A Descriptive Portrait of Teacher Attrition at Tennessee Charter Schools

This study offers an analysis of teacher attrition patterns at charter schools in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee. Using survey data from 121 teachers, the study reports teacher opinion regarding four common causes of teacher attrition, examines the role of demography and school organization on future attrition plans, and offers various regression models in an attempt to predict future plans for the teachers within the sample. Overall, teachers reported lukewarm feelings regarding common causes of teacher attrition, and no background characteristic or school organizational structure held significance for future plans.

Biochemical phenotype and origin of the three most common beta-thalassemia mutations in Serbia

Molecular (DNA) characterization of thalassemia is the most reliable methodology for the diagnosis of this group of diseases. As thalassemias are very heterogeneous, hematological data and additional biochemical analysis are essential for their differential diagnosis. In this paper we present hematological and biochemical characteristics of the carriers of three most common beta-thalassemia mutations in Serbia (Hb Lepore, b?39 and b+IVS-I-110), to be taken into consideration as the initial step of the diagnostic approach to the thalassemia patients. Also, this paper represents a detailed survey of the diversity of b-globin gene haplotypes in carriers of the most common b-thalassemia mutations and normal betaA/betaA individuals of Serbian descent. A novel haplotype associated with Hb Lepore-Boston-Washington gene has been identified in Serbian population. These data support the hypothesis of multicentric origin of this mutation. The mutation has arised de novo in the chromosomal background characteristic for Serbian population. Additionally, we have shown that two most common Mediterranean mutations, b?39 and b+ IVS-I-110, have probably been introduced into Serbian population from Italy and Turkey, respectively, through historically documented migrations and settlements.

Political Party Affiliation and Judges' Decisions

Several scholars within the public law field of political science have compiled data on differences in the backgrounds of American judges, but without attempting to correlate these characteristics with differences in the decisions of the judges. Other scholars have compiled data on the different decisional tendencies of American judges, but again without correlating these tendencies with differences in the backgrounds of the judiciary.The first purpose of this paper is to explore the empirical relationships between one background characteristic and fifteen areas of judicial decision-making. Political party affiliation was chosen as the one background characteristic because it is of particular interest to political scientists, and is an especially useful indicator for predicting how judges on bipartisan appellate courts will divide when they do not agree. The second purpose is to explore empirically the effectiveness of three judicial reforms (judicial appointment, non-partisan ballot, and long term of office) which are frequently advocated as means of decreasing partisan influences in judicial decisions.