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Call Me Holy for I Will Be Holy: Gendered Self-Fashioning, Abjection, and Authorship in the Lives of Medieval Female Lay Saints
No full textCoparenting in English-speaking and Chinese Families: A Cross-cultural Comparison Using the Survey Tool CoPAFS
No full textWhile coparenting-related conceptual frameworks and empirical studies have received considerable attention in western countries, there is far less attention on this topic in other regions. This study seeks to fill this gap by comparing coparenting dynamics between English speaking and Chinese parents. The study begins by reviewing coparenting relationships in both western and Chinese contexts. With a sample of 399 English-speaking parents and 534 Chinese parents, this study utilized the measurement tool called CoPAFS (Coparenting across Family Structures) to compare the differences in coparenting constructs in two cultures. The study then examines the influences of culture and gender on the significant differences, with culture being the more dominant determinant across groups of participants. The implications of cross-cultural use of the CoPAFS tool and future research directions are discussed
The Coming of Age of Nucleic Acid Vaccines During Covid-19
Get PDFIn the 21st century, several emergent viruses have posed a global threat. Each pathogen has emphasized the value of rapid and scalable vaccine development programs. The ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has made the importance of such efforts especially clear. New biotechnological advances in vaccinology allow for recent advances that provide only the nucleic acid building blocks of an antigen, eliminating many safety concerns. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these DNA and RNA vaccines have facilitated the development and deployment of vaccines at an unprecedented pace. This success was attributable at least in part to broader shifts in scientific research relative to prior epidemics: the genome of SARS-CoV-2 was available as early as January 2020, facilitating global efforts in the development of DNA and RNA vaccines within 2 weeks of the international community becoming aware of the new viral threat. Additionally, these technologies that were previously only theoretical are not only safe but also highly efficacious. Although historically a slow process, the rapid development of vaccines during the COVID-19 crisis reveals a major shift in vaccine technologies. Here, we provide historical context for the emergence of these paradigm-shifting vaccines. We describe several DNA and RNA vaccines in terms of their efficacy, safety, and approval status. We also discuss patterns in worldwide distribution. The advances made since early 2020 provide an exceptional illustration of how rapidly vaccine development technology has advanced in the last 2 decades in particular and suggest a new era in vaccines against emerging pathogens. IMPORTANCE The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused untold damage globally, presenting unusual demands on but also unique opportunities for vaccine development. The development, production, and distribution of vaccines are imperative to saving lives, preventing severe illness, and reducing the economic and social burdens caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although vaccine technologies that provide the DNA or RNA sequence of an antigen had never previously been approved for use in humans, they have played a major role in the management of SARS-CoV-2. In this review, we discuss the history of these vaccines and how they have been applied to SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, given that the evolution of new SARS-CoV-2 variants continues to present a significant challenge in 2022, these vaccines remain an important and evolving tool in the biomedical response to the pandemic
Family Income Is Not Significantly Associated with T1w/T2w Ratio in the Human Connectome Project in Development
Get PDFGrowing evidence indicates that brain development varies as a function of family socioeconomic status (SES). Numer- ous studies have demonstrated that children from low-SES backgrounds have thinner cortex than children from higher- SES backgrounds. A recent study in a large developmental sample found widespread associations between lower SES and greater cortical T1w/T2w ratio—thought to be an indirect proxy for cortical myelin. We evaluated the association of family income with cortical T1w/T2w ratio as a function of age in the Human Connectome Project in Development sample of 989 youth aged 8-21 years. We observed no associations between family income and T1w/ T2w ratio that were significant after corrections for multiple comparisons at the region, network, or whole-brain level. Region of practical equivalence (ROPE) analyses were also consistent with the absence of an association between family income and T1w/T2w ratio. We discuss potential methodological sources of inconsistency between this and the previous study examining the same question. While the question of whether family income may influence cortical myelin development remains, these null results may indicate that the association between SES and cortical myelin development may not be as strong as with other aspects of brain structure
Preparing for Passenger Balloon Flights to the Stratosphere and Scientific Flights to Venus
No full textThe Balloon Systems Technical Committee supports development and application of free-floating systems and technologies for buoyant flight in the stratosphere and atmospheres of other planets
Fundamental Symmetries, Neutrons, and Neutrinos (FSNN): Whitepaper for the 2023 NSAC Long Range Plan
No full textThrough the exploration of fundamental symmetries, and by using nuclei, neutrons, and neutrinos, nuclear physics addresses some of the most profound questions in science. Why does the universe contain so much more matter than antimatter? Are neutrinos their own antiparticles and where do their masses come from? What objects make up the dark matter that is responsible for most of the universe’s mass? Does nature contain more forces than the four we know about? Our Standard Model of nature’s particles and forces is incomplete because it does not answer these questions; new physics, from beyond the Standard Model (BSM) is needed. With that physics not appearing at the high energy frontier, it has become imperative to realize the potential of the burgeoning program of precision nuclear-physics measurements
The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations
No full textHistorical approaches to the study of world politics have always been a major part of the academic discipline of International Relations, and there has recently been a resurgence of scholarly interest in this area. This Oxford Handbook examines the past and present of the intersection between history and IR, and looks to the future by laying out new questions and directions for research.
