Third Wave Language in Bust and Bitch Magazine

Where does feminism fall in contemporary American culture? Has it lost its relevance as a result of waning interest in feminist politics? In today’s feminist troupe, a culture of inheritance has stepped into many of the advantages the Second Wave pushed so hard to acquire. What becomes the point of contention is the approach these inheritors now take to feminism or, more so, the perception of the Third Wave by its predecessors, as well as the persistent misrepresentation of feminism by mass culture. A great amount of speculation exists about the movement of feminism since the heyday of the Second Wave. While the tension between Second Wave and Backlash seems to stem from two conflicting opinions, the tension between Second and Third Wave takes on a parent-child relationship. What seems to have been handed over to the Third Wave is in actuality being dealt with simultaneously by both groups. The difference that seems to create friction is the approach each group takes to these issues, each with differing historical contexts. The subjects of this discussion of the Third Wave agenda are Bust and Bitch Magazine. While Bust Magazine is a feminist parody of more conventional, mass- media magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Vogue, and, for younger women, Seventeen, Bitch Magazine is a self-titled critique of popular culture that physically stays close to its zine roots. The significance of these two choices is their proximity to both mainstream publications and small press zines. As it blurs the lines between magazine genres, this duality helps to establish a space for feminist growth. This paper will show that both magazines function within a Third Wave perspective, embody the goals and ideals of the Third Wave, and work as politically empowering sources for contemporary Third Wave Feminists. They also embody the basic concept of zine feminism in their construction and content. In doing so, these two magazines are in the process of creating an alternative female visual representation through a postmodern fracturing of imagery and also work to create a Third Wave Feminist terminology that, despite existing in the space of media, is actively resisting restrictive patriarchal language. Linguistically, though Bust and Bitch Magazine may not necessarily offer up new academic terminology in their wordplay, they are resisting the assumed writing standards for magazines. Although, both magazines provide visual aid for their readers, thus perpetuating the process of learning how to “gaze” at oneself, it also functions as a forum for female agency. Women see fragments of the female body and, by virtue of this fragmentation, are forced to put the picture together, hence their own interpretation. They begin to read visualization more actively, engaging in the process of their own bodily socialization. The feminist significance of these magazines and in this analysis is the attention paid to how each group continues to function as a feminist entity; however, more important is the ultimate discussion of where the feminist movement as a whole needs to go. What seems to continue to be a point of contention for feminists and non feminists alike is the connotation of feminism both linguistically and conceptually. For this reason, the greater issue is not whether these publications are truly feminist or if the Third Wave is fulfilling feminist ideals, but how feminism is being presented, where it diverges from Second Wave ideas and the significance of this divergence

Gamification in Proprietary Innovation: Identifying a Technical Framework Based on Patent Data.

This paper reveals dominant patterns of gamification in proprietary innovation and develops a technical framework. In recent years, a rash increase in securitizing gamification-related inventions has taken place. By analyzing the content of 134 unique patents from USPTO and EPO with an in-depth raw data text analysis, the technical background is explored holistically. To discover meaningful patterns and thus to derive implications from the patent data they are visually summarized. Especially predominant are the topics of device, data, user and game. Based on the nature of the data, being evidence-based and future directed, our technical framework integrates these patterns and sets it into relation. An additional analysis provides further insights into fundamental game elements. As patents serve as a decisive indicator of future product introductions, the information gathered in this paper represents essential strategic information to guide practitioners and researchers in the area of gamification

Colonization dynamics of oro-gastrointestinal microbes critical to infant health

The gastrointestinal microbiota is intimately tied to a person’s health and well-being. This collection of bacteria, archaea, and fungi is assembled during a person’s infancy and achieves the stability of an “adult-like” microbiota in early childhood. Research has begun to uncover several host and external factors that influence the rate and course of assemblage. Historically, the immune system was considered the primary driver of microbial balance in the gastrointestinal tract. While the immune system is certainly a key component, research has now identified the importance of, among others, an infant’s route of delivery, gestational age, early-life diet, and exposure to antibiotics. This dissertation has evaluated the modulation of the gut microbiota following exposure to fermentable carbohydrates and explored the pathogenesis of two important infantile pathogens. At birth, an infant’s gastrointestinal microbiota is largely devoid of bifidobacteria, and within the first week, this bacterial genus dominates the community. It is well-known that breastmilk contains oligosaccharides that promote the growth of bifidobacteria. However, formula-fed infants lack access to these carbohydrates and have a delayed establishment of bifidobacteria. Therefore, infant formula companies began supplementing bovine and soy-based infant formulas with prebiotics. Prebiotics, non-digestible carbohydrates that promote bacterial growth, stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in infants. Microbial analysis of infants fed prebiotics is restricted to measuring alterations in the fecal microbiota. Typically, prebiotics are fermented in the ascending colon, and the fecal microbiota may not be an appropriate representative of the colonic microbiota. In Chapter 2, the impact of galactooligosaccharides and polydextrose on the ileal and ascending colon microbiota of neonatal piglets was evaluated. More specifically, hundreds of lactobacilli were isolated and sequenced to characterize the lactobacilli community composition. Additionally, these lactobacilli isolates were evaluated for their ability to ferment galactooligosaccharides and polydextrose. It was hypothesized that exposure to galactooligosaccharides and polydextrose would promote a lactobacilli community more capable of fermenting these prebiotics in vitro. While a significant increase of lactobacilli in the ascending colon of prebiotic-exposed piglets was observed, the lactobacilli community was not more capable of fermenting galactooligosaccharides and polydextrose than lactobacilli isolated from piglets never exposed to these prebiotics. Therefore, it was concluded that the observed increase was not due to a direct ability to ferment the provided prebiotics, but rather due to factors not directly measured. An additional concern with prebiotic supplementation in infant formula is the promotion of pathogenic microorganisms. In preterm infants, the gastrointestinal tract lacks the maturity of term infants. A severe consequence of an immature gastrointestinal tract is an increased risk of local and disseminated infections. A common secondary complication is consumption of infant formula, lacking human milk oligosaccharides, rather than breastmilk. As observed in Chapter 2, the exposure to prebiotics did not directly stimulate lactobacilli in vivo. A potential mechanism is a cooperative breakdown of prebiotics in the gastrointestinal tract by other microbes. Several commensal microbes are strongly glycolytic and liberate mono- and disaccharides from fermentable fibers and the gastrointestinal mucin layer. These liberated carbohydrates are available for any microorganisms capable of utilization. Therefore, the presence of prebiotics in the gastrointestinal tract may lead to an increase in pathogenic microorganisms. The study presented in Chapter 3 explored the ability of several Enterobacteriaceae, a bacterial family that includes common neonatal pathogens, to ferment a variety of prebiotics and human milk oligosaccharides. The ability to utilize prebiotics for growth was strain-dependent. Galactooligosaccharides supported the growth of many Enterobacteriaceae, whereas fructooligosaccharides were less fermentable. Fortunately, Enterobacteriaceae were incapable of fermenting the intact human milk oligosaccharides tested. Conversely, several Enterobacteriaceae were capable of fermenting the mono- and disaccharides that comprise the human milk oligosaccharides. Taken together, the inclusion of prebiotics and human milk oligosaccharides in infant formula can increase health-promoting microorganisms while conversely, promoting pathogenic microorganisms. While prebiotics and human milk oligosaccharides can support the growth of health-promoting microbes, exposure to pathogenic microorganisms is inevitable. Once in an infant’s gastrointestinal tract, pathogenic microbes upregulate virulence traits and begin an infection. In Chapter 4, the mechanism of autoaggregation in the neonatal pathogen, Cronobacter sakazakii ATCC 29544 (wild-type) is described. Upon isolation of two independent nonautoaggregating clonal variants, two unique single nucleotide polymorphisms in the flagella proteins, FlhA and FliG, were identified. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that structurally intact and functional flagella were required for autoaggregation in C. sakazakii ATCC 29544. Several gene knockouts were constructed to target the flagella structure (ΔflhA, ΔfliG, ΔfliC, ΔflaA, and ΔfliCΔflaA) and function (ΔmotAB). A loss in autoaggregation in ΔflhA, ΔfliG, and ΔfliC gene knockouts was observed, whereas ΔflaA and ΔmotAB retained the ability to autoaggregate. Complementation of FliC restored autoaggregation to the ΔfliC and ΔfliCΔflaA strains. Therefore, it was hypothesized that a direct interaction between FliC filaments of neighboring cells allowed autoaggregation to proceed. Autoaggregation was disrupted following the addition of detached wild-type flagella in a dose-dependent manner. It was concluded that flagellation with FliC mediates direct interactions between neighboring C. sakazakii ATCC 29544 cells which promote autoaggregation. Further experiments utilizing animal models will need to be conducted to determine if autoaggregation in C. sakazakii ATCC 29544 is necessary for its pathogenesis in vivo. In Chapter 5, a model for Candida albicans colonization in neonatal piglets was developed. C. albicans is a commensal fungus for which colonization mechanisms are understudied. A surveillance analysis identified a C. albicans–negative piglet population at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, which provided the basis for the work. Neonatal piglets were orally inoculated with either a laboratory strain, piglet, or human isolate of C. albicans. C. albicans was present on swabs of the mouth, rectum, and environment for at least 14 days post-inoculation demonstrating stable colonization of the animals. Necropsy showed that C. albicans most readily colonized the piglet esophagus. This model provides an opportunity for subsequent studies of C. albicans colonization mechanisms.Ope

For the Love of It?: Zine Writing and the Study of Contemporary Amateur Work

In this project, I am examining zines in relation to the question of contemporary amateurism. With the onset of Web 2.0 came a space for new forms of amateur work, but this new work hasn’t been addressed as “amateur,” which has revealed a problem between what theorists know the amateur to be and what has been embraced by mainstream culture. This oversimplification of the definition of amateurism seems to threaten the integrity of amateur work in general. I analyze the concepts “transparency” and “distance” and show that both highlight the need for preserving the amateur. I confront the notion of “for the love it” by interrogating the boundaries that zine writers have established and the misperception that zine work somehow remains on the fringe of capitalist culture. Moreover, I identify the Pro Am (professional amateur) as the most significant contemporary amateur figure because it directly challenges not only what it means to be professional, but also what it means to be amateur. By examining perzines and glossies, I argue that while “for the love of it” has been downplayed or even ignored, internal rewards are still an important factor in what makes an act amateur and that external rewards don’t always have to be monetary. I argue that a better understanding of amateurism via the amateurs doing their work calls attention to the way that individuals are self-identifying as amateurs and shows that zine writers maintain the distance and transparency that is seen as a necessity of amateur work. I find that zine writers demonstrate this preservation of amateur space in successful ways until they are confronted with the issue of Pro Am work. It is at this point that they fail to embrace a diverse definition of amateur work, which is necessary to understanding what kind of space glossies occupy and how they are valuable to amateurism. The zine community ends up rejecting a body of publications that directly interact with and challenge professional magazine work. By alienating these publications, they lose out on the opportunity to alter the mainstream magazines their zines are working so hard to change

PARMA-CC: Parallel Multiphase Approximate Cluster Combining

Clustering is a common component in data analysis applications. Despite the extensive literature, the continuously increasing volumes of data produced by sensors (e.g. rates of several MB/s by 3D scanners such as LIDAR sensors), and the time-sensitivity of the applications leveraging the clustering outcomes (e.g. detecting critical situations, that are known to be accuracy-dependent), demand for novel approaches that respond faster while coping with large data sets. The latter is the challenge we address in this paper. We propose an algorithm, PARMA-CC, that complements existing density-based and distance-based clustering methods. PARMA-CC is based on approximate, data parallel cluster combining, where parallel threads can compute summaries of clusters of data (sub)sets and, through combining, together construct a comprehensive summary of the sets of clusters. By approximating clusters with their respective geometrical summaries, our technique scales well with increased data volumes, and, by computing and efficiently combining the summaries in parallel, it enables latency improvements. PARMA-CC combines the summaries using special data structures that enable parallelism through in-place data processing. As we show in our analysis and evaluation, PARMA-CC can complement and outperform well-established methods, with significantly better scalability, while still providing highly accurate results in a variety of data sets, even with skewed data distributions, which cause the traditional approaches to exhibit their worst-case behaviour. In the paper we also describe how PARMA-CC can facilitate time-critical applications through appropriate use of the summaries

