16-24 years living in Minnesota (n=2,785) and five comparison states (n=404), up to 12 months before and up to six months after Minnesota's smoke-free law went into effect in October 2007. We compared changes in support among three subgroups-Minnesota participants who lived with a previous local smoke-free law, Minnesota participants who did not live with a previous local smoke-free law, and participants from the comparison states-before and after Minnesota's statewide smoke-free law went into effect. Support for smoke-free restaurants and bars among participants in Minnesota and comparison states increased after Minnesota's smoke-free law went into effect. Minnesotans, both those living with and without a previous local smoke-free law, showed similar increases in support for smoke-free restaurants as participants in comparison states. However, Minnesotans living without a previous local law showed larger increases in support for smoke-free bars than both those in comparison states and those living in Minnesota with a previous local smoke-free law. Our study employed a more robust design than similar studies and focused on the teen and young adult population. Our results will help advocates and policy makers demonstrate how public support for smoke-free laws increases following smoke-free legislation, particularly among those who were not previously living with a local smoke-free law.

TrackCC: A Practical Wireless Indoor Localization System Based on Less-Expensive Chips

PubMed Central

Li, Xiaolong; Zheng, Yan; Cai, Jun; Yi, Yunfei

2017-01-01

This paper aims at proposing a new wireless indoor localization system (ILS), called TrackCC, based on a commercial type of low-power system-on-chip (SoC), nRF24LE1. This type of chip has only l output power levels and acute fluctuation for a received minimum power level in operation, which give rise to many practical challenges for designing localization algorithms. In order to address these challenges, we exploit the Markov theory to construct a (l+1)×(l+1) -sized state transition matrix to remove the fluctuation, and then propose a priority-based pattern matching algorithm to search for the most similar match in the signal map to estimate the real position of unknown nodes. The experimental results show that, compared to two existing wireless ILSs, LANDMARC and SAIL, which have meter level positioning accuracy, the proposed TrackCC can achieve the decimeter level accuracy on average in both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) senarios. PMID:28617313

The Geospatial Characteristics of a Social Movement Communication Network

PubMed Central

Conover, Michael D.; Davis, Clayton; Ferrara, Emilio; McKelvey, Karissa; Menczer, Filippo; Flammini, Alessandro

2013-01-01

Social movements rely in large measure on networked communication technologies to organize and disseminate information relating to the movements’ objectives. In this work we seek to understand how the goals and needs of a protest movement are reflected in the geographic patterns of its communication network, and how these patterns differ from those of stable political communication. To this end, we examine an online communication network reconstructed from over 600,000 tweets from a thirty-six week period covering the birth and maturation of the American anticapitalist movement, Occupy Wall Street. We find that, compared to a network of stable domestic political communication, the Occupy Wall Street network exhibits higher levels of locality and a hub and spoke structure, in which the majority of non-local attention is allocated to high-profile locations such as New York, California, and Washington D.C. Moreover, we observe that information flows across state boundaries are more likely to contain framing language and references to the media, while communication among individuals in the same state is more likely to reference protest action and specific places and times. Tying these results to social movement theory, we propose that these features reflect the movement’s efforts to mobilize resources at the local level and to develop narrative frames that reinforce collective purpose at the national level. PMID:23483885

The geospatial characteristics of a social movement communication network.

PubMed

Conover, Michael D; Davis, Clayton; Ferrara, Emilio; McKelvey, Karissa; Menczer, Filippo; Flammini, Alessandro

2013-01-01

Social movements rely in large measure on networked communication technologies to organize and disseminate information relating to the movements' objectives. In this work we seek to understand how the goals and needs of a protest movement are reflected in the geographic patterns of its communication network, and how these patterns differ from those of stable political communication. To this end, we examine an online communication network reconstructed from over 600,000 tweets from a thirty-six week period covering the birth and maturation of the American anticapitalist movement, Occupy Wall Street. We find that, compared to a network of stable domestic political communication, the Occupy Wall Street network exhibits higher levels of locality and a hub and spoke structure, in which the majority of non-local attention is allocated to high-profile locations such as New York, California, and Washington D.C. Moreover, we observe that information flows across state boundaries are more likely to contain framing language and references to the media, while communication among individuals in the same state is more likely to reference protest action and specific places and times. Tying these results to social movement theory, we propose that these features reflect the movement's efforts to mobilize resources at the local level and to develop narrative frames that reinforce collective purpose at the national level.

