The power of popular publicity: new social media and the affective dynamics of the sport racism scandal

Sociologists have tended to take insufficient account of the importance of emotions to the social power of the institution of media, particularly as altered by the emergence of social media in the current media ecology. This paper compensates for this neglect by means of a brief illustrative case study of the effect of social media on the public reception of the 2011 Sepp Blatter racism scandal and of other ‘race-related’ scandals in the UK. In proposing media scandals’ wider sociological significance regarding the dynamic, multi-accented relationships between emotions and power, it analyses how England’s prevailing climate of ‘postcolonial guilt’ was reinforced and conveyed through social media networks

Re-examining the transition into the N=20 island of inversion: structure of 30Mg

Intermediate energy single-neutron removal from $^{31}$Mg has been employed to investigate the transition into the N=20 island of inversion. Levels up to 5~MeV excitation energy in $^{30}$Mg were populated and spin-parity assignments were inferred from the corresponding longitudinal momentum distributions and $\gamma$-ray decay scheme. Comparison with eikonal-model calculations also permitted spectroscopic factors to be deduced. Surprisingly, the 0$^{+}_{2}$ level in $^{30}$Mg was found to have a strength much weaker than expected in the conventional picture of a predominantly $2p - 2h$ intruder configuration having a large overlap with the deformed $^{31}$Mg ground state. In addition, negative parity levels were identified for the first time in $^{30}$Mg, one of which is located at low excitation energy. The results are discussed in the light of shell-model calculations employing two newly developed approaches with markedly different descriptions of the structure of $^{30}$Mg. It is concluded that the cross-shell effects in the region of the island of inversion at Z=12 are considerably more complex than previously thought and that $np - nh$ configurations play a major role in the structure of $^{30}$Mg.Comment: Physics Letters B, Volume 779, 10 April 2018, Pages 124-12

Social–environmental drivers inform strategic management of coral reefs in the Anthropocene

Without drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate globalized stressors, tropical coral reefs are in jeopardy. Strategic conservation and management requires identification of the environmental and socioeconomic factors driving the persistence of scleractinian coral assemblages—the foundation species of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we compiled coral abundance data from 2,584 Indo-Pacific reefs to evaluate the influence of 21 climate, social and environmental drivers on the ecology of reef coral assemblages. Higher abundances of framework-building corals were typically associated with: weaker thermal disturbances and longer intervals for potential recovery; slower human population growth; reduced access by human settlements and markets; and less nearby agriculture. We therefore propose a framework of three management strategies (protect, recover or transform) by considering: (1) if reefs were above or below a proposed threshold of >10% cover of the coral taxa important for structural complexity and carbonate production; and (2) reef exposure to severe thermal stress during the 2014–2017 global coral bleaching event. Our findings can guide urgent management efforts for coral reefs, by identifying key threats across multiple scales and strategic policy priorities that might sustain a network of functioning reefs in the Indo-Pacific to avoid ecosystem collapse

What factors are associated with parental desire to find out the sex of their baby?

Contains fulltext : 69378.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access

Respiratory rates of the Organ-Pipe Mud-Dauber Trypoxylon politum (Hymenoptera: Sphecoidea)

Oxygen consumption was determined at environmental temperatures throughout the life cycle of Trypoxy lon politum Say. Feeding larvae consumed a mean of 90.63 μ,l 02/ 100 mg body weight/ hour (bw/h) and declined to 48.98 in the fully fed stage. Early and late cocoon spinning stages consumed 41.18 and 20.62 μ,l/Oi lOO mg/h respectively. Oxygen consumption during diapause in prepupae, fell to 1.4 μ,l Oi lOO mg bw/h and essentially remained at that level from summer to the following spring. Propupae consumed 4.67 μ,l 02/ 100 mg bw/h and the pupal stages exhibited a progressive increase in oxygen consumption during development to a maximum of 29.79 μ,l 02/ 100 mg bw/h immediately before adult emergence. The adults consumed a mean of 197.26 μ,l Oi 100 mg bw/h. No difference in oxygen consumption due to sex of wasps was noted in pupal or adult stages. Log metabolism and metabolic rate vs. log body weight equations were calculated and the following slopes were determined: Larvae y = 283.6 X0· 0 and y/x = 285.8 x-0-38; prepupae y = 8.04 X0·73 and y/x = 7 . 75 x-0·3 1; pupae y = 46.2 X0·17 and y/x 42.2-0·89; and adults y = 1060 X0·74 and y/x = 1060 x-0·26. The coefficients of determination (r) indicate a good fit of the data to calculated slope values in larval stages, but decreased to near zero values in prepupae and pupal stages, and increased again in adults. We conclude that oxygen consumption in prepupal and pupal stages may be independent of body weight. The larval stage expend ca. 214 calories in respiratory energy reaching the prepupal stage (26.7% assimilated energy). The cost of overwintering maintenance is ca. 64 cal in the prepupal stage (8.0% assimilated energy), while the pupal stage requires ca. 166 cal (20.7% assimilated energy). These values compare favorably with calorimetrically determined energy budget for the wasp. The respiratory quotient determined for feeding larvae was 0.80 and all other stages had RQ\u27s of 0 .70. It appears that this wasp\u27s metabolic rate is influenced by daily and general temperature fluctuations

Shared gene expression and immune pathway changes associated with progression from nevi to melanoma

There is a need to identify molecular biomarkers of melanoma progression to assist the development of chemoprevention strategies to lower melanoma incidence. Using datasets contain-ing gene expression for dysplastic nevi and melanoma or melanoma arising in a nevus, we performed differential gene expression analysis and regularized regression models to identify genes and pathways that were associated with progression from nevi to melanoma. A small number of genes distinguished nevi from melanoma. Differential expression of seven genes was identified between nevi and melanoma in three independent datasets. C1QB, CXCL9, CXCL10, DFNA5 (GSDME), FCGR1B, and PRAME were increased in melanoma, and SCGB1D2 was decreased in melanoma, compared to dysplastic nevi or nevi that progressed to melanoma. Further supporting an association with melanomagenesis, these genes demonstrated a linear change in expression from benign nevi to dysplastic nevi to radial growth phase melanoma to vertical growth phase mela-noma. The genes associated with melanoma progression showed significant enrichment of multiple pathways related to the immune system. This study demonstrates (1) a novel application of bioin-formatic approaches to aid clinical trials of melanoma chemoprevention and (2) the feasibility of determining a gene signature biomarker of melanomagenesis. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]