Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Sexual Preference (sexual + preference)
Selected AbstractsChemosensory and steroid-responsive regions of the medial amygdala regulate distinct aspects of opposite-sex odor preference in male Syrian hamstersEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 12 2006Pamela M. Maras Abstract In rodent species, such as the Syrian hamster, the expression of sexual preference requires neural integration of social chemosensory signals and steroid hormone cues. Although anatomical data suggest that separate pathways within the nervous system process these two signals, the functional significance of this separation is not well understood. Specifically, within the medial amygdala, the anterior region (MEa) receives input from the olfactory bulbs and other chemosensory areas, whereas the posterodorsal region (MEpd) contains a dense population of steroid receptors and receives less substantial chemosensory input. Consequently, the MEa may subserve a primarily discriminative function, whereas the MEpd may mediate the permissive effects of sex steroids on sexual preference. To test these hypotheses, we measured preference and attraction to female and male odors in males with lesions of either the MEa or MEpd. In Experiment 1, lesions of either region eliminated opposite-sex odor preferences. Importantly, MEpd-lesioned males displayed decreased attraction toward female odors, suggesting decreased sexual motivation. In contrast, MEa-lesioned males displayed high levels of investigation of both male and female odors, suggesting an inability to categorize the relevance of the odor stimuli. In Experiment 2, we verified that both MEa- and MEpd-lesioned males could discriminate between female and male odors, thereby eliminating the possibility that the observed lack of preference reflected a sensory deficit. Taken together, these results suggest that both the MEa and MEpd are critical for the expression of opposite-sex odor preference, although they appear to mediate distinct aspects of this behavior. [source] Studying the Gendering of Organizational Culture Over Time: Concerns, Issues and StrategiesGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 3 2002Albert J. Mills Beginning with the premise that ,organizational culture' is a useful heuristic for the study of gender at work, this article focuses on the problem of studying the culture of organizations over time, setting out to demonstrate how the social construction of corporate history has, until now, lent itself to gendered notions of business practices. Arguing that history itself is but one of a series of discourses about the world, the article outlines a feminist strategy for the study of organizational culture over time that includes: (i) feminist historiography as history written from a feminist point of view; (ii) a commitment to the notion of history as discourse rooted in the present; (iii) a view of women's rights development as a paradoxical process of progress and regress; (iv) a gender focus approach that studies the impact of discrimination on the social construction of masculinity/femininity and sexual preference; and (v) an approach that is sensitive to the contextualization of gender. British Airways is used as a case study to illustrate some of the problems of historic re/construction and feminist historiography. [source] Photography in Pink ClassroomsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION, Issue 1 2007Liz Ashburn The teaching of photography provides many opportunities to attack the assumption of universal heterosexuality, which is central to our society, in order to provide space for other sexualities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. This article is based on many years of lecturing in art schools and focuses on the classroom teaching of photography. It offers four perspectives for the expression of sexuality and possible change through the opening up of the curriculum to allow the inclusion of homosexual and queer art in the cultural capital of society; strategies to oppose heteronormativity; ways of treating students in the classroom in order to gain social justice in regard to sexual preference and finally the social benefits to all when heteronormativity is replaced with more equitable understandings, which could lead to a more inclusive community. [source] Altered sexual preference and behaviour in a man with vascular ischaemic lesions in the temporal lobeINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 1 2002Marese Cheasty No abstract is available for this article. [source] Five questions on ecological speciation addressed with individual-based simulationsJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009X. THIBERT-PLANTE Abstract We use an individual-based simulation model to investigate factors influencing progress toward ecological speciation. We find that environmental differences can quickly lead to the evolution of substantial reproductive barriers between a population colonizing a new environment and the ancestral population in the old environment. Natural selection against immigrants and hybrids was a major contributor to this isolation, but the evolution of sexual preference was also important. Increasing dispersal had both positive and