Attributing Benefits to Voluntary Programs in EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery: Challenges and Options

This paper reviews the economic justification for voluntary environmental programs to derive defensible measures of their positive social outcomes. We consider ideal experimental and statistical designs to detect and attribute benefits. We also explore a set of more practical approaches to benefit attribution that take into account the data gaps and statistical challenges that often make more rigorous approaches infeasible.voluntary programs, cost–benefit assessment, program evaluation

Breaking the transactional mindset: A new path for healthcare leadership built on a commitment to human experience

Numerous health care publications have focused on the compelling need to improve patient experience and the associated improvements necessary to address workforce well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and illuminated long-standing problems in health care including workforce shortages, inequity in health care delivery outcomes, care provider burnout, and overall societal structural racism.1,2 The Beryl Institute’s Nursing Executive Council (NEC) manuscript Rebuilding a Foundation of Trust: A Call to Action in Creating a Safe Environment for Everyone3 focused on actions and behaviours to heal relationships and build trust between care providers and leaders with commitments to safety, empathy, shared decision making, transparency, growth and development. Research studies abound offering new frameworks and interventions intending to strengthen systems of care that respect whole person needs. The nursing profession has always been anchored in holistic person-centered care yet continues to be challenged in work environments laden with fragmentation and barriers to human caring. The purpose of this paper is to review the dominance of transactional business mindsets and practices today that may foster those challenging environments and assert that the use of Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) demonstrates the importance of human relations in developing effective and sustainable organizational performance. Ultimately it can help us lead differently at all levels as we work to transform the human experience in healthcare. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Culture & Leadership lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework (https://theberylinstitute.org/experience-framework/). Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this lens

Identification of the Proliferation/Differentiation Switch in the Cellular Network of Multicellular Organisms

The protein–protein interaction networks, or interactome networks, have been shown to have dynamic modular structures, yet the functional connections between and among the modules are less well understood. Here, using a new pipeline to integrate the interactome and the transcriptome, we identified a pair of transcriptionally anticorrelated modules, each consisting of hundreds of genes in multicellular interactome networks across different individuals and populations. The two modules are associated with cellular proliferation and differentiation, respectively. The proliferation module is conserved among eukaryotic organisms, whereas the differentiation module is specific to multicellular organisms. Upon differentiation of various tissues and cell lines from different organisms, the expression of the proliferation module is more uniformly suppressed, while the differentiation module is upregulated in a tissue- and species-specific manner. Our results indicate that even at the tissue and organism levels, proliferation and differentiation modules may correspond to two alternative states of the molecular network and may reflect a universal symbiotic relationship in a multicellular organism. Our analyses further predict that the proteins mediating the interactions between these modules may serve as modulators at the proliferation/differentiation switch

Autonomous surveillance for biosecurity

The global movement of people and goods has increased the risk of biosecurity threats and their potential to incur large economic, social, and environmental costs. Conventional manual biosecurity surveillance methods are limited by their scalability in space and time. This article focuses on autonomous surveillance systems, comprising sensor networks, robots, and intelligent algorithms, and their applicability to biosecurity threats. We discuss the spatial and temporal attributes of autonomous surveillance technologies and map them to three broad categories of biosecurity threat: (i) vector-borne diseases; (ii) plant pests; and (iii) aquatic pests. Our discussion reveals a broad range of opportunities to serve biosecurity needs through autonomous surveillance.Comment: 26 pages, Trends in Biotechnology, 3 March 2015, ISSN 0167-7799, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.01.003. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167779915000190

Experiencing higher education, transitions and the graduate labour market: the non-traditional student perspective: book of abstracts

In the last three courses 2014-15, 2015-15 and 2016-17, Integration of Contents and English has been implemented at the Faculty of Sciences of Education in University of Malaga (Spain), specifically in Primary Education Studies. The initiative corresponds to the continuity of bilingualism that in the Spanish Education Normative and Curriculum begins with Child schools, continuing in Secondary and High Schools. Consequently, Education Faculty is involved in the preparation of future professional teachers, who not only will be an interpreter teacher with a degree in languages, but with knowledge and content related to the different areas of learning and teaching. That is the reason why Social Sciences Education area is researching in using CLIL and sharing didactic strategies like poster seasons among classroom groups or Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) within different city Institutions as Malaga Museum Picasso, developing the need of being students and citizens part of the scaffolding learning in Higher Studies. Therefore, internationalizing territories in the University, city/town and its Museums will be a goal when talking about innovation for internationalizing employability and entrepreneurship.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Overcoming barriers: the local and the innovative dimensions of inclusive socio-educational practices

This paper discusses some results of a broader research, focusing on a set of eleven socio-educational practices aiming to overcome school failure and dropout, developed in Portugal, giving particular attention to the local and innovative dimensions. This research aims to understand the point of view of the several actors involved, about which factors, processes and relationships contribute the most to building such practices. Data was gathered through documental analysis and semi-structured interviews with those (institutionally) responsible for each practice under study, and was analysed using two instruments. From the point of view of the people responsible, the practices that contribute the most to overcoming school failure and dropout fall into one of four categories: Study Support (4 Practices), Student Grouping (3), Mediation (3) and Pedagogical Differentiation (1). Some practices mobilise resources; others interfere with learning and life contexts, in order to confront institutional, situational and dispositional barriers to participation and learning. Those practices seem to have an impact on school-family communication. Formal schooling, as well as the socio-cultural inclusion of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, are seen as relevant; yet, we can observe a somewhat fragile involvement of families and communities in practices aimed at promoting their youth’s educational success.Este texto analiza algunos resultados de una investigación más amplia, centrada en un conjunto de once prácticas socioeducativas destinadas a superar el fracaso y el abandono escolar, desarrolladas en Portugal, prestando especial atención a las dimensiones locales e innovadoras. Su objetivo es comprender el punto de vista de los diversos actores involucrados, acerca de qué factores, procesos y relaciones contribuyen más a la construcción de tales prácticas. Los datos se recopilaron mediante análisis documental y entrevistas semiestructuradas con los responsables (institucionalmente) de cada práctica, y se analizaron utilizando dos instrumentos. Para las personas responsables, las prácticas que más contribuyen a superar el fracaso escolar y el abandono escolar se dividen en una de cuatro categorías: Apoyo al estudio (4 prácticas), Agrupación de estudiantes (3), Mediación (3) y Diferenciación pedagógica (1). Algunas prácticas movilizan recursos; otros interfieren con el aprendizaje y los contextos de la vida, para enfrentar las barreras institucionales, situacionales y disposicionales a la participación y el aprendizaje. Esas prácticas parecen tener un impacto en la comunicación entre la escuela y la familia. La escolarización formal, así como la inclusión sociocultural de jóvenes de entornos desfavorecidos, se consideran relevantes; sin embargo, se puede observar una participación algo frágil de las familias y las comunidades en las prácticas destinadas a promover el éxito educativo de sus jóvenes.This research is funded by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal), in the context of project PTDC/MHCCED/3775/2014. This research is funded by CIEd – Research Centre on Education, project UID/CED/01661/2019, Institute of Education, University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT