In America by the 1930s, albino rats had become a kind of generic standard in research on physiology and behavior that de-emphasized diversity across species. However, prior to about 1915, the early work of many of the pioneer rat researchers in America and in central Europe reflected a strong interest in species differences and a deep regard for diversity. These scientists sought broad, often medical, generality, but their quest for generality using a standard animal did not entail a (...) de-emphasis of organic diversity. They chose white rats as test animals for two primary reasons. First, rats develop very slowly. They therefore made features of physiological, neural and psychological development accessible to the experimental method at a time when its application to the phenomena of development remained controversial. Secondly, rats were thought to have unusually strong sex drives. For this reason they became central to the experimental study of sexuality and, in the work of the reproductive physiologist Eugen Steinach, sexual development. Connections among three research institutes that stressed experimental approaches to the study of brain and development demonstrate the importance of the rat's institutional role. As the emphasis on experimentation in the study of development grew, two of these institutes bred rats to provide uniform materials. Eventually, however, their reasons for selecting rats were lost; and the ready availability of a uniform test animal led to a shift in scientists' presumptions about diversity, as the standard rat became a tool for assuring generality. (shrink)

This paper investigates the way in which the sexuality of women has been posited in relation to rats as experimental subjects, exploring the stakes of a scientific debate that takes the social world of female sexuality as its focus and as a political problem. Studies that purport to understand female sexuality by investigating rat behavior rely on problematic assumptions about sovereign agents motivating sexual behavior. Such studies also aim to do away with so-called deviant sexual behaviors and, (...) as a consequence, gay people. Theories of agential realism and hybridity serve as counterforces to these inherently repressive perspectives by insisting on the multiple determinations of sexuality and subjectivity among women. (shrink)

BackgroundAlthough humans experience orgasms with a degree of statistical regularity, they remain among the most enigmatic of sexual responses; difficult to define and even more difficult to study empirically. The question of whether animals experience orgasms is hampered by similar lack of definition and the additional necessity of making inferences from behavioral responses.MethodHere we define three behavioral criteria, based on dimensions of the subjective experience of human orgasms described by Mah and Binik, to infer orgasm-like responses in other species: 1) (...) physiological criteria that include pelvic floor and anal muscle contractions that stimulate seminal emission and/or ejaculation in the male, or that stimulate uterine and cervical contractions in the female; 2) short-term behavioral changes that reflect immediate awareness of a pleasurable hedonic reward state during copulation; and 3) long-term behavioral changes that depend on the reward state induced by the OLR, including sexual sat... (shrink)

