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Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research seminars are a staple within biology and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments across academic institutions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, academic institutions across the U.S. had to rapidly transition courses, research programs, and other events from in-person to virtual environments—and departmental research seminars were no exception. We explored the perceptions of biology department seminar speakers and organizers regarding the benefits and challenges they experienced in the virtual format. We asked three primary research questions: (1) What challenges and benefits do invited seminar speakers in biology departments perceive regarding presenting seminars in the virtual environment? (2) What challenges and benefits do organizers of biology department seminars perceive regarding organizing seminars in the virtual environment? (3) How did biology department seminars change during the transition from an in-person to virtual format? In total, 39 seminar organizers and 90 seminar speakers completed surveys focused on their perceptions of virtual seminars. Using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, we found that numerous benefits and challenges are perceived by seminar speakers and organizers regarding virtual seminars. Speakers and organizers perceived similar benefits of virtual seminars including accessibility and diversity, while perceived challenges included the loss of professional networking opportunities and academic community. There was overwhelming consensus from speakers and organizers alike that virtual departmental seminars are professionally and academically valuable. However, while speakers’ chief motivator was in furthering their own networks, research collaborations, and research visibility, organizers primarily valued their own students’ or trainees’ career development as well as their own departmental community. Together, these findings demonstrate the potential benefits of continuing virtual seminars outside of the context of the COVID-19 pandemic from an equity perspective while also highlighting issues that must be addressed by organizers and attendees to ensure seminars retain their value.

Abstract Increasing access, representation, and retention of underrepresented groups is essential across academia. Invited speaker seminars are common practice in academic science departments and serve to disseminate research, establish connections and collaborations, advance faculty careers, and connect trainees to mentors outside of departmental faculty. Thus, lack of representation among seminar speakers can affect both faculty and trainee professional development. This study characterizes gender demographics of seminar speakers across science departments at an R1 institution for the years 2015–2019, using pronoun usage as a proxy for gender identity. We found that most faculty and invited speakers were male, and few were female or nonbinary. The percentage of female and nonbinary invited speakers increased from 2015–2019 along with the percentage of female and nonbinary host faculty. Overall, male faculty hosted fewer female and nonbinary speakers than their female and nonbinary faculty colleagues. This study provides evidence for a correlation between faculty identity and the scientists they host at their department and motivates further studies investigating this relationship at other R1 institutions and institution types.

• Gaps between recommended and implemented care are common in status epilepticus (SE). • Studying and closing these gaps will require systematic study and focused efforts. • Implementation science (IS) employs a mixed methods approach, identifying factors that impact uptake across multiple levels. • A multipronged approach leveraging IS methods will require better integration of real-world and research infrastructure, clinical data harmonization, revision of funding priorities, regulatory reform to promote practice-based evidence and the formation of transdisciplinary teams and learning collaboratives. Status epilepticus (SE) is a time-sensitive, potentially life-threatening neuro-emergency associated with poor functional outcomes and increased hospital resource utilization especially when it progresses to refractory or super-refractory forms. Timely recognition & treatment improves outcomes, however gaps between recommended and implemented care are common and pervasive. This review provides a roadmap for incorporating the relatively new field of Implementation Science in promoting the systematic uptake of evidence-based practices into the real-world care of patients with SE. A multifaceted approach − including better integration of real-world implementation and research infrastructure, an emphasis on standardizing and harmonization clinical data, re-examining funding priorities, regulatory reform, and the formation of transdisciplinary teams and learning collaboratives − has the potential to advance the care of patients in SE from its current status quo. This topic was presented at the 9th London-Innsbruck Colloquium on Status Epilepticus and Acute Seizures held in April 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) hosted the XVII Colloquium of Classical Literature Students, titled "Classics: a therapy in times of pandemic". The event had the participation of students from UNAM, the University of Guanajuato, and professors in Spain, and it took place in a hybrid format, both virtually and in person. During the colloquium, various presentations and academic activities related to the classics were held, addressing topics such as the plague in Athens in 430 BC, the sin of laziness in Book II of "My Secret" by Francisco Petrarca, and the iconographic analysis of the verses of Homer's Odyssey. Master lectures were also given on the relevance of the classics in the present and the relationship between magic and medicine in the context of the plague. The colloquium concluded with a master lecture on the Confessions of St. Augustine. The activities were well received, and it is expected that this space will continue for future generations of students. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Hipogrifo: revista de literatura y cultura del siglo de oro is the property of Hipogrifo: revista de literatura y cultura del siglo de oro and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) included research and production as two (2) of the functions of higher education. In its CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) Number 15 series of 2019, CHED fully integrated the research and production functions as part of the skills and competencies to be honed among the students in the Graduate Studies education; thus, the CMO required the graduate students to present a research work in local and international conferences, and later on, submit their paper for publication in peer-reviewed journal. Hence strengthening the niche as a research haven, a private Catholic university in the City of Malolos, Bulacan commenced the holding of research activities at the Graduate Studies Department during the Third Trimester of School Year 2021-2022. The main concern of the study was the assessment of the effect of the Research and Creative Works Colloquium on the research performance of the Master's and Doctorate students. The researchers aimed to generate data which hoped to be the basis of a proposed enhancement on the Research and Creative Works Colloquium. The study utilized a descriptive-correlational quantitative research approach and universal sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cinema as a medium and an art form has been a major consideration in Africa's struggles against colonialism. These struggles, which encompass aspirations to establish Africa's cultural and political autonomy in the postcolonial era, are ongoing. Marking the 26th edition of the Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television (FESPACO) therefore was considered as an important opportunity for reflection. More so, the occasion was taken as a call to re-engage with the challenge of shaping and transforming 'the Continent's greatest cultural event' for the future. The 2019 festival was launched around the colloquium theme: 'Confronting our memory and shaping the future of a Pan-African cinema in its essence, economy and diversity'. This article begins with an account of the colloquium and reflects on the knowledge production dimension of the festival, which has been a core component of FESPACO's identity and existence. It also seeks to situate the event of the 50th anniversary in a continuum of critical discussions about the festival, its past, present and future, and in relation to the seminal aspirations of African filmmakers for an African cinema, its challenges and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing access, representation, and retention of underrepresented groups is essential across academia. Invited speaker seminars are common practice in academic science departments and serve to disseminate research, establish connections and collaborations, advance faculty careers, and connect trainees to mentors outside of departmental faculty. Thus, lack of representation among seminar speakers can affect both faculty and trainee professional development. This study characterizes gender demographics of seminar speakers across science departments at an R1 institution for the years 2015-2019, using pronoun usage as a proxy for gender identity. We found that most faculty and invited speakers were male, and few were female or nonbinary. The percentage of female and nonbinary invited speakers increased from 2015-2019 along with the percentage of female and nonbinary host faculty. Overall, male faculty hosted fewer female and nonbinary speakers than their female and nonbinary faculty colleagues. This study provides evidence for a correlation between faculty identity and the scientists they host at their department and motivates further studies investigating this relationship at other R1 institutions and institution types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A Town in Fukushima Prefecture evacuated its residents after a nuclear power accident 2011. We investigate a series of radiation risk communication round table discussions among the residents and researchers/experts over three years, beginning five years after the said evacuation order and ending one year after its partial lifting. By analyzing the language used in the sessions, we explore the residents' perceptions of radiation, how they changed and the trends in the content of explanations provided in response to the questions. The conferences were transcribed and analyzed using language analysis software. These were divided into questions and explanation data groups. The former was associated with daily life matters, including health effects, diet, the evacuated town and annual changes in the decontamination progress and the cancellation of evacuation orders. Women focused on their offspring, while men focused on health topics and the future of nuclear power, as indicated by subject popularity. These questions were intended to confirm the authenticity of what residents heard from other people. The explanation data group was associated with radioactive materials' characteristics, particularly the transfer mechanisms of cesium by nature. These explanations were related to health effects. Often, "It is thought" or "I think" was mentioned after giving information, probably to avoid assertions, entrust the questioner with decisions and foster radiation literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) is a model of research co-production, whereby researchers partner with knowledge users throughout the research process and who can use the research recommendations in practice or policy. IKT approaches are used to improve the relevance and impact of research. As an emerging field, however, the evidence underpinning IKT is in active development. The Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network represents a collaborative interdisciplinary team that aims to advance the state of IKT science. Methods In 2017, the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network issued a call to its members for concept papers to further define IKT, outline an IKT research agenda, and inform the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network’s special meeting entitled, Integrated Knowledge Translation State of the Science Colloquium, in Ottawa, Canada (2018). At the colloquium, authors presented concept papers and discussed knowledge-gaps for a research agenda and implications for advancing the IKT field. We took detailed field notes, audio-recorded the meeting and analysed the data using qualitative content analysis. Results Twenty-four participants attended the meeting, including researchers (n = 11), trainees (n = 6) and knowledge users (n = 7). Seven overarching categories emerged from these proceedings – IKT theory, IKT methods, IKT process, promoting partnership, definitions and distinctions of key IKT terms, capacity-building, and role of funders. Within these categories, priorities identified for future IKT research included: (1) improving clarity about research co-production/IKT theories and frameworks; (2) describing the process for engaging knowledge users; and (3) identifying research co-production/IKT outcomes and methods for evaluation. Conclusion The Integrated Knowledge Translation State of the Science Colloquium initiated a research agenda to advance IKT science and practice. Next steps will focus on building a theoretical and evidence base for IKT.

Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We have been called, individually and collectively, to recognize and redress deficits that limit our ability to see ourselves and each other fully—deficits that likewise condition and constrain our work in the academy and the museum.

Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) is a model of research co-production, whereby researchers partner with knowledge users throughout the research process and who can use the research recommendations in practice or policy. IKT approaches are used to improve the relevance and impact of research. As an emerging field, however, the evidence underpinning IKT is in active development. The Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network represents a collaborative interdisciplinary team that aims to advance the state of IKT science.Methods: In 2017, the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network issued a call to its members for concept papers to further define IKT, outline an IKT research agenda, and inform the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network's special meeting entitled, Integrated Knowledge Translation State of the Science Colloquium, in Ottawa, Canada (2018). At the colloquium, authors presented concept papers and discussed knowledge-gaps for a research agenda and implications for advancing the IKT field. We took detailed field notes, audio-recorded the meeting and analysed the data using qualitative content analysis.Results: Twenty-four participants attended the meeting, including researchers (n = 11), trainees (n = 6) and knowledge users (n = 7). Seven overarching categories emerged from these proceedings - IKT theory, IKT methods, IKT process, promoting partnership, definitions and distinctions of key IKT terms, capacity-building, and role of funders. Within these categories, priorities identified for future IKT research included: (1) improving clarity about research co-production/IKT theories and frameworks; (2) describing the process for engaging knowledge users; and (3) identifying research co-production/IKT outcomes and methods for evaluation.Conclusion: The Integrated Knowledge Translation State of the Science Colloquium initiated a research agenda to advance IKT science and practice. Next steps will focus on building a theoretical and evidence base for IKT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Realidad Economica is the property of Realidad Economica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The National Poetry Colloquium at the Vasile Alecsandri National Theater in Iaşi (October 18-20, 1978) remained a memorable literary event, especially because there, the resistance through culture, about which we speak and write in various ways today, has received its identity card in the sight and in the hearing of all. Today's reader who learns about the National Poetry Colloquium in Iaşi, properly wonders about what Ştefan Augustin Doinaş and Dorin Tudoran said there at that moment since their speeches brought to light the scoundrels of the Romanian culture, thus it was considered necessary that these ones, besides others, should be followed, using the specific means of Ceauşescu's State Security Department. What we set ourselves to do through The dynamics of the reconstructive literary discourse or The Power, the poets and the "National Poetry Colloquium (Iaşi, 1978)" is to get back the historical literary truth from what we have got at hand. After having talked about The National Poetry Colloquium in Iaşi in his Poezia este sau nu este, interview given to Valeriu Stancu for "Opinia Studenţească" (no. 7-8/1978), Dorin Tudoran would write Cizmare, nu mai sus de sanda! ("România literară", May 21, 1997), starting from what he discovered in Cartea Albă a Securităţii. Istorii literare şi artistice (1969-1989), on this topic: The National Poetry Colloquium in 1978. The persistence of the distorted image of The National Poetry Colloquium in Iaşi is a reality that cannot be corrected from a simple reason: Doinaş's indictment and Dorin Tudoran's pamphlet are not entirely accessible to us. He who reads the notes and reports in Cartea Albă a Securităţii. Istorii literare şi artistice (1969-1989) and in Eu, fiul lor. Dosar de Securitate on The National Poetry Colloquium in Iaşi, will notice that everyone was talking about the equivalence between Adrian Păunescu and the imaginary Necesias and Lychesias, but the officers and the informers did not dare say a word about the equivalence between the shoemaker Apelles and Ceauşescu, all of them sneaking behind the formula "serious political interpretations". Publishing Cazul Doinaş ("Apostrof", no. 2/2014), Gelu Ionescu, an eyewitness to The National Poetry Colloquium (1978), was to evoke the figure of Doinaş who shuffled the audience through the assumption of his paper. Having written Elegiile unui pamfletar, the preface to the volume România ca părere (2015), Sorin Antohi, another eyewitness, was to evoke the figure of the seditious Dorin Tudoran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Digital Humanities Summer Institute gives students and scholars a chance to broaden their knowledge of the Digital Humanities within a feasible timeframe. The DHSI Colloquium was first founded by Diane Jakacki and Cara Leitch to act as a means of supporting graduates who wanted to be a part of such a gathering. The Colloquium has grown in recent years, to the point where it is now seen as an important part of the field’s conference calendar for emerging and established scholars alike, but it remains a non-threatening space in which students, scholars, and practitioners can share their