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This disquisition aims to identify and explore: (1) the unintended, negative consequences of traditional classroom grading practices, (2) an alternative grading practice—standards-based grading—with its positive outcomes, and (3) a process for implementing reform via standards-based grading at a small, rural high school. The authors begin by critically examining the literature surrounding four traditional, common grading practices and detailing two shared and concerning outcomes: traditional grading practices (1) do not allow for the equitable treatment of students, and (2) hinder learning. Following this examination, the authors detail an alternative grading practice—standards-based grading—including its associated, positive outcomes and literature support.The authors detail their improvement initiative for transitioning one high school from a traditional to a standards-based-grading model. The implementation process included a full transition of two teachers’ courses from traditional to standards-based grading. Following their proposed improvement initiative, the authors evaluated the effectiveness of the intervention, including an analysis of stakeholder interviews and focus group results. Data obtained shed light on the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation process, as well as the positive and negative outcomes experienced by students, parents, teachers, and school leaders who participated in the transition from traditional to standards-based grading.

This study explored community readiness to support ex-prisoner reintegration; a sentencing objective requiring active community participation. Findings indicate the community support reintegration. Certain conditions maximised support. Abstract reintegrative policy was endorsed over personal involvement in ex-prisoner reintegration; ex-prisoners demonstrating an ability to be ‘redeemed’ and non-stereotypical ex-offender-types received greater support.

This paper analyses the role of religion and the Catholic Church in Mexican constitutional thought in the first half of the nineteenth-century. Its principal hypothesis is that Independent Mexico.s political thinkers considered the promotion of the Catholic faith was necessary to ensure successful government and social order. In accordance with this idea, it argues that the debates which raged in the 1820s and 1830s over the questions of patronage and church property cannot be understood in terms of a confrontation between liberal and conservative ideas as has generally been the case in Mexican historiography. Rather, it contends that the division of opinion amongst the political elites on this matter was grounded in the debates that took place in eighteenth-century Spain in order to define the correct relationship between the Crown and the Church

Mcm4 (minichromosome maintenance-deficient 4 homolog) encodes a subunit of the MCM2-7 complex (also known as MCM2-MCM7), the replication licensing factor and presumptive replicative helicase. Here, we report that the mouse chromosome instability mutation Chaos3 (chromosome aberrations occurring spontaneously 3), isolated in a forward genetic screen, is a viable allele of Mcm4. Mcm4 Chaos3 encodes a change in an evolutionarily invariant amino acid (F345I), producing an apparently destabilized MCM4. Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that we engineered to contain a corresponding allele (resulting in an F391I change) showed a classical minichromosome loss phenotype. Whereas homozygosity for a disrupted Mcm4 allele (Mcm4-) caused preimplantation lethality, McmChaos3/- embryos died late in gestation, indicating that Mcm4Chaos3 is hypomorphic. Mutant embryonic fibroblasts were highly susceptible to chromosome breaks induced by the DNA replication inhibitor aphidicolin. Most notably, >80% of Mcm4 Chaos3/Chaos3 females succumbed to mammary adenocarcinomas with a mean latency of 12 months. These findings suggest that hypomorphic alleles of the genes encoding the subunits of the MCM2-7 complex may increase breast cancer risk. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group.

This paper will analyse Lucas Alamán¿s proposals for the reform of the 1824 Mexican Constitution in the 1830s. It will argue that, contrary to the interpretations of many historians, during these years he did not advocate the adoption of a centralist system, or the abolition of representative government. Instead, it will show that Alamán¿s real interest lay in promoting radical changes in the distribution of power between the three branches of government. Through a close examination of his ideas, it will suggest that Alamán did not favour the adoption of the US checks and balances system, nor the division of powers established in the 1812 Spanish Constitution. Rather, Alamán wished to see Mexico adopt a version of the British balanced constitution.