Yemeni writer Ahmed Qāsim al-Arīqī, in addition to his profession as a pharmacist, is a writer who has made a name for himself in the country's literary field, especially in the last fifteen years. A prolific writer, al-Arīqī is the author of poetry collections as well as stories and novels that emphasise awareness of the traditional issues of the Yemeni people. He has published "Maḳāmāt al-'Arīḳī" (2006), "Ġalṭṭetu Ḳalem" (2012), "Qurāt al-S̱-S̱elj" (2017), "Ta'riyya" (2018), "Zurbet al-Yumnā" (2018), "Da'wat al-Ḥuḳūl" (2019), (...) "Zuhr al-Ġarām" and "Sīret al-Kūbī" (2022). His novel "Yawma Māta al-Shaytan" (The Day Satan Died) was published electronically by Hindāwī Publishing House in 2022. The novel, which is approximately 120 pages, is written in six chapters. There are eleven passages in the first and fourth chapters, thirteen in the second and sixth chapters, twelve in the third chapter, and eight in the fifth chapter. The novel is about the adventures of a member of the army named Marwan Naji, who was wounded in the war between the Houthi militia and the Yemeni army, and after nine months in a coma, opens his eyes in a perfect world dominated by biological and technological advances. Symbolising the treatment of selfishness and various narcissisms with advanced vaccines through the death of Satan, the author describes Marwan's adventures in his world, which he sometimes describes as the realm of the jinn, in a very simple language, while not failing to criticise reality in its various political, social and religious dimensions. In fact, Marwan's world of imagination and fantasy is the main story of the novel, but not the only one. The author also includes the stories of family members in Marwan's world of turmoil, destruction, massacre, war and victory, giving the reader the opportunity to compare both worlds. While his mother Gusoun, his wife Hamide and his daughter Fatma, who later got engaged in time after being widowed, are the female characters of his real world, Professor Mari and Mariana, one of his seven wives, are the other important characters of his imaginary world. Gusûn is a devoted mother who does not leave the bedside of her comatose son, prays for him day and night and tries to do everything she can for his recovery. Gusûn, who is listened to at home to a certain extent, scolds her grandchildren to prevent the breakup of her son's home because of inheritance, defends that the existing wealth still belongs to her son and reminds them that she will not hesitate to spend money for his recovery. Gusûn's daughter-in-law Hamide also takes care of her husband, who shows no signs of recovery. Hamide, who is not as patient as her mother-in-law, is also a jealous woman. On the other hand, although both of them display false religious tendencies that have no relation with real life, Gusûn is more prone to the superstitious approaches put forward and adopted in the name of religion. Fatma is also a widow who, although she has the will to take care of her children and live her life alone, has been engaged for a long time to her uncle's son Münir, who, like her, took part in anti-regime demonstrations and whose love she believes in. Fatma, who is more conscious than her grandmother and mother, is not alien to the issues that society complains about and often participates in women's movements organised against the government. Professor Mari, one of the two important characters belonging to Marwan's imaginary world, is a psychologist and the chief physician of a large hospital who treats jealousy, anger, lying and selfishness, which are considered dangerous viruses, with vaccines developed by scientists. Professor Mari, who is personally involved in Marwan's treatment, also chairs the committee that records his memory and projects all his memories on a giant screen. Mariana, on the other hand, monitors Marwan's behaviour and thoughts through a biological chip to control the effect of the vaccines given to him, criticises him through the tragic images projected on the screen and provides information that will facilitate his adaptation to his new world. In the article, in which the author's main published works are briefly introduced along with a broad summary of the novel, the social messages that an author, who is not indifferent to the realities of the geography he lives in, tries to give directly and indirectly with a language far from locality, are tried to be determined through the mentioned female characters. It is seen that the desire to become a single nation by making; love, brotherhood, friendship and peace dominant lies behind the author's novelisation of the dream of an ideal world symbolised by the death of Satan. (shrink)

The present study examines the physiological alterations in prolactin (PRL) messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and serum PRL levels during the rat estrous cycle and the effed of naloxone, an endogenous opioid peptide receptor antagonist, on PRL gene expression during the rat estrous cycle. Adult female rats exhibiting at least two consecutive 4-day estrous cycles were used in this study. A single injection of naloxone (2mg/kg b.w.) or saline was given sc 30 mm prior to decapitation. Animals were sacrificed (...) at 10:00 h of each stage of the estrous cycle, and at 2-h intervals from 10:00 h to 20:00 h during the proestrus. PRL mRNA and serum PRL levels were determined by an RNA-blot hybridization with the rat PRL cDNA probe and by a PRL radioimmunoassay, respectively. PRL mRNA and serum PRL levels were not dramatically altered in the morning of each stage of diestrus I, II, and proestrus, and naloxone failed to modify the two parameters. During estrus naloxone clearly suppressed serum PRL levels, but it was unable to modify PRL mRNA levels. A more detailed examination of the proestrus stage revealed that PRL mRNA and serum PRL levels fluctuated as a function of time: PRL mRNA levels reached a maximum level at 12:00 h and gradually decreased until 18:00 h. PRL mRNA levels then rose at 20:00 h. No difference in PRL mRNA levels between the control and naloxone-treated groups was observed. Changes in serum PRL level during proestrus were conversely related to changes in PRL mRNA: serum PRL levels were low from 10:00 h to 14:00 h, then increased and reached a maximum level at 16:00-18:00 h. Following then, serum PRL levels were decreased. Naloxone was effective in suppressing the characteristic afternoon surge of PRL from 16:00 h to 20:00 h. These data clearly showed that alterations in PRL mRNA levels were conversely correlated with changes in serum PRL levels on proestrus, indicating differential regulation of PRL gene expression and secretion. (shrink)