ideas. This issue is testament to that diversity, as well as the strength of the research being presented at the Colloquium. It includes Scott B. Weingart and Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara, Mary Borgo, William B. Kurtz, and John Barber. “What’s Under the Big Tent?: A Study of ADHO Conference Abstracts,” which portrays the discipline as one which is dominated by specific groups and practices. Using the Victorian Women Writers Project as a case-study, Mary Borgo treats models for the sustainable growth of TEI-based digital resources. William B. Kurtz details his experiences working on a digital initiative, in this instance, Founders Online: Early Access, and engages with the need for such projects to hold broader public appeal. John Barber’s “Radio Nouspace: Sound, Radio, Digital Humanities,” describes the curation of sound within the context of radio, and how such activity connects to creative digital scholarship. Together, these articles represent the purpose of facilitating a community comprised of divergent interests and perspectives, a community which can often be positively dissonant. Le Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) offre une chance aux étudiants et érudits d’étoffer leurs connaissances en humanités numériques pendant un délai réalisable. Diane Jakacki et Cara Leitch ont établi le premier colloque du DHSI pour soutenir des diplômés qui voulaient participer à un tel rassemblement. Ces dernières années, le colloque s’est développé jusqu’au point d’être considéré maintenant comme une conférence importante sur le calendrier non seulement pour les érudits émergeants mais aussi pour les érudits établis dans le domaine. Le colloque continue cependant à être un espace non menaçant où les étudiants, les érudits et les professionnels peuvent échanger leurs idées. Ce numéro est un témoignage de cette diversité et de la qualité de la recherche présentée au colloque. Le numéro inclut l’article « What’s Under the Big Tent?: A Study of ADHO Conference Abstracts » par Scott B. Weingart et Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara, ce qui présente les humanités numériques comme une discipline dominée par des groupes et pratiques spécifiques. En se servant du Victorian Women Writers Project comme étude de cas, Mary Borgo traite des maquettes pour la croissance durable des ressources numériques basées sur la TEI. William B. Kurtz détaille les expériences qu’il a acquises en travaillant sur l’initiative numérique Founders Online: Early Access ainsi que l’importance que de tels projets constituent un facteur attractif pour un plus large public. Dans le texte de John Barber, « Radio Nouspace: Sound, Radio, Digital Humanities », il s’agit du traitement de sons radiophoniques et du lien entre cette activité et l’érudition numérique créative. Tous ces articles correspondent au but de faciliter une communauté composée des intérêts et perspectives divergents qui peut souvent être véritablement dissonante. Mots-clés: Digital Humanities; DHSI Special Issue; Digital Humanities Summer

The editorial presents the papers published in this journal and in a previous number of Lingua. Language & Culture as a result of the communications sustained by the authors during the collocuium Maupassant 2013 organized years before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Houston Libraries sponsored an interdisciplinary event for students, faculty, and the public, titled the Artists' Health and Wellness Colloquium and Resource Fair. The event was held in order to facilitate learning in two key research areas and to demonstrate the library's ability to bridge disparate disciplines and forge new partnerships with multiple academic units simultaneously. Aspiring and working artists were taught how to maintain good health and to avoid overstressing their bodies as they practice their art. Scholars presented both historical and trending perspectives on the intersection of art and health science. This article presents planning strategies for librarians who seek to partner with dissimilar campus entities as part of event planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our research on the construction of professionality derived from professional activity, we examine the development of values based on practical inquiries of special educators working in a home for adolescents whose family and social situations have broken down. In the context of a dual mission, based on creating integration workshops, we analyze in practical terms how the professionals retain certain of their values by confronting the dilemmas they face during the fulfillment of their mission. We examine the role and place of values as situated conducts that we conceive to be guides for stabilizing ways of constructing practical problems. An analysis of discussions at symposia provides the opportunity to observe the extent to which professionals’ assessments, which consist in assigning value to the relationships with other objects in the work place, are continuous and critical to the activity. They allow a continuous search for effects as a perspective from which to orientate their practical inquiries. This finding provides a means to problematize values in a manner which is not absolutist and which does not bring them into conflict with professional expertise or technicality. In our situated approach, which focuses on a developing set of skills, values and knowledge are combined in the inquiry process that builds professionality. This leads us to consider, in particular, the classic definition of representational knowledge. Finally, we draw conclusions regarding the definition of professionality.

This unique colloquium of research for lecturers took place in an academic college of education focused on discussing and peer reviewing through an On-Line Forum and on participating in a conference. Both aimed at enhancing the level and quality of the research activity in the college by developing knowledge generation, communication and management. This study followed studies, which indicated that lecturers do not know and experience enough about generating, communicating and managing knowledge, especially with regards to the didactics of knowledge. Most of the studies carried out by the lecturers who participated in the colloquium focused on integrating disciplines with pedagogic-didactic applications. The method of the colloquium was based on virtual peer teaching, sharing their generated knowledge and experience, and then managing it. The findings indicated that the process was advanced very fast. The lecturers were able to integrate theory and practice while carrying out their research and instruction. This certainly affected the lecturers

Lessons learned from the Rapid Anticonvulsant Medication Prior to Arrival Trial (RAMPART) and Established Status Epilepticus Treatment Trial (ESETT) trials are considered in three ways. First, by asking about the questions the trials were primarily designed to answer, then about the context of the intervention and characteristics of the patients described in secondary analyses, and finally, about what was learned about how to conduct trials in this space. The talk concludes with suggestions and a vision for how to best conduct future trials investigating status epilepticus. This paper was presented at the 8th London-Innsbruck Colloquium on Status Epilepticus and Acute Seizures held in September 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Activités is the property of ARPACT and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay takes the call of the 2015 Twentieth (and Twenty-first) Century French (and Francophone) (Literary) Studies Colloquium to “trace the evolution of French and Francophone Literary Studies” quite literally in that it compares a sampling of programs over the colloquium's thirty-two-year history in order to analyze some of the signs of change in the field over this period. While the Colloquium is only one gauge of the multiple mutations that have occurred in French Studies over the last three decades, a reading of the shifts in the texts, topics, artists, geographical regions, and critical approaches treated at it, as well as in the types of scholars who have participated in it, can certainly tell us something about the ways in which the meaning of the evolving signifier “Twentieth (and Twenty-first) Century French (and Francophone) (Literary) Studies” has changed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to report the recent Colloquium regarding Civil Law and Philosophy of Law that took place on the 27th and 28th of November at the Faculty of Law, Santiago de Compostela. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We hope to bring to the attention of modern readers a genre of works composed in great numbers during the Renaissance, which were designed to complement the practice of conversational Latin. We single out these particular texts, because, in our opinion, teachers of Latin in our own time can still find them useful. They take the form of simple dialogues which are usually brief. They are typically called colloquia, and are filled with pure and idiomatic Latin phrases pertaining to daily life. The most famous humanists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Erasmus, Vives, Corderius, Sturmius, Pontanus among others, are numbered among the authors of colloquia. We hope to outline the main features of these texts, to explain why they were published in such large numbers in the humanistic age, and what benefits students and teachers of Latin today can gain from such colloquia.

Although the mechanisms by which the human microbiome influences the onset and progression of autoimmune diseases remain to be determined, established animal models of autoimmune diseases indicate that local and systemic bidirectional interactions with the microbiome play a signaling or promoting role through the immune system. Whether alterations in the microbiome are a pathogenic cause or simply an effect of inflammation and autoimmune disease remains an essential question to be addressed in disease-specific research, as well as whether particular conditions of the microbiome promote health or promote disease. Future research in this area needs to account for sex differences in microbiome composition because autoimmune diseases disproportionately affect women. Probiotic and other treatments that manipulate assemblage of the microbiome may offer methods of preventing or mitigating the effects of autoimmune disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The art work of visual activist Zanele Muholi was the subject of a colloquium held by the University of South Africa (UNISA) on the 24 March 2014. The colloquium invited critical discussion of Muholi's use of film and photography as a medium for black queer gender activism. The event also sought to raise awareness in the public domain of the recurring incidents of homophobic violence and attacks against gender non-conforming people in South Africa and on the rest of the African continent. Presenters offered different ways of seeing and evaluating Muholi's work and its power to deliver a social message by means of a visual discourse that engages and subverts narrow constructions of gender through her representations of the human body and black queer sexual identity. ThisFocusconsiders the presentations and the critical value of Muholi's visual activism as a counter discourse on gender and art in post-apartheid South Africa. The writer draws on Paulo Freire's (1970) notion of the liberatory potential of social dialogue and its mediation in the public sphere (Habermas, 1989). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Nordlit is the property of Universitetet i Tromsoe and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)