Online reverse discourses? Claiming a space for trans voices

In recent years, online media have offered to trans people helpful resources to create new political, cultural and personal representations of their biographies. However, the role of these media in the construction of their social and personal identities has seldom been addressed. Drawing on the theoretical standpoint of positioning theory and diatextual discourse analysis, this paper discusses the results of a research project about weblogs created by Italian trans women. In particular, the aim of this study was to describe the ways online resources are used to express different definitions and interpretation of transgenderism, transsexuality and gender transitioning. We identified four main positioning strategies: \u201cTransgender\u201d, \u201cTranssexual before being a woman\u201d, \u201cA woman who was born male\u201d and \u201cJust a normal woman\u201d. We conclude with the political implications of the pluralization of narratives about gender non-conformity. Specifically, we will highlight how aspects of neoliberal discourses have been appropriated and rearticulated in the construction of gendered subjectivities

How local media coverage of voter fraud influences partisan perceptions in the United States

Extant findings show that voter fraud is extremely rare and difficult to prove in the United States. Voter’s knowledge about voter fraud allegations likely comes through the media, who tend to sensationalize the issue. In this study, we argue that the more voters are exposed to media coverage of voter fraud allegations, the more likely that they will perceive that voter fraud is a frequent problem. We merge the 2012 Survey of Performance of American Elections with state-level media coverage of voter fraud leading up to the 2012 election. Our results show that media coverage of voter fraud is associated with public beliefs about voter fraud. In states where fraud was more frequently featured in local media outlets, public concerns about voter fraud were heightened. In particular, we find that press attention to voter fraud has a larger influence on Republicans than Democrats and Independents. We further find that media coverage of voter fraud does not further polarize partisan perceptions of voter fraud. Rather, political interest moderates state media coverage on voter fraud beliefs only among Republicans. Lastly, our results provide no support that demographic changes, approval of election administration, or information concerning actual reported voting irregularities have any discernable effects on partisan perceptions

Perceptions of voter fraud are boosted by many Americans' hostility towards immigrants.

One of Donald Trump's earliest claims as President was that millions voted illegally in the 2016 election. Given that research has found that voter fraud in the US is exceptionally rare, how can many Americans' concerns about illegal voting be explained? In new research, Adriano Udani and David Kimball find that anti-immigrant attitudes - especially towards Mexicans - strongly predict ..

Microbial residence time is a controlling parameter of the taxonomic composition and functional profile of microbial communities.

A remaining challenge within microbial ecology is to understand the determinants of richness and diversity observed in environmental microbial communities. In a range of systems, including activated sludge bioreactors, the microbial residence time (MRT) has been previously shown to shape the microbial community composition. However, the physiological and ecological mechanisms driving this influence have remained unclear. Here, this relationship is explored by analyzing an activated sludge system fed with municipal wastewater. Using a model designed in this study based on Monod-growth kinetics, longer MRTs were shown to increase the range of growth parameters that enable persistence, resulting in increased richness and diversity in the modeled community. In laboratory experiments, six sequencing batch reactors treating domestic wastewater were operated in parallel at MRTs between 1 and 15 days. The communities were characterized using both 16S ribosomal RNA and non-target messenger RNA sequencing (metatranscriptomic analysis), and model-predicted monotonic increases in richness were confirmed in both profiles. Accordingly, taxonomic Shannon diversity also increased with MRT. In contrast, the diversity in enzyme class annotations resulting from the metatranscriptomic analysis displayed a non-monotonic trend over the MRT gradient. Disproportionately high abundances of transcripts encoding for rarer enzymes occur at longer MRTs and lead to the disconnect between taxonomic and functional diversity profiles