Qu'est-ce qui relie, dans les tréfonds de notre être-au-monde, les entreprises créatives de la musique et des mathématiques? Qu'est-ce qui fait des mathématiques une musique des nombres et de la musique une mathématique des sons? Cet ouvrage essaye de répondre à ces questions. Prenant son départ dans la phénoménologie de l'acte créatif, l'analyse atteint la région où la phénoménologie touche la dimension du symbolique. C'est la volonté de rester dans ce no man's land, là où les dimensions du phénoménologique et (...) du symbolique s'entrecroisent et se mélangent, qui permet d'apercevoir la place où chaque homme impliqué dans l'activité créatrice trouve ses moyens et ses limites. La constitution d'un espace-temps qui est, en même temps, mathématique et musical, est le centre de cette entreprise. Le milieu où le musical et le mathématique se transforment et se confondent l'un dans l'autre devient alors le lieu où l'analyse peut étudier des objets qui ne sont pas complètement donnés, des objets qui demeurent in fieri. Ces constitutions partielles, toujours sur le point de se condenser en produits de la langue logique ou de disparaître dans une sorte de babillage créatif, assurent la tenue et la possibilité des institutions symboliques des mathématiques et de la musique. Mais surtout ces objets assurent l'étrange capacité de ces deux institutions symboliques : la capacité de se nourrir et de proliférer mystérieusement de et sur elles-mêmes, en y trouvant les raisons de leur futur. (shrink)

There is much evidence, both in humans and rodents, that while navigating males tend to use geometric information whereas females rely more on landmarks. The present work attempts to alter the geometry bias in female rats. In Experiment 1 three groups of female rats were trained in a triangular-shaped pool to find a hidden platform, whose location was defined in terms of two sources of information, a landmark outside the pool and a particular corner of the (...) pool. On a subsequent test trial with the triangular pool and no landmark, females with prior experience with two other pool shapes–with a kite-shaped pool and with a rectangular-shaped pool, were significantly more accurate than control rats without such prior experience. Rats with a short previous experience–with the rectangular-shaped pool only did not differ from Group NPE. These results suggest that the previous experience with different shaped-pools could counteract the geometry bias in female rats. Then, Experiment 2A directly compared the performance of LPE males and females of Experiment 1, although conducting several test trials. The differences between males and females disappeared in the three tests. Moreover, in a final test trial both males and females could identify the correct corner in an incomplete pool by its local, instead of global, properties. Finally, Experiment 2B compared the performance of NPE rats, males and females, of Experiment 1. On the test trial with the triangular pool and no landmark, males were significantly more accurate than females. The results are explained in the framework of selective attention. (shrink)

En la literatura publicada a lo largo del siglo XX y lo que va del XXI encontramos de manera constante lo que podemos denominar una serie literaria sobre el tema de la homosexualidad. La historia literaria costarricense muestra, en los inicios del siglo XX, el caso de Jenaro Cardona, de manera particular con La esfinge del sendero (1914). Más adelante, apenas pasada la primera mitad de siglo, encontramos el caso de José León Sánchez con La isla de los hombre solos (...) (1963), en donde la homosexualidad es presentada como parte de los arrebatosy de la violencia carcelaria.Teníamos que llegar a las últimas décadas del siglo pasado para que, de alusiones que marginalizaban aún más todo lo que tuviera que ver con la sexualidad, se pasara a una nueva manera de comenzar a sacar del closet literario, ya no solo el tema de la homosexualidad, sino en general el de la sexualidad misma. El valor enunciativo de la publicación de esta literatura plantea una relectura del Estado costarricense mismo y del papel de sus instituciones. De ahí la significación de ese gesto fundante y provocador, producto de esta nueva serie de textos en la Costa Rica contemporánea, de una manera como no había sucedido antes en el país. (shrink)