Governance in Organizational Expansion - Learning From Community Development Organizations

Community development organizations are dynamic nonprofits that adopt a range of proven strategies to revitalize neighborhoods so they are great places to live, work and play. These place-based nonprofits are positioned as organizations through which local community residents, partnering with civic and business leaders, can create vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods

Spelling errors in children who are deaf

This is a descriptive study that analyzes the spelling abilities as well as a specific spelling error made by children between the ages of 5 and 9 who are deaf and wear cochlear implants

Continuity and Change in English Morphology: The Variable (ING)

Past studies of the variable (ING) have demonstrated regular and stable social and stylistic conditions across English speech communities around the world, factors which shape the patterns of variation between the /n/ and /ŋ/ variants of (ING). This dissertation is an inquiry into the conditions, both linguistic and social, which gave rise to the evolution of modern (ING). The purpose is to demonstrate the existence of an observable continuity between the past morphological history of (ING) and its present-day status as a sociolinguistic variable, following Sturtevant\u27s idea (1917) that the social evaluation of linguistic forms can be viewed as the result of a competition between forms originally not in variation with each other, but which are later brought together in a shared environment, becoming variants of a single form. This study is based on a quantitative analysis of 7950 tokens of -ing, including synchronic data based on 68 speakers (60 British and 8 American) and diachronic data based on textual materials (letters and diaries) from the 15th - 19th centuries, and a supplement of data from an earlier study (Irwin 1967) based on textual materials from the 9th - 15th century. A grammatical effect on modern (ING) is found, seen most clearly in the British data, showing that /ŋ/ is correlated with nominal categories, and /n/ with verbal ones. This alignment does not pattern according to discrete syntactic features, but aligns probabilistically along a linear continuum. This effect is interpreted as the reflex of a partial merger between Old English morphemes ing and ind . There is an observed correspondence between the synchronic British data and the Middle English isogloss c. 1450, which established the replacement of the participial suffix ind with the verbal noun suffix ing in the south of England (Moore, Meech and Whitehall 1935). The modern cities which show probability of /ŋ/ less than .5 fall outside the isogloss, those with probability of /ŋ/ greater than .5 lie within it. The difference in probabilities is consistent with the idea that the replacement of -ind with -ing c. 1450 occurred in southern England sooner than in northern England because of a difference in the pronunciation of the two suffixes in these regions, northern -and versus southern -ind. Evidence supports the view of a syncretism between verbal noun and present participle subsequent to the replacement of -ind with -ing. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.

Practical Implications of Learning from Unsuccessful Retrieval Attempts

Recent findings suggest that retesting oneself facilitates better learning than studying alone. Building off previous experiments where correcting participants has significantly increased correctness, the current study furthers our understanding about learning from unsuccessful retrieval attempts by manipulating the frequency of correction. Using a set of 42 associated word pairings, each participant was exposed to two blocks where they would memorize the word pairs. This was followed by two quizzing blocks and a final exam block where participants were asked to write down the associate to the stimulus presented on screen. Frequency of correction was manipulated during the quizzing blocks where the participant had their answers checked and corrected by the proctor after every word pair, every third, or every seventh, depending on their condition. There was no correction during the final exam block. After completing the experiment, each participant completed both the Mill-Hill vocabulary scale and the OSPAN task for baseline comparison. Results indicated no significant difference between any of the correction frequency groups but did find that participant’s second quizzing and final exam scores increased significantly from the initial quiz score

Preservation issues in project-based Section 8 contract expirations

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1992.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-64).by Elizabeth Ann Houston.M.S

RESTAURANT AND BAR OWNERS AND MANAGERS RESPOND TO NORTH CAROLINA'S SMOKE-FREE LAW, ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE USE INSIDE THEIR BUSINESSES, AND SMOKE-FREE OUTDOOR SEATING AREAS

This descriptive, cross-sectional study was used to collect and analyze data provided from a pencil and paper survey mailed to a randomly selected group of North Carolina restaurants and bars. The topic of the study was North Carolina's smoke-free restaurants and bars law. The two purposes of this study were: 1) to assess whether, after five years of implementation of the N.C. smoke-free law, restaurant and bar owners and managers receive complaints about the law, and whether they are experiencing the benefits promised when the law was first passed and 2) to explore their actions and interest related to policies that go beyond what is covered in the state law, specifically prohibiting the use of electronic cigarettes indoors and/or providing smoke-free seating areas for customers outside.  A 20-question survey was mailed to 663 restaurant and bar owners/managers. The overall response rate was 20.3% (23% for restaurants and 17% for bars). The total number of surveys analyzed was 135 (86 from restaurants and 49 from bars). All participants acknowledged knowing about the smoke-free law, and the two most frequently selected benefits for restaurants and bars were customers breathing less tobacco smoke (65.2%) and fewer complaints about secondhand smoke (58.5%). Another frequently selected benefit of the law was reduced maintenance and cleaning costs (45.9%). A total of 79.1% of restaurants and 73.5% of bars reported at least one benefit from the smoke-free law.   Further analysis showed that while restaurant and bar owners/managers receive few complaints about secondhand smoke, more than half of bars reported receiving complaints during the last 12 months from smoking customers and employees about not having a place indoors to smoke. Qualitative analysis of comments responding to an open-ended question showed that bar owners and managers tend to be less happy with the smoke-free law than restaurant owners and managers. Bar owners and managers also shared specific problems with the law and recommended solutions to those problems.  Restaurants were found to be significantly more likely than bars to restrict the use of electronic cigarettes inside their businesses, with more than two-thirds of restaurant participants either banning their use inside or limiting their use to designated areas. Restaurants and bars did not show a statistically significant difference in smoke-free outdoor customer areas, with 29% of all participants reporting some smoke-free policy for outdoor customer areas.   A moderate number of participants said they are interested in more information about restricting electronic cigarette use (14.3%) and more information about creating smoke-free outdoor customer areas (18.6%). Trends and interest in both of these policy areas create an opportunity for public health to respond with programs and policy efforts.      M.A

