White Families Research Articles

Identification and expression analysis of phosphate transporter (PHT) gene family in Lupinus albus cluster root under phosphorus stress.

According to global estimation, 5.7 billion hectares of agricultural land contain limited phosphorus (P) availability leading to insufficient plant growth and productivity. Internal phosphate transporters play an essential role in mediating P mobilization and uptake from the soil. White lupin (Lupinus albus) is a cluster root (CR) forming crop with great potential to survive under P limited soil. However, it is imperative to identify and characterize the phosphate transporter (PHT) gene family in plants to validate their involvement in solving P deficiency problems. The recent availability of white lupin high-quality genome allowed us an exhaustive searches in the whole genome and identified five phosphates transporters subfamilies, including 35 putative genes that are unevenly distributed on 16 chromosomes. The LaPHT1 subfamily contained eight genes, LaPHT2 subfamily have three, LaPHT3 subfamily have eight, LaPHT4 subfamily have nine, and LaPHO subfamily has seven. Gene structure and duplication were also examined in detail. Syntenic analysis revealed that white lupin PHT family members had maximum the collinear relationship with those in L. angustifolius followed by Phaseolus vulgaris but showed the least collinear relationship with those in Arabidopsis. Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that the in white lupin PHT genes were enriched in functions regulated P uptake, transport, and recycling mechanisms. RT-qPCR was performed to evaluate the transcript levels of LaPHT genes in different parts of CR under P deficient hydroponic culture. Our study would provide better understanding the genetic evolution and expression phosphate of phosphate transporters in L. albus CR under P deficiency. It will also be helpful for further functional-based studies to solve P deficiency-related issues and mitigate P stress responses.

Country Queers

Most representations of rural life depict the stories of straight, white American families, in some way or other. Rae Garringer is out to set the record straight. But, far from simply challenging the idea that rural areas are monolithic, Garringer and their editorial team are producing engaging and moving podcasts that offer much-needed opportunities to connect rural and small-town queer people with one another.Garringer's podcast Country Queers: The Podcast, which began in 2020 and began its second season in the fall of 2021, provides a vivid audio documentary of the diverse lives of queer, lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual people living in rural North America, highlighting voices across the intersections of race, class, age, ability, indigeneity, and religion. With content from the US Southwest to Canada, the podcast uplifts the diversity of queer life in the country, while talking about the joy, the challenges, and the collective experience of being queer in rural communities. However, since it is a project with Appalachian roots and origins, Appalachian audiences will certainly find substantial amounts of content about queer mountain life. Easily a third of the episodes include interviews with Appalachian voices, and many of those will be familiar to readers of this journal. From a tear-provoking interview with dearly departed community leader and former organizer at the Highlander Center, Elandria (or E) Williams, to a moving oral history with acclaimed east Kentucky writer Silas House, Garringer's podcast provides content that the region has yet to see. That is, this podcast directly engages with Appalachian queer life in its full breadth and dynamism, producing an important archive of Appalachian experience that is publicly available in an easily accessible and deeply care-filled manner.The project is also a useful example of public oral history scholarship. The podcasts are based on Garringer's growing archive of oral histories with queer people living in rural areas. Garringer began collecting interviews in 2013, now numbering over seventy oral histories in total, a project built into their studies in folklore and American studies at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Experiences with the groups Staying Together Appalachian Youth (STAY) and Southerners on New Ground (SONG) also provided Garringer with the inspiration to make the project a reality.Coming to us from Garringer's home of Whitesburg, Kentucky, the podcast has the professional feel of Appalshop-trained producers. Garringer is one of those unique interviewers who is able to direct a conversation but also leave ample space and tenderness needed for these kinds of vulnerable and deeply personal stories. However, with crisp, high-quality editing, the podcast barely feels like an oral history archive. That may be due in part to the editorial team, including assistant editor Tommie Anderson, and the star-studded editorial advisory board: self-described “Xicana Queer Feminist mama” community organizer, Hermelinda Cortés; acclaimed journalist Lewis Raven Wallace; and scholar of queer black feminisms Dr. Sharon P. Holland, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A useful and important bonus is that in each episode, our host takes a break to ask white listeners with means to donate to various important rural Indigenous- and black-run organizing and community projects. A clear-visioned example of why the politics of representation matter, Country Queers is a compelling format for sharing the first of its kind archive of being queer in the country. Appalachian scholars and activists alike will get much out of listening to these vibrant and tender stories.

