Sexually Suggestive Songs and Singers: Music Media and Its Effects on the Sexualization of Women

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between music and the sexualization of women. The study focused on 450 participants, both male and female, belonging to various ethnic backgrounds, ages 18 and up. It was hypothesized that a participant’s exposure to sexually suggestive music would impact their views of women. Specifically, exposure to sexual explicit or suggestive music would relate to more sexist views towards women. Results indicated that there were relationships between music and the sexualization of women. The breakdown of each genre of music and the different measures proved to be surprising, as some genres had a very strong correlation, while others had none at all. Overall, the results supported the idea that media, specifically music, does certainly have an impact on listeners and viewers. This supports most previous research, and disproves the very few studies that suggest otherwise

Knowledge Assessment of Catheter Care Policy

Background: Hospitals have protocols in place to provide safe and high quality care for patients. One of these protocols involves monitoring the infection rate of indwelling catheters. A policy was recently implemented for catheter care in a large general hospital, and a nurse manager was unsure if the policy was being followed by Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) on her unit. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if CNAs on a specific hospital unit were knowledgeable about the new catheter care policy. Method(s): The literature was reviewed for best practice on catheter care. Ten CNAs were trained about the policy using poster board and pelvic model demonstrations. A pre- and post-test was administered to evaluate for changes in knowledge before and after training. Results: Pre-test results revealed low scores (10% passing) on knowledge about catheter policy care; following training, post-test scores were significantly higher (90% passing). Conclusions: Action needs to be taken to ensure that catheter care policy is being followed. Possible actions might include training of all new CNAs, monitoring policy adherence annually, and using simpler terminology to explain policies

Conservation and population genetics of African and Asian rhinoceros

There are five living species of rhinoceros inhabiting Africa and Asia: black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) and Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Anthropogenic activities, such as poaching and habitat disruption, have led to steep declines in the population size of all rhinoceros species, placing them in danger of extinction. The development of genetic markers for assessment of diversity at neutral and adaptive loci can be used to address a number of questions that will aid in the conservation of rhinoceros populations both ex situ and in the wild. In order to evaluate genetic diversity in rhinoceros populations, I investigated three research questions that will contribute substantially to the conservation and management of rhinoceros species. (1) Accurate estimates of population size are often difficult to obtain for rhinoceros species that are elusive or prefer dense habitat. Knowing the precise number of individuals in an area is essential for managers to develop and implement conservation plans that address the issues facing a particular population. To enable the use of molecular methods for censusing of rhinoceros populations 29 novel Sumatran rhinoceros microsatellites and 17 novel black rhinoceros microsatellites were characterized from next generation sequencing data for use with low quality DNA extracted from non-invasively collected fecal samples. A subset of these markers is sufficient for identification of individuals based on PID and PID(sib) values. Through a series of optimization steps I was able to show that these markers can be successfully used to obtain genotypes from fecal samples. These markers are of particularly importance for Sumatran rhinoceros populations since the reported number of individual has been difficult to accurately estimate and drastically overstated. Studies aimed at implementing these markers for estimating census size in wild rhinoceros populations are ongoing. (2) The Sumatran rhinoceros, once widespread across Southeast Asia, now consists of ca. 100 individuals primarily found in three isolated populations on the island of Sumatra. No studies have examined the population genetic structure of Sumatran rhinoceros using techniques beyond mitochondrial restriction mapping analysis. Given the requirement for substantial management of the remaining Sumatran rhino populations in the wild and in ex situ breeding facilities, more information regarding their genetic status needs to be available. I used mitochondrial DNA sequences from modern and archival museum samples to assess genetic diversity and structure. Among all samples, haplotype diversity was high; samples identified as being members of the subspecies D. s. sumatrensis formed a cluster containing ten haplotypes. The number of haplotypes and the haplotype diversity among the museum samples of D. s. sumatrensis were higher than in the modern samples even after rarefaction, suggesting that genetic diversity has been lost as the population has declined. Microsatellite data from the modern samples indicated low diversity and showed the presence of three distinct genetic clusters associated with geographic barriers to gene flow within the modern population. Continual isolation of the extant populations without management intervention will likely result in further loss of genetic diversity. (3) Adaptive loci within the immune system possess crucial information about the ability of a population to resist infectious pathogens. Toll-like receptors (TLR) bind pathogen-specific molecules and initiate both innate and adaptive immune responses, and thus may be of particular relevance to conservation geneticists and management authorities. I sequenced gene regions coding for the extracellular domain of eight TLR loci in eastern black (D. b. michaeli), south-central black (D. b. minor), and southern white (C. s. simum) rhinos from North American zoos and ex situ breeding facilities. Additionally, mitochondrial control region haplotypes were sequenced for all individuals and multi-locus genotypes were obtained for the black rhinos. Overall, diversity was very low at TLR and mitochondrial loci among white rhinos. Black rhinos exhibited higher levels of diversity at the TLR loci than white rhinos. Between subspecies, the south-central black rhino was less diverse than the eastern black rhino at the TLR genes; however, they share some haplotypes at all TLR loci. Mitochondrial haplotypes and microsatellite genotypes support strong differentiation between the two studied subspecies. Unique TLR haplotypes and differentiation at mitochondrial and microsatellite loci between the black rhinoceros subspecies were identified, supporting the continued management of the taxa as two separate conservation units. Limited variation in the TLR genes of the African rhinos, especially the white rhinoceros, suggests that the evolutionary potential of the immune system is limited. Future management efforts and breeding programs for rhinoceros species should seek to preserve immune system diversity

