Selling the Male Consumer the Playboy Way

Under the direction of Hugh Hefner, Playboy magazine’s early success was predicated upon the unique marketing strategies of forging the persona of an idealized, imaginary reader called the playboy, with particular lifestyles and taste preferences. At the same time, it sold the value of men’s participation in the hedonistic pleasures of accessible connoisseurship of the postwar marketplace by aligning consumer desires with sexual desires as innate components of modern masculinity. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how this persona is visually and discursively articulated throughout the entire Playboy empire, from the content of the magazines including the dewy centerfolds and the What Sort of Man Reads Playboy? campaigns to the brand’s clubs and television shows. The persona undertook the dual tasks of attracting a lucrative male readership and its corresponding advertisers, while simultaneously redefining male consumer culture.     

Weekday–weekend variations in mother-/father–child physical activity and screen time relationship: A cross-sectional study in a random sample of Czech families with 5- to 12-year-old children

This study assessed the associations between these factors in a random sample of Czech families with preschool and school-aged children. A nationally representative sample comprised 185 families with preschool children and 649 families with school-aged children (dyads; both parents and child n?=?365, mother and child n?=?730, and father and child n?=?469). The participants wore Yamax Digiwalker SW-200 pedometers at least four weekdays and both weekend days and completed family logbooks (anthropometric parameters, daily step counts (SC), and screen time (ST)). When a parent (fathers at weekends and mothers both on weekdays and at weekends) achieved 10,000 SC per day, their children were also significantly (OR?=?2.93–6.06, 95% CI?=?2.02–9.26) more likely to meet the daily SC recommendation. On the contrary, the involvement of fathers in organized leisure-time PA reduced their children's odds of meeting the SC recommendation on weekdays (OR?=?0.53, 95% CI?=?0.31–0.89) and at weekends (OR?=?0.41, 95% CI?=?0.24–0.72). The excessive ST of parents at weekends reduced the odds of their children meeting the SC recommendation (mother–child dyads: OR?=?0.44, 95% CI?=?0.26–0.72; father–child dyads: OR?=?0.63, 95% CI?=?0.37–1.06). High levels of parents’ PA contribute to the achievement of the recommended daily PA in children on weekdays and at weekends. Excessive weekend ST of parents reduces their odds of their children achieving the recommended daily PA; however, the influence of parents’ PA on their children’s achieving the recommended daily PA is stronger than the inhibitory effect of ST.     

Effects of 12 weeks of combined training without caloric restriction on inflammatory markers in overweight girls

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of combined training without caloric restriction on inflammatory markers in overweight girls. Thirty-three girls (13–17 years) were assigned into overweight training (n = 17) or overweight control (n = 16) groups. Additionally, a normal-weight group (n = 15) was used as control for the baseline values. The combined training programme consisted of six resistance exercises (three sets of 6–10 repetitions at 60–70% 1 RM) followed by 30 min of aerobic exercise (walking/running) at 50–80% VO_2peak, performed in the same 60 min session, 3 days/weeks, for 12 weeks. Body composition, dietary intake, aerobic fitness (VO_2peak), muscular strength (1 RM), glycaemia, insulinemia, lipid profile and inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-10, leptin, resistin and adiponectin) were measured before and after intervention. There was a significant decrease in body fat (P < 0.01) and increase in fat-free mass (P < 0.01), VO_2peak (P < 0.01), 1 RM for leg press (P < 0.01) and bench press (P < 0.01) in the overweight training group. Concomitantly, this group presented significant decreases in serum concentrations of C-reactive protein (P < 0.05) and leptin (P < 0.05), as well as in insulin resistance (P < 0.05) after the experimental period. In conclusion, 12 weeks of combined training without caloric restriction reduced inflammatory markers associated with obesity in overweight girls.     

Project Cheddarfield: Supporting Co‐Curricular Themes Through Creative Use of Video Course‐Casting

This article chronicles the coordination and better integration of existing institutional resources to support cocurricular themes embedded in the provision of a large enrollment, video‐mediated undergraduate operations management (OM) course. The name Project Cheddarfield refers to a 2008 initiative in which two professors team‐taught an OM course to over 600 undergraduates on two different continents through the repeated rapid exchange of digital video between the United States and Singapore. Simultaneously infused in this core curricular delivery were themes of global awareness and study‐abroad, including the promotion of one particular opportunity that bridged the two campuses. This action research narrative spans over 5 years of related activity leading up to the initiative, as this project is best understood as a trajectory, or the evolving result of design adapting to unfolding realities.     