WOMEN IN RUSKIN BOND’S INDIA: A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

Ruskin Bond has grown up during an important phase of history. He was Born and brought up in India during the 1930s when the freedom struggle in India was at its zenith, World War which lasted from 1939 to 1945 and immediately after that the event of Independence and chopping up of the country, there is a certain trauma involved for the writer who was British in color and blood but Indian in his sensibilities. One of the most important questions which he tries to raise through his fiction is the “abjection “of the Anglo -Indian and English families which remained behind after the independence. The black and white world of the British Raj has been depicted in the ghost stories of Ruskin Bond which are an allegory of wrecked world of the colonizing mission of the empire. The concerns which Bond raises in these stories don’t pertain so much to the natives. These stories underline the decayed situation of the white families left behind after the Raj was over. His ghost stories are a constant reminder of empires hollowed mission in the East and what it has done to its own people.

Multi-trait selection for improved solid wood physical and flexural properties in white spruce

Abstract Commercial production of high-quality lumber for Nordic conifers is negatively impacted by long rotation age and adverse negative correlations between growth and wood quality traits. A prospective solution to ensure sufficient fibre quality from future plantations is to identify key wood traits for desired applications and to consider them in tree breeding programs. In this study, we used the widespread and largely reforested white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss) in Canada to investigate the genetic control of wood flexural properties such as stiffness, i.e. modulus of elasticity (MOE), and strength, i.e. modulus of rupture (MOR). We also looked at their phenotypic and genetic correlations with other wood quality and growth traits to assess the efficiency of indirect methods of selection to improve wood flexural properties in the context of multi-trait selection in tree breeding programs. To achieve this, standardized solid wood samples, growth records and standing tree wood quality traits were collected from 289 trees belonging to 38 white spruce families from a polycross genetic trial established on two different sites in the province of Quebec, Canada. Flexural stiffness and strength, height, diameter at breast height (DBH) and wood density showed moderate to high heritability. Flexural stiffness was also positively correlated at the genetic level with flexural strength, average wood density and acoustic velocity as an indirect measure of dynamic MOE (${r}_{\mathrm{G}}$ = 0.99, ${r}_{\mathrm{G}}$ = 0.78 and ${r}_{\mathrm{G}}$= 0.78, respectively). When selecting the top 5 per cent of the trees, the expected genetic gains varied from 3.6 per cent for acoustic velocity to 16.5 per cent for MOE. Selection based on wood density and acoustic velocity would result in considerable genetic gains in flexural stiffness. Several multi-trait selection scenarios were tested to investigate the genetic gains obtained from selecting with different combinations of growth and wood quality traits. The results showed that indirect selection for wood flexural properties by means of acoustic velocity and wood density are efficient methods that can be combined in operational white spruce breeding programs to increase simultaneously genetic gains for growth and wood flexural properties.

Rebuilding Solidarity Through Advocacy Leadership: Principals Building Coalitions to Fight Exclusion and Displacement in Gentrifying Communities

Background School leader decision making can be complicated by the enrollment of affluent, and often white families in educational spaces that have served low-income, Black, and Brown families post-Brown. Principals’ behaviors influence whose power is coalesced and wielded to make school-wide curricular, budgetary, and personnel decisions. Methods This collaborative study used interviews as the primary method to capture two elementary, two middle, and two high school principals’ attempts to build coalitions with low-income families of color in their schools. Data was drawn from two separate studies analyzing school gentrification in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Using micropolitical theories and drawing on studies promoting a more community-centric approach to school leadership, the data was coded and organized into broad themes. These themes relate to coalition-building’s power in resisting the exclusion and marginalization of families most impacted by inequity in gentrifying schools and their neighborhoods. Findings Findings reveal that principals implemented strategies ranging from engaging in deliberate partnerships with Black and Brown families, implementing anti-racist curricula, and other means of centering Black and Brown communities. Implications Although principals can buffer long-standing families from gentrification’s deleterious consequences, there is a need for principals to unite with families and other school principals for a broader and more targeted and formalized dissent and policy strategy to ensure low-income Black and Brown families drive decision-making in schools and their districts.

