Five-year Lifetime Research Articles

Impact of gaseous interferents on palladium expansion for hydrogen optical sensing: A time stability study

Continuous monitoring of hydrogen (H2) concentration is critical for safer use, which can be done using optical sensors. Palladium (Pd) is the most commonly used transducer material for this monitoring. This material absorbs H2 leading to an isotropic expansion. This process is reversible but is affected by the interaction with interferents, and the lifetime of Pd thin films is a recurring issue. Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are used to follow the strain induced by H2 on Pd thin films. In this work, it is studied the stability of Pd-coated FBGs, protected with a thin Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) layer, 10 years after their deposition to assess their viability to be used as H2 sensors for long periods of time. It was found that Pd coatings that were PTFE-protected after deposition had a longer lifetime than unprotected films, with the same sensitivities that they had immediately after their deposition, namely 23 and 10 pm/vol% for the sensors with 150 and 100 nm of Pd, respectively, and a saturation point around 2 kPa. Furthermore, the Pd expansion was analyzed in the presence of H2, nitrogen (N2), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and water vapor (H2O), finding that H2O is the main interferent. Finally, an exhaustive test for 90 h is also done to analyze the long-term stability of Pd films in dry and humid environments, with only the protected sensor maintaining the long-term response. As a result, this study emphasizes the importance of using protective polymeric layers in Pd films to achieve the five-year lifetime required for a real H2 monitoring application.

Reduced global warming potential in carbon-based perovskite solar modules: Cradle-to-gate life cycle analysis

Given the superior stability, technologically developed and cost effectiveness of carbon-based perovskite solar cells over conventional metallic electrode-based architectures, this work investigates the environmental performance of two industrial front-runners architectures i.e., high temperature processed carbon-based perovskite solar modules (CPSMs) and low temperature processed CPSMs using cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment analysis assuming a manufacturing plant in India. According to the study, most of the impacts are due to energy consumption in the annealing and screen print paste process used in ETL, perovskite, HTL and cathode layer for both the architectures. Material selection for the perovskite and other layers has a significant environmental impact on both architectures. Compared to low temperature processed architecture, high temperature processed CPSMs have a greater environmental impact. For a five-year lifetime, the global warming potential (GWP) values for high temperature and low temperature processed CPSMs are 0.180 kg CO2-eq and 0.126 kg CO2-eq, respectively, which are marginally higher than those indicated for commercially available silicon solar cells. Thus, a sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the minimum lifetime required to compete with GWP values comparable to commercial PVs. High and low temperature processed CPSM needed 16 and 11 years of lifetime, respectively, to match silicon's 25 years of lifetime. On the other hand, the study finds the human toxicity contribution by mono-silicon is extremely high compared to the two CPSM architectures because of the contribution by electricity (44.01%) and use of heavy metals such as copper (16.83%) and steel (11.52%).

Hospital Cost Savings for Sequential COPD Patients Receiving Domiciliary Nasal High Flow Therapy.

PurposeTo estimate the 5-year budget impact to Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) hospitals of domiciliary nasal high flow (NHF) therapy to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who require long term oxygen therapy.MethodsHospital admission counts along with length of stay were obtained from hospital records of 200 COPD patients enrolled in a 12-month randomized clinical trial of NHF in Denmark, both over a 12-month baseline and then in the study period while on randomized treatment (control or NHF). NZ costings from similar COPD patients were estimated using data from Middlemore Hospital, Auckland and were applied to the Danish trial. The budget impact of NHF was estimated over the predicted 5-year lifetime of the device when used by patients sequentially.ResultsFifty-five of 100 patients in the NHF group and 44 of 100 patients in the control group were admitted to hospital with a respiratory diagnosis during the baseline year. They had 108 admissions in the treatment group vs 89 in the control group, with 632 vs 438 days in hospital, and modeled annual costs of $9443 vs $6512 per patient, respectively. During the study period there were 38 vs 44 patients with 67 vs 80 admissions and 302 vs 526 days in hospital, at a modeled annual cost of $6961 vs $9565 per patient respectively. Taking into account capital expenditure and running costs, this resulted in cost savings of $5535 per patient-year (95% CI, -$36 to -$11,034). With 90% usage over the estimated five-year lifetime of the NHF device, amortized capital costs of $594 per year and annual running costs of $662, we estimate a 5-year undiscounted cost saving per NHF device of $18,626 ($16,934 when discounted to net present value at 5% per annum). There would still be annual cost savings over a wide range of assumptions.ConclusionDomiciliary NHF therapy for patients with severe COPD has the potential to provide substantial hospital cost savings over the five-year lifetime of the NHF device.

Balancing the film strain of organic semiconductors for ultrastable organic transistors with a five-year lifetime

The instability of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) is one key obstacle to practical application and is closely related to the unstable aggregate state of organic semiconductors (OSCs). However, the underlying reason for this instability remains unclear, and no effective solution has been developed. Herein, we find that the intrinsic tensile and compressive strains that exist in OSC films are the key origins for aggregate state instability and device degradation. We further report a strain balance strategy to stabilize the aggregate state by regulating film thickness, which is based on the unique transition from tensile strain to compressive strain with increasing film thickness. Consequently, a strain-free and ultrastable OSC film is obtained by regulating the film thickness, with which an ultrastable OFET with a five-year lifetime is realized. This work provides a deeper understanding of and a solution to the instability of OFETs and sheds light on their industrialization.

Advancing the application of remote sensing for forest information needs in Canada: Lessons learned from a national collaboration of university, industrial and government stakeholders

The Canadian forest sector requires detailed information regarding the amount and characteristics of the forest resource. To address these needs, inventory systems that spatially quantify timber and other forest related ecosystem services are required, that are accurate, comprehensive and timely. The Assessment of Wood properties using Remote Sensing (AWARE) was a five-year project involving collaboration between seven Canadian universities, and seven forest companies with support provided by provincial and federal forestry agencies and other non-for-profit forestry focused organisations. AWARE provided methods and tools to enhance the characterization of forests at national, landscape and individual tree scales. The project supported 24 post-doctoral fellows, PhD and MSc students that examined the roles that advanced three-dimensional remote sensing technologies can play in the development of accurate forest inventory systems across Canada. In this review we examine the AWARE research project, review research highlights, key outcomes, future research needs, and provide an assessment of successes and challenges the project faced over its five-year lifetime.

Greenhouse gas mitigation and rural electricity generation by a novel two-stroke biogas engine

Small-scale anaerobic digestion of wet organic wastes can make positive contributions to climate mitigation, energy security and nutrient cycling in agri-food systems. However, the environmental sustainability of small-scale anaerobic digestion is undermined where lack of capacity to utilize the biogas fuel results in biomethane venting to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Policy support for improved manure management in Bali, Indonesia, has resulted in the installation of small (6 m3) anaerobic digesters across 752 Bali cattle breeding units. These 752 remote rural digesters annually vent approximately 75 482 ± 37 741 m3 of biomethane into the atmosphere as a waste, owing to lack of practical means to convert this potential fuel into useful energy. Meanwhile, most of these cattle farms lack access to electricity. This paper describes the performance of a novel, compact and versatile “BioMiniGen” system that provides convenient electricity generation from small-scale biogas production. This innovative system comprises: (i) a simple biogas desulfurizing system; (ii) a two-stroke, single cylinder (63 cc) air-cooled engine; (iii) an electric generator; (iv) an optional CO2 removal unit. Lifecycle assessment indicated that bioelectricity generated by the BioMiniGen would have a smaller environmental footprint than Indonesian grid electricity across 11 impact categories, including a negative global warming burden owing to avoidance of biogas venting. Trade-offs included a larger abiotic depletion burden associated with manufacture of the generators. Over a five-year lifetime, each unit, costing US$500, could generate up to 5971 kWh of electricity and mitigate up to 65.1 Mg CO2 eq., with a greenhouse gas abatement value up to US$13023. Across Bali, up to 898 ± 449 MWh yr−1 bioelectricity could be generated, and 1.92 ± 0.96 Gg CO2 eq. saved. Further pilot trials are needed to ascertain realistic biogas yields from cleaned digesters managed for bioenergy generation alongside manure management. BioMiniGen technology could make an important contribution to energy security for the 1.4 billion people globally who lack access to electricity.

