Employment Retention and Advancement Project: Results from the Post-Assistance Self-Sufficiency (PASS) Program in Riverside, California

A random assignment evaluation of a voluntary postemployment program for workers who recently left welfare shows participants had increased employment and earnings during the first two years of follow-up

Strategies to Help Low-Wage Workers Advance: Implementation and Early Impacts of the Work Advancement and Support Center (WASC) Demonstration

Work Advancement and Support Center (WASC) is an innovative strategy to help low-wage workers increase their incomes by stabilizing employment, improving skills, increasing earnings, and easing access to work supports. In its first year, WASC connected more workers to food stamps and publicly funded health care coverage and, in one site, substantially increased training activities

Solutions of xqk+⋯+xq+x=ax^{q^k}+\cdots+x^{q}+x=a in GF2nGF{2^n}

Though it is well known that the roots of any affine polynomial over a finite field can be computed by a system of linear equations by using a normal base of the field, such solving approach appears to be difficult to apply when the field is fairly large. Thus, it may be of great interest to find an explicit representation of the solutions independently of the field base. This was previously done only for quadratic equations over a binary finite field. This paper gives an explicit representation of solutions for a much wider class of affine polynomials over a binary prime field

Interactions of Au cluster anions with oxygen

Experimental and theoretical evidence is presented for the nondissociative chemisorption of O2on free Au cluster anions (Au−n, n=number of atoms) with n=2, 4, 6 at room temperature, indicating that the stabilization of the activated di-oxygen species is the key for the unusual catalytic activities of Au-based catalysts. In contrast to Au−n with n=2, 4, 6, O2 adsorbs atomically on Aumonomer anions. For the Aumonomer neutral, calculations based on density functional theory reveal that oxygen should be molecularly bound. On Au dimer and tetramer neutrals, oxygen is molecularly bound with the O–O bond being less activated with respect to their anionic counterparts, suggesting that the excess electron in the anionic state plays a crucial role for the O–O activation. We demonstrate that interplay between experiments on gas phase clusters and theoretical approach can be a promising strategy to unveil mechanisms of elementary steps in nanocatalysis

Reservoir fracture characterizations from seismic scattered waves

The measurements of fracture parameters, such as fracture orientation, fracture density and fracture compliance, in a reservoir is very important for field development and exploration. Traditional seismic methods for fracture characterization include shear wave birefringence (Gaiser and Dok, 2001; Dok et al., 2001; Angerer et al., 2002; Vetri et al., 2003) and amplitude variations with offset and azimuth (AVOA) (Ruger, 1998; Shen et al., 2002; Hall et al., 2003; Liu et al., 2010; Lynn et al., 2010). These methods are based on the equivalent medium theory with the assumption that fracture dimension and spacing are small relative to the seismic wave length, so a fracture zone behaves like an equivalent anisotropic medium. But fractures on the order of seismic wave length are also very important for enhanced oil recovery, and they are one of the important subsurface scattering sources that generate scattered seismic waves. Willis et al. (2006) developed the Scattering Index method to extract the fracture scattering characteristics by calculating the transfer funtion of a fracture zone. Fang et al. (2011) proposed a modification of the SI method (the Fracture Transfer Function (FTF) method) that leads to a more robust fracture characterization. In this paper, we use both laboratory data and field data to explore the capability of the FTF method.Eni-MIT Energy Initiative Founding Member Progra

The impact of disability on the lives of children; cross-sectional data including 8,900 children with disabilities and 898,834 children without disabilities across 30 countries.

BACKGROUND: Children with disabilities are widely believed to be less likely to attend school or access health care, and more vulnerable to poverty. There is currently little large-scale or internationally comparable evidence to support these claims. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of disability on the lives of children sponsored by Plan International across 30 countries. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey including 907,734 children aged 0-17 participating in the Plan International Sponsorship Programme across 30 countries in 2012. Parents/guardians were interviewed using standardised questionnaires including information on: age, sex, health, education, poverty, and water and sanitation facilities. Disability was assessed through a single question and information was collected on type of impairment. The dataset included 8,900 children with reported disabilities across 30 countries. The prevalence of disability ranged from 0.4%-3.0% and was higher in boys than girls in 22 of the 30 countries assessed - generally in the range of 1.3-1.4 fold higher. Children with disabilities were much less likely to attend formal education in comparison to children without disabilities in each of the 30 countries, with age-sex adjusted odds ratios exceeding 10 for nearly half of the countries. This relationship varied by impairment type. Among those attending school, children with disabilities were at a lower level of schooling for their age compared to children without disabilities. Children with disabilities were more likely to report experiencing a serious illness in the last 12 months, except in Niger. There was no clear relationship between disability and poverty. CONCLUSIONS: Children with disabilities are at risk of not fulfilling their educational potential and are more vulnerable to serious illness. This exclusion is likely to have a long-term deleterious impact on their lives unless services are adapted to promote their inclusion

Everyday Spatial Practices in Eastleigh, Nairobi : A Case Study of Micro-segregation and Gentrification

Abstract This thesis explores the everyday spatial practices in the gentrified and micro-segregated Eastleigh, Nairobi. Gentrification is one of the most important aspects of urban studies, as well as social geography contributing to significant socioeconomic changes in many metropolitan cities in the world. Although the emerging empirical studies indicate socioeconomic impacts of gentrification, less research has been conducted to examine social and economic interaction in gentrified spaces in the Global South. Additionally, there are limited studies on how cultural diversity influences gentrification. In the case of a diversified neighbourhood, such as Eastleigh, assessing the effects of culture on gentrification is significant. Therefore, this study aimed to see by observing and interviewing residents, whether the developments in Eastleigh can be analysed and interpreted through the theoretical framework of gentrification and micro-segregation. The study used descriptive research to build on literature and graphics to collect data on gentrification indicators and socioeconomic interactions. The qualitative part of the study entailed observation, questionnaire survey, and key Informant interviews, while quantitative analysis was based on the graphical presentation of data. The outcomes of the study strongly suggest that an increase in the housing variables, the influx of wealthy population, increased employment, and shift in consumption trends are the significant indicators of ongoing gentrification in Eastleigh. The empirical studies indicate that social interactions in gentrified spaces appear to be marginalized due to cultural differences that have a strong impact on social and economic agents. The review made similar observations regarding social interactions between the new-comers and the long-time residents. The results of the study also found out that the reason for social and economic inequalities among the residents and the gentrifies was cultural differences which hindered access to social and economic services. However, since this study is one of the initial studies on gentrification in Eastleigh, Nairobi, more and in-depth studies are recommende

Remarks on maps of inverse limits

The aim of this note is to give a short proof of the Ščepin theorem concerning maps of inverse limits. This theorem was generalized by several authors; see e.g. W. Kulpa [5], A. Archangelskii [1] and M.G. Tkačenko [7], [8].Our method of the proof gives also the most general version of the Ščepin theorem due to Tkačenko. It can be also applied for obtaining in a very general setting the theorem of H.H. Corson and J.R. Isbell [3], [4] concerning maps from products