ArtWorks Evaluation Final Report

This summary provides an overview of the Final Evaluation Report for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation's (PHF) Special Initiative, ArtWorks. The Evaluation has been undertaken by DHA and the Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester

Decentralized or centralized production : impacts to the environment, industry, and the economy

Since product take-back is mandated in Europe, and has effects for producers worldwide including the U.S., designing efficient forward and reverse supply chain networks is becoming essential for business viability. Centralizing production facilities may reduce costs but perhaps not environmental impacts. Decentralizing a supply chain may reduce transportation environmental impacts but increase capital costs. Facility location strategies of centralization or decentralization are tested for companies with supply chains that both take back and manufacture products. Decentralized and centralized production systems have different effects on the environment, industry and the economy. Decentralized production systems cluster suppliers within the geographical market region that the system serves. Centralized production systems have many suppliers spread out that meet all market demand. The point of this research is to help further the understanding of company decision-makers about impacts to the environment and costs when choosing a decentralized or centralized supply chain organizational strategy. This research explores; what degree of centralization for a supply chain makes the most financial and environmental sense for siting facilities; and which factories are in the best location to handle the financial and environmental impacts of particular processing steps needed for product manufacture. This research considered two examples of facility location for supply chains when products are taken back; the theoretical case involved shoe resoling and a real world case study considered the location of operations for a company that reclaims multiple products for use as material inputs. For the theoretical example a centralized strategy to facility location was optimal: whereas for the case study a decentralized strategy to facility location was best. In conclusion, it is not possible to say that a centralized or decentralized strategy to facility location is in general best for a company that takes back products. Each company’s specific concerns, needs, and supply chain details will determine which degree of centralization creates the optimal strategy for siting their facilities

Community Engagement in Two Fashion Merchandising and Apparel Design Curriculum Courses to Motivate Students to Learn about Sustainability Concepts

Learning about any concept, including sustainability, in the abstract is not very motivating. An elective and required course assigned classwork with nonprofit and business partners to motivate students to learn about sustainability. The elective course focused on textile waste, taught spring of 2015, partnered with Goodwill Industries to innovate new ideas to grow into business opportunities for unsold donated apparel and textiles. Student assignments were a technical feasibility, economic feasibility, poster presentation, and business plan to remake or remarket Goodwill\u27s discarded and unsold apparel and textiles. A second course, Merchandise Planning, was taught in spring of 2016 and partnered with one nonprofit Water is Life Kenya and two women owned businesses that sell jewelry and accessories. Student assignments were product pricing and a 6-month merchandise plan. Student work and media coverage of the community engagement collaborations in the two courses show engaged students that demonstrate understanding of sustainability concepts

Building a Culture of Learning: Teaching a Complex Organization How to Fish

Many social sector organizations are looking to balance their strategic plans with an ability to respond more quickly to change as it unfolds in their communities. For many years — but gaining particular urgency in 2015 — Kaiser Permanente Community Health saw a need to better understand the progress and impact of its portfolio and use its data to adapt strategy in response to its changing context. To increase its capacity for strategic learning, Community Health worked with FSG to develop and implement a system called Measurement and Evaluation for Learning and Outcomes. While this process was tailored to Community Health, its underlying thinking, approach, and lessons learned can be informative to many others who are thinking about how to position their organizations and communities to thrive in times of change. This article shares the key approaches used to equip Community Health to operationalize learning and reflect on the results so far, as well as some of the ingredients for success that allowed it to make tremendous progress in a relatively short period of time

Evaluation of a Brief Personalised Intervention for Alcohol Consumption in College Students.

In the current study we investigated the effect of a brief personalised feedback intervention (BPI), compared to an active control intervention, on outcome measures of (i) alcohol consumption (ii) frequency of binge drinking and (iii) readiness to change (RTC). A sample of 103 college students (mean age=23.85) who consumed alcohol regularly provided baseline measures of drinking behaviour and readiness to change before completing an alcohol-related quiz on the UK Department of Health's Change4Life website (active control). The study was a between subjects design and half the participants were randomly allocated to the BPI group (N=52), who received 10 minutes personalised feedback on their drinking in addition to the alcohol-related quiz. At a two-week follow-up, participants (N=103) repeated the questionnaire battery, and attempted to recall the answers to the alcohol quiz. Results indicated that both groups significantly reduced their alcohol consumption and frequency of binge drinking but there were no significant group differences in either of these measures. We conclude that the provision of generalised information can be as efficient as a BPI for the reduction of alcohol consumption in students