Pine needles and pollen grains of Pinus mugo Turra – A biomonitoring tool in high mountain habitats identifying environmental contamination

Pinus mugo Turra is a typical pine tree from mountain habitats. It is ideal as a bioindicator for air quality monitoring, but, to the best of our knowledge, has never been implemented to determine organic compound concentrations. This study presents the initial methodology for the use of pine needles to measure contamination levels and evaluate genotoxicity potentials caused by long-range transport of pollutants at sites in the Slovak mountains in comparison to an industrial urban area. Pinus mugo needles have many positive attributes, particularly the five-year lifetime of needles compared with other species of pine. The presence of epicuticular wax on the surface of needles allows accumulation of lipophilic organic compounds. Pine needles were analyzed for POP compounds (PCBs, OCPs, PBDEs), PAHs, PFCs and lead. A pollen grain abortion assay with Pinus mugo species was also tested as a method to identify contamination of high mountain habitats. The concentration of organic compounds increased proportionally with needle age. Concentrations along the mountain transect were heavily influenced by atmospheric transport and proximity to potential sources of contamination from industry and residential areas from north and south of the mountain. The slope exposure direction had a large impact on concentrations of PBDEs (mainly for BDE 209). High concentrations of PFCs were discovered near a ski resort, where the use of these substances is high due to fluorinated ski waxes and personal outdoor clothing. A positive correlation between pollen grain abortivity and elevation was observed, with the strongest effect on pollutants at the top of the mountains. The results showed the highest genotoxicity at the site near a pulp mill (Zilina), where the frequency of abortive pollen grains was 3.1 times higher than at the control site. Lead content increased gradually with needle age, and a correlation was found between Pb levels in needles and pollen abortivity. It can be concluded that Pinus mugo is a suitable bioindicator species for assessment of long-term trends of atmospheric contamination in high mountain habitats.

A Reciprocal Welfare Program

This paper examines how social welfare programs should be structured to comport with the principle of conditional reciprocity. A previous paper, Rethinking Welfare Rights, 63 Law & Contemporary Problems 257 (Winter/Spring 2000), drew upon voter survey data to suggest that a powerful cluster of attitudes governs citizens' views on social redistribution. Most people accept collective responsibility for the poor but adhere to a moralistic distinction between deserving and undeserving recipients of public aid. They view entitlement to group resources as conditional on each person's reasonable effort, consistent with ability, to support himself and his family. It was speculated that the widespread antipathy to freeloaders - that is, persons who depend unnecessarily on others - expresses attitudes that evolved over centuries to stabilize cooperative arrangements for mutual support that enhanced group survival. The popular expectation of a reasonable effort towards self-help defines the principle of conditional reciprocity. This principle continues to enjoy widespread assent in many societies. This paper explores the concrete implications of adopting conditional reciprocity as a central organizing principle in social welfare policy design. Because people differ widely in their capacity for self support - and because some low-wage workers earn too little to achieve self-sufficiency - this principle entails a governmental commitment to make up for any shortfall between what persons can earn through exercising due diligence and resources sufficient to support a minimally decent standard of living. In effect the government undertakes to act as surety for a basic subsistence on condition that the insured make a reasonable effort to support himself, if he can, through market work or through a private exchange such as marriage. The article argues that, although the policies in place in the United States today under the 1996 welfare reform statute and other legislation go some distance towards vindicating a reciprocity ideal, more could be done to bring the system in line with this principle. The government should continue and extend work subsidies for low-wage workers, in effect establishing a living wage policy that guarantees that heads of household who work full time can support a family of average size above the poverty line. It should supplement the early care and education of the children of the working poor and adjust work requirements to better accommodate the demands of parenthood. It should extend the five-year lifetime limit on welfare payments for the least socialized and skilled recipients while continuing to make public support conditional on performing extra-domestic work of some kind, including, as a last resort, publicly sponsored workfare type jobs. It should structure in-kind benefits for housing and food to favor workers over non-workers. It should expand funding for flexible and creative programs to encourage and support sustained work, such as transportation loans, work-expense emergency assistance, and nest egg asset accumulation for workers still receiving welfare. Finally, it should establish minimally adequate health benefits for all workers and their families.

