Vaccination Nation: A Bioethical Feminist Inquiry into the Political, Social and Ethical Controversy Surrounding the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine

This theoretical inquiry has explored the political, social, and ethical controversy surrounding the government\u27s push to mandate the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for adolescent girls. This vaccine has the potential of preventing cancer, specifically cervical cancer. There is a growing debate in this country whether this new HPV vaccine, Gardasil®, should be added to the list of school-mandated vaccines. Karen Houppert (2007) has stated that this particular vaccine protects girls and women from cervical cancer and genital warts caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) (p. 17). So, what is the controversy? It all started with the fact that this vaccine is the first immunization produced to prevent cancer caused by a sexually transmitted disease (STD). There are several U.S. politicians that want to make the HPV vaccine a compulsory vaccine. Because an STD causes this disease there is a debate, according to Houppert, by compassionate conservatives and abstinence-only hardliners who object to mandating the vaccine since the disease was the result of a lifestyle decision (p.17). On the other hand, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Gardasil® has proven 100% effective in preventing the four strains of HPV that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer (Manning, 2007, p. 11). So why not mandate it for adolescent girls? This question was explored further in this work using bioethical feminist theory as a theoretical framework. This study was grounded in the works of Rosemarie Tong and Susan Sherwin

Power Conflict: Struggles for Intragroup Control and Dominance

There has been a considerable amount of research at the individual level of analysis examining strivings for power and influence within an organizational context. However, research has largely yet to examine how these individual motives and behaviors designed to garner power may translate to processes at the interpersonal and group level, and in particular, the extent to which they may result in conflicts or power struggles between individuals. Therefore, the goal of this dissertation was to delineate and explore a construct of power conflict using both qualitative and quantitative methods in two complementary studies. In the first study of this dissertation, I conducted an inductive, qualitative examination of power conflict designed to provide an in depth exploration of different types or manifestations of power conflict. Using data obtained from 58 semi-structured interviews with employees across 23 different bank branches, this study explored how conflicts over power are enacted within context, including key actions and motives. In addition, this study explored potential antecedents and consequences of power conflict in an effort to begin developing a nomological network. In Study 2, I then built upon these qualitative results by using survey data from 131 bank branches to empirically establish power conflict as an important fourth factor of intragroup conflict, along with the already established task, relationship, and process factors. In support of this, the confirmatory factor analysis results provide evidence that power conflict is a distinct factor of intragroup conflict and is distinct from the potentially related construct of dominating conflict management strategies. I also test a portion of the nomological network developed through the qualitative study by examining the relationship of power conflict to several group level antecedents and consequences. Regression results indicate that groups with higher mean levels of extraversion, lower mean levels of agreeableness, and that are predominantly female tend to have higher levels of power conflict. In contrast, groups that have high learning goal orientation climates tend to have lower levels of power conflict. In terms of consequences, power conflict was significantly related to branch stress and greater branch turnover above and beyond the other three conflict types

Being Different: A Study of Relational Demography and the Influence of Individual and Team Characteristics

This study examined the effects of gender and ethnic dissimilarity to team members on the individual level outcomes of team commitment, turnover intentions, and psychological empowerment. Results provided some support that dissimilarity to one's teammates has the most adverse effects for males and African Americans. In addition, there was some support that ethnic and gender identification and climate for ethnic diversity may be important moderators of this relationship. Specifically, individuals with low ethnic and gender identification felt more empowered when dissimilar to teammates, while individuals with high ethnic and gender identification had similar levels of empowerment regardless of their dissimilarity to teammates. Focusing on the team context, a positive climate for ethnic diversity reduced the negative consequences for individuals who often find themselves in the demographic minority, while, unexpectedly, a low climate for ethnic diversity seemed to heighten feelings of empowerment for individuals more dissimilar to their teammates

Reversible speed control of one-stimulus-double-response, temperature-sensitive asymmetric hydrogel micromotors

Contains fulltext : 253695.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)26 augustus 202

Robuste geostatistische Methoden zur räumlichen Analyse und Kartierung von Bodeneigenschaften