Winning the Web: How Beijing Exploits Search Results to Shape Views of Xinjiang and COVID-19

As the war in Ukraine unfolds, Russian propaganda about the conflict has gotten a boost from a friendly source: government officials and state media out of Beijing. In multiple languages and regions around the world, China's "wolf warrior" diplomats and state media routinely amplify Kremlin conspiracy theories rationalizing President Vladimir Putin's invasion, and undermining the credibility and appeal of the United States, NATO, and independent media — even as China declines to endorse the Kremlin's adventurism wholesale. This spring, for example, China's messengers promoted the baseless Russian claim that the United States has been supporting a biological weapons program in Ukraine -- at times, more aggressively than Russia itself.Because Russian state media have been deamplified or banned by multiple Western social media platforms, Beijing's messaging could play an outsized role in channeling Kremlin talking points to audiences around the world. These narratives do not just spread on social media. Beijing's state-funded publishers have considerable success in a domain that has received comparatively little attention: search results.For months, our team has been tracking how China has exploited search engine results on Xinjiang and COVID-19, two subjects that are geopolitically salient to Beijing — Xinjiang, because the Chinese government seeks to push back on condemnation of its rights record; COVID-19, because it seeks to deflect criticism for its early mishandling of the pandemic. In both cases, Beijing is quite focused on positioning itself as a responsible global leader and softening perceptions to the contrary. To evaluate these concerns, we compiled daily data over a 120-day period on 12 terms related to Xinjiang and COVID-19 from five different sources: (1) Google Search; (2) Google News; (3) Bing Search; (4) Bing News; and (5) YouTube

Tunable absorption and emission wavelength in conjugated microporous polymers by copolymerization

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Conjugated, microporous polymers based on a spirobifluorene core were synthesized by Suzuki polycondensation of the tetrabromospirobifluorene with benzene diboronic acid and/or thiophene diboronic acid. The optical properties (absorption and emission spectra) and the gas sorption properties (N2 and CO2) are analyzed and discussed

Both Reintroduction and Recolonization Likely Contributed to the Re-establishment of a Fisher Population in East-central Alberta