Graph state generation with noisy mirror-inverting spin chains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, Stephen R.; Klein, Alexander; Bruderer, Martin; Jaksch, Dieter

2007-06-01

We investigate the influence of noise on a graph state generation scheme which exploits a mirror inverting spin chain. Within this scheme the spin chain is used repeatedly as an entanglement bus (EB) to create multi-partite entanglement. The noise model we consider comprises of each spin of this EB being exposed to independent local noise which degrades the capabilities of the EB. Here we concentrate on quantifying its performance as a single-qubit channel and as a mediator of a two-qubit entangling gate, since these are basic operations necessary for graph state generation using the EB. In particular, for the single-qubit case we numerically calculate the average channel fidelity and whether the channel becomes entanglement breaking, i.e. expunges any entanglement the transferred qubit may have with other external qubits. We find that neither local decay nor dephasing noise cause entanglement breaking. This is in contrast to local thermal and depolarizing noise where we determine a critical length and critical noise coupling, respectively, at which entanglement breaking occurs. The critical noise coupling for local depolarizing noise is found to exhibit a power-law dependence on the chain length. For two-qubits we similarly compute the average gate fidelity and whether the ability for this gate to create entanglement is maintained. The concatenation of these noisy gates for the construction of a five-qubit linear cluster state and a Greenberger Horne Zeilinger state indicates that the level of noise that can be tolerated for graph state generation is tightly constrained.

Disaster planning: the basics of creating a burn mass casualty disaster plan for a burn center.

PubMed

Kearns, Randy D; Conlon, Kathe M; Valenta, Andrea L; Lord, Graydon C; Cairns, Charles B; Holmes, James H; Johnson, Daryhl D; Matherly, Annette F; Sawyer, Dalton; Skarote, Mary Beth; Siler, Sean M; Helminiak, Radm Clare; Cairns, Bruce A

2014-01-01

In 2005, the American Burn Association published burn disaster guidelines. This work recognized that local and state assets are the most important resources in the initial 24- to 48-hour management of a burn disaster. Historical experiences suggest there is ample opportunity to improve local and state preparedness for a major burn disaster. This review will focus on the basics of developing a burn surge disaster plan for a mass casualty event. In the event of a disaster, burn centers must recognize their place in the context of local and state disaster plan activation. Planning for a burn center takes on three forms; institutional/intrafacility, interfacility/intrastate, and interstate/regional. Priorities for a burn disaster plan include: coordination, communication, triage, plan activation (trigger point), surge, and regional capacity. Capacity and capability of the plan should be modeled and exercised to determine limitations and identify breaking points. When there is more than one burn center in a given state or jurisdiction, close coordination and communication between the burn centers are essential for a successful response. Burn surge mass casualty planning at the facility and specialty planning levels, including a state burn surge disaster plan, must have interface points with governmental plans. Local, state, and federal governmental agencies have key roles and responsibilities in a burn mass casualty disaster. This work will include a framework and critical concepts any burn disaster planning effort should consider when developing future plans.

Quantum thermodynamics of nanoscale steady states far from equilibrium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taniguchi, Nobuhiko

2018-04-01

We develop an exact quantum thermodynamic description for a noninteracting nanoscale steady state that couples strongly with multiple reservoirs. We demonstrate that there exists a steady-state extension of the thermodynamic function that correctly accounts for the multiterminal Landauer-Büttiker formula of quantum transport of charge, energy, or heat via the nonequilibrium thermodynamic relations. Its explicit form is obtained for a single bosonic or fermionic level in the wide-band limit, and corresponding thermodynamic forces (affinities) are identified. Nonlinear generalization of the Onsager reciprocity relations are derived. We suggest that the steady-state thermodynamic function is also capable of characterizing the heat current fluctuations of the critical transport where the thermal fluctuations dominate. Also, the suggested nonequilibrium steady-state thermodynamic relations seemingly persist for a spin-degenerate single level with local interaction.

Full dimensional Franck-Condon factors for the acetylene ˜{A} 1Au—{˜{X}} {^1Σ _g^+} transition. II. Vibrational overlap factors for levels involving excitation in ungerade modes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, G. Barratt; Baraban, Joshua H.; Field, Robert W.

2014-10-01

A full-dimensional Franck-Condon calculation has been applied to the tilde{A} 1Au—tilde{X} ^1Σ _g^+ transition in acetylene in the harmonic normal mode basis. Details of the calculation are discussed in Part I of this series. To our knowledge, this is the first full-dimensional Franck-Condon calculation on a tetra-atomic molecule undergoing a linear-to-bent geometry change. In the current work, the vibrational intensity factors for levels involving excitation in ungerade vibrational modes are evaluated. Because the Franck-Condon integral accumulates away from the linear geometry, we have been able to treat the out-of-plane component of trans bend (ν _4^' ' }) in the linear tilde{X} state in the rotational part of the problem, restoring the χ Euler angle and the a-axis Eckart conditions. A consequence of the Eckart conditions is that the out-of-plane component of ν _4^' ' } does not participate in the vibrational overlap integral. This affects the structure of the coordinate transformation and the symmetry of the vibrational wavefunctions used in the overlap integral, and results in propensity rules involving the bending modes of the tilde{X} state that were not previously understood. We explain the origin of some of the unexpected propensities observed in IR-UV laser-induced fluorescence spectra, and we calculate emission intensities from bending levels of the tilde{A} state into bending levels of the tilde{X} state, using normal bending mode and local bending mode basis sets. Our calculations also reveal Franck-Condon propensities for the Cartesian components of the cis bend (ν _5^' ' }), and we predict that the best tilde{A}-state vibrational levels for populating tilde{X}-state levels with large amplitude bending motion localized in a single C-H bond (the acetylene↔vinylidene isomerization coordinate) involve a high degree of excitation in ν _6^' } (cis-bend). Mode ν _4^' } (torsion) populates levels with large amplitude counter-rotational motion of the two hydrogen atoms.

