Preserving, Protecting, and Expanding Affordable Housing: A Policy Toolkit for Public Health

Resurgent interest in urban living is helping to revive neighborhoods in numerous American cities, stabilizing populations and sometimes beginning to reverse previous declines. One consequence of the influx of residents is new public and private investment in amenities such as parks, bike paths and grocery and other stores. However, new demand and investment can also drive up housing costs. That's particularly true in areas that have traditionally been affordable to low- and moderate-income individuals and families, notes a report by ChangeLab Solutions. With support from Kresge's Health Program, the nonprofit ChangeLab Solutions developed a guide to help practitioners and community advocates preserve and expand the number of affordable rental housing options in high-demand neighborhoods. The guide is aimed at practitioners who work at the intersection of housing and health, an area of increasing emphasis for Kresge's Health Program.The ChangeLab team has produced a policy toolkit with information on housing market trends and research on the links between rising housing costs and poor health outcomes. The toolkit identifies strategies to help ensure that households of all incomes have housing options in the areas where they want to live. It covers six policy areas: preservation, protection, inclusion, revenue generation, incentives and property acquisition

Creating From-me-to-you Messages

Art and sentiment are carefully combined by the highest standards of style and good taste into a form of expression that enjoys universal acceptance - greeting cards

Perceptions of Forest Change in the Governmental Region of Kaffrine, Senegal

Sénégal is a semi-arid West African country with a diverse ethnic makeup and a rapidly growing population that is largely rural, predominantly employed within the agricultural sector, and heavily reliant on the harvesting of forest products within state owned forests where populations have usufruct rights. The country experienced significant changes in land cover throughout the 20th century due to a series of major droughts and large expansions in agriculture. These changes were partially concentrated throughout the region of Kaffrine, where the wooded savannas of the early 20th century were systematically replaced by agriculture and converted to a shrub and tree savanna through over exploitation (Tappan et al. 2004). In the early 21st century this trend reversed, as the area of lands under cultivation in the Kaffrine region dropped from an estimated 434,121 hectares to 144,619 hectares between 2009 and 2014 (ANSD 2010; ANSD 2015). This study evaluated perceptions of local populations and key informants regarding trends in forest cover within the region of Kaffrine from the 1980s through 2017 and compared those perceptions to remotely sensed data of tree cover loss and extent from Global Forest Watch over a similar period. Semi-structured interviews covering a range of topics regarding forest change and forest resources were conducted with local populations and key informants (Eaux et Forêts officials) within each of the four departments of Kaffrine. Local communities did not prove to be a good judge of overall forest increases or decreases within their departments (nor did they accurately estimate precipitation trends), except for the areas immediately surrounding their communities. However, local knowledge regarding changes in tree species abundance was a reasonable reflection of agroforestry trends, and locals understood connections between forests, precipitation, harvesting, and food security. Additionally, key informants proved to be lacking in up-to-date data regarding the state of forests within the region, and they appeared to have a pronounced lack of influence within local communities. Going forward, relationships need to be further developed between local communities and Eaux et Forêts to ensure better management of forest resources surrounding villages, where forests and woodlands experience heavy anthropogenic pressures

Smallpox Infectious Disease

Smallpox is a disease similar to chicken pox, but not exactly the same. Smallpox is caused by a virus called Variola and is a member of the genus orthopoxvirus. The virus is a large brick shaped DNA virus. Smallpox spreads by direct, face to face contact with an infected person or by contact with infected body fluids or contaminated objects such as clothing. Smallpox is rarely spread through airborne transmission and is not known to be transmitted by animals or insects. The incubation period lasts from 7 to 17 days, during which infected individuals often show no symptoms and are not contagious. The lifecycle of poxviruses is complicated by having multiple infectious forms, with differing mechanisms of cell entry. Smallpox reproduces in a unique way among DNA viruses in that they replicate in the cytoplasm of the cell rather than in the nucleus. In order to replicate smallpox produce a variety of specialized proteins not produced by other DNA viruses, the most important of which is a viral-associated DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (CDC, 2004)

The development of tape recorded discussions and check lists for evaluating progression in grades one through four.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Status, Self, and Peers: An Ethnography of Junior High School

This report begins with a brief discussion of the overall purpose of social science: to be of service to humankind. To examine and report one\u27s findings is no longer the whole of the responsibility of social scientific research. One must also examine the purpose and objectives of that research. In view of those statements, the objective of this project--the gathering and analysis of information on the culture of junior high school students-- is to gain a better understanding of early adolescence and thereby offer opportunities for insights not only into their culture but to add to the body of knowledge about human culture in general. Ethnographic interviewing methods are based on the symbolic interactionist premises that (1) things--people, objects, activities--are all symbolic of socially shared meanings, (2) that meaning derives from social interaction, and (3) that meanings are interpretations of situations. As the theoretical springboard for ethnographic interviewing, it is also asserted that language is the best single way of communicating the meanings of cultural symbols. Ethnographic interviewing techniques and methods of analysis are used to examine and understand those meaning systems. These methods are discussed in turn. Based on the concept that societies have multiple social worlds it is asserted that junior high school culture is one such world in our contemporary complex society. To discover that world two sets of interviews were conducted with informants from Peet Junior High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and from Waverly-Shell Rock Junior High School in Waverly, Iowa. Three chapters are devoted to reporting the information gathered from those interviews. Chapter 2 is a discussion of the settings and activities, organized according to informants\u27 respective school. As students\u27 lives have a natural division between school-related and non-school related activities, that is the criteria used here. It was found that although young teens live in the same communities as adults, their haunts are not always the same. Each setting becomes a cultural scene in which the culture of these young people is played out. Chapter 3 concentrates on the status hierarchy and kinds of kids that attend the two schools. It was found that there is a three-tiered hierarchy of status at each school with popular people at the pinnacle and Grits or Dirtheads at the lowest stratum. In Waverly it was also learned that a fourth category, Loners, is also present. Also, in Waverly, there are subcategories within the major crowds. When analyzed and contrasted with taxonomies and cultural domains found during the interviews, it was discovered that the status hierarchy is a major organizing factor in this culture. It permeates, to one degree or another, many aspects of the lives of these young teens. Chapter 4 focuses on interpersonal relationships of junior high school students. Two such relationships are of greater importance during these years: friends and members of the opposite sex. Friends are fewer in number and more is required of friendship in the way of commitment and such qualities as trust and understanding. Going together is a prelude to dating and going steady and it also functions as a means to social climbing and setting a record. The final chapter is a summary of previous data and includes the dual conclusions about the research material and method. In ethnographic interviewing the research conclusion is discovery and reporting of a major cultural theme or themes. It is asserted that the predominance of the categories and the status hierarchy is indicative of the value to be popular and to enjoy the positive attention of one\u27s peers. This in turn suggests the looking glass self theory where one\u27s self-image is intimately tied to the response of others to one\u27s self. In early adolescence the quest for self-identity is profoundly important and others, especially peers (here meant as an age category), aid in the formation of that identity and the validation of it. Seeking the answer to the question \u27\u27Who am I? is at the core of early adolescent culture. The final section is a review of the method of ethnographic interviewing in this particular research. It was found that it is indeed an effective tool in the investigation of a culture and especially effective in learning about the culture of junior high school students