5,862 research outputs found
Dallas with balls: televized sport, soap opera and male and female pleasures
Two of the most popular of television genres, soap opera and sports coverage have been very much differentiated along gender lines in terms of their audiences. Soap opera has been regarded very much as a 'gynocentric' genre with a large female viewing audience while the audiences for television sport have been predominantly male. Gender differentiation between the genres has had implications for the popular image of each. Soap opera has been perceived as inferior; as mere fantasy and escapism for women while television sports has been perceived as a legitimate, even edifying experience for men.
In this article the authors challenge the view that soap opera and television sport are radically different and argue that they are, in fact, very similar in a number of significant ways. They suggest that both genres invoke similar structures of feeling and sensibility in their respective audiences and that television sport is a 'male soap opera'. They consider the ways in which the viewing context of each genre is related to domestic life and leisure, the ways in which the textual structure and conventions of each genre invoke emotional identification, and finally, the ways in which both genres re-affirm gender identities
Surface Geometric and Electronic Structure of BaFe2As2(001)
BaFe2As2 exhibits properties characteristic of the parent compounds of the
newly discovered iron (Fe)-based high-TC superconductors. By combining the real
space imaging of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) with
momentum space quantitative Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) we have
identified the surface plane of cleaved BaFe2As2 crystals as the As terminated
Fe-As layer - the plane where superconductivity occurs. LEED and STM/S data on
the BaFe2As2(001) surface indicate an ordered arsenic (As) - terminated
metallic surface without reconstruction or lattice distortion. It is surprising
that the STM images the different Fe-As orbitals associated with the
orthorhombic structure, not the As atoms in the surface plane.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
SiPM module for the ACME III electron EDM search
This report shows the design and the performance of a large area Silicon
Photomultiplier (SiPM) module developed detection of fluorescent light emitted
from a 10 cm scale volume. The module was optimized for the planned ACME III
electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) search, which will be a powerful probe
for the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The
ACME experiment searched for the eEDM with the world's highest sensitivity
using cold ThO polar molecules (ACME II). In ACME III, SiPMs will be used for
detection of fluorescent photons (the fundamental signal of the experiment)
instead of PMTs, which were used in the previous measurement. We have developed
an optimized SiPM module, based on a 16-channel SiPM array. Key operational
parameters are characterized, including gain and noise. The SiPM dark count
rate, background light sensitivity, and optical crosstalk are found to all be
well suppressed and more than sufficient for the ACME III application.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, proceedings for NDIP2
Modes of Foreign Entry under Asymmetric Information about Potential Technology Spillovers
This paper studies the effect of technology spillovers on the entry decision of a multinational enterprise into a foreign market. Two alternative entry modes for a foreign direct investment are considered: Greenfield investment versus acquisition. We find that with quantity competition a spillover makes acquisitions less attractive, while with price competition acquisitions become more attractive. Asymmetric information about potential spillovers always reduces the number of
acquisitions independently of whether the host country or the entrant has private information. Interestingly, we find that asymmetric information always hurts the entrant, while it sometimes is in favor of the host country
Banks' risk assessment of Swedish SMEs
Building on the literatures on asymmetric information and risk taking, this paper applies conjoint experiments to investigate lending officers' probabilities of supporting credit to established or existing SMEs. Using a sample of 114 Swedish lending officers, we test hypotheses concerning how information on the borrower's ability to repay the loan; alignment of risk preferences; and risk sharing affect their willingness to grant credit. Results suggest that features that reduce the risk to the bank and shift the risk to the borrower have the largest impact. The paper highlights the interaction between factors that influence the credit decision. Implications for SMEs, banks and research are discussed
Trust as a mediator in the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and IL-6 level in adulthood
Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has been shown to predict the coupling of depression and inflammation in adulthood. Trust within intimate relationships, a core element in marital relations, has been shown to predict positive physical and mental health outcomes, but the mediating role of trust in partners in the association between CSA and inflammation in adulthood requires further study. The present study aimed to examine the impact of CSA on inflammatory biomarkers (IL-6 and IL-1β) in adults with depression and the mediating role of trust. A cross-sectional survey data set of adults presenting with mood and sleep disturbance was used in the analysis. CSA demonstrated a significant negative correlation with IL-6 level (r = -0.28, p<0. 01) in adults with clinically significant depression, while trust showed a significant positive correlation with IL-6 level (r = 0.36, p < .01). Sobel test and bootstrapping revealed a significant mediating role for trust between CSA and IL-6 level. CSA and trust in partners were revealed to have significant associations with IL-6 level in adulthood. Counterintuitively, the directions of association were not those expected. Trust played a mediating role between CSA and adulthood levels of IL-6. Plausible explanations for these counterintuitive findings are discussed
Onset of dielectric modes at 110K and 60K due to local lattice distortions in non-superconducting YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6.0} crystals
We report the observation of two dielectric transitions at 110K and 60K in
the microwave response of non-superconducting YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6.0} crystals.
