Patterns of Dissent: The Reform Ideas and Activities of George D. Herron

The search of George D. Herron for a means which might lead mankind to a better life was an important one in the current of American reform between 1890 and 1920. Herron--clergyman, socialist, and diplomat--has figured in recent studies of Protestant Christianity and reform in post-Civil War industrial America. His impact on Protestant theology in the 1890\u27s is the subject of a more specialized study; in it, Professor Robert Handy of Union Theological Seminary states that Herron\u27s Kingdom Movement was the single most important phase of social gospel history during the nineties

Translocation techniques used to establish pen farmed Alaskan reindeer

Small herds of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) frequently have been needed to be established in fenced holding pens for research or commercial reasons in Alaska and other areas. Native ranges of reindeer in Alaska were not on road systems, and the diet of the native reindeer had to be changed when they were translocated to small pens. Economics of transportation and feeding played an important role in the feasibility of translocation. Gathering and holding of reindeer for shipment, transport methods, adjustment of free-ranging reindeer to confinement, and a new diet were primary considerations to insure survival. Minimal psychologic stress of short duration, thermoregulation, and physical comfort were extremely important in carrying out a successful translocation. Receiving facilities, feed, and personnel were equally important. A minimum of one month was required to adjust reindeer to confinement and diet change

Rate- and State-Dependent Friction Law and Statistical Properties of Earthquakes

In order to clarify how the statistical properties of earthquakes depend on the constitutive law characterizing the stick-slip dynamics, we make an extensive numerical simulation of the one-dimensional spring-block model with the rate- and state-dependent friction law. Both the magnitude distribution and the recurrence-time distribution are studied with varying the constitutive parameters characterizing the model. While a continuous spectrum of seismic events from smaller to larger magnitudes is obtained, earthquakes described by this model turn out to possess pronounced ``characteristic'' features.Comment: Minor revisions are made in the text and in the figures. Accepted for publication in Europhys. Letter

The Other Within: Health Care Reform, Class, and the Politics of Reproduction

The Article explores the nation’s resistance to developing a more equitable system of health care coverage. It does that through reference to the nation’s peculiar class system. Americans contend that anyone can avoid poverty through hard work and responsible choices. Yet, in fact, class mobility is the exception, not the rule. Americans are deeply anxious about safeguarding relative class status, but the signs through which they assess class are murky. In measuring their own socioeconomic status in relation to others, Americans consciously look to a wide set of elusive, shifting status symbols. Less consciously, though with equal, if not greater, intensity, they seek to assess each others’ class status through reference to signs of good health and ill health. The Article examines the centrality of that process to the nation’s hesitancy about providing universal health care. Recent responses to the reproductive health needs of poor women are illustrative. The passage of the Act reshaped and reinforced a narrative about poor women and their reproductive lives. The Article examines that narrative in detail in connection with recent federal and state resistance to funding abortions and family planning services. Within the politics surrounding health care reform, poor women with reproductive capacity have been marked as the “Other” within. In theory, they are beneficiaries of health care reform. In fact, deprived of the services they actually need, they are unlikely to flourish and are thus unlikely to become competitors on the nation’s socioeconomic ladder. The harm to them is clear. The harm to the nation is harder to discern but equally real. It includes less good health, larger social problems, and less contentment for everyone

Anomalous dynamics of cell migration

Cell movement, for example during embryogenesis or tumor metastasis, is a complex dynamical process resulting from an intricate interplay of multiple components of the cellular migration machinery. At first sight, the paths of migrating cells resemble those of thermally driven Brownian particles. However, cell migration is an active biological process putting a characterization in terms of normal Brownian motion into question. By analyzing the trajectories of wildtype and mutated epithelial (MDCK-F) cells we show experimentally that anomalous dynamics characterizes cell migration. A superdiffusive increase of the mean squared displacement, non-Gaussian spatial probability distributions, and power-law decays of the velocity autocorrelations are the basis for this interpretation. Almost all results can be explained with a fractional Klein- Kramers equation allowing the quantitative classification of cell migration by a few parameters. Thereby it discloses the influence and relative importance of individual components of the cellular migration apparatus to the behavior of the cell as a whole.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Aquisiton and management of reindeer herd data

Obtaining and maintaining accurate records of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) herd data has become a necessary tool for efficient herd management. A computerized record keeping and reporting system was developed due to the speed which which animals were seen at the seasonal handlings. Custom software was written using the dBASE III + data management package to handle the special needs of herd record keeping. The software was then compiled using the Clipper compiler. The resulting program and data were implemented in ramdisk on a Toshiba 3100 microcomputer. Data structures were carefully chosen to provide for recording of tag identification, sex, age, body weight, abnormalities, disease testing, and treatments for each deer. Additionally, fields were provided to maintain records of ongoing biologic experiments. A report generation program was written to provide a current herd status report to the herders

When Others Get Too Close: Immigrants, Class, and the Health Care Debate

This Article describes one genre of contemporary anti-immigrant rhetoric, examines the social and economic forces that engender that rhetoric, and delineates its implications for the national debate about health care reform. The Article details the underlying significance of America\u27s opaque, yet highly competitive, class system to immigration reform and to health care reform. It locates the population most compelled by anti-immigrant rhetoric in the so-called intermediate strata (more generally referred to as the lower middle class). Careful examination of the relevant rhetoric suggests a broad explanation of the nation\u27s reluctance, over almost a century, to construct a system of universal or near-universal health care coverage. In supporting its claims, the Article examines the remarkable story of Luis Jimenez, an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant who was deported to Guatemala at the expense and initiative of a Florida hospital; further, it examines a number of recent federal and state laws that preclude or significantly limit health care benefits for undocumented (and for many documented) immigrants