Building a Firm Foundation: Recommendations for New York City's Job Training System

In late 1998, the New York City Department of Employment (DOE) decided to develop a technical assistance plan for its contracted employment and training providers. The goal of this initiative was to help providers transition to a new performance-based contracting system and improve their overall performance. This report describes P/PV's evaluation of the New York City Job Training Partnership Act adult training providers; discusses challenges faced by providers; and recommends strategies for improving the performance of New York City's employment and training system

Science is perception: what can our sense of smell tell us about ourselves and the world around us?

Human sensory processes are well understood: hearing, seeing, perhaps even tasting and touch—but we do not understand smell—the elusive sense. That is, for the others we know what stimuli causes what response, and why and how. These fundamental questions are not answered within the sphere of smell science; we do not know what it is about a molecule that … smells. I report, here, the status quo theories for olfaction, highlighting what we do not know, and explaining why dismissing the perception of the input as ‘too subjective’ acts as a roadblock not conducive to scientific inquiry. I outline the current and new theory that conjectures a mechanism for signal transduction based on quantum mechanical phenomena, dubbed the ‘swipe card’, which is perhaps controversial but feasible. I show that such lines of thinking may answer some questions, or at least pose the right questions. Most importantly, I draw links and comparisons as to how better understanding of how small (10’s of atoms) molecules can interact so specially with large (10 000’s of atoms) proteins in a way that is so integral to healthy living. Repercussions of this work are not just important in understanding a basic scientific tool used by us all, but often taken for granted, it is also a step closer to understanding generic mechanisms between drug and receptor, for example

Charting New Territory: Early Implementation of the Workforce Investment Act

Charting New Territory is an examination of implementation of the Workforce Investment Act through the eyes of public officials in five cities. Though the strategies being pursued in each city vary, the report documents local officials' shared concerns about the difficulty of getting genuine cooperation from mandated partners, the challenges posed by WIA's data collection and performance requirements, and the frustration inherent in a transition from one system to another, while continuing to provide services. It concludes with several lessons on what will be needed to make WIA more effective

Class VIIIA Materiel: What Problems Were Encountered Transiting OIF Air Transshipment Nodes?

Medical cargo (Class VIIIA) is critical to the success of the United States military stationed across the globe; therefore, the military must successfully ship its Class VIIIA materiel to the Warfighter. The shipping and handling of the time and temperature sensitive Class VIIIA materiel is a complex process. Since the initial stages of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) the medical field has complained about Class VIIIA materiel arriving unserviceable to the final destination. Unserviceable materiel includes items that expired over time and items that expired from exposure to temperatures outside of their allowable range. This thesis focused on one possible area of concern, the air transshipment nodes used for OIF. The researcher used interviews to accomplish a case study and answer the research questions. The interviews focused on the training of the personnel handling the materiel at the transshipment nodes and the amount of instruction relating to the materiel the personnel are given while deployed. The results of the interviews showed that training and instruction for handling the temperature sensitive materiel is not an issue. The contributing issues are the mass amount of cargo transiting the transshipment nodes, the lack of airlift, and the lack of storage space with proper capabilities

Architectural study in straw building

Thesis: S.B. in Art and Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2006.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 31).Design and develop an environmentally sound home for a single family. Explore the concept that making a that making a home "green" or "sustainable" need not overwhelm the aesthetic, spatial or conceptual components of a house.by Lindsey L. Buck-Mayer.S.B. in Art and Desig

Interleukin 2 activation of natural killer cells rapidly induces the expression and phosphorylation of the Leu-23 activation antigen.

IL-2 potentiates both growth and cytotoxic function of T lymphocytes and NK cells. Resting peripheral blood NK cells can respond directly to rIL-2, without requirement for accessory cells or cofactors, and enhanced cytotoxicity can be measured within a few hours after exposure to this lymphokine. In this study, we describe an activation antigen, Leu-23, that is rapidly induced and phosphorylated after IL-2 stimulation of NK cells and a subset of low buoyant density T lymphocytes. Previously, it has been uncertain whether all NK cells or only a subset are responsive to IL-2. Since within 18 h after exposure to IL-2, essentially all NK cells express Leu-23, these findings indicate that all peripheral blood NK cells are responsive to stimulation by IL-2. The Leu-23 antigen is a disulfide-bonded homodimer, composed of 24-kD protein subunits with two N-linked oligosaccharides. Appearance of this glycoprotein on NK cells is IL-2 dependent and closely parallels IL-2-induced cytotoxicity against NK-resistant solid tumor cell targets

A rule-based functional-structural model of rice considering source and sink functions

As a first step towards a generic genotype-phenotype model of rice, we present here a model of the growth and morphology of rice in combination with ecophysiological processes using the technique of functional-structural plant modelling (FSPM) and the interactive modelling platform GroIMP along with the graph-based Relational Growth Grammar formalism. The model constitutes a simple yet functionally coherent phenotype model of rice, consisting of a set of morphogenetic RGG rules describing an “average” developmental course and final morphology, partially linking yield traits to processes (tiller and grain number, stem length, grain filling rate, grain weight)

Structure of d(TGCGCA)(2) and a comparison with other DNA Hexamers

The X-ray crystal structure of d(TGCGCA)(2) has been determined at 120 K to a resolution of 1.3 Angstrom. Hexamer duplexes, in the Z-DNA conformation, pack in an arrangement similar to the 'pure spermine form' [Egli et al. (1991). Biochemistry, 30, 11388-11402] but with significantly different cell dimensions. The phosphate backbone exists in two equally populated discrete conformations at one nucleotide step, around phosphate 11. The structure contains two ordered cobalt hexammine molecules which have roles in stabilization of both the Z-DNA conformation of the duplex and in crystal packing. A comparison of d(TGCGCA)(2) with other Z-DNA hexamer structures available in the Nucleic Acid Database illustrates the elusive nature of crystal packing. A review of the interactions with the metal cations Na+, Mg2+ and Co3+ reveals a relatively small proportion of phosphate binding and that close contacts between metal ions are common. A prediction of the water structure is compared with the observed pattern in the reported structure