A State’s Gendered Response to Political Instability: Gendering Labor Policy in Semi-Authoritarian El Salvador (1944-1972)

Unlike much of the gender and welfare literature, this study examines why a regime that constrains pressure from below would adopt gendered social policies. The Salvadoran case (1944-1972) suggests that political instability rather than societal pressures may prompt semi-authoritarian regimes to adopt gendered labor reforms. We extend the motivations for adopting gendered labor reforms to include co-opting labor by examining gendered labor reforms in the context of El Salvador’s historically contingent labor strategy. This gendered analysis helps explain how a semi-authoritarian regime secured political stability and reveals the special appeal gendered labor reforms may have to semi-authoritarian regimes

The advanced solar cell orbital test

The motivation for advanced solar cell flight experiments is discussed and the Advanced Solar Cell Orbital Test (ASCOT) flight experiment is described. Details of the types of solar cells included in the test and the kinds of data to be collected are given. The orbit will expose the cells to a sufficiently high radiation dose that useful degradation data will be obtained in the first year

Byggmeister Test Home: Analysis and Initial Results of Cold Climate Wood-Framed Home Retrofit

BSC seeks to further the energy efficiency market for New England area retrofit projects by supporting projects that are based on solid building science fundamentals and verified implementation. With the high exposure of energy efficiency and retrofit terminology being used in the general media at this time, it is important to have evidence that measures being proposed will in fact benefit the homeowner through a combination of energy savings, improved durability, and occupant comfort. There are several basic areas of research to which the technical report for these test homes can be expected to contribute. These include the combination of measures that is feasible, affordable and acceptable to homeowners as well as expectations versus results. Two Byggmeister multi-family test homes in Massachusetts are examined with the goal of providing case studies that could be applied to other similar New England homes

Monitoring the deflection of a membrane using direct UV written planar Bragg gratings

A thin (~100 µm thick) silica-on-silicon square membrane (10 mm x 10 mm) has been fabricated and its deflection monitored through a 100 Bragg grating array defined within the membrane

A Superfield for Every Dash-Chromotopology

The recent classification scheme of so-called adinkraic off-shell supermultiplets of N-extended worldline supersymmetry without central charges finds a combinatorial explosion. Completing our earlier efforts, we now complete the constructive proof that all of these trillions or more of supermultiplets have a superfield representation. While different as superfields and supermultiplets, these are still super-differentially related to a much more modest number of minimal supermultiplets, which we construct herein.Comment: 13 pages, integrated illustration

Terahertz bandwidth photonic Hilbert transformers and implementations in ultra wideband single-sideband filters

Planar Bragg grating based photonic Hilbert transformers (PHTs) with THz bandwidths are proposed and practically demonstrated. An X-coupler, PHT, and a flat-top reflector are incorporated, demonstrating 2THz all-optical single-sideband filters. Devices are fabricated via a direct UV grating writing technique on a silica-on-silicon platform

Theorizing business power in the semiperiphery: Mexico 1970-2000

This study explains why the power of neoliberal business over the Mexican state increased during the last three decades of the 20th century. It identifies three sources of increased neoliberal business power that occurred in conjunction with neoliberal reforms: (1) active mobilization by neoliberal business, (2) increased access to the state by neoliberal business, and (3) increased economic power of neoliberal business. It thereby contributes additional evidence that counters the view of Mexico’s state neoliberalizers as acting autonomously from business. It further outlines two conditions that were instrumental in bringing about the increased power of neoliberal business: the onset of economic crisis in the 1970s, and a shift in foreign capital preferences in Mexico. The analysis demonstrates how Mexico’s sources and conditions of business power differed from those in advanced industrial societies, and outlines why the Mexican case may be a good starting point for devising a historically-contingent theory of business power in the semiperiphery

The Strategic Uses of Gender in Household Negotiations: Women Workers on Mexico’s Northern Border

The study illustrates the potential of the ‘doing gender’ perspective to explain why employment helps women win some negotiations at home but not others. Eighteen in-depth interviews with women maquiladora workers in Mexico suggest that employment may help women gain new rights and extend the limits of respect accorded them by male companions and parents. Women were more successful when they used negotiating strategies that conformed to their gender identity, such as making offers, than when they used negotiating strategies that challenged traditional gender norms, such as withdrawing services or making threats

