scholarly journals “I feel fat and ugly and hate myself”: Self-objectification through negative constructions of premenstrual embodiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M Ussher ◽  
Janette Perz
Keyword(s):  
Premenstrual Syndrome ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Body ◽  
Premenstrual Distress ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Self Objectification ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cultural Constructions

The body is central to women’s construction of premenstrual change as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and to experiences of premenstrual distress. Embodied change, such as bloating or breast tenderness, can act as a marker of PMS. Within biomedical models, PMS is located within the body. Women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies is also reported to be higher in the premenstrual phase of the cycle. What is absent from this analysis is the meaning and experience of embodied change, in the context of broader constructions of femininity and embodiment. In this paper, we adopt a feminist material-discursive theoretical framework to examine the role of premenstrual embodiment in women’s premenstrual distress, drawing on open-ended survey responses and interviews with 83 women who self-diagnose as “PMS sufferers”. We theorize premenstrual body hatred as subjectification, wherein women take up cultural discourse associated with idealized femininity and the stigmatization of the fat body, resulting in self-objectification, distress and dehumanization. However, women can resist negative cultural constructions of premenstrual embodiment. We describe the impact of psychological therapy which increases awareness of emotional and embodied change, resulting in greater acceptance of the premenstrual body and self-care, serving to reduce premenstrual distress and self-objectification.

scholarly journals Resisting the Mantle of the Monstrous Feminine: Women’s Construction and Experience of Premenstrual Embodiment

2020 ◽  
pp. 215-231
Author(s):  
Jane M. Ussher ◽  
Janette Perz
Keyword(s):  
Fat Body ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Monstrous Feminine ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Fat Bodies ◽  
Self Objectification ◽  
Cultural Constructions

Abstract This chapter uses a feminist material-discursive theoretical framework to examine how women adopt the subject position of ‘monstrous feminine’ via the role of premenstrual embodiment. In this examination, Ussher and Perz draw on interviews they conducted with women who self-diagnose as ‘PMS sufferers.’ They theorize that this self-positioning is subjectification, wherein women take up cultural discourse regarding idealized femininity and the stigmatized fat body; according to the authors, this results in distress, self-objectification, and self-condemnation. However, they argue that women can reduce premenstrual distress and resist negative cultural constructions of premenstrual embodiment and fat bodies through women-centered psychological therapy, which increases awareness of embodied change and leads to greater self-care and acceptance of the premenstrual body.

scholarly journals Erythrocytes: Central Actors in Multiple Scenes of Atherosclerosis

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5843
Author(s):  
Chloé Turpin ◽  
Aurélie Catan ◽  
Olivier Meilhac ◽  
Emmanuel Bourdon ◽  
François Canonne-Hergaux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Homeostasis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Diabetic Patients ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Plaque Progression ◽  
Cell Dysfunction ◽  
Circulating Cells ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Progression Of Atherosclerosis

The development and progression of atherosclerosis (ATH) involves lipid accumulation, oxidative stress and both vascular and blood cell dysfunction. Erythrocytes, the main circulating cells in the body, exert determinant roles in the gas transport between tissues. Erythrocytes have long been considered as simple bystanders in cardiovascular diseases, including ATH. This review highlights recent knowledge concerning the role of erythrocytes being more than just passive gas carriers, as potent contributors to atherosclerotic plaque progression. Erythrocyte physiology and ATH pathology is first described. Then, a specific chapter delineates the numerous links between erythrocytes and atherogenesis. In particular, we discuss the impact of extravasated erythrocytes in plaque iron homeostasis with potential pathological consequences. Hyperglycaemia is recognised as a significant aggravating contributor to the development of ATH. Then, a special focus is made on glycoxidative modifications of erythrocytes and their role in ATH. This chapter includes recent data proposing glycoxidised erythrocytes as putative contributors to enhanced atherothrombosis in diabetic patients.

scholarly journals The confidence delusion: A sociological exploration of participants’ confidence in sport-for-development

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-398
Author(s):  
David S Scott
Keyword(s):  
Personal Development ◽  
The Body ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Sport For Development ◽  
Development Capacity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethnographic Methodology ◽  
The Impact

Although sport is widely utilised as a tool for personal development, capacity building, and fostering peace, there are still numerous theoretical gaps in our knowledge about how sport influences individuals’ identities, and how this translates into their everyday lives. Within the academic literature there has been seemingly little focus placed upon participants’ emotional and embodied accounts of their sport-for-development (SfD) experiences. This paper uses phenomenologically-inspired theory to explore individuals’ lived experiences of a SfD course, and their descriptions of the social interactions and feelings of confidence they encountered, in order to address this lack of experiential data. An ethnographic methodology was used to collect data through four sports leadership course observations, and cyclical interviews over 4–10 months with eleven course attendees, plus individual interviews with five tutors. Participants’ understandings of their course experiences and the subsequent influence these understandings had on their lives were described through their use of the term confidence. A further phenomenological and sociological interrogation of this term enabled confidence to be seen as being experienced as a ‘frame’ and ‘through the body’ by participants. This study provides original conceptualisations of confidence in relation to participants’ SfD experiences, as well as important discussions regarding the role of emotions and embodiment in understanding the impact of SfD on participants’ everyday lives.

