An Unknowable Wildness: An Analysis of Cryptids as Queer Cultural Iconography

This essay examines the rise in cryptids – animals whose existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, or creatures who exist on the margins of biological understanding to the point of being mythical – being claimed by younger queer people as symbols of their outsider status and transgression. Beginning with an analysis of the political resistance that the reclamation of monstrosity makes possible for queer subjects, I argue that “cryptid culture” is a refusal of a politics of assimilation that has lately characterized LGBTQ+ communities. I then argue that this attachment to “cryptid culture” is also indicative of shifts in personal queer identity, reinforcing the centrality of individual transgression, post-structural ambiguity, and playful use of symbolism prompted by digital interaction. Ultimately, the adoption of cryptids as the mascots of young queer communities gestures towards an optimistic commitment to political critique, and provides new directions in which for queer theory to proceed

Mind Over Matter: Accounts of Selfhood in an Age of Theoretical Gender

This paper is a reflection on the rapidly shifting social understandings of gender identity. Using a theoretical framework composed of existentialist thought, cultural critique, empirical research, and post-structuralism, I argue that our understandings of gender identity have shifted towards a model which (following decades of theory) takes lived gender to be malleable and constructed. This has caused a movement away from the centrality of the sexed body in determining gender identity – including transgender identities – which in turn has created unresolved tension regarding what constitutes and validates gender identity as “real” in our narratives of selfhood. This movement away from the solidity of the body includes a movement away from Western mind/body dualism, leaving a gap for a new theoretical order to fill. A discussion of what directions may emerge in new thought about gender identity gesture towards future work in the field

Interpretations of Slope Through Written and Verbal Interactions Between a Student and Her Tutors in Algebra 1

There is an ongoing need to support students’ learning of linear functions, and the study of slope makes up a foundational component of this learning. We applied techniques from systemic functional linguistics to document the meanings that were established through spoken interaction between a student and her tutors during discussions of slope. We found that, while fraction notation gave the student and tutors a common reference point to discuss slope, it also masked important differences in how the student interpreted slope compared to her tutors. The findings of this analysis imply the need not only to attend to how students quantify slope, but also whether students recognize slope as an attribute of a line

Mariner 6 and 7 ultraviolet spectrometer experiment - Upper atmosphere data

Ultraviolet emissum spectrum of Mars upper atmosphere from Mariner 6 and 7 spaceprobe

Far-ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Venus and Mars at 4 A Resolution with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope on Astro-2

Far-ultraviolet spectra of Venus and Mars in the range 820-1840 A at 4 A resolution were obtained on 13 and 12 March 1995, respectively, by the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), which was part of the Astro-2 observatory on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Longward of 1250 A, the spectra of both planets are dominated by emission of the CO Fourth Positive band system and strong OI and CI multiplets. In addition, CO Hopfield-Birge bands, B - X (0,0) at 1151 A and C - X (0,0) at 1088 A, are detected for the first time, and there is a weak indication of the E - X (0,0) band at 1076 A in the spectrum of Venus. The B - X band is blended with emission from OI 1152. Modeling the relative intensities of these bands suggests that resonance fluorescence of CO is the dominant source of the emission, as it is for the Fourth Positive system. Shortward of Lyman-alpha, other emission features detected include OII 834, OI lambda 989, HI Lyman-beta, and NI 1134 and 1200. For Venus, the derived disk brightnesses of the OI, OII, and HI features are about one-half of those reported by Hord et al. (1991) from Galileo EUV measurements made in February 1990. This result is consistent with the expected variation from solar maximum to solar minimum. The ArI 1048, 1066 doublet is detected only in the spectrum of Mars and the derived mixing ratio of Ar is of the order of 2%, consistent with previous determinations.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, July 20, 200

Challenges and Considerations Related to Studying Dementia in Blacks/African Americans

Blacks/African Americans have been reported to be ~2–4 times more likely to develop clinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD) compared to Whites. Unfortunately, study design challenges (e.g., recruitment bias), racism, mistrust of healthcare providers and biomedical researchers, confounders related to socioeconomic status, and other sources of bias are often ignored when interpreting differences in human subjects categorized by race. Failure to account for these factors can lead to misinterpretation of results, reification of race as biology, discrimination, and missed or delayed diagnoses. Here we provide a selected historical background, discuss challenges, present opportunities, and suggest considerations for studying health outcomes among racial/ethnic groups. We encourage neuroscientists to consider shifting away from using biologic determination to interpret data, and work instead toward a paradigm of incorporating both biological and socio-environmental factors known to affect health outcomes with the goal of understanding and improving dementia treatments for Blacks/African Americans and other underserved populations

Estimating the costs for the treatment of abortion complications in two public referral hospitals: a cross-sectional study in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Treatment costs of induced abortion complications can consume a substantial amount of hospital resources. This use of hospitals scarce resources to treat induced abortion complications may affect hospitals’ capacities to deliver other health care services. In spite of the importance of studying the burden of the treatment of induced abortion complications, few studies have been conducted to document the costs of treating abortion complications in Burkina Faso. Our objective was to estimate the costs of six abortion complications including incomplete abortion, hemorrhage, shock, infection/sepsis, cervix or vagina laceration, and uterus perforation treated in two public referral hospital facilities in Ouagadougou and the cost saving of providing safe abortion care services