The richness of designing for eco-social change: creative practice, transformative futures and living within limits

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the influential Club of Rome report Limits to Growth, which used computer modelling to show that, on a finite planet, current human resource use cannot ultimately be sustained. In this paper we use the anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on the framing of limits in HCI. Following recent work in design and social science, we ask whether the idea of limits is an effective way to imagine, prompt and manage cultural change in participatory, sustainable HCI. Drawing from our experiences investigating participatory creative practice in the CreaTures project, we suggest that limits-led framings could be usefully held in tension with ideas of abundance. As researchers and practitioners of sustainable design, our job is often asking others to use less – whether that involves consuming fewer materials, less energy; or indeed even ‘un-making’ particular practices. We argue that directive change can be reconceptualised as ‘eco-social’ transformation: a fusion of care-infused ecological and social sensibilities to create existential change that would impact lifestyle and political choices (and technology use), turning to potentially abundant human resources of imagination, reflection and solidarity. We offer the example of The Hologram, a feminist economist healthcare art project situated online, to illustrate this potential

Charge-Mediated Localization of Conjugated Polythiophenes in Zwitterionic Model Cell Membranes.

The selective engineering of conjugated polyelectrolyte (CPE)-phospholipid interfaces is poised to play a key role in the design of advanced biomedical and biotechnological devices. Herein, we report a strategic study to investigate the relationship between the charge of the CPE side group and their association with zwitterionic phospholipid bilayers. The interaction of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) phospholipid vesicles with a series of poly(thiophene)s bearing zwitterionic, cationic, or anionic terminal groups (P3Zwit, P3TMAHT and P3Anionic, respectively) has been probed. Although all CPEs showed an affinity for the zwitterionic vesicles, the calculated partition coefficients determined using photoluminescence spectroscopy suggested preferential incorporation within the lipid bilayer in the order P3Zwit > P3Anionic ≫ P3TMAHT. The polarity probe Prodan was used to further qualify the position of the CPE inside the vesicle bilayers via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) studies. The varying proximity of the CPEs to Prodan was reflected in the Stern-Volmer quenching constants and decreased in the order P3Anionic > P3TMAHT ≫ P3Zwit. Dynamic light scattering measurements showed an increase in the hydrodynamic diameter of the DPPC vesicles upon addition of each poly(thiophene), but to the greatest extent for P3Anionic. Small-angle neutron scattering studies also revealed that P3Anionic specifically increased the thickness of the headgroup region of the phospholipid bilayer. Epifluorescence and atomic force microscopy imaging showed that P3TMAHT formed amorphous agglomerates on the vesicle surface, P3Zwit was buried throughout the bilayer, and P3Anionic formed a shell of protruding chains around the surface, which promoted vesicle fusion. The global data indicate three distinctive modes of interaction for the poly(thiophene)s within DPPC vesicles, whereby the nature of the association is ultimately controlled by the pendant charge group on each CPE chain. Our results suggest that charge-mediated self-assembly may provide a simple and effective route to design luminescent CPE probes capable of specific localization within phospholipid membranes

Predictors of placement from a juvenile detention facility

The purpose of this project was to determine whether certain personal, socioeconomic, and court-related factors are significantly related to the differential placement of delinquent and dependent children from the detention facility at the Donald E. Long Home. A stratified random sample was composed of 173 placements of children who were held in detention after a preliminary hearing. The review of literature revealed that little systematic. Information is known regarding the placement process as it is related to differential placement of children from a detention facility. A code sheet was developed for recording the information in the children’s records maintained by the court. Fourteen variables were ultimately selected for analysis of their relationship to differential placement. These variables were subjected to three statistical approaches; a descriptive analysis of the random sample, testing of the significance of each variable to the alternatives in placement by either Chi square or analyses of variance, and testing of several variables in combination by discriminant function. This study was limited by the fact that only demographic variables were tested. Although three individual variables were found to have a high degree of significance in relation to placement, the data as produced within the scope of this research project does not provide an effective placement profile. The need for additional research in the area of the differential placement process is clearly indicated. Suggestions are made for future research