1,827 research outputs found

    Working Together to Build Beacon Centers in San Francisco: Evaluation Findings from 1998-2000

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    Since 1996, private and public funders in San Francisco have supported a city-wide Beacons Initiative. Eight Beacon Centers, located in public schools, serve 7500 youth and adults each year, providing a rich array of developmental activities in the non-school hours. This report looks at how the centers were created; it describes the centers' operation; and investigates the role of the initiative's "theory of change" in organizing and guiding the effort

    Collaboration and Community Change in the Children's Futures Initiative

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    In 2002, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched Children's Futures (CF), a 10-year community change initiative designed to improve the health and well-being of children from birth to age three throughout Trenton, NJ. CF's strategies included efforts to increase residents' access to prenatal and other health services, provide parenting skills education, improve the quality of available childcare and promote preventive healthcare among medical practices. The Foundation engaged P/PV to evaluate the implementation and outcomes of the initiative and to provide ongoing feedback on its progress.This report, and its forthcoming companion, Early Outcomes in a Community Change Effort to Improve Children's Futures, examine the promise of CF strategies. Collaboration and Community Change in the Children's Futures Initiative focuses on program implementation, participant recruitment and collaborations among Trenton's agencies. The second report examines programmatic improvements and early outcomes for CF families. Major findings from both are compiled in Children's Futures' First Five Years

    Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 by receptor-targeted nanoparticles as a corrective therapy for Cystic Fibrosis

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    Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common inherited genetic disorder, affecting around 1 in 2,500 babies born in the UK. Clinical manifestations are caused by mutations in the gene encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR), a membrane channel protein which regulates anion transport and mucociliary clearance. CRISPR/Cas9 is an attractive therapeutic option for CF as it could target the underlying cause of the disease, rather than treating symptoms. However, a major hurdle to overcome if CRISPR/Cas9 is to be deployed as a treatment is how to deliver the technology to the lung. We hypothesise that receptor targeted nanocomplexes (RTNs), previously shown to deliver DNA and siRNA to the lung, can be used to package and deliver the gene editing components. Here, we have successfully optimised these nanocomplexes specifically for the delivery of Cas9 over its various platforms and extensively characterised the particles. Using an epithelial GFP reporter system, we were able to achieve higher transfection levels than commercially available reagents, for both Cas9 mRNA and Cas9 protein. The 10th most common CF causing mutation, 3849+10kb C>T, generates a cryptic splice site, resulting in the formation of a pseudoexon containing a PTC, producing a truncated version of the protein. Using pairs of gRNAs, we were able to successfully remove the cryptic splice site using an NHEJ strategy, correcting aberrant splicing and, importantly, CFTR channel function as measured by Ussing Chamber. A homology-independent targeted integration (HITI) strategy was used to investigate the potential of restoring CFTR function regardless of mutation type. As proof-of-concept, we delivered GFP into AAVS1 locus of HEK293 cells, achieving a targeted knock-in efficiency of 14%.Finally, the use of RTNs to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 in vivo was explored successfully in an Ai9 mouse reporter model to restore tdTomato expression by paired gRNAs excision of a stop cassette, confirming RTNs can be used as a safe delivery method for repeated dosing of CRISPR/Cas9, and highlighting their translational potential

    A case study of teacher roles in engaging with student aspirations

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    This thesis investigated the complex role teachers play, both formally and informally, in relation to engaging and supporting student aspirations. Due to the links that have been established between aspirations and school completion and involvement in tertiary education, aspirations are important in an educational context. Yet, despite the abundance of aspiration related research, most has focused on student or parent perspectives, with few scholars targeting teacher perceptions of their roles in relation to student aspirations. This research is therefore significant as it addresses this gap through a single case study investigating perceptions of P-12 teachers from a peri-urban independent school in Victoria, Australia. Data were collected from 57 teachers via survey, interviews, and school document analysis. A lens of research-as-bricoleur, incorporating the theoretical frameworks of Bronfenbrenner (1979; 1994), Turner (2001), Gottfredson (1981, 1996), and Patton and McMahon (2015), provided the interpretative basis for the applied thematic analysis of the different data sets. Findings demonstrated differences in the way that teachers conceptualised their role in engaging with student aspirations. While teacher participants identified various formal and informal roles that they played in relation to engaging student aspirations, they also reported a lack of clear guidance or guidelines, necessitating the development of personal processes to direct their involvement. Other important findings highlighted a number of factors that teacher participants perceived as facilitating or impeding possible roles they could play in engaging student aspirations. The understandings emanating from this research provide substantive assistance to stakeholders, including school administrators and teacher educators, in appreciating and appropriately responding to an area of practice which remains misunderstood and without clear policy or guidelines. Ultimately, this research adds to the growing body of research into student aspirations and the concomitant importance of teachers in helping students aspire to and achieve their goals.Doctor of Philosoph

    Interrogating Neoliberalism and Postfeminism in the Home: A Textual Analysis of Orange is the New Black

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    This paper intends to analyse the different ways Orange is the New Black (OITNB) engages with postfeminist and neoliberal ideas around the subject of domesticity. I will argue that when it comes to representations of the domestic worker and the housewife, neoliberal and postfeminist values conflict, thereby disrupting the notion that neoliberalism and postfeminism operate coherently. The paper will begin by mapping out some of the feminist debates around domestic labour, from the second wave to our current postfeminist culture. I will then analyse how this labour is represented in the show, OITNB, by focussing on the characters Miss Claudette and Lorna Morello as specific examples. I will conclude by asserting that the show complicates the relationship women can have to the domestic, and that this is a site where the relationship between neoliberalism and postfeminism is understood to conflict, thus disrupting previous assertions that the two consistently work in tandem

