On the prevalence of racial discrimination in the United States.

Boutwell, Nedelec, Winegard, Shackelford, Beaver, Vaughn, Barnes, & Wright (2017) published an article in this journal that interprets data from the Add Health dataset as showing that only one-quarter of individuals in the United States experience discrimination. In Study 1, we attempted to replicate Boutwell et al.s findings using a more direct measure of discrimination. Using data from the Pew Research Center, we examined a large sample of American respondents (N = 3,716) and explored the prevalence of discrimination experiences among various racial groups. Our findings stand in contrast to Boutwell et al.s estimates, revealing that between 50% and 75% of Black, Hispanic, and Asian respondents (depending on the group and analytic approach) reported discriminatory treatment. In Study 2, we explored whether question framing affected how participants responded to Boutwells question about experiencing less respect and courtesy. Regardless of question framing, non-White participants reported more experiences than White participants. Further, there was an interaction of participant race and question framing such that when participants were asked about experiences of less respect or courtesy broadly, there were no differences between non-White participants and White participants, but when they were asked about experiences that were specifically race-based, non-White participants reported more experiences than White participants. The current research provides a counterweight to the claim that discrimination is not a prevalent feature of the lives of minority groups and the serious implications this claim poses for research and public policy

The Role of Law Enforcement-Community Communication in Disaster Readiness

A lack of effective communication structures within local communities could have devastating consequences during an emergency. Therefore, the key problem addressed in this study was that the most effective methods (channels) of communication between law enforcement officials and the general public in the event of a natural disaster has not been studied. The purpose of this study was to weigh the benefits of three types of communication media—social media, radio, and word-ofmouth— to provide a framework for promoting effective communications between local government emergency responders and civilians. This single case study focused on a large county in the State of Virginia. The chosen instruments were a survey of 25 community leaders and semistructured interviews with 10 members of local governance and law enforcement (all participants were over the age of 30). Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo software. Additionally, supporting documentation from open-access governmental or law enforcement websites were collected and analyzed. Collated data and findings were compared across the surveys, interviews and documentation. The notions of community resilience, adaptive capacity and coping capacity were the theories used to frame this research. Six themes emerged from the data, these were (a) involving the public, (b) availability of public information, (c) being more proactive than reactive, (d) collaboration among stakeholders, (e) proper emergency management system, and (f) avoiding miscommunications. The results are relevant to local government officials and law enforcement leaders when they consider various methods of communication. This will assist law enforcement officials to organize the community and minimize damage in the event of a natural disaster

Star Formation in a Stellar Mass Selected Sample of Galaxies to z=3 from the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS)

We present a study of the star-forming properties of a stellar mass-selected sample of galaxies in the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS), based on deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the GOODS North and South fields. Using a stellar mass selected sample, combined with HST/ACS and Spitzer data to measure both UV and infrared derived star formation rates (SFR), we investigate the star forming properties of a complete sample of ~1300 galaxies down to log M*=9.5 at redshifts 1.5<z<3. Eight percent of the sample is made up of massive galaxies with M*>10^11 Msun. We derive optical colours, dust extinctions, and ultraviolet and infrared SFR to determine how the star formation rate changes as a function of both stellar mass and time. Our results show that SFR increases at higher stellar mass such that massive galaxies nearly double their stellar mass from star formation alone over the redshift range studied, but the average value of SFR for a given stellar mass remains constant over this 2 Gyr period. Furthermore, we find no strong evolution in the SFR for our sample as a function of mass over our redshift range of interest, in particular we do not find a decline in the SFR among massive galaxies, as is seen at z < 1. The most massive galaxies in our sample (log M*>11) have high average SFRs with values, SFR(UV,corr) = 103+/-75 Msun/yr, yet exhibit red rest-frame (U-B) colours at all redshifts. We conclude that the majority of these red high-redshift massive galaxies are red due to dust extinction. We find that A(2800) increases with stellar mass, and show that between 45% and 85% of massive galaxies harbour dusty star formation. These results show that even just a few Gyr after the first galaxies appear, there are strong relations between the global physical properties of galaxies, driven by stellar mass or another underlying feature of galaxies strongly related to the stellar mass.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Effects of PPAL-1 in Arabidopsis Gamete Development

Prenylation is a type of post-translational modification in which a 15- or 20-carbon lipid is added to the carboxyl (C) terminus of the protein. Arabidopsis thaliana contains the PROTEIN PRENYLTRANSFERASE ALPHA SUBUNIT-LIKE (PPAL) gene, which encodes a protein with homology to the α-subunits of the three known prenylation enzymes, PFT, PGGT, and Rab-GGT. We previously identified two mutations in PPAL, one of which is ppal-1, which contains a T-DNA insertion in the fourth intron. We have previously observed that self-fertilizing heterozygous ppal-1 plants produce progeny in which homozygous ppal-1 is underrepresented. This project attempts to ascertain possible affects of ppal-1 in gametophyte growth and development that might cause this underrepresented homozygous ppal-1 population. Crosses were performed between homozygous ppal-1 and wild-type (WT) plants. Both F0 and F1 generations were genotyped. The results indicated that there was WT contamination of the ppal-1 F0 population. The data also indicated the ppal-1 primers were nonfunctional. Additionally, a pollen germination test was performed for both ppal-1and WT plants. The results indicated that ppal-1 pollen had developmental delays for germination, but upon germination, they could form pollen tubules of equal length to the WT pollen. However, due to the likely WT contamination in the ppal-1 population used, these experiments must be replicated in further studies

Syntaxin 3 Is Haplosufficient for Long-Term Photoreceptor Survival in the Mouse Retina

Biallelic loss-of-function mutations in the syntaxin 3 gene have been linked to a severe retinal dystrophy in humans that presents in early childhood. In mouse models, biallelic inactivation of the syntaxin 3 gene in photoreceptors rapidly leads to their death. What is not known is whether a monoallelic syntaxin 3 loss-of-function mutation might cause photoreceptor loss with advancing age. To address this question, we compared the outer nuclear layer of older adult mice (≈ 20 months of age) that were heterozygous for syntaxin 3 with those of similarly-aged control mice. We found that the photoreceptor layer maintains its thickness in mice that are heterozygous for syntaxin 3 relative to controls and that photoreceptor somatic counts are comparable. In addition, dendritic sprouting of the rod bipolar cell dendrites into the outer nuclear layer, which occurs following the loss of functional rod targets, was similar between genotypes. Thus, syntaxin 3 appears to be haplosufficient for photoreceptor survival, even with advancing age