Improving the Lives of Public Housing's Most Vulnerable Families

The CHA's ambitious Plan for Transformation necessitated relocating thousands of vulnerable families. Although the conditions residents were living in at the outset were deplorable, the relocation was involuntary and was a major disruption to theirlives.Many residents were extremely vulnerable, suffering from serious mental and physical health problems that could be exacerbated by major stress.The CHA had littleexperience in providing effective relocation services and even less in providing wraparound case management that could help stabilize residents' lives and help them move toward self-sufficiency. Given these circumstances, there were reasons for serious concern about how residents would fare and whether they might end up even worse off as a result of relocation.Our ten-yearstudy of CHA families shows that most residents are better off overall as a result of the Plan for Transformation; they live in higher-quality housing in neighborhoods that are generally safer and offer a bette rquality of life for them and their children. However, incorporating intensive supportive services for the most vulnerable public housing residents produces additional gains.Our findings indicate positive outcomes on a range of adult health and employment-related outcomes that are key to improving family stability

A New Wave of School Integration: Districts and Charters Pursuing Socioeconomic Diversity

Students in racially and socioeconomically integrated schools experience academic, cognitive, and social benefits that are not available to students in racially isolated, high-poverty environments. A large body of research going back five decades underscores the improved experiences that integrated schools provide. And yet, more than sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, American public schools are still highly segregated by both race and class. In fact, by most measures of integration, our public schools are worse off, since they are now even more racially segregated than they were in the 1970s, and economic segregation in schools has risen dramatically over the past two decades.In this report, we highlight the work that school districts and charter schools across the country are doing to promote socioeconomic and racial integration by considering socioeconomic factors in student assignment policies.Key findings of this report include:Our research has identified a total of 91 districts and charter networks across the country that use socioeconomic status as a factor in student assignment. The 91 school districts and charter schools with socioeconomic integration policies enroll over 4 million students. The school districts and charter networks identified as employing socioeconomic integration are located in 32 different states. The majority of districts and charters on the list have racially and socioeconomically diverse enrollments. The majority of the integration strategies observed fall into five main categories: attendance zone boundaries, district-wide choice policies, magnet school admissions, charter school admissions, and transfer policies.The push toward socioeconomic and racial integration is perhaps the most important challenge facing American public schools. Segregation impedes the ability of children to prepare for an increasingly diverse workforce; to function tolerantly and enthusiastically in a globalizing society; to lead, follow, and communicate with a wide variety of consumers, colleagues, and friends. The democratic principles of this nation are impossible to reach without universal access to a diverse, high quality, and engaging education

Establishing an analogue population for the most distant galaxies

Lyman break analogues (LBAs) are local galaxies selected to match a more distant (usually z~3) galaxy population in luminosity, UV-spectral slope and physical characteristics, and so provide an accessible laboratory for exploring their properties. However, as the Lyman break technique is extended to higher redshifts, it has become clear that the Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z~3 are more massive, luminous, redder, more extended and at higher metallicities than their z~5 counterparts. Thus extrapolations from the existing LBA samples (which match z=3 properties) have limited value for characterising z>5 galaxies, or inferring properties unobservable at high redshift. We present a new pilot sample of twenty-one compact star forming galaxies in the local (0.05<z<0.25) Universe, which are tuned to match the luminosities and star formation volume densities observed in z>~5 LBGs. Analysis of optical emission line indices suggests that these sources have typical metallicities of a few tenths Solar (again, consistent with the distant population). We also present radio continuum observations of a subset of this sample (13 sources) and determine that their radio fluxes are consistent with those inferred from the ultraviolet, precluding the presence of a heavily obscured AGN or significant dusty star formation.Comment: 13 pages, MNRAS accepte

Broken Bonds: Understanding and Addressing the Needs of Children With Incarcerated Parents

Describes the shared characteristics of children with parents in prison, reviews current research on the emotional and behavioral challenges they face, and discusses what charities, practitioners, and policy makers can do to address those challenges

The quality of survival of patients with malignant cerebal glioma following radiotherapy

