The Horrors of Ecofeminism: Exploring the Hidden Depths of Ecophobia in Evie Wyld's The Bass Rock

Through the lens of ecofeminism, the permeability of the Scottish coast in Evie Wyld’s novel, The Bass Rock (2020), explores the ways in which feminine corporeality relates to contemporary Female Gothic and how this is intertwined with humanity’s exploitation of nature. The fears and anxieties experienced by feminine bodies within the coastal environment are juxtaposed against Simon C. Estok’s theory of ecophobia – an idea rooted in the anthropocentric and androcentric fear of a threatening and vengeful nature. Instead, Wyld draws on the Scottish Female Gothic to reflect the blurring of boundaries between women and ecology and explores the permeable borders of both human and nonhuman through the incorporation of the haunting feminine – shown in the merging of past and present narratives in the context of continued oppression and violence towards feminine bodies by men. It is the overwhelming presence of an anthropocentric and androcentric desire for domination that results in the production of fear for feminine bodies within these ecological spaces rather than as a direct consequence of the environment

Towards quantitative accuracy in first-principles transport calculations: The GW method applied to alkane/gold junctions

The calculation of electronic conductance of nano-scale junctions from first principles is a long standing problem in molecular electronics. Here we demonstrate excellent agreement with experiments for the transport properties of the gold/alkanediamine benchmark system when electron-electron interactions are described using the many-body GW approximation. The main difference from standard density functional theory (DFT) calculations is a significant reduction of the contact conductance, G_c, due an improved alignment of the molecular energy levels with the metal Fermi energy. The molecular orbitals involved in the tunneling process comprise states delocalized over the carbon backbone and states localized on the amine end groups. We find that dynamical screening effects renormalize the two types of states in qualitatively different ways when the molecule is inserted in the junction. Consequently, the GW transport results cannot be mimicked by DFT calculations employing a simple scissors operator.Comment: 7 page

Image-charge induced localization of molecular orbitals at metal-molecule interfaces: Self-consistent GW calculations

Quasiparticle (QP) wave functions, also known as Dyson orbitals, extend the concept of single-particle states to interacting electron systems. Here we employ many-body perturbation theory in the GW approximation to calculate the QP wave functions for a semi-empirical model describing a $\pi$-conjugated molecular wire in contact with a metal surface. We find that image charge effects pull the frontier molecular orbitals toward the metal surface while orbitals with higher or lower energy are pushed away. This affects both the size of the energetic image charge shifts and the coupling of the individual orbitals to the metal substrate. Full diagonalization of the QP equation and, to some extent, self-consistency in the GW self-energy, is important to describe the effect which is not captured by standard density functional theory or Hartree-Fock. These results should be important for the understanding and theoretical modeling of electron transport across metal-molecule interfaces.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Plotinus on the Articulation of Being

Ennead Vi.2 presents itself as Plotinus\u27 official account of the structure of the second Hypostasis, i.e. Intellect (νοῦς) or Being, what corresponds in his metaphysical universe to Plato\u27s realm of Ideas or Forms. Having refuted the Peripatetic and Stoic theories in VI.1, he turns to developing his own view of Being, which he intends to be in agreement with Plato\u27s. Indeed, the account of the \u27genera of being\u27 that he give in VI.2 is closely modeled on Plato\u27s discussion of the so-called \u27greatest kinds\u27 or megista gene in the Sophist

Rhythm and Vowel Quality in Accents of English

In a sample of 27 speakers of Scottish Standard English two notoriously variable consonantal features are investigated: the contrast of /m/ and /w/ and non-prevocalic /r/, the latter both in terms of its presence or absence and the phonetic form it takes, if present. The pattern of realisation of non-prevocalic /r/ largely confirms previously reported findings. But there are a number of surprising results regarding the merger of /m/ and /w/ and the loss of non-prevocalic /r/: While the former is more likely to happen in younger speakers and females, the latter seems more likely in older speakers and males. This is suggestive of change in progress leading to a loss of the /m/ - /w/ contrast, while the variation found in non-prevocalic /r/ follows an almost inverse sociolinguistic pattern that does not suggest any such change and is additionally largely explicable in language-internal terms. One phenomenon requiring further investigation is the curious effect direct contact with Southern English accents seems to have on non-prevocalic /r/: innovation on the structural level (i.e. loss) and conservatism on the realisational level (i.e. increased incidence of [r] and [r]) appear to be conditioned by the same sociolinguistic factors

