The Contemporary Porn Debate - Perceptions of Sexual Health of Porn Actors, The 2013 HIV crisis, and Recognizing the Complexities of the Porn Industry

Between August 2012 and January 2013, four adult film performers based in California tested positive for HIV which triggered a moratorium on production, and led the state of California to mandate condom usage in the industry under the Safer Sex in the Adult Industry Act – otherwise referred to as Measure B. The goal of this research is to explore how the discourse surrounding health in the adult film industry, specifically sexual health in relation to the adult film performers during this event, is reflective of contemporary anti-pornography sentiments. These sentiments and biases ultimately lead to regulations of the industry that were not reflective of the adult film performers’ perceptions/concerns in regards to their own occupational safety and health. Therefore these contemporary debates surrounding mandating condom usage in the porn industry demonstrate a disconnect between the opinions expressed in media and in academia versus those expressed by the industry and in its own actors’ testimonies. This discourse also in turn eschews the real complexities of the pornography industry, excluding certain narratives including those of queer porn actors. Listening to these narratives and making an effort to understand these complexities surrounding the industry are important and necessary steps to properly work towards supporting the work, health, and empowerment of adult film actors

Underemployment in Pakistan

The paper measures the degree of underemployment in Pakistan through direct and indirect approaches. In the direct approach, persons working for less than 35 hours per week are classified as underemployed. The indirect approach uses estimates of productivity per worker to determine underemployment in different sectors. The study concludes that underemployment in Pakistan is small and is largely concentrated in family organized production units in agriculture, trade and services

Magnetoelectric effects in an organo-metallic quantum magnet

We observe a bilinear magnetic field-induced electric polarization of 50 $\mu C/m^2$ in single crystals of NiCl$_2$-4SC(NH$_2$)$_2$ (DTN). DTN forms a tetragonal structure that breaks inversion symmetry, with the highly polar thiourea molecules all tilted in the same direction along the c-axis. Application of a magnetic field between 2 and 12 T induces canted antiferromagnetism of the Ni spins and the resulting magnetization closely tracks the electric polarization. We speculate that the Ni magnetic forces acting on the soft organic lattice can create significant distortions and modify the angles of the thiourea molecules, thereby creating a magnetoelectric effect. This is an example of how magnetoelectric effects can be constructed in organo-metallic single crystals by combining magnetic ions with electrically polar organic elements.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Antigen Presenting Cells Contribute to Persistent Immune Activation Despite Antiretroviral Therapy Initiation During Hyperacute HIV-1 Infection

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-induced changes in immune cells during the acute phase of infection can cause irreversible immunological damage and predict the rate of disease progression. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) remains the most effective strategy for successful immune restoration in immunocompromised people living with HIV and the earlier ART is initiated after infection, the better the long-term clinical outcomes. Here we explored the effect of ART on peripheral antigen presenting cell (APC) phenotype and function in women with HIV-1 subtype C infection who initiated ART in the hyperacute phase (before peak viremia) or during chronic infection. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained longitudinally from study participants were used for immunophenotyping and functional analysis of monocytes and dendritic cells (DCs) using multiparametric flow cytometry and matched plasma was used for measurement of inflammatory markers IL-6 and soluble CD14 (sCD14) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. HIV infection was associated with expansion of monocyte and plasmacytoid DC (pDC) frequencies and perturbation of monocyte subsets compared to uninfected persons despite antiretroviral treatment during hyperacute infection. Expression of activation marker CD69 on monocytes and pDCs in early treated HIV was similar to uninfected individuals. However, despite early ART, HIV infection was associated with elevation of plasma IL-6 and sCD14 levels which correlated with monocyte activation. Furthermore, HIV infection with or without early ART was associated with downmodulation of the co-stimulatory molecule CD86. Notably, early ART was associated with preserved toll-like receptor (TLR)-induced IFN-α responses of pDCs. Overall, this data provides evidence of the beneficial impact of ART initiated in hyperacute infection in preservation of APC functional cytokine production activity; but also highlights persistent inflammation facilitated by monocyte activation even after prolonged viral suppression and suggests the need for therapeutic interventions that target residual immune activation

Attitudes towards a programme of risk assessment and stratified management for ovarian cancer: a focus group study of UK South Asians' perspectives

