Cultural Vitality in Communities: Interpretation and Indicators

This report introduces a definition of cultural vitality that includes the range of cultural activity people around the country find significant. We use this definition as a lens to clarify our understanding of data necessary, as well as the more limited data currently available, to document arts and culture in communities in a consistent, recurrent and reliable manner. Specifically, we define cultural vitality as evidence of creating, disseminating, validating, and supporting arts and culture as a dimension of everyday life in communities. We develop and recommend an initial set of arts and culture indicators derived from nationally available data, and compare selected metropolitan areas based on these measures. Policy and planning implications for use of the cultural vitality definition and related measures are discussed

Innovating with institutions : how strategic orientations among one-stop career centers influence labor matching, adaptation, and performance

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, February 2004.Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 312-317).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Set in the context of labor market restructuring, public policy reform, and blurring government/nonprofit boundaries, this study examines the functions, adaptation, and performance of Boston's three One-Stop Career Centers between 1996 and 2002-a time period encompassing distinct eras of changing policy and labor market conditions. Along with other types of labor market intermediaries (LMIs), One-Stop Career Centers have arisen as sites of organizational and institutional innovation in mediating the labor matching process. However, compared to other LMIs, much less is known about career centers' employment brokering operations. This study helps address this research gap by providing a detailed analysis of three career centers. This investigation answers three research questions related to the 1) functions; 2) adaptation; and 3) performance of career centers with differing organizational sponsorships. In doing so, the study develops a conceptual framework based on three strategic orientations-community, bureaucratic, and entrepreneurial-that helps to clarify and categorize organizational processes, change, and outcomes.(cont.) The study finds that different strategic orientations are related to variation in organizational planning, practice, networks, and performance. Strategic orientation is also found to influence organizational adaptability during both a tight labor market and an economic recession, as well as during implementation of major federal policy changes related to welfare reform and workforce development reform. The study contributes to scholarship on employment brokering and labor market institutional change by offering an empirical analysis and theoretical framework that highlights the emergent role of One-Stop Career Centers as publicly-funded labor market intermediaries. The study is also immediately relevant to policymakers and practitioners involved in the more than 1,900 career centers across the country. For them, this study provides a better understanding of the programmatic trade-offs associated with career center operations and therefore may help them improve the labor matching process for both employers and job-seekers--especially those with barriers to employment.by Joaquín Herranz, Jr.Ph.D

Arts and Culture in Communities: A Framework for Measurement

Offers a framework for capturing and measuring arts, culture, and creative expression at the neighborhood level. Discusses the presence of opportunities for cultural participation, impacts of participation, and support systems for cultural expression

Arts and Culture in Communities: Systems of Support

Presents findings by the Urban Institute's Arts and Culture Indicators in Community Building Project on the characteristics of support systems that are most likely to produce opportunities for cultural engagement

Arts and Culture in Communities: Unpacking Participation

Presents findings by the Urban Institute's Arts and Culture Indicators in Community Building Project on a range of arts and cultural participation within the context of various community building processes

Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists

Documents and analyzes the environment of support for individual artists. Provides a framework for analysis of various dimensions of the support structure, nationally and in specific sites across the U.S. Includes support programs and policy initiatives

Early evolution of galaxies and of large-scale structure from CMB experiments

Next generation CMB experiments with arcmin resolution will, for free, lay the foundations for a real breakthrough on the study of the early evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters, thanks to the detection of large samples of strongly gravitationally lensed galaxies and of proto-clusters of dusty galaxies up to high redshifts. This has an enormous legacy value. High resolution follow-up of strongly lensed galaxies will allow the direct investigation of their structure and kinematics up to z~6, providing direct information on physical processes driving their evolution. Follow-up of proto-clusters will allow an observational validation of the formation history of the most massive dark matter halos up to z~4, well beyond the redshift range accessible via X-ray or SZ measurements. These experiments will also allow a giant leap forward in the determination of polarization properties of extragalactic sources, and will provide a complete census of cold dust available for star formation in the local universe.Comment: Science white paper submitted to the Astro2020 US Decadal Surve

