Cancel Culture Conundrum

The term cancel culture describes a phenomenon in which people are effectively shunned from society for their actions or statements due to others’ dislike of those actions or statements. While this term has become widely used in politics in recent years, many of the reasons people are cancelled have no direct link to politics. However, there are several characteristics, some politically-linked, that make people more apt to engage in cancel culture. Statistics show that the two characteristics which mark people as likely to engage in cancel culture are identifying as a Democrat and being part of the millennial or GenZ generations. These two factors hold true within the broader culture and in academia. While those who are ideologically more liberal are more likely to cancel, there are examples of conservatives cancelling as well, and examples of cancellations by both parties are illustrated in four case studies. Understanding cancel culture is vital for those who are attempting to avoid finding themselves cancelled, as well as for those who study or involve themselves in politics. For those who have political involvement, understanding the overlap between cancel culture and political characteristics is important, as political affiliation is one of the two biggest predictors of whether individuals will engage in cancel culture

Dental safety net capacity: An innovative use of existing data to measure dentists’ clinical engagement in state Medicaid programs

Background The demand for dentists available for state Medicaid populations has long outpaced the supply of such providers. To help understand the workforce dynamics, this study sought to develop a novel approach to measuring dentists’ relative contribution to the dental safety net and, using this new measurement, identify demographic and practice characteristics predictive of dentists’ willingness to participate in Indiana's Medicaid program. Methods We examined Medicaid claims data for 1,023 Indiana dentists. We fit generalized ordered logistic regression models to measure dentists’ level of clinical engagement with Medicaid. Using a partial proportional odds specification model, we estimated proportional adjusted odds ratios for covariates and separate estimates for each contrast of nonproportional covariates. Results Though 75% of Medicaid‐enrolled dentists were active providers, only 27% of them had 800 or more claims during fiscal year 2015. As has been shown in previous studies, our findings from the proportional odds model reinforced certain demographic and practice characteristics to be predictive of dentists’ participation in state Medicaid programs. Conclusions In addition to confirming predictive factors for Medicaid enrollment, this study validated the clinical engagement measure as a reliable method to assess the level of Medicaid participation. Prior studies have been limited by self‐reported data and variations in Medicaid claims reporting

An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Post Bereavement Apparitions (PBAs)

Post bereavement apparitions (PBA’s) have been reported throughout time and culture. Traditionally, PBA’s are seen as somewhat contentious within the research. Although, newer theories surrounding bereavement focus on individuality and continued bonds PBAs are somewhat stigmatised. Additionally, research that explores the experience of PBAs is limited. To address this an IPA approach was undertaken to provide a detailed, personal and contextual view on the phenomenon and to explore individuals’ personal experiences and their individual interpretations of PBAs. A small homogenous sample of eight individuals was selected and interviewed on the basis of meeting the criteria of having a PBA. After thorough analysis six overarching themes were identified: Initial nature of loss , bonds individuals share within life and thereafter, the absolute certainty and ‘realness’ of the apparition, the endeavour to understand an intricate experience, positive attributes provide by the experience and one’s own view of the external world’s perceptions. Overall, the main significant finding was that PBAs are positive for individuals and provided an important aspect to the individual’s life, as well being experienced as very real regardless of external perceptions. The importance of normalising these experiences has been highlighted. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research and theory. Following on from this reflexivity was presented, as well as strengths and limitations and future research directions within the area

