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This article examines datafication of the reproductive body in India through use of femtech mobile phone applications (henceforth, apps). Femtech apps quantify reproductive processes such as periods, conception, pregnancy and hormonal health and promise their users greater 'self-awareness' and 'control' through 'self-management'. Most studies on femtech refer to users in the Global North, while there are few studies on femtech adoption in the developing countries. This article, based on qualitative and quantitative data, and informed by a feminist technoscience framework, illustrates how femtech's promise of empowerment through datafication of reproduction is fraught with contradictions and tensions, and has exclusionary and risky consequences for Indian users. It examines the gendered technological landscape's bearing on concrete practices of design and innovation, and shows how femtech reinforces gendered social hierarchies rather than dismantling them and liberating users. Under datafication, health standards become extremely narrowly defined, marginalising those whose reproductive health trajectories may not conform to normative standards. Femtech's proliferation in India has also failed to recognise the structural inequalities and socio-economic disadvantages that characterise healthcare access. Finally, the legal grey areas and ill-defined data privacy policies in India allow for easy commercialisation of users' bodies and personal data possible. This further undermines the liberational rhetoric of femtech, as data privacy breaches are embodied forms of violence with consequences for users' bodily autonomy and dignity. Femtech's pursuit of maximising commercial gain is thus at odds with the feminist technoscience project of minimising women's exploitation and oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores two types of population policies common in Arab countries: pro‐natalist policies, aimed at encouraging higher birth rates, and anti‐natalist policies, aimed at reducing birth rates. Determining their practical impact is often challenging due to the lack of control or comparison groups. However, historical policy patterns in two groups of Arab countries over the past six decades offer a unique opportunity for comparison. Between the 1970s and 1990s these two groups implemented opposing programs (pro‐ vs. anti‐natalist), followed by predominantly anti‐natalist policies in both groups. By comparing fertility rates between these groups and discussing various factors influencing fertility changes, this study suggests that the influence of population policies in Arab countries may have been smaller than anticipated, to the point that it is questionable whether they have been worthwhile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarity shifting can be considered one of the most challenging problems in the context of sentiment analysis. Polarity shifters are treated as linguistic contextual items that can increment, reduce or neutralise the polarity of a word called 'focus' included in an opinion. The automatic detection of such items enhances performance and accuracy of computational systems for opinion mining. From a symbolic approach, we aim to advance in the automatic processing of the polarity shifters that affect the opinions expressed on tweets in English. To this end, we describe a novel knowledge-based model to deal with quantification in English, which increments or reduces the polarity of opinions. In particular, we explain the linguistic rules of each category of quantification shifter, including information about the scope and direction with respect to the focus. Furthermore, we present the mathematical formulae that calculate the strength of the effect on the prior polarity. Finally, we describe the matrices associated to the linguistic rules, which serve to model the knowledge in text-mining systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern New Mexico, part of the Great Plains in the USA, has often been neglected for its studies of butterfly diversity because of its arid climate and flat landscape. This study was conducted to assess the current species richness and abundance of butterflies in two sub-ecoregions of the Great Plains in central eastern NM, including the Semiarid Canadian Breaks and the Llano Estacado. The survey was conducted at selected focal sites in each sub-ecoregion from January to November 2023. A modified Pollard walk technique was employed to collect cumulative monthly data on the diversity of adult butterflies. A total of 856 individuals belonging to 46 species were counted for the Semiarid Canadian breaks, while a total of 812 individuals belonging to 65 species were counted for the Llano Estacado sub-ecoregion. The Shannon diversity index, Shannon equitability index, and relative abundance were calculated for each sub-ecoregion and a local abundance index was designed to rank the density of butterflies. Checklists of butterflies were prepared, along with information related to their residential status, phenology, and local abundance. Six new locality distributions were recorded from Llano Estacado, including Cupido amyntula (Boisduval, 1852), Gesta tristis tatius (W. H. Edwards, 1883), Polites carus (W. H. Edwards, 1883), Celastrina sp., Ministrymon leda (W. H. Edwards, 1882), and Polygonia satyrus satyrus (W. H. Edwards, 1869). The extensions of their ranges are discussed. A comparison of the diversity of butterflies between the two sub-ecoregions revealed a significant difference in the species abundances. Additionally, a significant difference was found among different families and their species abundances and among the different months and their species abundances in both sub-ecoregions. A total of 206 voucher specimens were collected during this study and were deposited at the Natural History Museum of Eastern New Mexico University, Portales. Overall, this study has helped to quantify the diversity of butterflies for 2023 in central eastern New Mexico. The baseline data generated from this study can be subjected to various ecological analyses for additional diversity analysis, and this research can also be replicated over years to observe the changes in diversity with changing environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the construction and circulation of standardized categories used to quantify the labor force in the twentieth century, based on the case of the Economically Active Population indicator. This metric was part of a global movement toward the homogeneous production of figures, the construction of new disciplinary knowledge and the formation of contact networks. For Argentina, we reconstruct its early uses by José Francisco Figuerola, Juan Carlos Elizaga and Gino Germani, connection they had to international spheres and their positioning with respect to the term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Técnica Tributaria is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Asesores Fiscales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Este artículo indaga sobre la construcción y circulación de categorías estandarizadas para cuantificar la fuerza de trabajo en el siglo XX, a partir del caso del indicador Población Económicamente Activa. Esta métrica formó parte de un movimiento global de producción homogénea de cifras, construcción de nuevos saberes disciplinares y la formación de redes de contacto. Para Argentina, se reconstruyen sus primeros usos por parte de José Francisco Figuerola, Juan Carlos Elizaga y Gino Germani, su vinculación con estos ámbitos internacionales y su posicionamiento respecto del término.