The Tubulifera (Hexapoda, Thysanoptera) of the Maltese Islands

This work records the presence of 13 species of tubuliferan thrips from the Maltese Islands. Eleven of these species, namely Bolothrips dentipes, B. insularis, Priesneriella mavromoustakisi, Gynaikothrips uzeli, Haplothrips acanthoscelis, H. aculeatus, H. setiger, H. tritici, Karnyothrips flavipes, Liothrips reuteri and Neoheegeria dalmatica are new records for the Maltese Islands. Two species: Gynaikothrips ficorum and Karnyothrips flavipes can be described as subcosmopolitan in distribution, another three species: Haplothrips aculeatus, H. setiger and H. tritici are distributed across the Holarctic and Palaearctic regions, while a further seven: Bolothrips dentipes, B. insularis, Haplothrips acanthoscelis, Liothrips oleae, L. reuteri, Neoheegeria dalmatica and Priesneriella mavromoustakisi have a European and/or Mediterranean distribution. Gynaikothrips ficorum and G. uzeli are considered as alien species. A key to the Tubulifera of the Maltese Islands as well as chorological data for these recorded species are provided in this work

The media are fueling beliefs about voter fraud despite the fact that it is incredibly rare

It’s election season in the US, which also means that fears about voter fraud are back in the news and on the lips of many politicians. In new research which examines the role of local media in stoking concerns about voter fraud, Brian J. Fogarty, David C. Kimball, and Adriano Udani find that in states where the media frequently mention voter fraud, the public become more concerned about it. This effect is heightened for Republican voters and even more so for those who live in states under Democratic legislative control

Reconstructing temperatures in the Maritime Alps, Italy, since the Last Glacial Maximum using cosmogenic noble gas paleothermometry

The Gesso Valley, located in the southwestern-most, Maritime portion of the European Alps, contains an exceptionally well-preserved record of glacial advances during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Detailed geomorphic mapping, geochronology of glacial deposits, and glacier reconstructions indicate that glaciers in this Mediterranean region responded to millennial scale climate variability differently than glaciers in the interior of the European Alps. This suggests that the Mediterranean Sea somehow modulated the climate of this region. However, since glaciers respond to changes in temperature and precipitation, both variables were potentially influenced by proximity to the Sea. To disentangle the competing effects of temperature and precipitation changes on glacier size, we are constraining past temperature variations in the Gesso Valley since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) using cosmogenic noble gas paleothermometry. The cosmogenic noble gases 3He and 21Ne experience diffusive loss from common minerals like quartz and feldspars at Earth surface temperatures. Cosmogenic noble gas paleothermometry utilizes this open-system behavior to quantitatively constrain thermal histories of rocks during exposure to cosmic ray particles at the Earth’s surface. We will present measurements of cosmogenic 3He in quartz sampled from moraines in the Gesso Valley with LGM, Bühl stadial, and Younger Dryas ages. With these 3He measurements and experimental data quantifying the diffusion kinetics of 3He in quartz, we will provide a preliminary temperature reconstruction for the Gesso Valley since the LGM. Future work on samples from younger moraines in the valley system will be used to fill in details of the more recent temperature history

Surface moisture and temperature trends anticipate drought conditions linked to wildfire activity in the Iberian Peninsula

17 pages, 5 figuresIn this study, drought conditions involving risk of fires are detected applying SMOS-derived soil moisture data and land surface temperature models. Moisture-temperature (SM-LST) patterns studied between 2010 and 2014 were linked to main fire regimes in the Iberian Peninsula. Most wildfires burned in warm and dry soils, but the analysis of pre-fire conditions differed among seasons. Absolute values of SM-LST were useful to detect prone-to-fire conditions during summer and early autumn. Complementarily, SM-LST anomalies were related to droughts and high fire activity in October 2011 and February-March 2012. These episodes were coincident with abnormally anticyclonic atmospheric conditions. Results show that combined trends of new soil moisture space-borne data and temperature models could enhance fire risk assessment capabilities. This contribution should be helpful to face the expected increase of wildfire activity derived from climate changeThis study was funded by the Spanish government through the project PROMISES: Productos y servicios innovadores con sensores de microondas, SMOS y Sentinels para tierra (ESP2015-67549-C3-1-R), and the pre-doctoral grant Ayudas para contratos predoctorales para la Formación de Doctores, with reference BES-2013-066240. This work was also supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Additional funding came to the second author from Fundación BBVAPeer Reviewe

Genome-wide association studies identify heavy metal ATPase3 as the primary determinant of natural variation in leaf cadmium in Arabidopsis thaliana

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