Food Stamp Participation among Adult-Only Households

Several recent changes in the Food Stamp Program have been directed toward households without children. Some, including new work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs), were intended to promote self-sufficiency, while others, including easier application and recertification procedures, were intended to increase participation among underserved groups, such as the disabled and the elderly. Despite their relevance to policymakers, adult-only households have been examined by only a few studies. We use administrative records from South Carolina and event-history methods to investigate how spells of food stamp participation for adult-only households vary with ABAWD provisions, recertification intervals, economic conditions and other characteristics. We find that households that were subject to ABAWD policies had shorter spells and lower rates of food stamp participation than other households. We also find that households were much more likely to leave the Food Stamp Program at recertification dates than at other dates. Compared to married households, exit rates were lower for households in high unemployment areas, for female- and black-headed households, for individuals with less education, and for never-married households. We further find that the time limit was associated with exits with and without earnings, suggesting that this policy increased self-sufficiency for some households but left others without support.Food stamps, hazard models, time limits, recertification

Earnings Volatility and the Reasons for Leaving the Food Stamp Program

This paper uses administrative records from South Carolina on food stamp households with children to look generally at the characteristics of households that contribute to exits from the Food Stamp Program and more specifically at the reasons why households leave the program. The study focuses on how earnings histories and earnings volatility are associated with different types of exits. The analyses reveal that half of South Carolina’s food stamp households with children exited because they let their certification periods lapse without filing the necessary paperwork for recertification, and a further sixth exited because they failed to provide sufficient or verifiable information. Only about one-fifth of exits were due to explicit determinations of income or resource ineligibility. The households that failed to recertify had worse economic circumstances on average—lower and more variable incomes—than households determined to be income ineligible but better circumstances than other exiting households. Households with lower benefits and higher incomes were more likely than other households to let their certifications lapse. For white households, more variable earnings histories were negatively associated with exits for income ineligibility. For both black and white households, mor

Food Stamp Participation among Adult-Only Households

Several recent changes in the Food Stamp Program have been directed toward households without children. Some, including new work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs), were intended to promote self-sufficiency, while others, including easier application and recertification procedures, were intended to increase participation among underserved groups, such as the disabled and the elderly. Despite their relevance to policymakers, adult-only households have been examined by only a few studies. We use administrative records from South Carolina and event-history methods to investigate how spells of food stamp participation for adult-only households vary with ABAWD provisions, recertification intervals, economic conditions and other characteristics. We find that households that were subject to ABAWD policies had shorter spells and lower rates of food stamp participation than other households. We also find that households were much more likely to leave the Food Stamp Program at recertification dates than at other dates. Compared to married households, exit rates were lower for households in high unemployment areas, for female- and black-headed households, for individuals with less education, and for never-married households. We further find that the time limit was associated with exits with and without earnings, suggesting that this policy increased self-sufficiency for some households but left others without support

The use of mass spectrometry to examine the formation and hydrolysis of the phosphorylated form of phosphoglycerate mutase

AbstractElectrospray mass spectrometry has been used to study the formation and hydrolysis of the phosphorylated forms of two phosphoglycerate mutases. The half-life of the enzyme from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was 35 min at 20°C in 10 mM ammonium bicarbonate, pH 8.0. Addition of 1 mM 2-phosphoglycollate reduced this value by at least 100-fold. The phosphorylated form of the enzyme from Schizosaccharomyces pombe was much less stable with a half-life of less than 1 min. The results are discussed in terms of the kinetic properties of the enzymes. Mass spectrometry would appear to be a powerful method to study the formation and breakdown of phosphorylated proteins, processes which are of widespread significance in regulatory mechanisms

Measurement of the separation dependence of resonant energy transfer between CdSe/ZnS core/shell nanocrystallite quantum dots

The separation dependence of the interaction between two resonant groups of CdSe/ZnS nanocrystallite quantum dots is studied at room temperature. A near-field scanning optical microscope is used to bring a group of mono-disperse ~6.5 nm diameter nanocrystallite quantum dots which are attached to the microscope probe, into close proximity of `~8.5 nm diameter group of nanocrystallite quantum dots which are deposited on a solid immersion lens. Information extracted from photoluminescence, photoluminescence excitation and absorption curves as well as numerical calculations of the energy levels, show that the third excited excitonic energy level of the large quantum dots nearly matches the ground excitonic energy level for the small quantum dots. Quenching of the small quantum dots photoluminescence signal has been observed as they approach the large quantum dots. On average, the separation between microscope probe and solid immersion lens changed in the 15-50 nm range. The transition probability between these two groups of quantum dots is calculated to be (2.60 x 10-47 m6)/R6, within the (0.70 x 10-47 m6)/R6 - (11.0 x 10-47 m6)/R6 experimentally obtained range of transition probabilities. The F\"orster radius, as a signature of energy transfer efficiency, is experimentally found to be in the 14-22 nm range.Comment: 8 pages-8 figures Accepted Physical Review B 201

Octreotide labeled aggregates containing platinum complexes as nanovectors for drug delivery

The synthesis, formulation and a complete physico-chemical characterization, by dynamic light scattering and small angle neutron scattering techniques, of new liposomal aggregates obtained by co-assembling an amphiphilic molecule containing a platinum complex, Peg1500-Lys(Pt-aminoEtGly)-Lys(C18)2, (abbreviated as (C18)2-PKAG-Pt), with a second amphiphilic monomer,(C18H37)2NCO(CH2)2CO(AdOO)5-Oct ((C18)2L5-Oct), containing the octreotide bioactive peptide, is reported. Liposomes of (C18)2-PKAG-Pt present a radius of 48 nm, whereas the mixed aggregates (C18)2-PKAG-Pt/(C18)2L5-Oct at 90/10M ratio give larger liposomes with a radius of 84 nm. In both cases, the bilayer thickness is ~5.3 nm. Encapsulation of doxorubicin in mixed liposomes is also obtained by using the pH gradient method. The obtained liposomes could represent a new target selective cargo system for delivery of cisplatin based drugs and/or doxorubicin on cells overexpressing the sstr2 and sstr5 somatostatin receptors

Microscopic Investigation of Reversible Nanoscale Surface Size Dependent Protein Conjugation

Aβ1–40 coated 20 nm gold colloidal nanoparticles exhibit a reversible color change as pH is externally altered between pH 4 and 10. This reversible process may contain important information on the initial reversible step reported for the fibrillogenesis of Aβ (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease). We examined this reversible color change by microscopic investigations. AFM images on graphite surfaces revealed the morphology of Aβ aggregates with gold colloids. TEM images clearly demonstrate the correspondence between spectroscopic features and conformational changes of the gold colloid