The Case for School-Based Integration of Services: Changing the Ways Students, Families and Communities Engage with their Schools

P/PV's GroundWork series summarizes available evidence on a variety of social policy topics, providing a solid foundation for future work.This first issue reviews the current literature about the potential benefits of simultaneously providing three services in school -- healthcare, out-of-school-time learning and family supports -- to boost students' educational outcomes. For disadvantaged, low-income youth, research indicates that access to these supports can play a key role in helping them surmount common obstacles to educational attainment. In addition to highlighting how each affects key outcomes such as learning, school connectedness (i.e., positive feelings about school) and access to needed services, this brief summarizes the potential benefits of offering these resources through a highly integrated, school-based model

Group Mentoring: A Study of Mentoring Groups in Three Programs

In an effort to provide more youth with mentors, mentoring programs are implementing several promising new approaches. This report describes the strengths and challenges of group mentoring-an approach that is gaining popularity. Findings suggest that group mentoring is reaching youth and volunteers who are unlikely to participate in traditional one-on-one mentoring, and that the approach may provide youth with important benefits, especially the development of social skills. On the other hand, mentoring groups vary widely in their size, structure and focus, and in the extent to which they foster strong mentoring relationships and benefits for youth. Implications for the mentoring field and for future research are discussed

High Temperature Oxidation Kinetics of Alumina Forming Steels For Petrochemical Processes

Petrochemical industries produce 14.33 million barrels of petroleum products a day and by 2023, are expected to produce over a trillion dollars in sales annually. Petroleum is the number one used fuel source and is the raw material used to produce a wide range of petrochemical products including ethylene which is the raw chemical precursors that is crucial to the polymer market. Ethylene is created by the process of cracking ethane and other hydrocarbons in steel reactors at high temperature and potentially oxidizing conditions. The cracking process produces a range of byproducts including a detrimental solid carbon, called coke, which forms on the inner walls of the ethylene cracking reactor. The coke coats the reactor and thus reduces the efficiency of the process. The coke can also attack the steel reactor material through various degradation mechanisms such as carburization, metal dusting, or related carbon-based attack. Petrochemical processors periodically stop the cracking process to “de-coke” the reactor by flowing a mixture of high-temperature (~850 C) steam and air to remove the coke deposits. This cleaning process costs the petrochemical industries over 1.3 billion dollars a year due to downtime. Additionally, the repeated cycling between carbon-rich atmospheres and oxidizing atmospheres can further damage the steel reactor tubes and reduce their lifetimes which, over the long term, create additional costs for the producers. Ethylene production reactors have traditionally used cast heat resistant austenitic stainless-steel alloys such as HP. These traditional materials form chromium oxide scales during exposure to oxidizing conditions and are classified as chromia-forming austenitics (CFAs). Chromia has been shown to have poor chemical resistance to steam conditions in high temperatures and is vulnerable to carbon- and sulphur-containing environments (sulphur being a potential contaminant in petrochemical feedstocks). One promising option to combat the problems is using a modified class of heat-resistant austenitic steel that is designed to form aluminum oxide scales upon exposure to oxidizing conditions. These alumina forming austenitic (AFA) alloys are intended to offer better chemical resistance to the steam and carbon-rich atmospheres found in petrochemical processing applications. As these AFA alloy systems are relatively new, detailed studies comparing the performance of CFA and AFA materials are needed to support the wider adoption of the new AFA materials in petrochemical processing systems. AFA and CFA materials were obtained from an industrial scale production and not fabricated in the lab. Oxidation performance of AFA materials was examined in the temperature range of 700 ~ 1100 °C with a focus on oxidation kinetics, observation of microstructural degradation and the analysis of oxide scale formation. Results are compared to the traditional CFA material, HP. Parabolic rate constants are determined by high temperature studies at 800°C, 850°C, and 900°C in steam and air-steam environments and are used to calculate kinetic activation energies. Furthermore, additional data such as diffusion profiles of specific elements can be determined. This will reveal conclusive data on the performance of AFAs and contribute to the first thorough study of its oxidation kinetics in steam atmospheres. Initial results show AFA samples have smaller mass gains compared to CFA which indicates superior oxidation performance. Furthermore, AFA samples containing roughly 3~4 wt% Al were shown to form uniform alumina scales when oxidized. The microstructural integrity of AFA materials near the surface had less corrosion damage compared to CFA alloys. Additionally, activation energy of AFA in steam is higher than CFA which indicates the AFAs are more stable over longer periods. Longer oxidation tests and variation of air to steam environments will be performed to provide data that simulates petrochemical oxidation conditions and comprehensive comparison to CFA. These oxidation kinetics results will provide a foundation that will be used to predict the material’s lifetime usage. Furthermore, the comparison of the AFA to CFA is crucial in convincing a wider adoption of the application of AFA alloys in industrial use. The research study will help bring multiple stake holders in the investment of petrochemical/ethylene production industries, metal foundries, and academic research

