A Quiet Revolution: The Birth of the Genetic Counselor at Sarah Lawrence College, 1969

In 1969 Melissa Richter founded the first master’s degree genetic counseling program in the country at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. This article examines the myriad factors that contributed to the birth of the genetic counselor and situates this historical watershed in its social, cultural, academic, and medical context. This article highlights Richter’s prescience and path‐breaking vision, evaluates the Sarah Lawrence program during the years of her directorship (1969–1972), and explores how this early foundation subsequently shaped the field of genetic counseling. Close attention is paid to the ethical issues that concerned Richter and their ongoing relevance to genetic health professionals today. This article is based on historical research in archives, consultation of primary sources, and oral history interviews with genetic counselors, geneticists, and allied professionals.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147146/1/jgc40001.pd

The Three-Cornered War: the Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West

In the early 1860s, far from the American Civil War’s traditional Eastern and even “Western” theaters, New Mexico Territory quickly became an American, Confederate, Diné, and Apache battleground for control of the region. Despite its strategic value to all parties and the blood spilt to win it, the Southwest has remained a geographically and intellectually distant frontier in most historians’ conceptions of the war. Pushing back against the region’s neglected status in her latest book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, The Confederacy, and the Native Peoples in the Fight for the West, Megan Kate Nelson effectively brings the Far West front and center to the ambitions, military objectives and engagements, and long term consequences of the Civil War

New soft gamma-ray bursts in the BATSE records and spectral properties of X-ray rich bursts

A population of X-ray dominated gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by Ginga, BeppoSax and Hete-2 should be represented in the BATSE data as presumably soft bursts. We have performed a search for soft GRBs in the BATSE records in the 25--100 keV energy band. A softness of a burst spectrum can be a reason why it has been missed by the on-board procedure and previous searches for untriggered GRBs tuned to 50--300 keV range. We have found a surprisingly small number (~20/yr down to 0.1 ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$) of soft GRBs where the count rate is dominated by 25--50 keV energy channel. This fact as well as the analysis of HETE-2 and common BeppoSAX/BATSE GRBs indicates that the majority of GRBs with a low Epeak has a relatively hard tail with the high-energy power-law photon index >-3. An exponential cutoff in GRB spectra below 20 keV may be a distinguishing feature separating non-GRB events.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Esterilizadas en nombre de la Salud Pública: raza, inmigración y control reproductivo en California en el siglo XX

This article explores the history of involuntary sterilization in California, connecting the approximately 20.000 operations performed on patients in state institutions between 1909 and 1979 to the federally funded procedures carried out at Los Angeles County Hospital in the early 1970s. In addition to highlighting the confluence of factors that facilitated a widespread sterilization abuse in the early 1970s, this article traces the longevity of pro-sterilization arguments predicated on the protection of the public health and resources. This historical overview raises important questions about the lingering legacy of eugenics in contemporary California and the ongoing struggle for women's reproductive rights in the Americas.Al explorar la historia de la esterilización involuntaria en California en este artículo, me propongo vincular las aproximadamente 20.000 operaciones realizadas a pacientes en instituciones estatales entre 1909 y 1979 con los procedimientos solventados por el gobierno federal llevados a cabo en el Hospital del Condado de Los Ángeles a principios de los años '70. Al subrayar la confluencia de factores que facilitaron el abuso generalizado de la esterilización a principios de los '70, rastreo los argumentos a favor de la esterilización que fueron sostenidos en pro de la protección de la salud pública. Este panorama histórico suscita preguntas importantes sobre el legado de la eugenesia en California hoy, y relaciona el pasado con avances recientes en la atención de la salud y en investigación genética

Compilando y extendiendo la historia de la eugenesia en el mundo latino: avances y ausencias

VALLEJO, Gustavo; MIRANDA, Marisa (compiladores) (2005), Darwinismo social yeugenesia en el mundo latino. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 670 páginas. VALLEJO, Gustavo; MIRANDA, Marisa (compiladores) (2007), Políticas del cuerpo:Estrategias modernas de normalización del individuo y la sociedad. Buenos Aires:Siglo XXI, 568 páginas

CO J=2-1 line emission in cluster galaxies at z~1: fueling star formation in dense environments

We present observations of CO J=2-1 line emission in infrared-luminous cluster galaxies at z~1 using the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. Our two primary targets are optically faint, dust-obscured galaxies (DOGs) found to lie within 2 Mpc of the centers of two massive (>10^14 Msun) galaxy clusters. CO line emission is not detected in either DOG. We calculate 3-sigma upper limits to the CO J=2-1 line luminosities, L'_CO < 6.08x10^9 and < 6.63x10^9 K km/s pc^2. Assuming a CO-to-H_2 conversion factor derived for ultraluminous infrared galaxies in the local Universe, this translates to limits on the cold molecular gas mass of M_H_2 < 4.86x10^9 Msun and M_H_2 < 5.30x10^9 Msun. Both DOGs exhibit mid-infrared continuum emission that follows a power-law, suggesting that an AGN contributes to the dust heating. As such, estimates of the star formation efficiencies in these DOGs are uncertain. A third cluster member with an infrared luminosity, L_IR < 7.4x10^11 Lsun, is serendipitously detected in CO J=2-1 line emission in the field of one of the DOGs located roughly two virial radii away from the cluster center. The optical spectrum of this object suggests that it is likely an obscured AGN, and the measured CO line luminosity is L'_CO = (1.94 +/- 0.35)x10^10 K km/s pc^2, which leads to an estimated cold molecular gas mass M_H_2 = (1.55+/-0.28)x10^10 Msun. A significant reservoir of molecular gas in a z~1 galaxy located away from the cluster center demonstrates that the fuel can exist to drive an increase in star-formation and AGN activity at the outskirts of high-redshift clusters.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

The Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey V: Extended Radio Sources in Massive Galaxy Clusters at z~1

We present the results from a pilot study with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) to determine the radio morphologies of extended radio sources and the properties of their host-galaxies in 10 massive galaxy clusters at z~1, an epoch in which clusters are assembling rapidly. These clusters are drawn from a parent sample of WISE-selected galaxy clusters that were cross-correlated with the VLA Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters survey (FIRST) to identify extended radio sources within 1$^{\prime}$ of the cluster centers. Out of the ten targeted sources, six are FR II sources, one is an FR I source, and three sources have undetermined morphologies. Eight radio sources have associated Spitzer data, 75% presenting infrared counterparts. A majority of these counterparts are consistent with being massive galaxies. The angular extent of the FR sources exhibits a strong correlation with the cluster-centric radius, which warrants further investigation with a larger sample.Comment: accepted to Ap

Marketing Library Workshops: A Model for Achieving Popular and Critical Success

While drop-in workshops can often be a vital and important component of academic library instruction programs (Manuel, 2003), it is an ongoing challenge to keep them fresh and to attract sufficient numbers of attendees to make the enterprise meaningful and worthwhile. Workshops offer an opportunity to raise the library\u27s profile within the institution and be recognized for the work librarians do to support the college\u27s mission. LaGuardia Community College Library has sought to achieve both popular (good attendance) and critical (enhanced college-wide recognition) success with its workshop series. The outreach initiatives described in this article brought us closer to both goal