The theoretical potential of website and newspaper data for analysing political communication processes

'Der vorliegende Aufsatz vergleicht die Stärken und Schwächen von Webseiten und Zeitungen als Datenquellen für die Analyse politischer Kommunikationsprozesse. Als prozess-generierte Daten teilen beide Quellen mehrere Vor- und Nachteile, unterscheiden sich aber in Details, woraus spezifische theoretische Potentiale resultieren. Wir zeigen jeweils spezifische Verzerrungen, die bereits bei der Produktion aber auch durch die selektive Archivierung und Sicherung der Daten entstehen können. Des Weiteren unterscheiden wir jeweils spezifische Zugangswege zu den Quellen und Möglichkeiten, das Datenmaterial zu klassifizieren. Daran anknüpfend stellen wir die These auf, dass sich Zeitungen und Webseiten aufgrund der ihnen eigenen Qualitäten für bestimmte Fragestellungen mehr bzw. weniger eignen: Webseiten eignen sich 1. eher für die Analyse interpretativer Deutungsmuster, jedoch weniger zur Analyse politischer Diskurse; 2. eher für die Analyse marginalisierter Akteure, jedoch weniger zur Analyse von Machteliten und 3. eher für zeitlich begrenzte Fallstudien als für Längsschnittsanalysen. Für Zeitungen gilt jeweils das Gegenteil. Die Entscheidung für einen Datentyp ist letztlich aber auch von spezifischen Aspekten der Forschungsfrage abhängig. Der Aufsatz schließt mit einem Überblick über Charakteristiken und Möglichkeiten der beiden Datentypen, der dem Leser helfen soll, diese Merkmale beim Entwurf eines Forschungsdesigns zu berücksichtigen.' (Autorenreferat)'This article compares the strengths and weaknesses of websites and newspapers as data sources for the analysis of political communication. Both are characterised as process-generated data and thus share various advantages and disadvantages but vary in detail. The authors argue that the theoretical potential of these data types in analysing political communication is unequal. They highlight the differences of the sources in production bias, selection bias, access to data and in the extent to which those two types of data can be classified. Based on these fundamental characteristics, the authors claim that the specific qualities of the data types recommend them for some kind of questions while disqualifying them for others. While websites tend to be more suitable for analysing interpretive frames of individual actors for political issues rather than political discourses, weak rather than strong actors, and for case studies with a narrow time frame rather than longitudinal analysis, the strengths of newspapers tend to be the reverse. Still, whether to use newspapers, websites, other data sources or a combination of sources depends largely on specific aspects of the research question. Their overview of characteristics and possibilities of websites and newspapers should help the reader to take these factors into account.' (author's abstract

Fronts and stationary domains during electrochemical H2 oxidation on Pt: The impact of the position of the reference electrode on the spatiotemporal behaviour

We studied the local potential distribution in front of a rotating Pt ring-electrode during hydrogen oxidation in sulfuric acid for three different positions of the reference electrode. The potential distribution was measured with a potential micro-probe. The experiments were carried out in the bistable region of the system. For large and medium distances between the reference (RE) and the working electrode (WE), transitions between the two homogeneous states occurred through nucleation and growth of the globally stable state from the initially metastable one. The transition time was considerably longer for the intermediate distance between the RE and the WE. For the closest distance used, stationary patterns formed, consisting of two domains with high and low current densities, respectively. The difference in the double layer potential of the two domains amounted to more than 1 V. The low-current density domain was covered with Pt-O whereas in the high current density domain the electrode surface consisted of 'bare' Pt. The existence of these stationary non-equilibrium structures as well as the difference of the front behaviour for the other two electrode arrangements can be traced back to the existence of a negative global coupling for intermediate and close distances between the WE and the RE

Food Deserts and Migrant Farmworkers: Assessing Food Access in Oregon\u27s Willamette Valley

Food insecurity, often correlated with “food deserts,” affects migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) at greater rates than other populations. Our research evaluates the food desert experiences of MSFW communities in Oregon\u27s Willamette Valley. Through GIS mapping, interviews with MSFW, and food retailer inventories, our research helps elucidate the degree to which the geographical distribution of food retailers and the products they carry affects MSFW. Access to food retailers was assessed for distances of 0.25, 1.5, 5, and 10 miles. Mapping locations of registered MSFW labor camps (n = 62) and food retailers (n = 215) in the Willamette Valley revealed access to a food retailer within 0.25 mile for one labor camp and 1.5 miles for 46% of camps. All MSFW camps had access to a food retailer within 5 miles. Our research further suggests that using distance alone to determine food deserts may be deceptive as these numbers do not show the types of food retailers and challenges that MSFW in rural labor camps, who often lack access to personal vehicles and public transit, encounter when shopping for nutritionally and culturally appropriate foods. Migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the Willamette Valley experience significant physical and economic barriers to food access, especially culturally appropriate foods