Ring Opening Polymerization

The goal of the research discussed in this paper is to demonstrate that N-heterocyclic carbenes can be bonded to a transition metal center resulting in a complex that is able to effectively catalyze the ring opening polymerization of caprolactone. While N-Heterocyclic carbene ligands have been documented as effective catalysts for the ring opening polymerization (ROP) of lactones and lactides, less is known about the catalytic abilities of these ligands when bound to a labile metal center. This article focuses on examining the synthesis and reactivity of different transition metal complexes containing tin, zinc, aluminium and titanium metal centers. In addition to comparing metal centers, the performance of a uni-functional alcohol initiator, benzyl alcohol, was compared to a bifunctional alcohol initiator 1,4-butanediol. The aluminium based complex combined with the uni-functional initiator resulted in some of the highest degrees of polymerization and increased control over the polymer chain length. Lastly, a series of studies were performed to better understand the kinetics of this optimized system. The findings detailed in this paper indicate that transition metal complexes containing N-Heterocyclic carbene ligands are capable of polymerizing caprolactone monomers resulting in good product yields and the ability to grow chains ranging from 10-30 units in length by varying feed ratios. One of the most pertinent uses of these short chained polyesters is their ability to be grafted into other polymers providing an efficient method of manufacturing specialty polyurethanes

First-Time Attendee: How to Get the Most Out of Being a Student at a Music Library Association Meeting

When you are a student in library school, the thought of attending a Music Library Association Annual Meeting can seem both daunting and logistically challenging. You might feel unsure about how to socialize with professionals, or worry that your presence will be unwelcome. You may be concerned about negotiating the time off from classes and your library job(s) and wonder if you should just avoid that hurdle altogether. On top of that, the cost of lodging and travel could be a serious strain on the student budget. While all these concerns are perfectly valid, you may find that the benefits of attending MLA as a student far outweigh the costs.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/librarian_books/1008/thumbnail.jp

Policy Brief No. 25 - Are Immigrants in Better Health Than Native Canadians?

A number of studies have shown that immigrants tend to be in better health than their fellow citizens in their host countries, at least during the initial period following their arrival. Our work, a systematic review which brings together the results of 77 empirical research studies on this question, demonstrates that while the “healthy immigrant” effect is usually found in adult immigrants, it is another matter for children and older people. The extent of the healthy immigrant selection effect is also much more significant in terms of mortality than of morbidity. Our analysis suggests that immigrant health policies should not be “one size fits all” in type, but need to take into account both the age of immigrants and also those particular health indicators in terms of which the immigrants are most vulnerable

The effect of acculturation on the health of new immigrants to Canada between 2001 and 2005

Poster Presentation When comparing the health of immigrants to the native-born, studies have found what is called a “healthy migrant effect” where immigrants are likely to have a health advantage compared to native-born individuals. In Canada, effect could partially be explained by the strict immigration criteria that select immigrants on their health status (Akresh and Frank, 2008). However, immigrants lose this advantage over time so that their level of health often deteriorates below the one of natives. This deterioration is an important issue for the health of populations in Canada and a challenge to adapt the health system to the needs of immigrants. The Longitudinal Survey of Immigration to Canada (LSIC) provides an original way to assess the effects of acculturation, a process of adopting new cultural norms and practices, which has been often cited as one of the leading causes of immigrant’s health deterioration. The LSIC contains a cohort of 7716 landed immigrants in Canada between October 1st 2000 and September 30th 2001. The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of acculturation on immigrants’ general health and self-perceived mental health. The analysis is based on multivariate logistic regressions that control for pre-migration and post-migration factors which may potentially confound the relationship between acculturation and health. Our results show that acculturation outcomes proposed by Berry (1997) - integration, assimilation, separation, marginalization- influence the health of immigrants through socioeconomic variables such as education and financial status

The Healthy Immigrant Effect in Canada: A Systematic Review

Canada’s immigration admissions policy culls for individuals with high human capital (Knowles, 2007). Given the strong links between human capital and health (Jasso et al., 2004) and previous research which suggested the presence of a seemingly universal foreign-born health advantage among Canada’s migrant population, we expected to see the healthy immigrant effect across the life-course and for multiple health outcomes. What we found instead was a pattern much more complex than previously envisioned. Our review uncovered a clear survival advantage for immigrants, owing in part to positive self and state selection processes (at least for non-refugee migrants). However, there is greater variation in the healthy immigrant effect for morbidity. Moreover, viewed through the lens of different life-course stages, we uncovered a strong foreign-born health advantage in adulthood but less so during the perinatal period, childhood/adolescence, and late life. Immigrant selection may be less relevant for the very young and very old, and of course we should thus not expect the presence of a healthy immigrant effect for these groups if that is the case. But even during adulthood when the healthy immigrant effect appears to be most effective, some discrepancies still remain between different immigrant subgroups depending on the type of health measure used (e.g., greater variation for self-rated health but less variation for mental health, disability/functional limitations, risk behaviors, and chronic conditions)