Sustained Community Theater Participation as Civil Society Involvement

Community theaters proliferate in every state in the nation, yet they are rarely considered in civil society research. Participation in civil society is capable of producing individual (psychological empowerment) and community-level outcomes, yet less is known about how community theaters might be capable of producing the same. Guided by the empirically tested dimensions of intra-organizational empowerment, this qualitative study interrogates four internal processes of voluntary membership in a community theater (shared beliefs, opportunity role structure, social support, and leadership). Directed content analysis of 14 in-depth interviews support and extend our understanding of existing theory for this less examined population. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed

Social Worker Identity: A Profession in Context

Social work is a broad field encompassing micro, mezzo, and macro areas of practice. Consequently, the field lacks a unifying professional identity due to the expansiveness of the profession. Professional identity is conceptualized as an extension of social identity, vis-à-vis the embodiment of three qualities: connectedness, expansiveness, and effectiveness. This study used 12 in-depth, individual interviews with practicing social workers to explore these qualities. Findings from interviews reveal six primary themes and 21 subthemes pertaining to social worker identity. Themes and subthemes are organized according to three broad families (social work in context, professional trajectories, and external influences). Implications for policy, practice, and future research are presented

A Critical Analysis of Foster Youth Advisory Boards in the United States

Background: The enactment of the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Act brought welcome attention to young people aging out of foster care, and sought to include them in both case planning and policy dialog. Foster Youth Advisory Boards help to promote such inclusion, though the implementation of those boards has not been formally analyzed. Objective: This critical analysis of foster youth advisory boards in the United States answers the following questions: (1) What/where are each of the Youth Advisory Boards in the United States? (2) How is each board implemented? (3) How would a young person aging out of care (or a practitioner working with this population) access its local board? Methods: A content analysis of public child welfare agency programs was conducted to identify youth advisory boards in each of the United States and the District of Columbia to identify implementing agencies and contact information. Results: While every state and Washington, D.C. had a version of Youth Advisory Board, some boards were implemented exclusively through public child welfare agencies and others through public/nonprofit partnerships. Contact information for each of the 51 boards was identified and is displayed. Conclusions: Youth Advisory Boards have proliferated throughout the United States since the enactment of Chafee programming. They can be useful, pro-social mediums to include foster youth in case planning and policy dialog, while simultaneously promoting a sense of leadership, mentorship, and ecological permanence. Implications for policy, practice, and research are explored

Achieving Large Multiplexing Gain in Distributed Antenna Systems via Cooperation with pCell Technology

In this paper we present pCellTM technology, the first commercial-grade wireless system that employs cooperation between distributed transceiver stations to create concurrent data links to multiple users in the same spectrum. First we analyze the per-user signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) employing a geometrical spatial channel model to define volumes in space of coherent signal around user antennas (or personal cells, i.e., pCells). Then we describe the system architecture consisting of a general-purpose-processor (GPP) based software-defined radio (SDR) wireless platform implementing a real-time LTE protocol stack to communicate with off-the-shelf LTE devices. Finally we present experimental results demonstrating up to 16 concurrent spatial channels for an aggregate average spectral efficiency of 59.3 bps/Hz in the downlink and 27.5 bps/Hz in the uplink, providing data rates of 200 Mbps downlink and 25 Mbps uplink in 5 MHz of TDD spectrum.Comment: IEEE Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Nov. 8-11th 2015, Pacific Grove, CA, US

Feux de forêt et habitat : propositions méthodologiques pour la planification anti-incendie.

Dans ce travail, l'auteur examine les principaux aspects de la protection anti-incendie de la forêt, par référence à la situation italienne. En outre, il analyse et met en évidence les éléments fondamentaux pour établir des critères de prévention des incendies de forêt par rapport au problème habitat, feu de forêt. L'auteur formule aussi, ex novo, des lignes méthodologiques, de programme et d'orientation par référence à la planification écologique anti-incendie intégrée dans d'autres planifications. Par ce travail, l'auteur entend apporter de nouvelles contributions à la thématique «Feux de forêt et habitat», de niveau national et international, qui tendent à l'institution d'un ensemble de normes techniques et juridiques pour réaliser ce standard anti-incendie

LUTA DE CLASSES, GÊNERO E REVOLUÇÃO

A minha posição é a de uma leitora de Gramsci a partir da utilidade atual da sua reflexão para a compreensão do presente e para refundar hoje uma teoria da libertação. O ponto de partida, é portanto, a nossa colocação no presente, o nosso desejo de transformação que cruza um texto e o questiona partindo das possibilidades de fortalecimento deste desejo que tal texto oferece, em uma relação com o texto gramsciano que é ao mesmo tempo afetiva e instrumental, fiel e infiel

Technology and Opportunity: People with Serious Mental Illness and Social Connection

Objective: Little information exists regarding how individuals with serious mental illness use technology and whether this usage facilitates social connections. This study contributes to filling this knowledge gap by examining ways in which a sample of persons with serious mental illness use cell phones and the Internet. Methods: Interviews with 50 consumers living in supported housing were asked about their use of cell phones and computers and their perceptions of social connections. Results: Cell phones and computers allowed greater linkage with social, medical, mental health, and employment resources. Nearly all obtained phones through publicly funded programs. “Running out of minutes” was common and associated with disrupted communication and safety concerns. Few people owned computers, resulting in restricted access. Conclusion: Policymakers should consider providing free or discounted hardware, subsidizing unlimited plans, and promoting computer literacy

Beyond the Neighborhood: Defining Membership in Diverse Community Contexts

The purpose of this research is to form an overarching definition of community membership that encompasses all community contexts. Utilizing qualitative interviews with 102 members of five known community contexts (communities of action, circumstance, interest, place, and practice), the authors use cross-case analysis to explore common, transcendent themes of membership. Three takeaways emerge: first, that individuals identify with communities to address personal needs but come to see social benefits; second, that individuals join communities to deepen existing relationships, but develop new ones; and third, that through engagement, individuals strengthen a sense of self that is unique to community context. Through these takeaways, we define community as a reciprocal and emergent system of interactions through which individuals seek to address personal and shared physiological, social, and self-actualizing needs

The DNA Alkylguanine DNA Alkyltransferase-2 (AGT-2) Of Caenorhabditis Elegans Is Involved In Meiosis And Early Development Under Physiological Conditions

DNA alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferases (AGTs) are evolutionary conserved proteins that repair alkylation damage in DNA, counteracting the effects of agents inducing such lesions. Over the last years AGTs have raised considerable interest for both the peculiarity of their molecular mechanism and their relevance in cancer biology. AGT knock out mice show increased tumour incidence in response to alkylating agents, and over-expression of the human AGT protein in cancer cells is frequently associated with resistance to alkylating chemotherapy. While all data available point to a function of AGT proteins in the cell response to alkylation lesions, we report for the first time that one of the two AGT paralogs of the model organism C. elegans, called AGT-2, also plays unexpected roles in meiosis and early development under physiological conditions. Our data suggest a role for AGT-2 in conversion of homologous recombination intermediates into post-strand exchange products in meiosis, and show that agt-2 gene down-regulation, or treatment of animals with an AGT inhibitor results in increased number of germ cells that are incompatible with producing viable offspring and are eliminated by apoptosis. These results suggest possible functions for AGTs in cell processes distinct from repair of alkylating damage