Establishing Social Work Practices in England: The Early Evidence

Social Work Practices (SWPs) were established in England in 2009 to deliver social work services to looked after children and care leavers. The introduction of independent social work-led organisations generated controversy focused on issues such as the privatisation of children's services and social workers' conditions of employment. This paper reports early findings from the evaluation of four of these pilots, drawing on interviews with children and young people, staff, and local authority and national stakeholders. The SWPs assumed a variety of organisational forms. The procurement process was demanding, with protracted negotiations over matters such as budgetary control and providing a round-the-clock service. Start-up was facilitated by an established relationship between the SWP provider and the local authority. Once operational, SWPs continued to rely on local authorities for various functions; in most cases, local authorities retained control of placement budgets. Levels of consultation and choice offered to children and young people regarding the move to an SWP varied considerably. Children's understanding about SWPs was generally low except in the pilot where most children retained their original social worker. These early findings show some dilution of the original SWP model, while the pilots' diversity allows the benefits of particular models to emerge

Identification of Store-independent and Store-operated Ca2+ Conductances in Caenorhabditis elegans Intestinal Epithelial Cells

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans offers significant experimental advantages for defining the genetic basis of diverse biological processes. Genetic and physiological analyses have demonstrated that inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)–dependent Ca2+ oscillations in intestinal epithelial cells play a central role in regulating the nematode defecation cycle, an ultradian rhythm with a periodicity of 45–50 s. Patch clamp studies combined with behavioral assays and forward and reverse genetic screening would provide a powerful approach for defining the molecular details of oscillatory Ca2+ signaling. However, electrophysiological characterization of the intestinal epithelium has not been possible because of its relative inaccessibility. We developed primary intestinal epithelial cell cultures that circumvent this problem. Intestinal cells express two highly Ca2+-selective, voltage-independent conductances. One conductance, IORCa, is constitutively active, exhibits strong outward rectification, is 60–70-fold more selective for Ca2+ than Na+, is inhibited by intracellular Mg2+ with a K1/2 of 692 μM, and is insensitive to Ca2+ store depletion. Inhibition of IORCa with high intracellular Mg2+ concentrations revealed the presence of a small amplitude conductance that was activated by passive depletion of intracellular Ca2+ stores. Active depletion of Ca2+ stores with IP3 or ionomycin increased the rate of current activation ∼8- and ∼22-fold compared with passive store depletion. The store-operated conductance, ISOC, exhibits strong inward rectification, and the channel is highly selective for Ca2+ over monovalent cations with a divalent cation selectivity sequence of Ca2+ > Ba2+ ≈ Sr2+. Reversal potentials for ISOC could not be detected accurately between 0 and +80 mV, suggesting that PCa/PNa of the channel may exceed 1,000:1. Lanthanum, SKF 96365, and 2-APB inhibit both IORCa and ISOC reversibly. Our studies provide the first detailed electrophysiological characterization of voltage-independent Ca2+ conductances in C. elegans and form the foundation for ongoing genetic and molecular studies aimed at identifying the genes that encode the intestinal cell channels, for defining mechanisms of channel regulation and for defining their roles in oscillatory Ca2+ signaling

Barriers to innovation: the adoption of physiotherapy as a treatment in the UK veterinary sector

While physiotherapy is a popular treatment for humans it is less so when it comes to treating animals. Indeed, in the veterinary sector physiotherapy may be seen as an innovation and the reasons for it not being used more widely considered barriers to that innovation. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to identify those barriers and consider strategies for overcoming them. The research underpinning this paper made use of six depth interviews to develop a quantitative questionnaire which was then used as the basis of an online survey of veterinary surgeons using the surveymonkey research platform. The study identified factors such as “client cost concerns” and “awareness of available local services” as being barriers to referring patients while “an increase in the published evidence base” and “inclusion of physiotherapy as part of the curriculum at university” were seen as strategies that would help increase the use of physiotherapy in the veterinary sector