    An Apt Analogy?: Rethinking the Role of Judicial Deference to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Post-\u3ci\u3eKisor\u3c/i\u3e

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    Since its inception in 1984, the U.S. Sentencing Commission (the “Commission”) has struggled to garner and maintain a sense of legitimacy among federal judges. The tension is both a story about competing expertise between judges and the Commission and competing values, namely uniformity and individuality. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court in Stinson v. United States prioritized uniformity by telling lower courts to treat the Commission as they would any other administrative agency. Lower courts—for the most part—faithfully executed this directive until 2019, when the Supreme Court in Kisor v. Wilkie gave them another option, one that seemed to leave room for more judicial discretion and, therefore, more sentence individualization, but at the expense of uniformity goals. This Note examines the circuit split over what level of deference federal judges owe to the commentary to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. This Note then advocates for the Supreme Court to abandon deference doctrines in the sentencing context altogether. Instead, this Note suggests that the Court adopt a new approach—what this Note calls the “cooperative partner” approach, inspired by how judges interact with the Advisory Committee Notes that accompany the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This Note concludes by arguing that the cooperative partner approach recognizes and respects the sui generis nature of the Commission in ways that encourage key sentencing actors—namely, federal judges, the Commission, and Congress—to prioritize rationality and fairness in federal sentencing

    A Portrait of Imprints Through the Canvas of the Landscape

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    For a ballet dancer, the studio is her space, her container, and her home. There is comfort in and attachment to the studio as it is a place she is told what, where and when to move. Over the years and through my studies, I have shifted where my comfort zone [my home] and my creative process lives because I am no longer comfortable in the conventional studio space. Through my research, I discovered how three different spaces, the studio, the Hangar Theatre, and the Herbert F. Johnson Art Museum, influenced my movement and how the self (a dance maker) and a space cannot stand alone to create the narrative. The need for the “self” and the “space” to co-exist is essential in my process of developing and sustaining a cohesive idea of movement. The depth of complexity when listening to my “self” and the “space” has developed a vital and clear relationship. This paper will explain the pathway I created in my new-found knowledge of each space and how I began “listening” and reacting to each space so that the work and energy of the dancers, and myself, could adapt and live purposefully

    Power and political process: The case of the Ivanpah Airport

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    This thesis examines power and political processes involved in the decision to construct a second commercial airport for Las Vegas, NV and the southern Nevada region. Using interview data and document analysis I argue that the organizational capacity of the state and its relative autonomy enabled state actors to dominate the airport\u27s development process by defining the need and setting the agenda for the project. Additionally, state officials acquired the land for the project by circumventing established mechanisms for public participation and involvement. The findings support a state-centered approach to understanding who wields power and how in political processes. Ultimately, the case raises issues about the state\u27s efforts to quell conflict by thwarting democratic involvement of citizens in this highly significant land development decision

    Interrogating the Relationship of Postfeminism and Neoliberalism in Orange is the New Black

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    This thesis looks at how the Netflix Original Series, Orange is the New Black (OITNB), depicts contemporary representations of marginalised women, and how these characters negotiate class and gender relations. OITNB, a modern media text that is often seen to critique both capitalist and patriarchal structures, is a useful text to consider when analysing women’s subject positions in relation to the dominant hegemonic themes of gender, race, class, and sexuality. I will argue that in criticising capitalist and patriarchal systems of oppression, OITNB disrupts the prevailing influences of postfeminism and neoliberalism which suggest that superstructures of oppression are no longer enforced in western society - whilst simultaneously re-enforcing them. Whilst this essay is primarily concerned with representations of gender and class, this thesis will also make visible how race and sexuality are negotiated in the show in order to better understand the diversity of women’s experience under neoliberal capitalism and within a postfeminist era. Furthermore, by using OITNB as a vantage point, this thesis argues that in order to better understand representations of gender and class relations in modern media texts, postfeminist cultural sensibility and neoliberal ideology must be considered as two separate forces that have an impact upon western popular culture. In the past, many feminist academics who have written on these subjects have viewed postfeminism as an offshoot of neoliberalism, or implied that the two work harmoniously in producing coherent subjects. I will argue in this thesis that such an assumption can lead to an oversimplified analysis when contextualised by intersectional discussions of gender and class. Whilst postfeminism and neoliberalism share many commonalities, it is in the interest of this thesis to consider the two as separate forces that impact modern western culture in specific ways. This will allow for a more robust theoretical framework, and lead to a greater understanding of the influence neoliberalism and postfeminism have on some forms of popular media

    Using Social Cognitive Theory to Predict Behavior

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    The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model where self-efficacy is hypothesized to influence people’s behavioral intentions directly and indirectly through effects on outcome expectancy. Data on self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and intention to jog two consecutive miles were collected from 115 college students enrolled in general education classes. As anticipated, path analyses indicated that efficacy had both a direct impact on intention and an indirect impact through its effects on outcome expectancy. The more efficacious people were, the more positive the outcomes they associated with jogging and the surer they were they would jog. The model tested in this study holds potentially important implications for health professionals. Based upon the model, professionals can increase the likelihood people will perform healthy activities by developing interventions that lead to stronger self-efficacy and greater awareness of positive outcomes associated with the activities
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