El propósito de la presente investigación consistió en determinar las cantidades de cadmio y plomo presentes en muestras de soya (Glycine max L) recolectadas en el cantón Mocache, Ecuador. Se tomaron muestras de cuatro tiendas de alimento y una plantación durante los meses de febrero, marzo y abril. Utilizando la espectrometría de absorción con llama y el método "NMLK-AOAC 999.11" en un espectrómetro Perkin Elmer HGA-500, se determinaron concentraciones promedio de 0,22 ± 0,37 mg/kg y 0,21 ± 0,03 mg/kg para cadmio y plomo respectivamente. Estas cifras excedieron los límites máximos permitidos según las normativas internacionales. Los resultados resaltan una preocupante situación de seguridad alimentaria en la localidad, subrayando la urgencia de implementar estrategias efectivas de gestión y control de metales tóxicos en la producción y comercialización de soya.

Este trabajo se propone sistematizar los usos y valores gramaticales de pucha (y una serie de variantes) en distintos países hispanoamericanos y analizar, en particular, su uso como marcador de modalidad en pucha que. En primer lugar, aportamos datos dialectológicos contrastivos y en algunos casos diacrónicos. De este modo, ubicamos la distribución de las dos acepciones de la interjección ¡pucha!, la de ‘contrariedad’ (más extendida en América hispana) y la de ‘admiración’ (registrada en toda América del Sur hispana y Honduras), así como de las variantes que introducen una proposición completa y que funcionan como marcadores de modalidad: pucha que (presente en el Cono Sur, Perú y, en menor medida, Colombia) y pucha si (restringido al Río de la Plata). En segundo lugar, analizamos las propiedades gramaticales de pucha que para concluir que introduce desde el punto de vista proposicional una cuantificación en un evento que se da por cierto y se afirma rotundamente, pero que además funciona pragmáticamente como un marcador de la modalidad exclamativa, igual que los pronombres exclamativos cuán, cuánto y cuánto/a/s. Las repercusiones epistémicas de pucha que son exactamente las mismas que se dan con los pronombres exclamativos, con quienes pucha que comparte (casi) todas sus propiedades gramaticales, semánticas y pragmáticas.

Introduction: Epinephrine bitartrate, also known as epinephrine, is an important pharmaceutical ingredient in the treatment of various diseases, but its accurate measurement is essential to ensure the safety of the drug. The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) sets the standards for its analysis, but the choice of method affects the precision of the measurements. This study investigates how different methods affect the measurements of epinephrine bitartrate based on USP-43 and USP-44, which have significant implications for drug quality and regulation in the field. Method: The volumetric method and chromatographic method were chosen for comparison. High-purity epinephrine bitartrate samples that met USP-43 and USP-44 standards were used. Results: The results obtained by both methods are compared with and evaluated according to the specification limits defined by USP-43 and USP-44. The values obtained for some parameters, such as the concentration and purity of epinephrine tartrate, vary considerably between the different analytical methods. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of carefully selecting analytical methods when evaluating epinephrine tartrate according to USP-43 and USP-44 guidelines. The choice of technology affects the results and, therefore, the quality and safety of the pharmaceutical products containing this substance. It is recommended to validate the method in each laboratory and compare the results with USP standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Literatura y Lingüística is the property of Universidad Catolica Cardenal Raul Silva Henriquez and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

At the center of decades-long water conflicts in northwest Costa Rica, a particular fact has had a contentious status: whether the aquifers supplying the area hold sufficient water for collective life. I refer to this as the sufficiency fact, which has been established, debunked, and reestablished multiple times. To understand this peculiar dynamic, I zoom into discussions among community and business representatives about the future of these aquifers. There, in the density of social life, I show how as place-specific formations, facts are “long” entities that remain tied to their interpretations and, crucially, to their potential consequences. As opposed to the ideal of short facts that characterizes modern science, long facts reveal the rich social life that facticity takes in the twenty-first century. Long facts are always contested, explicitly political, and unable to be separated from their potential consequences. In contrast to scholarship that diagnoses the loss of the value of truth within the contemporary moment, I suggest it is critical to understand the abundance of regimes of facticity that surround us and what they make possible leaving behind assumptions of deficit and lack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revolution that we are seeing in the world of surgery will determine the way we understand surgical approaches in coming years. Since the implementation of minimally invasive surgery, innovations have constantly been developed to allow the laparoscopic approach to go further and be applied to more and more procedures. In recent years, we have been in the middle of another revolutionary era, with robotic surgery, the application of artificial intelligence and image-guided surgery. The latter includes 3D reconstructions for surgical planning, virtual reality, holograms or tracer-guided surgery, where ICG-guided fluorescence has provided a different perspective on surgery. ICG has been used to identify anatomical structures, assess tissue perfusion, and identify tumors or tumor lymphatic drainage. But the most important thing is that this technology has come hand in hand with the potential to develop other types of tracers that will facilitate the identification of tumor cells and ureters, as well as different light beams to identify anatomical structures. These will lead to other types of systems to assess tissue perfusion without the use of tracers, such as hyperspectral imaging. Combined with the upcoming introduction of ICG quantification, these developments represent a real revolution in the surgical world. With the imminent implementation of these technological advances, a review of their clinical application in general surgery is timely, and this review serves that aim., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.)