Sustaining the Promise: Realizing the Potential of Workforce Intermediaries and Sector Projects

Reviews the outcomes of sector-specific workforce development projects run by intermediaries with a comprehensive, long-term approach. Outlines the challenges of and recommendations for securing sustainability in financing, infrastructure, and operations

COVID-19 the Family, State and Federal Policy Lessons Learned in New England

This report captures insights, lessons, and recommendations for family-centered policy and practice and how to support families in this new COVID-19 context, drawn from frontline participants' input across states

Can training programs challenge the barriers that limit women's economic equality? : a study of Training, Inc.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1990.Includes bibliographical references (leaves [117]-[120]).by Sarah B. Griffen.M.C.P

Family-Centered Coaching: A Toolkit to Transform Practice & Engage Families

A set of strategies, tools, and resources that can help programs, agencies, case managers, coaches, and others change the ways they work with families striving to reach their goals. With this set of resources, we are hoping to undo, and redo, how we approach working with families – to see families holistically, even though the funding streams and programs within which we work may not. The toolkit includes: family-centered tools and resources for coaches and parents, a family-centered coaching curriculum and organizational assessment, "Process and Content Wheels" on coaching approaches for the whole family, and the nine dimensions of family coaching

An analysis of the evolving comoving number density of galaxies in hydrodynamical simulations

The cumulative comoving number-density of galaxies as a function of stellar mass or central velocity dispersion is commonly used to link galaxy populations across different epochs. By assuming that galaxies preserve their number-density in time, one can infer the evolution of their properties, such as masses, sizes, and morphologies. However, this assumption does not hold in the presence of galaxy mergers or when rank ordering is broken owing to variable stellar growth rates. We present an analysis of the evolving comoving number density of galaxy populations found in the Illustris cosmological hydrodynamical simulation focused on the redshift range $0\leq z \leq 3$. Our primary results are as follows: 1) The inferred average stellar mass evolution obtained via a constant comoving number density assumption is systematically biased compared to the merger tree results at the factor of $\sim$2(4) level when tracking galaxies from redshift $z=0$ out to redshift $z=2(3)$; 2) The median number density evolution for galaxy populations tracked forward in time is shallower than for galaxy populations tracked backward in time; 3) A similar evolution in the median number density of tracked galaxy populations is found regardless of whether number density is assigned via stellar mass, stellar velocity dispersion, or dark matter halo mass; 4) Explicit tracking reveals a large diversity in galaxies' assembly histories that cannot be captured by constant number-density analyses; 5) The significant scatter in galaxy linking methods is only marginally reduced by considering a number of additional physical and observable galaxy properties as realized in our simulation. We provide fits for the forward and backward median evolution in stellar mass and number density and discuss implications of our analysis for interpreting multi-epoch galaxy property observations.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS, comments welcom

Benzoate dioxygenase from<em> Ralstonia eutropha</em> B9 – unusual regiochemistry of dihydroxylation permits rapid access to novel chirons

Oxidation of benzoic acid by a microorganism expressing benzoate dioxygenase leads to the formation of an unusualipso,orthoarenecis-diol in sufficient quantities to be useful for synthesis.</p

Chemical Tagging in the Sdss-Iii/Apogee Survey: New Identifications of Halo Stars with Globular Cluster Origins

We present new identifications of five red giant stars in the Galactic halo with chemical abundance patterns that indicate they originally formed in globular clusters. Using data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) Survey available through Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12, we first identify likely halo giants, and then search those for the well-known chemical tags associated with globular clusters, specifically enrichment in nitrogen and aluminum. We find that 2% of the halo giants in our sample have this chemical signature, in agreement with previous results. Following the interpretation in our previous work on this topic, this would imply that at least 13% of halo stars originally formed in globular clusters. Recent developments in the theoretical understanding of globular cluster formation raise questions about that interpretation, and we concede the possibility that these migrants represent a small fraction of the halo field. There are roughly as many stars with the chemical tags of globular clusters in the halo field as there are in globular clusters, whether or not they are accompanied by a much larger chemically untaggable population of former globular cluster stars

A multi-center prospective study of plant-based nutritional support in adult community-based patients at risk of disease-related malnutrition

IntroductionThere is an emerging need for plant-based, vegan options for patients requiring nutritional support.MethodsTwenty-four adults at risk of malnutrition (age: 59 years (SD 18); Sex: 18 female, 6 male; BMI: 19.0 kg/m2 (SD 3.3); multiple diagnoses) requiring plant-based nutritional support participated in a multi-center, prospective study of a (vegan suitable) multi-nutrient, ready-to-drink, oral nutritional supplement (ONS) [1.5 kcal/mL; 300 kcal, 12 g protein/200 mL bottle, mean prescription 275 mL/day (SD 115)] alongside dietary advice for 28 days. Compliance, anthropometry, malnutrition risk, dietary intake, appetite, acceptability, gastrointestinal (GI) tolerance, nutritional goal(s), and safety were assessed.ResultsPatients required a plant-based ONS due to personal preference/variety (33%), religious/cultural reasons (28%), veganism/reduce animal-derived consumption (17%), environmental/sustainability reasons (17%), and health reasons (5%). Compliance was 94% (SD 16). High risk of malnutrition (‘MUST’ score ≥ 2) reduced from 20 to 16 patients (p = 0.046). Body weight (+0.6 kg (SD 1.2), p = 0.02), BMI (+0.2 kg/m2 (SD 0.5), p = 0.03), total mean energy (+387 kcal/day (SD 416), p &lt; 0.0001) and protein intake (+14 g/day (SD 39), p = 0.03), and the number of micronutrients meeting the UK reference nutrient intake (RNI) (7 vs. 14, p = 0.008) significantly increased. Appetite (Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) score; p = 0.13) was maintained. Most GI symptoms were stable throughout the study (p &gt; 0.06) with no serious adverse events related.DiscussionThis study highlights that plant-based nutrition support using a vegan-suitable plant-based ONS is highly complied with, improving the nutritional outcomes of patients at risk of malnutrition

An Orally Bioavailable, Indole-3-glyoxylamide Based Series of Tubulin Polymerization Inhibitors Showing Tumor Growth Inhibition in a Mouse Xenograft Model of Head and Neck Cancer.

A number of indole-3-glyoxylamides have previously been reported as tubulin polymerization inhibitors, although none has yet been successfully developed clinically. We report here a new series of related compounds, modified according to a strategy of reducing aromatic ring count and introducing a greater degree of saturation, which retain potent tubulin polymerization activity but with a distinct SAR from previously documented libraries. A subset of active compounds from the reported series is shown to interact with tubulin at the colchicine binding site, disrupt the cellular microtubule network, and exert a cytotoxic effect against multiple cancer cell lines. Two compounds demonstrated significant tumor growth inhibition in a mouse xenograft model of head and neck cancer, a type of the disease which often proves resistant to chemotherapy, supporting further development of the current series as potential new therapeutics

UAVs for Search and Rescue Missions: Optimal Path Planning and Triangulation of Signal Data

By leveraging the maneuverability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology and the modularity of a Software Defined Radio (SDR), together they can be used to measure and estimate the direction of signals emitted by cell phones and locate a missing person. To validate the proposed system, one SDR on the ground was used to emulate the signals emitted by a cell phone while another SDR mounted on the UAV collected directional signal strength data, UAV orientation, and UAV position data. The position and orientation of the UAV was varied over a repeatable pre-programmed flight path to search for the location of the transmitter emitting the signal. After the UAV returned from its flight path, the data collected by the airborne SDR was analyzed to compute the location of the emitted signal