Family resiliency and family functioning in Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White families of preterm infants

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between resiliency factors and family functioning in families of preterm infants (< 37 weeks gestation) from two different racial groups hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Design and methodsA cross-sectional design was used at five Level III/IV NICUs in a Midwestern city/suburbs. Seventy-nine family units (24 Non-Hispanic Black and 55 Non-Hispanic White) completed four instruments that assessed families' use of specific resiliency factors and a measure of family functioning. Demographic data were also collected. ResultsUsing linear mixed modeling, the significant predictors of family functioning for both Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White, even after adjusting for education, income and race, were the protective factors “hardiness” (coefficient = −0.021) and “resources” (coefficient = −0.0052). The fixed effects in the model accounted for 48% (Marginal R2 = 0.48) of the variance on family functioning and the fixed and random effects accounted for 59% (Conditional R2, 0.59) of the variance on family functioning. Sixteen percent of the total sample rated their family as dysfunctional. ConclusionsFindings from this study suggest that assessment of protective factors related to hardiness and resources individualize nursing interventions to support the resiliency of both Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White families, regardless of differences in income and education. Further research studying resiliency in families of preterm infants is needed to understand the impact on long-term family functioning. Practice implicationsUnderstandingindividual family strengths,through the identification of resiliency (protective and recovery) factors could predict at-risk families before discharge. In collaboration with other health care professionals, nurses can assess individual family needs and strengths, within the context of their socioeconomic environment, and the racial and cultural influences that are important to the family.

Abundance Against Scarcity

Abundance Against Scarcity

Income Gradient in Children’s Physical Activity: Diminished Returns in Black Families

Background: While socioeconomic status (SES) indicators, such as family income, are among the primary drivers of individual health behaviors, the effects of these indicators on health behaviors may be weaker for racial/ethnic minorities, as described by the Marginalization related Diminished Returns (MDRs) phenomenon. Objectives: Built on the MDRs framework, this study used a national sample of 9 and 10 year old children with the following two aims: First, to test the association between household income and physical activity, and second, to test racial/ethnic variation in these associations. Methods: This cross-sectional study used the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) baseline data. Participants included 9358 individuals who were either Black or White. Age, sex, racial/ethnicity, family structure (parental marital status), and frequency of physical activity were measured. Linear regression was used for data analysis. Results: Overall, high family income showed a positive association with physical activity in the overall population. We documented a statistically significant interaction between race/ethnicity and household income on frequency of physical activity, showing weaker effects of family income on children’s physical activity in Black than White families. Conclusion: We observed that household SES indicators, such as family income, have a larger effect on increasing children’s physical activity in White than Black families. Due to the existing MDRs, defined as weaker effects of family SES for racial/ethnic minority than White families, Black children from high SES families engage in less healthy behaviors than their White counterparts. MDRs sustain racial/ethnic disparities across class and SES lines.

Characterizing uncertainty in goals-of-care discussions among black and white patients: a qualitative study

BackgroundUncertainty has been associated with distress and poorer quality of life in patients with advanced cancer. Prior studies have focused on prognostic uncertainty; little is known about other types of uncertainty that patients and family members experience when discussing goals of care. Understanding the types of uncertainty expressed and differences between Black and White patients can inform the development of uncertainty management interventions.MethodsThis study sought to characterize the types of uncertainty expressed by Black and White patients and family members within the context of information needs during inpatient goals-of-care discussions. We performed a secondary analysis of transcripts from 62 recorded goals-of-care discussions that occurred between 2012 and 2014 at an urban, academic medical center in the United States. We applied an adapted taxonomy of uncertainty to data coded as describing information needs and used an inductive qualitative analysis method to analyze the discussions. We report the types of uncertainty expressed in these discussions.ResultsFifty discussions included patient or family expressions of information needs. Of these, 40 discussions (n=16 Black and n=24 White) included statements of uncertainty. Black and White patients and families most frequently expressed uncertainty related to processes and structures of care (system-centered uncertainty) and to treatment (scientific uncertainty). Statements of prognostic uncertainty focused on quantitative information among Whites and on qualitative information and expectations for the future among Blacks.ConclusionsBlack and White patients and families frequently expressed system-centered uncertainty, suggesting this may be an important target for intervention. Addressing other sources of uncertainty, such as prognostic uncertainty, may need more tailored approaches.

