Speaking the unspeakable: an autoethnography exploring unintended sexism in important personal relationships

This research explores how feminist women respond to male allies’ unintended sexism. I use a feminist autoethnographic method to document and analyze vignettes that explore interpersonal conflicts about unintended sexism. Autoethnography provides the methodology that allows me to link the personal challenges of responding to sexism in caring relationships within the broader cultural context. Three case vignettes demonstrate the processes I undertook. As a social worker, I draw upon process-oriented psychology and feminism to examine the vignettes and analyze key concepts in the experience of responding to unintended sexism. I discuss the importance of communication between social workers who are feminist and male allies when unintended sexism occurs. Finally, I examine the issue of feminists doing the majority of the work challenging sexism. In sharing my personal experiences of responding to male allies’ unintended sexism, I anticipate these stories and explorations can be helpful for social workers who are feminist or male allies concerned with communicating about unintended sexism in caring relationships

Starspot-induced optical and infrared radial velocity variability in T Tauri star Hubble 4

We report optical (6150 Ang) and K-band (2.3 micron) radial velocities obtained over two years for the pre-main sequence weak-lined T Tauri star Hubble I 4. We detect periodic and near-sinusoidal radial velocity variations at both wavelengths, with a semi-amplitude of 1395\pm94 m/s in the optical and 365\pm80 m/s in the infrared. The lower velocity amplitude at the longer wavelength, combined with bisector analysis and spot modeling, indicates that there are large, cool spots on the stellar surface that are causing the radial velocity modulation. The radial velocities maintain phase coherence over hundreds of days suggesting that the starspots are long-lived. This is one of the first active stars where the spot-induced velocity modulation has been resolved in the infrared.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Precision radial velocities with CSHELL

Radial velocity identification of extrasolar planets has historically been dominated by optical surveys. Interest in expanding exoplanet searches to M dwarfs and young stars, however, has motivated a push to improve the precision of near infrared radial velocity techniques. We present our methodology for achieving 58 m/s precision in the K band on the M0 dwarf GJ 281 using the CSHELL spectrograph at the 3-meter NASA IRTF. We also demonstrate our ability to recover the known 4 Mjup exoplanet Gl 86 b and discuss the implications for success in detecting planets around 1-3 Myr old T Tauri stars.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Interaction Study of MADS-Domain Proteins in Tomato

MADS-domain proteins are important transcription factors involved in many biological processes of plants. Interactions between MADS-domain proteins are essential for their functions. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), the number of MIKCc-type MADSdomain proteins identified has totalled 36, but a largescale interaction assay is lacking. In this study, 22 tomato MADS-domain proteins were selected from six functionally important subfamilies of the MADS-box gene family, to create the first large-scale tomato protein interaction network. Compared with Arabidopsis and petunia (Petunia hybrida), protein interaction patterns in tomato displayed both conservation and divergence. The majority of proteins that can be identified as putative orthologues exhibited conserved interaction patterns, and modifications were mostly found in genes underlining traits unique to tomato. JOINTLESS and RIN, characterized for their roles in abscission zone development and fruit ripening, respectively, showed enlarged interaction networks in comparison with their Arabidopsis and petunia counterparts. Novel interactions were also found for members of the expanded subfamilies, such as those represented by AP1/FUL and AP3/PI MADS-domain proteins. In search for higher order complexes, TM5 was found to be the preferred bridge among the five SEP-like proteins. Additionally, 16 proteins with the MADS-domain removed were used to assess the role of the MADS-domain in protein–protein interactions. The current work provides important knowledge for further functional and evolutionary study of the MADSbox genes in tomato

A Candidate Young Massive Planet in Orbit around the Classical T Tauri Star CI Tau

The ~2 Myr old classical T Tauri star CI Tau shows periodic variability in its radial velocity (RV) variations measured at infrared (IR) and optical wavelengths. We find that these observations are consistent with a massive planet in a ~9-day period orbit. These results are based on 71 IR RV measurements of this system obtained over 5 years, and on 26 optical RV measurements obtained over 9 years. CI Tau was also observed photometrically in the optical on 34 nights over ~one month in 2012. The optical RV data alone are inadequate to identify an orbital period, likely the result of star spot and activity induced noise for this relatively small dataset. The infrared RV measurements reveal significant periodicity at ~9 days. In addition, the full set of optical and IR RV measurements taken together phase coherently and with equal amplitudes to the ~9 day period. Periodic radial velocity signals can in principle be produced by cool spots, hot spots, and reflection of the stellar spectrum off the inner disk, in addition to resulting from a planetary companion. We have considered each of these and find the planet hypothesis most consistent with the data. The radial velocity amplitude yields an Msin(i) of ~8.1 M_Jup; in conjunction with a 1.3 mm continuum emission measurement of the circumstellar disk inclination from the literature, we find a planet mass of ~11.3 M_Jup, assuming alignment of the planetary orbit with the disk.Comment: 61 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Photocopy of various letters and quotations

Professional correspondenc

The Angular Momentum Content and Evolution of Class I and Flat-Spectrum Protostars

We report on the angular momentum content of heavily embedded protostars based on our analysis of the projected rotation velocities (v sin i s) of 38 Class I/flat spectrum young stellar objects presented by Doppmann et al (2005). After correcting for projection effects, we find that infrared-selected Class I/flat spectrum objects rotate significantly more quickly (median equatorial rotation velocity ~ 38 km/sec) than Classical T Tauri stars (CTTSs; median equatorial rotation velocity ~ 18 km/sec) in the Rho Ophiuchi and Taurus-Aurigae regions. The detected difference in rotation speeds between Class I/flat spectrum sources and CTTSs proves difficult to explain without some mechanism which transfers angular momentum out of the protostar between the two phases. Assuming Class I/flat spectrum sources possess physical characteristics (M_*,R_*,B_*) typical of pre-main sequence stars, fully disk locked Class I objects should have co-rotation radii within their protostellar disks that match well (within 30%) with the predicted magnetic coupling radii of Shu et al (1994). The factor of two difference in rotation rates between Class I/flat spectrum and CTTS sources, when interpreted in the context of disk locking models, also imply a factor of 5 or greater difference in mass accretion rates between the two phases.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal (tentatively for June 2005 edition

Identification of Birds through DNA Barcodes

Short DNA sequences from a standardized region of the genome provide a DNA barcode for identifying species. Compiling a public library of DNA barcodes linked to named specimens could provide a new master key for identifying species, one whose power will rise with increased taxon coverage and with faster, cheaper sequencing. Recent work suggests that sequence diversity in a 648-bp region of the mitochondrial gene, cytochrome c oxidase I (COI), might serve as a DNA barcode for the identification of animal species. This study tested the effectiveness of a COI barcode in discriminating bird species, one of the largest and best-studied vertebrate groups. We determined COI barcodes for 260 species of North American birds and found that distinguishing species was generally straightforward. All species had a different COI barcode(s), and the differences between closely related species were, on average, 18 times higher than the differences within species. Our results identified four probable new species of North American birds, suggesting that a global survey will lead to the recognition of many additional bird species. The finding of large COI sequence differences between, as compared to small differences within, species confirms the effectiveness of COI barcodes for the identification of bird species. This result plus those from other groups of animals imply that a standard screening threshold of sequence difference (10× average intraspecific difference) could speed the discovery of new animal species. The growing evidence for the effectiveness of DNA barcodes as a basis for species identification supports an international exercise that has recently begun to assemble a comprehensive library of COI sequences linked to named specimens