ESROCOS: a robotic operating system for space and terrestrial applications

ESROCOS (http://www.h2020-esrocos.eu) is a European Project in the frame of the PERASPERA SRC, (http://www.h2020-peraspera.eu/), targeting the design of a Robot Control Operating Software (RCOS) for space robotics applications. The goal of the ESROCOS project is to provide an open-source framework to assist in the development of flight software for space robots, providing adequate features and performance with space-grade Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) properties. This paper presents the ESROCOS project and summarizes the approach and the current status

Constitutive Endocytosis and Degradation of the Pre-T Cell Receptor

The pre-T cell receptor (TCR) signals constitutively in the absence of putative ligands on thymic stroma and signal transduction correlates with translocation of the pre-TCR into glycolipid-enriched microdomains (rafts) in the plasma membrane. Here, we show that the pre-TCR is constitutively routed to lysosomes after reaching the cell surface. The cell-autonomous down-regulation of the pre-TCR requires activation of the src-like kinase p56lck, actin polymerization, and dynamin. Constitutive signaling and degradation represents a feature of the pre-TCR because the γδTCR expressed in the same cell line does not exhibit these features. This is also evident by the observation that the protein adaptor/ubiquitin ligase c-Cbl is phosphorylated and selectively translocated into rafts in pre-TCR– but not γδTCR-expressing cells. A role of c-Cbl–mediated ubiquitination in pre-TCR degradation is supported by the reduction of degradation through pharmacological inhibition of the proteasome and through a dominant-negative c-Cbl ubiquitin ligase as well as by increased pre-TCR surface expression on immature thymocytes in c-Cbl–deficient mice. The pre-TCR internalization contributes significantly to the low surface level of the receptor on developing T cells, and may in fact be a requirement for optimal pre-TCR function

Pathogen-reactive T helper cell analysis in the pig

There is growing interest in studying host-pathogen interactions in human-relevant large animal models such as the pig. Despite the progress in developing immunological reagents for porcine T cell research, there is an urgent need to directly assess pathogen-specific T cells-an extremely rare population of cells, but of upmost importance in orchestrating the host immune response to a given pathogen. Here, we established that the activation marker CD154 (CD40L), known from human and mouse studies, identifies also porcine antigen-reactive CD4(+) T lymphocytes. CD154 expression was upregulated early after antigen encounter and CD4(+)CD154(+) antigen-reactive T cells coexpressed cytokines. Antigen-induced expansion and autologous restimulation enabled a time-and dose-resolved analysis of CD154 regulation and a significantly increased resolution in phenotypic profiling of antigen-responsive cells. CD154 expression identified T cells responding to staphylococcal Enterotoxin B superantigen stimulation as well as T cells responding to the fungus Candida albicans and T cells specific for a highly prevalent intestinal parasite, the nematode Ascaris suum during acute and trickle infection. Antigen-reactive T cells were further detected after immunization of pigs with a single recombinant bacterial antigen of Streptococcus suis only. Thus, our study offers new ways to study antigen-specific T lymphocytes in the pig and their contribution to host-pathogen interactions

A Smart Robotic System for Industrial Plant Supervision

In today's chemical plants, human field operators perform frequent integrity checks to guarantee high safety standards, and thus are possibly the first to encounter dangerous operating conditions. To alleviate their task, we present a system consisting of an autonomously navigating robot integrated with various sensors and intelligent data processing. It is able to detect methane leaks and estimate its flow rate, detect more general gas anomalies, recognize oil films, localize sound sources and detect failure cases, map the environment in 3D, and navigate autonomously, employing recognition and avoidance of dynamic obstacles. We evaluate our system at a wastewater facility in full working conditions. Our results demonstrate that the system is able to robustly navigate the plant and provide useful information about critical operating conditions.Comment: Final submission for IEEE Sensors 202