Giving in Minnesota, 2010 Edition

The Minnesota Council on Foundations has produced its Giving in Minnesota, 2010 Edition research report, the most comprehensive analysis of charitable giving in the state. The 2010 edition features Minnesota giving in 2008, the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available. This report includes information about overall giving by foundations, corporations and individuals in Minnesota, along with detailed grantmaking trends by the Giving in Minnesota sample, which is comprised of 100 of the state's largest grantmakers based on grants paid

Transition from Preschool to Kindergarten: A Description of Area Preschools for West Valley Kindergarten Teachers

Old and new definitions are given for readiness. Concerns about kindergarten readiness testing and current practices for those children identified unready for school are addressed. New strategies for success in the early years of education are discussed with a particular emphasis on easing the student transition between preschool and kindergarten through awareness of local area preschool programs

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Analysis of the crew equipment subsystem

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA approach features a top-down analysis of the hardware to determine failure modes, criticality, and potential critical (PCIs) items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The independent analysis results coresponding to the Orbiter crew equipment hardware are documented. The IOA analysis process utilized available crew equipment hardware drawings and schematics for defining hardware assemblies, components, and hardware items. Each level of hardware was evaluated and analyzed for possible failure modes and effects. Criticality was assigned based upon the severity of the effect for each failure mode. Of the 352 failure modes analyzed, 78 were determined to be PCIs

Isolation and characterisation of CML and normal quiescent haemopoietic stem cells

The work contained in this thesis was aimed at isolation of quiescent stem cells from both normal and CML samples and characterisation of the properties of these rare populations. To isolate these specific cell populations, enrichment of the stem cell fraction was achieved by selection methods based on the stem cell marker CD34. Positive or negative CD34 selection yielded up to 99% pure CD34+ cell populations. A fluorescent activated cell-sorting (FACS) strategy was developed to allow isolation of quiescent and cycling stem cells. Using Hoechst (HST) and Pyronin Y (Py) to stain the DNA and RNA respectively and gating on the viable, Propidium lodide- (PI)-, CD34+ population, it was possible to isolate viable stem cells in G0, G1 and S/G2/M phases of the cell cycle. Success of the sorting strategy was demonstrated by PCR analysis of differential cell cycle gene expression in the sorted populations. Further development of FACS methodology allowed the division history and stem cell status, as defined by CD34 expression, to be monitored under a range of conditions. Using this experimental strategy, it was shown that a number of CML stem cells were able to survive exposure to concentrations of ST1 in excess of those achievable in vivo, and that the surviving cells were undivided or quiescent. In an effort to further characterise quiescent stem cells, the HST/Py FACS strategy was used to isolate quiescent and cycling stem cell populations from both normal and CML samples, which were then processed for microarray studies. The results have shown a differential gene expression profile between normal G0 and cycling cells that fully validates the sorting strategy. The most significant different gene expression was in a set of chemokine genes, which were up-regulated in both normal and CML G0 cells compared to cycling cells. This has not been previously reported and represents a novel finding. Additional data analysis is ongoing and may, in time, yield therapeutic targets for CML disease eradication

Some key issues for employment and skills planning in Scotland : a review of emerging evidence

This paper draws on evidence from the first set of Regional Skills Assessments produced for lowland Scotland to highlight some issues for skills policy and planning. Scotland has an ageing population and this is set to accelerate over the coming decade. Forecast employment and population changes point to a potential mismatch between future labour supply and demand in Scotland. The shifting industrial and occupational structure of Scotland has implications for the level and type of qualifications that individuals will need in order to access future job opportunities. Changes in population and the economy will require careful consideration of the right scale and mix of post-16 education and skills provision. This is a key issue that policy makers, public agencies and local and national governments must address if Scotland is to effectively maintain its productive potential in the face of a declining working age population

Honesty, social presence, and self-service in retail

Retail self-service checkouts (SCOs) can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff. Recent research indicates that the lack of presence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on dishonest user behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. Our hypotheses were partially supported by the results. We conclude that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study

Miscarriage, stillbirth and congenital malformation in the offspring of UK veterans of the first Gulf war.

OBJECTIVES: To assess whether the offspring of UK veterans of the first Gulf war are at increased risk of fetal death or congenital malformation. METHOD: This was a retrospective reproductive cohort study of UK Gulf war veterans and a demographically similar comparison group who were in service at the time but were not deployed to the Gulf. Reproductive history was collected by means of a validated postal questionnaire between 1998 and 2001. RESULTS: In all, 27 959 pregnancies reported by men and 861 pregnancies reported by women were conceived after the first Gulf war and before November 1997. The risk of reported miscarriage was higher among pregnancies fathered by Gulf war veterans than by non-Gulf war veterans (OR = 1.4, 95% CI: 1.3, 1.5). Stillbirth risk was similar in both groups. Male Gulf war veterans reported a higher proportion of offspring with any type of malformation than the comparison cohort (OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.3, 1.7). Examination by type of malformation revealed some evidence for increased risk of malformations of the genital system, urinary system (renal and urinary tract), and 'other' defects of the digestive system, musculo-skeletal system, and non-chromosomal (non-syndrome) anomalies. These associations were weakened when analyses were restricted to clinically confirmed conditions. There was little or no evidence of increased risk for other structural malformations, specific syndromes, and chromosomal anomalies. Among female veterans, no effect of Gulf war service was found on the risk of miscarriage. The numbers of stillbirths and malformations reported by women were too small to allow meaningful analyses. CONCLUSION: We found no evidence for a link between paternal deployment to the Gulf war and increased risk of stillbirth, chromosomal malformations, or congenital syndromes. Associations were found between fathers' service in the Gulf war and increased risk of miscarriage and less well-defined malformations, but these findings need to be interpreted with caution as such outcomes are susceptible to recall bias. The finding of a possible relationship with renal anomalies requires further investigation. There was no evidence of an association between risk of miscarriage and mothers' service in the gulf

Two times three little pigs: Dysfluency, cognitive complexity and autism

This paper presents an analysis of dysfluencies in two oral tellings of a familiar children's story by a young boy with autism. Thurber & Tager-Flusberg (1993) postulate a lower degree of cognitive and communicative investment to explain a lower frequency of non-grammatical pauses observed in elicited narratives of children with autism in comparison to typically developing and intellectually disabled controls. we also found a very low frequency of non-grammatical pauses in our data, but indications of high engagement and cognitive and communicative investment. We point to a wider range of disfluencies as indicators of cognitive load, and show that the kind and location of dysfluencies produced may reveal which aspects of the narrative task are creating the greatest cognitive demand: here, mental state ascription, perspectivization, and adherence to story schema. This paper thus generates analytical options and hypotheses that can be explored further in a larger population of children with autism and typically developing controls