“You have to do something”: Snoring,sleep interembodiment and the emergence of agency

Although the sociology of sleep is a growing subfield, little is known about agency in the context of sleep. This article contributes to the sociological literature by showing how different types of agency emerge as a result of sleep interembodiment (i.e., experiencing sleep partners’ bodies as intertwined). The study draws on qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews with 70 snorers and 20 sleep partners of snorers. Interviews were conducted in Israel and were analysed following constructivist grounded theory principles. Results indicate that two types of agency coexist and, in fact, co-constitute one another: The first type, herein termed material agency, reflects the post-humanist tradition, which conceptualizes agents as entities (whether human or nonhuman) that alter a state of affairs by making a difference in another agent's action. This type of agency exists in both wakefulness and throughout periods of sleep, as the snorer’s body acts and interacts with a partner's body in ways that engender significant change in their lives, relationships, and actions. In contrast, the second type, herein termed reflexive agency, reflects the humanist tradition, which regards agency as individuals' creative and assertive capacities motivated by intentionality and reflexivity. This type of agency declines significantly during stages of deep sleep but re-emerges in response to partners' actions. The article adds to the literature by refining the concept of agency and elucidating its relationship to both accountability and interembodiment. In addition, the article provides much-needed empirical evidence showing how “personal responsibility” for health, as required by neoliberal discourses, is invoked within families, specifically with regard to sleep. This study therefore shows how certain macro-level structures of neoliberalism are enacted and reinforced within micro-level interactions.     

Analysis of consensus sorting via the cycle metric

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - Sorting is studied in this paper as an archetypal example to explore the optimizing power of consensus. In conceptualizing the consensus sort, the classical...     

What constitutes agency and empowerment for women in later life?

Ageing ‘successfully’ in western society has often been associated with material issues relating to declining health, social care and welfare. Indeed, it has been suggested that these topics have dominated the study of ageing leading to overly pessimistic accounts of later life ( Phillipson, 1998 ). It is also the case that the concepts used to measure agency and empowerment, such as autonomy and in/dependence, are often uncritically understood and applied from a Western (British/American) standpoint. Here success is associated with individual potential, or the ability to adapt to the ‘challenges’ of growing older. Ultimately, this means that culturally diverse interpretations and experiences of what constitutes agency and empowerment, that may challenge such an account, are rendered invisible. In response, this paper examines and reflects upon the meanings that older women from different ethnic backgrounds give to agency and empowerment in later life. The empirical accounts discussed in the paper suggest that the meanings attached to autonomy, independence and agency and empowerment are contextually based.     

Poker Mania and Problem Gambling: A Study of Distorted Cognitions,Motivation and Alexithymia

This study examines the relationships between distorted cognitions, motivation, and alexithymia on problem gambling in poker players (n = 96). Respondents completed questionnaires containing the Canadian Problem Gambling Index, Gambling Motivation Scale, Gambler’s Beliefs Questionnaire, and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. The results suggest that problem gambling is significantly related to distorted cognitions, non-self-determined motivation, and difficulty identifying feelings. Implications are drawn for the development of more relevant intervention, prevention, and treatment strategies.     

Community Context,Social Integration Into Family,and Youth Violence

The purpose of this study is to analyze the extent to which neighborhood‐level family structure and feelings of family integration are associated with acts of violence among 16,910 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The results from our hierarchical linear models indicate that adolescents who live in neighborhoods with lower proportions of single‐parent families and who report higher levels of family integration commit less violence. We also find that neighborhood‐level family structure shapes the extent to which social integration into family matters: In neighborhoods that are considered higher risk environments (i.e., contain greater proportions of single‐parent families), family integration is often less effective in deterring youth violence than it is in lower risk environments.     

Exurban residential subdivision development: Effects on water quality and public perception

We investigated how future alternative designs for exurban residential subdivision development in agricultural landscapes might affect aquatic ecosystems and public perceptions, and we asked whether better aquatic ecological quality would correspond with public perceptions of greater landscape attractiveness. The alternative exurban futures we compared were: ecologically beneficial subdivisions, conventional subdivisions, and conventional agriculture. To judge their aquatic ecology effects we measured the chemistry and biota of six first-order streams within our study area, the Huron and Raisin River watersheds in the Detroit CMSA. We chose two stream catchments that exhibited land cover to represent the same proportions as each of three types of alternative exurban futures. Streams in catchments representing ecologically beneficial subdivision designs had the most total macroinvertebrate taxa, the most sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa, lowest nitrates, lowest total phosphorus, and lowest total suspended materials. Nutrient concentrations were highest in agricultural catchments, and suspended sediments were highest in conventional subdivision catchments. To compare public perceptions of the alternative futures, we surveyed 336 suburban and exurban adult residents of the upper Midwest. All respondents viewed digital imaging simulations of each of the futures and rated their attractiveness as if they were seen from the window of a home in the area. Ecologically beneficial futures were perceived as most attractive. Comparing the alternative futures, rankings of aquatic ecological quality were consistent with public perceptions of attractiveness.     

Will It Help? Identifying Socialization Discourses That Promote Sexual Risk and Sexual Health Among African American Youth

Because much of the existing research examining sexual communication to African American youth focuses on demographic and parental factors predicting sexual risk behaviors, less is known about factors predicting sexual health, and little is understood about the contributions of peer communications. The current study aimed to expand existing approaches by assessing which socialization discourses communicated by parents and peers contribute to sexual risk and health outcomes (sexual assertiveness, positive sexual affect, and condom self-efficacy). Participants were 631 African American undergraduates (73% female) who indicated the extent to which they had received from their parents and peers each of 28 messages representing four cultural discourses: abstinence, relational sex, sex positive, and gendered sexual roles. As expected, parents were perceived to emphasize relational sex and abstinence messages more than peers, and peers were perceived to communicate sex-positive and gendered sex role messages more than parents. Greater exposure to abstinence messages predicted lower levels of sexual experimentation, whereas exposure to sex-positive messages predicted higher levels. In addition, exposure to relational sex and sex-positive messages predicted higher levels of sexual assertiveness and positive sexual affect. Implications are discussed concerning sexual communications that could help Black youth develop healthy sexual perspectives.     

Understanding the Challenges to Providing Disabilities Services and Rehabilitation in Rural Alaska: Where Do We Go From Here?

American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) suffer from some of the highest rates of health and mental health-related disabilities. Despite high rates of disabilities experienced among this population, services available to treat the disabilities are extremely limited, especially within the rural Alaska context. Additionally, limited research exists regarding the perceived barriers to receiving disability services, the importance of treating disabilities within one's own community, and individual and community-level strengths that exist to help cope with the lack of services. This article attempts to bring awareness to these issues, as well as propose tangible solutions to help mitigate the barriers.     

Estimating the asymptotic relative efficiency of weighted rankings

Five tests for the hypothesis of no treatment effects in complete blocks designs are compared with respect to asymptotic relative efficiency: the ordinary two-way analysis of variance, the analysis of variance of ranks (Friedman, 1937), the method of ranking after alignment (Hodges and Lehmann, 1962), and a method of weighted rankings proposed by Quade (1972, 1979). This comparison required devising a procedure for estimating the asymptotic relative efficiencies of test statistics with asymp-totic chi-squared distributions.