Heroes for the helpless: A critical discourse analysis of Canadian national print media’s coverage of the food insecurity crisis in Nunavut

In northern Canada, the Inuit’s transition from a culturally traditional to a Western diet has been accompanied by chronic poverty and provoked high levels of food insecurity, resulting in numerous negative health outcomes. This study examines national coverage of Nunavut food insecurity as presented in two of Canada’s most widely read newspapers: The Globe and Mail (GM) and the National Post (NP). A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was employed to analyze 24 articles, 19 from GM and 5 from NP. Analysis suggests national print media propagates the Inuit’s position as The Other by selectively reporting on social issues such as hunger, poverty, and income. Terms such as “Northerners” and “Southerners” are frequently used to categorically separate Nunavut from the rest of Canada and Inuit-driven efforts to resolve their own issues are widely ignored. This effectively portrays the Inuit as helpless and the territory as a failure, and allows Canadians to maintain colonialist views of Inuit inferiority and erroneously assume Federal initiatives effectively address Northern food insecurity

COVID-19 profit warnings: Delivering bad news in a time of crisis

Abstract Profit warnings (large negative earnings surprises) are important corporate reporting documents for delivering bad news and a distinctive corporate communication genre. The 2020 COVID-19 exogenous shock provides a unique worldwide crisis context for company disclosure of bad news. The research develops a genre-based typology/analytical framework for assessing COVID-19 profit warnings’ quality comprising: (1) Four profit warning/forecast quality characteristics and (2) Eight profit warning/forecast disclosures. For a sample of 160 profit-warning documents, the research manually analyses their content, culminating in a disclosure quality score/index. The research tests a model of the factors influencing disclosure quality. The research finds companies regress to silence when investors most need guidance and poor-quality disclosure, coy ambiguous language, possibly reflecting minimal regulatory guidance on this form of corporate report. Two variables are significant – Profit warnings disclosed following Financial Reporting Council guidance are of higher quality and quality varies by industry. The paper finds faux disclosure and the performativity of disclosure, which may allow boards of directors to tick-box compliance with market abuse regulations. The paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers on improvements required to enhance the quality of these highly important corporate documents.publishedVersio

Studying Brain Organization via Spontaneous fMRI Signal

In recent years, some substantial advances in understanding human (and nonhuman) brain organization have emerged from a relatively unusual approach: the observation of spontaneous activity, and correlated patterns in spontaneous activity, in the “resting” brain. Most commonly, spontaneous neural activity is measured indirectly via fMRI signal in subjects who are lying quietly in the scanner, the so-called “resting state.” This Primer introduces the fMRI-based study of spontaneous brain activity, some of the methodological issues active in the field, and some ways in which resting-state fMRI has been used to delineate aspects of area-level and supra-areal brain organization

The language of profit warnings: a case of denial, defiance, desperation and defeat

Taking a communication perspective, the paper explores management's rhetoric in profit warnings, whose sole purpose is to disclose unexpected bad news. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a close-reading approach to text analysis, the authors analyse three profit warnings of the now-collapsed Carillion, contrasting the rhetoric with contemporaneous investor conference calls to discuss the profit warnings and board minutes recording boardroom discussions of the case company's precarious financial circumstances. The analysis applies an Aristotelian framework, focussing on logos (appealing to logic and reason), ethos (appealing to authority) and pathos (appealing to emotion) to examine how Carillion's board and management used language to persuade shareholders concerning the company's adverse circumstances. Findings As non-routine communications, the language in profit warnings displays and mimics characteristics of routine communications by appealing primarily to logos (logic and reason). The rhetorical profiles of investor conference calls and board meeting minutes differ from profit warnings, suggesting a different version of the story behind the scenes. The authors frame the three profit warnings as representing three stages of communication as follows: denial, defiance and desperation and, for our case company, ultimately, culminating in defeat. Research limitations/implications The research is limited to the study of profit warnings in one case company. Originality/value The paper views profit warnings as a communication artefact and examines the rhetoric in these corporate documents to elucidate their key features. The paper provides novel insights into the role of profit warnings as a corporate communication vehicle/genre delivering bad news.publishedVersio

Creation of vortices in a Bose-Einstein condensate by a Raman technique

We propose a method for taking a Bose-Einstein condensate in the ground trap state simultaneously to a different atomic hyperfine state and to a vortex trap state. This can be accomplished through a Raman scheme in which one of the two copropagating laser beams has a higher-order Laguerre-Gaussian mode profile. Coefficients relating the beam waist, pulse area, and trap potentials for a complete transfer to the m = 1 vortex are calculated for a condensate in the non-interacting and strongly interacting regimes.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 2 PostScript figure

