(Book Review) Third wave feminism and the politics of gender in late modernity, Shelley Budgeon. Palgrave Macmillan (2011), 208 pages, ISBN: 9780230580909

Book revie

Book review: Being an early career feminist academic

Being an Early Career Feminist Academic: Global Perspectives, Experiences and Challenges, edited by Rachel Thwaites and Amy PresslandYoung scholars tell it like it is but is knowledge of replaceability a bar to change? asks Finn Macka

(Book Review) The politics of sex trafficking: A moral geography, Erin O'Brien, Sharon Hayes, Belinda Carpenter. Palgrave Macmillan (2013), 225, ISBN: 9781137003386

Book Revie

A movement of their own: Voices of young feminist activists in the London Feminist Network

A so-called “resurgence” of feminist activism in the UK is currently being reported by journalists, commentators and academics, with young women seemingly at the fore. This is remarkable given the reported backlash against feminism and the widely held view of young people in general, and young women in particular, as politically apathetic.In this qualitative study I focus on eight young feminist activists who arguably form part of this resurgence. All are members of the London Feminist Network, a grassroots, women-only, feminist activist organisation in London, England, UK. Through qualitative interviews I explored their motivations for becoming involved in feminist activism and their perception of the benefits that they gained, including political efficacy. The findings highlight the significance of women-only space in providing such benefits, and expose the impact of sexism in mixed social movements. Sociability and the opportunity to engage in collective political activism emerged as key motivations for joining LFN. Inspirations for joining were often negative, such as the mainstreaming of pornography, and the sexual objectification of women in the media. These were identified as barriers to the equal engagement of women in all political spheres, including social movements

The politics of gender and identity

Can we find a way through and even around the messy “gender wars” currently raging on-and offline? A 2021 profile of Finn Mackay in The Guardian described them as “the writer hoping to help end the gender wars”. However, in the days leading up to this conversation in early April 2022, the UK government reneged on their promise to ban conversion therapy for trans people and Finn acknowledges that the gender wars have significantly worsened in the time following the publication of their book, Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars, in 2021. In this conversation, Finn explores the histories of feminist exclusions; the deepening political antagonism towards the trans community; the performance of gender; and much more

Topological Chaos in Spatially Periodic Mixers

Topologically chaotic fluid advection is examined in two-dimensional flows with either or both directions spatially periodic. Topological chaos is created by driving flow with moving stirrers whose trajectories are chosen to form various braids. For spatially periodic flows, in addition to the usual stirrer-exchange braiding motions, there are additional topologically-nontrivial motions corresponding to stirrers traversing the periodic directions. This leads to a study of the braid group on the cylinder and the torus. Methods for finding topological entropy lower bounds for such flows are examined. These bounds are then compared to numerical stirring simulations of Stokes flow to evaluate their sharpness. The sine flow is also examined from a topological perspective.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures. RevTeX4 style with psfrag macros. Final versio

A Method for Data-Driven Simulations of Evolving Solar Active Regions

We present a method for performing data-driven simulations of solar active region formation and evolution. The approach is based on magnetofriction, which evolves the induction equation assuming the plasma velocity is proportional to the Lorentz force. The simulations of active region coronal field are driven by temporal sequences of photospheric magnetograms from the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Under certain conditions, the data-driven simulations produce flux ropes that are ejected from the modeled active region due to loss of equilibrium. Following the ejection of flux ropes, we find an enhancement of the photospheric horizontal field near the polarity inversion line. We also present a method for the synthesis of mock coronal images based on a proxy emissivity calculated from the current density distribution in the model. This method yields mock coronal images that are somewhat reminiscent of images of active regions taken by instruments such as SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; comments/questions related to this article are welcome via e-mail, even after publicatio

Detection, Localization and Characterization of Gravitational Wave Bursts in a Pulsar Timing Array

Efforts to detect gravitational waves by timing an array of pulsars have focused traditionally on stationary gravitational waves: e.g., stochastic or periodic signals. Gravitational wave bursts --- signals whose duration is much shorter than the observation period --- will also arise in the pulsar timing array waveband. Sources that give rise to detectable bursts include the formation or coalescence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs), the periapsis passage of compact objects in highly elliptic or unbound orbits about a SMBH, or cusps on cosmic strings. Here we describe how pulsar timing array data may be analyzed to detect and characterize these bursts. Our analysis addresses, in a mutually consistent manner, a hierarchy of three questions: \emph{i}) What are the odds that a dataset includes the signal from a gravitational wave burst? \emph{ii}) Assuming the presence of a burst, what is the direction to its source? and \emph{iii}) Assuming the burst propagation direction, what is the burst waveform's time dependence in each of its polarization states? Applying our analysis to synthetic data sets we find that we can \emph{detect} gravitational waves even when the radiation is too weak to either localize the source of infer the waveform, and \emph{detect} and \emph{localize} sources even when the radiation amplitude is too weak to permit the waveform to be determined. While the context of our discussion is gravitational wave detection via pulsar timing arrays, the analysis itself is directly applicable to gravitational wave detection using either ground or space-based detector data.Comment: 43 pages, 13 figures, submitted to ApJ

Strong decline in female sterilization rates in Norway after the introduction of a new copayment system: a registry based study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>January 1, 2002, copayment for outpatient female sterilization in Norwegian public hospitals increased from 33 euros to 750 euros after a revision of the health care system. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the new copayment system on female sterilization epidemiology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We retrieved data on all female sterilizations 1999–2005 (N = 23 1333) from the Norwegian Patient Register, an administrative register to which it is mandatory for all hospitals to report. Sterilizations with diagnostic codes indicative of vaginal delivery, caesarean section, spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy, and termination of pregnancy were analyzed separately. All other sterilizations were defined as "interval sterilization".</p> <p>Results</p> <p>An abrupt fall in female sterilization was observed after the raise in copayment. Age-adjusted incidence rates dropped from 6.3–6.8 per 1000 women in 1999–2001 to 2.2–2.3 per 1000 women during 2002–2005. Interval sterilizations dropped to 25% of the previous level after the rise in copayment while sterilizations in conjunction with caesarean section and postpartum sterilization remained constant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>For many Norwegian women seeking contraception, sterilization is no longer an available alternative.</p