The many faces of gender inequality at work

The collection of articles included in this first thematic issue addresses gender inequalities, a theme that has featured intensively in the public sphere in these past months, including high profile revelations about gender pay discrimination such as those at the BBC and others in the UK, the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns, and ongoing debates about gender inequalities in the global labour market. Our assembling of this particular issue also coincides with UK employers’ compulsory reporting, for the first time, on the gender pay gap and the solutions they envision for closing this gap, including plans around increasing the number of women in the upper echelons of organisations

Results of magnetospheric barium ion cloud experiment of 1971

The barium ion cloud experiment involved the release of about 2 kg of barium at an altitude of 31 482 km, a latitude of 6.926 N., and a longitude of 74.395 W. Significant erosion of plasma from the main ion core occurred during the initial phase of the ion cloud expansion. From the motion of the outermost striational filaments, the electric field components were determined to be 0.19 mV/m in the westerly direction and 0.68 mV/m in the inward direction. The differences between these components and those measured from balloons flown in the proximity of the extremity of the field line through the release point implied the existence of potential gradients along the magnetic field lines. The deceleration of the main core was greater than theoretically predicted. This was attributed to the formation of a polarization wake, resulting in an increase of the area of interaction and resistive dissipation at ionospheric levels. The actual orientation of the magnetic field line through the release point differed by about 10.5 deg from that predicted by magnetic field models that did not include the effect of ring current

Uncovering Spiral Structure in Flocculent Galaxies

We present K'(2.1 micron) observations of four nearby flocculent spirals, which clearly show low-level spiral structure and suggest that kiloparsec-scale spiral structure is more prevalent in flocculent spirals than previously supposed. In particular, the prototypical flocculent spiral NGC 5055 is shown to have regular, two-arm spiral structure to a radius of 4 kpc in the near infrared, with an arm-interarm contrast of 1.3. The spiral structure in all four galaxies is weaker than that in grand design galaxies. Taken in unbarred galaxies with no large, nearby companions, these data are consistent with the modal theory of spiral density waves, which maintains that density waves are intrinsic to the disk. As an alternative, mechanisms for driving spiral structure with non-axisymmetric perturbers are also discussed. These observations highlight the importance of near infrared imaging for exploring the range of physical environments in which large-scale dynamical processes, such as density waves, are important.Comment: 12 pages AASTeX; 3 compressed PS figures can be retrieved from ftp://ftp.astro.umd.edu/pub/michele as file thornley.tar (1.6Mbytes). Accepted to Ap.J. Letters.(Figures now also available here, and from ftp://ftp.astro.umd.edu/pub/michele , in GIF format.

Inhibition of mTORC1 inhibits lytic replication of Epstein-Barr virus in a cell-type specific manner

BACKGROUND: Epstein-Barr virus is a human herpesvirus that infects a majority of the human population. Primary infection of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes the syndrome infectious mononucleosis. This virus is also associated with several cancers, including Burkitt’s lymphoma, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. As all herpesvirus family members, EBV initially replicates lytically to produce abundant virus particles, then enters a latent state to remain within the host indefinitely. METHODS: Through a genetic screen in Drosophila, we determined that reduction of Drosophila Tor activity altered EBV immediate-early protein function. To further investigate this finding, we inhibited mTOR in EBV-positive cells and investigated subsequent changes to lytic replication via Western blotting, flow cytometry, and quantitative PCR. The student T-test was used to evaluate significance. RESULTS: mTOR, the human homolog of Drosophila Tor, is an important protein at the center of a major signaling pathway that controls many aspects of cell biology. As the EBV immediate-early genes are responsible for EBV lytic replication, we examined the effect of inhibition of mTORC1 on EBV lytic replication in human EBV-positive cell lines. We determined that treatment of cells with rapamycin, which is an inhibitor of mTORC1 activity, led to a reduction in the ability of B cell lines to undergo lytic replication. In contrast, EBV-positive epithelial cell lines underwent higher levels of lytic replication when treated with rapamycin. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the responses of EBV-positive cell lines vary when treated with mTOR inhibitors, and this may be important when considering such inhibitors as anti-cancer therapeutic agents

Transonic small-disturbance theory for lightly loaded cascades

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76863/1/AIAA-7841-736.pd

’In the Grip of Traditionalism? How Nigerian Middle-Class Working Mothers Navigate Normative Ideals of Femininity

