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Child Development Accounts (CDAs) aim to increase college completion rates among disadvantaged youth by helping youth see themselves as "college bound." This article summarizes findings about the implementation and impacts of universal, progressive CDAs, with emphasis on outcomes for disadvantaged children. Data come from a large randomized experiment. CDAs positively affect ownership of college savings accounts and assets, educational expectations, and other indicators of well-being. Disadvantaged children especially benefit from having a CDA. If CDAs prove to have long-term effects on educational expectations, college preparation, and educational achievement, then a national universal, progressive CDA could reduce educational disparities.

This paper presents evidence from a randomized field experiment testing the impact of a 3-year matched savings program on educational outcomes 10 years after the start of the experiment. We examine the effect of an Individual Development Account (IDA) program on (1) educational enrollment, (2) degree completion, and (3) increased education level. The IDA program, which ran from 1998 to 2003 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, provided low-income households with financial education and matching funds for qualified savings withdrawals, including a 1:1 match for educational uses. We find a significant impact on education enrollment and positive (but nonsignificant) impacts on degree completion and increase in level of education. We also examine the interaction between gender and treatment assignment, finding that the IDA had a strong positive effect on increased educational attainment for men but not for women. (Contains 1 figure and 9 tables.)

Because resources are limited, the benefits and costs of social-work interventions--like all interventions--must be compared with the benefits and costs of alternatives. Evidence-based practice should ask, What works? How well does it work? And what does it cost? This article analyzes the provision of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) with a new cost-effectiveness framework meant to help make assumptions and judgments explicit. In the specific IDA program examined, 1 month of services for 1 participant costs about $64. The mere existence of a cost figure--regardless of whether it is seen as high or low--has sparked many questions in the IDA community: How can costs be reduced without sacrificing quality? Which features of IDAs are essential? Are IDAs worth it? This sort of healthy questioning is precisely the purpose of cost-effectiveness analysis in social-work practice.

The authors examined how welfare recipiency is associated with savings outcomes in individual development accounts (IDAs), a structured savings program for low-income people. They investigated whether welfare recipients can save if they are provided with incentives. Data for this study ore from the American Dream Demonstration (ADD), the first nationwide demonstration of IDAs. A Heckman two-step regression analysis suggests that, after controlling for a variety of program and participant characteristics, welfare recipiency, either before or at the time of enrollment in IDAs, is not correlated with program exits or savings outcomes. The findings suggest that welfare recipiency does not seem to affect savings performance in IDAs.

The effect of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) inactivation in Corynebacterium glutamicum on the formation of organic acids and amino acids is investigated. The results have shown that the PDHC-deficient mutant of Corynebacterium glutamicum wild type (WT) have produced pyruvate, L-valine, L-alanine, thus directing the carbon flux from glucose to L-valine by overexpression of L-valine biosynthetic genes.

OBJECTIVE. To systematically compare standards for compensation and child participant assent in informed permission, assent, and consent forms (IP-A-CFs) approved by 55 local institutional review boards (IRBs) reviewing 3 standardized multicenter research protocols. METHOD. Sixty-nine principal investigators participating in any of 3 national, multi-center clinical trials submitted standardized research protocols for their trials to their local IRBs for approval. Copies of the subsequently IRB-approved IP-A-CFs were then forwarded to an academic clinical research organization. This collection of IRB-approved forms allowed for a quasiexperimental retrospective evaluation of the variation in informed permission, assent, and consent standards operationalized by the local IRBs. RESULTS. Standards for compensation and child participant assent varied substantially across 69 IRB-approved IP-A-CFs. Among the 48 IP-A-CFs offering compensation, monetary compensation was offered by 33 as reimbursement for travel, parking, or food expenses, whereas monetary or material compensation was offered by 22 for subject inconvenience and by 13 for subject time. Compensation ranged widely within and across studies (study 1, $180-1425; study 2, $0-500; and study 3, $0-100). Regarding child participant assent, among the 57 IP-A-CFs that included a form of assent documentation, 33 included a line for assent on the informed permission or consent form, whereas 35 included a separate form written in simplified language. Of the IP-A-CFs that stipulated the documentation of assent, 31 specified [greater than or equal to] 1 age ranges for obtaining assent. Informed permission or consent forms were addressed either to parents or child participants. CONCLUSION. In response to identical clinical trial protocols, local IRBs generate IP-A-CFs that vary considerably regarding compensation and child participant assent. Key Words ethics, institutional review board, permission, assent, informed consent, research subjects, quasiexperimental design, Abbreviations IRB--institutional review board IP-A-CF--informed permission, assent, and consent form CCRI--Children's Clinical Research Institute PI--principal investigator AHRF--acute hypoxemic respiratory failure HOW DO DIFFERENT institutional review boards (IRBs) vary in their [...]

