Substantiating a political public sphere in the Scottish press : a comparative analysis

This article uses content analysis to characterize the performance of the media in a national public sphere, by setting apart those qualities that typify internal press coverage of a political event. The article looks at the coverage of the 1999 devolved Scottish election from the day before the election until the day after. It uses a word count to measure the election material in Scottish newspapers the Herald, the Press and Journal and the Scotsman, and United Kingdom newspapers the Guardian, the Independent and The Times, and categorizes that material according to discourse type, day and page selection. The article finds a number of qualities that typify the Scottish sample in particular, and might be broadly indicative of a political public sphere in action. Firstly, and not unexpectedly, it finds that the Scottish newspapers carry significantly more election coverage. Just as tellingly, though, the article finds that the Scottish papers offer a greater proportion of advice and background information, in the form of opinion columns and feature articles. It also finds that the Scottish papers place a greater concentration of both informative and evaluative material in the period before the vote, consistent with their making a contribution to informed political action. Lastly, the article finds that the Scottish sample situates coverage nearer the front of the paper and places a greater proportion on recto pages. The article therefore argues that the Scottish papers display features that distinguish them from the UK papers, and are broadly consistent with their forming part of a deliberative public sphere, and suggests that these qualities might be explored as a means of judging future media performance

Specific Heat of URu2_{2}Si2_{2} in Fields to 42 T: Clues to the 'Hidden Order'

The large $\Delta$C observed at 17.5 K in URu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ is inconsistent with the small, 0.04 $\mu_{B}$ moment measured for the antiferromagnetism observed starting (perhaps coincidentally) at the same temperature. We report measurements of this specific heat transition, thought to be due to some 'hidden order', in magnetic fields between 24 and 42 T, i. e. through the field region where three metamagnetic transtions are known to occur at 35.8, 37.3, and 39.4 T. The response of $\Delta$C in single crystal URu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ to magnetic field, which includes a change to $\Delta$C being possibly associated with a first order phase transition for high fields, is analyzed to shed further light on the possible explanations of this unknown ordering process. At fields above 35 T, a new high field phase comes into being; the connection between this high field phase revealed by the specific heat and earlier magnetization data is discussed

Beneficial and limiting factors in return to work after primary total knee replacement:Patients' perspective

Return to work (RTW) is an important outcome in Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA). At present, 70-80%of TKA patients return to work within three to six months. What are patients' perspectives regarding beneficial and limiting factors in RTW after TKA? METHODS: Focus groups were formed in accordance with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist. Three major topics were explored: 1. What was beneficial for RTW after TKA; 2. What was limiting for RTW after TKA; and 3. What additional care would benefit RTW after TKA? RESULTS: Data saturation was reached after four focus groups, comprising 17 participants - nine men and eight women (median age 58, range 52-65). The focus group study identified four main themes that contributed to a successful RTW namely rehabilitation (medical) like post-operative physical therapy, patient characteristics (personal), like motivation to RTW, occupational characteristics (work-related) like build-up in work tasks and medical support (medical) like availability of a walker or crutches. CONCLUSION: According to participants, factors within the following four themes can contribute to a successful return to work: occupational, patient, rehabilitation and medical care. Incorporating these factors into the integrated care pathway for the 'young' TKA patients may increase the chances of a successful RTW

Nanoantenna-enhanced ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy of a single gold nanoparticle

Optical nanoantennas are a novel tool to investigate previously unattainable dimensions in the nanocosmos. Just like their radio-frequency equivalents, nanoantennas enhance the light-matter interaction in their feed gap. Antenna enhancement of small signals promises to open a new regime in linear and nonlinear spectroscopy on the nanoscale. Without antennas especially the nonlinear spectroscopy of single nanoobjects is very demanding. Here, we present for the first time antenna-enhanced ultrafast nonlinear optical spectroscopy. In particular, we utilize the antenna to determine the nonlinear transient absorption signal of a single gold nanoparticle caused by mechanical breathing oscillations. We increase the signal amplitude by an order of magnitude which is in good agreement with our analytical and numerical models. Our method will find applications in linear and nonlinear spectroscopy of nanoobjects, ranging from single protein binding events via nonlinear tensor elements to the limits of continuum mechanics

Advancement of photonic integration technology for space applications: A x-band scan-on-receive synthetic aperture radar receiver with electro-photonic beamforming and frequency downconversion capability

