In spite of an unprecedented period of growth and prosperity, the poverty rate in the U.S. remains high relative to the levels of the early 1970s and relative to those in many industrialized ...countries today. This book brings the problem of poverty in America to the fore, focusing on its nature and extent at the dawn of the 21st century.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2004.
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The human erythrocyte glucose transport protein (GLUT1) interacts with, and is regulated by, cytosolic ATP. This study asks the following questions concerning ATP modulation of GLUT1 mediated sugar ...transport. 1) Which region(s) of GLUT1 form the adenine nucleotide-binding domain? 2) What factors influence ATP modulation of sugar transport? 3) Is ATP interaction with GLUT1 sufficient for sugar transport regulation?
The first question was addressed through peptide mapping, n-terminal sequencing, and alanine scanning mutagenesis of GLUT1 using 32P-azidoATP, a photoactivatable ATP analog. We then used a combination of transport measurements and photolabeling strategies to examine how glycolytic intermediates, pH, and transporter oligomeric structure affect ATP regulation of sugar transport. Finally, GLUT1 was reconstituted into proteoliposomes to determine whether ATP is sufficient for the modulation of GLUT1 function in-vitro.
This thesis presents data supporting the hypothesis that residues 332-335 contribute to the efficiency of adenine nucleotide binding to GLUT1. In addition, we show that AMP, acidification, and conversion of the transporter to its dimeric form antagonize ATP regulation of sugar transport. Finally, we present results that support the proposal that ATP interaction with GLUT1 is sufficient for transport modulation.
This dissertation examines two aspects of how the retired elderly treat their wealth. Primarily using the Asset and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old, I examine whether households have purposeful ...bequest motives and whether the elderly reduce their housing wealth in a manner consistent with life-cycle predictions. The first chapter investigates the assumption commonly found in the literature that only households with children have purposeful bequest motives. Using subjective bequest expectations to measure the strength of the bequest motive, I find that the preference for bequests increases with the presence of children in the family, but decreases as family size increases. Moreover, households without children also appear to have bequest motives, particularly at the upper end of the wealth distribution. I conclude that the presence of children is a poor indicator of the preference for bequests. I also examine whether subjective bequest expectations have predictive content, finding that faster rates of dissaving are indeed correlated with lower reported bequest expectations. The second chapter proposes using household portfolio choice as a new way to test for the presence of bequest motives that does not suffer from the potential identification problem of distinguishing bequest motives from other motives for saving. The two underlying behavioral assumptions are that longer-horizon investors should hold more of their wealth in risky assets, and that bequest motives should effectively extend the planning horizon of the household. Together these generate the prediction that those with bequest motives should hold riskier portfolios. I find evidence consistent with this prediction, again supporting the presence of purposeful bequest motives. The third chapter examines the elderly's treatment of housing wealth. There is an ongoing debate over whether the elderly reduce housing equity as they age, but the literature lacks a common framework for addressing this question. This chapter presents evidence suggesting that although the elderly may delay reducing housing equity relative to other forms of wealth, in general they ultimately prefer to sell their homes rather than reduce consumption. A small segment of the elderly population appears to behave otherwise.
This chapter documents the evolution of antipoverty programs in the United States, focusing particularly on the 1990s.¹ Antipoverty programs are designed to mitigate the most pernicious aspects of ...market-based economic outcomes—unemployment and low earnings. These programs make up society’s “safety net,” and each has different eligibility standards and benefit formulas. Although they can be aggregated and categorized to summarize trends in coverage and generosity, a consequence of their patchwork nature is that the safety net may appear very different to a family in one set of circumstances than it does to a family in another. Thus, we strike a
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