Does a Marriage Really Need Sex?: A Critical Analysis of the Gender Restriction on Marriage

This Note discusses the issues surrounding intersex persons and the right to marry. The Comment first discusses the constitutional protection of the right to marry, intersex conditions, and case law regarding intersex, transsexual, and same-sex marriage. It further addresses the consequences for marriage when it is narrowly defined. Further, the Comment proposes an alternative solution to the one many courts have used. This solution allows an intersex person to self-designate her gender and be able to marry either a man or a woman. Finally, this Comment argues that if an intersex person can marry either a man or a woman, then a male-to-female transsexual and a genetic woman must also be able to marry either a man or a woman because all are similarly situated and must be treated alike under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

Building Criminal Capital Behind Bars: Social Learning in Juvenile Corrections

This paper analyzes the influence that juvenile offenders serving time in the same correctional facility have on each other's subsequent criminal behavior. The analysis is based on data on over 8,000 individuals serving time in 169 juvenile correctional facilities during a two-year period in Florida. These data provide a complete record of past crimes, facility assignments, and arrests and adjudications in the year following release for each individual. To control for the non-random assignment of juveniles to facilities, we include facility fixed effects in the analysis. This ensures that the impact of peers on recidivism is identified using only the variation in the length of time that any two individuals serving a sentence in the same facility happen to overlap. We find strong evidence of peer effects for various categories of theft, burglary, and felony drug and weapon crimes; the influence of peers primarily affects individuals who already have some experience in a particular crime category.social learning, peer effects, social interactions, recidivism, juvenile crime, human capital accumulation

Redshift Evolution In Black Hole-Bulge Relations: Testing C IV-Based Black Hole Masses

We re-examine claims for redshift evolution in black hole-bulge scaling relations based on lensed quasars. In particular, we refine the black hole (BH) mass estimates using measurements of Balmer lines from near-infrared spectroscopy obtained with Triplespec at Apache Point Observatory. In support of previous work, we find a large scatter between Balmer and UV line widths, both Mg II lambda lambda 2796, 2803 and CIV lambda lambda 1548, 1550. There is tentative evidence that C III]lambda 1909, despite being a blend of multiple transitions, may correlate well with Mg II, although a larger sample is needed for a real calibration. Most importantly, we find no systematic changes in the estimated BH masses for the lensed sample based on Balmer lines, providing additional support to the interpretation that black holes were overly massive compared to their host galaxies at high redshift.NASA Hubble Fellowship HF-01196NASA NAS 5-26555Astronom

Strong [O III] Objects Among SDSS Broad-Line Active Galaxies

We present the results of a spectral principal component analysis on 9046 broad-line AGN from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We examine correlations between spectral regions within various eigenspectra (e.g., between Fe II strength and H$\beta$ width) and confirm that the same trends are apparent in spectral measurements, as validation of our technique. Because we found that our sample had a large range in the equivalent width of [O III] $\lambda$5007, we divided the data into three subsets based on [O III] strength. Of these, only in the sample with the weakest equivalent width of [O III] were we able to recover the known correlation between [O III] strength and full width at half maximum of H$\beta$ and their anticorrelation with Fe II strength. At the low luminosities considered here ($L_{5100 \AA}$ of $10^{42}-10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$), interpretation of the principal components is considerably complicated particularly because of the wide range in [O III] equivalent width. We speculate that variations in covering factor are responsible for this wide range in [O III] strength.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, published in Ap

Spontaneous phenotypic suppression of GacA-defective Vibrio fischeri is achieved via mutation of csrA and ihfA

Background: Symbiosis defective GacA-mutant derivatives of Vibrio fischeri are growth impaired thereby creating a selective advantage for growth-enhanced spontaneous suppressors. Suppressors were isolated and characterized for effects of the mutations on gacA-mutant defects of growth, siderophore activity and luminescence. The mutations were identified by targeted and whole genome sequencing. Results: Most mutations that restored multiple phenotypes were non-null mutations that mapped to conserved domains in or altered expression of CsrA, a post-transcriptional regulator that mediates GacA effects in a number of bacterial species. These represent an array of unique mutations compared to those that have been described previously. Different substitutions at the same amino acid residue were identified allowing comparisons of effects such as at the R6 residue, which conferred relative differences in luminescence and siderophore levels. The screen revealed residues not previously identified as critical for function including a single native alanine. Most csrA mutations enhanced luminescence more than siderophore activity, which was especially evident for mutations predicted to reduce the amount of CsrA. Although CsrA mutations compensate for many known GacA mutant defects, not all CsrA suppressors restore symbiotic colonization. Phenotypes of a suppressor allele of ihfA that encodes one subunit of the integration host factor (IHF) heteroduplex indicated the protein represses siderophore and activates luminescence in a GacA-independent manner. Conclusions: In addition to its established role in regulation of central metabolism, the CsrA regulator represses luminescence and siderophore as an intermediate of the GacA regulatory hierachy. Siderophore regulation was less sensitive to stoichiometry of CsrA consistent with higher affinity for the targets of this trait. The lack of CsrA null-mutant recovery implied these mutations do not enhance fitness of gacA mutants and alluded to this gene being conditionally essential. This study also suggests a role for IHF in the GacA-CsrB-CsrA regulatory cascade by potentially assisting with the binding of repressors of siderohphore and activators of luminescence. As many phosphorelay proteins reduce fitness when mutated, the documented instability used in this screen also highlights a potentially universal and underappreciated problem that, if not identified and strategically avoided, could introduce confounding variability during experimental study of these regulatory pathways

