«Navegando entre dos mares»: mujeres en el contexto de la cultura de ingeniería

Pese a que en México las mujeres no indígenas han logrado paridad en términos de la matrícula en el nivel de educación superior, hay brechas importantes en las áreas de formación. La ingeniería es un área que históricamente ha sido ocupada por hombres; en este espacio la presencia femenina es entendida como un caso excepcional. Por consiguiente, las mujeres tienen que atravesar varios niveles de discriminación dentro de una cultura de ingeniería masculina, lo cual implica una construcción compleja de su identidad como mujeres y como ingenieras. El propósito de este ensayo es indagar la experiencia de mujeres en la educación profesional en dos facultades de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Colima, institución de educación superior estatal pública en el centro occidente de México. Con base en datos recolectados en 2012 a través de un cuestionario y entrevistas con 65 alumnas, retomamos el concepto de «matriz de dominación» de Patricia Hill Collins (1990) para analizar tres niveles de opresión / resistencia en las experiencias de las estudiantes: 1) sus biografías personales, incluyendo ciertos aspectos de sus entornos familiares, identidades femeninas y razones para elegir la carrera; 2) el contexto cultural del grupo o de la comunidad, explorando la cultura de ingeniería en las dos facultades estudiadas, así como la relación de las mujeres con sus compañeros y docentes, y 3) el contexto institucional, en donde analizamos algunas características del clima institucional de género en la universidad

Light-sheet microscopy with attenuation-compensated propagation-invariant beams

Scattering and absorption limit the penetration of optical fields into tissue. We demonstrate a new approach for increased depth penetration in light-sheet microscopy: attenuation-compensation of the light field. This tailors an exponential intensity increase along the illuminating propagation-invariant field, enabling the redistribution of intensity strategically within a sample to maximize signal and minimize irradiation. A key attribute of this method is that only minimal knowledge of the specimen transmission properties is required. We numerically quantify the imaging capabilities of attenuation-compensated Airy and Bessel light sheets, showing that increased depth penetration is gained without compromising any other beam attributes. This powerful yet straightforward concept, combined with the self-healing properties of the propagation-invariant field, improves the contrast-to-noise ratio of light-sheet microscopy up to eightfold across the entire field of view in thick biological specimens. This improvement can significantly increase the imaging capabilities of light-sheet microscopy techniques using Airy, Bessel, and other propagation-invariant beam types, paving the way for widespread uptake by the biomedical community.</p

Hockey Concussion Education Project, Part 1. Susceptibility-weighted imaging study in male and female ice hockey players over a single season: Clinical article

Object. Concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a commonly occurring sports-related injury, especially in contact sports such as hockey. Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), which appear as small, hypointense lesions on T2*-weighted images, can result from TBI. The authors use susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) to automatically detect small hypointensities that may be subtle signs of chronic and acute damage due to both subconcussive and concussive injury. The goal was to investigate how the burden of these hypointensities changes over time, over a playing season, and postconcussion, in comparison with subjects who did not suffer a medically observed and diagnosed concussion. Methods. Images were obtained in 45 university-level adult male and female ice hockey players before and after a single Canadian Interuniversity Sports season. In addition, 11 subjects (5 men and 6 women) underwent imaging at 72 hours, 2 weeks, and 2 months after concussion. To identify subtle changes in brain tissue and potential CMBs, nonvessel clusters of hypointensities on SWI were automatically identified, and a hypointensity burden index was calculated for all subjects at the beginning of the season (BOS), the end of the season (EOS), and at postconcussion time points (where applicable). Results. A statistically significant increase in the hypointensity burden, relative to the BOS, was observed for male subjects with concussions at the 2-week postconcussion time point. A smaller, nonsignificant rise in the burden for female subjects with concussions was also observed within the same time period. There were no significant changes in burden for nonconcussed subjects of either sex between the BOS and EOS time points. However, there was a statistically significant difference in the burden between male and female subjects in the nonconcussed group at both the BOS and EOS time points, with males having a higher burden. Conclusions. This method extends the utility of SWI from the enhancement and detection of larger (\u3e 5 mm) CMBs, which are often observed in more severe cases of TBI, to cases involving smaller lesions in which visual detection of injury is difficult. The hypointensity burden metric proposed here shows statistically significant changes over time in the male subjects. A smaller, nonsignificant increase in the burden metric was observed in the female subjects. ©AANS, 2014

Sensitivity analysis for lexicographic ordering in radiation therapy treatment planning

