The Transfer Playbook: Essential Practices For Two- And Four-year Colleges

Recognizing the critical need to help millions of community college students failed by current transfer practices and policies.  A new report provides a detailed guide for two- and four-year colleges on how to improve bachelor's degree outcomes for students who start at community college.Every year, millions of students aiming to attain a bachelor's degree attend community colleges because of their affordability and accessibility. Most will not realize their goals. While the vast majority of students report they want to earn a bachelor's degree, only 14 percent of degree-seeking students achieve that goal within six years, according to recent research from CCRC, Aspen, and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The odds are worse for low-income students, first-generation college students, and students of color—those most likely to start at a community college

Coping with Water Scarcity: What Role for Biotechnologies?

At a conference of the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2007, 78 participants from 24 countries offered their views on agricultural biotechnologies and water scarcity, addressing the pros and cons of various methods and their potential application. These viewpoints are represented in this discussion paper, along with an introductory section that defines the issues to be discussed. Funders in the WASH sector can use this document to educate themselves about the potential gains to be made in supporting different types of scientific research and agricultural technology development

African American Men Survey

A comprehensive survey looking at how African-American men view their lives in the United States and their outlook for the future. The survey gauges the views and experiences of African-American men on marriage and family, education, careers and health, among other issues, and includes comparisons to the views and experiences of African-American women and white men and women. The African-American Men Survey is the 15th survey in a series generated under a three-way partnership between The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. The three organizations work together to pick the survey topics, design the survey instruments and analyze the results. The survey's findings were published in the June 4, 2006, edition of The Washington Post. This survey was conducted by telephone from March 20 to April 29, 2006, among 2,864 randomly selected adults nationwide, including: 1,328 black men; 507 black women; 437 white men and 495 white women. Results for total respondents have been weighted so that black respondents are represented in proportion to their actual share of the population. Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for results based on all respondents or black men, 5 percentage points for black women and 6 percentage points for white men or women. Hispanics and Asians were interviewed along with white and black respondents, but because of the relative size of those populations, there were not enough respondents to break out separately. The complete survey results and detailed methodology description are available in the toplines document

Methods for Screening for Genes and Small Molecules that Activate Mammalian Receptor Proteins

Methods for screening mutations that affect the synthesis of plant small molecules or compounds capable of activating a mammalian nuclear receptor protein and systems for rapidly assigning functionality to genes that regulate plant secondary metabolism are provided

Methods to Identify Plant Metabolites

This invention provides materials and methods to manipulate the plant genome at the level of single plant cells in culture resulting in the ability to assign metabolic functionality to plant genes involved in the production of biologically active molecules and to create a means of product discovery based on the biosynthetic capacity of plants. The materials to create an activation mutagenesis include incorporation of enhancer sequences from a plant viral promoter at random places in the plant genome via Agrobacterium mediated DNA transfer (T-DNA). The usefulness is that genes in the immediate vicinity of the incorporation were activated which allows for immediate screening of the mutagenized plant cells. Additionally, the usefulness includes relevant areas of the genome were flanked by the inserted T-DNA which allows recovery of this area by standard molecular biology techniques. The method includes a procedure for screening large numbers of mutagenized plant cell cultures for activation of a relevant gene on the basis of the desired protein product on the basis of radioligand binding displacement assay

Methods to Identify Plant Metabolites

This invention provides materials and methods to manipulate the plant genome at the level of single plant cells in culture resulting in the ability to assign metabolic functionality to plant genes involved in the production of biologically active molecules and to create a means of product discovery based on the biosynthetic capacity of plants. The materials to create an activation mutagenesis include incorporation of enhancer sequences from a plant viral promoter at random places in the plant genome via Agrobacterium mediated DNA transfer (T-DNA). The usefulness is that genes in the immediate vicinity of the incorporation were activated which allows for immediate screening of the mutagenized plant cells. Additionally, the usefulness includes relevant areas of the genome were flanked by the inserted T-DNA which allows recovery of this area by standard molecular biology techniques. The method includes a procedure for screening large numbers of mutagenized plant cell cultures for activation of a relevant gene on the basis of the desired protein product on the basis of radioligand binding displacement assay

Thermal plume entrainment of ichthyoplankton at the VEPCO Surry Nuclear Power Station : progress report, October 1975

Plume entrainment studies at Vepco Nuclear Power Plant located near Surry, Virginia were initiated in August, 1975 by the Ichthyology department of Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The program was undertaken to define the amount and kinds of fish eggs and larvae that are. present in the Cobham Bay area of the James River and become entrained by the heated effluent

Climate policy, interconnection and carbon leakage: the effect of unilateral UK policy on electricity and GHG emissions in Ireland. ESRI WP458. June 2013

This paper examines the effect on Ireland’s Single Electricity Market (SEM) of the UK’s unilateral policy to implement a carbon price floor for electricity generation based on fossil-fuel. We simulate electricity markets and find that, subject to efficient use of the interconnectors between the two markets, a carbon price floor will lead to carbon leakage, with associated emissions in the Republic of Ireland increasing by 8% and SEM’s electricity prices increasing by 2.4%. As the carbon price floor does not affect the number of ETS allowances no change is anticipated in aggregate European emissions. We also find that the EU’s proposal to postpone ETS allowance auctions will reduce Irish emissions somewhat but that the trade opportunities associated with the UK carbon price floor means that emissions reductions in Ireland will be lower than might have been otherwise. A carbon price floor will result in substantial tax revenues and had the carbon price floor been implemented in Northern Ireland the larger share of taxes remitted would be paid by Republic of Ireland customers within the SEM. A carbon price floor in the Republic of Ireland is a potential policy option that would generate revenues in excess of €250 million but associated electricity prices increases in excess of 17% would have significant negative welfare and competitiveness effects

Help smokers quit: Tell them their "lung age"

Perform spirometry on patients who smoke -- even if they're asymptomatic -- and show them their lung age that is, the average age of a nonsmoker with a forced expiratory volume at 1 second (FEV1) equal to theirs. Doing so can help patients kick the habit. Stength of recommendation: B: Based on a single well-done randomized controlled trial (RCT)

Climate Policy, Interconnection and Carbon Leakage: The Effect of Unilateral UK Policy on Electricity and GHG Emissions in Ireland. ESRI Research Bulletin 2014/1/7

We analyse the effect of the carbon price floor (CPF) implemented by the UK in April 2013 using a simulation model, PLEXOS, of the Irish (SEM) and British (BETTA) electricity markets. The paper illustrates that unilateral climate policies have the potential to cause perverse outcomes through carbon leakage. Even though Northern Ireland is exempt from the CPF in recognition of energy security issues, our work finds that BETTA’s CPF has the potential to have significant spill-over into the SEM due to the interconnection between the SEM and the BETTA markets