“This is who we are!” National identity construction and the 2014 FIFA World Cup

Drawing on the literature on American nationalism and the social identity perspective, this study examines the effects of mediasport on nationalized attitudes, using both rhetorical and experimental approaches. First, a rhetorical analysis examined the nationalistic themes featured in the game promotional ad of the United States versus Ghana soccer match in World Cup 2014, linking these themes to the republicanism/liberalism paradox in American political thought. Using the social identity perspective, we predicted the effects of these themes on U.S. participants’ nationalized attitudes and tested our hypotheses using an experiment. Experimental findings indicate that exposure to nationalistic rhetoric indirectly increases uncritical patriotism, critical patriotism, and support of militarism attitudes via self-enhancement gratifications. Additionally, exposure to nationalistic rhetoric also indirectly influences uncritical patriotism via social uncertainty reduction gratifications. Our study demonstrates the utility of a mixed-method approach and points out directions for future research on the (re)construction of social identities through mediasport

Applying the Coulomb Failure Function with an optimally oriented plane to the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake triggering

The Coulomb failure function (CFF) quantitatively describes static stress changes in secondary faults near the source fault of an earthquake. CFF can be employed to monitor how static stress transfers and then shed some light on the probability of successive events occurring around a source fault. In this paper we focus on the CFF and particularly on optimally oriented planes. We present a unified model to determine an optimally oriented plane and its corresponding Coulomb stress, then apply the model to the 2003 Mw 6.6 Bam (Iran) earthquake and the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan (China) earthquake, thereby checking its effectiveness. Our results show that spatial correlation between positive Coulomb stress changes and aftershocks are, for the 2003 Bam earthquake, 47.06% when elastic Coulomb stress changes are resolved on uniform planes and 87.53% when these are resolved on optimally oriented planes at depth; for the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake the correlations are 45.68% and 58.20%, respectively. It is recommended that account be taken of optimally oriented planes when drawing a Coulomb stress map for analyzing earthquake triggering effects

Why Do Lithium–Oxygen Batteries Fail: Parasitic Chemical Reactions and Their Synergistic Effect

As an electrochemical energy‐storage technology with the highest theoretical capacity, lithium–oxygen batteries face critical challenges in terms of poor stabilities and low charge/discharge round‐trip efficiencies. It is generally recognized that these issues are connected to the parasitic chemical reactions at the anode, electrolyte, and cathode. While the detailed mechanisms of these reactions have been studied separately, the possible synergistic effects between these reactions remain poorly understood. To fill in the knowledge gap, this Minireview examines literature reports on the parasitic chemical reactions and finds the reactive oxygen species a key chemical mediator that participates in or facilitates nearly all parasitic chemical reactions. Given the ubiquitous presence of oxygen in all test cells, this finding is important. It offers new insights into how to stabilize various components of lithium–oxygen batteries for high‐performance operations and how to eventually materialize the full potentials of this promising technology.Synergistic effect: In lithium–oxygen batteries reactive oxygen species are found to be a key chemical mediator that participates in or facilitates nearly all parasitic chemical reactions at the anode, cathode, and electrolyte. Understanding of their synergistic effect will enable more rational designs for future lithium–oxygen batteries.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137359/1/anie201601783_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137359/2/anie201601783.pd

Protecting eyewitness evidence: Examining the efficacy of a self-administered interview tool

Given the crucial role of eyewitness evidence, statements should be obtained as soon as possible after an incident. This is not always achieved due to demands on police resources. Two studies trace the development of a new tool, the Self-Administered Interview (SAI), designed to elicit a comprehensive initial statement. In Study 1, SAI participants reported more correct details than participants who provided a free recall account, and performed at the same level as participants given a Cognitive Interview. In Study 2, participants viewed a simulated crime and half recorded their statement using the SAI. After a delay of 1 week, all participants completed a free recall test. SAI participants recalled more correct details in the delayed recall task than control participants

Measuring the effect of intimate partner violence on health-related quality of life: a qualitative focus group study

