Batman and the superhero fairytale: deconstructing a revisionist crisis

Contemporary superhero comics carry the burden of navigating historical iterations and reiterations of canonical figures—Batman, Superman, Green Lantern et al.—producing a tension unique to a genre that thrives on the reconstruction of previously established narratives. This tension results in the complication of authorial and interpretive negotiation of basic principles of narrative and structure as readers and producers must seek to construct satisfactory identities for these icons. Similarly, the post-modern experimentation of Robert Coover—in Briar Rose and Stepmother—argues that we must no longer view contemporary fairytales as separate (cohesive) entities that may exist apart from their source narratives. Instead, through strategies of Revision, we might carve out processes of identity construction that embrace the inherently fragmentary nature of canonical icons. We might better approach the postmodern superhero—as exemplified by Grant Morrison’s recent reconstruction of the Batman mythos—as an entreaty to reconsider the identities of our superheroes as fragmented, non-cohesive concepts, bridging centuries of diverse literary production. Current superheroes are little more than contemporary enactments of the tension between current selves, past selves and potential future selves. The illustration of superheroes as negotiators of indecipherable selves illuminates the interactive dynamic between comics and comic readers who also participate in conscious and unconscious dialogue with historical enactments of the self (this being the process of growing up) and must also learn to construct identity via the accumulation and navigation of fragmentary selves

Analysis of adaptive capacity and governance surrounding an invasive pest, the Emerald Ash Borer, in Iowa

Theories and applications of adaptive natural resource management suggest that collaboration is essential for increasing the capacity of groups (e.g., communities, organizations) to address issues of concern, such as wildfire or the spread of invasive species. Furthermore, an understanding of relationship structure among individuals in these groups helps define opportunities for improved communication and effective response to these issues. In areas of the Eastern and Midwestern U.S., the spread of Emerald Ash Borer is of great concern in both rural and urban areas. Collaboration among stakeholders (e.g., private businesses, state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, municipalities, volunteer groups) within these areas will be needed to identify effective response strategies and develop innovative solutions to mitigate the costs associated with the invasive pest. In our study, we first interviewed members of the EAB readiness team (e.g., state- and federal-agency, and university extension staff) to isolate and evaluate aspects of collaboration and coordination that are essential for effective response. We determined that while communication and collaboration issues have largely improved over time, several areas of concern were noted. These included the issues of communication, trust, and role evolution and overlap. We then focused on three separate urban areas to assess the network structure of stakeholders involved with urban trees and wood utilization, while also investigating their willingness and motivation to adapt their work to address the spread of EAB. The focus of our social network analysis includes identifying network heterogeneity, density, aspects of brokerage, and reachability. Our preliminary findings suggest a general lack of collaboration among stakeholders, with notable concern related to relations between public (city services) and private (arborists, nurseries, etc.) stakeholders ; the degree to which these two groups are preparing for EAB is markedly different. Findings from this project help to identify the full spectrum of stakeholders including those who are peripheral and unengaged; discern information breakdowns as well as isolated actors; identify opportunities to accelerate knowledge flows across functional and organizational boundaries, and; provide the framework for future strategies that address collaboration surrounding emerging natural resource issues of concern

Stable solitons in coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations describing Bose-Einstein condensates and nonlinear optical waveguides and cavities

We introduce a model of a two-core system, based on an equation of the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) type, coupled to another GL equation, which may be linear or nonlinear. One core is active, featuring intrinsic linear gain, while the other one is lossy. The difference from previously studied models involving a pair of linearly coupled active and passive cores is that the stabilization of the system is provided not by a linear diffusion-like term, but rather by a cubic or quintic dissipative term in the active core. Physical realizations of the models include systems from nonlinear optics (semiconductor waveguides or optical cavities), and a double-cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate with a negative scattering length, in which the active ``cigar'' is an atom laser. The replacement of the diffusion term by the nonlinear loss is principally important, as diffusion does not occur in these physical media, while nonlinear loss is possible. A stability region for solitary pulses is found in the system's parameter space by means of direct simulations. One border of the region is also found in an analytical form by means of a perturbation theory. Moving pulses are studied too. It is concluded that collisions between them are completely elastic, provided that the relative velocity is not too small. The pulses withstand multiple tunneling through potential barriers. Robust quantum-rachet regimes of motion of the pulse in a time-periodic asymmetric potential are found as well.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Correlation between measures of insulin resistance in fasting and non-fasting blood

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiological investigation of insulin resistance is difficult. Standard measures of insulin resistance require invasive investigations, which are impractical for large-scale studies. Surrogate measures using fasting blood samples have been developed, but even these are difficult to obtain in population-based studies. Measures of insulin resistance have not been validated in non-fasting blood samples. Our objective was to assess the correlations between fasting and non-fasting measures of insulin resistance/sensitivity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fasting and non-fasting measurements of metabolic function were compared in 30 volunteers (15 male) aged 28 to 48 years. Participants provided a morning blood sample after an overnight fast and a second sample approximately 4 hours after lunch on the same day.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Non-fasting levels of the adipokines leptin, adiponectin, and leptin:adiponectin ratios were not significantly different and highly correlated with fasting values (r values 0.95, 0.96, and 0.95 respectively, P values < 0.001). There were moderate correlations between fasting and non-fasting estimates of insulin sensitivity using the McAuley (r = 0.60, P = 0.001) and QUICKI formulae (r = 0.39, P = 0.037). The HOMA-IR estimate of insulin resistance was also moderately correlated (r = 0.45, P = 0.016).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Semi-fasting measures of leptin, adiponectin, and leptin:adiponectin ratios correlate closely with fasting values and are likely to be sufficient for population-based research. Other measures of insulin resistance or sensitivity in semi-fasted blood samples are moderately correlated with values obtained after an overnight fast. These estimates of insulin resistance/sensitivity may also be adequate for many epidemiological studies and would avoid the difficulties of obtaining fasting blood samples.</p

