Public Support for Pro-Choice Abortion Policies in the Nation and States: Changes and Stability After the \u3cem\u3eRoe\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eDoe\u3c/em\u3e Decisions

The Supreme Court, according to the legendary Mr. Dooley, follows the election returns. In 1973, the Court\u27s two landmark decisions, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, struck down statutes in the forty-six states where abortions were not permitted under any circumstances or were allowed only to save the life of the woman during the first three months of pregnancy. There had been a considerable increase in the level of support for the pro-choice position among the public in the few years preceding Roe and Doe. But did the decisions themselves lead to even more public support for that position? What variations do we find among the states and where has the increase in public support for the pro-choice position seemed the most dramatic? Finally, what has been the impact of the abortion controversy on the political process? We shall examine these questions here and suggest some tentative answers. First, we shall consider the available national poll evidence. Second, we shall examine variations in political opinion on abortion policies in the states. Finally, we shall examine the abortion controversy as it has affected legislative decision making and electoral politics. When we consider the variations among the states, we shall present estimates of state public opinion on abortion policy through a computer simulation technique, developed by the second author and refined jointly by us, which permits us to get approximate figures on state opinions from national surveys

Mobile test fixture system for use in a thermal vacuum facility

A turnkey thermal vacuum facility is discussed. A system is described that integrates five major subsystems including the transporters, multiplexers, a thermal shrouded test fixture, a thermal isolation system and an internal utility distribution system into a mobile test fixture system. This concept allows the spacecraft to be mounted outside of the chamber. Instrumentation and checkout of the spacecraft and its instrumentation is accomplished at this station. The spacecraft, which is still mated to the test fixture, is then moved into the chamber using an air transporter system

N-methyl pyrrolidone as a potent bone morphogenetic protein enhancer for bone tissue regeneration

In medicine N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) has a long track record as constituent in FDA approved medical devices and thus can be considered as safe and biological inactive small chemical. In the present study we report on the newly discovered pharmaceutical properties of NMP as it enhances bone regeneration in a rabbit calvarial defect model in vivo. At the cellular level, the pharmaceutical effect of NMP was confirmed, in particular, in combination with BMP-2, as NMP increased early and late markers for maturation of preosteoblasts and human bone marrow derived stem cells in vitro. When we used the multipotent cell line C2C12 lacking autologous BMP expression, NMP alone had no effect on alkaline phosphatase activity, a marker for osteogenic transdifferentiation. Nevertheless, in combination with low BMP-2-doses alkaline phosphatase activity was increased more than 8 fold. Thus, the pharmaceutical NMP mode of action is that of an enhancer of BMP activity. The dependency of the effects of NMP on BMP was confirmed in preosteoblasts as noggin, an extracellular BMP-inhibitor, suppressed NMP-induced increase in early markers for osteoblast maturation in vitro. At the molecular level, NMP was shown to have no effect on the binding of BMP-2 to the ectodomain of the high affinity BMP receptor IA. However, NMP further increased the phosphorylation of p38 and Smad1,5,8 induced by BMP-2. Thus, the small chemical NMP enhances BMP activity by increasing the kinase activity of the BMP receptor complex for Smad1,5,8 and p38 and could be employed as a potent drug for bone tissue regeneration and engineering

Ionic Liquid-Based Microemulsions in Catalysis

The design and properties of surface-active ionic liquids that are able to form stable microemulsions with heptane and water are presented, and their promise as reaction media for thermomorphic palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions is demonstrated

