The Siren of San Francisco

The Siren of San Francisco is a story I have been interested in telling for the longest time focusing on the coming of age of the main character, Mia, and how she deals with change through gaining the power of shapeshifting. A lot of the graphic novel explores the relationships between Mia, her mom, and her close friends and how her relationships with them change during this transitional period. The driving force behind this story was my enduring interest in relationships, identity, feminism, and how people can shape the people around them, including themselves. I approached this particular story from a feminist angle; interested in the ways women interact and relate to one another. There’s been a wave of feminist graphic novels that touch on this subject but The Siren of San Francisco is unique because it doesn\u27t commodify feminist ideals; it allows its female characters to simply be characters without limiting them to feminist role models. I wanted the graphic novel to feel more personal, so I took pieces from my own experiences coming of age…after all, centering experience is a tenet of feminist ideology. The Siren of San Francisco deconstructs the superhero and coming of age genre, expressing the myriad of ways femininity can be expressed and experienced. The graphic novel is more a coming of age story rather than a classic superhero origin story; it’s more focused on the friendships and relationships of the main character and how she navigates change through the lens of the “classic” superpower of shape-shifting. The graphic novel and subsequent afterword, I explore what it means to have a “strong female character” without limiting such characters to one experience. To discuss this, I explore the idea of loving perception, or understanding through relating to other people’s experiences, and implement these concepts into the characters themselves

Aerosolized Influenza Infection During Late Gestation Pregnancy in the Ferrot Model

Human pregnancy is known to predispose women to disproportionate morbidity and mortality from influenza infection. Limited investigation has been performed to understand the mechanism(s) of increased risk. Investigation of a pregnant ferret model was undertaken using aerosolized 2009 pH1N1 influenza. Pregnant ferrets demonstrated worse clinical disease and increased pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression levels, notably IL-6 and IL-10 in the lung and at the maternal/fetal interface but not the spleen. Influenza virus was detected by semi-quantitative RT-PCR in many tissues including the placenta and kits but not the uterus of the non-pregnant ferrets, suggesting placental-fetal transmission. No obvious difference in lung pathology was observed between the pregnant and age-matched controls. Further model development is warranted to elucidate mechanisms that cause greater disease during pregnancy and effects of maternal disease on fetal outcomes. Ultimately, this model would further aid in investigating countermeasures against influenza during pregnancy. The public health significance of this study is that by establishing a pertinent influenza pregnant animal model, answers to translational questions about the effectiveness of therapeutics and when treatment would be most effective could be investigated, potentially lowering the amount of lives lost,hospitalization rates, and economic burden caused by this health disparity

The Changing Dynamics Of A Japanese Company Amid The Globalizing Business Environment: A Case Study Of Hitachi Construction Machinery Company

Japan’s mature market combined with its decreasing population has left little room for domestic market expansion. Because of this, many Japanese companies have been required to explore overseas markets in order to maintain and expand their sales revenue. While numerous Japanese companies have struggled to adapt to globalization, Hitachi Ltd., a Japanese multinational conglomerate, has become a frontrunner in its organizational transformation. A recent example is its move from the traditional, seniority and lifelong employment system to a merit-based salary system, which aims to attract talented, high-level workers overseas. Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), one of Hitachi’s eleven businesses, is an excellent case study of how Japanese companies are changing in response to globalization. Three research groups investigated this on-going, momentous transformation of a representative of Japan Inc., HCM, through first-hand experiences and semi-structured interviews with company representatives throughout Japan. The research included in-depth investigations of how globalization has affected HCM in three areas: language, cultural, and unification training processes; human resource management; and reaction to global environmental issues through its product lines

