Missing Work and Quitting Work: Child Care-Related Employment Problems

Qualitative research points to logistical problems in coordinating child care as a key obstacle to maternal employment for low-income mothers. But quantitative research has largely overlooked this everyday aspect of combining work and family. This article provides quantitative analyses of child-care related employment problems among urban working mothers of infants and asks how social support, the complexity of work and care arrangements and demographic characteristics relate to these problems. We use the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to estimate logistic regression models of child care failure and missing or quitting work due to care-related problems. Child-care related problems are widespread regardless of race, class or family structure. Mothers with potential backup providers are less likely to experience care-related problems. Mothers who hold more than one job, use more than one care provider or change providers encounter problems more often. Logistical challenges surrounding child care represent a serious obstacle to continued employment for all urban working mothers. Care-related employment problems are more closely associated with the availability of backup care and the complexity of work and care arrangements than with class. These problems merit further study given their potential impact on the gender wage gap.

Identification of endmembers for magma mixing in Little Sitkin Volcano, Alaska

Little Sitkin island is an Aleutian calc-alkalic volcanic center that has erupted a suite of lavas ranging from andesite through rhyodacite. Whole-rock chemistry of these lavas indicates contrasting evolutionary processes; major-oxide silica variation diagrams exhibit linear trends that are suggestive of magma-mixing while trace-element trends are largely controlled by accessory-phase fractionation. Plagioclase, the dominant phenocryst phase in all lavas, commonly occurs in two distinct populations with markedly different compositions and textures. Both normal and reverse zonation is noted in the plagioclase and clinopyroxene of several samples. In addition, clinopyroxene is found as rims on orthopyroxene grains and as cores with orthopyroxene rims in one sample. These inhomogeneities and indications of disequilibrium are supportive of mixing. The phase chemistry of the Little Sitkin samples indicates that several andesites of intermediate composition formed as a result of mixing. There is considerable overlap of phase compositions in the intermediate andesites and other samples, however the most complete overlap occurs with a rhyodacite. This suggests that the intermediate andesites formed as a result of mixing between a silicic rhyodacite and a more primitive low-silica andesite. The andesitic endmember has not been sampled, although its bulk-rock major-element chemistry has been estimated. Least-squares modelling of four whole-rock mixes shows close agreement between observed and calculated andesite compositions. The sum of the squares of the residuals for these calculations are all less than one. The best match is given by a mixing pair of rhyodacite and the estimated andesite composition, for which the sum of the squares of the residuals is approximately 0.02. Comparison of the petrography and whole-rock chemistry of a sample previously described as a basalt suggests that addition of approximately 35 to 45 weight percent clinopyroxene to an andesite resulted in the observed composition. Least-squares analysis of the Little Sitkin samples indicates that incorporation of a smaller proportion of clinopyroxene, approximately 34 weight percent, plus lesser olivine, plagioclase and magnetite by an andesitic liquid formed the basalt . These phases are possibly cumulate and were incorporated into the andesitic liquid when a fresh pulse of parental magma carried them up to a shallow crustal magma chamber from lower crustal depths. This indicates that andesite, not basalt, is the most primitive composition sampled on the island, and therefore the composition of the parental magma must be inferred. Amphibole compositions indicate that the most reasonable composition of the parent is that of high-alumina basalt (HAB). A model is proposed in which partial melting of mantle peridotite yields an olivine tholeiite liquid. High-pressure fractionation of this liquid at the base of the crust produces the HAB parent magma. The HAB magma then undergoes low-pressure fractionation at upper crustal depths. This process, along with mixing between fresh HAB and more evolved compositions yields the suite of rocks found on the island. Late stage mixing of magmas intermediate between HAB and the silicic component is recorded by intermediate andesite compositions

Disability-free Life Trends at Older Ages: Implications for Longevity Risk Management

Longevity risk, which is typically portrayed as the problem of people outliving their assets, can be viewed as both an aggregate and an individual-level issue. A related issue is that of ‘active life,’ an individual-level phenomenon, or ‘active life expectancy’ (ALE), an aggregate phenomenon. During their lifetimes, members of a covered population may alternate between ‘active’ and ‘disabled’ status; the average amount of time spent in the ‘active’ state is, for the cohort, its ‘active life expectancy.’ ALE does not appear to have consequences for aggregate longevity risk, but it may have major implications at the individual level. A transition from active to disabled status may signal a shorter-than-expected remaining lifetime, with implications for the speed at which one should draw down one’s assets. Moreover, those with severe care needs but lacking access to family-provided care and long-term care insurance may find that they need to draw down their assets in order to achieve eligibility for Medicaid-funded care services. Indeed, Medicaid and family-provided elder care can be viewed as a particular form of ‘public-private partnership’ for sharing the risks of late-life care needs

On the Geometry of the String Landscape and the Swampland

We make a number of conjectures about the geometry of continuous moduli parameterizing the string landscape. In particular we conjecture that such moduli are always given by expectation value of scalar fields and that moduli spaces with finite non-zero diameter belong to the swampland. We also conjecture that points at infinity in a moduli space correspond to points where an infinite tower of massless states appear, and that near these regions the moduli space is negatively curved. We also propose that there is no non-trivial 1-cycle of minimum length in the moduli space. This leads in particular to the prediction of the existence of a radially massive partner to the axion. These conjectures put strong constraints on inflaton potentials that can appear in a consistent quantum theory of gravity. Our conjectures are supported by a number of highly non-trivial examples from string theory. Moreover it is shown that these conditions can be violated if gravity is decoupled.Comment: 18 page

How Will Declining Rates of Marriage Reshape Eligibility for Social Security?

