Recollections of sexual socialisation among marginalised heterosexual black men

This paper describes the sexual socialisation process of marginalised, drug-using heterosexual black men, focusing primarily on the sources and content of sexual information. Analysing qualitative interview data, we discovered that the men in our sample both learn about sex and become sexually active at an early age. They most often learn about sex from the media and least often learn about sex from family members. The content of sexual information varies in specifics, but overall tends to equate sex with pleasure, encourage sexual activity with multiple partners and emphasise using protection. Our goal is to use this data to better understand how sexual socialisation contributes to the prevalence of multiple sexual partners and high rates of HIV among heterosexual black men in order to inform future risk-reduction intervention programmes.     

Journal publications of Ph.D. graduates from American criminology and criminal justice programs

This article assesses the quality of 12 American doctoral programs by counting the number of publications of their Ph.D. graduates in a large number of criminology and criminal justice journals, and in 20 more “academic” journals. While half of the Ph.D. graduates had no publications, the 4 percent who were the most productive (the “stars”) accounted for one third of all journal articles. Publication rates up to graduation predicted publication rates after graduation. The University of Maryland, Michigan State University, the University of California at Irvine, Florida State University, and Sam Houston State University had the most productive Ph.D. graduates in academic journals. There was a significant correlation between the productivity of a program's Ph.D. graduates and the productivity of its faculty members. The academic publication rate was influenced most by prevalence (the percentage of Ph.D.s with at least one publication), rather than by the percentage of “stars” or the frequency of publications.     

REPORT ON FIVE CITIES

This article examines one university's policies regarding Native mascots and ethnic fraud through a Tribal Critical Race Theory analytic lens. Using the principle of interest convergence, we argue that institutions of higher education allow and even work actively towards a particular form or level of diversity, but they do not extend it far enough. Once racial remedies no longer hold value or benefit the institution itself, the status quo is maintained. Ultimately, the university has an interest in “celebrating” diversity and supporting superficial multiculturalism, but it does not have an interest in critical, social justice-oriented policies that challenge the status quo, the current racial order, or the institution's privilege and power.     

Comparisons of Four Methods for Estimating a Dynamic Factor Model

Four methods for estimating a dynamic factor model, the direct autoregressive factor score (DAFS) model, are evaluated and compared. The first method estimates the DAFS model using a Kalman filter algorithm based on its state space model representation. The second one employs the maximum likelihood estimation method based on the construction of a block-Toeplitz covariance matrix in the structural equation modeling framework. The third method is built in the Bayesian framework and implemented using Gibbs sampling. The fourth is the least squares method, which also employs the block-Toeplitz matrix. All 4 methods are implemented in currently available software. The simulation study shows that all 4 methods reach appropriate parameter estimates with comparable precision. Differences among the 4 estimation methods and related software are discussed.     

Mohenjo-Daro, city of the Indus Valley

The Harappan civilization, the world's fourth great civilization after those of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China flourished in the valley of the Indus three thousand years ago. As yet little is known about it, but one enormous town — Mohenjo-Daro — has survived. This has been only partially excavated and has yielded just a few scraps of information which have provided the basis for some fanciful theories. The author of this article had developed an interesting new approach. Combining a re-examination of the documentation that has accumulated over the past 50 years with an investigation of the actual remains, he has obtained some exciting results which shed new light on the overall planning, architecture, and development of the town over the centuries, thus providing a fresh understanding of the Harappan civilization itself.     

Functioning and participation problems of students with ASD in higher education: which reasonable accommodations are effective?

Abstract

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience various functioning and participation problems in higher education, which may cause difficulties such as drop out or low grade point averages. However, it remains unclear how often and during which teaching and evaluation methods the functioning and participation problems occur and which reasonable accommodations are effective in dealing with them. These gaps in the literature are addressed in this survey-based study. In total, 43 students with ASD, 30 student counsellors and 43 students without a disability of institutions of higher education in Flanders (Belgium) participated in the study. The results show that students with ASD most frequently experience problems with verbal and non-verbal communication, are oversensitive to change and have difficulty distinguishing the gist of the syllabus from the details. Furthermore, it is shown that, on average, these problems arise mostly during classical teaching and evaluation methods. Finally, the perceived effectiveness of reasonable accommodations is dependent on the functioning and participation problem experienced by the student with ASD in higher education. In conclusion, both personal and environmental characteristics should be taken into account when selecting and implementing reasonable accommodations for these students.     

Gender and the expansion of university education in Jordan

This article explores how gender is threaded through the expansion and privatization of higher education in Jordan. Due to the justified current concern with the educational deficit of Muslim girls, it is easy to overlook the educational advances made by girls in some Islamic countries. In Jordan, girls have profited more than boys from the expansion of higher education. Economic or political reasons cannot explain this change, so explanations for the advancement of girls in the universities have to be sought elsewhere. I argue here that, for Jordan, this female advancement is linked to the commercialization of education set in motion by the early mission schools, the re‐Islamization of society, and the prestige system of ‘culturedness’. For this article, I have drawn upon qualitative anthropological data gathered through interviews with students, staff and parents in Jordan and from an analysis of higher education statistics.