Saving Britney:an analysis of Britney Spears’s Us Weekly covers from years 2006–2008

Abstract. This thesis examines how the covers of the American celebrity and entertainment magazine Us Weekly portray singer Britney Spears. The objective of this study is to find out whether the portrayal of Spears changes throughout the years and whether this portrayal is rooted in sexism. The data consists of 26 magazine covers from years 2006–2008. Spears is included in every cover in the main image or mentioned in the headlines. Approaches of multimodal discourse analysis and feminist theory were utilized in the analysis of the materials. Multimodal discourse analysis was used to examine the headlines and the photographs on the covers, as well as the relations between the texts and the photographs. Feminist theory was used to examine whether sexism shaped the headlines or imagery in the covers. The study found that Spears’s image changed multiple times throughout the years. At best Spears’s image changed a few times in a year, for example, in the beginning of 2006 Spears was portrayed as a motherly figure, but this portrayal was flipped upside down in the last months of the same year.Tiivistelmä. Tämän kandidaatintutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää millaisen kuvan amerikkalainen viihdelehti Us Weekly antaa kansissaan laulaja Britney Spearsista. Tutkielman on tarkoituksena selvittää muuttuuko lehden antama kuva Spearsista vuosien varrella ja pohjautuuko kuva seksismiin. Tutkimusmateriaali koostuu 26 lehdenkannesta vuosilta 2006–2008. Näissä kansissa Spears on joko mainittu otsikossa tai hän on kannen pääkuvassa. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnettiin multimodaalista diskurssianalyysiä, jonka avulla analysoitiin tekstiä ja kuvia, sekä niiden välisiä suhteita. Lisäksi analyysissä käytettiin feminististä teoriaa, jonka avulla selvitettiin kuvien ja tekstien mahdollisia seksistisiä teemoja. Tutkimuksessa selvisi, että Us Weeklyn antama kuva Spearsista muuttui vuosien varrella. Spearsin kuva saattoi muuttua vuoden aikana jopa muutamaan otteeseen, sillä esimerkiksi lehden alkuvuonna 2006 antama kuva Spearsista hyvänä ja suojelevana äitinä muuttui päinvastaiseksi saman vuoden lopulla

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Learning, Teaching, and Education

This report describes the current state of the art in artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential impact for learning, teaching, and education. It provides conceptual foundations for well-informed policy-oriented work, research, and forward-looking activities that address the opportunities and challenges created by recent developments in AI. The report is aimed for policy developers, but it also makes contributions that are of interest for AI technology developers and researchers studying the impact of AI on economy, society, and the future of education and learning.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

The influence of psychosocial factors at work and life style on health and work ability among professional workers

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article is to explore the associations of psychosocial factors at work, life style, and stressful life events on health and work ability among white-collar workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among workers in commercial services (n = 1141). The main outcome variables were work ability, measured by the work ability index (WAI), and mental and physical health, measured by the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12). Individual characteristics, psychosocial factors at work, stressful life events, and lifestyle factors were determined by a questionnaire. Maximum oxygen uptake, weight, height, and biceps strength were measured during a physical examination. RESULTS: Work ability of white-collar workers in commercial services industry was strongly associated with psychosocial factors at work such as teamwork, stress handling, and self-development and, to a lesser extent, with stressful life events, lack of physical activity, and obesity. Determinants of mental health were very similar to those of work ability, whereas physical health was influenced primarily by life style factors. With respect to work ability, the influence of unhealthy life style seems more important for older workers, than for their younger colleagues. CONCLUSION: Among white-collar workers mental and physical health were of equal importance to work ability, but only mental health and work ability shared the same determinants. The strong associations between psychosocial factors at work and mental health and work ability suggest that in this study population health promotion should address working conditions rather than individual life style factors

GJ357: A low-mass planetary system uncovered by precision radial-velocities and dynamical simulations

We report the detection of a new planetary system orbiting the nearby M2.5V star GJ357, using precision radial-velocities from three separate echelle spectrographs, HARPS, HiRES, and UVES. Three small planets have been confirmed in the system, with periods of 9.125+/-0.001, 3.9306+/-0.0003, and 55.70+/-0.05 days, and minimum masses of 3.33+/-0.48, 2.09+/-0.32, and 6.72+/-0.94 Me, respectively. The second planet in our system, GJ357c, was recently shown to transit by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS; Luque et al. 2019), but we could find no transit signatures for the other two planets. Dynamical analysis reveals the system is likely to be close to coplanar, is stable on Myrs timescales, and places strong upper limits on the masses of the two non-transiting planets b and d of 4.25 and 11.20 Me, respectively. Therefore, we confirm the system contains at least two super-Earths, and either a third super-Earth or mini-Neptune planet. GJ357b & c are found to be close to a 7:3 mean motion resonance, however no libration of the orbital parameters was found in our simulations. Analysis of the photometric lightcurve of the star from the TESS, when combined with our radial-velocities, reveal GJ357c has an absolute mass, radius, and density of 2.248+0.117-0.120 Me, 1.167+0.037-0.036 Re, and 7.757+0.889-0.789 g/cm3, respectively. Comparison to super-Earth structure models reveals the planet is likely an iron dominated world. The GJ357 system adds to the small sample of low-mass planetary systems with well constrained masses, and further observational and dynamical follow-up is warranted to better understand the overall population of small multi-planet systems in the solar neighbourhood.Comment: Manuscript accepted to MNRAS 15/10/201

In vitro cytotoxicity and surface topography evaluation of additive manufacturing titanium implant materials

Custom-designed patient-specific implants and reconstruction plates are to date commonly manufactured using two different additive manufacturing (AM) technologies: direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) and electron beam melting (EBM). The purpose of this investigation was to characterize the surface structure and to assess the cytotoxicity of titanium alloys processed using DMLS and EBM technologies as the existing information on these issues is scarce. "Processed" and "polished" DMLS and EBM disks were assessed. Microscopic examination revealed titanium alloy particles and surface flaws on the processed materials. These surface flaws were subsequently removed by polishing. Surface roughness of EBM processed titanium was higher than that of DMLS processed. The cytotoxicity results of the DMLS and EBM discs were compared with a "gold standard" commercially available titanium mandible reconstruction plate. The mean cell viability for all discs was 82.6% (range, 77.4 to 89.7) and 83.3% for the control reconstruction plate. The DMLS and EBM manufactured titanium plates were non-cytotoxic both in "processed" and in "polished" forms.Peer reviewe

The Calan-Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search

The detailed study of the exoplanetary systems HD189733 and HD209458 has given rise to a wealth of exciting information on the physics of exoplanetary atmospheres. To further our understanding of the make-up and processes within these atmospheres we require a larger sample of bright transiting planets. We have began a project to detect more bright transiting planets in the southern hemisphere by utilising precision radial-velocity measurements. We have observed a constrained sample of bright, inactive and metal-rich stars using the HARPS instrument and here we present the current status of this project, along with our first discoveries which include a brown dwarf/extreme-Jovian exoplanet found in the brown dwarf desert region around the star HD191760 and improved orbits for three other exoplanetary systems HD48265, HD143361 and HD154672. Finally, we briefly discuss the future of this project and the current prospects we have for discovering more bright transiting planets.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the conference proceedings "New Technologies for Probing the Diversity of Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets" Shanghai 200

Heterogeneity of Patients With Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults: Linkage to Autoimmunity Is Apparent Only in Those With Perceived Need for Insulin Treatment: Results from the Nord-Trøndelag Health (HUNT) study

OBJECTIVE—Subjects with the diagnosis of latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) are more prone to need insulin treatment than those with type 2 diabetes. However, not all patients with LADA develop the need for insulin treatment, indicating the heterogeneity of LADA. We investigated this heterogeneity by comparing phenotypes of LADA with and without perceived need for insulin treatment (data obtained at times when diagnosis of LADA was not investigated) and also compared LADA and type 2 diabetes phenotypes

A Hot Uranus Orbiting the Super Metal-rich Star HD77338 and the Metallicity - Mass Connection

We announce the discovery of a low-mass planet orbiting the super metal-rich K0V star HD77338 as part of our on-going Calan-Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search. The best fit planet solution has an orbital period of 5.7361\pm0.0015 days and with a radial velocity semi-amplitude of only 5.96\pm1.74 m/s, we find a minimum mass of 15.9+4.7-5.3 Me. The best fit eccentricity from this solution is 0.09+0.25-0.09, and we find agreement for this data set using a Bayesian analysis and a periodogram analysis. We measure a metallicity for the star of +0.35\pm0.06 dex, whereas another recent work (Trevisan et al. 2011) finds +0.47\pm0.05 dex. Thus HD77338b is one of the most metal-rich planet host stars known and the most metal-rich star hosting a sub-Neptune mass planet. We searched for a transit signature of HD77338b but none was detected. We also highlight an emerging trend where metallicity and mass seem to correlate at very low masses, a discovery that would be in agreement with the core accretion model of planet formation. The trend appears to show that for Neptune-mass planets and below, higher masses are preferred when the host star is more metal-rich. Also a lower boundary is apparent in the super metal-rich regime where there are no very low-mass planets yet discovered in comparison to the sub-solar metallicity regime. A Monte Carlo analysis shows that this, low-mass planet desert, is statistically significant with the current sample of 36 planets at around the 4.5\sigma\ level. In addition, results from Kepler strengthen the claim for this paucity of the lowest-mass planets in super metal-rich systems. Finally, this discovery adds to the growing population of low-mass planets around low-mass and metal-rich stars and shows that very low-mass planets can now be discovered with a relatively small number of data points using stable instrumentation.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Introduction: looking beyond the walls

In its consideration of the remarkable extent and variety of non-university researchers, this book takes a broader view of ‘knowledge’ and ‘research’ than in the many hot debates about today’s knowledge society, ‘learning age’, or organisation of research. It goes beyond the commonly held image of ‘knowledge’ as something produced and owned by the full-time experts to take a look at those engaged in active knowledge building outside the university walls

An integrated approach to coastal and biological observations

Maritime economy, ecosystem-based management and climate change adaptation and mitigation raise emerging needs on coastal ocean and biological observations. Integrated ocean observing aims at optimizing sampling strategies and cost-efficiency, sharing data and best practices, and maximizing the value of the observations for multiple purposes. Recently developed cost-effective, near real time technology such as gliders, radars, ferrybox, and shallow water Argo floats, should be used operationally to generate operational coastal sea observations and analysis. Furthermore, value of disparate coastal ocean observations can be unlocked with multi-dimensional integration on fitness-for-the-purpose, parameter and instrumental. Integration of operational monitoring with offline monitoring programs, such as those for research, ecosystem-based management and commercial purposes, is necessary to fill the gaps. Such integration should lead to a system of networks which can deliver data for all kinds of purposes. Detailed integration activities are identified which should enhance the coastal ocean and biological observing capacity. Ultimately a program is required which integrates physical, biogeochemical and biological observation of the ocean, from coastal to deep-sea environments, bringing together global, regional, and local observation efforts