The far right, the mainstream and mainstreaming: towards a heuristic framework

The study of far-right parties and politics is one of the most high-profile research areas in political science and related disciplines. Far-right parties have been the subject of vast amounts of varied scholarship since their turn-of-the-century resurgence. However, as the far right has become a mainstay, with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 blurring the boundaries between mainstream and far-right politics, it has become crucial to pay attention to the process of mainstreaming. Beyond a focus on far-right electoral success, studies of mainstreaming, as well as a critical account of the concept and role of the ‘mainstream’, have proved elusive. This article provides a heuristic framework to understand these concepts and the mainstreaming of the far right. Key to our approach is a more holistic analysis, extending beyond traditional approaches which focus mostly on the electoral outcomes of far-right parties, positioning the mainstream as a relatively inert target or bulwark against them. To achieve this, we seek to reframe the focus towards the centrality of discourse both in the process, and as an outcome, of mainstreaming. Only by doing so can we account for the significant role played by the mainstream in this process

Complex genetic structure revealed in the circum-Antarctic broadcast spawning sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri

Patterns and mechanisms of gene flow and larval dispersal in the Antarctic marine environment are still poorly understood, despite the current threat of rapid climate change and the need for such information to inform conservation and management efforts. Studies on Antarctic brooding marine invertebrates have demonstrated limited connectivity, concurrent with life history expectations; however, no equivalent data are available for broadcast spawning species for which we might expect a higher capacity for larval dispersal. Here, we have used microsatellite DNA markers and mitochondrial DNA sequence data to explore patterns of genetic structure and infer larval dispersal patterns across spatial scales of <500 m to 1400 km in the broadcast spawning sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri. We show genetic differentiation at small spatial scales (<1 km), but genetic homogeneity over moderate (1-25 km) and large spatial scales (1000 km), consistent with patterns described as chaotic genetic patchiness. Self-recruitment appears common in S. neumayeri, and genotypes of larvae collected from the water column provide preliminary evidence that the adult population structure is maintained through variability among larval cohorts. Genetic similarity at large spatial scales may represent evolutionary connectivity on a circum-Antarctic scale, and likely also reflects a history of shelf recolonisation after isolation in glacial refugia

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

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

Using PET with 18F-AV-45 (florbetapir) to quantify brain amyloid load in a clinical environment

International audiencePURPOSE: Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of brain amyloid load has been suggested as a core biomarker for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of using PET imaging with (18)F-AV-45 (florbetapir) in a routine clinical environment to differentiate between patients with mild to moderate AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from normal healthy controls (HC). METHODS: In this study, 46 subjects (20 men and 26 women, mean age of 69.0 ± 7.6 years), including 13 with AD, 12 with MCI and 21 HC subjects, were enrolled from three academic memory clinics. PET images were acquired over a 10-min period 50 min after injection of florbetapir (mean ± SD of radioactivity injected, 259 ± 57 MBq). PET images were assessed visually by two individuals blinded to any clinical information and quantitatively via the standard uptake value ratio (SUVr) in the specific regions of interest, which were defined in relation to the cerebellum as the reference region. RESULTS: The mean values of SUVr were higher in AD patients (median 1.20, Q1-Q3 1.16-1.30) than in HC subjects (median 1.05, Q1-Q3 1.04-1.08; p = 0.0001) in the overall cortex and all cortical regions (precuneus, anterior and posterior cingulate, and frontal median, temporal, parietal and occipital cortex). The MCI subjects also showed a higher uptake of florbetapir in the posterior cingulate cortex (median 1.06, Q1-Q3 0.97-1.28) compared with HC subjects (median 0.95, Q1-Q3 0.82-1.02; p = 0.03). Qualitative visual assessment of the PET scans showed a sensitivity of 84.6% (95% CI 0.55-0.98) and a specificity of 38.1% (95% CI 0.18-0.62) for discriminating AD patients from HC subjects; however, the quantitative assessment of the global cortex SUVr showed a sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 90.5% with a cut-off value of 1.122 (area under the curve 0.894). CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that PET with florbetapir is a safe and suitable biomarker for AD that can be used routinely in a clinical environment. However, the low specificity of the visual PET scan assessment could be improved by the use of specific training and automatic or semiautomatic quantification tools

The Intensity of IUGR-Induced Transcriptome Deregulations Is Inversely Correlated with the Onset of Organ Function in a Rat Model

A low-protein diet applied during pregnancy in the rat results in intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) fetuses. In humans, IUGR is associated with increased perinatal morbidity, higher incidence of neuro-developmental defects and increased risk of adult metabolic anomalies, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Development and function of many organs are affected by environmental conditions such as those inducing fetal and early postnatal growth restriction. This phenomenon, termed “fetal programming” has been studied unconnectedly in some organs, but very few studies (if any) have investigated at the same time several organs, on a more comparative basis. However, it is quite probable that IUGR affects differentially most organ systems, with possible persistent changes in gene expression. In this study we address transcriptional alterations induced by IUGR in a multi-organ perspective, by systematic analysis of 20-days rat fetuses. We show that (1) expressional alterations are apparently stronger in organs functioning late in foetal or postnatal life than in organs that are functioning early (2) hierarchical classification of the deregulations put together kidney and placenta in one cluster, liver, lungs and heart in another; (3) the epigenetic machinery is set up especially in the placenta, while its alterations are rather mild in other organs; (4) the genes appear deregulated in chromosome clusters; (5) the altered expression cascades varies from organ to organ, with noticeably a very significant modification of the complement and coagulation cascades in the kidney; (6) we found a significant increase in TF binding site for HNF4 proteins specifically for liver genes that are down-regulated in IUGR, suggesting that this decrease is achieved through the action of HNF transcription factors, that are themselves transcriptionnally induced in the liver by IUGR (x 1.84 fold). Altogether, our study suggests that a combination of tissue-specific mechanisms contributes to bring about tissue-driven modifications of gene cascades. The question of these cascades being activated to adapt the organ to harsh environmental condition, or as an endpoint consequence is still raised