Developmental Cost of Being Asian but Living in the United States: Diminished Returns of Household Income on Cortical Surface Area in 9-10 Year Old Children

Introduction: While socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as household income are known to be associated with larger cortical surface area, recent research on Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs) suggests that family SES indicators such as household income may have weaker effects on brain function and structure for non-White (marginalized) than White (privileged) families: a pattern that reflects structural and societal inequalities deeply intertwined into the United States social fabric. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that used baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Data was collected between 2016 and 2018. Overall, 6039 9–10-year-old children entered our analysis. The independent variable was household income. The moderator was race. The primary outcome was the overall cortical surface area. Age, sex, and family structure were the covariates. We used mixed effects regression models that adjusted for data analysis because ABCD data is nested into families, centers, and US states. Results: While high household income was associated with larger cortical surface area, this effect was weaker for Asian than non-Hispanic White children. This racial heterogeneity in the effects of household income on cortical surface area was documented by a statistically significant interaction between race and household income on cortical surface area. Conclusion: For American children, household income does not similarly correlate with cortical surface area of diverse racial groups. Brain development in the US is not solely a function of SES (availability of resources) but also how social groups are racialized and treated in the society. In the US, race, as a proxy of racism, limits how much SES can affect brain structures such as cerebral cortex. Due to racialization, segregation, discrimination, and marginalization, racial minority children may experience weaker effects of SES. Structural inequalities should be addressed to equalize the return of SES resources across racially diverse families.

Multivariate, Transgenerational Associations of the COVID-19 Pandemic Across Minoritized and Marginalized Communities

The experienced consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have diverged across individuals, families, and communities, resulting in inequity within a host of factors. There is a gap of quantitative evidence about the transgenerational impacts of these experiences and factors. To identify baseline predictors of COVID-19 experiences, as defined by child and parent report, using a multivariate pattern-learning framework from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort. ABCD is an ongoing prospective longitudinal study of child and adolescent development in the United States including 11 875 youths, enrolled at age 9 to 10 years. Using nationally collected longitudinal profiling data from 9267 families, a multivariate pattern-learning strategy was developed to identify factor combinations associated with transgenerational costs of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ABCD data (release 3.0) collected from 2016 to 2020 and released between 2019 and 2021 were analyzed in combination with ABCD COVID-19 rapid response data from the first 3 collection points (May-August 2020). Social distancing and other response measures imposed by COVID-19, including school closures and shutdown of many childhood recreational activities. Mid-COVID-19 experiences as defined by the ABCD's parent and child COVID-19 assessments. Deep profiles from 9267 youth (5681 female [47.8%]; mean [SD] age, 119.0 [7.5] months) and their caregivers were quantitatively examined. Enabled by a pattern-learning analysis, social determinants of inequity, including family structure, socioeconomic status, and the experience of racism, were found to be primarily associated with transgenerational impacts of COVID-19, above and beyond other candidate predictors such as preexisting medical or psychiatric conditions. Pooling information across more than 17 000 baseline pre-COVID-19 family indicators and more than 280 measures of day-to-day COVID-19 experiences, non-White (ie, families who reported being Asian, Black, Hispanic, other, or a combination of those choices) and/or Spanish-speaking families were found to have decreased resources (mode 1, canonical vector weight [CVW] = 0.19; rank 5 of 281), escalated likelihoods of financial worry (mode 1, CVW = -0.20; rank 4), and food insecurity (mode 1, CVW = 0.21; rank 2), yet were more likely to have parent-child discussions regarding COVID-19-associated health and prevention issues, such as handwashing (mode 1, CVW = 0.14; rank 9), conserving food or other items (mode 1, CVW = 0.21; rank 1), protecting elderly individuals (mode 1, CVW = 0.11; rank 21), and isolating from others (mode 1, CVW = 0.11; rank 23). In contrast, White families (mode 1, CVW = -0.07; rank 3), those with higher pre-COVID-19 income (mode 1, CVW = -0.07; rank 5), and presence of a parent with a postgraduate degree (mode 1, CVW = -0.06; rank 14) experienced reduced COVID-19-associated impact. In turn, children from families experiencing reduced COVID-19 impacts reported longer nighttime sleep durations (mode 1, CVW = 0.13; rank 14), less difficulties with remote learning (mode 2, CVW = 0.14; rank 7), and decreased worry about the impact of COVID-19 on their family's financial stability (mode 1, CVW = 0.134; rank 13). The findings of this study indicate that community-level, transgenerational intervention strategies may be needed to combat the disproportionate burden of pandemics on minoritized and marginalized racial and ethnic populations.

