OBSTOOL: Software for Processing UTIG OBS Data

This report describes OBSTOOL, a graphical user interface that allows the user to process data collected by the Univesity of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) ocean bottom seismographs (OBSs).Institute for Geophysic

On the Right Track to Safer Communities: Steering California's Juvenile Offenders Away from Lives of Crime

Describes family therapies and community-based intervention programs to reduce repeat offenses by juvenile offenders. Includes recommendations for expanding existing programs and an analysis of potential cost savings

Still Too Fat to Fight

The problem of junk food sold in schools is not just a national health issue. It is a national security issue.Over the past 40 years, obesity rates have more than tripled for children and teens. About 1 in 4 young American adults is now too overweight to join the military. Being overweight or obese is the number one medical reason why young adults cannot enlist. When weight problems are combined with poor education, criminal backgrounds, and other disqualifiers, an estimated 75 percent of young Americans could not serve in the military if they wanted to

Safer Streets: Cutting Repeat Crimes by Juvenile Offenders.

FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS is an anti-crime organization led by more than 3,500 law enforcement leaders -- chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors -- and survivors of crime. Most of the survivors are parents of murdered children. Crime requires punishment. Punishment may be placing a young offender in custody, or, depending on the crime, imposing a range of other tough sanctions. The bottom line is that residents must be safe walking the streets. Research shows, however, that punishment alone will often not be enough; troubled teens will need help to stop their aggression, substance abuse, or other anti-social behaviors. It is usually not too late to change anti-social patterns of behavior. Sanctions that include strict and effective interventions can direct anti-social and dangerous juveniles onto a different path that will make Americans safer

The Relationship Between State College Readiness Policy and Student Outcomes: A Multilevel Growth Model

This study examined whether policies related to college readiness have a relationship with student outcomes of college-going, student retention rates, and graduation rates for the overall state population as well as the rates specifically for European American and non-European American students. Specifically, a multilevel modeling approach was employed to determine whether significant relationships exist between the presence of state college readiness policies and change in student outcomes over time when controlling for state- and institutional-level factors. Several policies were considered, including: (a) the existence of a college-readiness definition, (b) a requirement for students to take college-prepatory courses in order to receive a high school diploma, (c) course-credit requirements for a high school diploma that align with a state’s postsecondary admissions policies, (d) the alignment of high school assessments with postsecondary academic expectations, and (e) the use of high school assessments in postsecondary admissions and placement decisions. In addition, I examined whether the relationship between policies and student outcomes is the same at 2- and 4-year institutions within a state. Data used in this study were pulled from several existing data sets, including IPEDS and data gathered by Education Week in their annual Quality Counts reports. Multilevel growth modeling was used to examine relationships between variables at both the institution- and state-level (or in the case of Research Question 1, state-level only), and to model longitudinal changes in outcomes over the study period of interest. Results of this study show that college-going rates have not changed over the years included, while both retention and graduation rates have seen measurable growth. None of the state policies related to college readiness were found to significantly relate to student outcomes, with one exception. Requirements for students to take collegepreparatory classes had a negative relationship with graduation rates at 2-year institutions, though this may more accurately reflect the exclusion of transfer students in the graduation rate metric. Significant differences were found in student outcomes between the 2- and 4-year sectors, as well as in the graduation rates for European American and non-European American students. Given these findings, policymakers and administrators should continue to focus on improving college-going behavior, exploring other types of policies targeting P-20 alignment, and addressing the gaps in graduation rates for students from different populations

Protecting Kids, Reducing Crime, Saving Money: Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington by Supporting Intensive Home Visiting.

The 126 police chiefs,sheriffs,district attorneys,other law enforcement leaders and violence survivors who are members of FIGHT CRIME:INVEST IN KIDS WASHINGTON, and the over 3,000 members of FIGHT CRIME:INVEST IN KIDS nationwide,have taken a hard-nosed look at what works-and what does not work-to cut crime and violence.Extensive evidence shows that children who suffered abuse or neglect are more likely to grow up to commit crimes.Solid research shows that nearly half of all abuse and neglect in high-risk families can now be prevented by programs that also prepare children to succeed in school. Preventing abuse and neglect will directly protect children and save lives. Sharply reducing abuse and neglect will also save the public hundreds of millions of dollars in Washington while greatly reducing the number of children growing up to be violent criminals

Mantle deformation beneath the Chicxulub impact crater

Accepted versio

Seismic constraints on shallow crustal processes at the East Pacific Rise

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-179).by Gail Lynn Christeson.Ph.D

Fine-scale seismic structure of the shallow volcanic crust on the East Pacific Rise at 9°50′N

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 109 (2004): B12104, doi:10.1029/2004JB003152.We use a combination of body wave and interface wave observations from an on-bottom seismic refraction survey to constrain the fine-scale seismic structure of the upper crust in a ∼3 × 3 km field area centered on the East Pacific Rise at 9°50′N. We detonated 18 explosive shots (18 sources) in a circular pattern (1.5 km radius) on the rise axis and recorded seismic arrivals with eight ocean bottom seismometers (eight receivers). We observed 30–40 Hz compressional body waves from all shots (144 P waves) and 1–3 Hz Stoneley (interface) waves on a subset of source-receiver pairs (58 interface waves). Using a station correction inversion, we find that roughly half of the variance in the P wave first-arrival times results from lateral variations in the thickness of the surface low-velocity layer (SLVL), a layer of extremely porous lava and basalt breccia with an average P wave velocity of 2.2 km s−1. The SLVL thickness increases from <20 m along the axial summit trough (AST) to ∼120 m at near-axis lava depocenters, which are not symmetric about the rise axis. Depocenters are located ∼0.5 km to the west and ∼1.5 km to the east of the rise axis. Tomographic inversion of the Stoneley wave first arrivals reveals that shear velocities in the SLVL covary with the layer thickness, exhibiting a similar asymmetric pattern, with shear velocities increasing from ∼320 m s−1 near the AST to ∼520 m s−1 at the near-axis depocenters. Our analysis demonstrates that the seismic characteristics of the extrusive layer near the rise axis are related primarily to volcanic features and processes. The thickness and velocity of the SLVL are low on the axis and within channel networks that deliver lava flows away from the axis and then increase rapidly at the distal ends of the channels where the lavas are deposited. We find that azimuthal anisotropy exerts only a weak influence on our P wave first-arrival times, which we model as weak (4%) seismic azimuthal anisotropy in the upper dikes with a fast axis oriented N23°–32°W. We find no evidence for seismic azimuthal anisotropy in the extrusive layer

Age and geochemistry of basaltic complexes in western Costa Rica: Contributions to the geotectonic evolution of Central America

The age and origin of magmatic complexes along the Pacific Coast of Central America have important implications for the origin and tectonic evolution of this convergent plate margin. Here we present new 40Ar/39Ar laser age dates, major and trace element data, and initial Sr-Nd-Pb isotope ratios. The 124– 109 Ma tholeiitic portions of the Santa Elena complex formed in a primitive island arc setting, believed to be part of the Chortis subduction zone. The geochemical similarities between the Santa Elena and Tortugal alkaline volcanic rocks suggest that Chortis block may extend south of the Hess Escarpment. The Nicoya, Herradura, Golfito, and Burica complexes and the tholeiitic Tortugal unit formed between 95 and 75 Ma and appear to be part of the Caribbean Large Igneous Province, thought to mark the initiation of the Gala´pagos hotspot. The Quepos and Osa complexes (65–59 Ma) represent accreted sections of an ocean island and an aseismic ridge, respectively, interpreted to reflect part of the Gala´pagos paleo-hotspot track. An Oligocene unconformity throughout Central America may be related to the mid-Eocene accretion of the Quepos and Osa complexes