Living on the edge in suburbia: from welfare to workfare

Westchester County, New York, is thought of as suburban and affluent, but welfare reform hit hard here, too. The radical 1996 legislation created a temporary assistance program for poor families with harsher provisions than the program it replaced. It mandates workfare, meaning that recipients must work as a condition of benefit receipt. But the work parents obtain in the so-called flexible labor market--jobs like home health care aide--are inflexible for them. One sick child can mean the loss of a job. In contrast to accounts of inner-city poor families, these suburban parents' stories reveal a broad array of precipitating circumstances leading to their downward economic slide and to welfare. They also provide insight into the bureaucratic machinations, rigid rules and mandates, disciplining techniques, and catch-22s that create an insecure environment for many families today. Many of these stories show that the need for welfare over time extends well beyond the federal government's five-year lifetime limit on welfare. Policies emphasizing work first also restrict access to education and further hinder parents' ability to gain a toehold in the economy. In this tale of people and policies, the author shows how the interests of governments are often at variance with those of vulnerable families, and how some government actions place more pressure on lives replete with stress.

Mental Disorders and Service Use Among Welfare and Disability Program Participants in Fee-for-Service Medicaid

Mental Disorders and Service Use Among Welfare and Disability Program Participants in Fee-for-Service Medicaid

The U.s. Catholic Bishops And Welfare Policy: Guidelines For Reform And Reauthorization

Since Vatican II (1962–1965) the Catholic Church has become increasingly involved in promoting justice around the world while providing a distinctive voice in public affairs regarding their input on policy matters. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) ended lifetime public assistance for needy adults; as a result of this legislation, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program was replaced with the five-year lifetime limit in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. This investigation will identify the underlying assumptions and normative principles that guide the Bishops in their evaluation of welfare policy and provide theoretical support for progressive welfare policy on behalf of the poor.

Rethinking Women, Work, and Welfare in Postwar America: The Liberal Origins of Contemporary Welfare Reform

According to a host of politicians, policymakers, and pundits, reformers finally got it right in 1996. With the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), Congress replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with a capped block grant (Temporary Aid to Needy Families, or TANF), imposed two-year consecutive and fiveyear lifetime limits on receipt, and significantly expanded welfare-towork requirements. Commentators hailed the reform as a break the past, a revolution that promised to replace a permissive system that rewarded indolence with a work-based program that would promote wage labor and personal responsibility. New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani summed up prevailing opinion when he praised lawmakers for abandoning a perverted social philosophy under which from 1960 to 1994 the ethic was under attack and reawaken[ing] the respect for work (p. 171). Historical scholarship closely parallels Giuliani's understanding of history (though not his celebratory attitude toward AFDC's demise). In most narratives, aid to single-mother families remained largely uncontroversial its inception in the Progressive Era through the 1960s. But in the 1960s, federal antipoverty programs and civil rights/welfare rights activism pushed AFDC rolls upward, prompting journalists to declare a welfare crisis. Fueled by rising and increasingly regressive taxes and a broader backlash against African American demands, anti-welfarism became a significant political force. In response, conservative politicians invented workfare, a way to cut government spending, reward low-wage employers, and inculcate a ethic into poor, mostly minority Americans suffering a culture of poverty. The drive to push AFDC recipients into the labor market resonated with a public-particularly workingand middle-class whites-

Welfare Reform When Recipients Are Forward-Looking

In 1996 the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program was replaced with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This paper considers the effects of two specific components of TANF, time limits and work requirements, on employment, marriage, and welfare participation. A discrete-choice dynamic programming model is used, and parameter estimates are obtained using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Policy simulations show that a five-year lifetime time limit results in a 60 percent reduction in welfare use and that a substantial part of this reduction occurs because recipients are forward-looking.

