But, Men and Women Are Equally Compensated, Right? An Examination of Why An Equal Rights Amendment in New York\u27s Constitution Will End the Wage Gap

(Excerpt) This Note proposes an ERA for New York’s constitution to end the wage gap between men and women, and uses language from H.J. Res 52 and S.B. No. 1919. To demonstrate why New York needs the amendment, this Note will discuss Maryland’s and California’s ERAs and equal pay laws to establish the benefits of an ERA and how both ERAs and equal pay laws, together, help shrink the wage gap in those states. With an ERA, New York’s courts will analyze sex-based discrimination claims with strict scrutiny, which provides heightened protection because women will be considered a suspect class. Section II provides background information on the original federal ERA and legislation; California equal pay laws and statistics; Maryland equal pay laws and statistics; and finally, New York equal pay laws and statistics. Section III discusses S.B. No. 1919 and critiques its language and adds language from H.J. Res. 52 to compose a draft ERA. It also explains the strict scrutiny analysis used in sex-based discrimination claims in states with ERAs. A constitutional claim provides an alternate route for women who suffer from gender pay inequality in a more plaintifffriendly environment. Maryland and California are better able to protect their citizens against workplace discrimination with an ERA. Thus, an ERA is beneficial because women desperately need the strict scrutiny analysis to end the wage gap

How does a protein search for the specific site on DNA: the role of disorder

Proteins can locate their specific targets on DNA up to two orders of magnitude faster than the Smoluchowski three-dimensional diffusion rate. This happens due to non-specific adsorption of proteins to DNA and subsequent one-dimensional sliding along DNA. We call such one-dimensional route towards the target "antenna". We studied the role of the dispersion of nonspecific binding energies within the antenna due to quasi random sequence of natural DNA. Random energy profile for sliding proteins slows the searching rate for the target. We show that this slowdown is different for the macroscopic and mesoscopic antennas.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Search for Majorana neutrinos with the first two years of EXO-200 data

Many extensions of the standard model of particle physics suggest that neutrinos should be Majorana-type fermions—that is, that neutrinos are their own anti-particles—but this assumption is difficult to confirm. Observation of neutrinoless double-β decay (0νββ), a spontaneous transition that may occur in several candidate nuclei, would verify the Majorana nature of the neutrino and constrain the absolute scale of the neutrino mass spectrum. Recent searches carried out with ^(76)Ge (the GERDA experiment) and ^(136)Xe (the KamLAND-Zen and EXO (Enriched Xenon Observatory)-200 experiments) have established the lifetime of this decay to be longer than 10^(25) years, corresponding to a limit on the neutrino mass of 0.2–0.4 electronvolts. Here we report new results from EXO-200 based on a large ^(136)Xe exposure that represents an almost fourfold increase from our earlier published data sets. We have improved the detector resolution and revised the data analysis. The half-life sensitivity we obtain is 1.9 × 10^(25) years, an improvement by a factor of 2.7 on previous EXO-200 results. We find no statistically significant evidence for 0νββ decay and set a half-life limit of 1.1 × 10^(25)  years at the 90 per cent confidence level. The high sensitivity holds promise for further running of the EXO-200 detector and future 0νββ decay searches with an improved Xe-based experiment, nEXO

Estimates for practical quantum cryptography

In this article I present a protocol for quantum cryptography which is secure against attacks on individual signals. It is based on the Bennett-Brassard protocol of 1984 (BB84). The security proof is complete as far as the use of single photons as signal states is concerned. Emphasis is given to the practicability of the resulting protocol. For each run of the quantum key distribution the security statement gives the probability of a successful key generation and the probability for an eavesdropper's knowledge, measured as change in Shannon entropy, to be below a specified maximal value.Comment: Authentication scheme corrected. Other improvements of presentatio

