Sexual consumption within sexual labour: producing and consuming erotic texts and sexual commodities

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Porn Studies on 7-9-2015, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2015.1051308This paper explores the various connections between two particularly feminized fields of sexual culture – erotic fiction and sex toys – through an examination of the accounts of five UK women who are both readers and writers (or producers) of erotic fiction. The qualitative data evidence, first, a network of production and consumption across the fields of erotica and sex toys, and, second, the formulation of erotica writing/producing as a form of implicit sex work in which sexual commodities are mobilized. Analysis is divided into three themes: ‘informing sexual knowledge’, in which the educative function of erotica is examined, particularly around sex-toy use; ‘mobilizing sexual experiences’, in which I argue that writing erotica involves mobilizing one's body and sexual experience to add value to the product; and ‘managing emotional risks’, in which the emotion, identity and boundary management strategies particular to this form of implicit sexual labour are examined

Low Energy Wave Packet Tunneling from a Parabolic Potential Well through a High Potential Barrier

The problem of wave packet tunneling from a parabolic potential well through a barrier represented by a power potential is considered in the case when the barrier height is much greater than the oscillator ground state energy, and the difference between the average energy of the packet and the nearest oscillator eigenvalue is sufficiently small. The universal Poisson distribution of the partial tunneling rates from the oscillator energy levels is discovered. The explicit expressions for the tunneling rates of different types of packets (coherent, squeezed, even/odd, thermal, etc.) are given in terms of the exponential and modified Bessel functions. The tunneling rates turn out very sensitive to the energy distributions in the packets, and they may exceed significantly the tunneling rate from the energy state with the same average number of quanta.Comment: 14 pages, LaTex type, to appear in Physics Letters

Critical properties of spherically symmetric accretion in a fractal medium

Spherically symmetric transonic accretion of a fractal medium has been studied in both the stationary and the dynamic regimes. The stationary transonic solution is greatly sensitive to infinitesimal deviations in the outer boundary condition, but the flow becomes transonic and stable, when its evolution is followed through time. The evolution towards transonicity is more pronounced for a fractal medium than what is it for a continuum. The dynamic approach also shows that there is a remarkable closeness between an equation of motion for a perturbation in the flow, and the metric of an analogue acoustic black hole. The stationary inflow solutions of a fractal medium are as much stable under the influence of linearised perturbations, as they are for the fluid continuum.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The definitive version is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.co

Gastroschisis: Ward Reduction Compared With Traditional Reduction Under General Anesthesia

Background/Purpose In gastroschisis it is proposed that gut reduction may be achieved without intubation or general anesthesia (GA) through ward reduction. The authors aimed to determine if ward reduction decreased morbidity and duration of treatment. Methods Infants born from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2001, with gastroschisis were managed with either reduction under GA in the operating theatre (OT group) - up to September 1999, or ward reduction (when eligible) in the neonatal unit without GA/ventilation (ward reduction [WR] group) - from September 1999. Results Of the 37 infants, 31 were eligible for ward reduction—15 from the OT group, 16 from the WR group. All infants in the OT group had at least 1 episode of ventilation and 1 GA: 62% of infants in the WR group avoided ventilation (P = .0002) and 81% avoided GA (P < .0001). Infants who had ward reduction had significantly shorter durations of ventilation and oxygen therapy. Septicemia occurred in 31% of the WR group and 7% of the OT group (P = .17). Infants who had ward reduction left intensive care 16 days earlier (P = .02) and tended to reach full enteral feeds 8 days sooner (P = .06) and be discharged from hospital 15 days earlier (P = .05). Conclusions Infants who had ward reduction do better in terms of avoiding GA/ventilation, establishing feeds, and going home earlier. A randomized, controlled trial comparing the 2 approaches is feasible, safe, and worthwhile

Theoretical studies of 31P NMR spectral properties of phosphanes and related compounds in solution

Selected theoretical methods, basis sets and solvation models have been tested in their ability to predict 31P NMR chemical shifts of large phosphorous-containing molecular systems in solution. The most efficient strategy was found to involve NMR shift calculations at the GIAO-MPW1K/6-311++G(2d,2p)//MPW1K/6-31G(d) level in combination with a dual solvation model including the explicit consideration of single solvent molecules and a continuum (PCM) solvation model. For larger systems it has also been established that reliable 31P shift predictions require Boltzmann averaging over all accessible conformations in solution

Antimikrobno djelovanje derivata 3-hidroksi-2-metilen-3-fenilpropionske kiseline

Twenty Baylis-Hillman adducts were synthesized from different aromatic aldehydes and activated vinyl derivatives. The adducts, which are differently substituted 3-hydroxy-2-methylene-3-phenylpropionic acid derivatives, were screened for their antimicrobial activity in vitro by the serial dilution method. Many of these molecules displayed potent antibacterial and antifungal activities. The ease of synthesis from low-cost starting materials along with potent antimicrobial activity of these molecules provide the lead for further improvement of activity and reflect the possibility of therapeutic use.Iz različitih aromatskih aldehida i aktiviranih vinil derivata sintetizirano je dvadeset Baylis-Hillmanovih adukata, različito supstituiranih derivata 3-hidroksi-2-metilen-3-fenilpropionske kiseline. Ispitano je njihovo antimikrobno djelovanje in vitro metodom serijskih razrjeđenja. Većina ispitivanih spojeva pokazala je snažno antibakterijsko i antifungalno djelovanje. Jednostavni sintetski postupak iz jeftinih sirovina i snažno antimikrobno djelovanje pružaju vodeće spojeve za daljnju modifikaciju, koji mogu dovesti do ljekovitih tvari pogodnih za terapijsku primjenu