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A tale of two anomies: some observations on the contribution of (sociological) criminological theory to explaining hate crime motivation
This paper argues that hate crime is simply an inherent and normal component of contemporary society. Regardless of a concerted intervention – legislative, situational and social crime prevention – against this significant social problem in the USA and Europe in recent years, there remains a ubiquitous, albeit often latent, continued existence of hate motivation throughout society which remains at a considerable and increasing risk of actualisation as individuals come into contact with other likeminded individuals. This is particularly an issue in the information age which has greatly enhanced the spatial proximity of these hate-minded people to each other. It is shown that an established body of sociologically informed criminological theory – in particular that founded on the European and US anomie traditions – can be adapted to explain and understand the existence and persistence of hate motivation at all levels of the social world. This provides the basis for an extensive educative - and thus preventive - programme to tackle pervasive cultures of hate
Interferometric Studies of the extreme binary, Aurigae: Pre-eclipse Observations
We report new and archival K-band interferometric uniform disk diameters
obtained with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer for the eclipsing binary star
Aurigae, in advance of the start of its eclipse in 2009. The
observations were inteded to test whether low amplitude variations in the
system are connected with the F supergiant star (primary), or with the
intersystem material connecting the star with the enormous dark disk
(secondary) inferred to cause the eclipses. Cepheid-like radial pulsations of
the F star are not detected, nor do we find evidence for proposed 6% per decade
shrinkage of the F star. The measured 2.27 +/- 0.11 milli-arcsecond K band
diameter is consistent with a 300 times solar radius F supergiant star at the
Hipparcos distance of 625 pc. These results provide an improved context for
observations during the 2009-2011 eclipse.Comment: Accepted for Ap.J. Letters, Oct. 200
A Simple Non-equilibrium Feedback Model for Galaxy-Scale Star Formation: Delayed Feedback and SFR Scatter
We explore a class of simple non-equilibrium star formation models within the
framework of a feedback-regulated model of the ISM, applicable to
kiloparsec-scale resolved star formation relations (e.g. Kennicutt-Schmidt).
Combining a Toomre-Q-dependent local star formation efficiency per free-fall
time with a model for delayed feedback, we are able to match the normalization
and scatter of resolved star formation scaling relations. In particular, this
simple model suggests that large (dex) variations in star formation rates
(SFRs) on kiloparsec scales may be due to the fact that supernova feedback is
not instantaneous following star formation. The scatter in SFRs at constant gas
surface density in a galaxy then depends on the properties of feedback and when
we observe its star-forming regions at various points throughout their
collapse/star formation "cycles". This has the following important
observational consequences: (1) the scatter and normalization of the
Kennicutt-Schmidt relation are relatively insensitive to the local
(small-scale) star formation efficiency, (2) but gas depletion times and
velocity dispersions are; (3) the scatter in and normalization of the
Kennicutt-Schmidt relation is a sensitive probe of the feedback timescale and
strength; (4) even in a model where deterministically
dictates star formation locally, time evolution, variation in local conditions
(e.g., gas fractions and dynamical times), and variations between galaxies can
destroy much of the observable correlation between SFR and
in resolved galaxy surveys. Additionally, this model exhibits large scatter in
SFRs at low gas surface densities, in agreement with observations of flat outer
HI disk velocity dispersion profiles.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted by MNRAS (04/25/2019
Postal Bodies: Imagining Communication Infrastructures in Nineteenth-Century Literature
This thesis uncovers material and metaphorical bodily encounters with postal infrastructures in the nineteenth-century. As the Post Office expanded in the nineteenth century, particularly with the advent of uniform penny postage in 1840, infrastructures, such as sorting houses, Travelling Post Offices and steam packets, had a profound impact on British Victorians’ engagements with and imaginings of the Post Office. In this thesis, I place original emphasis on ‘postal bodies’, demonstrating that postal infrastructures were embodied by both those who worked on and used them. In doing so, I intervene in and complicate scholarship that has invested in the Victorian postal mythology of speed, mechanisation and disembodiment, and rethink the role of one of the key institutions of Victorian Britain in the literary imagination. By reinserting the cultural importance of the postal body into the scholarly picture, ‘Postal Bodies: Imagining Communication Infrastructures in Nineteenth-Century Literature’ argues that these infrastructures were interactive and shaped by the messiness of bodily exchange. Underpinned by literary readings, non-literary sources, and archival research, as well as theories of infrastructures and mobility, I demonstrate that these expanding postal infrastructures shaped, and were shaped by, the bodies that facilitated and utilised them. As the complex infrastructures of postal exchange were employed by nineteenth-century authors, such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Hesba Stretton, they become imagined, negotiated, and subverted, through postal bodies. This thesis places the question of embodied representation at the centre of its analysis, and, in doing so, provides new insights into the multiplicity and heterogeneity of embodied experiences of the mail, from labour intensive sorting and mail running, to rapid transit on the mail train and international steam packet lines.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC
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Barriers to Offering Vasectomy at Publicly Funded Family Planning Organizations in Texas
Few publicly funded family planning clinics in the United States offer vasectomy, but little is known about the reasons
this method is not more widely available at these sources of care. Between February 2012 and February 2015, three
waves of in-depth interviews were conducted with program administrators at 54 family planning organizations in
Texas. Participants described their organization’s vasectomy service model and factors that influenced how frequently
vasectomy was provided. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed using a theme-based approach. Service
models and barriers to providing vasectomy were compared by organization type (e.g., women’s health center, public
health clinic) and receipt of Title X funding. Two thirds of organizations did not offer vasectomy on-site or pay
for referrals with family planning funding; nine organizations frequently provided vasectomy. Organizations did not
widely offer vasectomy because they could not find providers that would accept the low reimbursement for the
procedure or because they lacked funding for men’s reproductive health care. Respondents often did not perceive
men’s reproductive health care as a service priority and commented that men, especially Latinos, had limited interest
in vasectomy. Although organizations of all types reported barriers, women’s health centers and Title X-funded
organizations more frequently offered vasectomy by conducting tailored outreach to men and vasectomy providers.
A combination of factors operating at the health systems and provider level influence the availability of vasectomy at
publicly funded family planning organizations in Texas. Multilevel approaches that address key barriers to vasectomy
provision would help organizations offer comprehensive contraceptive services.Population Research Cente
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