The Defense of American Exceptionalism: President Trump\u27s COVID-19 Rhetoric

This thesis uses grounded theory and content analysis to examine the political rhetoric President Donald Trump used in the Coronavirus Task Force press briefings during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. I collected 44 transcripts of these press briefings from when they began on February 26, 2020 until April 27, 2020. This time frame marks the period during which the press briefings happened with consistency and when Trump spoke at all of them. Through my research, I established that United States presidents have employed rhetorical tropes of American exceptionalism, including Trump. Trump invoked American exceptionalism in a three-pronged rhetorical approach. First, he clearly stated that America is the best in four specific ways. Second, after asserting the ways in which America is exceptional, he then declared that this exceptionalism needed defending. To do so, he: 1) rhetorically created a wartime situation, and framed healthcare workers as warriors while insisting the U.S. would be a victorious nation; 2) made China, the virus, and immigrants into un-American enemies; 3) promoted borders as the defensive solution; and 4) attempted to foster national unity. Finally, he framed himself as the key to maintaining American exceptionalism. To demonstrate this, I collected and analyzed the textual content of the 44 total transcripts of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force press briefings. These transcripts were analyzed and coded to represent 18 total rhetorical frames used by then President Trump across 1,263 total incidents of these codes embedded in his speeches

100 Seiten Geist: Rezension zu "Hegel, 100 Seiten" von Dietmar Dath

Dietmar Dath: Hegel, 100 Seiten. Stuttgart: Reclam 2020. 978-3-15-020559-

Effects of agricultural pesticides and chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on the health of post-metamorphic northern leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens)

Numerous studies have shown that pesticides can adversely affect amphibian health and suppress immune function, making them more susceptible to pathogens and disease. This study assessed the independent and combined effects of exposure to two agricultural herbicides and the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd ) on the health and survival of post-metamorphic northern leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens ). Wild-caught frogs were exposed to the herbicides atrazine (Aatrex® Liquid 480) or glyphosate (Roundup® Original) for 21 days and subsequently challenged with Bd . The glyphosate formulation significantly reduced growth compared to controls during the pesticide exposure. The atrazine formulation significantly reduced gain in mass at 94 days post initial exposure to the pesticides. No treatment significantly affected survival, the numbers of leucocytes, the hepatosomatic index, the splenosomatic index, the numbers and sizes of melanomacrophage aggregates in the liver or spleen, or the numbers and sizes of granulomas in the liver. Histological tests revealed no evidence of Bd infection in any Bd -exposed frogs, while molecular tests (real-time PCR) detected only one case of light infection (1.6 DNA copies) in an atrazine- and Bd -exposed frog. Frogs exposed to Bd shed their skin significantly more frequently than Bd -unexposed frogs, which may have helped them resist or clear infection. Overall, the results suggest that these frogs were resistant to Bd and that pre-exposure to the pesticides did not alter this resistance. However, reduced growth can lower the reproductive success and survival of amphibians, and therefore, exposure to the pesticides may contribute to population reductions in leopard frogs

Komplexitätsmanagement durch systemische Selbstskalierung

Skalierbarkeit und Skalierung von Mulitagentensystemen sind in der Informatik Probleme von entscheidender Bedeutung. Die bisherige Debatte ist vor allem durch die Unbestimmtheit dieser beiden zentralen Begriffe erschwert. Daher wird in dieser Arbeit der Versuch unternommen, Skalierung aus soziologischer Sicht begrifflichkategorial klar definieren und theoretisch stärker zu reflektieren. Die hier geleistete begriffliche und konzeptionelle Arbeit orientiert sich an Niklas Luhmanns Theorie sozialer System, der allgemeinen Komplexitätswissenschaft sowie an Ansätzen aus der Organisations- und Managementforschung. Skalierung wird als Operationalisierung von Komplexität verstanden. Durch die differenztheoretische Entfaltung des Skalierungsbegriffs wird ein heuristisches Instrumentarium gewonnen, das die Bezugspunkte des systemischen Komplexitätsmanagements deutlich benennt. Die hierbei eingenommene Perspektive auf MAS wird letztlich auf ein evolutionstheoretisches Fundament gestellt. Abschließend werden die Ergebnisse der Theoriearbeit in Form einiger Vorschläge zur Reorientierung der Skalierungsdebatte präsentiert.In computer science, scalability and actual scaling processes of multiagent systems are problems of much concern. So far, the debate has been inhibited by the indeterminacy of both of these central terms. From a sociological point of view, it is tried to define the notions of scalability and scaling process more clearly and to reflect them in a profound theoretical context. The terminological and conceptual framework, developed here, is guided by Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems, general complexity science, and some approaches from organization and management research. Scaling processes are understood as operationalizations of complexity. By decomposing the term “scaling” difference-theoretically, a heuristic tool is achieved that clearly denotes the points of reference of complexity management. The perspective on MAS is built on an evolution-theoretical fundament. Finally, the results of this theoretically oriented paper are presented as proposals for a re-framing of the debate on scalability

Wellness Domains for Residency Training Programs

In this editorial, we describe a residency-specific wellness framework that residency leadership can utilize in developing their local wellness programs

Guidelines for Secure Operation of Attribute Authorities and other issuers of access-granting statements

These guidelines describe the minimum requirements and recommendations for the secure operation of Attribute Authorities and similar services providing statements for the purpose of obtaining access to infrastructure services. Stated compliance with these guidelines may help to establish trust between issuers and Relying Parties. This document does not define an accreditation process

AARC Blueprint Architecture 2019

The AARC Blueprint Architecture (BPA) provides a set of building blocks for software architects and technical decision makers who are designing and implementing access management solutions for international research collaborations. This document describes the evolution of the AARC Blueprint Architecture, starting with a summary of the changes since AARC-BPA-2017. The current iteration of the BPA focuses on the interoperability aspects, to address an increasing number of use cases from research communities requiring access to federated resources offered by different research and e-Infrastructures. Hence the introduction of the Community AAI, which streamlines researchers’ access to services. These typically include services offered to members of a specific community, as well as infrastructure services that may be shared with other communities. Users can authenticate to the Community AAI primarily via institutional credentials from national identity federations in eduGAIN, but, if permitted by the community, can also use other Identity Providers

A randomized controlled trial of the effects of whole grains versus refined grains diets on the microbiome in pregnancy

Dietary whole grain consumption has been postulated to have metabolic benefits. The purpose of this study was to compare a pregnancy diet containing 75% of total carbohydrates as refined grains with a diet of 75% of total carbohydrates as whole grains for pregnancy outcomes and effects on the microbiome. Gestational weight gain, glucose tolerance and newborn outcomes were measured on 248 enrolled compliant women from whom a subset of 103 women consented to give 108 vaginal and 109 anal swabs. The data presented here are limited to the patients from whom the vaginal and anal swabs were obtained in order to study the microbiome. A microbiome—16SrRNA survey—was characterized in these samples. Samples and measurements were obtained at the first obstetrical visit, before beginning a prescribed diet (T1—baseline) and after 17–32\ua0weeks on the prescribed diet (T3). Food frequency questionnaires and total plasma alkylresorcinols were used as a measure of whole grain consumption. There were no dietary differences in maternal weight gain, birth weight, or glucose tolerance test. Mothers consuming the whole grains diet showed a trend of gestational decrease in vaginal bacterial alpha diversity, with increasing Lactobacillus-dominance. No significant difference was observed for the anal microbiome. The results suggest that diet modulations of the vaginal microbiome during gestation may have important implications for maternal and neonatal health and in the intergenerational transfer of maternal microbiome. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03232762