The transitions are characterized by a change in polarizability and presence of
loss peaks, associated with overdamped dielectric modes. An explanation is
presented in terms of changes in polarizability of the apical O atoms in the
Ba-O layer, affected by lattice softening at 110K, due to change in buckling of
the Cu-O layer. The onset of another mode at 60K strongly suggests an
additional local lattice change at this temperature. Thus microwave dielectric
measurements are sensitive indicators of lattice softening which may be
relevant to superconductivity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 ps format figure
Forced electrostriction by constraining polarization switching enhances the electromechanical strain properties of incipient piezoceramics
Recently developed lead-free incipient piezoceramics are promising candidates for off-resonance actuator applications due to their exceptionally large electromechanical strains. Their commercialization currently faces three critical challenges: the high driving electric field required for delivering the potentially large strains; large strain hysteresis, which is inappropriate for precision devices; and relatively high temperature dependencies. We propose that instead of utilizing incipient piezoelectric strains, harnessing the maximum possible electrostriction would provide a highly effective way to resolve all these challenges. This concept was experimentally demonstrated using textured 0.97Bi(1/2)(Na0.78K0.22) 1/2TiO3-0.03BiAlO(3) as an exemplary incipient piezoceramic, whereby texturing was achieved using a reactive templated grain-growth technique. The manufactured textured ceramic is characterized by S-max/E-max of 995 pm V-1 and an electrostrictive coefficient, Q(33), of 0.049 m(4) C-2. Both these parameters are as large as those of single crystals. The current work presents a significant advancement in the field of lead-free ceramics and can guide future efforts in this direction. In addition, the concept presented here can be easily transferred to other disciplines involving the design of functional properties of various materiaope
Orbital textures and charge density waves in transition metal dichalcogenides
Low-dimensional electron systems, as realized naturally in graphene or
created artificially at the interfaces of heterostructures, exhibit a variety
of fascinating quantum phenomena with great prospects for future applications.
Once electrons are confined to low dimensions, they also tend to spontaneously
break the symmetry of the underlying nuclear lattice by forming so-called
density waves; a state of matter that currently attracts enormous attention
because of its relation to various unconventional electronic properties. In
this study we reveal a remarkable and surprising feature of charge density
waves (CDWs), namely their intimate relation to orbital order. For the
prototypical material 1T-TaS2 we not only show that the CDW within the
two-dimensional TaS2-layers involves previously unidentified orbital textures
of great complexity. We also demonstrate that two metastable stackings of the
orbitally ordered layers allow to manipulate salient features of the electronic
structure. Indeed, these orbital effects enable to switch the properties of
1T-TaS2 nanostructures from metallic to semiconducting with technologically
pertinent gaps of the order of 200 meV. This new type of orbitronics is
especially relevant for the ongoing development of novel, miniaturized and
ultra-fast devices based on layered transition metal dichalcogenides
The Basilicata Wealth Fund: Resource Policy and Long-Run Economic Development in Southern Italy
This paper contributes to the growing political economy literature of within-country natural resources management, by proposing a new resource policy for the oil-rich southern Italian region of Basilicata. The policy proposal is to establish a (regional) wealth fund in which all the royalty revenues from non-renewable natural resource exploitation in Basilicata would be stored and fully converted into low-risk financial assets. The scope is to give priority to long-run investments as to better exploit revenues from large-scale extraction of natural capital. Establishing a wealth fund at the regional sub-national level is a novel approach that can be applied to other resource-rich regions in the world. I label the fund as the Basilicata Wealth Fund (BWF). The BWF would be a regionally owned investment fund, however independently administered from national authorities (for instance, as an independent legal entity under the jurisdiction of the Bank of Italy). In addition, the paper posits a transparent and clear-cut spending fiscal rule in order to let regional authorities use the resource revenues to finance economic policy. The clear advantage from the BWF would be the stronger focus on long-run economic development and the higher accountability, hence avoiding misuse of resource revenues for myopic fiscal spending
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