Transcultural analysis of the effectiveness of a program to promote self-regulated learning in Mozambique,Chile, Portugal,and Spain

The current investigation aims at assessing the effectiveness of an intervention program designed to enhance self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies at the university level, with students from different cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. The central tool of the program is a set of letters in which a fictional first-year student describes his experiences as an SRL student. The program was implemented in four universities in different countries and continents (Portugal, Spain, Chile, and Mozambique), with an experimental group and a comparison group at each university (263 students from experimental groups and 247 from comparison groups). Findings display the effectiveness of the program in enhancing a set of motivational variables related to the study process and the use of SRL strategies. Data were consistent across the different cultural and academic contexts in which the program was implemented. The implications of these findings for university administrators and faculty are discussed.     

Zoltán Bay on education and science teaching

The present article is based on Zoltán Bay's Old Education, New Teaching — an unpublished paper written for the XXVIIth National Meeting of Secondary School Physics Teachers (5–7th April, 1984 Veszprém, Hungary).     

Visions of educational development in the post-socialist era

The paper attempts to characterize and explain the social, political and economic climate underlying educational dilemmas and visions in Czechoslovakia and other Central European countries after the collapse of communist regimes. The new democracies are becoming huge laboratories of social and educational reform — issues of great importance to comparative education. The most urgent dilemma is whether to restore the pre-war educational system, or to follow the mainstream of educational development. Educational policy is also seeking to find a specific solution to a second dilemma: statism versus liberalism in organization, funding, structure and curriculum. The hindering factor is underestimation of the significance of educational policy in the global reform process. Finally, the author quotes Havel's vision of a new politics of education based on consciousness and self-recognition of mankind.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel versucht, das soziale, politische und wirtschaftliche Klima zu charakterisieren und zu erklären, das den Schwierigkeiten und Vorstellungen im Bildungswesen der Tschechoslowakei und anderer zentraleuropäischer Länder nach dem Zusammenbruch der kommunistischen Regierungsformen zu Grunde liegt. Die neuen Demokratien entwickeln sich zu riesigen Laboratorien sozialer und erzieherischer Reform — Themen von großer Bedeutung für die vergleichende Erziehung. Das dringendste Problem ist die Frage, ob man das vor dem Krieg bestehende Bildungssystem wieder einführen oder der Hauptrichtung der bildungspolitischen Entwicklung folgen soll. Die Bildungspolitik sucht außerdem nach einer spezifischen Lösung für ein zweites Problem: Planwirtschaft kontra Liberalismus in Organisation, Finanzierung, Struktur und Curriculum. Störfaktor ist die Unterschätzung der Bedeutung einer Bildungspolitik im globalen Reformprozeß. Abschließend zitiert der Autor Havels Vision einer neuen Bildungspolitik, die auf Bewußtsein und Selbsterkennung der Menschheit basiert.

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Résumé Cet article tente de caractériser et d'expliquer le climat social, politique et économique sous-jacent aux problèmes et aux visons de l'éducation en Tchécoslovaquie et dans d'autres pays d'Europe centrale après la chute des régimes communistes. Les nouvelles démocraties se transforment en d'énormes laboratoires de réforme sociale et éducative, questions qui sont toutes d'une grande importance pour l'éducation comparée. Le problème le plus urgent est de savoir si l'on doit restaurer le système éducatif d'avant la guerre ou si l'on doit suivre le courant majeur du développement de l'éducation. La politique éducative cherche aussi à apporter une solution spécifique à un deuxième problème, à savoir étatisme ou libéralisme dans l'organisation, le financement, la structure et les programmes d'étude. Le facteur qui fait obstacle est la sous-estimation de l'importance de la politique éducative dans le processus de réforme globale. Enfin, l'auteur cite la vision de Havel d'une nouvelle politique d'éducation fondée sur la conscience et la reconnaissance naturelle de l'humanité.

     

The Hungarica Program of the National Széchényi Library (Budapest,Hungary)

The author discusses the history and work of the program at the National Széchényi Library to find, document, and collect Hungarica—defined as published in Hungary, written in the Hungarian language, written by a Hungarian author, or written about Hungary or Hungarians—published in Hungary or outside of it. Today both domestically-published and foreign Hungarica are documented in the library's online catalog and in a database of humanities research in Hungarian studies.