Ready4Work In Brief: Update on Outcomes; Reentry May Be Critical for States, Cities

This issue of P/PV In Brief provides updated data from the Ready4Work prisoner reentry initiative, with a focus on the prison crisis occurring in many cities and states. While much more research is needed to understand the true, long-term impact of prisoner reentry initiatives, outcomes from Ready4Work were extremely promising in terms of education, employment and program retention, with recidivism rates among Ready4Work participants 34 to 50 percent below the national average.Funded by the US Department of Labor and the Annie E. Casey and Ford foundations, Ready4Work was a three-year national demonstration project designed to address the needs of the growing ex-prisoner population and to test the capacity of community- and faith-based organizations to meet those needs. Ready4Work programs provided employment services, case management and mentoring in 11 adult sites around the country (data from seven juvenile sites are being analyzed separately)

Effects of stress on the immune system of fish

The effects of stress on the immune system of various fish species including dab Limanda limanda, flounder Platichthys flesus, sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax and gobies Zosterisessor ophiocephalus, were investigated from laboratory and field experiments, using various assays to measure immunocompetence, correlated with histological and ultrastructural observations. Modulation of the immune system was demonstrated at tissue, cellular and biochemical levels following exposure to various stressors. The spleen somatic index was depressed in dab stressed in the laboratory and gobies collected from polluted sites in the Venice Lagoon. Differential blood cell counts consistently showed an increase in phagocytes and decrease in thrombocytes in fish exposed to various stressors. Phagocytic activity from spleen and kidney adherent cells was stimulated in dab stressed by transportation but depressed in fish exposed to chemical pollutants. Respiratory burst activity in phagocytic cells was also stimulated in stressed dab but depressed in sea bass exposed to cadmium. The results are discussed in relation to current concepts on stress in fish and the regulation of the immune system

Geochemistry of Kauai shield-stage lavas: Implications for the chemical evolution of the Hawaiian plume

We measured He, Sr, Nd, Pb, and Os isotope ratios and major and trace element concentrations in stratigraphically and paleomagnetically controlled shield-stage lavas from Kauai, Hawaii. The range of 3He/4He ratios (17–28 RA) from Kauai is similar to that reported from Loihi and thus challenges the prevailing notion that high 3He/4He ratios are restricted to the preshield stage of Hawaiian magmatism. 3He/4He ratios vary erratically with stratigraphic position, and chronostratigraphic control from paleomagnetic data indicates very rapid changes in the 3He/4He ratios (up to 8 RA in ~102 years). These variations in helium isotopic ratios are correlated with variations in radiogenic isotope ratios, suggesting rapid changes in melt composition supplying the magma reservoir. A three-component mixing model, previously proposed for Hawaiian shield lavas, does not adequately explain the isotopic data in Kauai shield lavas. The addition of a depleted-mantle (DM) component with the isotopic characteristics similar to posterosional basalts explains the isotopic variability in Kauai shield lavas. The DM component is most apparent in lavas from the Kauai shield and is present in varying proportion in other Hawaiian shield volcanoes. Shield lavas from Kauai sample a high 3He/4He end-member (Loihi component), but while lavas from western Kauai have a larger contribution from the Kea component (high 206Pb/204Pb, anomalously low 207Pb/204Pb relative to 206Pb/204Pb), lavas from eastern Kauai have a larger proportion of an enriched (Koolau) component. The systematic isotopic differences between eastern and western Kauai reflect a gradual migration of the locus of volcanism from west to east, or alternatively east and west Kauai are two distinct shield volcanoes. In the latter case, the two shield volcanoes have maintained distinct magma supply sources and plumbing systems. Our new geochemical data from Kauai are consistent with the existence of a single high 3He/4He reservoir in the Hawaiian plume and suggest that the proportion of the different mantle components in the plume have changed significantly in the past 5 Myr. The long-term evolution of the Hawaiian plume and the temporal variability recorded in Kauai lavas require more complex geochemical heterogeneities than suggested by radially zoned plume models. These complexities may arise from heterogeneities in the thermal boundary layer and through variable entrainment of ambient mantle by the upwelling plume

