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Toxoplasmosis is a disease of worldwide distribution, causing high morbidity and mortality in humans, as well as heavily impacting animal health and the economy. Toxoplasma gondii, the causative agent, is an intracellular parasite with a complex life cycle whose completion entails asexual, pre-sexual, and sexual stage conversions. Pre-sexual and sexual differentiation take place only within the intestinal epithelium of felines. Recently, several transcriptional factors and epigenetic components crucial to trigger parasite stage transitions within the cat have been identified, allowing, through precise genetic manipulation, obtaining pre-sexual stages known as merozoites in vitro. Through conditional depletion of two pre-sexual stage-specific gene silencing transcription factors, AP2XII-1 and AP2XII-2, we have characterized the interplay between cell division and the sequence of events leading up to differentiation of tachyzoites into merozoites. We explored genome duplication, assembly of daughter cells, karyokinesis, and cytokinesis, characterizing the differential cell division modes and kinetics undergone by critical structures along the differentiation axis. Building onto the pre-existing body of knowledge, primarily describing the underpinnings of these forms of division by transmission electron microscopy, our work contributes previously unexplored temporal and spatial resolution to the transitions between endodyogeny and endopolygeny, providing a conceptual framework for understanding and exploring T. gondii’s route of sexual differentiation.IMPORTANCESexual development in Toxoplasma gondii is essential for transmission, but remains poorly understood, largely because pre-sexual stages are restricted to the feline intestine and have only recently become experimentally accessible. Here, we leverage an in vitro differentiation system to resolve how parasites transition toward merozoite formation at the cellular level. By combining expansion microscopy, stage-specific markers, and quantitative analyses, we define the temporal sequence of nuclear division and daughter cell assembly during merogony, addressing longstanding ambiguity regarding division modes in these stages. Our findings reveal that parasites can adopt alternative division strategies emerging from a polyploid intermediate, highlighting an unexpected degree of flexibility in how cell division is executed during differentiation. Beyond refining this developmental framework, this work establishes a foundation for future mechanistic studies of pre-sexual biology and provides broader insight into the diversity of eukaryotic cell division strategies.

Daoist female alchemy (nüdan 女丹) texts articulate a bodily paradigm in which humans and nature mutually enfold one another, and in which yin and yang interact in harmonious complementarity. Through an analysis of three key dimensions, the yin-yang cosmology embedded in these texts, the ways menstruation, desire, and the female breasts are reconceived in the course of cultivation, and the ideal of gestating an a priori (xiantian 先天) embryo, this article argues that nüdan writings present a gender-symmetrical, pre-sexual symbolic culture. This culture both acknowledges gender difference and ultimately transcends it, seeking a return to the undifferentiated, yin-yang combined condition of primordial Dao. These texts reveal that women and men possess complementary yin and yang attributes that must be reintegrated in order to return to the a priori state and attain infinite vitality. They likewise suggest that both women and men harbor active, originary desire, and that only through equivalent processes of bodily transformation, reverting the sexualized, adult bodies into the unsexualized bodies of the girl and boy, can practitioners acquire the power to gestate the inner elixir, symbolizing inexhaustible vitality. In this sense, nüdan writings develop a pre-sexual narrative centered on vitality, offering a resonant response to concerns within postmodern feminism regarding how to dismantle centralized, phallogocentric narratives while enriching non-gender-centralized symbolic cultures. They thus provide a special path to reconsider gender not by advancing forward, but by stepping back into a more primordial, integrated ideal.

Wide-Open Towntraces the history of gay men and lesbians in San Francisco from the turn of the century, when queer bars emerged in San Francisco's tourist districts, to 1965, when a raid on a drag ball changed the course of queer history. Bringing to life the striking personalities and vibrant milieu that fueled this era, Nan Alamilla Boyd examines the culture that developed around the bar scene and homophile activism. She argues that the communities forged inside bars and taverns functioned politically and, ultimately, offered practical and ideological responses to the policing of San Francisco's queer and transgender communities. Using police and court records, oral histories, tourist literature, and manuscript collections from local and state archives, Nan Alamilla Boyd explains the phenomenal growth of San Francisco as a \"wide-open town\"-a town where anything goes. She also relates the early history of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement that took place in San Francisco prior to 1965.Wide-Open Townargues that police persecution forged debates about rights and justice that transformed San Francisco's queer communities into the identity-based groups we see today. In its vivid re-creation of bar and drag life, its absorbing portrait of central figures in the communities, and its provocative chronicling of this period in the country's most transgressive city,Wide-Open Townoffers a fascinating and lively new chapter of American queer history.

This ground-breaking book examines inequalities experienced by LGBT people and considers the role of social work in addressing them. The book is organised in three parts: the first provides a policy context in four countries, the second examines social work practice in tackling health inequalities, and part three considers research and pedagogic developments. The book’s distinctive approach includes international contributions, practice vignettes and key theoretical perspectives in health inequalities, including social determinants of health, minority stress, ecological approaches and human rights. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans health inequalities is relevant to social work educators, practitioners and students, alongside an interdisciplinary audience interested in LGBT health inequalities.

The sexuality of young people arouses controversy and remains a source of concern for parents, teachers, policy-makers and politicians. But what young people really think about sexuality and gender and how these issues impact upon their lives is often marginalized or overlooked. Based upon extensive ethnographic research with young people and teachers, Sexuality, Gender and Schooling offers a telling and insightful account of how young people acquire sexual knowledge and how they enact their understanding of their own gender. It highlights the ways in which young people's constructions of gender and sexuality are formed outside the school curriculum, through engagements with various forms of popular culture - such as teen magazines and television programmes - and through same-sex friendship groups. Offering a fresh perspective on a subject of perennial interest and concern, Sexuality, Gender and Schooling provides accounts from the inside - some of which may challenge and eclipse current approaches to sexuality education. It has significant implications for policy and practice in Personal, Social and Health Education and is also an excellent introduction to key debates and issues in the study of gender and sexuality.