American Philanthropy, the State, and the Public Sector, 1890-1970

This document was part of the Multicultural Philanthropy Project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. A series of fourteen guides examine the ways in which various gender, ethnic, cultural, religious and racial groups use their gifts of time, money, and talent. They reflect the ways giving and voluntarism are embedded in American life and challenge the notion that philanthropy is the exclusive province of elites. The guides include discussion topics, research questions, and literature overviews with annotated bibliographies. They were developed both to integrate the study of philanthropy into the curricula at colleges and universities, and to provide a tool to nonprofit professionals in the area of development and fundraising. Each volume provides background information on a selected community that will help practitioners work effectively with these groups. This guide explores the relationship between philanthropy and the American state, examining the process by which the state expanded its programs, institutions, and influence over more and more of both civil and political society. It starts with an overview of the 19th century, charting the rise of a national economic and cultural order, and demonstrating how philanthropy itself adopted the organizational structure and long term planning view of the corporation. The dramatic expansion of the American state between the 1920s and the 1960s was accompanied by an even larger proliferation of private, philanthropic institutions which helped shape public and private policy through the organization of volunteered time, money, and expertise. This proliferation reflected a commitment to relying on private knowledge, expertise, and institutions in the development and execution of public policy and a liberal political structure which tried to remain decentralized, ad hoc, and essentially private. Philanthropic institutions played an important part in contributing to the contradictory development of a large-scale state that kept the trappings of a restrained government that depended for crucial input upon a third sector of volunteers

QoS-Enabled B2B Integration

Business-To-Business Integration (B2Bi) is a key mechanism for enterprises to gain competitive advantage. However, developing B2Bi applications is far from trivial. Inter alia, agreement among integration partners about the business documents and the control flow of business document exchanges as well as applying suitable communication technologies for overcoming heterogeneous IT landscapes are major challenges. At the same time, choreography languages such as ebXML BPSS (ebBP), orchestration languages such as WS-BPEL and Web Services are promising to provide the foundations for seamless interactions among business partners. Automatically translating choreography agreements of integration partners into partner-specific orchestrations is an obvious idea for ensuring conformance of orchestration models to choreography models. Moreover, the application of such model-driven development methods facilitates productivity and cost-effectiveness whereas applying a service oriented architecture (SOA) based on WS-BPEL and Web Services leverages standardization and decoupling. By now, the realization of QoS attributes has not yet received the necessary attention that makes such approaches suitable for B2Bi. In this report, we describe a proof-of-concept implementation of the translation of ebBP choreographies into WS-BPEL orchestrations that respects B2Bi-relevant QoS attributes

Inhibition of mitochondrial aconitase by succination in fumarate hydratase deficiency

The gene encoding the Krebs cycle enzyme fumarate hydratase (FH) is mutated in hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC). Loss of FH activity causes accumulation of intracellular fumarate, which can directly modify cysteine residues to form 2-succinocysteine through succination. We undertook a proteomic-based screen in cells and renal cysts from Fh1 (murine FH)-deficient mice and identified 94 protein succination targets. Notably, we identified the succination of three cysteine residues in mitochondrial Aconitase2 (ACO2) crucial for iron-sulfur cluster binding. We show that fumarate exerts a dose-dependent inhibition of ACO2 activity, which correlates with increased succination as determined by mass spectrometry, possibly by interfering with iron chelation. Importantly, we show that aconitase activity is impaired in FH-deficient cells. Our data provide evidence that succination, resulting from FH deficiency, targets and potentially alters the function of multiple proteins and may contribute to the dysregulated metabolism observed in HLRCC

COordination of Standards in MetabOlomicS (COSMOS): facilitating integrated metabolomics data access

