Neighborhood Poverty and Household Financial Security

In a previous study, The Pew Charitable Trusts examined the effects of neighborhood context on American families' economic mobility. That analysis found that neighborhood poverty is associated with downward mobility, reinforcing other research that has shown a link between high-poverty neighborhoods and unemployment, poorer performing schools, and increased violence, all of which pose risks to residents' economic security.This chartbook draws on data from the Survey of American Family Finances, commissioned by Pew in November 2014, to illustrate the health of family balance sheets in high- and low-poverty communities across the United States and to examine how neighborhood context influences people's attitudes toward the economy

The Precarious State of Family Balance Sheets

This report seeks to develop a clear picture of the current state of household financial security. It begins by exploring three components of family balance sheets -- income, expenditures, and wealth -- and how they have changed over the past several decades, and concludes with an examination of how these pieces interrelate and why understanding family finances requires that they be examined holistically. The data tell a powerful story about the state of household economic security and opportunity: Despite the national recovery, most families feel vulnerable and stressed, and could not withstand a serious financial emergency. This reality must begin to change if the American Dream is to remain alive and well for future generations

Away from Concord: The Travel Writings of Henry Thoreau

The familiar, and to an extent self-created, image of Henry Thoreau is that of a quintessentially inner-directed man. However, most of what he wrote for publication during his career was travel narrative--a popular and outer-directed genre. Travel narrative provided Thoreau a key structural principle for his prose; a vehicle for the expression of his most characteristic subjects, the engagement of consciousness with nature and society; and a controlling metaphor for his life\u27s work in letters. This study is a generic and genetic examination of Thoreau\u27s works in this mode. Thoreau\u27s apprenticeship in the traditional forms of poetry, criticism, and essay, met with frank criticism from his editors, and at Emerson\u27s suggestion he turned to writing about his interest in nature, in A Natural History of Massachusetts (1842). Excited by this subject but still struggling toward a suitable form, Thoreau essayed travel narrative as a corrective to the disjunctiveness of his early prose, and produced A Walk to Wachusett (1842) and A Winter Walk (1843). These essays reveal Thoreau\u27s dawning awareness of the suitability of travel narrative as a means of providing coherence for his writing and as a symbol of his personal quest for value in nature

The Complex Story of American Debt

This report explores a key element of wealth: household debt. Debt is sometimes acquired for mobility-enhancing purposes, such as to pay for college or purchase a home. But debt can also serve as a stopgap for families to cover regular expenses or deal with financial emergencies, especially if their savings are not sufficient. The type and amount of debt that households carry contribute to their wealth and their overall financial health

Integration und berufliche Ausbildung: Expertise

Die Expertise entwickelt Handlungsempfehlungen zur Verbesserung der Ausbildungslage junger Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund. Diese Handlungsempfehlungen orientieren sich an zentralen Forschungsergebnissen zu den Partizipationsmöglichkeiten junger Migranten und Migrantinnen an beruflicher Ausbildung. Im Vordergrund stehen hierbei die interkulturellen Potenziale junger Fachkräfte sowie die Ausbildungschancen junger Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund. Die qualitativ angelegte Untersuchung des Bundesinstituts für Berufsbildung zum Einsatz interkultureller Kompetenzen zeigt auf, wie junge Fachkräfte mit Migrationshintergrund diese in ihrem Berufsalltag einsetzen. Dies betrifft sowohl Berufe, deren Tätigkeiten sich auf das Inland konzentrieren, wie Arzthelferinnen und Einzelhandelskaufleute, als auch solche mit Auslandskontakten, wie Speditions- und Außenhandelskaufleute. Der Einsatz interkultureller Kompetenzen weist berufsübergreifende Ähnlichkeiten, aber auch berufsspezifische Unterschiede auf. Die Ausbildungschancen und damit auch die Aussichten auf eine tragfähige berufliche Integration haben sich im vergangenen Jahrzehnt für junge Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund in Deutschland überproportional verschlechtert. Angesichts der erklärten bildungspolitischen Zielsetzung der Bundesregierung wie der Sozialparteien, allen jungen Menschen in Deutschland eine voll qualifizierende Berufsausbildung zu ermöglichen, ist eine breit angelegte und abgestimmte Qualifizierungsoffensive für junge Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund wünschenswert. Die Handlungsempfehlungen plädieren für ein integriertes und abgestimmtes Förder-Programm dessen Maßnahmen sich an folgenden Zielsetzungen orientieren sollen: a) eine qualifizierte Ausbildung für alle; b) Potenziale ausschöpfen und c) berufliche Qualifizierungsnetzwerke lokal und regional fördern. (IAB

Comprehensive understanding of size-, shape-, and composition-dependent polarizabilities of SimCn (m, n = 1-4) clusters

We theoretically investigate the size-, shape-, and composition-dependent polarizabilities of the SimCn (m, n = 1 - 4) clusters by using the density functional based coupled perturbed Hartree-Fock method. The size-dependence of the polarizabilities of the SimCn (m, n = 1 - 4) clusters is more complicated than that of pure Sim and Cn (m, n = 1 - 8) clusters because for a given cluster size the heteroatomic clusters have more isomers than the homoatomic ones. For the shape-dependence, we consider three kinds of shape, linear (chain), prolate, and compact. For most clusters, we can clearly observe orders of {\alpha}(linear) > {\alpha}(prolate) and {\alpha}(prolate) > {\alpha}(compact) for a given composition. The composition-dependence of polarizabilities reveals that the linear clusters have an obvious larger polarizability than both the prolate and the compact clusters especially for a given m/n value. The shape effect makes a main contribution to determine the size of the polarizability. To understand the size of polarizability and the evolution of polarizability, we have tried many factors, such as the energy gap and binding energy, and defined a new parameter ({\Delta}q) that characterizes the redistribution of charge in cluster. We find that both the binding energy and the {\Delta}q are more available than the energy gap for reflecting the evolution of polarizabilities provided that both the cluster shape and one of the components in cluster are fixed. The correlation between the polarizability and the energy gap is poor, in agreement with the previous results.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, and 62 reference

American Literary Scholarship: An Annual 1991

Contains Title Page, Copyright Page, and Table of Contentshttps://mavmatrix.uta.edu/english_ctt/1224/thumbnail.jp

Understanding Enzyme Catalysis Using Computer Simulation

Enzymes catalyze biochemical reactions with remarkable specificity and efficiency, usually under physiological conditions. Computer simulation is a powerful tool for understanding enzyme catalytic mechanisms, particularly in cases where standard experimental techniques may be of limited utility. Here, we present an overview of the application of computer simulation techniques to understanding enzyme catalytic mechanisms. Examples using quantum chemical methods, as well as combined quantum mechanical/classical mechanical approaches, are provided