Rooms of One?s Own : Gender, Race and Home Ownership as Wealth Accumulation in the United States

Do income disparities between men and women translate into longer term wealth disparities? We use the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to investigate gender and race disparities in home ownership, value, and equity. These investigations reveal that the gap in housing outcomes is much more pronounced for the probability of home ownership than for home value or home equity. Once households have entered the housing market, differences across gender, race and family type are much smaller and sometimes turn in favor of households that are usually considered to be disadvantaged. Family type is associated with differences that are larger than those based solely on gender and are as large as those associated solely with race. The predicted probability of home ownership ranges from 0.83 for male householders in married couple households to 0.49 for male householders in non-family households. African Americans are consistently predicted to have lower home value, but less consistently predicted to have less equity than whites. We find that race gaps in homeownership, typically attributed to differences in family type (such as prevalence of female headed households in the African American population), are significantly and sizably present within gendered family types

Conceptualising and researching the body in digital contexts: towards new methodological conversations across the arts and social sciences

The turn to the body in social sciences has intensified the gaze of qualitative research on bodily matters and embodied relations and made the body a significant object of reflection, bringing new focus on and debates around the direction of methodological advances. This article contributes to these debates in three ways: 1) we explore the potential synergies across the social sciences and arts to inform the conceptualization of the body in digital contexts; 2) we point to ways qualitative research can engage with ideas from the arts towards more inclusive methods; and 3) we offer three themes with which to interrogate and re-imagine the body: its fragmenting and zoning, its sensory and material qualities, and its boundaries. We draw on the findings of an ethnographic study of the research ecologies of six research groups in the arts and social sciences concerned with the body in digital contexts to discuss the synergetic potential of these themes and how they could be mobilized for qualitative research on the body in digital contexts. We conclude that engaging with the arts brings potential to reinvigorate and extend the methodological repertoire of qualitative social science in ways that are pertinent to the current re-thinking of the body, its materiality and boundaries

Discovering Creative Commons Sounds in Live Coding

This article reports on a study to identify the new sonic challenges and opportunities for live coders, computer musicians and sonic artists using MIRLCa, a live-coding environment powered by an artificial intelligence (AI) system. MIRLCa works as a customisable worldwide sampler, with sounds retrieved from the collective online Creative Commons (CC) database Freesound. The live-coding environment was developed in SuperCollider by the author in conversation with the live-coding community through a series of workshops and by observing its use by 16 live coders, including the author, in work-in-progress sessions, impromptu performances and concerts. This article presents a qualitative analysis of the workshops, work-in-progress sessions and performances. The findings identify (1) the advantages and disadvantages, and (2) the different compositional strategies that result from manipulating a digital sampler of online CC sounds in live coding. A prominent advantage of using sound samples in live coding is its low-entry access suitable for music improvisation. The article concludes by highlighting future directions relevant to performance, composition, musicology and education

Facilitating Team-Based Programming Learning with Web Audio

In this paper, we present a course of audio programming using web audio technologies addressed to an interdisciplinary group of master students who are mostly novices in programming. This course is held in two connected university campuses through a portal space and the students are expected to work in cross-campus teams. The course promotes both individual and group work and is based on ideas from science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education, team-based learning (TBL) and project-based learning. We show the outcomes of this course, discuss the students’ feedback and reflect on the results. We found that it is important to provide individual vs. group work, to use the same code editor for consistent follow-up and to be able to share the screen to solve individual questions. Other aspects inherent to the master (e.g. intensity of the courses, coding in a research-oriented program) and to prior knowledge (e.g. web technologies) should be reconsidered. We conclude with a wider reflection on the challenges and potentials of using web audio as a programming environment for novices in TBL cross-campus courses and how to foster effective novices

Feminist HCI and narratives of design semantics in DIY music hardware

Feminist Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) integrates gender, diversity, equity, and social justice into technology research and design, fostering a more inclusive and socially aware technology landscape. This article explores the design semantics of ten Do-it-Yourself (DIY) musical instruments created by women builders. Design semantics refers to the associations conveyed by designed objects so as to identity, emotions, performance or the environment and their sensory qualities such as shape, size, touch or vision. Together these associations and qualities can establish design narratives that influence the way meaning is ascribed. We conduct an analysis of these instruments to answer the question of how fabulations of design semantics, through the lens of feminist HCI principles, can reshape our understanding of gender bias in object design within the realm of DIY musical instruments constructed by women builders. Our investigation uncovers a feminist narrative taking shape as we found out that DIY instruments design contributes to the fabulation of alternative futures that challenge prevalent current gender expectations associated with commercial music hardware. DIY instruments provide a platform for questioning established gender norms, enabling the development of technologies that embrace diverse perspectives and maintain a technical identity

Home bitter home? Gender, living arrangements, and the exclusion from homeownership among older Europeans

