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The role of functional capacity evaluations (FCEs) appears to be increasing as employers and insurers rely more heavily on them for decision making. To meet credibility requirements, and the American Physical Therapy Association's standards for measurement and documentation, all FCE suppliers need to validate and refine their systems. This article provides information that can be used to make informed decisions in the selection of an FCE and in functional assessment practices. Features of well-designed FCEs are discussed. Ten well-known FCE systems are analyzed according to these features and other common characteristics. Current issues such as the qualifications of the evaluators, reliability and validity, length of assessments, projection of endurance to 8-hour workdays, standards of practice, safety protocols, and behavioral assessment and management strategies are discussed.

In this article, I explore young people’s perceptions of their region’s past in relation to their present-day lives. I discuss their views of and emotional responses to what they perceive as economic, social, and value markers of the past, what they feel has changed, and what has remained the same. Finally, I consider ways these emotions are entry points for older youth along with school and community adult educators to critically consider the impact local history and shifting cultural, social and economic arrangements have on young people, their communities and global societies. Such critical reflection may serve as a catalyst to challenge notions of civic engagement too narrow to accommodate the merging of old and new meanings of civic identities in globalized post-industrial regions.

High throughput sequencing has accelerated the determination of genome sequences for thousands of human infectious disease pathogens and dozens of their vectors. The scale and scope of these data are enabling genotype-phenotype association studies to identify genetic determinants of pathogen virulence and drug/insecticide resistance, and phylogenetic studies to track the origin and spread of disease outbreaks. To maximize the utility of genomic sequences for these purposes, it is essential that metadata about the pathogen/vector isolate characteristics be collected and made available in organized, clear, and consistent formats. Here we report the development of the GSCID/BRC Project and Sample Application Standard, developed by representatives of the Genome Sequencing Centers for Infectious Diseases (GSCIDs), the Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) for Infectious Diseases, and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), informed by interactions with numerous collaborating scientists. It includes mapping to terms from other data standards initiatives, including the Genomic Standards Consortium's minimal information (MIxS) and NCBI's BioSample/BioProjects checklists and the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI). The standard includes data fields about characteristics of the organism or environmental source of the specimen, spatial-temporal information about the specimen isolation event, phenotypic characteristics of the pathogen/vector isolated, and project leadership and support. By modeling metadata fields into an ontology-based semantic framework and reusing existing ontologies and minimum information checklists, the application standard can be extended to support additional project-specific data fields and integrated with other data represented with comparable standards. The use of this metadata standard by all ongoing and future GSCID sequencing projects will provide a consistent representation of these data in the BRC resources and other repositories that leverage these data, allowing investigators to identify relevant genomic sequences and perform comparative genomics analyses that are both statistically meaningful and biologically relevant.

Research that aims to trouble social, cultural, and economic disparities is usually conducted with the best of socially just intentions. Still, embedded in all research processes is the potential to disrupt and, simultaneously, reproduce mechanisms of power that enable inequalities. Hence, as Bourdieu (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992) insists, such efforts require reflexive examination that involves an interrogation of practices and regulations guiding research. Drawing upon my own reflexive inquiry, I address in this article some of the methodological challenges that surfaced when I conducted ethnographic doctoral research with socially and economically disadvantaged young adults. I discuss participant recruitment, retention concerns, and ways to support participants’ involvement in research. I aim to expose assumptions in research practices that may have inadvertently reproduced some of the inequalities that this research attempted to disturb and to suggest ways to address these challenges. Résumé La recherche qui aborde les disparités sociales, culturelles, et économiques est généralement effectuée avec les meilleures intentions socialement juste. Pourtant, intégrée dans tous les processus de recherche est le potentiel de perturber et, simultanément, de reproduire les mécanismes du pouvoir qui permettent aux inégalités. Ainsi, comme Bourdieu (Bourdieu et Wacquant, 1992) insiste, de tels efforts nécessitent un examen des pratiques et des règles régissant la recherche. Je m’adresse dans cet article les défis méthodologiques qui ont surgi lorsque j’ai effectué des recherches ethnographiques de doctorat avec des jeunes adultes qui sont socialement et économiquement défavorisés. Je discute le recrutement des participants, la rétention des préoccupations, et les moyens d’aider les participants à rester impliqués dans la recherche. Je vise à exposer des suppositions dans les pratiques de recherche qui peut reproduit les inégalités que cette recherche a tenté déranger et suggérer des moyens d’aborder ces défis.

Many academic educators who hope to contribute to socially just community building recognize that working in partnerships with people and organizations outside the academy is important. Working within publicly funded universities and engaging in community‑based work, however, require juggling responsibilities to multiple stakeholders. In this article, we present reflections on predicaments we encounter as academic community‑based educators as we balance obligations, relationship responsibilities, and outcome expectations that affect our work. We overview our educative projects and share examples of predicaments we encounter. We offer preliminary interpretations of what predicaments tell us about how power plays upon our practice and views of scholarship that may help us disrupt it. We contend that broad and inclusive perceptions of scholarship are required to allow space for community‑based educators and their partners to critically engage in community building that supports all society. Plusieurs formatrices et formateurs universitaires qui cherchent à contribuer au développement communautaire en adoptant une perspective de justice sociale reconnaissent qu’il est important de travailler en partenariat avec les gens et les organisations à l’extérieur de l’académie. Cela dit, pour travailler avec les universités publiques et pour s’engager dans le travail communautaire, il faut gérer ses responsabilités envers diverses parties prenantes. Dans cet article, nous présentons des réflexions sur les défis que nous, à titre de formatrices et formateurs en milieu communautaire, rencontrons en cherchant l’équilibre entre les obligations, les responsabilités relationnelles et les attentes en matière de résultats qui ont une incidence sur notre travail. Nous offrons une interprétation préliminaire de ce que révèlent ces défis sur le rôle du pouvoir dans notre pratique ainsi que des perspectives sur la production du savoir qui pourraient nous aider à perturber ce pouvoir. Nous affirmons que des perceptions larges et inclusives de la production du savoir sont nécessaires pour que les formatrices et formateurs en milieu communautaire, et leurs partenaires, puissent poursuivre un engagement critique dans le développement communautaire si critique pour l’ensemble de la société.

Many educators and community advocates recognize the value of youth civic engagement in communities undergoing significant social and economic change. The nature of such involvement is not always as evident. Local historical practices and expectations still influence ways young people experience and perceive civic engagement. By exploring their regional past youth can consider the value of traditional notions of participation, ways some practices may need to be adapted and innovative models of engagement that can address present day needs of young people and the transitioning communities where they live. In this article I discuss a multi-media research method that incorporates historical photos and self-produced art to facilitate with young people the first steps towards such discussions. I present theories, research, and practice that informed the design and use of this method. I overview the broader study from which the method emerged and share participants' responses to the photos and the use of paint as a tool of expression. I describe ways young people gave meaning to their art and their views on the process. Finally, I critically reflect on their responses and my observations to consider implications of this kind of research including challenges, limitations, and potentials for educational research that encourages civic engagement that has meaning for youth and their regions.

A nine-month program entitled Youth Speaks Up is delivered annually to grade 6 students from Sydney, Nova Scotia. One goal of the program is to provide an opportunity for the development of positive communication skills in participants. The purpose of this project was to determine if students participating in the program perceived changes in their communication ability and comfort level as a result of participation in the program. Qualitative focus groups were conducted, and responses suggest that many participants experienced positive changes in their communication comfort levels in public and interpersonal communication contexts, and specifically in their ability and willingness to express their ideas. Participants believed factors such as consistent practice and interaction with new people influenced the changes. Students’ recommendations for program development are also presented.