A Promising Practice: Using Facebook as a Communication and Social Networking Tool

Individuals with autism often face barriers to social interaction. Residing in a rural environment can compound these difficulties for individuals diagnosed with autism. Some of the reasons include transportation problems and small social networks, in addition to the characteristics of autism. This article discusses a promising practice for supporting the communication and social opportunities for individuals with autism. The authors examined how Facebook supported the social interaction of Jacob, a 28-year old with High Functioning Autism. The findings suggested that, through Facebook, Jacob increased the quantity and quality of social ties he had with others. The authors argue that although online social networking has limitations, with supervision, tools such as Facebook hold potential for developing and increasing social interaction for individuals with High Functioning Autism /Asperger Syndrome

Michigan Earn and Learn: An Outcome & Implementation Evaluation of a Transitional Job and Training Program

While the Great Recession introduced unemployment and underemployment to the masses, its significant negative trends aggravated already declining rates of employment in Michigan, particularly among less-educated, young, male, and minority individuals, who were then also hit hardest by the recession. As the nation began to slowly recover after the recession, Michigan continued struggling to find an economic foothold.The State of Michigan, along with private funders, responded with the Michigan Earn and Learn program, with the goal of creating opportunities for people facing barriers to employment to pursue education and occupational training that could help them get ahead. This evaluation report of the Michigan Earn and Learn transitional jobs program was commissioned by The Joyce Foundation on behalf of the State of Michigan

A Leray-Serre spectral sequence for Lagrangian Floer theory

We consider symplectic fibrations as in Guillemin-Lerman-Sternberg, and derive a spectral sequence to compute the Floer cohomology of certain fibered Lagrangians sitting inside a compact symplectic fibration with small monotone fibers and a rational base. We show if the Floer cohomology with field coefficients of the fiber Lagrangian vanishes, then the Floer cohomology with field coefficients of the total Lagrangian also vanishes. We give an application to certain non-torus fibers of the Gelfand-Cetlin system in Flag manifolds, and show that their Floer cohomology vanishes.Comment: Final version, to appear in Algebraic and Geometric Topology. 59 pages, 4 figure