Benign Classification Based on Race Must Be Narrowly Tailored to Achieve a Compelling Governmental Interest.

In City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., the Supreme Court held a minority business utilization plan (Richmond Plan) was violative of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The Richmond Plan required all builders awarded city construction contracts to subcontract, at minimum, 30% of the contract value to Minority Business Enterprises. A state government enacting legislation that burdens one class of persons and benefits a similarly-situated class must provide sufficient justification for its action to survive equal protection analysis. When distinction is based on race or national origin—classes considered inherently suspect—a reviewing court subjects the governmental legislation to strict scrutiny, the highest level of review. To pass strict scrutiny, the government must demonstrate that it had a compelling interest in enacting the legislation, and it chose narrowly tailored means to advance its purpose. In City of Richmond v. JA. Croson Co., the majority stated the existence of societal discrimination alone is not adequate justification for enacting race-based legislation. Further, the city\u27s statistical evidence did not establish actual discrimination in the construction industry in the Richmond area. The Richmond Plan was also not narrowly tailored because race-neutral alternatives were not considered, and the 30% quota was not linked to any identifiable goal. Strict scrutiny provides that the means used to further the compelling goal fit that goal so closely that there is little chance that racial distinction was brought about by underlying stereotypes or racial prejudice. The Richmond Plan was hastily enacted, without a full inquiry into the effects of discrimination faced by minority owned construction companies in the Richmond area. Although the majority was correct in finding the Richmond Plan to be without sufficient proof of discrimination, the requirements for proving discrimination after Croson may make it difficult for some municipalities to adopt affirmative action plans

ALFALFA and WSRT Imaging of Extended H I Features in the Leo Cloud of Galaxies

We present ALFALFA HI observations of a well studied region of the Leo Cloud, which includes the NGC 3227 group and the NGC 3190 group. We detect optically dark HI tails and plumes with extents potentially exceeding 600 kpc, well beyond the field of view of previous observations. These HI features contain approximately 40% of the total HI mass in the NGC~3227 group and 10% in the NGC~3190 group. We also present WSRT maps which show the complex morphology of the extended emission in the NGC~3227 group. We comment on previously proposed models of the interactions in these groups and the implications for the scale of group processing through interactions. Motivated by the extent of the HI plumes, we place the HI observations in the context of the larger loose group, demonstrating the need for future sensitive, wide field HI surveys to understand the role of group processing in galaxy evolution.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Changing Nature of Poverty

Since the beginning of the War on Poverty, the poverty rate has fluctuated widely, and at the same time the poverty population has undergone many changes, some mirroring the changing stereotypes of the poor and others less pronounced than the changing stereotypes would lead us to believe. A feminization of poverty has occurred, with many more of the poor now in households headed by women. Interestingly, aging of the poverty population has not occurred despite growth in the elderly segment of the overall population. Concerning turnover in the poverty population, we find that despite poverty theories emphasizing persistence, recurrent poverty is relatively rare and poverty is not generally passed from one generation to the next. Poverty prevention has come from both economic growth and government transfers; however, inequality in economic growth has contributed to poverty. With the proportion of elderly and female- headed households likely to continue at a high level into the future, poverty rates are also likely to remain high unless government transfers are increased.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66979/2/10.1177_000271628547900103.pd

Use of nanoencapsulated curcumin against vegetative cells and spores of Alicyclobacillus spp. in industrialized orange juice

Pathogenic and deteriorating bacteria are a great concern to food safety. In this sense, the present study evaluated the fight against microbial contamination through the use of nanoparticles containing curcumin, in addition to analyzing the physical properties of these nanoparticles. Efficient curcumin encapsulation was determined by Fourier transform infrared spectra evaluation and differential scanning calorimetry. Transmission electron microscopy images showed irregular shaped nanoparticles with broad size distribution (20–250 nm). The antibacterial activity was considered satisfactory, since curcumin in the form of nanoparticles demonstrated antimicrobial and antibacterial activity superior to curcumin in its free form, against both pathogenic bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus (MIC 125 μg/mL), and deteriorates, such as Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris (MIC 62.5 μg/mL). Since curcumin nanoparticles may be consumed as a food additive, the bioactive properties of the nanoencapsulated curcumin were also evaluated in relation to antioxidant capacity (Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and oxidative hemolysis inhibition assays) and cytotoxicity against four carcinoma cell lines, as well as two non-tumor cells. As a proof of concept, nanoparticles were incorporated in orange juice, with the juice maintaining satisfactory pH, °Brix, and color stability, during three days of storage (8 °C).This study was financed in part by the Coordenaç˜ao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. The authors thank the “Central Analítica Multiusu´ario da UTFPR Campo Mourão” (CAMulti-CM) for the analyses. Fernanda V. Leimann (process 039/2019) would like to thank Fundação Araucária (CP 15/2017- Programa de Bolsas de Produtividade em Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico) and CNPq (process number 421541/2018-0, Chamada Universal MCTIC/CNPq n◦ 28/2018). The authors are also grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/ 2020); L. Barros and C. Pereira also thank FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Women, lipids, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease:a call to action from the European Atherosclerosis Society

