Young People and Digital Intimacies. What is the evidence and what does it mean? Where next?

The digital age makes new forms of connection possible, enabling ‘digital intimacies’ including the many practices of communicating, producing and sharing intimate content (‘sexting’; selfies; making, viewing and circulating sexual content; using hook-up apps; and searching online for advice about sex). Where young people engage in digital intimacies, policymakers have tended to respond with alarm and commissioned research premised on demonstrating negative outcomes. Young people’s take up of technologies is contrasted with previous generations and ideas of ‘healthy’, ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ sexual development which ignores and marginalises diversity of sexuality and sexual expression, and leads to campaigns that seek to supervise and regulate youth sexuality. This in turn results in legislation and censorship with consequences including blocking websites for sexual abuse support and sexual education. The government has suspended introduction of Age Verification for pornographic websites but is pressing ahead with its ‘Online Harms’ White Paper which plans for broader and more comprehensive regulatory frameworks in the interests of protecting children and young people in online spaces. The UK government has positioned itself as a world leader in developing new regulatory approaches to tackle online harms but the evidence base for those approaches is neither robust nor nuanced enough to respond to the increasing mediatisation of everyday life and sexual identity. This briefing advocates for a broader recognition of young people’s investments in digital intimacies, acknowledging what growing up and learning about sex in the digital age means for young people in order to inform future policy and practice. Policies that are informed by robust research and understandings that accommodate the nuanced practices of digital intimacy will provide the support that young people need and deserve as they navigate their media lives, develop awareness of ethical and unethical behaviour, and what is right for them

Putting Porn Studies (back) into Porn Literacy

This essay explores the idea of porn literacy and in particular its manifestations in popular documentary formats aimed at youth audiences. While education on pornography is increasingly seen as a means to inoculate young people against the supposed ‘messages’ of pornography, those proposed interventions seemingly have no intentions to take up any research insights offered by the discipline of porn studies. What, then, is the purpose of an educative practice that declines to understand the nuanced contours of pornographic histories, production and content? This article begins with an exploration of an example of popular mainstream education offered by youth documentary and argues that porn literacy has little relevance without drawing on porn scholarship

A Comparison of Deterministic and Stochastic Population Models

In this thesis, the author considers the exponential and the predator-prey population models. A comparison of the deterministic and stochastic versions of each is made. The author shows that on average a stochastic model is precisely its corresponding deterministic model. The first model considered is the exponential model. A solution is provided for both the deterministic and the stochastic versions. A predator-prey model is also analyzed. A solution of the stochastic predator-prey model is shown to be intractable. Analysis of this model is performed through numerical simulation

Traversing the funambulist’s fine line between nursing and male identity : a systematic review of the factors that influence men as they seek to navigate the nursing profession

Nursing has seen a dominance of women within the profession, and today, the presence of men in the role remains less understood and appreciated. Males considering or entering nursing face challenges concerning role misconception, marginalization, and gender bias. With a looming shortage of nurses on the horizon, it is more important now than ever before to find better ways of engaging males into nursing. The aim of the study was to examine the psychological constructs that influence male perceptions of nursing as they seek to navigate the profession, and what aspects influence men to consider nursing as a career. To achieve this, a systematic review and mixed research synthesis (integrated design) was conducted. English language research published between 1999 and 2019 was eligible. The methodological rigor of qualitative articles followed the Critical Appraisal Skills Program, while the Best Evidence Medical Education guided the quantitative review. Among the 24 publications identified, three sub-themes emerged from the overarching theme of the funambulist or tightrope walker. Sub-themes included societal, inner and collective voices that inform men’s place in nursing or their decision making about entering the profession. There is a need to re-visit what it means to be a nurse in order to address the gendered stereotypes that impact men entering the nursing profession. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Engaging with pornography: an examination of women aged 18–26 as porn consumers

In this article we discuss a large scale research project aimed at uncovering people’s everyday engagements with pornography. We focus on women aged 18–25; the only category of our participants in which women outnumbered men. Looking at responses from women in this group we examine their narratives, views, feelings, positions and judgments. We focus in particular on the elements of pornography that engaged them in terms of content and scenario, style and aesthetics, emotion and thought, tone and mood, and identification, and we consider the accounts of four participants in more detail. Our discussion illustrates what different forms of engagement with pornography can look like and outlines what they suggest about the possible relations of porn engagement and sexuality. We situate our discussion in relation to qualitative cultural studies work, a tradition of feminist audience studies, an emerging porn studies, and accounts which understand both sexuality and media and consumption as part of everyday life

Aldehydes and ketones in pyrolysis oil: analytical determination and their role in the aging process

Aldehydes and ketones are known to play a role in the aging process of pyrolysis oil and generally, aldehydes are known for their high reactivity. In order to discern in pyrolysis oil the total aldehyde concentration from that of the ketones, a procedure for the quantification of aldehydes by $^{1}$H-NMR was developed. Its capability is demonstrated with a hardwood pyrolysis oil at different stages of the aging process. It was treated by the Accelerated Aging Test at 80 °C for durations of up to 48 h. The aldehyde concentration was complemented by the total concentration of carbonyls, quantified by carbonyl titration. The measurements show, that the examined hardwood pyrolysis oil contained 0.31–0.40 mmol g$^{-1}$ aldehydes and 4.36–4.45 mmol g$^{-1}$ ketones. During the first 24 h, the aldehyde concentration declined by 23–39% and the ketone concentration by 9%. The rate of decline of aldehyde concentration slows down within 24 h but is still measureable. In contrast, the total carbonyl content does not change significantly after an initial decline within the first 4 h. Changes for vinylic, acetalic, phenolic and hydroxyl protons and for protons in the α-position to hydroxy, ether, acetalic and ester groups were detected, by $^{1}$H-NMR. In the context of characterizing pyrolysis oil and monitoring the aging process, $^{1}$H-NMR is a reliable tool to assess the total concentration of aldehydes. It confirms the reactivity of aldehydes and ketones and indicates their contribution to the instability of pyrolysis oil

Fashion and passion: marketing sex to women

Against a backdrop of a ‘pornographication’ of mainstream media and the emergence of a more heavily sexualized culture, women are increasingly targeted as sexual consumers. In the UK, the success of TV shows like Sex and the City and the ‘fashion ‘n’ passion’ of sex emporia like Ann Summers suggests that late twentieth century discourses which foregrounded female pleasure have crystallised in a new form of sexual address to women. This article examines how sex products are being marketed for female consumers, focussing on the websites of sex businesses such as Myla, Babes n Horny, Beecourse, tabooboo and Ann Summers. It asks how a variety of existing discourses – of fashion, consumerism, bodily pleasure and sexuality - are drawn on in the construction of this new market, how they negotiate the dangers and pleasures of sexuality for women, and what they show about the construction of ‘new’ female sexualities.</p