The Brains Behind Baltimore: How Higher Education Is Driving the Region's Economic Future

Quantifies the economic contributions of higher education to Baltimore's economy. Explores lessons to be drawn from Silicon Valley and other areas where higher education, business, and government collaborated to build strong research-based economies

THE COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING IMPACT OF THE BALTIMORE EMPOWERMENT ZONE

The federal Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community (EZ/EC) Initiative was the major urban initiative of the Clinton administration. It sought to replace the Reagan and the first Bush administrations' reductions in support for urban programs and passive focus on addressing urban issues through people-based policies and market and tax incentives. Baltimore was one of six cities selected for a full Empowerment Zone. One of the core goals of the federal EZ/EC Initiative was to create sustainable community capacity. Baltimore's implementation strategy was recognized as the most community driven of all of the Zones. This dissertation examines the experience of the Empowerment Zone in building sustainable community development capacity in the form of community organizations to implement programs and presents lessons learned to guide future community capacity building efforts. This dissertation used a detailed literature review, interview, focus group, records review and case study approach to answer the question - Can a federal policy create sustainable community capacity? The Baltimore Empowerment Zone was partially successful in creating or enhancing community development capacity in six urban neighborhoods in Baltimore. Five of the six community organizations - in the case of the Baltimore Empowerment Zone these were called village centers -- formed or participating in the Empowerment Zone effort operated throughout the ten year federal funding period and four remained in operation after the end of the program. This dissertation examined the internal (community) and external (economic, social, and political) factors that influenced each village centers' efforts to build sustainable development community capacity

Viral Kinetics and Resistance Development in Children Treated with Neuraminidase Inhibitors: The Influenza Resistance Information Study (IRIS)

BackgroundWe studied the effect of age, baseline viral load, vaccination status, antiviral therapy, and emergence of drug resistance on viral shedding in children infected with influenza A or B virus.MethodsSamples from children (aged ≤13 years) enrolled during the 7 years of the prospective Influenza Resistance Information Study were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction to determine the influenza virus (sub-)type, viral load, and resistance mutations. Disease severity was assessed; clinical symptoms were recorded. The association of age with viral load and viral clearance was examined by determining the area under the curve for viral RNA shedding using logistic regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses.ResultsA total of 2131 children infected with influenza (683, A/H1N1pdm09; 825, A/H3N2; 623, influenza B) were investigated. Age did not affect the mean baseline viral load. Children aged 1−5 years had prolonged viral RNA shedding (±1–2 days) compared with older children and up to 1.2-fold higher total viral burden. Besides, in older age (odds ratio [OR], 1.08; confidence interval [CI], 1.05–1.12), prior vaccination status (OR, 1.72; CI, 1.22–2.43) and antiviral treatment (OR, 1.74; CI, 1.43–2.12) increased the rate of viral clearance. Resistance mutations were detected in 49 children infected with influenza A virus (34, A/H1N1pdm09; 15, A/H3N2) treated with oseltamivir, most of whom were aged [under]5 years (n = 39).ConclusionsChildren aged 1−5 years had a higher total viral burden with prolonged virus shedding and had an increased risk of acquiring resistance mutations following antiviral treatment.Clinical Trials RegistrationNCT00884117

Liminality in Practice: A Case study in Life Sciences Research

Contemporary health challenges (e.g. diabetes, climate change, antimicrobial resistance) are underpinned by complex interrelationships between behavioral, cultural, social, environmental and biological processes. Current experimental systems are only partially relevant to the problems they investigate, but aspirations to embed interdisciplinary working and community engagement into life scientists’ work inresponse to this partiality have proven difficult in practice. This paper explores one UK university-based life sciences initiative as it seeks to develop modes of working which respond to this complexity. Drawing on ‘liminal hotspots’ as a sensitizing concept, we explore how participating academics articulate complex problems, knowledge-making, interdisciplinary working and community engagement. Our analysis shows they become recurrently ‘trapped’ (institutionally and epistemologically) between fixed/universalized cosmologies of biology/disease, and more contemporary cosmologies in which biology and disease are conceptualized as situated and evolving. Adopting approaches to community organizing based on ‘process pragmatism’ we propose ways in which life scientists might radically reorganise their practice and move beyond current limiting enactments of interdisciplinary and community engaged working. In doing so we claim that the relevance and ‘humanness’ of life scienceresearch will be increased

Voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy: determinants and outcomes. An empirical study into the risks and payoffs of communicating corporate strategy.

