Developing the Welfare-to-Work Participation and Employability Appraisal Screening: A Retrospective Study

CalWORKs recipients, unless exempt, are required to participate in welfare-to-work (WTW) program activities as a condition of receiving cash aid. A number of clients, however, may have issues that impede successful engagement in WTW program activities, such as substance abuse, mental health concerns, or domestic violence issues. The Riverside County (California) Department of Mental Health (RCDMH) and the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) sought to develop a structured case management system to help ensure early identification of WTW customers with barriers to employment and, if necessary, to help facilitate quicker engagement in services to address those barriers and move customers into successful employment. A key component of the structured case management system is an actuarial appraisal screening to help identify those customers most in need of support to make a successful transition to self-sufficiency. This report describes the study conducted by Childrenas Research Center (CRC) to develop an appraisal screening that classifies customers by the likelihood of subsequent WTW program participation and employment. Employment counselors can complete the screening assessment soon after WTW assignment to help identify which customers are in greatest need of additional support and engagement to increase the likelihood of successful program participation

Developing an Actuarial Risk Assessment to Inform the Decisions Made by Adult Protective Service Workers

In 2008, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services (BEAS) and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), with funding provided by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), collaborated to construct an actuarial risk assessment to classify BEAS clients by their likelihood of elder maltreatment and/or self-neglect in the future. Studies in adult and juvenile corrections and child welfare have demonstrated that active service intervention with high risk clients can reduce criminal recidivism and the recurrence of child maltreatment (Wagner, Hull, & Luttrell, 1995; Eisenberg & Markley, 1987; Baird, Heinz, & Bemus, 1981). The purpose of this research was to examine a large set of individual and referral characteristics, determine their relationship to subsequent elder self-neglect and/or maltreatment, and develop an actuarial risk assessment for BEAS workers to complete at the end of an investigation to inform their case decisions.BEAS and NCCD pursued development of an actuarial risk assessment with the goal of reducing subsequent maltreatment of elderly and vulnerable adults who have been involved in an incident of self-neglect or maltreatment by another person (i.e., abuse, exploitation, or neglect). The actuarial risk assessment described in this report provides BEAS workers with a method to more accurately identify high risk clients and therefore more effectively target service interventions in an effort to protect their most vulnerable clients

Bringing wonder into medicine: a film-based curriculum

The proposed workshop presents a film-based curriculum in whole person care.This curriculum includes one 37-minute film (A Certain Kind of Light – screened in 18 film festivals around the world) and six smaller films that are each 5-10 minutes in length, and are accompanied by a journaling process (all of which explore whole person care in medicine). These are not the traditional “teaching” films, but films developed from a more artistic/creative standpoint, for the purposes of affecting attitudes, as much as teaching skills. The workshop will include the following: Introduction: Discussion of how the film-based curriculum impacts culture change as much as personal change of the healthcare practitioner. Content: If there is not enough time to show all 7 films, we would present at least four of them to help the participant understand both philosophy and content of the films, illustrating how whole person care concepts can be taught through an aesthetic avenue to more immediately affect thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors. In addition, we will discuss the journaling process, clinical rounds, and research that accompany the film curriculum. Finally, the panel will join together in discussing how this type of mechanism contributes to culture shift within an organization. Those presenting in this workshop are those who developed, teach and conduct research on this curriculum. This curriculum is newly developed (as of 2017) and is being used in a variety of healthcare disciplines within one healthcare educational and clinical entity and has been requested by several others

An Evaluation Framework for Engineering Design Projects for Gender Bias, Domain Relatedness, and Ambiguity: Development

Engineering design learning is one of the key components for an engineering degree; thus engineering design projects are commonly included in engineering curricula to help students cultivate design thinking and creative problem-solving skills. However, an engineering design project is prone to the following issues if it is not appropriately provided to engineering students. First, gender bias can occur when the design project is perceived to be more skewed to one gender in comparison to the other. Second, domain bias can occur when the discipline of the design project is not related to the chosen major and interest areas of a student. Third, ambiguity can arise from the lack of clarity on design objectives and the scope. These issues can lead to diminished engagement and self-efficacy for engineering students. In order to tackle these issues, this study performs a preliminary work to build a framework that appropriately assesses engineering design projects. The evaluation framework is based on a measurement system that helps educators to evaluate the appropriateness of the design projects through designated questionnaires. The framework for design projects proposed in this study would help engineering educators to better prepare and revise their design projects, so that the engineering design projects can improve student engagement and learning performance

