Location and the Low-Income Experience: Analyses of Program Dynamics in the Iowa Family Investment Program

In 1993, the state of Iowa, through waivers, implemented reforms creating the Family Investment Program (FIP), a program similar to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) created under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The goals of FIP (helping program recipients leave poverty and become self-supporting) parallel the intent of TANF and PRWORA (Holcomb et al. 1998; Iowa Department of Human Services 1996). FIP merged and coordinated several existing programs and tied support for job training, education, child care, and transportation more directly to income transfers. Iowa has had to change FIP very little to meet current federal guidelines. Thus, Iowa provides over seven years of experience under a program with rules and incentives similar to those instituted nationwide in 1996

Innovation at the State Level: Initial Effects of Welfare Reform in Iowa

In 1993, the State of Iowa reformed its welfare program by creating the Family Investment Program (FIP), a program designed to help its participants achieve economic self-sufficiency. This paper examines the experiences of individuals and families who leave FIP. Specifically, the study explores why some low-income households successfully leave public assistance, while others who leave later return. The study shows that in Iowa, the FIP has been relatively successful in supporting the transition of those leaving the program, and that income is a key determinant of participation and ability to stay off public assistance programs

Using multi-method measures in consumer research investigating eye-tracking, electro-dermal activity and self report

Applied research is frequently compromised by the limitations associated with using a single source to measure complex dependent variables, such as affective and motivational phenomena. In the field of consumer psychology, customer evaluations are almost universally assessed via self reports. The limitations and biases associated with this data source are well known. This presentation reports on a study that uses a novel triangulation approach to the measurement and analysis of attentional and affective responses to tourism promotional material. The approach comprises two psychophysiological technologies (eye-tracking and electrodermal activity) as complements to more traditional self-report data. Two short promotional videos were used as stimulus materials in a study seeking to better understand potential consumer responses to such material. Respondents (N = 10) viewed video material presented on an eye-tracking screen while wearing an unobtrusive wrist-band measuring electrodermal activity. On conclusion of the video, respondents completed a self-report questionnaire. The modest associations obtained through these three sources of data are viewed as a positive outcome in that electrodermal activity (arousal), direction of gaze (interest), and self-reports (hedonic tone) are viewed as important and complementary components of consumers’ responses. The presentation explores the use of complementary data to assess attentional and affective responses, as well as the advantages and challenges associated with this triangulated approach.Griffith Business SchoolNo Full Tex

CO2 Release from Pockmarks on the Chatham Rise‐Bounty Trough at the Glacial Termination

Seafloor pockmarks of varying size occur over an area of 50,000 km2 on the Chatham Rise, Canterbury Shelf and Inner Bounty Trough, New Zealand. The pockmarks are concentrated above the flat‐subducted Hikurangi Plateau. Echosounder data identifies recurrent episodes of pockmark formation at ~100,000yr frequency coinciding with Pleistocene glacial terminations. Here we show that there are structural conduits beneath the larger pockmarks through which fluids flowed upward toward the seafloor. Large negative Δ14C excursions are documented in marine sediments deposited next to these subseafloor conduits and pockmarks at the last glacial termination. Modern pore waters contain no methane and there is no negative δ13C excursion at the glacial termination that would be indicative of methane or mantle‐derived carbon at the time the Δ14C excursion and pockmarks were produced. An ocean general circulation model equipped with isotope tracers is unable to simulate these large Δ14C excursions on the Chatham Rise by transport of hydrothermal carbon released from the East Pacific Rise as previous studies suggested. Here we attribute the Δ14C anomalies and pockmarks to release of 14C‐dead CO2 and carbon‐rich fluids from subsurface reservoirs, the most likely being dissociated Mesozoic carbonates that subducted beneath the Rise during the Late Cretaceous. Because of the large number of pockmarks and duration of the Δ14C anomaly, the pockmarks may collectively represent an important source of 14C‐dead carbon to the ocean during glacial terminations

