University of California

About: University of California is a education organization based out in Oakland, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Layer (electronics). The organization has 55175 authors who have published 52933 publications receiving 1491169 citations. The organization is also known as: UC & University of California System.

The Detection of Chemical Mutagens with Enteric Bacteria

Abstract: Mutagens alter DNA. As the DNA of all organisms has the same double helical structure and the same four nucleotides, any organism may be used as an indicator system for mutagens. Bacteria have numerous advantages for the detection of mutagens, and we discuss these and describe various methods and strains. We also discuss the validity of the bacterial tests and their pertinence to human mutagenesis and carcinogenesis.

The Lee-Carter Method for Forecasting Mortality, with Various Extensions and Applications

Abstract: In 1992, Lee and Carter published a new method for long-run forecasts of the level and age pattern of mortality, based on a combination of statistical time series methods and a simple approach to dealing with the age distribution of mortality. The method describes the log of a time series of age-specific death rates as the sum of an age-specific component that is independent of time and another component that is the product of a time-varying parameter reflecting the general level of mortality, and an age-specific component that represents how rapidly or slowly mortality at each age varies when the general level of mortality changes. This model is fit to historical data. The resulting estimate of the time-varying parameter is then modeled and forecast as a stochastic time series using standard methods. From this forecast of the general level of mortality, the actual age-specific rates are derived using the estimated age effects. The forecasts of the various life table functions have probability di...

Sexual stigma and sexual prejudice in the United States: a conceptual framework.

Abstract: In 1972, psychologist George Weinberg’s book, Society and the Healthy Homosexual , introduced readers to a new term, homophobia , and to the then-novel idea that hostility to homosexuality, rather than homosexuality itself, posed a threat to mental health (Weinberg, 1972 ; see also Herek, 2004) . The following year, the American Psychiatric Association’s Board of Directors declared that homosexuality is not inherently associated with mental illness and voted to remove it from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , or DSM (Bayer, 1987 ; Minton, 2002) . The American Psychological Association quickly endorsed the psychiatrists’ action and further urged mental health professionals “to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations” (Conger, 1975 , p. 633). Thus, a major cultural institution renounced its longstanding role in legitimating society’s stigmatization of homosexuality just when the psychological manifestations of such stigma were beginning to be redefined as a social problem. This historic confluence of events provides an appropriate starting point for the present chapter. The term homophobia has gained widespread usage since 1972, even as its limitations have become increasingly apparent. Chief among these is its construction of prejudice as an individual pathology. As I have explained elsewhere (Herek, 2004) , this clinically derived perspective limits our ability to understand hostility toward sexual minorities, both among individuals and in society at large. I have argued instead for the value of framing heterosexuals’ negative responses to sexual minorities in terms of sexual prejudice and of conceptualizing sexual prejudice as the internalization of societal stigma (Herek, 2000a, 2004, 2007 ; Herek, Chopp, & Strohl, 2007) . In the present chapter, I elaborate on these points and provide a more detailed framework than I have previously presented for conceptualizing both societal and individual reactions to homosexuality and sexual minorities in the United States. 1

How Exemplary Computer-Using Teachers Differ From Other Teachers: Implications for Realizing the Potential of Computers in Schools

Abstract: Using national survey data from 3rd- through 12th-grade teachers of academic subjects, 45 teachers out of 516 were identified as being exemplary computer-using teachers. Four factors in the teaching environment made exemplary computer users more likely to be present: collegiality among users, school support for using computers for consequential activities, resources allocated to staff development and computer coordination, and smaller class sizes. Also found were certain factors in teachers’ backgrounds that were related to the probability of their being designated as exemplary users (e.g., if they were liberal arts majors rather than education majors) and showed that only among exemplary users were major changes in content coverage accomplished. The presence of exemplary users in a school did not result in fewer problems for administrators—just different ones. Contrary to expectations, exemplary teachers were not overrepresented in high socioeconomic communities, nor did they disproportionately t...