Maternity Leave Policy in U.S. Police Departments and School Districts: The impact of descriptive and social group representation in a context of gendered institutions

United States federal law regulating leaves of absence for maternity-related purposes pales in comparison to other nations\u27 policies, an observation only recently receiving attention from political scientists. Providing an understanding of how maternity leave is handled by individual organizations in the United States only, a quantitative study is conducted that examines local variation in policy formulation. Employee leave due to maternity is primarily a women\u27s issue and its treatment will vary depending on the socio-political context that the policy dictating the leave is found in. Three main determinants of a policy\u27s level of comprehensiveness are identified as being the political representation of women on local legislative bodies, the bureaucratic representation of women in their place of employment, and the level of women\u27s movement activity in the community. Moreover, the gendered context of the organization is considered by comparing two historically distinct institutions on the gender continuum, public education and law enforcement. After analysis involving a national comparison of public school district and police department maternity leave policies, it was found that the presence of the women\u27s movement in a community significantly impacts the dependent variable, policy comprehensiveness. The effects of political and bureaucratic representation, however, seem to differ between police departments and school districts. In consideration of the most comprehensive policies found, it seems police departments are highly influenced by larger proportions of women officers whereas women teachers might be at a disadvantage precisely because of their over-representation in school districts. Seemingly counterintuitive, this finding suggests that gendered institutions are predicated on more than just women\u27s presence. Evidence that maternity leave policy in individual U.S. institutions is a product of the gendered culture of the organization was found by observing the differential impact of political and social variables on police departments and school districts

Multiscale simulation approach to predict the penetration depth of oil between chip and tool during orthogonal cutting of AISI 4140

Cooling lubricants in machining perform important tasks, from cooling and lubrication of the friction partners in contact to the removal of the separated chips. An essential, determining and largely unresolved question in relation to cooling lubricants in ma-chining is to what extent the coolant can get into the cutting zone. The aim of this paper is to address this question by using a multiscale approach to determine the penetration of the cooling lubricant gap. This is achieved by multiscale simulations by means of coupling the results of flow, structural and continuum mechanical simulations. Comparatively, the results of the simulated machining operation are compared with experimental orthogonal cutting tests of AISI 4140

The RORɣ/SREBP2 pathway is a master regulator of cholesterol metabolism and serves as potential therapeutic target in t(4;11) leukemia

Dysregulated cholesterol homeostasis promotes tumorigenesis and progression. Therefore, metabolic reprogramming constitutes a new hallmark of cancer. However, until today, only few therapeutic approaches exist to target this pathway due to the often-observed negative feedback induced by agents like statins leading to controversially increased cholesterol synthesis upon inhibition. Sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs) are key transcription factors regulating the synthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids. Since SREBP2 is difficult to target, we performed pharmacological inhibition of retinoic acid receptor (RAR)-related orphan receptor gamma (RORγ), which acts upstream of SREBP2 and serves as master regulator of the cholesterol metabolism. This resulted in an inactivated cholesterol-related gene program with significant downregulation of cholesterol biosynthesis. Strikingly, these effects were more pronounced than the effects of fatostatin, a direct SREBP2 inhibitor. Upon RORγ inhibition, RNA sequencing showed strongly increased cholesterol efflux genes leading to leukemic cell death and cell cycle changes in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Combinatorial treatment of t(4;11) cells with the RORγ inhibitor showed additive effects with cytarabine and even strong anti-leukemia synergism with atorvastatin by circumventing the statin-induced feedback. Our results suggest a novel therapeutic strategy to inhibit tumor-specific cholesterol metabolism for the treatment of t(4;11) leukemia

Erythropoietin Modulates Autophagy Signaling in the Developing Rat Brain in an In Vivo Model of Oxygen-Toxicity

Autophagy is a self-degradative process that involves turnover and recycling of cytoplasmic components in healthy and diseased tissue. Autophagy has been shown to be protective at the early stages of programmed cell death but it can also promote apoptosis under certain conditions. Earlier we demonstrated that oxygen contributes to the pathogenesis of neonatal brain damage, which can be ameliorated by intervention with recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEpo). Extrinsic- and intrinsic apoptotic pathways are involved in oxygen induced neurotoxicity but the role of autophagy in this model is unclear. We analyzed the expression of autophagy activity markers in the immature rodent brain after exposure to elevated oxygen concentrations. We observed a hyperoxia-exposure dependent regulation of autophagy-related gene (Atg) proteins Atg3, 5, 12, Beclin-1, microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), LC3A-II, and LC3B-II which are all key autophagy activity proteins. Interestingly, a single injection with rhEpo at the onset of hyperoxia counteracted these oxygen-mediated effects. Our results indicate that rhEpo generates its protective effect by modifying the key autophagy activity proteins

Time course analysis of the cell-free synthesized type-I transmembrane protein Mel-Hb-EGF-eYFP.

<p>Batch and CECF reactions were carried out in the presence of caspase inhibitor and ¹⁴C-leucine and in the absence of DTT. Protein yields in batch (A) and CECF reactions (B) were determined in the translation mixture and the vesicular fraction by liquid scintillation counting. Standard deviations were calculated from triplicate analysis (n = 3). C) Qualitative analysis of Mel-Hb-EGF-eYFP in the translation mixture by SDS-PAGE and autoradiography. D) Analysis of Mel-Hb-EGF-eYFP in the vesicular fraction. Cell-free synthesized Mel-Hb-EGF-eYFP shows a migration pattern corresponding to its expected molecular mass (calculated molecular mass  = 51 kDa). NTC  =  No template control; translation reaction without addition of a DNA template.</p

Time course of ¹⁴C-leucine labeled eYFP synthesized in batch and CECF mode.

<p>Cell-free reactions using insect lysate were carried out in the presence (+) and absence (−) of insect vesicles (V) and caspase inhibitor (CI). Translation mixtures were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and autoradiography. Cell-free synthesized eYFP shows a migration pattern corresponding to its expected molecular mass (calculated molecular mass  = 29 kDa).</p