Cold Collision Frequency Shift of the 1S-2S Transition in Hydrogen

We have observed the cold collision frequency shift of the 1S-2S transition in trapped spin-polarized atomic hydrogen. We find $\Delta \nu_{1S-2S} = -3.8(8)\times 10^{-10} n Hz cm^3$, where $n$ is the sample density. From this we derive the 1S-2S s-wave triplet scattering length, $a_{1S-2S}=-1.4(3)$ nm, which is in fair agreement with a recent calculation. The shift provides a valuable probe of the distribution of densities in a trapped sample.Comment: Accepted for publication in PRL, 9 pages, 4 PostScript figures, ReVTeX. Updated connection of our measurement to theoretical wor

A Unified Nanopublication Model for Effective and User-Friendly Access to the Elements of Scientific Publishing

Scientific publishing is the means by which we communicate and share scientific knowledge, but this process currently often lacks transparency and machine-interpretable representations. Scientific articles are published in long coarse-grained text with complicated structures, and they are optimized for human readers and not for automated means of organization and access. Peer reviewing is the main method of quality assessment, but these peer reviews are nowadays rarely published and their own complicated structure and linking to the respective articles is not accessible. In order to address these problems and to better align scientific publishing with the principles of the Web and Linked Data, we propose here an approach to use nanopublications as a unifying model to represent in a semantic way the elements of publications, their assessments, as well as the involved processes, actors, and provenance in general. To evaluate our approach, we present a dataset of 627 nanopublications representing an interlinked network of the elements of articles (such as individual paragraphs) and their reviews (such as individual review comments). Focusing on the specific scenario of editors performing a meta-review, we introduce seven competency questions and show how they can be executed as SPARQL queries. We then present a prototype of a user interface for that scenario that shows different views on the set of review comments provided for a given manuscript, and we show in a user study that editors find the interface useful to answer their competency questions. In summary, we demonstrate that a unified and semantic publication model based on nanopublications can make scientific communication more effective and user-friendly

Use of television, videogames, and computer among children and adolescents in Italy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This survey determined the practices about television (video inclusive), videogames, and computer use in children and adolescents in Italy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A self-administered anonymous questionnaire covered socio-demographics; behaviour about television, videogames, computer, and sports; parental control over television, videogames, and computer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, 54.1% and 61% always ate lunch or dinner in front of the television, 89.5% had a television in the bedroom while 52.5% of them always watched television there, and 49% indicated that parents controlled the content of what was watched on television. The overall mean length of time daily spent on television viewing (2.8 hours) and the frequency of watching for at least two hours per day (74.9%) were significantly associated with older age, always ate lunch or dinner while watching television, spent more time playing videogames and using computer. Those with parents from a lower socio-economic level were also more likely to spend more minutes viewing television. Two-thirds played videogames for 1.6 daily hours and more time was spent by those younger, males, with parents that do not control them, who watched more television, and who spent more time at the computer. The computer was used by 85% of the sample for 1.6 daily hours and those older, with a computer in the bedroom, with a higher number of computers in home, who view more television and play videogames were more likely to use the computer.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Immediate and comprehensive actions are needed in order to diminish time spent at the television, videogames, and computer.</p

Short sleep duration and obesity among Australian children

Extent: 6p.Background: There is limited information on sleep duration and obesity among Australian children. The objective of the study is to cross-sectionally examine the relationship between sleep duration and obesity in Australian children aged 5 to 15 years. Methods: Data were collected using the South Australian Monitoring and Surveillance System between January 2004 and December 2008. Each month a representative random sample of South Australians are selected from the Electronic White Pages with interviews conducted using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Within each household, the person who was last to have a birthday was selected for interview. Parents reported the number of hours their children slept each day. Obesity was defined according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) definition based on BMI calculated from reported body weight and height. Results: Overall, parents of 3495 children aged 5-15 years (mean 10.7 years, 50.3% boys) were interviewed. The prevalence of obesity was 7.7% (8.9% in boys, 6.6% in girls). In multivariate analysis after adjusting for sociodemographic variables, intake of fruit and vegetables, physical activity and inactivity, the odds ratio (OR) for obesity comparing sleeping <9 hours with ≥10 hours was 2.23 (95% CI 1.04-4.76) among boys, 1.70(0.78-3.73) among girls, and 1.97(1.15-3.38) in both genders. The association between short sleep (<9 hours) and obesity was stronger in the younger age group. No significant association between short sleep and obesity was found among children aged 13-15. There was also an additive interaction between short sleep and low level of physical activity. Conclusion: Short sleep duration is associated with increased obesity in children especially among younger age groups and boys.Zumin Shi, Anne W Taylor, Tiffany K Gill, Jane Tuckerman, Robert Adams and James Marti