Pathways out of Poverty: PROGRESA/OPORTUNIDADES The Mexican Program on Education, Health, and Nutrition is widely known by its Spanish acronym, Progresa, though officially renamed the Oportunidades Human Development Program. Progresa/ Oportunidades combats child labor and poor education and health by ensuring that parents can feed their children, take them to health clinics, and keep them in school while providing financial incentives to do so. Progresa/Oportunidades builds on the growing understanding that health, nutrition, and education are complements in the struggle to end poverty. The program features the promotion of an integrated package to promote the education, health, and nutrition status of poor families. It provides cash transfers to poor families, family clinic visits, in-kind nutritional supplements, and other health benefits for pregnant and lactating women and their children under the age of 5. Some of these benefits are provided conditionally on children’s regular school and health clinic attendance, and so programs of this kind are commonly called conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. In effect, low-income parents are paid to send their children to school and clinics, and this is one of the recent tactics most widely believed by the donor and development community to be effective in sustainably reducing poverty. The benefits compensate parents for lost income or the lost value of work at home. Such payments work to increase school enrollments, attendance, progress through grades, other schooling outcomes, and nutrition and health. Before the program, Mexico operated a maze of inefficiently run food subsidy programs managed by as many as ten different ministries. These programs were very blunt instruments against poverty and often failed to reach the very poor. For example, the better-off urban poor benefited far more than the hard-to-reach but worse-off rural poor. There was no mechanism to ensure that food subsidies benefited vulnerable children in poor households. Nor was there any clear exit strategy for sustainably helping poor families stay out of poverty. Malnutrition remained common in poor rural (especially indigenous) families, and educational achievements and health gains had failed to reach the poor in the way they had benefited the better-off in Mexico. For economic reasons, many poor children had to work rather than go to school. But poor health and education as a child are major determinants of lifelong poverty. One solution has turned out to be Progresa/ Opportunidades, an innovative developing-country- designed integrated poverty program. Its major architect was Santiago Levy, a development economist who led the design and implementation of the program in the 1990s while serving as deputy minister of finance. Levy describes the program and its development, implementation, and evaluation in his excellent 2006 book, Progress against Poverty. From its inception in rural areas in August 1997, the Progresa program had grown to cover some 5 million rural and urban households by 2007. It has been estimated that more than 21 million people benefit—approximately one-fifth of the Mexican population—in over 75,000 localities. In 2002, the program distributed 857 million doses of nutrition supplements and covered 2.4 million medical checkups. Over 4.5 million “scholarships” were provided to schoolchildren. By the end of 2005, the program had covered 5 million families, which contained almost one-quarter of the country’s population and most people living in extreme poverty. Progresa/Oportunidades affects child nutrition through four program components, called pathways: cash transfers, which may be used in part for improved nutrition; nutritional supplements given to all participating children under 2, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and children between the ages of 2 and 5 who show signs of malnutrition; growth monitoring, which provides feedback to parents; and other preventive measures, including re- quired participation in regular meetings where vital information about hygiene and nutrition is taught. Participating families receive school program payments every other month. In addition, families receive grants for school supplies and food subsidies, on the proviso that they get regular public health care for the children, including medical checkups and immunizations. Payments are generally provided through the mother, because evidence shows that mothers use more of their available funds in support of the children’s wellbeing than fathers do. The payments are supplied via a bank card, directly from the federal government and not through intermediaries, reducing chances of corruption, and mothers are taught how and where to cash in their payments. Program payments are conditional on children in grades three through nine attending school regularly. In developing countries such as Mexico, children are often enrolled in school but do not attend for long. The payments increase as the child in- creases in grade level. This gives an incentive to keep children in school longer and helps the children continue into higher grades. Initially, parents of a third grader received a little over $10 per month; parents of girls in ninth grade got over $35 per month. This was close to two-thirds of the in- come the children would receive as laborers. The overall result was to break the trade-off that parents face between higher consumption for the family to- day and the higher future consumption possible when the child has completed school. Families of girls also receive slightly higher payments than boys, partly because girls are more likely to drop out, while the social benefits of keeping girls in school are well known from development economics research to be very high. Provided that the school and health checkup conditions are met, the families, not the government, decide how to best spend these extra resources. Levy estimates that the average family participating in the program receives about $35 per month in combined cash and in-kind transfers, which is about 25% of average poor rural family income without the program. The program is also more effective than standard