The Kenosis of Sociology, or Sociology and Answerability: Essays Toward a Weak Program in the Sociology of Morality

This dissertation surveys sociological approaches to morality. First, I distinguish the strong programs of Marx and Durkheim, which subordinate moralitys form and content to social scientific conceptual analysis, from Max Webers weak program, which attempts to preserve the independence of moral action from domination by expert social science. Siding withwhile critiquingWebers weak program, I turn to three more recent academic disputes, each of which proposes a concept as a potential candidate for resolving the ongoing dilemma of sociologys relationship to morality. These concepts are character, anxiety, and practice. I discuss each of them in the contexts of particular academic disputes: 1) the situation vs. character dispute in moral philosophy and social psychology; 2) the status anxiety vs. moral concern dispute carried on between studies in moral regulation and communitarianism in the 1980s and 90s; 3) the contrasting views of practice developed by Pierre Bourdieu and Alasdair MacIntyre. Each concept is subjected, in these disputes, to a kind of crucible, and each, in some way, fails the test. In each failure I suggest a remainder, a kind of residual categoryin Parsons sense but without his scientistic judgement. With a nod to Bakhtin, but without binding myself to dialogics, I have called that remainder answerability, and give a variety of definitions that differ/defer from any operationalized concept. Taking my basic theme from Adornos critique of identity thinking, I argue that answerability constitutes a minimal criterion that can performatively structure a weak program in the sociology of morality, applying symmetrically to the sociological vocation and the question of morality. Definitional deferrals indicate, in addition to the influence of Adornobut also Derrida, and Butlers notion of the subjects failed but necessary accounting for oneselfthat the sociology of morality exceeds the Habermasian model of ongoing conversation. Answerability refers to more than criticizable validity claims. It points to avenues of experience, expression, and reflexivity that may not find their way into rational discourse. It points, with Gillian Rose, to political action in the gap between law and morality, is and ought

Correlate not optional: PP sprouting and parallelism in “much less” ellipsis

Clauses that are parallel in form and meaning show processing advantages in ellipsis and coordination structures (Frazier et al. 1984; Kehler 2000; Carlson 2002). However, the constructions that have been used to show a parallelism advantage do not always require a strong semantic relationship between clauses. We present two eye tracking while reading studies on focus-sensitive coordination structures, an understudied form of ellipsis which requires the generation of a contextually salient semantic relation or scale between conjuncts. However, when the remnant of ellipsis lacks an overt correlate in the matrix clause and must be “sprouted” in the ellipsis site, the relation between clauses is simplified to entailment. Instead of facilitation for sentences with an entailment relation between clauses, our online processing results suggest that violating parallelism is costly, even when doing so could ease the semantic relations required for interpretation

Preferred Atmospheric Patterns for Vernal and Autumnal Nocturnal Bird Migration Using the Plymouth, New Hampshire NOAA-ESRL Snow Level Radar

Radar technology can be a useful tool in tracking trends in bird migration. The NOAA-ESRL Snow Level Radar (SLR), located in Plymouth, New Hampshire, is primarily used to monitor the Bright-Band Height (BBH) of falling precipitation, or the level at which snow melts to water. Using data collected from November 2014 to November 2016, preferential atmospheric conditions over Plymouth, New Hampshire were analyzed during peak migration events for both autumn and spring migration seasons

The damage throttling number of a graph

The cop throttling number of a graph, introduced in 2018 by Breen et al., optimizes the balance between the number of cops used and the number of rounds required to catch the robber in a game of Cops and Robbers. In 2019, Cox and Sanaei studied a variant of Cops and Robbers in which the robber tries to occupy (or damage) as many vertices as possible and the cop tries to minimize this damage. They investigated the minimum number of vertices damaged by the robber over all games played on a given graph G, called the damage number of G. We introduce the nat- ural parameter called the damage throttling number of a graph, denoted thd(G), which optimizes the balance between the number of cops used and the number of vertices damaged in the graph. We show that dam- age throttling and cop throttling share many properties, yet they exhibit interesting differences. We prove that thd(G) is tightly bounded above by one less than the cop throttling number. We discuss infinite families of graphs which attain equality for this bound, as well as graphs which have a greater gap between the damage throttling number and the cop throttling number. For most families of connected graphs G of order n that we consider in this paper, we prove that thd(G) = O({formula presented}). However, we also find an infinite family of connected graphs G of order n for which thd(G) = Ω(n2/3)

Cop throttling number: Bounds, values, and variants

The cop throttling number thc(G) of a graph G for the game of Cops and Robbers is the minimum of k+captk(G), where k is the number of cops and captk(G) is the minimum number of rounds needed for k cops to capture the robber on G over all possible games in which both players play optimally. In this paper, we answer in the negative a question from [Breen et al., Throttling for the game of Cops and Robbers on graphs, {\em Discrete Math.}, 341 (2018) 2418--2430.] about whether the cop throttling number of any graph is O(n−−√) by constructing a family of graphs having thc(G)=Ω(n2/3). We establish a sublinear upper bound on the cop throttling number and show that the cop throttling number of chordal graphs is O(n−−√). We also introduce the product cop throttling number th×c(G) as a parameter that minimizes the person-hours used by the cops. We establish bounds on the product cop throttling number in terms of the cop throttling number, characterize graphs with low product cop throttling number, and show that for a chordal graph G, th×c(G)=1+rad(G)

Facial Scars: Do Position and Orientation Matter?

Background: This study tested the core tenets of how facial scars are perceived by characterizing layperson response to faces with scars. The authors predicted that scars closer to highly viewed structures of the face (i.e., upper lip and lower lid), scars aligned against resting facial tension lines, and scars in the middle of anatomical subunits of the face would be rated less favorably. Methods: Volunteers aged 18 years and older from the United States were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete a face rating survey. Scars were digitally added in different locations and orientations for a total of 14 unique scars added to each face. Each participant rated 50 different faces on confidence, friendliness, and attractiveness. Data were analyzed using linear mixed effects models. Results: A total of 88,850 ratings [82,990 scarred (93.4 percent)] for attractiveness, friendliness, and confidence were analyzed. In univariate linear mixed effects models, the presence of a facial scar did not significantly impact attractiveness (β = 0.016, SE = 0.014, z = 1.089, p = 0.276). A second set of linear mixed effects models identified interactions between location, subunit placement, and orientation to facial tension lines. Scars located on the lower lid mid subunit perpendicular to facial tension lines were rated less attractive (β = −0.065, SE = 0.028, z = −2.293, p = 0.022). Conclusions: On average, a single well-healed facial scar does not negatively affect first impressions of attractiveness, confidence, or friendliness. Specific scar location and orientation combinations, however, such as a perpendicular scar at the mid-lower eyelid, may result in lower perceived attractiveness, confidence, and friendliness

A haplotype-resolved chromosome-scale genome for Quercus rubra L. provides insights into the genetics of adaptive traits for red oak species

Northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) is an ecologically and economically important forest tree native to North America. We present a chromosome-scale genome of Q. rubra generated by the combination of PacBio sequences and chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) scaffolding. This is the first reference genome from the red oak clade (section Lobatae). The Q. rubra assembly spans 739 Mb with 95.27% of the genome in 12 chromosomes and 33,333 protein-coding genes. Comparisons to the genomes of Quercus lobata and Quercus mongolica revealed high collinearity, with intrachromosomal structural variants present. Orthologous gene family analysis with other tree species revealed that gene families associated with defense response were expanding and contracting simultaneously across the Q. rubra genome. Quercus rubra had the most CC-NBS-LRR and TIR-NBS-LRR resistance genes out of the 9 species analyzed. Terpene synthase gene family comparisons further reveal tandem gene duplications in TPS-b subfamily, similar to Quercus robur. Phylogenetic analysis also identified 4 subfamilies of the IGT/LAZY gene family in Q. rubra important for plant structure. Single major QTL regions were identified for vegetative bud break and marcescence, which contain candidate genes for further research, including a putative ortholog of the circadian clock constituent cryptochrome (CRY2) and 8 tandemly duplicated genes for serine protease inhibitors, respectively. Genome–environment associations across natural populations identified candidate abiotic stress tolerance genes and predicted performance in a common garden. This high-quality red oak genome represents an essential resource to the oak genomic community, which will expedite comparative genomics and biological studies in Quercus species

Range-wide sources of variation in reproductive rates of northern spotted owls

We conducted a range-wide investigation of the dynamics of site-level reproductive rate of northern spotted owls using survey data from 11 study areas across the subspecies geographic range collected during 1993–2018. Our analytical approach accounted for imperfect detection of owl pairs and misclassification of successful reproduction (i.e., at least one young fledged) and contributed further insights into northern spotted owl population ecology and dynamics. Both nondetection and state misclassification were important, especially because factors affecting these sources of error also affected focal ecological parameters. Annual probabilities of site occupancy were greatest at sites with successful reproduction in the previous year and lowest for sites not occupied by a pair in the previous year. Site-specific occupancy transition probabilities declined over time and were negatively affected by barred owl presence. Overall, the site-specific probability of successful reproduction showed substantial year-to-year fluctuations and was similar for occupied sites that did or did not experience successful reproduction the previous year. Site-specific probabilities for successful reproduction were very small for sites that were unoccupied the previous year. Barred owl presence negatively affected the probability of successful reproduction by northern spotted owls in Washington and California, as predicted, but the effect in Oregon was mixed. The proportions of sites occupied by northern spotted owl pairs showed steep, near-monotonic declines over the study period, with all study areas showing the lowest observed levels of occupancy to date. If trends continue it is likely that northern spotted owls will become extirpated throughout large portions of their range in the coming decades