Making News:

Produced between 1861 and 1866, the Penfield Extra resembles many nineteenth-century newspapers, with a notable exception. Nellie Williams, the paper’s founder and editor, began publishing her hometown weekly newspaper at the age of twelve. While her paper incorporates conventional modes of nineteenth-century journalism, it also disrupts this association through its indicators of a child’s gender, age, and self-expression. The resulting juxtapositions and fissures—between the editor embracing mainstream journalism and foregrounding her creative agency as a child—present a compelling window on child authorship during a tumultuous time in American history. This tension, moreover, exemplifies the ways by which children’s acts of authorship can dramatically unsettle cultural attitudes regarding children’s innocence and separateness from adult culture. The fact that Williams wrote and published amidst the culture-exploding Civil War was not coincidental. Drawing on established discourses and journalistic conventions while emphasising her free play as child author and newsmaker, Nellie’s Extra mimics cultural conventions and literary discourses requiring children’s obedience and innocence while also modeling the importance of children’s independent political engagement and their capacity to talk back to power.

VISUAL SEMIOSIS IN THE CHILD’S PAINTING ACTIVITY

Среди огромного разнообразия явлений визуального семиозиса в культурном пространстве значительное место занимает изобразительная продукция: картины, иллюстрации в книгах, предметные и сюжетные изображения, используемые в дизайне и маркетинге. Есть немало оснований считать изобразительное творчество средством коммуникации в культуре, своеобразным визуальным языком. Однако в семиотическом аспекте изобразительное творчество изучено существенно меньше, чем художественное творчество в словесности. Неоднозначные ответы даются на вопрос: что именно считать знаком в изображении? Дискуссионными остаются вопросы об основных семиотических характеристиках изобразительного знака, его структуре, компонентном составе его семантики и его прагматике. В данном сообщении авторы представляют исследование, посвященное визуальному семиозису детей. Теоретической основой анализа является культурно-историческая теория Л. С. Выготского, концептуальные положения Ю. М. Лотмана о культурном пространстве как семиосфере, работы Ч. Пирса, Р. Барта и В. Нёт о концептуальных основах визуального семиозиса. В детской субкультуре изобразительная деятельность особенно значима и широко востребована. Есть немало свидетельств коммуникативной направленности изобразительного творчества у детей, и это занимает у них значительное место в прагматике визуального семиозиса. Анализируя прагматику визуальной коммуникации у детей, авторы вслед за Ю. М. Лотманом разделяют Я-Другой-коммуникацию и Я-Я-коммуникацию. В обоих видах коммуникации визуальный семиозис представлен в широком объеме. По существу, здесь идет речь о двух ее типах: персональной коммуникации и кросс-культурной коммуникации. Под кросс-культурной коммуникацией подразумевается диалог детской субкультуры и субкультуры взрослых. На основе богатого материала о формировании изобразительного языка детей, представленного в литературе, и собственных наблюдений авторы анализируют генезис основных составляющих изобразительного знака: его структуры, его семантики и прагматики. Обсуждая структуру изобразительного знака, авторы сравнивают кажущуюся и объективно подтверждаемую степень его холистичности в свете последних нейрокогнитивных исследований зрительного восприятия. Анализируя семантику изобразительного знака как текста, авторы соотносят отдельные его компоненты с релевантными семами и знаками как структурными элементами синтактики. Сопоставление данных, полученных российскими и зарубежными учеными, свидетельствует о сходстве многих семиотических характеристик изобразительных знаков у детей в разных культурах. Обобщая, авторы предлагают концепцию тройственного характера семиотики изобразительной деятельности у детей: с одной стороны, это явление, производное от изобразительной культуры взрослых, с другой ‒ элемент детской субкультуры, отражающей все особенности детского мышления и мировосприятия, с третьей ‒ язык диалога с культурой взрослых. Among the multiple examples of visual semiosis in culture, particular attention is paid to painted (or drawn) objects such as pictures, book illustrations, separate items and some compositions in design and ads. There is a lot of evidence to recognize painting as the means of communication in the cultural space and as a visual language. Still, it should be noted that, from a semiotic perspective, painting has been discussed less than writing in literature. The question “What should be recognized as a sign in a painted object?” is still open. The issues of the main semiotic features of the visual sign, its structure and semantic components, as well as its pragmatic meaning are still debatable. In the current study, visual semiosis development is the main topic of discussion. The theoretical background of this study includes the culture-historical theory of Lev Vygotsky, the culture semiosphere concept of Yuri Lotman, and some conceptual arguments about the visual semiosis stated by Charles Sanders Peirce, Roland Barthes, and Winfried Nöth. In children’s subculture, painting is a highly attractive and frequent activity. There is a plenty of evidence that children’s painting activity is usually communicatively oriented, and this is an essential point of the pragmatics of visual semiosis. Following Lotman, the authors divide children’s visual communication into the Self-Other and I-I types. Visual communication is highly represented in both of them. In fact, the given communication types are relevant to personal and cross-cultural communication. The latter one means a dialogue between the child and the adult culture. The current study is based on multiple research publications about the development of children’s pictorial language and on the authors’ own data. The study addresses the genesis of structural, semantic, and pragmatic features of the visual sign. From the perspective of the modern neuroscience studies, the authors discuss the extent of the imaginative and objective iconicity of visual signs. From the perspective of the semantics of visual sign analysis, the authors discuss the relation between separate elements of the visual sign and the relevant semantic features; the visual sign is recognized as a syntactic unit. The comparative analysis of the data of Russian and other cultures reveals many similar features of visual signs. To sum up, the authors suggest the concept of the triple nature of children’s painting activity semiosis; on the one hand, it is a derivation of the adult culture; on the other, it is a product of children’s subculture; finally, it is a language for a dialogue with the adult culture.

