Rumour – and (Dis)-Unities of Blackness: A Reading of Globalization in Mia Couto’s The Last Flight of the Flamingo

This article examines how Mia Couto uses representations of rumour in his novel The Last Flight of the Flamingo (2004) as a literary medium for interrogating detachment and/ or attachment of the cultural object/ subject of blackness to modern institutions of Africa and the West through the idea of globalization. The article uses the qualitative research methodology for interrogating the efficacy of the representations of rumour in portraying the idea of globalisation. Through textual analysis, the article examines how the author uses the detached large male sexual organ, discovered outside Tizangara, an imagined remote Mozambican town, to encapsulate the rumour about the cases of some missing United Nations peacekeeping soldiers to the fictionalized idea of globalisation. The United Nations’ commissioned inquiry on the missing soldiers precipitates a parading of the local, national and the international delegation around the severed male sexual organ.

Conserving the Simalungun Language Maintenance through Demographic Community: The Analysis of Taboo Words Across Times

The research was intended to describe the use of Simalungun taboo words across times in Simalungun (1930-2021). The language of Simalungun is spoken by people living outside the district of Simalungun, North of Sumatera and other people. This research was carried out in a multi-case descriptive qualitative design. Descriptual qualitative research design was defined as a social science research approach that emphasised the collection, use of inductive thinking and understanding of descriptive data in natural environments. While multi case is defined as a study which is using two or more subjects, settings, or depositories of data (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982). Documentation, interviews and observations of participants were used to collect data on linguistic taboos. The data sources were collected from 45 informants of different ages (1930-2021) and sexes who reside in Pematangsiantar, Pematangraya and Saribudolok. After having analyzed the collected data, the research finding showed that there were 62 words out of 106 the taboo words of ten categories: sexual organ, sexual activity, cursing, swearing, calling people, action, disease, dwelling ghost and name of God which were used stably across time (from 1930 to 2021) in Simalungun are 62 words, out of 106 words.

Developmental expression patterns of toolkit genes in male accessory gland of Drosophila parallels those of mammalian prostate

Conservation of genetic toolkits in disparate phyla may help reveal commonalities in organ designs transcending their extreme anatomical disparities. A male accessory sexual organ in mammals, the prostate, for instance, is anatomically disparate from its analogous, phylogenetically distant counterpart—the male accessory gland (MAG)—in insects like Drosophila. It has not been ascertained if the anatomically disparate Drosophila MAG shares developmental parallels with those of the mammalian prostate. Here we show that the development of Drosophila mesoderm-derived MAG entails recruitment of similar genetic toolkits of tubular organs like that seen in endoderm-derived mammalian prostate. For instance, like mammalian prostate, Drosophila MAG morphogenesis is marked by recruitment of fibroblast growth factor receptor, FGFR—a signalling pathway often seen recruited for tubulogenesis—starting early during its adepithelial genesis. A specialisation of the individual domains of the developing MAG tube, on the other hand, is marked by the expression of a posterior Hox gene transcription factor, Abd-B, while Hh-Dpp signalling marks its growth. Drosophila MAG, therefore, reveals the developmental design of a unitary bud-derived tube that appears to have been co-opted for the development of male accessory sexual organs across distant phylogeny and embryonic lineages.

Hilda Doolittle as a Myth-Maker: A Psychoanalytic Feminist Study of Hilda Doolittle’s “Sea Violet” and “Sea Gods”

Patriarchal societies degrade females because of what they think of as a biological deficiency that is represented through the lack of the male sexual organ. This leads such societies to oppress females mentally as well as physically. This encourages a number of writers to indulge themselves in studying the psychological abnormality that the patriarchal societies lead the females to suffer from. Thus, by adopting the psychoanalytical feminist view, Hilda Doolittle aims to heal the female race from the patriarchal wounds that leads them to lose their identity as independent human beings. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating how Doolittle does this by depending on the Greek gods and goddesses as examples that could help her in supporting her argument that femininity has been defined falsely according to an unjust patriarchal canon

Effect of sex hormones on human voice physiology: from childhood to senescence

The aim of the present literature review is to describe the influence of sex hormones on the human voice in physiological conditions. As a secondary sexual organ, the larynx is affected by sex hormones and may change considerably over the lifespan. In the current review, sex hormone-related voice modifications occurring during childhood, puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and senescence are described. The roles of sex hormones (including gonadotropins, testosterone, estrogen, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate) underlying physiological voice changes are discussed, the main differences between males and females are explained and clinical implications are taken into account.

