All-ages Movement Project - Project Report

The All-ages Movement Project (AMP) is aiming to find and better understand youth-run cultural organizations focused on music in the United States. For four months, AMP has been exploring these organizations' social and political significance and the idea of enhancing their impact through a national network. AMP has designed a database that now houses the names of over 300 organizations that embody a combination of the following things: youth empowerment componentpopular music focusparticipatory structureproduce music related cultural products The names in AMP's database are turning into profiles and starting to tell a story about how this youthful and eclectic army of organizations is making change in the US in three areas of interest: meaningful cultural products, political impact, and alternative leadership opportunities.AMP looked at metrics in each of these areas to decipher if in fact this group of organizations is playing a role in creating the next generation of leaders through providing the environment and experiences that promote a culture of social change

Strategies for Integrating Open Innovation Practices for Small Businesses

Some small business owners lack implementation strategies for open innovation. Small business owners who can successfully implement open strategies can increase the opportunity for success. Grounded in the ten types of innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business owners use to successfully implement open innovation. The participants comprised three small business owners from West Tennessee who successfully used strategies for open innovation. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The three emerging themes were strategic and continuous development, risk management, and sustaining a culture of innovation. A key recommendation is for small business owners to provide a positive work environment that embraces open innovation to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace which may lead to long-term sustainability. The implications for positive social change include the potential for sustainability of small, rural business owners, which would support local communities through job creation, job sustainability, and economic development

Cultural policy, state politics, and rural economic development : lessons from Maine

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-73).This thesis explores how political actors utilize studies of the arts' impact on state economies to boost -the significance of cultural policy within a given political environment. Specifically, this thesis explains how the current Governor of Maine, John Baldacci and the leaders of Maine's cultural policy bureaucracy utilized a study of creative industries' contributions to the Maine economy to lead an effort to garner public support for a statewide cultural economic development agenda. In researching this topic, I have come to learn how an economic impact study in the hands of an ambitious and enterprising coalition of arts advocates convinced political elites and voters in an overwhelmingly rural state to embrace cultural development as an economic development strategy - a decidedly urban(e) phenomenon - via Governor Baldacci's Creative Economy Initiative. Largely attributable to the state's desperation for economic development, the anomalous political success story of the Creative Economy Initiative is a revealing one, providing a look at how cultural policy can garner high priority status on state policy agendas as well as lessons on how to make cultural economic development politically palatable in rural areas.by Shannon Stewart Christmas.M.C.P

Analysis of Events Governing the Meiotic Division in Mouse Spermatocytes

The meiotic division is essential for successful gametogenesis. However, many events occurring during male and female meiotic development remain poorly understood. While it is known that chromosomes must pair, recombine, and segregate to form gametes, critical questions remain. How and when do these events occur with respect to each other? What mechanisms monitor their developmental success? Insight into these questions is provided in this dissertation, using the mouse spermatocyte as a model. The purpose of this work is to aid in the overall understanding of mammalian meiosis. After an introduction into mammalian meiosis in Part I, a temporal order of events occurring during meiosis in the mouse spermatocyte is provided in Part II. The development of events such as chromosome pairing, spindle formation, and localization of cell cycle proteins was monitored using immunofluorescence. This work established a framework for which developmental progress can be monitored in normal and abnormal environments. In Part III, the MLH1-deficient mouse was used to study an abnormal G2/M transition. Spermatocytes lacking the DNA mismatch repair protein MLH1 are characterized by univalent chromosomes at metaphase I, and do not progress into the first anaphase. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, was seen in Mlh1-/- metaphase spermatocytes. In Part IV, spermatocytes heterozygous for Robertsonian-chromosome translocations were also used to study abnormalities in the G2/M transition. Many of these spermatocytes failed to properly pair homologous chromosomes during MI. Many metaphase spermatocytes also contained unaligned/lagging chromosomes. Apoptosis was seen in a large portion of the spermatocytes containing unaligned chromosomes, possibly in response to the activation of a spindle checkpoint mechanism. Although functional sperm are produced in these mice, many were found to be aneuploid for chromosomes involved in Robertsonian translocations. The findings of this dissertation aid in the overall understanding of meiotic development and regulation, which is discussed in the closing Part V. By the establishment of a meiotic timeline, genetic abnormalities can be and were studied in the context of normal meiotic progression. Situations in which meiotic abnormalities arise are provided in Parts IV and V. These findings provide insight into the consequences of chromosomal abnormalities and failure in the DNA repair mechanism during meiosis, possibly reflecting the creation of errors in our own species

Identifying mental health symptoms in children and youth in residential and in-patient care settings

This study demonstrates the use of the interRAI assessment instruments to examine mental health symptoms in children and adults within residential and in-patient care settings. Regardless of service setting, children exhibited more harm to self and others than adults. Children in adult in-patient beds were more likely to exhibit suicide and self-harm and less likely to exhibit harm to others compared to children in child-specific service settings. Implications related to service system improvements are discussed

