2008-4 Evidence about the Potential Role for Affirmative Action in Higher Education

In two recent cases involving the University of Michigan, the Supreme Court examined whether race should be allowed to play an explicit role in the admission decisions of schools. The primary argument in these court cases and others has been that racial diversity strengthens the quality of education offered to all students. Underlying this argument is the notion that educational benefits arise if interactions between students of different races improve preparation for life after college by, among other things, fostering mutual understanding and correcting misperceptions. Then, a fundamental condition necessary for the primary legal argument to be compelling is that the types of students who choose to enter college actually have incorrect beliefs about individuals from different races at the time of college entrance. In this paper we provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first direct evidence about this condition by taking advantage of unique new data that was collected specifically for this purpose

2010-6 Interracial Friendships in College

Motivated by the reality that the benefits of diversity on a college campus will be mitigated if interracial interactions are scarce or superficial, previous work has strived to document the amount of interracial friendship interaction and to examine whether policy can influence this amount. In this paper we take advantage of unique longitudinal data from the Berea Panel Study to build on this previous literature by providing direct evidence about the amount of interracial friendships at different stages of college and by providing new evidence about some of the possible underlying reasons for the observed patterns of interaction. We find that, while much sorting exists at all stages of college, black and white students are, in reality, very compatible as friends; randomly assigned roommates of different races are as likely to become friends as randomly assigned roommates of the same race. Further, we find that, in the long-run, white students who are randomly assigned black roommates have a significantly larger proportion of black friends than white students who are randomly assigned white roommates, even when the randomly assigned roommates are not included in the calculation of the proportions. This last result contradicts previous findings in the literature

Semiclassical back reaction around a cosmic dislocation

The energy-momentum vacuum average of a conformally coupled massless scalar field vibrating around a cosmic dislocation (a cosmic string with a dislocation along its axis) is taken as source of the linearized semiclassical Einstein equations. The solution up to first order in the Planck constant is derived. Motion of a test particle is then discussed, showing that under certain circumstances a helical-like dragging effect, with no classical analogue around the cosmic dislocation, is induced by back reaction.Comment: Published version, 4 pages, no figures, REVTeX4 fil

Interracial Friendships in College

Motivated by the reality that the benefits of diversity on a college campus will be mitigated if interracial interactions are scarce or superficial, previous work has strived to document the amount of interracial friendship interaction and to examine whether policy can influence this amount. In this paper we take advantage of unique longitudinal data from the Berea Panel Study to build on this previous literature by providing direct evidence about the amount of interracial friendships at different stages of college and by providing new evidence about some of the possible underlying reasons for the observed patterns of interaction. We find that, while much sorting exists at all stages of college, black and white students are, in reality, very compatible as friends; randomly assigned roommates of different races are as likely to become friends as randomly assigned roommates of the same race. Further, we find that, in the long-run, white students who are randomly assigned black roommates have a significantly larger proportion of black friends than white students who are randomly assigned white roommates, even when the randomly assigned roommates are not included in the calculation of the proportions. This last result contradicts previous findings in the literature.

Knowledge and attitude towards the gradual reduction of salt in bread – an online survey

Aim: Assess knowledge and attitude towards the gradual reduction of salt in bread and the potential impact on eating habits of children (6-18 years) and their families, as part as a Health Impact Assessment pilot study.N/

"Caracterização do lenho de árvores de clones de Eucalyptus urophylla X Eucalyptus grandis em áreas sujeitas a danos por ventos".

BRAZ, Rafael Leite. Caracterização do lenho de árvores de clones de Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis em áreas sujeitas a danos por ventos. 2011. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciências Florestais) - Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Alegre-ES. Orientador: Prof. Dr. José Tarcísio da Silva Oliveira. Plantios florestais na região do Vale do Rio Doce no Estado de Minas Gerais vêm sofrendo danos provocados devido a ação dos ventos, principalmente, nas regiões de baixadas e em povoamentos jovens. Estudos no sentido de identificar relações entre a susceptibilidade das árvores com as propriedades da madeira são de grande importância, possibilitando assim seleção de clones mais tolerantes à ação dos ventos. Assim, o objetivo do presente trabalho foi caracterizar o lenho de árvores de dez clones do híbrido Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis, com 30 e 35 meses de idades, quanto à resistência das árvores à quebra e às características anatômicas, físicas, mecânicas e químicas. O local de estudo foi nas regiões de baixada, onde as árvores são mais vulneráveis e sujeitas aos danos provocados por ventos, com altitude próxima a 250 m, com baixa intensidade dos ventos climatológicos e grande ocorrência de micro-explosões atmosféricas. Para isso, foram mensuradas e avaliadas as características dendrométricas das árvores. Realizaram-se os testes de resistência das mesmas à quebra, simulando o efeito do vento e um método não destrutivo para a determinação da deformação residual longitudinal. Em condições de laboratório, as amostras de madeira foram preparadas e, em seguida, analisados os parâmetros anatômicos quantitativos da madeira, relativos aos vasos e à morfologia das fibras, a densidade básica, a flexão estática, os teores de extrativos, lignina e holocelulose e calculado as tensões de crescimento. Pôde-se concluir que o clone CNB017 foi o que apresentou os melhores resultados, principalmente, no teste de resistência à quebra, para as características físicas e mecânicas avaliadas. Para a composição química, os clones apresentaram valores próximos para os teores de extrativo, lignina e holocelulose, servindo apenas como indicativo para a produção e rendimento de celulose. O teste de resistência e as características mecânicas e físicas se destacaram como os parâmetros mais adequados para a avaliação e classificação dos clones susceptíveis à ação dos ventos, visto que os clones que apresentaram os melhores resultados foram comuns. Entretanto, há necessidade de ampliar a base de informações a respeito da susceptibilidade das árvores ao vento. Palavras-chave: ação do vento, lenho das árvores, Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandi