SERS-active nylon fiber evidence swabs for forensic applications

In the field of forensic science, discovered materials that could potentially be used as evidence are screened using presumptive and confirmatory tests before the samples are subjected to DNA analysis. Both of these tests have drawbacks associated with their use, such as being prone to false positive and negatives. Only one biological fluid can be analyzed using one of these tests at a time. Further, these tests are destructive to the sample, meaning no further analyses could be performed on the same sample portion. Herein, we report the functionalization of commercially available nylon evidentiary swabs to serve as a SERS-active medium for non-destructive confirmatory analysis of seminal fluid by attaching silver nanoparticles grown via the hydrogen reduction method to the fibers. The resulting swabs have been analyzed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and electron microscopy to assess the silver nanoparticle coverage. The two model dye compounds crystal violet and tris(2,2’-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) chloride were analyzed using SERS as a proof of concept and examination of SERS enhancements, respectively. The research includes the study of the effects of swab fabrication on surface coverage, particle size and spacing, and Raman and SERS spectral enhancement of the two model dyes and seminal fluid. Efforts to maximize seminal fluid SERSsignal while exploring the effect of swab storage is also presented

Pseudoscience on Netflix analysing the goop lab with Gwyneth Platrow (Netflix, 2020)

En las últimas décadas del siglo XX y comienzos del siglo XXI se ha producido un intenso desarrollo en el campo científico y tecnológico; aun así, la difusión de contenidos pseudocientíficos engañosos ha proliferado con la llegada de los medios digitales. En este artículo, mediante un análisis cuantitativo, se analiza la serie divulgativa sobre terapias alternativas The Goop Lab with Gwyneth Paltrow (Netflix, 2020), conducida y producida por la actriz, empresaria e influencer Gwyneth Paltrow y dirigida a un público eminentemente femenino. Se pretende demostrar cómo la apuesta empresarial y transmedia de goop, marca creada por Paltrow en torno al lifestyle (que abarca pautas de nutrición, terapias de espiritualidad oriental, productos de belleza, tablas de ejercicios, consejos sexuales...) propone un discurso aspiracional basado en una promesa implícita de mejora física y/o psíquica. Se concluye que este espacio se apropia de las estrategias retóricas del discurso científico, así como de postulados feministas con el fin de obtener validación social e incrementar la audiencia y venta de sus productos y tratamientos. Finalmente se desglosa una taxonomía con los recursos retóricos pseudocientíficos utilizados en este espacio, con el que se pretende promover un uso eficiente y responsable en la transmisión de contenidos divulgativos mediáticos.In the last decades of the XXth Century and the early years of the XXIst Century there has been unparalleled development in the field of science and technology; yet the dissemination of misleading pseudo-scientific content has proliferated with the advent of digital media. Through a quantitative analysis, the paper analyzes The Goop Lab (Netflix, 2020), the informative series on alternative therapies conducted and produced by actress, entrepreneur, and influencer Gwyneth Paltrow, and aimed at an eminently female audience. The aim is to show how the business and transmedia bet of goop, a brand created by Paltrow around the lifestyle (which covers nutrition guidelines, therapies of oriental spirituality, beauty products, exercise, sexual advice ... ), proposes an aspirational discourse based on an implicit promise of physical and/or psychological. It is concluded that this space appropriates the rhetorical strategies of scientific discourse as well as feminist postulates in order to obtain social validation and increase the audience and sales of its products and treatments. Finally, a taxonomy of the pseudoscientific rhetorical resources is made in order to promote an efficient and responsible use in the transmission of media informative contents

Pseudociencia en Netflix: análisis de The goop lab with Gwyneth Paltrow (Netflix, 2020)

