Waves, Floods, Currents: The Politics and Poetics of Water in Social Movement Analysis

The task of conceptualising social movements draws on a wealth of watery images, from protest waves and political currents, to imagining mobilisations as tides, ripples, cascades or high-pressure hydraulics. Called upon to analyse complex processes, these waters have a life of their own, carrying analytical implications while extending a relationship to water that is never only symbolic and is material, embodied and historical. This article explores the ways water is ‘enrolled’ to understand movements, to advance three arguments: first, these use familiar water morphologies to naturalise particular, located understandings of political change and social form; second, they imply normative claims and ideological affinities regarding political struggle; third, this has implications for our relationship to water, echoing the abstract and alienating ‘modern water’ of capitalist world-ecology. The article considers how critical water knowledges and subjectivities, often sustained by social movement spaces, indicate possibilities of a being-otherwise with water and its meanings

Complex responses to movement-based disease control: when livestock trading helps

Livestock disease controls are often linked to movements between farms, for example, via quarantine and pre- or post-movement testing. Designing effective controls, therefore, benefits from accurate assessment of herd-to-herd transmission. Household models of human infections make use of R*, the number of groups infected by an initial infected group, which is a metapopulation level analogue of the basic reproduction number R0 that provides a better characterization of disease spread in a metapopulation. However, existing approaches to calculate R* do not account for individual movements between locations which means we lack suitable tools for livestock systems. We address this gap using next-generation matrix approaches to capture movements explicitly and introduce novel tools to calculate R* in any populations coupled by individual movements. We show that depletion of infectives in the source group, which hastens its recovery, is a phenomenon with important implications for design and efficacy of movement-based controls. Underpinning our results is the observation that R* peaks at intermediate livestock movement rates. Consequently, under movement-based controls, infection could be controlled at high movement rates but persist at intermediate rates. Thus, once control schemes are present in a livestock system, a reduction in movements can counterintuitively lead to increased disease prevalence. We illustrate our results using four important livestock diseases (bovine viral diarrhoea, bovine herpes virus, Johne's disease and Escherichia coli O157) that each persist across different movement rate ranges with the consequence that a change in livestock movements could help control one disease, but exacerbate another

Vibrational overtone initiated unimolecular dissociation of HOCH_2OOH and HOCD_2OOH: Evidence for mode selective behavior

The vibrational overtone induced unimolecular dissociation of HMHP (HOCH2OOH) and HMHP-d2 (HOCD2OOH) into OH and HOCH2O (HOCD2O) fragments is investigated in the region of the 4nuOH and 5nuOH bands. The unimolecular dissociation rates in the threshold region, corresponding to the 4nuOH band, exhibit measurable differences associated with excitation of the OH stretch of the alcohol versus the peroxide functional group, with the higher energy alcohol OH stretching state exhibiting a slower dissociation rate compared to the lower energy peroxide OH stretch in both HMHP and HMHP-d2. Predictions using the Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus theory give rates that are in reasonably good agreement with the measured dissociation rate for the alcohol OH stretch but considerably differ from the measured rates for the peroxide OH stretch in both isotopomers. The present results are interpreted as suggesting that the extent of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) is different for the two OH stretching states associated with the two functional groups in HMHP, with IVR being substantially less complete for the peroxide OH stretch. Analysis of the OH fragment product state distributions in conjunction with phase-space theory simulation gives a D0 value of 38±0.7 kcal/mole for breaking the peroxide bond in HMHP

The Influence of Short-term Quercetin Supplementation on Peak Oxygen Uptake during Simulated Altitude Exposure in Trained Cyclists

