The (Biological or Cultural) Essence of Essentialism: Implications for Policy Support among Dominant and Subordinated Groups

Most research links (racial) essentialism to negative intergroup outcomes. We propose that this conclusion reflects both a narrow conceptual focus on biological/genetic essence and a narrow research focus from the perspective of racially dominant groups. We distinguished between beliefs in biological and cultural essences, and we investigated the implications of this distinction for support of social justice policies (e.g., affirmative action) among people with dominant (White) and subordinated (e.g., Black, Latino) racial identities in the United States. Whereas, endorsement of biological essentialism may have similarly negative implications for social justice policies across racial categories, we investigated the hypothesis that endorsement of cultural essentialism would have different implications across racial categories. In Studies 1a and 1b, we assessed the properties of a cultural essentialism measure we developed using two samples with different racial/ethnic compositions. In Study 2, we collected data from 170 participants using an online questionnaire to test the implications of essentialist beliefs for policy support. Consistent with previous research, we found that belief in biological essentialism was negatively related to policy support for participants from both dominant and subordinated categories. In contrast, the relationship between cultural essentialism and policy support varied across identity categories in the hypothesized way: negative for participants from the dominant category but positive for participants from subordinated categories. Results suggest that cultural essentialism may provide a way of identification that subordinated communities use to mobilize support for social justice

In-beam γ-ray spectroscopy of 136Te at relativistic energies

The reduced transition probability B(E2; 0+ 1 →2+ 1 ) to the first excited 2+ state of the neutron-rich nucleus 136Te, with two protons and two neutrons outside the doubly magic 132Sn core, was measured via Coulomb excitation at relativistic energies at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. A value of B(E2)= 0.191(26) e2b2 was extracted from the measured inelastic scattering cross section on an Au target taking into account the contributions from both Coulomb and nuclear excitations. In addition, an upper limit for the transition strength to a 2+ state of mixed-symmetry character in the excitation energy range of 1.5–2.2 MeV was determined and compared to the predictions of various theoretical calculations. Because of the high statistics gathered in the present experiment the error of the deduced B(E2) value is dominated by the systematic uncertainties involved in the analysis of Coulomb excitation experiments at beam energies around 150 MeV/u. Therefore, the latter are for the first time assessed in detail in the present work.Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (FPA2014-57196-C5-4-P, FPA2017-84756-C4-2-P, FIS2014-53448-C2-1-P

Transit timing variation analysis of the low-mass brown dwarf KELT-1 b

We investigate whether there is a variation in the orbital period of the short-period brown dwarf-mass KELT-1 b, which is one of the best candidates to observe orbital decay. We obtain 19 high-precision transit light curves of the target using six different telescopes. We add all precise and complete transit light curves from open databases and the literature, as well as the available Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observations from sectors 17 and 57, to form a transit timing variation (TTV) diagram spanning more than 10 yr of observations. The analysis of the TTV diagram, however, is inconclusive in terms of a secular or periodic variation, hinting that the system might have synchronized. We update the transit ephemeris and determine an informative lower limit for the reduced tidal quality parameter of its host star of Q ′⋆>(8.5±3.9)×106 assuming that the stellar rotation is not yet synchronized. Using our new photometric observations, published light curves, the TESS data, archival radial velocities, and broadband magnitudes, we also update the measured parameters of the system. Our results are in good agreement with those found in previous analyses

Mitochondrial carrier homolog 1 (Mtch1) antibodies in neuro-Behçet's disease

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Efforts for the identification of diagnostic autoantibodies for neuro-Behcet's disease (NBD) have failed. Screening of NBD patients' sera with protein macroarray identified mitochondrial carrier homolog 1 (Mtch1), an apoptosis-related protein, as a potential autoantigen. ELISA studies showed serum Mtch1 antibodies in 68 of 144 BD patients with or without neurological involvement and in 4 of 168 controls corresponding to a sensitivity of 47.2% and specificity of 97.6%. Mtch1 antibody positive NBD patients had more attacks, increased disability and lower serum nucleosome levels. Mtch1 antibody might be involved in pathogenic mechanisms of NBD rather than being a coincidental byproduct of autoinflammation. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Gold-on-glass microwave split-ring resonators with PDMS microchannels for differential measurement in microfluidic sensing

