The Invisibility of Power: A Cultural Ecology of Development in the Contemporary United States.

This article highlights the invisible power those in racial and gendered privilege continue to hold in the contemporary United States and the harmful psychological effects of this power on both those it oppresses and, importantly, those who wield it. A lack of empathy and an inability for compassion arise in individuals holding sociopolitical and cultural power, and we highlight how this psychological condition is qualifiable as psychosis and question why it has not been discussed as such in the literature until now. We also, however, bring attention to the invisible psychological power that marginalized populations in the United States hold, invisible because it has been left largely unrecognized by mainstream cultural forces. By centering the ways American cultural minorities successfully navigate multiply oppressive structural systems, we conclude with a reflection on how intersectional feminism can offer a philosophical lens through which to mitigate the unhealthy developmental outcomes and effects of White heteronormative male power.

Private Revolutions of Second-generation Muslim American Women.

While certain research topics regarding second-generation Muslim American women are still relevant, (e.g., Islamophobia and the hijab), recent research unearths the nuances within these topics while also moving away from them for a more holistic, accurate picture of the population. The gendered and racialized aspects of Islamophobia are examined, but so, too, are the responses and the agency of the women who are subjected to these prejudices. The reactions of Muslim women are critical to recognize as they highlight their agency and their presence as intentional actors in their own lives. Navigating both Muslim and non-Muslim spheres, they activate different sources of cultural knowledge for both while also creating their own dynamic, experiential sources. These new sources include the marrying of "American" technologies to traditional Islamic reasoning to create a third body of knowledge that is uniquely second-generation, Muslim, and American. The cumulative result of a generation of women having private identity revolutions is a slow but sure sociocultural change for Islam in America.

High-throughput identification and quantification of Candida species using high resolution derivative melt analysis of panfungal amplicons.

Fungal infections pose unique challenges to molecular diagnostics; fungal molecular diagnostics consequently lags behind bacterial and viral counterparts. Nevertheless, fungal infections are often life-threatening, and early detection and identification of species is crucial to successful intervention. A high throughput PCR-based method is needed that is independent of culture, is sensitive to the level of one fungal cell per milliliter of blood or other tissue types, and is capable of detecting species and resistance mutations. We introduce the use of high resolution melt analysis, in combination with more sensitive, inclusive, and appropriately positioned panfungal primers, to address these needs. PCR-based amplification of the variable internal transcribed regions of the rDNA genes generates an amplicon whose sequence melts with a shape that is characteristic and therefore diagnostic of the species. Simple analysis of the differences between test and reference melt curves generates a single number that calls the species. Early indications suggest that high resolution melt analysis can distinguish all eight major species of Candida of clinical significance without interference from excess human DNA. Candida species, including mixed and novel species, can be identified directly in vaginal samples. This tool can potentially detect, count, and identify fungi in hundreds of samples per day without further manipulation, costs, or delays, offering a major step forward in fungal molecular diagnostics.