Word: stigmas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...nature intended, the sheer number of pollen grains -- the botanical bearers of sperm -- ensured that at least some would reach and adhere to their natural goal: the stigma, a moist and sticky receptor of the female organ of the flower. That would start a fertilization process eventually resulting in seed and the propagation of the species. As a result of one of nature's oversights, however, many of the pollen grains reached another moist and sticky target first: a human eye or the mucous membranes of a nose or bronchial tube, where they set off a chain of events with...
When this message is delivered and read by a stigma in a flower of the same species, the fertilization process begins. But when the grain lodges in the mucous membrane of a person susceptible to allergies, its protein message is heeded by the human immune system, which confuses it with a menacing invader. Alarmed, the system immediately begins churning out legions of IgE (for immunoglobulin E) antibodies, stationing them on "mast cells," which patrol the body's tissues...
Chapter 11 has lost its stigma, but is it being misused...
...testimony to the continued stigma of rape, only 16% of the assaults are reported. Half the victims surveyed said they would be "much more likely" to go to the police if assured their name would not be used. As a result, the survey's authors recommended that more states adopt laws to keep the names of rape victims confidential...
...task force's] plan, as it stands, would greatly increase the reticence of some students to go through the [disciplinary] process, and would severely abate the students' right to an approachable Ad Board," Heinicke said. "The stigma associated with rape can ruin the social and academic reputation of the person involved...