Memory in World War I American museum exhibits

Master of ArtsDepartment of HistorySue ZschocheAs the world enters the centennial of World War I, interest in this war is reviving. Books, television shows, and movies are bringing the war into popular culture. Now that all the participants of the war have passed away a change is occurring in in American memory. The transition from living to non-living memory is clearly visible in museums, one of the main ways history is communicated to the public. Four museums are studied in this paper. Two exhibits built in the 1990s are in the 1st Infantry Division Museum at Fort Riley, Kansas, and the Chemical Corps Museum in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The other two exhibits are newer and are the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri and the Cantigny 1st Infantry Division Museum in Wheaton, Illinois. Findings reveal that exhibits become more inclusive over time to civilian bodies, wounded bodies, and the specific image of “Americans killing Germans bodies.” However, even though there is change some things are turning into myths. The icon of the American soldier as a healthy and strong man willing to sacrifice his life for the country is still a major theme throughout all the exhibits. Finally, there are several myths that America has adopted from its allies. The icons of the bandages over the eyes from the chemical attacks and the horrors of the trenches are borrowed, to a certain extent, from America’s allies. The Americans were only in the war for a limited time and borrowed cultural memories to supplement their own. The examination of the four museums is important because this transition will happen again and soon. Museums must be conscious of the changes occurring during this transition in order to confront the challenges

NuSTAR hard X-ray observation of a sub-A class solar flare

We report a NuSTAR observation of a solar microflare, SOL2015-09-01T04. Although it was too faint to be observed by the GOES X-ray Sensor, we estimate the event to be an A0.1 class flare in brightness. This microflare, with only 5 counts per second per detector observed by RHESSI, is fainter than any hard X-ray (HXR) flare in the existing literature. The microflare occurred during a solar pointing by the highly sensitive NuSTAR astrophysical observatory, which used its direct focusing optics to produce detailed HXR microflare spectra and images. The microflare exhibits HXR properties commonly observed in larger flares, including a fast rise and more gradual decay, earlier peak time with higher energy, spatial dimensions similar to the RHESSI microflares, and a high-energy excess beyond an isothermal spectral component during the impulsive phase. The microflare is small in emission measure, temperature, and energy, though not in physical size; observations are consistent with an origin via the interaction of at least two magnetic loops. We estimate the increase in thermal energy at the time of the microflare to be 2.4x10^27 ergs. The observation suggests that flares do indeed scale down to extremely small energies and retain what we customarily think of as "flarelike" properties.Comment: Status: Accepted by the Astrophysical Journal, 2017 July 1

Microflare Heating of a Solar Active Region Observed with NuSTAR, Hinode/XRT, and SDO/AIA

NuSTAR is a highly sensitive focusing hard X-ray (HXR) telescope and has observed several small microflares in its initial solar pointings. In this paper, we present the first joint observation of a microflare with NuSTAR and Hinode/XRT on 2015 April 29 at ~11:29 UT. This microflare shows heating of material to several million Kelvin, observed in Soft X-rays (SXRs) with Hinode/XRT, and was faintly visible in Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) with SDO/AIA. For three of the four NuSTAR observations of this region (pre-, decay, and post phases) the spectrum is well fitted by a single thermal model of 3.2-3.5 MK, but the spectrum during the impulsive phase shows additional emission up to 10 MK, emission equivalent to A0.1 GOES class. We recover the differential emission measure (DEM) using SDO/AIA, Hinode/XRT, and NuSTAR, giving unprecedented coverage in temperature. We find the pre-flare DEM peaks at ~3 MK and falls off sharply by 5 MK; but during the microflare's impulsive phase the emission above 3 MK is brighter and extends to 10 MK, giving a heating rate of about $2.5 \times 10^{25}$ erg s$^{-1}$. As the NuSTAR spectrum is purely thermal we determined upper-limits on the possible non-thermal bremsstrahlung emission. We find that for the accelerated electrons to be the source of the heating requires a power-law spectrum of $\delta \ge 7$ with a low energy cut-off $E_{c} \lesssim 7$ keV. In summary, this first NuSTAR microflare strongly resembles much more powerful flares.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 14 pages with 12 figures and 1 tabl

Disability and the Dancing Body:A Symposium on Ownership, Identity and Difference in Dance

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Siobhan Davies Studios, which was aptly described by one of our participants as “a Cathedral for contemporary dance”, for hosting the symposium and assisting us on the day. We would also like to thank the staff at the Centre for Dance Research (C-Dare) at Coventry University for their support during the day. We would also, of course, like to thank the AHRC for its kind support of InVisible Difference.Peer reviewedPublisher PD