206 research outputs found

    The Place for Theory: Reproductive Justice Discourse in N. K. Jemisin’s \u3ci\u3eThe Fifth Season\u3c/i\u3e

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    In this paper, I demonstrate how N.K. Jemisin, popular science fiction and fantasy author and winner of three Hugo Awards, is in conversation with Reproductive Justice theory in her novel The Fifth Season. I argue that N.K. Jemisin has resisted the hegemonic academic language and rhetoric by creating expansive theory and critique through her many works of speculative fiction and further demonstrate how Jemisin’s approach using literature as her means of production is crucial to her unique way of theorizing.Centrally, through close textual analysis, I argue that through The Fifth Season Jemisin is in conversation with other theorists, such as Loretta J. Ross and Barbara Christian, grappling with the burdens of reproductive injustice for Black women in the United States

    Conditional reasoning test for impression management

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    Individuals engage in impression management behaviors in most social situations. However, one of the most prone settings to impression management is the work context. Even though the extent to which an individual performs impression management behaviors is influenced by situational factors, it is also plausible that there is a dispositional component involved. Therefore, it is important to be able to measure the extent to which individuals are likely to engage in impression management. In this study, an innovative approach to the measurement of impression management is proposed. Specifically, a conditional reasoning test (CRT) is developed to measure impression management propensity. Using 40 CRT items, data were collected from a sample of college students. While some initial evidence of validity is obtained, the items are in need of further refinement. Accordingly, a second round of data collection will be conducted in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the measure

    Formalizing Preferences Over Runtime Distributions

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    When trying to solve a computational problem, we are often faced with a choice between algorithms that are guaranteed to return the right answer but differ in their runtime distributions (e.g., SAT solvers, sorting algorithms). This paper aims to lay theoretical foundations for such choices by formalizing preferences over runtime distributions. It might seem that we should simply prefer the algorithm that minimizes expected runtime. However, such preferences would be driven by exactly how slow our algorithm is on bad inputs, whereas in practice we are typically willing to cut off occasional, sufficiently long runs before they finish. We propose a principled alternative, taking a utility-theoretic approach to characterize the scoring functions that describe preferences over algorithms. These functions depend on the way our value for solving our problem decreases with time and on the distribution from which captimes are drawn. We describe examples of realistic utility functions and show how to leverage a maximum-entropy approach for modeling underspecified captime distributions. Finally, we show how to efficiently estimate an algorithm's expected utility from runtime samples

    Utilitarian Algorithm Configuration

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    We present the first nontrivial procedure for configuring heuristic algorithms to maximize the utility provided to their end users while also offering theoretical guarantees about performance. Existing procedures seek configurations that minimize expected runtime. However, very recent theoretical work argues that expected runtime minimization fails to capture algorithm designers' preferences. Here we show that the utilitarian objective also confers significant algorithmic benefits. Intuitively, this is because mean runtime is dominated by extremely long runs even when they are incredibly rare; indeed, even when an algorithm never gives rise to such long runs, configuration procedures that provably minimize mean runtime must perform a huge number of experiments to demonstrate this fact. In contrast, utility is bounded and monotonically decreasing in runtime, allowing for meaningful empirical bounds on a configuration's performance. This paper builds on this idea to describe effective and theoretically sound configuration procedures. We prove upper bounds on the runtime of these procedures that are similar to theoretical lower bounds, while also demonstrating their performance empirically

