Pros vita = Enlightenment.

Description based on: Vol. 1, No. 10. (Oct. 1914) = Rik. 1, Ch. 10. (Z H ovt. 1914); title from cover.

Late-career international migration and reproductive work. A comparison between Peruvian and Ukrainian women in the Southern Europe

Research on the relationship between reproductive work and women´s life trajectories including the experience of labour migration has mainly focused on the case of relatively young mothers who leave behind, or later re-join, their children. While it is true that most women migrate at a younger age, there are a significant number of cases of men and women who move abroad for labour purposes at a more advanced stage, undertaking a late-career migration. This is still an under-estimated and under-researched sub-field that uncovers a varied range of issues, including the global organization of reproductive work and the employment of migrant women as domestic workers late in their lives. By pooling the findings of two qualitative studies, this article focuses on Peruvian and Ukrainian women who seek employment in Spain and Italy when they are well into their forties, or older. A commonality the two groups of women share is that, independently of their level of education and professional experience, more often than not they end up as domestic and care workers. The article initially discusses the reasons for late-career female migration, taking into consideration the structural and personal determinants that have affected Peruvian and Ukrainian women’s careers in their countries of origin and settlement. After this, the focus is set on the characteristics of domestic employment at later life, on the impact on their current lives, including the transnational family organization, and on future labour and retirement prospects. Apart from an evaluation of objective working and living conditions, we discuss women’s personal impressions of being domestic workers in the context of their occupational experiences and family commitments. In this regard, women report varying levels of personal and professional satisfaction, as well as different patterns of continuity-discontinuity in their work and family lives, and of optimism towards the future. Divergences could be, to some extent, explained by the effect of migrants´ transnational social practices and policies of states.

Unsung heroes : African Americans and entrepreneurship

Prior to Emancipation, slave and free African Americans (A As) started and ran successful businesses. Events of the last century, such as the Great Migration north and the modernization of the American industry, created traditionally lower AA participation in entrepreneurship, and much of the history of successful AA entrepreneurs has been lost. Only now is AA participation in entrepreneurship returning to previously high levels. In this entry we review current literature on AA entrepreneurship and attempt to answer questions like "What is the history of AA entrepreneurship?" "What are the barriers?" "What interventions were attempted?" "What are the individual and collective AA success stories?" and “What is the future of AA entrepreneurship?"

Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) human half lives estimated from North Americans moving to Australia

Human half-lives of PentaBDE congeners have been estimated from the decline in serum concentrations measured over a 6-12 month period for a population of exchange students moving from North America to Australia. Australian serum PBDE concentrations are typically between 5 -10 times lower than in North America and we can therefore hypothesize that if the biological half-life is sufficiently short we would observe a decline in serum concentration with length of residence in Australia. Thirty students were recruited over a period of 3 years from whom serum were archived every 2 months during their stay in Australia. Australian residents (n=22) were also sampled longitudinally to estimate general population background levels. All serum samples were analyzed by gas chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry. Key findings confirmed that BDE-47 concentrations in the Australians (median 2.3; Americans (median 9.7; 2 to 91 ng/g lipid). The second finding was that BDE-47 concentrations in the North Americans declined as a result of living in Australia for approximately 6 months (average 22% decrease compared to 4% for the Australians). Estimated BDE-47 half-life ranged from 0.5 – 2.3 years. The presentation will discuss full results and is the first study to provide in vivo estimates of half-life data of PentaBDE congeners.

What do most Americans think of cost-effectiveness research in health care?

My impression is that explicit data on the cost-effectiveness of different health care services are not valued highly by US policy makers. An example is a recent decision to approve ipilimumab for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. The extra health benefit over standard treatment is 2.1 months in previously untreated patients and the cost is $120,000 for 4 doses. This is poor value for money. Had $120,000 been allocated to an intensive lifestyle modification programme for diabetes risk (Diabet Med. 2004 Nov;21(11):1229-36) then 67 years of life or 800 months could have been returned. A massive increase in health benefits for the same costs.

A Comparison of the Implementation of the Employment Provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) in the United States and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 in the United Kingdom

This summarizes the results of recently conducted surveys in the United States and Britain to assess employer response in each of these countries to their respective employment disability nondiscrimination legislation.

