Embodied Experiences of Trans Pregnancy

Drawing on interview data from the international project Trans Pregnancy: An International Exploration of Transmasculine Practices of Reproduction this article explores embodied experiences of male, trans/masculine and non-binary pregnancy. Moving beyond the spectacle of the ‘pregnant’ man, our analysis builds on existing literature on trans health and embodiment in order to develop a deeper understanding of the lived, bodily complexities of trans pregnancy. We consider the strategies men, trans/masculine and non-binary folks engage in to manage gender presentation during pregnancy and the degree to which pregnancy disrupts the ability to control the presentation of gender. Our analysis contributes to the deconstruction of normative readings of the relationship between gender and the body and highlights the need for improvements in trans and non-binary reproductive healthcare

Transnormativity in the psy disciplines: Constructing pathology in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and Standards of Care

The psy disciplines (i.e., psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy) have played a significant role in shaping understandings of transgender people’s lives in ways that are transnormative (i.e., by emphasizing one particular account of what it means to be transgender). This paper documents 1) how the rise of the psy disciplines created opportunities for transgender people to access treatment (but that such access often required tacit acceptance of transnormativity), and 2) how transgender people have resisted transnormative accounts within the psy disciplines. More specifically, this paper explores how both the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and what is now the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care, have often enshrined highly regulatory accounts of transgender people’s lives, while also changing over time, in part due to the contributions of transgender people. The paper concludes by considering recent contributions by transgender people in terms of the use of informed consent models of care and clinical research, and highlights the ongoing marginalization of transgender people in terms of access to ethical, trans-competent care

Understanding the contribution of target repetition and target expectation to the emergence of the prevalence effect in visual search

Behavior in visual search tasks is influenced by the proportion of trials on which a target is presented (the target prevalence). Previous research has found that when target prevalence is low (2% prevalence), participants tend to miss targets, compared with higher prevalence levels (e.g., 50% prevalence). There is an ongoing debate regarding the relative contribution of target repetition and the expectation that a target will occur in the emergence of prevalence effects. In order to disentangle these two factors, we went beyond previous studies by directly manipulating participants’ expectations regarding how likely a target was to appear on a given trial. This we achieved without using cues or feedback. Our results indicated both target repetition and target expectation contribute to the emergence of the prevalence effect

The Convergence of Digital-Libraries and the Peer-Review Process

Pre-print repositories have seen a significant increase in use over the past fifteen years across multiple research domains. Researchers are beginning to develop applications capable of using these repositories to assist the scientific community above and beyond the pure dissemination of information. The contribution set forth by this paper emphasizes a deconstructed publication model in which the peer-review process is mediated by an OAI-PMH peer-review service. This peer-review service uses a social-network algorithm to determine potential reviewers for a submitted manuscript and for weighting the relative influence of each participating reviewer's evaluations. This paper also suggests a set of peer-review specific metadata tags that can accompany a pre-print's existing metadata record. The combinations of these contributions provide a unique repository-centric peer-review model that fits within the widely deployed OAI-PMH framework.Comment: Journal of Information Science [in press

Assessment of cochlear synaptopathy by electrocochleography to low frequencies in a preclinical model and human subjects

Cochlear synaptopathy is the loss of synapses between the inner hair cells and the auditory nerve despite survival of sensory hair cells. The findings of extensive cochlear synaptopathy in animals after moderate noise exposures challenged the long-held view that hair cells are the cochlear elements most sensitive to insults that lead to hearing loss. However, cochlear synaptopathy has been difficult to identify in humans. We applied novel algorithms to determine hair cell and neural contributions to electrocochleographic (ECochG) recordings from the round window of animal and human subjects. Gerbils with normal hearing provided training and test sets for a deep learning algorithm to detect the presence of neural responses to low frequency sounds, and an analytic model was used to quantify the proportion of neural and hair cell contributions to the ECochG response. The capacity to detect cochlear synaptopathy was validated in normal hearing and noise-exposed animals by using neurotoxins to reduce or eliminate the neural contributions. When the analytical methods were applied to human surgical subjects with access to the round window, the neural contribution resembled the partial cochlear synaptopathy present after neurotoxin application in animals. This result demonstrates the presence of viable hair cells not connected to auditory nerve fibers in human subjects with substantial hearing loss and indicates that efforts to regenerate nerve fibers may find a ready cochlear substrate for innervation and resumption of function

