1,911 research outputs found
Measuring and modeling Russian newspaper coverage of climate change
As a significant emitter of greenhouse gases and a country rich in fossil fuels, Russia plays a crucial role in achieving a comprehensive solution to climate-related challenges. Yet, Russia's official position on climate change has varied considerably since the beginning of global negotiations, with the country playing everything from policy leader to laggard. While there are a number factors that shape domestic policy positions, this study offers a comprehensive investigation of newspaper coverage on climate change in Russia. How have Russian newspapers discussed the issue since the Yeltsin era? We approach this question by compiling the largest data set of Russian newspaper coverage to date, which includes 11,131 climate-related articles from 65 papers over a roughly 35 year period. After introducing a âcomputer assistedâ approach to measure the core themes running through climate change coverage, we statistically evaluate the national- and newspaper-level factors associated with how coverage is framed, focusing attention on 23 high circulation papers over the period from 2000 to 2014. We find that national-level predictorsâparticularly economic conditionsâare highly influential in determining whether climate change is covered and how the issue is framed, while paper-level factors such as the presence of an energy interest and ownership structure also have notable effects. Overall, this study offers a rich data set and useful methods to better understand the drivers of climate communication in Russia
Climate change communication from cities in the USA
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Cities in the USA engage in action on climate change, even as the federal government remains resistant to comprehensive climate policy. While experts generally agree that local level adaptation and mitigation policies are critical to avoiding the worst climate impacts, the degree to which cities communicate climate change issues to their constituents has yet to be fully explored. In this article, we evaluate how US cities communicate climate change-related issues, problems, and policies. We use a computer-assisted approach to evaluate climate change efforts by cities by examining the full text of press releases of 82 large cities in the USA. We first identify who discusses climate change, finding that many large cities in the USA address climate change in their public communication. Second, we examine the content of these discussions. Many cities discuss weather-related concerns in conjunction with broad collaborative efforts to address global warming, while city-based policy discussions focus more on energy and transportation efforts. Third, we evaluate the local factors associated with these discussions. We find that the cityâs climate vulnerability is particularly influential in shaping the level and timing of climatic communication
Political Speech in Religious Sermons
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record.Religious leaders and congregants alike report high levels of political discussions in their
churches. Yet, few opportunities emerge to directly observe political discussions in a wide set of
religious settings. We examine the nature of these political discussions with a novel dataset of
over 110,000 sermons. Using a computational text analysis approach and multiple forms of
validation, we find political discussions in more than a third of religious sermons and that seven
of ten pastors discuss political topics at some point. Common topics include the economy, war,
homosexuality, welfare, and abortion. We then use a geographic process to link the sermon
data to demographic and political information around the church as well as information about
the church and pastor to evaluate variation of political discussion in sermons. We find that
most pastorsâacross location and denominationâdiscuss most political topics, confirming the
intertwined nature of religion and politics in the United States.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC
Analytical and experimental determination of signal-to-noise ratio and figure of merit in three phase-contrast imaging techniques
International audienceWe present a theoretical and experimental comparison of three X-ray phase-contrast techniques: propagation-based imaging, analyzer-based imaging and grating interferometry. The signal-to-noise ratio and the figure of merit are quantitatively compared for the three techniques on the same phantoms and using the same X-ray source and detector. Principal dependencies of the signal upon the numerous acquisition parameters, the spatial resolution and X-ray energy are discussed in detail. The sensitivity of each technique, in terms of the smallest detectable phase shift, is also evaluated
One-particle inclusive CP asymmetries
One-particle inclusive CP asymmetries in the decays of the type B -> D(*) X
are considered in the framework of a QCD based method to calculate the rates
for one-particle inclusive decays.Comment: Latex, 13 pages, 6 figures (eps). Analytical and numerical results
unchanged, extended discussion of model assumptions and systematic
uncertainties. Version to be published in Phys. Rev. D 62, 0960xx. Additional
transparencies are available via the WWW at
http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/Slides
Facing the Electorate: Computational Approaches to the Study of Nonverbal Communication and Voter Impression Formation
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordPoliticians have strong incentives to use their communication to positively impress
and persuade voters. Yet, one important question that persists within the fields
of political science, communication, and psychology is whether appearance or substance matters more during political campaigns. To a large extent, this appearance
vs. substance question remains open and, crucially, the notion that appearance
can in fact effectively sway voter perceptions is consequential for the health of
democracy. This study leverages advances from the fields of machine learning and
computer vision to expand our knowledge on how nonverbal elements of political
communication influence voters immediate impressions of political actors. We rely
on video from the 4th Republican Party presidential debate held on 10 November
2016, as well as continuous response approval data from a live focus group (n=311;
36,528 reactions), to determine how the emotional displays of political candidates
influence voter impression formation. Our results suggest that anger displays can
positively influence viewersâ real-time evaluations. Happiness displays, on the other
hand, are much less effective in eliciting a response from the viewing public, while
fear displays were extremely rarely projected by the candidates of the debate under
studyEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC
Using Intervention Mapping to Develop an Efficacious Multicomponent Systems-Based Intervention to Increase Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination in a Large Urban Pediatric Clinic Network
Background: The CDC recommends HPV vaccine for all adolescents to prevent cervical, anal, oropharyngeal, vaginal, vulvar, and penile cancers, and genital warts. HPV vaccine rates currently fall short of national vaccination goals. Despite evidence-based strategies with demonstrated efficacy to increase HPV vaccination rates, adoption and implementation of these strategies within clinics is lacking. The Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP) is a multicomponent systems-based intervention designed to implement five evidence-based strategies within primary care pediatric practices. The AVP has demonstrated efficacy in increasing HPV vaccine initiation and completion among adolescents 10-17 years of age. The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of Intervention Mapping (IM) toward the development, implementation, and formative evaluation of the clinic-based AVP prototype. Methods: Intervention Mapping (IM) guided the development of the Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP). Deliverables comprised: a logic model of the problem (IM Step 1); matrices of behavior change objectives (IM Step 2); a program planning document comprising scope, sequence, theory-based methods, and practical strategies (IM Step 3); functional AVP component prototypes (IM Step 4); and plans for implementation (IM Step 5) and evaluation (IM Step 6). Results: The AVP consists of six evidence-based strategies implemented in a successful sequenced roll-out that (1) established immunization champions in each clinic, (2) disseminated provider assessment and feedback reports with data-informed vaccination goals, (3) provided continued medical and nursing education (with ethics credit) on HPV, HPV vaccination, message bundling, and responding to parent hesitancy, (4) electronic health record cues to providers on patient eligibility, and (5) patient reminders for HPV vaccine initiation and completion. Conclusions: IM provided a logical and systematic approach to developing and evaluating a multicomponent systems-based intervention to increase HPV vaccination rates among adolescents in pediatric clinics
Communicating climate mitigation and adaptation efforts in American cities
This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.City governments have a large role to play in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, given that urban locales are responsible for disproportionately high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are on the âfront linesâ of observed and anticipated climate change impacts. This study examines how US mayors prioritize climate policies within the context of the city agenda. Employing a computer-assisted content analysis of over 2886 mayoral press releases related to climate change from 82 major American cities for the period 2010â2016, we describe and explain the extent to which city governments discuss mitigation and adaptation policies in official communications. Specifically, we rely on a semi-supervised topic model to measure key climate policy themes in city press releases and examine their correlates using a multilevel statistical model. Our results suggest that while mitigation policies tend to dominate the city agenda on climate policy, discussion of adaptation efforts has risen dramatically in the past few years. Further, our statistical analysis indicates that partisanship influences city discussion on a range of climate policy areasâincluding emissions, land use policy, and climate resiliencyâwhile projected vulnerability to climatic risks only influences discussion of climate resiliency and adaptation efforts.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC
An Optimal Self-Stabilizing Firing Squad
Consider a fully connected network where up to processes may crash, and
all processes start in an arbitrary memory state. The self-stabilizing firing
squad problem consists of eventually guaranteeing simultaneous response to an
external input. This is modeled by requiring that the non-crashed processes
"fire" simultaneously if some correct process received an external "GO" input,
and that they only fire as a response to some process receiving such an input.
This paper presents FireAlg, the first self-stabilizing firing squad algorithm.
The FireAlg algorithm is optimal in two respects: (a) Once the algorithm is
in a safe state, it fires in response to a GO input as fast as any other
algorithm does, and (b) Starting from an arbitrary state, it converges to a
safe state as fast as any other algorithm does.Comment: Shorter version to appear in SSS0
Lifetime Difference and Endpoint effect in the Inclusive Bottom Hadron Decays
The lifetime differences of bottom hadrons are known to be properly explained
within the framework of heavy quark effective field theory(HQEFT) of QCD via
the inverse expansion of the dressed heavy quark mass. In general, the spectrum
around the endpoint region is not well behaved due to the invalidity of
expansion near the endpoint. The curve fitting method is adopted to treat the
endpoint behavior. It turns out that the endpoint effects are truly small and
the explanation on the lifetime differences in the HQEFT of QCD is then well
justified. The inclusion of the endpoint effects makes the prediction on the
lifetime differences and the extraction on the CKM matrix element
more reliable.Comment: 11 pages, Revtex, 10 figures, 6 tables, published versio
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