scholarly journals Racism, racial life events and mental ill health

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 343-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Bhugra ◽  
Oyedeji Ayonrinde
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Common Mental Disorders ◽  
The Body ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Positive Life Events ◽  
Minority Ethnic Groups ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Impact

The association of life events with the onset of various psychiatric disorders is well-known. The body of evidence has highlighted the impact of negative or positive life events on the genesis of common mental disorders, especially depression. These findings have been replicated across different cultures, although the impact of different life events varies between cultures. In addition, the roles of chronic difficulties (defined in Life events and psychiatric disorders, below) and resulting ongoing chronic stress have been shown to contribute to vulnerability to certain mental illnesses. However, data on the impact of life events, especially those perceived as racial, on members of minority ethnic groups are rather sparse. The questions that need to be addressed concern the perception of life events as racial, the role of pervasive and perceived institutional and individual racism, and chronic difficulties.

scholarly journals A Conceptual Model Proposal: Universities as Culture Change Agents for Sustainable Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Dzimińska ◽  
Justyna Fijałkowska ◽  
Łukasz Sułkowski
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
The Body ◽  
Quality Culture ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

This paper aims to propose a conceptual model that synthesizes the existing findings concerning universities as culture change agents for sustainable development. The model could serve as a guidance on how universities might get involved in the pro-SD activities. It also underlines the prerequisite of the quality culture that should be introduced within all the activities of universities to successfully act as culture change agents for SD. This paper builds upon the holistic and inter-disciplinary approach to demonstrate that SD does not happen in isolation and that the role of universities in its creation is significant. This study includes a literature review to contextualize the impact of universities on culture and their potential role in SD. The conclusions stemming from the literature review materialize in the proposal of the conceptual model of the university as the culture change agent for SD. The elaborated framework responds to the need for greater clarity, ordering and systematization of the role of universities in the processes of initiating, promoting and modelling the SD-oriented changes while appreciating the role of culture as an enabler, means of social change and a result of SD-focused interventions. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge by offering a novel perspective on the assumed interrelations between university, its quality culture, university main operations such as education, research and engagement with the society as well as the culture and the agency of stakeholders in the context of meeting the world’s current demands without compromising the needs of future generations.

scholarly journals Antibiotics in hives and their effects on honey bee physiology and behavioral development

Biology Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. bio053884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yarira Ortiz-Alvarado ◽  
David R. Clark ◽  
Carlos J. Vega-Melendez ◽  
Zomary Flores-Cruz ◽  
Maria G. Domingez-Bello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Bacterial Infections ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Antibiotic Use ◽  
Behavioral Development ◽  
Human Interventions ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTRecurrent honeybee losses make it critical to understand the impact of human interventions, such as antibiotic use in apiculture. Antibiotics are used to prevent or treat bacterial infections in colonies. However, little is known about their effects on honeybee development. We studied the effect of two commercial beekeeping antibiotics on the bee physiology and behavior throughout development. Our results show that antibiotic treatments have an effect on amount of lipids and rate of behavioral development. Lipid amount in treated bees was higher than those not treated. Also, the timing of antibiotic treatment had distinct effects for the age of onset of behaviors, starting with cleaning, then nursing and lastly foraging. Bees treated during larva-pupa stages demonstrated an accelerated behavioral development and loss of lipids, while bees treated from larva to adulthood had a delay in behavioral development and loss of lipids. The effects were shared across the two antibiotics tested, TerramycinR (oxytetracycline) and TylanR (tylosin tartrate). These effects of antibiotic treatments suggest a role of microbiota in the interaction between the fat body and brain that is important for honeybee behavioral development.This paper has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the article.

Recent advances in the analysis of nanoparticle-protein coronas

Nanomedicine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 1037-1061
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ovais ◽  
Susheel Kumar Nethi ◽  
Saleem Ullah ◽  
Irshad Ahmad ◽  
Sudip Mukherjee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Corona ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
The Body ◽  
Pharmacokinetics And Pharmacodynamics ◽  
Physiological Factors ◽  
Characterization Methods ◽  
Biological Fate ◽  
Circulation Distribution ◽  
The Impact

