Union Maids: Unions and the Female Workforce

How have women fared in unions in recent years? The major findings of this paper are that unions have been more beneficial for women in the public sector than in the private sector, and that unionism for women is primarily a public sector wriite collar phenomenon distinguished from that of males. According to our analysis:(1) Women have come to be an increasingly large proportion of the unionized work force, and are critical in the one area in which unions have recently succeeded --the public sector.(2) In the public sector and in white collar occupations where women unionists are concentrated, unions raise women's wages more than they raise the wages of men.(3) In the private sector unions have essentially the same effect on women in wages, turnover, employment and so forth, and do not deter affirmative action programs to raise female employment. (4) Comparable worth presents a rare confluence of interests of unions in search of members, particularly in the public sector,and women in search of higher wages, and will likely continue to be used by both especially within the confines of collective bargaining.

Large anisotropy in the optical conductivity of YNi2B2C

The optical properties of YNi$_2$B$_2$C are studied by using the first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method within the local density approximation. Anisotropic behavior is obtained in the optical conductivity, even though the electronic structure shows 3D character. A large peak in $\sigma_z$ is obtained at 2.4 eV. The anisotropic optical properties are analyzed in terms of interband transitions between energy levels and found that the Ni site plays an important role. The electronic energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectra are also calculated to help elucidate the anisotropic properties in this system.Comment: revtex4, 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in PR

Quenching of Cross Sections in Nucleon Transfer Reactions

Cross sections for proton knockout observed in (e,e'p) reactions are apparently quenched by a factor of ~0.5, an effect attributed to short-range correlations between nucleons. Here we demonstrate that such quenching is not restricted to proton knockout, but a more general phenomenon associated with any nucleon transfer. Measurements of absolute cross sections on a number of targets between 16O and 208Pb were analyzed in a consistent way, with the cross sections reduced to spectroscopic factors through the distorted-wave Born approximation with global optical potentials. Across the 124 cases analyzed here, induced by various proton- and neutron-transfer reactions and with angular momentum transfer l=0-7, the results are consistent with a quenching factor of 0.55. This is an apparently uniform quenching of single-particle motion in the nuclear medium. The effect is seen not only in (d,p) reactions but also in reactions with A=3 and 4 projectiles, when realistic wave functions are used for the projectiles.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted to Physical Review Letter

An Analytic and Probabilistic Approach to the Problem of Matroid Representibility

We introduce various quantities that can be defined for an arbitrary matroid, and show that certain conditions on these quantities imply that a matroid is not representable over $\mathbb{F}_q$. Mostly, for a matroid of rank $r$, we examine the proportion of size-$(r-k)$ subsets that are dependent, and give bounds, in terms of the cardinality of the matroid and $q$ a prime power, for this proportion, below which the matroid is not representable over $\mathbb{F}_q$. We also explore connections between the defined quantities and demonstrate that they can be used to prove that random matrices have high proportions of subsets of columns independent

Recovery of Collapse in Eucalyptus Delegatensis by use of Anhydrous Ammonia and Steam

Eurcalyptus delegatensis wood dried to 5, 12, and 18% moisture content was treated with steam and anhydrous ammonia to recover collapse. Steam or ammonia gave similar results in terms of the optimum treating moisture content, viz. 12%, but steaming was the more effective at other levels. Ammonia swells collapsed wood considerably, but only part of this "recovery" is permanent. At the lowest moisture content, further shrinkage may occur

SBF Distances to Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the Sculptor Group

As part of an ongoing search for dwarf elliptical galaxies (dE) in the vicinity of the Local Group, we acquired deep B and R-band images for five dE candidates identified in the Sculptor (Scl) group region. We carried out a surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) analysis on the R-band images to measure the apparent fluctuation magnitude \bar{m}_R for each dE. Using predictions from stellar population synthesis models the galaxy distances were determined. All of these dE candidates turned out to be satellites of Scl group major members. A redshift measurement of the dE candidate ESO294-010 yielded an independent confirmation of its group membership: the [OIII] and H$_\alpha$ emission lines from a small HII region gave a heliocentric velocity of 117(\pm 5) km s-1, in close agreement with the velocity of its parent galaxy NGC 55 (v_\odot=125 km s-1). The precision of the SBF distances (5 to 10%) contributes to delineating the cigar-like distribution of the Scl group members, which extend over distances from 1.7 to 4.4 Mpc and are concentrated in three, possibly four subclumps. The Hubble diagram for nine Scl galaxies, including two of our dEs, exhibits a tight linear velocity--distance relation with a steep slope of 119 km s-1 Mpc-1. The results indicate that gravitational interaction among the Scl group members plays only a minor role in the dynamics of the group. However, the Hubble flow of the entire system appears strongly disturbed by the large masses of our Galaxy and M31 leading to the observed shearing motion. From the distances and velocities of 49 galaxies located in the Local Group and towards the Scl group, we illustrate the continuity of the galaxy distribution which strongly supports the view that the two groups form a single supergalactic structure.Comment: To appear in The Astronomical Journal, December 1998; 28 pages with 22 figure

The impact of a school-based water supply and treatment, hygiene, and sanitation programme on pupil diarrhoea: a cluster-randomized trial.

The impact of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) access on mitigating illness is well documented, although impact of school-based WASH on school-aged children has not been rigorously explored. We conducted a cluster-randomized trial in Nyanza Province, Kenya to assess the impact of a school-based WASH intervention on diarrhoeal disease in primary-school pupils. Two study populations were used: schools with a nearby dry season water source and those without. Pupils attending 'water-available' schools that received hygiene promotion and water treatment (HP&WT) and sanitation improvements showed no difference in period prevalence or duration of illness compared to pupils attending control schools. Those pupils in schools that received only the HP&WT showed similar results. Pupils in 'water-scarce' schools that received a water-supply improvement, HP&WT and sanitation showed a reduction in diarrhoea incidence and days of illness. Our study revealed mixed results on the impact of improvements to school WASH improvements on pupil diarrhoea