Daniel Schroeder - Böcker

A Choice Outstanding Academic BookIn the decade since President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 into law-amidst promises that it would "end welfare as we know it"-did the reforms ending entitlements and moving toward time limits and work requirements lift Texas families once living on welfare out of poverty, or merely strike their names from the administrative rolls?Under welfare reform, Texas continued with low monthly payments and demanding eligibility criteria. Many families who could receive welfare in other states do not qualify in Texas, and virtually any part-time job makes a family ineligible. In Texas, most families who leave welfare remain in or near poverty, and many are likely to return to the welfare rolls in the future.This compelling work, which follows 179 families after leaving welfare, is set against a backdrop of multiple types of data and econometric modeling. The authors' multi-method approach draws on administrative data from nine programs serving low-income families and a statewide survey of families who have left welfare. Survey data on health problems, transportation needs, and child-care issues shed light on the patterns of employment and welfare use seen in the administrative data. In their lives after welfare, the families chronicled here experience poverty even when employed; a multiplicity of barriers to employment that work to exacerbate one another; and a failing safety net of basic human services as they attempt to sustain low-wage employment.

This book contains a novel combination of experimentaland model-based investigations, elucidating the complex processes inside zincair batteries. The work presented helps to answer which battery composition andwhich air-composition should be adjusted to maintain stable and efficientcharge/discharge cycling.In detail, electrochemical investigations and X-raytransmission tomography are applied on button cell zinc air batteries andin-house set-ups. Moreover, model-based investigations of the battery anode andthe impact of relative humidity, active operation, carbon dioxide and oxygen onzinc air battery operation are presented. Thetechniques used in this work complement each other well and yield an unprecedented understanding of zinc airbatteries. The methods applied are adaptable and can potentially be applied togain further understanding of other metal air batteries.