Evaluation of the mechanism of action of Bacillus spp. to manage Meloidogyne incognita with split root assay, RT-qPCR and qPCR

The goal of this research is to determine the mechanism of action of two Bacillus spp. that can manage Meloidogyne incognita population density in cotton. The overall objectives are 1) determine the efficacy and direct antagonistic capabilities of the Bacillus spp. and 2) determine the systemic capabilities of the Bacillus spp. The greenhouse in planta assay indicated B. amyloliquefaciens QST713 and B. firmus I-1582 could manage M. incognita similarly to the chemical standard fluopyram. An in vitro assay determined that B. firmus I-1582 and its extracted metabolites were able to directly manage M. incognita second stage juveniles by increasing mortality rate above 75%. A split root assay, used to determine systemic capabilities of the bacteria, indicated B. amyloliquefaciens QST713 and B. firmus I-1582 could indirectly decrease the nematode population density. Another species, B. mojavensis strain 2, also demonstrated systemic capabilities but was not a successful biological control agent because it supported a high population density in greenhouse in planta assay and in the split root assay. A RT-qPCR assay was used to confirm any systemic activity observed in the split root assay. At 24 hours both B. amyloliquefaciens QST713 and B. firmus I-1582 upregulated one gene involved in the initial stages of JA synthesis pathway but not another gene involved in the later stages of JA synthesis. These results point to a JA intermediate molecule, most likely OPDA, stimulated by the bacteria rather than JA in a short-term systemic response. After 1 week, the Bacillus spp. stimulated a SA-responsive defense related gene. The long-term systemic response to the Bacillus spp. indicates salicylic acid also plays a role in defense conferred by these bacteria. The final assay was a qPCR to determine the concentration of the bacteria on the cotton roots after 24 days. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens QST713 and B. firmus I-43 1582 were able to colonize the root successfully, with the concentration after 24 days not significantly differing from the concentration at inoculation. This study identifies two bacteria that work via systemic resistance and will help aid in implementing these species in an integrated management system

A cyberlearning platform for enhancing undergraduate engineering education in sustainable product design

Existing tools for educating undergraduate students about sustainable engineering methods are notably lacking. In particular, these tools are unable to support the assessment of competing objectives in the evaluation of economic, environmental, and social performance across the lifecycle during product design. In an effort to address this deficiency, an interactive, web-based learning environment, a distributed cyberlearning environment, Constructionism in Learning: Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering (CooL:SLiCE) has been created. CooL:SLiCE aims to facilitate the consideration of different human controlled/initiated impacts on the natural environment through personalized individual and team-based design activities. Thus, CooL:SLiCE enables constructionist (physical, hands-on) learning in engineering via a virtual platform that allows students to visualize/analyze the effect of changes to product designs, manufacturing processes, and supply chain configurations on sustainability performance. The overall conceptual framework of the CooL:SLiCE platform is discussed. Additionally, the application of constructionism as a pedagogical approach for sustainable engineering education is presented. The framework is designed to facilitate attainment of deeper conceptual understanding in environmentally responsible product design and manufacturing by supplying a set of tools that support a constructivist learning environment. This tool set is based on disparate methodologies from the design, industrial, and manufacturing engineering domains. A team project was undertaken to pilot the CooL:SLiCE platform to aid design and assessment during the sustainable product development process. The pilot project demonstrated the capacity of the CooL:SLiCE platform in the understanding of sustainable product design concepts. This research advances the current educational tools for sustainable product design by integrating three learning modules into a web-based environment developed in the CooL:SLiCE project to provide a platform for learning not currently accessible to engineering educators and students. Future work will mainly focus on using the platform in the classroom settings to investigate its effect on improving student understanding of sustainable life cycle engineering

Development of Learning Modules for Sustainable Life Cycle Product Design: A Constructionist Approach