Abstract Background Health related quality of life (HRQOL) can be measured by a wide range of instruments, many of which have been designed for specific conditions or uses. Preference-based measures assess the value individuals place on health, and are included in economic evaluations of treatments and interventions (such as cost effectiveness analysis). As economic evaluation becomes more common, it is important to assess the applicability of preference-based health related quality of life (HRQOL) measures to public health issues. This study investigated the usefulness of such instruments in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV), a public health concern that that can seriously affect quality of life. Methods The study consisted of focus groups with abused women to determine the aspects of life affected by IPV, and an analysis of existing HRQOL measures. Eight focus groups (n = 40) were conducted in which participants discussed the domains of health affected by IPV. Results were content analyzed and compared with the domains of health included in four commonly-used, preference-based HRQOL measures. Results The average focus group participant was 43 years old, unemployed, African American, with 3 children. Domains of health reported to be affected by IPV included physical functioning, emotional and psychological functioning, social functioning and children\u27s functioning. Psychological health was the most severely affected domain. The Short Form 36, the Health Utilities Index, the EuroQol 5D, and the Quality of Well-being Scale were found to vary in the degree to which they include domains of health important in IPV. Psychological health is included to a limited extent, and the spill-over effect of a condition on other family members, including children, is not included at all. Conclusion Emotional and psychological health plays an important role in the overall HRQOL of abused women but is relatively underemphasized in preference-based HRQOL measures. This may lead to an underestimation of the impact of partner violence on HRQOL when using these measures and in economic evaluations that rely thereon. Holistic measurement approaches or expanded measures that capture the far-reaching effects of IPV on HRQOL may be needed to accurately measure the effect of this condition on women\u27s health

Perception of limb orientation in the vertical plane depends on center of mass rather than inertial eigenvectors

We performed two experiments to test the hypothesis that the perception of limb orientation depends on inertial eigenvectors (

Visual, Motor and Attentional Influences on Proprioceptive Contributions to Perception of Hand Path Rectilinearity during Reaching

We examined how proprioceptive contributions to perception of hand path straightness are influenced by visual, motor and attentional sources of performance variability during horizontal planar reaching. Subjects held the handle of a robot that constrained goal-directed movements of the hand to the paths of controlled curvature. Subjects attempted to detect the presence of hand path curvature during both active (subject driven) and passive (robot driven) movements that either required active muscle force production or not. Subjects were less able to discriminate curved from straight paths when actively reaching for a target versus when the robot moved their hand through the same curved paths. This effect was especially evident during robot-driven movements requiring concurrent activation of lengthening but not shortening muscles. Subjects were less likely to report curvature and were more variable in reporting when movements appeared straight in a novel “visual channel” condition previously shown to block adaptive updating of motor commands in response to deviations from a straight-line hand path. Similarly, compromised performance was obtained when subjects simultaneously performed a distracting secondary task (key pressing with the contralateral hand). The effects compounded when these last two treatments were combined. It is concluded that environmental, intrinsic and attentional factors all impact the ability to detect deviations from a rectilinear hand path during goal-directed movement by decreasing proprioceptive contributions to limb state estimation. In contrast, response variability increased only in experimental conditions thought to impose additional attentional demands on the observer. Implications of these results for perception and other sensorimotor behaviors are discussed

'Sink or swim': an evaluation of the clinical characteristics of individuals with high bone mass.

SUMMARY: High bone mineral density on routine dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) may indicate an underlying skeletal dysplasia. Two hundred fifty-eight individuals with unexplained high bone mass (HBM), 236 relatives (41% with HBM) and 58 spouses were studied. Cases could not float, had mandible enlargement, extra bone, broad frames, larger shoe sizes and increased body mass index (BMI). HBM cases may harbour an underlying genetic disorder. INTRODUCTION: High bone mineral density is a sporadic incidental finding on routine DXA scanning of apparently asymptomatic individuals. Such individuals may have an underlying skeletal dysplasia, as seen in LRP5 mutations. We aimed to characterize unexplained HBM and determine the potential for an underlying skeletal dysplasia. METHODS: Two hundred fifty-eight individuals with unexplained HBM (defined as L1 Z-score ≥ +3.2 plus total hip Z-score ≥ +1.2, or total hip Z-score ≥ +3.2) were recruited from 15 UK centres, by screening 335,115 DXA scans. Unexplained HBM affected 0.181% of DXA scans. Next 236 relatives were recruited of whom 94 (41%) had HBM (defined as L1 Z-score + total hip Z-score ≥ +3.2). Fifty-eight spouses were also recruited together with the unaffected relatives as controls. Phenotypes of cases and controls, obtained from clinical assessment, were compared using random-effects linear and logistic regression models, clustered by family, adjusted for confounders, including age and sex. RESULTS: Individuals with unexplained HBM had an excess of sinking when swimming (7.11 [3.65, 13.84], p < 0.001; adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval shown), mandible enlargement (4.16 [2.34, 7.39], p < 0.001), extra bone at tendon/ligament insertions (2.07 [1.13, 3.78], p = 0.018) and broad frame (3.55 [2.12, 5.95], p < 0.001). HBM cases also had a larger shoe size (mean difference 0.4 [0.1, 0.7] UK sizes, p = 0.009) and increased BMI (mean difference 2.2 [1.3, 3.1] kg/m(2), p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Individuals with unexplained HBM have an excess of clinical characteristics associated with skeletal dysplasia and their relatives are commonly affected, suggesting many may harbour an underlying genetic disorder affecting bone mass