This paper describes a microwave resonator incorporating microfluidic lab-on-chip sensor system capable of performing simultaneous differential measurement based sensing of liquid samples. The resonators are split-ring resonator shapes made of gold on glass substrates. Directly bonded on glass substrates are polydimethylsiloxane microchannels. Sensor system design incorporates a pair of identical resonators, one of which performs reference reading from the background. Tracking the difference of the responses of both resonators simultaneously, rather than a single one, is used to obtain a more linear and noise-free reading. The sensor system was produced with conventional fabrication techniques. It is compatible with low-cost, simple, easy to handle sensing applications. Results indicate that reliable differential measurement was possible owing to a well-matched pair of sensors with a response error as low as 0.1%. It was also demonstrated that differential measurement capability enables sensing with improved linearity. Measurements were performed with glucose solutions in the range of 3.2–16.1 mM, achieving a sensitivity of 0.16 MHz/mM

Interruption of torus doubling bifurcation and genesis of strange nonchaotic attractors in a quasiperiodically forced map : Mechanisms and their characterizations

A simple quasiperiodically forced one-dimensional cubic map is shown to exhibit very many types of routes to chaos via strange nonchaotic attractors (SNAs) with reference to a two-parameter $(A-f)$ space. The routes include transitions to chaos via SNAs from both one frequency torus and period doubled torus. In the former case, we identify the fractalization and type I intermittency routes. In the latter case, we point out that atleast four distinct routes through which the truncation of torus doubling bifurcation and the birth of SNAs take place in this model. In particular, the formation of SNAs through Heagy-Hammel, fractalization and type--III intermittent mechanisms are described. In addition, it has been found that in this system there are some regions in the parameter space where a novel dynamics involving a sudden expansion of the attractor which tames the growth of period-doubling bifurcation takes place, giving birth to SNA. The SNAs created through different mechanisms are characterized by the behaviour of the Lyapunov exponents and their variance, by the estimation of phase sensitivity exponent as well as through the distribution of finite-time Lyapunov exponents.Comment: 27 pages, RevTeX 4, 16 EPS figures. Phys. Rev. E (2001) to appea

Generalized Phase Synchronization in unidirectionally coupled chaotic oscillators

We investigate phase synchronization between two identical or detuned response oscillators coupled to a slightly different drive oscillator. Our result is that phase synchronization can occur between response oscillators when they are driven by correlated (but not identical) inputs from the drive oscillator. We call this phenomenon Generalized Phase Synchronization (GPS) and clarify its characteristics using Lyapunov exponents and phase difference plots.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Manufacturing silk/epoxy composite laminates : challenges and opportunities

Presented at the 34th International Conference of the Polymer Processing Society, May 24, 2018.Application of natural fibers in polymer composites has been gaining popularity in several industries pursuing environmentally friendly products. Among the natural fibers with proven potential applications, silk fibers have recently received considerable attention from researchers. Silk fibers provide higher mechanical properties compared to other commonly used natural fibers such as sisal, jute, and hemp. Silk may also exhibit comparable specific mechanical properties to glass fibers. However, silk composite laminates are rarely used in commercial products due to a number of fabrication challenges. This paper investigates such challenges for silk/epoxy laminates, especially issues related to manufacturing and preform architecture. First, challenges arising from preform architecture (i.e., random and woven preforms) are presented. Unlike glass fibers for which random mats are easier to manipulate, handling random silk preform proves to be more challenging, particularly compared to woven silk fabrics. The random silk/epoxy laminates show higher thickness variation and lower compaction, yielding lower fiber content. Second, fabrication of laminates by vacuum bag/wet lay-up and vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) processes are presented. VARTM is found to be more appropriate for silk/epoxy laminate fabrication, as it allows a uniform impregnation of the silk preform, yielding higher part quality and limited void formation. Moreover, applying 0.21 MPa (30 psi) external pressure to the VARTM laminates allows to increase the fiber content of both random and woven silk/epoxy laminates from ~17 and ~30% to ~21 and ~33%, respectively. In contrast, wetting of silk preform during wet lay-up process, which is operator dependent, is difficult to achieve; and the produced laminates have high void content. Furthermore, SEM images show a weak silk/epoxy adhesion in laminates fabricated without external pressure. Finally, the mechanical performance of these laminates is assessed. The woven silk/epoxy laminates fabricated by pressurized VARTM exhibits the highest improvement in the specific flexural strength and modulus over pristine epoxy with 30 and 65% increase, respectively.YesPeer reviewed for the Proceedings of the 34th International Conference of the Polymer Processing Society, Taipei, Taiwan, May 21st-25th 2018

Burned-out testis tumour that metastasized to retroperitoneal lymph nodes: a case report

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