Book reviews of Weaver-Zercher\u27s \u3cem\u3eThrill of the Chaste\u3c/em\u3e and Keiser\u27s \u3cem\u3ePennsylvania German in the American Midwest\u3c/em\u3e

Over the course of her book, Valerie Weaver-Zercher guides us through an analysis of the constituents of the increasingly popular Amish-fiction genre. In particular, her chapters explore the content of stories that fall within the genre, the general writing style employed by authors of Amish fiction, the common ways that Amish fiction functions for readers, and a few concerns with regards to the genre that Weaver-Zercher finds worthy of additional attention. In discussing the content of Amish fiction, Weaver-Zercher not only presents common attributes of the main characters (especially the protagonist) but also establishes major themes in the story settings themselves. These settings and themes are effectively employed by the particular style of writing that is used in Amish fiction precisely because the emphasis in this genre is on clear communication and the use of text as a mechanism for transporting the reader—rather than emphasizing the literary nature of the book in ways that distract from the story content. In addition to a discussion of the content and structure of Amish fiction, Weaver-Zercher also uses conversations with Amish fiction readers and authors to establish the ways that Amish inspirational fiction functions in the lives of readers. This function includes not only the reasons that people choose to read Amish fiction, but also the ways that Amish fictions affects readers’ lives in more profound ways. The final topic that Weaver-Zercher addresses in her book are those criticisms and concerns that the genre of Amish fiction—as a subgenre of inspirational fiction—raises; these concerns are used to end the book because they provide opening questions and issues for future research and conversations about Amish fiction, inspirational fiction, and literary representation more broadly. [First paragraph-Stork] Keiser’s book “Pennsylvania German in the American Midwest” combines data from a decade of field work in order to present a detailed account of the origin and distribution of several key features distinguishing Pennsylvania German spoken in Pennsylvania (PPG) from that spoken in the American Midwest (MPG) and the internal and contact induced changes that resulted in their divergence. He compares the Amish communities of Lancaster County and Montgomery / Bucks Counties in the East and Holmes County, Ohio; Kalona, Iowa; and Grant County, Wisconsin, in the Midwest. His work is grounded in ethnography as well as quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. [First paragraph-Downing

Adjustment for Suspected Misclassified Smoking Data in an Historical Cohort Study of Workers Exposed to Acrylonitrile

Objectives: To examine the association between exposure to acrylonitrile (AN) and lung cancer mortality after properly addressing misclassification and possible positive confounding of smoking history. Methods: Subjects were 992 white males who were employed for three or more months between 1960 and 1996 at an AN chemical plant in Lima, OH. There were 15 identified cases of lung cancer deaths. Smoking histories were obtained for 90.3% of the cohort and 54.2% of the cohort were identified as having “ever smoked”. Though there were few “unknown” smoking histories, the smoking variable was determined to be misclassified as the RR for having ever smoked related to lung cancer was only 1.08 (95% CI=0.26, 6.18). We addressed potential confounding by smoking in the presence of suspected misclassified smoking data by determining if a reasonable adjustment of the available smoking data would change the risk levels of lung cancer in the original Lima cohort and the relationship between AN exposure and lung cancer using Monte Carlo simulation and bias adjustment. Conclusions: After running Monte Carlo simulation, we found that the mean RR of lung cancer mortality given differing levels of AN exposure decreased after adjusting for the simulated smoking data. However, the results from the bias adjustment must be interpreted with caution as the analysis was limited by the number of lung cancer cases. In this cohort, we concluded that smoking positively confounded the relationship between AN exposure and lung cancer mortality. Public Health Relevance: Properly adjusting for smoking history in studies of lung cancer is critical of the validity of the study results. As seen in this study, smoking habits impact the risk of certain health outcomes. Researchers must attempt to address the potential confounding by smoking whenever possible

​Tweeting terrorism: Vernacular conceptions of Muslims and terror in the wake of the Manchester Bombing on Twitter

Both vernacular security studies and critical terrorism studies (CTS) offer constructivist analyses of security couched in understandings of security speak. However, neither adequately take account of the ways in which social media presents important opportunities for greater insight into how terrorism is constructed. This study analyses tweets posted after the 2017 Manchester bombing, exploring how jihadist terror attacks are constructed on social media. To do this, we combine social network analysis, as a sampling method, with discourse analysis. The study finds that Twitter provides a platform for diverse terrorism discourses to be expressed and contested. This indicates a literate lay audience within post-attack narratives, self-aware of dominant social constructions of “Muslim terrorism”. Indeed, it suggests an audience that, on Twitter, is hardly only audience but seeks to speak security itself. Insights are gleaned with respect to depicting, defending, and critiquing Muslims, constructing what it means to be a terrorist, portrayals of victimhood, and how terror events feed into broader critiques of “political correctness” and “liberal” politics. Therefore, the analysis also provides further insights into the portrayal and (self-)positioning of Muslims in the wake of a jihadist attack and nuances accounts of Muslims’ securitisation qua terror

Tweeting terrorism: Vernacular conceptions of Muslims and terror in the wake of the Manchester Bombing on Twitter

