How Smokers Became Outlaws: An Application Of The Stakeholder Salience Model To A Social Problem

Smoking bans have gone from being essentially non-existent to being the norm over the course of the last 50 years. When some of these authors started teaching, it was the norm to smoke in the classroom, in hospitals, on airplanes, in prison and in the office. Times have changed—smoking is no longer allowed in these locations in the United States. In this paper, an overview of the history of smoking advocacy, the impacts of smoke-free legislation on different stakeholders, and changes in public perceptions of smoking are provided. Mitchell and Agle’s 1997 Stakeholder Salience Model are used to illustrate the changes over time in stakeholder status for both smokers and nonsmokers. The Mitchell Model could have been useful to predict the change in status that the two stakeholder groups experienced and the authors suggest that management should note the emergence of urgent stakeholders in the future, as they may gain salience in other matters that can impact company wealth. Firms have to be aware of both their customers’ needs (smokers) as well as other social movements that may affect the use of their product, such as nonsmoking legislation. This is the first paper to apply stakeholder salience, including the concepts of urgency, power, and legitimacy, to the changing fortunes of smokers. It looks at how smoking and smokers have gone from the norm in U.S. society to outlaw status

Using the 1.6um Bump to Study Rest-frame NIR Selected Galaxies at Redshift 2

We explore the feasibility and limitations of using the 1.6um bump as a photometric redshift indicator and selection technique and use it to study the rest-frame H-band galaxy luminosity and stellar mass functions at redshift z~2. We use publicly available Spitzer/IRAC images in the GOODS fields and find that color selection in the IRAC bandpasses alone is comparable in completeness and contamination to BzK selection. We find that the shape of the 1.6um bump is robust, and photometric redshifts are not greatly affected by choice of model parameters. Comparison with spectroscopic redshifts shows photometric redshifts to be reliable. We create a rest-frame NIR selected catalog of galaxies at z~2 and construct a galaxy stellar mass function (SMF). Comparisons with other SMFs at approximately the same redshift but determined using shorter wavelengths show good agreement. This agreement suggests that selection at bluer wavelengths does not miss a significant amount of stellar mass in passive galaxies. Comparison with SMFs at other redshifts shows evidence for the downsizing scenario of galaxy evolution. We conclude by pointing out the potential for using the 1.6um technique to select high-redshift galaxies with the JWST, whose lambda > 0.6 um coverage will not be well suited to selecting galaxies using techniques that require imaging at shorter wavelengths.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

The Prospect of the Russian Language in Georgia. Insights from the Educated Youth

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the status of the Russian language in the new-born Republics became a central issue. In the Southern Caucasus, all the Constitutions promulgated by the three Republics opted for ethnocentric language policies that accepted the titular language as the only State Language. However, the role of the Russian language as a lingua franca remained crucial for international communication and everyday interaction. It followed that it continued to play an important role also in education. The present study focuses on Georgia, where a strong derussification policy has taken place in the last decades and aims at understanding to what extent the use of Russian among the young generations has contracted. In particular, we present an analysis conducted on data collected via (i) a survey for young people consisting of questions on their sociolinguistic background and a proficiency test in Russian, and (ii) semi-structured interviews for teachers of Russian and English as Foreign Languages on the research topics

Changes in Apathy, Depression, and Anxiety in Parkinson's Disease from before to during the COVID-19 Era.

Apathy, depression, and anxiety are common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Tracking the changes in such symptoms over time would be valuable not only to determine their natural course during the disease, but also to establish the effects of unusual historical events interacting with the natural course. Having collected data on apathy (Apathy Scale), depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II), and anxiety (Parkinson's Anxiety Scale) in a large sample of persons with PD (PwPD) before the beginning of the COVID-19 era, we followed up with these individuals to investigate the changes in their prevalence of apathy, depression, and anxiety across two timepoints (T1 and T2). Of the original 347 participants, 111 responded and provided complete data at T2. The data collection at T1, before COVID-19, occurred between 2017-2018. The data collection at T2 occurred in 2021 and included the same measures, with the addition of the Coronavirus Impact Scale to assess the effects of the pandemic on the individual participants. Over this period, there was a significant increase in apathy, but not in depression or anxiety. Anxiety and depression, but not apathy, were correlated with the impact of COVID-19.NA - Clara Mayo Memorial Research Fellowship, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston UniversityPublished versio