In the last decades of the XXth Century and the early years of the XXIst Century there has been unparalleled development in the field of science and technology; yet the dissemination of misleading pseudo-scientific content has proliferated with the advent of digital media. Through a quantitative analysis, the paper analyzes The Goop Lab (Netflix, 2020), the informative series on alternative therapies conducted and produced by actress, entrepreneur, and influencer Gwyneth Paltrow, and aimed at an eminently female audience. The aim is to show how the business and transmedia bet of goop, a brand created by Paltrow around the lifestyle (which covers nutrition guidelines, therapies of oriental spirituality, beauty products, exercise, sexual advice ... ), proposes an aspirational discourse based on an implicit promise of physical and/or psychological. It is concluded that this space appropriates the rhetorical strategies of scientific discourse as well as feminist postulates in order to obtain social validation and increase the audience and sales of its products and treatments. Finally, a taxonomy of the pseudoscientific rhetorical resources is made in order to promote an efficient and responsible use in the transmission of media informative contents.   En las últimas décadas del siglo XX y comienzos del siglo XXI se ha producido un intenso desarrollo en el campo científico y tecnológico; aun así, la difusión de contenidos pseudocientíficos engañosos ha proliferado con la llegada de los medios digitales. En este artículo, mediante un análisis cuantitativo, se analiza la serie divulgativa sobre terapias alternativas The Goop Lab with Gwyneth Paltrow (Netflix, 2020), conducida y producida por la actriz, empresaria e influencer Gwyneth Paltrow y dirigida a un público eminentemente femenino. Se pretende demostrar cómo la apuesta empresarial y transmedia de goop, marca creada por Paltrow en torno al lifestyle (que abarca pautas de nutrición, terapias de espiritualidad oriental, productos de belleza, tablas de ejercicios, consejos sexuales…) propone un discurso aspiracional basado en una promesa implícita de mejora física y/o psíquica. Se concluye que este espacio se apropia de las estrategias retóricas del discurso científico, así como de postulados feministas con el fin de obtener validación social e incrementar la audiencia y venta de sus productos y tratamientos. Finalmente se desglosa una taxonomía con los recursos retóricos pseudocientíficos utilizados en este espacio, con el que se pretende promover un uso eficiente y responsable en la transmisión de contenidos divulgativos mediáticos

Novel Medicine

By examining the dynamic interplay between discourses of fiction and medicine, Novel Medicine demonstrates how fiction incorporated, created, and disseminated medical knowledge in China, beginning in the sixteenth century. Critical readings of fictional and medical texts provide a counterpoint to prevailing narratives that focus only on the “literati” aspects of the novel, showing that these texts were not merely read, but were used by a wide variety of readers for a range of purposes. The intersection of knowledge—fictional and real, elite and vernacular—illuminates the history of reading and daily life and challenges us to rethink the nature of Chinese literature. The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation

We know where you belong at: Institutions and Marginalized Bodies in the Literature of Charles Chesnutt, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty

This thesis portfolio explores how three southern authors used fiction to push back against social norms. The literary works of Charles Chesnutt, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty depict the ways in which marginalized bodies are socially regulated and punished. By using Michel Foucault’s theories about power and knowledge, I explore how each of these works uses surveillance to regulate social behavior and what happens to marginalized bodies that refuse to conform to the norm. In Chesnutt’s novel The Marrow of Tradition, Dr. Miller uses his “medical gaze” to diagnose problems within the black community while also elevating himself above his community. In Faulkner’s novella “Old Man,” the Tall Convict desperately desires to return to Parchman Prison because he has absorbed the effects of panoptic surveillance of prison. In Welty’s short story “June Recital,” female sexual awakening is inextricably linked to the judgmental and regulatory “social gaze” of the ladies in the community, as well as the threatening and possessive male gaze. Through each work, we see the effects of surveillance and the threat of institutionalization on marginalized bodies

The Comedians: A Novel

In the spring of 1970, university campuses across the United States were roiled by the news that the Vietnam War had been escalated, through a bombing campaign, into the jungles of Laos and Cambodia. The protests at UW-Madison campus were among the largest. Frustration that, despite years of protests, the War not only continued but had expanded beyond Vietnam’s borders, led to the bombing of a physics research building on the UW campus later that summer. THE COMEDIANS begins a few weeks after that bombing. The novel’s primary setting is a student housing co-op near Langdon Street, formerly known as Fraternity Row. The male residents of this co-op decide to harbor one of the bombers of the physics research building, who has failed to disappear into the underground as the other two have. For the duration of the novel, from the beginning of the semester to Halloween, the male residents of the novel are concerned with a scheme to conceal the identity of their new lodger from the female residents, who have begun to hold feminist consciousness-raising sessions that disturb the relationships of several of the couples living in the house. The night of the Halloween party, the co-op is invaded by a local biker gang, rampaging right-wing reactionaries, and the FBI. When the dust clears, the fugitive is gone, and two of the house members, both in relationships with other people, are on their way to falling in love