Getting In, Staying On, Moving Up: A Practitioner's Approach to Employment Retention

Changes in workforce development policy are requiring employment programs to develop job retention strategies. This report looks at the Vocational Foundation, Inc. (VFI), one of New York Citys most respected employment programs for disadvantaged youth, and the principles that underlie its successful job retention program, Moving Up, a 24-month postplacement strategy for placing and keeping clients in jobs. VFI is one of only a handful of programs nationwide with a well-defined job retention strategy and an internal MIS system designed to track participant outcomes. The report describes in detail the elements of VFIs program, from recruitment and training to job placement and follow-up, and closes with nine principles of effective practice for workforce programs to consider as they develop their own retention efforts

How might stress contribute to increased risk for schizophrenia in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome?

The most common human microdeletion occurs at chromosome 22q11.2. The associated syndrome (22q11.2DS) has a complex and variable phenotype with a high risk of schizophrenia. While the role of stress in the etiopathology of schizophrenia has been under investigation for over 30 years (Walker et al. 2008), the stress–diathesis model has yet to be investigated in children with 22q11.2DS. Children with 22q11.2DS face serious medical, behavioral, and socioemotional challenges from infancy into adulthood. Chronic stress elevates glucocorticoids, decreases immunocompetence, negatively impacts brain development and function, and is associated with psychiatric illness in adulthood. Drawing knowledge from the extant and well-developed anxiety and stress literature will provide invaluable insight into the complex etiopathology of schizophrenia in people with 22q11.2DS while suggesting possible early interventions. Childhood anxiety is treatable and stress coping skills can be developed thereby improving quality of life in the short-term and potentially mitigating the risk of developing psychosis

Impaired object tracking in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

Background: Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS) occurs in approximately 1:4,000 live births with a complex and variable presentation that includes medical, socioemotional and psychological symptoms with intellectual impairment. Cognitive impairments in spatiotemporal and visuospatial attention have also been reported. However, maintenance of selective attention to dynamic and interacting objects has not been systematically investigated in children with 22q11.2DS. Methods: We used a multiple object tracking task to assay capacity and resolution performance of children with 22q11.2DS aged 7 to 14 years versus age-matched typically developing (TD) peers. Results: Children with 22q11.2DS but not TD children demonstrated impaired performance when task demands increased due to an increase in the number of targets presented, but not from an increase in object speed. Task performance in children with 22q11.2DS was also unrelated to intelligence or measures of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Conclusions: These findings suggest that children with 22q11.2DS may be particularly susceptible to dynamic crowding of objects with increasing cognitive demands related to monitoring multiple targets reflecting a reduced acuity in spatiotemporal cognitive representation

Impaired object tracking in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

Background: Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS) occurs in approximately 1:4,000 live births with a complex and variable presentation that includes medical, socioemotional and psychological symptoms with intellectual impairment. Cognitive impairments in spatiotemporal and visuospatial attention have also been reported. However, maintenance of selective attention to dynamic and interacting objects has not been systematically investigated in children with 22q11.2DS. Methods: We used a multiple object tracking task to assay capacity and resolution performance of children with 22q11.2DS aged 7 to 14 years versus age-matched typically developing (TD) peers. Results: Children with 22q11.2DS but not TD children demonstrated impaired performance when task demands increased due to an increase in the number of targets presented, but not from an increase in object speed. Task performance in children with 22q11.2DS was also unrelated to intelligence or measures of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Conclusions: These findings suggest that children with 22q11.2DS may be particularly susceptible to dynamic crowding of objects with increasing cognitive demands related to monitoring multiple targets reflecting a reduced acuity in spatiotemporal cognitive representation

Modelling the dynamics of phytoplankton with the needs of the end user in mind

How to regulate phytoplankton growth in water supply reservoirs has continued to occupy managers and strategists for some fifty years or so, now, and mathematical models have always featured in their design and operational constraints. In recent years, rather more sophisticated simulation models have begun to be available and these, ideally, purport to provide the manager with improved forecasting of plankton blooms, the likely species and the sort of decision support that might permit management choices to be selected with increased confidence. This account describes the adaptation and application of one such model, PROTECH (Phytoplankton RespOnses To Environmental CHange) to the problems of plankton growth in reservoirs. This article supposes no background knowledge of the main algal types; neither does it attempt to catalogue the problems that their abundance may cause in lakes and reservoirs

Open access archives and repositories

Governments and research funding organizations are increasingly reluctant to fund research that is not widely distributed and affordable, creating the need for repositories through which scholars can legally distribute their research results and data. Steve Schafer, director of Athabasca University Library, will discuss how open access relates to and enhances library services. Tony Tin, founder of Athabasca University's repository, AU Space, will talk about and demonstrate AU’s growing collection and discuss the challenges and opportunities of self-archiving

Common and specific impairments in attention functioning in girls with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion, fragile X or Turner syndromes.

BACKGROUND: Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), fragile X syndrome (FXS), and Turner syndrome (TS) are complex and variable developmental syndromes caused by different genetic abnormalities; yet, they share similar cognitive impairments in the domains of numbers, space, and time. The atypical development of foundational neural networks that underpin the attentional system is thought to result in further impairments in higher-order cognitive functions. The current study investigates whether children with similar higher-order cognitive impairments but different genetic disorders also show similar impairments in alerting, orienting, and executive control of attention. METHODS: Girls with 22q11.2DS, FXS, or TS and typically developing (TD) girls, aged 7 to 15 years, completed an attention network test, a flanker task with alerting and orienting cues. Exploration of reaction times and accuracy allowed us to test for potential commonalities in attentional functioning in alerting, orienting, and executive control. Linear regression models were used to test whether the predictors of group and chronological age were able to predict differences in attention indices. RESULTS: Girls with 22q11.2DS, FXS, or TS demonstrated unimpaired function of the alerting system and impaired function of the executive control system. Diagnosis-specific impairments were found such that girls with FXS made more errors and had a reduced orienting index, while girls with 22q11.2DS showed specific age-related deficits in the executive control system. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the control but not the implementation of attention is selectively impaired in girls with 22q11.2DS, TS or FXS. Additionally, the age effect on executive control in girls with 22q11.2DS implies a possible altered developmental trajectory