Introduction to Symposium: Homophobia in the Halls of Justice: Sexual Orientation Bias and its Implications Within the Legal System

The gay moment is unavoidable. -Andrew Kopkind Gay activist, journalist and political commentator Andrew Kopkind made this profound observation at a critical moment in the queer rights movement, in the midst of the March on Washington, pride rallies, queer organizing and the ever strengthening movement to address the AIDS crisis within the queer community. The moment, however, meant different things to participants in the movement. Over the years, the queer or sexual liberation movement transformed itself into a much more equality-based movement with the most energy focused on securing recognition of gay marriage and equal access to the military. As such, and even with the constantly increasing strength and visibility of the mainstream gay rights movement, many queer issues and queer people remain marginalized, avoided or excluded. One such issue is the impact of sexual orientation bias in the legal system. Today\u27s long overdue discussion comes after the court reforms of the 1970s and after the courts, at the insistence of the American Bar Association, began to examine gender and race bias in the courts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Despite an apparent willingness to revamp and reconstruct the courts and judicial system, in some regards, to fit our more inclusive society, there is still incredible reluctance to probe for bias based on an individual\u27s either real or perceived sexual orientation. If Andrew Kopkind were alive today, he might agree with the statement that we are at an important gay moment, but he might also question whether or not it is unavoidable. The public, still reeling from the misdeeds of public officials and betrayals of trust by important institutions like corporations, the government and religious institutions, are reluctant to examine deficits in our justice system. Is our legal system accountable, or for that matter, fair? Do we need to craft an inquiry into fairness or accountability that will give information about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersexual and transgendered persons? It is understandable then when one thinks about how specific individuals within certain categories (race, sexual identity, gender and class) might experience the criminal justice system, there may not be popular support for inquiry or critique. This is precisely why the decision to publish the presentations and papers from the symposium, Homophobia in the Halls of Justice: Sexual Orientation Bias and its Implications Within the Legal System, is such an important first step. This decision is necessary in order to transform an important moment into an unavoidable one

The role of resiliency in the journey from welfare to self-sufficiency for former welfare recipients : a quantitative study :

Includes bibliographical references (pages [98]-114).Welfare reform has been praised for moving recipients into jobs and forcing millions off public assistance. It has also drawn criticism for putting a greater emphasis on obtaining work than on obtaining economic security. This study focuses on factors used by women to obtain economic self-sufficiency. This study was based on a quantitative, correlational design. There were one independent variable, resiliency, and one dependent variable, economic self-sufficiency. Participants for the study were drawn from the largest child-care provider agency in the state of Florida, and included African American, Caucasian, Latina, and Haitian Creole mothers. Each participant had a child under the age of six enrolled in a Project Head Start program for children in low-income families. Data was gathered from 198 participants with the Resiliency Attitude Scale (RAS) and Self-sufficiency Survey. Logistical regression was performed with resiliency as the predictor of economic self-sufficiency. The relationship between resiliency and self-sufficiency was not significant. Subsequently, a stepwise regression was performed to explore relationships between the remaining data to predict Selfsufficiency. This stepwise regression analysis indicated that the co-variates language, marital status, and welfare history had a statistically significant effect on selfsufficiency. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the statistical significance of the effect of ethnicity on the Resiliency Attitude Scale (RAS subscales. The ANOVA confirmed statistical significance for different ethnicities on the following subscales: Insight (p = 0.0156); Initiative (p = 0.0086); and Creativity (p = 0.0151). A Bonferroni comparison between the levels of ethnicity was run on the three significant subscales, Initiative, Independence, and Creativity, to further describe the significant differences. The conclusion is that White participants have a higher level of resiliency than Black and Hispanic participants on the subscale of Insight; White participants have a higher level of resiliency than Hispanics on the subscale Initiative; and White participants have a higher level of resiliency than others on the subscale Creativity and Humor. Implications for professional counselors and future research are discussed in the conclusion.Ed.D. (Doctor of Education

Non-equilibrium dynamics and floral trait interactions shape extant angiosperm diversity.

Why are some traits and trait combinations exceptionally common across the tree of life, whereas others are vanishingly rare? The distribution of trait diversity across a clade at any time depends on the ancestral state of the clade, the rate at which new phenotypes evolve, the differences in speciation and extinction rates across lineages, and whether an equilibrium has been reached. Here we examine the role of transition rates, differential diversification (speciation minus extinction) and non-equilibrium dynamics on the evolutionary history of angiosperms, a clade well known for the abundance of some trait combinations and the rarity of others. Our analysis reveals that three character states (corolla present, bilateral symmetry, reduced stamen number) act synergistically as a key innovation, doubling diversification rates for lineages in which this combination occurs. However, this combination is currently less common than predicted at equilibrium because the individual characters evolve infrequently. Simulations suggest that angiosperms will remain far from the equilibrium frequencies of character states well into the future. Such non-equilibrium dynamics may be common when major innovations evolve rarely, allowing lineages with ancestral forms to persist, and even outnumber those with diversification-enhancing states, for tens of millions of years

