Book review: Crunch time: how married couples confront unemployment by Aliya Hamid Rao

In Crunch Time: How Married Couples Confront Unemployment, Aliya Hamid Rao offers a new addition to sociological research on unemployment, delving into the ways that gender beliefs unequally shape men’s and women’s experiences of job search and unemployment. Sarah Damaske recommends this wonderful and engagingly written book for introducing a much-needed gender and work-family lens to the unemployment literature. If you are interested in this book review, you can read an interview with author Dr Aliya Hamid Rao on Crunch Time and the implications of its findings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Crunch Time: How Married Couples Confront Unemployment. Aliya Hamid Rao. University of California Press. 2020

LSE Festival 2021: ‘you try not to eat’: what joblessness means for low-paid women in Pennsylvania

Losing your job is difficult for anyone, but for working-class women without savings it is even harder. Sarah Damaske (Penn State University) talked to women in low-wage jobs in Pennsylvania who struggled to afford to feed their families or pay for childcare so they could look for work

The invasive species Cercopagis pengoi in Lake Ontario I. Position in the food web II. Impact on mirex concentrations in the biota III. Temporal changes in mirex concentrations in salmon

This study investigates the position of invasive zooplankton species Cercopagis pengoi in the Lake Ontario food web as well as its impact on mirex concentrations in the biota. Seasonal Cercopagis samples were collected weekly from May through November 2000 for abundance measurements. Seasonal zooplankton samples were also collected weekly from May through September 2001 for abundance measurements using a Wisconsin net (63 µm mesh size, 50-cm diameter). Each catch was washed into buckets, transferred to bottles, and preserved with 10% buffered formalin. In the lab, zooplankton were identified and enumerated to the species level following methods of Gannon. Zooplankters were subsampled and measured from the anterior margin of the helmet to either the base of the tail spine or caudal setae. Zooplankton samples were also collected during the summers of 2000 and 2001 for pesticide analysis. Samples were visually inspected for relative composition, then placed in solvent rinsed glass jars, kept in ice and transported back to the lab, where they were frozen until analysis. Salmonids were collected during their spawning run in the fall of 1999 via electroshocking and gill netting. Alewives were collected monthly from May to November 2000 by gill netting. Fish length, weight, sex, and age were determined by standard procedures. Salmonines subsamples were prepared for chemical analysis by taking a fillet from the fish and homogenizing it before freezing it in solvent rinsed glass jars. Whole alewives were gutted and homogenized. The stomachs of salmonine and alewife sub-samples were removed and their diet was analyzed. Mirex and photomirex were quantified by electron capture (63­Ni) gas chromatography. All samples were analyzed for stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen. Results indicate that the invasion of Cercopagis pengoi into Lake Ontario does not represent an “extra step” of significance in the pelagic food web, but it is a link. While nutrients flow from Cercopagis to alewives, it only represents a small portion of the alewife diet. As a result, no increases were observed in the monthly mirex concentrations in alewives

What about These Children? Assessing Poverty Among the ‘Hidden Population’ of Multiracial Children in Single-Mother Families

Capturing the conditions of children of color living in single-parent families has become more complex due to the growing presence of interracial households. This analysis assesses the size and poverty status of single-female headed families housing multiracial children. Using data from the 2000 Census, we find that 9 percent of female-headed families house either children who are classified with more than one race or are classified as a single race different than their mother’s compared to only 3 percent of married couple families. Logistic regression analyses assessing the odds of poverty status for families finds that being a multiracial family does not constitute a uniform advantage or disadvantage for female headed households. Rather, these families, like most families of color, are more likely to experience poverty than white monoracial families. The two exceptions are White multiracial families who are more likely to be in poverty relative to this reference group and Asian multiracial families who have similar poverty rates as white monoracial families (and a lower rate than Asian monoracial families)

