Standard pregnancy intentions measures do not always align with how people approach pregnancy. Studies that have investigated beyond a binary framework found that those with "ambivalent" feelings ...towards pregnancy are less likely to use contraception consistently, but the reasons for this are unclear. We sought to gain a nuanced understanding of pregnancy desires, and how perceptions about pregnancy are associated with contraceptive use.
We used non-probability quota sampling based on sex, age, and geographic region for a web-based survey of heterosexual men and women, aged 21-44 years, who could become pregnant/impregnate and were not currently pregnant (n = 1,477; 51% female). The survey was created using unique items informed by recent literature. Bivariate and multivariable analyses explored relationships between various perceptions about pregnancy with pregnancy desires categorized as: wanting a pregnancy, not wanting a pregnancy, and not trying but would be okay with a pregnancy. We conducted a sub-group analysis of those who were not trying but would be okay with a pregnancy (n = 460), using descriptive statistics to examine how consistent contraceptive use was associated with emotions and beliefs about avoiding pregnancy.
After adjustment, those who felt that pregnancy may not always be avoidable, but instead determined by fate/higher power, or a natural process that happens when it is meant to, were significantly more likely (aOR: 1.83, 95% CI: 1.05-3.36; aOR: 2.21, 95% CI: 1.29-3.76, respectively) to report not trying but being okay with pregnancy, whereas those with negative feelings about a pregnancy were less likely to feel okay about a pregnancy (aOR: 0.11, 95% CI: 0.08-0.15), versus not wanting a pregnancy. In the sub-group analysis, those who felt pregnancy was determined by fate/higher power or a natural process were more likely to report not using contraception consistently (70%, 68%, respectively).
Those who state they are not trying but would be okay with pregnancy may not use contraception consistently because of beliefs that pregnancy is predetermined. Our findings support less categorical and more multidimensional approaches to measuring fertility intentions, with important implications for reproductive health service provision.
Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) transdifferentiate into osteoblast‐like cells during vascular cal‐cification, inducing active remodeling and calcification of the extracellular matrix (ECM). ...Intracellular and extracellular enzymes, such as lysyl hydroxylase 1 (PLOD1) and lysyl oxidase (LOX), contribute to ECM maturation and stabilization. We assessed the contribution of these enzymes to hyperphosphatemia‐induced calcification. Human and murine VSMCs were differentiated into functional osteoblast‐like cells by high‐phosphate medium (HPM) conditioning. HPM promoted ECM calcification and up‐regulated osteoblast markers associated with induction of LOX and PLOD1 expression and with an increase in ECM‐insoluble collagen deposition. Murine VSMCs from transgenic mice overexpressing LOX (TgLOX) exhibited an increase in HPM‐dependent calcification and osteoblast commitment compared with wild‐type cells. Similarly, enhanced HPM‐induced calcification was detected in aorta from TgLOX. Conversely, β‐aminopropionitrile (a LOX inhibitor) and LOX knockdown abrogated VSMC calcification and transdifferentiation. We found a significant positive association between LOX expression and vascular calcification in human atherosclerotic lesions. Likewise, 2, 2′‐dipyridil (a PLOD inhibitor) and PLOD1 knockdown impaired HPM‐induced ECM mineralization and osteoblast commitment. Our findings identify LOX and PLOD as critical players in vascular calcification and highlight the importance of ECM remodeling in this process.—Jover, E., Silvente, A., Marín, F., Martínez‐González, J., Orriols, M., Martinez, C. M., Puche, C. M., Valdés, M., Rodriguez, C., Hernaindez‐Romero, D. Inhibition of enzymes involved in collagen cross‐linking reduces vascular smooth muscle cell calcification. FASEB J. 32, 4459–4469 (2018). www.fasebj.org
Digital footprints of #MeToo Loney-Howes, Rachel; Mendes, Kaitlynn; Fernández Romero, Diana ...