Both vernacular security studies and critical terrorism studies (CTS) offer constructivist analyses of security couched in understandings of security speak. However, neither adequately take account of the ways in which social media presents important opportunities for greater insight into how terrorism is constructed. This study analyses tweets posted after the 2017 Manchester bombing, exploring how jihadist terror attacks are constructed on social media. To do this, we combine social network analysis, as a sampling method, with discourse analysis. The study finds that Twitter provides a platform for diverse terrorism discourses to be expressed and contested. This indicates a literate lay audience within post-attack narratives, self-aware of dominant social constructions of “Muslim terrorism”. Indeed, it suggests an audience that, on Twitter, is hardly only audience but seeks to speak security itself. Insights are gleaned with respect to depicting, defending, and critiquing Muslims, constructing what it means to be a terrorist, portrayals of victimhood, and how terror events feed into broader critiques of “political correctness” and “liberal” politics. Therefore, the analysis also provides further insights into the portrayal and (self-)positioning of Muslims in the wake of a jihadist attack and nuances accounts of Muslims’ securitisation qua terror

Heterojunction Hybrid Devices from Vapor Phase Grown MoS2_{2}

We investigate a vertically-stacked hybrid photodiode consisting of a thin n-type molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_{2}$) layer transferred onto p-type silicon. The fabrication is scalable as the MoS$_{2}$ is grown by a controlled and tunable vapor phase sulfurization process. The obtained large-scale p-n heterojunction diodes exhibit notable photoconductivity which can be tuned by modifying the thickness of the MoS$_{2}$ layer. The diodes have a broad spectral response due to direct and indirect band transitions of the nanoscale MoS$_{2}$. Further, we observe a blue-shift of the spectral response into the visible range. The results are a significant step towards scalable fabrication of vertical devices from two-dimensional materials and constitute a new paradigm for materials engineering.Comment: 23 pages with 4 figures. This article has been published in Scientific Reports. (26 June 2014, doi:10.1038/srep05458

Evidence of Balanced Diversity at the Chicken Interleukin 4 Receptor Alpha Chain Locus

Background: The comparative analysis of genome sequences emerging for several avian species with thefully sequenced chicken genome enables the genome-wide investigation of selective processes infunctionally important chicken genes. In particular, because of pathogenic challenges it is expected thatgenes involved in the chicken immune system are subject to particularly strong adaptive pressure.Signatures of selection detected by inter-species comparison may then be investigated at the populationlevel in global chicken populations to highlight potentially relevant functional polymorphisms.Results: Comparative evolutionary analysis of chicken (Gallus gallus) and zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)genes identified interleukin 4 receptor alpha-chain (IL-4Rα), a key cytokine receptor as a candidate with asignificant excess of substitutions at nonsynonymous sites, suggestive of adaptive evolution. Resequencingand detailed population genetic analysis of this gene in diverse village chickens from Asia and Africa,commercial broilers, and in outgroup species red jungle fowl (JF), grey JF, Ceylon JF, green JF, grey francolinand bamboo partridge, suggested elevated and balanced diversity across all populations at this gene, actingto preserve different high-frequency alleles at two nonsynonymous sites.Conclusion: Haplotype networks indicate that red JF is the primary contributor of diversity at chickenIL-4Rα: the signature of variation observed here may be due to the effects of domestication, admixtureand introgression, which produce high diversity. However, this gene is a key cytokine-binding receptor inthe immune system, so balancing selection related to the host response to pathogens cannot be excluded

Report of the 2019-2020 strategic engagement standing committee

© 2020, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. All rights reserved. For the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) strategic engagement is critical to the success of colleges and schools of pharmacy in expanding pharmacy and public health practice, meeting programmatic needs, and fulfilling institutional missions. The 2019-2020 Strategic Engagement Committee was charged with exploring the collaborative relationships colleges and schools have within their state to advance pharmacy practice. More specifically, this committee was tasked to examine those relationships with current state pharmacy and medical associations. This report seeks to provide insights from this work and share recommendations to assist AACP in facilitating practice transformation. To uncover current schools’ relationships with state and medical associations, the committee utilized AACP’s ability in convening members to conduct focus groups at INsight 2020 and one-on-one interviews with key faculty members. Overall, partnerships with state pharmacy associations are successful or growing, whereas there is still work to be done in developing relationships and collaborating with medical and health care societies. We found that there are several schools with “best practices” related to state association collaborations and look to highlight exemplar practices in this report as they are critical towards practice transformations

Hmong Resettlement Study Site Report, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Prepared by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, Southeast Asian Refugee Studies Project, University of Minnesota, under a subcontract agreement with Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon, with funds from the U. S. Department

Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science

Background: The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) has emerged as a key global sustainability concept in international sustainable development arenas. Initially presented as an agenda for global sustainability research, it now shows potential for sustainability governance. We use the fact that it is widely cited in scientific literature (>3500 citations) and an extensively studied concept to analyse how it has been used and developed since its first publication. Design: From the literature that cites the PBc, we select those articles that have the terms 'planetary boundaries' or 'safe operating space' in either title, abstract or keywords. We assume that this literature substantively engages with and develops the PBc. Results: We find that 6% of the citing literature engages with the concept. Within this fraction of the literature we distinguish commentaries—that discuss the context and challenges to implementing the PBc, articles that develop the core biogeophysical concept and articles that apply the concept by translating to sub-global scales and by adding a human component to it. Applied literature adds to the concept by explicitly including society through perspectives of impacts, needs, aspirations and behaviours. Discussion: Literature applying the concept does not yet include the more complex, diverse, cultural and behavioural facet of humanity that is implied in commentary literature. We suggest there is need for a positive framing of sustainability goals—as a Safe Operating Space rather than boundaries. Key scientific challenges include distinguishing generalised from context-specific knowledge, clarifying which processes are generalizable and which are scalable, and explicitly applying complex systems' knowledge in the application and development of the PBc. We envisage that opportunities to address these challenges will arise when more human social dimensions are integrated, as we learn to feed the global sustainability vision with a plurality of bottom-up realisations of sustainability