Variations on an American dream: alternative homeownership models

With homeownership central to the national economy and U.S. housing policy, the drop in homeownership rates could have long-term negative consequences. A growing body of research argues that alternative homeownership products, such as limited equity cooperatives and lease-to-own models, can offer participants many of the benefits of ownership while reducing some risks. However, these models are not widely implemented or understood. This article asks experts in the housing field about the prospects of greater adoption of these models.Home ownership

Play-Based Learning for Academic, Social, and Emotional Growth in First Grade Students

Research has shown that play-based learning is beneficial for student growth and development in academic, social, and emotional skills. The professional development course designed for this project focuses on implementing a play-based learning pedagogical approach in first grade classrooms, in order to strengthen student social and emotional skills and increase academic knowledge. Play-based learning has been widely used and studied in preschool and kindergarten classrooms, but research on play and implementation at the first grade level is limited. The project involved creating professional development sessions that engaged teachers in play while learning best practices for creating change in their classrooms. The professional development sessions were created for first grade teachers, but are not standard specific and could be applied to other grades. The goal of this project is to help teachers create developmentally appropriate learning opportunities for students through collaboration and play

Class, privatization and social life in a Boston mixed income housing development

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 268-277).Social interaction among friends and neighbors is generally considered an informal process. Consequently, we often think of the structure of personal social networks as an expression of people's individual preferences. The observed homogeneity within social networks is often treated as a near socio-biological fact: people, like "birds of a feather," flock together. This dissertation examines unexpected influences on cross-class interaction in a privatized mixed income housing development in Boston, Massachusetts. The research site Maverick Landing was constructed as an alternative to low-income public housing as part of the HOPE VI program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Through research methods including fourteen months of residency and participant observation at Maverick Landing, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, this study shows how formal processes interacted with informal ones at the interpersonal level and impacted cross-class interaction. Management enforced a formal structure -- including rules and control of physical space, as well as more subtle measures such as information control and resource distribution - that substantially negatively influenced interpersonal relations. Larger structural realities too shaped the actions of the management company. Relative to their lower income neighbors, higher income residents had considerable leverage in the housing market, making them much harder to recruit and retain. Due to this structural disparity, management sought to satisfy the market rate residents over the subsidized ones, resulting in cross-class resentment. Additionally, the social structure evident at Maverick Landing was in part the outcome of a chain of processes that began at the Federal level where the potential for privatization and income mixing was promoted through policy.(cont.) Following the "implementation chain" from the federal level, to the local level, to the site of implementation, Maverick Landing and finally to residents' actions and reactions, this research shows how social interaction is structured by public and private actors outside of the implementation site, Maverick Landing. Privatized mixed income developments, many hoped, would reduce inequality between lower and higher income people. But in important ways, the intervention reproduced inequality. And it shows us how class is protected, not just by its members but also by institutions.by Erin Michelle Graves.Ph.D

Inter-Individual Isolation by Distance: Implications for Landscape Genetics

Many approaches to understanding the influence of landscape on gene flow account for isolation by distance, a phenomena where individuals that are closer together are more likely to be more closely related. Most theoretical research has focused on isolation by distance between populations. We simulated the expected isolation by distance patterns between individuals within a finite population and found an asymptotic pattern. New null models are needed in landscape genetic approaches to correctly account for isolation by distance patterns. We will briefly review isolation by distance and discuss the factors (time, variance in dispersal, and mutation rates) influencing isolation by distance patterns. Our results have implications for estimating how difficult it is for animals to move through the landscape

The impact of multiple chronic diseases on ambulatory care use; a population based study in Ontario, Canada

