This study examines the perceptions of foreign language elementary school (FLES) teachers under current federal education legislation, specifically the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. The study data was collected during the fall of 2008, while Congress continued to debate the reauthorization of NCLB and just prior to the U.S. presidential election. The study gives voice a traditionally under-researched group of teachers, elementary school foreign language teachers. Inner-city public FLES teachers at Murray Language Academy, a Chicago (Illinois, U.S.A.) Public School (CPS), shared their beliefs about working under NCLB in order to document the perceived impact of NCLB on their early foreign language curriculum and their own behavior. The study also provides a review of current literature illuminating NCLB's impact on FLES programs and FLES teacher behavior in the U.S. As a case study, the research included structured interviews and classroom observations which were designed and analyzed with the following research questions in mind: 1. What do CPS elementary school foreign language teachers believe about No Child Left Behind's impact on their curriculum? 2. What do CPS elementary school foreign language teachers believe about No Child Left Behind's impact on their own behavior? The interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) to methodically identify patterns in the ways in which FLES teachers are influenced by NCLB. To further enrich the study, classroom observations were conducted. The study participants did not note any reduction in FLES programming due to NCLB, however, the study uncovered two recurring critical issues for Murray FLES teachers in the climate of NCLB. The two recurring critical issues revealed by the study's participants are: (a) FLES teachers in CPS believe they face increased challenges in integrating students from NCLB failed schools into their language curriculum and (b) FLES teachers in CPS perceive increased workloads and increased use of school resources, including greater interaction with the school's special education staff, as a result of mainstreaming students with cognitive and behavioral disabilities into FLES programs under NCLB.

The structure and regional tectonic setting of an exhumed, 9.3-km long, left-lateral strike-slip fault zone eludicates processes of growth, linkage, and termination for strike-slip fault zones in granitic rocks. The Gemini fault zone is composed of three steeply dipping, southwest-striking, noncoplanar segments that nucleated and grew along preexisting joints. The fault zone has a maximum slip of 131 m and is an example of a segmented, hard-linked fault zone in which geometrical complexities of the faults and compositional variations of protolith and host rock resulted in nonuniform slip orientations, complex interactions at fault segments, and an asymmetric slip-distance profile. Regional structural analysis shows that joints and left-lateral fault zones have accommodated slip within a 4.8-km wide, right-lateral monoclinical kink band with vertical fold axes and northwest-striking axial surfaces. Geometric modeling of the kink band indicates that as little as 1.1 km of right-lateral displacement across the kink band may have produced the observed slip on kilometer-scale faults within the kink band.

The left hemisphere (LH) is accepted as the dominant hemisphere for language processing. There is also evidence confirming the language processing abilities of the right hemisphere (RH), particularly its lexical-semantic processing potential (Chiarello, 1988; Joanette, Goulet, & Hannequin, 1990). The capacity of the RH for language processing is significant to the investigation of language processing following LH lesions. However, the precise neurocognitive mechanisms underlying language processing following lesion remain to be fully elucidated. Subsequently, the overall aim for this thesis is to investigate hemispheric contributions to semantic processing following unilateral lesions, and to explore the significance of the contribution made by the RH. In order to achieve this overall aim, the current thesis firstly explores the hemispheric contributions made to lexical-semantic processing for healthy adults, and then shifts focus to explore the changes in hemispheric processing for participants with unilateral lesions (LH and RH). Comparisons of hemispheric activation between these groups will clarify the underlying hemispheric mechanisms that facilitate language processing following unilateral lesion. This thesis includes four complementary investigations of hemispheric contributions to semantic processing. The first study combined divided visual field (DVF) priming with event-related potentials (ERPs), in order to investigate controlled hemispheric semantic priming for young healthy adults. Two experiments were employed for a between subjects comparison of time-course differences (stimulus onset asynchrony, or SOA, varied between experiments) in hemispheric activation of associated and nonassociated category members. Continuous electroencephalograms were recorded throughout the priming task for each participant, and later analysed with reference to relevant ERP components (N400 and Late Positive Complex). Bilateral N400 priming was revealed for associated category members at both the short and long SOA. There was no significant N400 priming for the nonassociated category member condition. The examination of hemispheric priming of associated and nonassociated category member stimuli over the same time-course was continued in the second study for participants with unilateral LH lesions and matched controls. The second investigation aimed to determine the impact of unilateral LH lesions on controlled hemispheric semantic priming, utilising the DVF priming paradigm with participants following unilateral lesions. This study also aimed to explore associations between hemispheric activation during the online priming task and offline comprehension abilities. Differences in priming were observed between the LH lesion group and the control group, with participants in the LH lesion group requiring the association relationship to elicit priming. Priming also varied for participants as a function of their offline comprehension abilities, with RH priming associated with higher offline scores. The third investigation continued the exploration of hemispheric semantic activation following LH lesion, examining the impact of a LH lesion on interhemispheric control mechanisms, and the modification of hemispheric processing capacities with and without dominant hemisphere control. This investigation again utilised DVF priming with associated and nonassociated category member stimuli, in conjunction with the dual task paradigm. The dual task paradigm is designed to overload one hemisphere’s processing resources in order to remove interhemispheric suppression. Findings indicate that following LH lesions, the RH’s contribution is enhanced under conditions that are designed to overload the LH. The final study shifts from the investigation of participants with LH lesions to the impact of a RH lesion. This exploration of controlled hemispheric semantic priming following RH lesion sought to increase our understanding of the underlying mechanisms for semantic processing following unilateral lesion. The RH’s role in lexical-semantic processing has been documented consistently over approximately the last twenty years, however, there remains limited direct investigation of a RH lesion’s impact on contributions to semantic processing. A single case investigation utilised the same experimental procedure as the second study described. Findings suggest a similar activation pattern between the individual with RH lesion and the control participants, with both exhibiting bilateral activation of the associated and nonassociated category member stimuli. However, a subtle difference was found between the activation of the individual with RH lesion and that of the control group, with the individual with a RH lesion showing increased strategic processing difficulties at the longer SOA. Overall, the current thesis demonstrates the importance of the RH for efficient strategic semantic processing for both healthy adults, and people with unilateral lesions. In addition, this thesis concludes that following a LH lesion, the RH contribution to controlled semantic processing may be associated with successful comprehension, and that RH contributions may be improved with the addition of a secondary task designed to overload LH processing. The present thesis provides evidence to support the use of the DVF priming paradigm in the investigation of hemispheric contributions to semantic processing following unilateral lesion. It is anticipated that these findings will improve the current understanding of the underlying hemispheric contributions to lexical-semantics following a unilateral lesion, and will encourage continuing investigation into the RH’s capacity to impact language recovery.

<p>The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained?</p><p>The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party. The starting point of the paper is theory on party change, which identifies the important agents, goals and determinants of party policy.. It rely on rational choice assumption, pays regard to institutional boundaries and is placed somewhere in the category of new institutionalism.</p><p>This thesis argues that it is empirically unquestionable that the Swedish party de facto has made a lurch to the right during the last decade, while the Danish party has shown significant stability in their ideological position. The thesis further argues that the development in the Swedish party can be explained through a shift of primary goals, from policy-seeking toward vote-maximising, while the Danish party’s primary goals have since the beginning of the nineties until now, remained primarily policy-seeking. This explains why their ideological trend has kept a stable course. The paper concludes by stating that the divergent development within the two parties is explainable on the basis of the institutional organisation within each party, together with the different political environments they are occupied in.</p>

<p>Structural bioinformatics deals with the analysis, classification and prediction of three-dimensional structures of biomacromolecules. It is becoming increasingly important as the number of structures is growing rapidly. This thesis describes three studies concerned with protein-function prediction and two studies about protein structure validation.</p><p>New protein structures are often compared to known structures to find out if they have a known fold, which may provide hints about their function. The functionality and performance of eleven fold-comparison servers were evaluated. None of the tested servers achieved perfect recall, so in practise a combination of servers should be used.</p><p>If fold comparison does not provide any hints about the function of a protein, structural motif searches can be employed. A survey of left-handed helices in known protein structures was carried out. The results show that left-handed helices are rare motifs, but most of them occur in active or ligand-binding sites. Their identification can therefore help to pinpoint potentially important residues.</p><p>Sometimes all available methods fail to provide hints about the function of a protein. Therefore, the potential of using docking techniques to predict which ligands are likely to bind to a particular protein has been investigated. Initial results show that it will be difficult to build a reliable automated docking protocol that will suit all proteins.</p><p>The effect of various phenomena on the precision of accessible surface area calculations was also investigated. The results suggest that it is prudent to report such values with a precision of 50 to 100 Ų.</p><p>Finally, a survey of register shifts in known protein structures was carried out. The identified potential register shifts were analysed and classified. A machine-learning approach ("rough sets") was used in an attempt to diagnose register errors in structures.</p>

