Next Generation Givers: Implications for Nonprofit Engagement

The nonprofit sector is experiencing competition for resources, a decrease in donor retention, and larger donations from fewer donors. In addition, older generations are aging out. Therefore, it is critical that nonprofit leaders execute strategies to engage the Next Generation of supporters. In this project, Next Generation definitions, values, characteristics, and philanthropic habits were reviewed and analyzed through various resources and tools. Results yielded several key findings. First, definitions of the Next Generation are varied; however, they typically include Gen Y, and some or all of Gen X and Gen Z. Next Generation individuals are incredibly techsavvy, view time as an incredibly effective way to give back, and value integrity, meaningful work, and transparency. The Next Generation is also very concerned about seeing the impact of their work. Based on these results, advancement team members need to embrace new digital ways of engagement both monetary and non-monetary. This calls for understanding and investing in specific tools and models to meet these individuals where they are at— online. Because the Next Generation craves hands-on experiences, opportunities such as site visits, events, and Next Generation board opportunities should be considered

Extracytoplasmic stress response systems in S. Typhimurium

Salmonella species can cause wide-ranging disease from mild food-poisoning enteritis to a systemic, sometimes fatal typhoid infection. These bacteria have evolved to survive in different environments within and outside the host and do so through the regulation of differential gene expression following activation of certain stress response systems. In gram negative bacteria such as Salmonella, envelope stress responses (ESR) are response systems that target stresses affecting components of the cell envelope such as the periplasm and outer membrane proteins. The two best characterised ESRs are the RpoE stress response system and the CpxAR two-component signal transduction system. Two further ESRs, the BaeSR response and the phage shock response have also recently been identified. The intention of this thesis was to characterise the ESR systems of S. Typhimurium to widen our current knowledge of genes involved in these systems and their role in the pathogenesis of S. Typhimurium with the ultimate aim of identifying possible candidate vaccine genes that may be used in future therapeutics against Salmonella infection. Firstly, extensive mutagenesis and phenotypic analysis studies were undertaken to characterise genes thought to be members of the RpoE regulon. Study of the phage shock response was initiated through mutagenesis, characterisation and regulation studies. A microarray experiment was designed in collaboration with colleagues at the Sanger Centre to identify members of the S. Typhimurium CpxAR regulon, with several members of this regulon being characterised further. The structural components of HtrA, an important ESR protein in S. Typhimurium, were analysed and finally work within this thesis was involved in the investigation of potential overlaps between both the RpoE and CpxAR systems. This led to the establishment of preliminary studies to investigate the vaccine potential of the tol - pal genes in S. Typhimurium

Staff-student Partnership in Practice in Higher Education : The Impact on Learning and Teaching

© 2012 The Authors. Published with open access by Elsevier Ltd.This staff-student collaborative project involved six small project teams each composed of staff and undergraduate students studying within the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Each project team engaged in a mini-project designed to research an aspect of learning and teaching to develop learning and teaching and to enhance students’ employability skills. The ‘student researchers’ from the small project teams were also members of a larger coaching group that met with the project lead and other experienced colleagues and undertook joint enquiry. Students used reflective logs as one means of recording data on their developing employability skills and their learning from the project. Evaluation activities included documentation of all coaching group workshops and collecting quantitative and qualitative data for each learning and teaching research project. The usefulness of this data was evaluated by staff members in relation to its impact on their module planning. The main implication of this approach is that staff-student partnership in learning and teaching has a significant impact on learning and teaching development and enhancement, learning to learn, raising the profile of research into learning and teaching, and employability skills and attributes. The student researchers came to a much deeper understanding of learning and teaching, and became much more aware of their responsibility for their own learning and committed to enhancing the learning of others. Members of staff noted that working with students had been ‘extremely inspirational’- seeing students work with other students and what they could achieve that could not be achieved by members of staff

State practitioner insights into local public health challenges and opportunities in obesity prevention: a qualitative study.

IntroductionThe extent of obesity prevention activities conducted by local health departments (LHDs) varies widely. The purpose of this qualitative study was to characterize how state obesity prevention program directors perceived the role of LHDs in obesity prevention and factors that impact LHDs' success in obesity prevention.MethodsFrom June 2011 through August 2011, we conducted 28 semistructured interviews with directors of federally funded obesity prevention programs at 22 state and regional health departments. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed to identify recurring themes and key quotations.ResultsMain themes focused on the roles of LHDs in local policy and environmental change and on the barriers and facilitators to LHD success. The role LHDs play in obesity prevention varied across states but generally reflected governance structure (decentralized vs centralized). Barriers to local prevention efforts included competing priorities, lack of local capacity, siloed public health structures, and a lack of local engagement in policy and environmental change. Structures and processes that facilitated prevention were having state support (eg, resources, technical assistance), dedicated staff, strong communication networks, and a robust community health assessment and planning process.ConclusionsThese findings provide insight into successful strategies state and local practitioners are using to implement innovative (and evidence-informed) community-based interventions. The change in the nature of obesity prevention requires a rethinking of the state-local relationship, especially in centralized states

Observable jets in deep inelastic scattering as a probe of small x dynamics

The observation of the underlying small x dynamics arising from the resummation of large terms in In 1/x QCD descriptions of the gluon distribution have been searched for ill deep inelastic scattering experiments at the electron proton collider HERA since the early 1990's. It has been recognized that the first fully inclusive measurements of the proton structure function F2 are too inclusive to identify underlying dynamics. Less inclusive quantities need to be considered. In this thesis a modified form of the BFKL equation is derived which enables the structure of the gluon emissions to be studied in small x deep inelastic scattering. The equation incorporates the resummation of the virtual and unresolved real gluon emissions and is solved to calculate the number of small x deep-inelastic events containing 0,1,2...resolved gluon jets, that is jets with transverse momenta qr > µ. We study the jet decomposition for different choices of the jet resolution parameter to look for possible signatures of BFKL dynamics in the x dependence of the exclusive observable quantities of the n-jet contributions to F(_2).We also study the application of the BFKL equation to forward jet events at HERA. We calculate the rate of deep inelastic scattering events containing two forward jets adjacent to the proton remnants and compare with the production rate of only one forward jet - the so-called Mueller process. We obtain a stable prediction for this two to one jet ratio, which may serve as a measure of the BFKL vertex function

Internships and ethnography:students researching students

Chapter from the UXLibs Yearbook 2019: http://uxlib.org/uxlibs-the-books