The New Individualist Perspective: Identity Transformations in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis

In this article I examine some implications of the extraordinary financial and economic crisis sweeping the globe since 2008 – referred to in what follows as the Great Global Crash – with specific reference to the social theory of the new individualism (Elliott and Lemert, 2006, 2009a, 2009b; Elliott 2008, 2009; Elliott and Urry 2010; Elliott, Katagiri and Sawai 2010).[1] The global shocks to worldwide production, financial, consumption and real estate systems unleashed by the crisis of September 2008 has carried profound consequences for economic and social development, both in terms of extensity and intensity, as well as significant implications for global security and political stability. As an indication of the global scope and depth of the macroeconomic financial crisis of 2008, the United Nations (2009) – in a report titled "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009" – estimated that governments worldwide have spent in economic stimulus packages in excess of $US18 trillion in order to recapitalize banks and failing financial institutions; it was also estimated by the UN that$US2.6 trillion has been spent worldwide in fiscal stimulus packages, and that worldwide unemployment as a direct result of the financial and economic crisis might reach fifty million jobs (although the report also notes that such a figure could well double).Widely viewed as the worst world recession since the Second World War, the global policy response to the economic and financial crisis of 2008 – centred on monetary, fiscal and financial measures to stabilize financial markets and revive the global electronic economy – has sought to introduce sounder economic management and better policy regulation of the financial sector in order to achieve more sustainable economic goals for the twenty-first century. Some critics have labelled such policy responses as spelling the death of neo-liberalism, or the demise of unfettered, turbo-charged economic globalization. As a consequence, the new individualism – as a construct of identity modes underpinning the global electronic economy of mass consumerism, mass indebtedness and neo-liberalism more generally – has come in for some sustained and probing criticism (see, among others, Smith 2007 and Beasley 2009). However I shall argue in this article that, rather than heralding a new era of austerity or significant cultural reform of the global electronic economy and its associated fast-speed ways of life throughout the expensive, polished cities of the West, that the global financial crisis has ultimately produced a reinforcement and intensification of the ethos of new individualism. The upshot, in sociological terms, has been a lifting of the new individualism to the second power

Automating the black art: Creative places for artificial intelligence in audio mastering

In this paper, we consider the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creative economy of music production. One sector in particular, audio post-production, is experiencing rapid change due to AI and various other forms of automation. This spells major changes, now and in the future, for skills, employment and work. Many accounts on the role of machine automation in occupational instability-specifically, reductions in human employment-have focused on the manufacturing (assembly lines) and service (financial, legal and administration) sectors: so-called blue- and white-collar jobs. However, there are as yet only limited forays into the possible consequences of AI in the creative economy, in particular on \u27no-collar jobs\u27. Creative occupations were previously understood to be immune from the disruptions of AI due to the high levels of intuition, affective knowledge, \u27gut instinct\u27, and other human \u27assets\u27 difficult to replicate by complex algorithms and intelligent machines. Drawing on empirical research on AI in audio post-production, this article contends that there are conflicting notions of the possible impacts of these new innovations on human expertise and digital skills. The article highlights change underway in this profession of audio mastering as workers in the creative industries collaborate and compete with AI-driven technological innovation

Active vibration control (AVC) of a satellite boom structure using optimally positioned stacked piezoelectric actuators

In this paper, results for active vibration control predicted from experimental measurements on a lightweight structure are compared with purely computational predictions. The structure studied is a 4.5m long satellite boom consisting of 10 identical bays with equilateral triangular cross sections. First, the results from a Fortran code that is based on a receptance analysis are validated against the experimental forced response of the boom structure. Exhaustive searches are then carried out to find the optimum positions for one and two actuators. Finally, a genetic algorithm is employed to find high-quality positions for three actuators on the structure that will achieve the greatest reductions in vibration transmission. Having found these actuator positions, experiments are then carried out to verify the quality of the theoretical predictions. It was found that the attenuation achievable in practice for one, two and three actuators were, respectively, 15.1, 26.1 and 33.5 dB