Career and technical education (CTE) is faced with numerous forces that may impact its future. A variety of forces directly or indirectly affect CTE, ranging from the persisting stigma or negative image of career and technical education, the schools' curricular structure and requirements, along with federal laws such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Perkins. Federal laws guide administrators' decisions at the local level that affect CTE. With NCLB goals for all students to improve academic achievement, reach high standards, and graduate from high school (HS), much pressure is placed on schools. NCLB emphasizes increased academic rigor and progress on students' state assessments, holding schools accountable to annual yearly improvement. With more accountability, more emphasis is being placed on core academics that may in turn reduce or eliminate elective career and technical education programs. With continued negative perceptions associated with career and technical education, reinforced by curricular tracks and coupled with the impact of NCLB, CTE is left in a precarious position. Some of these forces may have deleterious effects upon CTE depending upon decisions and reactions of local administrators. &lt;br&gt;A quantitative survey research study was completed with Pennsylvania administrators from CTE schools and HSs. HS principals and CTE directors were surveyed as to how they perceived the effects of NCLB on role, image, and curriculum changes affecting career and technical education. Surveys were mailed to the directors of shared-time CTE schools and their respective sending HS principals. &lt;br&gt;The results of the study revealed the perceptions of HS and CTE administrators concerning the ramifications of No Child Left Behind as it relates to CTEs image, the effects on curriculum, and CTEs role in helping schools meet the goals of NCLB. There were significant differences found between CTE directors and HS principals regarding their perceptions of the role and image of CTE as affected by NCLB. In addition, there were no significant differences found between administrators regarding their perceptions of curriculum changes affected by NCLB. Finally, there were no significant differences in perceptions found across settings or regions. / School of Education; / Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program for Education Leaders (IDPEL) / EdD; / Dissertation;

Diese Anfang 2006 fertiggestellte, nunmehr postum veröffentlichte Publikation untersucht und bewertet detailliert die Positionen zum Vertrag über eine Verfassung für Europa jener Parteien, die im Europäischen Parlament der "Konföderalen Fraktion der Vereinten Europäischen Linken/Nordische Grüne Linke" (GUE/NGL) angehören. Die Debatte zum europäischen Verfassungsvertrag zwang alle linken Parteien in einer erstmalig geführten transnationalen Debatte, ihre Haltung zur EU-Mitgliedschaft des eigenen Landes, ihre Position zum Verfassungsvertrag als solchem sowie ihre generelle Bereitschaft zu verdeutlichen, einem „anderen“ oder „besseren“ Vertrag zuzustimmen. Die Arbeit zeigt eine sehr hohe Fragmentierung der Haltung der linken Parteien zum Verfassungsvertrag und zur Mitgliedschaft ihrer Länder in der EU. / This at the beginning of 2006 finished, now posthumously published publication examines and evaluates in detail the positions of the parties that belong to the European Parliament of the "Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left" (GUE / NGL) about the European constitutional treaty. The respective debate forced them in a transnational debate to define their positions on the EU membership of their country, their position on the Constitutional treaty as such, as well as their overall readiness for agreeing with an "other" or "better" treaty. The work shows a very high level of fragmentation of the attitude of the left parties on the constitutional treaty and the EU membership of their countries.

Structural bioinformatics deals with the analysis, classification and prediction of three-dimensional structures of biomacromolecules. It is becoming increasingly important as the number of structures is growing rapidly. This thesis describes three studies concerned with protein-function prediction and two studies about protein structure validation. New protein structures are often compared to known structures to find out if they have a known fold, which may provide hints about their function. The functionality and performance of eleven fold-comparison servers were evaluated. None of the tested servers achieved perfect recall, so in practise a combination of servers should be used. If fold comparison does not provide any hints about the function of a protein, structural motif searches can be employed. A survey of left-handed helices in known protein structures was carried out. The results show that left-handed helices are rare motifs, but most of them occur in active or ligand-binding sites. Their identification can therefore help to pinpoint potentially important residues. Sometimes all available methods fail to provide hints about the function of a protein. Therefore, the potential of using docking techniques to predict which ligands are likely to bind to a particular protein has been investigated. Initial results show that it will be difficult to build a reliable automated docking protocol that will suit all proteins. The effect of various phenomena on the precision of accessible surface area calculations was also investigated. The results suggest that it is prudent to report such values with a precision of 50 to 100 Å2. Finally, a survey of register shifts in known protein structures was carried out. The identified potential register shifts were analysed and classified. A machine-learning approach ("rough sets") was used in an attempt to diagnose register errors in structures.

