Automation, Work, and Ideology: The Next Industrial Revolution and the Transformation of Labor

Over the last several decades, scholars and commentators from a variety of different fields, expertise, and ideological positions have written on automation technologies and their potential to cause technological unemployment. As a sociological analysis and critical examination of how experts ideologically frame these issues, this thesis demonstrates that ideology plays a crucial role in the revived debate over automation and technological displacement. Weberian ideal types are developed to demonstrate how three major ideological positions—liberal, conservative, and radical—approach and frame the link between automation, technological displacement, and the potential for technological unemployment. The qualitative tools of ideal type construction and theme analysis facilitate synthesis and reconstruction as ideal types the most salient aspects of each ideological perspective on the link between automation and technological displacement. The liberal ideal type focuses on how liberal concerns that the present circumstances (“this time”) may be different, that predicted technological displacement will greatly exacerbate economic inequality, and that technological unemployment could undermine social stability. By contrast, conservative commentators contend that technological displacement will not cause structural technological unemployment, and that disruptions will most likely follow the same patterns of “creative destruction” (Schumpeter) observed throughout the history of capitalism. Finally, radical commentators typically regard the continuation of automation as an opportunity to think of new ways to organize society beyond wage labor, and endeavor to develop a political program designed to transcend the current problems plaguing capitalism. The final sections critically analyzes all three ideological positions and shows how, ultimately, current arguments and debates are structurally flawed. The tool of ideology critique is used to explain how the mainstream debate between conservatives, liberals, and radicals is devoid of systematic critical understanding of the dynamics of modern society. Relying on the works of the critical Marxian school of value-critique, a critique of current debates is formulated to explain how the historical dynamics of capital continuously transform labor in modern society in ways that will likely subvert the expectations of all three ideologies. The critical concept of a “logic of capital” must be central to any understanding of the processes of automation and technological displacement

Light scattering and optical diffusion from willemite spherulites

Willemite is a zinc silicate mineral used in modern day pottery as a decorative feature within glazes. It is produced by controlled heat treatment of zinc oxide-containing ceramic glazes. The heat-treated glazes devitrify, producing thin nanoscale needle-like willemite crystals growing in spherulitic morphologies through branching of the needles. We show here that this resulting morphology of willemite crystals in an inorganic glass matrix has a previously unreported strong interaction with light, displaying remarkable optical diffraction patterns. Thin sections of such spherulites act as optical diffusers, enabling light beams to be spread up to 160° in width. Analysis of the interaction between the willemite spherulites and light suggests that the high density of willemite crystals in the spherulites and the length scales associated with both the thickness of the needles and the spacings between branches are together responsible for this optical diffusion behaviour.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2015.12.02

Unionists prefer dominant leaders

Kristen K. Knowles - ORCID 0000-0001-9664-9055 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9664-9055Voters rely on many cues to make decisions about who to vote for, and the appearance of a potential leader can play an important part in this decision-making process. When choosing leaders, it is thought that voters make “fit-to-task” voting decisions, for example, exhibiting a preference for masculine-looking leaders in hypothetical wartime scenarios, when masculine behavioural characteristics would be most valued. Here, we examine face preferences within a sample of Scottish voters during the campaign for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Subjects were presented with masculinised and feminised versions of faces in a forced-choice experimental task to select their preferred face in a hypothetical national election. No voters (those who voted to maintain the Union) chose more masculine-faced hypothetical leaders than Yes voters (those who voted in favour of an independent Scotland); effect sizes observed were medium. Within Yes voters, economic concern was related to a preference for masculine faces, but for No voters, economic outlook did not relate to face preferences. These findings underscore the importance of real-world socio-political contexts in psychology research, particularly that concerning the public perception of different leadership prototypes. Implications in the current Scottish context are discussed.https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2019.029728pubpub

New and improved demonstrations, each illustrating a single scientific paper

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Light scattering and optical diffusion from willemite spherulites

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2015.12.025Willemite is a zinc silicate mineral used in modern day pottery as a decorative feature within glazes. It is produced by controlled heat treatment of zinc oxide-containing ceramic glazes. The heat-treated glazes devitrify, producing thin nanoscale needle-like willemite crystals growing in spherulitic morphologies through branching of the needles. We show here that this resulting morphology of willemite crystals in an inorganic glass matrix has a previously unreported strong interaction with light, displaying remarkable optical diffraction patterns. Thin sections of such spherulites act as optical diffusers, enabling light beams to be spread up to 160? in width. Analysis of the interaction between the willemite spherulites and light suggests that the high density of willemite crystals in the spherulites and the length scales associated with both the thickness of the needles and the spacings between branches are together responsible for this optical diffusion behaviour

Sporadic Cryptosporidiosis Decline after Membrane Filtration of Public Water Supplies, England, 1996–2002

Sporadic cryptosporidiosis and associated hospital admissions of children declined after membrane filtration of public drinking water supplies was introduced

Early impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and physical distancing measures on routine childhood vaccinations in England, January to April 2020.

Using electronic health records, we assessed the early impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on routine childhood vaccination in England by 26 April 2020. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination counts fell from February 2020, and in the 3 weeks after introduction of physical distancing measures were 19.8% lower (95% confidence interval: -20.7 to -18.9) than the same period in 2019, before improving in mid-April. A gradual decline in hexavalent vaccination counts throughout 2020 was not accentuated by physical distancing

Combined exome and whole-genome sequencing identifies mutations in ARMC4 as a cause of primary ciliary dyskinesia with defects in the outer dynein arm

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare, genetically heterogeneous ciliopathy disorder affecting cilia and sperm motility. A range of ultrastructural defects of the axoneme underlie the disease, which is characterised by chronic respiratory symptoms and obstructive lung disease, infertility and body axis laterality defects. We applied a next-generation sequencing approach to identify the gene responsible for this phenotype in two consanguineous families