Physical Properties of the Narrow-Line Region of Low-Mass Active Galaxies

We present spectroscopic observations of 27 active galactic nuclei (AGN) with some of the lowest black hole (BH) masses known. We use the high spectral resolution and small aperture of our Keck data, taken with the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager, to isolate the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of these low-mass BHs. We investigate their emission-line properties and compare them with those of AGN with higher-mass black holes. While we are unable to determine absolute metallicities, some of our objects plausibly represent examples of the low-metallicity AGN described by Groves et al. (2006), based on their [N II]/H_alpha ratios and their consistency with the Kewley & Ellison (2008) mass-metallicity relation. We find tentative evidence for steeper far-UV spectral slopes in lower-mass systems. Overall, NLR emission lines in these low-mass AGN exhibit trends similar to those seen in AGN with higher-mass BHs, such as increasing blueshifts and broadening with increasing ionization potential. Additionally, we see evidence of an intermediate line region whose intensity correlates with L/L_Edd, as seen in higher-mass AGN. We highlight the interesting trend that, at least in these low-mass AGN, the [O III] equivalent width (EW) is highest in symmetric NLR lines with no blue wing. This trend of increasing [O III] EW with line symmetry could be explained by a high covering factor of lower ionization gas in the NLR. In general, low-mass AGN preserve many well-known trends in the structure of the NLR, while exhibiting steeper ionizing continuum slopes and somewhat lower gas-phase metallicities.Comment: 46 pages, 14 figures, 7 table

Sykepleierstudentenes vei mot informasjonskompetanse

Bakgrunn: Informasjonskompetanse er en forutsetning for å innhente og bruke forskningslitteratur. Tidligere forskning viser at denne kompetansen er lav blant sykepleierstudenter. For å styrke ferdighetene i å søke og bruke informasjon fra databaser hos studenter i bachelorutdanningen, utviklet og gjennomførte vi et undervisningsprogram som gikk over alle tre studieårene. I denne artikkelen rapporterer vi funn fra evalueringen etter det første studieåret. Hensikt: Å beskrive hvordan studentene vurderte utviklingen av 1) egen informasjonskompetanse, med særlig vekt på endringer i bruk av databaser og internett, 2) egne ferdigheter i søketeknikk, og 3) om programmet hadde betydning for deres læringsutbytte. Metode: En pretest–posttest, éngruppedesign ble anvendt. Data fra en studentklasse (n=249) ble samlet inn ved bruk av to spørreskjemaer, ett ved begynnelsen av første studieår og ett ved slutten av året. Resultater: Funnene viser at til tross for at studentene rapporterte forbedring i ferdighetene i å finne artikler i bibliotekets databaser ved slutten av første studieår, manglet fortsatt mange kunnskap i grunnleggende søketeknikker. Studentene oppga også høyere bruk og større læringsutbytte av internett enn av bibliotekets databaser. Konklusjon: Studien indikerer at systematisk opplæring kan medvirke til økt informasjonskompetanse. Det er imidlertid behov for å utvikle ulike strategier på dette område og undersøke hvilke som gir best effekt.Background: Information literacy includes being able to find and use research articles. Earlier research shows that pre-registration nursing students are not sufficiently competent in this area. Therefore, we developed and implemented a curriculum- integrated three-year program to improve their information competency. This article reports on the findings after the first year of the program. Purpose: To describe how the students evaluated the development of: 1) their information literacy, especially the use of bibliographic databases and the internet; 2) their skills in search techniques; and 3) whether the program influenced their learning outcome. Method: a pre-test – post-test one group design was employed. Data was collected from a class of students (n=249) using two questionnaires; one administered at the beginning and one at the end of the first year in the Bachelor program. Results: Findings show that although an improvement occurred in the students’ skill in finding articles in bibliographic databases, many of them lacked knowledge of important search techniques. The students’ also reported more frequent use of and a greater learning outcome from the internet than from bibliographic databases. Conclusion: The study indicates that systematic instruction can improve information literacy. It is, however, necessary to develop several different strategies to this end and to investigate which gives the best result. Keywords: survey, information literacy, undergraduate nursing education, curriculum, collaboration

Life Cycle Assessment across the Food Supply Chain

The environmental impact is one of the major pillars of concerns when addressing the sustainability of food production and sustainable food consumption strategies. To assess to what extent food production affects the environment, one needs to choose a proper environmental assessment tool. Different types of assessment tools have been developed to establish environmental indicators, which can be used to determine the environmental impact of livestock production systems or agricultural products. The environmen¬tal assessment tools can be divided into the area based or product based (Halberg et al., 2005). Area-based indicators are, for example, nitrate leached per hectare from a pig farm, and product-based indicators are, for example, global warming potential per kg pork (Dalgaard, 2007). The area-based indicators are useful for evaluating farm emissions of nutrients such as nitrate that has an effect on the local environment. On the other hand, when considering the greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural production, the product-based indicators are useful for evaluating the impact of food productions on the global environment (e. g., climate change) and have the advantage that in addition to emis-sions from the farms, emissions related to the production of input s (e.g., soybean and artificial fertilizer) and outputs (e.g., slurry exported to other farms) are also included. In that way it is easier to avoid pollution swapping, which means that the solving of one pollution problem creates a new (Dalgaard, 2007)