Twitter: a useful tool for studying elections?

The 2015 General Election in the UK was the first to take place in the UK with Twitter as an important part of the social media landscape. This pilot project looked at 16 constituencies along England’s South Coast in order to investigate what impact, if any, Twitter had had on the campaign and the result and to investigate the efficacy, or otherwise, of using Twitter as a tool for studying election campaigns in terms of candidate and local party activism. On the basis of an analysis of almost half a million tweets the analysis concluded that there appeared to be a correlation between the rate at which parties and/or candidates responded to incoming tweets and their relative electoral performance but this was not demonstrable for all parties (it applied in particular to Labour and UKIP candidates). In addition, high rates of reply also appeared to have a positive impact on constituency turnout figures. The findings are not yet conclusive but suggest that Twitter could be a good indicator of general levels of local party activism. The research also sought to understand how candidates used Twitter differently and established a number of candidate ‘classifiers’. It also investigated the issues agenda that was dominating Twitter conversations during the campaign and found that Twitter’s agenda was closer to the public’s than was that of the national media. The research also monitored the regional and local media in the 16 constituencies and discovered that their issues agenda was closer still to the public’s. Overall it is difficult to conclude that Twitter had a major impact on the election campaign

Populist communication in the new media environment: a cross-regional comparative perspective

The changing terms of mediation place new demands, opportunities and risks on the performance of the political persona. Visibility has become a double-edged sword, leaving representatives vulnerable to exposure while new tools provide opportunities for emerging entrepreneurial actors. This double risk to elites’ mediated personas—exposure and challenge from entrepreneurs—renders their armour of authenticity dangerously fragile, which nourishes a public sense of being inefficaciously represented. It is this climate in which populism currently flourishes around the globe. Three primary criteria of mediated self-representation by politicians—visibility, authenticity and efficacy—form the focus of this paper: how do populists negotiate such demands in different democratic contexts, and wherein lies the symbiosis between populism and the new media environment suggested by the literature? To answer this, the paper compares two populist cases responding to different democratic contexts: UKIP, a right-wing party from an established democracy (UK), and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-wing party from a transitional democracy (South Africa). The objects of study are disruptive performances by these parties, which are considered emblematic manifestations of populist ideology as they establish a Manichaean relationship between the elite and populist actors who embody the people. The paper introduces disruption as a multi-faceted and significant analytical concept to explain the populist behaviour and strategies that underlie populist parties’ responses to the demands for visibility, authenticity and efficacy that the new media environment places upon political representatives. Using mixed methods with an interpretive focus, the paper paints a rich picture of the contexts, meanings and means of construction of populist performances

A Proposed Model

Rocha-Penedo, R., Cruz-Jesus, F., & Oliveira, T. (2021). Opposite Outcomes of Social Media Use: A Proposed Model. In S. K. Sharma, Y. K. Dwivedi, B. Metri, & N. P. Rana (Eds.), Re-imagining Diffusion and Adoption of Information Technology and Systems: A Continuing Conversation - IFIP WG 8.6 International Conference on Transfer and Diffusion of IT, TDIT 2020, Proceedings (pp. 524-537). (IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology; Vol. 618). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64861-9_46Social media are probably one of the most influential and disruptive technology of the present times. It is ubiquitous and has the capability to influence virtually every aspect of one’s life while, at the same time, also influence the way firms and public organizations operate and communicate with individuals. Although there is a plethora of studies in the IS literature focused on SM adoption and outcomes, studies hypothesizing positive and negative outcomes together are scarce. We propose a comprehensive research model to shed light on SM positive and negative outcomes, and how these affect one’s happiness. We also explore how personality traits can influence these relationships.authorsversionpublishe

Evidence for increasing global wheat yield potential

Wheat is the most widely grown food crop, with 761 Mt produced globally in 2020. To meet the expected grain demand by mid-century, wheat breeding strategies must continue to improve upon yield-advancing physiological traits, regardless of climate change impacts. Here, the best performing doubled haploid (DH) crosses with an increased canopy photosynthesis from wheat field experiments in the literature were extrapolated to the global scale with a multi-model ensemble of process-based wheat crop models to estimate global wheat production. The DH field experiments were also used to determine a quantitative relationship between wheat production and solar radiation to estimate genetic yield potential. The multi-model ensemble projected a global annual wheat production of 1050 +/- 145 Mt due to the improved canopy photosynthesis, a 37% increase, without expanding cropping area. Achieving this genetic yield potential would meet the lower estimate of the projected grain demand in 2050, albeit with considerable challenges