Metabolomics has become a crucial phenotyping technique in a range of research fields including medicine, the life sciences, biotechnology and the environmental sciences. This necessitates the transfer of experimental information between research groups, as well as potentially to publishers and funders. After the initial efforts of the metabolomics standards initiative, minimum reporting standards were proposed which included the concepts for metabolomics databases. Built by the community, standards and infrastructure for metabolomics are still needed to allow storage, exchange, comparison and re-utilization of metabolomics data. The Framework Programme 7 EU Initiative ‘coordination of standards in metabolomics’ (COSMOS) is developing a robust data infrastructure and exchange standards for metabolomics data and metadata. This is to support workflows for a broad range of metabolomics applications within the European metabolomics community and the wider metabolomics and biomedical communities’ participation. Here we announce our concepts and efforts asking for re-engagement of the metabolomics community, academics and industry, journal publishers, software and hardware vendors, as well as those interested in standardisation worldwide (addressing missing metabolomics ontologies, complex-metadata capturing and XML based open source data exchange format), to join and work towards updating and implementing metabolomics standards

Philanthropy in American History: The Elite Experience, 1890-1940

This document was part of the Multicultural Philanthropy Project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. A series of fourteen guides examine the ways in which various gender, ethnic, cultural, religious and racial groups use their gifts of time, money, and talent. They reflect the ways giving and voluntarism are embedded in American life and challenge the notion that philanthropy is the exclusive province of elites. The guides include discussion topics, research questions, and literature overviews with annotated bibliographies. They were developed both to integrate the study of philanthropy into the curricula at colleges and universities, and to provide a tool to nonprofit professionals in the area of development and fundraising. Each volume provides background information on a selected community that will help practitioners work effectively with these groups. Scholars have used the lens of philanthropy to look at such diverse issues as civil society, liberal reform, public culture and the growth of the state. This volume looks closely at the organization of time and money for the public benefit, in one aspect of the philanthropic universe: the Protestant elite who rose to great wealth in the Gilded Age and the institutions they founded at the beginning of the twentieth century. The volume is intended for those interested in acquiring a greater understanding of the history and influence of the large foundations of the 20th century. It is particularly useful in delineating how the strategic use of philanthropic dollars led to the creation of elite institutions, which helped shape public discourse. It includes an annotated bibliography and bibliographic essays, providing insight into the motivations and objectives of the large foundations, the kinds of programs they funded and what they hoped to accomplish. By delineating the successes and limitations of foundation activities, the guide provides historical context for those working with foundations today

Today's immigrants, their stories : a new lok at the newest Americans

xii, 317 p.; 21 cm

Re-analysis of concrete bridges " systematic data evaluation of re-analysed concrete bridges

Zur Vereinheitlichung der Vorgehensweise bei der Nachrechnung von Straßenbrücken wurde in Deutschland im Mai 2011 die "Nachrechnungsrichtlinie" eingeführt. Im Rahmen des vorliegenden, von der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) initiierten Forschungsvorhabens wurden in den vergangenen Monaten die Ergebnisse zu insgesamt etwa 150 nachgerechneten Stahlbeton- und Spannbetonbrücken aus ganz Deutschland gesammelt und systematisch ausgewertet. Wesentliches Ziel des Projektes ist es, Grundlagen für eine noch effizientere Nachrechnung mit aussagekräftigen Ergebnissen zu schaffen. In diesem Bericht werden zunächst typische "rechnerische Defizite" benannt, welche Zusatzbetrachtungen erforderlich machen, die über die Anwendung der Sonderregelungen der Nachweisstufe 2 hinausgehen. Anschließend werden Empfehlungen zur Nachrechnung allgemein sowie zum Umgang mit typischen, rechnerischen Stufe-2-Defiziten gegeben und es werden Vorschläge zur Aufbereitung von Nachrechnungsergebnissen vorgestellt und diskutiert.In May 2011 the new German guideline "Nachrechnungsrichtlinie" (standard for bridge re-analysis and assessment) was recommended for application in order to implement a harmonized basis for the assessment of existing road bridges. Within the framework of a research project initiated and funded by the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) re-analysis results of in total approximately 150 reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete bridges were collected and evaluated. One major goal of this project was to provide a basis for a more efficient re-analysis and an improved documentation of the results. The present report firstly describes typical "calculatory deficits" requiring additional considerations upon completion of the so-called re-analysis stage 2. Subsequently, general recommendations for future re-analyses are being provided, advices are given in terms of the handling of deficits and finally a proposal is made and discussed regarding the presentation and documentation of re-analysi