Plástica extrema: auge de la cultura de la cirugía estética

El mundo actual es testigo del crecimiento vertiginoso de la cirugía estética. En esteartículo se demuestra cómo la globalización avanzada, la lógica de la nueva economía,el desarrollo de la alta tecnología y el deseo imperante de reinvención inmediata, hansido determinantes en la consolidación de unas prácticas sociales sobre el cuerpoque han dado lugar a la llamada cultura de la cirugía estétic

Active vibration control (AVC) of a satellite boom structure using optimally positioned stacked piezoelectric actuators

In this paper, results for active vibration control predicted from experimental measurements on a lightweight structure are compared with purely computational predictions. The structure studied is a 4.5m long satellite boom consisting of 10 identical bays with equilateral triangular cross sections. First, the results from a Fortran code that is based on a receptance analysis are validated against the experimental forced response of the boom structure. Exhaustive searches are then carried out to find the optimum positions for one and two actuators. Finally, a genetic algorithm is employed to find high-quality positions for three actuators on the structure that will achieve the greatest reductions in vibration transmission. Having found these actuator positions, experiments are then carried out to verify the quality of the theoretical predictions. It was found that the attenuation achievable in practice for one, two and three actuators were, respectively, 15.1, 26.1 and 33.5 dB

Triclocarban Influences Antibiotic Resistance and Alters Anaerobic Digester Microbial Community Structure

Triclocarban (TCC) is one of the most abundant organic micropollutants detected in biosolids. Lab-scale anaerobic digesters were amended with TCC at concentrations ranging from the background concentration of seed biosolids (30 mg/kg) to toxic concentrations of 850 mg/kg to determine the effect on methane production, relative abundance of antibiotic resistance genes, and microbial community structure. Additionally, the TCC addition rate was varied to determine the impacts of acclimation time. At environmentally relevant TCC concentrations (max detect = 440 mg/kg), digesters maintained function. Digesters receiving 450 mg/kg of TCC maintained function under gradual TCC addition, but volatile fatty acid concentrations increased, pH decreased, and methane production ceased when immediately fed this concentration. The concentrations of the mexB gene (encoding for a multidrug efflux pump) were higher with all concentrations of TCC compared to a control, but higher TCC concentrations did not correlate with increased mexB abundance. The relative abundance of the gene tet(L) was greater in the digesters that no longer produced methane, and no effect on the relative abundance of the class 1 integron integrase encoding gene (intI1) was observed. Illumina sequencing revealed substantial community shifts in digesters that functionally failed from increased levels of TCC. More subtle, yet significant, community shifts were observed in digesters amended with TCC levels that did not inhibit function. This research demonstrates that TCC can select for a multidrug resistance encoding gene in mixed community anaerobic environments, and this selection occurs at concentrations (30 mg/kg) that can be found in full-scale anaerobic digesters (U.S. median concentration = 22 mg/kg, mean = 39 mg/kg)

Effects of Climate-Induced Changes in Parasitism, Predation and Predator-Predator Interactions on Reproduction and Survival of an Arctic Marine Bird

A detailed understanding of the processes and interactions within biological communities is needed to describe and predict the biological consequences of climate change. Global warming may affect biological communities at specific sites through changes in the species composition that follow changes in range, or through altered food web interactions caused by changes in phenology or behaviour. We describe the demographic consequences for a colonial nesting seabird, the Thick-billed Murre (Uria lomvia), of exceptionally intense mosquito parasitism and predation by polar bears in a particular year. Increases in mosquito parasitism and bear predation are changes in behaviour rather than changes in range, and both caused unusual adult mortality and reproductive failure in Thick-billed Murres. In the case of adult mortality, the effects of predation and parasitism were complementary, whereas in the case of reproductive failure, most birds affected by parasitism would in any case have subsequently lost their eggs to bear predation. The mosquito and bear activities had the secondary result of redirecting the attention of gulls and foxes, the usual predators of murre eggs, towards scavenging carcasses and preying on eggs exposed by birds deserting their ledges. This diversion reduced the impact of gulls and foxes on the murres and altered the spatial configuration of predation risk. Our observations emphasize the difficulty faced by ecologists in predicting the consequences of global warming even for simple and relatively well-studied ecosystems. Moreover, the net effect of combined parasitism and predation was much greater than reported previously, reducing overall colony productivity by 20% and increasing adult mortality by 20%. If this effect happens every year, it will have population consequences.Il y a lieu de bien comprendre les processus et les interactions qui se produisent au sein des communautés biologiques afin d’être en mesure de décrire et de prévoir les conséquences biologiques du changement climatique. Le réchauffement climatique peut avoir des incidences sur les communautés biologiques de sites spécifiques en ce sens que la composition des espèces peut être modifiée en raison de changements caractérisant le parcours naturel ou en encore, en raison d’interactions altérées à l’échelle du réseau alimentaire attribuables à des changements de phénologie ou de comportement. Nous décrivons les conséquences démographiques relatives à un oiseau de mer colonial en nidification, soit le guillemot de Brünnich (Uria lomvia), de même que les conséquences du parasitisme exceptionnellement intense des moustiques et de la prédation par les ours polaires au cours d’une année donnée. L’intensification du parasitisme des moustiques de même que la prédation par les ours correspondent à des changements de comportement plutôt qu’à des changements de parcours, et ces deux facteurs ont causé une mortalité inhabituellement élevée chez les adultes ainsi qu’une infécondité chez le guillemot de Brünnich. En matière de mortalité chez les adultes, les effets de la prédation et du parasitisme étaient complémentaires, tandis qu’en matière d’infécondité, la plupart des oiseaux touchés par le parasitisme auraient tout de même fini par perdre leurs oeufs en raison de la prédation par les ours. L’activité des moustiques et des ours a eu pour résultat secondaire de réorienter l’attention des goélands et des renards, qui sont les prédateurs habituels des oeufs de guillemot, vers la charogne des carcasses et la prédation des oeufs exposés par les oiseaux qui désertaient leurs corniches. Cette diversion a eu pour effet d’atténuer l’incidence des goélands et des renards sur les guillemots, en plus de modifier la configuration spatiale du risque de prédation. Nos observations font ressortir la difficulté à laquelle font face les écologistes en matière de prévision des conséquences du réchauffement climatique, même dans le cas d’écosystèmes simples et relativement bien étudiés. Par ailleurs, l’effet final du parasitisme et de la prédation mis ensemble était beaucoup plus grand que ce qui n’avait déjà été signalé, ce qui a eu pour effet de réduire la productivité générale de la colonie de 20 pour cent et d’accroître le taux de mortalité chez les adultes dans une mesure de 20 pour cent. Si cet effet se répétait chaque année, il aurait des conséquences sur la population

Chronic Exposure to Triclosan Sustains Microbial Community Shifts and Alters Antibiotic Resistance Gene Levels in Anaerobic Digesters

Triclosan, an antimicrobial chemical found in consumer personal care products, has been shown to stimulate antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. Although many studies focus on antibiotic resistance pertinent to medical scenarios, resistance developed in natural and engineered environments is less studied and has become an emerging concern for human health. In this study, the impacts of chronic triclosan (TCS) exposure on antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and microbial community structure were assessed in lab-scale anaerobic digesters. TCS concentrations from below detection to 2500 mg kg−1 dry solids were amended into anaerobic digesters over 110 days and acclimated for \u3e3 solid retention time values. Four steady state TCS concentrations were chosen (30–2500 mg kg−1). Relative abundance of mexB, a gene coding for a component of a multidrug efflux pump, was significantly higher in all TCS-amended digesters (30 mg kg−1 or higher) relative to the control. TCS selected for bacteria carrying tet(L) and against those carrying erm(F) at concentrations which inhibited digester function; the pH decrease associated with digester failure was suspected to cause this selection. Little to no impact of TCS was observed on intI1 relative abundance. Microbial communities were also surveyed by high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Compared to the control digesters, significant shifts in community structure towards clades containing commensal and pathogenic bacteria were observed in digesters containing TCS. Based on these results, TCS should be included in studies and risk assessments that attempt to elucidate relationships between chemical stressors (e.g. antibiotics), antibiotic resistance genes, and public health