Inclusive Masculinities in a Working-Class Sixth Form in Northeast England

This research examines the construction of masculinity among a group of working-class boys aged sixteen to nineteen in the northeast of England. Drawing on data collected from a six-week ethnography with boys in a religious (Christian) sixth form college, this study documents how only a small minority of these boys embodied the orthodox archetype of masculinity that has traditionally been associated with working-class youth. Instead, the great majority of participants adopted attitudes and behaviors that can be categorized as a set of inclusive masculinities: They espoused positive attitudes toward homosexuality, engaged in physical tactility and emotional intimacy, and used homosexually themed language without the intent to wound or marginalize other boys. These findings pose a considerable challenge to dominant narratives on working-class masculinities; narratives that must now be reconfigured to account for the proliferation of inclusive masculinities among working-class youth

Limited participation and exchange rate dynamics: Does theory meet the data?

The paper explores the empirical dimensions of a New Open Economy Macronomy model characterized by credit market frictions. We find that these frictions are essential for the model to match a large set of moments of German data. Moreover, the simulated impulse response functions to supply and nominal shocks are consistent with VAR findings. Since the model is estimated on moments rather than on conditional IRFs, this underlines the ability of the model to match the data. Finally, monetary shocks do not seem to be the primary driving force behind the aggregate dynamics, which is consistent with the VAR literature

Raman-scattered laser guide-star photons to monitor the scatter of astronomical telescope mirrors

The first observations of laser guide-star photons that are Raman-scattered by air molecules above the Very Large Telescope (VLT) were reported in June 2017. The initial detection came from the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) optical integral field spectrograph, following the installation of the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) on Unit Telescope 4 (UT4) of the VLT. In this Letter, we delve further into the symbiotic relationship between the 4LGSF laser guide-star system, the UT4 telescope, and MUSE by monitoring the spectral contamination of MUSE observations by Raman photons over a 27-month period. This dataset reveals that dust particles deposited on the primary and tertiary mirrors of UT4, which are responsible for a reflectivity loss of ∼8% at 6000 Å, contribute (60 ± 5)% to the laser line fluxes detected by MUSE. The flux of Raman lines, which contaminates scientific observations that are acquired with optical spectrographs, thus provides a new, non-invasive means to monitor the evolving scatter properties of the mirrors of astronomical telescopes that are equipped with laser guide-star systems