Social inclusion and professional female migrants in multicultural Australia

The goal of the thesis is to scrutinise the experiences of professional female migrants in Australia. The study was undertaken in the context of the emergence of a policy focus on ‘social inclusion’ and ‘social exclusion’ in Australia and elsewhere and in the context of renewed debates in Australia about multiculturalism. Social inclusion refers to a policy focus on enabling the full participation of citizens in the life of the nation, including economic, social, cultural and political participation (Gillard & Wong, 2007). In turn, social exclusion refers to a policy focus on identifying and addressing groups whose participation is constrained, often measured along the dimensions of consumption, production, political engagement, social support and cultural life (see for example, Burchardt, Le Grand, & Piachaud, 2002; Richardson & Le Grand, 2002). This research is interested in testing the relevance of these frameworks for understanding and addressing the experiences of professional female migrants in multicultural Australia. The thesis involved a study of twenty professional female migrants living in Sydney who participated in in-depth interviews. All respondents belonged to a highly skilled occupational group and a prerequisite was that they held a primary professional qualification before migration to Australia. Participants, who were from both English speaking and non-English speaking backgrounds provided detailed narratives of their lives and experiences since migration to Australia, and these narratives provided a window into the specificities of professional female migrants’ perceptions of moving to Australia, settling in Australia and ‘belonging’ in Australia. These insights add to the body of knowledge on migration and social inclusion and exclusion. The research found that the relevance of the dominant social inclusion framework for analysing their migration and settlement experiences is only partial: this is because of the prioritisation of economic participation as a route to social inclusion. The social inclusion framework, consequently, fails to recognise the cultural dimension of social inclusion by assuming that social inclusion in multicultural Australia can be achieved and maintained through the active economic participation of Australian citizens. In addition, the study found that the dominant social inclusion policy framework does not recognise an important aspect of professional female migrants’ identity: transnational relationships and transnational belonging. In terms of the specificities of professional female migrants’ experiences, the thesis proposes a structure for talking about differences in experiences of inclusion that uses measures such as participation in paid work, either in mainstream or in ethno-specific workplaces; participation in social life, either in or in and beyond their own ethnic community; self-perception of being, or not being, included - a dimension that was often based on whether or not they experienced racism. Based on these factors, women’s experiences could be categorised as varying between deep, borderline, marginal and shallow inclusion. The thesis also finds that although social inclusion does not equal assimilation or a transition from being a migrant, social inclusion is possible in the context of ethnic and cultural differences

Heterogeneous N2O5 Uptake During Winter: Aircraft Measurements During the 2015 WINTER Campaign and Critical Evaluation of Current Parameterizations

Nocturnal dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) heterogeneous chemistry impacts regional air quality and the distribution and lifetime of tropospheric oxidants. Formed from the oxidation of nitrogen oxides, N2O5 is heterogeneously lost to aerosol with a highly variable reaction probability, γ(N2O5), dependent on aerosol composition and ambient conditions. Reaction products include soluble nitrate (HNO3 or NO3−) and nitryl chloride (ClNO2). We report the first‐ever derivations of γ(N2O5) from ambient wintertime aircraft measurements in the critically important nocturnal residual boundary layer. Box modeling of the 2015 Wintertime INvestigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity (WINTER) campaign over the eastern United States derived 2,876 individual γ(N2O5) values with a median value of 0.0143 and range of 2 × 10−5 to 0.1751. WINTER γ(N2O5) values exhibited the strongest correlation with aerosol water content, but weak correlations with other variables, such as aerosol nitrate and organics, suggesting a complex, nonlinear dependence on multiple factors, or an additional dependence on a nonobserved factor. This factor may be related to aerosol phase, morphology (i.e., core shell), or mixing state, none of which are commonly measured during aircraft field studies. Despite general agreement with previous laboratory observations, comparison of WINTER data with 14 literature parameterizations (used to predict γ(N2O5) in chemical transport models) confirms that none of the current methods reproduce the full range of γ(N2O5) values. Nine reproduce the WINTER median within a factor of 2. Presented here is the first field‐based, empirical parameterization of γ(N2O5), fit to WINTER data, based on the functional form of previous parameterizations

The HIPASS Catalogue - II. Completeness, Reliability, and Parameter Accuracy

The HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS) is a blind extragalactic HI 21-cm emission line survey covering the whole southern sky from declination -90 to +25. The HIPASS catalogue (HICAT), containing 4315 HI-selected galaxies from the region south of declination +2, is presented in Meyer et al. (2004a, Paper I). This paper describes in detail the completeness and reliability of HICAT, which are calculated from the recovery rate of synthetic sources and follow-up observations, respectively. HICAT is found to be 99 per cent complete at a peak flux of 84 mJy and an integrated flux of 9.4 Jy km/s. The overall reliability is 95 per cent, but rises to 99 per cent for sources with peak fluxes >58 mJy or integrated flux > 8.2 Jy km/s. Expressions are derived for the uncertainties on the most important HICAT parameters: peak flux, integrated flux, velocity width, and recessional velocity. The errors on HICAT parameters are dominated by the noise in the HIPASS data, rather than by the parametrization procedure.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 11 figures. Paper with higher resolution figures can be downloaded from http://hipass.aus-vo.or

Anti-drug Antibody Responses Impair Prophylaxis Mediated by AAV-Delivered HIV-1 Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) delivery of potent and broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs is a promising approach for the prevention of HIV-1 infection. The immunoglobulin G (IgG)1 subtype is usually selected for this application, because it efficiently mediates antibody effector functions and has a somewhat longer half-life. However, the use of IgG1-Fc has been associated with the generation of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) that correlate with loss of antibody expression. In contrast, we have shown that expression of the antibody-like molecule eCD4-Ig bearing a rhesus IgG2-Fc domain showed reduced immunogenicity and completely protected rhesus macaques from simian-HIV (SHIV)-AD8 challenges. To directly compare the performance of the IgG1-Fc and the IgG2-Fc domains in a prophylactic setting, we compared AAV1 expression of rhesus IgG1 and IgG2 forms of four anti-HIV bNAbs: 3BNC117, NIH45-46, 10-1074, and PGT121. Interestingly, IgG2-isotyped bNAbs elicited significantly lower ADA than their IgG1 counterparts. We also observed significant protection from two SHIV-AD8 challenges in macaques expressing IgG2-isotyped bNAbs, but not from those expressing IgG1. Our data suggest that monoclonal antibodies isotyped with IgG2-Fc domains are less immunogenic than their IgG1 counterparts, and they highlight ADAs as a key barrier to the use of AAV1-expressed bNAbs

Identifying and managing patients at risk of severe allergic reactions to food: report from two iFAAM workshops

Food allergy affects a small but important number of children and adults. Much of the morbidity associated with food allergy is driven by the fear of a severe reaction, and fatalities continue to occur. Foods are the commonest cause of anaphylaxis. One of the aims of the European Union funded Integrated Approaches to Food Allergen and Allergy Risk Management (iFAAM) project was to improve the identification and management of children and adults at risk of experiencing a severe reaction. A number of interconnected studies within the project have focused on quantifying the severity of allergic reactions; the impact of food matrix, immunological factors on severity of reactions; the impact of co‐factors such as medications on the severity of reactions; utilising single dose challenges to understand threshold and severity of reactions; and community studies to understand the experience of patients suffering real‐life allergic reactions to food. Associated studies have examined population thresholds, and co‐factors such as exercise and stress. This paper summarises two workshops focused on the severity of allergic reactions to food. It outlines the related studies being undertaken in the project indicating how they are likely to impact on our ability to identify individuals at risk of severe reactions and improve their management

Potential climatic transitions with profound impact on Europe

We discuss potential transitions of six climatic subsystems with large-scale impact on Europe, sometimes denoted as tipping elements. These are the ice sheets on Greenland and West Antarctica, the Atlantic thermohaline circulation, Arctic sea ice, Alpine glaciers and northern hemisphere stratospheric ozone. Each system is represented by co-authors actively publishing in the corresponding field. For each subsystem we summarize the mechanism of a potential transition in a warmer climate along with its impact on Europe and assess the likelihood for such a transition based on published scientific literature. As a summary, the ‘tipping’ potential for each system is provided as a function of global mean temperature increase which required some subjective interpretation of scientific facts by the authors and should be considered as a snapshot of our current understanding. <br/