The Consequences And Public Policy Implications Of Welfare Reform: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of The Welfare Reform Policy

Welfare reform has been the recurrent subject of heated debate in the United States, culminating in far-reaching legislation in 1996.  Taking the measure of that legislation requires attention both to the broader context of which welfare policy is a part and to the merits of the 1996 law itself.  Ultimately, the success or failure of welfare reform, which evoked a great deal of partisan rhetoric, will be assessed on empirical rather than partisan grounds.  It cannot be determined merely by changes in the size of welfare caseloads.  It is crucial to any piece of legislation to analyze the cost in relations to its benefits.  Most importantly, we must ask: What has happened to the families and children who have left the welfare system?  Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 is a successful legislation that needs a little troubleshooting, so it will not be the failed anti-poverty prescriptio

Tnni3k Modifies Disease Progression in Murine Models of Cardiomyopathy

The Calsequestrin (Csq) transgenic mouse model of cardiomyopathy exhibits wide variation in phenotypic progression dependent on genetic background. Seven heart failure modifier (Hrtfm) loci modify disease progression and outcome. Here we report Tnni3k (cardiac Troponin I-interacting kinase) as the gene underlying Hrtfm2. Strains with the more susceptible phenotype exhibit high transcript levels while less susceptible strains show dramatically reduced transcript levels. This decrease is caused by an intronic SNP in low-transcript strains that activates a cryptic splice site leading to a frameshifted transcript, followed by nonsense-mediated decay of message and an absence of detectable protein. A transgenic animal overexpressing human TNNI3K alone exhibits no cardiac phenotype. However, TNNI3K/Csq double transgenics display severely impaired systolic function and reduced survival, indicating that TNNI3K expression modifies disease progression. TNNI3K expression also accelerates disease progression in a pressure-overload model of heart failure. These combined data demonstrate that Tnni3k plays a critical role in the modulation of different forms of heart disease, and this protein may provide a novel target for therapeutic intervention

Systematic LREE enrichment of mantle harzburgites: The petrogenesis of San Carlos xenoliths revisited

We are grateful to K. Itano for fruitful discussion of the ideas developed in this paper and K. Ozawa for support on the use of his opensystem melting model. The manuscript benefited from constructivecomments provided by Q. Xiong and three anonymous reviewers as well as from the editor X.-H. Li. This work was funded by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellowship.The dichotomy between partial melting and metasomatism is a paradigm of mantle geochemistry since the pioneering work of Frey and Prinz (1978) on the occurrence of LREE-enriched harzburgites. However, the thermo-chemical implications of such two-stage scenarios are often poorly considered, and the latter fail to explain why trace-element enrichment and major-element depletion are often proportional.We here re-envisage the petrogenesis of the famous San Carlos peridotites based on new petrographic observations and detailed modal, major- and trace-element compositions. The lherzolites (and pyroxenites) are characterized by homogeneously fertile mineral chemistry and LREE-depleted patterns consistent with low degrees of partial melting of the lherzolitic protolith. Bulk compositions and mineral zoning suggest that opx-rich pyroxenites formed by pressure-solution creep during melt-present deformation, locally accompanied by magmatic segregations of cpx. The harzburgites are characterized by stronger mineral zoning with low-Mg# and Na-, Al- and Cr-rich cpx rims, and can be discriminated in a low-Jd and high-Jd cpx groups. The high-Jd group is interpreted as the result of local elemental redistribution in the presence of a low-degree hydrous melt, in good agreement with their wide range of LREE enrichment. In contrast, the MREE-to-HREE fractionation and increasing Cr# in spinel of the low-Jd group indicate that they experienced higher degrees of melting. Open-system melting simulations of trace-element fractionation during hydrous flux melting suggests that the high-Jd harzburgites are the result of low fluid influx producing poorly extracted melt, while higher influx led to higher melting degrees and efficient melt extraction in the low-Jd harzburgites; the lherzolites mostly remained below or near solidus during that process. The lithological and chemical heterogeneity of San Carlos mantle is thus compatible with a single-stage evolution, which is also supported by the striking consistency between Fe-Mg exchange and REE thermometric estimates (1057 and 1074 °C on average, respectively), indicating that harzburgites and lherzolites probably followed a similar P-T path and relatively little sub-solidus re-equilibration. These interpretations suggest that the development ofmelt extraction pathways promoted by reactive channeling instability is able to produce complex lithological heterogeneities during hydrous flux melting. This process provides a self-consistent explanation for the systematic enrichment of harzburgites observed in many mantle terranes and xenoliths worldwide. We argue that San Carlos is one of such examples where a ca 1.5-Ga continental lithosphere experienced localized flux melting and deformation during the tectonic reactivation of a Proterozoic subduction zone, providing new constraints on the mantle sources of volcanic activity in the Jemez Lineament.Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Scienc

