Saving and reproducing the nation: Struggles around right-wing politics of social reproduction, gender and race in austerity Europe

This article suggests the analytic lens of cultural, social and national reproduction to understand the centrality of gendered and ethnic relations, in particular a focus on family life in contemporary UK. Proposing a theoretical focus on reproduction, the article then provides some contextualisation with wider European experiences to show connections between the political articulations across the far-right and mainstream right-wing. It argues that there is much overlap between the far-right and mainstream rightwing, conservative gender and family ideologies, where contradictory aspects of their gender and family ideals (simultaneously progressive and traditional) are articulated as care for the nation's future. Care is then articulated for the purpose of racist activism and constructing governmental belonging. The racialized migrant family plays a central role in these debates, marking the boundaries of the nation. The article explores these issues in depth through the example of material and symbolic constructions of the racialized migrant family as undeserving of care, exemplified through the UK policy of No Recourse to Public Funding

Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming?

This paper investigates the impacts of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans on the corporate investment choices between diversifying and non-diversifying investments. We find a firm’s DB plan coverage is negatively associated with its propensity of making a major investment. Subject to a major investment decision, however, the firms with higher DB plan coverage is more likely to diversify, i.e. acquire firms abroad or in other industries, rather than invest in fixed assets or make non-diversifying (i.e. domestic horizontal) acquisitions. Moreover, in diversifying acquisitions, they are more likely to invest in countries or industries with strongly unionized workforce. Further analysis on post-investment performance shows that firms with higher DB plan coverage experience a greater improvement in operating profitability after a diversifying acquisition, and the improvement mainly comes from a higher asset turnover rather than cost reduction. On the other hand, DB plan sponsoring firms experience a decline in profitability after a large capital expenditure or a non-diversifying acquisition. We propose both bargaining motive and conforming motive can explain these results

Dependence of hardening and saturation stress in persistent slip bands on strain amplitude during cyclic fatigue loading

Cyclic loading of FCC single crystals leads to the formation of persistent slip bands (PSBs) over a wide range of applied strain amplitudes. The hardening and saturation stress associated with cyclic loading of Cu single crystals are reproduced with 3-D discrete dislocation dynamics simulations. Evolution of the dislocation microstructure in PSB channels and walls during cyclic loading is shown to explain key features of plastic deformation. Screw dislocation segments are found to deposit edge components near PSB channel walls resulting in the nucleation of half-loops that expand into neighbouring channels. The saturation stress is found to be tau(s) approximate to 34 MPa at an applied strain amplitude, gamma(p) = 7.5 x 10(-3), within the range of experimental observations. It is shown that once PSBs are formed, subsequent cycling at lower strain amplitudes does not lead to their elimination, but the cyclic stress-strain behaviour is modified. At lower values of gamma(p) of previously formed PSBs, the saturation stress is found to decrease to tau(s) approximate to 24 MPa at gamma(p) = 1.5 x 10(-3). Plastic energy dissipation in hysteresis loops is also significantly reduced but not removed. However, some reverse plasticity is shown to take place upon unloading at low values of gamma(p), and is a direct result of strain recovery of loops that expand into neighbouring channels during the loading phase

Generation and interaction mechanisms of prismatic dislocation loops in FCC metals

[Display omitted] •Mechanisms of prismatic loop formation are the Super-Jog-Drag-Truncation (SJDT), and the Offset-Double-Cross-Slip (ODCS).•Successive SJDT events enable a generation of long strings of prismatic loop arrays.•Sessile dislocation segments are shown to arise in several loop-loop interactions.•An efficient tripolar transport mechanism leads to clustering of dipolar loops in Persistent Slip Bands (PSB). We investigate the mechanisms of prismatic loop formation, motion, interactions, and large-scale patterning in fcc metals utilizing Discrete Dislocation Dynamics (DDD). We identify two main formation mechanisms; both enabled by cross-slip of screw dislocations. The first is termed Super-Jog-Drag-Truncation (SJDT), and the second is the Offset-Double-Cross-Slip (ODCS) mechanism. DDD simulations show that the ODCS mechanism is a precursor to the SJDT mechanism, which then leads to the formation of prismatic loop arrays. It is shown that successive SJDT events enable a knitting mechanism that can generate long strings of prismatic loop arrays, consistent with experiments. We show that fully sessile dislocation segments arise in several loop-loop interactions, leading to Frank-Read and single-arm type sources. A new stable butterfly configuration is found when two {11¯1} prismatic loops interact to form glissile segments on conjugate glide planes, joined by one sessile segment that pins this structure. Absorption of prismatic loops by screw segments and the formation of helical turns is reproduced by DDD simulations, consistent with earlier MD results. An efficient new tripolar transport mechanism is found to contribute to the clustering of prismatic loops near Persistent Slip Band (PSB) channel walls during fatigue loading

Bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr in different environmental samples — Effects of anthropogenic contamination and implications for isoscapes in past migration studies

87Sr/86Sr reference maps (isoscapes) are a key tool for investigating past human and animal migrations. However, there is little understanding of which biosphere samples are best proxies for local bioavailable Sr when dealing with movements of past populations. In this study, biological and geological samples (ground vegetation, tree leaves, rock leachates, water, soil extracts, as well as modern and archeological animal teeth and snail shells) were collected in the vicinity of two early medieval cemeteries (“Thuringians”, 5–6th century AD) in central Germany, in order to characterize 87Sr/86Sr of the local biosphere. Animal tooth enamel is not appropriate in this specific context to provide a reliable 87Sr/86Sr baseline for investigating past human migration. Archeological faunal teeth data (pig, sheep/goat, and cattle) indicates a different feeding area compared to that of the human population and modern deer teeth 87Sr/86Sr suggest the influence of chemical fertilizers. Soil leachates do not yield consistent 87Sr/86Sr, and 87Sr/86Sr of snail shells are biased towards values for soil carbonates. In contrast, water and vegetation samples seem to provide the most accurate estimates of bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr to generate Sr isoscapes in the study area. Long-term environmental archives of bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr such as freshwater bivalve shells and tree cores were examined in order to track potential historic anthropogenic contamination of the water and the vegetation. The data obtained from the archeological bivalve shells show that the modern rivers yield 87Sr/86Sr ratios which are similar to those of the past. However, the tree cores registered decreasing 87Sr/86Sr values over time towards present day likely mirroring anthropogenic activities such as forest liming, coal mining and/or soil acidification. The comparison of 87Sr/86Sr of the Thuringian skeletons excavated in the same area also shows that the vegetation samples are very likely anthropogenically influenced to some extent, affecting especially 87Sr/86Sr of the shallow rooted plants