Abstract Homeownership is the most important asset among the elderly in Europe, but very little is known about gender and living arrangement differences in this domain. This paper aims at exploring patterns of exclusion from homeownership among middle-aged and older Europeans from a gender perspective, and with a special focus on their household composition. The analysis is based on the fourth wave of the “Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe” and includes a sub-sample of about 56,000 individuals aged 50 or over, living in 16 European countries. We estimated a set of multinomial logit models to examine the probability of being either tenant or rent-free occupiers versus homeowners. Our findings show that women are generally more likely to be excluded from homeownership than men. Nevertheless, a closer look suggests that the gender gap in homeownership is essentially generated by compositional differences between men and women, with the most relevant factor being household type. Older women are almost as twice as likely as men to live alone, which is associated—other things being equal—with a particular low likelihood to be homeowners virtually in every European country

Identification of Tsetse (Glossina spp.) using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry

Glossina (G.) spp. (Diptera: Glossinidae), known as tsetse flies, are vectors of African trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in domestic livestock. Knowledge on tsetse distribution and accurate species identification help identify potential vector intervention sites. Morphological species identification of tsetse is challenging and sometimes not accurate. The matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF MS) technique, already standardised for microbial identification, could become a standard method for tsetse fly diagnostics. Therefore, a unique spectra reference database was created for five lab-reared species of riverine-, savannah- and forest- type tsetse flies and incorporated with the commercial Biotyper 3.0 database. The standard formic acid/acetonitrile extraction of male and female whole insects and their body parts (head, thorax, abdomen, wings and legs) was used to obtain the flies' proteins. The computed composite correlation index and cluster analysis revealed the suitability of any tsetse body part for a rapid taxonomical identification. Phyloproteomic analysis revealed that the peak patterns of G. brevipalpis differed greatly from the other tsetse. This outcome was comparable to previous theories that they might be considered as a sister group to other tsetse spp. Freshly extracted samples were found to be matched at the species level. However, sex differentiation proved to be less reliable. Similarly processed samples of the common house fly Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae; strain: Lei) did not yield any match with the tsetse reference database. The inclusion of additional strains of morphologically defined wild caught flies of known origin and the availability of large-scale mass spectrometry data could facilitate rapid tsetse species identification in the futur

Community Report: LivecoderA

In March of 2022, LivecoderA, a new live coding community came into being, coalescing around the need to recognize a specific cohort of live coders who identify as women. The group is inherently feminist and intersectional, and its creation was motivated by many desires. Among them: solidarity and visibility, to be counted as sisters, and to reflect to each other the strength of our numbers. A manifesto and several events have since been produced, and the community is active online while also making more in-person connections whenever possible through the coordination of gigs, residencies and meetups. At the time of publishing, the community connects through Telegram and Discord, with channels consisting of 48 and 27 members respectively

Piezo1 integration of vascular architecture with physiological force

The mechanisms by which physical forces regulate endothelial cells to determine the complexities of vascular structure and function are enigmatic¹⁻⁵. Studies of sensory neurons have suggested Piezo proteins as subunits of Ca²⁺-permeable non-selective cationic channels for detection of noxious mechanical impact⁶⁻⁸. Here we show Piezo1 (Fam38a) channels as sensors of frictional force (shear stress) and determinants of vascular structure in both development and adult physiology. Global or endothelial-specific disruption of mouse Piezo1 profoundly disturbed the developing vasculature and was embryonic lethal within days of the heart beating. Haploinsufficiency was not lethal but endothelial abnormality was detected in mature vessels. The importance of Piezo1 channels as sensors of blood flow was shown by Piezo1 dependence of shear-stress-evoked ionic current and calcium influx in endothelial cells and the ability of exogenous Piezo1 to confer sensitivity to shear stress on otherwise resistant cells. Downstream of this calcium influx there was protease activation and spatial reorganization of endothelial cells to the polarity of the applied force. The data suggest that Piezo1 channels function as pivotal integrators in vascular biology

Evaluation of Infection Control Adherence Among Health Care Workers at Hemodialysis Units

Background: Patients with chronic renal insufficiency suffer from abnormalities of the immune system, making them more susceptible to infections. Renal disease patients and health care workers are at high risk for infection due to frequently repeated exposure to contaminants in dialysis units. The microbiological monitoring used for hemodialysis is extremely important, especially because of the debilitated immune system of patients suffering from chronic renal insufficiency. Objectives: The purpose of this study to investigate Infection Control Adherence among Health Care Workers at Hemodialysis Units. Methods and Materials: The study was performed from Jun 2019 to 2019. Environmental and air samples were collected. The media used were nutrient agar for the total bacterial count, MacConkey agar for Gram-negative count. Colonial morphology, Gram staining and biochemical test were used for the identification and characterization of the microorganisms. Demographic, environmental, behavioral and some risk factors associated with the patients (N=205) and the HCW (N=32) in haemodialysis units were recorded in a separate questionnaire. Results: The isolates were predominantly gram-negative bacteria, with Enterobacter being the most common followed by Staphylococcus spp. One isolate each of Klebsiella pneuminiae, Salmonella sp. and Citrobacter diversus was obtained. Only 80% of haemodialysis patients received hepatitis B vaccine. Adherence to infection control measures among health care workers was low in 31.2%, moderate in 34.4% and high in 34.4%. Conclusion: The study showed low adherence to infection control measures among patients receiving maintenance HD and HCW in Gaza Strip