negative effects on population size in the new environment and had positive effects on natural selection against immigrants and hybrids. Genetic divergence at unlinked, neutral genetic markers was low, except when environmental differences were large and sexual preference was present. Our results highlight the importance of divergent selection and adaptive divergence for ecological speciation. At the same time, they reveal several interesting nonlinearities in interactions between environmental differences, sexual preference, dispersal and population size. [source] Population-based study on the seroprevalence of hepatitis A, B, and C virus infection in Amsterdam, 2004,JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, Issue 12 2007G.G.G. Baaten Abstract In order to enhance screening and preventive strategies, this study investigated the seroprevalence of hepatitis A, B, and C in the general adult urban population and in subgroups. In 2004, sera from 1,364 adult residents of Amsterdam were tested for viral markers. Sociodemographic characteristics were collected using a standardized questionnaire. For hepatitis A, 57.0% was immune. Of first-generation immigrants from Turkey and Morocco, 100% was immune. Of all Western persons and second-generation non-Western immigrants, approximately half was still susceptible. For hepatitis B, 9.9% had antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) and 0.4% had hepatitis B surface antigen. Anti-HBc seroprevalences were highest among first-generation immigrants from Surinam, Morocco, and Turkey, and correlated with age at the time of immigration, and among men with a sexual preference for men. Seroprevalence among second-generation immigrants was comparable to Western persons. The seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies was 0.6%. In conclusion, a country with overall low endemicity for viral hepatitis can show higher endemicity in urban regions, indicating the need for differentiated regional studies and prevention strategies. More prevention efforts in cities like Amsterdam are warranted, particularly for hepatitis A and B among second-generation immigrants, for hepatitis B among men with a sexual preference for men, and for hepatitis C. Active case finding strategies are needed for both hepatitis B and C. J. Med. Virol. 79:1802,1810, 2007. © Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Issues and Nonissues in the Gay-Affirmative Treatment of Patients Who Are Gay, Lesbian, or BisexualCLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2005Gerald C. Davison An article by Eubanks-Carter, Burckell, and Coldfried (this issue) provides a variety of gay-affirmative suggestions about what psychotherapists should know about the gay and lesbian experience if they are to be humane and effective mental health helpers. In the present article I offer several critiques and comments on issues and nonissues pertaining to the analysis and conduct of psychological assessment and intervention with homosexual and bisexual individuals. These issues include (a) the unlikelihood of voluntariness in requests for sexual reorientation, given the prejudice against gay, lesbian, and bisexual (CLB) people; (b) the biases inherent in psychological assessment viewed as a constructionist enterprise; (c) the minor importance of biological theories of sexual orientation in prejudice and discrimination; (d) the hidden negative biases against homosexuality in presumably gay-positive changes in earlier versions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM); and (e) the irrelevance of sexual conversion effectiveness in the politics and ethics of efforts to direct sexual preference from the homosexual to the heterosexual. [source] Understanding sexual offending in schizophreniaCRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2004Christopher R. Drake M Clin Psych MAPS Background Studies have found an elevated incidence of violent sexual offences in males with schizophrenia. The relationship between sexual offending and psychiatric illness is, however, complex and poorly defined. Aims The aim of the present article is to delineate possible mechanisms that underlie offensive sexual behaviour in schizophrenia that can be used as a framework for assessing and treating these behaviours. A review of research pertaining to the aetiology of sexual deviance in schizophrenia was conducted, focusing in particular on the role of early childhood experiences, deviant sexual preferences, antisocial personality traits, psychiatric symptomatology and associated treatment effects, the impact of mental illness on sexual and social functioning, and other potential contributory factors. Towards a typology It is proposed that schizophrenic patients who engage in sexually offensive activities fall into four broad groups: (1) those with a pre-existing paraphilia; (2) those whose deviant sexuality arises in the context of illness and/or its treatment; (3) those whose deviant sexuality is one manifestation of more generalized antisocial behaviour, and (4) factors other than the above. This classification provides a useful framework for evaluating and treating sexually offensive behaviours in schizophrenic patients. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] MHC and Preferences for Male Odour in the Bank VoleETHOLOGY, Issue 9 2008Jacek Radwan Highly polymorphic major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are thought to play a central role in the choice of genetically compatible sexual partners in some vertebrates, although the evidence is variable across species. Here, we investigate the association between similarity in the MHC region and sexual preferences in the bank vole Myodes (=Clethrionomys) glareolus (Arvicollinae) in a laboratory setting. Females in post-partum oestrus were given the choice between the scents of two males in a Y-maze. Both males were unrelated to the female, but differed in their MHC similarity to the female. We found that females spent more time near the scent of MHC dissimilar males than those, with whom they shared MHC alleles. This suggests that bank voles use MHC-related cues to choose compatible mates. [source] SEX CHROMOSOME LINKAGE OF MATE PREFERENCE AND COLOR SIGNAL MAINTAINS ASSORTATIVE MATING BETWEEN INTERBREEDING FINCH MORPHSEVOLUTION, Issue 5 2010Sarah R. Pryke Assortative mating is a key aspect in the speciation process because it is important for both initial divergence and maintenance of distinct species. However, it remains a challenge to explain how assortative mating evolves when diverging populations are undergoing gene flow (e.g., during hybridization). Here I experimentally test how assortative mating is maintained with frequent gene flow between diverged head-color morphs of the Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae). Contrary to the predominant view on the development of sexual preferences in birds, cross-fostered offspring did not imprint on the phenotype of their conspecific (red or black morphs) or heterospecific (Bengalese finch) foster parents. Instead, the mating preferences of F1 and F2 intermorph-hybrids are consistent with inheritance on the Z chromosomes, which are also the location for genes controlling color expression and the genes causing low fitness of intermorph-hybrids. Genetic associations between color signal and preference loci on the sex chromosomes may prevent recombination from breaking down these associations when the morphs interbreed, helping to maintain assortative mating in the face of gene flow. Although sex linkage of reproductively isolating traits is theoretically expected to promote speciation, social and ecological constraints may enforce frequent interbreeding between the morphs, thus preventing complete reproductive isolation. [source] Geographic variation in sperm traits reflects predation risk and natural rates of multiple paternity in the guppyJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2010K. E. ELGEE Abstract Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) are models for understanding the interplay between natural and sexual selection. In particular, predation has been implicated as a major force affecting female sexual preferences, male mating tactics and the level of sperm competition. When predation is high, females typically reduce their preferences for showy males and engage more in antipredator behaviours, whereas males exploit these changes by switching from sexual displays to forced matings. These patterns are thought to account for the relatively high levels of multiple paternity in high-predation populations compared to low-predation populations. Here, we assess the possible evolutionary consequences of these patterns by asking whether variation in sperm traits reflect differences in predation intensity among four pairs of Trinidadian populations: four that experience relatively low levels of predation from a gape-limited predator and four that experience relatively high levels of predation from a variety of piscivores. We found that males in high-predation populations had faster swimming sperm with longer midpieces compared to males in low-predation populations. However, we found no differences among males in high- and low-predation populations with respect to sperm number, sperm head length, flagellum length and total sperm length. [source] Human Rights and Unfair Dismissal: Private Acts in Public SpacesTHE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 6 2008Article first published online: 24 OCT 200, Virginia Mantouvalou This article addresses the termination of employment because of the conduct of the employee in her leisure time, in the light of the right to private life. It explores the impact on the retention of employment of activities taking place outside the workplace and outside working hours, and argues that the approach of UK courts and tribunals, which is based on a primarily spatial conceptualisation of privacy, is flawed. A fresh approach to privacy, resting on the idea of domination, is proposed, which is sensitive to the particularities of the employment relationship. Considering the fairness enquiry in dismissal, it argues that off-duty conduct may lead to lawful termination of employment only if there is a clear and present impact or a high likelihood of such impact on business interests; a speculative and marginal danger does not suffice. It further proposes that a particularly meticulous test is appropriate when certain suspect categories, such as the employees' sexual preferences, are at stake. [source] | |||||||||||||