Urine lipoarabinomannan in HIV uninfected, smear negative, symptomatic TB patients: effective sample pretreatment for a sensitive immunoassay and mass spectrometry

Our study sought to determine whether urine lipoarabinomannan (LAM) could be validated in a sample cohort that consisted mainly of HIV uninfected individuals that presented with tuberculosis symptoms. We evaluated two tests developed in our laboratory, and used them on clinical samples from Lima, Peru where incidence of HIV is low. ELISA analysis was performed on 160 samples (from 140 adult culture-confirmed TB cases and 20 symptomatic TB-negative child controls) using 100 μL of urine after pretreatment with Proteinase K. Two different mouse monoclonal antibodies-CS35 and CHCS9-08 were used individually for capture of urine LAM. Among cases, optical density (OD450) values had a positive association with higher bacillary loads. The 20 controls had negative values (below the limit of detection). The assay correctly identified all samples (97–100% accuracy confidence interval). For an alternate validation of the ELISA results, we analyzed all 160 urine samples using an antibody independent chemoanalytical approach. Samples were called positive only when LAM surrogates—tuberculostearic acid (TBSA) and d-arabinose (d-ara)—were found to be present in similar amounts. All TB cases, including the 40 with a negative sputum smear had LAM in detectable quantities in urine. None of the controls had detectable amounts of LAM. Our study shows that urinary LAM detection is feasible in HIV uninfected, smear negative TB patients.

The Well-Worn Book and the reading child: cultural and cognitive aspects of materiality in German children’s literature

Children’s books often feature complex material aspects. Despite that fact, little research has been done on questions of materiality in children’s and youth books. The article aims at outlining the field of the materiality of historical German-language children’s books. By analyzing historical author’s pedagogical statements as well as the design of historical children’s and youth fiction, the article summarizes different approaches concerning the materiality of children’s books. Based on the historical development and the generic study on how children modify the materiality of their books, the article further investigates the book-as-object and emphasizes the child’s point of view by scrutinizing the adult-culture book-toy distinction. It will become apparent that the specific forms of children’s book reception emerge since the materiality of the book and its exploration present a new embodied experience. The specific reception forms can be embedded into a semiotic model of the text-reader interaction in reference to Roland Barthes’ concept of écriture and scription.

“You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students

In recent years, the act of nonconsensual condom removal, termed stealthing, has become commonly discussed on social and print media; yet, little to no evidence exists on the current knowledge and perception of stealthing among young adults. As such, we assessed what college students know and feel regarding stealthing. We employed an exploratory mixed-method analysis where focus groups were followed by a quantitative survey. A qualitative assessment was conducted using grounded theory analyses and questions for a quantitative survey were developed based on emergent themes from focus groups. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and bivariate analyses with alpha less than 0.05 to denote significance. Though limited knowledge exists, participants felt that stealthing was a violation of their privacy, trust, sexual consent, and their ability to make a health decision, and should be considered an assault. Participants noted stealthing may have become acceptable due to its popularity in social media and young adult culture, especially porn. We also found sex differences in the perception of stealthing being considered a sexual assault with lower rates among males as compared to females. Our results demonstrate that there is a need for health educators to assess the prevalence of such a behavior among college students and policy makers to assess the legal implications of nonconsensual condom removal.