Towards a holistic indicator of flow disturbance impact: fish community size spectra

Fish size-spectra provide a simple synthetic metric to assess the effects of pressures on the overall function of river ecosystems. An exploration of the effects of hydrological pressures on this metric is addressed in order to test its sensitiveness as a potential holistic indicator of ecological integrity. A set of 652 sampling sites with individual fish length data were used to compare the size-spectra among unimpaired sites and sites only affected by hydrological pressures. The variation of size-spectra along a gradient of rheophily was also considered. Our results show that size spectra slopes are naturally steeper in rheophilic than in limnephilic reaches. According to this, hydrological alterations produce different responses in the fish community size spectra. Hydrologically impaired rheophilic reaches show an increase in the ecological efficiency (size spectra slope) but a decrease in community capacity (elevation of the size spectra), whereas limnephilic reaches experience a decrease in the ecological efficiency but an increase in the food-web capacity (increased elevation of the size spectra). Slight differences in the type of the hydrological alteration (e.g. water abstraction vs. hydropeaking) might explain these effects

Radio sources in next-generation CMB surveys

CMB surveys provide, for free, blindly selected samples of extragalactic radio sources at much higher frequencies than traditional radio surveys. Next-generation, ground-based CMB experiments with arcmin resolution at mm wavelengths will provide samples of thousands radio sources allowing the investigation of the evolutionary properties of blazar populations, the study of the earliest and latest stages of radio activity, the discovery of rare phenomena and of new transient sources and events. Space-borne experiments will extend to sub-mm wavelengths the determinations of the SEDs of many hundreds of blazars, in temperature and in polarization, allowing us to investigate the flow and the structure of relativistic jets close to their base, and the electron acceleration mechanisms. A real breakthrough will be achieved in the caracterization of the polarization properties. The first direct counts in polarization will be obtained, enabling a solid assessment of the extra-galactic source contamination of CMB maps and allowing us to understand structure and intensity of magnetic fields, particle densities and structures of emitting regions close to the base of the jet.Comment: Science white paper submitted to the Astro2020 US Decadal Surve

Improved dead-time correction for PET scanners: Application to small-animal PET

Pile-up and dead-time are two main causes of nonlinearity in the response of a PET scanner as a function of activity in the field of view (FOV). For a given scanner and acquisition system, pile-up effects depend on the material and size of the object being imaged and on the distribution of activity inside and outside the FOV, because these factors change the singles-to-coincidences ratio (SCR). Thus, it is difficult to devise an accurate correction that would be valid for any acquisition. In this work, we demonstrate a linear relationship between SCR and effective dead-time, which measures the effects of both dead-time (losses) and pile-up (gains and losses). This relationship allows us to propose a simple method to accurately estimate dead-time and pile-up corrections using only two calibration acquisitions with, respectively, a high and low SCR. The method has been tested with simulations and experimental data for two different scanner geometries: a scanner with large area detectors and no pile-up rejection, and a scanner composed of two full rings of smaller detectors. Our results show that the SCR correction method is accurate within 7%, even for high activities in the FOV, and avoids the bias of the standard single-parameter method. © 2013 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.This work was partially funded by AMIT project (CEN-20101014) from the CDTICENIT program, CIBERsam (CB07/09/0031), projects TEC2010-21619-C04-01 and TEC2011-28972-C02-01 from Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spanish Government (ENTEPRASE Grant, PSE-300000-2009-5), PRECISION grant IPT-300000- 2010-3, CPAN (CSD-2007-00042@Ingenio2010), MEC (FPA2010-17142) and ARTEMIS program (S2009/DPI-1802) from Spanish Comunidad de Madrid and EU-ERDF program.Peer Reviewe