(Re)defining the Gendered Body in Cyberspace: The Virtual Reality Film

The contemporary interaction of the body with information, computing, and communication technologies in Western societies has contributed to a change in our understanding of the concept of the human being, while implying that old ideas surrounding corporeality need to be rethought. It is contended here that the virtual reality film, with its focus on cyberspace, offers opportunities for understanding the complex relationship between gender and information technologies and creates spaces in which the gendered body can be reconsidered. Films like The 13^th Floor, The Matrix, and Johnny Mnemonic display digital media and virtual subjects that mirror our complex relationship with technology. The present paper proposes three different ways of representing the interaction between humans and technology: “the penetrated body”, “the cyber-body”, and “the simulated body”. This distinction responds to a hierarchy in which some categorizations are more transcendent than others, and confer different degrees of flexibility regarding the redefinition of the gendered body in the texts involved.     

美国亚太战略与中国周边安全格局

美国＂重返亚洲＂是美国＂焦虑时代＂的＂应急反应＂,随着美国对亚太事务的深度介入,这种＂应急反应＂已转变成为美国完整的＂亚太战略＂。从地缘政治考量,美国的亚太战略是以巩固亚太传统的盟友关系为基础,以化解中印崛起带来不确定变量为重点,以插手热点敏感问题为手段,推行全球霸权主义战略的体现。＂围堵中国＂只是美国亚太战略的一部分。中国可利用美国亚太战略的空间错位,强化共同利益纽带,巩固周边安全格局,为推进小康社会建设和祖国统一大业,创造有利的外部条件。     

Behavioural Response to a Sudden Health Risk: Dengue and Educational Outcomes in Colombia

Epidemics tend to have a debilitating influence on the lives of directly afflicted families. However, the presence of an epidemic can also change the behaviour and outcomes of those not directly affected. This paper makes use of a short, sharp, unexpected epidemic to examine the behavioural response of the public to a sudden shift in the perceived risk to one’s health and mortality. Our analysis finds that unafflicted school students change their behaviour substantially, affecting important life outcomes. In particular, we find that between 1.9 and 4.7 fewer students, out of a typical cohort of 47 pupils, sit their school leaving examination for every additional 10 cases of severe Dengue per 10 000 inhabitants in a municipality. We rule out several possible mechanisms, leaving an increase in the salience of the disease’s risks as a plausible explanation for our findings.     

Broader Energy Cooperation with Latin America

THE energy policy set out in China’s 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015) is widely expected to swing the door open to cooperation with resource-rich Latin American     

Analysis of ionic ratios in myocardial tissue and their relation to cardiac damage

The authors evaluated the usefulness of the postmortem biochemical analysis of ionic ratios in different parts of the heart and their relation to cardiac damage caused by chest trauma, as observed by anatomopathologic study. Fifty-nine 59 cases were studied, selected from routine necropsies, and samples were taken from different sites of cardiac tissue. The cause of death was trauma in 40 cases and nontraumatic causes in 19 cases. The object of this study was to analyze the levels of Na+, K+, Ca+2, Mg+2, and Zn+2 in different zones of the heart, and the relationship between intracellular and extracellular ion ratios and the different causes of death and any anatomopathologic alterations observed. The biochemical tests revealed a possible relation between the ionic values and cause of death. Alterations in cell membrane permeability and corresponding modification of the ionic ratios were produced earlier than histologic alterations, which need longer to establish themselves whether or not they follow a traumatic process.     

Population genetics of nine short tandem repeat loci: allele frequency distribution in a Brazilian population sample

Gene and genotype frequencies in relation to the D3S1358, vWA, FGA, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D5S818, D13S317, and D7S820 loci were determined in a sample of 290 unrelated individuals (204 Caucasians and 86 mulattoes) living in the city of S?o Paulo, Brazil. The sex test Amelogenin was also performed in all subjects from our sample, revealing the expected sex in all instances. Allele frequency data obtained from the analysis of these samples were in the usual range of other population groups with similar racial background. In the sample of Caucasian individuals, panmictic proportions were ruled out in relation to TPOX and CSF1PO loci, but only in the latter was the overall frequency of heterozygotes significantly less than expected. In the sample of mulattoes, Hardy-Weinberg proportions were rejected in relation to FGA and CSF1PO loci, but in no instance were the overall numbers of heterozygotes different from the corresponding expected ones under panmixia. Taking into account all this and also the number of tests performed, the degree of genetic heterogeneity of Brazilian populations, and the critical level reached by the significant results (1% < alpha<5%), the departures from panmixia here observed can be considered to be negligible in altering significantly biologic relationship odds calculated under the assumption of random matings.