Tourism and gender research in Brazil and Mexico.

Tourism and gender research emerged during the 1990s in the Anglophone academies. Despite the sociocultural improvement in gender studies, tourism and gender research remains a marginal and disarticulated subfield of studies three decades later, with limited impact on the broader tourism scholarship and on practical transformations at the destination level. In Latin America, tourism gender research was introduced towards the beginning of the 21st century and apart from the limitations identified in the Anglophone academies, the lack of engagement with gender and feminist debates has contributed to marginalise this subfield of research. The gender dimensions of tourism have been examined mainly through social science frameworks. Even though tourism has been considered an interdisciplinary field of study, gender mainstreaming has been neglected as a relevant approach to research. Despite its limitations, tourism gender research in Latin America has made power relations visible in a wide array of tourism practices. The introduction of gender perspectives has facilitated the analysis of other hierarchical categories such as race, ethnicity, class or sexual orientation. Drawing insights from a recent bibliometric analysis of the tourism and gender scholarship in Latin America for the period 2001-2015, this paper continues a previous work and focuses on the production of the two leading countries in the region: Brazil and Mexico. Content analysis was conducted on a selection of 107 articles (64 from Brazil and 43 from Mexico). The purpose of the analysis was twofold: first, to identify the main research topics, and second, to examine the links with feminist or gender frameworks. Findings show these links are weak, and opportunities were detected to strengthen the association of tourism research with the social sciences through analysis that incorporate cultural and gender dimensions at the macro or micro levels. Finally, we discuss areas for interdisciplinary collaboration with feminist traditions, such as intersectionality and transnationalism that may contribute to advance tourism gender research in the region

The Molecular Basis of Hereditary Enamel Defects in Humans

The formation of human enamel is highly regulated at the molecular level and involves thousands of genes. Requisites for development of this highly mineralized tissue include cell differentiation; production of a unique extracellular matrix; processing of the extracellular matrix; altering of cell function during different stages of enamel formation; cell movement and attachment; regulation of ion and protein movement; and regulation of hydration, pH, and other conditions of the microenvironment, to name just a few. Not surprising, there is a plethora of hereditary conditions with an enamel phenotype. The objective of this review was to identify the hereditary conditions listed on Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) that have an associated enamel phenotype and whether a causative gene has been identified. The OMIM database was searched with the terms amelogenesis, enamel, dental, and tooth, and all results were screened by 2 individuals to determine if an enamel phenotype was identified. Gene and gene product function was reviewed on OMIM and from publications identified in PubMed. The search strategy revealed 91 conditions listed in OMIM as having an enamel phenotype, and of those, 71 have a known molecular etiology or linked genetic loci. The purported protein function of those conditions with a known genetic basis included enzymes, regulatory proteins, extracellular matrix proteins, transcription factors, and transmembrane proteins. The most common enamel phenotype was a deficient amount of enamel, or enamel hypoplasia, with hypomineralization defects being reported less frequently. Knowing these molecular defects allows an initial cataloging of molecular pathways that lead to hereditary enamel defects in humans. This knowledge provides insight into the diverse molecular pathways involved in enamel formation and can be useful when searching for the genetic etiology of hereditary conditions that involve enamel

Change within the change: Pregnancy, liminality and adventure tourism in Mexico

Despite the growing number of pregnant women engaging in outdoor adventure activities, very few studies have explored pregnancy or the specific needs and challenges of pregnant women in tourism research. To fill this gap in the literature, we examine the participation of pregnant women in adventure tourism through the theoretical lens of liminality. Conceptualising pregnancy as a liminal stage in which women are ‘suspended’ between two statuses, opens diverse possibilities to delve into women’s experiences of embodiment, bodily image and control. In this sense, pregnancy is understood as an ‘internal change’, which adds specific challenges to women’s practice of adventure tourism, including bodily changes and different perceptions of risk-taking. Similarly, the context of adventure tourism provides an ideal space to reflect on liminal transitions and the ‘outside changes’ that pregnant women go through in the predominantly masculinised spaces that characterise this tourism segment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 Mexican women who actively pursue adventure tourism and who had engaged in these activities during at least one pregnancy. The analysis indicates the importance of norms and social expectations experienced by pregnant women when doing adventure tourism. The concept of the ‘rhizomatic body’ proved to be a valuable tool when looking at the social taboos, prohibitions and rules that apply to pregnant women in specific sociocultural contexts (in this case, Mexico). By reframing and reconceptualising pregnant women and their practice of adventure activities, the social construction of pregnancy is elucidated. Finally, the study contributes to the understanding of alternative models and experiences of being a woman in gendered spaces, while shedding light on relevant behavioural patterns among pregnant tourists and the sociocultural impacts of these patterns

