Dynamics and distribution of bacterial and archaeal communities in oil-contaminated temperate coastal mudflat mesocosms

Mudflats are ecologically important habitats that are susceptible to oil pollution, but intervention is difficult in these fine-grained sediments, and so clean-up usually relies on natural attenuation. Therefore, we investigated the impact of crude oil on the bacterial, diatom and archaeal communities within the upper parts of the diatom-dominated sediment and the biofilm that detached from the surface at high tide. Biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons was rapid, with a 50 % decrease in concentration in the 0–2-mm section of sediment by 3 days, indicating the presence of a primed hydrocarbon-degrading community. The biggest oil-induced change was in the biofilm that detached from the sediment, with increased relative abundance of several types of diatom and of the obligately hydrocarbonoclastic Oleibacter sp., which constituted 5 % of the pyrosequences in the oiled floating biofilm on day 3 compared to 0.6 % in the non-oiled biofilm. Differences in bacterial community composition between oiled and non-oiled samples from the 0–2-mm section of sediment were only significant at days 12 to 28, and the 2–4-mm-sediment bacterial communities were not significantly affected by oil. However, specific members of the Chromatiales were detected (1 % of sequences in the 2–4-mm section) only in the oiled sediment, supporting other work that implicates them in anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation. Unlike the Bacteria, the archaeal communities were not significantly affected by oil. In fact, changes in community composition over time, perhaps caused by decreased nutrient concentration and changes in grazing pressure, overshadowed the effect of oil for both Bacteria and Archaea. Many obligate hydrocarbonoclastic and generalist oil-degrading bacteria were isolated, and there was little correspondence between the isolates and the main taxa detected by pyrosequencing of sediment-extracted DNA, except for Alcanivorax, Thalassolituus, Cycloclasticus and Roseobacter spp., which were detected by both methods

Second-Order Devolution Revolution and the Hidden Structural Discrimination? Examining County Welfare-to-Work Service Systems in California

Drawing from Critical Race Theory (CRT), and a structural intersectionality framework, we examine intersecting structural inequalities embedded in county welfare-to-work (WTW) service delivery in California. Using a mixed-method analytic approach, our results reveal that second-order-devolution revolution (SODR) shapes intersecting gender, racial, class, and spatial inequalities, and reproduces white supremacy. We find that counties with multiple privileged socioeconomic characteristics operate employment- or training-oriented WTW systems, whereas counties with multiple disadvantaged socioeconomic characteristics operate sanction- or education-oriented WTW systems. We discuss policy solutions to address the disparities in WTW service delivery systems

Second-Order Devolution Revolution and the Hidden Structural Discrimination? Examining County Welfare-to-Work Service Systems in California

Drawing from Critical Race Theory (CRT), and a structural intersectionality framework, we examine intersecting structural inequalities embedded in county welfare-to-work (WTW) service delivery in California. Using a mixed-method analytic approach, our results reveal that second-order-devolution revolution (SODR) shapes intersecting gender, racial, class, and spatial inequalities, and reproduces white supremacy. We find that counties with multiple privileged socioeconomic characteristics operate employment- or training-oriented WTW systems, whereas counties with multiple disadvantaged socioeconomic characteristics operate sanction- or education-oriented WTW systems. We discuss policy solutions to address the disparities in WTW service delivery systems

Equity versus equality: Discourses and practices within decentralized welfare-to-work programs in California

The U.S. welfare reform of 1996 brought about highly decentralized Welfare-to-Work (WTW) programs, granting discretion to states and local governments to implement policies. Previous research has emphasized racial disparities in WTW sanction rates, by focusing on state/county characteristics or frontline-workers' biases. There is a dearth of research focusing on different understandings of equity or equality and corresponding practices embedded within WTW programs at the state and local levels. This knowledge is important to better understand how race disparities in WTW may be shaped. Our case is California's comparatively generous and highly devolved WTW program and its implementation in two most different counties. Descriptive analysis of administrative data reveals racial disparities in WTW sanctions and exemptions at the state-level and contrasting racial disparity patterns across two counties. Drawing on an equity framework, critical discourse analysis (CDA) of policy documents and interviews at the state level reveals conflicting discourses and practices around equity and equality, leaving room for interpretation at local agencies. CDA of county-level documents and interviews with county administrators showcases contrasting discourses and practices: while one county operates on an equality discourse that does not challenge existing disparities, the other county adopts an equity-related discourse of providing better treatment towards some historically disadvantaged groups. The observed discourses and practices help to understand the different racial disparity patterns. We conclude that in the absence of a clear equity framework at the state level, decentralization in WTW complicates the manner in which equity discourses and practices play out at the local level

Equity versus equality: Discourses and practices within decentralized welfare-to-work programs in California

The U.S. welfare reform of 1996 brought about highly decentralized Welfare-to-Work (WTW) programs, granting discretion to states and local governments to implement policies. Previous research has emphasized racial disparities in WTW sanction rates, by focusing on state/county characteristics or frontline-workers' biases. There is a dearth of research focusing on different understandings of equity or equality and corresponding practices embedded within WTW programs at the state and local levels. This knowledge is important to better understand how race disparities in WTW may be shaped. Our case is California's comparatively generous and highly devolved WTW program and its implementation in two most different counties. Descriptive analysis of administrative data reveals racial disparities in WTW sanctions and exemptions at the state-level and contrasting racial disparity patterns across two counties. Drawing on an equity framework, critical discourse analysis (CDA) of policy documents and interviews at the state level reveals conflicting discourses and practices around equity and equality, leaving room for interpretation at local agencies. CDA of county-level documents and interviews with county administrators showcases contrasting discourses and practices: while one county operates on an equality discourse that does not challenge existing disparities, the other county adopts an equity-related discourse of providing better treatment towards some historically disadvantaged groups. The observed discourses and practices help to understand the different racial disparity patterns. We conclude that in the absence of a clear equity framework at the state level, decentralization in WTW complicates the manner in which equity discourses and practices play out at the local level

Probationary or Second-Class Citizens? Postdoctoral Experiences in the Swiss Context

International audienceIrrespective of national and disciplinary specicities (Le Feuvre et al 2018), the conditions of entry to an academic career are generally recognized as being increasingly selective in the contemporary context. In the competition for a reduced number of stable or permanent academic positions, recently qualied PhD graduates who want to pursue an academic career face two main challenges. On the one hand, they have to accept a succession of xed-term, often part-time and badly paid, precarious positions (generically designated as ?postdocs ?), that have become a prerequisite for selection to more stable and permanent positions in the global academic labour market. On the second hand, access to these positions usually requires some form of geographical ? usually transnational ? mobility, which removes them from their existing social networks. In this chapter, we propose to analyse the eects of the combination of precarious employment positions and geographical displacement on the gendered citizenship experiences of postdocs working in a specic academic context. On the basis of qualitative (biographical interview) and quantitative (on-line web survey) data collected in the course of the GARCIA project (www.garciaproject.eu), we will examine the citizenship challenges faced by postdocs from across the globe who are working in the Swiss academic context