4,022 research outputs found
Trumping Tropes with Joke(r)s: The Daily Show “Plays the Race Card”
The race card is at once a trope and a topic that reductively prefigures racial meaning and performance. As a trope, it frames most racial discourse as a cheat or violation and thus prevents deliberation over material realities of race. As a topic, it exists as a resource for diminishing the social and political significance of persistent racial problems. We argue that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (TDS) deploys political humor as a troping device that disrupts the contradictory logics of race card rhetoric and disorders a range of reductive commonplaces and figures of racial discourses. Specifically, we maintain that TDS pushes the boundaries of everyday negotiations of race, performs alternative conventions, and models manners of thinking, speaking, and acting useful for contemporary understandings of race. This essay therefore enhances the contemporary body of scholarship on politics and humor while expanding upon analyses of the rhetoricity of race and race relations
Recommended from our members
Draft Genome Sequence of Rhodococcus sp. Strain ATCC 49988, a Quinoline-Degrading Bacterium.
We report here the 4.9-Mb genome sequence of a quinoline-degrading bacterium, Rhodococcus sp. strain ATCC 49988. The draft genome data will enable the identification of genes and future genetic modification to enhance traits relevant to heteroaromatic compound degradation
Detection of lensing substructure using ALMA observations of the dusty galaxy SDP.81
We study the abundance of substructure in the matter density near galaxies
using ALMA Science Verification observations of the strong lensing system
SDP.81. We present a method to measure the abundance of subhalos around
galaxies using interferometric observations of gravitational lenses. Using
simulated ALMA observations, we explore the effects of various systematics,
including antenna phase errors and source priors, and show how such errors may
be measured or marginalized. We apply our formalism to ALMA observations of
SDP.81. We find evidence for the presence of a
subhalo near one of the images, with a significance of in a joint
fit to data from bands 6 and 7; the effect of the subhalo is also detected in
both bands individually. We also derive constraints on the abundance of dark
matter subhalos down to , pushing down to the
mass regime of the smallest detected satellites in the Local Group, where there
are significant discrepancies between the observed population of luminous
galaxies and predicted dark matter subhalos. We find hints of additional
substructure, warranting further study using the full SDP.81 dataset
(including, for example, the spectroscopic imaging of the lensed carbon
monoxide emission). We compare the results of this search to the predictions of
CDM halos, and find that given current uncertainties in the host halo
properties of SDP.81, our measurements of substructure are consistent with
theoretical expectations. Observations of larger samples of gravitational
lenses with ALMA should be able to improve the constraints on the abundance of
galactic substructure.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, Comments are welcom
The unequal burden of human-wildlife conflict
The costs of human-wildlife conflict are measurably more impactful in areas of the developing world where the loss of cattle can mean the entire livelihood of a family being erased.Human-wildlife conflict is one of the most pressing sustainable development challenges globally. This is particularly the case where ecologically and economically important wildlife impact the livelihoods of humans. Large carnivores are one such group and their co-occurrence with low-income rural communities often results in real or perceived livestock losses that place increased costs on already impoverished households. Here we show the disparities associated with the vulnerability to conflict arising from large carnivores on cattle (Bos taurus) globally. Across the distribution of 18 large carnivores, we find that the economic vulnerability to predation losses (as measured by impacts to annual per capita income) is between two and eight times higher for households in transitioning and developing economies when compared to developed ones. This potential burden is exacerbated further in developing economies because cattle keepers in these areas produce on average 31% less cattle meat per animal than in developed economies. In the lowest-income areas, our estimates suggest that the loss of a single cow or bull equates to nearly a year and a half of lost calories consumed by a child. Finally, our results show that 82% of carnivore range falls outside protected areas, and five threatened carnivores have over one third of their range located in the most economically sensitive conflict areas. This unequal burden of human-carnivore conflict sheds light on the importance of grappling with multiple and conflicting sustainable development goals: protecting life on land and eliminating poverty and hunger
Illinois Waterfowl Surveys and Investigations W-43-R-62 Annual Progress Report Period: 1 July 2014 – 30 June 2015
This study addresses the following objectives: 1)Inventory abundance and distribution of waterfowl and other waterbirds (a minimum of 10 species and guilds) during autumn migration at a minimum of 40 sites along the Illinois and central Mississippi rivers; 2) Investigate the ecology of canvasback and lesser scaup during spring migration in the central Illinois River valley (IRV) and Pool 19 of the Mississippi River; 3) Estimate waterfowl and other waterbird population sizes (a minimum of 10 species and guilds) during autumn migration using an aerial quadrat survey in the IRV for comparison with aerial inventories (Objective 1); 4) Determine breeding bird use of a minimum of 10 moist-soil wetlands managed for waterfowl during summer in central Illinois; 5) Investigate the breeding ecology of sandhill cranes during spring and summer in northeastern Illinois; 6) Distribute our findings to site managers and biologists, make recommendations for future management, and draw conclusions relevant to regional conservation planning during the project period as appropriate and requested.Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Contract Number: RC09-13FWUIUCunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe
Cyclooxygenase-inhibiting platinum(IV) prodrugs with potent anticancer activity
Platinum(IV) prodrugs of the [Pt(PL)(AL)(COXi)(OH)]2+ type scaffold (where PL is 1,10-phenanthroline or 5,6-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline, AL is 1S,2S-diaminocyclohexane, and COXi is a COX inhibitor, either indomethacin or aspirin) were synthesised and characterised, and their biological activity was explored. MTT assays showed that these complexes exhibit outstanding activity against a range of cancer cell lines, and nanomolar activities were observed. The most potent complex, 4, exhibited a GI50 of 3 nM in the Du145 prostate cancer cell line and was observed to display a 1614-fold increased activity against the HT29 colon cancer cell line relative to cisplatin. ICP-MS studies showed a linear correlation between increased cellular accumulation of the complexes and increased cytotoxicity, while an enzyme immunoassay showed that 1 and 2 inhibited COX-2 at 14 and 1.4 µM, respectively, which is comparable to the inhibition exhibited by indomethacin. These results suggest that while the cytotoxicity of prodrugs 1–4 was influenced by cellular uptake, it was not entirely dependent on either COX inhibition or lipophilicity
A Hexagonal Theory of Flavor
We construct a supersymmetric theory of flavor based on the discrete gauge
group (D_6)^2, where D_6 describes the symmetry of a regular hexagon under
proper rotations in three dimensions. The representation structure of the group
allows one to distinguish the third from the lighter two generations of matter
fields, so that in the symmetry limit only the top quark Yukawa coupling is
allowed and scalar superpartners of the first two generations are degenerate.
Light fermion Yukawa couplings arise from a sequential breaking of the flavor
symmetry, and supersymmetric flavor-changing processes remain adequately
suppressed. We contrast our model with others based on non-Abelian discrete
gauge symmetries described in the literature, and discuss the challenges in
constructing more minimal flavor models based on this approach.Comment: 19 pages, ReVTeX, 1 eps figur
Longitudinal Homogenization of the Microbiome between Both Occupants and the Built Environment in a Cohort of United States Air Force Cadets
The microbiome of the built environment has important implications for human health and wellbeing; however, bidirectional exchange of microbes between occupants and surfaces can be confounded by lifestyle, architecture, and external environmental exposures. Here, we present a longitudinal study of United States Air Force Academy cadets (n = 34), which have substantial homogeneity in lifestyle, diet, and age, all factors that influence the human microbiome. We characterized bacterial communities associated with (1) skin and gut samples from roommate pairs, (2) four built environment sample locations inside the pairs’ dormitory rooms, (3) four built environment sample locations within shared spaces in the dormitory, and (4) room-matched outdoor samples from the window ledge of their rooms
Illinois Waterfowl Surveys and Investigations W-43-R-64 Annual Progress Report FY2017 Period: 1 July 2016 – 30 June 2017
Objectives
1) Inventory abundance and distribution of waterfowl, shorebirds, and other waterbirds (a
minimum of 10 species and guilds) during autumn migration at a minimum of 30 sites
along and nearby the Illinois and central Mississippi rivers,
2) Estimate waterfowl and other waterbird population sizes (a minimum of 10 species and
guilds) during autumn migration using an aerial quadrat survey in the central Illinois
River Valley for comparison with aerial inventories (Objective 1),
3) Investigate movement and population ecology of lesser scaup, canvasback, and other
diving ducks by trapping and leg-banding a minimum of 1,000 individuals during spring
migration along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers,
4) Investigate the ecology of American green-winged teal and gadwall by radio-marking a
minimum of 40 individuals of each species during spring migration in and nearby the
central Illinois River Valley,
5) Investigate movements and home range size of a minimum of 10 Canada geese during
winter in and near the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area (GCMA) of Illinois,
6) Determine habitat quality of a minimum of 50 wetland and deepwater polygons during
spring, summer, and early autumn for migrating dabbling ducks, breeding wetland birds,
and migrating shorebirds in Illinois, and
7) Distribute results and findings to site managers and biologists of the Illinois Department
of Natural Resources (IDNR) and other state agencies, the Mississippi Flyway Technical Section, the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes Region (UMRGLR) Joint Venture, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, other scientists and collaborators as requested, and the general public through oral presentations, popular articles, technical reports, and peer reviewed publications; make recommendations for future wetland management practices and research needs based on results and related research; contribute to regional conservation planning efforts during the project period as appropriate and requested.Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife & U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Contract Number: RC09-13FWUIUCunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe
- …