Reaching beyond the popular celebration of commercial gains often associated with the proliferation of stadiums, events, and teams in the city, Sporting Dystopias explores the role of sport in the process of community building. Scholars from various fields, including anthropology, cultural studies, history, marketing, media studies, and sociology, examine the cultural, economic, and political interplay of sport and the city. The book systematically challenges the overwhelming claims of sport's benefit to the city as it scrutinizes the various tensions inherent in the relationship. Grounded in economic means, racial and ethnic affiliation, and the contestation for space, sport is seen as precipitating a broad range of human challenges.

Three policy innovations at the heart of this book - the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), and data driven instruction (DDI) provide a timely opportunity to join school and district improvement and policy implementation research with improvement science. This book is not just a collection of findings about odds-beating schools (those with higher than predicted student performance trends and higher than average poverty and diversity) and their journeys to implement these innovations. It also provides timely perspectives regarding policy innovations and how they might disrupt practice in desirable or undesirable ways. This book offers readers insight into how educators at every boundary-classroom, school, and district interact to make meaning of innovations, both individually and collectively; and also how their meanings and values influence innovation implementation outcomes. The story includes details how policy innovations were tailored to school and district office priorities; the features of these schools' structures, climates, and routines that were conducive to implementation; and how these innovations were able to penetrate the classroom boundaries.

Three policy innovations at the heart of this book - the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), and data driven instruction (DDI) provide a timely opportunity to join school and district improvement and policy implementation research with improvement science. This book is not just a collection of findings about odds-beating schools (those with higher than predicted student performance trends and higher than average poverty and diversity) and their journeys to implement these innovations. It also provides timely perspectives regarding policy innovations and how they might disrupt practice in desirable or undesirable ways. This book offers readers insight into how educators at every boundary-classroom, school, and district interact to make meaning of innovations, both individually and collectively; and also how their meanings and values influence innovation implementation outcomes. The story includes details how policy innovations were tailored to school and district office priorities; the features of these schools' structures, climates, and routines that were conducive to implementation; and how these innovations were able to penetrate the classroom boundaries.

One of the most active areas of contemporary organic chemistry involves the search for new catalysts that borrow concepts, strategies and even components from enzymes but yet are not found in nature. Such artificial enzymes not only give enormous insights into the mechanisms of enzyme catalysis but also offer the potential for catalyzing a wide range of chemical reactions with no counterpart in nature. Several approaches have been taken in the deVelopment of new catalysts, some based on biological methods and others on synthetic techniques. Site directed mutagenesis has allowed the direct replacement of amino acids in an enzyme with resulting changes in stability, selectivity and mechanism. Recent developments have shown that even non-natural amino acids can be incorporated into proteins and also that enzymes can function effectively in organic solvents. A different biological route to artificial enzymes has exploited the immune system and its ability to generate millions of antibodies to a given antigen. Novel antigens have been designed to mimic the transition states of chemical reactions. Antibodies elicited against these antigens thus contain an active site that is complementary to transition state structure and can potentially catalyze target reactions. A broad range of reactions can now be 6 catalyzed using the method with rate accelerations reaching 10 compared to the control reactions. Protein engineering and catalytic antibodies represent complex solutions to the problem of artificial enzymes. Their complexity is however their principal limitation.

One of the most active areas of contemporary organic chemistry involves the search for new catalysts that borrow concepts, strategies and even components from enzymes but yet are not found in nature. Such artificial enzymes not only give enormous insights into the mechanisms of enzyme catalysis but also offer the potential for catalyzing a wide range of chemical reactions with no counterpart in nature. Several approaches have been taken in the deVelopment of new catalysts, some based on biological methods and others on synthetic techniques. Site directed mutagenesis has allowed the direct replacement of amino acids in an enzyme with resulting changes in stability, selectivity and mechanism. Recent developments have shown that even non-natural amino acids can be incorporated into proteins and also that enzymes can function effectively in organic solvents. A different biological route to artificial enzymes has exploited the immune system and its ability to generate millions of antibodies to a given antigen. Novel antigens have been designed to mimic the transition states of chemical reactions. Antibodies elicited against these antigens thus contain an active site that is complementary to transition state structure and can potentially catalyze target reactions. A broad range of reactions can now be 6 catalyzed using the method with rate accelerations reaching 10 compared to the control reactions. Protein engineering and catalytic antibodies represent complex solutions to the problem of artificial enzymes. Their complexity is however their principal limitation.

This volume culls scholarship on both what high literacy is and how it is developed. It embraces the call put forth by Langer and Applebee (2016) that high literacy must continue to be our aim and to see more research analyzing and identifying how teachers might promote literacy practices that promote deep thinking around important content. The editors offer a conceptual framework for high literacy that explicates how each component (i.e. reading, writing, dialogic engagement, and epistemic cognition in literary reasoning) relates to the others and from what scholarly literature these concepts have been derived. Individual chapter authors provide in-depth examinations of the existing research base on particular related topics, focusing on the two important cross-cutting aims of the volume: (1) explicating the roles reading, writing, dialogic engagement, and epistemic cognition hold in high literacy development, and (2) providing examples of practices recommended to develop high literacy.

During the past few years the world has seen widespread geopolitical change. Throughout sport has remained a significant thread in the fabric of culture. This thought-provoking book offers an international collection of writings exploring the effects of sport on culture and the role of sport as a cultural barometer.

About the Contributor(s): Peter C. Wilcox, STD, has been a psychotherapist and spiritual director for over thirty years. He holds a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of America and has taught at the Washington Theological Union, Loyola University Maryland, and St. Bonaventure University. For many years he has directed retreats and conducted seminars on personality development and spiritual growth.

Why is it that many students' performance tends to drop in the middle school years, and what can we do about it? This book tells the stories of educators who embody best practices in their day-to-day activities - practices that consistently lead to higher student academic achievement. The authors share what they have learned about how some middle schools consistently foster better academic performance than other similar schools. These schools have learned to successfully adapt to the climate of accountability while practicing the essentials of effective middle-level education. ""Best Practices from High-Performing Middle Schools"" is essential reading for everyone who cares about adolescents and wants to ensure their success in later schooling and in life. Teachers and administrators will find research-based practices that they can adapt to their own unique contexts. Parents, policymakers, and community members will better understand how they can contribute to the improvement of their middle schools.

Why is it that many students' performance tends to drop in the middle school years, and what can we do about it? This book tells the stories of educators who embody best practices in their day-to-day activities - practices that consistently lead to higher student academic achievement. The authors share what they have learned about how some middle schools consistently foster better academic performance than other similar schools. These schools have learned to successfully adapt to the climate of accountability while practicing the essentials of effective middle-level education. ""Best Practices from High-Performing Middle Schools"" is essential reading for everyone who cares about adolescents and wants to ensure their success in later schooling and in life. Teachers and administrators will find research-based practices that they can adapt to their own unique contexts. Parents, policymakers, and community members will better understand how they can contribute to the improvement of their middle schools.