To Build a Notion:US State Department Nation Building Expertise and Postwar Settlements in 20th Century East Central Europe

This article offers a contribution to the sociology of social science knowledge practices and expertise through the empirical lens of US nation building policies. Drawing on archival materials, including the State Department's Freedom of Information Act documents, and interviews with key policymakers we offer a comparative historical sociology of the US State Department as a site of nation building knowledge and expertise. In examining the evolving character of nation building expertise in three key moments across the twentieth century, we find that as nation building expertise and its attendant knowledge practices were redefined and institutionally relocated, the essential character of the expertise and data collection practices that were valorized shifted from social scientism in the 1910s to geopolitical empiricism in the 1940s to liberal legalism in the 1990s. This changing character of nation building knowledge practices at the State Department had an effect on the substance of US nation building policy

Assessing Immigrant Assimilation: New Empirical and Theoretical Challenges

This review examines research on the assimilation of immigrant groups. We review research on four primary benchmarks of assimilation: socioeconomic status, spatial concentration, language assimilation, and intermarriage. The existing literature shows that today's immigrants are largely assimilating into American society along each of these dimensions. This review also considers directions for future research on the assimilation of immigrant groups in new southern and midwestern gateways and how sociologists measure immigrant assimilation. We document the changing geography of immigrant settlement and review the emerging body of research in this area. We argue that examining immigrant assimilation in these new immigrant gateways is crucial for the development of theories about immigrant assimilation. We also argue that we are likely to see a protracted period of immigrant replenishment that may change the nature of assimilation. Studying this change requires sociologists to use both birth cohort and generation as temporal markers of assimilation.Sociolog

Hispanic Immigration to the United States

This chapter presents some of the exceptional characteristics of recent Hispanic immigration to the United States. In 2005, there were nearly 40 million Hispanic immigrants and descendants of Hispanic immigrants living in the U.S. The assimilation experience of this large cultural group does not seem to be following the path past immigrants to the U.S. followed. Most third generation Hispanics in the U.S. still find themselves with income and education levels below the U.S. averages. Most forecasts predict that about 60 million Hispanics and Hispanic-Americans will be living in the U.S. by 2030

Sa‘īd b. Ḥasan, biographical notes through the prism of Masālik al-Naẓar

The Islamic polemical tract Kitāb Masālik al-Naẓar reveals much about its author, the Jewish apostate Sa‘īd b. Ḥasan. Sa‘īd plunges into diverse polemic themes, including some with which he is poorly acquainted, and uses sources from all three Abrahamic faiths, showing greater familiarity with Jewish sources than with the Qur’ān. The discussion explores Sa‘īd’s treatment of various issues in Muslim-Jewish polemics through the prism of his important polemical tract, Masālik al-Naẓar, and takes one of the first steps toward lifting Sa‘īd out of his undeserved obscurity in scholarship

Schooling and Poor Children in 19th-Century America

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68138/2/10.1177_000276429203500307.pd

Antigen-specific influence of GM/KM allotypes on IgG isotypes and association of GM allotypes with susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum malaria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>malaria is a complex disease in which genetic and environmental factors influence susceptibility. IgG isotypes are in part genetically controlled, and GM/KM allotypes are believed to be involved in this control.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, 216 individuals from Daraweesh, an area of seasonal malaria transmission in Sudan, were followed for nine years for malaria infection. Total IgG and IgG isotypes against four malaria antigens, MSP2-3D7, MSP2-FC27, AMA1, and Pf332-C231 were measured in plasma obtained from the cohort at the end of the study, during the dry malaria-free period. The GM/KM allotypes of the donors were determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The GM 1,17 5,13,14,6 phenotype was associated with a higher incidence of malaria compared with the non-1,17 5,13,14,6 phenotypes (P = 0.037). Paradoxically, the carriers of the GM 1,17 5,13,14,6 phenotype had significantly higher baseline levels of total IgG and non-cytophilic IgG isotypes as compared to non-carriers. The KM allotypes influence on IgG isotypes level was limited. Finally, the differences in the baseline concentrations of total IgG and IgG isotypes between the different GK/KM phenotype carriers were antigen-dependent.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The results show that GM but not KM allotypes appeared to influence host susceptibility to uncomplicated malaria as well as the antibody profile of the donors, and the carriers of the GM 1,17 5,13,14,6 phenotype were the most susceptible</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The GM allotypes have significant influence on susceptibility to uncomplicated <it>P. falciparum </it>malaria and antigen-dependent influence on total IgG and IgG subclasses.</p

Exportin 4 Interacts with Sox9 through the HMG Box and Inhibits the DNA Binding of Sox9

Sox9 is a transcription factor that is required for tissue development in mammals. In general, such transcription factors require co-regulators for precise temporal and spatial control of the activation and inactivation of the numerous genes necessary for precise development during embryogenesis. Here we identify a new Sox9 co-regulator: Using affinity chromatography with immobilized Sox9 protein, we identified exportin 4 (Exp4) as an interacting protein of Sox9 in human cultured cells. Interaction between endogenous Exp4 and Sox9 proteins was confirmed in the human osteosarcoma U2OS cells by immunoprecipitation experiments using anti-Sox9 antibody. siRNA depletion of Exp4 enhanced transcription of Sox9 target genes in U2OS cells, but did not affect nuclear localization of Sox9. These results suggest that Exp4 regulates Sox9 activity in the nucleus. Furthermore we found that the HMG box of Sox9 was responsible for binding to Exp4, and the HMG box was required for suppression of Sox9-mediated transcription. This contrasts with the known Sox9 co-regulators which bind to its transcriptional activation domain. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that Exp4 prevents Sox9 binding to the enhancers of its target genes. These results demonstrate that Exp4 acts as a Sox9 co-regulator that directly regulates binding of Sox9 to its target genes