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of multiple chronic diseases is increasing and is a common problem for primary health care providers. This study sought to determine the patient and health system burden of multiple chronic diseases among adults in Ontario, Canada, with a focus on the ambulatory health care system (outpatient primary health care and specialist services). METHODS: This population-based study used linked health administrative data from Ontario, Canada. Individuals, aged 20 years or older, who had a valid health card, were included. Validated case definitions were used to identify persons with at least one of the following nine chronic diseases: diabetes, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension, asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease, peripheral vascular disease and end stage renal failure. Prevalence estimates for chronic diseases were calculated for April 1, 2009. Ambulatory physician billing records for the two-year period, April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2010, were used to identify the number of outpatient ambulatory care visits. RESULTS: In 2009, 26.3% of Ontarians had one chronic disease, 10.3% had two diseases, and 5.6% had three or more diseases. Annual mean primary health care use increased significantly with each additional chronic disease. Overall, there were twice as many patient visits to primary health care providers compared to specialists across all chronic disease counts. Among those with multiple diseases, primary health care visits increased with advancing age, while specialist care dropped off. While persons with three or more diseases accounted for a disproportionate share of primary health care visits, the largest number of visits were made by those with no or one chronic disease. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of care for persons with multiple chronic diseases is considerable and falls largely on the primary health care provider. However persons with no or one chronic disease are responsible for the largest number of ambulatory health care visits overall. Continued investment in primary health care is needed both to care for those with multiple diseases and to prevent the accumulation of chronic diseases with aging

Stable low-level expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1 )in A549 human bronchogenic carcinoma cell line-derived clones down-regulates E2F1 mRNA and restores cell proliferation control

BACKGROUND: Deregulated cell cycle progression and loss of proliferation control are key properties of malignant cells. In previous studies, an interactive transcript abundance index (ITAI) comprising three cell cycle control genes, [MYC × E2F1]/p21 accurately distinguished normal from malignant bronchial epithelial cells (BEC), using a cut-off threshold of 7,000. This cut-off is represented by a line with a slope of 7,000 on a bivariate plot of p21 versus [MYC × E2F1], with malignant BEC above the line and normal BEC below the line. This study was an effort to better quantify, at the transcript abundance level, the difference between normal and malignant BEC. The hypothesis was tested that experimental elevation of p21 in a malignant BEC line would decrease the value of the [MYC × E2F1]/p21 ITAI to a level below this line, resulting in loss of immortality and limited cell population doubling capacity. In order to test the hypothesis, a p21 expression vector was transfected into the A549 human bronchogenic carcinoma cell line, which has low constitutive p21 TA expression relative to normal BEC. RESULTS: Following transfection of p21, four A549/p21 clones with stable two-fold up-regulated p21 expression were isolated and expanded. For each clone, the increase in p21 transcript abundance (TA) was associated with increased total p21 protein level, more than 5-fold reduction in E2F1 TA, and 10-fold reduction in the [MYC × E2F1]/p21 ITAI to a value below the cut-off threshold. These changes in regulation of cell cycle control genes were associated with restoration of cell proliferation control. Specifically, each transfectant was capable of only 15 population doublings compared with unlimited population doublings for parental A549. This change was associated with an approximate 2-fold increase in population doubling time to 38.4 hours (from 22.3 hrs), resumption of contact-inhibition, and reduced dividing cell fraction as measured by flow cytometric DNA analysis. CONCLUSION: These results, likely due to increased p21-mediated down-regulation of E2F1 TA at the G1/S phase transition, are consistent with our hypothesis. Specifically, they provide experimental confirmation that a line with slope of 7,000 on the p21 versus [MYC × E2F1] bivariate plot quantifies the difference between normal and malignant BEC at the level of transcript abundance

Higher Education in an Era of Mass Incarceration: Possibility Under Constraint

In this essay, we explore the purposes of higher education in prison during an era of mass incarceration and contend that the potential of postsecondary educational opportunity in carceral spaces is undermined by a single-minded focus on reducing recidivism. Among the over 2.2 million individuals behind bars in the United States, only 6 percent have access to formal postsecondary educational opportunities, and as a result, most incarcerated students are not on an educational pathway likely to result in academic degree attainment. We must move beyond a recidivist paradigm not because certificate-based and vocational training is not valuable, but because it is simply not enough of what college-in-prison programming can be or do. Drawing upon the experiences of higher education students who are incarcerated, our analysis reveals how even well-intended practices in prison spaces pose obstacles to seeing incarcerated individuals as potential postsecondary students and degree completers