Browsing by Subject "Sex"

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    Light-mediated Sexual Dimorphism in Opsin Expression During Spawning in Nematostella vectensis
    (2024-04) Wagner, Starla J.; McCulloch, Kyle J.
    Across animals, opsins are the primary protein responsible for light detection. Currently, there is a large gap in knowledge in the evolutionary history of opsin function and how it correlates with other biological responses like spawning. Cnidarians (jellyfish and anemones) are prime candidates for closing this gap. They are a sister taxon to bilaterally symmetric animals like flies and humans, and so studying their opsin function and expression in non-visual contexts allows for further understanding of how light sensing may have evolved to form modern visual systems. In this experiment, qPCR analysis on the Cnidarian, Nematostella vectensis (the starlet sea anemone), was used to determine the effect of certain wavelengths of light that an animal was exposed to during spawning had on opsin expression levels. The impact of sex and tissue type on these expression levels was an additional area of interest. The data showed that certain wavelengths like blue light were correlated with larger amounts of opsin expression in female mesenteries and tentacles/skin tissue than in male tissue types. This indicates that opsin expression is sexually dimorphic which implies there is a relationship between opsin expression and spawning, something that was previously unknown. Future experiments using RNA-seq will allow for a deeper understanding of this relationship and the proteins involved.
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    Mothers' and adolescent daughters' perceptions of communication about sex.
    (2008-06) Kody, Carli Alanna Braun
    Drawing upon Consensual Qualitative Research methods (CQR; Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997), this qualitative study examined mothers' and adolescent daughters' perceptions of their communication about sex. Fifteen Mother and daughter dyads ( n = 15 mothers, n = 15 daughters) from a major Midwestern metropolitan area participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded and later transcribed. Transcriptions were manually analyzed using CQR techniques to extract major domains and categories. Domains and categories were compared between mother-daughter dyads and across mothers and daughters using cross-case analysis procedures. Data analysis and consensus procedures yielded 17 domains and 55 categories for mothers and 15 domains and 44 categories for daughters. Findings revealed that mothers and daughters perceived mother-daughter communication about sex as more complex than their communication about other topics. Mothers and daughters described little or no discussion about intimacy and/or pleasure as it relates to sex and sexuality. Furthermore, they described discomfort (e.g., vulnerability, awkwardness, uncertainty) related to discussing sex, feelings that are unique to this topic (at least with respect to their frequency and intensity). Mother and daughters struggled with self-disclosure boundaries. They worried about each other's reactions and the consequences of what they expressed during discussions about sex-related topics. Mothers expressed ambivalence, for instance, wishing to talk with their daughters about sex, but not wanting them to actually know about sex. Overall, mothers and daughters wished to improve their communication about sex. Although mothers and daughters seemed to share similar perspectives on the process of their mother-daughter communication about sex, they appeared to disagree on the content of their communication. Consistent with prior research, overall level of dyadic agreement was low. Major findings are discussed and practice implications and research recommendations are presented.
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    The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects
    (2021-06) Munafo, Justin
    Anecdotal reports suggest that motion sickness may occur among users of contemporary, consumer-oriented head-mounted display systems, and that women may be at greater risk. I evaluated the nauseogenic properties of one such system, the Oculus Rift. The head-mounted unit included motion sensors that were sensitive to users’ head movements, such that head movements could be used as control inputs to the device. In two experiments, seated participants played one of two virtual reality games for up to 15 minutes. In Experiment 1, 22% of participants reported motion sickness, and the difference in incidence between men and women was not significant. In Experiment 2, motion sickness was reported by 56% of participants, and incidence among women (77.78%) was significantly greater than among men (33.33%). Before participants were exposed to the head-mounted display system, I recorded their standing body sway during the performance of simple visual tasks. In both experiments, patterns of pre-exposure body sway differed between participants who (later) reported motion sickness and those who did not. In Experiment 2, sex differences in susceptibility to motion sickness were preceded by sex differences in body sway. These postural effects confirm a prediction of the postural instability theory of motion sickness. The results indicate that users of contemporary head-mounted display systems are at significant risk of motion sickness, and that in relation to motion sickness these systems may be sexist in their effects.