Current discussions of the incorporation of immigrants and minorities in the American metropolis are partly framed in terms of theoretical models of how such groups fared in previous eras. This historical experience is most often interpreted as a process of assimilation. An ethnic queue naturally sorts ethnic groups in a hierarchy favoring older groups over those who have more recently arrived. But mobility of the second generation substantially reduces the initial disadvantages of new groups, and ethnic differences decline steadily with the passage of time. Analternative view is that ethnic boundaries are more deeply rooted within American society and disparities between groups tend to be reproduced over time in spite of processes of individual mobility. Evidence for the latter thesis is found here in a study of the relative occupational standing of white ethnic groups, African Americans, Latinos, and Asians in New York over nearly a century, 1880-1970. A clear hierarchy of groups was well established in 1880. However, it did not correspond closely to groups initial time of arrival, it placed even northern-born African Americans at a great disadvantage, and it changed little over the following 90 years.

This dissertation describes an approach to digital hardware design for embedded signal processing systems that addresses synthesis, simulation, and interactive design. The objective is to improve productivity and interactivity during design without sacrificing design quality. Our approach consists of automated register-transfer level (RTL) VHDL code generation from synchronous dataflow (SDF) graph specifications, with automated and interactive optimization phases, followed by RTL synthesis and simulation. Our approach is implemented within the Ptolemy simulation and prototyping environment.We present techniques for mapping applications specified in SDF to parallel digital hardware implementations. Two styles of architecture generation are described. They are a general resource sharing style for flexibility, and the mapping of sequenced groups for compact communication and interconnect. A design flow for hardware synthesis from SDF graphs is presented. In order to minimize cost while meeting performance requirements, we take advantage of opportunities for resource sharing at the coarse-grain task level. Since there are fewer task nodes than in a fine-grain or arithmetic representation of the task graph, determining a near-optimal partitioning is faster in our approach than in behavioral synthesis.Our approach supports verification through co-simulation. We have constructed simulation techniques for VHDL models generated from SDF semantics. They address partitioned simulation of VHDL models derived from SDF, and simulation of VHDL subsystems derived from SDF within an SDF code-generation subsystems framework. A design flow for simulation of hardware synthesized from SDF graphs is presented. Our approach guarantees that the partitioning does not introduce deadlock or corrupt synchronization, issues that many algorithm-to-implementation design tools do not explicitly address.An important stage in our approach is the interactive scheduling and partitioning phase for providing feedback to the designer as well as allowing feedback from the designer for fine-tuning optimization after the automated phase. We characterize useful features for an interactive design tool for hardware synthesis from SDF graph specifications. A prototype of such a tool, integrated into the hardware design flow, is presented. The result is the leveraging of the strengths of both the designer and the tool, rather than the replacement of one by the other.

Most older persons at the turn of the twentieth century in the United States lived with a child. Family theories stress kin affiliation or joint family survival strategies as motives for co-residence. This article uses exchange theory to examine whether hierarchical and non-collectivist "elder strategies" shaped coresidence. Analysis of the 1910 Public Use Sample and linked macrolevel census data finds that the coresidence of elderly males with adult children was a function of local economic opportunities, old-age dependency, economic resources (including Civil War pensions), and remarriage alternatives. Specifically, local economic opportunities led to more coresidence, but remarriage, older men's robustness, and greater material resources led to less coresidence with a child. Older men, as those in previous cohorts, held onto the resources they possessedincluding headship for their own use and perhaps to maintain leverage over kin.

Researchers have devoted considerable attention to analyzing the impact of Social Security on retirement, with mixed findings. However, Old Age Assistance (OAA), a means-tested program established at the same time, dwarfed Social Security until the 1950s and coincided with the early decline in elderly participation. In addition, OAA benefit levels were determined by the states - a key source of policy variation that is missing in the case of Social Security. I estimate the relationship between OAA benefit levels and elderly labor force participation using individual data from the 1940 and 1950 Censuses. The effect of OAA is found to be strong and implies that participation would have risen slightly instead of falling if benefits had not been raised during the 1940s. I also present evidence against the endogeneity of state benefit levels.