    Gender-specific aspects in the clinical presentation of cardiovascular disease

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    More than a quarter of a million women die each year in the industrialized countries from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and current projections indicate that this number will continue to rise with our ageing population. Important sex-related differences in the prevalence, presentation, management and outcomes of different CVD have discovered in the last two decades of cardiovascular research. Nevertheless, much evidence supporting contemporary recommendations for testing, prevention and treatment of CVD in women is still extrapolated from studies conducted predominantly in men. The compendium of CVD indicates that current research and strategy development must focus on gender-specific issues to address the societal burden and costs related to these incremental shifts in female gender involvement. Indeed, this significant burden of CVD in women places unique diagnostic, treatment and financial encumbrances on our society that are only further intensified by a lack of public awareness about the disease on the part of patients and clinicians alike. This societal burden of the disease is, in part, related to our poor understanding of gender-specific pathophysiologic differences in the presentation and prognosis of CVD and the paucity of diagnostic and treatment guidelines tailored to phenotypic differences in women. In this, scenario is of outmost importance to know these differences to provide the best care for female patients, because under-recognition of CVD in women may contribute to a worse clinical outcome. This review will provide a synopsis of available evidence on gender-based differences in the initial presentation, pathophysiology and clinical outcomes of women affected by CVD. © 2010 The Authors Fundamental and Clinical Pharmacology © Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique

    Effects of periadolescent fluoxetine and paroxetine on elevated plus-maze, acoustic startle, and swimming immobility in rats while on and off-drug

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Rationale</p> <p>Whether selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) exposure during adolescent brain development causes lasting effects remains unresolved.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>Assess the effects of fluoxetine and paroxetine 60 days after adolescent exposure compared with when on-drug.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male Sprague-Dawley littermates (41 litters) were gavaged on postnatal days 33-53 with fluoxetine (3 or 10 mg/kg/day), paroxetine (3, 10 or, 17 mg/kg/day), or water; half were tested while on-drug (21 litters) and half after 60 days off-drug (20 litters).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The highest dose of the drugs reduced body weight gain during treatment that rebounded 1 week post-treatment. On-drug, no significant group differences were found on elevated plus maze time-in-open, zone entries, or latency to first open entry; however, the high dose of paroxetine significantly reduced head-dips (N = 20/group). No significant effects were found on-drug for acoustic startle response/prepulse inhibition (ASR/PPI) although a trend (p < 0.10) was seen, which after combining dose levels, showed a significant increase in ASR amplitude for both fluoxetine and paroxetine (N = 20-21/group). No differences on immobility time were seen in the Porsolt forced swim test or in plasma corticosterone at the end of forced swim (N-19-21/group). Off-drug, no effects were seen in the elevated plus maze (N = 16/group), ASR/PPI (N = 20/group), forced swim (N = 19-20/group), or plasma corticosterone (N = 19/group). At the doses tested, fluoxetine and paroxetine induced minor effects with drug on-board but no residual, long-term adverse effects in rats 60 days after drug discontinuation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The data provide no evidence that fluoxetine or paroxetine have long-term adverse effects on the behaviors measured here after adolescent to young adult exposure.</p

    Anatomy & Physiology

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    1. An Introduction to the Human Body2. The Chemical Level of Organization3. The Cellular Level of Organization4. The Tissue Level of Organization5. The Integumentary System6. Bone Tissue and the Skeletal System7. Axial Skeleton8. The Appendicular Skeleton9. Joints10. Muscle Tissue11. The Muscular System12. The Nervous System and Nervous Tissue13. The Peripheral Nervous System14. The Central Nervous System15. The Special Senses16. The Autonomic Nervous System17. The Endocrine System18. The Cardiovascular System: Blood19. The Cardiovascular System: The Heart20. The Cardiovascular System: Blood Vessels and Circulation21. The Lymphatic and Immune System22. The Respiratory System23. The Digestive System24. Metabolism and Nutrition25. The Urinary System26. Fluid, Electrolyte, and Acid-Base Balance27. The Sexual Systems28. Development and InheritanceAn adapted version of the OpenStax Anatomy & Physiology (https://openstax.org/details/books/anatomy-and-physiology) with revised content and artwork, Open Oregon State, Oregon State University. Anatomy and Physiology is a dynamic textbook for the yearlong Human Anatomy and Physiology course taught at most two- and four-year colleges and universities to students majoring in nursing and allied health. A&P is 28 chapters of pedagogically effective learning content, organized by body system, and written at an audience-appropriate level. The lucid text, strategically constructed art, inspiring career features, and links to external learning tools address the critical teaching and learning challenges in the course
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