Towards a non-hierarchical campaign? Testing for interactivity as a tool of election campaigning in France, the US, Germany and the UK.

Interest in the Internet and its role within political communication and election campaigning has now an established body of theoretical and empirical history, with mixed predictions and findings. The bulk of the empirical research has been in single countries, and where there has been comparative research it has tended to use a range of methodologies conducted by different authors. Largely, empirical studies have agreed with the politics as usual thesis, that political communication online is of a similar if not identical style to offline: top-down, information heavy and designed to persuade rather than consult with voters. The mass take-up of web 2.0 tools and platforms challenges this approach, however. Internet users now have opportunities to interact with a range of individuals and organisations, and it is argued that such tools reduce societal hierarchies and allow for symmetrical relationships to build. Theoretically democratic politics is a fertile environment for exploring the opportunities potentiated by web 2.0, in particular the notion of interactivity between the campaign (candidate, party and staff) and their audiences (activists, members, supporters and potential voters). Conceptually, web 2.0 encourages co-production of content. This research focuses on the extent to which interactivity is encouraged through the use of web 2.0 tools and platforms across a four year period focusing on four discrete national elections; determining take up and the link to national context as well as assessing lesson learning between nations. Using the Gibson and Ward coding scheme, though adapted to include web 2.0, we operationalise the models of interactivity proposed by McMillan (2002) and Ferber, Foltz and Pugiliese (2007). This methodology allows us to assess whether election campaigns are showing evidence of adopting co-created campaigns based around conversations with visitors to their websites or online presences, or whether websites remain packaged to persuade offering interactivity with site features (hyperlinks, web feeds, search engines) only. Indications are that the French election was largely politics as usual, however the Obama campaign took a clear step towards a more co-produced and interactive model. There may well be a clear Obama effect within the German and UK contests, or parties may adopt the look if not the practice of the US election. This paper will assess the extent to which an interactive model of campaigning is emerging as well as detailing a methodology which can capture and rate the levels and types of interactivity used across the Internet. Whilst specific political cultural and systematic factors will shape the use of Web technologies in each election, we suggest that an era of web 2.0 is gradually replacing that of Web 1.0. Within this era there is some evidence that campaigners learn from previous elections on how best to utilise the technology

Freshwater Composition and Connectivity of the Connecticut River Plume During Ambient Flood Tides

The Connecticut River plume interacts with the strong tidal currents of the ambient receiving waters in eastern Long Island Sound. The plume formed during ambient flood tides is studied as an example of tidal river plumes entering into energetic ambient tidal environments in estuaries or continental shelves. Conservative passive freshwater tracers within a high-resolution nested hydrodynamic model are applied to determine how source waters from different parts of the tidal cycle contribute to plume composition and interact with bounding plume fronts. The connection to source waters can be cut off only under low-discharge conditions, when tides reverse surface flow through the mouth after max ambient flood. Upstream plume extent is limited because ambient tidal currents arrest the opposing plume propagation, as the tidal internal Froude number exceeds one. The downstream extent of the tidal plume always is within 20 km from the mouth, which is less than twice the ambient tidal excursion. Freshwaters in the river during the preceding ambient ebb are the oldest found in the new flood plume. Connectivity with source waters and plume fronts exhibits a strong upstream-to- downstream asymmetry. The arrested upstream front has high connectivity, as all freshwaters exiting the mouth immediately interact with this boundary. The downstream plume front has the lowest overall connectivity, as interaction is limited to the oldest waters since younger interior waters do not overtake this front. The offshore front and inshore boundary exhibit a downstream progression from younger to older waters and decreasing overall connectivity with source waters. Plume-averaged freshwater tracer concentrations and variances both exhibit an initial growth period followed by a longer decay period for the remainder of the tidal period. The plume-averaged tracer variance is increased by mouth inputs, decreased by entrainment, and destroyed by internal mixing. Peak entrainment velocities for younger waters are higher than values for older waters, indicating stronger entrainment closer to the mouth. Entrainment and mixing time scales (1–4 h at max ambient flood) are both shorter than half a tidal period, indicating entrainment and mixing are vigorous enough to rapidly diminish tracer variance within the plume

Towards a non-hierarchical campaign? Testing for interactivity as a tool of election campaigning in France, the US, Germany and the UK.