Endurance performance and peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) decline as altitude increases. Some data exist suggesting that quercetin supplementation improves aerobic capacity in trained and untrained individuals at sea-level (normobaric normoxic conditions). Few studies have examined the effects of quercetin on endurance performance during simulated altitude exposure (normobaric hypoxic conditions). The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of consuming 1000 mg·day-1 of quercetin for two weeks on cycling VO2peak in healthy trained male cyclists performing under normobaric normoxic and hypoxic conditions (NP and HP, respectively). Fourteen age-matched healthy male subjects were randomized to either a placebo or quercetin group. Baseline and post supplementation VO2peak values were quantified during incremental cycling under normobaric normoxic (FIO2 = 20.9%) and normobaric hypoxic (FIO2 = 13.6 + 0.2%) conditions. Subjects consumed capsules twice daily with either 500 mg quercetin or placebo (Tang) for two weeks and were re-assessed. Test order was randomized and assessments were separated by 48-72 hours. At baseline, there were no significant differences between groups for VO2peak normobaric normoxic trials (NPbaseline Placebo vs. NPbaseline Quercetin = 58.7+8.8 and 61.5+7.9 ml . kg-1 . min-1, respectively, p = 0.541) and normobaric hypoxic trials (HPbaseline Placebo vs. HPbaseline Quercetin = 48.5+8.3 and 50.8+4.8 ml . kg-1 . min-1, respectively, p = 0.534). No significant differences were found after treatment (Placebo: NPbaseline vs. NPpost = 58.7+ 8.8 and 56.7+7.4 ml . kg-1 . min-1, respectively, p = 0.10; HPbaseline vs .HPpost = 48.5+8.3 and 47.1+8.3, respectively, p = 0.50; Quercetin: NPbaseline vs. NPpost = 61.5+7.9 and 62.4+7.3 ml . kg-1 . min-1, respectively, p = 0.558; HPbaseline vs. HPpost = 50.8+4.8 and 51.2+3.8 ml . kg-1 . min-1, respectively, p= 0.656. These data suggest that short-term quercetin supplementation at 1000 mg . day-1 does not affect VO2peak elicited via incremental maximal cycle testing under normobaric normoxic and hypoxic conditions in trained male cyclists. Furthermore, quercetin supplementation did not attenuate the decline in VO2peak that was evident in the normobaric hypoxic condition

Developing an Instrument to Measure Physical Activity Related Self-Worth in Women: Rasch Analysis of the Women\u27s Physical Activity Self-Worth Inventory (WPASWI)

Objectives: The objective of this study is to report on the development of an instrument to assess non-physical aspects of physical activity (PA) -related self-worth (SW). Methods: Three hundred thirty five women (mean age = 36.69 ± 15.94 yrs, BMI = 24.87 ± 4.56) completed the Women’s Physical Activity Self-Worth Inventory (WPASWI), General SW Scale, and a PA Questionnaire. Rasch analysis was used to evaluate the WPASWI. Results: Three PA-related SW subscales were identified: PA Knowledge (16 items), PA Emotional (13 items), and PA Social (8 items). Rasch analysis supported construct validity, and items demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .90, .87 and .72) and test re-test reliability (r = .79, .70, .81). Women who reported regular PA participation had higher PA Knowledge, PA Emotional, PA Social, and General SW than those who reported some or no PA (p \u3c .01) and correlations between Knowledge, Emotional, and Social SW subscales and General SW were .207, .130, and .220, respectively. PA Knowledge and PA Emotional SW had stronger correlations with PA (r = .344, .273, respectively) than did General SW (r = .133). Conclusions: The WPASWI demonstrated good internal consistency, reliability, construct validity and a stronger relationship with PA than a General SW instrument

A Comparative Structure/Function Analysis of Two Type IV Pilin DNA Receptors Defines a Novel Mode of DNA Binding

SummaryDNA transformation is a widespread process allowing bacteria to capture free DNA by using filamentous nano-machines composed of type IV pilins. These proteins can act as DNA receptors as demonstrated by the finding that Neisseria meningitidis ComP minor pilin has intrinsic DNA-binding ability. ComP binds DNA better when it contains the DNA-uptake sequence (DUS) motif abundant in this species genome, playing a role in its trademark ability to selectively take up its own DNA. Here, we report high-resolution structures for meningococcal ComP and Neisseria subflava ComPsub, which recognize different DUS motifs. We show that they are structurally identical type IV pilins that pack readily into filament models and display a unique DD region delimited by two disulfide bonds. Functional analysis of ComPsub defines a new mode of DNA binding involving the DD region, adapted for exported DNA receptors