Vanishing Acts: Creative Women in Spain and the United States

This exploratory cross-cultural study examines the experiences of women in advertising creative departments in Spain and the United States. The study, an exploration of the creative environment and its impact on female creatives, is framed by Hofstede’s dimensional model of national culture (Hofstede 2001; de Mooij & Hofstede 2010) and signalling theory (Spence 1974). Interviews with 35 top female creatives suggest that the challenges women face are rooted in the ‘fraternity culture’ or ‘territorio de chicos’ of creative departments in both countries. The data further suggest that the gender-bound cultural environment of advertising creative departments may be a global phenomenon, one that may adversely affect the creative process and impact women’s upward mobility

Cardiovascular gene expression profiles of dioxin exposure in zebrafish embryos

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Society of Toxicology for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Toxicological Sciences 85 (2005): 683-693, doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfi116.2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is a widespread environmental contaminant that causes altered heart morphology, circulatory impairment, edema, hemorrhage, and early life stage mortality in fish. TCDD toxicity is largely dependent upon the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, but understanding of the molecular mechanism of cardiovascular embryotoxicity remains incomplete. In order to identify genes potentially involved in cardiovascular impacts, we constructed custom cDNA microarrays consisting of 4,896 zebrafish adult heart cDNA clones and over 200 genes with known developmental, toxicological, and housekeeping roles. Gene expression profiles were obtained for 3-day old zebrafish following early embryonic exposure to either 0.5 or 5.0 nM TCDD. 516 clones were significantly differentially expressed (p-value < 0.005) under at least one treatment condition; 123 high-priority clones were selected for further investigation. CYP1A, CYP1B1, and other members of the AHR gene battery, were strongly and dose-dependently induced by TCDD. Importantly, altered expression of cardiac sarcomere components, including cardiac troponin T2 and multiple myosin isoforms, was consistent with the hypothesis that TCDD causes dilated cardiomyopathy. Observed increases in expression levels of mitochondrial energy transfer genes also may be related to cardiomyopathy. Other TCDD-responsive genes included fatty acid and steroid metabolism enzymes, ribosomal and signal transduction proteins, and 18 ESTs with no known protein homologs. As the first broadscale study of TCDD-modulated gene expression in a non-mammalian system, this work provides an important perspective on mechanisms of TCDD toxicity.This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health

Effect of light polarization on plasma distribution and filament formation

We show that, for 200 fs light pulses at 790 nm, the formation of filaments is strongly affected by the laser light polarization . Filamentation does not exist for a pure circularly polarized light, propagating in vacuum before focusing in air, while there is no difference for focusing the light in air or vacuum for linearly polarized light.Comment: 4pages 2 figure

Design of a Robotic Apparatus for Simulated Motion of the Human Hand

Background: The hand is complex, in that any small disturbance to the flexor tendons, extensor tendons, and intrinsic muscles can result in dysfunction of the entire structure. We designed a robotic device to consistently load a native thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) joint in assessing the effects of ligamentous damage on stability of the thumb CMC joint. Methods: The device consisted of a mechanical plate in which to fixate a cadaveric hand, a tendon-suture routing system, a bracket to couple multiple suture lines to a cable to maintain equal force among sutures and tendons, and the finger-thumb force measurement devices. To apply force to the sutures, a cable was run from the suture coupling device to the tendon actuator and from the finger-thumb force measurement devices to the control system. The device was controlled using a Beaglebone Black microcontroller, load cells, rotary encoders, and a liquid crystal display (ie, LCD) touchscreen interface. Results: The design worked as intended in terms of basic communication, signal processing, and control functions. Cyclic loading resulted in web creep of the tissue. Using closed-loop control, the system was able to settle to a desired load. Conclusions: Use of the current device may result in improved understanding of joint movement within the hand, which may help surgeons in treating associated injuries. Future revisions to the device will aim to improve the hardware and software to accelerate the time to converging to the desired force and displacement

Guiding neutral atoms around curves with lithographically patterned current-carrying wires

Laser-cooled neutral atoms from a low-velocity atomic source are guided via a magnetic field generated between two parallel wires on a glass substrate. The atoms bend around three curves, each with a 15-cm radius of curvature, while traveling along a 10-cm-long track. A maximum flux of 2*10^6 atoms/sec is achieved with a current density of 3*10^4 A/cm^2 in the 100x100-micrometer-cross-section wires. The kinetic energy of the guided atoms in one transverse dimension is measured to be 42 microKelvin.Comment: 9 page

ICP Etching of SiC

A number of different plasma chemistries, including NF{sub 3}/O{sub 2}, SF{sub 6}/O{sub 2}, SF{sub 6}/Ar, ICl, IBr, Cl{sub 2}/Ar, BCl{sub 3}/Ar and CH{sub 4}/H{sub 2}/Ar, have been investigated for dry etching of 6H and 3C-SiC in a Inductively Coupled Plasma tool. Rates above 2,000 {angstrom} cm{sup {minus}1} are found with fluorine-based chemistries at high ion currents. Surprisingly, Cl{sub 2}-based etching does not provide high rates, even though the potential etch products (SiCi{sub 4} and CCl{sub 4}) are volatile. Photoresist masks have poor selectivity over SiC in F{sub 2}-based plasmas under normal conditions, and ITO or Ni are preferred

Low damage, highly anisotropic dry etching of SiC

A parametric study of the etching characteristics of 6H p{sup +} and n{sup +} SiC and thin film SiC{sub 0.5}N{sub 0.5} in Inductively Coupled Plasma NF{sub 3}/O{sub 2} and NF{sub 3}/Ar discharges has been performed. The etch rates in both chemistries increase monotonically with NF{sub 3} percentage and rf chuck power. The etch rates go through a maximum with increasing ICP source power, which is explained by a trade-off between the increasing ion flux and the decreasing ion energy. The anisotropy of the etched features is also a function of ion flux, ion energy and atomic fluorine neutral concentration. Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) masks display relatively good etch selectivity over SiC (maximum of {approximately} 70:1), while photoresist etches more rapidly than SiC. The surface roughness of SiC is essentially independent of plasma composition for NF3/O2 discharges, while extensive surface degradation occurs for SiCN under high NF{sub 3}:O{sub 2} conditions

A Comparison of Stimulus Set Size on Tact Training for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Previous studies on skill acquisition have taught targets in stimulus sets composed of different numbers of stimuli. Although the rationale for selection of a stimulus set size is not clear, the number of target stimuli trained within a set is a treatment decision for which there is limited empirical support. The current investigation compared the efficiency of tact training in 4 stimulus set sizes, each of which included 12 stimuli grouped into (a) 4 sets of 3 stimuli, (b) 3 sets of 4 stimuli, (c) 2 sets of 6 stimuli, and (d) 1 set of 12 stimuli. Results of all 4 participants with autism spectrum disorder show tact training with larger (i.e., 6 and 12) stimulus set sizes was more efficient than training with smaller (i.e., 3 and 4) stimulus set sizes