alternatives. For example, evidence shows that Progresa/Oportunidades has a larger impact on enrollment and performance per dollar spent than building new schools. The budget for even the much-expanded Progresa/Oportunidades program in 2005 was still some $2.8 billion—modest, even in Mexico’s economy. This represented less than 0.4% of gross national income. Only Mexico’s pension (social security) scheme is a larger social program. Progresa/Oportunidades is also organizationally efficient, with operating expenses of only about 6% of total outlays. This it owes in part to the direct provision of cash grants via bank cards to the beneficiaries, bypassing the sometimes ineffective and potentially corrupt administrative bureaucracy. Fully 82% goes to the direct cash transfers and the remaining 12% to nutritional supplements and other inkind transfers. Some additional costs for provision of health care and schooling are borne by the Mexican health and education ministries. However, Progresa/Oportunidades is lauded not so much as for its modest cost as for the fact that it works. It has been subject to one of the most rigorous randomized trials of any public poverty program in the world. The Washington-based Inter- national Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with many affiliated researchers, has intensively studied the program, using a variety of methods. The most convincing evidence comes from the way the program was initially rolled out. Only some communities were to take part in the program at first, before it reached full scale, and the order in which initially targeted communities were included was randomized. Data were collected from both initially included and excluded families, so that the impact of the program could be studied independently of the many possible confounding factors that can otherwise distort the results of an evaluation. Participants in these rigorous studies have included some of the world’s leading development micro- economists. Evaluations of Progresa/Oportunidades indicate that its integrated approach has been highly successful, with large improvements in the well-being of participants. Malnutrition has measurably declined; family use of health care, including prenatal care, has increased, and child health indicators have improved; school attendance is up significantly, and the dropout rate has declined substantially, especially in the so-called transition grades six through nine, when children either get launched to- ward high school or drop out. In general terms, the research showed that Progresa/Oportunidades in- creased by some 20% the number of children who stay in school rather than drop out just before high school. Child labor decreased by about 15%. At first, there were some concerns that adults might work less when receiving the transfers, but the evidence is that no work reduction has occurred. Several of the most statistically reliable studies and their research methods and findings are reviewed in Emmanuel Skoufias’s 2005 IFPRI report, PROGRESA and Its Impacts on the Welfare of Rural Households in Mexico. Other key research reports are listed among the sources at the end of this case study. The lessons of Progresa/Oportunidades are spreading throughout Latin America and some of its features are also found in the Bolsa-Familia pro- gram in Brazil, Familias por la Inclusión Social in Argentina, Chile Solidario, Familias en Acción in Colombia, Superemonos in Costa Rica, Bono de Desarrollo Humano in Ecuador, Programa de Asignación Familiar in Honduras, Programa de Avance Mediante la Saludy la Educación in Nicaragua, Red de Oportunidades in Panama, and Proyecto 300 in Uruguay. By 2010, Progresa had been replicated in whole or in part in 29 countries. Although the cost of a CCT program like Progresa/Oportunidades may be manageable in middle- to upper-middle-income countries, in low-income countries, outside financial assistance is needed, both for the payments them- selves and to increase the number (and quality) of clinics and schools to be availed of in the pro- gram. Poverty reduction still requires complementary improvements, such as better roads to poor areas, public health investments, and local empowerment. The will to replace poorly per- forming but politically expedient programs with more effective ones is necessary. Administrative infrastructure may be a major challenge and disbursing funds to beneficiaries electronically can prove problematic. But CCT pilot or larger-scale programs have been launched in recent years in several African countries including Nigeria, Malawi, and Mali. In conclusion, CCT programs focusing on improving health, nutrition, and education are a key component of a successful policy to end poverty— although in most cases, they will need to be part of a broader strategy to be fully effective. In Mexico, as in other countries, the broader package includes development of infrastructure so the poor can get their products to market and get access to safe water and electricity But by building the human capital of the poor, the program provides the essential foundation for the poor to increase their capabilities and take advantage of opportunities as the economy grows. It thereby also enhances the prospects for Mexico’s own growth and development. In sum, the Progresa/Oportunidades program is a model of success in many ways. The rigorous program evaluations show that it has a substantial effect on human welfare. It was designed and implemented in the developing world with close attention to local circumstances while making constructive use of what has been learned in Development Economics. It placed the crucial complementarities between education, health, and nutrition at the center of the program design while paying close attention to the need for appropriate incentives for beneficiaries. Finally, its method of cash transfer and the move away from cumbersome and nontransparent in-kind transfer programs placed constraints on possible bureaucratic inefficiency as well as official corruption. Progresa/Oportunidades thus offers a model for providing health and educational progress for poor families and opportunities for their permanent escape from poverty.

