Self-Rated Health Trajectories among Married Americans: Do Disparities Persist over 20 Years?

The purpose of this study is to understand self-rated health (SRH) trajectories by social location (race/ethnicity by gender by social class) among married individuals in the United States. We estimate multilevel models of SRH using six observations from 1980 to 2000 from a nationally representative panel of married individuals initially aged 25–55 (Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study). Results indicate that gender, race/ethnicity, and social class are associated with initial SRH disparities. Women are less healthy than men; people of color are less healthy than whites; lower educated individuals are less healthy than higher educated individuals. Women’s health declined slower than men’s but did not di@er by race/ethnicity or education. Results from complex intersectional models show that white men with any college had the highest initial SRH. Only women with any college had significantly slower declines in SRH compared to white men with any college. For married individuals of all ages, most initial SRH disparities persist over twenty years. Intersecting statuses show that education provides uneven health benefits across racial/ethnic and gender subgroups

Job Exit Queues: Corporate Mergers and Gender Inequality

Purpose: to explore the experiences of employees in a local bank merger in the United States and examine the concept of job exit queues. We introduce the concept of a job exit queue, which describes how workers position themselves or are positioned by employers to leave jobs and enter new jobs following the announcement of a corporate merger. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative interviews with mid-level managers, technical specialists and low status workers during the sale and merger process were conducted and coded thematically. We explore: 1) how workers and managers describe the job search as an “opportunity” or as a recurring cycle of low-wage, high-turnover work and 2) how severance packages structure the job exit queue to meet corporate needs. Findings: The role of severance pay is pivotal in understanding women’s and men’s job relations to job exit queues. We conclude that employers create job exit queues, placing low status workers and mid-level women managers with less formal education at a disadvantage in re-employment. Value: This paper contributes a new concept “job exit queue” to the research and theory on workplace diversity, gender inequality, and queuing theories

Associations of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Depressive Symptoms Over Time: Are There Differences by Education, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender?

Objective. To examine associations between changes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms and depressive symptoms adjusted for other time-varying characteristics, and to test if these associations differed by education, race/ethnicity, or gender. Methods. Data from the 1988–1998 US National Rheumatoid Arthritis Study were analyzed (n = 854). Time-varying covariates included year of the study, pain, functional ability, household work disability, parental status, marital status, employment status, and social support. The time-invariant covariates included years since diagnosis, education, race/ ethnicity, and gender. Multivariate multilevel-model analyses were used to estimate associations within people over time. Results. Patients with RA experience considerable change in depressive symptoms, pain, functional disability, and household work disability over the study period. Depressive symptoms were driven more by differences between people compared to changes within people over time. Findings show that patients experienced increases in depressive symptoms over the study period. The rate of change in depressive symptoms did not differ by education, race/ethnicity, or gender. Times of worse pain, functional disability, and household disability were associated with worse depressive symptoms. The association of functional disability and depressive symptoms was stronger for men than women. Conclusion. Increases in pain and disability were associated with worse depressive symptoms, adjusted for covariates. It is important to monitor and treat both mental and physical health symptoms. Future research efforts should focus on collecting data reflecting the educational, gender, and racial/ethnic diversity of individuals with RA

On the evolutionary interplay between dispersal and local adaptation in heterogeneous environments

Journal ArticleCopyright © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution © 2015 The Society for the Study of Evolution.Dispersal, whether in the form of a dandelion seed drifting on the breeze, or a salmon migrating upstream to breed in a nonnatal stream, transports genes between locations. At these locations, local adaptation modifies the gene frequencies so their carriers are better suited to particular conditions, be those of newly disturbed soil or a quiet river pool. Both dispersal and local adaptation are major drivers of population structure; however, in general, their respective roles are not independent and the two may often be at odds with one another evolutionarily, each one exhibiting negative feedback on the evolution of the other. Here, we investigate their joint evolution within a simple, discrete-time, metapopulation model. Depending on environmental conditions, their evolutionary interplay leads to either a monomorphic population of highly dispersing generalists or a collection of rarely dispersing, locally adapted, polymorphic sub-populations, each adapted to a particular habitat type. A critical value of environmental heterogeneity divides these two selection regimes and the nature of the transition between them is determined by the level of kin competition. When kin competition is low, at the transition we observe discontinuities, bistability, and hysteresis in the evolved strategies; however, when high, kin competition moderates the evolutionary feedback and the transition is smooth.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaYukon FoundationArmy Research Offic

Random sampling vs. exact enumeration of attractors in random Boolean networks

We clarify the effect different sampling methods and weighting schemes have on the statistics of attractors in ensembles of random Boolean networks (RBNs). We directly measure cycle lengths of attractors and sizes of basins of attraction in RBNs using exact enumeration of the state space. In general, the distribution of attractor lengths differs markedly from that obtained by randomly choosing an initial state and following the dynamics to reach an attractor. Our results indicate that the former distribution decays as a power-law with exponent 1 for all connectivities $K>1$ in the infinite system size limit. In contrast, the latter distribution decays as a power law only for K=2. This is because the mean basin size grows linearly with the attractor cycle length for $K>2$, and is statistically independent of the cycle length for K=2. We also find that the histograms of basin sizes are strongly peaked at integer multiples of powers of two for $K<3$

Predictors of First Mental Health Service Utilization among Homeless and Runaway Adolescents

Purpose: To describe and explain variations in first mental health service utilization before and after running away from home for homeless adolescents. Methods: Survey interviews were conducted with homeless and runaway youth in several Midwestern locations. The effects of family of origin factors and street experiences on the likelihood of seeing a mental health professional for the first time before running away and after running away for the first time were examined. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression methods are used to analyze these data. Interactions are tested across race and gender sub-groups. Results: Caretaker education, caretaker rejection, and family transitions increase the probability that an adolescent first sees a mental health professional before running away from home. Post-run intervention is more likely for females, younger runaways, shelter users, youths with social support networks, and youths abused by their caretakers. A gender gap in first service use exists for Whites but not for minority youth. Minority youth who experienced family abuse were less likely than abused Whites to report ever seeing a mental health professional. Conclusions: Analyses indicate homeless youth’s utilization patterns are differentiated by family of origin factors, street experiences, timing of first utilization, and by race and gender interactions. Our findings suggest that youths whose first contact with mental health service use follows running away for the first time may experience higher levels of mental distress compared with other homeless runaways. The significant differences in first service use across race and gender subgroups should be further explored. The racial-ethnic gap in first mental health intervention for abused youths indicates this sub-group is not receiving services that are available to other homeless youths. Our findings suggest that homelessness does not homogenize racial/ethnic differences in first mental health service utilization

Phyllochron Development in Cool-Season Forage Grasses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between grass leaf insertion rate and accumulated growing degree-days, and determine the phyllochron for five perennial forage grass species and two cultivars of each species. Species field seeded in solid stands were crested wheatgrass [Agropyron desertorum (Fisch. ex. Link) Schult.], intermediate wheatgrass, [Thinopyrum intermedium Barkw. & Dewey:Syn:A. intermedium (Host) Brauv], western wheatgrass [Pascopyrum smithii (Rybd) L ve], green needlegrass (Stipa viridula Trin.), and smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss). Species phyllochron differences ranged from 77 GDD for Mandan 404 smooth bromegrass to 114 GDD for Lodorm green needlegrass. Phyllochron differences were greater among species than cultivars within species which suggests a single equation is adequate for predicting species phyllochron for determining grazing readiness