Search

Health has become a key focus for scholarship within the geographies of gender and sexualities. This progress report offers a schematic overview of the multiple ways in which the study of health (and especially disease and the lack of good health) has been studied in relation to such geographies. It explores the multiple ways in which an understanding of place has been operationalised, considers the potential importance still for large-scale quantitative studies, and highlights the importance of studies of health for broader debates and interests within the discipline. This progress report then concludes with some questions for future scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the similarities and differences between the COVID-19 and AIDS pandemics, cautioning against oversimplification and emphasizing the role of social factors in understanding disease. It discusses the concept of "scientific hubris" and how it can overshadow the social aspects of pandemics. The article also explores the idea of societal attitudes shaping neglect and the value placed on certain lives. The authors stress the importance of considering social relations when studying pandemics and their impact on different groups. The report by Andrew Tucker and Gerry Kearns analyzes the impact of globalization on local communities, acknowledging both the economic benefits and cultural losses associated with it. It calls for policymakers to consider the social and cultural consequences of globalization and proposes strategies to mitigate negative effects. Overall, the report provides a balanced perspective on the complex nature of globalization and its implications for local communities. [Extracted from the article]

Documentary filmmakers are gradually embracing immersive media to create novel Virtual Reality Nonfiction (VRNF) content. Over the past twenty years initial experimentation in this new medium has brought forward numerous linearly structured 360° documentaries that maintain a close link to traditional documentary modes. More recently, we have observed a shift from the relatively passive 360° cinema towards more open-world, non-linear, game-like interactive experiences that challenge traditional definitions of the documentary genre. Volumetric world-building techniques provide nonfiction creators with additional tools that afford 'viewer-users' spatial and interactive agency, leading to a heightened autopoietic realisation of the storyworld. VRNF creators have the potential to allow their viewer-users enhanced control over framing, temporal ordering of the plot and spatial unfolding of the diegetic world, thus inviting them to become actual co-creators of a deeply personal and personalized experience. This article addresses how VRNF may go beyond the mere 'documentation' of people, places or past events that existed in a pre-filmic reality and provide viewer-users through augmented agency a unique present-tense autopoietic experience that pushes the boundaries of traditional 2D documentary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

War and asymmetrical conflicts are becoming increasingly prevalent in the modern world. Due to improvements in conflict medicine, survivable injuries are now more severe than they once were. Therefore, it is now more important than ever that there exist scientific and engineering methods for replicating wartime injuries in the context of the laboratory. We have developed one such method: a shock tube platform for testing ex vivo samples of the porcine respiratory system. Using this platform, we can, to some extent, simulate the pathophysiological consequences of blast lung. This is a condition commonly present in victims of explosive blasts, both those due to typical armaments and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Presented here are the results of experiments conducted using porcine bronchiole tissue as ex vivo organ cultures. Data presented show epithelial damage, consistent with known trauma-induced cell injury that can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Our understanding of land‐based cool season temperature variability over the past millennium is limited by the relative lack of annually resolved temperature proxies, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we develop the first earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) width chronologies from Australia based on the Tasmanian endemic conifer Athrotaxis selaginoides in the far southeast of Australia. We also develop total ring width (RW), EW and LW chronologies from a new site in the far south. We compare the climate responses of RW, EW and adjusted LW chronologies of three A. selagnoides sites near the southern extent of the species with three sites of the species near the northern extent of the species. RW and EW at the southern sites are strongly and positively related to cool season temperature (July–October), but in the north, RW and EW are more strongly and positively related with summer (December–February) temperatures. Once adjusted for the influence of the same growing season EW, LW in the north is very strongly negatively correlated with January–February temperatures across southeastern Australia. The new southern RW and EW chronologies can be used to extend one of only two annually resolved regional cool season temperature reconstructions in the Southern Hemisphere back a further 180 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers working on sexuality - and specifically of relevance to this report, scholars working on non-heternormative sexualities - have come to understand the need to engage with the urban South, culminating in acknowledgement of the benefits of engagements with Southern urbanism literature. I summarise how very recent sexualities scholarship is starting to signal direct connections with some of the broader interests of Southern urbanism. Such scholarship, I argue, has more in common with some of the empirical and theoretical interests of Southern urbanism than existing interests of the geographies of sexualities literature. I also consider how such emergent scholarship can potentially enrich interests of the geographies of sexualities literature in new and exciting ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This study aimed to examine the impact of break duration between consecutive shifts, time of break onset, and prior shift duration on total sleep time (TST) between shifts in heavy vehicle drivers (HVDs), and to assess the interaction between break duration and time of break onset. The sleep (actigraphy and sleep diaries) and work shifts (work diaries) of 27 HVDs were monitored during their usual work schedule for up to 9 weeks. Differences in TST between consecutive shifts and days off were assessed. Linear mixed models (followed by pairwise comparisons) assessed whether break duration, prior shift duration, time of break onset, and the interaction between break duration and break onset were related to TST between shifts. Investigators found TST between consecutive shifts (mean [SD] 6.38 [1.38] h) was significantly less than on days off (mean [SD] 7.63 [1.93] h; p < 0.001). Breaks starting between 12:01 and 8:00 a.m. led to shorter sleep (p < 0.05) compared to breaks starting between 4:01 and 8:00 p.m. Break durations up to 7, 9, and 11 h (Australian and European minimum break durations) resulted in a mean (SD) of 4.76 (1.06), 5.66 (0.77), and 6.41 (1.06) h of sleep, respectively. The impact of shift duration prior to the break and the interaction between break duration and time of break were not significant. HVDs' sleep between workdays is influenced independently by break duration and time of break onset. This naturalistic study provides evidence that current break regulations prevent sufficient sleep duration in this industry. Work regulations should evaluate appropriate break durations and break onset times to allow longer sleep opportunities for HVDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is useful for delimiting species ranges in aquatic systems, whereby water samples are screened for the presence of DNA from a single species. However, DNA from many species is collected in every sample, and high-throughput sequencing approaches allow for more passive surveillance where a community of species is identified. In this study, we use active (targeted) and passive molecular surveillance approaches to detect species in the Muskingum River Watershed in Ohio, USA. The presence of bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) eDNA in the Muskingum River Watershed was confirmed with active surveillance using digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR). The passive surveillance method detected the presence of eDNA from northern snakehead (Channa argus), which was further confirmed with active ddPCR. Whereas active surveillance may be more sensitive to detecting rare DNA, passive surveillance has the capability of detecting unexpected invasive species. Deploying both active and passive surveillance approaches with the same eDNA samples is beneficial for invasive species management. L'ADN environnemental (ADNe) est utile pour delimiter les aires de repartition d'especes dans des systemes aquatiques en analysant des echantillons d'eau pour verifier la presence d'ADN d'especes precises. De l'ADN de nombreuses especes est toutefois preleve dans chaque echantillon et des approches de sequencage a haut debit permettent une plus grande surveillance passive dans les cas ou une communaute d'especes est identifiee. Nous utilisons des approches de surveillance moleculaire active (ciblee) et passive pour determiner si des especes sont presentes dans le bassin versant de la riviere Muskingum (Ohio, Etats-Unis). La presence d'ADNe de carpe a grosse tete (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) dans ce bassin versant a ete confirmee par la surveillance active reposant sur la RCP numerique a gouttelettes (<< ddPCR >>). La methode de surveillance passive a permis de deceler la presence d'ADNe de poisson a tete de serpent du Nord (Channa argus), ce qui a ete corrobore par la methode active de ddPCR. Si la surveillance active peut s'averer plus sensible pour detecter des ADN rares, la surveillance passive peut quant a elle permettre de deceler la presence d'especes envahissantes non attendues. L'utilisation d'approches de surveillance active et passive pour les memes echantillons d'ADNe est une approche utile pour la gestion des especes envahissantes. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveillance is a valuable tool used to screen for rare species, particularly in aquatic environments (Ficetola et al. 2008; Rees et al. 2014). It offers many [...]

