The sedimentology of gravel beds in groundwater-dominated chalk streams: Implications for sediment modelling and management

Elevated fine sediment accumulation in a river system's gravel bed is known to cause detrimental ecological impacts. Current sediment targets and approaches to mitigation have failed due to the oversimplification of geomorphological processes controlling fine sediment accumulation and the lack of relevant scientific knowledge underpinning them. This is particularly apparent in chalk streams (groundwater-dominated systems) which regularly exhibit high rates of sediment accumulation despite low suspended sediment yields. A necessary first step is to better characterise their sedimentology; thus, the novelty of this study was to determine the sedimentological characteristics of chalk stream gravel beds, specifically the quantity and distribution of fine sediment with depth. We collated published and unpublished freeze-core data, encompassing 90 sites across 11 UK chalk streams. Results showed average quantities of fine sediment (75% of beds exceeding thresholds for ecological degradation. Quantities of fine sediment increased with increasing depth into the bed, with an average increase between surface and subsurface layers of 54%, and 89% of the gravel bed over-saturated with fine sediment. Regional differences were attributed to differences in stream power and local sediment sources, including surficial geology and catchment land use. Additionally, a major contrast was identified between experimental conditions in flume studies used to establish models describing interactions/mechanisms of fine sediment infiltration into immobile gravel beds and the natural conditions observed in chalk streams. As such, the use of such models as a basis to explore sediment management scenarios is unlikely to predict the outcome of such management techniques correctly in a real-world situation

Critical research on populism: Nine rules of engagement

This article formulates precise questions and ‘rules of engagement’ designed to advance our understanding of the role populism can and should play in the present political conjuncture, with potentially significant implications for critical management and organization studies and beyond. Drawing on the work of Ernesto Laclau and others working within the post-Marxist discourse theory tradition, we defend a concept of populism understood as a form of reason that centres around a claim to represent ‘the people’, discursively constructed as an underdog in opposition to an illegitimate ‘elite’. A formal discursive approach to populism brings with it important advantages. For example, it establishes that a populist logic can be invoked to further very different political goals, from radical left to right, or from progressive to regressive. It sharpens too our grasp of important issues that are otherwise conflated and obfuscated. For instance, it helps us separate out the nativist and populist dimensions in the discourses of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), Trump or the Front National (FN). Our approach to populism, however, also points to the need to engage with the rhetoric about populism, a largely ignored area of critical research. In approaching populism as signifier, not only as a concept, we stress the added need to focus on the uses of the term ‘populism’ itself: how it is invoked, by whom, and to what purpose and effect. This, we argue, requires that we pay more systematic attention to anti-populism and ‘populist hype’, and reflect upon academia’s own relation to populism and anti-populism

Migration, Racism and the Hostile Environment: Making the Case for the Social Sciences

Cite as: Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment (SSAHE)(2020). Migration, racism and the hostile environment : Making the case for the social sciences. London. https://acssmigration.wordpress.com/report/

Online Hate: From the Far-Right to the ‘Alt-Right’, and from the Margins to the Mainstream

In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was much discussion about the democratic and anti-democratic implications of the Internet. The latter particularly focused on the ways in which the far-right were using the Internet to spread hate and recruit members. Despite this common assumption, the American far-right did not harness the Internet quickly, effectively or widely. More recently, however, they have experienced a resurgence and mainstreaming, benefitting greatly from social media. This chapter examines the history of their use of the Internet with respect to: (1) how this developed in response to political changes and emerging technologies; (2) how it reflected and changed the status of such movements and their brand of hate; and (3) the relationship between online activity and traditional methods of communication

Covid-19 as a breakdown in the texture of social practices

A lot of things need to be repaired and a lot of relationships are in need of a knowledgeable mending. Can we start to talk/write about them? This invitation - sent by one of the authors to the others - led us, as feminist women in academia, to join together in an experimental writing about the effects of COVID-19 on daily social practices and on potential (and innovative) ways for repairing work in different fields of social organization. By diffractively intertwining our embodied experiences of becoming together-with Others, we foreground a multiplicity of repair (care) practices COVID-19 is making visible. Echoing one another, we take a stand and say that we need to prevent the future from becoming the past. We are not going back to the past; our society has already changed and there is a need to cope with innovation and repairing practices that do not reproduce the past.Funding Agencies|European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmeEuropean Research Council (ERC) [715950]</p

