First Amendment Knowledge of Classroom Teachers

This research examined the knowledge of the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America possessed by teachers in two secondary high schools in East Tennessee. Additionally, an attempt to evaluate the relationship between church attendance in protestant evangelical churches and the teacher’s ability to address church/state conflicts within parameters previously established by the United States Supreme Court was conducted. Finally, the role of social environment was examined in teacher’s knowledge of the first amendment. Prior research within this context has produced evidence that teachers are in fact not adequately prepared to address church/state conflicts within their school systems or their classrooms in particular (Biro, 2001; Campbell, 2002; Ramey, 2009). The result of this inadequate knowledge is the infraction of student liberties established by the Supreme Court as well as the possibility of expensive and embarrassing lawsuits for the offending schools

X Chromosome Dose and Sex Bias in Autoimmune Diseases:Increased Prevalence of 47,XXX in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Sjögren's Syndrome

OBJECTIVE: More than 80% of autoimmune disease is female dominant, but the mechanism for this female bias is poorly understood. We suspected an X chromosome dose effect and hypothesized that trisomy X (47,XXX , 1 in ~1,000 live female births) would be increased in female predominant diseases (e.g. systemic lupus erythematosus [SLE], primary Sjögren’s syndrome [SS], primary biliary cirrhosis [PBC] and rheumatoid arthritis [RA]) compared to diseases without female predominance (sarcoidosis) and controls. METHODS: We identified 47,XXX subjects using aggregate data from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays and confirmed, when possible, by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR). RESULTS: We found 47,XXX in seven of 2,826 SLE and three of 1,033 SS female patients, but only in two of the 7,074 female controls (p=0.003, OR=8.78, 95% CI: 1.67-86.79 and p=0.02, OR=10.29, 95% CI: 1.18-123.47; respectively). One 47,XXX subject was present for ~404 SLE women and ~344 SS women. 47,XXX was present in excess among SLE and SS subjects. CONCLUSION: The estimated prevalence of SLE and SS in women with 47,XXX was respectively ~2.5 and ~2.9 times higher than in 46,XX women and ~25 and ~41 times higher than in 46,XY men. No statistically significant increase of 47,XXX was observed in other female-biased diseases (PBC or RA), supporting the idea of multiple pathways to sex bias in autoimmunity

Relationship between the Synthesis of Prussian Blue Pigments, Their Color, Physical Properties, and Their Behavior in Paint Layers

peer reviewedPrussian blue pigments, highly insoluble mixed-valence iron(III) hexacyanoferrate(II) complexes of typical stoichiometry Fe4III[FeII(CN)6]3·xH2O or KFeIII[FeII(CN)6]·xH2O, have been used as pigments in oil paintings and watercolors for 300 years. For poorly understood reasons, these pigments often fade with time. Although the preparation methods have been recognized since the mid-eighteenth century as a contributory factor in the fading of the pigment, the spectral and physical properties of Prussian blue that vary with the type of synthesis were not precisely identified. Several Prussian blue pigments have been prepared by different methods and characterized by thermogravimetric analyses, high-energy powder X-ray diffraction, atomic absorption and flame emission, UV–visible, iron-57 Mössbauer, iron K-edge X-ray absorption, and Raman spectroscopy. The type of synthesis influences the hue, tinting strength, and hiding power properties of the Prussian blue pigments. Two major features appear to be strongly dependent on the preparative methods, the particle size and the local disorder. Both a nitrogen atmosphere and an intermediate aging step of the Berlin white, Fe2II[FeII(CN)6], during the synthesis are required to obtain a highly colored pigment through the optimization of particle size, minimization in the perturbations to the FeII–CN–FeIII intervalence electron transfer pathway, and the minimization of disordered vacancies. The potassium containing Prussian blue structure has been revisited. It can be described with the Pm3m space group, where approximately one-quarter of the [FeII(CN)6]4– sites are vacant and where the potassium cation is located at a zeolitic-like position inside the lattice cavities. The degree of ordering of the [FeII(CN)6]4– vacancies in all Prussian blues was quantified using atomic pair distribution analysis, an ordering that is consistent with the iron K-edge X-ray absorption spectra. The presence of strain in the crystals is observed by both powder X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The structural similarity between the alkali-free, improperly referred to as “insoluble”, and the alkali containing, “soluble”, Prussian blues may explain why the two varieties are almost undistinguishable by spectroscopic techniques