Changing socio-economic conditions are enticing more and more Nigerian mothers to work and pursue careers. This article explores how middle-class professional women navigate working mother subjectivities in the context of Nigeria’s strong patriarchal culture, where traditional notions of maternal femininity prevail. We argue that the working mother subjectivity is a key site where the struggle over gendered cultural meanings takes place. Drawing on 32 qualitative interviews, we demonstrate how a small group of women refused traditional feminine subject positions; however, most either embraced or reluctantly acquiesced to them, despite having access to broader cultural repertoires and material resources. By unveiling the complexities of the cultural appeal of traditional femininity and social penalties for breaching it, the article extends our understanding of how patriarchal cultures resist gendered change and the nuances and limits of individual patterns of resistance

DEMONSTRATION OF SIMULATED WASTE TRANSFERS FROM TANK AY-102 TO THE HANFORD WASTE TREATMENT FACILITY

In support of Hanford's AY-102 Tank waste certification and delivery of the waste to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was tasked by the Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) to evaluate the effectiveness of mixing and transferring the waste in the Double Shell Tank (DST) to the WTP Receipt Tank. This work is a follow-on to the previous 'Demonstration of Internal Structures Impacts on Double Shell Tank Mixing Effectiveness' task conducted at SRNL 1. The objective of these transfers was to qualitatively demonstrate how well waste can be transferred out of a mixed DST tank and to provide insights into the consistency between the batches being transferred. Twelve (12) different transfer demonstrations were performed, varying one parameter at a time, in the Batch Transfer Demonstration System. The work focused on visual comparisons of the results from transferring six batches of slurry from a 1/22nd scale (geometric by diameter) Mixing Demonstration Tank (MDT) to six Receipt Tanks, where the consistency of solids in each batch could be compared. The simulant used in this demonstration was composed of simulated Hanford Tank AZ-101 supernate, gibbsite particles, and silicon carbide particles, the same simulant/solid particles used in the previous mixing demonstration. Changing a test parameter may have had a small impact on total solids transferred from the MDT on a given test, but the data indicates that there is essentially no impact on the consistency of solids transferred batch to batch. Of the multiple parameters varied during testing, it was found that changing the nozzle velocity of the Mixer Jet Pumps (MJPs) had the biggest impact on the amount of solids transferred. When the MJPs were operating at 8.0 gpm (22.4 ft/s nozzle velocity, U{sub o}D=0.504 ft{sup 2}/s), the solid particles were more effectively suspended, thus producing a higher volume of solids transferred. When the MJP flow rate was reduced to 5 gpm (14 ft/s nozzle velocity, U{sub o}D = 0.315 ft{sup 2}/s) to each pump, dead zones formed in the tank, resulting in fewer solids being transferred in each batch to the Receipt Tanks. The larger, denser particles were displaced (preferentially to the smaller particles) to one of the two dead zones and not re-suspended for the duration of the test. As the liquid level dropped in the MDT, re-suspending the particles became less effective (6th batch). The poor consistency of the solids transferred in the 6th batch was due to low liquid level in the MDT, thus poor mixing by the MJPs. Of the twelve tests conducted the best transfer of solids occurred during Test 6 and 8 where the MJP rotation was reduced to 1.0 rpm

Identifying the Neutrino mass Ordering with INO and NOvA

The relatively large value of $\theta_{13}$ established recently by the Daya Bay reactor experiment opens the possibility to determine the neutrino mass ordering with experiments currently under construction. We investigate synergies between the NOvA long-baseline accelerator experiment with atmospheric neutrino data from the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). We identify the requirements on energy and direction reconstruction and detector mass for INO necessary for a significant sensitivity. If neutrino energy and direction reconstruction at the level of 10% and 10 degree can be achieved by INO a determination of the neutrino mass ordering seems possible around 2020.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, minor improvements and clarifications, new panel in fig. 7, version to appear in JHEP, typo in eq. 4 correcte

The many faces of gender inequality at work

The collection of articles included in this first thematic issue addresses gender inequalities, a theme that has featured intensively in the public sphere in these past months, including high profile revelations about gender pay discrimination such as those at the BBC and others in the UK, the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns, and ongoing debates about gender inequalities in the global labour market. Our assembling of this particular issue also coincides with UK employers’ compulsory reporting, for the first time, on the gender pay gap and the solutions they envision for closing this gap, including plans around increasing the number of women in the upper echelons of organisations. In our view, all the articles in this issue have a link to this pressing problem, in that they highlight how solutions to gender gaps depend on factors that reside not only within the organisation, but also at family and societal levels. Moreover, these factors are constantly reshaped by changing economic contexts and national policies. The articles we present in this issue cover not only a variety of factors and contexts, but also document the sources and outcomes of gender inequalities across six countries from four continents, including a cross-country analysis. Together, they provide a snapshot of the rich empirical evidence available to researchers interested in further developing our theoretical understanding of gender inequalities