Knowing Nature: Plurinationality and Productivity in Ecuador’s Socialist State

I explore the relationship between Ecuador’s purported disengagement with neoliberalism in 2008, and the simultaneous inclusion of select indigenous knowledge in official state discourse. Focusing on the political space created for indigenous intellectuals, I examine how peasant groups are re-subalternized by claims to have solved the “indigenous question.” I analyze how market relations of power produce new discourses of equal opportunity, as well as new identities (“consumers” and “producers”), and seeks to educate their desires across the class spectrum to cultivate consent for vastly unequal distributions of power. I argue this hegemony is re/produced by a broader demographic than generally acknowledged: not just elites, but subaltern groups as well. Using Ecuador as a case study, my research offers an alternative understanding of how neoliberalism works. Dominant narratives explain the ideology using predominantly political and economic categories of analysis, describing it as a repressive force that privileges elite class projects to accumulate wealth at the expense of society at large. While I agree that neoliberalism exacerbates economic inequalities, I find that political-economic analyses fall short of explaining why hierarchies shaped by market relations of power retain legitimacy despite political revolution and change. I argue that neoliberalism works by allowing subaltern groups to create limited space for themselves through appropriation of market discourses and identities, while simultanesouly excluding the “unproductive” aspects of their subalterneity. I explore how neoliberalism educates the desires of diversely classed groups to maintain its legitimacy as a social, cultural, and political ideology

Promoting the health of refugee women: a scoping literature review incorporating the social ecological model

The health of refugee women after settlement in a new country, can be adversely or positively affected by individual, interpersonal, community, and organizational factors. While much of the previous literature highlights these factors individually, there is a lack of comprehensive synthesis regarding how the factors interact to influence the health of refugee women. We conducted a thematic analysis in our literature review to elucidate how providers can work with refugee women to prevent adverse health outcomes and intervene at multiple levels to improve their health outcomes after resettlement. We reviewed peer-reviewed literature from 2009 to 2019 from Google Scholar, JSTOR, Global Health, PubMed, CINAHL, Sociological Abstracts, and Social Service Abstracts, and also used citation chaining, to identify relevant information pertaining to refugee women’s health. The key terms used for our literature review were, health care, violence, social support, and mental health. In total, we included 52 articles, 3 books, and 8 other sources. We found that refugee women are vulnerable to violence during migration and typically have high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. There were also concerns of secondary victimization by providers after resettlement. We also found that social support is an important factor for reducing isolation, and improving access to health care, as well as improving mental health outcomes. However, social support was often difficult to maintain, and was moderated by factors such as English language fluency. Health care was influenced by health literacy, cultural difference, communication concerns, and access issues. The findings suggest that at the individual and interpersonal levels there is a need to address language barriers, improve provider-patient communication, and provide appropriate medical and mental health screenings. At the organizational level, interorganizational communication and awareness are vital. At the community level, providers can work with community leaders, to educate, create dialogue and collaboration, to help facilitate understanding and bolster community social support. Improved communication and knowledge about the unique needs and concerns of refugee women through an integrated, multi-system approach is necessary to improve their health outcomes

The Lantern, 2012-2013

• How They Run • What Was Said in Boston • On the Last Day of the Month • An Angel Tries to Surprise Humans • I Wonder if God Modeled Boys After Books • Marred with Modern Scars • Feather Bed • Ode to a Pen • Objet Petit A • Breaking News: Grownups Fear Return of Disco • Neuroscience • New Document • We Were Stars, and the Sky was Our Grass • About a Man • Trojan • An Ode • Yr Body Sour • That Lake in Jamaica • Live While Chiefs are Still Fighting • Lament for Mathematics • The Robert Frost House • People Fell in Love on Me • Sunday Review • Looks Silly in Tiny Desk Chairs • Two Years Later • Better Than Nothing • Istanbul • Packs of Cigarettes • Sonnet • Outside King of Steaks • Obstinance • Coffee Grinds • Autumn Equinox • Homecoming • Oh, San Francisco • Slide: A Beginning • Slowly Last Summer • Of Dogs and Men • Letters Not Sent • Before the Race • The Little Things • Tarpon Springs • Payment for Rebellion • Wednesday • When is President\u27s Day? • Heartless Parallels and Perpendiculars • Railway • Presto Agitato • Easier Said Than Done • Waves • Four White Women • Rope • Alter Ego Self Portrait • Pebbles • Coney Island • Guanjuanto • Growth • Evolve • Winter Blackout • Honeybee • Frames • Wanderlust • Guiding Light 1 • Frick\u27s Lock • The Ones That Never Leave • In Memoriam: Rachel Blunthttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1179/thumbnail.jp

The Lantern, 2013-2014

• Strikes • Pietro di Venezia • To the Lover of Small Things • Jim\u27s Big Day • Akademiks • Redamancy • A Love Poem for Arctia Caja • Mother River • The Lyrics to Your Song • Nerves • Gemini Season • White Interface • The Last Time I Played with Dolls • The Mechanic • My Goldfish • Put Down Your Hammer • Strip • Hollywood • Identity • The Grey Zone • Sophia • When I Became a Poet • Unbroken • The Veteran Aeronaut • I Have Running Water but They had the Stars • Not A Nigga • Mother, Adam, Eve • From Fragile Seeds: A Palindrome • Conspiring, The Spires • Finally Working Out What Goes Where (God, For Example, is in His Kingdom) • Identity Crisis • Affection • Patience • An Enchanting Lost Cause • False Starts • Soggy Rice, Lukewarm Water • The Glow • Heat • 9-14 • Filigree • Diane Arbus • Touched • Dying Alive • Just Another Drunkard on the Train • Dinner • The French Legionnaire • Conspiracy and Theory • 1249am • Colored Pencils • Sea Glass • Roundtrip • The Muse Heard Music • Lacrimosa • The Allegory of the Maze • The Stars on Stuart Road • To Isabella • For Want of a Potato Chip • Termite Nests • Saving a Rose • Today and Yesterday • A Foggy New York • Cat; Wurtzburg • Embrace • Faces • Geisha • Pacis Leo • Patterns • Te-Whanganui-a-Tara (The Dock)https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1180/thumbnail.jp

The Physics of the B Factories

This work is on the Physics of the B Factories. Part A of this book contains a brief description of the SLAC and KEK B Factories as well as their detectors, BaBar and Belle, and data taking related issues. Part B discusses tools and methods used by the experiments in order to obtain results. The results themselves can be found in Part C

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Clinical and Metagenomic Characterization of Neurological Infections of People With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the Peruvian Amazon.

BACKGROUND: Neurological opportunistic infections cause significant morbidity and mortality in people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but are difficult to diagnose. METHODS: One hundred forty people with HIV with acute neurological symptoms from Iquitos, Peru, were evaluated for cerebral toxoplasmosis with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and for cryptococcal meningitis with cryptococcal antigen test (CrAg) in serum or CSF. Differences between groups were assessed with standard statistical methods. A subset of samples was evaluated by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of CSF to compare standard diagnostics and identify additional diagnoses. RESULTS: Twenty-seven participants were diagnosed with cerebral toxoplasmosis by qPCR and 13 with cryptococcal meningitis by CrAg. Compared to participants without cerebral toxoplasmosis, abnormal Glasgow Coma Scale score (P = .05), unilateral focal motor signs (P = .01), positive Babinski reflex (P = .01), and multiple lesions on head computed tomography (CT) (P = .002) were associated with cerebral toxoplasmosis. Photophobia (P = .03) and absence of lesions on head CT (P = .02) were associated with cryptococcal meningitis. mNGS of 42 samples identified 8 cases of cerebral toxoplasmosis, 7 cases of cryptococcal meningitis, 5 possible cases of tuberculous meningitis, and incidental detections of hepatitis B virus (n = 1) and pegivirus (n = 1). mNGS had a positive percentage agreement of 71% and a negative percentage agreement of 91% with qPCR for T gondii. mNGS had a sensitivity of 78% and specificity of 100% for Cryptococcus diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: An infection was diagnosed by any method in only 34% of participants, demonstrating the challenges of diagnosing neurological opportunistic infections in this population and highlighting the need for broader, more sensitive diagnostic tests for central nervous system infections