DUALZ: Deep UNCOVER-ALMA Legacy High-Z Survey

We present the survey design and initial results of the ALMA Cycle 9 program of DUALZ, which aims to establish a joint ALMA and JWST public legacy field targeting the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744. DUALZ features a contiguous $4'\times6'$ ALMA 30-GHz-wide mosaic in Band 6, covering areas of $\mu>2$ down to a sensitivity of $\sigma=32.7~\mu$Jy. Through a blind search, we identified 69 dust continuum sources at S/N $\gtrsim5.0$ with median redshift and intrinsic 1.2-mm flux of $z=2.30$ and $S_{\rm 1.2mm}^{\rm int}=0.24$~mJy. Of these, 27 have been spectroscopically confirmed, leveraged by the latest NIRSpec observations, while photometric redshift estimates are constrained by the comprehensive HST, NIRCam, and ALMA data for the remaining sources. With priors, we further identify a [CII]158 $\mu$m line emitter at $z=6.3254\pm0.0004$, confirmed by the latest NIRSpec spectroscopy. The NIRCam counterparts of the 1.2-mm continuum exhibit undisturbed morphologies, denoted either by disk or spheroid, implying the triggers for the faint mm emission are less catastrophic than mergers. We have identified 8 HST-dark galaxies (F150W$>$27mag, F150W$-$F444W$>$2.3) and 2 JWST-dark (F444W$>$30mag) galaxy candidates among the ALMA continuum sources. The former includes face-on disk galaxies, hinting that substantial dust obscuration does not always result from inclination. We also detect a marginal dust emission from an X-ray-detected galaxy at $z_{\rm spec}=10.07$, suggesting an active co-evolution of the central black hole and its host. We assess the infrared luminosity function up to $z\sim10$ and find it consistent with predictions from galaxy formation models. To foster diverse scientific outcomes from the community, we publicly release reduced ALMA mosaic maps, cubes, and the source catalog.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, and 5 tables. Submitted to ApJS. The ALMA products are fully available from here: https://jwst-uncover.github.io/DR2.html#DUAL

The JWST UNCOVER Treasury survey: Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization

In this paper we describe the survey design for the Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization (UNCOVER) Cycle 1 JWST Treasury program, which executed its early imaging component in November 2022. The UNCOVER survey includes ultradeep ($\sim29-30\mathrm{AB}$) imaging of $\sim$45 arcmin$^2$ on and around the well-studied Abell 2744 galaxy cluster at $z=0.308$ and will follow-up ${\sim}500$ galaxies with extremely deep low-resolution spectroscopy with the NIRSpec/PRISM during the summer of 2023. We describe the science goals, survey design, target selection, and planned data releases. We also present and characterize the depths of the first NIRCam imaging mosaic, highlighting previously unparalleled resolved and ultradeep 2-4 micron imaging of known objects in the field. The UNCOVER primary NIRCam mosaic spans 28.8 arcmin$^2$ in seven filters (F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F410M, F444W) and 16.8 arcmin$^2$ in our NIRISS parallel (F115W, F150W, F200W, F356W, and F444W). To maximize early community use of the Treasury data set, we publicly release full reduced mosaics of public JWST imaging including 45 arcmin$^2$ NIRCam and 17 arcmin$^2$ NIRISS mosaics on and around the Abell 2744 cluster, including the Hubble Frontier Field primary and parallel footprints.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables, submitted to ApJ, comments welcome (v2 with full author list in metadata

Preparation of Group I Introns for Biochemical Studies and Crystallization Assays by Native Affinity Purification

The study of functional RNAs of various sizes and structures requires efficient methods for their synthesis and purification. Here, 23 group I intron variants ranging in length from 246 to 341 nucleotides—some containing exons—were subjected to a native purification technique previously applied only to shorter RNAs (<160 nucleotides). For the RNAs containing both exons, we adjusted the original purification protocol to allow for purification of radiolabeled molecules. The resulting RNAs were used in folding assays on native gel electrophoresis and in self-splicing assays. The intron-only RNAs were subjected to the regular native purification scheme, assayed for folding and employed in crystallization screens. All RNAs that contained a 3′ overhang of one nucleotide were efficiently cleaved off from the support and were at least 90% pure after the non-denaturing purification. A representative subset of these RNAs was shown to be folded and self-splicing after purification. Additionally, crystals were grown for a 286 nucleotide long variant of the Clostridium botulinum intron. These results demonstrate the suitability of the native affinity purification method for the preparation of group I introns. We hope these findings will stimulate a broader application of this strategy to the preparation of other large RNA molecules