Exploring Political Disappointment

Disappointment is often identified as a pathology of modern politics; citizens expect much of politicians, yet governments are ill-equipped to deliver outcomes commensurate with those expectations. The net result is said to be a widespread disappointment; a negative balance between what citizens expect of government and what they perceive governments to deliver. Yet little attention has hitherto been paid to which kinds of citizens are particularly disappointed with politics, and why. This article offers one of the first empirical analyses of political disappointment. Drawing on a survey conducted in Britain, it provides a quantitative measure of political disappointment and explores its prevalence among citizens. It then considers which social groups might be more prone to disappointment than others. In particular, it explores whether certain groups are more disappointed by virtue of holding very high expectations of government or very low perceptions of government performance. The article concludes by considering what strategies might be open to policy makers to alleviate political disappointment

Mapping the Politics of the Future Growth in Maine\u27s Aquaculture Sector

Aquaculture sits at the nexus of many coastal issues in Maine, such as the privatization of coastal marine space, real estate development and gentrification of coastal communities, the decline of working waterfront communities, commercial fishing regulations, and other tangential issues such as offshore wind development. Maine’s aquaculture sector is expanding because of economic opportunity and the need for social, economic, and ecological diversification of food sources along the coast. Despite this desire for growth, conflicts and a lack of community engagement have built varying misconceptions and levels of trust in communities and among stakeholders actively engaged in aquaculture’s development. Regulations about lease sizes, consolidation of leases by corporations or large investors, out-of-state interest, and ecological carrying capacity have been at the forefront of contention within communities. Given the differing sizes of aquaculture companies, the variation of species farmed, and the differences in demographics across communities in Maine, aquaculturists have struggled to build social trust and credibility, which has seen varying results. For our project, we aimed to account for all stakeholders directly linked to the growing aquaculture industry, assessing their power and positions on the issues they face. In using legislature hearing transcripts on regulatory bills as proxy data and relevant literature on aquaculture to support our data findings, we were able to craft the two deliverables of our project; an actor-network map highlighting stakeholder positions, relations, and power dynamics followed by a set of recommendations and processes for stakeholder engagement. The map will be a resource for assessing and identifying where tensions need to be dissolved and where coalitions between stakeholders can be made. The recommendations aim to build on the theory of social license to operate, where aquaculturists, community members, researchers, and policymakers work together to form mutually agreed upon industry standards and regulations to shape future growth. The recommendations included methods of community outreach and empowerment that aim to maximize the number of community members reached, increase their access to information, and involve them in decision-making processes regarding research and policymaking. These methods would include, but not be limited to, public forums, cooperative research, advisory groups, public listening sessions, and decentralized decision making. They can be viewed in more detail under the recommendations sections. These methods of community engagement will necessitate various additional components to complete, such as funding and staffing the community and municipal organizations within each of the communities helping expansions of aquaculture farming. We hope these serve as tools and resources to solve and ensure the healthy growth of aquaculture farming in Maine

Enhancing the Bond Strength Between Glass Fibre Reinforced Polyamide 6 and Aluminium through µPlasma Surface Modification.

Thermoplastic polymers generally exhibit relatively low surface energies and this often results in limited adhesion when bonded to other materials. Plasma surface modification offers the potential to functionalise the polymer surfaces, and thereby enhance the bond strength between dissimilar materials. In this study, glass fibre reinforced polyamide 6 (GFPA6) was modified using a novel μPlasma surface treatment technique and the effectiveness of the adhesive bond with aluminium was evaluated. The treated GFPA6 surfaces were characterised using atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy, contact angle measurements, surface free energy calculations and wetting envelope analysis. The results show that there was a near exponential growth in root mean square roughness with increasing treatment scans. A significant increase in carbonyl and amide functionality on the polymer surface was observed using Raman spectroscopy. The total surface energy was found to increase from 42.2 mN/m to 67.6 mN/m following a single treatment scan. Significant increases in the tensile shear strength were observed up to 10 treatment scans, going from 1 kN to 2.3 kN, but no further increase was observed with additional treatment scans. These observations, coupled with the atmospheric nature of the technique, points to great potential as a rapid, on-line, and effective, polymer surface treatment technique

