The Earned Income Tax Credit: Experiences from and Implications of the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance Program in Georgia

The study reported here used data collected from participants in a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program to better understand how families anticipated using their Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) refunds and their use of direct deposit. Data were collected over 3 years. The most common use for a refund by participants was paying bills or debts. One-third of participants planned to use their refund for savings or asset accumulation. Direct deposit participation was not significantly associated with using the EITC refund for savings or asset accumulation, with the exception of one asset, which was a house

Does Marital Status of Parents Relate to Family Communication Regarding Finances?

How do youth and parents perceive their communication with each other? How do they perceive communication about money with each other? Are there differences between married-parent families and single-parent families? The reported study examined the discrepancies in perception between parents and youth and compares these differences between married and single-parent families. Although single-parent families had greater discrepancies in perceptions regarding communication in general, there was no evidence of such differences in discrepancies regarding communication about money. The finding suggests the importance of youth development programs to provide information and encouragement to both youth and their parents

Sources and characteristics of summertime organic aerosol in the Colorado Front Range: perspective from measurements and WRF-Chem modeling

Abstract. The evolution of organic aerosols (OAs) and their precursors in the boundary layer (BL) of the Colorado Front Range during the Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Éxperiment (FRAPPÉ, July–August 2014) was analyzed by in situ measurements and chemical transport modeling. Measurements indicated significant production of secondary OA (SOA), with enhancement ratio of OA with respect to carbon monoxide (CO) reaching 0.085±0.003 µg m−3 ppbv−1. At background mixing ratios of CO, up to  ∼  1.8 µg m−3 background OA was observed, suggesting significant non-combustion contribution to OA in the Front Range. The mean concentration of OA in plumes with a high influence of oil and natural gas (O&G) emissions was  ∼  40 % higher than in urban-influenced plumes. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) confirmed a dominant contribution of secondary, oxygenated OA (OOA) in the boundary layer instead of fresh, hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA). Combinations of primary OA (POA) volatility assumptions, aging of semi-volatile species, and different emission estimates from the O&G sector were used in the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) simulation scenarios. The assumption of semi-volatile POA resulted in greater than a factor of 10 lower POA concentrations compared to PMF-resolved HOA. Including top-down modified O&G emissions resulted in substantially better agreements in modeled ethane, toluene, hydroxyl radical, and ozone compared to measurements in the high-O&G-influenced plumes. By including emissions from the O&G sector using the top-down approach, it was estimated that the O&G sector contributed to  <  5 % of total OA, but up to 38 % of anthropogenic SOA (aSOA) in the region. The best agreement between the measured and simulated median OA was achieved by limiting the extent of biogenic hydrocarbon aging and consequently biogenic SOA (bSOA) production. Despite a lower production of bSOA in this scenario, contribution of bSOA to total SOA remained high at 40–54 %. Future studies aiming at a better emissions characterization of POA and intermediate-volatility organic compounds (IVOCs) from the O&G sector are valuable

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Financial Literacy: The Relationship to Saving Behavior in Low- to Moderate-income Households

This study was designed to explore financial literacy in low- to moderate-income households with regard to saving behavior. The study examined the low- to moderate-income household’s decision to save regularly and their responses to three questions related to financial literacy and a self-reported perception of financial knowledge. Perceived financial knowledge and planning (usually or most of the time) were good indicators of the decision to save regularly

Synthesizing evidence for the external cycling of NOx in high- to low-NOx atmospheres.

External cycling regenerating nitrogen oxides (NOx ≡ NO + NO2) from their oxidative reservoir, NOz, is proposed to reshape the temporal-spatial distribution of NOx and consequently hydroxyl radical (OH), the most important oxidant in the atmosphere. Here we verify the in situ external cycling of NOx in various environments with nitrous acid (HONO) as an intermediate based on synthesized field evidence collected onboard aircraft platform at daytime. External cycling helps to reconcile stubborn underestimation on observed ratios of HONO/NO2 and NO2/NOz by current chemical model schemes and rationalize atypical diurnal concentration profiles of HONO and NO2 lacking noontime valleys specially observed in low-NOx atmospheres. Perturbation on the budget of HONO and NOx by external cycling is also found to increase as NOx concentration decreases. Consequently, model underestimation of OH observations by up to 41% in low NOx atmospheres is attributed to the omission of external cycling in models