Synthetic Aperture Radar is a well-known technique for remote sensing applications with great advantages like uninterrupted imaging capabilities even at night or in presence of cloud cover. However, spaceborne SAR sensors face major challenges such as cost and size, which are among the barriers against their applicability for future constellations of low-Earth observation applications. SAR sensors are not compact and require large or medium-sized satellites, which cost hundreds million dollars. To solve these challenges, the recently started SPACEBEAM project, funded by the European Commission, aims at developing a novel SAR Scan-on-Receive approach, exploiting a hybrid integrated optical beamforming network (iOBFN). The compactness and frequency flexibility of the proposed photonic solution complies with the requirements of future constellations of low-Earth orbit satellites in terms of size, weight, power consumption, and cost (SWaP-C). In the design of the SCORE SAR receiver module, we target the development of an X-band receiver having a large swath width of 50 km (5 times wider than state-of-art spaceborne SAR systems), although at the same time enabling a fine spatial resolution of 1.5 m in both along-track and across-track directions. In this paper, we present specifications and preliminary design of the SCORE-SAR receiver at equipment level, where we aim at the realization of a hermetically packaged hybrid InP/TriPleX™ photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for this application. We target the design for the PIC as well as for the RF front-end and control electronics, enabling the electro-photonic frequency down-conversion of the RF signals and the fast control of iOBFN with <300 ns switching time

High-Energy Spectral Complexity from Thermal Gradients in Black Hole Atmospheres

We show that Compton scattering of soft photons with energies near 100 eV in thermally stratified black-hole accretion plasmas with temperatures in the range 100 keV - 1 MeV can give rise to an X-ray spectral hardening near 10 keV. This could produce the hardening observed in the X-ray spectra of black holes, which is generally attributed to reflection or partial covering of the incident continuum source by cold optically thick matter. In addition, we show that the presence of very hot (kT=1 MeV) cores in plasmas leads to spectra exibiting high energy tails similar to those observed from Galactic black-hole candidates.Comment: 11 pages, uuencoded gziped postscript, ApJ Letters in pres

On-the-fly Uniformization of Time-Inhomogeneous Infinite Markov Population Models

This paper presents an on-the-fly uniformization technique for the analysis of time-inhomogeneous Markov population models. This technique is applicable to models with infinite state spaces and unbounded rates, which are, for instance, encountered in the realm of biochemical reaction networks. To deal with the infinite state space, we dynamically maintain a finite subset of the states where most of the probability mass is located. This approach yields an underapproximation of the original, infinite system. We present experimental results to show the applicability of our technique

Sphagnum bleaching:Bicarbonate ‘toxicity’ and tolerance for seven Sphagnum species

Growth and functioning of Sphagnum mosses are closely linked to water level and chemistry. Sphagnum mosses occur in wet, generally acidic conditions, and when buffered, alkaline water is known to negatively impact Sphagnum. The effects of time, dose and species-specific responses of buffered, alkaline water on Sphagnum are largely unknown. We investigated the effects of bicarbonate and calcium on the survival, growth and physiological functioning of seven Sphagnum species occurring in contrasting environments, from raised bogs to (rich) fens. Mosses were submerged in different concentrations of bicarbonate and calcium solutions for 10 weeks under climate-controlled circumstances. After 2 weeks, all species exposed to the high bicarbonate treatment (2.0 mM) showed severe potassium leakage and swift discoloration. In contrast, species showed differential responses to the intermediate bicarbonate treatment (0.8 mM), some with a later onset of potassium leakage. S. squarrosum, S. teres & S. contortum generally persisted the longest, with all species dying after 6 to 10 weeks. Calcium alone, in contrast, negatively affected S. squarrosum, S. teres & S. contortum, causing discoloration and potassium leakage. Our study shows enrichment with bicarbonate, but not calcium, is detrimental for most Sphagnum species tested. A mechanistic model was developed that is consistent with dose and duration dependence and the species specificity. Future conservation and restoration measures for Sphagnum-dominated habitats and Sphagnum farming (cultivation, production and harvest of Sphagnum moss biomass) should limit flooding with bicarbonate-rich waters while investigating new management options, like acidifying surface waters to lower bicarbonate levels

So happy for your loss: Consumer schadenfreude increases choice satisfaction

Consumers often feel schadenfreude, an emotion reflecting an experience of pleasure over misfortunes of another. Schadenfreude has found wide use in advertising, but its actual consequences for consumers have not been thoroughly documented. The present research investigates the effect of schadenfreude on consumers' satisfaction with choices they have made. Building on the feelings‐as‐information theory, the authors posit that consumers take their positive feelings of schadenfreude over another's unrelated bad purchase as positive information about their own choices, and through such misattribution become more satisfied with their own choices. Three experiments show that feeling schadenfreude over another consumer's bad purchase makes consumers more satisfied with their own choices (Study 1), regardless of whether the other's bad purchase is in the same or in a different product category as one's own choice (Study 2), but only so long as consumers are not aware that they are engaging in misattribution (Study 3). The present research contributes to the literature on schadenfreude and feelings‐as‐information theory. Its findings may be used by marketers aiming to exert an unconscious influence on consumer satisfaction