Representations of the cinaedus in Roman art: Evidence of "gay" subculture?

Whereas analysis of ancient Roman texts reveals signs of a possible homosexual subculture, their interpretation is difficult. This article analyzes the content and context of visual representations of male-male intercourse, including wall paintings at Pompeii, a silver cup, and an engraved agate gemstone. Whether presenting negative stereotypes (Tavern of Salvius, Pompeii; Suburban Baths, Pompeii), or positive ones (Warren Cup, British Museum; Leiden gemstone), these representations reveal the presence of well-developed social attitudes toward the practice ofmale-male sex and the practitioners themselves.     

Structural Determinants of Infant Mortality in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan America1

Abstract A conceptual model of the impact of structural advantage and disadvantage on infant mortality rates is developed and fitted to countylevel data. This model includes mediating endogenous constructs representing medical care availability, the incidence of teenage childbearing, and low birthweight rates and is estimated for three residence categories. Both direct and indirect effects of social structure and teenage childbearing on infant mortality vary significantly across the categories. Structural advantage exerts a significant and negative direct effect on infant mortality rates in urban areas, but in rural areas this effect is indirect, operating through teenage childbearing and low birthweight. Structural disadvantage significantly increases infant mortality in both rural and urban settings, but the effects operate directly in metropolitan areas and indirectly in rural areas. These results underscore the central role that social structure continues to play in determining infant mortality rates in the United States.     

Some solutions to the multivariate Behrens–Fisher problem for dissimilarity‐based analyses

The essence of the generalised multivariate Behrens–Fisher problem (BFP) is how to test the null hypothesis of equality of mean vectors for two or more populations when their dispersion matrices differ. Solutions to the BFP usually assume variables are multivariate normal and do not handle high‐dimensional data. In ecology, species' count data are often high‐dimensional, non‐normal and heterogeneous. Also, interest lies in analysing compositional dissimilarities among whole communities in non‐Euclidean (semi‐metric or non‐metric) multivariate space. Hence, dissimilarity‐based tests by permutation (e.g., PERMANOVA, ANOSIM) are used to detect differences among groups of multivariate samples. Such tests are not robust, however, to heterogeneity of dispersions in the space of the chosen dissimilarity measure, most conspicuously for unbalanced designs. Here, we propose a modification to the PERMANOVA test statistic, coupled with either permutation or bootstrap resampling methods, as a solution to the BFP for dissimilarity‐based tests. Empirical simulations demonstrate that the type I error remains close to nominal significance levels under classical scenarios known to cause problems for the un‐modified test. Furthermore, the permutation approach is found to be more powerful than the (more conservative) bootstrap for detecting changes in community structure for real ecological datasets. The utility of the approach is shown through analysis of 809 species of benthic soft‐sediment invertebrates from 101 sites in five areas spanning 1960 km along the Norwegian continental shelf, based on the Jaccard dissimilarity measure.     

OPTIMAL DESIGN FOR EARLY‐GENERATION PLANT‐BREEDING TRIALS WITH UNREPLICATED OR PARTIALLY REPLICATED TEST LINES

Some subtle difficulties in optimal design are highlighted by the example of unreplicated field trials laid out on plots with spatial errors defined by uniformity trials. There is a dual problem of the arrangement of control plots and maximizing the number of test‐line entries. A simulation study is conducted by randomizing the allocation of genotypes to the plots of four uniformity trials in accordance with the rules defining a number of competing designs. Results are summarized in terms of the ‘SE ratio’, which reflects the improvement in precision of a given design relative to a completely random design on the same plots. The definition of the SE ratio overcomes problems induced by differential shrinkage and consequent precision of test and control lines. A general result applying to all designs shows a curvilinear improvement in SE ratio with increasing error degrees of freedom of the design. The actual arrangement of check plots is of less importance than their increasing number, which contributes to increasing error degrees of freedom. Overall measures, including expected genetic gain, are used to illustrate the choice of a balance between the total number of test‐line entries and the error degrees of freedom.     

Critical feminist analysis of STEM mentoring programs: A meta-synthesis of the existing literature

We conducted a meta-synthesis review of existing literature on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mentoring programs for women. Critical feminist theory (CFT) was used to understand how mentoring programs support retention and occupational advancement of women in traditionally male-dominated STEM fields. Four primary strands of CFT were explored: gender, oppression/patriarchy, social institutions, and systemic change. Traditional models of mentoring encompass varied approaches, including institutionally enforced programs, formal and informal programs, paired peer grouping, as well as face-to-face and online forums. However, low levels of retention and self-stated lack of professional satisfaction for women in STEM fields continue to plague those professions. This study reviews the literature on mentoring programs that have been implemented to support women in STEM, thus adding to the epistemology of mentoring women in STEM through feminist discourse.     

Money management and views of civil partnership in same‐sex couples: results from a UK survey of non‐heterosexuals

Recent legislation in the UK has extended many of the legal and financial rights and responsibilities of heterosexual marriage to same‐sex couples who register their partnerships. Prior to the Civil Partnership Act (2004) however, little was known about financial arrangements in same‐sex couples, nor the extent to which these mirrored those of married or cohabiting heterosexuals. This paper reports the findings from the first large‐scale survey in the UK to investigate finances and civil partnership beliefs in a convenience sample of non‐heterosexuals: 510 individuals, of whom 386 were currently in a same‐sex relationship, participated in the survey. Our findings showed less merging of finances (such as in pooling, allowance, and whole wage systems) than is typical in heterosexual married couples. The results of a series of multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that rating CP as more important, and having both names on the mortgage, significantly reduced the odds of independent (ie, separate) management of finances. Participants were almost unanimous in their endorsement of CP as a form of legal recognition, with a large majority saying that they would also consider it for themselves.     

Public crises,public futures

This article begins to map out a novel approach to analysing contemporary contexts of public crisis, relationships between them and possibilities that these scenes hold out for politics. The article illustrates and analyses a small selection of examples of these kinds of contemporary scenes and calls for greater attention to be given to the conditions and consequences of different forms and practices of public and political mediation. In offering a three-fold typology to delineate differences between ‘abject’, ‘audience’ and ‘agentic’ publics the article begins to draw out how political and public futures may be seen as being bound up with how the potentialities, capacities and qualities that publics are imagined to have and resourced to perform. Public action and future publics are therefore analysed here in relation to different versions of contemporary crisis and the political concerns and publics these crises work to articulate, foreground and imaginatively and practically support.