There is a beast in everyone

No abstract available

International Women's Day

No abstract available

Shanghai dancers: gender, coloniality and the modern girl

In 1924, the artist Yamamura K6ka (1885-1942) produced a colour woodcut depicting the dance hall of the New Carlton Hotel in Shanghai. In this print, two women are seated at a round table. One has bobbed hair; the other wears a red hat. Both wear western dress, but the embroidered jacket draped on one of the chairs suggests the fashion for Chinoiserie. Two cocktail glasses on the table contain red cherries. Several couples dance in the background of the picture, the women all with similar bobbed hair. The male dancing partners are barely visible and the women are seen from behind, giving them a sense of anonymity. The lack of individual features of the women dancing in the background also suggests a degree of interchangeability between the women. They are most likely taxi dancers , who dance with the male patrons for a fee paid to the dance hall. The ethnicised and racialised positioning of the dancing women is unclear, but at least one of the seated women appears to be of European appearance. The women in the dance hall, with their bobbed hair, western dress and cocktails clearly reference the style of the modern girl

Doris Salcedo\u27s Melancholy Objects

Doris Salcedo’s work ‘Atrabiliarios’ (Defiant) (1992-2004) refers to the women who have been disappeared in her homeland of Colombia.1 Over forty boxes are recessed in the walls of the gallery. Each box contains one or two shoes, sometimes a single shoe, sometimes a pair, sometimes a mismatched pair. Each recessed box is covered with a membrane, described as a layer of cow bladder, bordered with black stitches of surgical thread. The backlit cow bladder evokes human skin. The black, white, brown and ivory shoes are visible through the skin-like surface. On the floor of the gallery are stacked a series of empty boxes, made of the same cow bladder which covers the gallery niches. A version of this work, which Salcedo has developed over several years, is now held in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).2 This is where I encountered the work, and where I started to try to make sense of the power of these particular objects. After my visit to SFMOMA, shoes came to be a recurrent theme in my encounters in museums and art galleries, suggesting to me that there was an archetypal element to this display which was worthy of further exploration

How to be a girl: mainstream media portrayals of transgendered lives in Japan

Just before the turn of the twenty-first century changes to Japanese laws concerning the modification of reproductive capacity resulted in the removal of some legal barriers to the surgical modification of sexed bodies. These operations are variously known as sex change , sex adjustment , or sex reassignment , operations. Medical facilities that perform such surgery usually do so ony after the client has spent a substantial period of time living as a member of the gender they wish to acquire. Now there is a significant number of individuals in Japan who have undergone such surgery or are planning to do so

Yoko Ono\u27s Magical Thinking

In this piece I analyse Yoko Ono's recent artwork Mended Cups and link this to other creative works concerned with grief and mourning

Self-administration of edible Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and associated behavioral effects in mice

Background With increasing access to legal cannabis across the globe, it is imperative to more closely study its behavioral and physiological effects. Furthermore, with the proliferation of cannabis use, modes of consumption are changing, with edible formulations becoming increasingly popular. Nevertheless, there are relatively few animal models of self-administration of the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and almost all incorporate routes of administration other than those used by humans. The aim of the current study was to develop a model of edible THC self-administration and assess its impact on CB1 receptor-mediated behaviors in female and male mice. Methods Mice were given limited access to a palatable dough which occasionally contained THC in doses ranging from 1 to 10 mg/kg. Following dough consumption, mice were assessed for home cage locomotor activity, body temperature, or analgesia. Locomotor activity was also assessed in conjunction with the CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716A. Results Dough was well-consumed, but consumption decreased at the highest THC concentrations. Edible THC produced dose-dependent decreases in locomotor activity and body temperature in both sexes, and these effects were more pronounced in male mice. Hypolocomotion induced by edible THC was attenuated by SR141716A, indicating mediation by CB1 receptor activation. Conclusions In contrast to other cannabinoid self-administration models, edible THC is relatively low in stress and uses a route of administration analogous to one used by humans. Potential applications include chronic THC self-administration, determining THC reward/reinforcement, and investigating consequences of oral THC use

Variability in spawning frequency and reproductive development of the narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson) along the west coast of Australia

The narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson) is widespread throughout the Indo-West Pacific region. This study describes the reproductive biology of S. commerson along the west coast of Australia, where it is targeted for food consumption and sports fishing. Development of testes occurred at a smaller body size than for ovaries, and more than 90% of males were sexually mature by the minimum legal length of 900 mm TL compared to 50% of females. Females dominated overall catches although sex ratios within daily catches vary considerably and females were rarely caught when spaw n ing. Scomberomorus commerson are seasonally abundant in coastal waters and most of the commercial catch is taken prior to the reproductive season. Spawning occurs between about August and November in the Kimberley region and between October and January in the Pilbara region. No spawning activity was recorded in the more southerly West Coast region, and only in the north Kimberley region were large numbers of fish with spawning gonads collected. Catches dropped to a minimum when spawning began in the Pilbara region, when fish became less abundant in inshore waters and inclement weather conditions limited fishing on still productive offshore reefs. Final maturation and ovulation of oocytes took place within a 24-hour period, and females spawned in the afternoon-evening every three days. A third of these spawning females released batches of eggs on consecutive days. Relationships between length, weight, and batch fecundity are presented

Comorbidity in polymyalgia rheumatica

Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is the commonest inflammatory rheumatic disease affecting older people. The current mainstay of treatment is long-term oral glucocorticoid therapy. Management of these patients in clinical practice is often complicated by the presence of comorbidity. Comorbidity might be due to shared risk factors such as age, sex, or genetic background; to the presence of the disease itself; or to adverse effects of glucocorticoid therapy. Cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis/fracture, metabolic and ocular comorbidity are of particular interest to clinicians because of their relationship to glucocorticoid therapy and the relevance to clinical treatment decisions regarding glucocorticoid tapering. Patients at high risk of exacerbation of comorbidity by glucocorticoid therapy may be considered for adjunctive steroid-sparing therapies and thus may need specialist management. From a public health perspective, with the ageing population the prevalence of PMR is predicted to increase; accurate data on comorbidity will be needed for planning and delivery of healthcare services