The influence of the availability of personally known and media known sexual harassment victims and harassers on perceptions of social sexual workplace conduct was examined. Male and female full-time workers evaluated two videotapes that depict sexual harassment in the workplace. Results indicated that perceived likelihood of harassment and discrimination increased as participants recalled more examples of harassment victims whom they personally knew. In some instances, recall of victims in the media had a similar influence. As predicted, the influence of availability was stronger for men than for women. Similar findings resulted from the analyses of the unwelcomeness, severity, and pervasiveness of the conduct; however, legal standard, gender, or case often moderated this relationship. The implications of these findings are discussed.KEY WORDS: sexual harassment; availability heuristic; legal decision making.Shared folk psychology suggests that prior experience with social sexual conduct at work should influence evaluations of current complaints of sexual harassment. 4 Indeed, there is some evidence in the empirical literature that supports a relationship between prior experiences with social sexual conduct at work and judgments about current complaints. For example, Gowan and Zimmerman (1996) found that previous sexual harassment victims are more likely to perceive ambiguous behaviors and severe cases of harassment as offensive. However, when Stockdale, . 4 The psychological literature examining discrimination law uses the language "social sexual conduct" to describe workplace behavior that is often social (e.g., telling jokes, bantering, and horseplay) and always sexual in the sense that it focuses on genderbased issues (e.g., flirting, insulting comments related to gender, sexual attention). If this type of conduct meets the elements of Title VII discrimination law, then it constitutes sexual harassment. If it does not meet that standard, then it does not constitute actionable conduct (

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The second mammalian isoform of GnRH (GnRH-II) is highly conserved from bony fish to humans. However, coding sequence for the receptor specific to this ligand contains reading errors in many species, suggesting the inability to produce a functional receptor. In contrast, the porcine GnRH-II receptor gene contains the appropriate sequence to produce functional protein. The objective of this study was to develop swine with reduced levels of endogenous GnRH-II receptors. Two potential target small hairpin RNA (shRNA1 and shRNA2) sequences specific to the porcine GnRH-II receptor were identified and subcloned into the lentiviral-based, pLVX-shRNA2 vector (Clontech) that provides both shRNA and fluorescent ZsGreen1 coexpression. Lentiviral particles were produced from each shRNA vector as well as a control vector using the Lenti-X HTX Packaging System (Clontech). The ability of shRNA1 and shRNA2 lentiviral particles to reduce porcine GnRH-II receptor mRNA levels was tested in a swine testis-derived (ST) cell line. The day before transduction, ST cells (2 × 106) were plated in 100-mm plates containing high-glucose DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS, 2 mM glutamine, 100 U mL–1 of penicillin and 100 mg mL–1 of streptomycin sulfate. Next, cells were transduced with 1.44 × 107 viral particles per plate for 48 h. The cells were harvested, RNA was extracted and converted to cDNA and quantitative PCR was performed to determine relative levels of GnRH-II receptor mRNA. Values were normalized using the expression levels of 18s rRNA and compared with GnRH-II receptor mRNA levels in ST cells transduced with control lentiviral particles. Lentiviral particles containing either shRNA1 or shRNA2 sequences significantly reduced GnRH-II receptor mRNA levels (95 and 99%, respectively) compared with control particles (P < 0.05). Next, lentiviral particles containing the shRNA2 sequence (1.15 × 109 infectious units mL–1) were microinjected within the perivitelline space of in vivo-derived pronuclear zygotes (n = 15) using a Nikon diaphot inverted microscrope equipped with Eppendorf micromanipulators and an Eppendorf FemtoJet injection system. Microinjected zygotes were subsequently cultured in 50-μL drops of NCSU-23 under mineral oil in a humidified 5% CO2 in air environment. Following 120 h of culture, 93% of the zygotes developed to the compact morula stage, whereas 73% formed blastocysts at 168 h. By 192 h, 80% of the microinjected embryos developed to the blastocyst or expanded blastocyst stages. Fluorescent microscopy revealed that all blastocysts expressed ZsGreen1, indicating a 100% transduction efficiency of shRNA2 lentiviral particles. Finally, embryos were surgically collected from white crossbred donor sows and transduced as described above. A total of 40, 33 and 23 microinjected zygotes were immediately transferred into 3 synchronized recipient females that will be allowed to gestate to term. The animals produced from this study will represent the first animal model to examine the physiological implications of reduced GnRH-II receptor levels.