Looking at men and masculinities through Information and Communication Technologies, and Vice Versa

The lecture series that led to this paper, “Gender-Effects: How Women create Technology of Tomorrow”, has an explicit focus on women. However, in this article in keeping with a relational approach to gender, we focus on men and masculinities, seen within the context of and gender power relations, and the diverse interrelations of men and masculinities with information and communication technologies (ICTs). This includes addressing to some of the shortcomings of contemporary studies of men and masculinities that neglect ICTs; the different kinds of social relations of men and masculinities to ICTS, in work, organizations, and social change more generally; and the implications of ICTs for sexualities and sexual violences, ending with the current case of online revenge pornography. As such, we seek to bring two areas of scholarship, critical studies on men and masculinities (CSMM) and studies of ICTs, into closer dialogue. We begin with a brief overview of academic debates in studies on men and masculinities without ICTs, followed by an examination of some aspects of the relations of men, masculinities and ICTs, with a final short discussion of the case of ICTs, sexualities, sexual violences and revenge pornography

Written submission from Dr Matthew Hall and Professor Jeff Hearn (SPP0100)

Written evidence submitted to the House of Commons select committee: The Women and Equalities Committee ‘Sexual harassment of women and girls in public places inquiry’ by: Dr Matthew Hall & Professor Jeff HearnN/

Revenge pornography and manhood acts:A discourse analysis of perpetrators’ accounts

Revenge pornography (hereafter, revenge porn) is the online, sometimes offline, non-consensual distribution or sharing, of explicit images of someone else by ex-partners, partners, others or hackers seeking revenge or entertainment – also referred to as non-consensual pornography. The vast majority of revenge porn is committed by men on women ex-partners. In this paper, we discursively analyse men’s electronic texts accompanying their posting of explicit images on arguably the most popular revenge porn-specific website MyEx.com. Situating our analysis as a contemporary form of online gendered violence and abuse, we show the complex ways in which manhood acts are invoked by men to account for their practices. The impacts on victims/survivors and possible interventions are also discussed

The transnationalisation of online sexual violation:The case of 'revenge pornography' as a theoretical and political problematic

Online sexual abuse and violation concern matters of sexuality and violence, through the medium of new information and communication technologies. Online abuse and violation are produced in two main ways: by those posting and via online platforms and technologies, in some cases those purpose-built for ‘revenge porn’. Transnationalisation of violence and abuse is facilitated by the Dark Web, an encrypted network of secret websites, making it much more difficult to control, police, or even know the extent to the problem. Online sexual violation involves practices of moving data, messages, and visuals across national boundaries creating transnational divergences between the web hosting base, the posting, and the viewing/consumption of that posted and creating a need for transnational legal, regulatory controls and interventions. The theoretical and political problematic of online sexual violation assists rethinking transnational processes more generally and in multiple ways – in production, consumption, and interventions; between and beyond nations; and in the creation of new configurations and phenomena online-offline

Revenge Pornography: Gender, Sexuality and Motivations

Facilitated by developments in technologies, the non-consensual posting of sexually explicit images of someone else for revenge, entertainment or political motive – so called ‘revenge porn’ – has become a global phenomenon. This ground breaking book argues that these fundamental and recurring issues about how victims are violated can be understood in terms of gender and sexual dynamics and constructions, binary gender and sexual positioning and logics, and the use of sexual meanings. Using a discourse analytical approach the authors examine revenge pornography through the words of the perpetrators themselves, and study the complex ways in which they invoke, and deploy, gender and sexuality-based discourses to blame the victim. They explore strategies to curb the phenomenon of revenge porn, and by placing their research in a broader social and political context, the authors are able to examine the effectiveness of current legislative frameworks, education and awareness raising, victim support, perpetrator re-education programmes, along with wider political considerations. This enhanced understanding of the perpetrator mind set provides important insights into the use of social media to facilitate gender violence, and holds the promise of more effective interventions in future. This is a unique resource for students, academics, researchers, and professionals interested in revenge pornography and related issue

Magnificent Distance: Five Site-Specific Installations Washington DC 2012

5x5, Washington DC’s inaugural public art festival, was conceived as a flagship biennial in which five curators would each be invited to curate new site-specific artworks by five artists – leading to the simultaneous installation of twenty-five artworks across Washington DC. The primary research question explored in the curation of the five Magnificent Distance artworks was the slippage between the symbolic DC of the worldwide public imagination and the ‘domestic’, human DC with its complex histories and communities. Many of the exhibition sites, selected as part of my curatorial role, were at the interstices of these two DC realities – at the meeting point between federal and community environments, in locations undergoing transformation from one use to another, and at points where differing scales of architecture meet

Accuracy of tumor segmentation from multi-parametric prostate MRI and 18F-choline PET/CT for focal prostate cancer therapy applications