Questions:

a) Critically evaluate the poverty alleviation programme of Mexico in the context of its role in economic development

b) Analyze the relation between poverty and development under conceptual framework through suitable examples.

In detail anwere please

its for 20 marks

NO HAND WRITTEN ANSWER PLEASE

For much of the past century, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has
been a defining feature of the Middle East. Despite billions of dollars expended to
support, oppose, or seek to resolve it, the conflict has endured for decades, with
periodic violent eruptions, of which the Israel-Gaza confrontation in the summer of
2014 is only the most recent.
This executive summary highlights findings from a study by a team of RAND
researchers that estimates the net costs and benefits over the next ten years of five
alternative trajectories — a two-state solution, coordinated unilateral withdrawal,
uncoordinated unilateral withdrawal, nonviolent resistance, and violent uprising —
compared with the costs and benefits of a continuing impasse that evolves in
accordance with present trends. The analysis focuses on economic costs related to
the conflict, including the economic costs of security. In addition, intangible costs
are briefly examined, and the costs of each scenario to the international community
have been calculated.
The economy of the Palestinian Territory was a viable and thriving one before the
occupation in June 1967. It generated significant production and income that
sustained a growing population of 1 million people and generated a gross domestic
product (GDP) per capita of about $1,349 in 2004 prices, which was sufficient for it
to be considered a lower-middle-income economy at that time. Tragically, it has
become a land on the verge of economic and humanitarian collapse.
In 2014, the GDP growth rate in the Palestinian Territory turned negative, for the
first time since 2006. The Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly unliveable and could
become totally unliveable by 2020. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, the unemployment rate in Gaza was 45 per cent in 2014, with over 63
per cent of Gaza’s young people unemployed, which is the highest rate in the world.
Female unemployment in the Palestinian Territory was around 40 per cent and
more than 60 per cent in Gaza. Nearly 40 per cent of Palestinians live below the
poverty line. Clean water is a rarity, with at least 90 per cent of Gaza’s water supply
unfit for human consumption. Electricity in Gaza is also sporadic and unreliable,
available only four to six hours a day, and a properly functioning sewage treatment
system no longer exists.
Seven key findings were identified (1): A two-state solution provides by far the best
economic outcomes for both Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis would gain over two
times more than the Palestinians in absolute terms — $123 billion versus $50
billion over ten years. But the Palestinians would gain more proportionately, with
average per capita income increasing by approximately 36 percent over what it
would have been in 2024, versus 5 percent for the average Israeli. A return to
violence would have profoundly negative economic consequences for both Palestinians and Israelis; per capita gross domestic product would fall by 46
percent in the West Bank and Gaza and by 10 percent in Israel by 2024. In most
scenarios, the value of economic opportunities gained or lost by both parties is
much larger than expected changes in direct costs. Unilateral withdrawal by Israel
from the West Bank would impose large economic costs on Israelis unless the
international community shoulders a substantial portion of the costs of relocating
settlers. Intangible factors, such as each party's security and sovereignty
aspirations, are critical considerations in understanding and resolving the impasse.
Taking advantage of the economic opportunities of a two-state solution would
require substantial investments from the public and private sectors of the
international community and from both parties.