Mexican women’s emotions to resist gender stereotypes in rural tourism work

The study of emotions and their role in ordering social life has been a fruitful feminist contribution to cultural and social studies. Under this theoretical perspective, affective or emotional responses illustrate women’s strategies to cope with or resist productive and spatial limitations produced by traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Since the 2000s, tourism and gender researchers have turned their attention to emotions, however in particular niches, such as rural tourism, there is limited exploration of the intersection of emotions and gender stereotypes. To address this gap, we rely on Ahmed’s framework on emotions and other theoretical contributions on socio-cultural spaces, embodied emotions, affective practices and gendered work to investigate gender roles, stereotypes and tourism productive and spatial relations in Mexican rural contexts. The main objective is to shed light on roles and gender stereotypes and their connections with the affective spatial practices experienced by women. A total of 49 Mexican women were interviewed from 2015 to 2018. Qualitative content analysis is employed to examine interview data, using inductive and deductive approaches. In addition, non-participant observation, document review, and field notes enrich and complement the interview data. The findings highlight how emotions mediate women’s lived experiences of gendered rural tourism work and the potential of emotional responses to contest social norms in opening new paths to surpass women’s relatively weaker positions in rural societies and to negotiate inequalities. Concluding thoughts focus on the contradictory messages experienced by women and the tensions generated in both the family and the community, while highlighting the importance of gender mainstreaming strategies and proposing a framework to contest traditional gender roles and to improve women’s affective spatial practices in rural contexts

The Molecular Basis of Hereditary Enamel Defects in Humans

The formation of human enamel is highly regulated at the molecular level and involves thousands of genes. Requisites for development of this highly mineralized tissue include cell differentiation; production of a unique extracellular matrix; processing of the extracellular matrix; altering of cell function during different stages of enamel formation; cell movement and attachment; regulation of ion and protein movement; and regulation of hydration, pH, and other conditions of the microenvironment, to name just a few. Not surprising, there is a plethora of hereditary conditions with an enamel phenotype. The objective of this review was to identify the hereditary conditions listed on Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) that have an associated enamel phenotype and whether a causative gene has been identified. The OMIM database was searched with the terms amelogenesis, enamel, dental, and tooth, and all results were screened by 2 individuals to determine if an enamel phenotype was identified. Gene and gene product function was reviewed on OMIM and from publications identified in PubMed. The search strategy revealed 91 conditions listed in OMIM as having an enamel phenotype, and of those, 71 have a known molecular etiology or linked genetic loci. The purported protein function of those conditions with a known genetic basis included enzymes, regulatory proteins, extracellular matrix proteins, transcription factors, and transmembrane proteins. The most common enamel phenotype was a deficient amount of enamel, or enamel hypoplasia, with hypomineralization defects being reported less frequently. Knowing these molecular defects allows an initial cataloging of molecular pathways that lead to hereditary enamel defects in humans. This knowledge provides insight into the diverse molecular pathways involved in enamel formation and can be useful when searching for the genetic etiology of hereditary conditions that involve enamel

Body mass index and complications following major gastrointestinal surgery: A prospective, international cohort study and meta-analysis

Aim Previous studies reported conflicting evidence on the effects of obesity on outcomes after gastrointestinal surgery. The aims of this study were to explore the relationship of obesity with major postoperative complications in an international cohort and to present a metaanalysis of all available prospective data. Methods This prospective, multicentre study included adults undergoing both elective and emergency gastrointestinal resection, reversal of stoma or formation of stoma. The primary end-point was 30-day major complications (Clavien–Dindo Grades III–V). A systematic search was undertaken for studies assessing the relationship between obesity and major complications after gastrointestinal surgery. Individual patient meta-analysis was used to analyse pooled results. Results This study included 2519 patients across 127 centres, of whom 560 (22.2%) were obese. Unadjusted major complication rates were lower in obese vs normal weight patients (13.0% vs 16.2%, respectively), but this did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.863) on multivariate analysis for patients having surgery for either malignant or benign conditions. Individual patient meta-analysis demonstrated that obese patients undergoing surgery formalignancy were at increased risk of major complications (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.49–2.96, P < 0.001), whereas obese patients undergoing surgery for benign indications were at decreased risk (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.46–0.75, P < 0.001) compared to normal weight patients. Conclusions In our international data, obesity was not found to be associated with major complications following gastrointestinal surgery. Meta-analysis of available prospective data made a novel finding of obesity being associated with different outcomes depending on whether patients were undergoing surgery for benign or malignant disease