Deconstructing Binary Race and Sex Categories: A Comparison of the Multiracial and Transgendered Experience

Millions of people are transgendered and cannot easily be categorized as either male or female. Similarly, millions of people are multiracial and cannot be classified as being of one distinct race. Race classification systems have existed for centuries and have been the subject of extensive commentary and critique for decades. Sex and gender classification systems, on the other hand, have just started to become the subject of litigation in the last half of the twentieth century and it is only during the last decade that sex classification systems have become the topic of extensive scholarly discussion

You Can\u27t Take It with You: Constitutional Consequences of Interstate Gender-Identity Rulings

Recent U.S. decisions establishing a person\u27s legal sex have adopted a kaleidoscope of approaches that range from the procreative (a man must be able to fertilize ovum and beget offspring, while a woman must be able to produce ova and bear offspring), to the religious (gender is immutably fixed by our Creator at birth), to the scientific (gender itself is a fact that may be established by medical and other evidence). Under current laws and state court rulings, a male-to-female transsex person is legally a woman in approximately one-half of the states and legally a man in the other half. This Article discusses the constitutional implications of these varied approaches to determining a person\u27s legal sex. It concludes that states that refuse to recognize a transsex person\u27s sex as indicated on an amended birth certificate from a sister state violate principles of full faith and credit and unconstitutionally infringe upon the right to travel under the Dormant Commerce Clause. In addition, when states impose tests that are based on gender stereotypes and force people to live as the sex that conflicts with their self-identified sex, they violate the Fourteenth Amendment\u27s equal protection and substantive due process mandates

Avian Conservation Practices Strengthen Ecosystem Services in California Vineyards

Insectivorous Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) occupy vineyard nest boxes established by California winegrape growers who want to encourage avian conservation. Experimentally, the provision of available nest sites serves as an alternative to exclosure methods for isolating the potential ecosystem services provided by foraging birds. We compared the abundance and species richness of avian foragers and removal rates of sentinel prey in treatments with songbird nest boxes and controls without nest boxes. The average species richness of avian insectivores increased by over 50 percent compared to controls. Insectivorous bird density nearly quadrupled, primarily due to a tenfold increase in Western Bluebird abundance. In contrast, there was no significant difference in the abundance of omnivorous or granivorous bird species some of which opportunistically forage on grapes. In a sentinel prey experiment, 2.4 times more live beet armyworms (Spodoptera exigua) were removed in the nest box treatment than in the control. As an estimate of the maximum foraging services provided by insectivorous birds, we found that larval removal rates measured immediately below occupied boxes averaged 3.5 times greater than in the control. Consequently the presence of Western Bluebirds in vineyard nest boxes strengthened ecosystem services to winegrape growers, illustrating a benefit of agroecological conservation practices. Predator addition and sentinel prey experiments lack some disadvantages of predator exclusion experiments and were robust methodologies for detecting ecosystem services

Response properties, applications and limitations of carbonate-selective polymer membrane electrodes

The preparation and response characteristics of a carbonate-selective polymer membrane electrode are reported. The electrode is prepared by incorporating Aliquat 336, trifluoroacetyl-p-butylbenzene and di-2-ethylhexyl sebacate or dioctyl phthalate in a poly(vinylchloride) membrane matrix. The effect of membrane composition and electrode response in various buffer systems are examined. Under buffer conditions appropriate for practical measurements, potentiometric data yield the following selectivity pattern: ClO4- = salicylate> total carbon dioxide species> I- > NO3- > acetate> Cl- > Br-. The electrode can be readily fabricated in tubular form and utilized within a very simple flow-injection arrangement to determine total carbon dioxide species. The possible applications of the electrode to serum CO2 measurements as well as within newly devised gas-sensing arrangements for dissolved CO2 are also examined.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23870/1/0000109.pd

The Impact of CS for All on College Placement in Computer Science

With the CS for All movement increasingly gaining traction nationally, students entering colleges and universities are arriving with deeper and broader CS experiences. This in turn can change students\u27 higher education starting point. This panel of CS faculty with expertise in this area will present perspectives and models to describe how higher education choices for placement, credit, and curriculum design affect the efforts to broaden participation in student pathways into computing and related studies

Technology Estimating: A Process to Determine the Cost and Schedule of Space Technology Research and Development

NASA is investing in new technologies that include 14 primary technology roadmap areas, and aeronautics. Understanding the cost for research and development of these technologies and the time it takes to increase the maturity of the technology is important to the support of the ongoing and future NASA missions. Overall, technology estimating may help provide guidance to technology investment strategies to help improve evaluation of technology affordability, and aid in decision support. The research provides a summary of the framework development of a Technology Estimating process where four technology roadmap areas were selected to be studied. The framework includes definition of terms, discussion for narrowing the focus from 14 NASA Technology Roadmap areas to four, and further refinement to include technologies, TRL range of 2 to 6. Included in this paper is a discussion to address the evaluation of 20 unique technology parameters that were initially identified, evaluated and then subsequently reduced for use in characterizing these technologies. A discussion of data acquisition effort and criteria established for data quality are provided. The findings obtained during the research included gaps identified, and a description of a spreadsheet-based estimating tool initiated as a part of the Technology Estimating process