From hegemonic to inclusive masculinities in English professional football: marking a cultural shift

Abstract

In this article, we conduct a generational study of measuring progress towards the inclusion of homosexuality in professional sport. We accomplish this by interviewing an openly gay football player, Anton Hysén, in the year 2017, using the precise same questions about the relationship between his homosexuality and sport that were asked of the first openly gay professional footballer in 1992, Justin Fashanu. We thus measure difference in attitude according to the 25 years that have elapsed between the interviews. Our results emphasize two themes: First, the near-total acceptance of being gay within professional football today, compared to 25 years ago; and second, the social praise that is levied upon today’s openly gay sportsmen, compared to the social stigma placed upon Fashanu.     

The State of Female Autonomy in India: A Stochastic Dominance Approach

The promotion of female autonomy is both intrinsically and instrumentally desirable. We document differences in the distribution of female autonomy in India (using the National Family Health Survey 2005–2006) addressing two methodological challenges: the multidimensional nature of the concept and its frequent measurement with ordinal variables (which are not amenable to direct comparisons of social averages). We tackle these challenges with three methods based on stochastic dominance techniques suited for ordinal and dichotomous variables. Whenever these dominance conditions hold for a pairwise comparison, we can conclude that the multidimensional autonomy distribution in one state is more desirable than in another one across a broad range of criteria for the individual and social welfare evaluation of autonomy. Consistently across the three methods, we find that most of the states with better autonomy distributions (in pairwise comparisons) come from the north east and the south, whereas most of the states with worse autonomy distributions come from the north.     

Influenza A/H1N1 (2009) Infection as a Cause of Unexpected Out‐of‐Hospital Death in the Young*

Abstract: In March 2009, a new strain of influenza A/H1N1 virus was identified in Mexico, responsible for a pandemic. Worldwide, more than 13,500 patients died, most often from acute respiratory distress syndrome. Because sudden death cases were rare, involving mostly young apparently healthy persons, influenza A/H1N1 (2009)‐related deaths may be misdiagnosed, which can raise medico‐legal issues. Case history: we report on an unexpected out‐of‐hospital death involving a young male with no past medical history and no vaccination. Fever was his only symptom. Laboratory tests: histology showed patchy necrotic foci with mononuclear inflammation in the lungs. The heart was histologically normal, but virological analyses using molecular biology on frozen myocardial samples showed high virus load. In conclusion, this case report shows that influenza A/H1N1 (2009) virus can be a cause of sudden cardiac death in the young and demonstrates the importance of quantitative virological analyses for the diagnosis of myocarditis.     

Ratification of the 1992 Climate Change Convention: What Determines Legislative Delay?

The authors use a proportional hazards framework toinvestigate the impact of various countrycharacteristics on the duration of time taken toratify the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change (FCCC). The most significant findingsare that the conditional probability of ratificationis positively related to total CO₂ emissions andthe presence of civil liberties. The finding foremissions indicates that large, polluting countrieswere under great political pressure to ratify theFCCC. The latter finding is consistent with earlierresearch that found that democratic freedoms raisedthe probability of signing the Montreal Protocol.     

U.S. Policy in East Asia and the pacific: Building on the past and the present for the future

The author persuasively argues that U.S. policy in the Asia-Pacific region has been and must continue to be based upon four fundamental principles: 1) genuine respect for the interests and prerogatives of the peoples of the region; 2) support for the establishment of democratic institutions and processes in East Asia and the Pacific; 3) the expansion of trade and investment with basic reliance on the market forces of competition and free enterprise; and 4) recognition that peace and stability are best facilitated by addressing specific sources of regional tension.     

Application of the Suchey-Brooks method to three-dimensional imaging of the pubic symphysis

Age determination is a major field of interest in forensic anthropology. Among the different methods based on macroscopic skeletal study, the Suchey-Brooks method, which analyzes the pubic symphysis, is one of the most reliable. We applied the Suchey-Brooks method to three-dimensional computed tomographic reconstructions of the pubic symphysis. We demonstrated excellent agreement between the results of analysis of bone samples and those of the three-dimensional images, in particular regarding ridges of the articular surface and delimitation of the extremities. The accuracy of age estimation did not significantly differ (Wilcoxon test) between the Suchey-Brooks method applied to bones and the same method applied to CT images. Using high-quality images, this approach seems as reliable as the standard Suchey-Brooks method and offers several advantages: no bone preparation, no damage to bone material, and the possibility of application to living individuals.     

Age at Death Estimation in Adults by Computer-Assisted Histomorphometry of Decalcified Femur Cortex

Abstract:  In 1965, Kerley pioneered histomorphometry of bone as an aging method. The technique has been modified by several authors, and some have used computer-assisted image analysis. Undecalcified bone sections used in these methods are obtained with a diamond wafer saw or by grinding the sections manually or automatically with abrasive paper. In the present study, we examined the application of histomorphometry to decalcified bone sections, routinely obtained in every pathology lab, from paraffin blocks cut with a standard microtome. This study was divided into two parts: in the first, we tested different decalcifying methods to determine the most appropriate for femoral bone; in the second part, we used computer-assisted histomorphometry to estimate age at death in 29 samples of femoral bone. We measured intact osteon density (N.On), fragmented osteon density (N.On.Fg) and percentage of lamellar bone surface per unit area (Lm.B.Ar) in the cortex of the femoral midshaft, on four or 20 fields per section. We found that 20% nitric acid solution at room temperature proved to be the best decalcifying method, with a mean decalcification duration of 1 week. Fragmented osteon density was found to be the morphometric feature most closely correlated with age, followed by intact osteon density; Lm.B.Ar. did not increase accuracy. The best accuracy (4.1 ± 3.5 years) was obtained for individuals under the age of 70 when measurements of 20 fields were used for the analysis. For all individuals, the inaccuracy was 6.1 ± 6.2 years and 8.1 ± 8 years, with 20 and four fields respectively. The present study shows that decalcification of bone sections can be used for age estimation at death. This procedure is particularly useful in case of mass disaster as it is easily done in any pathology department.     

Stumbling toward equity: the role of government in kidney transplantation

In Mortal Peril, Professor Epstein is critical of the current, regulated system for organ donation and suggests that a market for organ tissue would better meet the needs of patients. In this response to Professor Epstein, Professor Laura Dooley and Dr. Robert Gaston pair their skills to attack Professor Epstein's analysis. As they have done on several other occasions, Professors Dooley and Gaston argue that the kidney donation and transplantation arena is fraught with racial inequity, and that Professor Epstein's proposal for a market in kidneys will exacerbate this inequity. The authors maintain that to prevent the poor from being excluded from transplants, the government plays a critical (if imperfect) role in the allocation of these scarce resources. Furthermore, government intervention is acceptable to correct past discrimination because there is scientific evidence that the disproportionate incidence of kidney failure in African Americans is related to the evolutionary pressures of slave trading and slavery. Professors Dooley and Gaston also defend their previous efforts to change the government system of allocation and characterize the government's willingness to adopt their recommendations as an appropriate response to scientific research rather than a governmental susceptibility to lobbying from special interest groups. Finally, the authors criticize Professor Epstein's argument that dialysis is a viable alternative to transplantation because there are significant differences in "quality of life, morbidity and survival." Professors Dooley and Gaston conclude that government intervention is necessary for maintaining the equity in kidney transplantation that a market system would not.