Constructionism is an approach to learning in which learners construct their own understanding and knowledge through making a meaningful product. A cyberlearning environment for sustainable life cycle engineering design has been developed based upon this approach through a multi-university research project funded by the NSF entitled “Constructionism in Learning: Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering (CooL:SLiCE).” The pedagogic significance of CooL:SLiCE is to better enable university students to learn about sustainable product life cycle engineering design by realizing effective learning modules for personalized environmentally-responsible product design. The CooL:SliCE platform has developed a web-based portal with three learning modules: 1) Sustainable product architecture and supplier selection (S-PASS), 2) Visualization and CAD design, and 3) Manufacturing analysis. To test these modules, students from three different universities with different engineering backgrounds were asked to design sustainable multi-copters through the developed web-based portal. A case study of this intercollegiate collaborative pilot project is developed from multiple data sources to describe the effectiveness of constructionism to engage students in learning sustainable life-cycle engineering

The Middle Way: East Asian masters students’ perceptions of critical argumentation in U.K. universities.

The paper explores the learning experiences of East Asian masters students in dealing with Western academic norms of critical thinking in classroom debate and assignment writing. The research takes a cultural approach, and employs grounded theory and case study methodology, the aims being for students to explain their perceptions of their personal learning journeys. The data suggest that the majority of students interviewed rejected full academic acculturation into Western norms of argumentation. They instead opted for a ‘Middle Way’ that synergizes the traditional cultural academic values held by many East Asian students with those elements of Western academic norms that are perceived to be aligned with these. This is a relatively new area of research which represents a challenge for British lecturers and students

Brain computed tomography angiography in postcardiac arrest patients and neurologic outcome

Objective This study aimed to analyze intracranial vessels using brain computed tomography angiography (CTA) and scoring systems to diagnose brain death and predict poor neurologic outcomes of postcardiac arrest patients. Methods Initial brain CTA images of postcardiac arrest patients were analyzed using scoring systems to determine a lack of opacification and diagnose brain death. The primary outcome was poor neurologic outcome, which was defined as cerebral performance category score 3 to 5. The frequency, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and area under receiver operating characteristic curve for the lack of opacification of each vessel and for each scoring system used to predict poor neurologic outcomes were determined. Results Patients with poor neurologic outcomes lacked opacification of the intracranial vessels, most commonly in the vein of Galen, both internal cerebral veins, and the mid cerebral artery (M4). The 7-score results (P=0.04) and 10-score results were significantly different (P=0.04) between outcome groups, with an area under receiver operating characteristic of 0.61 (range, 0.48 to 0.72). The lack of opacification of each intracranial vessel and all scoring systems exhibited high specificity (100%) and positive predictive values (100%) for predicting poor neurologic outcomes. Conclusion Lack of opacification of vessels on brain CTA exhibited high specificity for predicting poor neurologic outcomes of patients after cardiac arrest

A Zebrafish Model for a Rare Genetic Disease Reveals a Conserved Role for FBXL3 in the Circadian Clock System

The circadian clock, which drives a wide range of bodily rhythms in synchrony with the day–night cycle, is based on a molecular oscillator that ticks with a period of approximately 24 h. Timed proteasomal degradation of clock components is central to the fine-tuning of the oscillator’s period. FBXL3 is a protein that functions as a substrate-recognition factor in the E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, and was originally shown in mice to mediate degradation of CRY proteins and thus contribute to the mammalian circadian clock mechanism. By exome sequencing, we have identified a FBXL3 mutation in patients with syndromic developmental delay accompanied by morphological abnormalities and intellectual disability, albeit with a normal sleep pattern. We have investigated the function of FBXL3 in the zebrafish, an excellent model to study both vertebrate development and circadian clock function and, like humans, a diurnal species. Loss of fbxl3a function in zebrafish led to disruption of circadian rhythms of promoter activity and mRNA expression as well as locomotor activity and sleep–wake cycles. However, unlike humans, no morphological effects were evident. These findings point to an evolutionary conserved role for FBXL3 in the circadian clock system across vertebrates and to the acquisition of developmental roles in humans