Do black women still come first? Examining Essence magazine post Time Warner

Essence magazine is the longest operating magazine catering to a predominately African-American women audience in the US. In 2000, media conglomerate Time Warner purchased 49% of Essence parent company Essence Communications Inc. In 2005, Time Warner purchased the remaining 51% of the black-owned company. As a media conglomerate, Time Warner owns major publishing houses, film, and television production companies, including 130 magazines, New Line Cinema, CNN, and HBO. Essence states it is “the voice and soul of Black women” Collins [Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge] argues that black women must speak in their own voices in order to reject prevailing stereotypes operating on the bodies of black women. The mission statement of Essence aligns itself in what Collins calls “safe spaces” for black women to self-define themselves and articulate their lived realties. A critical theoretical framework allows uneven power relations to be examined and offers emancipatory perspectives. The goal of this study is to examine if Time Warner’s purchase of Essence has caused a shift in the voice and content of this magazine.     

Cell rotation using optoelectronic tweezers

A cell rotation method by using optoelectronic tweezers (OET) is reported. The binary image of a typical OET device, whose light and dark sides act as two sets of parallel plates with different ac voltages, was used to create a rotating electric field. Its feasibility for application to electrorotation of cells was demonstrated by rotating Ramos and yeast cells in their pitch axes. The electrorotation by using OET devices is dependent on the medium and cells' electrical properties, the cells' positions, and the OET device's geometrical dimension, as well as the frequency of the electric field.     

Improvement in National Test arithmetic scores at Key Stage 1: Grade inflation or better achievement?

The aim of the National Numeracy Strategy is to raise standards in numeracy. Strong evidence for its success has, however, been lacking: most of the available data come from performance on National Test assessments administered in schools or from Ofsted reports, and is vulnerable to suggestions of bias. An opportunistic analysis of data from a population cohort study extending over three school years compares school‐based scores at school entry and at age 7–8 with clinic‐based scores on similar tests. The results show a small but statistically significant rise between 1998 and 1999 and between 1998 and 2000 in scores on both KS1 arithmetic SATs taken in schools and the arithmetic component of the WISC test taken in an independent research clinic. This is evidence for a real rise in generalised arithmetic ability over this period which may be attributable to the children's experience of the National Numeracy Strategy.