9. What was the approximate gross domestic production (in RS.) in year 2004? (1$ =
73.25 INR)
(a) 877078.50 (b) 988142.5 (c) 978650.25 (d) 967892.5
10.The total population of the Palestinian Territory increased by 20% over a decade
from 2004, out of which 75% of the people lived in Gaza. Also, if 60% of Gaza’s
population is considered to be young then the total number of persons who are not
young but are still unemployed are: (Consider all the people who live outside Gaza
as employed)
(a) 65000
(b) 64000
(c) 64800
(d) None of these

Think of the snack foods you eat most often. What type of snacks does that include? For many of us, those we frequently eat are salty snacks, which include chips of various ingredients and flavours, pretzels, cheese curls, crackers, and nuts( hint: nuts are the most healthy of this bunch). Another option might be sweet snack such as cookies, candy bars, other chocolate-based snacks, and cereal bars. Behind these various snack options are some of the largest companies in the food industry including behemoths such as Frito Lay, Kellogg, Hershey, Mars, General Mills, and Nabisco among others. All of these companies utilize immense resources to implement their marketing strategies in an effort to not only gain market share from competitor but also prevent others from entering the market.

So, if the competitive environment for the market is as described above, what in the world would make a firm think it could start a totally new snack food company and be successful? Apparently Daniel Lubetzky, founder of KIND Healthy Snacks, had a different idea of what it took to be competitive in the snack food market when he decided to enter it way back in 2003. Lubetzky looked at the playing field and decided that the competition was, in fact, not impenetrable. He found an opportunity to develop a product with all natural, healthy ingredients. In fact, a mantra of his organization is to put “ nothing in the product that the typical consumer cannot pronounce.” As a result, the ingredient list is an exercise in simplicity with easy-to-understand components that promote healthfulness in everyone who eats them.

Lubetzky also found opportunity in the packaging of his products. Instead of the typical opaque packaging for snack or candy bars that prevents one from viewing the actual physical product, KIND Healthy Snack uses proprietary technology to produce clear wrappers for its snack items. Using this type of package distinguishes KIND from its competitors because it allows consumers to see what they will eat and not just assume the bar inside will look like the picture on the wrapper.

Another opportunity area for lubetzky was the trend toward consumer supporting products that have the betterment of society as part of their mission. Visit the KIND website and you will find a quote by Henry James that reads, “ Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” Lubetzky’s company operationalizes this quote by allowing users to post on their website their individual acts of kindness and the number of people impacted by those acts. In addition to giving exposure to individual acts of kindness(get it – KIND-ness), KIND itself supports one project each month with $10,000.   Whether it’s rebuilding a New Jersey firefighter’s house after Hurricane Sandy, supporting Big Brothers and Big Sisters, or working with a nonprofit agency to fly soldiers home from overseas for the holidays, KIND is working to have a social impact on the communities it serves.

Clearly, KIND has embraced the concept of “Marketing” with all of its activities, institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Evidence of this buy – in is the result the company has achieved. From the end of 2008 to the end of 2012, KIND’S sales went from $15 million to $120 million, an 800 percent increase in just four years. This growth occurred despite losing Starbucks as a distributor of its snack items in all of its U.S. based cafes.

By continuing to connect with its customers through its high-quality, all-natural-ingredient products; its innovative packaging; and its commitment to the betterment of society, KIND hopes to continue to dynamically grows its business well into the future.

• 1 (a) What other aspects of the American Marketing Association(AMA) definition of marketing might KIND exploit in the future to continue to grow its business and do consumers supporting brands and companies that strive to benefit society are a trend that will continue?
• (b) What other industries might be especially prone to entry by a smaller, more nimble, and more socially conscious competition and what are the prospects for a competitor being successful in those industries.

