Alien Registration- Blanchett, Sidney (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

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Pitch Assignment Rubric

Available for download is the rubric given to students in the Online News Production, now Digital Solutions Journalism course which students had to spend the first 2 weeks researching a topic of interest and looking for data to support their topic. Week 3 required each student to pitch their story idea to the class

Low Returns and Optimal Retirement Savings

Lifetime financial outcomes relate closely to the sequence of investment returns earned over the lifecycle. Higher return assumptions allow individuals to save at a lower rate, withdraw at a higher rate, retire with a lower wealth accumulation, and enjoy a higher standard of living throughout their lifetimes. Often analysis of this topic is based on the investment performance found in historical market returns. However, at the present bond yields are historically lower and equity prices are quite high, suggesting that individuals will likely experience lower returns in the future. Increases in life expectancy, especially among higher-income workers who must also rely more heavily on their private savings to smooth spending, further increases the cost of funding retirement income today. The implications are higher savings rates, lower withdrawal rates, the need for a larger nest egg at retirement, and a lower lifetime standard of living. We demonstrate this using a basic life cycle framework, and provide a more complex analysis of optimal savings rates that incorporates Social Security, tax rates before and after retirement, actual retirement spending patterns, and differences in expected longevity by income. We find that lower-income workers will need to save about 50 percent more if low rates of return persist in the future, and higher-income workers will need to save nearly twice as much in a low return environment compared to the optimal savings using historical returns

Human Capital and the Success of Minority Entrepreneurs

This research contributes to the literature on how human capital can impact the success of minority entrepreneurs in Arkansas. Human capital includes education, work experience, know-how, and skillsets. In the business environment, an important task of human capital is to deliver productive labor, promote commerce, and produce economic prominence. Human capital is irreplaceable and is unlike any other capital. Entrepreneurs must accomplish objectives and remain innovative. Specific human capital involves unique industry competence, self-employment capability, and leadership experience, which lead to goal achievement. A quantitative analysis of a sample of 287 minority male and female business owners was conducted to measure business revenues, company size, and self-reported performance assessment. After analyzing input from minority entrepreneurs in Arkansas, this article contains findings and conclusions which determine how human capital relates to the success of minority entrepreneurs

Social Capital and Success of Minority Entrepreneurs

Scholars and policymakers can use this research to understand the relationship between successful performance of minority entrepreneurs and social capital. Entrepreneurship is a driving force that can create a society of self-supporting individuals. Minority entrepreneurship is an avenue for individuals to lift themselves out of poverty and create job opportunities for others. Social capital is economic and social networks used by people to promote transactions and alliances as a means to produce goods and services for themselves and for a common good. Social capital involves networking and political and social skills. Social capital networks consist of operations that include mutual benefits, trust, and cooperation. A quantitative analysis was conducted of a sample that included 287 minority male and female business owners to measure business revenues, company size, and self-reported assessment. The findings noted political and social skills significantly impact internal or intrinsic success measure. However, social networking did not relate to external or extrinsic success (revenue and size of company) among minorities in this study. Explanations are included about the findings and future research suggestions are also provided

Metrics and analytics in the newsroom: an ethnographic study exploring how audience data are changing journalistic practice.

The use of metrics and analytics is now embedded in and directly impacting newsroom practice and routines. As audience data are used to shape and promote content that help form societal narratives, development of best practice is crucial, not only to enhance fulsome public discourse but as a means of reputation building for media outlets fighting to retain relevance and public trust, both of which are intrinsically tied to revenue and/or funding. This thesis explores the potential conflicts between journalism’s mandate to keep the public informed through quality, contextualised news coverage and the use of metrics and analytics to build scale and a sustainable business model. Empirical research is based on ethnographic observation in four news organisations on two continents in three different countries: Norway’s national broadcaster, NRK, which has developed its own analytics system that uses both qualitative and quantitative data; The Canadian Press, Canada’s national news agency, which is exploring ways to track how its content is being used with little direct access to audience data; The Hamilton Spectator, a local newspaper in Canada making the shift from print to digital; and a similarly sized and situated local paper in the United Kingdom, The Bournemouth Daily Echo. Participant observation and interviews were used to investigate how metrics and analytics impact newsroom routines; how journalists feel their work is impacted by the use of audience data; and how practices pertaining to the use of metrics and analytics are challenging the boundaries of journalism. The thesis employs a bricolage of theories within a sociological framework, through the lens of media logic, and draws on the author’s own perspective of working in a newsroom and, currently, in an academic media faculty. The research provides observed examples of the ways in which changing boundaries are impacting definitions of journalism and who is a journalist; it proposes best practice for the use of metrics and analytics in newsrooms that might better situate media outlets to serve their communities and survive in a rapidly changing media landscape; it offers suggestions for media scholars on best practice to perform research that better reflects newsroom routines particular to the use of metrics and analytics; the thesis contributes a new gatekeeping model that identifies two primary channels related specifically to the use of metrics and analytics: promotional and developmental; finally, the thesis demonstrates how a bricolage of complementary theories and the selection of multiple sites of study might best support the reflexive investigation of complex social structures within a rapidly changing field