Alcohol-induced risk taking on the BART mediates alcohol priming

Rationale Hazardous drinking has been associated with risk taking and alcohol priming effects. However, the potential relationship between risk taking and priming has not been investigated. The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) is a behavioural measure of risk taking which appears to be associated with drinking behaviour. However, alcohol's acute effects on BART performance are not clear, and the potentially mediating effect of alcohol-induced risk taking on priming has not been tested. Objectives To assess the effects of a priming dose of alcohol on BART performance; to determine the predictive utility of the BART on drinking habits; and to identify whether alcohol-induced risk taking mediates alcohol priming (urge to drink). Methods A total of 142 participants provided data on drinking habits and trait-like impulsivity and sensation seeking. The BART was then completed after consuming alcohol (0.6 g/kg) or placebo (between-subjects design). Baseline and post-drink measures of alcohol urge were also taken. Results Alcohol consumption increased urge to drink (priming) and risk taking on the BART. In the alcohol group only, risk taking on the BART predicted unique variance in weekly alcohol consumption and bingeing. Mediation analysis showed that risk taking following alcohol consumption mediated alcohol priming. Conclusions This is the first study to show that alcohol acutely increases risk taking on the BART. Results suggest that social drinkers susceptible to alcohol-induced risk taking may be more likely to drink excessively, perhaps due to increased urge to drink (priming)

Expanding Sustainable Community Health Centers in New York City

The Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS) has authored an updated analysis identifying New York City neighborhoods with the greatest need for expanded access to primary care and the ability to support sustainable growth of federally qualified health centers (FQHC).Building on its Plan for Expanding Sustainable Community Health Centers, published in 2013 with support from the NYS Health Foundation, CHCANYS has partnered with the Office of the Mayor of New York City to release the updated report, which ranks the primary care need and sustainability of 42 United Hospital Fund (UHF) New York City neighborhoods using a quantitative analysis of communities' relative need for additional FQHC capacity and the feasibility of such expansions. Authored with financial support from the Office of the Mayor of New York City, Expanding Sustainable Community Health Centers in New York City informed development of the New York City Caring Neighborhoods initiative, a new program that will significantly increase primary care access in underserved areas across the City's five boroughs. New York City-based FQHCs served 972,000 patients in 2014, and it is anticipated that this number will rise to over 1 million patients in 2015. Current state and federal health reform efforts emphasize the critical role of primary care in achieving improved delivery system outcomes, and increasing the capacity of FQHCs to meet these demands is essential.

Improving prediction of potential for treatment completion at Tai Aroha

Participant non-completion can be a major problem for treatment programmes. Staff may try to minimise non-completion by deciding who to select for treatment using professional intuition and referral information. It can be difficult for treatment staff to make these decisions regarding the potential for programme completion due to a lack of clear guidelines about what information to consider. This lack of clear guidelines can increase susceptibility to biases, and lead to unreliable and potentially inaccurate decisions. Research has identified ‘simple rules’ that are tools to aid decision-making quickly, effectively, and consistently. Therefore, using past treatment data, we1 aimed to identify predictors of programme completion vs. non-completion at Tai Aroha—a residential treatment programme based in Hamilton—to explore whether a “simple rule” can be developed from information readily available at the time of referral, to support staff decision-making when selecting offenders to attend treatment, with the potential to increase programme completion. We were successful in the development of a simple rule to aid Tai Aroha staff selection decisions. The implications, and limitations of our rule and our study are discussed, and future research relating to simple rules are identified

Loss of APC induces polyploidy as a result of a combination of defects in mitosis and apoptosis

Mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor gene initiate a majority of colorectal cancers. Acquisition of chromosomal instability is an early event in these tumors. We provide evidence that the loss of APC leads to a partial loss of interkinetochore tension at metaphase and alters mitotic progression. Furthermore, we show that inhibition of APC in U2OS cells compromises the mitotic spindle checkpoint. This is accompanied by a decrease in the association of the checkpoint proteins Bub1 and BubR1 with kinetochores. Additionally, APC depletion reduced apoptosis. As expected from this combination of defects, tetraploidy and polyploidy are consequences of APC inhibition in vitro and in vivo. The removal of APC produced the same defects in HCT116 cells that have constitutively active β-catenin. These data show that the loss of APC immediately induces chromosomal instability as a result of a combination of mitotic and apoptotic defects. We suggest that these defects amplify each other to increase the incidence of tetra- and polyploidy in early stages of tumorigenesis

Mapping the substrate landscape of protein phosphatase 2A catalytic subunit PPP2CA

Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is an essential Ser/Thr phosphatase. The PP2A holoenzyme complex comprises a scaffolding (A), regulatory (B), and catalytic (C) subunit, with PPP2CA being the principal catalytic subunit. The full scope of PP2A substrates in cells remains to be defined. To address this, we employed dTAG proteolysis-targeting chimeras to efficiently and selectively degrade dTAG-PPP2CA in homozygous knock-in HEK293 cells. Unbiased global phospho-proteomics identified 2,204 proteins with significantly increased phosphorylation upon dTAG-PPP2CA degradation, implicating them as potential PPP2CA substrates. A vast majority of these are novel. Bioinformatic analyses revealed involvement of the potential PPP2CA substrates in spliceosome function, cell cycle, RNA transport, and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. We identify a pSP/pTP motif as a predominant target for PPP2CA and confirm some of our phospho-proteomic data with immunoblotting. We provide an in-depth atlas of potential PPP2CA substrates and establish targeted degradation as a robust tool to unveil phosphatase substrates in cells.</p