Tapping Employment Opportunities for Youth with Disabilities by Engaging Effectively with Employers

Early exposure to the workplace can improve the employment outcomes for persons with disabilities by enabling youth to develop employment skills and identify a career direction. Studies show that work-based learning experience, especially paid work integrated into curriculum, leads to improved postschool employment outcomes for all youth with disabilities, regardless of primary disability label or required level of support (Benz, Yovanoff, & Doren, 1997). Despite the demonstrated value of work-based learning experiences for youth with disabilities, participation in these experiences remains low (Colley & Jamison, 1998). It is clear that attention needs to be focused not only on workplace preparation of youth, but also on the workplaces themselves. Work-based learning experiences are based on available and willing employers. Examining employer perceptions of hiring and accommodating individuals with disabilities is an important consideration in making work-based learning opportunities available to youth with disabilities. This information can be used to improve the processes of establishing work-based experiences, identifying necessary workplaces supports, and eventually securing successful adult employment

Compact routing on the Internet AS-graph

Compact routing algorithms have been presented as candidates for scalable routing in the future Internet, achieving near-shortest path routing with considerably less forwarding state than the Border Gateway Protocol. Prior analyses have shown strong performance on power-law random graphs, but to better understand the applicability of compact routing algorithms in the context of the Internet, they must be evaluated against real- world data. To this end, we present the first systematic analysis of the behaviour of the Thorup-Zwick (TZ) and Brady-Cowen (BC) compact routing algorithms on snapshots of the Internet Autonomous System graph spanning a 14 year period. Both algorithms are shown to offer consistently strong performance on the AS graph, producing small forwarding tables with low stretch for all snapshots tested. We find that the average stretch for the TZ algorithm increases slightly as the AS graph has grown, while previous results on synthetic data suggested the opposite would be true. We also present new results to show which features of the algorithms contribute to their strong performance on these graphs

Addressing the Transition Needs of Youth with Disabilities through the WIA System

Interagency collaboration has been repeatedly cited as one of the most important strategies in helping youth with disabilities move successfully from school into employment and adult life. However, often the primary focus of the collaboration and planning between school personnel and community service providers has been on disability-specific services and not on other, more generically available programs and services.The passage of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 offers new options and opportunities for youth in transition. WIA has challenged communities to create opportunities for all youth that moved beyond traditional vocational rehabilitation and related services. WIA represents expanded opportunities to prepare youth with disabilities for the transition to employment by assuring both access to and participation in WIA-funded youth and adult services. These services may benefit youth with disabilities as they plan for and make the transition from school to work

Thinking beyond the hybrid:“actually-existing” cities “after neoliberalism” in Boyle <i>et al.</i>

In their article, ‘The spatialities of actually existing neoliberalism in Glasgow, 1977 to present’, Mark Boyle, Christopher McWilliams and Gareth Rice (2008) usefully problematise our current understanding of neoliberal urbanism. Our response is aimed at developing a sympathetic but critical approach to Boyle et al's understanding of neoliberal urbanism as illustrated by the Glasgow example. In particular, the counterposing by Boyle et al of a 'hybrid, mutant' model to a 'pure' model of neoliberalism for us misrepresents existing models of neoliberalism as a perfectly finished object rather than a roughly mottled process. That they do not identify any ‘pure’ model leads them to create a straw construct against which they can claim a more sophisticated, refined approach to the messiness of neoliberal urbanism. In contrast, we view neoliberalism as a contested and unstable response to accumulation crises at various scales of analysis

Acceptability and proof of concept of internet-delivered treatment for depression, anxiety, and stress in university students: protocol for an open feasibility trial

BACKGROUND: In recent years, university counseling and mental health services have reported an increase in the number of clients seeking services and in yearly visits. This trend has been observed at many universities, indicating that behavioral and mental health issues pose significant problems for many college students. The aim of this study is to assess the acceptability and proof of concept of internet-delivered treatment for depression, anxiety, and stress for university students. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is an open feasibility trial of the SilverCloud programs for depression (Space from Depression), anxiety (Space from Anxiety), and stress (Space from Stress). All three are 8-module internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) intervention programs. Participants are assigned a supporter who provides weekly feedback on progress and exercises. Participants will complete the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and stress subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) as the outcome measures for the depression, anxiety, and stress interventions, respectively. Other outcomes include measures of acceptability of, and satisfaction, with the intervention. Data will be collected at baseline, 8 weeks and 3-month follow-up. DISCUSSION: It is anticipated that the study will inform the researchers and service personnel of the programs' potential to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress in a student population as well as the protocols to be employed in a future trial. In addition, it will provide insight into students' engagement with the programs, their user experience, and their satisfaction with the online delivery format

Modeling of radiation damage in silicon solar cells

One MeV electron irradiation produces preponderantly isolated vacancy interstitial pairs. If neither of these defects is mobile, the concentration of each grows linearly with fluence. Annealing of damage depends on the nature of the damage. Vacancy interstitial pairs which are bound by an interaction such that they mutually annihilate rather than dissociate are termed close pairs; close pair recovery usually occurs at a lower temperature than the temperature at which long distance defect migration occurs. Annealing of the remaining frozen in damage occurs when a temperature is reached where the vacancy or interstitial is mobile; usually the interstitial is more mobile than the vacancy. The recovery occurs in two regimes which may be resoluable

Project management in practice: Views from the Trenches

Software development has endured radical change with the introduction of agile methods for creating software solutions. This change has prompted new considerations of how software creation should be managed. While agile methods have changed software development processes, it would be premature to assume that has also induced modification in higher-level project management processes. Software development lifecycles (SDLC) and project management lifecycles (PLC), while associated, are not the same thing and it is still unclear to what degree the overarching project management tasks, tools or techniques must change or adapt to meet the needs of undertaking successful agile projects. This exploratory pilot study investigated agile methods used to manage software projects and was conducted via an online survey and restricted to a specific sample audience with significant project experience and with background in both traditional and agile development methods. The results indicate that traditional project management phases and techniques are adapted to fit with agile. However, as the discipline evolves the potential exists for a pure agile project management framework to surface -one that can be applied to better suit the needs of the management of agile projects as well as projects beyond the realm of software development

That’s Entertainment: Crafting a Creative Ecology within Public Television

© 2018, © 2018 Institute for Media and Communications Management. Television has gone through a period of rapid disruption in the last few years. New technologies, increased globalization, shifting demographics, and evolving consumer demand have impelled widespread change to business models. Consequently, Broadcasters have been forced to re-examine their approaches to creativity and ideation including capacities and enabling methods. Following analysis of recorded interviews with key personnel behind three recent television productions a better understanding of the cultural ecology surrounding creativity was developed. Findings emphasized the decisive influence that internal sense of community, tacit realization practices, and quality leadership–all working together–play in delivering a distinctive production to a mass-market media audience