Historical Narrative of a Veteran Service Network Implemented by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University

The purpose of this project was to author a historical narrative of a community engagement program, AmericaServes, implemented by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families. AmericaServes aids veterans, service members, and their families in navigating through the maze of non-profit and public services offered to them. This program uses a model called Collective Impact (Kania & Kramer, Collective Impact, 2011) as its fundamental principal. Since its inception, there has not yet been a proper record chronicling the history of program, the key players involved, and lessons learned from challenges faced during each stage of its evolution. To conduct this project, qualitative and quantitative information was collected from various sources. First, interviews were used as primary sources of information for documenting each stage of the initiative, as well as the challenges, and lessons learned. Individuals chosen for the interviews were IVMF, Accenture, and Unite US staff. Additionally, staff members from the coordination centers in Charlotte, NC, and Pittsburgh, PA were interviewed. Background information was collected from news releases from each organization, and information already collected and used by the IVMF. Information on collective impact, and veteran health and wellness were collected from journal and other published papers from experts in the field. From the data collected, the story of AmericaServes Coordinated Network was separated into three case studies for the three initial cities in the pilot program: NYServes in New York City, NY; NCServes in Charlotte, NC; PAServes in Pittsburgh, PA. From the cross case analysis my recommendations for the AmericaServes staff and for the communities were as follows: AmericaServes Staff: 1) Treat each community with a fresh lens. 2) Actively engage service providers for community feedback. 3) Ensure communication and education to all levers of the service providers. AmericaServes Communities: 1) The coordination center needs to set the example for the community. 2) Educate all levels of your organization

TCAF1 promotes TRPV2-mediated Ca2+ release in response to cytosolic DNA to protect stressed replication forks

The protection of the replication fork structure under stress conditions is essential for genome maintenance and cancer prevention. A key signaling pathway for fork protection involves TRPV2-mediated C

Rpl13a small nucleolar RNAs regulate systemic glucose metabolism

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that form ribonucleoproteins to guide covalent modifications of ribosomal and small nuclear RNAs in the nucleus. Recent studies have also uncovered additional non-canonical roles for snoRNAs. However, the physiological contributions of these small RNAs are largely unknown. Here, we selectively deleted four snoRNAs encoded within the introns of the ribosomal protein L13a (Rpl13a) locus in a mouse model. Loss of Rpl13a snoRNAs altered mitochondrial metabolism and lowered reactive oxygen species tone, leading to increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from pancreatic islets and enhanced systemic glucose tolerance. Islets from mice lacking Rpl13a snoRNAs demonstrated blunted oxidative stress responses. Furthermore, these mice were protected against diabetogenic stimuli that cause oxidative stress damage to islets. Our study illuminates a previously unrecognized role for snoRNAs in metabolic regulation

Microstructural Influence on Mechanical Properties of a Lightweight Ultrahigh Strength Fe-18Mn-10Al-0.9C-5Ni (wt%) Steel

This study evaluates the role of thermomechanical processing and heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a hot rolled, annealed, and aged Fe-18Mn-10Al-0.9C-5Ni (wt%) steel. The steel exhibited rapid age hardening kinetics when aged in the temperature range of 500-600 ⁰C for up to 50 h, which has been shown in other work to be the result of B2 ordering in the ferrite and K-carbide precipitation within the austenite matrix. The ultimate tensile strength increased from 1120 MPa in the annealed condition to 1230 MPa after 2 h of aging at 570 ⁰C. Charpy V-notch toughness was evaluated at -40 ⁰C in sub-sized specimens with a maximum in the annealed and quenched condition of 28.5 J in the L-T orientation

The Perception of Accents in Pop Music Melodies

We examine several theoretical and empirical approaches to melodic accent perception and propose a heuristic classification system of formalized accent rules. To evaluate the validity of the accent rules a listening experiment was carried out. 29 participants had to rate every note of 15 pop music melodies presented as audio excerpts and as monophonic MIDI renditions for their perceived accent strength on a rating scale. The ratings were compared to accent predictions from 38 formalized, mainly binary accent rules. Two statistical procedures (logistic regression, and regression trees) were subsequently used in a data mining approach to determine a model consisting of an optimally weighted combination of smaller rule subset to predict the accents votes of the participants. Model evaluation on a set of unseen melodies indicates a very good predictive performance of both statistical models for the participants' votes obtained for the MIDI renditions. The two models derived for the audio data perform less well but still at an acceptable level. An analysis of the model components shows that Gestalt rules covering several different aspects of a monophonic melody are of importance for human accent perception. Among the aspects covered by both models are pitch interval structure, pitch contour, note duration, metrical position, as well as the position of a note within a phrase. In contrast, both audio models incorporate mainly rules relating to metre and syncopations. Potential applications of the presented accent models in automatic music analysis as well as options for future research following this computational approach are discussed