A victory for Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership race could bring about a realignment of British politics

Jeremy Corbyn looks set to win the Labour leadership election, despite initially being pegged as a no-hope also-ran. The conservative right are cheering him on, seeing the Islington North MP as ushering in a period of Conservative Party hegemony. But is he being underestimated? Danny Rye argues that a Corbyn-led party could see a realignment of not just the Labour Party, but British politics, in a way which brings the traditional left back into the mainstream

Politics in a Time of Crisis: Podemos and the Future of Democracy in Europe, Pablo Iglesias (Book Review)

Critical review of book by Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemo

Reactive Fluid Flow and Applications to Diagenesis, Mineral Deposits, and Crustal Rocks

The objective is to initiate new: modeling of coupled fluid flow and chemical reactions of geologic environments; experimental and theoretical studies of water-rock reactions; collection and interpretation of stable isotopic and geochemical field data at many spatial scales of systems involving fluid flow and reaction in environments ranging from soils to metamorphic rocks. Theoretical modeling of coupled fluid flow and chemical reactions, involving kinetics, has been employed to understand the differences between equilibrium, steady-state, and non-steady-state behavior of the chemical evolution of open fluid-rock systems. The numerical codes developed in this project treat multi-component, finite-rate reactions combined with advective and dispersive transport in multi-dimensions. The codes incorporate heat, mass, and isotopic transfer in both porous and fractured media. Experimental work has obtained the kinetic rate laws of pertinent silicate-water reactions and the rates of Sr release during chemical weathering. Ab-initio quantum mechanical techniques have been applied to obtain the kinetics and mechanisms of silicate surface reactions and isotopic exchange between water and dissolved species. Geochemical field-based studies were carried out on the Wepawaug metamorphic schist, on the Irish base-metal sediment-hosted ore system, in the Dalradian metamorphic complex in Scotland, and on weathering in the Columbia River flood basalts. The geochemical and isotopic field data, and the experimental and theoretical rate data, were used as constraints on the numerical models and to determine the length and time scales relevant to each of the field areas

Parasites of non-native freshwater fishes introduced into england and wales suggest enemy release and parasite acquisition

When non-native species are introduced into a new range, their parasites can also be introduced, with these potentially spilling-over into native hosts. However, in general, evidence suggests that a high proportion of their native parasites are lost during introduction and infections by some new parasites from the native range might occur, potentially resulting in parasite spill-back to native species. These processes were investigated here using parasite surveys and literature review on seven non-native freshwater fishes introduced into England and Wales. Comparison of the mean numbers of parasite species and genera per population for each fish species England andWaleswith their native ranges revealed\9 % of the native parasite fauna were present in their populations in England and Wales. There was no evidence suggesting these introduced parasites had spilled over into sympatric native fishes. The non-native fishes did acquire parasites following their introduction, providing potential for parasite spill-back to sympatric fishes, and resulted in non-significant differences in overall mean numbers of parasites per populations between the two ranges. Through this acquisition, the non-native fishes also had mean numbers of parasite species and genera per population that were not significantly different to sympatric native fishes. Thus, the non-native fishes in England and Wales showed evidence of enemy release, acquired new parasites following introduction providing potential for spill-back, but showed no evidence of parasite spill-over

Political Parties and the Concept of Power: A Theoretical Framework

Political parties are ideal subjects for the study of power because they are specific sites in which it is produced and organised, fought over, captured and lost. However, the literature on political parties largely lacks an explicit and systematic theorisation of power as it is exercised and operates in them. As a result, the study of parties has not kept up with developments in theoretical approaches to power and power relations. For example, the failure to recognise how power works through constituting subjects who are empowered as effective agents with appropriate skills and capacities is a major lacuna in the literature. Parties are not only electoral machines or vehicles for personal ambition: they are organisations, complex relations of individuals, rules and rituals. An approach to power in parties should reflect this. To this end, a framework of power which accounts for political parties in all their complexity. My aim is to introduce some of the more nuanced and sophisticated insights of political theory to the analysis of political parties without dismissing the benefits of some of the more established ways of looking at power. My understanding of power is therefore rich and diverse, derived from diverse intellectual traditions, including behaviouralist, structuralist and Foucauldian accounts. My framework encapsulates individual agency, the strategic mobilisation of rules and norms, rationalisation and bureaucracy, the constitution of subjectivities and the micro-level discipline of bodies. Theory is employed in conjunction with original interview and archive research on the British Labour Party to construct an account of how power operates in party settings. This provides a unique and, I argue, much richer perspective on the exercise and operation of power in political parties than has been offered before

The Meaning of Partisanship by Jonathan White and Lea Ypi (Book Review).

