Georgia Welfare Leavers Study - Initial Results

Funded by the Department of Human Resources, the Georgia State welfare leavers study is tracking families as they leave Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Using administrative data combined with the results of a telephone interview, the project monitors the impact of leaving welfare on the individuals, their families and their communities.2 The study includes both single-parent and child-only leavers and, unlike studies in some other states, does include individuals who have returned to the rolls. The response rate for this study approaches 35% and continues to rise as the project makes intensive efforts to locate respondents. Preliminary analyses of administrative data indicate that interview respondents closely resemble individuals whom the project has been unable to interview

Non-Empirically Tuned Range-Separated DFT Accurately Predicts Both Fundamental and Excitation Gaps in DNA and RNA Nucleobases

Using a non-empirically tuned range-separated DFT approach, we study both the quasiparticle properties (HOMO-LUMO fundamental gaps) and excitation energies of DNA and RNA nucleobases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil). Our calculations demonstrate that a physically-motivated, first-principles tuned DFT approach accurately reproduces results from both experimental benchmarks and more computationally intensive techniques such as many-body GW theory. Furthermore, in the same set of nucleobases, we show that the non-empirical range-separated procedure also leads to significantly improved results for excitation energies compared to conventional DFT methods. The present results emphasize the importance of a non-empirically tuned range-separation approach for accurately predicting both fundamental and excitation gaps in DNA and RNA nucleobases.Comment: Accepted by the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computatio

Georgia Welfare Leavers Study - Technical Appendices

The following provides an overview of the Georgia State study and compares it to that of leavers studies in other states. While there are similarities, this study differs in several crucial ways from these other studies

Performance and optimization of a derated ion thruster for auxiliary propulsion

The characteristics and implications of use of a derated ion thruster for north-south stationkeeping (NSSK) propulsion are discussed. A derated thruster is a 30 cm diameter primary propulsion ion thruster operated at highly throttled conditions appropriate to NSSK functions. The performance characteristics of a 30 cm ion thruster are presented, emphasizing throttled operation at low specific impulse and high thrust-to-power ratio. Performance data and component erosion are compared to other NSSK ion thrusters. Operations benefits derived from the performance advantages of the derated approach are examined assuming an INTELSAt 7-type spacecraft. Minimum ground test facility pumping capabilities required to maintain facility enhanced accelerator grid erosion at acceptable levels in a lifetest are quantified as a function of thruster operating condition. Approaches to reducing the derated thruster mass and volume are also discussed

Very Large Area/Volume Microwave ECR Plasma and Ion Source

The present invention is an apparatus and method for producing very large area and large volume plasmas. The invention utilizes electron cyclotron resonances in conjunction with permanent magnets to produce dense, uniform plasmas for long life ion thruster applications or for plasma processing applications such as etching, deposition, ion milling and ion implantation. The large area source is at least five times larger than the 12-inch wafers being processed to date. Its rectangular shape makes it easier to accommodate to materials processing than sources that are circular in shape. The source itself represents the largest ECR ion source built to date. It is electrodeless and does not utilize electromagnets to generate the ECR magnetic circuit, nor does it make use of windows

Georgia Welfare Leavers Study - (Life After Welfare) Technical Appendix

In this section we review distinguishing features of TANF as implemented in Georgia and describe recent trends in the welfare caseload

The Gallerist’s Gambit: Financial Innovation, Tax Law, and the Making of the Contemporary Art Market

This essay presents an account of an important moment in the emergence of the market for Pop art that was facilitated in part by a distinctly accommodating legal environment. Although Abstract Expressionism is commonly credited with causing American art’s ascendance onto the world stage immediately after World War II, its international acclaim belied a precarious institutional and financial infrastructure for living American painters. It was only with the following generation of Pop and Minimalist artists that the United States developed a self-sustaining market for the work of contemporary American artists. A significant but largely overlooked factor in that continued success was the ability of art dealers to take advantage of the unique legal and regulatory environment of the 1960s. This essay focuses on the efforts of an enterprising art gallerist, Leo Castelli, to aggressively promote his stable of Pop artists through the development of several financial structures, including some designed to leverage the relatively generous income tax deductions and anemic enforcement regime of the time. In doing so, Castelli not only seeded the ground for the international ascendance of American visual art, but also engineered financial arrangements that fostered the development of a lucrative and resilient art market that endures to this day

