Just shamans and healers or indigenous medical systems? A critical discourse analysis of the categories of shamans and healers as constructed by social science texts

"Just as even a single sentence has traditionally been taken to imply a whole language so a single discourse implies a whole society." Language and Power, N. Fairclough. This paper presents a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the categories of shamans and healers as they are constructed and produced by some social science texts. The CDA has three aims. First, it seeks to problematize how the categories of shamans and healers have been traditionally used to construct and produce what has been said about the medical systems of indigenous communities around the world. This is considered in the backdrop of opacity by mainstream social sciences to construct them as medical systems. Not only medical systems, they are social institutions that are part of their comprehensive cultural systems. Therefore, they are indigenous knowledge platforms that help to respond to questions of health and illness, life and death, nature and culture, science and philosophy. The categories of shamans and healers have been used as a way to state that the indigenous medical systems are not scientific systems but isolated knowledge and practices performed by individual shamans or healers. The second aim of this CDA is to examine the categories of shamans and healers in the context of the contemporary discussion on language, communication and discourse analysis and its various power relations as constructed in social science texts. The third aim is to demonstrate that there is a profound link among language, medicine and the social sciences and that it is impossible to continue in denial of this link. It is the assumption of the CDA that the constructed categories of shamanism and healers in the social sciences convey a specific bias of a logocentric and "scientificentric" worldview that could not construct a category of indigenous medical systems. It is posited that, through this CDA of the categories of shamans and healers, the local and global discursive practices that most societies hold about health and illness and body and 'mind/soul/spirit' can be understood through the ample category of medical systems

ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN INVASIVE EURASIAN WATERMILFOIL AND LITTORAL FISH AND INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES IN THE KEWEENAW WATERWAY OF LAKE SUPERIOR

The invasion of Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) can influence littoral zone communities within lakes. Its formation of dense mats at the water surface can suppress native macrophyte growth and impact fish diets and community structure, as well as invertebrate assemblages. However, in the colder waters of the upper Great Lakes region, Eurasian watermilfoil is patchily distributed and integrates more with the native macrophyte community. In order to identify the associations of invasive Eurasian watermilfoil and the littoral communities of the Keweenaw Waterway of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we sampled invertebrates, fish, and macrophytes at sites that represented a gradient of Eurasian watermilfoil abundance, as well as habitats with dense and sparse native vegetation. We hypothesized that areas dominated by Eurasian watermilfoil would exhibit less rich and diverse communities of native macrophytes, fish, and invertebrates. We also hypothesized that invertebrate abundances would be greatest in more invaded habitats as a result of reduced predation, but that fish would be more abundant at moderate invasion levels due to optimal foraging efficiency. Our results indicate that, overall, the more vegetated habitats supported more abundant and rich fish and invertebrate communities. However, while habitats with more abundant Eurasian watermilfoil tended to support more abundant fish communities, the most invaded habitats supported fewer fish, and reduced species richness and diversity. While invertebrate abundance also increased along with Eurasian watermilfoil abundance, more of the variation in invertebrate abundance was explained by native macrophytes. At the abundances observed in the Keweenaw Waterway, Eurasian watermilfoil appears to have little impact on invertebrate taxa richness and diversity. Overall, Eurasian watermilfoil appears to provide useful habitat to fish and invertebrates where it integrates more with the native macrophtye community. Yet, if Eurasian watermilfoil is left unmanaged and continues to spread, these effects may intensify over time, leading to reductions in fish abundance and biomass