Credence Services: Content, credibility, and usefulness of online reviews

Credence products are those whose quality is difficult or impossible for consumers to assess, even after consuming the product (Darby & Karni, 1973). For example, it is difficult to assess the technical skill and knowledge of a physician even after a visit. This research is focused on the content, structure and consumer perceptions of online reviews for credence services. We start by examining how the content and structure of real online reviews of credence services systematically differs from those of experience services (Nelson, 1970). We find that online reviews of credence services are more likely to contain unsupported claims than reviews of experience services. We experimentally examine consumer perceptions of reviews, varying both their structure and content. Consumers rationally discount the credibility of credence claims when presented with short, simple reviews but we expect more complex argument structure and inclusion of experience attributes in the review to attenuate this effect

The Child and Youth Mental Health Assessment (ChYMH): An examination of the psychometric properties of an integrated assessment developed for clinically referred children and youth

Background: The Child and Youth Mental Health (ChYMH) assessment system was developed by interRAI (i.e., an international collective of researchers and clinicians from over thirty countries) in response to the unprecedented need for a coordinated approach to delivery of children\u27s mental health care. Many interRAI instruments are used across Canada and internationally, but the ChYMH represents the first assessment specifically for children and youth. In the present paper, a short overview of the development process of the ChYMH is provided, and then the psychometric properties of several embedded scales on the ChYMH are examined. Methods: Participants included 1297 children and youth and their families who completed the ChYMH after being referred to mental health agencies within Ontario, Canada. In addition, smaller subsets of participants (N = 48-53) completed additional criterion measures, including the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS), the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI). Results: Results demonstrated that the ChYMH subscales had strong internal-consistency (Cronbach\u27s higher than.70), and correlated well with the criterion measures. Conclusions: Findings support the clinical utility of the ChYMH for use among clinically referred children and youth. Implications for children\u27s mental health assessment and practice are discussed

The Child and Youth Mental Health Assessment (ChYMH): An examination of the psychometric properties of an integrated assessment developed for clinically referred children and youth

Background: The Child and Youth Mental Health (ChYMH) assessment system was developed by interRAI (i.e., an international collective of researchers and clinicians from over thirty countries) in response to the unprecedented need for a coordinated approach to delivery of children\u27s mental health care. Many interRAI instruments are used across Canada and internationally, but the ChYMH represents the first assessment specifically for children and youth. In the present paper, a short overview of the development process of the ChYMH is provided, and then the psychometric properties of several embedded scales on the ChYMH are examined. Methods: Participants included 1297 children and youth and their families who completed the ChYMH after being referred to mental health agencies within Ontario, Canada. In addition, smaller subsets of participants (N = 48-53) completed additional criterion measures, including the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS), the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI). Results: Results demonstrated that the ChYMH subscales had strong internal-consistency (Cronbach\u27s higher than.70), and correlated well with the criterion measures. Conclusions: Findings support the clinical utility of the ChYMH for use among clinically referred children and youth. Implications for children\u27s mental health assessment and practice are discussed

The role of adverse childhood experiences as determinants of non-suicidal self-injury among children and adolescents referred to community and inpatient mental health settings

The objectives of this study were to examine the prevalence of, and determine the effect of adverse childhood experiences on non-suicidal self-injury among children and adolescents referred to community and inpatient mental health settings. Data for this study were obtained from the interRAI Child and Youth Mental Health dataset. A total of 2038 children and adolescents aged 8–18 years (M = 12.49; SD = 2.88, 61.1% males) were analyzed. Binary logistic regression was fitted to identify predictors of non-suicidal self-injury as a function of adverse childhood experiences, depression, and social support while simultaneously controlling for age, gender, type of patient, legal guardianship, marital status of parents/caregivers, history of foster family placement, and mental health diagnoses. Of the 2038 children and adolescents examined, 592 (29%) of this clinical sample engaged in non-suicidal self-injury. In the multivariate logistic regression model, children and adolescents who were physically abused had 49% higher odds of engaging in non-suicidal self-injury and children and adolescents who were sexually abused had 60% higher odds of engaging in non-suicidal self-injury, when compared to their non-abused counterparts. Other predictors of non-suicidal self-injury include: older age, female gender, inpatient status, depression, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, disruptive behavior disorder, and mood disorders. Children and adolescents who had some form of social support had a 26% decrease in the odds of engaging in non-suicidal self-injury. Assessment procedures for indicators of mental health, particularly among children and adolescents with a history of adverse childhood experiences, should also take into account non-suicidal self-injury. In addition to bolstering social support networks, addressing depression and related emotion regulation skills in childhood may help prevent future non-suicidal self-injury behaviors