Respite Partnership Collaborative (RPC) Innovation Project Evaluation: Report 1

The Mental Health Services Act (MHSA)—funded by Proposition 63—was enacted in California in November 2004. MHSA funding supports five unique components: (1) Community Services and Supports, (2) Prevention and Early Intervention, (3) Workforce Education and Training, (4) Capital Facilities and Technology, and (5) Innovative Programs. Innovative programs contribute to learning by testing new approaches to inform current and future practices.In September 2010, the Sacramento County Division of Behavioral Health Services (DBHS) initiated a community planning process to develop Sacramento County's first Innovation Project. Through community input, the Respite Partnership Collaborative (RPC) Innovation Project was created with the goal to create alternatives to hospitalization by increasing local mental health respite service options for community members experiencing a mental health crisis in Sacramento County. The project seeks to: (1) create learning opportunities on how the project is developed and administered, (2) integrate community feedback into program development and implementation, and (3) expedite the release of funds of respite services to community organizations. The RPC Innovation Project is administered by the Sierra Health Foundation: The Center for Health Program Management (the Center).As part of the Innovation Project, an evaluation contract was awarded to American Institutes for Research (AIR) to evaluate the 5-year RPC Innovation Project. The main evaluation objectives are to assess the extent to which the RPC Innovation Project does the following:Promotes successful collaboration between public and private entities (i.e., DBHS and the Center) in Sacramento County.Demonstrates a community-driven process. Improves the quality and outcomes of respite services in Sacramento County.The purpose of this annual report is to present early findings from evaluation activities conducted from June 2013 through June 2014. Evaluation methods employed include interviews, surveys, and document review

Documenting Diversity among Working LIS Graduates

The purpose of this article is to document the demographic characteristics of the library and information science (LIS) workforce and to discuss the implications of these findings for education and workforce planning. Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science 1 (WILIS 1) is a collaborative research partnership of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science and the University of North Carolina Institute on Aging, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through its Librarians for the 21st Century Program. Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science 1 (WILIS 1) is a comprehensive study of the career patterns of graduates of LIS programs in North Carolina since 1964. This article examines data from 1,903 working LIS graduate respondents. The results of this study suggest that the LIS workforce is predominantly female, underrepresented in terms of race/ethnic minorities, and consists of slightly older workers than the workforce overall. Comparisons of earnings reveal a substantial wage gap between the males and females in the sample (men earn more). We also find significant race, sex, and gender differences in factors that motivated respondents to enter an LIS program and qualities of jobs that respondents find desirable. Based on these findings, we suggest the following strategies to increasing diversity: (1) focus efforts on recruiting race/ethnic minorities to the LIS profession; (2) structure LIS jobs to accommodate the needs of women workers; and (3) plan for and accommodate the large segment of older and retiring workers.published or submitted for publicatio

Patients and Providers Speak: Early Care Experiences Under the ACA

As of April 2014, more than 1.4 million Californians had selected a non-Medi-Cal health plan through Covered California, the state's health care marketplace. What was their experience of seeking and receiving care through plans made newly available under the ACA?This study provides early insight into the successes and challenges of the ACA from the perspectives of consumers as well as from providers in clinical organizations in California. It is based on focus groups with 74 consumers and interviews with 64 health care providers in four areas of the state. Because consumers surveyed were among those quickest to enroll and use services, they are not representative of all Covered California enrollees

\u3ci\u3eDrosophila\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Elements Maintain a Distinct Set of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years of Evolution

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25–50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3–11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11–27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4–3.6 vs. 8.4–8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu