Gender, risk and the Wall Street alpha male

From the outset, analyses of the 2008 financial crisis, in mainstream as well as feminist discussions, have been gendered. In particular, rampant risk taking in an unregulated environment, widely deemed to be a principle cause of the crash, has been associated with masculine characteristics. In this article I explore how the concepts of gender and risk entwine in two films on the financial crisis – The Other Guys and Margin Call. By looking at how gender is used to dramatise financial risk, I explore how understandings of high risk behaviour are gendered, and the implications this has in the context of finance. Fictional representations mediate public understanding of this notoriously complex field, as the number of films and documentaries on the crisis demonstrates. Exploring how gender is used to communicate risk reminds us that risk taking is part of a performance of masculinity that needs to be established by constructing a feminine, risk-averse other. The contention of this paper is that to address gender bias in finance and the economy, gendered meanings of risk need to be openly challenged, and cultural and material analyses of gendered inequality brought into dialogue

Proteomic identification of immunodiagnostic antigens for <i>Trypanosoma vivax </i>infections in cattle and generation of a proof-of-concept lateral flow test diagnostic device

Trypanosoma vivax is one of the causative agents of Animal African Trypanosomosis in cattle, which is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and transmitted primarily by the bite of the tsetse fly vector. The parasite can also be mechanically transmitted, and this has allowed its spread to South America. Diagnostics are limited for this parasite and in farm settings diagnosis is mainly symptom-based. We set out to identify, using a proteomic approach, candidate diagnostic antigens to develop into an easy to use pen-side lateral flow test device. Two related members the invariant surface glycoprotein family, TvY486_0045500 and TvY486_0019690, were selected. Segments of these antigens, lacking N-terminal signal peptides and C-terminal transmembrane domains, were expressed in E. coli. Both were developed into ELISA tests and one of them, TvY486_0045500, was developed into a lateral flow test prototype. The tests were all evaluated blind with 113 randomised serum samples, taken from 37 calves before and after infection with T. vivax or T. congolense. The TvY486_0045500 and TvY486_0019690 ELISA tests gave identical sensitivity and specificity values for T. vivax infection of 94.5% (95% CI, 86.5% to 98.5%) and 88.0% (95% CI, 75.7% to 95.5%), respectively, and the TvY486_0045500 lateral flow test prototype a sensitivity and specificity of 92.0% (95% CI, 83.4% to 97.0%) and 89.8% (95% CI, 77.8% to 96.6%), respectively. These data suggest that recombinant TvY486_0045500 shows promise for the development of a pen-side lateral flow test for the diagnosis of T. vivax animal African trypanosomosis

Anti-tumour activity and toxicity of the new prodrug9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide (9ACG) in mice

Cancer chemotherapy is limited by the modest therapeutic index of most antineoplastic drugs. Some glucuronide prodrugs may display selective anti-tumour activity against tumours that accumulate β-glucuronidase. We examined the toxicity and anti-tumour activity of 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide, a new glucuronide prodrug of 9-aminocamptothecin, to evaluate its potential clinical utility. 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide was 25–60 times less toxic than 9-aminocamptothecin to five human cancer cell lines. β-glucuronidase activated 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide to produce similar cell killing as 9-aminocamptothecin or topotecan. The in vivo toxicity of 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide in BALB/c mice was dose-, route-, sex- and age-dependent. 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide was significantly less toxic to female than to male mice but the difference decreased with age. 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide and 9-aminocamptothecin produced similar inhibition (∼80%) of LS174T human colorectal carcinoma tumours. 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide cured a high percentage of CL1-5 human lung cancer xenografts with efficacy that was similar to or greater than 9-aminocamptothecin, irinotecan and topotecan. The potent anti-tumour activity of 9-aminocamptothecin glucuronide suggests that this prodrug should be further evaluated for cancer treatment

Sediment source fingerprinting: benchmarking recent outputs, remaining challenges and emerging themes

Abstract: Purpose: This review of sediment source fingerprinting assesses the current state-of-the-art, remaining challenges and emerging themes. It combines inputs from international scientists either with track records in the approach or with expertise relevant to progressing the science. Methods: Web of Science and Google Scholar were used to review published papers spanning the period 2013–2019, inclusive, to confirm publication trends in quantities of papers by study area country and the types of tracers used. The most recent (2018–2019, inclusive) papers were also benchmarked using a methodological decision-tree published in 2017. Scope: Areas requiring further research and international consensus on methodological detail are reviewed, and these comprise spatial variability in tracers and corresponding sampling implications for end-members, temporal variability in tracers and sampling implications for end-members and target sediment, tracer conservation and knowledge-based pre-selection, the physico-chemical basis for source discrimination and dissemination of fingerprinting results to stakeholders. Emerging themes are also discussed: novel tracers, concentration-dependence for biomarkers, combining sediment fingerprinting and age-dating, applications to sediment-bound pollutants, incorporation of supportive spatial information to augment discrimination and modelling, aeolian sediment source fingerprinting, integration with process-based models and development of open-access software tools for data processing. Conclusions: The popularity of sediment source fingerprinting continues on an upward trend globally, but with this growth comes issues surrounding lack of standardisation and procedural diversity. Nonetheless, the last 2 years have also evidenced growing uptake of critical requirements for robust applications and this review is intended to signpost investigators, both old and new, towards these benchmarks and remaining research challenges for, and emerging options for different applications of, the fingerprinting approach

Asymptotic charges cannot be measured in finite time

To study quantum gravity in asymptotically flat spacetimes, one would like to understand the algebra of observables at null infinity. Here we show that the Bondi mass cannot be observed in finite retarded time, and so is not contained in the algebra on any finite portion of I+. This follows immediately from recently discovered asymptotic entropy bounds. We verify this explicitly, and we find that attempts to measure a conserved charge at arbitrarily large radius in fixed retarded time are thwarted by quantum fluctuations. We comment on the implications of our results to flat space holography and the BMS charges at I+

A single session of neuromuscular electrical stimulation does not augment postprandial muscle protein accretion

The loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with aging, termed sarcopenia, has been (at least partly) attributed to an impaired muscle protein synthetic response to food intake. Previously, we showed that neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) can stimulate fasting muscle protein synthesis rates and prevent muscle atrophy during disuse. We hypothesized that NMES prior to protein ingestion would increase postprandial muscle protein accretion. Eighteen healthy elderly (69 ± 1 yr) males participated in this study. After a 70-min unilateral NMES protocol was performed, subjects ingested 20 g of intrinsically l-[1-(13)C]phenylalanine-labeled casein. Plasma samples and muscle biopsies were collected to assess postprandial mixed muscle and myofibrillar protein accretion as well as associated myocellular signaling during a 4-h postprandial period in both the control (CON) and stimulated (NMES) leg. Protein ingestion resulted in rapid increases in both plasma phenylalanine concentrations and l-[1-(13)C]phenylalanine enrichments, which remained elevated during the entire 4-h postprandial period (P 0.05). In agreement, no differences were observed in the postprandial rise in myofibrillar protein bound l-[1-(13)C]phenylalanine enrichments between the CON and NMES legs (0.0115 ± 0.0014 vs. 0.0133 ± 0.0013 MPE, respectively, P > 0.05). Significant increases in mTOR and P70S6K phosphorylation status were observed in the NMES-stimulated leg only (P < 0.05). We conclude that a single session of NMES prior to food intake does not augment postprandial muscle protein accretion in healthy older men.We gratefully acknowledge the enthusiastic support of Rinske Franssen (NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism) in this study