Organizational Context and Young Adult Education in an Urban Service Corps

As a medium-sized, state-supported youth corps, the Wisconsin Conservation Corps (WCC) is an established institutional expression of a service corps model that has potential to address some of the educational and economic needs of marginalized young adults from at-risk environments. The WCC is a second chance work experience program that attempts to prepare 18 to 25 year-old unemployed young adults for employment or continuing education while they complete useful conservation work throughout the state. It is largely a white, male, rural-based program that maintains some crews in the black and Hispanic urban core of Milwaukee. This case study critically examines WCC response to the educational needs of corps members in Milwaukee. Corps member education is shaped by organizational context and the larger organizational context of the WCC leaves little room for effective corps member education in Milwaukee. The Corps is nested in historical, political and cultural contexts that emphasize military structure, rigid discipline, cultural inflexibility, imbalance in gender values, narrowly defined technical skill education and, most important, control. As expressed through individuals within the Corps who mediate or exaggerate their impacts, these organizational characteristics do not fit in the inner city of Milwaukee. They leave little organizational space for an effective corps member education that is flexible, holistic, relevant, critically reflective and based on supportive mentor relationships. Suggested actions to create more educational, organizational and political space for an alternative corps member education include: deemphasize state-wide, standardized corps member curriculum; support street-relevant local curriculums; expand educational vision beyond technical skill training and corps member work roles; create a culture of learning within the Corps; reemphasize service concept as a vehicle for corps member and community education; implement a service learning approach; recommit to the WCC spirit or sacred core of community service and corps member opportunity as a guide for organizational action; deemphasize the military organizational metaphor as a guide for service corps operations; support political action that facilitates community service

Physical Quality of South Dakota Wheat

The producer selling wheat to the country elevator or shipper does so on the basis of physical quality of the grain. Increased wheat production throughout the world has stiffened competition in the wheat market and all wheat producers are realizing the need for keeping a closer watch on quality. A study of the physical quality of hard red winter and hard red spring wheat in South Dakota began in 1963. Each summer for 5 years, samples were taken from trucks at country elevators to ascertain the quality of wheat being delivered by South Dakota producers. The samples were studied and graded according to the Official Grain Grading Standards of the United States Department of Agriculture

Beta-Lactamase Repressor BlaI Modulates Staphylococcus aureus Cathelicidin Antimicrobial Peptide Resistance and Virulence.

BlaI is a repressor of BlaZ, the beta-lactamase responsible for penicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. Through screening a transposon library in S. aureus Newman for susceptibility to cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, we discovered BlaI as a novel cathelicidin resistance factor. Additionally, through integrational mutagenesis in S. aureus Newman and MRSA Sanger 252 strains, we confirmed the role of BlaI in resistance to human and murine cathelidicin and showed that it contributes to virulence in human whole blood and murine infection models. We further demonstrated that BlaI could be a target for innate immune-based antimicrobial therapies; by removing BlaI through subinhibitory concentrations of 6-aminopenicillanic acid, we were able to sensitize S. aureus to LL-37 killing

Comparison of chromogenic media for recovery of carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae (CPE) and evaluation of CPE prevalence at a tertiary care academic medical center

We evaluated the performance characteristics of chromID CARBA and HardyCHROM Carbapenemase for the detection of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE). A CPE prevalence study was conducted using chromID CARBA; this demonstrated that in low-prevalence settings, CPE screening agars may lack specificity, and confirmation of putative isolates is necessary

A Study of Some Physical and Chemical Properties of Hard Red Spring and Hard Red Winter Wheat in South Dakota

South Dakota is located in a transition zone between the winter wheat area to the south and the spring wheat area to the north. The summers seem to be too warm to produce the later maturing spring wheat of good test weight and of good milling quality that is in demand by consumers. Yet South Dakota remains primarily a spring wheat state because varieties and farming practices have not yet been perfected enough to overcome the problem of winter killing of winter wheat. Indications from several sources (27, 30) are that South Dakota’s wheat, especially the spring wheat, is of questionable quality. In the past years, world wheat production has increased significantly resulting in a world surplus of wheat. The world’s wheat buyers now enjoy a very competitive market not only in terms of price, but also in terms of quality. Those states provinces or countries who choose to ignore the quality of their wheat ·will face the possibility of losing their market. A wheat exporting state such as South Dakota can justify producing wheat only if it produces a quality commodity that is in real demand by wheat buyers. In 1963 a joint project was initiated between the South Dakota Wheat Commission and the South Dakota State University Agronomy Department to obtain information on the quality of wheat produced in South Dakota. This study was undertaken (a) to determine as specifically as possible the quality of wheat produced and delivered to shipping points in South Dakota, (b) to compare the quality of wheat being delivered to the county elevator to the quality of the wheat being shipped to the terminal markets, (c) to compare quality factors of spring and winter wheat and to consider the comparative advantages of both classes of wheat in South Dakota, (d) to analyze the quality of wheat going into different elevators and to observe area differences , (e ) to determine the milling and baking quality of South Dakota grim wheat and to compare it to wheat germ in other areas. It is hoped that these investigations will reveal the particular quality .factors that lower the quality of wheat entering the market and help point out where changes can be made to make South Dakota’s wheat more competitive in the terminal market

Strengthening Africa’s Contributions to Child Development Research: Introduction

The articles in this Special Section are based on contributions to an SRCD-sponsored invitational conference held in Victoria, Canada, in February 2009. This introductory article establishes the rationale for focusing on Africa as part of an effort to advance a more inclusive science of child development, provides a brief overview of the thrust of the other articles in the section, describes 2 research capacity-building initiatives that emerged from the conference, and concludes with reflective perspectives on conceptual and methodological considerations for a future African child development field