Interest in the Internet and its role within political communication and election campaigning has now an established body of theoretical and empirical history, with mixed predictions and findings. The bulk of the empirical research has been in single countries, and where there has been comparative research it has tended to use a range of methodologies conducted by different authors. Largely, empirical studies have agreed with the politics as usual thesis, that political communication online is of a similar if not identical style to offline: top-down, information heavy and designed to persuade rather than consult with voters. The mass take-up of Web 2.0 tools and platforms challenges this approach, however. Internet users now have opportunities to interact with a range of individuals and organisations, and it is argued that such tools reduce societal hierarchies and allow for symmetrical relationships to build. Theoretically democratic politics is a fertile environment for exploring the opportunities potentiated by Web 2.0, in particular the notion of interactivity between the campaign (candidate, party and staff) and their audiences (activists, members, supporters and potential voters). In particular, Web 2.0 conceptually encourages co-production of content. This research focuses on the extent to which interactivity is encouraged through the use of Web 2.0 tools and platforms across a four year period focusing on four discrete national elections; determining take up and the link to national context as well as assessing lesson learning between nations. Using the Gibson and Ward coding scheme, though adapted to include Web 2.0, we operationalise the models of interactivity proposed by McMillan (2002) and Ferber, Foltz and Pugiliese (2007). This methodology allows us to assess whether election campaigns are showing evidence of adopting co-created campaigns based around conversations with visitors to their websites or online presences, or whether websites remain packaged to persuade offering interactivity with site features (hyperlinks, web feeds, search engines) only. Indications are that the French election was largely politics as usual, however the Obama campaign took a clear step towards a more co-produced and interactive model. There may well be a clear Obama effect within the German and UK contests, or parties may adopt the look if not the practice of the US election. This paper will assess the extent to which an interactive model of campaigning is emerging as well as detailing a methodology which can capture and rate the levels and types of interactivity used across the Internet. Whilst specific political cultural and systematic factors will shape the use of Web technologies in each election, we suggest that an era of Web 2.0 is gradually replacing that of Web 1.0. Within this era there is some evidence that campaigners learn from previous elections on how best to utilise the technology

Propagation of tidal waves up in Yangtze Estuary during the dry season

Tide is one of the most important hydrodynamic driving forces and has unique features in the Yangtze Estuary (YE) due to the complex geometry of third-order bifurcations and four outlets. This paper characterizes the tidal oscillations, tidal dampening, tidal asymmetry, and tidal wave propagation, which provides insights into the response of the estuary to tides during the dry season. The structural components of tidal oscillations are initially attained by tidal analysis. The increasingly richer spectrum inside the estuary shows an energy transfer corresponding to the generation and development of nonlinear overtides and compound tides. A 2-D numerical model is further set up to reproduce tidal dynamics in the estuary. The results show that the estuary is a strongly dissipative estuary with a strong nonlinear phenomenon. Three amplifications are presented in the evolution process of tidal ranges due to the channel convergence. Tidal asymmetry is spatiotemporally characterized by the M-4/M-2 amplitude ratio, the 2M(2)-M-4 phase difference, and the flood-ebb duration-asymmetry parameter, and the estuary tends to be flood-dominant. There exists mimic standing waves with the phase difference of the horizontal and vertical tide close to 90 degrees when tidal wave propagates into the estuary, especially during the neap tide. In addition, the differences in tidal distortion, tidal ranges, and tidal waves along the two routes in the South Branch (S-B) suggest the branched system behaves differently from a single system