1. What are all the strengths and all the weaknesses related to the external validity of the research design in Item 3. (10 points)

1. Strengths (5 points)

2. Weaknesses (5 points)

Measures To measure reciprocal resource dependence of state agencies and nonprofit organizations, 14 Likert-type scales were constructed with a number of items to which the respondent indicated intensity of agreement or disagreement on a six-point scale. Response categories were strongly disagree, generally disagree, disagree a little, agree a little, generally agree, strongly agree. The conceptual anchors of each scale were (1) independence and (6) dependence. That is, higher scores represented greater dependence in the area being assessed. Three scales (importance, alternative availability, and pressure) measured the dependence of state agencies on nonprofit organizations for resources. Three parallel scales measured the same dimensions for resource dependence in the other direction, that is, the dependence of nonprofit organizations on state agencies for resources. Items were predominantly attitudinal; some were behavioral. The following items are samples from the importance, alternative availability, and pressure scales, respectively. S1. State agencies often use ideas from nonprofit organizations to formulate policy recommendations. N1. Nonprofit organizations often use ideas from state agencies lO formulate policy recommendations. S2.There are certainly other supporters of agency interests as valuable as nonprofit organizations. N2. There are certainly other supporters of nonprofit organizations' interests as valuable as state agencies. S3.Agencies are in no position to force nonprofit organizations to implement their programs. N3. Nonprofit organizations are in no position to force agencies to fund their programs. Scale scores were the average of the item scores. Table 3 reports reliability results for the six scales. Alpha reliability coefficients are listed in bold-face type. Discriminant validity may be measured by the inter-scale correlation coefficients shown on the diagonal in that table. Table 3: Reliabilities of State and Nonprofit Scales Scale Reliability State Importance .67 State Alternative Availability .73 State Pressure .63 Nonprofit Importance .70 Nonprofit Alternative Availability .70 Nonprofit Pressure .75 The remaining eight scales were divided, four each for state departments and non-profit agencies, into individual service areas. These were arts, health, developmental disabilities, and human services. The first set of four examined dependence of the state departments on nonprofit agencies in the four areas; the second set of four scales assessed the dependence of nonprofits on state agencies in the same four areas. The average of the three individual scale scores measuring state agency dependence on nonprofit agencies became Dsn in the model. The average of the three individual scale scores measuring nonprofit agency dependence on state agencies became Dns. These reciprocal resource flows, understood together, became the basis for a g e n e r a l model of resource dependence between sectors. Design The design of the study was [Enter the Study Design Here]. The particular strengths of this design are [Enter the Design Strengths Here]. The design is weak in the areas of [Enter the Design Weaknesses Here]. Procedure The total number of study participants was 153: 80 nonprofit and 73 state agency managers. Public-sector respondents were 20 people, including commissioners, from each of the 4 state agencies and executive directors from 20 nonprofit organizations in each of the service areas. Of the 80 nonprofit agency respondents, 14 were top-level managers other than the executive director. All nonprofit and some state agency respondents participated in two-part, on-site interviews, including a self-administered survey completed immediately and an interview with demographic and open-ended questions. State agency commissioners designated two additional executive administrators for the research interview, and they, in turn, identified 17 other managers to receive a mailed survey.

Read the following:

TOKYO — Prosecutors in Japan on Monday indicted Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan Motor, and the auto company itself on charges that they had violated financial laws by underreporting Mr. Ghosn’s compensation.

Mr. Ghosn, once among the auto industry’s most respected executives, was arrested three weeks ago by the Japanese authorities. The allegations have upended a carmaking empire that includes Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors in Japan and Renault in France.

In addition to the formal charges announced Monday, which cover allegations related to actions from 2011 to 2015, the authorities rearrested Mr. Ghosn on similar charges stemming from a subsequent period. Mr. Ghosn, 64, has been held in detention in Tokyo since his arrest on Nov. 19.

Motonari Otsuru, a lawyer for Mr. Ghosn, could not immediately be reached for comment.

In response to the indictment, Nissan said in a statement that it would strengthen its compliance efforts. It did not deny the charges.

“Nissan takes this situation extremely seriously,” the statement said. “Making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of Nissan’s public disclosures in the securities markets, and the company expresses its deepest regret.”

On Tuesday, a Tokyo court approved keeping Mr. Ghosn in detention until Dec. 20.

Prosecutors also indicted Greg Kelly, a former Nissan human resources manager and a member of the company’s board. Mr. Kelly, through his lawyer, Yoichi Kitamura, has denied wrongdoing. Mr. Kelly, like Mr. Ghosn, was rearrested Monday, on allegations that he helped Mr. Ghosn underreport his compensation.

