The Skills to Pay the Bills: An Evaluation of an Effort to Help Nonprofits Manage Their Finances

This study examines a Wallace Foundation-sponsored initiative aimed at improving the financial management skills and practices of 25 Chicago afterschool providers through training and coaching. Two models for this professional development were provided and each produced long-lasting improvements. Moreover, organizations receiving the less-expensive group training and coaching improved almost as much as those receiving more intensive customized coaching

The Effect of LPS on Phosphorylation of AKT Signaling in Schwann Cells

Schwann cells (SCs) are cells in the peripheral nervous system that may play a significant role in neuronal repair after an injury, however, little is known about their mechanisms on how they do so. In the lab, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a bacterial endotoxin, is used to stimulate an injury while forskolin, a growth hormone, is used to activate the cAMP pathway. In this experiment, the cAMP pathway, which is involved in many cellular processes, and protein kinase b (AKT), a cell survival signal, where analyzed in different LPS doses (0.1, 1, and 10 µg/mL) and over different time periods (3-,6-,12-, and 24-hours). It was predicted that cells treated with LPS will increase the expression of activated phospho-AKT as dose and time increases, while cells treated with both LPS and forskolin would have a synergistic effect on the upregulation of phospho-AKT. It was discovered that, in LPS alone, from 1 µg/mL to 10 µg/mL had an increased expression in phospho-AKT across all time intervals besides 24 hours. In LPS and forskolin treatments, a synergistic effect was observed from 1 µg/mL to 10 µg/mL across all time intervals.https://digitalcommons.misericordia.edu/surf2023/1001/thumbnail.jp

Motor Nucleus of the Trigeminal Nerve

This report contains a summary of expression patterns for genes that are enriched in the motor nucleus of the trigeminal nerve (V) of the pons. All data is derived from the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA) in situ hybridization mouse project. The structure's location and morphological characteristics in the mouse brain are described using the Nissl data found in the Allen Reference Atlas. Using an established algorithm, the expression values of the motor nucleus of the trigeminal nerve were compared to the values of its larger parent structure, in this case the pons, for the purpose of extracting regionally selective gene expression data. The highest ranking genes were manually curated and verified. 50 genes were then selected and compiled for expression analysis. The experimental data for each gene may be accessed via the links provided; additional data in the sagittal plane may also be accessed using the ABA. Correlations between gene expression in the motor nucleus of the trigeminal nerve and the rest of the brain, across all genes in the coronal dataset (~4300 genes), were derived computationally. A gene ontology table (derived from DAVID Bioinformatics Resources 2007) is also included, highlighting possible functions of the 50 genes selected for this report. 
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The Evaluation Guide: A Guide for Evaluating Behaviour Change Programs for Men Who Use Domestic and Family Violence

The purpose of this Evaluation guide is to provide easy-to-understand information on scoping an evaluation for men’s behaviour change programs (MBCPs) focusing on men who use domestic and family violence (DFV). This Evaluation guide aims to improve the technical knowledge for personnel involved in the implementation of MBCPs who might be involved in commissioning an external evaluation or conducting an in-house evaluation. Upon working through this Evaluation guide, readers should: understand the purposes of conducting quality evaluations of MBCPs; be able to develop a program logic and articulate appropriate evaluation questions; be aware of a range of methodologies available to answer the evaluation questions; gain an awareness of the important considerations in designing an evaluation of MBCPs; be aware of the ethical issues that need to be considered when commissioning or conducting an evaluation of an MBCP

Operating and Managing a Backup Control Center

Due to the criticality of continuous mission operations, some control centers must plan for alternate locations in the event an emergency shuts down the primary control center. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas is the Mission Control Center (MCC) for the International Space Station (ISS). Due to Houston s proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, JSC is prone to threats from hurricanes which could cause flooding, wind damage, and electrical outages to the buildings supporting the MCC. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has the capability to be the Backup Control Center for the ISS if the situation is needed. While the MSFC Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) does house the BCC, the prime customer and operator of the ISS is still the JSC flight operations team. To satisfy the customer and maintain continuous mission operations, the BCC has critical infrastructure that hosts ISS ground systems and flight operations equipment that mirrors the prime mission control facility. However, a complete duplicate of Mission Control Center in another remote location is very expensive to recreate. The HOSC has infrastructure and services that MCC utilized for its backup control center to reduce the costs of a somewhat redundant service. While labor talents are equivalent, experiences are not. Certain operations are maintained in a redundant mode, while others are simply maintained as single string with adequate sparing levels of equipment. Personnel at the BCC facility must be trained and certified to an adequate level on primary MCC systems. Negotiations with the customer were done to match requirements with existing capabilities, and to prioritize resources for appropriate level of service. Because some of these systems are shared, an activation of the backup control center will cause a suspension of scheduled HOSC activities that may share resources needed by the BCC. For example, the MCC is monitoring a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. As the threat to MCC increases, HOSC must begin a phased activation of the BCC, while working resource conflicts with normal HOSC activities. In a long duration outage to the MCC, this could cause serious impacts to the BCC host facility s primary mission support activities. This management of a BCC is worked based on customer expectations and negotiations done before emergencies occur. I

Voice of customers: Text analysis of hotel customer reviews (cleanliness, overall environment & value for money)

The rise of the Internet has caused many changes on our daily lives. Internet has drastically changed the way we live our life, the way we spend our holidays, how we communicate with each other daily, and how we purchase products. The growth of Internet amongst consumer has generated content on the Internet by sources such as social media, review website, blogs, product fan page and many more. This has lead on to a new way of planning a holiday or looking for a suitable hotel to stay. Hence, hotel reviews websites have become a popular platform for customers to share their experiences, reviews, and recommendations on hotels, which they have visited. In Malaysia, hotel industry has been one of the most important economic growths of the country. The primary goal of a hotel is to satisfy customers, to be able to provide a high quality of service, and provide customers with a memorable experience whilst staying at the hotel. The purpose of this study is to understand and identify the range of factors, which may contribute to the satisfaction of customers as well as through expectations. Data was collected from online review websites such as Trip Advisor. Text analytics are used to analyze the contents collected