Examining the Rise of Right Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe

Over the last twenty-five years, right wing populist parties (RPPs) have become much more popular across Europe, even becoming the most popular parties in a select few countries. These parties run on a platform of being staunchly against immigration and multiculturalism, and are reactionary in general to any kind of social change. In this thesis I try to answer just why right wing populist parties have seen their popularity increase so dramatically over a relatively short amount of time. To do this, I will study shifts in voting behavior and voter attitudes across Europe by examining election results and survey data. I will also examine the effect that electoral systems have on the success or failure of a right wing populist party. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, I will to identify the primary causes of the success of right wing populist parties

Assessment of the Provision and Use of Emergency Assistance, Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program, and Shelter in Hennepin County

Capstone paper for the fulfillment of the Master of Public Policy degree.Over 1,400 families experience homelessness every night in Hennepin County, and thousands more are at serious risk of entering shelter (Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness, 2017). In order to more effectively target services, county officials would like to understand the demographic characteristics and service use patterns of families at risk of entering shelter. This project aims to provide Hennepin County with more information about who is accessing its services and when they are accessing them; specifically addressing these questions: ● How do families who receive Emergency Assistance (EA), Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program (FHPAP), or enter shelter compare across demographics and service use? ● Of those who received EA, FHPAP, or shelter services, how many also received services (i.e., EA, FHPAP) before and when? ● To what extent do families that come to the county for homelessness prevention or homelessness assistance follow Hennepin County’s expected pathway of services: emergency assistance, community prevention (FHPAP), and shelter? ● Of those who received prevention (i.e., EA, FHPAP), how many also entered shelter within one year? Does Hennepin County target its services (i.e., EA, FHPAP) to those most at risk of entering shelter? Our research team conducted quantitative analysis on household heads who received homelessness prevention and assistance services from the County. Data on household heads included demographics and use of other county-administered government services. Samples were constructed to look backwards and forwards from families’ interactions with homelessness prevention and assistance services to understand the use and effectiveness of these services. Our research found the majority of families accessing preventive services had a female head of household between the ages of 25 to 34 with one to two children. Relative to their populations in Hennepin County, African American families were disproportionately represented in use of preventative services and shelter. American Indian families were disproportionately represented in shelter and underserved by EA and FHPAP

Barriers to Recruitment and Retention of Entry-Level Employees: Perceptions from Employers in Ramsey County

Report, presentation, and poster completed by students enrolled in PA 4041: Qualitative Methods for Policy Analysis, taught by Dr. Greta Friedman-Sanchez in spring 2019.This project was completed as part of the 2018-2019 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with Ramsey County. The mission of Ramsey County's Workforce Solutions (WFS) program is to strengthen the economic success of the community through personalized and effective workforce development. It serves as a resource for both job seekers and businesses by providing training opportunities and personalized assistance in searching and applying for jobs. Businesses also receive assistance with recruiting, screening, training, and retaining workers. WFS staff know there are many program participants who experience transportation barriers that prevent them from accessing or keeping jobs. Ramsey County project lead Max Holdhusen worked with a team of students in PA 5041: Qualitative Research Methods, taught by Dr. Greta Friedmann-Sanchez, to conduct a needs and barriers assessment of transportation resources and options through interviews with employers in suburban Ramsey County that face challenges in recruiting and maintaining job seekers due to a lack of public transportation options. The students' final report, presentation, and a poster summarizing the project are available.This project was supported by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP), a program at the University of Minnesota whose mission is to connect communities in Minnesota with U of MN faculty and students to advance community resilience through collaborative, course-based projects. RCP is a program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). More information at http://www.rcp.umn.edu

Health, environmental change and adaptive capacity; mapping, examining and anticipating future risks of water-related vector-borne diseases in eastern Africa

Not available

The association between training load and physical development in professional male youth soccer players : a systematic review

Objectives: 1) To evaluate current physical performance tests used within professional male youth soccer; 2) to under- stand the relationship of these tests performance in relation to specific measures of external and internal training load (TL) to conclude if there is a subsequent change in test performance. Methods: Relevant literature was searched using five electronic databases (PubMed Medline, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, CINAHL and Scopus), with additional articles identified by the authors. Articles relating to TL and physical devel- opment assessment within professional male youth soccer players were evaluated. Results: Database searches yielded 5683 articles following removal of duplicates. After screening the titles, abstracts and full texts, 28 articles were identified. Both external TL (total distance, high speed distance, duration) and internal TL (rat- ing of perceived exertion, training impulse) measures were found to be associated with improvements in physical test performance across both pre-season and in-season phases. Field-based testing was found to be sensitive to changes in physical performance for aerobic capacity, lower body power/strength and sprint performance. However, limited sensi- tivity to change was found when assessing player agility performance. Conclusion: Future research in this area should look to enhance our understanding of the dose-response of TL with changes in fitness across different age groups in professional male youth soccer

CSF neurogranin or tau distinguish typical and atypical Alzheimer disease.

Objective: To assess whether high levels of cerebrospinal fluid neurogranin are found in atypical as well as typical Alzheimer's disease. Methods: Immunoassays were used to measure cerebrospinal fluid neurogranin in 114 participants including healthy controls (n = 27), biomarker-proven amnestic Alzheimer's disease (n = 68), and the atypical visual variant of Alzheimer's (n = 19) according to international criteria. CSF total-tau, Aβ42, and neurofilament light concentrations were investigated using commercially available assays. All affected individuals had T1-weighted volumetric MR images available for analysis of whole and regional brain volumes. Associations between neurogranin, brain volumes, total-tau, Aβ42, and neurofilament light were assessed. Results: Median cerebrospinal fluid neurogranin concentrations were higher in typical and atypical Alzheimer's compared to controls (P < 0.001 and P = 0.005). Both neurogranin and total-tau concentrations, but not neurofilament light and Aβ42, were higher in typical Alzheimer's compared to atypical patients (P = 0.004 and P = 0.03). There were significant differences in the left hippocampus and right and left superior parietal lobules in atypical patients, which were larger (P = 0.03) and smaller (P = 0.001 and P < 0.001), respectively, compared to typical patients. We found no evidence of associations between neurogranin and brain volumes but a strong association with total-tau (P < 0.001) and a weaker association with neurofilament light (P = 0.005). Interpretation: These results show significant differences in neurogranin and total-tau between typical and atypical patients, which may relate to factors other than disease topography. The differential relationships between neurogranin, total-tau and neurofilament light in the Alzheimer's variants, provide evidence for mechanistically distinct and coupled markers of neurodegeneration

1969: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE Being the Abilene Christian College Annual Bible Lectures 1969 Published by ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE BOOK STORE ACC Station Abilene, Texas 7960