California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH): Early Findings from the Child Welfare Worker Survey

This report presents findings from the Child Welfare Worker Survey, an on-line survey of 235 California child welfare workers and their perceptions of key characteristics of the service delivery context of extended foster care, including: the availability of transitional living services; coordination between the child welfare system and other service systems such as county courts; and youth attitudes toward extended care. This report provides a valuable snapshot of how youths' caseworkers, central players in the implementation of extended foster care, perceive young people making the transition to adulthood out of care and the service context for that transition

Findings from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH): Conditions of Foster Youth at Age 17

This report presents findings from the Baseline Youth Survey, providing the most comprehensive view to date of young people approaching the transition to adulthood from foster care in the wake of the federal Fostering Connections Act. Information gathered during interviews with 727 youths who were an average of 17 years old at the time, offers insight into the needs and aspirations of transition-age foster youth. Study findings can help inform efforts to improve policies and services for foster youths' transitioning to adulthood

What should an index of school segregation measure?

The article aims to make a methodological contribution to the education segregation literature, providing a critique of previous measures of segregation used in the literature, as well as suggesting an alternative approach to measuring segregation. Specifically, the paper examines Gorard, Fitz and Taylor's finding that social segregation between schools, as measured by free school meals (FSM) entitlement, fell significantly in the years following the 1988 Education Reform Act. Using Annual Schools Census data from 1989 to 2004, the paper challenges the magnitude of their findings, suggesting that the method used by Gorard et al. seriously overstates the size of the fall in segregation. We make the case for a segregation curve approach to measuring segregation, where comparisons of the level of segregation are possible regardless of the percentage FSM eligibility. Using this approach, we develop a new method for describing both the level and the location of school segregation

Development of transparent microwell arrays for optical monitoring and dissection of microbial communities

Citation: Halsted, M., Wilmoth, J. L., Briggs, P. A., Hansen, R. R., Briggs, D. P., Timm, A. C., & Retterer, S. T. (2016). Development of transparent microwell arrays for optical monitoring and dissection of microbial communities. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, 34(6), 5. doi:10.1116/1.4962739Microbial communities are incredibly complex systems that dramatically and ubiquitously influence our lives. They help to shape our climate and environment, impact agriculture, drive business, and have a tremendous bearing on healthcare and physical security. Spatial confinement, as well as local variations in physical and chemical properties, affects development and interactions within microbial communities that occupy critical niches in the environment. Recent work has demonstrated the use of silicon based microwell arrays, combined with parylene lift-off techniques, to perform both deterministic and stochastic assembly of microbial communities en masse, enabling the high-throughput screening of microbial communities for their response to growth in confined environments under different conditions. The implementation of a transparent microwell array platform can expand and improve the imaging modalities that can be used to characterize these assembled communities. Here, the fabrication and characterization of a next generation transparent microwell array is described. The transparent arrays, comprised of SU-8 patterned on a glass coverslip, retain the ability to use parylene lift-off by integrating a low temperature atomic layer deposition of silicon dioxide into the fabrication process. This silicon dioxide layer prevents adhesion of the parylene material to the patterned SU-8, facilitating dry lift-off, and maintaining the ability to easily assemble microbial communities within the microwells. These transparent microwell arrays can screen numerous community compositions using continuous, high resolution, imaging. The utility of the design was successfully demonstrated through the stochastic seeding and imaging of green fluorescent protein expressing Escherichia coli using both fluorescence and brightfield microscopies. (C) 2016 American Vacuum Society

The impact of loco-regional recurrences on metastatic progression in early-stage breast cancer: a multistate model

