Patenting the bomb: nuclear weapons, intellectual property, and technological control

During the course of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government secretly attempted to acquire a monopoly on the patent rights for inventions used in the production of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The use of patents as a system of control, while common for more mundane technologies, would seem at first glance to conflict with the regimes of secrecy that have traditionally been associated with nuclear weapons. In explaining the origins and operations of the Manhattan Project patent system, though, this essay argues that the utilization of patents was an ad hoc attempt at legal control of the atomic bomb by Manhattan Project administrators, focused on the monopolistic aspects of the patent system and preexisting patent secrecy legislation. From the present perspective, using patents as a method of control for such weapons seems inadequate, if not unnecessary; but at the time, when the bomb was a new and essentially unregulated technology, patents played an important role in the thinking of project administrators concerned with meaningful postwar control of the bomb.     

Effects of a professional development program on classroom practices and outcomes for Latino dual language learners

A randomized, controlled study was conducted to assess the effects of the Nuestros Niños professional development program on classroom practices and child outcomes related to language development and early literacy skills in both English and Spanish. Fifty-five teachers and 193 Latino dual language learners (DLLs) enrolled in the North Carolina More at Four Pre-Kindergarten Program participated in the study. The content of the professional development program consisted of research-based instructional practices designed to complement the core curriculum and scaffold learning for DLLs, and the format included professional development institutes, individualized consultation, and community of practice meetings. The results showed that the intervention led to measurable improvements in both the overall quality of teachers’ language and literacy practices as well as those specific to working with Latino DLLs, and greater gains in children's phonological awareness skills in their primary language.     

An off-the-shelf integrated microfluidic device comprising self-assembled monolayers for protein array experiments

Microfluidic-based protein arrays are promising tools for life sciences, with increased sensitivity and specificity. One of the drawbacks of this technology is the need to create fresh surface chemistry for protein immobilization at the beginning of each experiment. In this work, we attempted to include the process of surface functionalization as part of the fabrication of the device, which would substitute the time consuming step of surface functionalization at the beginning of each protein array experiment. To this end, we employed a novel surface modification using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) to immobilize biomolecules within the channels of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) integrated microfluidic device. As a model, we present a general method for depositing siloxane-anchored SAMs, with 1-undecyl-thioacetate-trichlorosilane (C₁₁TA) on the silica surfaces. The process involved developing PDMS-compatible conditions for both SAM deposition and functional group activation. We successfully demonstrated the ability to produce, within an integrated microfluidic channel, a C₁₁TA monolayer with a covalently conjugated antibody. The antibody could then bind its antigen with a high signal to background ratio. We further demonstrated that the antibody was still active after storage of the device for a week. Integration of the surface chemistry into the device as part of its fabrication process has potential to significantly simplify and shorten many experimental procedures involving microfluidic–based protein arrays. In turn, this will allow for broader dissemination of this important technology.     

The self-evaluating school — a case study of a special school

School self-evaluation allows staff to review the quality of their work in relation to local contexts. In this article, Peter Neil, senior lecturer in education, Alex McEwen, professor of education, and Karen Carlisle and Damian Knipe, both research assistants in the Graduate School of Education at Queen's University, Belfast, discuss a research project focusing on the process of self-evaluation carried out by staff at a special school in Northern Ireland. The project involved the participants in the completion of a research journal over a four-week period. The authors describe the ways in which the outcomes of the project were fed back to staff and the impact the project had on a range of issues, including teaching and learning and the school's professional development agenda.     

Education reform in New York City (2002–2013)

In 2002 Michael Bloomberg took office as Mayor of New York City and, over the next 12 years of his administration, oversaw a series of sweeping reforms in order to ‘fix’ the broken education system which he believed he had inherited. This paper details the key policy reforms in New York City’s public school system during this period, assessing the extent to which the reforms were successful and what can be learnt from a policy perspective for other urban education systems. It outlines the radical programme of school closure, structural reform, and the introduction of new measures of accountability and autonomy, concluding that reform in New York City can be grouped into four categories: leadership; structure and schools; accountability; and teachers. While a lack of targeted evaluation means that it is not possible to prove causation, it nonetheless shows that there is a correlation between this set of reforms and the fact that by 2013 New York City’s performance on national tests placed it amongst the best urban school districts in America when compared with other cities serving similar populations.