“Convoluted Journeys”: Integrating Nonprofit Organizations and University Science

University scientists are frequently challenged to embrace stakeholder engagement in a way that departs from traditional contract-oriented relationships; this is occurring within water management across the American West. However, few studies specifically address how university scientists engage nonprofit organizations as stakeholders in collaborative water management research. This manuscript reports on an examination of a key set of stakeholders—nonprofit environmental organizations—with a goal to better understand how such organizations conceptualized, created, and implemented scientific data in water management decision making. The study provides insights into why interactions between university scientists and nonprofits are infrequent and underdeveloped. The project identifies how nonprofit organizations strategically use scientific information across a variety of contexts and for diverse purposes. These practices may sometimes be at odds with how university scientists conceive of or practice science, making stakeholder engagement challenging. The study also provides suggestions for how universities might address some of these challenges

How Can Boise State University Engage with Ada County Stakeholders to End Homelessness?

How can Boise State University engage with local stakeholders to end homelessness? To answer this question, Boise State University’s Blue Sky Institute and Idaho Policy Institute partnered to analyze the local homelessness service provider network. We used Interfaith Sanctuary, a nonprofit network member, as a focal point. Research included a SWOT analysis, mapping the network and funding distribution, interviewing stakeholders, and analyzing provider operations. This report demonstrates that this service network functions best when stakeholders collaborate. This report recommends that Boise State University pursue both short-term and long-term opportunities in the network in order to assist the community’s efforts

Sustainable Development: The Contribution of \u3cem\u3eBolsa Família\u3c/em\u3e to High School Education Performance in Brazil, 2004-2014

This thesis investigates how the Brazilian conditional cash transfer program, Bolsa Família, contributes to sustainable development through education. Using panel analysis of high school test scores for over 5,000 municipalities from 2004 to 2014, I discuss the impacts that Bolsa Família is having upon sustainable development. In light of the UNs new Sustainable Development Goals, actionable knowledge of the sustainability of human development through Bolsa Família is needed to assess how viable cash conditional transfer programs are as an innovative policy option around the world. My results conclude that Bolsa Família is contributing to sustainable human development and this thesis demonstrates that high quality municipal-level management is essential for the long-term effectiveness of the cash conditional transfer program

Boise Pre-K Program Evaluation 2017

Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) can successfully prepare children to enter kindergarten with confidence, a readiness to learn, and the ability to positively engage with their peers. In 2015, the City of Boise partnered with the Boise School District to launch free Pre-K at two elementary schools in Boise’s Vista neighborhood. The two cohorts that have matriculated through the Boise Pre-K Project show early indication of positive impacts on students’ cognitive and social skills. There has been much debate over the years regarding the investment of public funds in Pre-K. Many scholars, educators, and policy-makers have hailed Pre-K as a significant contributing factor in both preparing children for kindergarten and developing early cognitive skills. Evidence shows Pre-K education has been found to benefit individual students as well as their families and communities. The number of children in the United States (US) enrolled in public Pre-K education tripled from 1990 to 2005 and data reveals that in 2014, 4.7 million three- and four-year old children attended preschool. It is expected that roughly 60 percent of three through five-year-old children will attend public Pre-K programs or private preschools in 2017. Not surprisingly, more and more US states are adopting Pre-K programs and state spending on Pre-K programs continues to increase. In states without universal Pre-K, school districts and municipalities have attempted to implement their own programs

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field