The varied impacts of El Nino-Southern Oscillation on Pacific Island climates

El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) drives interannual climate variability in many tropical Pacific island countries, but different El Nino events might be expected to produce varying rainfall impacts. To investigate these possible variations, El Nino events were divided into three categories based on where the largest September-February sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies occur: warm pool El Nino (WPE), cold tongue El Nino (CTE), and mixed El Nino (ME), between the other two. Large-scale SST and wind patterns for each type of El Niño show distinct and significant differences, as well as shifts in rainfall patterns in the main convergence zones. As a result, November to April rainfall in many Pacific island countries is significantly different among the El Nino types. In western equatorial Pacific islands, CTE events are associated with drier than normal conditions whereas ME and WPE events are associated with significantly wetter than normal conditions. This is due to the South Pacific convergence zone and intertropical convergence zone moving equatorward and merging in CTE events. Rainfall in the convergence zones is enhanced during ME and WPE and the displacement is smaller. La Nina events also show robust impacts that most closely mirror those of ME events. In the northwest and southwest Pacific strong CTE events have much larger impacts on rainfall than ME and WPE, as SST anomalies and correspondingly large-scale surface wind and rainfall changes are largest in CTE. While variations in rainfall exist between different types of El Nino and the significant impacts on Pacific countries of each event are different, the two extreme CTE events have produced the most atypical impacts

Fish Health Unit Report of Activities Undertaken in 2018 and 2019

This report summarises the activities undertaken by the Fish Health Unit (FHU) of the Marine Institute (MI) in 2018 and 2019. The services of the FHU, undertaken on behalf of the State, are largely driven by European and national legislation on aquatic animal health. European Council Directive 2006/88/EC on animal health requirements for aquaculture animals lays down rules for the control of aquatic animal health within the EU. The directive is enacted in Irish Law by Statutory Instrument (SI) 261 of 2008. The MI is the Competent Authority (CA) responsible for implementation of aquatic animal health regulation in Ireland as described in these statutes. Aquatic animal health regulations in SI 261 of 2008 apply to finfish farms, shellfish farms, and put and take fisheries, and require that such aquaculture production businesses (APBs) obtain a Fish Health Authorisation (FHA) from the CA prior to operation

Exploring the links between unhealthy eating behaviour and heavy alcohol use in the social, emotional and cultural lives of young adults (aged 18–25): A qualitative research study

Alcohol use peaks in early adulthood and can contribute both directly and indirectly to unhealthy weight gain. This is the first qualitative study to explore the links between unhealthy eating behaviour and heavy alcohol use in the social, emotional and cultural lives of young adults. We conducted 45 in-depth interviews with 18–25-year-olds in North-East England to inform development of a dual-focused intervention to reduce health risk due to excess weight gain and alcohol use. Data were analysed thematically, following the principles of constant comparison, resulting in three intersecting themes: (1) how food and alcohol consumption currently link together for this population group; (2) influences upon linked eating and drinking behaviours and (3) young adults’ feelings and concerns about linked eating and drinking behaviours. Socio-cultural, physical and emotional links between food and alcohol consumption were an unquestioned norm among young adults. Eating patterns linked to alcohol use were not tied only to hunger, but also to sociability, traditions and identity. Young adults conceptualised and calculated risks to weight, appearance and social status, rather than to long-term health. This study is the first to evidence the deeply interconnected nature of food and alcohol consumption for many young adults. Findings have important implications for intervention development, UK public health policy and practice, and point to a need for similar research in other countries

Examining Associations between Body Mass Index in 18⁻25 Year-Olds and Energy Intake from Alcohol:Findings from the Health Survey for England and the Scottish Health Survey

Evidence on the relationship between alcohol consumption and body mass index (BMI) is mixed, particularly for young adults. This study explored the relationship between energy obtained from alcoholic beverages and BMI using data for 18-25 year-olds (n = 7691) from pooled cross-sections of the 2008⁻2014 Health Survey for England and the Scottish Health Survey. Energy obtained from alcoholic beverages (excluding mixers) on the heaviest drinking day in the past week was expressed as percentage of total recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of energy (% RDA Energy). Linear regressions were estimated of BMI on alcohol intake categories controlling for intake frequency, physical activity, longstanding illness and other covariates, with separate analyses for men and women, and by beverage type. Significant associations with BMI were observed with the 'Very High' category of alcohol intake (>75% RDA Energy) for men (p 50% to 75% RDA Energy) (p 0⁻25% RDA Energy) category. Young adults drinking the highest levels of alcohol on a single occasion were more likely to be obese than those with the lowest intake. Interventions to address internationally rising youth obesity rates should also consider reducing alcohol consumption by increasing alcohol prices, and reducing availability and marketing exposure

Analysing user physiological responses for affective video summarisation

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Displays. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.Video summarisation techniques aim to abstract the most significant content from a video stream. This is typically achieved by processing low-level image, audio and text features which are still quite disparate from the high-level semantics that end users identify with (the ‘semantic gap’). Physiological responses are potentially rich indicators of memorable or emotionally engaging video content for a given user. Consequently, we investigate whether they may serve as a suitable basis for a video summarisation technique by analysing a range of user physiological response measures, specifically electro-dermal response (EDR), respiration amplitude (RA), respiration rate (RR), blood volume pulse (BVP) and heart rate (HR), in response to a range of video content in a variety of genres including horror, comedy, drama, sci-fi and action. We present an analysis framework for processing the user responses to specific sub-segments within a video stream based on percent rank value normalisation. The application of the analysis framework reveals that users respond significantly to the most entertaining video sub-segments in a range of content domains. Specifically, horror content seems to elicit significant EDR, RA, RR and BVP responses, and comedy content elicits comparatively lower levels of EDR, but does seem to elicit significant RA, RR, BVP and HR responses. Drama content seems to elicit less significant physiological responses in general, and both sci-fi and action content seem to elicit significant EDR responses. We discuss the implications this may have for future affective video summarisation approaches