Patterns of Asexuality in the United States

In this paper we use data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to ascertain and analyze patterns of asexuality in the United States. We endeavor to extend the earlier work of Bogaert (2004) on this topic, which focused on patterns of asexuality in Great Britain. Using a social constructionist perspective to study asexuality, we conceptualize and measure the phenomenon in several ways, according to behavior, desire, and self-identification. We use the NSFG respondent sampling weights to produce several sets of unbiased estimates of the percentages of persons in the U.S. population, aged 15-44, who are asexual; each set is based on one or more of the various definitions of asexuality. Finally, we describe some of the characteristics of the asexual population using multinomial logistic regression.self-identification, sexual behavior

Chemistry Inreach:Engaging with University Employees’ Children within a Chemistry Department

Many university departments provide public engagement activities, often referred to as ‘outreach’ to school students, their teachers and other members of the public. It is less common for University Departments to run activities for their employees let alone the children of these employees. This paper looks at the value put on an engagement activity both by participating students and their parents who are employees of the host university. Analysis shows that the students welcome the opportunity to experience aspects of their parents’ workplace and those parents are extremely supportive of such initiatives

On the impact of the Bristol ChemLabS’ Outreach program on admissions to the School of Chemistry

Analysis of the average number of applicants received from schools that engaged in the Bristol ChemLabS Outreach program prior to a student‟s application with those that did not engage, shows a significant increase in applicants from engaged schools. The significance is weaker when just Post 16 students are considered but this is almost certainly due to a smaller sample size. When this analysis was inspected in terms of the distance of the school from the University of Bristol, there was an increase in the number of applicants from engaged schools irrespective of distance. However, a statistically significant increase was observed for schools within 50 miles of the University from an analysis of just Post 16 students. Students who applied to the department from an engaged school were more likely to accept an offer and also to make the department their firm acceptance. A slightly higher number of applications that were rejected came from engaged schools too. There are two possible reasons; first, the engagement may have encouraged more students who did not have the required entry qualifications. Second, during the period of analysis, the overall entry grades went up by one grade each year. Such a dramatic rise was probably the reason for the slightly elevated numbers

Kin recognition in an annual plant

Kin recognition is important in animal social systems. However, though plants often compete with kin, there has been as yet no direct evidence that plants recognize kin in competitive interactions. Here we show in the annual plant Cakile edentula, allocation to roots increased when groups of strangers shared a common pot, but not when groups of siblings shared a pot. Our results demonstrate that plants can discriminate kin in competitive interactions and indicate that the root interactions may provide the cue for kin recognition. Because greater root allocation is argued to increase below-ground competitive ability, the results are consistent with kin selection

A case-control study of emotion regulation and school refusal in children and adolescents

Abstract The current study aimed to investigate emotion regulation (ER) strategy use in a sample of 21 clinic-referred children and adolescents (10-14 years old) presenting with school refusal, all of whom were diagnosed with at least one anxiety disorder. Being the first known study to examine ER and school refusal, hypotheses were guided by previous research on anxiety. It was hypothesized that the school refusal sample would report less healthy ER strategy use compared to an age-and sex-matched nonclinical sample (n = 21). As expected, the school refusal sample reported less use of cognitive reappraisal and greater use of expressive suppression to regulate their emotions than did the nonclinical sample. Although preliminary, the findings provide important information regarding the emotional functioning of children and adolescents presenting with school refusal. Future directions for research and implications for improved prevention and intervention programs are discussed