Gendered disparities in take-ups of employee health benefits

Using a sample of 2,271 workers from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce whose employers offered personal health insurance, this article investigates the gendered nature of health insurance benefit take-ups. These analyses include family and employment characteristics in addition to employers’ contributions to health insurance premiums, a measure that is unexamined in sociological analyses of health benefits. Progressive logistic regression models predict the effects of gender and family characteristics. Results indicate that women with employed spouses are less likely to take up their own health benefits than are comparable men, net of basic employment characteristics. Gender differences disappear, however, when controlling for the level of employer contributions: women and men are equally likely to draw on their own employer’s health benefits once we account for their out-of-pocket expense. The authors conclude that family contexts and employment structures jointly influence individuals’ choices about their health benefits. The gendered structure of employment and, specifically, gendered patterns in employer contributions to health benefits are a better explanation for women’s lower chances of benefit take-ups than gender relations within families

On the Materiality of Repetition

Σχετικά με την υλικότητα της επανάληψης Η επανάληψη είναι ένα σύνθετο αλλά, ομολογουμένως, εξαιρετικά κοινό κειμενικό φαινόμενο, το οποίο έχει μελετηθεί επισταμένως ήδη από την κλασική αρχαιότητα, όταν ειδήμονες της ρητορικής τέχνης επιχείρησαν να καταγράψουν τις βασικές τους τεχνικές προς όφελος των μαθητευόμενών τους. Πιο πρόσφατα, τον περασμένο δηλαδή αιώνα, η επανάληψη μελετήθηκε εντατικά ως στοιχείο της προφορικότητας και της λαϊκής ποίησης εν γένει· στο πλαίσιο αυτό, αναγνωρίστηκε η δυνατότητά της να υποστηρίζει την απομνημόνευση, καθώς και να υποβοηθά τη διαδικασία της σύνθεσης κατά την επιτέλεση. Στην παρούσα εργασία εξερευνάται αφετηριακά η υλική διάσταση της επαναληπτικότητας. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, εστιάζοντας σε ορισμένους τρόπους περιγραφής και εφαρμογής του υπό εξέταση σχήματος, όπως μαρτυρούνται στη σχετική βιβλιογραφία, επιχειρούμε να αναδείξουμε κάποιες πρωτίστως υλικής φύσεως λειτουργίες του. Συχνά η επανάληψη αντιμετωπίστηκε ως πρόβλημα ύφους ή συνδέθηκε αποκλειστικά με την έμφαση. Στόχος μας εδώ είναι να τεθεί το ζήτημα υπό νέα προοπτική και με ανανεωμένους μεθοδολογικούς όρους· επικεντρωνόμαστε σε μνημονικές, επικοινωνιακές και “χαρτογραφικές” λειτουργίες της επανάληψης.Repetition is a complex yet extremely common textual phenomenon that has caught the scholarly eye’s attention since classical times, as orators were first trying to sketch out and present their perfected rhetorical devices to students. In more recent years, repetition has been extensively studied in the context of orality and popular poetry, among other things; in this context, repetition has been recognized to aid memorization and performative composition. This paper aims to support the hypothesis that repetition can be regarded as a device with something of a material nature. More specifically, drawing upon the various ways artists and scholars have utilized to describe and apply the device in question, we shall point out certain purely material functions of repetition in texts. Traditionally, repetition has been analyzed in quite simplistic manners, which resulted in it being regarded as a fault of style, or a way of generating plain emphasis in literary and non-literary texts alike. Our goal is to reframe the debate and distance our argumentation from strictly linguistic or rhetorical approaches to textual meaning. We are thus treating repetition in fresh methodological terms, basing our approach on aspects of memorization, reader-text communication, and textual mapping; this leads us to acknowledging repetition’s peculiar relevance (both resemblance and dissimilarity) to material media

An economic analysis of the Bahamas Currency

Abstract. This paper seeks to answer whether the replacement of the Bahamas currency board by a central bank was a rational decision given the subsequent economic performance climate of the central bank and the Bahamian economy. The paper describes the currency board’s establishment; its switch from the pound sterling to the U.S. dollar as the anchor currency; and its replacement by a proto-central bank soon succeeded by the Central Bank of the Bahamas, which continues in existence today. Statements of the currency board from the Bahamas Gazette as well as other sources will help analyze the aforementioned periods and illustrate the effects each transition had on the economy. The paper will examine the later years of the currency board and test whether it behaved in an orthodox or unorthodox manner as well as exploring its relation to government finance.Keywords. Bahamas; Currency board.JEL. E59; N16; N26

Salt weathering in the coastal environment: the deterioration of wall paintings at Delos, Greece.