Families' experience with welfare reform on reservations in Arizona

This article documents the impact of the 1996 federal welfare legislation on American Indian families in the state of Arizona over a period of four years. The authors analyzed primary data obtained from interviews with 445 former or current welfare families with children from three Indian reservations: Navajo, San Carlos, and Salt River. Compared with national and regional levels, reservations experienced a slower rate of decline in welfare caseloads. Welfare recipients on reservations had lower levels of education than the national welfare population and lived in areas with a shortage of employment opportunities and support services. The article underscores the importance of job creation, job preparation, and support services for welfare recipients on reservations and the need for federal, state, and tribal governments to work together to help families exit welfare. Policy implications are discussed. Key words: American Indian reservations; Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act; welfare reform ********** Passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) coincided with the longest period of economic growth in the history of the United States. Data indicate that welfare caseloads have declined dramatically both nationally and at the state level (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2000a). Many former welfare mothers, particularly urban and suburban women, have found jobs. Not much, however, is known about the employment experience of welfare recipients on reservations and their strategies for leaving welfare. Because economic conditions vary among urban, suburban, and rural areas, the labor market experiences of welfare recipients in these areas may be different also. Furthermore, the experiences of single mothers residing on rural Indian reservations may be different from those experienced by rural or urban populations not living on reservations. To understand how welfare reform and the nearly simultaneous economic up-turn affected families with children on Indian reservations, we launched a longitudinal study monitoring families living on reservations in Arizona. Primary data were collected between 1997 and 2001. We collected aggregate data for each reservation in Arizona between 1995 and 2002. We used the first wave of survey data collected between fall 1998 and 1999. We also used some of the aggregate data collected between 1995 and 2002. We addressed the following questions: Are welfare caseloads declining on American Indian reservations? What are the characteristics of either current or former adult welfare recipients on reservations? In particular, what characteristics are associated with welfare exit, sanction status, and labor force participation? CONTEXT Passage of the 1996 welfare legislation was a defining moment in our nation's approach to public assistance for poor families with children. PRWORA replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), emergency assistance, and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) programs with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. However, JOBS funding will continue (under the Native Employment Works JOBS program) on reservations where JOBS programs were administered. According to PRWORA, adults can receive cash assistance for a maximum of five years in their lifetime (or less at state option) and must start working after two years of receiving assistance. In addition to allowing states to exempt up to 20% of their caseloads, the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-33) exempted adults residing on reservations of any size with 50% or higher unemployment rates from the five-year lifetime limit. All states were required to begin implementation of the new law by July 1, 1997. The state of Arizona received a waiver from the federal government and began implementing its version of welfare reform, the EMPOWER (Employing and Moving People Off Welfare and Encouraging Responsibility) program as part of its TANF block grant on November 1, 1995. …

Assessing the Impact of Welfare Reform on Single Mothers

THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), signed into law in 1996, transformed the U.S. welfare system. PRWORA replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Since its inception in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act, AFDC had been the main welfare program providing assistance to low-income single mothers. But a number of factors, particularly the rapid growth in the never-married single-mother population and a resumption of growth in caseloads in the early 1990s (following the surge of the late 1960s and early 1970s; figure 1), rendered the program unpopular. (1) Under the new TANF program, welfare participation among single mothers has dropped dramatically, from 25 percent in 1996 to 9 percent today. At the same time, the fraction of single mothers who work has increased from 74 percent in 1996 to 79 percent today. The goal of this paper is to ascertain what features of welfare reform, if any, have been most responsible for this decline in welfare participation and increase in work among single mothers. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Two factors complicate our task. First, a key feature of PRWORA was that it reduced federal authority over welfare policy, giving the states much greater leeway in the design of their own individual TANF programs. A great deal of program heterogeneity has emerged across states, making it difficult to develop a set of variables that comprehensively characterize the different state TANF programs. Second, a number of other recent developments may also have contributed to the changes in welfare and work participation since 1996. These factors, such as the strong U.S. economy of 1996-2000 and the significant expansion of the earned income tax credit (EITC) after 1993, must be controlled for in order to isolate the impact of particular elements of state TANF policies. One important fact lends credence to the idea that factors other than PRWORA may account for the lion's share of recent caseload declines: the dramatic drop in welfare participation (and the dramatic increase in work) among single mothers actually began in 1993-94, before PRWORA's enactment (figure 2). From 1993 to 1996 AFDC participation fell from 32 percent to 25 percent. On the other hand, beginning around 1993, many states began to obtain federal waivers allowing them to adopt TANF-like reforms of their AFDC programs. Such reforms included work requirements, time limits on benefits, sanctions for failure to meet work requirements, and family caps. These changes may have contributed substantially to caseload declines even before PRWORA. [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] At the same time that PRWORA delegated greater control of welfare policy to the states, it also mandated nationwide many of the popular features introduced under state waivers, such as time limits and work requirements. To understand the sense in which the federal law mandates certain features of state TANF programs, one must understand how federal TANF funds are distributed to the states. Under AFDC, states received federal matching funds based on their AFDC expenditures. PRWORA converted these matching funds to block grants. The block grant for a state was fixed at a level related to federal funding of AFDC benefits and other related programs in the year when that funding had been highest in that state. States were given substantial leeway in how the block grant funds could be used: for example, they may use it to support child care (an important postreform development to which we will return). However, to avoid fiscal penalties on the federal block grant, states must adhere to a maintenance of effort (MOE) rule: states must maintain their spending on assistance for needy families at no less than 75 to 80 percent of their pre-1996 level. (2) PRWORA requires that state TANF programs set a five-year lifetime limit for any individual receiving federally funded aid, although states may exempt up to 20 percent of their caseload from the limit. …