Mineralogy and Chemistry of San Carlos Basalts: Evidence from Multispectral and Elemental Data with Application to the ChemCam Library on the Mars Science Laboratory

From the Washington University Senior Honors Thesis Abstracts (WUSHTA), Volume 5, Spring 2013. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Joy Zalis Kiefer, Director of Undergraduate Research / Assistant Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; E. Holly Tasker, Editor; Kristin Sobotka, Undergraduate Research Coordinator. Mentor: Bradley Jollif

Mineralogy and chemistry of San Carlos high-alkali basalts: Analyses of alteration with application for Mars exploration

The discovery of Fe, Mg, and Al phyllosilicates on Mars using visible and short-wave infrared (VSWIR) spectroscopy from orbit indicates aqueous alteration of basaltic rocks. Analyses at Gusev Crater by the Spirit rover and Gale Crater by the Curiosity rover have discovered alkaline basaltic rocks. In this work, multiple methods—VSWIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and chemical analyses—were used to study a suite of alkaline basalts from San Carlos, Arizona, which have been altered by water in an oxidative, semi-arid environment. As an analog for the weathering of alkaline basaltic rocks on Mars, a suite of rocks visually identified to have different degrees of alteration were characterized to understand the spectral, mineralogical, and chemical trends in alteration as sensed by multiple techniques. Samples with strong 1.9 μm H_2O-related absorptions in VSWIR commonly exhibited absorption bands at 1.4, 2.2, and/or 2.3 μm, indicating the presence of clay minerals or silica as well as features at 0.5–0.9 μm indicative of ferric iron oxides. Primary mineralogy for all samples, as determined by point analyses with the microprobe and XRD, consisted of olivine, plagioclase, nepheline, augite, and titanomagnetite. Compositional imaging and spot analyses with the microprobe revealed distinct alteration textures and phases, suggesting weathering pathways involving the oxidation of iron in olivine and primary Fe^(2+) oxides to form Fe^(3+) oxides as well as the formation of aluminum phyllosilicates and magnesium phyllosilicates from feldspars and olivines, respectively, while pyroxene remained relatively unaltered. Bivariate plots of major oxides both from bulk-chemical analysis and microprobe measurements also revealed trends in alkali and silica depletion and calcium enrichment, but there was little chemical fractionation in most of the major oxides. The strength of the 1.9 μm H_2O absorption, loss on ignition, and depletion in silica and sodium, correlated with increasing alteration. The data sets provide an analog for understanding possible weathering pathways in martian alkaline basalts and thresholds for the detection of aqueous alteration in multiple data sets

Perceived infertility and contraceptive use in the female, reproductive-age cancer survivor

ObjectiveTo estimate the association between perceived fertility potential and contraception use and to characterize factors important in contraceptive decision making in reproductive-age, female cancer survivors.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingParticipants were from two state cancer registries, physician referrals, and cancer survivor advocacy groups in the United States.Patient(s)A total of 483 female survivors aged 18-40 years.Intervention(s)Online questionnaire.Main outcome measure(s)Contraception use.Result(s)Eighty-four percent of participants used contraception; 49.7% used highly effective, World Health Organization tiers I and II methods (surgical sterilization, intrauterine devices, contraceptive implant, combined hormonal contraceptives, medroxyprogesterone acetate, progestin-only pills, contraceptive diaphragm). Contraception non-use was more common among survivors who perceived themselves to be infertile, compared with survivors who perceived themselves to be as or more fertile than similarly aged peers (prevalence ratio 4.0, 95% confidence interval 2.5-7.4). In mediation analysis that adjusted for clinical infertility, 59% of the association between prior chemotherapy and contraception non-use was explained by perceived infertility. Contraception efficacy (n = 62, 25.8%) and ease of use (n = 50, 20.8%) were the most cited reasons for using tier I/II methods; compared with lack of hormones (n = 81, 49.7%) as the predominant reason for using less-effective, tier III/IV methods.Conclusion(s)Although female, reproductive-age cancer survivors had high uptake of contraception, those who perceived themselves to be infertile were less likely to use contraception. Throughout survivorship, clinicians should counsel survivors on fertility potential in the context of their prior cancer treatments and on factors, including contraceptive efficacy and hormone-free contraception, that inform reproductive decision making in this population