This study aims to show why there was a schism within National Outlook (Milli G&ouml / r&uuml / s, MG) in Turkey during 2000s, why political Islamist parties having different discourse from MG emerged, and more specifically why and how People&#039 / s Voice Party (Halkin Sesi Partisi - HAS Party) differed from MG and political Islamist parties. The argument of this study is that socioeconomic factors have played an important role in differentiation of political Islam in Turkey and transformation of MG. Consequently, I tried to find why the HAS Party came about on the basis of the transformation of the MG movement, considering the effects of the changes in socioeconomic and political fields on MG/political Islam. In this respect, I took advantage of the interview done with some senior staff of the HAS Party, and Ihsan Elia&ccedil / ik, a HAS Party supporter, through semi-structured questions / of the comparison of party programs / of the articles in the press on the HAS Party / of the statements and articles of party representatives, as well as of the literature in question. It has been seen that different parties have emerged from MG due to socioeconomic changes, as well as to internal and external factors. While there have not been more changes morally in political Islamist parties apart from expressing Islamist notions or values in a common language, it has been seen that the ideas in the field of economy could change accordingly to the current year, and that this change showed parallelism with the development process of capitalism. It can be said that MG-based people within the HAS Party did not ideologically dissent from the SP, that they secede because of not being able to make the changes they wanted in the party&rsquo / s politics, that therefore the HAS Party was a follow-up party of the MG, taking Islam as a reference and giving great importance to personal conservatism and religious education, and that it had a different approach from the traditional MG in terms of economy and external relations. It can be said also that the most important difference of the HAS Party compared to other political Islamist parties is that it finds itself under the same roof with socialists, having thus the characteristics of a social democratic party with Islamist spirit.

Background: The twisting motion of the left ventricle (LV), with clockwise rotation at the base and counter clockwise rotation at the apex during systole, is a vital part of LV function. Even though LV rotation has been studied for decades, the rotation pattern has not been described in detail. By the introduction of speckle tracking echocardiography measuring rotation has become easy of access. However, the axis around which the LV rotates has never before been assessed. The aims of this thesis were to describe the rotation pattern of the LV in detail (study I), to assess RV apical rotation (study II), develop a method to assess the rotation axis (study III) and finally to study the effect of regional ischemia to the rotation pattern of the LV (study IV). Methods: Healthy humans were examined in study I-III and the final study populations were 40 (60±14 years), 14 (62±11 years) and 39 (57±16 years) subjects, respectively. In study IV six young pigs (32-40kg) were studied. Standard echocardiographic examinations were performed. In study IV the images were recorded before and 4 minutes after occlusion of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). Rotation was measured in short axis images by using a speckle tracking software. By development of custom software, the rotation axis of the LV was calculated at different levels in every image frame throughout the cardiac cycle. Results: Study I showed significant difference in rotation between basal and apical rotations, as well as significant differences between segments at basal and mid ventricular levels. The rotation pattern of the LV was associated with different phases of the cardiac cycle. Study II found significant difference in rotation between the LV and the RV. RV rotation was heterogeneous and bi-directional, creating a ´tightening belt action´ to reduce it circumference. Study III indicated that the new method could assess the rotation axis of the LV. The motion of the rotation axes in healthy humans displayed a physiological and consistent pattern. Study IV found a significant difference in the rotation pattern, between baseline and after LAD occlusion, by measuring the rotation axes, but not by conventional measurements of rotation. AV-plane displacement and wall motion score (WMS) were also significantly changed after inducing regional ischemia. Conclusion: There are normally large regional differences in LV rotation, which can be associated anatomy, activation pattern and cardiac phases, indicating its importance to LV function. In difference to the LV, the RV did not show any functional rotation. However, its heterogeneous circumferential motion could still be of importance to RV function and may in part be the result of ventricular interaction. The rotation axis of the LV can now be assessed by development of a new method, which gives a unique view of the rotation pattern. The quality measurements and results in healthy humans indicate that it has a potential clinical implication in identifying pathological rotation. This was supported by the experimental study showing that the rotation axis was more sensitive than traditional measurements of rotation and as sensitive as AV-plane displacement and WMS in detecting regional myocardial dysfunction.