PhDObjective- To describe survival, disability and morbidity after radiotherapy for malignant glioma and explore patient and relative experience. Design - Home follow-up of patients and relative over up to 24 months and of relatives after bereavement. Setting - Six London hospitals Subjects- 92 patients receiving radiotherapy (83 recruited at diagnosis; 9 after radiotherapy) and 85 relatives. 56 bereaved relatives. Main outcome measures- Survival, time free from disability, and changes in disability after treatment assessed, or deduced retrospectively, using interviewer observation, patient and relative reports, case note review and discussion with medical staff. A semi-structured interview designed for the study assessed awareness of the likely prognosis, distress, dissatisfaction with radiotherapy and perception of severe problems in everyday life. Results - 6,12 and 24 month survivals were 70%, 39% and 10%. Age, World Health Organisation clinical performance status, extent of surgery, and epilepsy each influenced survival. The Medical Research Council prognostic index was also significantly related to survival. Multivariate analysis showed that initial clinical performance status was the most important aspect of the index. Most (80%;4 9/61) patients with a clinical performance status of 0,1 or 2 lived at least 6 months before becoming permanently disabled. Of those with an initial good clinical performance status( 0-2) who survived 6 months after radiotherapy 69% (36/52) experienced either clinical deterioration or severe tiredness after treatment. Severely disabled patients (clinical performance status 3 or 4) gained little benefit. 75 patients and 66 relatives were interviewed at diagnosis, 59 patients after radiotherapy and 27 after deterioration. As they began radiotherapy most patients understood that they suffered from a brain tumour (95% ;7 1/75), but only one quarter (19/75) seemed fully aware of the poor prognosis. Others were unaware (43%; 32/75) or only partly aware (32%; 24/75). The more aware patients were more distressed. Relatives were three times more likely to be aware of the prognosis (67%; 44/66) and were more distressed. Although 39% (29/75) of patients initially made negative comments about radiotherapy, only 17% (13/75) were completely dissatisfied. The decision to accept radiotherapy could be discussed directly with 19 fully aware patients. Twelve found radiotherapy acceptable if it were medically advised or if it improved survival. Assessed by their own reports of symptoms only 40% of patients improved or achieved a period of stability, yet dissatisfaction with treatment did not increase. Bereaved relatives' judgements about quality of life and the value of radiotherapy were strongly related to the patient's initial disability and distress. Short periods of survival between six and 12 months were felt worthwhile. Conclusions- Severely disabled patients gain little benefit from radiotherapy and those not so disabled may experience considerable adverse effects. The lack of awareness of the prognosis, however, makes it difficult to explore with patients directly the possible trade off between quality and length of life. Relatives were more aware, more distressed and often concerned to protect patients from full awareness. However most aware patients accepted radiotherapy for the chance of improved survival and bereaved relatives valued relatively small periods of survival free from disability and distress. Conceptualising these questions as rational choices ignores therefore the social and emotional context of life threatening disease

Release Planning for Successful Reentry: A Guide for Corrections, Service Providers, and Community Groups

Outlines the concept of release planning, identifies the fundamental needs released prisoners face in reentering society, and recommends ways for corrections agencies and community organizations to help meet those needs through improved release planning

Understanding the Experiences and Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents: Views From Mentors

Provides qualitative insights from mentors on how parental incarceration affects children emotionally, behaviorally, and developmentally, as well as their relationships with their parents, and how their needs differ from those of other at-risk children

What counts as good evidence

Making better use of evidence is essential if public services are to deliver more for less. Central to this challenge is the need for a clearer understanding about standards of evidence that can be applied to the research informing social policy. This paper reviews the extent to which it is possible to reach a workable consensus on ways of identifying and labelling evidence. It does this by exploring the efforts made to date and the debates that have ensued. Throughout, the focus is on evidence that is underpinned by research, rather than other sources of evidence such as expert opinion or stakeholder views.Publisher PD

Accurate Differentiation of Trichosporon Asahii and Trichosporon Asteroides from other Human Pathogenic Yeasts and Moulds by using Highly Specific Monoclonal Antibodies

Members of the genus Trichosporon are emerging opportunistic pathogens of humans, causing the invasive fungal disease trichosporonosis in immunocompromised patients, and summer-type hypersensitivity pneumonitis (SHP) in immunocompetent individuals through inhalation of arthroconidia. Trichosporonosis is frequently misdiagnosed as candidiasis or cryptococcosis due to a lack of awareness and the inaccuracy of immunodiagnostic tests for these yeast pathogens. Delays in identification and differentiation of Trichosporon spp. from other yeasts and timely administration of appropriate antifungal drug treatments add to the poor prognosis and high mortality rate associated with this trichosporonosis. This thesis describes the use of hybridoma technology to produce two highly specific murine monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), CA7 and TH1, for detection and differentiation of Trichosporon from other yeast pathogens. The MAbs react with extracellular antigens from T. asahii and T. asteroides, the two most common pathogenic agents of trichosporonosis. CA7 and TH1 do not recognise related Trichosporon spp., or unrelated pathogenic yeasts and moulds including Candida spp., Cryptococcus spp., species of Aspergillus, Fusarium, Scedosporium, and etiologic agents of mucormycosis. Immunofluorescence and western blotting studies show that MAb CA7, an immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1), binds to a major ~60kDa glycoprotein antigen produced on the surface of hyphae, while TH1, an immunoglobulin M (IgM), binds to an antigen produced on the surface of conidia. I show how the MAbs can be used with standard mycological growth medium (Sabouraud Dextrose Agar) and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to accurately differentiate T. asahii from Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans in single and mixed species cultures