Role of proline rich 15 in trophoblast cell development, The

2012 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Maintenance of pregnancy in eutherian mammals requires a sophisticated and tightly regulated program of gene expression in order to develop a fully functional placenta. This transient organ mediates nutrient and gas exchange between the mother and fetus while protecting the fetus from the maternal immune system. Deviations from the normal regulation of gene expression during early pregnancy can lead to early embryonic loss as well as dysfunctional placentation, which can cause significant maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Proline rich 15 (PRR15) is a low molecular weight nuclear protein expressed by the trophoblast during early gestation in several mammalian species, including humans, mice, cattle, sheep, and horses. Immunohistochemistry revealed localization of PRR15 to the trophectoderm and extraembryonic endoderm of day 15 sheep conceptuses. In humans, PRR15 is localized in the nuclei of both first and second trimester trophoblast cells. Additional research has shown increased PRR15 transcription in colorectal cancers with mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (Apc) protein, suggesting a link to the Wnt signaling pathway. PRR15 mRNA concentrations increase when trophoblast cells, both sheep (oTR) and human (ACH-3P), are cultured on Matrigel, a basement membrane matrix. The expression profile in the sheep conceptus during pregnancy revealed a rise in PRR15 mRNA concentrations during the period of conceptus elongation with a peak in expression at day 16 of gestation, followed by a decline to day 30 of gestation. This peak coincides with a halt in elongation of the conceptus, and the initial period of apposition to the uterine luminal epithelium. Lentiviral-mediated knockdown of PRR15 in ovine trophectoderm at the blastocyst stage led to demise of the embryo by day 15 of gestation. This provides compelling evidence that PRR15 is a critical factor during this precarious window of development when initial attachment and implantation begin. The first aim of this research was to determine the effect of PRR15 deficiency on trophoblast gene expression, as well as trophoblast proliferation and survival. The human first trimester trophoblast cell line, ACH-3P, was infected with control lentivirus (LL3.7) and lentivirus expressing a short hairpin (sh)RNA to target PRR15 mRNA for degradation, resulting in a 68% decrease in PRR15 mRNA (p<0.01). Microarray analysis of these cell lines revealed differential expression of genes related to cancer, focal adhesion, and p53 signaling. We selected 21 genes for validation of mRNA levels by quantitative real-time RT-PCR, 18 (86%) of which gave results consistent with the microarray analysis, with similar direction and magnitude fold changes. This included significant up-regulation of GDF15, a cytokine increased in pregnancies with preeclampsia. GDF15 mRNA concentrations were examined more extensively during early ovine gestation, which revealed that GDF15 was low during peak PRR15 expression, then increased significantly at day 30 when PRR15 was nearly undetectable. Proliferation, as measured by cell metabolic activity and bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) uptake, decreased in the PRR15-deficient cells, which was consistent with a decrease observed in cell cycle-related genes CCND1 and CDK6, and an increase in CCNG2 and CDKN1A in the PRR15-deficient cells. TNFSF10, a tumor necrosis factor superfamily member known to induce apoptosis, and its receptor, TNFRSF10b, increased significantly in the PRR15-deficient cells, suggesting trophoblast cells may be more susceptible to apoptosis when depleted of PRR15. Assays for caspase activity and annexin V staining revealed an increased population of apoptotic cells when treated with shRNA to target PRR15. These results suggest that PRR15 is required for driving trophoblast proliferation and survival during early development of the placenta, functions that are critical to early embryonic survival and successful placentation. The second experimental aim was to examine regions of the PRR15 promoter that are necessary for regulating its expression in trophoblast cells and to identify the role of Wnt signaling in PRR15 transcription. The 5'-flanking sequences from -824, -640, -424, -326, and -284 bp to +7 bp relative to the annotated transcription start site were amplified by PCR and ligated into the pGL3-Basic plasmid. These vectors were co-transfected into the first trimester human trophoblast cell line, ACH-3P, HT29 (human colorectal carcinoma), oTR, and BHK-21 (hamster kidney fibroblast) cells with a RSV-β-galactosidase vector control. In ACH-3P cells, transactivation of the luciferase reporter was maximal following transfections with the -326 construct (15.4 ± 4.8-fold). Significant promoter activity was absent in the -284, -424, and -640 constructs, but regained with the -824 construct (14.8 ± 5.8-fold). These results suggest that cis-acting elements within the proximal promoter of the PRR15 gene are essential for expression in trophoblast cells, requiring the regions from -284 to -326 and -640 to -824. DNase I footprinting and electrophoretic mobility shift assays were performed to identify transcription factor binding sites within these regions. Due to the potential link to the Wnt signaling pathway, cells were treated with an inhibitor to GSK3β, the kinase responsible for phosphorylation and proteasomal degradation of β-catenin. Inhibition of GSK3β decreased PRR15 mRNA concentrations and decreased transactivation of the luciferase reporter in all proximal promoter reporter constructs; this effect was mediated through β-catenin activity in the proximal 284 bases of the PRR15 5'-flanking region. Furthermore, trophoblast cell proliferation decreased after treatment with the GSK3β inhibitor. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays on the region from -98 to -68 revealed differential binding of nuclear proteins derived from ACH-3P cells grown in the presence or absence of the GSK3β inhibitor. These results reveal that canonical Wnt signaling inhibits the transcription of PRR15, mediated in part through the -98 to -68 region of the 5'-flanking region, and decreases proliferation in trophoblast cells. This indicates that suppression of Wnt signaling may be crucial during early trophectoderm outgrowth in order to allow significant transcriptional activation of PRR15 and conceptus survival

Nanocrystal seeding: A low temperature route to polycrystalline Si films

A novel method is presented for growth of polycrystalline silicon films on amorphous substrates at temperatures of 540–575 °C. Grain nucleation and grain growth are performed in two steps, using Si nanocrystals as nuclei ("seeds"). The nanocrystal seeds are produced by excimer laser photolysis of disilane in a room temperature flow cell. Film (grain) growth occurs epitaxially on the seeds in a separate thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) step, with growth rates 10–100 times higher than similar CVD growth rates on crystal Si. Grain size and CVD growth rates are dependent on seed coverage, for seed coverage <0.2 monolayers