Georgia Welfare Leavers Study - Life After Welfare

Funded by the Department of Human Resources, the Georgia State welfare leavers study tracked families as they left Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).1 Using administrative data combined with the results of a telephone survey, the project monitored the impact of leaving welfare on the individuals and their families. The study includes both single-parent and child-only leavers as well as individuals who have returned to the rolls

Real-time observation of epitaxial graphene domain reorientation.

Graphene films grown by vapour deposition tend to be polycrystalline due to the nucleation and growth of islands with different in-plane orientations. Here, using low-energy electron microscopy, we find that micron-sized graphene islands on Ir(111) rotate to a preferred orientation during thermal annealing. We observe three alignment mechanisms: the simultaneous growth of aligned domains and dissolution of rotated domains, that is, 'ripening'; domain boundary motion within islands; and continuous lattice rotation of entire domains. By measuring the relative growth velocity of domains during ripening, we estimate that the driving force for alignment is on the order of 0.1 meV per C atom and increases with rotation angle. A simple model of the orientation-dependent energy associated with the moiré corrugation of the graphene sheet due to local variations in the graphene-substrate interaction reproduces the results. This work suggests new strategies for improving the van der Waals epitaxy of 2D materials

Costs and Effectiveness of the Fast Track Intervention for Antisocial Behavior

Background—Antisocial behavior is enormously costly to the youth involved, their families, victims, taxpayers and other members of society. These costs are generated by school failure, delinquency and involvement in the juvenile justice system, drug use, health services and other services. For prevention programs to be cost effective, they must reduce these costly behaviors and outcomes. Aim—The Fast Track intervention is a 10-year, multi-component prevention program targeting antisocial behavior. The intervention identified children at school entry and provided intervention services over a 10-year period. This study examined the intervention’s impact on outcomes affecting societal costs using data through late adolescence. Methodology—The intervention is being evaluated through a multi-cohort, multi-site, multiyear randomized control trial of program participants and comparable children and youth in similar schools, and that study provides the data for these analyses. Schools within four sites (Durham, NC; Nashville, TN; Seattle, WA; and rural central Pennsylvania) were selected as highrisk based on crime and poverty statistics of the neighborhoods they served. Within each site, schools were divided into multiple sets matched for demographics (size, percentage free/reduced lunch, ethnic composition); one set within each pair was randomly assigned to the intervention and one to the control condition. Within participating schools, high-risk children were identified using a multiple-gating procedure. For each of three annual cohorts, all kindergarteners (9,594 total) in 54 schools were screened for classroom conduct problems by teachers. Those children scoring in the top 40% within cohort and site were then solicited for the next stage of screening for home behavior problems by the parents, and 91% agreed (n = 3,274). The teacher and parent screening scores were then standardized within site and combined into a sum score. These summed scores represented a total severity-of-risk screen score. Children were selected for inclusion into the study based on this screen score, moving from the highest score downward until desired sample sizes were reached within sites, cohorts, and conditions. Results and Discussion—The intervention lacked both the breadth and depth of effects on costly outcomes to demonstrate cost-effectiveness or even effectiveness. Limitations—The outcomes examined here reflect effects observed during measurement windows that are not complete for every outcome. Data are lacking on some potential outcomes, such as the use of mental health services before year 7. Conclusion and Implications—The most intensive psychosocial intervention ever fielded did not produce meaningful and consistent effects on costly outcomes. The lack of effects through high school suggests that the intervention will not become cost-effective as participants progress through adulthood. Future Research—Future research should consider alternative approaches to prevention youth violence