Nissan has said it uncovered misconduct by Mr. Ghosn that included underreporting his compensation and using company funds for personal expenses. In a news conference held the night Mr. Ghosn and Mr. Kelly were initially arrested, Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan’s chief executive, said Mr. Kelly “has been determined to be the mastermind of this matter, together with Carlos Ghosn.”

According to the indictment, Mr. Ghosn and Mr. Kelly understated Mr. Ghosn’s earnings from 2011 to 2015 by half in securities filings: 4.99 billion yen ($44.3 million) compared with 9.86 billion yen ($88.4 million), including bonuses. Nissan was indicted on charges of having misstated Mr. Ghosn’s compensation in filings with the financial authorities.

Nissan, which conducted an internal inquiry into the alleged financial underreporting, removed Mr. Ghosn as chairman shortly after he was arrested and removed Mr. Kelly as executive director.

Mr. Ghosn was also removed from a similar position at Mitsubishi Motors. He remains chairman of Renault, but the French company has appointed Thierry Bolloré, its chief operating officer, to assume Mr. Ghosn’s day-to-day responsibilities.

In a new arrest warrant issued Monday, Tokyo prosectors said Mr. Ghosn and Mr. Kelly conspired to understate Mr. Ghosn’s pay in securities filings from June 2016 to June 2018. In the fillings, Mr. Ghosn’s compensation for the period was reported as 2.9 billion yen ($25.7 million). Prosecutors said they were investigating allegations that Mr. Ghosn was actually paid 7.17 billion yen ($63.6 million).

Prosecutors have yet to address allegations contained in Nissan’s internal report that Mr. Ghosn misused company funds for personal use.

A Nissan spokesman confirmed that the company had barred Mr. Ghosn’s family from a home the company bought for him in Rio de Janeiro.

“We believe that they would attempt to remove or destroy evidence,” said Nicholas Maxfield, a Nissan spokesman at the company’s headquarters in Yokohama. “And some of that evidence would be fairly incriminating.”

Legal experts in Japan said it was common for prosecutors to indict companies alongside individuals in financial crime cases.

“In this case it makes perfect sense,” said David Litt, a professor at Keio University Law School in Tokyo. “It would have been very hard for him to hide this without a number of people in the company knowing about it.”

Use economic analysis to explain the issue with INCENTIVE COMPENSATION in the article?

STUDY GUIDE: The following ELISA protocols are from the Methods Sections of some scientific papers. Read through each protocol and respond to the questions.

Protocol 1. Using GST-peptide-based ELISAs to Detect Protein Kinase (Plk1) in cell lysates.   96-well plates (Beckman–Coulter) were coated with GST-peptides_, an affinity ligand for Plk1. To block the unoccupied sites, wells were washed once with PBS plus 0.05% Tween 20 (PBST), and then incubated with 200 μL of PBS plus 1% BSA for 1 h. Cells to be analyzed for Plk1 were homogenized, serially diluted, and added to the wells (50 μL per well) and incubated for 12–18 h at room temperature. Plates were washed and then incubated for 2 h with 100 μL per well of anti-Plk1 antibody at a concentration of 0.5 μg/ml. After washing the plates 5 times, 100 μL per well of HRP-conjugated secondary antibody (diluted 1:1,000 in blocking buffer) was added and the plates incubated for 1 h. Plates were then washed 5 times with PBST and then incubated with 100 μL per well of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine solution (TMB) (Sigma) as substrate until a desired absorbance was reached. The reactions were stopped by the addition of 0.5 M H₂SO₄. The optical density of the samples was measured at 450 nm by using an ELISA plate reader (Molecular Devices).

1. What does: “block the unoccupied sites” mean in the context of an ELISA? Why is this step important in getting accurate results?
2. What was used as the blocking agent?
3. What was the purpose for having 0.05% Tween 20 in the buffer?
4. What is HRP and what purpose does it serve?

