As long as white America remains skeptical of immigrants, moving to the left on immigration is likely to hurt the democrats

Last week, President Obama announced new executive action to stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants that have been in the country for more than five years. This step has raised criticisms from Republicans who are against undocumented immigration and from some Democrats for not going far enough. Zoltan Hajnal looks at the Democratic Party’s immigration problem, writing that while Latinos and Asian Americans are an important voting group for the party, their support for immigration reform is outweighed by many whites’ concerns over immigration. He argues that as long as whites are a majority in America and remain skeptical of immigrants, advocating for immigrants’ rights will hurt the Democrats’ election chances

Under Democratic presidents, minorities make economic gains – and so do whites

In the lead up to presidential elections in recent years, both Republicans and Democrats have claimed that their policy platforms are better at improving the economic situation for minorities. Zoltan Hajnal and Jeremy Horowitz take a close look at both parties’ records on improving the economic situation for minorities, and find that under Democratic presidents, blacks and other minority groups see rising wages, falling poverty and unemployment rates, and that they tend to lose ground under Republican administrations. They also find that whites make similar gains under Democratic presidents

Привычка курить у институционализированных детей и их окружения в жудецах Харгита и Муреш

Tobacco is an important risk factor for a large number of diseases, affecting nearly every organ in the human body and the health of non-smokers exposed to passive smoking. Tobacco use is a global epidemic among young people. Despite of numerous smoking prevention programs for youth, tobacco use is increasing among young people, affecting generation after generation. Prevention efforts should focus on adolescents and young adults because, first use of cigarettes occurs before the age of 18 years. The purpose of this study is to assess the children’s environment regarding smoking habits, the evaluation of children’s knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking on institutionalized children in family care centers in the counties of Harghita and Mures.Потребление табака является важным фактором риска для значительного числа заболеваний, влияя почти на каждый орган человеческого организма, поражая и здоровье некурящих, подвергнутых пассивному курению Потребление табака представляет собой эпидемию среди молодых людей на мировом уровне. Несмотря на многочисленные программы по предупреждению курения, потребление табака среди молодёжи растёт, поражая поколение за поколением. Усилия по предупреждению следует концентрировать на подростки и взрослые молодые люди, потому что впервые начинают курить до 18-летнего возраста. Целью настоящего исследования является оценка влияния окружения детей на появление привычки курить, оценка знаний, касающихся отрицательных эффектов курения у детей институционализированных в центрах по уходу семейного типа в жудецах Харгита и Муреш, Румыния

Density-functional-based predictions of Raman and IR spectra for small Si clusters

We have used a density-functional-based approach to study the response of silicon clusters to applied electric fields. For the dynamical response, we have calculated the Raman activities and infrared (IR) intensities for all of the vibrational modes of several clusters (SiN with N=3-8, 10, 13, 20, and 21) using the local density approximation (LDA). For the smaller clusters (N=3-8) our results are in good agreement with previous quantum-chemical calculations and experimental measurements, establishing that LDA-based IR and Raman data can be used in conjunction with measured spectra to determine the structure of clusters observed in experiment. To illustrate the potential of the method for larger clusters, we present calculated IR and Raman data for two low-energy isomers of Si10 and for the lowest-energy structure of Si13 found to date. For the static response, we compare our calculated polarizabilities for N=10, 13, 20, and 21 to recent experimental measurements. The calculated results are in rough agreement with experiment, but show less variation with cluster size than the measurements. Taken together, our results show that LDA calculations can offer a powerful means for establishing the structures of experimentally fabricated clusters and nanoscale systems

Latino Independents and Identity Formation Under Uncertainty

Since the 1950s, there has been roughly a two-fold rise in the proportion of Americans who identify as political Independents. We argue that the ethnic and immigrant experiences of Latinos shed new light on why and how individuals self-identify with a political party. For Latinos, we argue, party identification is defined by social and political identity formation under uncertainty. We argue that for immigrant-based ethnic groups like Latinos, identification as Independent is a rationally adaptive strategy given uncertainty and ambivalence about one’s social group attachments, one’s core political predispositions, and the benefits of political and civic involvement to pursue the individual and group interests of Latinos in the US. Absent home-grown and wellgrooved habits, the category of Independent affords a safe harbor for many Latinos from which to bank experiences and impressions about political life in the US. We test our account using data from 1989-1990 Latino National Politics Study, the 1993-1994 Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality and the American National Election Studies