The mediated myth of rock and roll

This study deconstructs the cultural myth (Barthes, 1957) of rock and roll as constructed by television and film (forms) and negotiated through musicians' experiences and personal understandings (concepts). It does so through textual analyses of five films and eight televisual forms and forty-one in-depth interviews with a maximum variation sample of rock and roll musicians to examine how individuals negotiated concepts about the rock and roll myth. The myth of rock and roll is simultaneously simple and complex, discussed openly and mired in code, and contains both surface level and deep structures. It is at once a rejection of American capitalism through its insistence on the existence "pure" rock and roll outside of industry while being the very embodiment of it through its meritocratic and agentic views of rock and roll success, where the best product sells the most records. The myth of rock and roll contains promises of openness and equality to "anyone" who wishes to "do it" while disguising "averageness" as white, male, and heterosexual. As with the function of all myths, each of these dualistic statements contains a degree of truth to allow its circulation throughout culture (Dyer, 1982). However, musicians negotiate what constitutes "truth" through the lens of the myth throughout the various stages of their careers. Additionally, the cultural forms and individual concepts of rock and roll are not inherently good or bad, or true or false, rather, they serve different cultural and individual functions, which this study critically examines

What Limits the Rate Capability of Li-S Batteries during Discharge: Charge Transfer or Mass Transfer?

Li-S batteries exhibit poor rate capability under lean electrolyte conditions required for achieving high practical energy densities. In this contribution, we argue that the rate capability of commercially-viable Li-S batteries is mainly limited by mass transfer rather than charge transfer during discharge. We first present experimental evidence showing that the charge-transfer resistance of Li-S batteries and hence the cathode surface covered by Li2S are proportional to the state-of-charge (SoC) and not to the current, directly contradicting previous theories. We further demonstrate that the observed Li-S behaviors for different discharge rates are qualitatively captured by a zero-dimensional Li-S model with transport-limited reaction currents. This is the first Li-S model to also reproduce the characteristic overshoot in voltage at the beginning of charge, suggesting its cause is the increase in charge transfer resistance brought by Li2S precipitation

Irreversible vs reversible capacity fade of lithium-sulfur batteries during cycling: the effects of precipitation and shuttle

Lithium-sulfur batteries could deliver significantly higher gravimetric energy density and lower cost than Li-ion batteries. Their mass adoption, however, depends on many factors, not least on attaining a predictive understanding of the mechanisms that determine their performance under realistic operational conditions, such as partial charge/discharge cycles. This work addresses a lack of such understanding by studying experimentally and theoretically the response to partial cycling. A lithium-sulfur model is used to analyze the mechanisms dictating the experimentally observed response to partial cycling. The zero-dimensional electrochemical model tracks the time evolution of sulfur species, accounting for two electrochemical reactions, one precipitation/dissolution reaction with nucleation, and shuttle, allowing direct access to the true cell state of charge. The experimentally observed voltage drift is predicted by the model as a result of the interplay between shuttle and the dissolution bottleneck. Other features are shown to be caused by capacity fade. We propose a model of irreversible sulfur loss associated with shuttle, such as caused by reactions on the anode. We find a reversible and an irreversible contribution to the observed capacity fade, and verify experimentally that the reversible component, caused by the dissolution bottleneck, can be recovered through slow charging. This model can be the basis for cycling parameters optimization, or for identifying degradation mechanisms relevant in applications. The model code is released as Supplementary material B

Subthreshold K+ production in deuteron and alpha induced nuclear reactions

Double differential cross sections have been measured for pi+ and K+ emitted around midraidity in d+A and He+A collisions at a beam kinetic energy of 1.15 GeV/nucleon. The total pi+ yield increases by a factor of about 2 when using an alpha projectile instead of a deuteron whereas the K+ yield increases by a factor of about 4. According to transport calculations, the K+ enhancement depends both on the number of hadron-hadron collisions and on the energy available in those collisions: their center-of-mass energy increases with increasing number of projectile nucleons

Production of Charged Pions, Kaons and Antikaons in Relativistic C+C and C+Au Collisions

Production cross sections of charged pions, kaons and antikaons have been measured in C+C and C+Au collisions at beam energies of 1.0 and 1.8 AGeV for different polar emission angles. The kaon and antikaon energy spectra can be described by Boltzmann distributions whereas the pion spectra exhibit an additional enhancement at low energies. The pion multiplicity per participating nucleon M(pi+)/A_part is a factor of about 3 smaller in C+Au than in C+C collisions at 1.0 AGeV whereas it differs only little for the C and the Au target at a beam energy of 1.8 AGeV. The K+ multiplicities per participating nucleon M(K+)/A_part are independent of the target size at 1 AGeV and at 1.8 AGeV. The K- multiplicity per participating nucleon M(K-)/A_part is reduced by a factor of about 2 in C+Au as compared to C+C collisions at 1.8 AGeV. This effect might be caused by the absorption of antikaons in the heavy target nucleus. Transport model calculations underestimate the K-/K+ ratio for C+C collisions at 1.8 AGeV by a factor of about 4 if in-medium modifications of K mesons are neglected.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.

Evidence for a Soft Nuclear Equation-of-State from Kaon Production in Heavy Ion Collisions

The production of pions and kaons has been measured in Au+Au collisions at beam energies from 0.6 to 1.5 AGeV with the Kaon Spectrometer at SIS/GSI. The K+ meson multiplicity per nucleon is enhanced in Au+Au collisions by factors up to 6 relative to C+C reactions whereas the corresponding pion ratio is reduced. The ratio of the K+ meson excitation functions for Au+Au and C+C collisions increases with decreasing beam energy. This behavior is expected for a soft nuclear equation-of-state.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Kaon and Antikaon Production in Heavy Ion Collisions at 1.5 AGeV

At the Kaon Spectrometer KaoS at SIS, GSI the production of kaons and antikaons in heavy ion reactions at a beam energy of 1.5 AGeV has been measured for the collision systems Ni+Ni and Au+Au. The K-/K+ ratio is found to be constant for both systems and as a function of impact parameter but the slopes of K+ and K- spectra differ for all impact parameters. Furthermore the respective polar angle distributions will be presented as a function of centrality.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, SQM2001 in Frankfurt, Sept.2001, submitted to Journal of Physics

Antidepressants and inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: A number of studies have suggested a link between the patient's psyche and the course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although pharmacotherapy with antidepressants has not been widely explored, some investigators have proposed that treating psychological co-morbidities with antidepressants may help to control disease activity. To date a systematic analysis of the available studies assessing the efficacy of antidepressants for the control of somatic symptoms in IBD patients has not been performed. METHODS: We searched electronic databases, without any language restriction. All relevant papers issued after 1990 were examined. RESULTS: 12 relevant publications were identified. All of them referred to non-randomised studies. Antidepressants reported in these publications included paroxetine, bupropion, amitriptyline, phenelzine, and mirtazapine. In 10 articles, paroxetine, bupropion, and phenelzine were suggested to be effective for treating both psychological and somatic symptoms in patients suffering from IBD. Amitriptyline was found ineffective for treating somatic symptoms of IBD. Mirtazapine was not recommended for IBD patients. CONCLUSION: Although most of reviewed papers suggest a beneficial effect of treatment with antidepressants in patients with IBD, due to the lack of reliable data, it is impossible to judge the efficacy of antidepressants in IBD. Properly designed trials are justified and needed based upon the available uncontrolled data