Protocol 2: Analysis of serum samples for CT45 antibodies by ELISA was performed by adsorbing recombinant CT45 protein and control protein antigens LAGE-1, MAGE-1, MAGE-3, and p53 at 1 μg/mL to 96-well plates (Corning). After blocking with PBS containing 5% nonfat milk, serum samples were tested over a range of serial 4-fold dilutions from 1:100 to 1:6,400. After incubation, plates were washed with PBS containing 0.2% Tween and rinsed with PBS. Serum antibodies bound to antigens was detected with alkaline-phosphatase–conjugated secondary antibodies (Southern Biotech). After addition of ATTOPHOS substrate (Fisher Scientific), absorbance was measured using a fluorescence reader Cytofluor Series 4000 (PerSeptive Biosystems). In each assay, sera of patients with known presence or absence of specific antibody reactivity were used as controls. Titers were considered significant if >100 and if confirmed in repeat experiments.

1. Why were the plates coated with CT45 protein?
2. What is the blocking agent in this ELISA?
3. What kind of substrate is ATTOPHOS? How does this substrate allow detection of antibody binding in this assay?
4. Is this assay a direct, indirect, or sandwich ELISA? Provide rationale for your response.

Protocol 3: Serum Analysis Using ELISA Analysis. ELISA assay kits for each of the following serum proteins were purchased from Diagnostic Systems Laboratories (Webster, TX) or Assay Designs (Ann Arbor, MI). These proteins were: EGF, macrophage inhibitory factor-1, TNF-α, leptin, prolactin, IL-17, OPN, and IGF-II. Assays were performed following kit instructions. Plates were read on a Spectra Max M2 Microplate Reader (Molecular Devices) with the appropriate baseline correction for each assay.

1. What is a microplate reader and how might it be used in an ELISA assay?
2. Why would a sandwich ELISA be the most appropriate way to detect these proteins in serum collected from patients?

Protocol 4: You will write this protocol

Describe how you would use an ELISA (you pick which type) to screen the monoclonal antibodies being produced by different hybridoma clones generated by fusion of myeloma cells with plasma cells from the spleen of a mouse. The mouse was injected with human NFkB, a transcription factor, and you are looking for the clone producing an antibody that binds to this protein. Include a diagram.

What are all the strengths and all the weaknesses related to the internal validity of the research design in Item 3. (10 points) A. Strengths (5 points) b. weaknesses Measures To measure reciprocal resource dependence of state agencies and nonprofit organizations, 14 Likert-type scales were constructed with a number of items to which the respondent indicated intensity of agreement or disagreement on a six-point scale. Response categories were strongly disagree, generally disagree, disagree a little, agree a little, generally agree, strongly agree. The conceptual anchors of each scale were (1) independence and (6) dependence. That is, higher scores represented greater dependence in the area being assessed. Three scales (importance, alternative availability, and pressure) measured the dependence of state agencies on nonprofit organizations for resources. Three parallel scales measured the same dimensions for resource dependence in the other direction, that is, the dependence of nonprofit organizations on state agencies for resources. Items were predominantly attitudinal; some were behavioral. The following items are samples from the importance, alternative availability, and pressure scales, respectively. S1. State agencies often use ideas from nonprofit organizations to formulate policy recommendations. N1. Nonprofit organizations often use ideas from state agencies lO formulate policy recommendations. S2.There are certainly other supporters of agency interests as valuable as nonprofit organizations. N2. There are certainly other supporters of nonprofit organizations' interests as valuable as state agencies. S3.Agencies are in no position to force nonprofit organizations to implement their programs. N3. Nonprofit organizations are in no position to force agencies to fund their programs. Scale scores were the average of the item scores. Table 3 reports reliability results for the six scales. Alpha reliability coefficients are listed in bold-face type. Discriminant validity may be measured by the inter-scale correlation coefficients shown on the diagonal in that table. Table 3: Reliabilities of State and Nonprofit Scales Scale Reliability State Importance .67 State Alternative Availability .73 State Pressure .63 Nonprofit Importance .70 Nonprofit Alternative Availability .70 Nonprofit Pressure .75 The remaining eight scales were divided, four each for state departments and non-profit agencies, into individual service areas. These were arts, health, developmental disabilities, and human services. The first set of four examined dependence of the state departments on nonprofit agencies in the four areas; the second set of four scales assessed the dependence of nonprofits on state agencies in the same four areas. The average of the three individual scale scores measuring state agency dependence on nonprofit agencies became Dsn in the model. The average of the three individual scale scores measuring nonprofit agency dependence on state agencies became Dns. These reciprocal resource flows, understood together, became the basis for a g e n e r a l model of resource dependence between sectors. Design The design of the study was [Enter the Study Design Here]. The particular strengths of this design are [Enter the Design Strengths Here]. The design is weak in the areas of [Enter the Design Weaknesses Here]. Procedure The total number of study participants was 153: 80 nonprofit and 73 state agency managers. Public-sector respondents were 20 people, including commissioners, from each of the 4 state agencies and executive directors from 20 nonprofit organizations in each of the service areas. Of the 80 nonprofit agency respondents, 14 were top-level managers other than the executive director. All nonprofit and some state agency respondents participated in two-part, on-site interviews, including a self-administered survey completed immediately and an interview with demographic and open-ended questions. State agency commissioners designated two additional executive administrators for the research interview, and they, in turn, identified 17 other managers to receive a mailed survey.

