A Quantitative Stability Analysis of the Solutions to the Carson-Cambi Equation

A quantitative stability analysis of the Carson-Cambi equation [(1 + ε cos t)(d²y/dt²) + py = 0] is carried through, using a new, effective approach. The results are compared with a recent perturbation analysis, and show that this should not be used for ε0.4. In the present analysis we go up to ε = 0.8, and, in fact, with less effort than the perturbation analysis involves. Detailed stability diagrams are presented.     

Skiing and Sport in the Core Sámi Area of Norway, 1927 to 1964: Organisation,Modernisation and Minority Policy

The use of skis has a long history in the core Sámi areas of Inner Finnmark in the north of Norway. It played a central role in the lives of nomadic Sámi communities for centuries. However, as an organised sport, skiing has a much shorter history in this area. The first sport club was established in 1927, almost 60 years after the first sport club was established in Finnmark. The integration and consolidation of sport in Inner Finnmark was also a slow process not concluded until the mid-1960s; some 40 years after its breakthrough along the coast of Finnmark. The organising of sport in the Sámi villages happened during a time of radical change in society. Until 1950s, Norwegian minority policies towards the Sámi population were characterised as strict assimilationist, or Norwegianisation, policy. This gradually changed towards a policy that emphasised cultural plurality, integration and greater political and cultural rights for the Sámi. At the same time, a state-driven modernisation process radically changed all aspects of the Sámi society. Even though sport had been a central element to Norwegian nation building throughout the twentieth century and despite the important role sport has played in many states' assimilationist strategies towards their indigenous populations, Norwegian authorities never used sport consciously in its minority policy. Despite this, sport helped in shaping modern Sámi society, and in shaping and reshaping ethnic and local identities in Inner Finnmark.     

News Media Framing of Negative Campaigning

News media coverage of election campaigns is often characterized by use of the strategic game frame and a focus on politicians' use of negative campaigning. However, the exact relationship between these two characteristics of news coverage is largely unexplored. This article theorizes that consumer demand and norms of journalistic independence might induce the news media outlets to cover negative campaigning with a strategic game frame. A comprehensive content analysis based on several newspaper types, several election campaigns, and several different measurements of media framing confirms that news coverage of negative campaigning does apply the strategic game frame to a significantly larger degree than articles covering positive campaigning. This finding has significant implications for campaigning politicians and for scholars studying campaign and media effects.     

Using a Wiki in a Scientist-Teacher Professional Learning Community: Impact on Teacher Perception Changes

In this study, a wiki was integrated into a professional development model that systemically addresses early-career teachers?? needs. This study was conducted to examine the impact of wiki-based professional development activities in a scientist-teacher professional learning community and focused on early-career teachers?? perceptions of the role of wiki technology and knowledge of teaching through inquiry. Teachers participated in the Professional Learning Community Model for Entry into Teaching Science (PLC-METS), a professional development program that is based on an integrated teacher education model of knowledge sharing, collaboration, and communication between teachers and scientists, with the goal of supporting early-career teachers?? ability to engage their students in scientific inquiry. The use of a wiki environment to collaborate on activities, deliver resources, and share knowledge is rapidly expanding in professional development communities. The use of the wiki in PLC-METS positively predicted the results of teachers?? knowledge of inquiry-based teaching. Results demonstrate that the wiki can contribute to building a learning community for collaboration between early-career science teachers and scientists. The paper also discusses the educational implications for the design of wiki-based professional learning communities that impact teachers?? professional development.     

Preventive screening for early readers: Predictive validity of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

Current empirical evidence indicates poor learning trajectories for students with early literacy skill deficits. As such, reliable and valid detection of at‐risk students through regular screening and progress monitoring is imperative. This study investigated the predictive validity of scores on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Logistic regression analyses were used to test the utility of the DIBELS first grade indicators for predicting reading proficiency on TerraNova California Achievement Test (CAT) Assessment and Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) in second and third grade, respectively. Results suggest that students' first grade Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) DIBELS risk category scores were the only significant predictor of future TerraNova and PSSA reading proficiency. Although the current data present encouraging results for the predictive validity of ORF as a screening tool for early readers, further investigations of the utility of the remaining indicators (Letter Naming Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, and Phonemic Segmentation Fluency) are warranted. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Efficient PageRank approximation via graph aggregation

We present a framework for approximating random-walk based probability distributions over Web pages using graph aggregation. The basic idea is to partition the graph into classes of quasi-equivalent vertices, to project the page-based random walk to be approximated onto those classes, and to compute the stationary probability distribution of the resulting class-based random walk. From this distribution we can quickly reconstruct a distribution on pages. In particular, our framework can approximate the well-known PageRank distribution by setting the classes according to the set of pages on each Web host. We experimented on a Web-graph containing over 1.4 billion pages and over 6.6 billion links from a crawl of the Web conducted by AltaVista in September 2003. We were able to produce a ranking that has Spearman rank-order correlation of 0.95 with respect to PageRank. The clock time required by a simplistic implementation of our method was less than half the time required by a highly optimized implementation of PageRank, implying that larger speedup factors are probably possible. Significant portions of the work presented here were done while A. Broder and R. Lempel were employed by the AltaVista corporation.     

The Future of Public Libraries: A Technology Perspective

Libraries have to change their operations because information has become ubiquitous. They must adopt the posture that they are a force for societal change, and that means new ways of thinking about services like career development and lifelong learning. The ability to help users access the critical information they want or need will be key to public library future success.     

Project Work in the Paperless School: A Case Study in a Swedish Upper Secondary Class

This paper reports of how ICT and a computer rich environment is used in a an upper secondary Swedish school to change traditional teacher and pupil work. A teacher and his classes were followed during one week. Observations, field notes, spontaneous conversations and formal interviews with the teacher and some pupils were made. Teachers' and pupils' work is affected in many ways. Some of the traditional teacher's work is here left to the pupils. In spite of the pedagogical intention to promote cooperation, the technology seems to strengthen individual work. ICT also seems to lead to the dissolution of boundaries between home and work place, working time and leisure time. The pupils' task to search for information on the Internet and transform it into personal knowledge is not an easy one. Discussion or evaluation of sources and origin of texts found on the Internet seems to be negligent.