Preparation of atomic oxygen resistant polymeric materials

Polyphenyl quinoxalines (PPQs) are an important family of high performance polymers that offer good chemical and thermal stability coupled with excellent mechanical properties. These aromatic heterocyclic polymers are potentially useful as films, coatings, adhesives, and composite materials that demand stability in harsh environments. Our approach was to prepare PPQs with pendent siloxane groups using the appropriate chemistry and then evaluate these polymers before and after exposure to simulated atomic oxygen. Either monomer, the bis(o-diamine)s or the bis(alpha-diketone)s can be synthesized with a hydroxy group to which the siloxane chain will be attached. Several novel materials were prepared

Microbial communities in dark oligotrophic volcanic ice cave ecosystems of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica.

The Earth's crust hosts a subsurface, dark, and oligotrophic biosphere that is poorly understood in terms of the energy supporting its biomass production and impact on food webs at the Earth's surface. Dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystems (DOVEs) are good environments for investigations of life in the absence of sunlight as they are poor in organics, rich in chemical reactants and well known for chemical exchange with Earth's surface systems. Ice caves near the summit of Mt. Erebus (Antarctica) offer DOVEs in a polar alpine environment that is starved in organics and with oxygenated hydrothermal circulation in highly reducing host rock. We surveyed the microbial communities using PCR, cloning, sequencing and analysis of the small subunit (16S) ribosomal and Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (RubisCO) genes in sediment samples from three different caves, two that are completely dark and one that receives snow-filtered sunlight seasonally. The microbial communities in all three caves are composed primarily of Bacteria and fungi; Archaea were not detected. The bacterial communities from these ice caves display low phylogenetic diversity, but with a remarkable diversity of RubisCO genes including new deeply branching Form I clades, implicating the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle as a pathway of CO2 fixation. The microbial communities in one of the dark caves, Warren Cave, which has a remarkably low phylogenetic diversity, were analyzed in more detail to gain a possible perspective on the energetic basis of the microbial ecosystem in the cave. Atmospheric carbon (CO2 and CO), including from volcanic emissions, likely supplies carbon and/or some of the energy requirements of chemoautotrophic microbial communities in Warren Cave and probably other Mt. Erebus ice caves. Our work casts a first glimpse at Mt. Erebus ice caves as natural laboratories for exploring carbon, energy and nutrient sources in the subsurface biosphere and the nutritional limits on life

Positioning the Destination Product-Can Regional Tourist Boards Learn from Private Sector Practice?

This article examines the role of positioning in the marketing of a tourism destination. The study focuses on the current positioning strategies pursued by the Regional Tourist Boards (RTBs) in England. A recent nationwide consumer research study into short holiday destination choice in the UK revealed that consumers were confused by the regional product message. The evidence suggests that current RTB positioning strategies are failing to keep pace with the constantly evolving needs of the consumer. This article explores the reasons for clearly positioning the destination product and suggests that, although RTBs could learn from marketing strategies employed in other sectors of the tourism industry, there are likely to be organisational and cultural barriers inhibiting this learning curve

In Situ Diazotroph Population Dynamics Under Different Resource Ratios in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