Information-Directed Hybridization of Abiotic, Sequence-Defined Oligomers

The capacity for sequence-specific polymer strands to selectively assemble into intricate, folded structures and multimeric complexes relies upon the information borne by their residue sequences. Particularly suitable for the formation of multi-dimensional structures, nucleic acids have emerged as sophisticated nanoconstruction media where encoded sequences self-assemble in a designed manner through the gradual cooling of denatured and dissociated strands from raised temperatures. Unfortunately, the weakness of the hydrogen bonds holding the strands together affords nanoconstructs with thermal and mechanical instabilities. In contrast, molecular self-assembly employing dynamic covalent interactions has contributed to the improved mechanical and chemical stabilities of resultant structures. Nevertheless, compared with supramolecular chemistries, dynamic covalent interactions suffer from low dissociation rates, impeding rearrangement amongst the assembled components and often result in the kinetic trapping of non-equilibrium species. To overcome this limitation, molecular architectures are generally restricted to homo-functionalized constituents bearing few reactive sites or utilize harsh self-assembly conditions. This dissertation examines the deliberate equilibrium shifting of dynamic covalent interactions to fabricate sequence-selective molecular architectures with high degrees of functionalization. First, we explored the use of a Lewis acidic catalyst, scandium triflate, Sc(OTf)3, to affect the equilibrium of imine formation, a well-characterized dynamic covalent interaction. Here, high concentrations of scandium triflate, dissociated oligomeric-strands encoded with amine- and aldehyde-pendant group species. Upon removal of excess scandium triflate with a liquid-liquid extraction, the equilibrium was shifted as to promote imine-formation between complementary strands. Subsequent annealing of the self-assembly solutions at 70°C, enabling rearrangement and error-correction of out-of-registry or non-complementary sequences, afforded the simultaneous formation of three distinct information-bearing ladder species and a mechanism for information storage and retrieval of data by abiotic polymers. The information-directed self-assembly of encoded molecular ladders was further developed by incorporating an orthogonal reaction into the oligomeric strands to mimic the information dense, sequence-selective hybridization of DNA. Thus, the base-4 information-directed assembly of molecular ladders and grids bearing covalent bond-based rungs was demonstrated from encoded precursor strands using dual concurrent, orthogonal dynamic covalent interactions (i.e., amine/aldehyde and boronic acid/catechol condensation reactions). Additionally, the self-assembly of well-characterized ladder species employing the thermally-reversible Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction was explored to establish a self-assembly mechanism requiring an external stimulus to alleviate or eliminate kinetic trapping. By utilizing furan-protected maleimide and furfurylamine residues, sequence-defined strands were synthesized simultaneously bearing both furan and maleimide species while precluding premature hybridization and self-assembled in an information-directed manner to form distinct ladder species using a temperature-mediated process. Finally, given the large-scale efforts underway to develop rapid SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - coronavirus – 2) diagnostic tests, the fundamental principles of sequence-selective hybridization were applied to transform blood-typing tests into SARS-CoV-2 serology tests using robust gel card agglutination reactions in combination with easily prepared antibody-peptide bioconjugates.PHDChemical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162941/1/sleguiz_1.pd

Pedagogical knowledge construction in initial teacher training

Este trabajo tiene como propósito identificar, describir e interpretar las formas en que los estudiantes de carreras de formación docente construyen saberes pedagógicos tomando como eje de investigación el espacio de la práctica docente en la formación inicial del profesorado. Esta investigación fue abordada con una metodología cualitativa utilizando instrumentos de recogida de información como la entrevista semi-estructurada aplicada a practicantes y profesores de la muestra seleccionada. En adición a las técnicas mencionadas, se recolectaron y analizaron documentos narrativos tales como: diarios y relatos o textos pedagógicos, autobiografías, planificaciones de clase y auto y co-evaluaciones, elaborados por los practicantes. Se analizan los distintos modos en que se expresa la construcción de saberes pedagógicos durante el proceso de la formación inicial, distinguiendo los saberes teóricos de los saberes prácticos para interrogarnos luego, sobre los posibles cruces entre ambos tipos de saberes en la configuración de las prácticas cotidianas.This work aims to identify, describe and interpret the ways in which students in teacher training courses build pedagogical knowledge. Research is focused in the teaching practice period in initial teacher training. This research was approached with qualitative methodology using data collection instruments, semi-structured interviews applied to practitioners and teachers of the selected sample. In addition to the above techniques, narrative documents such as diaries and stories or pedagogical texts, biographies, lesson plans and self-evaluations co-developed by practitioners were collected and analyzed. Different classes of emerging pedagogical knowledge are drawn and some implications for teacher’s education arise. The different ways to express the building of pedagogical knowledge during the initial training are analyzed. Theoretical knowledge is distinguished from the knowledge that teachers develop in action in the practice context. The, we ask ourselves about the possible intersections between the two types of knowledge in shaping everyday practices

Roundup Ready Nation: The Political Ecology Of Genetically Modified Soy In Argentina