Sexual organ-sparing with hydrogel spacer injections for rectal cancer radiotherapy: a feasibility pilot study

Objectives: The aim of this pilot study was to investigate in two rectal cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy (nCRT) the implant feasibility and dosimetric benefit in sexual organ-sparing of an injectable, absorbable, radiopaque hydrogel spacer. Methods: Two rectal cancer patients (one male and one female) underwent hydrogel implant between rectum and vagina/prostate before nCRT and curative surgery. A CT scan was performed before and after injection and a comparative dosimetric study was performed testing a standard (45/50 Gy) and a dose escalated (46/55.2 Gy) schedule. Results: In both patients, the spacer implant in the recto-prostatic or recto-vaginal space was feasible and well tolerated. For the male, the dosimetric benefit with spacer was minimal for sexual organs. For the female however, doses delivered to the vagina were significantly reduced with spacer with a mean reduction of more than 5 Gy for both regimens. Conclusions: For organ preservation protocols and selected sexually active female patients, use of hydrogel spacers can be considered to spare sexual organs from the high radiotherapy dose levels. Advances in knowledge: For females with advanced rectal tumor, a spacer implant between the rectum and the vagina before nCRT is feasible and reduces doses delivered to the vagina.

'Male gaze' in the mini-series 'Queen's Gambit'

The patriarchal system is based on the idea of phallocentrism, in which phallus, or male sexual organ, represents the central element in the organization of society. In such a system, a woman is perceived through her lack of phallus by which she symbolizes the threat of castration, or in other words, castration anxiety. The gender difference, defined by this deficiency, is used to establish a system in which a woman is subordinate to men. As such, a woman is the subject of a controlling "male gaze." Using the theoretical framework set by Laura Mulvey in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Film," this paper shows how the "male gaze" influences the construction of female characters in contemporary cinematography. The example used for this analysis is the series Queen's Gambit, which was well received by the feminist audience, despite the fact that the main character was adjusted on various levels to serve the requirements of the "male gaze." Additionally, part of the paper will analyze harmful stereotypes through which racial and sexual minorities are presented in the series and point out how the film industry shapes social norms and lifestyles through the normalization of such models.

let-7 coordinates the transition to adulthood through a single primary and four secondary targets

The juvenile-to-adult (J/A) transition, or puberty, is a period of extensive changes of animal body morphology and function. The onset of puberty is genetically controlled, and the let-7 miRNA temporally regulates J/A transition events in nematodes and mammals. Here, we uncover the targets and downstream pathways through which Caenorhabditis elegans let-7 controls male and female sexual organ morphogenesis and skin progenitor cell fates. We find that let-7 directs all three processes by silencing a single target, the post-transcriptional regulator lin-41. In turn, the RNA-binding protein LIN41/TRIM71 regulates these processes by silencing only four target mRNAs. Thus, by silencing LIN41, let-7 activates LIN-29a and MAB-10 (an early growth response-type transcription factor and its NAB1/2-orthologous cofactor, respectively) to terminate progenitor cell self-renewal and to promote vulval integrity. By contrast, let-7 promotes development of the male sexual organ by up-regulating DMD-3 and MAB-3, two Doublesex/MAB-3 domain–containing transcription factors. Our results provide mechanistic insight into how a linear chain of post-transcriptional regulators diverges in the control of a small set of transcriptional regulators to achieve a coordinated J/A transition.