A review of a book by White and Ypi which seeks to develop a normative justification for partisanship as a distinctive practice

The Party's (Not Quite) Over: A New Framework for Analysing Power in Political Organisations

Abstract Political parties are ideal subjects for the study of power because they are specific sites in which it is produced and organised, fought over, captured and lost. Howeve

Taking up the baton? New campaigning organisations and the enactment of representative functions

Political parties have historically provided a key means by which citizens gain representation in the state, with parties enabling participation, integration, aggregation, conflict management and linkage (Sartori, 2005). Over recent years parties’ representative credentials have declined and new organisations have emerged as vehicles of representation (Mair, 2009). What is, however, unclear is the extent to which these new organisations have taken on the representative functions parties are traditionally seen to have performed. In this article, we examine Citizens UK and 38 Degrees as indicative examples to argue that, whilst opportunities for participation and integration can be found, aspects of aggregation, conflict management and linkage are no longer being performed. Diagnosing this change, we argue that these shifts in representation are having significant but as yet unrecognised consequences for how citizens relate to and engage with contemporary politics

An evaluation of sedimentary molybdenum and iron as proxies for pore fluid paleoredox conditions

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2018. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in American Journal of Science 318 (2018): 527-556, doi:10.2475/05.2018.04.Iron speciation and trace metal proxies are commonly applied together in efforts to identify anoxic settings marked by the presence of free sulfide (euxinia) or dissolved iron (ferruginous) in the water column. Here, we use a literature compilation from modern localities to provide a new empirical evaluation of coupled Fe speciation and Mo concentrations as a proxy for pore water sulfide accumulation at non-euxinic localities. We also present new Fe speciation, Mo concentration, and S isotope data from the Friends of Anoxic Mud (FOAM) site in Long Island Sound, which is marked by pore water sulfide accumulation of up to 3 mM beneath oxygen-containing bottom waters. For the operationally defined Fe speciation scheme, ‘highly reactive’ Fe (FeHR) is the sum of pyritized Fe (Fepy) and Fe dominantly present in oxide phases that is available to react with pore water sulfide to form pyrite. Observations from FOAM and elsewhere confirm that Fepy/FeHR from non-euxinic sites is a generally reliable indicator of pore fluid redox, particularly the presence of pore water sulfide. Molybdenum (Mo) concentration data for anoxic continental margin sediments underlying oxic waters but with sulfidic pore fluids typically show authigenic Mo enrichments (2-25 ppm) that are elevated relative to the upper crust (1-2 ppm). However, compilations of Mo concentrations comparing sediments with and without sulfidic pore fluids underlying oxic and low oxygen (non-euxinic) water columns expose non-unique ranges for each, exposing false positives and false negatives. False positives are most frequently found in sediments from low oxygen water columns (for example, Peru Margin), where Mo concentration ranges can also overlap with values commonly found in modern euxinic settings. FOAM represents an example of a false negative, where, despite elevated pore water sulfide concentrations and evidence for active Fe and Mn redox cycling in FOAM sediments, sedimentary Mo concentrations show a homogenous vertical profile across 50 cm depth at 1-2 ppm. A diagenetic model for Mo provides evidence that muted authigenic enrichments are derived from elevated sedimentation rates. Consideration of a range of additional parameters, most prominently pore water Mo concentration, can replicate the ranges of most sedimentary Mo concentrations observed in modern non-euxinic settings. Together, the modern Mo and Fe data compilations and diagenetic model provide a framework for identifying paleo-pore water sulfide accumulation in ancient settings and linked processes regulating seawater Mo and sulfate concentrations and delivery to sediments. Among other utilities, identifying ancient accumulation of sulfide in pore waters, particularly beneath oxic bottom waters, constrains the likelihood that those settings could have hosted organisms and ecosystems with thiotrophy at their foundations.DSH, TWL, NJP, and CRT acknowledge support from the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Cooperative Agreement No. NNA15BB03A issued through the Science Mission Directorate. Financial support was provided to NR and TWL by NSF-OCE and an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program, as well as to BCG via a postdoctoral fellowship from the Agouron Institute. DSH was supported by a WHOI postdoctoral fellowship