Revisiting histories of anti-racist thought and activism

This piece reconsiders histories of anti-racist thought and practice, including the linkages between anti-racisms and other traditions of liberatory thought. We argue that anti-racism should be understood as a strand in radical thought linking internationalism, institutional critique and street activism, in the process interfeeding with other social movements. The traditions of anti-racist thought discussed in this special issue exemplify these cross-cutting influences

Semi-automated Magnetic Bead-Based Antibody Selection from Phage Display Libraries

Phage display of combinatorial antibody libraries is a very efficient method for selecting recombinant antibodies against a wide range of molecules. It has been applied very successfully for the generation of therapeutic antibodies for more than a decade. To increase robustness and reproducibility of the selection procedure, we developed a semi-automated selection method for the generation of recombinant antibodies from phage display libraries. In this procedure, the selection targets are specifically immobilised to magnetic particles which can then by automatically handled by a magnetic particle processor. At present up to 96 samples can be handled simultaneously. Applying the processor allows standardisation of panning parameters such as washing conditions, incubation times, or to perform parallel selections on same targets under different buffer conditions. Additionally, the whole protocol has been streamlined to carry out bead loading, phage selection, phage amplification between selection rounds and magnetic particle ELISA for confirmation of binding activity in microtiter plate formats. Until now, this method has been successfully applied to select antibody fragments against different types of target, such as peptides, recombinant or homologous proteins, or chemical compounds

A genome-wide approach reveals novel imprinted genes expressed in the human placenta

Genomic imprinting characterizes genes with a monoallelic expression, which is dependent on the parental origin of each allele. Approximately 150 imprinted genes are known to date, in humans and mice but, though computational searches have tried to extract intrinsic characteristics of these genes to identify new ones, the existing list is probably far from being comprehensive. We used a high-throughput strategy by diverting the classical use of genotyping microarrays to compare the genotypes of mRNA/cDNA vs. genomic DNA to identify new genes presenting monoallelic expression, starting from human placental material. After filtering of data, we obtained a list of 1,082 putative candidate monoallelic SNPs located in more than one hundred candidate genes. Among these, we found known imprinted genes, such as IPW, GRB10, INPP5F and ZNF597, which contribute to validate the approach. We also explored some likely candidates of our list and identified seven new imprinted genes, including ZFAT, ZFAT-AS1, GLIS3, NTM, MAGI2, ZC3H12Cand LIN28B, four of which encode zinc finger transcription factors. They are, however, not imprinted in the mouse placenta, except for Magi2. We analyzed in more details the ZFAT gene, which is paternally expressed in the placenta (as ZFAT-AS1, a non-coding antisense RNA) but biallelic in other tissues. The ZFAT protein is expressed in endothelial cells, as well as in syncytiotrophoblasts. The expression of this gene is, moreover, downregulated in placentas from complicated pregnancies. With this work we increase by about 10% the number of known imprinted genes in humans

Low and moderate, rather than high intensity strength exercise induces benefit regarding plasma lipid profile

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The effects of chronic aerobic exercise upon lipid profile has been previously demonstrated, but few studies showed this effect under resistance exercise conditions.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>The aim of this study was to examine the effects of different resistance exercise loads on blood lipids.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty healthy, untrained male volunteers were allocated randomly into four groups based at different percentages of one repetition maximum (1 RM); 50%-1 RM, 75%-1 RM, 90%-1 RM, and 110%-1 RM. The total volume (sets × reps × load) of the exercise was equalized. The lipid profile (Triglycerides [TG], HDL-cholesterol [HDL-c], LDL-cholesterol, and Total cholesterol) was determined at rest and after 1, 24, 48 and 72 h of resistance exercise.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The 75%-1 RM group demonstrated greater TG reduction when compared to other groups (p < 0.05). Additionally, the 110%-1 RM group presented an increased TG concentration when compared to 50% and 75% groups (p = 0.01, p = 0.01, respectively). HDL-c concentration was significantly greater after resistance exercise in 50%-1 RM and 75%-1 RM when compared to 110%-1 RM group (p = 0.004 and p = 0.03, respectively). Accordingly, the 50%-1 RM group had greater HDL-c concentration than 110%-1 RM group after 48 h (p = 0.05) and 72 h (p = 0.004), respectively. Finally, The 50% group has showed lesser LDL-c concentration than 110% group after 24 h (p = 0.007). No significant difference was found in Total Cholesterol concentrations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results indicate that the acute resistance exercise may induce changes in lipid profile in a specific-intensity manner. Overall, low and moderate exercise intensities appear to be promoting more benefits on lipid profile than high intensity. Long term studies should confirm these findings.</p