Nonprofit Mergers: An Assessment of Nonprofits' Experiences with the Merger Process

An increasing number of nonprofit organizations are exploring mergers -- the process by which at least two nonprofit corporations join to form one legal entity. Yet, little is known about nonprofits' experiences with the merger process. What leads nonprofits to explore a merger and what outcomes do they expect to achieve as a result? Who within the organization is typically involved in facilitating the merger? How long do mergers take to complete, what do they cost and, above all, what are the results? Drawing on the experiences of 22 nonprofit organizations in Allegheny County that explored, attempted or completed a merger, combined with a comprehensive literature review, this report seeks to answer those questions and provide recommendations that nonprofits and funders can use to inform their conversations about the merger process

Professional Manual for the Parent Reaction to Autism Diagnosis Scales (PRADS-2) with Guidance for Tailoring Parent Supports

The Parent Reaction to Autism Diagnosis Scales (PRADS-2) is a 60-item survey, which provides 15 scale scores to measure a parent’s specific areas of strengths and difficulties in raising their child with autism. The measure allows researchers to obtain objective data on parent responses, and it allows service providers to tailor specific supports for parents. This peer-reviewed professional manual describes our research, statistical development, and validation of the scales, and then describes the steps for applications in service work, specifying how our measure may be used accurately, ethically, and compassionately, for the benefit of parents and families. The manual includes the informed consent form, the survey, scoring sheet, profile graph form, guide for tailoring services, a tailored worksheet, steps for follow-up interviewing, and a complete illustration for an example parent.https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/textbooks/1011/thumbnail.jp

Modeling Scholarly Inquiry: One Article at a Time

Librarians and the Director of the Writing Center at the University of Dubuque describe how they teamed with English faculty to create and implement an assignment that incorporates critical thinking, ethical inquiry, and information literacy in a beginning composition and rhetoric class. In the assignment, a team of faculty, librarians, and writing tutors lead student peer groups as they write a research paper using common journal articles in support of a single thesis. Because a recent campus-wide ethics initiative frames this assignment, students examine topics that may challenge their existing beliefs. Librarians will also analyze qualitative data collected during the first three semesters

Worth the wait: effects of age of onset of marijuana use on white matter and impulsivity

Rationale: Marijuana (MJ) use continues to rise, and as the perceived risk of using MJ approaches an all-time historic low, initiation of MJ use is occurring at even younger ages. As adolescence is a critical period of neuromaturation, teens and emerging adults are at greater risk for experiencing the negative effects of MJ on the brain. In particular, MJ use has been shown to be associated with alterations in frontal white matter microstructure, which may be related to reports of increased levels of impulsivity in this population. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between age of onset of MJ use, white matter microstructure, and reported impulsivity in chronic, heavy MJ smokers. Methods: Twenty-five MJ smokers and 18 healthy controls underwent diffusion tensor imaging and completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. MJ smokers were also divided into early onset (regular use prior to age 16) and late onset (age 16 or later) groups in order to clarify the impact of age of onset of MJ use on these variables. Results: MJ smokers exhibited significantly reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) relative to controls, as well as higher levels of impulsivity. Earlier MJ onset was also associated with lower levels of FA. Interestingly, within the early onset group, higher impulsivity scores were correlated with lower FA, a relationship that was not observed in the late onset smokers. Conclusions: MJ use is associated with white matter development and reported impulsivity, particularly in early onset smokers

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [33rd ed. 2014]

The 2014 release of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 33rd edition of the print directory and the 14th year of the online version. The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. Additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation websites, annual reports, and newsletters.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1012/thumbnail.jp

Sudden flamingo deaths in Kenyan rift valley lakes.

The East African Rift Valley Lakes Bogoria and Nakuru sometimes host around 75% of the world population of lesser flamingos Phoeniconaias minor. In this area, mysterious flamingo die-offs have occupied researchers for four decades. Recently, cyanobacterial toxins came into the fore as a possible explanation for mass mortalities because the main food source of lesser flamingos is the cyanobacterium Arthrospira fusiformis. We took weekly samples from July 2008 to November 2009 from Lakes Nakuru and Bogoria and analyzed them by high performance liquid chromatography for microcystins. Monthly, samples were cross-checked using protein phosphatase inhibition assays with lower detection limits and additionally screened for polar toxins. During our study period, three flamingo die-offs occurred at L. Bogoria and we were able to analyze tissues of 20 carcasses collected at the shoreline. No cyanotoxins were detected either in plankton samples or in flamingo tissues. Accordingly, other reasons such as food composition or bird diseases played a key role in the observed flamingo die-offs

Hanoi Revisited

TB

Elevated Preattentive Affective Processing in Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder: A Preliminary fMRI Study

Background: Emotion dysregulation is central to the clinical conceptualization of borderline personality disorder (BPD), with individuals often displaying instability in mood and intense feelings of negative affect. Although existing data suggest important neural and behavioral differences in the emotion processing of individuals with BPD, studies thus far have only explored reactions to overt emotional information. Therefore, it is unclear if BPD-related emotional hypersensitivity extends to stimuli presented below the level of conscious awareness (preattentively). Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure neural responses to happy, angry, fearful, and neutral faces presented preattentively, using a backward masked affect paradigm. Given their tendency toward emotional hyperreactivity and altered amygdala and frontal activation, we hypothesized that individuals with BPD would demonstrate a distinct pattern of fMRI responses relative to those without BPD during the viewing of masked affective versus neutral faces in specific regions of interests (ROIs). Results: Results indicated that individuals with BPD demonstrated increases in frontal, cingulate, and amygdalar activation represented by number of voxels activated and demonstrated a different pattern of activity within the ROIs relative to those without BPD while viewing masked affective versus neutral faces. Conclusion: These findings suggest that in addition to the previously documented heightened responses to overt displays of emotion, individuals with BPD also demonstrate differential responses to positive and negative emotions, early in the processing stream, even before conscious awareness