The effect of powder re-use on the coalescence behaviour and isothermal crystallisation kinetics of polyamide 12 within powder bed fusion

Polymer powder bed fusion (PBF) is becoming increasingly popular for the fabrication of lightweight, high-performance parts, particularly for medical and aerospace applications. This study investigates the effect of powder re-use and material aging on the coalescence behaviour, melt flowability, and isothermal crystallisation kinetics of polyamide-12 (PA-12) powder. With increased powder re-use, a progressive reduction in melt flowability and material coalescence is observed; at 200 °C, the particle consolidation time increases from 15 s in virgin powder to 180 s in powder recovered from build 6. The observed changes in the behaviour of PA-12 were attributed to polycondensation and cross-linking; these aging phenomena also create structural defects, which hinder the rate and extent of primary crystallisation. At an isothermal crystallisation temperature of 165 °C, the crystallisation half-time increased from 12.78 min in virgin powder to 23.95 min in powder re-used across six build cycles. As a result, the commonly used Avrami model was found to be unsuitable for modelling the crystallisation behaviour of aged PA-12 powder, with the coefficient of determination (R2) reducing from >0.995 for virgin powder to as low as 0.795 for reused powder. On the other hand, an alternative method, the Hay model, is able to successfully track full phase transformation within re-used powder (R2 >0.99). These results highlight the importance of selecting the most appropriate model for analysing the crystallisation kinetics of PA-12 powder re-used across multiple build cycles. This understanding is crucial for obtaining the strong mechanical properties and dimensional precision required for the fabrication of functional, end-use parts within PBF

A FRET method for investigating dimer/monomer status and conformation of the UVR8 photoreceptor

The photoreceptor UVR8 has a pivotal role in mediating plant responses to UV-B wavelengths. Dimeric UVR8 dissociates into monomers following UV-B photoreception, and there is evidence that this process is accompanied by conformational changes that may facilitate interaction of UVR8 with other proteins to initiate signaling. Hence monitoring UVR8 dimer/monomer status and conformation is key to understanding UVR8 action. Here we have used Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) to study these processes in both wild-type and mutant UVR8 proteins in vivo. UVR8 was fused to GFP and mCherry at the C- and N-termini, respectively and both the FRET efficiency and loss of GFP fluorescence after photobleaching were measured. In addition, measurements were made for UVR8 fused to either GFP or mCherry to eliminate intra-molecular FRET signals. The results indicate that dissociation of UVR8 dimer to monomer principally accounts for the loss of FRET signal for wild-type UVR8 and there is little evidence of a contribution from conformational change in vivo. Examination of plants expressing UVR8W285F and UVR8D96N,D107N are consistent with these mutant proteins being constitutively dimeric and monomeric, respectively. The methods employed here will be valuable for monitoring UVR8 dimer/monomer status in vivo in relation to signaling, and will facilitate characterization of dimer/monomer status and conformation of further UVR8 mutants

Transforming growth factor-beta promotes rhinovirus replication in bronchial epithelial cells by suppressing the innate immune response

Rhinovirus (RV) infection is a major cause of asthma exacerbations which may be due to a deficient innate immune response in the bronchial epithelium. We hypothesized that the pleiotropic cytokine, TGF-?, influences interferon (IFN) production by primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBECs) following RV infection. Exogenous TGF-?(2) increased RV replication and decreased IFN protein secretion in response to RV or double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). Conversely, neutralizing TGF-? antibodies decreased RV replication and increased IFN expression in response to RV or dsRNA. Endogenous TGF-?(2) levels were higher in conditioned media of PBECs from asthmatic donors and the suppressive effect of anti-TGF-? on RV replication was significantly greater in these cells. Basal SMAD-2 activation was reduced when asthmatic PBECs were treated with anti-TGF-? and this was accompanied by suppression of SOCS-1 and SOCS-3 expression. Our results suggest that endogenous TGF-? contributes to a suppressed IFN response to RV infection possibly via SOCS-1 and SOCS-3