Which politicians receive abuse? Four factors illuminated in the UK general election 2019

The 2019 UK general election took place against a background of rising online hostility levels toward politicians, and concerns about the impact of this on democracy, as a record number of politicians cited the abuse they had been receiving as a reason for not standing for re-election. We present a four-factor framework in understanding who receives online abuse and why. The four factors are prominence, events, online engagement and personal characteristics. We collected 4.2 million tweets sent to or from election candidates in the six week period spanning from the start of November until shortly after the December 12th election. We found abuse in 4.46% of replies received by candidates, up from 3.27% in the matching period for the 2017 UK general election. Abuse levels have also been climbing month on month throughout 2019. Abuse also escalated throughout the campaign period. Abuse focused mainly on a small number of high profile politicians, with the most prominent individuals receiving not only more abuse by volume, but also as a percentage of replies. Abuse is ``spiky'', triggered by external events such as debates, or certain tweets. Some tweets may become viral targets for personal abuse. On average, men received more general and political abuse; women received more sexist abuse. Conservative candidates received more political and general abuse. We find that individuals choosing not to stand for re-election had received more abuse across the preceding year

Online abuse toward candidates during the UK general election 2019 : working paper

The 2019 UK general election took place against a background of rising online hostility levels toward politicians and concerns about its impact on democracy. We collected 4.2 million tweets sent to or from election candidates in the six week period spanning from the start of November until shortly after the December 12th election. We found abuse in 4.46\% of replies received by candidates, up from 3.27\% in the matching period for the 2017 UK general election. Abuse levels have also been climbing month on month throughout 2019. Abuse also escalated throughout the campaign period. Abuse focused mainly on a small number of high profile politicians. Abuse is "spiky", triggered by external events such as debates, or certain tweets. Abuse increases when politicians discuss inflammatory topics such as borders and immigration. There may also be a backlash on topics such as social justice. Some tweets may become viral targets for personal abuse. On average, men received more general and political abuse; women received more sexist abuse. MPs choosing not to stand again had received more abuse during 2019

Multi-scale analysis of the effect of loading conditions on monotonic and fatigue behavior of a glass fiber reinforced polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) composite

In this paper, two kinds of PPS/GF composite samples (PPS-0°, PPS-90°) were prepared with two different fiber main orientations related to the injection direction. A wide range of their properties were discussed. Using DMTA analysis, it was shown that the PPS/GF composite under study obeyed the time-temperature equivalence principle. Moreover, Perez model was verified and gave a good estimation of the viscoelastic properties of the PPS/GF. Monotonic and fatigue behaviors and fatigue life of PPS/GF were investigated. Fiber's orientation, applied amplitude and loading frequency effects were emphasized. Self-heating effect on fatigue strength was also analyzed. SEM fracture surface observations allowed analyzing, at the local scale, the main deformation mechanisms occurring during mechanical loading. No evident damage development was observed for both monotonic and fatigue loading. PPS matrix plasticity appeared to be the predominant deformation mechanism until a semi-ductile or semi-brittle final failure depending on the loading conditions and local microstructure

Race and religion in online abuse towards UK politicians : working paper

Against a backdrop of tensions related to EU membership, we find levels of online abuse toward UK MPs reach a new high. Race and religion have become pressing topics globally, and in the UK this interacts with "Brexit" and the rise of social media to create a complex social climate in which much can be learned about evolving attitudes. In 8 million tweets by and to UK MPs in the first half of 2019, religious intolerance scandals in the UK's two main political parties attracted significant attention. Furthermore, high profile ethnic minority MPs started conversations on Twitter about race and religion, the responses to which provide a valuable source of insight. We found a significant presence for disturbing racial and religious abuse. We also explore metrics relating to abuse patterns, which may affect its impact. We find "burstiness" of abuse doesn't depend on race or gender, but individual factors may lead to politicians having very different experiences online

Quantifying media influence and partisan attention on Twitter during the UK EU referendum

User generated media, and their influence on the information individuals are exposed to, have the potential to affect political outcomes. This is increasingly a focus for attention and concern. The British EU membership referendum provided an opportunity for researchers to explore the nature and impact of the new infosphere in a politically charged situation. This work contributes by reviewing websites that were linked in a Brexit Tweet dataset of 13.2 million tweets, by 1.8 million distinct users, collected in the run-up to the referendum. In this dataset, 480,000 users have been classified according to their “Brexit” vote intent. Findings include that linked material on Twitter was mostly posted by those in favour of leaving the EU. Mainstream news media had the greatest impact in terms of number of links tweeted, with alternative media and campaign sites appearing to a much lesser extent. Of the 15 most linked mainstream media, half show a substantially greater appeal to the leave camp, with two of them very much so. No mainstream media had a consistent appeal among remain supporters. Among the sites that were highly favoured by one voter valence or the other, the leave sites had by far the greatest impact in terms of number of appearances in tweets. Remain-preferred sites were less linked, and dominated by explicit campaign sites. Leave-preferred sites were more numerously linked, and dominated by mainstream and alternative media

Online abuse of UK MPs from 2015 to 2019: Working paper

We extend previous work about general election-related abuse of UK MPs with two new time periods, one in late 2018 and the other in early 2019, allowing previous observations to be extended to new data and the impact of key stages in the UK withdrawal from the European Union on patterns of abuse to be explored. The topics that draw abuse evolve over the four time periods are reviewed, with topics relevant to the Brexit debate and campaign tone showing a varying pattern as events unfold, and a suggestion of a "bubble" of topics emphasized in the run-up to the highly Brexit-focused 2017 general election. Brexit stance shows a variable relationship with abuse received. We find, as previously, that in quantitative terms, Conservatives and male politicians receive more abuse. Gender difference remains significant even when accounting for prominence, as gauged from Google Trends data, but prominence, or other factors related to being in power, as well as gender, likely account for the difference associated with party membership. No clear relationship between ethnicity and abuse is found in what remains a very small sample (BAME and mixed heritage MPs). Differences are found in the choice of abuse terms levelled at female vs. male MPs