Seeking to transcend well-worn disciplinary debates between historians and IR scholars, the Handbook asks authors from both fields to engage with the central themes of \u27modernity\u27 and \u27granularity\u27. Modernity is one of the basic organising categories of speculation about continuity and discontinuity in the history of world politics, but one that is increasingly questioned for privileging one kind of experience and marginalizing others. The theme of granularity highlights the importance of how decisions about the scale and scope of historical research in IR shape what can be seen, and how one sees it. Together, these themes provide points of affinity across the wide range of topics and approaches presented here.
The Handbook is organized into four parts. The first, \u27Readings\u27, gives a state-of-the-art analysis of numerous aspects of the disciplinary encounter between historians and IR theorists. Thereafter, sections on \u27Practices\u27, \u27Locales\u27, and \u27Moments\u27 offer a wide variety of perspectives, from the longue durée to the ephemeral individual moment, and challenge many conventional ways of defining the contexts of historical enquiry about international relations. Contributors come from a range of academic backgrounds, and present a diverse array of methodological and philosophical ideas, as well as their various historical interests.
The Oxford Handbooks of International Relations is a twelve-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and innovative engagements with the principal sub-fields of International Relations.
The series as a whole is under the General Editorship of Christian Reus-Smit of the University of Queensland and Duncan Snidal of the University of Oxford, with each volume edited by specialists in the field. The series both surveys the broad terrain of International Relations scholarship and reshapes it, pushing each sub-field in challenging new directions. Following the example of Reus-Smit and Snidal\u27s original Oxford Handbook of International Relations, each volume is organized around a strong central thematic by scholars drawn from different perspectives, reading its sub-field in an entirely new way, and pushing scholarship in challenging new directions.
Source: publisherhttps://scholarworks.smith.edu/gov_books/1005/thumbnail.jp
The Weightless State: PowerPoint and the Everyday Work of Making Senegal Matter
Get PDFExecutives at APIX, Senegal’s state investment-promotion agency, cast their office as the vanguard of a new kind of state formation, one remade through decades of austerity and resolutely focused on the nation’s future. They imagined PowerPoint as especially critical to this mission, as it had the potential to move the state beyond the confines of paper form and parochial bureaucratic routine and into the wider world. In this article, I explore the complex relationship between this state agency and this presentation software package. More specifically, I examine how preoccupations with weight shape state work and technological practice. By attending to everyday aspirations for weightlessness and resultant shifts in material forms, I argue, we might better understand the complex and consequential relationship between state and media in Senegal and elsewhere
Differentiation of Boron Reagents within Chan-Evans-Lam Oxygen Methylation
No full textMethyl ethers have unique properties that make them impactful on biological molecules and medicinal drug synthesis. The current synthetic methodology focuses on using electrophilic methyl sources such as diazomethane, TMS-diazomethane, methyl iodide and dimethyl sulfate. These reagents pose a health risk to the scientists working with them due to their toxicity, even causing the death of a scientist in 2008. The Chan-Evans-Lam oxidative cross coupling reaction allows for the synthesis of methyl ethers while avoiding toxic electrophiles. This is done by pairing an oxygen or nitrogen nucleophile with a nucleophilic boronic acid using a copper catalyst and an oxidant. Chan- Evans-Lam oxygen arylation is well established using arylboronic acids, but there is limited precedent for oxygen alkylation. The Gorin Lab has published two papers on Chan-Evans-Lam methylation, one focused on carboxylic acids and the other on phenols using methylboronic acid. Other nucleophilic alkyl boron reagents have been used in cross coupling reactions such as boroxines, boronic esters and trifluoroborates. Methyl boronic forms of these derivatives are available in the forms of trimethylboroxine, 2,4,4,5,5-pentamethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolane, and potassium methyl trifluoroborate. Using the optimized conditions from the previously published phenol paper1, conditions were developed for the substitution of methylboronic acid with these methyl boron derivatives. Because these new boron reagents have different properties than methyl boronic acid, these new reagents were tested on the N-heterocyclic phenol, 4-(pyrdine-2-yl) phenol, to see if previous yields could be improved and utilize the lessons learned in the optimization conditions. Initial troubleshooting for the use of these new derivatives on the carboxylic acid methylation conditions was done using 19F NMR
The Effect of Safety Net Generosity on Maternal Mental Health and Risky Health Behaviors
Get PDFSingle mothers are more likely to experience mental health problems and stress-related negative health behaviors, but a more generous safety net may improve these outcomes. We use a simulated safety net eligibility approach that accounts for interactions across safety net programs and relies on changing policies across states and time to identify causal effects of safety net generosity on psychological distress and risky behaviors of single mothers. Results suggest that a more generous safety net is protective of maternal mental health: a $1000 increase to the simulated potential combined cash and food benefit package reduces severe psychological distress by 8.4 percent. Breaking out effects by individual programs while still controlling for potential benefits from other programs, we find protective effects of tax credits, cash benefits provided by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and food benefits provided by Supplemental Nutritional Assistance, but no effects of Medicaid eligibility. The effects are primarily driven by single mothers with the lowest levels of education. We find no significant effects of generosity on daily smoking, but we find evidence that benefits reduce the likelihood of heavy drinking. Results suggest that government investments in resources available to low-income families are effective at improving well-being