Committee Deliberation and Gender Differences in Influences

This paper provides empirical evidence on the aggregation of information in committees. We analyze unique data from the decision-making process of hiring committees within a large private company. In the hiring process, committee members first conduct independent one-to-one interviews and give individual recommendations before deliberating on a collective hiring decision. We find that committees’ final hiring decisions are systematically less aligned with the initial recommendations of women than with those of men, even though women and men are equally qualified and experienced. This disparity in influence is strongest when recommendations exhibit high disagreement and when a single woman deliberates with two men. The estimated distribution of influence reveals that almost all men are more influential than the median woman. We offer suggestive evidence that these findings have implications for the effectiveness of gender quotas

Selecting B cells and plasma cells to memory

Humoral immunity appears to be based on immunological memory provided by memory plasma cells, which secrete protective antibodies, and memory B cells, which react to antigen challenge by differentiating into plasma cells. How these differentiation pathways relate to each other, how cells are selected into these memory populations, and how these populations are maintained remains enigmatic

Sequential polarization and imprinting of type 1 T-helper lymphocytes by interferon-γ and interleukin-12

Differentiation of naive T lymphocytes into type I T helper (Th1) cells requires interferon-γ and interleukin-12. It is puzzling that interferon-γ induces the Th1 transcription factor T-bet, whereas interleukin-12 mediates Th1 cell lineage differentiation. We use mathematical modeling to analyze the expression kinetics of T-bet, interferon-γ, and the IL-12 receptor β2 chain (IL-12Rβ2) during Th1 cell differentiation, in the presence or absence of interleukin-12 or interferon-γ signaling. We show that interferon-γ induced initial T-bet expression, whereas IL-12Rβ2 was repressed by T cell receptor (TCR) signaling. The termination of TCR signaling permitted upregulation of IL-12Rβ2 by T-bet and interleukin-12 signaling that maintained T-bet expression. This late expression of T-bet, accompanied by the upregulation of the transcription factors Runx3 and Hlx, was required to imprint the Th cell for interferon-γ re-expression. Thus initial polarization and subsequent imprinting of Th1 cells are mediated by interlinked, sequentially acting positive feedback loops of TCR-interferon-γ-Stat1-T-bet and interleukin-12-Stat4-T-bet signaling

Исследование ресурса работы зондов для электроимпульсной литотрипсии

В данной статье представлена оценка ресурса работы зондов различных конструкций для электроимпульсной литотрипсии, выявлены наиболее часто возникающие дефекты. Сделаны выводы о перспективах применения и дальнейшего усовершенствования конструкций