Revised Eocene-Oligocene kinematics for the West Antarctic rift system

Past plate motion between East and West Antarctica along the West Antarctic rift system had important regional and global implications. Although extensively studied, the kinematics of the rift during Eocene-Oligocene time still remains elusive. Based on a recent detailed aeromagnetic survey from the Adare and Northern Basins, located in the northwestern Ross Sea, we present the first well-constrained kinematic model with four rotations for Anomalies 12o, 13o, 16y, and 18o (26.5–40.13 Ma). These rotation poles form a cluster suggesting a stable sense of motion during that period of time. The poles are located close to the central part of the rift implying that the local motion varied from extension in the western Ross Sea sector (Adare Basin, Northern Basin, and Victoria Land Basin) to dextral transcurrent motion in the Ross Ice Shelf and to oblique convergence in the eastern end of the rift zone. The results confirm previous estimates of 95 km of extension in the Victoria Land Basin

Water relations in mango (Mangifera indica L.) trees

Please read the abstract in the dissertation.Dissertation (MInstAgrar)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Plant Production and Soil Scienceunrestricte

Seasonal and Vertical Distribution, Food Web Dynamics and Contaminant Biomagnification of Cercopagis pengoi in Lake Ontario

During the early growth season of 1999 to 2001, Cercopagis abundance in offshore waters of Lake Ontario remained low (less than 30 individuals/m3). From late July, its abundance increased rapidly until it peaked during August. After first appearing in 1998, maximum offshore abundance in Lake Ontario decreased each year since 1999 (1999:1759/m3; 2000: 679/m3; 2001: 355/m3). Cercopagis appears not to migrate below the thermocline and is restricted to the epilimnion. A comparison of pre- and post-invasion average abundance of Daphnia retrocurva, Bosmina longirostris and Diacyclops thomasi suggests that Cercopagis is having a major effect on zooplankton composition and abundance in Lake Ontario. Abundance of all three species has decreased significantly in the offshore waters since the invasion of Cercopagis. Preliminary results also suggest that insertion of Cercopagis pengoi into the Lake Ontario food web will not elevate levels of hydrophobic organic compounds in salmonids through biomagnification

Anti-Mullerian-Hormone during pregnancy and peripartum using the new Beckman Coulter AMH Gen II Assay

Background: AMH levels determined by the conventional AMH assay declined during pregnancy and postpartum. A new Beckman Coulter AMH Gen II assay removes the potentially assay-interfering complement which is activated in pregnancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the decline of AMH levels in the serum of pregnant women during the course of pregnancy and peripartum was assay-dependent and thus artificial. Methods: In this cross-sectional study prepartal blood samples were collected from 62 patients (median age 30.6 years [interquartile range: 25.6 - 34.5]) in the third trimester of pregnancy and again 1–4 days after delivery between 2011 and 2012. In another cohort of 11 patients (median age 34.1 years [interquartile range: 32.6 - 37.8]) blood samples were taken in different trimesters of pregnancy between 1995 and 2001. The conventional and the modified AMH assay were performed in the same patient serum samples. We used the conventional and the modified AMH-Gen-II ELISA (Beckman Coulter, Immunotech, Webster, USA) for the assessment of AMH levels. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for determining differences between AMH levels pre- and postpartum. The method of Bland and Altman was applied for analyzing the agreement of both methods for determining AMH levels. Results: AMH values peripartum were lower than those expected in fertile non-pregnant women of comparable age. An overall mean difference of 0.44 ng/ml was observed between the conventional and the modified assay. Measurements with the modified assay showed a significant decline of postpartal levels compared with prepartal levels which is consistent with values obtained using the conventional assay (both p < 0.00001). Compared to the longitudinal measurements of AMH levels determined using the conventional assay, AMH levels obtained using the modified assay suggest a steeper decline of values during the course of pregnancy. Conclusion: By comparing the conventional assay for AMH determination with the modified assay the present study confirmed that AMH levels decline during the course of pregnancy and early after delivery