Questions & Answers About Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. Title I of the ADA makes it unlawful for any employer to discriminate against a qualified applicant or employee because of a disability in any aspect of employment. The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act provides the same protections for federal government employees and applicants. In addition, most states have their own laws prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of disability. Some of these state laws may apply to smaller employers and provide protections in addition to those available under the ADA.

Jewish Americans 1982

Manuscript: "Jewish Americans, A Film Treatment". Treatment for a documentary film exploring how Jewish Americans see themselves, and their enormous contributions to and achievements in the USA.

Letter of thanks to Joseph Rosen from the Ukrainian Jewish community, Kharkiv

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Socio-economic vulnerability of African Americans in the Gulf coast counties

The states bordering the Gulf of Mexico i.e. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida have been historically devastated by hurricanes and tropical storms. A large number of African Americans live in these southern Gulf States which have high percentages of minorities in terms of total population. According to the U.S. Census, the total black population in the United States is about 40.7 million and about one-fourth of them live in these five Gulf States (U.S. Census, 2008). As evidenced from Hurricane Katrina and other major hurricanes, lowincome and under-served communities are usually the hardest hit during these disasters. The aim of this study is to identify and visualize socio-economic vulnerability of the African American population at the county level living in the hurricane risk areas of these five Gulf States. (PDF contains 5 pages)

Comparison of systems of biological indication approved during the course of the joint Anglo-Soviet investigations held under the auspices of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR

In accordance with the plan for joint Anglo-Soviet scientific and technical collaboration on environmental problems, the comparative evaluation of systems of hydrobiological analysis of the surface water quality started in 1977 at the Regional Laboratory of the Severn-Trent Water Authority in Nottingham were continued in the spring of 1978. The investigations were carried out under the auspices of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Hydrobiological and hydrochemical samples were collected by Soviet and British specialists from the Kiev reservoir and the rivers Dnieper, Sozh, Desna and Snov. The samples were processed on the expedition ships and in the Laboratory for the Hydrobiology of Small Water Bodies of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. The possible approved methods to be adopted were evaluated from the samples using the phytoperiphyton, phytoplankton, zooplankton and zoobenthos against a background of hydrochemical characteristics. The study concludes that weather conditions complicated the work on testing the systems of biological indication of water quality and made it inadvisable to use those methods of comparison which were used when similar work was carried out in Nottingham.

Evolution of the DRD2 gene haplotype and its association with alcoholism in Mexican Americans

The human D2 dopamine receptor gene (DRD2) plays a central role in the neuromodulation of appetitive behaviors and is implicated in having a possible role in susceptibility to alcoholism. We genotyped an SNP in DRD2 Exon 8 in 251 nonalcoholic, unrelated, healthy controls and 200 alcoholic Mexican Americans. The DRD2 haplotypes were analyzed using the Exon 8 genotype in combination with five other SNP genotypes, which were obtained from our previous study. The ancestral origins of the DRD2 polymorphisms have been determined by sequencing the homologous region in other higher primates. Twenty DRD2 haplotypes, defined as H1 to H20 based on their frequency from high to low, were obtained in this major minority population. The ancestral haplotype "I-132-G-C-G-A1" and two one-step mutation haplotypes were absent in our study population. The haplotype H1, "I-B1-T-C-A-A1", with the highest frequency in the population, is a three-step mutation from the ancestral form. The first five or eight major haplotypes make up 87% or 95% of the entire population, respectively. The prevalence of the haplotype H1+ (H1/H1 and H1/Hn genotypes) is significantly higher in alcoholics and alcoholic subgroups, including early onset drinkers and benders, than in their respective control groups. The Promoter -141C allele is in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with five other loci in the nonalcoholic group, but not in the alcoholic group. All of the other five loci are in LD in both the alcoholic and control groups. The DRD2 TaqI B allele is in complete LD with the allele located in intron 6. Five SNPs, Promoter -141C, TaqI B (or Intron 6), Exon 7, Exon 8, and TaqI A, are sufficient to define the DRD2 haplotypes in Mexican Americans. Our data indicate that the DRD2 haplotypes are associated with alcoholism in Mexican Americans. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A proposal for the better supplying of churches in our foreign plantations, and for converting the savage Americans to Christianity, by a college to be erected in the Summer Islands, otherwise called the Isles of Bermuda.

http://www.archive.org/details/proposalforbette00berkrich