Abstract Background The study aims to assess the accuracy of multi-parametric prostate MRI (mpMRI) and 18F-choline PET/CT in tumor segmentation for clinically significant prostate cancer. 18F-choline PET/CT and 3 T mpMRI were performed in 10 prospective subjects prior to prostatectomy. All subjects had a single biopsy-confirmed focus of Gleason ≥ 3+4 cancer. Two radiologists (readers 1 and 2) determined tumor boundaries based on in vivo mpMRI sequences, with clinical and pathologic data available. 18F-choline PET data were co-registered to T2-weighted 3D sequences and a semi-automatic segmentation routine was used to define tumor volumes. Registration of whole-mount surgical pathology to in vivo imaging was conducted utilizing two ex vivo prostate specimen MRIs, followed by gross sectioning of the specimens within a custom-made 3D-printed plastic mold. Overlap and similarity coefficients of manual segmentations (seg1, seg2) and 18F-choline-based segmented lesions (seg3) were compared to the pathologic reference standard. Results All segmentation methods greatly underestimated the true tumor volumes. Human readers (seg1, seg2) and the PET-based segmentation (seg3) underestimated an average of 79, 80, and 58% of the tumor volumes, respectively. Combining segmentation volumes (union of seg1, seg2, seg3 = seg4) decreased the mean underestimated tumor volume to 42% of the true tumor volume. When using the combined segmentation with 5 mm contour expansion, the mean underestimated tumor volume was significantly reduced to 0.03 ± 0.05 mL (2.04 ± 2.84%). Substantial safety margins up to 11–15 mm were needed to include all tumors when the initial segmentation boundaries were drawn by human readers or the semi-automated 18F-choline segmentation tool. Combining MR-based human segmentations with the metabolic information based on 18F-choline PET reduced the necessary safety margin to a maximum of 9 mm to cover all tumors entirely. Conclusions To improve the outcome of focal therapies for significant prostate cancer, it is imperative to recognize the full extent of the underestimation of tumor volumes by mpMRI. Combining metabolic information from 18F-choline with MRI-based segmentation can improve tumor coverage. However, this approach requires confirmation in further clinical studies.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142871/1/13550_2018_Article_377.pd

The Microevolution and Epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus Colonization during Atopic Eczema Disease Flare.

Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen and variable component of the human microbiota. A characteristic of atopic eczema (AE) is colonization by S. aureus, with exacerbations associated with an increased bacterial burden of the organism. Despite this, the origins and genetic diversity of S. aureus colonizing individual patients during AE disease flares is poorly understood. To examine the microevolution of S. aureus colonization, we deep sequenced S. aureus populations from nine children with moderate to severe AE and 18 non-atopic children asymptomatically carrying S. aureus nasally. Colonization by clonal S. aureus populations was observed in both AE patients and control participants, with all but one of the individuals carrying colonies belonging to a single sequence type. Phylogenetic analysis showed that disease flares were associated with the clonal expansion of the S. aureus population, occurring over a period of weeks to months. There was a significant difference in the genetic backgrounds of S. aureus colonizing AE cases versus controls (Fisher exact test, P = 0.03). Examination of intra-host genetic heterogeneity of the colonizing S. aureus populations identified evidence of within-host selection in the AE patients, with AE variants being potentially selectively advantageous for intracellular persistence and treatment resistance.CPH was supported by Wellcome Trust (grant number 104241/z/14/z). MTGH, KAP, and KO were supported by the Scottish Infection Research Network and Chief Scientist Office through the Scottish Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Institute consortium funding (CSO reference: SIRN10). Bioinformatics and computational biology analyses were supported by the University of St Andrews Bioinformatics Unit that is funded by a Wellcome Trust ISSF award (grant 097831/Z/11/Z). JP and MTGH were supported by Wellcome Trust grant 098051. AEM is supported by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council grant BB/M014088/1. SJB is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in Clinical Science (106865/Z/15/Z)

A deimmunised form of the ribotoxin, α-sarcin, lacking CD4+ T cell epitopes and its use as an immunotoxin warhead

Fungal ribotoxins that block protein synthesis can be useful warheads in the context of a targeted immunotoxin. α-Sarcin is a small (17 kDa) fungal ribonuclease produced by Aspergillus giganteus that functions by catalytically cleaving a single phosphodiester bond in the sarcin–ricin loop of the large ribosomal subunit, thus making the ribosome unrecognisable to elongation factors and leading to inhibition of protein synthesis. Peptide mapping using an ex vivo human T cell assay determined that α-sarcin contained two T cell epitopes; one in the N-terminal 20 amino acids and the other in the C-terminal 20 amino acids. Various mutations were tested individually within each epitope and then in combination to isolate deimmunised α-sarcin variants that had the desired properties of silencing T cell epitopes and retention of the ability to inhibit protein synthesis (equivalent to wild-type, WT α-sarcin). A deimmunised variant (D9T/Q142T) demonstrated a complete lack of T cell activation in in vitro whole protein human T cell assays using peripheral blood mononuclear cells from donors with diverse HLA allotypes. Generation of an immunotoxin by fusion of the D9T/Q142T variant to a single-chain Fv targeting Her2 demonstrated potent cell killing equivalent to a fusion protein comprising the WT α-sarcin. These results represent the first fungal ribotoxin to be deimmunised with the potential to construct a new generation of deimmunised immunotoxin therapeutics