E-Democracy and the European Public Sphere

The chapter starts with an outline of outstanding recent contributions to the discussion of the EU democratic deficit and the so-called “no demos” problem and the debate about European citizenship and European identity—mainly in the light of insights from the EU crisis. This is followed by reflections on the recent discussion on the state of the mass media-based European public sphere. Finally, the author discusses the state of research on the Internet’s capacity to support the emergence of a (renewed) public sphere, with a focus on options for political actors to use the Internet for communication and campaigning, on the related establishment of segmented issue-related publics as well as on social media and its two-faced character as an enabler as well as a distorting factor of the public sphere. The author is sceptic about the capacities of Internet-based political communication to develop into a supranational (European) public sphere. It rather establishes a network of a multitude of discursive processes aimed at opinion formation at various levels and on various issues. The potential of online communication to increase the responsiveness of political institutions so far is set into practice insufficiently. Online media are increasingly used in a vertical and scarcely in a horizontal or interactive manner of communication

Copper Supplementation

Background and Aims. Cadmium (Cd) is an industrial and environmental pollutant that was shown to be involved in the development of some diseases. Due to high amounts of Cd in cigarettes, smokers and passive smokers are exposed to high amount of Cd. We aimed to determine whether Copper (Cu) supplementation would have a protective effect against Cd intoxication in pregnant rats and their fetuses.Methods. Experiments were performed on 27 adult female Wistar albino rats divided into three experimental groups. CdCl2, CdCl2 plus CuSO4 and only drinking water was given to different groups for 21 days. We measured cadmium (Cd), malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH), myeloperoxidase (MPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) levels in dams' liver, dams' kidney, fetus liver, fetus kidney, and placenta of rats.Results. In all tissues of Cd and Cd + Cu-treated groups, Cd levels were found to be increased significantly when compared to control group. MDA levels and MPO activities were significantly increased whereas GSH levels, activities of SOD and CAT were decreased in Cd groups when compared to control group. Cu supplementation significantly prevented the increment in MDA levels and brought MPO activities back to control levels or below. Cd-induced reductions in GSH levels and SOD activities were also prevented by Cu supplementation. An increase of CAT activity after Cu supplementation was enough to revert to the control levels in some tissues.Conclusions. Our findings suggest that Cu supplementation may have a protective effect against the Cd-induced oxidative stress in liver, kidney and placental tissues of pregnant rats and fetuses. (C) 2010 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Inc

Cadmium intoxication of pregnant rats and fetuses: interactions of copper supplementation.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cadmium (Cd) is an industrial and environmental pollutant that was shown to be involved in the development of some diseases. Due to high amounts of Cd in cigarettes, smokers and passive smokers are exposed to high amount of Cd. We aimed to determine whether Copper (Cu) supplementation would have a protective effect against Cd intoxication in pregnant rats and their fetuses. METHODS: Experiments were performed on 27 adult female Wistar albino rats divided into three experimental groups. CdCl(2), CdCl(2) plus CuSO(4) and only drinking water was given to different groups for 21 days. We measured cadmium (Cd), malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH), myeloperoxidase (MPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) levels in dams' liver, dams' kidney, fetus liver, fetus kidney, and placenta of rats. RESULTS: In all tissues of Cd and Cd + Cu-treated groups, Cd levels were found to be increased significantly when compared to control group. MDA levels and MPO activities were significantly increased whereas GSH levels, activities of SOD and CAT were decreased in Cd groups when compared to control group. Cu supplementation significantly prevented the increment in MDA levels and brought MPO activities back to control levels or below. Cd-induced reductions in GSH levels and SOD activities were also prevented by Cu supplementation. An increase of CAT activity after Cu supplementation was enough to revert to the control levels in some tissues. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that Cu supplementation may have a protective effect against the Cd-induced oxidative stress in liver, kidney and placental tissues of pregnant rats and fetuses