A crucial first step to enable implementation of population-based genetic risk assessment and management in OC is to raise awareness of OC within SA communities. It will be important to engage with the SA community early on in programme implementation to address their specific concerns and to ensure culturally tailored decision support. Population-based risk assessment, using genetic testing and the provision of appropriate risk management, could lead to prevention, early detection and improved clinical management of ovarian cancer (OC). Previous research with mostly white British participants found positive attitudes towards such a programme. The current study aimed to explore the attitudes of South Asian (SA) women and men in the UK with the aim of identifying how best to implement such a programme to minimise distress and maximise uptake. Semistructured qualitative focus group discussions. Community centres across North London and Luton. 49 women and 13 men who identified as SA (Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi), which constitutes the largest non-European ethnic minority group in the UK. Seven community-based focus groups were held. Group discussions were transcribed verbatim, coded and analysed thematically. Awareness and knowledge of OC symptoms and specific risk factors was low. The programme was acceptable to most participants and attitudes to it were generally positive. Participants' main concerns related to receiving a high-risk result following the genetic test. Younger women may be more cautious of genetic testing, screening or risk-reducing surgery due to the importance of marriage and childbearing in their SA cultures. CONCLUSIONS OBJECTIVE DESIGN SETTING PARTICIPANTS METHODS RESULT

Conservation agriculture with optimum fertilizer nitrogen rate reduces GWP for rice cultivation in floodplain soils

Wetland rice cultivation contributes significantly to global warming potential (GWP), an effect which is largely attributed to emissions of methane (CH4). Emerging technologies for wetland rice production such as conservation agriculture (CA) may mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but the effects are not well defined. Investigations were carried out in an irrigated rice (Boro rice) field in the fifth crop after conversion of conventional tillage (CT) to strip tillage (ST). Two crop residue levels (low versus high, LR versus HR) and three nitrogen (N) application rates (N1 = 108, N2 = 144, and N3 = 180 kg N ha−1) were laid out in a split-plot experiment with three replicates. Yield-scaled GHG emissions and GWP were estimated to evaluate the impacts of CA on mitigating CH4 and N2O emissions in the rice paddy field. There was a 55% higher N2O emission in ST with HR coupled with N3 than that in CT with LR coupled with N1. The N2O emission factors ranged from 0.43 to 0.75% in ST and 0.45 to 0.59% in CT, irrespective of the residue level and N rate. By contrast, CH4 emissions were significantly lower in CA than in the conventional practices (CT plus LR). The ST with LR in N2 reduced the GWP by 39% over the GWP in CT with HR in N1 and 16% over the conventional practices. Based on our investigation of the combination of tillage, residue, and N rate treatments, the adoption of CA with high and low residue levels reduced the GWP by 10 and 16%, respectively, because of lower CH4 and N2O emissions than the current management practices. The relatively high N2O emission factors suggest that mitigation of this GHG in wetland rice systems needs greater attention

Perturbative expansion for master equation and it applications

We construct generally applicable small-loss rate expansions for the density operator of an open system. Successive terms of those expansions yield characteristic loss rates for dissipation processes. Three applications are presented in order to give further insight into the context of those expansions. The first application, of a two-level atom coupling to a bosonic environment, shows the procedure and the advantage of the expansion, whereas the second application that consists of a single mode field in a cavity with linewidth $\kappa$ due to partial transmission through one mirror illustrates a practical use of those expansions in quantum measurements, and the third one, for an atom coupled to modes of a lossy cavity shows the another use of the perturbative expansion.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Competing biosecurity and risk rationalities in the Chittagong poultry commodity chain, Bangladesh

This paper anthropologically explores how key actors in the Chittagong live bird trading network perceive biosecurity and risk in relation to avian influenza between production sites, market maker scenes and outlets. They pay attention to the past and the present, rather than the future, downplaying the need for strict risk management, as outbreaks have not been reported frequently for a number of years. This is analysed as ‘temporalities of risk perception regarding biosecurity’, through Black Swan theory, the idea that unexpected events with major effects are often inappropriately rationalized (Taleb in The Black Swan. The impact of the highly improbable, Random House, New York, 2007). This incorporates a sociocultural perspective on risk, emphasizing the contexts in which risk is understood, lived, embodied and experienced. Their risk calculation is explained in terms of social consent, practical intelligibility and convergence of constraints and motivation. The pragmatic and practical orientation towards risk stands in contrast to how risk is calculated in the avian influenza preparedness paradigm. It is argued that disease risk on the ground has become a normalized part of everyday business, as implied in Black Swan theory. Risk which is calculated retrospectively is unlikely to encourage investment in biosecurity and, thereby, points to the danger of unpredictable outlier events