Assessing programs for monitoring threatened species - a tale of three honeyeaters (Meliphagidae)

We critically evaluated population-monitoring programs for three endangered species of Australian honeyeater: the helmeted honeyeater, Lichenostomus melanops cassidix, the black-eared miner, Manorina melanotis, and the regent honeyeater, Xanthomyza phrygia (Meliphagidae). Our results challenge the common assumption that meaningful monitoring is possible in all species within the five-year lifetime of recovery plans. We found that the precision achievable from monitoring programs not only depends on the monitoring technique applied but also on the species' biology. Relevant life-history attributes include a species' pattern of movement, its home-range size and its distribution. How well understood and predictable these attributes are will also influence monitoring precision. Our results highlight the large degree of variability in precision among monitoring programs and the value of applying power analysis before continuing longer-term studies. They also suggest that managers and funding agencies should be mindful that more easily monitored species should not receive preferential treatment over species that prove more difficult to monitor.

Welfare recipients: How do they become independent?

This research used data concerning recipients' employment, receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), receipt of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and poverty status to develop a of by welfare recipients. Using U.S. Department of Labor survey data, a sample of AFDC/TANF recipients was analyzed through event history analysis. The results show that welfare reforms launched in 1996 moved dependent recipients out of welfare but had no effect on recipients' chances of leaving welfare. New two-year limits on unbroken program participation (and a five-year lifetime limit) pushed many unprepared recipients into poverty, or not. Economic conditions became worse for people than for those on welfare. The study also found that some former welfare recipients did go to work and eventually leave welfare and poverty. Occupational skills, work experience, child support, marriage, and experience in dependency or supplementation were among the factors promoting such a change. Key words: autonomy; dependency; self-reliance; supplementation; welfare recipients ********** Since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (P.L. 104-193) was passed in 1996, reformed welfare programs have been experimenting with new policies. Passage of this cornerstone legislation replaced decades-old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The TANF program emphasizes the welfare-to-work principle. To help welfare recipients leave welfare and join the workforce, state TANF programs generally provide employment support services (for example, child care, limited medical coverage) and enforce aid restrictions (for example, time-limited benefits, work quotas, and sanctions). Welfare recipients who are able-bodied adults are required to be employed within two years of enrolling in a TANF program. Those who do not find employment lose all benefits. Furthermore, TANF benefits are limited to five years over a recipient's lifetime. The new approach is controversial. Not only has the sufficiency of the child care and medical benefits been called into question, the new time restrictions have been said to force many unprepared recipients to leave welfare. After leaving welfare, many people are likely to continue living in poverty, despite being employed (McCrate & Smith, 1998; Riemer, 1997). Therefore, it is important to understand the effect of welfare reform on recipients' employment and welfare use, as well as on their financial status after leaving welfare. FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND TYPOLOGY OF ADAPTATIONS Financial independence means succeeding economically to the point of supplying one's own needs for shelter, food, clothing, and other necessities. Financial independence is achieved typically through employment; it is impeded by welfare use. Financial independence constitutes a continuum. Some people are employed for higher wages than others, for a variety of reasons. Many who are employed live well above the poverty line, but many live below that line, despite having regular employment. Some of these working poor individuals need public assistance (or other aid) to pay ordinary living costs. Whereas some are employed and still must participate in welfare, others rely entirely on public aid. This article presents a typology of adaptations that helps explain the differential behavior of welfare recipients. This study used concepts such as welfare use, employment, and poverty status to define four types of adaptation exhibited by welfare recipients--dependency, supplementation, self-reliance, and autonomy (see Figure 1). Dependency on welfare is defined as reliance on AFDC or TANF to meet all financial needs. Utterly dependent welfare recipients are unemployed, generate no earnings, and live in poverty. …