Socioeconomic differences in birth weight have narrowed since 1900. The mother's nutritional status during her growing years, proxied by height, accounted for most of the differences in the past, but not today. Children born in 1910 compared favorably to those born in 1988 in terms of birth weights, but suffered high fetal and neonatal death rates. By their tenth day of life children in the past were at a disadvantage because best practice resulted in inefficient feeding. Improved obstetrical, medical, and nutritional knowledge has increased weight in the first days of life, which may account for increased adult stature.

I investigate how the distribution of daily hours worked among prime-aged men has changed since the 1890s by occupational and industrial group and by the hourly wage. I find that although hours of work have fallen for all workers, the decline was disproportionately large among the lowest paid workers. In the past hours worked were very unevenly distributed with the lowest paid workers working the longest day whereas today it is the highest paid workers who work the longest day. I argue that much of the change in the relative length of the work day can be accounted for by changes in the number of daily hours workers are willing to supply. I show that the unequal distribution of work hours in the past equalized income and that in recent times the unequal distribution of hours worked magnifies income disparities, suggesting that wage or wealth data may underestimate long-run improvements in the welfare of the lowest paid workers.

I argue that the trend toward single households among retired men 65 years of age or older has been ongoing since 1880. When coresidence is measured by the percentage of elderly men living in the households of their children or other relatives, fully 57 percent of the decline in coresidence among elderly retired men from 1880 to 1990 occurred between 1880 and 1940. This trend has been disguised in more aggregated statistics by the relatively low retirement rates that prevailed in the past and by the unchanging coresidence levels of labor force participants. I investigate the factors that fostered this rise in separate living quarters for the aged by examining the determinants of living arrangements in 1910 among retired veterans receiving Union Army pensions. I find that Union Army pensions exerted a sizable, negative impact on the coresidence rates of the retired, implying that increases in income have always been associated with an increased demand for the privacy and autonomy provided by separate living arrangements. My findings imply that prior to 1940 rising incomes were the most important factor enabling the elderly to live alone. After 1940, increases in the attractiveness of independent living may have played a role.

Immigration has had a long history in the United States. For the most part, however, it was seldom treated dispassionately even when an attempt was made only to ascertain the pertinent facts and their reliability. Books and innumerable articles were written to "prove" that immigration did not contribute to the population growth of this country because immigration depressed the fertility rate of the native population: that immigration, if it continued, would result in race suicide of the Nordic element; that immigration was a threat to "American" institutions, etc. For this reason much of the literature on this subject is almost worthless.

The spatial containment of women relative to men remains a prominent theme in research on women's employment in American cities. Drawing on a dataset for all metropolitan areas in the United States in 1990, this research analyzes the contextual variability of containment effects and the link between localized commutes and the incidence of occupational sex segregation. Women's more localized commutes persist across most of the urban system, with particularly wide differentials in suburban labor markets in proximity to national service and finance centers. Treatment effects models confirm that differences in the extent of local labor markets among women reinforce occupational sex segregation, but the effect varies by mode of travel. Working close to home slightly increases the likelihood of segregation for women with access to private automobiles, suggestive of spatial containment. Among women reliant on bus transportation, spatial mismatch is so severe that even poorly paid secondary jobs require long comm...

This article presents empirical evidence pertaining to the debate about idea of "the melting pot" vs Handlins thesis about "the uprooted", my aim being to measure to what extent Nordic culture was preserved among the Nordic immigrants to Minnesota. The Minnesota census samples (The Ipums) are used to analyse to what extent immigrants to that state intermarried, even if they had different ethnic or national background. Also, onomastic research shows on the one hand that first names do undergo fashion cycles, on the other that racial and ethnic groups choose from more stable and limited name pools than the national one. Both marriage patterns and names can, therefore, be used as cultural indicators. In order to paint a more longitudinal picture, the behaviour of both first and second generation immigrants is studied.A basic name study technique is to count the number of names with a specific Nordic form or origin. However, to get a more detailed picture of name patterns in the different ethnic groups, grouping individuals who hold the "same" name is necessary. This is done by listing the rank and number of sampled immigrants reporting each name, while comparing with corresponding figures for their children born in the US, and with Americans of native stock. In order to measure more exactly to what degree the various ethnic name pools differ from that of the native-born Americans, we can use the index of dissimilarity. I have also attempted a multivariate analysis of factors potentially influencing the change in name patterns between the immigrants and the next generation.