Intranasal immunisation with Ag85B peptide 25 displayed on Lactococcus lactis using the PilVax platform induces antigen-specific B- and T-cell responses.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains a global epidemic despite the widespread use of BCG. Consequently, novel vaccines are required to facilitate a reduction in Mtb morbidity and mortality. PilVax is a peptide delivery strategy for the generation of highly specific mucosal immune responses and is based on the food-grade bacterium Lactococcus lactis that is used to express selected peptides engineered within the Streptococcus pyogenes M1T1 pilus, allowing for peptide amplification, stabilisation, and enhanced immunogenicity. In the present study, the dominant T cell epitope from the Mtb protein Ag85B was genetically engineered into the pilus backbone subunit and expressed on the surface of L. lactis. Western blot and flow cytometry confirmed formation of pilus containing the peptide DNA sequence. B cell responses in intranasally vaccinated mice were analysed by ELISA while T cell responses were analysed by flow cytometry. Serum titres of peptide specific IgG and IgA were detected, confirming vaccination produced antibodies against the cognate peptide. Peptide-specific IgA was also detected across several mucosal sites sampled. Peptide-specific CD4+ T cells were detected at levels similar to those of mice immunised with BCG. PilVax immunisation resulted in an unexpected increase in the numbers of CD3+ CD4- CD8- (double negative, DN) T cells in the lungs of vaccinated mice. Analysis of cytokine production following stimulation with the cognate peptide showed the major cytokine producing cells to be CD4+ T cells and DN T cells. This study provides insight into the antibody and peptide specific cellular immune responses generated by PilVax vaccination and demonstrates the suitability of this vaccine for conducting a protection study

PilVax – a novel peptide delivery platform for the development of mucosal vaccines

Peptide vaccines are an attractive strategy to engineer the induction of highly targeted immune responses and avoid potentially allergenic and/or reactogenic protein regions. However, peptides by themselves are often unstable and poorly immunogenic, necessitating the need for an adjuvant and a specialised delivery system. We have developed a novel peptide delivery platform (PilVax) that allows the presentation of a stabilised and highly amplified peptide as part of the group A streptococcus serotype M1 pilus structure (PilM1) on the surface of the non-pathogenic bacterium Lactococcus lactis. To show proof of concept, we have successfully inserted the model peptide Ova324–339 into 3 different loop regions of the backbone protein Spy0128, which resulted in the assembly of the pilus containing large numbers of peptide on the surface of L. lactis. Intranasal immunisation of mice with L. lactis PilM1-Ova generated measurable Ova-specific systemic and mucosal responses (IgA and IgG). Furthermore, we show that multiple peptides can be inserted into the PilVax platform and that peptides can also be incorporated into structurally similar, but antigenically different pilus structures. PilVax may be useful as a cost-effective platform for the development of peptide vaccines against a variety of important human pathogens

Impact of Patient Demographic Factors on Preoperative Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function, Pain Interference, and Depression Computer Adaptive Testing Scores in Patients Undergoing Shoulder and Elbow Surgery

Background: There has been a growing emphasis in orthopaedics on providing patient-centered care. The US National Institutes of Health launched the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) initiative that incorporates patient-reported outcome measures across a number of medical domains. The relationship between PROMIS domains and the impact of patient demographic factors in those undergoing upper extremity surgery remains unclear. Purpose/Hypothesis: The goal of this study was to investigate the correlation between physical function, pain interference, and depression in patients undergoing shoulder and elbow surgery as measured by PROMIS computer adaptive testing (CAT) forms and to determine the impact of patient demographic factors. We hypothesized that there would be a significant negative correlation between physical function and both pain interference and depression in this patient population. Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: All patients who underwent elective shoulder or elbow surgery by 3 shoulder, elbow, and/or sports medicine fellowship–trained orthopaedic surgeons were included in the study. Preoperative PROMIS–Upper Extremity (PROMIS-UE), PROMIS–Pain Interference (PROMIS-PI), and PROMIS-Depression (PROMIS-D) CAT scores were analyzed. Pearson correlations were calculated between PROMIS domains as well as between PROMIS outcomes with patient demographic factors. Results: Preoperative PROMIS CAT scores for all 3 domains were collected and analyzed from 172 unique patients (516 individual CAT forms) with shoulder and elbow injuries. A negative correlation of moderate strength was found between the PROMIS-UE and PROMIS-PI (R = –0.61; P \u3c.001), and a negligible correlation was found between the PROMIS-UE and PROMIS-D (R = –0.28; P \u3c.001). When stratified by patient demographic factors, the correlation between the PROMIS-UE and PROMIS-PI was stronger in female patients compared with male patients (R = –0.77 vs –0.46, respectively; P \u3c.001 for both), stronger in black patients compared with white patients (R = –0.72 vs –0.56, respectively; P \u3c.001 for both), and highest in current tobacco users (R = –0.80; P \u3c.001). Conclusion: Before shoulder and elbow surgery, patients demonstrated impairments in physical function and pain interference as measured by CAT forms, with a moderate negative correlation between baseline upper extremity physical function and pain interference scores. In certain subpopulations, such as female patients, black patients, and current tobacco users, the correlations between these tested domains were stronger than in other groups