The characterisation of multiple defects in components using artificial neural networks

This thesis investigates the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) as a means of processing signals from non-destructive tests, to characterise defects and provide more information regarding the condition of the component than would otherwise be possible for an operator to obtain from the test data. ANNs are used both as pattern classifiers and as function approximators. In the first part of the thesis, finite element analysis was carried out on a simple component containing a single defect modelled as a void, simulating three kinds of non-destructive test: an impact method that sent a stress wave through the component, an analysis of natural frequencies, and an ultrasonic pulse-echo method. The inputs to the ANNs were data from the numerical model, and the outputs were the x and y co-ordinates of the defect in the case of the impact and frequency methods, and the size and distance to the defect in the case of the ultrasonic method. Very good accuracy was observed in all three methods. Experimental validation of the ultrasonic method was carried out, and the ANNs returned accurate outputs for the position and size of a circular hole in a steel plate when presented with experimental data. When the ANNs were presented with noisy input data, their reduction in accuracy was small in comparison with published data from similar studies. In the second part of the thesis, the case of two defects lying within one wavelength of each other was considered, where the reflected ultrasonic waves from each defect overlapped, partially cancelling each other out and reducing the overall amplitude. A novel ANN-based approach was developed to decouple the overlapping signals, characterising each defect in terms of its position and size. Optimisation of the ANN architecture was carried out to maximise the ability of the ANN to generalise when presented with previously unseen data. Finally, an ANN-based general defect characterisation ‘expert system’ is presented, using data from an ultrasonic test as its input, and classifying cases according to the number of defects present. The system then characterised the defects present in the component in terms of their location and size, providing more information regarding the component’s condition than would be possible by existing techniques

Generation of cell lines to complement Adenovirus vectors using recombination-mediated cassette exchange

Background Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) has many favourable characteristics for development as a gene therapy vector. However, the utility of current Ad5 vectors is limited by transient transgene expression, toxicity and immunogenicity. The most promising form of vector is the high capacity type, which is deleted for all viral genes. However, these vectors can only be produced to relatively low titres and with the aid of helper virus. Therefore a continuing challenge is the generation of more effective Ad5 vectors that can still be grown to high titres. Our approach is to generate complementing cell lines to support the growth of Ad5 vectors with novel late gene deficiencies. Results We have used LoxP/Cre recombination mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) to generate cell lines expressing Ad5 proteins encoded by the L4 region of the genome, the products of which play a pivotal role in the expression of Ad5 structural proteins. A panel of LoxP parent 293 cell lines was generated, each containing a GFP expression cassette under the control of a tetracycline-regulated promoter inserted at a random genome location; the cassette also contained a LoxP site between the promoter and GFP sequence. Clones displayed a variety of patterns of regulation, stability and level of GFP expression. Clone A1 was identified as a suitable parent for creation of inducible cell lines because of the tight inducibility and stability of its GFP expression. Using LoxP-targeted, Cre recombinase-mediated insertion of an L4 cassette to displace GFP from the regulated promoter in this parent clone, cell line A1-L4 was generated. This cell line expressed L4 100K, 22K and 33K proteins at levels sufficient to complement L4-33K mutant and L4-deleted viruses. Conclusions RMCE provides a method for rapid generation of Ad5 complementing cell lines from a pre-selected parental cell line, chosen for its desirable transgene expression characteristics. Parent cell lines can be selected for high or low gene expression, and for tight regulation, allowing viral protein expression to mirror that found during infection. Cell lines derived from a single parent will allow the growth of different vectors to be assessed without the complication of varying complementing protein expression

Improving the spatial resolution by effective subtraction technique at Irkutsk incoherent scatter radar: the theory and experiment

We describe a sounding technique that allows us to improve spatial resolution of Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar without loosing spectral resolution. The technique is based on transmitting of rectangle pulses of different duration in various sounding runs and subtracting correlation matrixes. Theoretically and experimentally we have shown, that subtraction of the mean-square parameters of the scattered signal for different kinds of the sounding signal one from another allows us to solve the problem within the framework of quasi-static ionospheric parameters approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear at URSI-2011 conferenc