An evolutionary approach to constraint-regularized learning

The success of machine learning methods for inducing models from data crucially depends on the proper incorporation of background knowledge about the model to be learned. The idea of constraint-regularized learning is to em- ploy fuzzy set-based modeling techniques in order to express such knowl- edge in a flexible way, and to formalize it in terms of fuzzy constraints. Thus, background knowledge can be used to appropriately bias the learn- ing process within the regularization framework of inductive inference. After a brief review of this idea, the paper offers an operationalization of constraint- regularized learning. The corresponding framework is based on evolutionary methods for model optimization and employs fuzzy rule bases of the Takagi- Sugeno type as flexible function approximators

Core-top calibration of δ18O and δ13C of G. ruber (white) and U. mediterranea along the southern Adriatic coast of Italy

We carried out an extensive survey of the oxygen and carbon isotope composition of the planktic species G. ruber (white) and of the benthic species U. mediterranea along the southern Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea and in the Gulf of Taranto. Comparison with seasonal satellite-based sea surface temperature maps and water column profiles as well as with several sets of water samples allows estimation of the effect of salinity and different nutrient supply on the δ18O and δ13C of foraminifera. The results indicate that G. ruber (white), while being highly affected by different salinity and nutrient distributions related to circulation patterns of major water masses, dominantly record summer temperature conditions. U. mediterranea reflect the recent environmental conditions, such as nutrient supply and bottom water temperature characteristics, along the southern Italian coast and clearly show the transition from a near-coastal eutrophic system to an offshore oligotrophic system

Coupled Mg/Ca and clumped isotope analyses of foraminifera provide consistent water temperatures

The reliable determination of past seawater temperature is fundamental to paleoclimate studies. We test the robustness of two paleotemperature proxies by combining Mg/Ca and clumped isotopes (Δ47) on the same specimens of core top planktonic foraminifera. The strength of this approach is that Mg/Ca and Δ47 are measured on the same specimens of foraminifera, thereby providing two independent estimates of temperature. This replication constitutes a rigorous test of individual methods with the advantage that the same approach can be applied to fossil specimens. Aliquots for Mg/Ca and clumped analyses are treated in the same manner following a modified cleaning procedure of foraminifera for trace element and isotopic analyses. We analysed eight species of planktonic foraminifera from coretop samples over a wide range of temperatures from 2 to 29°C. We provide a new clumped isotope temperature calibrations using subaqueous cave carbonates, which is consistent with recent studies. Tandem Mg/Ca–Δ47 results follow an exponential curve as predicted by temperature calibration equations. Observed deviations from the predicted Mg/Ca-Δ47 relationship are attributed to the effects of Fe-Mn oxide coatings, contamination, or dissolution of foraminiferal tests. This coupled approach provides a high degree of confidence in temperature estimates when Mg/Ca and Δ47 yield concordant results, and can be used to infer the past δ18O of seawater (δ18Osw) for paleoclimate studies

Quasiparticle Interactions for f2^2-Impurity Anderson Model with Crystalline-Electric-Field: Numerical Renormalization Group Study

The aspect of the quasiparticle interaction of a local Fermi liquid, the impurity version of f$^2$-based heavy fermions, is studied by the Wilson numerical renormalization group method. In particular, the case of the f$^2$-singlet crystalline-electric-field ground state is investigated assuming the case of UPt$_3$ with the hexagonal symmetry. It is found that the interorbital interaction becomes larger than the intraorbital one in contrast to the case of the bare Coulomb interaction for the parameters relevant to UPt$_3$. This result offers us a basis to construct a microscopic theory of the superconductivity of UPt$_3$ where the interorbital interactions are expected to play important roles.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Soliton equations and the zero curvature condition in noncommutative geometry

Familiar nonlinear and in particular soliton equations arise as zero curvature conditions for GL(1,R) connections with noncommutative differential calculi. The Burgers equation is formulated in this way and the Cole-Hopf transformation for it attains the interpretation of a transformation of the connection to a pure gauge in this mathematical framework. The KdV, modified KdV equation and the Miura transformation are obtained jointly in a similar setting and a rather straightforward generalization leads to the KP and a modified KP equation. Furthermore, a differential calculus associated with the Boussinesq equation is derived from the KP calculus.Comment: Latex, 10 page