Business leaders increasingly face pressure from stakeholders to be transparent. There appears however little consensus on the risks and payoffs of disclosing vital information such as corporate strategy. To fill this gap, this study analyzes firm-specific determinants and organisational outcomes of voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Stakeholder theory and agency theory help to understand whether companies serve their interest to engage with stakeholders and overcome information asymmetries. I connect these theories and propose a comprehensive approach to measure voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Hypotheses from the theoretical framework are empirically tested through panel regression of data on identified determinants and outcomes and of disclosed strategy through annual reports, corporate social responsibility reports, corporate websites and corporate press releases by the 70 largest publicly listed companies in the Netherlands from 2003 through 2008. I found that industry, profitability, dual-listing status, national ranking status and listing age have significant effects on voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effects are found for size, leverage and ownership concentration. On outcomes, I found that liquidity of stock and corporate reputation are significantly influenced by voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effect is found for volatility of stock. My contributions to theory, methodology and empirics offers a stepping-stone for further research into understanding how companies can use transparency to manage stakeholder relations

Remote spectrophotometric water quality monitoring

The conventional approach to water quality monitoring is to combine periodic sampling with batch analysis in the laboratory. Such a procedure is both labour intensive and time consuming, there are likely to be sample stability and contamination problems, and the information provided is unlikely to be continuous or immediate. This research focussed on the design and construction of fully automated and portable monitors based on flow injection analysis and incorporating solid state photometric detectors. A novel solid state photometric detector was constructed, incorporating light emitting diodes as the light source, which could be used in conjunction with flow injection analysis. Manifolds were studied for a range of species of interest (phosphate, nitrate, ammonia and aluminium) in the field of water quality monitoring and were optimised for their suitability for continuous use. An automated monitor for nitrate was constructed and long term evaluation trials were carried out at several locations for water quality monitoring. Results are also presented for the use of a nitrate monitor in hydroponic cultivation. An automated monitor was also built for the monitoring of ammonia levels in natural waters, which was field tested on the River Avon (Wiltshire). A manifold was also evaluated for the monitoring of residual aluminium levels in drinking water and is currently being commissioned at a water treatment works in Somerset

Method and Apparatus for Detecting and Sizing Microscopic Particles

Improved accuracy of size measurement and size distribution of particles in a fluid have been obtained in an electrical zone sensing apparatus by a flow control director means which directs the fluid in a more streamlined, less turbulent flow through an aperture at which the particles are electrically sensed. Also, the particles were directed and guided to flow substantially parallel to longitudinal axis for the aperture. The preferred flow control detector means comprises a contoured orifice having a smooth tapered inlet wall blended at an intersection with a central cylindrical wall defining a tubular shaped aperture.Sponsorship: IIT Research InstituteUnited States Paten

A Novel Mechanism for Desulfation of Mucin: Identification and Cloning of a Mucin-Desulfating Glycosidase (Sulfoglycosidase) from Prevotella Strain RS2

A novel enzyme which may be important in mucin degradation has been discovered in the mucin-utilizing anaerobe Prevotella strain RS2. This enzyme cleaves terminal 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-d-glucopyranoside 6-sulfate (6-SO(3)-GlcNAc) residues from sulfomucin and from the model substrate 4-nitrophenyl 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-d-glucopyranoside 6-sodium sulfate. The existence of this mucin-desulfating glycosidase (sulfoglycosidase) suggests an alternative mechanism by which this bacterium may desulfate sulfomucins, by glycosidic removal of a sulfated sugar from mucin oligosaccharide chains. Previously, mucin desulfation was thought to take place by the action of a specific desulfating enzyme, which then allowed glycosidases to remove desulfated sugar. Sulfate removal from sulfomucins is thought to be a rate-limiting step in mucin degradation by bacteria in the regions of the digestive tract with a significant bacterial flora. The sulfoglycosidase was induced by growth of the Prevotella strain on mucin and was purified 284-fold from periplasmic extracts. Tryptic digestion and sequencing of peptides from the 100-kDa protein enabled the sulfoglycosidase gene to be cloned and sequenced. Active recombinant enzyme was made in an Escherichia coli expression system. The sulfoglycosidase shows sequence similarity to hexosaminidases. The only other enzyme that has been shown to remove 6-SO(3)-GlcNAc from glycoside substrates is the human lysosomal enzyme β-N-acetylhexosaminidase A, point mutations in which cause the inheritable, lysosomal storage disorder Tay-Sachs disease. The human enzyme removes GlcNAc from glycoside substrates also, in contrast to the Prevotella enzyme, which acts on a nonsulfated substrate at a rate that is only 1% of the rate observed with a sulfated substrate