Curvature‐ and wind‐driven cross‐channel flows at an unstratified tidal bend

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 123 (2018): 3832-3843, doi:10.1029/2017JC013722.Observations of currents, water levels, winds, and bathymetry collected for a month at an unstratified, narrow (150 m), shallow (8 m), 90° tidal inlet bend are used to evaluate an analytical model for curvature‐driven flow and the effects of local wind on the cross‐channel circulation. Along‐channel flows ranged from −1.0 to 1.4 m/s (positive is inland), and the magnitudes of cross‐channel flows were roughly 0.1–0.2 m/s near the outer bank of the bend. Cross‐channel observations suggest the lateral sea‐surface gradients and along‐channel flows are tidally asymmetric and spatially variable. The depth‐averaged along‐channel dynamics are consistent with a balance between the surface tilt and centrifugal acceleration. The vertical structure and magnitude of cross‐channel flows during weak winds are consistent with a one‐dimensional depth‐varying balance between centrifugal acceleration, bottom stress, and diffusion. Low‐passed (to remove tides) surface and bottom cross‐channel flows are correlated (r2 = 0.5–0.7) with cross‐channel wind velocity, suggesting that winds can enhance or degrade the local‐curvature‐induced, two‐layer flow and can drive three‐layer flow. The observed flow response to the wind is larger than that expected from a one‐dimensional balance, suggesting that two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional processes may be important.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate award, and a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.2018-10-1

The continental shelf off the Guadiana estuary

The Continental shelf is the seafloor area around a large land mass where the sea is relatively shallow compared with the open ocean.This major physiographic domain is comprised between the shoreline and the shelf break located at variable water depths (generally, around 200 m water depth) and variable extensions (average width of about 80 km). The continental shelf off the Guadiana estuary is the area in front of the Guadiana River mouth,which is influenced by the discharges of the Guadiana River Basin.This area is located in the southern border between Portugal and Spain, in the middle part of the northern Gulf of Cadiz continental shelf, southwestern Iberian Peninsula.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Axial wind effects on stratification and longitudinal sediment transport in a convergent estuary during wet season

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 125(2), (2020): e2019JC015254, doi:10.1029/2019JC015254.The Coupled Ocean‐Atmosphere‐Wave‐Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling system was used to examine axial wind effects on vertical stratification and sediment transport in a convergent estuary. The model demonstrated that stratification dynamics in the upper estuary (Kelvin number <1; Ke= fB/√ g'hs) are dominated by longitudinal wind straining, whereas the dominant mechanism governing estuarine stratification in the lower estuary (Kelvin number ~1) is lateral wind straining. Barotropic advection contributes to seaward sediment transport and peaks during spring tides, whereas estuarine circulation causes landward sediment transport with a maximum during neap tides. Down‐estuary winds impose no obvious effects on longitudinal sediment flux, whereas up‐estuary winds contribute to enhanced seaward sediment flux by increasing the tidal oscillatory flux. The model also demonstrates that bottom friction is significantly influenced by vertical stratification over channel regions, which is indirectly affected by axial winds.This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 41576089, 51761135021, and 41890851), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0402603) and the Guangdong Provincial Water Conservancy Science and Technology Innovation Project (Grant 201719). We thank Professor Liangwen Jia at the Sun Yat‐sen University for his kindly providing the surficial sediment samples data in 2011. We also thank graduate students Guang Zhang and Yuren Chen from the Sun Yat‐sen University for their help in data analysis. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments to help improve this manuscript. The data related to this article is available online at the Zenodo website (https://zenodo.org/record/3606471).2020-07-1

Symbolic water imagery in the drama of J. P. Clark-Bekederemo

This essay examines symbolic water imagery in the drama of J. P. Clark-Bekederemo. It is necessitated by the lack of a critical enquiry into that aspect of the renowned dramatist’s creative use of water imagery, its literal and figurative counterparts having been examined already. Hinged on the theory of imagery, the study observes that Clark-Bekederemo is adept at manipulating locally-derived imagery in his drama, and that water imagery forms the nucleus of that local imagination. The study discovers that the symbolic water images used in the plays are largely conventional, but that in spite of their conventionality, the playwright deploys them to such private purposes as the enhancement of the plays’ tragic import, the reinforcement of their Ijaw settings, and the enunciation of the socio-religious and cultural life of the same society, whose citizens constitute the bulk of the plays’ dramatis personae. It concludes by stressing that symbolic water imagery is an integral and functional component of Clark-Bekederemo’s dramatic imagination.Keywords: Imagery, Symbolism, Water, Drama, J. P. Clark-Bekederem

Thinking outside the flock : regional partnerships help small, rural entrepreneurs succeed

Rural areas ; Rural development