3,395 research outputs found
Messing up research: A dialogical account of gender, reflexivity, and governance in auto-ethnography
This paper aims to contribute to a growing critical and reflexive awareness of the implications of gendered assumptions about ontology, epistemology, and ethics in academic research governance and practice. It provides a retrospective account of the authors' shared experiences of an autoethnographic study of lap dancing clubs, focusing on critical or “sticky moments” encountered, and considering the implications of these for research more widely. It does so by highlighting the gendered power relations shaping academic research, showing how Judith Butler's critique of the heterosexual matrix can be applied to a critical, reflexive understanding of the impact of binary, hierarchical gender power relations. The analysis provides insight into some of the ways in which autoethnographic research on sexualized work may become messy, dirty, and sticky in ways that accentuate power inequalities but also open up moments of opportunity for gender binaries and hierarchies to be revealed, challenged, and resisted. Using a Butlerian lens to reflect on our experiences, we contribute to understanding how heteronormative assumptions shape perceptions of what makes “good,” “clean,” and ethically (formally) approved research that conforms to the governmental norms of the heterosexual matrix and, by implication, those contaminating forms of research that disrupt or resist its disciplinary effects. As ethnographic research is often messy by its very nature, and particularly so when situated within sex/sexualized work, we aim to show how gendered assumptions can inhibit reflexivity in academic knowledge production, resulting in research processes that are (paradoxically) unethical. In response, we suggest three ways in which gender reflexive research might be pursued, by: (i) identifying gendered assumptions reflexively and dialogically, (ii) adopting an anti-essentialist approach that foregrounds experiential, embodied knowledge, and (iii) developing an anti-hierarchical methodology. We do so in the hope of opening up ways that might enable others to avoid heteronormative assumptions having potentially detrimental consequences for their research and to offer a starting point for developing gender reflexive knowledge production in the future
Effect of Urea and Distillers Inclusion in Dry- Rolled Corn Based Diets on Heifer Performance and Carcass Characteristics
Crossbred heifers (n=96, BW = 810 ± 20) were utilized to evaluate the effects of increasing wet distillers grains plus solubles and urea inclusion in a dry rolled corn based finishing diet on performance and carcass characteristics. Heifers were individually fed using a calan gate system with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Factors included distillers inclusion at either 10 or 20% of diet DM and urea inclusion at either 0.2 or 1.4% of diet DM. Th ere was no difference for final body weight, average daily gain, and feed conversion on a live or carcass adjusted basis for either urea or distillers inclusion in the diet. Dry matter intake was reduced with increased urea inclusion; however, distillers inclusion did not influence intake. Added distillers and urea in the diet had minimal impact on performance suggesting supplemental urea in a dry rolled corn based finishing diets is of minimal benefit when feeding at least 10% distillers grains
In search of dying radio sources in the local universe
Up till now very few dying sources were known, presumably because the dying
phase is short at centimeter wavelengths. We therefore have tried to improve
the statistics on sources that have ceased to be active, or are intermittently
active. The latter sources would partly consist of a fossil radio plasma left
over from an earlier phase of activity, plus a recently restarted core and
radio jets. Improving the statistics of dying sources will give us a better
handle on the evolution of radio sources, in particular the frequency and time
scales of radio activity. We have used the WENSS and NVSS surveys, in order to
find sources with steep spectral indices, associated with nearby elliptical
galaxies. In the cross correlation we presently used only unresolved sources,
with flux densities at 1.4 GHz larger than 10 mJy. The eleven candidates thus
obtained were observed with the VLA in various configurations, in order to
confirm the steepness of the spectra, and to check whether active structures
like flat-spectrum cores and jets are present, perhaps at low levels. We
estimated the duration of the active and relic phases by modelling the
integrated radio spectra using the standard models of spectral evolution. We
have found six dying sources and three restarted sources, while the remaining
two candidates remain unresolved also with the new VLA data and may be Compact
Steep Spectrum sources, with an unusually steep spectrum. The typical age of
the active phase, as derived by spectral fits, is in the range 10^7 - 10^8
years. For our sample of dying sources, the age of the relic phase is on
average shorter by an order of magnitude than the active phase.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted by A&A. For a version with high
quality figures, see http://erg.ca.astro.it/preprints/dying2007
Submillimetre dust polarisation and opacity in the HD163296 protoplanetary ring system
We present ALMA images of the sub-mm continuum polarisation and spectral
index of the protoplanetary ringed disk HD163296. The polarisation fraction at
870{\mu}m is measured to be ~0.9% in the central core and generally increases
with radius along the disk major axis. It peaks in the gaps between the dust
rings, and the largest value (~4%) is found between rings 1 and 2. The
polarisation vectors are aligned with the disk minor axis in the central core,
but become more azimuthal in the gaps, twisting by up to +/-9degrees in the gap
between rings 1 and 2. These general characteristics are consistent with a
model of self-scattered radiation in the ringed structure, without requiring an
additional dust alignment mechanism. The 870/1300{\mu}m dust spectral index
exhibits minima in the centre and the inner rings, suggesting these regions
have high optical depths. However, further refinement of the dust or the disk
model at higher resolution is needed to reproduce simultaneously the observed
degree of polarisation and the low spectral index.Comment: 5 pages +2 pages supplemental data. v2 - revised figures and final
values; conclusions unchange
Distributions and Variability of Particulate Organic Matter in a Coastal Upwelling System
In this study we examined the spatial and temporal variability of particulate organic material (POM) off Oregon during the upwelling season. High-resolution vertical profiling of beam attenuation was conducted along two cross-shelf transects. One transect was located in a region where the shelf is relatively uniform and narrow (off Cascade Head (CH)); the second transect was located in a region where the shelf is shallow and wide (off Cape Perpetua (CP)). In addition, water samples were collected for direct analysis of chlorophyll, particulate organic carbon (POC), and particulate organic nitrogen (PON). Beam attenuation was highly correlated with POC and PON. Striking differences in distribution patterns and characteristics of POM were observed between CH and CP. Off CH, elevated concentrations of chlorophyll and POC were restricted to the inner shelf and were highly variable in time. The magnitude of the observed short-term temporal variability was of the same order as that of the seasonal variability reported in previous studies. Elevated concentrations of nondegraded chlorophyll and POM were observed near the bottom. Downwelling and rapid sinking are two mechanisms by which phytoplankton cells can be delivered to the bottom before being degraded. POM may be then transported across the shelf via the benthic nepheloid layer. Along the CP transect, concentrations of POM were generally higher than they were along the CH transect and extended farther across the shelf. Characteristics of surface POM, namely, C: N ratios and carbon: chlorophyll ratios, differed between the two sites. These differences can be attributed to differences in shelf circulation
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