Equality on His Terms: Doing and Undoing Gender through Men’s Discussion Groups

Efforts to promote gender equality often encourage changes to interpersonal interactions as a way of undermining gender hierarchy. Such programs are premised on the idea that the gender system can be “undone” when individuals behave in ways that challenge prevailing gender norms. However, scholars know little about whether and under what conditions real changes to the gender system can result from changed behaviors. We use the context of a gender sensitization program in the Democratic Republic of Congo to examine prospects for transformative change at the interactional level of the gender system. Over nine months, we observed significant changes in men’s quotidian practices. Further, we identified a new commitment among many men to a more equal division of household labor. However, participants consistently undermined the transformative potential of these behavioral changes through their dedication to maintaining control over the objective, process, and meaning of change, resisting conceptions of equality that challenged the gender system. Because quotidian changes left gender hierarchy intact, they appear unlikely to destabilize the logics that legitimate women’s subordination

Intermittency in the large N-limit of a spherical shell model for turbulence

A spherical shell model for turbulence, obtained by coupling $N$ replicas of the Gledzer, Okhitani and Yamada shell model, is considered. Conservation of energy and of an helicity-like invariant is imposed in the inviscid limit. In the $N \to \infty$ limit this model is analytically soluble and is remarkably similar to the random coupling model version of shell dynamics. We have studied numerically the convergence of the scaling exponents toward the value predicted by Kolmogorov theory (K41). We have found that the rate of convergence to the K41 solution is linear in 1/N. The restoring of Kolmogorov law has been related to the behaviour of the probability distribution functions of the instantaneous scaling exponent.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, 3 Postscript figures, to be published on Europhys. Let

Esthesioneuroblastoma is not a member of the primitive peripheral neuroectodermal tumour-Ewing’s group

Esthesioneuroblastoma (ENB) is a rare, site-specific, locally aggressive neuronal malignancy so far thought to belong to primitive peripheral neuroectodermal tumour-Ewing's tumour (pPNETs-ETs). Its anatomical location, in addition to morphologic, immunophenotypic and ultrastructural features, suggests its origin in the neuronal or neuroendocrine cells of the olfactory epithelium. However, the cytogenetic and molecular data currently available appear controversial on the presence of the typical translocation t(11;22)(q24;q12) and of trisomy 8, chromosomal changes that characterize the tumours belonging to the pPNETs-ETs. Herein we have analysed five ENB tumour specimens for trisomy 8 by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), for the presence of EWS gene rearrangements by FISH, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot analyses, as well as for the expression of the Ewing sarcoma-associated MIC2 antigen by immunohistochemistry. Neither EWS/FLI-I, EWS/ERG and EWS/FEV fusion genes nor MIC2 expression were found in any tumour, whereas trisomy 8 was found in one case only. Moreover, DNA from three cases analysed by Southern blot did not show EWS gene rearrangements. Our results support the evidence that ENB is not a member of the pPNETs-ETs. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Gender Ideologies: Insights into Health and Demographic Behaviors.

The global agenda set at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo called upon researchers and program implementers to address the effects of gender inequality, especially the way inequality shapes sexual and reproductive health and demographic processes. Since then, researchers have documented links between women’s relative disadvantage and negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Less attention has been given to the systems of belief, or gender ideologies, that legitimate ongoing gender inequality. Yet, gender inequality would be unsustainable without supporting beliefs and values that define men and women as different and unequal. Those ideational aspects of gender systems—beliefs, values, attitudes, and norms—are the subject of this dissertation. The three empirical chapters investigate trends in attitudes concerning gender relations or connections between those attitudes and health and demographic behaviors. The first paper examines worldwide trends in attitudes about violence against women. Women in low-income countries have recently become less likely to justify intimate partner violence. The paper documents evidence that global cultural influences may be largely responsible for the observed trend in individual gender attitudes. The second paper uses survey data to test associations between men’s gender attitudes and their risk of HIV in Malawi. The analyses show that men with more egalitarian gender attitudes engage less frequently in sexual behaviors that involve risk of HIV transmission and report lower self-assessed risk of HIV. Finally, the third paper employs qualitative data from Malawi to explore the relevance of ideas about gender to men’s fertility. The paper demonstrates that gender norms are imbued with ideals relevant to men’s fertility preferences and behaviors. Each paper begins from the premise that ideational factors, such as social norms and individual attitudes, play an important role in shaping behavior, and are central to the perpetuation of gender inequality. All three papers use different measures of ideas about gender and all three posit that attention to these ideational elements is crucial to understanding individual motivations for health and demographic behaviors.PhDSociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102459/1/rpierot_1.pd

Hydrogeochemistry of Magra Valley (Italy) Aquifers: Geochemical Background of an Area Investigated for Seismic Precursors

AbstractWe present the results of a hydrogeochemical survey of 111 springs and wells from Magra Valley, a seismic area located in northern Tuscany, Italy. This survey was aimed at defining the geochemical background and the underground fluid circulation scheme of an area currently investigated for earthquake precursory phenomena, with the final goal of identifying a suitable location for installation of a continuous automatic monitoring station for the remote control of hydrogeochemical parameters. Six springs of the project were identified suitable for the purpose, and the Equi Na-Cl-type spring emerged as the best candidate for the installation of a monitoring station

The influence of wives’ and husbands’ fertility preferences on progression to a third birth in Nepal, 1997–2009

As couples across the globe increasingly exercise conscious control over their reproduction, and as both spouses’ preferences have the opportunity to influence fertility, there is a growing need to examine the influence of both husbands’ and wives’ preferences on fertility outcomes. Using couple-level measures of rural Nepalese spouses’ family size preferences—followed by more than a decade of monthly panel data on fertility outcomes—we investigate how both spouses’ preferences influence the rate of progression beyond the widely-reported ideal family size of two children to third births. Contrary to expectations based on women’s relative disadvantage, we find that wives’ preferences drive couples’ progression to third births. We further investigate possible mechanisms and find that contraceptive use does not explain the influence of wives’ preferences, but that couple communication about family planning moderates this influence: Wives’ preferences drive third parity births among couples who had discussed how many children to have

Ipomoea marginisepala O'Donell

Villa La CaleraUniversidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentin

Argentine batrachological and biogeographical notes

Incluye: - Notas batracológicas y biogeográficas argentinas (Región Cuyana y Provincias Limítrofes) I - II - III - IV, por J. M. CeiI (1955) - Notas batracológicas y biogeográficas argentinas - V, por J. M. Cei y S. A. Pierotti (1955)Material digitalizado en SEDICI gracias a la colaboración del Dr. Jorge Williams (FCNM-UNLP).Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse