139 research outputs found
Fashioning the Self: Performance, Identity and Difference
This thesis project will examine cultural and rhetorical communication studies to determine how these modes of analysis can be compared with interdisciplinary literature to better understand the role fashion plays within everyday performances and the shaping of identity. Criticisms by second-wave feminist scholars have focused on the fashion industry\u27s overarching male influence; in more recent scholarship, feminist academics have often considered an affinity for fashion to be un-feminist and oppressive. I argue that fashion can instead be viewed as a tool for female agency and expressing individuality, rather than just a mode for reinforcing gendered norms. Using feminist rhetorical analysis and visual content analysis, this project examines imagery found on three popular fashion blogs to a determine how fashion is viewed by scholars, especially as a communicative tool in relation to identity, as well as how an interdisciplinary approach enriches the study of fashion and communication
#FashioningIdentity and #PerformingAuthenticity: Communicative, Relational, and Affective Labor in the Digital Frontier of Fashion and Lifestyle Blogging
Fashion and lifestyle blogs serves as a new cultural space, where bloggers are viewed as influencers and set cultural, societal standards of an ideal womanhood. Female bloggers\u27 various forms of labor - specifically, communicative, relational, and affective - establish a blogger\u27s role in social and economic life and reiterate the significance of consumerism as a hallmark of femininity. Fashion and lifestyle bloggers are typically women, whose labor sustains the fashion and lifestyle blogging ecosystem. This occurs through consistent, branded communication; cultivating connections and relationships with followers and fellow bloggers; and transference of affect across digital divides, in real time, through platforms such as Instagram. These processes perpetuate the cycle of consumption through a framework of fulfilling one\u27s duty as both a woman and a citizen.
This project examines fashion and lifestyle blogs and their authors through performance-based interviewing and thematic narrative analysis in order to turn a critical eye to blog websites and social media platforms. The dissertation unpacks the cultural scripts and communicative performances that emerge within (im)material blog spaces and the ways in which bloggers enact particular subjectivities in Web 2.0 culture; the labor performances of bloggers; and the implication of blog and social media imagery on blog followers. Constant connectivity and access to digital space encourages consistent subject performances bound to neoliberal, capitalist culture, turning blog and social media spaces into powerful, communicative, Web 2.0 structures
Recommended from our members
Linking mesoscale landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity: gardens and tree cover significantly modify flower-visiting beetle communities
Context
Maintaining biodiversity in multifunction landscapes is a significant challenge. Planning for the impacts of change requires knowledge of how species respond to landscape heterogeneity. Some insect groups are known to respond to heterogeneity at the mesoscale, defined here as hundreds of metres. However, for many taxa these effects are poorly known.
Objectives
To identify key elements of mesoscale landscape heterogeneity influencing community composition in flower-visiting beetles, and whether landscape explains any variation in beetle communities beyond that driven by immediate habitat cover.
Methods
Flower-visiting beetles were sampled from 36 transects, laid out using a 6 km2 grid located in southern Britain. Landscape heterogeneity was measured for 30 and 200 m buffers around the transects and the relative response of beetle communities to each assessed using ordination analyses followed by variation partitioning.
Results
The composition of immediately adjacent habitat (30 m) and mesoscale landscape heterogeneity (200 m) explained unique portions of the variation in flower-visiting beetle communities. A number of species, including those affiliated with deadwood habitats, were positively linked to tree cover in the surrounding mesoscale landscape. Gardens covered a smaller area than trees but modified beetle communities to the same extent.
Conclusions
The local abundance of some flower-visiting beetles is modified by the composition of the surrounding landscape. Results highlight the importance of tree cover for maintaining insect biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, while suggesting that gardens associated with small urban areas may have a disproportionate influence on biodiversity
Exploring the impact of pediatric short bowel syndrome on parent wellâbeing using a diseaseâspecific pilot survey
Background: Children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) have complex care needs, most of which are met in the home by family caregivers who may experience a range of stressors unique to this experience. Prior research suggests that parents of children with SBS have poorer healthârelated quality of life than peers parenting children without health needs, but the mechanisms shaping parent outcomes are understudied.
Methods: A pilot survey was developed using a communityâdriven research design to measure the impact of diseaseâspecific items on parentâperceived wellâbeing. The crossâsectional survey, which included both closedâended and openâended items, was distributed to a convenience sample of parents of children with SBS. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated for a mixedâmethods analysis of how individual items impacted parent wellâbeing.
Results: Twenty parents completed the survey. Sleep interruptions, lack of support and resources, and psychological stressors and their mental health implications were more frequently reported as stressors than logistics related to caregiving (e.g., managing therapies and preparing specialized meals).
Conclusion: The impact of a child\u27s SBS on parent wellâbeing may stem mainly from three interconnected domains: poor sleep and its consequences, lack of access to support and resources, and a range of psychological stressors that affect parent mental health. Understanding the mechanisms through which SBS shapes parent wellâbeing is a necessary first step for developing targeted interventions to support parents and provide familyâcentered care
Exploring the impact of pediatric short bowel syndrome on parent wellâbeing using a diseaseâspecific pilot survey
Background: Children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) have complex care needs, most of which are met in the home by family caregivers who may experience a range of stressors unique to this experience. Prior research suggests that parents of children with SBS have poorer healthârelated quality of life than peers parenting children without health needs, but the mechanisms shaping parent outcomes are understudied.
Methods: A pilot survey was developed using a communityâdriven research design to measure the impact of diseaseâspecific items on parentâperceived wellâbeing. The crossâsectional survey, which included both closedâended and openâended items, was distributed to a convenience sample of parents of children with SBS. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated for a mixedâmethods analysis of how individual items impacted parent wellâbeing.
Results: Twenty parents completed the survey. Sleep interruptions, lack of support and resources, and psychological stressors and their mental health implications were more frequently reported as stressors than logistics related to caregiving (e.g., managing therapies and preparing specialized meals).
Conclusion: The impact of a child\u27s SBS on parent wellâbeing may stem mainly from three interconnected domains: poor sleep and its consequences, lack of access to support and resources, and a range of psychological stressors that affect parent mental health. Understanding the mechanisms through which SBS shapes parent wellâbeing is a necessary first step for developing targeted interventions to support parents and provide familyâcentered care
Recommended from our members
Skilful seasonal forecasts of streamflow over Europe?
This paper considers whether there is any added value in using seasonal climate forecasts instead of historical meteorological observations for forecasting streamflow on seasonal timescales over Europe. A Europe-wide analysis of the skill of the newly operational EFAS (European Flood Awareness System) seasonal streamflow forecasts (produced by forcing the Lisflood model with the ECMWF System 4 seasonal climate forecasts), benchmarked against the Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) forecasting approach (produced by forcing the Lisflood model with historical meteorological observations), is undertaken. The results suggest that, on average, the System 4 seasonal climate forecasts improve the streamflow predictability over historical meteorological observations for the first month of lead time only (in terms of hindcast accuracy, sharpness and overall performance). However, the predictability varies in space and time and is greater in winter and autumn. Parts of Europe additionally exhibit a longer predictability, up to seven months of lead time, for certain months within a season. In terms of hindcast reliability, the EFAS seasonal streamflow hindcasts are on average less skilful than the ESP for all lead times. The results also highlight the potential usefulness of the EFAS seasonal streamflow forecasts for decision-making (measured in terms of the hindcast discrimination for the lower and upper terciles of the simulated streamflow). Although the ESP is the most potentially useful forecasting approach in Europe, the EFAS seasonal streamflow forecasts appear more potentially useful than the ESP in some regions and for certain seasons, especially in winter for almost 40% of Europe. Patterns in the EFAS seasonal streamflow hindcasts skill are however not mirrored in the System 4 seasonal climate hindcasts, hinting the need for a better understanding of the link between hydrological and meteorological variables on seasonal timescales, with the aim to improve climate-model based seasonal streamflow forecasting
Regulation of Hepatic Triacylglycerol Metabolism by CGI-58 Does Not Require ATGL Co-activation
SummaryAdipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) and comparative gene identification 58 (CGI-58) are critical regulators of triacylglycerol (TAG) turnover. CGI-58 is thought to regulate TAG mobilization by stimulating the enzymatic activity of ATGL. However, it is not known whether this coactivation function of CGI-58 occurs in vivo. Moreover, the phenotype of human CGI-58 mutations suggests ATGL-independent functions. Through direct comparison of mice with single or double deficiency of CGI-58 and ATGL, we show here that CGI-58 knockdown causes hepatic steatosis in both the presence and absence of ATGL. CGI-58 also regulates hepatic diacylglycerol (DAG) and inflammation in an ATGL-independent manner. Interestingly, ATGL deficiency, but not CGI-58 deficiency, results in suppression of the hepatic and adipose de novo lipogenic program. Collectively, these findings show that CGI-58 regulates hepatic neutral lipid storage and inflammation in the genetic absence of ATGL, demonstrating that mechanisms driving TAG lipolysis in hepatocytes differ significantly from those in adipocytes
Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541â750)
Framework for sustained climate assessment in the United States
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100(5), (2019): 897-908, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0130.1.As states, cities, tribes, and private interests cope with climate damages and seek to increase preparedness and resilience, they will need to navigate myriad choices and options available to them. Making these choices in ways that identify pathways for climate action that support their development objectives will require constructive public dialogue, community participation, and flexible and ongoing access to science- and experience-based knowledge. In 2016, a Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) was convened to recommend how to conduct a sustained National Climate Assessment (NCA) to increase the relevance and usability of assessments for informing action. The FAC was disbanded in 2017, but members and additional experts reconvened to complete the report that is presented here. A key recommendation is establishing a new nonfederal âclimate assessment consortiumâ to increase the role of state/local/tribal government and civil society in assessments. The expanded process would 1) focus on applied problems faced by practitioners, 2) organize sustained partnerships for collaborative learning across similar projects and case studies to identify effective tested practices, and 3) assess and improve knowledge-based methods for project implementation. Specific recommendations include evaluating climate models and data using user-defined metrics; improving benefitâcost assessment and supporting decision-making under uncertainty; and accelerating application of tools and methods such as citizen science, artificial intelligence, indicators, and geospatial analysis. The recommendations are the result of broad consultation and present an ambitious agenda for federal agencies, state/local/tribal jurisdictions, universities and the research sector, professional associations, nongovernmental and community-based organizations, and private-sector firms.This report would not have been possible without the support and participation of numerous organizations and individuals. We thank New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo for announcing in his 2018 State of the State agenda that the IAC would be reconvened. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Contract ID 123416), Columbia Universityâs Earth Institute, and the American Meteorological Society provided essential financial support and much more, including sage advice and moral support from John OâLeary, Shara Mohtadi, Steve Cohen, Alex Halliday, Peter deMenocal, Keith Seitter, Paul Higgins, and Bill Hooke. We thank the attendees of a workshop, generously funded by the Kresge Foundation in November of 2017, that laid a foundation for the idea to establish a civil-society-based assessment consortium. During the course of preparing the report, IAC members consulted with individuals too numerous to list hereâstate, local, and tribal officials; researchers; experts in nongovernmental and community-based organizations; and professionals in engineering, architecture, public health, adaptation, and other areas. We are so grateful for their time and expertise. We thank the members and staff of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicineâs Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program for providing individual comments on preliminary recommendations during several discussions in open sessions of their meetings. The following individuals provided detailed comments on an earlier version of this report, which greatly sharpened our thinking and recommendations: John Balbus, Tom Dietz, Phil Duffy, Baruch Fischhoff, Brenda Hoppe, Melissa Kenney, Linda Mearns, Claudia Nierenberg, Kathleen Segerson, Soroosh Sorooshian, Chris Weaver, and Brian Zuckerman. Mary Black provided insightful copy editing of several versions of the report. We also thank four anonymous reviewers for their effort and care in critiquing and improving the report. It is the dedication, thoughtful feedback, expertise, care, and commitment of all these people and more that not only made this report possible, but allow us all to continue to support smart and insightful actions in a changing climate. We are grateful as authors and as global citizens. Author contributions: RM, SA, KB, MB, AC, JD, PF, KJ, AJ, KK, JK, ML, JM, RP, TR, LS, JS, JW, and DZ were members of the IAC and shared in researching, discussing, drafting, and approving the report. BA, JF, AG, LJ, SJ, PK, RK, AM, RM, JN, WS, JS, PT, GY, and RZ contributed to specific sections of the report
- âŠ