A Digital Neuromorphic Architecture Efficiently Facilitating Complex Synaptic Response Functions Applied to Liquid State Machines

Information in neural networks is represented as weighted connections, or synapses, between neurons. This poses a problem as the primary computational bottleneck for neural networks is the vector-matrix multiply when inputs are multiplied by the neural network weights. Conventional processing architectures are not well suited for simulating neural networks, often requiring large amounts of energy and time. Additionally, synapses in biological neural networks are not binary connections, but exhibit a nonlinear response function as neurotransmitters are emitted and diffuse between neurons. Inspired by neuroscience principles, we present a digital neuromorphic architecture, the Spiking Temporal Processing Unit (STPU), capable of modeling arbitrary complex synaptic response functions without requiring additional hardware components. We consider the paradigm of spiking neurons with temporally coded information as opposed to non-spiking rate coded neurons used in most neural networks. In this paradigm we examine liquid state machines applied to speech recognition and show how a liquid state machine with temporal dynamics maps onto the STPU-demonstrating the flexibility and efficiency of the STPU for instantiating neural algorithms.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Figures, Preprint of 2017 IJCN

NMFS / Interagency Working Group Evaluation of CITES Criteria and Guidelines.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: At present, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) criteria used to assess whether a population qualifies for inclusion in the CITES Appendices relate to (A) size of the population, (B) area of distribution of the population, and (C) declines in the size of the population. Numeric guidelines are provided as indicators of a small population (less than 5,000 individuals), a small subpopulation (less than 500 individuals), a restricted area of distribution for a population (less than 10,000 km2), a restricted area of distribution for a subpopula-tion (less than 500 km2), a high rate of decline (a decrease of 50% or more in total within 5 years or two generations whichever is longer or, for a small wild population, a decline of 20% or more in total within ten years or three generations whichever is longer), large fluctuations (population size or area of distribution varies widely, rapidly and frequently, with a variation greater than one order of magnitude), and a short-term fluctuation (one of two years or less). The Working Group discussed several broad issues of relevance to the CITES criteria and guidelines. These included the importance of the historical extent of decline versus the recent rate of decline; the utility and validity of incorporating relative population productivity into decline criteria; the utility of absolute numbers for defining small populations or small areas; the appropriateness of generation times as time frames for examining declines; the importance of the magnitude and frequency of fluctuations as factors affecting risk of extinction; and the overall utility of numeric thresh-olds or guidelines

Expression of three intelectins in sheep and response to a Th2 environment

Sheep intelectin1 and sheep intelectin3 (sITLN1 and sITLN3) were cloned and sequenced. The amino acid sequences of sITLN1 and sITLN3 shared 86% and 91% homology with the previously cloned sheep intelectin2 (sITLN2), respectively. Expression of sITLN1 and sITLN3 transcript was demonstrated in abomasum, lung, colon and gastric lymph node, terminal rectum, skin, jejunum, mesenteric lymph node, ileal peyer’s patches, brain, kidney, liver, spleen, skin, ear pinna, heart and ovary in normal sheep tissues. sITLN2 transcript expression was restricted to the abomasal mucosa in normal sheep tissues. Using a non selective chicken anti-intelectin antibody, tissue intelectin protein was demonstrated in mucus neck cells in the abomasum, mucus cells in the colon, free mucus in ileum, goblet cells in the lung, small intestinal epithelium and brush border, epidermal layer of the skin and skin sebaceous glands. The expression of the three sITLN transcripts was examined in two nematode infections in sheep known to induce a Th2 response; a Teladorsagia circumcincta challenge infection model and a Dictyocaulus filaria natural infection. The three sITLN were absent in unchallenged naïve lambs and present in the abomasal mucosa of both naïve and immune lambs following T. circumcincta challenge infection. Upregulation of sITLN2 and sITLN3 was shown in sheep lung following D. filaria natural infection. Intelectins may play an important role in the mucosal response to nematode infections in ruminants

The experience of persistent pain and quality of life among women following treatment for breast cancer: an attachment perspective

The aims of this study were to investigate associations between attachment and the presence of persistent pain in women following treatment for breast cancer and to investigate the relationship between attachment, pain and quality of life (QOL) in women with persistent pain.Women (N=335) previously diagnosed with primary non-metastatic breast cancer completed an online survey with measures of attachment, pain, QOL, demographics, and medical history. Variables were compared between women with (n=128) and without (n=207) persistent pain. For those reporting pain, regression analyses were conducted to investigate relationships between attachment, pain and QOL.Higher attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance, was related to the presence of persistent pain. Among women with persistent pain, associations between attachment anxiety and avoidance and greater pain intensity were lost when pain catastrophizing was considered in analysis. Significant associations between attachment and diminished QOL and perceived effectiveness of pain management were identified in multivariate analysis.These findings extend the available literature regarding associations between pain and attachment insecurity. In women with pain after breast cancer treatment, attachment anxiety and avoidance were associated with negative pain and QOL outcomes. Further attention regarding the use of attachment-informed approaches in supporting women following breast cancer treatment is indicated