Feminist media studies,
08/2022, Volume:
22, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
When #MeToo exploded onto social media in October 2017, it dramatically ruptured public consciousness in revealing the widespread nature of sexual harassment and violence around the world. Yet, ...despite the global attention afforded to #MeToo, it was preceded by numerous initiatives, which we argue created digital footprints instrumental in rendering #MeToo intelligible. As such, the aim of this article is two-fold. Firstly, it offers the first attempt to map a diverse range of initiatives which have mobilized to fight sexual violence, and in doing so, makes visible the global genealogy of digital feminist activism responding to sexualised violence. Secondly, building on these digital footprints and looking towards the future of digital feminist activism, the article demonstrates the power and potential of initiatives that expose the structural conditions enabling sexual violence to occur through the collective sharing of experiences across cybernetworks via processes of "ethical witnessing." We conclude by advocating for greater recognition of those voices and experiences that feminist scholars and activists alike continue to fail to witness and call for greater efforts to archive the genealogy of digital feminist mobilisation in order to capture the complexity and diversity of its past, present and future.
Enterococci are ubiquitous microorganisms in almost all environments, from the soil we step on to the food we eat. They are frequently found in naturally fermented foods, contributing to ripening ...through protein, lipid, and sugar metabolism. On the other hand, these organisms are also leading the current antibiotic resistance crisis. In this study, we performed whole-genome sequencing and comparative genomics of an
Enterococcus faecium
strain isolated from an artisanal Mexican Cotija cheese, namely QD-2. We found clear genomic differences between commensal and pathogenic strains, particularly in their carbohydrate metabolic pathways, resistance to vancomycin and other antibiotics, bacteriocin production, and bacteriophage and CRISPR content. Furthermore, a bacteriocin transcription analysis performed by RT-qPCR revealed that, at the end of the log phase, besides enterocins A and X, two putative bacteriocins not reported previously are also transcribed as a bicistronic operon in
E. faecium
QD-2, and are expressed 1.5 times higher than enterocin A when cultured in MRS broth.
Anger has been a part of the public debate in Spain, especially since the 8 M feminist mobilization. This article analyzes whether the mediatized rage surrounding the discursive dispute on Twitter ...between supporters of the so-called Ley trans (Trans Law) and those that oppose the proposed legislation can open up cracks in the affective injustice suffered by the trans collective in Spain. To this end, we will address the discursive debate generated from a sample of 7734 tweets published on the Twitter account of the Spanish feminist podcast Estirando el chicle. We will analyze the tweets following an analytical model of operationalization of the concept of anger competence (Chemaly, 2018) structured across three dimensions utilized successfully in previous studies (Núñez Puente & Fernández Romero, 2023): (1) the construction of the subject that enunciates the anger, (2) that which the mediatization of the anger allows to emerge, linked to the conception of affective injustice, and (3) the effects of affects. Our analysis of the discursive dispute on Twitter shows diverse discursive positions which inhibits the visualization of a reparation of the systemic violence suffered by the feminist movement, and within it, by trans people.
•Rage can contribute to opening up cracks in affective injustice.•The exchange of messages without a message reinforces the discrediting of the expressed anger.•The discursive dispute on Twitter prevents the politicization of mediatized rage.
La place accordée au personnage féminin chez Boris Vian est très particulière. Il est souvent présenté comme un personnage secondaire. Pourtant, même si les apparitions des personnages féminins dans ...les récits peuvent être succinctes, leur développement comme personnage est loin d’être simple. Ils subissent des transformations corporelles qui leur octroient une nature animale. Avec cet espace privilégié du personnage féminin qui le situe entre deux mondes, l’auteur réussit à présenter un panorama de la position de la femme au XXe siècle, en passant par la garçonne jusqu’à arriver à la pin-up. Néanmoins, ces personnages s’inscrivent dans la sphère décrite sous le terme de langage-univers inventé par Jacques Bens. Pour cette étude, nous abordons les nouvelles de l’auteur qui, malgré la brièveté des récits, offrent un éventail d’hybridations de la femme-animal.