Partisanship, propaganda and post-truth politics: Quantifying impact in online debate

The recent past has highlighted the influential role of social networks and online media in shaping public debate on current affairs and political issues. This paper is focused on studying the role of politically-motivated actors and their strategies for influencing and manipulating public opinion online: partisan media, state-backed propaganda, and post-truth politics. In particular, we present quantitative research on the presence and impact of these three `Ps' in online Twitter debates in two contexts: (i) the run up to the UK EU membership referendum (`Brexit'); and (ii) the information operations of Russia-backed online troll accounts. We first compare the impact of highly partisan versus mainstream media during the Brexit referendum, specifically comparing tweets by half a million `leave' and `remain' supporters. Next, online propaganda strategies are examined, specifically left- and right-wing troll accounts. Lastly, we study the impact of misleading claims made by the political leaders of the leave and remain campaigns. This is then compared to the impact of the Russia-backed partisan media and propaganda accounts during the referendum. In particular, just two of the many misleading claims made by politicians during the referendum were found to be cited in 4.6 times more tweets than the 7,103 tweets related to Russia Today and Sputnik and in 10.2 times more tweets than the 3,200 Brexit-related tweets by the Russian troll accounts

Multi-scale analysis of the effect of loading conditions on monotonic and fatigue behavior of a glass fiber reinforced polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) composite

In this paper, two kinds of PPS/GF composite samples (PPS-0°, PPS-90°) were prepared with two different fiber main orientations related to the injection direction. A wide range of their properties were discussed. Using DMTA analysis, it was shown that the PPS/GF composite under study obeyed the time-temperature equivalence principle. Moreover, Perez model was verified and gave a good estimation of the viscoelastic properties of the PPS/GF. Monotonic and fatigue behaviors and fatigue life of PPS/GF were investigated. Fiber's orientation, applied amplitude and loading frequency effects were emphasized. Self-heating effect on fatigue strength was also analyzed. SEM fracture surface observations allowed analyzing, at the local scale, the main deformation mechanisms occurring during mechanical loading. No evident damage development was observed for both monotonic and fatigue loading. PPS matrix plasticity appeared to be the predominant deformation mechanism until a semi-ductile or semi-brittle final failure depending on the loading conditions and local microstructure

Genomic–transcriptomic evolution in lung cancer and metastasis

Intratumour heterogeneity (ITH) fuels lung cancer evolution, which leads to immune evasion and resistance to therapy1. Here, using paired whole-exome and RNA sequencing data, we investigate intratumour transcriptomic diversity in 354 non-small cell lung cancer tumours from 347 out of the first 421 patients prospectively recruited into the TRACERx study2,3. Analyses of 947 tumour regions, representing both primary and metastatic disease, alongside 96 tumour-adjacent normal tissue samples implicate the transcriptome as a major source of phenotypic variation. Gene expression levels and ITH relate to patterns of positive and negative selection during tumour evolution. We observe frequent copy number-independent allele-specific expression that is linked to epigenomic dysfunction. Allele-specific expression can also result in genomic–transcriptomic parallel evolution, which converges on cancer gene disruption. We extract signatures of RNA single-base substitutions and link their aetiology to the activity of the RNA-editing enzymes ADAR and APOBEC3A, thereby revealing otherwise undetected ongoing APOBEC activity in tumours. Characterizing the transcriptomes of primary–metastatic tumour pairs, we combine multiple machine-learning approaches that leverage genomic and transcriptomic variables to link metastasis-seeding potential to the evolutionary context of mutations and increased proliferation within primary tumour regions. These results highlight the interplay between the genome and transcriptome in influencing ITH, lung cancer evolution and metastasis

Evolutionary characterization of lung adenocarcinoma morphology in TRACERx

Lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs) display a broad histological spectrum from low-grade lepidic tumors through to mid-grade acinar and papillary and high-grade solid, cribriform and micropapillary tumors. How morphology reflects tumor evolution and disease progression is poorly understood. Whole-exome sequencing data generated from 805 primary tumor regions and 121 paired metastatic samples across 248 LUADs from the TRACERx 421 cohort, together with RNA-sequencing data from 463 primary tumor regions, were integrated with detailed whole-tumor and regional histopathological analysis. Tumors with predominantly high-grade patterns showed increased chromosomal complexity, with higher burden of loss of heterozygosity and subclonal somatic copy number alterations. Individual regions in predominantly high-grade pattern tumors exhibited higher proliferation and lower clonal diversity, potentially reflecting large recent subclonal expansions. Co-occurrence of truncal loss of chromosomes 3p and 3q was enriched in predominantly low-/mid-grade tumors, while purely undifferentiated solid-pattern tumors had a higher frequency of truncal arm or focal 3q gains and SMARCA4 gene alterations compared with mixed-pattern tumors with a solid component, suggesting distinct evolutionary trajectories. Clonal evolution analysis revealed that tumors tend to evolve toward higher-grade patterns. The presence of micropapillary pattern and ‘tumor spread through air spaces’ were associated with intrathoracic recurrence, in contrast to the presence of solid/cribriform patterns, necrosis and preoperative circulating tumor DNA detection, which were associated with extra-thoracic recurrence. These data provide insights into the relationship between LUAD morphology, the underlying evolutionary genomic landscape, and clinical and anatomical relapse risk