What kind of “poverty” predicts CPS contact: Income, material hardship, and differences among racialized groups

Background and PurposeChild protective services (CPS) contact is consistently linked with poverty in the US, and empirical evidence is mounting to indicate that disparate exposure to income poverty explains a substantial portion of racial inequities in CPS involvement. Evidence about the different distributions of income poverty and material hardship also suggests that income poverty may not sufficiently capture economic wellbeing among families. This paper assessed whether differences in exposure to income poverty and/or material hardship explain racial inequities in CPS contact and further examined whether income poverty and material hardship predict CPS contact differently within racialized groups. MethodsWe used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), an urban cohort representative of births in large US cities in 1998–2000. The FFCWS data are ideal for this study in capturing each of the key constructs: racialized group membership, income, material hardship, and CPS contact. We measured income poverty and material hardship when children were age 1 and measured any CPS contact by age five. Our final sample included 3,517 families, including 1,848 Black, 614 white, and 1,055 Latinx families. We employed logistic regression to assess the associations between income poverty and material hardship, independently and jointly, and CPS contact. We conducted analyses in our full analytic sample and among subsamples of the Black, white, and Latinx families. ResultsWe found that differences in income-to-poverty ratio account for differences in CPS contact between Black and white families. Differences in CPS contact between Black and Latinx families were not explained by economic wellbeing measures alone but were ameliorated when differences in income poverty, material hardship, and a full set of family characteristics were considered. Additionally, we found that material hardship was a consistent predictor of CPS contact in the full sample and within each of the Black, white, and Latinx subsamples, even accounting for differences in income and other family characteristics. ConclusionsThe clear role of income poverty in explaining inequities in CPS contact between Black and white families and the consistent importance of material hardship in predicting CPS contact across all families underscore the critical importance of reducing income poverty and hardship and of distinguishing material need from maltreatment in the context of CPS. Our findings offer clear implications for policy intervention to reduce income poverty and material hardship. Such interventions might include extending the temporarily expanded Child Tax Credit and expanded food and housing assistance benefits, toward the ends of supporting child and family wellbeing and reducing economic and racial inequities in CPS contact.

Inequities in Child Protective Services Contact Between Black and White Children.

Child protective services (CPS) contact occurs at substantially higher rates among Black than White families. The present study considers systemic racism as a central driver of this disparity and emphasizes racialized poverty as a possible mechanism. We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and logistic regression analyses to assess the associations between income poverty, a racialized experience, and CPS contact, separately among Black and White families. Results indicated that income poverty was a significant predictor of CPS contact among White families, who were protected by higher income. In contrast, income per se was not a significant predictor of CPS contact among Black families, who were instead impacted by racialized family regulation and consequences of poverty, such as poor health and depression. Refundable state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) policies were protective for Black families, and more expansive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs decreased CPS contact for Black and White families. Implications include centering systemic racism and specifically racialized poverty as causes of racial inequities in CPS contact and rethinking the role of CPS in protecting children.

The Fun Mother and Her Lovely Assistant

The Fun Mother and Her Lovely Assistant

Family communication about race and culture: Do White families talk about race?

ABSTRACT Using survey methodology, we examined communication satisfaction, openness, and socialization strategies related to conversations White parents had with their young adult chIldren about race, ethnicity, and culture. By soliciting the views of young adults, we aimed to understand a generation that has witnessed both racial advancement and regression during their lifetimes, while remaining on the precipice of a majority-minority shift in ethnic demographics. Family communication patterns theory guided this research. The results of this study illustrated the frequency of ethnic-racial socialization messages recalled or not recalled by today’s young adults. Our results also demonstrated that while White families do discuss race, their socialization process differed from that of ethnic minoritized populations. Data analyses revealed conversation-orientation and conformity-orientation were related to parental openness and communication satisfaction during conversations about race, as well as the degree to which White parents utilized specific strategies to teach their children how to think about or engage with other races, ethnicities, and cultures.

Racial Disparities in Medication Adherence Barriers: Pediatric Epilepsy as an Exemplar.

To evaluate how racial disparities in medication adherence barriers relate to key clinical outcomes (i.e., seizure control and adherence) in pediatric epilepsy and to identify the most critical barriers in determining health outcomes in Black youth and White youth. This observational study included a sample of youth aged 2-17 years with epilepsy obtained by combining data from four different studies. A total of 226 caregivers and 43 adolescents reported on adherence barriers. An electronic monitor was used to measure adherence to the primary antiepileptic drug. Racial disparities in individual barriers were examined. The relative importance of different types of barriers in determining clinical outcomes was evaluated in both Black and White youth. Adherence barriers, including running out of medications, access to pharmacies, competing demands, and difficulty swallowing, disproportionally affected Black children with epilepsy compared to White children. System- and community-level barriers emerged as the most important in determining seizure outcomes among Black youth. Both system- and individual-level barriers, on the other hand, were important for adherence outcomes. System- and community-level barriers, as opposed to individual-level barriers, are more highly endorsed by Black families compared to White families. These barriers are also the most critical in driving seizure outcomes among Black youth. There is a critical need to shift from a primary focus on individual-level barriers to an approach that deliberately targets larger systemic barriers to reduce the existing adherence and health disparities that affect Black children with pediatric conditions.

