Colorado Training Needs Assessment

The Colorado Department of Human Services (CO DHS) has contracted with the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy to assess the professional development needs of child welfare caseworkers, case aides, and supervisors. This needs assessment will help guide the development of the new Child Welfare Training Academy established by Governor Bill Ritter in May 2009. The Academy will provide child welfare professionals across the state with the training, skills and knowledge to better protect the state\u27s most vulnerable children from abuse and neglect

New Americans: Child Care Decision-Making of Refugee and Immigrant Parents of English Language Learners

The immigrant and refugee communities in the United States continue to increase. Denver, Colorado and Portland, Maine are two U.S. cities that reflect the changing demographics across the country. As these cities evolve and adjust to serve new populations, it becomes necessary to rethink deep-rooted culturally constructed patterns and traditions that do not take into account the beliefs and practices of these new cultures. One such tradition is child care. Because of the important link between preschool experiences and later school success, understanding refugee and immigrant families’ beliefs and decisions about child care is extremely important. From a policy perspective, understanding these beliefs can guide professional development training for child care providers serving these linguistically and culturally diverse families

Children at Risk in the Child Welfare System: Collaborations to Promote School Readiness - Final Report

This study examines the degree to which key players in the child welfare, early intervention/preschool special education (EI/Preschool SPED) and early care and education (ECE) systems (e.g. Head Start, preschool, child care centers, family child care homes) collaborate to meet the developmental needs of children ages 0 to 5 who are involved in the child welfare system. This research includes an analysis of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW) as well as a case study in Colorado involving interviews with key stakeholders and statewide surveys of caseworkers and foster parents

Child Care and Children With Special Needs: Challenges for Low Income Families [Report]

Findings from this mixed methods study include: Parents of young children with special needs face significant challenges finding and keeping child care arrangements for their child. Parents report significant problems with the child care arrangements they have used for their child with special needs. There are significant programmatic and financial barriers to supporting parents of children with special needs so they can work, and balance work and family. The combination of all of these problems and the particular demands of caring for a child with special needs often result in employment problems and job instability. Families of children with special needs face more economic difficulties (poverty, food and rent insecurity, lack of health insurance) than do families of children without special needs. Certain types of disabilities have a greater impact on the number of child care and work problems than others. Having a child with multiple special needs or having more than one child with special needs significantly increases the likelihood of employment difficulties and job instability

The relationship between parent and child dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and child sleep

Cognitive theories emphasise the role of dysfunctional beliefs about sleep in the development and maintenance of sleep-related problems (SRPs). The present research examines how parents' dysfunctional beliefs about children's sleep and child dysfunctional beliefs about sleep are related to each other and to children's subjective and objective sleep. Participants were 45 children aged 11 -12 years and their parents. Self-report measures of dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and child sleep were completed by children, mothers and fathers. Objective measures of child sleep were taken using actigraphy. The results showed that child dysfunctional beliefs about sleep were correlated with father (r=.43, p<.05) and mother (r=.43, p<.05) reported child SRPs, and with Sleep Onset Latency (r=.34, p<.05). Maternal dysfunctional beliefs about child sleep were related to child SRPs as reported by mothers (r=.44, p<.05), and to child dysfunctional beliefs about sleep (r=.37, p<.05). Some initial evidence was found for a mediation pathway in which child dyfunctional beliefs mediate the relationship between parent dysfunctional beliefs and child sleep. The results support the cognitive model of SRPs and contribute to the literature by providing the first evidence of familial aggregation of dysfunctional beliefs about sleep

The Structural Biology Knowledgebase: a portal to protein structures, sequences, functions, and methods

The Protein Structure Initiative’s Structural Biology Knowledgebase (SBKB, URL: http://sbkb.org) is an open web resource designed to turn the products of the structural genomics and structural biology efforts into knowledge that can be used by the biological community to understand living systems and disease. Here we will present examples on how to use the SBKB to enable biological research. For example, a protein sequence or Protein Data Bank (PDB) structure ID search will provide a list of related protein structures in the PDB, associated biological descriptions (annotations), homology models, structural genomics protein target status, experimental protocols, and the ability to order available DNA clones from the PSI:Biology-Materials Repository. A text search will find publication and technology reports resulting from the PSI’s high-throughput research efforts. Web tools that aid in research, including a system that accepts protein structure requests from the community, will also be described. Created in collaboration with the Nature Publishing Group, the Structural Biology Knowledgebase monthly update also provides a research library, editorials about new research advances, news, and an events calendar to present a broader view of structural genomics and structural biology

Assembly, organization, and function of the COPII coat

A full mechanistic understanding of how secretory cargo proteins are exported from the endoplasmic reticulum for passage through the early secretory pathway is essential for us to comprehend how cells are organized, maintain compartment identity, as well as how they selectively secrete proteins and other macromolecules to the extracellular space. This process depends on the function of a multi-subunit complex, the COPII coat. Here we describe progress towards a full mechanistic understanding of COPII coat function, including the latest findings in this area. Much of our understanding of how COPII functions and is regulated comes from studies of yeast genetics, biochemical reconstitution and single cell microscopy. New developments arising from clinical cases and model organism biology and genetics enable us to gain far greater insight in to the role of membrane traffic in the context of a whole organism as well as during embryogenesis and development. A significant outcome of such a full understanding is to reveal how the machinery and processes of membrane trafficking through the early secretory pathway fail in disease states

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700