EXPANDING HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES: SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING POLICY

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, almost 300,000 hate crimes occurred in 2012 in the United States. An astonishing 90% of these crimes were violent. Even more shocking are the 60% of hate crimes that are not reported to law enforcement (Wilson, 2014). In response to these dismal reporting statistics, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has adopted a policy (the “Policy”) and Congress introduced the “See Something, Say Something Act” (the “Act”), an amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Policy and the Actencourage ordinary citizens to suspect and report someone based on perceived demeanor and/or overall appearance without the usual requirement of articulable suspicion (Terry, 1968). Due to the discriminatory nature of both the Policy and the Act, the proposed measures would be subject to strict scrutiny if challenged in court. Challenges to the Act would most likely revolve around civil rights violations. More importantly, basic human rights as outlined in the articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) are at issue.In practice, encouraging U.S. citizens to report each other without articulable suspicion opens the door for bias, prejudice, and intolerance. Even without these limitations, the Act may not achieve its ultimate goal of increasing reporting as only four percent of the 40% of hate crimes reported actually result in an arrest (Wilson, 2014). Increasing reporting of hate crimes, at best, may improve arrest rates into double digits

EXPANDING HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES: SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING POLICY

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, almost 300,000 hate crimes occurred in 2012 in the United States. An astonishing 90% of these crimes were violent. Even more shocking are the 60% of hate crimes that are not reported to law enforcement (Wilson, 2014). In response to these dismal reporting statistics, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has adopted a policy (the “Policy”) and Congress introduced the “See Something, Say Something Act” (the “Act”), an amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Policy and the Actencourage ordinary citizens to suspect and report someone based on perceived demeanor and/or overall appearance without the usual requirement of articulable suspicion (Terry, 1968). Due to the discriminatory nature of both the Policy and the Act, the proposed measures would be subject to strict scrutiny if challenged in court. Challenges to the Act would most likely revolve around civil rights violations. More importantly, basic human rights as outlined in the articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) are at issue.In practice, encouraging U.S. citizens to report each other without articulable suspicion opens the door for bias, prejudice, and intolerance. Even without these limitations, the Act may not achieve its ultimate goal of increasing reporting as only four percent of the 40% of hate crimes reported actually result in an arrest (Wilson, 2014). Increasing reporting of hate crimes, at best, may improve arrest rates into double digits

Benefits and Costs of a Variable Oil Import Fee

The sharp decline in real world oil prices since 1986 has had a significant impact on the U.S. economy, moderating the rate of inflation and reducing energy costs of consumers and businesses while creating widespread unemployment, bankruptcies and bank failures across the oil-producing states of the Southwest. Combined with record federal budget and trade deficits, these severe regional dislocations have rekindled the debate over an increase in the (currently very small) U.S. oil import tariff. The most frequently suggested forms such an increase would take is either that of a fixed fee of $5 or$10 per barrel (such as Representative Gephardt\u27s proposal) or a variable fee set equal to the difference between the world oil price and a guaranteed minimum domestic price of $22-$24 per barrel (as recently suggested by Governor Clements of Texas)

The E-3 Test Facility at Stennis Space Center: Research and Development Testing for Cryogenic and Storable Propellant Combustion Systems

This paper will provide the reader a broad overview of the current upgraded capabilities of NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center E-3 Test Facility to perform testing for rocket engine combustion systems and components using liquid and gaseous oxygen, gaseous and liquid methane, gaseous hydrogen, hydrocarbon based fuels, hydrogen peroxide, high pressure water and various inert fluids. Details of propellant system capabilities will be highlighted as well as their application to recent test programs and accomplishments. Data acquisition and control, test monitoring, systems engineering and test processes will be discussed as part of the total capability of E-3 to provide affordable alternatives for subscale to full scale testing for many different requirements in the propulsion community

Gender nonconformity of identical twins with discordant sexual orientations: Evidence from childhood photographs

Childhood gender nonconformity (femininity in males, masculinity in females) predicts a non-straight (gay, lesbian, or bisexual) sexual orientation in adulthood. In previous work, non-straight twins reported more childhood gender nonconformity than their genetically identical, but straight, co-twins. However, self-reports could be biased. We therefore assessed gender nonconformity via ratings of photographs from childhood and adulthood. These ratings came from independent observers naïve to study hypotheses. Identical twins with discordant sexual orientations (24 male pairs, 32 female pairs) visibly differed in their gender nonconformity from mid childhood, with higher levels of gender nonconformity for the non-straight twins. This difference was smaller than the analogous difference between identical twins who were concordant straight (4 male pairs, 11 female pairs) and identical twins unrelated to them who were concordant non-straight (19 male pairs, 8 female pairs). Further, twins in discordant pairs correlated in their observer-rated gender nonconformity. Non-genetic factors likely differentiated the discordant twins’ gender-related characteristics in childhood, but shared influences made them similar in some respects. We further tested how recall of past rejection from others related to gender nonconformity. Rejection generally increased with gender nonconformity, but this effect varied by the twins’ sexual orientation

Finger Length Ratios of Identical Twins with Discordant Sexual Orientations

A proposed marker of prenatal androgen exposure is the ratio of the index finger to ring finger (2D:4D). Within each sex, this ratio may be lower for those who were exposed to higher levels of androgens and become attracted to women, as compared to those who were exposed to lower levels of androgens and become attracted to men. We examined these patterns in identical twins with discordant sexual orientations. Because these twins are enetically identical, differences in prenatal androgen exposure, as reflected in their different finger length ratios, might contribute to their discordance. For 18 female twin pairs, nonstraight (bisexual or lesbian) twins had significantly lower, or more masculinized, 2D:4D ratios than their straight co-twins, but only in the left hand. For 14 male pairs, non-straight twins had, contrary to our prediction, more masculinized finger length ratios than straight cotwins, but this difference was not significant. A reanalysis of present and previous data (Hall & Love, 2003; Hiraishi, Sasaki, Shikishima, & Ando, 2012) suggested that these patterns were robust. Furthermore, males had more masculinized 2D:4D ratios than females. This sex difference did not vary by sexual orientation

A small-molecule catalyst of protein folding in vitro and in vivo

AbstractBackground: The formation of native disulfide bonds between cysteine residues often limits the rate and yield of protein folding. The enzyme protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) catalyzes the interchange of disulfide bonds in substrate proteins. The two -Cys-Gly-His-Cys- active sites of PDI provide a thiol that has a low pKa value and a disulfide bond of high reduction potential (E°').Results: A synthetic small-molecule dithiol, (±)-trans-1,2-bis(2-mercaptoacetamido)cyclohexane (BMC), has a pKa value of 8.3 and an E°' value of −0.24 V. These values are similar to those of the PDI active sites. BMC catalyzes the activation of scrambled ribonuclease A, an inactive enzyme with non-native disulfide bonds, and doubles the yield of active enzyme. A monothiol analog of BMC, N-methylmercaptoacetamide, is a less efficient catalyst than BMC. BMC in the growth medium of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells increases by > threefold the heterologous secretion of Schizosaccharomyces pombe acid phosphatase, which has eight disulfide bonds. This effect is similar to that from the overproduction of PDI in the S. cerevisiae cells, indicating that BMC, like PDI, can catalyze protein folding in vivo.Conclusions: A small-molecule dithiol with a low thiol pKa value and high disulfide E°' value can mimic PDI by catalyzing the formation of native disulfide bonds in proteins, both in vitro and in vivo

Importance of Fluctuations in Light on Plant Photosynthetic Acclimation

The acclimation of plants to light has been studied extensively, yet little is known about the effect of dynamic fluctuations in light on plant phenotype and acclimatory responses. We mimicked natural fluctuations in light over a diurnal period to examine the effect on the photosynthetic processes and growth of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). High and low light intensities, delivered via a realistic dynamic fluctuating or square wave pattern, were used to grow and assess plants. Plants subjected to square wave light had thicker leaves and greater photosynthetic capacity compared with fluctuating light-grown plants. This, together with elevated levels of proteins associated with electron transport, indicates greater investment in leaf structural components and photosynthetic processes. In contrast, plants grown under fluctuating light had thinner leaves, lower leaf light absorption, but maintained similar photosynthetic rates per unit leaf area to square wave-grown plants. Despite high light use efficiency, plants grown under fluctuating light had a slow growth rate early in development, likely due to the fact that plants grown under fluctuating conditions were not able to fully utilize the light energy absorbed for carbon fixation. Diurnal leaf-level measurements revealed a negative feedback control of photosynthesis, resulting in a decrease in total diurnal carbon assimilated of at least 20%. These findings highlight that growing plants under square wave growth conditions ultimately fails to predict plant performance under realistic light regimes and stress the importance of considering fluctuations in incident light in future experiments that aim to infer plant productivity under natural conditions in the field