A platform is the set of elements and interfaces that are common to a family of products. We have previously presented a method for designing product families based on platforms that quantifies performance and cost metrics. That approach allows a team of engineers to design and evaluate candidate platforms, given perfect understanding of the designs and requirements. In this paper we present a ...

Guidelines proposed by Pennings in 1996 to allow sex preselection ignore ethical problems, basic aspects of human biology and social behavior, cultural differences in reproductive choice availability, and implementation issues. The proposed guidelines would forbid sex preselection for a first child and in cases where gender balance exists. Sex preselection would only be used if the sex select...

The OFD1 (oral-facial-digital, type 1) gene is implicated in several developmental disorders in humans. The X-linked OFD1 (OFD1X) is conserved in Eutheria. Knowledge about the Y-linked paralog (OFD1Y) is limited. In this study, we identified an OFD1Y on the bovine Y chromosome, which is expressed differentially from the bovine OFD1X. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that: a) the eutherian OFD1X ...

Tec family kinases are implicated in T cell receptor (TCR) signaling, and combined mutation of inducible T cell kinase (Itk) and resting lymphocyte kinase (Rlk)/Txk in mice dramatically impairs mature T cell function. Nonetheless, mutation of these kinases still permits T cell development. While itk(-)(/)- mice exhibit mild reductions in T cells with decreased CD4/CD8 cell ratios, rlk(-)(/)-itk...

Few studies have concentrated on the life history characteristics of arboreal anurans away from breeding ponds, and sampling of these species is difficult due to their ability to evade visual detection and other traditional herpetological census techniques. This study utilizes polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes to test for habitat selection of hylid treefrogs at the Natural Areas Teaching Lab in th...

In the mid-to-large volume manufacturing operations, a Single Part Manufacturing System (SPMS) is usually used to produce one part model. As the progress of manufacturing technologies, modern manufacturing systems such as reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS), are more capable of producing a family of part models, such a system is often referred to as a Multiple Parts Manufacturing System ...

PURPOSE This article reports on a within-family study to identify factors that lead mothers to expect that a particular child will serve in the role of primary caregiver. DESIGN AND METHODS Data for this study were collected by in-person interviews with a representative sample of 566 mothers between the ages of 65 and 75 years residing in the greater Boston area, who provided detailed informa...

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The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that gender can be preselected by timing coitus in relation to ovulation, the marker of ovulation being the Peak symptom according to the Billings Method. A blind prospective study of 99 couples wishing to preselect the sex of their child was conducted in Nigeria, using the Post-Peak approach of Billings Method for males and Pre-Peak for fem...

Because a microdeletion containing the DAZ gene is the most frequently observed deletion in infertile men, the DAZ gene was considered a strong candidate for the azoospermia factor. A recent evolutionary analysis, however, suggested that DAZ was free from functional constraints and consequently played little or no role in human spermatogenesis. The major evidence for this surprising conclusion ...