Protecting Workers, Nurturing Families: Building an Inclusive Family Leave Insurance Program

Problem Statement: New Jersey is one of three states in the United States that has implemented a paid family leave insurance (FLI) program for workers to bond with their children or care for ill family members. Yet, out a state population of more than 8.8 million, only 158,000 claims were approved in the first five years since the program began in 2009. To date, however, there has been no in-depth exploration into workers’ leave taking behavior, nor how the New Jersey Family Leave Insurance program affected families who did receive state family leave insurance. Motivation: A growing body of research demonstrates the positive outcomes associated with longer amounts of time that women stay at home with their newborns before returning to work. Despite this evidence, the United States is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee paid parental leave to care for a new child or attend to important family needs. Explorations into how family leave insurance programs affect the health, economic security, and well-being of low-income families can inform the development of evidence-based statewide and/or federal paid leave programs. Approach: Researchers recruited 42 low-income fathers and mothers in Newark, Camden, and Trenton, New Jersey to participate in focus groups and in-depth interviews. Groups were separated by gender and whether or not they took up family leave insurance after welcoming a child to their families. The research team analyzed transcripts from focus groups and interviews using Atlas.ti to organize major themes. By comparing the experiences of parents who took up leave with those who have not, we gained insight into the barriers to FLI program take up by low-income workers in New Jersey and how it affects those who did utilize FLI. Brief Results: Among those who did not utilize FLI, barriers included a lack of awareness, lack of employer support, concerns about job security, and confusion over eligibility. For those that did take it up, while they experienced difficulty navigating the application process, FLI allowed them to bond with their babies shortly after their birth with additional financial assistance to pay expenses while taking leave. Recommendations to increase FLI take up include increased investment in program outreach and administrative capacity. Conclusions: New Jersey’s FLI program has benefited low-income parents in allowing them to take leave from work to bond with their newborns, but program administration needs improvement in order to meet their needs. Improving internal efficiency to process applications and increasing awareness has the potential to increase FLI take up and improve the economic security and well-being of low-income parents and their children. More evaluations of current paid family leave programs can inform national efforts to ensure that families do not have to go without a source of income while caring for a newborn or ill family member

Drug interactions between non-rifamycin antibiotics and hormonal contraception: a systematic review

AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether interactions between non-rifamycin antibiotics and hormonal contraceptives result in decreased effectiveness or increased toxicity of either therapy.Data sourcesWe searched MEDLINE, Embase, clinicaltrials.gov and Cochrane libraries from database inception through June, 2016.Study eligibility criteriaWe included trials, cohort, case-control, and pharmacokinetic (PK) studies in any language addressing pregnancy rates, pharmacodynamics or PK outcomes when any hormonal contraceptive and non-rifamycin antibiotic were administered together versus apart. Of 7291 original records identified, 29 met criteria for inclusion.Study appraisal and synthesis methodsTwo authors independently assessed study quality and risk of bias using the United States Preventive Services Task Force evidence grading system. Findings were tabulated by drug class.ResultsStudy quality ranged from good to poor and addressed only oral contraceptive pills, emergency contraception pills and the combined vaginal ring. Two studies demonstrated no difference in pregnancy rates in women using oral contraceptives with and without non-rifamycin antibiotics. No differences in ovulation suppression or breakthrough bleeding were observed in any study combining hormonal contraceptives with any antibiotic. No significant decreases in any progestin PK parameter occurred during co-administration with any antibiotic. Ethinyl estradiol area under the curve decreased when administered with dirithromycin but no other drug.ConclusionEvidence from clinical and PK outcomes studies does not support the existence of drug interactions between hormonal contraception and non-rifamycin antibiotics. Data are limited by low quantity and quality for some drug classes. Most women can expect no reduction in hormonal contraceptive effect with concurrent use of non-rifamycin antibiotics

A System for Measuring the Sway of the Vehicle Assembly Building

A system was developed to measure the sway of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center. This system was installed in the VAB and gathered more than one total year of data. The building movement was correlated with measurements provided by three wind towers in order to determine the maximum deflection of the building during high-wind events. The VAB owners were in the process of obtaining new platforms for use in assembling very tall rockets when analysis of the VAB showed that a high wind could move the building sufficiently that an upper platform might impact a rocket. The problem arises because safety requires a relatively small gap between the platform and the rocket, while a large enough gap is needed to ensure that stacking tolerances prevent contact between the rocket and the platform. This only leaves an inch or two (approximately 2 to 5 cm) of total clearance, so when the analysis showed that more than a couple of inches of motion could occur in a high wind, there was a potential for damaging the rocket. The KSC Applied Physics Laboratory was asked to install a system in the VAB that could measure the motion of the building in high winds to determine the actual building sway. The motion of the VAB roof under wind load was measured optically, and under analysis, it was determined that a relatively large-aperture optical system would be required to reduce diffraction effects to less than a small fraction of an inch (approximately mm) at a distance of 500 ft (150 m). A 10-in. (approximately 250 mm) telescope was placed on the floor of the building, looking at the ceiling. On the ceiling, a flat plate with three white LEDs was mounted in an "L" shape, such that the telescope was essentially looking at three stars. Software was written to track the motion of these three points using an image processing system. This provided a better than 1/10-in. (approximately 2.5-mm) 2D measurement faster than once a second. Data was downloaded once a month for comparison with the wind tower data. The system was fully operational and provided enough data to show that the VAB will only move 1 in. (approximately 2.5 cm) at the ceiling under 70-knot winds. Adjustable platforms are not required