Salt weathering, apart from being an important geomorphologic agent, comprises a major hazard for both modern and heritage structures. Although its action is witnessed globally, it is particularly aggressive in coastal environments. The coastline attracted in antiquity a considerable part of human activity that has left valuable built traces. Conservation research is frequently called upon to define sustainability in this aggressive context. Wall paintings comprise an integral part of the built heritage. The particular importance of wall paintings and finishing layers derives from their unique aesthetic function in the building's integrity as well as the plethora of information that they carry. Whereas wall paintings are more susceptible than masonry materials, the tolerance against loss is much smaller due to their descriptive nature and scale. It is not until recently that international heritage organisations recognised the technical particularities of wall paintings suggesting that they must be investigated independently and treated in situ. This project aims to identify the particularities of wall paintings' susceptibility to salt weathering in the coastal environment. The methodology is composed of both in situ and ex situ experiments. The in situ investigation follows a comparative approach, guided by specific variables, in a number of monuments at the archaeological site of Delos island. The goal of the in situ investigation is to determine the optimal conditions for preservation, by modeling the salts interactions, in an effort to define sustainability against salt weathering in this aggressive environment. The ex situ approach comprises laboratory simulation of the weathering mechanism and aims to describe the particularities of the substrate that lead to the distinct loss of the external finishing layer, which carries the principal information. The results of the project underline the importance of kinetic deviations deriving from the solution and the substrate properties. Despite the limitations of determining the optimal conditions for preservation, the variables that directed the comparative approach permitted the generation of a periodic model in agreement with the phenomenological observations. The model suggests that the potential of salt damage in real conditions of various contamination pathways and sources cannot be restricted to a single resultant. Although the model follows a certain periodicity in response to the annual climatic cycle, random events and fractionated accumulation lead to the production of mixtures with variable composition. Additionally the results stress the role of solar radiation and air movement as evaporation accelerators. Consequently environmental control against salt weathering should be directed towards multiple components which in the case of coastal environments, mainly due to the presence of marine aerosols, cannot be achieved simply by hygrothermal management. On the other hand we traced specific deviations from the theoretical model of salts interactions, concerning mixtures commonly found in coastal regions that should also be taken into account. Besides we tested the hypothesis of salts accumulation at the interface of rendering layers, caused by hydraulic discontinuity, with a weathering simulation. The aim of this investigation was to provide evidence descriptive of damage. It has been shown that the external layer of wall paintings is particularly susceptible to marine aerosols and it can be damaged independently and in advance of the bulk mortar. The salts crystallise selectively under the lime wash layer causing gradually its detachment from the mortar. The results of the weathering simulation raise serious implications for remedial and preventive conservation practice and suggest that research must focus as well on the kinetics of particular cases

Életnyomok a Lapisi Mészkő Formációból

A bükkösdi „Bükkösdkő” kőfejtőjének felhagyott részében 2010 tavaszán – sziklaomlás következtében – olyan nagyméretű réteglapok táródtak fel, amelyeken tömegesen fordulnak elő jó megtartású életnyomok. A leomlott blokkok rétegsorbeli helyzete rekonstruálható volt, így a leletek tudományos értékű feldolgozására nyílt lehetőség. További gyűjtést végeztem a Lapisi Mészkő közeli, goricaivölgyi feltárásaiból. Mivel a közelmúltban olyan publikáció jelent meg (Jaglarz & Uchman 2010), amely a hasonló életnyomokból újszerű fáciesértékelést adott, célul tűztem ki, hogy a bükkösdi leleteket az újabb szempontok szerint értékelem. Az értékelés során figyelembe vettem az egyes életnyomok jellemző képződési körülményeit, az előforduló életnyomok mennyiségét és rétegenkénti megoszlását. Tekintve, hogy hasonló életnyomegyüttesek találhatóak egyes német, lengyel és szardíniai területeken, az ott előforduló mintákat is összehasonlítottam a mecsekivel, valamint általános sztratigráfiai leírást követően azokat értékeltem. Ezek hasonló helyzete az elzárt lagunális helyzettől egészen külső rámpa fáciesig húzódik. Vizsgálataim és értékelésem alapján a négy helyről származó életnyomegyüttes karbonátos rámpán való helyzete egymással összefüggésben is viszonylag jól rekonstruálható. Mivel a vizsgált és összehasonlított területeken talált életnyomok összetétele igen hasonló, és tudomásom szerint az ilyen jellegű eredményeket bemutató munka még nem született, a tanulmányt időszerűnek tekintem

Το δικαίωμα αναιτιολόγητης υπαναχώρησης στις συμβάσεις από απόσταση και στις συμβάσεις εκτός εμπορικού καταστήματος∙ νομική φύση και νομική μεταχείριση

Στην παρούσα εργασία ερευνάται το δικαίωμα της αναιτιολόγητης υπαναχώρησης, το οποίο παρέχει ο νόμος στον καταναλωτή που προβαίνει στη σύναψη συμβάσεων από απόσταση και συμβάσεων εκτός εμπορικού καταστήματος, με έμφαση στη νομική του φύση και τη νομική του μεταχείριση.In this thesis the right of withdrawal without justification in distance contracts and off-premises contracts, which is provided by law to the consumers, is being thoroughly researched, with emphasis in its legal nature and treatment