Major advances in understanding the diversity, distribution, and activity of marine N2-fixing microorganisms (diazotrophs) have been made in the past decades, however, large gaps in knowledge remain about the environmental controls on growth and mortality rates. In order to measure diazotroph net growth rates and microzooplankton grazing rates on diazotrophs, nutrient perturbation experiments and dilution grazing experiments were conducted using free-floating in situ incubation arrays in the vicinity of Station ALOHA in March 2016. Net growth rates for targeted diazotroph taxa as well as Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and photosynthetic picoeukaryotes were determined under high (H) and low (L) nitrate:phosphate (NP) ratio conditions at four depths in the photic zone (25, 45, 75, and 100 m) using quantitative PCR and flow cytometry. Changes in the prokaryote community composition in response to HNP and LNP treatments were characterized using 16S rRNA variable region tag sequencing. Microzooplankton grazing rates on diazotrophs were measured using a modified dilution technique at two depths in the photic zone (15 and 125 m). Net growth rates for most of the targeted diazotrophs after 48 h were not stimulated as expected by LNP conditions, rather enhanced growth rates were often measured in HNP treatments. Interestingly, net growth rates of the uncultivated prymnesiophyte symbiont UCYN-A1 were stimulated in HNP treatments at 75 and 100 m, suggesting that N used for growth was acquired through continuing to fix N2 in the presence of nitrate. Net growth rates for UCYN-A1, UCYN-C, Crocosphaera sp. (UCYN-B) and the diatom symbiont Richelia (associated with Rhizosolenia) were uniformly high at 45 m (up to 1.6 ± 0.5 d-1), implying that all were growing optimally at the onset of the experiment at that depth. Differences in microzooplankton grazing rates on UCYN-A1 and UCYN-C in 15 m waters indicate that the grazer assemblage preyed preferentially on UCYN-A1. Deeper in the water column (125 m), both diazotrophs were grazed at substantial rates, suggesting grazing pressure may increase with depth in the photic zone. Constraining in situ diazotroph growth and mortality rates are important steps for improving parameterization for diazotrophs in global ecosystem models

The interaction of class and gender in illness narratives

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 BSA Publications Ltd.Perspectives on gender and identity that emphasize variability of performance, local context and individual agency have displaced earlier paradigms.These are now perceived to have supported gender stereotypes and language ideologies by emphasizing gender difference and homogeneity within genders. In a secondary analysis of health and illness narratives we explore the interaction of class and gender in individuals' constructions of gendered identity. High social class men perform gender in particularly varied ways and we speculate that this variable repertoire, including the use of what was once termed `women's language', is linked to a capacity to maintain social distinction and authority. Men's performance of conventional masculinity is often threatened by both the experience of illness and being interviewed about personal experience. Lower social class women in particular demonstrate an intensification of a pre-existing informal family and support group culture, marking successful members by awarding them the accolade of being `lovely'.ESR

'Mine's a Pint of Bitter': Performativity, gender, class and representations of authenticity in real-ale tourism

Leisure choices are expressive of individual agency around the maintenance of taste, boundaries, identity and community. This research paper is part of a wider project designed to assess the social and cultural value of real ale to tourism in the north of England. This paper explores the performativity of real-ale tourism and debates about belonging in northern English real-ale communities. The research combines an ethnographic case study of a real-ale festival with semi-structured interviews with organisers and volunteers, northern English real-ale brewers and real-ale tourists visiting the festival. It is argued that real-ale tourism, despite its origins in the logic of capitalism, becomes a space where people can perform Habermasian, communicative leisure, and despite the contradictions of preferring some capitalist industries over others on the basis of their perceived smaller size and older age, real-ale fans demonstrate agency in their performativity

Learning masculinities in a Japanese high school rugby club

This paper draws on research conducted on a Tokyo high school rugby club to explore diversity in the masculinities formed through membership in the club. Based on the premise that particular forms of masculinity are expressed and learnt through ways of playing (game style) and the attendant regimes of training, it examines the expression and learning of masculinities at three analytic levels. It identifies a hegemonic, culture-specific form of masculinity operating in Japanese high school rugby, a class-influenced variation of it at the institutional level of the school and, by further tightening its analytic focus, further variation at an individual level. In doing so this paper highlights the ways in which diversity in the masculinities constructed through contact sports can be obfuscated by a reductionist view of there being only one, universal hegemonic patterns of masculinity

'It's a Form of Freedom': The experiences of people with disabilities within equestrian sport

This paper explores the embodied, gendered experiences of disabled horse‐riders. Drawing on data from five in‐depth interviews with paradressage riders, the ways in which their involvement in elite disability sport impacts upon their sense of identity and confidence are explored, as well as the considerable health and social benefits that this involvement brings. Social models of disability are employed and the shortcomings of such models, when applied to disability sport, are highlighted. The data presented here demonstrates the necessity of seeing disability sport as an embodied experience and acknowledging the importance of impairment to the experiences of disabled athletes. Living within an impaired body is also a gendered experience and the implications of this when applied to elite disability sport are considered