Pollen, women, war and other things : reflections on the history of palynology

I am grateful to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien; KVA), Stockholm, for hosting the conference at which the themes in this paper were presented. For archival material, I appreciate access to (and the assistance of): Gunnar Erdtman papers, Center for History of Science, KVA (Maria Asp); Thomas Woodhead papers, Kirklees Museums and Galleries (Tolson Memorial Museum, Huddersfield; Chris Yates); Harold Hyde papers, Botany Section Correspondence, Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales (Heather Pardoe); Kathleen Blackburn papers, Natural History Society of Northumbria Archive, Great North Museum (Hancock), Newcastle upon Tyne (Alan Hart); material concerning Florence Campbell James, Aberystwyth University (Julie Archer). Richard Bradshaw, Paul Buckland, Andrew Cameron, Peter Coxon, Egill Erlendsson, Michael Grant, Alan Hart, Angus Lunn, Limi Mao, Heather Pardoe, Ed Schofield and Richard West are thanked for advice and assistance. I appreciate the constructive comments on a draft of this paper by John Birks. Jenny Johnston assisted with artwork.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Editorial comment on: increased expression of tumor-associated trypsin inhibitor, TATI, in prostate cancer and in androgen-independent 22Rv1 cells

No abstract available

Apparatus for damping operator induced oscillations of a controlled system

Flight control-related apparatus for damping operator induced oscillations of a controlled system responding to an operator controlled signal is described. The device utilizes a lag-lead filter for frequency and amplitude estimation of the control input, and a rectification and smoothing filter for producing a signal proportional to the absolute value of the frequency and amplitude estimate for use in suppression of the control system output signal. In one embodiment, this is accomplished by computing a correction signal in a correction generating section. In a second embodiment, a second rectification and smoothing filter produces a signal proportional to the absolute value of the controlled input signal. A ratio of the outputs of the first and second rectification and smoothing filters is then used in a generator to generate a gain factor k sub q for the control system to reduce the gain of the output signal of the control system, thereby to provide a damped control output signal without rate limiting the controlled element

Hard paternalism, fairness and clinical research: why not?

Jansen and Wall suggest a new way of defending hard paternalism in clinical research. They argue that non-therapeutic research exposing people to more than minimal risk should be banned on egalitarian grounds: in preventing poor decision-makers from making bad decisions, we will promote equality of welfare. We argue that their proposal is flawed for four reasons. First, the idea of poor decision-makers is much more problematic than Jansen and Wall allow. Second, pace Jansen and Wall, it may be practicable for regulators to uncover the values that a potential research participant holds when agreeing to enter a research project, so their claim that we must ban such research projects for all if we are to ban them for poor decision-makers looks to be unmotivated. Third, there seem to be cases where the liberty to enter the sort of research project Jansen and Wall discuss is morally weighty, and arguably should outweigh concerns of egalitarian distribution. Fourth, banning certain types of research, which seem on the face of it to offer an unfavourable risk-benefit ratio, would have unwelcome consequences for all clinical research, which Jansen and Wall do not recognize

Toward the Prevention of Risky Sexual Behavior Among Latina Youth

Sexual risk-taking among Latina youth has been noted as a critical health concern within the United States. In this chapter. the importance of prevention of risky sexual behavior among Latina youth will be discussed. Current prevalence rates and consequences associated with sexual behavior among Latino/as will be reviewed. along with factors that are relevant to understanding the prevention of sexual activity. Finally. programs that have been developed to prevent risky sexual behavior among Latinas will be reviewed and suggestions for prevention efforts will be presented

Perceived Family Support, Acculturation, and Life Satisfaction in Mexican American Youth: A Mixed-Methods Exploration

In this article, the authors describe a mixed-methods study designed to explore perceived family support, acculturation, and life satisfaction among 266 Mexican American adolescents. Specifically, the authors conducted a thematic analysis of open-ended responses to a question about life satisfaction to understand participants’ perceptions of factors that contributed to their overall satisfaction with life. The authors also conducted hierarchical regression analyses to investigate the independent and interactive contributions of perceived support from family and Mexican and Anglo acculturation orientations on life satisfaction. Convergence of mixed-methods findings demonstrated that perceived family support and Mexican orientation were significant predictors of life satisfaction in these adolescents. Implications, limitations, and directions for further research are discussed

Coping With Discrimination Among Mexican Descent Adolescents

The current research is designed to explore the relationship among discrimination stress, coping strategies, and self-esteem among Mexican descent youth (N = 73, age 11-15 years). Results suggest that primary control engagement and disengagement coping strategies are positively associated with discrimination stress. Furthermore, self-esteem is predicted by an interaction of primary control engagement coping and discrimination stress, such that at higher levels of discrimination stress, youth who engaged in more primary control engagement coping reported higher self-esteem. The authors’ findings indicate that Mexican descent youth are actively finding ways to cope with the common experience of negative stereotypes and prejudice, such that their self-esteem is protected from the stressful impact of discrimination and prejudice. Implications of these findings for Latino/a youth resilience are discussed