Chloroquine-enhanced gene delivery mediated by carbon nanotubes

Polyethyleneimine-coated double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) were used for dual gene and drug delivery, after loading the DWCNTs with the drug chloroquine, a lysosomotropic compound that is able to promote escape from the lysosomal compartment. Different forms of functionalization of the DWCNTs were examined in order to optimize this system. They included the testing of different treatments on DWCNTs to optimize the loading and delivery of chloroquine and the selection of a cationic polymer for coating the DWCNTs for optimum DNA binding and delivery. An acid oxidation treatment of DWCNTs was selected for optimum chloroquine loading together with polyethyleneimine as optimum cationic coating agent for plasmid DNA binding. Optimization of the conditions for choroquine-enhanced gene delivery were developed using luciferase expression as a model system. We have demonstrated that chloroquine-loading increases the ability of polyethyleneimine-coated DWCNTs to deliver functional nucleic acid to human cells. Cell viability tests have shown no cytotoxicity of the functionalized DWCNTs at the concentrations needed for optimum gene delivery. These results support the potential applications of this methodology in gene therapy

p53 deficiency linked to B cell translocation gene 2 (BTG2) loss enhances metastatic potential by promoting tumor growth in primary and metastatic sites in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of triple-negative breast cancer

Mini-signature of genes that interact with the p53 pathway and associated p values. (PDF 62 kb

Gender Differences in the Risk of HIV Infection among Persons Reporting Abstinence, Monogamy, and Multiple Sexual Partners in Northern Tanzania

BACKGROUND: Monogamy, together with abstinence, partner reduction, and condom use, is widely advocated as a key behavioral strategy to prevent HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa. We examined the association between the number of sexual partners and the risk of HIV seropositivity among men and women presenting for HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) in northern Tanzania. METHODOLOGY/ PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Clients presenting for HIV VCT at a community-based AIDS service organization in Moshi, Tanzania were surveyed between November 2003 and December 2007. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, reasons for testing, sexual behaviors, and symptoms were collected. Men and women were categorized by number of lifetime sexual partners, and rates of seropositivity were reported by category. Factors associated with HIV seropositivity among monogamous males and females were identified by a multivariate logistic regression model. Of 6,549 clients, 3,607 (55%) were female, and the median age was 30 years (IQR 24-40). 939 (25%) females and 293 (10%) males (p<0.0001) were HIV seropositive. Among 1,244 (34%) monogamous females and 423 (14%) monogamous males, the risk of HIV infection was 19% and 4%, respectively (p<0.0001). The risk increased monotonically with additional partners up to 45% (p<0.001) and 15% (p<0.001) for women and men, respectively with 5 or more partners. In multivariate analysis, HIV seropositivity among monogamous women was most strongly associated with age (p<0.0001), lower education (p<0.004), and reporting a partner with other partners (p = 0.015). Only age was a significant risk factor for monogamous men (p = 0.0004). INTERPRETATION: Among women presenting for VCT, the number of partners is strongly associated with rates of seropositivity; however, even women reporting lifetime monogamy have a high risk for HIV infection. Partner reduction should be coupled with efforts to place tools in the hands of sexually active women to reduce their risk of contracting HIV

The CAMELS project: Expanding the galaxy formation model space with new ASTRID and 28-parameter TNG and SIMBA suites

We present CAMELS-ASTRID, the third suite of hydrodynamical simulations in the Cosmology and Astrophysics with MachinE Learning (CAMELS) project, along with new simulation sets that extend the model parameter space based on the previous frameworks of CAMELS-TNG and CAMELS-SIMBA, to provide broader training sets and testing grounds for machine-learning algorithms designed for cosmological studies. CAMELS-ASTRID employs the galaxy formation model following the ASTRID simulation and contains 2,124 hydrodynamic simulation runs that vary 3 cosmological parameters ($\Omega_m$, $\sigma_8$, $\Omega_b$) and 4 parameters controlling stellar and AGN feedback. Compared to the existing TNG and SIMBA simulation suites in CAMELS, the fiducial model of ASTRID features the mildest AGN feedback and predicts the least baryonic effect on the matter power spectrum. The training set of ASTRID covers a broader variation in the galaxy populations and the baryonic impact on the matter power spectrum compared to its TNG and SIMBA counterparts, which can make machine-learning models trained on the ASTRID suite exhibit better extrapolation performance when tested on other hydrodynamic simulation sets. We also introduce extension simulation sets in CAMELS that widely explore 28 parameters in the TNG and SIMBA models, demonstrating the enormity of the overall galaxy formation model parameter space and the complex non-linear interplay between cosmology and astrophysical processes. With the new simulation suites, we show that building robust machine-learning models favors training and testing on the largest possible diversity of galaxy formation models. We also demonstrate that it is possible to train accurate neural networks to infer cosmological parameters using the high-dimensional TNG-SB28 simulation set