Excitons in Core-Shell Nanowires with Polygonal Cross Sections.

PubMed

Sitek, Anna; Urbaneja Torres, Miguel; Torfason, Kristinn; Gudmundsson, Vidar; Bertoni, Andrea; Manolescu, Andrei

2018-04-11

The distinctive prismatic geometry of semiconductor core-shell nanowires leads to complex localization patterns of carriers. Here, we describe the formation of optically active in-gap excitonic states induced by the interplay between localization of carriers in the corners and their mutual Coulomb interaction. To compute the energy spectra and configurations of excitons created in the conductive shell, we use a multielectron numerical approach based on the exact solution of the multiparticle Hamiltonian for electrons in the valence and conduction bands, which includes the Coulomb interaction in a nonperturbative manner. We expose the formation of well-separated quasidegenerate levels, and focus on the implications of the electron localization in the corners or on the sides of triangular, square, and hexagonal cross sections. We obtain excitonic in-gap states associated with symmetrically distributed electrons in the spin singlet configuration. They acquire large contributions due to Coulomb interaction, and thus are shifted to much higher energies than other states corresponding to the conduction electron and the vacancy localized in the same corner. We compare the results of the multielectron method with those of an electron-hole model, and we show that the latter does not reproduce the singlet excitonic states. We also obtain the exciton lifetime and explain selection rules which govern the recombination process.

Emulating weak localization using a solid-state quantum circuit.

PubMed

Chen, Yu; Roushan, P; Sank, D; Neill, C; Lucero, Erik; Mariantoni, Matteo; Barends, R; Chiaro, B; Kelly, J; Megrant, A; Mutus, J Y; O'Malley, P J J; Vainsencher, A; Wenner, J; White, T C; Yin, Yi; Cleland, A N; Martinis, John M

2014-10-14

Quantum interference is one of the most fundamental physical effects found in nature. Recent advances in quantum computing now employ interference as a fundamental resource for computation and control. Quantum interference also lies at the heart of sophisticated condensed matter phenomena such as Anderson localization, phenomena that are difficult to reproduce in numerical simulations. Here, employing a multiple-element superconducting quantum circuit, with which we manipulate a single microwave photon, we demonstrate that we can emulate the basic effects of weak localization. By engineering the control sequence, we are able to reproduce the well-known negative magnetoresistance of weak localization as well as its temperature dependence. Furthermore, we can use our circuit to continuously tune the level of disorder, a parameter that is not readily accessible in mesoscopic systems. Demonstrating a high level of control, our experiment shows the potential for employing superconducting quantum circuits as emulators for complex quantum phenomena.

The development and pilot testing of a rapid assessment tool to improve local public health system capacity in Australia.

PubMed

Bagley, Prue; Lin, Vivian

2009-11-15

To operate effectively the public health system requires infrastructure and the capacity to act. Public health's ability to attract funding for infrastructure and capacity development would be enhanced if it was able to demonstrate what level of capacity was required to ensure a high performing system. Australia's public health activities are undertaken within a complex organizational framework that involves three levels of government and a diverse range of other organizations. The question of appropriate levels of infrastructure and capacity is critical at each level. Comparatively little is known about infrastructure and capacity at the local level. In-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers in two Australian states with different frameworks for health administration. They were asked to reflect on the critical components of infrastructure and capacity required at the local level. The interviews were analyzed to identify the major themes. Workshops with public health experts explored this data further. The information generated was used to develop a tool, designed to be used by groups of organizations within discrete geographical locations to assess local public health capacity. Local actors in these two different systems pointed to similar areas for inclusion for the development of an instrument to map public health capacity at the local level. The tool asks respondents to consider resources, programs and the cultural environment within their organization. It also asks about the policy environment - recognizing that the broader environment within which organizations operate impacts on their capacity to act. Pilot testing of the tool pointed to some of the challenges involved in such an exercise, particularly if the tool were to be adopted as policy. This research indicates that it is possible to develop a tool for the systematic assessment of public health capacity at the local level. Piloting the tool revealed some concerns amongst participants, particularly about how the tool would be used. However there was also recognition that the areas covered by the tool were those considered relevant.

An Analysis of the Relationship between Standardized Testing and Self-Regulated Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, Mary R.

2016-01-01

Today's educational mission statements at national, state, and local levels revolve around much the same thing--preparing students with skills to compete and succeed on a global level. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2008) reports cognitive skills are significantly more important for the global economic success of a country, and in order…

The Adult Learner and the Applied Baccalaureate: Emerging Lessons for State and Local Implementation. In Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bragg, Debra D.; Townsend, Barbara K.; Ruud, Collin M.

2009-01-01

In the nation's changing economy, there is an increasing necessity for baccalaureate level education for jobs that have never before required that level of education. One potential solution to issues related to baccalaureate attainment and workforce development is the applied baccalaureate degree. Applied baccalaureate degrees have arisen from a…