Weathering Job Loss: Unemployment Insurance

Suggests extending unemployment insurance widely to low-wage workers by changing eligibility rules favoring full-time, higher-wage earners who are let go. Outlines proposed reforms, remaining issues, and costs and benefits to the families and to society

A new safety net for low-income families

With so many so vulnerable, the nation needs new policies that make work pay in today’s economy.Public policy ; Poverty

The Integration of Immigrants and Their Families in Maryland: A Look at Children of Immigrants and Their Families in Maryland

Analyzes the population, distribution, origins, family structure, and school readiness and performance of children with at least one foreign-born parent, as well as parents' education, income, homeownership, and public benefit use. Explores implications

Private Transfers, Race, and Wealth

Examines racial/ethnic disparities in private transfers of financial support from extended families and friends, large gifts, and inheritances, as well as net support received after transfers given; their impact on wealth disparities; and implications

Barriers and Bridges: An Action Plan for Overcoming Obstacles and Unlocking Opportunities for African American Men in Pittsburgh

Among the region's residents, Pittsburgh's African American men have historically and disproportionately faced unprecedented barriers to economic opportunities. This study, supported by The Heinz Endowments, focuses on structural barriers that contribute to persistent racial disparities in the Pittsburgh region. Structural barriers are obstacles that collectively affect a group disproportionately and perpetuate or maintain stark disparities in outcomes. Structural barriers can be policies, practices, and other norms that favor an advantaged group while systematically disadvantaging a marginalized group. A community touched by racebased structural barriers can be identified by the racial and economic stratification of its residents; Pittsburgh, like many large cities in the United States, fits that description

Today's Children, Tomorrow's America: Six Experts Face the Facts

Compiles essays about trends in family structure; how federal, state, and local budget deficits and projected cuts affect child poverty rates and health; and their long-term implications of reduced investment in children. Includes policy recommendations

Photoaffinity cross-linking and unnatural amino acid mutagenesis reveal insights into calcitonin gene-related peptide binding to the calcitonin receptor-like receptor/receptor activity-modifying protein 1 (CLR/RAMP1) complex

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) binds to the complex of the calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR) with receptor activity-modifying protein 1 (RAMP1). How CGRP interacts with the transmembrane domain (including the extracellular loops) of this family B receptor remains unclear. In this study, a photoaffinity cross-linker, p-azido l-phenylalanine (azF), was incorporated into CLR, chiefly in the second extracellular loop (ECL2) using genetic code expansion and unnatural amino acid mutagenesis. The method was optimized to ensure efficient photolysis of azF residues near the transmembrane bundle of the receptor. A CGRP analogue modified with fluorescein at position 15 was used for detection of ultraviolet-induced cross-linking. The methodology was verified by confirming the known contacts of CGRP to the extracellular domain of CLR. Within ECL2, the chief contacts were I284 on the loop itself and L291, at the top of the fifth transmembrane helix (TM5). Minor contacts were noted along the lip of ECL2 between S286 and L290 and also with M223 in TM3 and F349 in TM6. Full length molecular models of the bound receptor complex suggest that CGRP sits at the top of the TM bundle, with Thr6 of the peptide making contacts with L291 and H295. I284 is likely to contact Leu12 and Ala13 of CGRP, and Leu16 of CGRP is at the ECL/extracellular domain boundary of CLR. The reduced potency, Emax, and affinity of [Leu16Ala]-human α CGRP are consistent with this model. Contacts between Thr6 of CGRP and H295 may be particularly important for receptor activation

Common mental health and emotional and behavioural disorders among adolescents and young adults in Harare and Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe: a population-based prevalence study.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of common mental health disorders (CMDs) and emotional and behavioural disorders among young people and to explore the correlates of CMDs risk. SETTING: Five urban and periurban communities in Harare and Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe DESIGN: Population-based cross-sectional study PARTICIPANTS: Young people aged 13-24 years living in households in the study areas. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the proportion of participants screening positive for probable CMDs defined as a Shona Symptoms Questionnaire (SSQ) score ≥8. Secondary outcomes were emotional and behavioural disorders measured using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and adjusted ORs for factors associated with CMD. RESULTS: Out of 634 young people, 37.4% (95% CI 33.0% to 42.0%) screened positive for probable CMDs, 9.8% (95% CI 7.5% to 12.7%) reported perceptual symptoms and 11.2% (95% CI 9.0% to 13.8%) reported suicidal ideation. Using UK norms to define normal, borderline and abnormal scores for each of the SDQ domains, a high proportion (15.8%) of Zimbabwean young people had abnormal scores for emotional symptoms and a low proportion had abnormal scores for hyperactivity/inattention scores (2.8%) and prosocial scores (7.1%). We created local cut-offs for the emotional symptoms, hyperactivity/attention and prosocial SDQ domains. The odds of probable CMDs increased with each year of age (OR 1.09, p<0.001) and was higher among those who were out of school and not working compared with those in school or working (adj. OR 1.67 (1.07, 2.62), p=0.04). One in five participants (22.1%) were referred immediately for further clinical assessment but uptake of referral services was low. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a high prevalence of symptoms of CMDs among general population urban and peri-urban young people especially among those with no employment. There is a need for more accessible and acceptable youth-friendly mental health services