What are all the strengths and all the weaknesses related to the internal validity of the research design in Item 3. (10 points) A. Strengths (5 points) b. weaknesses Measures To measure reciprocal resource dependence of state agencies and nonprofit organizations, 14 Likert-type scales were constructed with a number of items to which the respondent indicated intensity of agreement or disagreement on a six-point scale. Response categories were strongly disagree, generally disagree, disagree a little, agree a little, generally agree, strongly agree. The conceptual anchors of each scale were (1) independence and (6) dependence. That is, higher scores represented greater dependence in the area being assessed. Three scales (importance, alternative availability, and pressure) measured the dependence of state agencies on nonprofit organizations for resources. Three parallel scales measured the same dimensions for resource dependence in the other direction, that is, the dependence of nonprofit organizations on state agencies for resources. Items were predominantly attitudinal; some were behavioral. The following items are samples from the importance, alternative availability, and pressure scales, respectively. S1. State agencies often use ideas from nonprofit organizations to formulate policy recommendations. N1. Nonprofit organizations often use ideas from state agencies lO formulate policy recommendations. S2.There are certainly other supporters of agency interests as valuable as nonprofit organizations. N2. There are certainly other supporters of nonprofit organizations' interests as valuable as state agencies. S3.Agencies are in no position to force nonprofit organizations to implement their programs. N3. Nonprofit organizations are in no position to force agencies to fund their programs. Scale scores were the average of the item scores. Table 3 reports reliability results for the six scales. Alpha reliability coefficients are listed in bold-face type. Discriminant validity may be measured by the inter-scale correlation coefficients shown on the diagonal in that table. Table 3: Reliabilities of State and Nonprofit Scales Scale Reliability State Importance .67 State Alternative Availability .73 State Pressure .63 Nonprofit Importance .70 Nonprofit Alternative Availability .70 Nonprofit Pressure .75 The remaining eight scales were divided, four each for state departments and non-profit agencies, into individual service areas. These were arts, health, developmental disabilities, and human services. The first set of four examined dependence of the state departments on nonprofit agencies in the four areas; the second set of four scales assessed the dependence of nonprofits on state agencies in the same four areas. The average of the three individual scale scores measuring state agency dependence on nonprofit agencies became Dsn in the model. The average of the three individual scale scores measuring nonprofit agency dependence on state agencies became Dns. These reciprocal resource flows, understood together, became the basis for a g e n e r a l model of resource dependence between sectors. Design The design of the study was [Enter the Study Design Here]. The particular strengths of this design are [Enter the Design Strengths Here]. The design is weak in the areas of [Enter the Design Weaknesses Here]. Procedure The total number of study participants was 153: 80 nonprofit and 73 state agency managers. Public-sector respondents were 20 people, including commissioners, from each of the 4 state agencies and executive directors from 20 nonprofit organizations in each of the service areas. Of the 80 nonprofit agency respondents, 14 were top-level managers other than the executive director. All nonprofit and some state agency respondents participated in two-part, on-site interviews, including a self-administered survey completed immediately and an interview with demographic and open-ended questions. State agency commissioners designated two additional executive administrators for the research interview, and they, in turn, identified 17 other managers to receive a mailed survey.