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women and men globally, with most due to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Despite progress during the last 30 years, ASCVD mortality is now increasing, with the fastest relative increase in middle-aged women. Missed or delayed diagnosis and undertreatment do not fully explain this burden of disease. Sex-specific factors, such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, premature menopause (especially primary ovarian insufficiency), and polycystic ovary syndrome are also relevant, with good evidence that these are associated with greater cardiovascular risk. This position statement from the European Atherosclerosis Society focuses on these factors, as well as sex-specific effects on lipids, including lipoprotein(a), over the life course in women which impact ASCVD risk. Women are also disproportionately impacted (in relative terms) by diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and auto-immune inflammatory disease. All these effects are compounded by sociocultural components related to gender. This panel stresses the need to identify and treat modifiable cardiovascular risk factors earlier in women, especially for those at risk due to sex-specific conditions, to reduce the unacceptably high burden of ASCVD in women.</p

Performance/outcomes data and physician process challenges for practical big data efforts in radiation oncology

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146290/1/mp13136.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146290/2/mp13136_am.pd

Making muslim babies: Ivf and gamete donation in sunni versus shi’a islam

Medical anthropological research on science, biotechnology, and religion has focused on the “local moral worlds” of men and women as they make difficult decisions regarding their health and the beginnings and endings of human life. This paper focuses on the local moral worlds of infertile Muslims as they attempt to make, in the religiously correct fashion, Muslim babies at in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics in Egypt and Lebanon. As early as 1980, authoritative fatwas issued from Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar University suggested that IVF and similar technologies are permissible as long as they do not involve any form of third-party donation (of sperm, eggs, embryos, or uteruses). Since the late 1990s, however, divergences in opinion over third-party gamete donation have occurred between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, with Iran’s leading ayatollah permitting gamete donation under certain conditions. This Iranian fatwa has had profound implications for the country of Lebanon, where a Shi’ite majority also seeks IVF services. Based on three periods of ethnographic research in Egyptian and Lebanese IVF clinics, this paper explores official and unofficial religious discourses surrounding the practice of IVF and third-party donation in the Muslim world, as well as the gender implications of gamete donation for Muslim marriages

The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey: The alpha.40 HI Source Catalog, its Characteristics and their Impact on the Derivation of the HI Mass Function

We present a current catalog of 21 cm HI line sources extracted from the Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFALFA) survey over ~2800 square degrees of sky: the alpha.40 catalog. Covering 40% of the final survey area, the alpha.40 catalog contains 15855 sources in the regions 07h30m < R.A. < 16h30m, +04 deg < Dec. < +16 deg and +24 deg < Dec. < +28 deg and 22h < R.A. < 03h, +14 deg < Dec. < +16 deg and +24 deg < Dec. < +32 deg. Of those, 15041 are certainly extragalactic, yielding a source density of 5.3 galaxies per square degree, a factor of 29 improvement over the catalog extracted from the HI Parkes All Sky Survey. In addition to the source centroid positions, HI line flux densities, recessional velocities and line widths, the catalog includes the coordinates of the most probable optical counterpart of each HI line detection, and a separate compilation provides a crossmatch to identifications given in the photometric and spectroscopic catalogs associated with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. Fewer than 2% of the extragalactic HI line sources cannot be identified with a feasible optical counterpart; some of those may be rare OH megamasers at 0.16 < z < 0.25. A detailed analysis is presented of the completeness, width dependent sensitivity function and bias inherent in the current alpha.40 catalog. The impact of survey selection, distance errors, current volume coverage and local large scale structure on the derivation of the HI mass function is assessed. While alpha.40 does not yet provide a completely representative sampling of cosmological volume, derivations of the HI mass function using future data releases from ALFALFA will further improve both statistical and systematic uncertainties.Comment: 62 pages, 28 figures. See http://egg.astro.cornell.edu/alfalfa/data for ASCII and CSV datafiles corresponding to Tables 1, 2 and 3. A higher resolution PDF version can be found at http://egg.astro.cornell.edu/alfalfa/pubs.php. To appear in Nov 2011 Astron.