Hispanic ethnicity and cervical cancer precursors among low-income women in arizona

Purpose: In the United States, Hispanics are more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer compared to Non-Hispanic Whites. Annually, 250,000 to 1 million women are diagnosed with a precursor to CC. The aim of this study was to assess whether Hispanics have a higher prevalence of cervical dysplasia compared to Non-Hispanics Whites among a population of low-income women. Patients and Methods: We analyzed the results of 10,911 cervical cytology tests administered between 2003 and 2016 that were funded through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) program for low-income, uninsured women entitled the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). In the state of Arizona, the program is called the Well Women HealthCheck Program (WWHP). Logistic regression was used to identify increased risk of dysplasia, including low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL/ICC), and multinomial logistic regression was used to assess increased likelihood for LSIL and HSIL/ICC as separate categories. Results: In the crude analysis, Hispanic ethnicity was modestly associated with higher prevalence of LSIL (odds ratio (OR)=1.39, 95% CI=1.01–1.91), but this association was not statistically significant after adjusting for confounders. However, in the final models, lower income was independently associated with LSIL (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=1.55, 95% CI=1.30–1.44), while smoking (aOR=2.88, 95% CI=1.21–6.84) and no history of Pap test within five years (aOR=3.54, 95% CI=1.61–6.99) were independently associated with HSIL. Conclusion: After adjusting for confounding in a sample of low-income women with comparable Pap screening rates, ethnicity was not associated with greater prevalence of abnormal pap smears. However, other variables were independently associated with LSIL and HSIL. The higher proportion of LSIL cases among lower income individuals compared to those with higher incomes, and the higher proportion of HSIL cases observed among those screened least regularly stresses the importance of programs like WWHP: programs that target low-income, uninsured women. These programs help save lives. © 2021 Riggs et al.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Perceptual failures in the selection and identification of low-prevalence targets in relative prevalence visual search

Previous research has shown that during visual search tasks target prevalence (the proportion of trials in which a target appears) influences both the probability that a target will be detected, and the speed at which participants will quit searching and provide an ‘absent’ response. When prevalence is low (e.g., target presented on 2 % of trials), participants are less likely to detect the target than when prevalence is higher (e.g., 50 % of trials). In the present set of experiments, we examined perceptual failures to detect low prevalence targets in visual search. We used a relative prevalence search task in order to be able to present an overall 50 % target prevalence and thereby prevent the results being accounted for by early quitting behavior. Participants searched for two targets, one of which appeared on 45 % of trials and another that appeared on 5 % of trials, leaving overall target prevalence at 50 %. In the first experiment, participants searched for two dissimilar targets; in the second experiment, participants searched for two similar targets. Overall, the results supported the notion that a reduction in prevalence primarily influenced perceptual failures of identification, rather than of selection. Together, these experiments add to a growing body of research exploring how and why observers fail to detect low prevalence targets, especially in real-world tasks in which some targets are more likely to appear than others

Men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people negotiating conception: normative resistance and inventive pragmatism

Background: Growing numbers of men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people are undertaking pregnancies, yet relatively little is known about the experiences of this diverse population in regard to conception. Aims: This study sought to examine men’s, trans/masculine, and non-binary people’s experiences of pregnancy, including conception. Methods: Interviews were conducted with 51 men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people who were gestational parents living in Australia, Canada, the European Union (including the United Kingdom), and the United States. Thematic analysis was undertaken, focusing on accounts of conception. Pfeffer’s conceptual frameworks of normative resistance and inventive pragmatism were used as an analytic tool. Results: Themes developed focused on: 1) choosing a clinic donor, 2) kinship with donors, 3) conceiving via intercourse with a partner, 4) negotiating receipt of donor sperm, 5) challenges associated with known donors, 6) challenges associated with fertility clinics, and 7) experiences of conception. Discussion: The forms of normative resistance and inventive pragmatism identified suggest that men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people who are gestational parents seek to normalize their experiences of conception, while also acknowledging the specific challenges they face