Financial, Equity, and Systems Gap Analysis: Removing Barriers and Creating Opportunities in Education in Beaver County, Pennsylvania

The Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) at Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with Community Catalyst Partners (CCP), and The Management Solution (TMS) conducted a year-long, multi-faceted study for the Quality Education Council (QEC) of the Beaver County Partnership for Community and Economic Growth. The QEC is one of five pillars identified by the Beaver County partnership to grow the county. We specifically designed our study to address Phase III goals of the QEC’s four-phase initiative to “provide a high-level overview of the county’s current public education system within the context of demographic trends and fiscal sustainability” through several focuses: • Benchmarking six communities, four in Pennsylvania and two out of state, that have demonstrated success in population growth and quality of education, for purposes of identifying potential strategies and best practices for achieving quality education and community development. • Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement for purposes of developing cross-sector community buy-in and trust, critical feedback, and ideas to inform immediate recommendations and Phase IV implementation planning. • Financial Analyses for purposes of identifying revenue and expenditure practices by county school districts over time and relative to the benchmark communities and enrollment patterns. The Benchmarking study was designed to examine the educational practices, strategies, and programs employed by high-achieving school systems outside of Beaver County. The purpose was to identify potential strategies that the county may consider as it plans and implements solution activities in Phase IV. For this portion of the project, we conducted case studies of select communities, four in Pennsylvania and two out of state. From a comprehensive initial search for comparison counties, we selected the following six as the benchmarking sample: (1) Allegan County, MI; (2) Butler County, PA; (3) Cameron County, TX; (4) Dauphin County, PA; (5) Pittsburgh, PA; and (6) York County, PA. These communities were those that we identified as having high quality educational programming and population stability or growth, as well as characteristics that appeared well-aligned with the goals of achieving educational equity and success across a diverse array of schools. Pittsburgh, a geographically close urban center, was selected based on strong QEC interest. Cameron County, in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, was selected based on its participation in recent initiatives to develop community partnerships and improve education. Findings from these case studies revealed that within the benchmarking communities, four key areas appeared to be consistently prioritized by local school district and community leaders as the central focal points of their programming, budgeting, and strategizing. These focal points included (1) college and career readiness, (2) academic quality, (3) equity and opportunity, and (4) parent and community engagement. For each of these areas, we identify key programs implemented by the communities as potential considerations for adaptation by Beaver County. The main technical report provides case study overviews of each benchmarking community and also details these exemplar programs with regard to rationale, implementation, and outcomes.Quality Education Council of the Beaver County Partnership for Community and Economic Growt

Extending Working Lives: A Systematic Review of Healthy Working Life Expectancy at Age 50

Retirement ages for receipt of state/social pensions are rising in many countries in response to population ageing and increasing life expectancy. However, sickness absence and early retirement for health reasons (especially among adults aged?=?50) present challenges to this. Estimates of the average number of years people are both healthy and in work from age 50 are needed to inform policy making and assess the feasibility of policy changes. A systematic review was carried out to identify existing population indicators, and estimates, of life expectancy in health and work. Nine databases were systematically searched on the 30th January 2019. Eligible papers were identified using inclusion/exclusion criteria. Evidence synthesis was undertaken to explore indicators and estimates. Four studies were included for review from 1485 identified by the search. A narrative review was carried out; quantitative pooling of the results was not feasible due to high heterogeneity between studies. All estimates of the average number of years spent in both health and work from age 50 were below 10 years with the exception of a population subgroup of Finnish male executives (11.91 years). The review indicated that population indicators of health and work that could estimate the average number of years people are healthy and in work are rarely used, and that there are no current and reliable estimates. One indicator, Healthy Working Life Expectancy (measuring life expectancy in health and work from age 50), offers the potential to be a suitable measure for monitoring life expectancy in health and work

Where does it hurt? Small area estimates and inequality in the prevalence of chronic pain

Background: Chronic pain affects up to half of UK adults, impacting quality of life and demand on local health services. Whilst local health planning is currently based on subnational prevalence estimates, associations between pain and sociodemographic characteristics suggest that inequalities in the prevalence of chronic and high‐impact chronic pain between neighbourhoods within local authorities are likely. We aimed to derive lower super output area (LSOA) estimates of the prevalence of chronic and high‐impact chronic pain. Methods: Presence of self‐reported chronic and high‐impact chronic pain were measured in adults aged 35+ in North Staffordshire and modelled using multilevel regression as a function of demographic and geographic predictors. Multilevel model predictions were post‐stratified using the North Staffordshire age‐sex population structure and LSOA demographic characteristics to estimate the prevalence of chronic and high‐impact chronic pain in 298 LSOAs, corrected for ethnic diversity underrepresented in the data. Confidence intervals were generated for high‐impact chronic pain using bootstrapping. Results: Data were analysed from 4162 survey respondents (2358 women, 1804 men). The estimated prevalence of chronic and high‐impact chronic pain in North Staffordshire LSOAs ranged from 18.6% to 50.1% and 6.18 [1.71, 16.0]% to 33.09 [13.3, 44.7]%, respectively. Conclusions: Prevalence of chronic and high‐impact chronic pain in adults aged 35+ varies substantially between neighbourhoods within local authorities. Further insight into small‐area level variation will help target resources to improve the management and prevention of chronic and high‐impact chronic pain to reduce the impact on individuals, communities, workplaces, services and the economy. Significance: Post‐stratified multilevel model predictions can produce small‐area estimates of pain prevalence and impact. The evidence of substantial variation indicates a need to collect local‐level data on pain and its impact to understand health needs and to guide interventions

Electrically Tunable Excitonic Light Emitting Diodes based on Monolayer WSe2 p-n Junctions

Light-emitting diodes are of importance for lighting, displays, optical interconnects, logic and sensors. Hence the development of new systems that allow improvements in their efficiency, spectral properties, compactness and integrability could have significant ramifications. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as interesting candidates for optoelectronic applications due to their unique optical properties. Electroluminescence has already been observed from monolayer MoS2 devices. However, the electroluminescence efficiency was low and the linewidth broad due both to the poor optical quality of MoS2 and to ineffective contacts. Here, we report electroluminescence from lateral p-n junctions in monolayer WSe2 induced electrostatically using a thin boron nitride support as a dielectric layer with multiple metal gates beneath. This structure allows effective injection of electrons and holes, and combined with the high optical quality of WSe2 it yields bright electroluminescence with 1000 times smaller injection current and 10 times smaller linewidth than in MoS2. Furthermore, by increasing the injection bias we can tune the electroluminescence between regimes of impurity-bound, charged, and neutral excitons. This system has the required ingredients for new kinds of optoelectronic devices such as spin- and valley-polarized light-emitting diodes, on-chip lasers, and two-dimensional electro-optic modulators.Comment: 13 pages main text with 4 figures + 4 pages upplemental material

Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk: Report #48

The Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) was established in 1994 and continued until 2004. It was a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. CRESPAR’s mission was to conduct research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of replicable strategies designed to transform schooling for students who were placed at risk due to inadequate institutional responses to such factors as poverty, ethnic minority status, and non-English-speaking home background.In this comprehensive report, the authors examine four distinct processes for reforming nine low-performing Title I schools in challenging high-poverty contexts.Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education (R-117D-40005

Comorbidity: Trauma, substance use and mental health

Substance use and mental health disorders commonly co-occur and they are frequently underpinned by history of psychological trauma. This symposium presents new data on the clinical presentation and documentation of trauma exposure, trauma-related disorders, and their treatment among adults entering substance use treatment, the implementation of integrated trauma-focused therapy in substance use treatment, and presenting issues among adolescents seeking integrated treatment for substance use and traumatic stress

Genome analysis of the necrotrophic fungal pathogens Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea are closely related necrotrophic plant pathogenic fungi notable for their wide host ranges and environmental persistence. These attributes have made these species models for understanding the complexity of necrotrophic, broad host-range pathogenicity. Despite their similarities, the two species differ in mating behaviour and the ability to produce asexual spores. We have sequenced the genomes of one strain of S. sclerotiorum and two strains of B. cinerea. The comparative analysis of these genomes relative to one another and to other sequenced fungal genomes is provided here. Their 38–39 Mb genomes include 11,860–14,270 predicted genes, which share 83% amino acid identity on average between the two species. We have mapped the S. sclerotiorum assembly to 16 chromosomes and found large-scale co-linearity with the B. cinerea genomes. Seven percent of the S. sclerotiorum genome comprises transposable elements compared t

Optical fiber‐based in vivo quantification of growth factor receptors

BACKGROUND: Growth factor receptors such as epidermal growth factor receptor 1 and human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2) are overexpressed in certain cancer cells. Antibodies against these receptors (eg. cetuximab and transtuzumab [Herceptin]) have shown therapeutic value in cancer treatment. The existing methods for the quantification of these receptors in tumors involve immunohistochemistry or DNA quantification, both in extracted tissue samples. The goal of the study was to evaluate whether an optical fiber‐based technique can be used to quantify the expression of multiple growth factor receptors simultaneously. METHODS: The authors examined HER2 expression using the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab as a targeting ligand to test their system. They conjugated trastuzumab to 2 different Alexa Fluor dyes with different excitation and emission wavelengths. Two of the dye conjugates were subsequently injected intravenously into mice bearing HER2‐expressing subcutaneous tumors. An optical fiber was then inserted into the tumor through a 30‐gauge needle, and using a single laser beam as the excitation source, the fluorescence emitted by the 2 conjugates was identified and quantified by 2‐photon optical fiber fluorescence. RESULTS: The 2 conjugates bound to the HER2‐expressing tumor competitively in a receptor‐specific fashion, but they failed to bind to a similar cell tumor that did not express HER2. The concentration of the conjugate present in the tumor as determined by 2‐photon optical fiber fluorescence was shown to serve as an index of the HER2 expression levels. CONCLUSIONS: These studies offer a minimally invasive technique for the quantification of tumor receptors simultaneously. Cancer 2012;. © 2011 American Cancer Society. The paper describes the in vivo quantification of human epidermal growth receptor 2 using a minimally invasive 2‐photon optical fiber fluorescence detection technique. The proof of concept for the simultaneous in vivo quantification of multiple receptors is provided.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91221/1/26487_ftp.pd