El lugar que se le da al personaje femenino en la obra de Boris Vian es muy particular. A menudo es presentado como un personaje secundario. No obstante, aunque las apariciones de los personajes femeninos en los relatos puedan ser sucintas, el desarrollo como personaje dista de ser simple. Así, sufren transformaciones corporales que les otorgan una naturaleza animal. Con este espacio privilegiado del personaje femenino que se sitúa entre dos mundos, el autor consigue presentar un panorama de la figura de la mujer en el siglo XX, pasando por la garçonne hasta llegar a la pin-up. No obstante, estos personajes encajan en la esfera descrita bajo el término langage-univers acuñado por Jacques Bens. Para este estudio nos centraremos en los relatos cortos del autor, los cuales, a pesar de su extensión, ofrecen un abanico de hibridaciones de la mujer-animal.
The place given to the female character in Boris Vian is very distinctive. She is often presented as a secondary character. Yet, although the appearances of female characters in the stories may be succinct, their development as characters is far from simple. They undergo body transformations that grant them an animal nature. With this privileged space of the female character, which places her between two worlds, the author succeeds in presenting a panorama of the position of women in the twentieth century, from the garçonne to the pin-up. However, these characters fit into the sphere described under the term langage-univers coined by Jacques Bens. For this study, we focus on the author’s short stories, which, despite their brevity, offer a range of hybridizations of the animal-woman.
This article seeks to approach the media dynamics pertaining to the treatment of male violence (against women), as well as to describe gender-based violence discourses of the institutional campaigns ...disseminated in Spain from 1998 through 2017. It aims to reveal the dominant narratives over that period, while showing the changing trends and progressive diversification of the target audiences of those campaigns. It focuses on the impact of those institutional campaigns on the identity processes of women who survived violence and left their abuser. This research is based on the biographical testimonies of 23 women collected in in-depth interviews. We conclude by asserting that hegemonic representations of women survivors of abuse create a victim-agent dichotomy in which women victims are encouraged to exercise their supposed 'free will' by denouncing their abusers, an act that nonetheless may contribute to a revictimization of those same women.
Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) levels and fibrin d -dimer in a large cohort of anticoagulated permanent atrial ...fibrillation (AF) patients. Background In nonanticoagulated AF patients, plasma vWF levels have been related to stroke and vascular events. There are limited data on the prognostic role of biomarkers in anticoagulated AF patients in relation to adverse events (including thromboembolism), mortality, and major bleeding. Methods We studied 829 patients (50% male; median age 76 years) with permanent AF who were stabilized (for at least 6 months) on oral anticoagulation therapy (international normalized ratio: 2.0 to 3.0). Plasma d- dimer and vWF levels were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Patients were followed for 2 years, and adverse events (thrombotic and vascular events, mortality, and major bleeding) were recorded. Results Patients were followed for a median of 828 days (range 18 to 1,085 days). On multivariate analysis, age 75 years and older, previous stroke, heart failure, and high plasma vWF levels (≥221 IU/dl) were associated with future adverse cardiovascular events (all p values <0.05). High plasma vWF levels, elderly patients, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and current smoking were associated with mortality (all p values <0.05). High plasma vWF levels were also an independent predictor of major bleeding (hazard ratio: 4.47, 95% confidence interval: 1.86 to 10.75; p < 0.001). High plasma vWF levels were able to refine clinical risk stratification schema for stroke (CHADS2 Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age ≥75, Diabetes mellitus, and prior Stroke or transient ischemic attack (doubled), CHA2 DS2 -VASc Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age ≥75 years, Diabetes mellitus, Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category) and bleeding (HAS-BLED Hypertension, Abnormal renal/liver function, Stroke, Bleeding history or predisposition, Labile International Normalized Ratio, Elderly, Drugs/alcohol concomitantly). d -dimer did not show any significant impact on adverse events. Conclusions High plasma vWF levels (≥221 IU/dl) are an independent risk factor for adverse events in anticoagulated permanent AF patients. This biomarker may potentially be used to refine stroke and bleeding clinical risk stratification in AF.
