Ready4Work In Brief Interim Outcomes Are In: Recidivism at Half the National Average

This issue of "P/PV In Brief' reviews interim outcomes from the Ready4Work prisoner reentry initiative. Funded by the US Department of Labor and the Annie E. Casey and Ford foundations, Ready4Work is 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 are providing employment services, case management and mentoring in 11 adult sites around the country (data from seven juvenile sites are being analyzed separately). Interim outcomes from the initiative are extremely encouraging, with almost 60 percent of participants becoming employed and the majority of them staying employed for three or more consecutive months. Even more striking, recidivism rates for Ready4Work participants are considerably lower than those reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics for a similar population

Topological changes in the magnetic field of LQ Hya during an activity minimum

Aims. Previous studies have related surface temperature maps, obtained with the Doppler imaging (DI) technique, of LQ Hya with long-term photometry. Here, we compare surface magnetic field maps, obtained with the Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) technique, with contemporaneous photometry, with the aim of quantifying the star's magnetic cycle characteristics. Methods. We inverted Stokes IV spectropolarimetry, obtained with the HARPSpol and ESPaDOnS instruments, into magnetic field and surface brightness maps using a tomographic inversion code that models high signal-to-noise ratio mean line profiles produced by the least squares deconvolution (LSD) technique. The maps were compared against long-term ground-based photometry acquired with the T3 0.40 m Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (APT) at Fairborn Observatory, which offers a proxy for the spot cycle of the star, as well as with chromospheric Ca II H&K activity derived from the observed spectra. Results. The magnetic field and surface brightness maps reveal similar patterns relative to previous DI and ZDI studies: nonaxisymmetric polar magnetic field structure, void of fields at mid-latitudes, and a complex structure in the equatorial regions. There is a weak but clear tendency of the polar structures to be linked with a strong radial field and the equatorial ones with the azimuthal field. We find a polarity reversal in the radial field between 2016 and 2017 that is coincident with a spot minimum seen in the long-term photometry, although the precise relation of chromospheric activity to the spot activity remains complex and unclear. The inverted field strengths cannot be easily related with the observed spottedness, but we find that they are partially connected to the retrieved field complexity. Conclusions. This field topology and the dominance of the poloidal field component, when compared to global magnetoconvection models for rapidly rotating young suns, could be explained by a turbulent dynamo, where differential rotation does not play a major role (so-called alpha(2)Omega(2) or alpha(2) dynamos) and axi- and non-axisymmetric modes are excited simultaneously. The complex equatorial magnetic field structure could arise from the twisted (helical) wreaths often seen in these simulations, while the polar feature would be connected to the mostly poloidal non-axisymmetric component that has a smooth spatial structure.Peer reviewe

A Solve-RD ClinVar-based reanalysis of 1522 index cases from ERN-ITHACA reveals common pitfalls and misinterpretations in exome sequencing

Purpose Within the Solve-RD project (https://solve-rd.eu/), the European Reference Network for Intellectual disability, TeleHealth, Autism and Congenital Anomalies aimed to investigate whether a reanalysis of exomes from unsolved cases based on ClinVar annotations could establish additional diagnoses. We present the results of the “ClinVar low-hanging fruit” reanalysis, reasons for the failure of previous analyses, and lessons learned. Methods Data from the first 3576 exomes (1522 probands and 2054 relatives) collected from European Reference Network for Intellectual disability, TeleHealth, Autism and Congenital Anomalies was reanalyzed by the Solve-RD consortium by evaluating for the presence of single-nucleotide variant, and small insertions and deletions already reported as (likely) pathogenic in ClinVar. Variants were filtered according to frequency, genotype, and mode of inheritance and reinterpreted. Results We identified causal variants in 59 cases (3.9%), 50 of them also raised by other approaches and 9 leading to new diagnoses, highlighting interpretation challenges: variants in genes not known to be involved in human disease at the time of the first analysis, misleading genotypes, or variants undetected by local pipelines (variants in off-target regions, low quality filters, low allelic balance, or high frequency). Conclusion The “ClinVar low-hanging fruit” analysis represents an effective, fast, and easy approach to recover causal variants from exome sequencing data, herewith contributing to the reduction of the diagnostic deadlock