For most older people in the United States, Social Security is the major source of income: nine out of ten people age 65 or older receive benefits, which represent an average of 41 percent of their income. Largely as a result of Social Security, poverty rates for the elderly are at an all-time low, just 10 percent. But pockets of poverty persist: older unmarried persons, blacks, and Hispanics experience poverty rates in excess of 20 percent, and over 40 percent of all older single black women live in poverty. People quality for Social Security based either on their work record or their marital status. Most older women receive noncontributory Social Security spouse of widow benefits on the basis of their marital history. For these women, marital status is more important than employment status in shaping old-age financial security. However, the trend to marry and stay married has declined over time in the United States, particularly among black women. This, we hypothesize, means that fewer women will qualify for spouse and widow benefits in coming decades. As a result, Social Security benefits will shrink among the very population that currently reports higher poverty rates, older single women, particularly black women. In this policy brief, we ask: Compared to earlier cohorts, what proportion of white, black, and Hispanic women born in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s will enter old age without a marriage that qualifies them for Social Security spouse and widow benefits? We find that the proportion who will reach age 62 without a qualifying marriage, and thus be ineligible for Social Security spouse and widow benefits, is increasing modestly for whites and Hispanics but dramatically for African Americans. Most of these women will be eligible for retired worker benefits under Social Security, but those benefits are not likely to be as large as the benefits they would have received as spouses and widows, had they been eligible. We then discuss a range of policy alternatives, including the possibility of a minimum benefit.Social Security, spousal benefits, widow benefits, poverty, elderly, social welfare, income security.

Bermudagrass growth in soil contaminated with hydraulic fracturing drilling fluid

Hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting aqueous solutions at high pressure to break apart rock formations and increase the extraction of natural gas. The solutions are recovered and have been land-applied as one disposal technique. Excessive fluid application can result in increased soil salinity that can inhibit plant growth. The objective of this greenhouse study was to evaluate the effects of inorganic fertilizer, broiler litter, and Milorganite® and soil depth interval (0-15 cm or 0-30 cm) on the growth of bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers] in soil that was collected from a site that had been contaminated with fracturing fluid and was initially devoid of vegetation. Amendment rates were added to provide 60 mg of plant-available N/kg. Bermudagrass was sprigged and harvested after nine weeks and shoot, root, and total biomass were determined. Addition of inorganic fertilizer, broiler litter, or Milorganite® resulted in greater shoot biomass compared to unamended soil. Plants grown in 0-30-cm-depth soil had greater root biomass compared to the 0-15-cm soil depth. The addition of recommended plant nutrients and mixing of the contaminated surface soil with the subsurface soil enhanced bermudagrass growt

Fertility history, health, and health changes in later life: a panel study of British women and men born 1923-49.

We investigated associations between later-life health and fertility history for women and men, using the British Household Panel Survey. We modelled health and its rate of change jointly with sample retention over an 11-year period. For women, childlessness is associated with limitation of activity for health reasons and faster acquisition of the limitation. High parity (four or more children) is associated with poorer health for both women and men. For the parous, this association is also found when age at first birth is controlled. Early parenthood is associated with poorer health. For parents of two or more children, a birth interval of less than 18 months is associated with having a health limitation and an accelerated rate of acquiring it. We conclude that biosocial pathways link parenthood careers and the later-life health of both women and men, and that implications of closely spaced births for parents merit further attention

End-of-life planning depends on socio-economic and racial background: evidence from the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS)

Context: Americans express a strong preference for participating in decisions regarding their medical care, yet they are often unable to participate in decision-making regarding their end-of-life care. Objective: To examine determinants of end-of-life planning; including, the effect of an individual's ageing and dying process, health status and socio-economic and racial/ethnic background. Methods: US observational cohort study, using data from the Health and Retirement Study (1992 – 2014) including 37,494 individuals. Random-effects logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the presence of a living will and a range of individual time-varying characteristics, including time to death, and several time-invariant characteristics. Results: End-of-life planning depends on several patient characteristics and circumstances, with socio-economic and racial/ethnic background having the largest effects. The probability of having a living will rises sharply late in life, as we would expect, and is further modified by the patient's proximity to death. The dying process, exerts a stronger influence on end-of-life planning than does the aging. Conclusions: Understanding differences that increase end-of-life planning is important to incentivize patients’ participation. Advance planning should be encouraged and accessible to people of all ages as it is inevitable for the provision of patient-centered and cost-effective care

Allowing Cities to Raise the Minimum Wage Could Prevent Hundreds of Infant Deaths Annually

This research brief discusses findings that show each additional dollar of minimum wage reduces infant deaths by up to 1.8% annually in large U.S. cities. Over 1,400 infants could be saved annually if localities were allowed to raise the minimum wage to $15. State laws that prevent cities and counties from raising their minimum wage contribute to infant deaths