Performing Work: Maids, Melodrama, and Imitation of Life as Film Noir

In this article I argue that Douglas Sirk’s maternal melodrama, Imitation of Life (1959), advances an ideology whereby Black women are equated with and consigned to domestic labor. The film features two mother-daughter pairs, one Black and one white. The Black mother, Annie, works as a maid for the white mother. Annie’s light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane, passes as white to avoid following her mother’s condition. But Annie’s death at the film’s end seems to bring a contrite Sarah Jane back to her subservient place in the white family. I consider Imitation in relation to nineteenth-century traditions of racial melodrama and current theories of Black materialism to trace how US labor practices worked with discursive systems such as the movies to make the “Black maid” ubiquitous and the modifier unnecessary. Moreover, the structural inequality that relegates Black women to service requires them to act as if they are free agents within a rigged system: that is, to perform an imitation of life. However, the Black characters seize agency from a scopic economy of pleasure founded on Black women’s embodied pain and labor. The emotional power of Annie’s funeral, heightened by Mahalia Jackson’s performance as choir soloist, appropriates melodramatic sentimentality and subverts Sirk’s intended irony to convey Annie’s value on a different scale. Sarah Jane’s protest through passing registers despite her capitulation after Annie’s death because Sirk’s technique for criminalizing her backfires. The film weaves elements of noir, including striptease, into the visual register to construct her as a dangerous femme fatale. But Sarah Jane inverts the narrative’s attempt to strip away her whiteness by making Black servitude the costume, not the essence. Thus, she destabilizes the racial binaries asserted by the tragic mulatta conventions. By theorizing Black agency in scripted performance, revealing Imitation’s hybrid genre of melodrama noir, and reconsidering representations of Black women’s labor, this essay contributes to work in Black materialism and Black feminist performance studies.

Parental Investments of Money for White, Black, and Hispanic Children in the United States

Recent research has shown wide class gaps in parental investments of money. Although scholars have suggested similar important gaps by race and ethnicity, these have not been as clearly documented, and some suggest that they may be the result of economic differences or family characteristics. Using 16 years of the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the author shows the predicted levels of parental investments for white, Black, and Hispanic families under four conditions: the unadjusted levels, controlling for family characteristics, controlling for family income, and controlling for both family characteristics and income. The visualization shows large gaps between children in white families compared with Black and Hispanic families. Both sociodemographic and economic factors play a substantial role in these differences, and the racial and ethnic gaps in parental investments of money are nearly eliminated when both are accounted for.

Identification of bZIP transcription factors and their responses to brown spot in pear.

Basic leucine zipper (bZIP) is a conserved transcription factor (TF) widely present in eukaryotes, and it plays an important role in regulating plant growth and stress responses. To better understand the white pear bZIP gene family, comprehensive bioinformatics analysis of the pear genome was performed. A total of 84 PbbZIP genes were identified, which were divided into 13 subfamilies by phylogenetic analysis. The 84 PbbZIP genes were all located in the nucleus, and 77 of those genes were unevenly distributed across the 17 chromosomes of white pear. The other 7 PbbZIP genes were located on the scaffold. Subsequent expression profile analysis showed that PbbZIP genes in exocarp were significantly upregulated or downregulated in ‘Huangguan’ pear with brown spot (BS) compared with healthy pear and in response to hormonal treatment with gibberellin A3 (GA3). These results provide helpful insights into the characteristics of PbbZIP genes and their responses to BS in ‘Huangguan’ pear.

Empowerment of Female-Headed Households

This essay focuses on the empowerment of families headed by solo moms in the United States and argues that the so-called “breakup of the family”—whether through divorce, chosen solo parenthood, or non-heterosexual families—is not the primary problem Christian ethicists should be concerned about. Instead, our attention should be directed towards a neoliberal political economic system that does not consider the rearing of children as a public responsibility and does not prioritize support to families of any type. This essay critiques the traditional Christian framing of family and view of the “family crisis” by drawing on the work of Black queer scholars who offer a more inclusive and interdependent understanding of family that challenges the White heteronormative nuclear family ideal. It concludes with an argument for structural change that prioritizes the rearing of children as a public good and not simply the responsibility of individual households and offers support for the flourishing of all families with attention to particularities of race, class, and gender justice.