Topoisomerase II (Topo II) performs topological modifications on double-stranded DNA molecules that are essential for chromosome condensation, resolution, and segregation. In mammals, G2 and metaphase cell cycle delays induced by Topo II poisons have been proposed to be the result of checkpoint activation in response to the catenation state of DNA. However, the apparent lack of such controls in model organisms has excluded genetic proof that Topo II checkpoints exist and are separable from the conventional DNA damage checkpoint controls. But here, we define a Topo II-dependent G2/M checkpoint in a genetically amenable eukaryote, budding yeast, and demonstrate that this checkpoint enhances cell survival. Conversely, a lack of the checkpoint results in aneuploidy. Neither DNA damage-responsive pathways nor Pds1/securin are needed for this checkpoint. Unusually, spindle assembly checkpoint components are required for the Topo II checkpoint, but checkpoint activation is not the result of failed chromosome biorientation or a lack of spindle tension. Thus, compromised Topo II function activates a yeast checkpoint system that operates by a novel mechanism. © 2006 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

The effect of ultraviolet light on aqueous trinitrotoluene solutions has been studied in open and closed systems. Irradiation of saturated aqueous solutions of TNT in open containers for 24 hours caused a visible change in the appearance of the solutions and a drastic drop of TNT concentration from 100 ppm to 0.16 ppm. Samples pulled at intervals indicated that the TNT concentration consistently decreased with time. Photochemical conversion products of TNT were evident in samples take after 3, 6, 24 hours of irradiation. Aqueous solutions of 1, 3, 5 (c 14) TNT were irradiated in closed vessels for periods of 24, 72, 144 and 312 hours. The activity of the irradiated TNT decreased with increased time of exposure. Labeled CO2 was found to be one of the photolytic products indicating that ring cleavage occurred. Unidentified volatile products of the reaction were trapped by activated charcoal. Most of the photochemically converted compounds remaining in solution were found to be polar and unextractable with benzene or acetone.

The role of each of four bench-scale UV systems in the treatment of aqueous explosive solutions is discussed. Studies relating the effects of acetone and H2O2 in the treatment are reviewed. Under given conditions, UV light (254 nm) in conjunction with small concentrations of H2O2 results in the elimination of such explosives as TNT (alpha trinitro-toluene), RDX (cyclonite), HMX (homocylonite), 2,4 DNT (dinitrotoluene), 2,6 DNT and Explosive D (ammonium picrate) from their aqueous solutions. Analyses have shown that explosive disappearance is accompanied by a decrease in TOC after one hour of exposure. No significant concentrations of any related conversion products were detected in the one hour photolysates. Studies incorporating 1,3,5 labeled C14-TNT have indicated that the TNT molecule is cleaved and converted to C(14)O2 upon such treatment. UV treatment of bomb-loading effluents containing 221 ppm TNT and 148 ppm RDX successfully resulted in the elimination of these explosives and their conversion products.

This project demonstrated the feasibility of treating explosive contaminated wastewater using an oxidant (hydrogen peroxide) in conjunction with short wavelength UV light. The process achieves a high degree of decontamination without any troublesome by-products. Water contaminated with trinitrotoluene (TNT) and cyslonite (RDX) was successfully treated using this photooxidative method. The parameters for the design or an ultraviolet light chamber for large scale treatment of TNT and RDX contaminated wastewaters were ascertained as a result of these studies. A pilot-scale system was designed and tested at a load, assemble and pack (LAP) facility at the Naval Weapons Support Center, Crane, Indiana. In general, when compared with two other processes (UV-ozonation and carbon adsorption), the UV-H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) treatment appears to be the simplest, most direct and most economical process available for the treatment of explosive contaminated wastewaters. (Author)

Liberalism is often seen as a Western gift to the world that became tragically warped on contact with less developed nations. But where once the region’s intellectuals themselves subscribed to this vision, more recent scholarship shows that Latin American countries charted their own courses towards “liberal” rights and constitutions. Despite even the recent ravages of neoliberalism, the key tenets and institutions of liberalism remain deeply popular, write Catherine Andrews (CIDE, Mexico) and Ariadna Acevedo Rodrigo (Cinvestav, Mexico).

El liberalismo es visto a menudo como un regalo de Occidente para el mundo que tragicamente se ha deformado al entrar en contacto con naciones menos desarrolladas. Pero aun cuando los intelectuales de la región llegaron a avalar esta visión alguna vez, las investigaciones más recientes muestran que los países de Latinoamérica han trazado sus propias rutas hacia derechos y constituciones “liberales”. A pesar de los estragos del neoliberalismo durante las últimas cuatro décadas, los principios e instituciones del liberalismo siguen gozando de altos niveles de apoyo popular, escriben Catherine Andrews (CIDE) y Ariadna Acevedo Rodrigo (Cinvestav).