Interplay between geometry and flow distribution in an airway tree

Uniform fluid flow distribution in a symmetric volume can be realized through a symmetric branched tree. It is shown here, however, that the flow partitioning can be highly sensitive to deviations from exact symmetry if inertial effects are present. This is found by direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations in a 3D tree geometry. The flow asymmetry is quantified and found to depend on the Reynolds number. Moreover, for a given Reynolds number, we show that the flow distribution depends on the aspect ratio of the branching elements as well as their angular arrangement. Our results indicate that physiological variability should be severely restricted in order to ensure uniform fluid distribution in a tree. This study suggests that any non-uniformity in the air flow distribution in human lungs should be influenced by the respiratory conditions, rest or hard exercise

Complete physical simulation of the entangling-probe attack on the BB84 protocol

We have used deterministic single-photon two qubit (SPTQ) quantum logic to implement the most powerful individual-photon attack against the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) quantum key distribution protocol. Our measurement results, including physical source and gate errors, are in good agreement with theoretical predictions for the Renyi information obtained by Eve as a function of the errors she imparts to Alice and Bob's sifted key bits. The current experiment is a physical simulation of a true attack, because Eve has access to Bob's physical receiver module. This experiment illustrates the utility of an efficient deterministic quantum logic for performing realistic physical simulations of quantum information processing functions.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

A prototype vector magnetic field monitoring system for a neutron electric dipole moment experiment

We present results from a first demonstration of a magnetic field monitoring system for a neutron electric dipole moment experiment. The system is designed to reconstruct the vector components of the magnetic field in the interior measurement region solely from exterior measurements

Caloric restriction, physical activity, and cognitive performance: A review of evidence and a discussion of the potential mediators of BDNF and TrkB

Lifestyle behaviours, such as eating and physical activity (PA), have been recognised as factors that may influence age-related cognitive decline. A high-fat diet and sedentary behaviour have been associated with poor cognitive performance in a variety of domains, in both animals and humans, while caloric restriction (CR) and PA are typically associated with positive outcomes. The lifestyle-associated changes in cognitive performance typically involve areas of the brain that are vulnerable to structural alterations, such as the hippocampus. Here, we frame age-related cognitive change in regard to the brain and cognitive reserve theories and discuss the potential for CR and PA interventions, independently and in combination, to affect cognitive trajectories. We provide mechanistic support for these interventions to affect cognitive performance through BDNF and its high-affinity receptor TrkB. Further, we offer suggestions for future study designs to investigate these relationships and urge researchers to be mindful of the potential mediating roles of BDNF and TrkB

DNA sequence correlations shape nonspecific transcription factor-DNA binding affinity

Transcription factors (TFs) are regulatory proteins that bind DNA in promoter regions of the genome and either promote or repress gene expression. Here we predict analytically that enhanced homo-oligonucleotide sequence correlations, such as poly(dA:dT) and poly(dC:dG) tracts, statistically enhance non-specific TF-DNA binding affinity. This prediction is generic and qualitatively independent of microscopic parameters of the model. We show that non-specific TF binding affinity is universally controlled by the strength and symmetry of DNA sequence correlations. We perform correlation analysis of the yeast genome and show that DNA regions highly occupied by TFs exhibit stronger homo-oligonucleotide sequence correlations, and thus higher propensity for non-specific binding, as compared with poorly occupied regions. We suggest that this effect plays the role of an effective localization potential enhancing the quasi-one-dimensional diffusion of TFs in the vicinity of DNA, speeding up the stochastic search process for specific TF binding sites. The predicted effect also imposes an upper bound on the size of TF-DNA binding motifs

The Critical Coupling Likelihood Method: A new approach for seamless integration of environmental and operating conditions of gravitational wave detectors into gravitational wave searches

Any search effort for gravitational waves (GW) using interferometric detectors like LIGO needs to be able to identify if and when noise is coupling into the detector's output signal. The Critical Coupling Likelihood (CCL) method has been developed to characterize potential noise coupling and in the future aid GW search efforts. By testing two hypotheses about pairs of channels, CCL is able to identify undesirable coupled instrumental noise from potential GW candidates. Our preliminary results show that CCL can associate up to $\sim 80$ of observed artifacts with $SNR \geq 8$, to local noise sources, while reducing the duty cycle of the instrument by $\lesssim 15$. An approach like CCL will become increasingly important as GW research moves into the Advanced LIGO era, going from the first GW detection to GW astronomy.Comment: submitted CQ