Recently, Stewart et al. (2017) investigated the origins of contemporary fisher populations in the Cooking Lake Moraine (CLM) of east-central Alberta, Canada, where fishers (Pekania pennanti) from Ontario and Manitoba, Canada were reintroduced in the early 1990s. To address this objective, Stewart et al. (2017) compared microsatellite alleles from extant fisher populations in the CLM to those from Ontario, Manitoba, and other Alberta populations. They reported that the CLM population clustered with adjacent native Alberta populations, consistent with recolonization, but also that 2 of 109 microsatellite alleles in the CLM occurred only in the source populations from Ontario and Manitoba. Rather than allowing for the possibility that these alleles descended from reintroduced fishers, the authors speculated that they represented random mutations among fishers that recolonized the area naturally from nearby populations in Alberta, and concluded that the reintroduction had failed completely. We disagree with this conclusion for 2 reasons. We contend it is more likely that the 2 alleles represent a genetic signature from the individuals released during the reintroduction, rather than being the result of mutations. We further suggest that, irrespective of the genetic legacy of introduced fishers in the recovered population, the presence of reintroduced fishers in the CLM may have helped facilitate natural recolonization of the area by fishers from surrounding areas. In our view, Stewart et al.’s (2017) findings do not demonstrate conclusively that the reintroduction program failed; on the contrary, we argue that their findings indicate that reintroduced fishers likely contributed to the long-term persistence of fishers in the CLM. The uncertainty surrounding this case underscores the importance of genetic monitoring following reintroductions.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1032/thumbnail.jp

Diversity Exiting the Academy: Influential Factors for the Career Choice of Well-Represented and Underrepresented Minority Scientists

A national sample of PhD-trained scientists completed training, accepted subsequent employment in academic and nonacademic positions, and were queried about their previous graduate training and current employment. Respondents indicated factors contributing to their employment decision (e.g., working conditions, salary, job security). The data indicate the relative importance of deciding factors influencing career choice, controlling for gender, initial interest in faculty careers, and number of postgraduate publications. Among both well-represented (WR; n = 3444) and underrepresented minority (URM; n = 225) respondents, faculty career choice was positively associated with desire for autonomy and partner opportunity and negatively associated with desire for leadership opportunity. Differences between groups in reasons endorsed included: variety, prestige, salary, family influence, and faculty advisor influence. Furthermore, endorsement of faculty advisor or other mentor influence and family or peer influence were surprisingly rare across groups, suggesting that formal and informal support networks could provide a missed opportunity to provide support for trainees who want to stay in faculty career paths. Reasons requiring alteration of misperceptions (e.g., limited leadership opportunity for faculty) must be distinguished from reasons requiring removal of actual barriers. Further investigation into factors that affect PhDs’ career decisions can help elucidate why URM candidates are disproportionately exiting the academy

The long-term psychosocial consequences of screen-detected ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive breast cancer

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsObjective: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a risk factor for invasive breast cancer (IBC). The prognosis of DCIS is considerably better than for IBC, yet women do not distinguish between the threat. We aimed to compare the psychosocial consequences of screen-detected DCIS and IBC, and to examine this comparison over time. Methods: We surveyed a Danish mammography-screening cohort from 2004 to 2018. We assessed outcomes at six-time points: baseline, 1, 6, 18, 36 months, and 14 years after the screening. We measured psychosocial consequences with the Consequences Of Screening – Breast Cancer (COS-BC): a condition-specific questionnaire that is psychometrically validated and encompasses 14 psychosocial dimensions. We used weighted linear models with generalized estimating equations to compare responses between groups. We used a 1% level of significance. Results: 170 out of 1309 women were diagnosed with breast cancer (13.0%). 23 were diagnosed with DCIS (13.5%) and 147 with IBC (86.5%). From baseline to six months after diagnosis, there were no significant differences between women with DCIS and IBC. However, mean scores indicated that IBC generally was more affected than DCIS. After six months, we observed that women with DCIS and IBC might be affected differently in the long term; mean scores and mean differences showed that IBC were more affected on some scales, while DCIS were on others. Conclusion: Overall, the DCIS and IBC experienced similar levels of psychosocial consequences. Women might benefit from renaming DCIS to exclude cancer nomenclature.publishersversionpublishe