The credibility of the breast cancer risk assessment (BCRA) tool for Asians

This paper presents an overview of the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment (BCRA) Tool, assessing the credibility of the BCRA tool in estimating the risk of developing breast cancer for Asians and the carrying out of tests to identify the changes in the risks that follow with changes in one or more risk factors of the tool. It is essential to increase the awareness of women of their risk of developing breast cancer, as it is not surprising that some women may not even be conscious of the individual factors that might contribute to the increase of their risk of developing breast cancer. On the other hand, relatively accurate means of determining increases in relative risks of developing breast cancer due to changes in some of the risk factors are also important. This is done so that unnecessary worry due to an overestimation of an individual's risk of developing breast cancer can be avoided. Due to the origin of the BCRA tool which is used in this study, it is important to verify the validity of the tool on Asians and to identify, as far as possible, the effect that each risk factor has on individuals. The effect that a specific risk factor has on a white woman may not be exactly the same for that of an Asian woman. As the above-mentioned tool has been arrived at using the statistics and databases of white women, in this work, tests have been carried out to determine the suitability of the tool on Asian women. On top of that, various tests are also carried out to determine the effects of the change of certain risk factors on a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. These factors include age, number of breast biopsies and number of first-degree relatives with breast cancer. Five-year risks and lifetime risks are also looked into separately with the change of each of these factors.

Strength and fatigue of polyacid-modified restorative materials (compomers).

The purpose of this study was to compare the fatigue behavior of a hybrid composite, four compomers, and two viscous glass ionomers after short- and long-term soaking in distilled water. Bars with dimensions of 30 mm x 2 mm x 2 mm were formed in stainless steel molds, finished with 600 grit SiC, then soaked for either 24 h or one year, and tested in 3-point flexure at stressing rates between 0.001 and 2500 MPa s(-1). Data were plotted as fracture stress vs. stressing rate, and the exponent N in the power law for crack growth rate was computed from the slope of these plots. All compomer and resin composite materials tested exhibited subcritical crack growth (i.e. a reduction in strength with a decrease in stressing rate). Soaking lowered the slope for all materials, that is, increased the crack propagation rate. F2000 exhibited an increase in fracture strength while Hytac and Compoglass exhibited a decrease following long-term soaking in distilled water. Crack-growth exponents obtained from these fatigue data were used to estimate the stresses which would result in a five-year lifetime for these materials.

What's an MIS paper worth?

The article performs an economic analysis of MIS salary data and survey data from a variety of sources in order to estimate the marginal value of a published MIS refereed journal article to its author, a faculty member. The three main conclusions it reaches are:• A published MIS refereed journal article can be worth approximately $20,000 in incremental pay, over an assumed five-year lifetime, to a faculty member. That value is derived from two sources: (1) the ability such a paper gives the author to move to higher-paying institutions, and (2) the incremental impact of the paper on an individual's compensation across institutions having the same teaching load.• What constitutes a valid "article" is institution-dependent, so the faculty member must ensure that the publication outlets targeted for such an article are consistent with the institution's objectives and quality criteria.• In order to realize the actual marginal value of a publication computed in this paper, a faculty member must be willing to relocate, perhaps on a reasonably regular basis, to ensure that he or she does not fall victim to the salary inversion phenomenon that is currently widespread within the MIS academic community.The paper does not attempt to quantify the impact of a publication on a number of other potential contributors to its author's income, including the long-term possibility of becoming an eminent scholar and the possibility that publications will lead to outside income opportunities. As a consequence, it is quite possible that the actual value of an article may exceed the paper's estimate for some individuals.