Ibrahim's story

The article details the personal and professional life of Ibrahim Muti'i (1920–2010), a well-known Uighur linguist. Through a series of interviews, Mr. Muti'i sketched the events he wanted to be remembered. Mr. Muti'i's life story corresponds with many of the significant events in Northwest China both in the Republican era (1911–1949) and the first decades of the People's Republic of China era.     

Autocastration and autopenectomy in a patient with transsexualism and schizophrenia

Previous research focusing on changes in gay male sexual practices as a result of AIDS often avoids taking into consideration the meanings which sexual practices have within the gay community. As an alternative, the present study used a content‐analysis of personals advertisements within the personals section of The Village Voice to assess changes in the language gay men use to refer to their sexuality between the years 1978, 1982, 1985, and 1988. A significant increase in personals advertisements suggesting a concern with health is noted from 1982 to 1985. This increase continues from 1985 to 1988. Corresponding in time with these changes are increases in the number of personals advertisements which express a rejection of “stereotypical” presentations of self within the gay community. This rejection is seen as an attempt at self‐affirmation of characteristics perceived by gay men themselves as being desirable at particular historical moments. Implications for the basis of future policy interventions in reaction to AIDS are discussed. Finally, the utility of personals advertisement columns as an indicator of the meanings which people of various sexual preferences attach to their sexuality is discussed.     

The Active Audience? Gurus,Management Ideas and Consumer Variability

This study draws on an active audience perspective to develop a better understanding of mass audiences' attraction towards popular management ideas. It focuses on audience members' own experiences and, in particular, what audience activities actually play a role in shaping mass attraction, and how the deployment of these activities may vary. Analysing 65 in‐depth interviews with management practitioners in their role as audience members of guru seminars, the authors identify different key consumption activities, and explain how individual management practitioners may shift in consumption orientation throughout the communication process. This paper argues that such a broader and more dynamic understanding of consumption activity is essential in understanding the success and impact of management ideas, and opens several fruitful research directions.     

THE PROBLEM WITH PREDICTION: CONTINGENCY, EMERGENCE, AND THE REIFICATION OF PROJECTIONS

Here we assess the limitations of "social physics" methods for making predictions of future social conditions in order to contribute to the development of an alternative model of scientific sociology. First, we discuss the complexities inherent in causal analyses of social phenomena, where social organizing principles change historically and causal forces interact to generate outcomes. Second, we analyze the assumptions that underlie prediction in the social sciences by using the population projections of demographers as an illustrative example. Demographers typically make projections assuming the future will be the same as the (recent) past. This approach neglects the possibility of abrupt historical change, contingent events, and emergent social structures. Third, we argue that historical contingency is an essential and necessary consideration in any analysis of the world. A historical materialist approach provides the basis for better formulating nomothetic and idiographic modes of explanation and appreciates the important connections between the two. Sociological inquiry should be an attempt to distinguish between truly nomothetic processes and emergent historical background conditions that only appear nomothetic in a specific historical era. We close with an argument for the importance of developing a sociological science that runs parallel to nonmechanistic approaches in the biological sciences.     

An Exposure Assessment for Methylmercury from Seafood for Consumers in the United States

An exposure model was developed to relate seafood consumption to levels of methylmercury (reported as mercury) in blood and hair in the U.S. population, and two subpopulations defined as children aged 2-5 and women aged 18-45. Seafood consumption was initially modeled using short-term (three-day) U.S.-consumption surveys that recorded the amount of fish eaten per meal. Since longer exposure periods include more eaters with a lower daily mean intake, the consumption distribution was adjusted by broadening the distribution to include more eaters and reducing the distribution mean to keep total population intake constant. The estimate for the total number of eaters was based on long-term purchase diaries. Levels of mercury in canned tuna, swordfish, and shark were based on FDA survey data. The distribution of mercury levels in other species was based on reported mean levels, with the frequency of consumption of each species based on market share. The shape distribution for the given mean was based on the range of variation encountered among shark, tuna, and swordfish. These distributions were integrated with a simulation that estimated average daily intake over a 360-day period, with 10,000 simulated individuals and 1,000 uncertainty iterations. The results of this simulation were then used as an input to a second simulation that modeled levels of mercury in blood and hair. The relationship between dietary intake and blood mercury in a population was modeled from data obtained from a 90-day study with controlled seafood intake. The relationship between blood and hair mercury in a population was modeled from data obtained from several sources. The biomarker simulation employed 2,000 simulated individuals and 1,000 uncertainty iterations. These results were then compared to the recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that tabulated blood and hair mercury levels in a cross-section of the U.S. population. The output of the model and NHANES results were similar for both children and adult women, with predicted mercury biomarker concentrations within a factor of two or less of NHANES biomarker results. However, the model tended to underpredict blood levels for women and overpredict blood and hair levels for children.     

Framework for Evaluation of Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Models for Use in Safety or Risk Assessment

Proposed applications of increasingly sophisticated biologically-based computational models, such as physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models, raise the issue of how to evaluate whether the models are adequate for proposed uses, including safety or risk assessment. A six-step process for model evaluation is described. It relies on multidisciplinary expertise to address the biological, toxicological, mathematical, statistical, and risk assessment aspects of the modeling and its application. The first step is to have a clear definition of the purpose(s) of the model in the particular assessment; this provides critical perspectives on all subsequent steps. The second step is to evaluate the biological characterization described by the model structure based on the intended uses of the model and available information on the compound being modeled or related compounds. The next two steps review the mathematical equations used to describe the biology and their implementation in an appropriate computer program. At this point, the values selected for the model parameters (i.e., model calibration) must be evaluated. Thus, the fifth step is a combination of evaluating the model parameterization and calibration against data and evaluating the uncertainty in the model outputs. The final step is to evaluate specialized analyses that were done using the model, such as modeling of population distributions of parameters leading to population estimates for model outcomes or inclusion of early pharmacodynamic events. The process also helps to define the kinds of documentation that would be needed for a model to facilitate its evaluation and implementation.     

Appearance Culture in Nine- to 12-Year-Old Girls: Media and Peer Influences on Body Dissatisfaction

Little research has investigated sociocultural factors in the development of body dissatisfaction in preadolescent girls. This study examined the combined influence of media and peer factors. The participants were 100 girls aged nine to 12 years. The girls completed questionnaire measures of media exposure (television and magazines), peer influences (appearance norms, appearance conversations), internalization and body dissatisfaction. Their height and weight were also measured. About half (49 percent) of the girls displayed a desire to be thinner. The influence of sociocultural factors was confirmed in addition to biological determinants, such as body mass index. Their exposure to appearance‐focused media was not directly related to their body dissatisfaction, but was indirectly related via their conversations about appearance among peers. The path analysis showed that peer appearance conversations demonstrated a significant relationship with internalization of thin ideals, which was, in turn, significantly related to body dissatisfaction. Like their adolescent counterparts, preadolescent girls are also exposed to appearance ideals presented in the media and manifested among peers. The results provided evidence for the existence of an ‘appearance culture’ consisting of interrelated media and peer influences among girls as young as nine to 12 years of age.