Enhancing GED Instruction to Prepare Students for College and Careers

To better understand how adult education programs might strengthen pathways to college and careers, MDRC, with financial support from the Robin Hood Foundation and MetLife Foundation, partnered with LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY) to launch a small but rigorous study of the GED Bridge to Health and Business program. The GED Bridge program represents a promising new approach to GED instruction, as it aims to better prepare students not only to pass the GED exam, but also to continue on to college and training programs. MDRC has conducted several evaluations of programs that include GED preparation as one among many program components, but this evaluation is one of only a few to focus specifically on GED curriculum, program design, and efforts to forge a stronger link to college and career training

The Importance of Health in Promoting Employability in the East Midlands

This paper analyses the relationship between health and employability in the context of the East Midlands, a high employment region with a history of manufacturing and coal mining, though both sectors\' importance has declined due to considerable industrial restructuring. It is argued that the health of the unemployed and economically inactive cannot be considered without an understanding of such contextual factors. Gender, age, the socio-economic context and other external factors are key to the complex relationship between health and employability. Within a broad framework of employability, health is not merely a personal characteristic. The paper argues for more qualitative research into employability and health to establish what factors influence the relationship.Employability, Health, Economic In-/activity, Employment, Unemployment

Findings for the Cleveland Achieve Model: Implementation and Early Impacts of an Employer-Based Approach to Encourage Employment Retention Among Low-Wage Workers

An on-site retention program at long-term nursing care facilities had little effect overall on retention of low-wage employees, aside from a small increase in retention in the short term and among subgroups with particularly high turnover rates

Analysis and computations for a model of quasi-static deformation of a thinning sheet arising in superplastic forming

We consider a mathematical model for the quasi-static deformation of a thinning sheet. The model couples a first-order equation for the thickness of the sheet to a prescribed curvature equation for the displacement of the sheet. We prove a local in time existence and uniqueness theorem for this system when the sheet can be written as a graph. A contact problem is formulated for a sheet constrained to be above a mould. Finally we present some computational results

Causes and Consequences of Rising Food Prices

Since mid 2007 there has been a dramatic rise in prices for basic foods such as internationally traded varieties of rice, corn and wheat. At the moment, it is rather impossible to estimate how far speculation in the commodity markets has contributed to this development. Irrespective of this, a long-term solution to present and future supply shortfalls, including investment in more efficient agro-technologies and infrastructures is required. This is a matter for the international community which should continue to promote the abolition of international trade barriers in the agricultural sector in addition to local measures to provide structural aid. Hoped-for structural change may however be impeded if agricultural producers are exposed both to the market power of trader demand and the supplier power of upstream suppliers. It therefore appears that controls on abuse of market power at an international level are urgently required in order to increase the efficiency of agricultural markets and ultimately to secure the food supply.Noisetraders, Trade liberalization, Vertical relations

Modelling and simulation of cell migration in heterogeneous media

Cell motility is a complex process comprising, among others, cytoskeletal remodelling and growth, active force generation, chemical transport and reaction of multiple substances inside and outside the cell as well as on the cell membrane, anisotropic material behavior of the cell and of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and proteolytic cleavage of the ECM. We are working on an evolving finite element based computational framework that is able to incorporate models and methods for all the key features of cell motility. The approach exploits a mesoscopic point of view and aims at a comprehensive 3D model allowing for the simulation of cell motility at reasonable computational costs. In the presentation we will first sketch the overall framework, addressing all the respective models and methods, and will then focus on some essential subunits

Four Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Employment: An Introduction to the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project

This demonstration is evaluating four diverse strategies designed to improve employment and other outcomes for people who face serious barriers to employment: a comprehensive employment program for former prisoners, a two-generation Head Start program that provides enhanced services and training to parents, two alternative employment strategies for long-term welfare recipients, and intensive telephonic care management for Medicaid recipients who are experiencing depression

Opportunities for greater Lincolnshire's supply chains: full report

A study of the key sector supply chains across Greater Lincolnshire, and identification of barriers and opportuniteis for growth