SoK: Safer Digital-Safety Research Involving At-Risk Users

Research involving at-risk users -- that is, users who are more likely to experience a digital attack or to be disproportionately affected when harm from such an attack occurs -- can pose significant safety challenges to both users and researchers. Nevertheless, pursuing research in computer security and privacy is crucial to understanding how to meet the digital-safety needs of at-risk users and to design safer technology for all. To standardize and bolster safer research involving such users, we offer an analysis of 196 academic works to elicit 14 research risks and 36 safety practices used by a growing community of researchers. We pair this inconsistent set of reported safety practices with oral histories from 12 domain experts to contribute scaffolded and consolidated pragmatic guidance that researchers can use to plan, execute, and share safer digital-safety research involving at-risk users. We conclude by suggesting areas for future research regarding the reporting, study, and funding of at-risk user researchComment: 13 pages, 3 table

Why do lifespan variability trends for the young and old diverge? A perturbation analysis

Background: Variation in lifespan has followed strikingly different trends for the young and old: while overall lifespan variability has decreased as life expectancy at birth has risen, the variability conditional on survival to older ages has increased. These diverging trends reflect changes in the underlying demographic parameters determining age-specific mortality. Objective: We ask why the variation in the adult ages at death has followed a different trend than the variation at younger ages, and aim to explain the diverging patterns in terms of historical changes in the age schedule of mortality. Methods: Using simulations, we show that the empirical trends in lifespan variation are well characterized using the Siler model, which describes the mortality hazard across the full lifespan using functions representing early-life, later-life, and background mortality. We then obtain maximum likelihood estimates of the Siler parameters over time. Finally, we express lifespan variation in terms of a Markov chain model, and apply matrix calculus perturbation analysis to compute the sensitivity of age-specific lifespan variance trends to the changing Siler model parameters. Results: Our analysis produces a detailed quantification of the impact of changing demographic parameters on the pattern of lifespan variability at all ages, highlighting the impact of declining childhood mortality on the reduction of lifespan variability and the impact of improved survival in adulthood on the rising variability of lifespans at older ages. Conclusions: These findings provide insight into the dynamic relationship between the age pattern of survival improvements and time trends in lifespan variability

Role of the Mannose Receptor (CD206) in Innate Immunity to Ricin Toxin

The entry of ricin toxin into macrophages and certain other cell types in the spleen and liver results in toxin-induced inflammation, tissue damage and organ failure. It has been proposed that uptake of ricin into macrophages is facilitated by the mannose receptor (MR; CD206), a C-type lectin known to recognize the oligosaccharide side chains on ricin’s A (RTA) and B (RTB) subunits. In this study, we confirmed that the MR does indeed promote ricin binding, uptake and killing of monocytes in vitro. To assess the role of MR in the pathogenesis of ricin in vivo, MR knockout (MR−/−) mice were challenged with the equivalent of 2.5× or 5× LD50 of ricin by intraperitoneal injection. We found that MR−/− mice were significantly more susceptible to toxin-induced death than their age-matched, wild-type control counterparts. These data are consistent with a role for the MR in scavenging and degradation of ricin, not facilitating its uptake and toxicity in vivo

Spatially clustered resources increase male aggregation and mating duration in Drosophila melanogaster

In environments where females mate multiply, males should adjust their behaviour and physiology in response to the perceived level of sperm competition to maximize their fitness. Evidence of such plasticity has been found in several laboratory and field studies, but little is known about the cues stimulating these responses in natural populations. One way in which males appear to assess sperm competition risk is through encounter rates with conspecific males. Such encounter rates may be driven by the spatial distribution of resources required by males (i.e. food patches or potential mates), which in turn affects local density. However, explicit links between resource distribution, male encounter rates and shifts in behaviour related to sperm competition have not been demonstrated. We found that when group size of Drosophila melanogaster males was held constant, a small decrease in the distance between patches of food resources had striking effects on male behaviour. Compared to those from dispersed resources, males on clustered resources had a significantly reduced intermale distance (and hence encounter rate) and subsequently a longer noncompetitive copulation duration, previously shown to be a reliable indicator of male perception of sperm competition risk. The aggregation of resources, operating via increased encounter rate, can stimulate shifts in behaviour affecting male sperm competition performance. Given that the spatial distribution of resources is typically variable in natural populations (and often unpredictable), selection is likely to favour the evolution of plasticity in sexual behaviour where resource aggregation increases the probability of sperm competition