Introduction: Nicotine dependence is one of the main causes of preventable diseases in the United States. Nicotine-seeking and avoidance behavioral assays in larval zebrafish could be used for identifying potential new pharmacotherapeutics in an early phase of drug discovery and could facilitate the identification of genes and genomic variations associated with nicotine-seeking and avoidance behavior. Methods: A new three-choice behavioral assay has been developed for the identification of nicotine-seeking and avoiding larval zebrafish. The three choices are represented by three compartments of a gradient maze. Video-recording and subsequent quantitative analysis of the swimming track was carried out using EthovisionXT (Noldus). Results: Three behavioral phenotypes could be identified. Nicotine-seeking larval zebrafish occupied nicotine compartments for longer periods and entered the nicotine-containing compartments most frequently. Nicotine-avoiders spent most of the cumulative time in the water compartment or entered the water compartment most frequently. Non-seekers remained in the center compartment for most of the time. In the gradient maze, about 20-30% of larval zebrafish had a preference for low nicotine concentrations whereas nicotine avoidance was stronger at higher nicotine concentrations. Lower concentrations of nicotine (0.63 µM, 6.3 µM) resulted in higher percentages of nicotine seekers whereas high nicotine concentrations (63 µM, 630 µM) resulted in higher percentages of nicotine avoiders. Pre-treatment of larval zebrafish with nicotine slightly increased the percentage of nicotine avoiders at lower nicotine concentrations. Treatment with varenicline strongly increased the percentage of nicotine avoiders at lower nicotine concentrations. Conclusion: The results show that larval zebrafish have individual preferences for nicotine that could change with drug treatment. The three-choice gradient maze assay for larval zebrafish provides a new testing paradigm for studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of nicotine action and the discovery of potential new pharmacotherapeutics for the treatment of smoking cessation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a number of benefits to large‐scale, multi‐site, internationally funded urban research projects if they are operationalized in ways that acknowledge forms of knowledge incommensurability and allow for space to explore the commensurability of different forms of knowledge across different geographies. Such projects are especially important in the context of the precarity of research funding, as such projects can provide the space to explore new urban research avenues that may not have formed core components of the existing urban studies canon and may also bring with them significant and new funding possibilities. In this intervention I use the example of the GCRF‐funded PEAK Urban programme to consider how new urban research questions related to sexuality and health were brought to the fore during the life of the programme, which offer not only new research avenues, but also potential access to significant new funding sources. Programmes such as PEAK Urban therefore have the potential to build the long‐term resilience of urban research. Cutting funding to such programmes may therefore limit the efficacy of the programmes themselves and the long‐term sustainability of urban scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I set forth the case as to why scholarship on sexuality may wish to engage more directly with scholarship on urban informality especially as it relates to the urban South. Sexualities scholarship has long acknowledged an imbalance in the types of location researched, with the majority of studies having taken place in sites of relative privilege in the Global North. However, there has yet to be a sustained consideration as to the ways in which the particularities of the urban South – such as widespread urban informality – may offer important opportunities for sexualities scholars to engage more directly with locations beyond the Global North. In relation specifically to examples drawn from sub-Saharan Africa, in this article, I explore first the informal economic sector and examine the possibilities of considering the ways in which non-heteronormative sexualities may form a key but so far under-researched part of this sector. I then examine the ways in which scholarship can consider the particular strategic and pragmatic ways by which non-heteronormative groups and communities may be navigating informal built environments, not only to survive but also to potentially thrive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]