Corynebacterium glutamicum recently has been shown to possess pyruvate: quinone oxidoreductase (PQO), catalyzing the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetate and C[O.sub.2] with a quinone as the electron acceptor. Here, we analyze the expression of the C. glutamicum pqo gene, investigate the relevance of the PQO enzyme for growth and amino acid production, and perform phylogenetic studies. Expression analyses revealed that transcription of pqo is initiated 45 bp upstream of the translational start site and that it is organized in an operon together with genes encoding a putative metal-activated pyridoxal enzyme and a putative activator protein. Inactivation of the chromosomal pqo gene led to the absence of PQO activity; however, growth and amino acid production were not affected under either condition tested. Introduction of plasmid-bound pqo into a pyruvate dehydrogenase complex-negative C. glutamicum strain partially relieved the growth phenotype of this mutant, indicating that high PQO activity can compensate for the function of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. To investigate the distribution of PQO enzymes in prokaryotes and to clarify the relationship between PQO, pyruvate oxidase (POX), and acetuhydroxy acid synthase enzymes, we compiled and analyzed the phylogeny of respective proteins deposited in public databases. The analyses revealed a wide distribution of PQOs among prokaryotes, corroborated the hypothesis of a common ancestry of the three enzymes, and led us to propose that the POX enzymes of Lactobacillales were derived from a PQO.

The E1p enzyme is an essential part of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) and catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate with concomitant acetylation of the E2p enzyme within the complex. We analyzed the Corynebacterium glutamicum aceE gene, encoding the E1p enzyme, and constructed and characterized an E1p-deficient mutant. Sequence analysis of the C. glutamicum aceE gene and adjacent regions revealed that aceE is not flanked by genes encoding other enzymes of the PDHC. Transcriptional analysis revealed that aceE from C. glutamicum is monocistronic and that its transcription is initiated 121 nucleotides upstream of the translational start site. Inactivation of the chromosomal aceE gene led to the inability to grow on glucose and to the absence of PDHC and E1p activities, indicating that only a single E1p enzyme is present in C. glutamicum and that the PDHC is essential for the growth of this organism on carbohydrate substrates. Surprisingly, the E1p enzyme of C. glutamicum showed up to 51% identity to homodimeric E1p proteins from gram-negative bacteria but no similarity to E1 [alpha]- or [beta]-subunits of heterotetrameric E1p enzymes which are generally assumed to be typical for gram-positives. To investigate the distribution of E1p enzymes in bacteria, we compiled and analyzed the phylogeny of 46 homodimeric E1p proteins and of 58 [alpha]-subunits of heterotetrameric E1p proteins deposited in public databases. The results revealed that the distribution of homodimeric and heterotetrameric E1p subunits in bacteria is not in accordance with the rRNA-based phylogeny of bacteria and is more heterogeneous than previously assumed.

Low-income people have less access to opportunities for post-secondary education, and the welfare reform in 1996 further limited access for welfare recipients. Since welfare reform, there has been an increasing [...]

Abstract Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) provide matches for savings by the poor used to build assets. But IDAs cannot help if participants drop out. What predicts drop-out? For IDAs in [...]

Pyruvate:quinone oxidoreductase catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetate and C[O.sub.2] with a quinone as the physiological electron acceptor. So far, this enzyme activity has been found only in Escherichia coli. Using 2,6-dichloroindophenol as an artificial electron acceptor, we detected pyruvate:quinone oxidoreductase activity in cell extracts of the amino acid producer Corynebacterium glutamicum. The activity was highest (0.055 [+ or -] 0.005 U/mg of protein) in cells grown on complex medium and about threefold lower when the cells were grown on medium containing glucose, pyruvate, or acetate as the carbon source. From wild-type C. glutamicum, the pyruvate:quinone oxidoreductase was purified about 180-fold to homogeneity in four steps and subjected to biochemical analysis. The enzyme is a flavoprotein, has a molecular mass of about 232 kDa, and consists of four identical subunits of about 62 kDa. It was activated by Triton X-100, phosphatidylglycerol, and dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylglycerol, and the substrates were pyruvate ([k.sub.cat] = 37.8 [+ or -] 3 [s.sup.-1]; [K.sub.m] = 30 [+ or -] 3 mM) and 2-oxobutyrate ([k.sub.cat], = 33.2 [+ or -] 3 [s.sup.-1]; [K.sub.m] = 90 [+ or -] 8 mM). Thiamine pyrophosphate ([K.sub.m] = 1 [micro]M) and certain divalent metal ions such as [Mg.sup.2+] ([K.sub.m] = 29 [micro]M), [Mn.sup.2+] ([K.sub.m],= 2 [micro]M), and [Co.sup.2+] ([K.sub.m] = 11 [micro]M) served as cofactors. In addition to several dyes (2,6-dichloroindophenol, p-iodonitrotetrazolium violet, and nitroblue tetrazolium), menadione ([K.sub.m] = 106 [micro] M) was efficiently reduced by the purified pyruvate:quinone oxidoreductase, indicating that a naphthoquinone may be the physiological electron acceptor of this enzyme in C. glutamicum.