Too sexy too soon,or just another moral panic? Sexualization,children, and “technopanics” in the Australian media 2004–2015

In this paper, I analyze the discourse of what I argue are two moral panics that played out in the Australian media during the period 2004–2015: the sexualization of children debate, and the sexting panic, which appeared some years later. I argue that while the issue of the alleged sexualization of children is nothing new, the way that the issue has been constructed in the media has shifted during the last decade, with greater focus on children’s use of technology. By comparing these two panics, we can diagnose a shift in the nature of mass-media-based panics, from concerns about external sources of sexualization to concerns about children’s own practices of self-representation via contemporary technologies. Both panics mobilized a range of broader social anxieties about the commodification and sexualization of culture and the increasing agency of children, and panics in relation to contemporary mobile technologies are a collective response to shifts in the power relations between children, their parents, and other figures of authority.     

Back to Hegel? On Gillian Rose's critique of sociological reason

Thirty‐five years ago, Gillian Rose articulated a significant critique of classical sociological reason, emphasizing its relationship to its philosophical forebears. In a series of works, but most significantly in her Hegel contra Sociology, Rose worked to specify the implications of sociology's failure, both in its critical Marxist and its ‘scientific’ forms, to move beyond Kant and to fully come to terms with the thought of Hegel. In this article, I unpack and explain the substance of her criticisms, developing the necessary Hegelian philosophical background on which she founded them. I argue that Rose's attempted recuperation of ‘speculative reason’ for social theory remains little understood, despite its continued relevance to contemporary debates concerning the nature and scope of sociological reason. As an illustration, I employ Rose to critique Chernilo's recent call for a more philosophically sophisticated sociology. From the vantage point of Rose, this particular account of a ‘philosophical sociology’ remains abstract and rooted in the neo‐Kantian contradictions that continue to characterize sociology.     

A study of significance of racial and athletic identification on educational perceptions among African American male college athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the racial and athletic identities of African American male college athletes to determine how the identities might impact the athletic and educational potential and performance of this specific group of college athletes. The study revealed that participants who responded negatively to a poor athletic performance were more likely to have lower levels of academic self-concept. In contrast, college athletes who highly identified with their racial group were more likely to have higher levels of academic self-concept. Overall, the findings reveal the intricacies and complexities of being an African American college student and athlete at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) in the US. As such, the article details the implications of the findings as they relate to African American culture, American sports culture, and higher education realities.     

A likelihood based estimator for vector autoregressive processes

A onestep estimator, which is an approximation to the unconditional maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the coefficient matrices of a Gaussian vector autoregressive process is presented. The onestep estimator is easy to compute and can be computed using standard software. Unlike the computation of the unconditional MLE, the computation of the onestep estimator does not require any iterative optimization and the computation is numerically stable. In finite samples the onestep estimator generally has smaller mean square error than the ordinary least squares estimator. In a simple model, where the unconditional MLE can be computed, numerical investigation shows that the onestep estimator is slightly worse than the unconditional MLE in terms of mean square error but superior to the ordinary least squares estimator. The limiting distribution of the onestep estimator for processes with some unit roots is derived.     

Efficacy of Risk-Based, Culturally Sensitive Ogaa (Walleye) Consumption Advice for Anishinaabe Tribal Members in the Great Lakes Region

The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) has produced Ogaa (walleye— Sander vitreus ) consumption advisories since 1996 for Anishinaabe from GLIFWC member tribes in the 1837 and 1842 ceded territories of Wisconsin. GLIFWC's advisory maps were revised in 2005 to address cultural sensitivities (to protect tribal lifeways), to utilize recent mercury exposure information, and to incorporate changes in advisory levels for methyl mercury. Lake-specific, risk-based, culturally sensitive consumption advice was provided on color-coded maps for two groups: children under age 15 years and females of childbearing age, and males 15 years and older and females beyond childbearing age. The maps were distributed to, and a behavioral intervention program developed for, the six GLIFWC member tribes in Wisconsin as well as member tribes in Minnesota and the 1842 ceded territory of Michigan. Tribal fish harvesters, tribal health care providers, women of childbearing age or with young children, tribal leaders, elders, and children were targeted specifically for the behavioral intervention. The efficacy of the behavioral intervention was assessed using surveys of 275 tribal fish harvesters from Wisconsin, 139 tribal harvesters from Michigan and Minnesota, and 156 Wisconsin women of childbearing age. Significant increases in the percentage of survey participants who indicated awareness of advisory maps occurred among Wisconsin harvesters (increase from 60% to 77%), Michigan and Minnesota harvesters (29% to 51%), and women of childbearing age in Wisconsin (40% to 87%). A significant increase in preference for smaller Ogaa occurred among tribal harvesters in Wisconsin (41% to 72%) and tribal harvesters in Michigan and Minnesota (49% to 71%), although not among women of childbearing age. The GLIFWC map-based advisory program did not adversely affect tribal harvest of Ogaa, which increased from 63,000 to 88,000 fish in the three states after the intervention.     

Computational algorithms for the factor model

Algorithms for computing the maximum likelihood estimators and the estimated covariance matrix of the estimators of the factor model are derived. The algorithms are particularly suitable for large matrices and for samples that give zero estimates of some error variances. A method of constructing estimators for reduced models is presented. The algorithms can also be used for the multivariate errors-in-variables model with known error covariance matrix.     

Hematopoietic stem cells and aging

Hematopoiesis is a process by which a single cell--called a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)--has the proliferative potential to give rise to all of the major lineages of blood and immune cells. Stem cells can undergo both symmetric division, which results in two copies of the parent stem cell, and asymmetric division, which results in self-renewal of the parent stem cell as well as production of a daughter cell that is capable of differentiating along a specific lineage. A number of different elements of HSC replication change with age, even though these transformations do not appear to result in hematopoietic deficiencies under normal circumstances. In this Perspective, the author discusses these age-related alterations.