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134937/1/mp0218.pd

The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP

PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a relatively new drug-based HIV prevention technique and an important means to lower the HIV risk of gay men who are especially vulnerable to HIV. From the perspective of biopolitics, PrEP inscribes itself in a larger trend of medicalization and the rise of pharmapower. This article reconstructs and evaluates contemporary literature on biopolitical theory as it applies to PrEP, by bringing it in a dialogue with a mapping of the political debate on PrEP. As PrEP changes sexual norms and subjectification, for example condom use and its meaning for gay subjectivity, it is highly contested. The article shows that the debate on PrEP can be best described with the concepts ‘sexual-somatic ethics’ and ‘democratic biopolitics’, which I develop based on the biopolitical approach of Nikolas Rose and Paul Rabinow. In contrast, interpretations of PrEP which are following governmentality studies or Italian Theory amount to either farfetched or trivial positions on PrEP, when seen in light of the political debate. Furthermore, the article is a contribution to the scholarship on gay subjectivity, highlighting how homophobia and homonormativity haunts gay sex even in liberal environments, and how PrEP can serve as an entry point for the destigmatization of gay sexuality and transformation of gay subjectivity. ‘Biopolitical democratization’ entails making explicit how medical technology and health care relates to sexual subjectification and ethics, to strengthen the voice of (potential) PrEP users in health politics, and to renegotiate the profit and power of Big Pharma

"A little theatrical but mostly athletic": The mutable erotics of Miranda July's The First Bad Man

By attending to the inherent flux of sexual fantasy, Miranda July’s first novel The First Bad Man reveals a mobile and mutable erotics capable of generating an enlarged range of self-identification and relational intimacy, far from any essentialist assumptions of stable or coherent sexual identity. July focuses specifically upon role-play as the means to unpack the normative categories of hetero/homosexuality, masculinity and femininity, celebrating rather than pathologising qualities like superficiality and inconsistency. The novel touches upon many polarising issues (for example, sexual violence, sadomasochism and assisted reproductive technology), deftly avoiding the conventional language which colours perception. Both erotic and humorous, The First Bad Man helps to redefine the often highly charged discourse around sex and sexuality

Epstein-Barr Virus Infection and Sporadic Breast Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: A large number of epidemiological studies have evaluated the association between Epstein-Barr virus infection and breast carcinoma risk but results have been inconsistent. METHODOLOGY: Research using the polymerase chain reaction technique for detecting the Epstein-Barr virus was selected; 24 studies and 1535 cases were reviewed. Information on the study populations, sample types, publication calendar period and histological types of breast carcinoma were collected. An unconditional logistic regression model was used to analyze potential parameters related to the Epstein-Barr virus prevalence. A Kappa test was used to evaluate the consistency in detecting different Epstein-Barr virus DNA regions. Nine studies that included control groups and 1045 breast cancer cases were adopted in this meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: We found that 29.32% of the patients with breast carcinoma were infected with the Epstein-Barr virus. The prevalence of Epstein-Barr was highest in Asia (35.25%) and lowest in the USA (18.27%). Statistical analysis revealed a trend that showed lobular breast carcinoma might have the strongest association with Epstein-Barr virus infection. This meta-analysis showed a significant increase in breast malignancy risk in patients testing positive for the Epstein-Barr virus (OR = 6.29, 95% CI = 2.13-18.59). This result suggests that an Epstein-Barr virus infection is statistically associated with increased breast carcinoma risk

TRAP binding to the Bacillus subtilis trp leader region RNA causes efficient transcription termination at a weak intrinsic terminator

The Bacillus subtilis trpEDCFBA operon is regulated by a transcription attenuation mechanism controlled by the trp RNA-binding attenuation protein (TRAP). TRAP binds to 11 (G/U)AG repeats in the trp leader transcript and prevents formation of an antiterminator, which allows formation of an intrinsic terminator (attenuator). Previously, formation of the attenuator RNA structure was believed to be solely responsible for signaling RNA polymerase (RNAP) to halt transcription. However, base substitutions that prevent formation of the antiterminator, and thus allow the attenuator structure to form constitutively, do not result in efficient transcription termination. The observation that the attenuator requires the presence of TRAP bound to the nascent RNA to cause efficient transcription termination suggests TRAP has an additional role in causing termination at the attenuator. We show that the trp attenuator is a weak intrinsic terminator due to low GC content of the hairpin stem and interruptions in the U-stretch following the hairpin. We also provide evidence that termination at the trp attenuator requires forward translocation of RNA polymerase and that TRAP binding to the nascent transcript can induce this activity

Phonon-assisted carrier transport through a lattice-mismatched interface

We showed the distinctive unconventional junction effect of MoS2 junctions: a lattice mismatched MoS2. It is unique to observe the difference originated from the atomic interrelation at the interface. The results revealed the dominant scattering source at the conventional naturally stepwise junction, while the misorientationally stacked layer exhibited effectively decoupled behavior and a significantly smaller junction resistance via phonon assist carrier. Therefore, our finding in this paper clearly shows the different mechanisms in carrier transport at both junction interface of MoS2