This article aims at defining the field of literary primatology and illustrating the main forms it has taken in Anglophone literatures in the twenty-first century. The article is organized around ...five sections. The first one introduces the term literary primatology. The second portrays the cultural background against which this field emerged. The third describes its main themes and illustrates them by bringing to the fore significant literary works produced in the twenty-first century. The fourth looks at examples of ape imaginings. Finally, I enumerate some of the unifying characteristics of these narratives and explain literary primatology as one of the responses to today’s Anthropocene anxiety and the feeling of grief or solastalgia for a dying planet.
Este artículo pretende definir el campo de la primatología literaria e ilustrar las principales formas que ha adquirido en las literaturas anglófonas del siglo XXI. El artículo está organizado en torno a cinco secciones. La primera introduce el término primatología literaria. La segunda retrata el contexto cultural a partir del cual surgió este campo. La tercera describe sus temas principales y los ilustra a través de obras literarias significativas producidas en el siglo XXI. La cuarta explora algunas respuestas de la imaginación humana sobre los simios. Finalmente, enumero una serie de características unificadoras de todas ellas y explico la primatología literaria como una de las respuestas a la ansiedad del Antropoceno y al sentimiento de pesar o solastalgia por un planeta que agoniza.
Eliciting willingness to pay (WTP) for city amenities is not an easy task due to both endogeneity problems and unobserved heterogeneity in individuals' preferences. We address these two issues by ...using a city choice experiment to infer monetary values (WTP) associated with relocation attributes of a hypothetical job offer. Adopting a latent class logit approach (LCL) allows us to explore underlying unobserved preference heterogeneity. Benchmark results – without accounting for heterogeneity – suggest that commuting time, crime, and access to entertainment are very important. However, our LCL estimates support that focusing just on average WTP obscures the fact that preferences for amenities vary across individuals.
Resumen
Obtener la voluntad de pagar (VDP) por los servicios de la ciudad no es una tarea fácil debido a los problemas de endogeneidad y a la heterogeneidad no observada en las preferencias de los individuos. Estas dos cuestiones se abordan utilizando un experimento de elección para una ciudad con el fin de inferir los valores monetarios (VDP) asociados a los atributos de reubicación de una oferta de trabajo hipotética. La adopción de un enfoque logit de clase latente (LCL) permitió estudiar la heterogeneidad subyacente de preferencias no observadas. Los resultados de los puntos de referencia – sin tener en cuenta la heterogeneidad – sugieren que el tiempo de desplazamiento al trabajo, el crimen y el acceso al entretenimiento son muy importantes. Sin embargo, las estimaciones hechas aquí mediante LCL apoyan la idea de que centrarse sólo en la VDP promedio enmascara el hecho de que las preferencias por los servicios varían entre los individuos.
抄録
都市アメニティのための支払意思額 (willingness to pay: WTP)を推測することは、内生性の問題と観察することのできない個人の選好性の不均一性の両方のために容易なタスクではない。この2つの問題に取り組むため、都市における選択実験を用いて、架空の求人による転居に関連する貨幣価値 (WTP)を推測した。潜在クラスロジット (LCL)アプローチを採用することにより、観察することのできない選好性の不均一性を探索することが可能になる。不均一性を考慮しないベンチマーク結果から、通勤時間、犯罪、娯楽へのアクセスが非常に重要であることが示唆される。しかし、LCLの推算は、平均的なWTPだけに注目すると、アメニティに対する選好性が個人によって異なるという事実が不明瞭になることを支持する結果となる。
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