Improving Staff Communication for Small Non-Profits: Girls\u27 Empowerment Program Case Study

In this white paper, author Elizabeth Schwaner discusses challenges faced by Girls\u27 Empowerment Program, a non-profit organization based in the northeast U.S. that serves at-risk girls in its community through a year-round mentoring program paired with a residential social summer camp. Despite its undeniable strengths, issues with communication are a persistent challenge. Like many small organizations staffed by a few paid employees and many volunteers, identifying specific practices that lead to miscommunication or helpful informational pathways can be a challenge. This case study elucidates some of those challenges and opportunities for Girls\u27 Empowerment, but with the expectation that other small, mixed-staff organizations may benefit from these lessons learned

Assessing faculty perspectives on implementing the Boyer model

The Boyer model is a well-recognized format chosen by many universities as a guide for leave, rank and tenure criteria, and for rewarding activities by faculty. Given a past, brief association with this model by faculty and administration at Southern Utah University, and the continuing need for a comprehensive review of scholarly effort in the institution, this study was undertaken to gauge the level of understanding of Boyer\u27s model and his four scholarships, satisfaction with present policies, and attitudes toward change. The aim was to explore the use of a questionnaire as an instrument to measure knowledge and attitudes, to compare responses campus-wide and among various colleges, and to recommend a future direction for gathering more information that would help the university focus on the Boyer model; For convenience, all tenured and tenure-track faculty and administration were asked to respond to a questionnaire consisting of Likert-type questions with ordinal scale responses. Responses to questions, singly or in groups corresponding to several research questions, were analyzed with non parametric statistical tests; Although the number of returned questionnaires was a small percentage of the total disseminated to university personnel, the numbers received were representative of at least colleges within the university. Responses indicated that the majority of respondents had knowledge of and were amenable to incorporation of the Boyer model in criteria developed at department-level for faculty reward policies. Although clearly interested in change, the majority, were not at all interested in a one-size-fits-all set of criteria. Communication among various levels within the university, from within departments to among colleges, seemed to be lacking and this appeared to be critical to attitudinal differences among colleges on the issues of change and implementation of new criteria for rewarding faculty; Recommendations for further investigation of people\u27s attitudes included modifications to the questionnaire and its dissemination, finding ways to increase returns by more personal contact with faculty and administrators, and providing more information about the model with administrative support

Generation of specific antibodies against the rap1A, rap1B and rap2 small GTP-binding proteins. Analysis of rap and ras proteins in membranes from mammalian cells

Specific antibodies against rap1A and rap1B small GTP-binding proteins were generated by immunization of rabbits with peptides derived from the C-terminus of the processed proteins. Immunoblot analysis of membranes from several mammalian cell lines and human thrombocytes with affinity-purified antibodies against rap1A or rap1B demonstrated the presence of multiple immunoreactive proteins in the 22-23 kDa range, although at strongly varying levels. Whereas both proteins were present in substantial amounts in membranes from myelocytic HL-60, K-562 and HEL cells, they were hardly detectable in membranes from lymphoma U-937 and S49.1 cyc- cells. Membranes from human thrombocytes and 3T3-Swiss Albino fibroblasts showed strong rap1B immunoreactivity, whereas rap1A protein was present in much lower amounts. In the cytosol of HL-60 cells, only small amounts of rap1A and rap1B proteins were detected, unless the cells were treated with lovastatin, an inhibitor of hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, suggesting that both proteins are isoprenylated. By comparison with recombinant proteins, the ratio of rap1A/ras proteins in membranes from HL-60 cells was estimated to be about 4:1. An antiserum directed against the C-terminus of rap2 reacted strongly with recombinant rap2, but not with membranes from tested mammalian cells. In conclusion, rap1A and rap1B proteins are distributed differentially among membranes from various mammalian cell types and are isoprenylated in HL-60 cells

Refractive errors found in patient at ages 24, 25, and 26 years at the Pacific University Optometry Clinic

The purpose of this paper was to find the refractive error of patients of the clinic of Optometry, Pacific University, whose ages were 24, 25 or 26 years. The total number of patients was 510, of which 231 were females and 279 were males. There were six monocular patients, three males and three females. The total number of seeing eyes was 1014 of which 459 were females and 555 were males

A Descriptive Study of Covid-Era Movers to the Northern Forest Region: The perfect balance of things...a choice based on lifestyle, community, and values

The Northern Forest—a 34-county swath of northern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York—saw an increase in domestic migration during the pandemic, with 85 percent of the region’s counties experiencing domestic in-migration gains between 2020 and 2021, compared with 63 percent of counties in the rest of the United States. Who moved to the Northern Forest region, and why? Do they intend to stay? And what does that mean for those who already lived there? In this research brief, authors Jess Carson, Sarah Boege, and Libby Schwaner share findings from interviews with 16 such movers (and six regional real estate agents), conducted in spring 2023 as part of a larger project documenting Covid-era migration in the region. While the project was spurred by the pandemic, findings can support community stakeholders in understanding characteristics of migrants and features that attract them that will be useful in future waves of migration, for instance, in response to climate change or Baby Boomer retirements

The habitat factor in ELF(A) - English as a Lingua Franca (in Academic settings) - and English for Plurilingual Academic Purposes

This article considers a case of local language socialization and accommodation in a multilingual community of practice: the use of English as an additional academic language for specific purposes at a bilingual Swiss university and its implications for teaching. The acronym ELF(A) is used throughout as short for English as a Lingua Franca (in Academic settings). The bilingual university's multilingual habitat also shapes the kind of ELF(A) used and this has in turn informed the teaching of English for Plurilingual Academic Purposes (EPAP). The discussion draws on both ethnographic research carried out in multilingual disciplinary speech events and on the author's simultaneous and continuing experience of developing and teaching English for academic purposes (EAP). It focuses on an oral presentation to a life science journal club made by a multilingual doctoral student socialized into the use of English almost exclusively in the ELF(A) habitat. Using the plurilingual repertoire to sustain "code-sharing” lingua franca mode, one of the habitat's most striking effects is the effort users are willing to expend in striving for autonomous functionality in their Englishes without overt switching, while simultaneously relying on their audience's multilingual flexibility and shared disciplinary knowledge, e.g. in the pronunciation of technical terminology. The habitat of a multilingual community of practice that assumes responsibility for its novices' language socialization in an additional medium is thus a supportive factor empowering junior scientists to function in English. To the extent that the habitat factor contains a limiting dimension of context dependence, however, teaching EPAP should also target speakers' (potential) needs for spoken academic language use elsewhere