‘Oh you pretty thing!’: How David Bowie ‘unlocked everybody’s inner queen’ in spite of the music press

The 1967 Sexual Offence Act decriminalised homosexual acts between men allowing gay men to discuss their sexuality in public. Few prominent popular musicians came-out until 1972 when David Bowie claimed that he was bisexual in an interview with Melody Maker. Music papers and Bowie had substantial cultural power: Bowie was a rising star and music papers recruited journalists who discussed and perpetuated social change. The subsequent conversation, however, reinforced negative stereotypes in constructing the queer subject and tried to safeguard commercial concerns due to the assumption that the market for popular music avoided queer music. This undermined arguments that associate permissive legislation with a permissive media and society, but, to some, representation alone empowered people and destabilised preconceptions about queer identity.Published versio

Technological elites, the meritocracy, and postracial myths in Silicon Valley

Entre as modernas elites tecnológicas digitais, os mitos da meritocracia e da façanha intelectual são usados como marcadores de raça e gênero por uma supremacia branca masculina que consolida recursos de forma desproporcional em relação a pessoas não brancas, principalmente negros, latinos e indígenas. Os investimentos em mitos meritocráticos suprimem os questionamentos de racismo e discriminação, mesmo quando os produtos das elites digitais são infundidos com marcadores de raça, classe e gênero. As lutas históricas por inclusão social, política e econômica de negros, mulheres e outras classes desprotegidas têm implicado no reconhecimento da exclusão sistêmica, do trabalho forçado e da privação de direitos estruturais, além de compromissos com políticas públicas dos EUA, como as ações afirmativas, que foram igualmente fundamentais para reformas políticas voltadas para participação e oportunidades econômicas. A ascensão da tecnocracia digital tem sido, em muitos aspectos, antitética a esses esforços no sentido de reconhecer raça e gênero como fatores cruciais para inclusão e oportunidades tecnocráticas. Este artigo explora algumas das formas pelas quais os discursos das elites tecnocráticas do Vale do Silício reforçam os investimentos no pós racialismo como um pretexto para a re-consolidação do capital em oposição às políticas públicas que prometem acabar com práticas discriminatórias no mundo do trabalho. Por meio de uma análise cuidadosa do surgimento de empresas de tecnologias digitais e de uma discussão sobre como as elites tecnológicas trabalham para mascarar tudo, como inscrições algorítmicas e genéticas de raça incorporadas em seus produtos, mostramos como as elites digitais omitem a sua responsabilidade por suas reinscrições pós raciais de (in)visibilidades raciais. A partir do uso de análise histórica e crítica do discurso, o artigo revela como os mitos de uma meritocracia digital baseados em um “daltonismo racial” tecnocrático emergem como chave para a manutenção de exclusões de gênero e raça.Palavras-chave: Tecnologia. Raça. Gênero.Among modern digital technology elites, myths of meritocracy and intellectual prowess are used as racial and gender markers of white male supremacy that disproportionately consolidate resources away from people of color, particularly African Americans, Latino/as and Native Americans. Investments in meritocratic myths suppress interrogations of racism and discrimination even as the products of digital elites are infused with racial, class, and gender markers. Longstanding struggles for social, political, and economic inclusion for African Americans, women, and other legally protected classes have been predicated upon the recognition of systemic exclusion, forced labor, and structural disenfranchisement, and commitments to US public policies like affirmative action have, likewise, been fundamental to political reforms geared to economic opportunity and participation. The rise of the digital technocracy has, in many ways, been antithetical to these sustained efforts to recognize race and gender as salient factors structuring technocratic opportunity and inclusion. This paper explores some of the ways in which discourses of Silicon Valley technocratic elites bolster investments in post-racialism as a pretext for re-consolidations of capital, in opposition to public policy commitments to end discriminatory labor practices. Through a careful analysis of the rise of digital technology companies, and a discussion of how technology elites work to mask everything from algorithmic to genetic inscriptions of race embedded in their products, we show how digital elites elide responsibility for their post-racial re-inscriptions of racial visibilities (and invisibilities). Using historical and critical discourse analysis, the paper reveals how myths of a digital meritocracy premised on a technocratic colorblindness emerge key to perpetuating gender and racial exclusions.Keywords: Technology. Race. Gender

McCUNE ALBRIGHT SYNDROME: AUTOSOMAL DOMINANT TRAIT IN A FAMILY OF EIGHT

McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) is a sporadicdisease characterised by polyostotic fibrous dysplasia,cutaneous pigmented spots and autonomous hyperfunctionof multiple endocrine systems(1). Somatic activatingmutations in the gene (GNASI) forthe alpha subunit of Gs,the protein that stimulatescyclic adenosinemonophosphate(CAMP) formation, has been identified in affected tissueof individuals with MAS(2). The activation of adenylcyclase is part of a signal transduction pathway thatgeneratescAMP which isan intracellularsecond messengercausing permeability changes and hormone secretion oncells with features of MAS.An example is secretion of thyroid stimulatinghormone (TSH) by theanterior pitbitary, when this hormonereaches altered thyroid acini cells, with resultant increasein iodine uptake and increased production of T3 and t4.hence hyperthyroidism. A rare case ofMAS, presenting asan autosomal dominant traitthrough four generations in afamily is presented

UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL FINDINGS IN DIABETIC OUTPATIENTS AT KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL, NAIROBI

Objective: To determine the prevalence of H. pylori and the associated upper gastrointestinalendoscopic lesions in diabetic outpatients with dyspepsia.Design: Cross-sectional studySetting: Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Nairobi, Kenya.Subjects: Adult diabetic outpatients with dyspepsia attending the KNH diabetic clinic.Results: Of the 257 randomly selected diabetic outpatients screened, 137 (53.3%) haddyspepsia. Seventy one of these patients underwent an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.Fifty five (77.5%) of the 71 patients had H. pylori infection identified by rapid urease test andhistology. The prevalence of H. pylori increased with HbA1c level but there was nostatistically significant association with poor glycaemic control (HbA1c >7.0%). Forty eight(67.6%) of the 71 had gastritis, 17 (25.7%) had duodenitis, eight (11.3%) had oesophagealcandidiasis, seven (9.9%) had bile reflux, six (8.5%) had reflux oesophagitis, six (8.5%) hadulcers (five duodenal, one gastric) and one (1.4%) had gastric cancer. Fourteen (19%) hadendoscopically normal mucosa. The prevalence of H. pylori was 82.3% (32/38) in patientswith antral gastritis. All ulcers and the cancer lesion (adenocarcinoma) were associated withH. pylori. Histological gastritis was found in 57 (81.8%) and was significantly associated withH. pylori.Conclusion: Although dyspepsia is common in diabetic outpatients at KNH, endoscopicfindings and H. pylori status are not significantly different from those of non-diabeticpopulation

Extra-abdominal fibromatosis invading the mandible: Case report

Extra-abdominal fibromatosis (desmoid tumour) is a rare aggressive neoplasm with a tendency to infiltrate local structures but rarely metastasises or undergoes spontaneous malignant transformation. The treatment of choice is surgery, however, recurrences have been reported even after wide-field resection. This article presents a case of extra-abdominal fibromatosis that had extensively invaded the mandible. (East African Medical Journal: 2002 79(1): 49-50

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and endoscopic findings in HIV seropositive patients with Upper gastrointestinal tract symptoms at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositive patients frequently experience upper gastrointestinal tract (GIT) symptoms that cause considerable morbidity and are due to multiple aetiologies. The role of Helicobacter pylori gastric mucosal infection in HIV related upper GIT morbidity is unclear. No data exist on the prevalence of H.pylori gastric mucosal infection and upper gastrointestinal endoscopic findings in HIV seropositive patients at the Kenyatta National Hospital. Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of H. pylori gastric mucosal infection and the pattern of upper gastrointestinal endoscopic findings in HIV seropositive patients. Design: A hospital-based prospective case-control study. Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital, Endoscopy Unit. Subjects: Fifty two HIV seropositive patients with upper GIT symptoms were recruited (as well as 52 HIV seronegative age and gender matched controls). Intervention: Both cases and control subjects underwent upper GIT endoscopy and biopsies were taken according to a standard protocol. H. pylori detection was done by the rapid urease test and histology, and H. pylori gastric mucosal infection was considered to be present in the presence of a positive detection by both tests; biopsies were also taken for tissue diagnosis and CD4+ peripheral Iymphocyte counts were determined using flow cytometry. Results: H. pylori prevalence was 73.1% [95% CI 59.9-83.8] in HIV positive subjects and 84.6% [95% CI 72.9-92.6] in HIV negative controls (p=0.230). Prevalence of H. pylori decreased with decreasing peripheral CD4+ Iymphocyte counts. Median CD4+ Iymphocyte count was 67 cells per cubic millimetre in HIV positive patients. On endoscopy, the most common lesion in HIV positive patients was oesophageal candidiasis (occurring in 51.9%), which was often associated with presence of oral candidiasis and, together with erosions, ulcers and nodules in the oesophagus, occurred exclusively in these patients. A few cases of cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex oesophagitis were seen, as were cases of upper GIT Kapos's sarcoma, and one gastric Iymphoma. Conclusions: H. pylori prevalence was not significantly different between HIV positive and HIV negative subjects, and decreased in HIV positive subjects with decreasing CD4+ cell counts. Oesophageal candidiasis was the most important endoscopic finding in HIV positive patients and was often associated with oral thrush. (East African Medical Journal: 2002 79(5): 226-231