EXAMINING THE “ELSAGATE” PHENOMENON: DISTURBING CHILDREN’S YOUTUBE CONTENT AND NEW FRONTIERS IN CHILDREN’S CULTURE

This paper investigates new genres of children's content on YouTube that have provoked potent cultural anxieties about the role of YouTube in children's culture, and have raised concerns about the apparent wealth of content targeted at children on the platform that is not child-appropriate. The paper examines the journalistic commentary that constitutes the "Elsagate" phenomenon - the neologism used to describe public revelations about the controversy - and conducts a genre studies textual analysis of the YouTube content consistently referenced in this commentary. This analysis aims to illuminate the relationship between the textual features of disturbing children's YouTube content and the cultural anxieties these features have incited. The paper contends that the child-oriented YouTube genres at the centre of the Elsagate controversy re-position extant cultural boundaries of child-appropriate content – boundaries which in some cases have long been enshrined in policy and standards guidelines – in ways that trouble ingrained ideological distinctions between child and adult culture. The paper illustrates how disturbing children’s YouTube content interrupts traditional power balances and interplays between media industries, parental mediation strategies, and “child-effects”: young children’s agency over their own consumption choices and influence on parental media practices (Bulck et al, 2016).

SCHOOL CULTURE AND CLIMATE, FACTORS FOR AN EFFECTIVE SCHOOL

The need for change is particularly expressed in educational organizations. In education, the changes are always associated with the reforms required by the Ministry of Education and Science, and much less often seen as a permanent process that is initiated and continues throughout each school. That is exactly why the school, especially at this time of decentralization, should appear as the initiator of the change. However, it must be noted that in the teaching, non-teaching staff, and in the school leadership, there is resistance to school changes. Hence the idea that resistance to change would be reduced if the director and employees feel the need for change, if they are the initiators of the change or at least participate in the planning and execution of the change. The complexity of the school stems from the everyday relations of a teacher - student, teacher - teacher, and pupil - student. The most frequent occurrence of this is the so-called collision of generations. It practically means a clash of two cultures - climates, an adult culture (teachers), and a culture of youth (students). It all takes place in an environment with its own surrounding called school. This environment and this surrounding are characterized by certain traditions, customs, norms, habits, achieved results, manners of behaviour and communication, religion and so on. All this together with all its complexity, dynamism and openness we call the culture of the school. The word culture has a Latin origin - colare, which means nurturing, developing and embellishing. Culture and climate are interactive states of common characteristics of group influence on the environment. The paradigm of school culture goes hand in hand with the paradigm of inequality and the option of greater autonomy in schools. According to several authors, schools should not be forced to produce quick results, only for the benefit of politicians and for public satisfaction. This means that the educated results should be held accountable by the school principals, not the ministers. This practically means penetration into management, from slow changes to controlled systems (top-down changes), to school support systems (bottom-up changes). It is important to note that each school has its own recognizable culture. The school's culture can be increased in different ways. Basically, it is a content of mutually divided values. Divided values can also be experienced in the form of rituals and repetition ceremonies. This paper aims to show that through the improvement of school culture and school climate, a positive atmosphere of order and discipline, a way of communicating staff, established vision for development will be ensured, and all this towards the construction of an effective and efficient school.

Play as an Element of Children's Subculture

The paper is concerned with sociological analysis of play as an element of the children's subculture. Regardless of the approaches to defining the concept of the child's subculture, its essence and significance in the child's life, scientists agree that one of the most significant elements of the subculture is play. Play is more than just entertainment for children. In the process of playing, children learn how to interact with their peers, get to know the world around them, perceive in an accessible form the norms and rules of behavior in society. The article examines the approaches to the definition and the correlation of the concepts "children's subculture" and "children's culture" in foreign and domestic science, examines theoretical studies of foreign scientists on the essence of children's culture; describes the types of play and their specificity; presents the results of the author's research on this topic, and also draws a conclusion about the special influence of play on child's personality formation and offers recommendations for parents in the field of children's play behavior. Significance of the play in the structure of the children's subculture is determined in the article, moreover, article emphasizes “non-monolithic” character of play and its ability to change. In this paper attention is drawn towards the current trend of the penetration of adult culture into the space of children's games: game industry offers to children play with a prepared story, at the same time modern parents control the process of children's play and organize their leisure time.

Material Forms: What is Really Going On? Shaping Who We Are and What We Do

Using visual and ethnographic methods the author forms a connection between materiality and the memories of childhood. The researcher begins by asking the question, “Can a studio environment create encounters between a researcher and preschool children that deepen understanding of culture?” To this end, the researcher engaged in sensory research practices through ethnographic methods in a preschool art studio. Through free choice art making, children were found expressing their emotions and demonstrating an awareness of adult culture. In particular, the researcher’s encounter with four-year old George was enriched through sensory participation and triggered embodied and empathetic knowing. As it happens, conducting this research through the shared sensory attributes of art materials, the researcher was sent reeling. The encounter with memories of her childhood were unforeseen and disturbing. Art materials, it appears, can reveal cultural knowledge and can also serve as emotional bookmarks of time. Materials can juxtapose the past with the present, linking then with now. Feeling is embedded in the artifact and can release provocative memories. Materials from childhood create the self for what it is.