Concert recording 2016-04-23b

[Track 01]. España / Vitaly Buyanovsky -- [Track 02]. Concerto : La choisy. Allegro ; [Track 03]. Adagio ; [Track 04]. Allegro / Michel Corrette -- [Track 05]. Villanelle / Paul Dukas -- [Track 06]. Bagatelle / Hermann Neuling -- [Track 07]. Concerto no. 1 in E-flat major, op. 11 / Richard Strauss

Concert recording 2013-04-18a

[Track 01]. Concerto for trombone, I. Moderato assai ma molto maestoso, II. Quasi una leggenda / Launy Grondahl -- [Track 02]. Conversation for tenor and bass trombone / Charlie Small -- [Track 03]. Elegie op. 3, no. 1 / Sergei Rachmaninoff -- [Track 04]. Marietta\u27s Lied from Die tote Stadt / Erich Wolfgang Korngold -- [Track 05]. Concerto for trombone, I. Adagio ; [Track 06]. II. Allegro assai / Georg Christoph Wagenseil

Running Flavor Number and Asymptotic Freedom in the Normal Phase of QED

In the normal phase (where no dynamical fermion mass generation occurs) of the D-dimensional quantum electrodynamics with $N_f$ flavors of fermions, we derive an integral equation which should be satisfied by (the inverse of) the wave function renormalization of the fermion in the Landau gauge. For this we use the inverse Landau-Khalatnikov transformation connecting the nonlocal gauge with the Landau gauge. This leads to a similar equation for the running flavor number in the framework of the $1/N_f$ resumed Schwinger-Dyson equation. Solving the equation analytically and numerically, we study the infrared behavior and the critical exponent of the 3-dimensional QED (QED$_3$). This confirms that the flavor number in QED$_3$ runs according to the $\beta$ function which is consistent with the asymptotic freedom as that in 4-dimensional QCD.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, latex, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Phylogeny of the celastraceae inferred from phytochrome B gene sequence and morphology

Phylogenetic relationships within Celastraceae were inferred using a simultaneous analysis of 61 morphological characters and 1123 base pairs of phytochrome B exon 1 from the nuclear genome. No gaps were interred, and the gene tree topology suggests that the primers were specific to a single locus that did not duplicate among the lineages sampled. This region of phytochrome B was most useful for examining relationships among closely related genera. Fifty-one species from 38 genera of Celastraceae were sampled. The Celastraceae sensu lato (including Hippocrateaceae) were resolved as a monophyletic group. Loesener\u27s subfamilies and tribes of Celastraceae were not supported. The Hippocrateaceae were resolved as a monophyletic group nested within a paraphyletic Celastraceae sensu stricto. Goupia was resolved as more closely related to Euphorbiaceae, Corynocarpaceae, and Linaceae than to Celastraceae. Plagiopteron (Flacourtiaceae) was resolved as the sister group of Hippocrateoideae. Brexia (Brexiaceae) was resolved as closely related to Elaeodendron and Pleurostylia. Canotia was resolved as the sister group of Acanthothamus within Celastraceae. Perrottetia and Mortonia were resolved as the sister group of the rest of the Celastraceae. Siphonodon was resolved as a derived member of Celastraceae. Maytenus was resolved as three disparate groups, suggesting that this large genus needs to be recircumscribed

Concert recording 2015-11-22

[Track 01]. Scherzo / John Cheetham -- [Track 02]. Contrapunctus IX / J.S. Bach -- [Track 03]. Brass quintet no. 1 / Victor Ewald -- [Track 04]. My spirit be joyful / J.S. Bach -- [Track 05]. Four Swiss tunes / Elgar Howarth

Concert recording 2016-05-01

[Track 01]. Dance / Wilke Renwick -- [Track 02]. Dance suite from Terpsichore / Michael Praetorius ; arranged by Allen Dean -- [Track 03]. Colchester fantasy. The rose and crown ; [Track 04]. The Marquis of Granby ; [Track 05]. The dragoon ; [Track 06]. The red lion / Eric Ewazen -- [Track 07]. That\u27s a-plenty / arranged by Jack Gale

Inverse Landau-Khalatnikov Transformation and Infrared Critical Exponents of (2+1)-dimensional Quantum Electrodynamics

By applying an inverse Landau-Khalatnikov transformation, connecting (resummed) Schwinger-Dyson treatments in non-local and Landau gauges of $QED_3$, we derive the infrared behaviour of the wave-function renormalization in the Landau gauge, and the associated critical exponents in the normal phase of the theory (no mass generation). The result agrees with the one conjectured in earlier treatments. The analysis involves an approximation, namely an expansion of the non-local gauge in powers of momenta in the infrared. This approximation is tested by reproducing the critical number of flavours necessary for dynamical mass generation in the chiral-symmetry-broken phase of $QED_3$.Comment: 13 pages LATEX, 1 Figure (included automatically