Topological changes in the magnetic field of LQ Hya during an activity minimum

Aims. Previous studies have related surface temperature maps, obtained with the Doppler imaging (DI) technique, of LQ Hya with long-term photometry. Here, we compare surface magnetic field maps, obtained with the Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) technique, with contemporaneous photometry, with the aim of quantifying the star’s magnetic cycle characteristics. Methods. We inverted Stokes IV spectropolarimetry, obtained with the HARPSpol and ESPaDOnS instruments, into magnetic field and surface brightness maps using a tomographic inversion code that models high signal-to-noise ratio mean line profiles produced by the least squares deconvolution (LSD) technique. The maps were compared against long-term ground-based photometry acquired with the T3 0.40 m Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (APT) at Fairborn Observatory, which offers a proxy for the spot cycle of the star, as well as with chromospheric Ca II H&K activity derived from the observed spectra. Results. The magnetic field and surface brightness maps reveal similar patterns relative to previous DI and ZDI studies: non-axisymmetric polar magnetic field structure, void of fields at mid-latitudes, and a complex structure in the equatorial regions. There is a weak but clear tendency of the polar structures to be linked with a strong radial field and the equatorial ones with the azimuthal field. We find a polarity reversal in the radial field between 2016 and 2017 that is coincident with a spot minimum seen in the long-term photometry, although the precise relation of chromospheric activity to the spot activity remains complex and unclear. The inverted field strengths cannot be easily related with the observed spottedness, but we find that they are partially connected to the retrieved field complexity. Conclusions. This field topology and the dominance of the poloidal field component, when compared to global magnetoconvection models for rapidly rotating young suns, could be explained by a turbulent dynamo, where differential rotation does not play a major role (so-called 2 or 2 dynamos) and axi- and non-axisymmetric modes are excited simultaneously. The complex equatorial magnetic field structure could arise from the twisted (helical) wreaths often seen in these simulations, while the polar feature would be connected to the mostly poloidal non-axisymmetric component that has a smooth spatial structure

Well-structured teams and the buffering of hospital employees from stress

Membership in well-structured teams, which show clarity in team and individual goals, meet regularly, and recognize diverse skills of their members, is known to reduce stress. This study examined how membership of well-structured teams was associated with lower levels of strain, when testing a work stressors-to-strains relationship model across the three levels of team structure, namely well-structured, poorly structured (do not fulfill all the criteria of well-structured teams) and no team. The work stressors tested, were quantitative overload and hostile environment, whereas strains were measured through job satisfaction and intention to leave job. This investigation was carried out on a random sample of 65,142 respondents in acute/specialist National Health Service hospitals across the UK. Using multivariate analysis of variance, statistically significant differences between means across the three groups of team structure, with mostly moderate effect sizes, were found for the study variables. Those in well-structured teams have the highest levels of job satisfaction and the least intention to leave job. Multigroup structural equation modelling confirmed the model's robustness across the three groups of team structure. Work stressors explained 45%, 50% and 65% of the variance of strains for well-structured, poorly structured and no team membership, respectively. An increase of one standard deviation in work stressors, resulted in an increase in 0.67, 0.70 and 0.81 standard deviations in strains for well-structured, poorly structured and no team membership, respectively. This investigation is an eye-opener for hospitals to work towards achieving well-structured teams, as this study shows weaker stressor-to-strain relationships for members of these teams

Resilience to COVID-19: Socioeconomic Disadvantage Associated With Higher Positive Parent-youth Communication and Youth Disease-prevention Behavior

Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with larger COVID-19 disease burdens and pandemic-related economic impacts. We utilized the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study to understand how family- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage relate to disease burden, family communication, and preventative responses to the pandemic in over 6,000 youth-parent/caregiver dyads. Data were collected at three timepoints (May to August 2020). Here, we show that both family- and neighborhood-level disadvantage were associated with parents’ reports of greater family COVID-19 exposure risk and diagnoses, less perceived exposure risk, more frequent parent-youth conversations about COVID-19 risk/prevention and reassurance, and greater youth preventative behaviors. More disadvantaged families may be adaptively incorporating more protective strategies to reduce emotional distress and likelihood of COVID-19 infection. The results highlight the importance of parent-youth communication and disease-preventative practices for buffering the economic and disease burdens of COVID-19, along with policies and programs that reduce these burdens for families with socioeconomic disadvantage