Hitting and Missing the Mark: Feminist Inquiry and Pedagogy in United States Women’s Studies Graduate Programs

From the Introduction: This essay looks specifically at reflection in these areas undertaken in one sector of women’s studies: the master’s degree in women’s studies in the United States. That graduate education in women’s studies is the focal point of this essay is especially timely because graduate programs in women’s studies are experiencing substantial growth. This essay addresses one aspect of graduate education: the correspondence between feminist intellectual inquiry and pedagogy in master’s programs in women’s studies. In particular, the essay aims to assess women’s studies at the graduate level by asking graduate students what they think about the attention paid by their programs to the issues fore grounded in feminist inquiry. Questions about the diverse groups that make up “women,” the classroom climate, and ways in which feminist inquiry can balance theory and activism are engaged in this essay from the perspective of graduate students. Furthermore, this essay analyzes the students’ satisfaction with the attention paid by their graduate programs to these major components of feminist inquiry. What we find is that there are ways in which the pedagogy of women’s studies programs closely corresponds with feminist theoretical inquiry and other ways in which women’s studies graduate programs are missing the mark

Sustainability and Careers in the 21st Century

Phyllis Schoen and Amanda Baker of the West Chester University Career Center present on Sustainability and Careers in the 21st Century

Federal Narcotic Violators and the Dispositions Received Through the Courts with an Emphasis on Cocaine Offenders

The United states has been plagued with the problem of illicit drug use for many years. Drug abuse has continued to increase and is prevalent among all races and social classes of people. The question is what efforts have been or are being made in order to deter the influx of drugs into the country along with stopping the suppliers of these drugs and what has hindered the effectiveness of these efforts. The theory of deterrence was applied to this problem because the model presumes that the punishment of criminal acts could deter potential offenders by making the negative consequences of crime greater than the rewards. The theory also assumes that people act, behave, or respond only after careful and rational consideration of the consequences of their actions. The Drug Enforcement Administration provided the data for the research. Statistics revealed that during the years 1975 through 1986, the arrests of drug offenders steadily increased. The Data showed increased efforts in arrests; however, inconsistency was shown when it came to the conviction of the offender. Prison sentences were imposed in many cases, but showed no impact on deterring the drug offender. It was determined that if punishment was certain the deterrent effect should work

Introduction: Forum on Masculinities, Violences, Variations, and Visions

Debate and dialogue within the humanities and social sciences concerning the concept of masculinity/masculinities has been widespread for two decades. We use this edition of a Universitas Forum as a way to present and discuss the intriguing theoretical complexity of the concept of masculinity/masculinities. This forum is organized into three sections, focusing respectively on its relationship with the issue of violence, variations in forms and processes, and visions for transformations

The Gendered Way of Hooking Up among College Students

This study explores gender differences in sexual socialization as a determinant of hooking up by college students. Survey results for 469 respondents show both generic (alcohol consumption and sexual socialization through pornography) and gender specific (gender-related attitudes) mechanisms that explain men’s higher rates of hooking up. Men engage in the generic behavioral correlates of hooking up more often than women. Women with patriarchal attitudes report more hooking up and men with rape supportive attitudes report more hooking up. Efforts by college administrators to reduce rates of hooking up should take into consideration alcohol consumption, pornography, and gender related attitudes

Reimagining Heliophysics: A bold new vision for the next decade and beyond

The field of Heliophysics has a branding problem. We need an answer to the question: ``What is Heliophysics\?'', the answer to which should clearly and succinctly defines our science in a compelling way that simultaneously introduces a sense of wonder and exploration into our science and our missions. Unfortunately, recent over-reliance on space weather to define our field, as opposed to simply using it as a practical and relatable example of applied Heliophysics science, narrows the scope of what solar and space physics is and diminishes its fundamental importance. Moving forward, our community needs to be bold and unabashed in our definition of Heliophysics and its big questions. We should emphasize the general and fundamental importance and excitement of our science with a new mindset that generalizes and expands the definition of Heliophysics to include new ``frontiers'' of increasing interest to the community. Heliophysics should be unbound from its current confinement to the Sun-Earth connection and expanded to studies of the fundamental nature of space plasma physics across the solar system and greater cosmos. Finally, we need to come together as a community to advance our science by envisioning, prioritizing, and supporting -- with a unified voice -- a set of bold new missions that target compelling science questions - even if they do not explore the traditional Sun- and Earth-centric aspects of Heliophysics science. Such new, large missions to expand the frontiers and scope of Heliophysics science large missions can be the key to galvanizing the public and policymakers to support the overall Heliophysics program

Survivorship: sleep disorders, version 1.2014.

Sleep disorders, including insomnia and excessive sleepiness, affect a significant proportion of patients with cancer and survivors, often in combination with fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Improvements in sleep lead to improvements in fatigue, mood, and quality of life. This section of the NCCN Guidelines for Survivorship provides screening, diagnosis, and management recommendations for sleep disorders in survivors. Management includes combinations of sleep hygiene education, physical activity, psychosocial interventions, and pharmacologic treatments

Survivorship: cognitive function, version 1.2014.

Cognitive impairment is a common complaint among cancer survivors and may be a consequence of the tumors themselves or direct effects of cancer-related treatment (eg, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, radiation). For some survivors, symptoms persist over the long term and, when more severe, can impact quality of life and function. This section of the NCCN Guidelines for Survivorship provides assessment, evaluation, and management recommendations for cognitive dysfunction in survivors. Nonpharmacologic interventions (eg, instruction in coping strategies; management of distress, pain, sleep disturbances, and fatigue; occupational therapy) are recommended, with pharmacologic interventions as a last line of therapy in survivors for whom other interventions have been insufficient

Cyclophosphamide- metabolizing enzyme polymorphisms and survival outcomes after adjuvant chemotherapy for node-positive breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract Introduction Cyclophosphamide-based adjuvant chemotherapy is a mainstay of treatment for women with node-positive breast cancer, but is not universally effective in preventing recurrence. Pharmacogenetic variability in drug metabolism is one possible mechanism of treatment failure. We hypothesize that functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in drug metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) that activate (CYPs) or metabolize (GSTs) cyclophosphamide account for some of the observed variability in disease outcomes. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study of 350 women enrolled in a multicenter, randomized, adjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy trial (ECOG-2190/INT-0121). Subjects in this trial received standard-dose cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and fluorouracil (CAF), followed by either observation or high-dose cyclophosphamide and thiotepa with stem cell rescue. We used bone marrow stem cell-derived genomic DNA from archival specimens to genotype CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, CYP3A4, CYP3A5, GSTM1, GSTT1, and GSTP1. Cox regression models were computed to determine associations between genotypes (individually or in combination) and disease-free survival (DFS) or overall survival (OS), adjusting for confounding clinical variables. Results In the full multivariable analysis, women with at least one CYP3A4 *1B variant allele had significantly worse DFS than those who were wild-type *1A/*1A (multivariate hazard ratio 2.79; 95% CI 1.52, 5.14). CYP2D6 genotype did not impact this association among patients with estrogen receptor (ER) -positive tumors scheduled to receive tamoxifen. Conclusions These data support the hypothesis that genetic variability in cyclophosphamide metabolism independently impacts outcome from adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer