Community Assistance for Refugees and Gender Roles: What Could Make this C.A.R. run Better?

Community Assistance for Refugees is a non-profit service organization in downtown Mankato, Minnesota. Secondary migration to southern Minnesota has increased the refugee population as well as the need for research assessing the needs and concerns of refugees. The purpose of this project was two-fold: first to analyze how C.A.R. is able to meet the needs of its clients and second, to investigate ways in which C.A.R. could improve its services. Traditionally female refugees are less educated and less mainstreamed into American society. This research was designed to help all clients, but special attention was paid to the specific needs of female refugees. By conducting participant observations (volunteering at C.A.R. and recording observations) and ethnographic interviews (semi-structured, open-ended interviews) qualitative data was collected from clients and staff. The majority of clients interviewed were from East Africa and were fleeing violence. Paperwork issues (usually green card or citizenship applications) were the most common reason for client visits to C.A.R. Other client concerns included: language difficulties, discrimination, time management and weather. Staff interviews yielded a glimpse into the struggle of running a successful non-profit service organization. The difficulties and challenges of cross-gender/cross-cultural communication are discussed, as well as suggestions for more effective communication strategies. Finally, conclusions are offered that center on future research options, recommendations to C.A.R. and the Mankato community, and how gender roles have changed for refugees who have came to America

Taking the Leap: Exploring a Theory of Program Innovation

Innovation in Extension is often referred to as something tangible, such as a new resource or technique or new concepts. However, these things result from a program innovation process. In this article, we elaborate a grounded theory of how this process unfolds in the context of Extension. Through analysis of data from a national survey of practitioners from innovative programs, a panel presentation, and interviews with faculty at the University of Minnesota, we describe seven factors that influence what prompts innovation and how the process tends to unfold. We synthesize a capitals-based conceptual model and discuss implications for diagnosing and strengthening program innovation

A Call to Embrace Program Innovation

To remain vital, it is critical for Extension to embrace the innovation at the core of our birth and success. In this article, we define Extension program innovation as driven by the productive tensions among three core program planning practices: design, construction, and evaluation. Through daily, interactive tinkering in these three practices, staff strive toward stronger program impact and creatively respond to opportunities or challenges. We discuss how an innovation approach to program planning is well suited to address three contemporary Extension program development issues. We also discuss implications of innovation research to improve Extension program planning

Counting Modular Tableaux

In this paper we provide a bijection between all modular tableaux of size $kn$ and all partitions of $n$ labeled with $k$ colors. This bijection consists of a new function proven in this paper composed with mappings given by Garrett and Killpatrick in \cite{An1} and Stanton and White in \cite{An2}. We also demonstrate the novel construction and proof of a mapping essentially equivalent to Stanton and White\u27s, but more useful for the purposes of the bijection mentioned above. By using the generating function for the number of $k$-colored partitions of $n$ in conjunction with our bijection, we can count the number of modular tableaux of size $kn$

Public Value Posters: Conveying Societal Benefits of Extension Programs Through Evaluation Evidence

The public value poster session is a new tool for effectively demonstrating and reporting the public value of Extension programming. Akin to the research posters that have long played a critical role in the sharing of findings from academic studies, the public value poster provides a consistent format for conveying the benefits to society of Extension programs and resources. This article provides background on the creation of a public value poster rubric and the implementation of an inaugural public value poster session. This type of session holds enormous potential for building capacity to link program evaluation with public value messaging

Effects of Performance Feedback on High School Teachers’ Use of Opportunities to Respond and Positive Feedback: Considering Efficiency in High Need Schools

The transition into high school presents new challenges for adolescents and performance in ninth grade is highly predictive of success throughout the remainder of high school. However, focus on teacher performance has great promise for increasing student engagement in the classroom and raising student achievement. Unfortunately, many of these practices typically are not implemented within classrooms where students are at highest risk for failure. Two studies were implemented to examine the effect of simple performance feedback strategies as a means of increasing teachers’ provision of opportunities for student responses and positive feedback during instruction. Results showed no effect in teacher behavior as a result of performance feedback. A discussion considers the implications of high need schools, efficiency, and the necessary and sufficient strategies for changing teacher behavior

Safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics of rilpivirine: systematic review with an emphasis on resource-limited settings

The vast majority of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome reside in the developing world, in settings characterized by limited health budgets, critical shortages of doctors, limited laboratory monitoring, a substantial burden of HIV in children, and high rates of coinfection, in particular tuberculosis. Therefore, the extent to which new antiretrovirals will contribute to improvements in the management of HIV globally will depend to a large extent on their affordability, ease of use, low toxicity profile, availability as pediatric formulations, and compatibility with tuberculosis and other common drugs. We undertook a systematic review of the available evidence regarding drug interactions, and the efficacy and safety of rilpivirine (also known as TMC-278), and assessed our findings in view of the needs and constraints of resource-limited settings. The main pharmacokinetic interactions relevant to HIV management reported to date include reduced bioavailability of rilpivirine when coadministered with rifampicin, rifabutin or acid suppressing agents, and reduced bioavailability of ketoconazole. Potential recommendations for dose adjustment to compensate for these interactions have not been elaborated. Trials comparing rilpivirine and efavirenz found similar outcomes up to 96 weeks in intent-to-treat analysis; failure of rilpivirine was mainly virological, whereas failure among those exposed to efavirenz was mainly related to the occurrence of adverse events. Around half of the patients who fail rilpivirine develop non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor resistance mutations. The incidence of Grade 2–4 events was lower for rilpivirine compared with efavirenz. Grade 3–4 adverse events potentially related to the drugs were infrequent and statistically similar for both drugs. No dose-response relationship was observed for efficacy or safety, and the lowest dose (25 mg) was selected for further clinical development. The potential low cost and dose of the active pharmaceutical ingredient means that rilpivirine can potentially be manufactured at a low price. Moreover, its long half-life suggests the potential for monthly dosing via nonoral routes, with promising early results from studies of a long-acting injectable formulation. These characteristics make rilpivirine an attractive drug for resource-limited settings. Future research should assess the potential to improve robustness and assess the clinical significance of interaction with antituberculosis drugs

Phosphorus Excretion of Feedlot Cattle Fed Diets Containing Corn or Distillers Coproducts

Samples were analyzed from three metabolism trials to evaluate the effects of dietary phosphorus (P) intake on P excretion in beef steers fed corn-based finishing diets. In Experiment I, ten steers were fed ten diets that involved two processing methods, whole and dry rolled corn and five corn sources, commodity, white, high oil, high protein, and highoil-high-protein corn. In Experiment II, six steers were fed three diets that included three variations of protein supplementation to meet 70, 80, and 100% of the degradable intake protein requirements for growing steers. In Experiment III, ten steers were fed five diets including control, 4% or 8% distillers solubles, and 10% or 20% wet distillers grains. For all experiments total urine and feces, feed intake, and feed refused were measured during a 5-d collection period, following 9, 10 and 14-d of dietary adaptation for the three respective experiments. Dietary P concentration (% DM) and dietary P intake (g/d) ranged from 0.31 to 0.36 and 21.5 to 27.2, 0.28 to 0.29 and 19.8 to 21.2 and 0.29 to 0.40 and 22.9 to 34.5 in the three respective experiments. Total P excretion was significantly related to P intake, but there was considerable variation among steers in partitioning excretion of P in urine or feces. Urinary P excretion (g/d) ranged from 3.0 to 7.4, 3.1 to 4.3 and 4.3 to 7.5 in the three studies, respectively. Replacing corn grain with corn processing co-products increased P intake but did not significantly change excretion patterns