In spite of radical advances in nanobiotechnology, the clinical translation of nanoparticle (NP)-based agents is still a major challenge due to various physiological factors that influence their interactions with biological systems. Recent decade witnessed meticulous investigation on protein corona (PC) that is the first surrounds NPs once administered into the body. Formation of PC around NP surface exhibits resilient effects on their circulation, distribution, therapeutic activity, toxicity and other factors. Although enormous literature is available on the role of PC in altering pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of NPs, understanding on its analytical characterization methods still remains shallow. Therefore, the current review summarizes the impact of PC on biological fate of NPs and stressing on analytical methods employed for studying the NP-PC.

scholarly journals What goes up must come down Biomechanical impact analysis of jumping locusts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon V. Reichel ◽  
Susanna Labisch ◽  
Jan-Henning Dirks
Keyword(s):  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Impact Damage ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
The Body ◽  
Adhesive Pads ◽  
Degree Of Control ◽  
Free Falling ◽  
The Impact

AbstractMany insects are able to precisely control their jumping movements. Previous studies have shown that many falling insects have some degree of control of their landing-orientation, indicating a possible significant biomechanical role of the exoskeleton in air righting mechanisms. Once in the air, the properties of the actual landing site are almost impossible to predict. Falling insects thus have to cope mostly with the situation at impact. What exactly happens at the impact? Do locusts actively ‘prepare for landing’ while falling, or do they just ‘crash’ into the substrate?Detailed impact analyses of free falling Schistocerca gregaria locusts show that most insects typically crashed onto the substrate. There was no notable impact-reducing behaviour (protrusion of legs, etc.). Independent of dropping angle, both warm and cooled locusts mostly fell onto head and thorax first. Our results also show that alive warm locusts fell significantly faster than inactive or dead locusts. This indicates a possible tradeoff between active control vs. reduced speed. Looking at the morphology of the head-thorax connection in locusts, we propose that the anterior margin of the pronotum might function as a ‘toby collar’ structure, reducing the risk of impact damage to the neck joint. Interestingly, at impact alive insects also tended to perform a bending movement of the body.This biomechanical adaptation might reduce the rebound and shorten the time to recover. The adhesive pads also play an important role to reduce the time to recover by anchoring the insect to the substrate.

scholarly journals The role of safety in service quality in the opinion of traditional and digital customers of postal service

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Kamila Kowalik
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Postal Service ◽  
Perception Of Safety ◽  
Postal Services ◽  
Safety Attributes ◽  
The Impact

AbstractOne of the factors allowing to shape safety and quality of a postal service is an opinion of its customer. In the following paper, the analysis of the impact of a customer’s perception of safety on the service quality assessment has been presented. Research results presented in the paper refer to opinions of traditional and digital customers of postal services. The presented analysis is enriched by a theoretical framework of service quality, the explanation of the concept of safety, and a complementary characteristics of traditional and digital postal services. Afterwards, safety attributes of the postal services have been proposed, explained and highlighted. Subsequently, the results presented in the paper refer to the validity of particular chosen safety attributes of postal services.

scholarly journals Integrated Bioinformatics Data Analysis and Experimental Studies Reveals Prognostic Significance of ALDH Family in Endometria Cancer

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhou-Tong Dai ◽  
Yuan Xiang ◽  
Xing-Hua Liao
Keyword(s):  
Cell Lines ◽  
Cox Regression ◽  
Prognostic Significance ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Female Reproductive Tract ◽  
The Body ◽  
Mouse Tumor ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Uterine Corpus Endometrial Cancer (UCEC) is one of the three common malignant tumors of the female reproductive tract. According to reports, the cure rate of early UCEC can reach 95%. Therefore, the development of prognostic markers will help UCEC patients to find the disease earlier and develop treatment earlier. The ALDH family was first discovered to be the essential gene of the ethanol metabolism pathway in the body. Recent studies have shown that ALDH can participate in the regulation of cancer. Methods We used the gene profile data of 33 cancers in the TCGA database to analyze the expression and survival of the ALDH family. GO, KEGG, PPI multiple functional analysis was used to predict the regulatory role of ALDH family in cancer. In addition, using CCK-8, colony formation, nude mouse tumor formation and other methods, the in vitro function of UCEC cancer cell lines was tested to further confirm the key role of ALDH2 expression in the proliferation of UCEC cell lines. Finally, Lasso and Cox regression methods were used to establish an overall survival prognosis model based on ALDH2 expression. Result In our research, we explored the expression of ALDH family in 33 cancers. It was found that ALDH2 was abnormally expressed in UCEC. Besides, in vivo and in vitro experiments were conducted to explore the effect of ALDH2 expression on the proliferation of UCEC cell lines. Meanwhile, the change of its expression is not due to gene mutations, but is regulated by miR-135-3p. At the same time, the impact of ALDH2 changes on the survival of UCEC patients is deeply discussed. Finally, a nomogram for predicting survival was constructed, with a C-index of 0.798 and AUC of 0.764. Conclusion This study suggests that ALDH2 may play a crucial role in UCEC progression and has the potential as a prognostic biomarker of UCEC.

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