This dissertation is a case study of agrarian transformation in an agro-export society, Argentina. I study the process of adoption of the technological package of genetically modified (GM) soy in the Argentine countryside, its socio-ecological consequences, and Argentines\u27 responses to it. In particular, this research addresses Argentina\u27s unique situation of being a developing country that has positively embraced the biotechnology of GM seeds as a key accumulation strategy without the emergence of major contestation against GM soy monocropping. In order to answer the puzzle of quiescence, I look at how power relations structure access to social and environmental goods and bads, as well as at how power relates to the causes of consensus and conflict. From a critical political economy perspective, in this work I contribute to three major areas of substantive research: (1) Technology and socio-environmental change; (2) Natural resource extraction as a model of neoliberal socioeconomic development for Latin America; and (3) Social movements, in particular rural and environmental movements in the Latin American region. It terms of data collection, I rely on a multi-method approach based on archival research, quantitative analysis, and ethnographic methods (interviewing and participant observation). Whether GM crops can alleviate poverty and address food security while conserving ecosystems remains one of the most divisive questions in contemporary development studies. This dissertation is thus a necessary and timely contribution to debates on agricultural GM biotechnology. More broadly, the aim of this research is to contribute to discussions around the dynamics of agrarian and rural transformations, technological adoption and resistance, and the relationship between ecological modification and social change

Three essays on relative house size and house price

This dissertation is comprised of three essays in which I examine the influence that the size of the neighbors\u27 houses have on predicted house price. I estimate the associated effect of a change in neighbor house size on predicted house price, how the effect changes when considering different reference groups, and how the effect changes when considering observations along the distribution. The analysis of results are framed within the context of behavioral explanations which are then compared to previous results regarding housing consumption behavior and status symbol consumption behavior. In Chapter 2 I estimate the change in predicted house price associated with an increase in the average size of the nearest neighbors\u27 house size using a spatial autoregressive model. I find that individuals value an increase in absolute house size significantly more than they value a decrease in the size of the neighbors\u27 house and yard. In Chapter 3 I use a spatial autoregressive hedonic model to examine change in predicted house price associated with a change in house size of four different reference groups: nearest neighbors, surrounding neighborhoods, the largest houses in the district and the smallest houses in the district. I find a positive associated effect of an increase in average house size of further neighbors and the smallest houses and a negative associated effect of an increase in the average house size of the nearest and largest houses. In Chapter 4 I use a spatial quantile model to estimate the associated effect for the 10 th%, the 25th%, the 50th%, the 75 th%, and the 90th%. I find consumers of the houses in the lower quantile of housing prices and the upper quantile of housing prices to exhibit an insignificant and small change in predicted house price associated with a change in the house size of the nearest neighbors. It is the consumers of houses in the middle and middle-upper housing price quantile which exhibit a significant and negative associated effect. These findings suggest that policies which redistribute may not be justified on the grounds of increased social welfare

The trans-sialidase from Trypanosoma cruzi induces thrombocytopenia during acute Chagas' disease by reducing the platelet sialic acid contents

Strong thrombocytopenia is observed during acute infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasitic protozoan agent of American trypanosomiasis or Chagas' disease. The parasite sheds trans-sialidase, an enzyme able to mobilize the sialyl residues on cell surfaces, which is distributed in blood and is a virulence factor. Since the sialic acid content on the platelet surface is crucial for determining the half-life of platelets in blood, we examined the possible involvement of the parasite-derived enzyme in thrombocytopenia induction. We found that a single intravenous injection of trans-sialidase into naïve mice reduced the platelet count by 50%, a transient effect that lasted as long as the enzyme remained in the blood. CD43(−/−) mice were affected to a similar extent. When green fluorescent protein-expressing platelets were treated in vitro with trans-sialidase, their sialic acid content was reduced together with their life span, as determined after transfusion into naïve animals. No apparent deleterious effect on the bone marrow was observed. A central role for Kupffer cells in the clearance of trans-sialidase-altered platelets was revealed after phagocyte depletion by administration of clodronate-containing liposomes and splenectomy. Consistent with this, parasite strains known to exhibit more trans-sialidase activity induced heavier thrombocytopenia. Finally, the passive transfer of a trans-sialidase-neutralizing monoclonal antibody to infected animals prevented the clearance of transfused platelets. Results reported here strongly support the hypothesis that the trans-sialidase is the virulence factor that, after depleting the sialic acid content of platelets, induces the accelerated clearance of the platelets that leads to the thrombocytopenia observed during acute Chagas' disease