Die von Künsch et al. (2010) entwickelte robuste geostatistische Methode erlaubt die räumliche Analyse von Zusammenhängen mit der Zielvariablen (Strukturmatrix). Die Schätzung der Regressionskoeffizienten der räumlichen Trendmodellierung erfolgt simultan mit der robusten Schätzung der Kovarianzfunktion. Der Einfluss lokaler „Extremwerte“ kann hierbei wahlweise mehr oder weniger stark mit einer Gewichtungsfunktion eingeschränkt werden. Vor dem Hintergrund heterogener Datensätze für Bodeneigenschaften, welche aus unterschiedlichen Datenquellen stammen, liefert die robuste Schätzmethode zuverlässigere Schätzwerte (und Schätzvarianzen) als die klassische Kriging-Methode

Semiclassical Estimates of Electromagnetic Casimir Self-Energies of Spherical and Cylindrical Metallic Shells

The leading semiclassical estimates of the electromagnetic Casimir stresses on a spherical and a cylindrical metallic shell are within 1% of the field theoretical values. The electromagnetic Casimir energy for both geometries is given by two decoupled massless scalars that satisfy conformally covariant boundary conditions. Surface contributions vanish for smooth metallic boundaries and the finite electromagnetic Casimir energy in leading semiclassical approximation is due to quadratic fluctuations about periodic rays in the interior of the cavity only. Semiclassically the non-vanishing Casimir energy of a metallic cylindrical shell is almost entirely due to Fresnel diffraction.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Evaluation of the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model version 2.10 (UVic ESCM 2.10)

The University of Victoria Earth system climate model of intermediate complexity has been a useful tool in recent assessments of long-term climate changes including paleo-climate modelling. Since the last official release of the UVic ESCM 2.9, and the two official updates during the last decade, a lot of model development has taken place in multiple groups. The new version 2.10 of the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM), to be used in the 6th phase of the coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP6), presented here combines and brings together multiple model developments and new components that have taken place since the last official release of the model. To set the foundation of its use, we here describe the UVic ESCM 2.10 and evaluate results from transient historical simulations against observational data. We find that the UVic ESCM 2.10 is capable of reproducing well changes in historical temperature and carbon fluxes, as well as the spatial distribution of many ocean tracers, including temperature, salinity, phosphate and nitrate. This is connected to a good representation of ocean physical properties. For the moment, there remain biases in ocean alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon, which will be addressed in the next updates to the model

CNS Antigen-Specific Neuroinflammation Attenuates Ischemic Stroke With Involvement of Polarized Myeloid Cells.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Experimental studies indicate shared molecular pathomechanisms in cerebral hypoxia-ischemia and autoimmune neuroinflammation. This has led to clinical studies investigating the effects of immunomodulatory therapies approved in multiple sclerosis on inflammatory damage in stroke. So far, mutual and combined interactions of autoimmune, CNS antigen-specific inflammatory reactions and cerebral ischemia have not been investigated so far. METHODS Active MOG35-55 experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was induced in male C57Bl/6J mice. During different phases of EAE, transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO, 60 minutes) was induced. Brain tissue was analyzed for infarct size and immune cell infiltration. Multiplex gene expression analysis was performed for 186 genes associated with neuroinflammation and hypoxic-ischemic damage. RESULTS Mice with severe EAE disease showed a substantial reduction in infarct size after tMCAO. Histopathologic analysis showed less infiltration of CD45+ hematopoietic cells in the infarct core of severely diseased acute EAE mice; this was accompanied by an accumulation of Arginase1-positive/Iba1-positive cells. Gene expression analysis indicated an involvement of myeloid cell-driven anti-inflammatory mechanisms in the attenuation of ischemic injury in severely diseased mice exposed to tMCAO in the acute EAE phase. DISCUSSION CNS autoantigen-specific autoimmunity has a protective influence on primary tissue damage after experimental stroke, indicating a very early involvement of CNS antigen-specific, myeloid cell-associated anti-inflammatory immune mechanisms that mitigate ischemic injury in the acute EAE phase