Commentary on Using Strengths-Based Leadership to Improve the Child Welfare System

This commentary reviews the design features and methods by which the Strengths Based Leadership model of the East Region of a county child welfare agency provides antidotes to the dilemmas typically faced by public agency street-level staff. Identifying worker strengths, increasing worker engagement in agency design, and clearly articulating goals and expectations—all features of productive relationships with client families, when employed by agency leadership—provide both the atmosphere and key supports for direct service staff to obtain positive outcomes for the children and families served

The tasks and roles of social workers: a focused overview of research evidence

Options for Excellence is a joint DfES and DH-funded review of the social care workforce. Four task groups have been set up, each dealing with different aspects of social care. Task Group 3 is considering the roles and tasks of social workers. In order to inform the work of this group, the Thomas Coram Research Unit was asked to provide an overview of relevant research and data in three main areas: the effective deployment of social worker time and tasks, improving cross-professional working, and attitudes to take-up of post-qualifying qualifications

Proton NMR Spectroscopy as a Probe of Dinuclear Copper(II) Active Sites in Metalloproteins. Characterization of the Hyperactive Copper(II)-Substituted Aminopeptidase from \u3cem\u3eAeromonas proteolytica\u3c/em\u3e

Proton NMR spectra of the hyperactive Cu(II)-substituted aminopeptidase from Aeromonas proteolytica (AAP) were recorded in both H2O and D2O buffered solution at pH 6.7. Several remarkably sharp, well resolved hyperfine shifted 1H NMR signals were observed in the 70 to −20 ppm chemical shift range. That hyperfine shifted signals were observed is due to spin-coupling of the two Cu(II) ions. Comparison of the spectra recorded in H2O and D2O buffered solutions indicated that the signals at 44.6, 43.3, and 17.7 ppm were solvent exchangeable. The two most strongly downfield shifted signals were assigned to imidazole N−H protons of the two coordinated histidine residues, while the remaining exchangeable signal was assigned to a peptidyl N−H proton that is in close proximity to the dicopper(II) center. One-dimensional NOE studies at pH 6.7 revealed two Y−CH2−CH\u3c moieties that were assigned to coordinated aspartic acid and histidine residues. In addition, a Y−CH2−CH2−CH\u3c moiety was also identified and was assigned to the coordinated glutamic acid residue, Glu152. All of the hyperfine shifted signals for [CuCu(AAP)] sharpened and shifted toward the diamagnetic region as the temperature was increased following Curie behavior. Fits of these data and those of a series of magnetically diverse μ-phenoxo and μ-alkoxo dicopper(II) model complexes to the population distribution of the ground and first excited states, provided information on the magnetic properties of dicopper(II) clusters. These fits indicated that the two Cu(II) ions in AAP are ferromagnetically coupled with a 2J value of 50 + 40 cm-1. These data provide the first structural information regarding the hyperactive [CuCu(AAP)] enzyme and are discussed in terms of the previously proposed mechanism of action for AAP

Far Term Noise Reduction Technology Roadmap for a Large Twin-Aisle Tube-And-Wing Subsonic Transport

Interest in unconventional aircraft architectures has steadily increased over the past several decades. However, each of these concepts has several technical challenges to overcome before maturing to the point of commercial acceptance. In the interim, it is important to identify any technologies that will enhance the noise reduction of conventional tube-and-wing aircraft. A technology roadmap with an assumed acoustic technology level of a 2035 entry into service is established for a large twin-aisle, tube-and-wing architecture to identify which technologies provide the most noise reduction. The noise reduction potential of the architecture relative to NASA noise goals is also assessed. The current roadmap estimates only a 30 EPNdB cumulative margin to Stage 4 for this configuration of a tube-and-wing aircraft with engines under the wing. This falls short of reaching even the 2025 Mid Term NASA goal (32 EPNdB) in the Far Term time frame. Specifically, the lack of additional technologies to reduce the aft fan noise and the corresponding installation effects is the key limitation of the noise reduction potential of the aircraft. Under the same acoustic technology assumptions, unconventional architectures are shown to offer an 810 EPNdB benefit from favorable relative placement of the engine when integrated to the airframe

Comparisons of ELISA and Western blot assays for detection of autophagy flux

We analyzed autophagy/mitophagy flux in vitro (C2C12 myotubes) and in vivo (mouse skeletal muscle) following the treatments of autophagy inducers (starvation, rapamycin) and a mitophagy inducer (carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone, CCCP) using two immunodetection methods, ELISA and Western blotting, and compared their working range, accuracy, and reliability. The ELISAs showed a broader working range than that of the LC3 Western blots (Table 1). Table 2 showed that data value distribution was tighter and the average standard error from the ELISA was much smaller than those of the Western blot, directly relating to the accuracy of the assay. Test-retest reliability analysis showed good reliability for three individual ELISAs (interclass correlation, ≥ 0.7), but poor reliability for three individual Western blots (interclass correlation, ≤ 0.4) (Table 3). Keywords: Autophagy, Mitophagy, ELISA, Western blot, Skeletal muscl

Magnetic field dependence of charge stripe order in La2-xBaxCuO4 (x~1/8)

We have carried out a detailed investigation of the magnetic field dependence of charge ordering in La2-xBaxCuO4 (x~1/8) utilizing high-resolution x-ray scattering. We find that the charge order correlation length increases as the magnetic field greater than ~5T is applied in the superconducting phase (T=2K). The observed unusual field dependence of the charge order correlation length suggests that the static charge stripe order competes with the superconducting ground state in this sample.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Construction of a genetic linkage map of the banana fungal pathogen, Mycosphaerella fijiensis, causal agent of Black Sigatoka disease

The haploid, hemibiotrophic ascomycete fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis (Morelet) is the causal agent of black Sigatoka, the most economically important disease of banana (Musa spp.). A genetic linkage map of M. fijiensis was constructed from a cross between isolates CIRAD86 (from Cameroon) and CIRAD139A (from Colombia). Sixty one of the progeny were analyzed using molecular markers and the Mating Type (MAT) locus. The genetic linkage map consists of 298 AFLP and 16 SSR markers with twenty three linkage groups, containing 5 or more markers, covering 1879 cM. Markers are separated on average by around 5.9 cM. The MAT locus was shown to segregate in a 1:1 ratio but could not be successfully mapped. The relation between physical size and genetic distance was approximately 40.9 kb/cM. The estimated total haploid genome size was calculated using the genetic mapping data, to be 4303.5 cM. This is the first genetic linkage map reported for this important foliar pathogen of banana (Texte intégral

Charge and orbital excitations in Li2CuO2

We report a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of electronic excitations in Li_2CuO_2, an insulating compound comprised of ribbons of edge-sharing copper-oxygen chains. Three excitations, which show little dependence on momentum transfer, are observed in our measurements. The lowest energy excitation at ~2.1 eV is dispersionless and is attributed to a localized d-d orbital excitation. We also observe two excitations at ~5.4 eV and ~7.6 eV which we assign to charge-transfer excitations. These high-energy excitations are also dispersionless along the copper-oxygen chain direction. However, in each case we observe a small energy dispersion along the direction perpendicular to the copper-oxygen ribbons, suggesting a significant interchain coupling in this system. We also discuss the possible implications of ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor intrachain coupling on the charge excitation spectra.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure