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Rural population loss is a major problem in the United States and abroad. Rural location typically lose populations as young people move towards urban and suburban centers for education and job opportunities available there. This region continues to face a problem with shrinking population. The researchers in this study surveyed high school graduating seniors (typically ages 18 and 19 years of age) to evaluate the issue of rural population loss by assessing youth impressions of their home communities. The sample revealed strong positive impressions of their home communities when evaluating their schools, safety, and how affordable the community was to live. The young people reported lower evaluation of the job opportunities and the availability of entertainment, cultural, and job options. Youth from families deeply rooted in the rural community for generations and those youth working in high school jobs with higher rates of pay were more optimistic about their rural community. Youth report a strong influence of parents on their future choices about remaining or returning to their rural community.&nbsp

Researchers sampled 431 graduating seniors from nine high schools within three counties in western Ohio evaluating workforce competencies of high school graduates, post-high school career and educational goals, and perceptions of various career and work paths (college, trade school, military, or entering the workforce directly. Based on the Ohio Means Jobs Readiness Seal, respondents reported relative higher skills in self-management categories such as work ethic, professionalism, and reliability. The lowest ratings were found in more technical areas of quantitative skills, use of digital technology, and written/oral communication. High school seniors report college as the preferred path to reach their future goals with significantly stronger encouragement from parents, community for college as compared to attending trade school, the military, or entering the workforce directly. With the growing skilled trades gap (Johnson, 2018) should the college degree continue to be pressured (Horn & Moesta, 2020)? The research found here can assist in the development of career programs that may enhance or broaden acceptable career options for our students and assist our countries economic needs. Moreover, as parents are continued to be identified as key influencers or potential drivers for student choices, the applications of this research needs to include more direct information to parents regarding the growing opportunity that lies within the skilled trades. As the baby-boomers continue to retire, and the work force continues to require more diversity of skills the implications of this snap shot into the current trends of students choosing college over what the State of Ohio continues to list as job demands, it is evident we have yet to solve the problem and meet the needs of the current work force. &nbsp

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been proposed as a cure strategy for HIV. However, few published guide RNAs (gRNAs) are predicted to cleave the majority of HIV-1 viral quasispecies (vQS) observed within and among patients. We report the design of a novel pipeline to identify gRNAs that target HIV across a large number of infected individuals. Next generation sequencing (NGS) of LTRs from 269 HIV-1-infected samples in the Drexel CARES Cohort was used to select gRNAs with predicted broad-spectrum activity. In silico, D-LTR-P4-227913 (package of the top 4 gRNAs) accounted for all detectable genetic variation within the vQS of the 269 samples and the Los Alamos National Laboratory HIV database. In silico secondary structure analyses from NGS indicated extensive TAR stem-loop malformations predicted to inactivate proviral transcription, which was confirmed by reduced viral gene expression in TZM-bl or P4R5 cells. Similarly, a high sensitivity in vitro CRISPR/Cas9 cleavage assay showed that the top-ranked gRNA was the most effective at cleaving patient-derived HIV-1 LTRs from five patients. Furthermore, the D-LTR-P4-227913 was predicted to cleave a median of 96.1% of patient-derived sequences from other HIV subtypes. These results demonstrate that the gRNAs possess broad-spectrum cutting activity and could contribute to an HIV cure.

Analysis of workforce competencies at the conclusion of high school graduation are discussed in this paper. Researchers sampled over 875 graduating seniors from 16 high schools within six counties throughout Northwestern Ohio. Results highlight future career and educational goals of these young people and a self-report of skills based on the SCANS competencies and basic foundation skills. When evaluating Foundation Skills of Personal Qualities, Basic Skills, and Thinking Skills, students indicated highest ratings in Personal Qualities and overall lowest ratings in Basic Skills. A series of five Workforce Competencies were also evaluated, including Using Resources, Using Information, Using Technology, Interpersonal Skills, and Working in Systems. Highest ratings for Competencies were reported in Interpersonal Skills and lowest in Using Resources.