To study whether the effects of prognostic factors associated with the occurrence of distant metastases (DM) at primary diagnosis change after the incidence of loco-regional recurrences (LRR) among women treated for invasive stage I or II breast cancer. The study population consisted of 3,601 women, enrolled in EORTC trials 10801, 10854, or 10902 treated for early-stage breast cancer. Data were analysed in a multivariate, multistate model by using multivariate Cox regression models, including a state-dependent covariate. The presence of a LRR in itself is a significant prognostic risk factor (HR: 3.64; 95%-CI: 2.02-6.5) for the occurrence of DM. Main prognostic risk factors for a DM are young age at diagnosis (</=40: HR: 1.79; 95%-CI: 1.28-2.51), larger tumour size (HR: 1.58; 95%-CI: 1.35-1.84) and node positivity (HR: 2.00; 95%-CI: 1.74-2.30). Adjuvant chemotherapy is protective for a DM (HR: 0.66; 95%-CI: 0.55-0.80). After the occurrence of a LRR the latter protective effect has disappeared (P = 0.009). The presence of LRR in itself is a significant risk factor for DM. For patients who are at risk of developing LRR, effective local control should be the main target of therapy

Macrophage development and activation involve coordinated intron retention in key inflammatory regulators

Monocytes and macrophages are essential components of the innate immune system. Herein, we report that intron retention (IR) plays an important role in the development and function of these cells. Using Illumina mRNA sequencing, Nanopore direct cDNA sequencing and proteomics analysis, we identify IR events that affect the expression of key genes/proteins involved in macrophage development and function. We demonstrate that decreased IR in nuclear-detained mRNA is coupled with increased expression of genes encoding regulators of macrophage transcription, phagocytosis and inflammatory signalling, including ID2, IRF7, ENG and LAT. We further show that this dynamic IR program persists during the polarisation of resting macrophages into activated macrophages. In the presence of proinflammatory stimuli, intron-retaining CXCL2 and NFKBIZ transcripts are rapidly spliced, enabling timely expression of these key inflammatory regulators by macrophages. Our study provides novel insights into the molecular factors controlling vital regulators of the innate immune response

Homotransplantation of the liver in a patientwith hepatoma and hereditary tyrosinemia

A girl with hereditary tyrosinemia, diagnosed at 6 months of age, was treated with a diet restricted inphenylalanine and tyrosine. At 91/2 years of age she developed an acutely enlarged liver and spleen, and the diagnosis of hepatocarcinoma was made. The patient received a liver transplant and tyrosine metabolites became normal while she was receiving a regular diet. Three months later, an infected thrombosis of the portal vein caused her death. Liver transplant appears to be an effective method of enzyme replacement in tyrosinemia and should be considered for prevention of hepatoma. © 1978 The C. V. Mosby Company

Quality Assurance in Highway Construction

From "Public Roads" Magazine, Volume 35, Numbers 6 - 11This report contains the reprint of six articles on the subject of quality assurance that have appeared in the past issues of "Public Roads" magazine.The articles are divided into the following:1. Introduction and Concepts2. Quality Assurance of Embankments and Base Courses3. Quality Assurance of Portland Cement Concrete4. Variations of Bituminous Construction5. Summary of Research for Quality Assurance of Aggregate6. Control Chart

TELMA: Technology enhanced learning environment for minimally invasive surgery

Background: Cognitive skills training for minimally invasive surgery has traditionally relied upon diverse tools, such as seminars or lectures. Web technologies for e-learning have been adopted to provide ubiquitous training and serve as structured repositories for the vast amount of laparoscopic video sources available. However, these technologies fail to offer such features as formative and summative evaluation, guided learning, or collaborative interaction between users. Methodology: The "TELMA" environment is presented as a new technology-enhanced learning platform that increases the user's experience using a four-pillared architecture: (1) an authoring tool for the creation of didactic contents; (2) a learning content and knowledge management system that incorporates a modular and scalable system to capture, catalogue, search, and retrieve multimedia content; (3) an evaluation module that provides learning feedback to users; and (4) a professional network for collaborative learning between users. Face validation of the environment and the authoring tool are presented. Results: Face validation of TELMA reveals the positive perception of surgeons regarding the implementation of TELMA and their willingness to use it as a cognitive skills training tool. Preliminary validation data also reflect the importance of providing an easy-to-use, functional authoring tool to create didactic content. Conclusion: The TELMA environment is currently installed and used at the Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Centre and several other Spanish hospitals. Face validation results ascertain the acceptance and usefulness of this new minimally invasive surgery training environment