Ethnographies of the imagined, the imaginary and the critically real: Blackness, whiteness, the north of England and rugby league

Rugby league is part of the white, working-class (male) culture of the north of England, and is a sport that is used by its supporters to (re)produce both an imagined community of nostalgic northernness and an imaginary community of locally situated hegemonically masculine belonging. The invented traditions of its origins link the game to a white, working-class twentieth-century culture of mills, pits, terraced houses and pubs; a culture increasingly marginalised, reshaped and challenged in this century. In this paper we use two medium-term, ethnographic research projects on rugby league (one from Spracklen; the other an on-going project by Timmins) to explore northernness, blackness, whiteness and our own roles in the ethnographies as 'black' and 'white' researchers researching 'race' and identity in a community that remains (but not exclusively) a place for a working-class whiteness to be articulated. We argue that our own histories and identities are pivotal in how we are accepted as legitimate ethnographers and insiders, but those histories and identities also posea critically real challenge to us and to those in the community of rugby league with whom we interact. © 2010 Taylor & Francis

Experience in Thermal-vacuum Testing Earth Satellites at Goddard Space Flight Center

Thermal-vacuum environmental testing of satellite

Description of Age-0 Round Goby, Neogobius melanostomus Pallas (Gobiidae), and Ecotone Utilisation in St. Clair Lowland Waters, Ontario

Early developmental stages and ecotone utilisation of the non-indigenous Round Goby, Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1811), are described and illustrated. Fish (5-40 mm) were collected in coarse gravel, rocks and debris in the St. Clair River/Lake system, Ontario, in 1994-2000. The Round Goby hatches at about 5 mm with black eyes, flexed urostyle, and developed fins and digestive system. Distinguishing characters include large head, dorsolateral eyes, large fan-shaped pectoral fins, two dorsal fins, fused thoracic pelvic fins and a distinct black spot on the posterior of the spinous dorsal fin. Modal counts for preanal, postanal, and total myomeres were 12, 19, and 31, respectively

Environment and Distribution of Age 0 Fishes in River Canard, a Lowland Ontario River

Age 0 fishes were collected to determine occurrence, relative abundance and species composition at three sites in River Canard, Ontario in spring-autumn, 1994-1995. This small lowland river (mean annual discharge, 3.2 m3 s-1) has variable flow during fish spawning and early nursery periods, high suspended particulate load, and sparse rooted vegetation and other physical cover. Forty-two taxa (12 families; 24,544 specimens) collected with beach seines and a plankton net represented a wide range of reproductive strategies and a diverse taxocene. Gizzard Shad Dorosoma cepedianum (67% of total catch), Orangespotted Sunfish Lepomis humilis (8%), and Brook Silverside Labidesthes sicculus (6%) were the most abundant species. Environmental conditions were such that fish attained autumnal lengths comparable to species in various systems throughout the ecoregion

Longitudinal Double Spin Asymmetry in Inclusive Jet Production at STAR

This contribution reports on the first measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry $A_{LL}$ for the inclusive production of jets in polarized proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200 \mathrm{GeV}$. The data were collected with STAR at RHIC in the years 2003 and 2004, and correspond to a sampled integrated luminosity of $0.3 \mathrm{pb}^{-1}$ with beam polarizations up to 45%. The results on $A_{LL}$ cover jet transverse momenta $5 < p_{T} < 17 \mathrm{GeV/c}$ and agree with perturbative QCD evaluations based on deep-inelastic scattering parametrizations for the gluon polarization in the proton. The results disfavor large positive gluon polarization in the polarized proton.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Dietary value for money? Investigating how the monetary value of diets in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) relate to dietary energy density

Estimating the monetary value of individuals’ diets allows investigation into how costs relate to dietary quality. A number of studies(1–2), including one in Scotland(3), have reported a strong negative relationship between diet costs and energy density. Most studies of this type neglect to address the issue of mathematical coupling, where energy is both the numerator in the energy density variable (kJ/g) and the denominator in energy-adjusted diet cost (e.g. E/10 MJ). As a result, the findings could be reflecting a mathematical relationship(4). This study investigated how estimated diet costs of NDNS adults relate to dietary energy density using the ‘residuals’ regressionmethod to account for energy. Diet diary information from 2008–2010 was matched to an in-house database of national average (2004) food prices (the DANTE cost database) to assign a cost to each food and non-alcoholic beverage consumed. Mean daily diet costs and costs per 10 MJ were calculated for each participant. Energy density (g/kJ) was derived from foods and milk. The sample median diet cost was £2.84 per day (IQR £2.27, £3.64), or £4.05 per 10MJ (£3.45, £4.82). Values for energy density, food energy, and diet costs by quintiles of dietary energy density (1 = least energy dense) are presented in the table. Adjusted linear regression found a strong negative relationship: additional standard deviation above the diet cost expected for a given energy intake (the residual), there was an associated decrease in energy density of 0.46kJ/g (95% CI - 0.53, - 0.38, p<0.001). This is the first time individual-level diet costs have been characterized for a representative British population. These diet costs represent the inherent value of the diet, and are not comparable to UK expenditure data. The analyses confirm a diet cost-energy density link that is not due to mathematical artefact, and suggest that those consuming more energy-dense diets are achieving more kilojoules for their money

Hydrodynamics and the Detection of the QCD Axial Anomaly in Heavy Ion Collisions

We consider the experimental implications of the axial current triangle diagram anomaly in a hydrodynamic description of high density QCD. We propose a signal of an enhanced production of spin-excited hadrons in the direction of the rotation axis in off-central heavy ion collisions.Comment: 15 pages, 19 figures; v2: refs added, minor changes to the plots; v3, comments adde

Strategies of remembering: a study of directed forgetting

This study was an investigation of the processes underlying people's performance in directed forgetting experiments. A variety of techniques were employed for this purpose, including paired associate probe, free recall, and running recognition tasks. Experiments 1 and 2 used a repeated item technique to examine the relative contributions of selective rehearsal and item differenti­ation in determining the effect of an instruction to forget. Both rehearsal and item differentiation were found to contibute, but the latter was shown to be effective only when subjects were unaware of item repetition, or unable to attach any significance to it. Experiments 3, 4, and 5 investigated the importance of the temporal location of a forget instruction relative to the placement of the to-be-forgotten items, as well as the effect of providing alternative dimensions for encoding the stimuli. Experiment 3, which was a free recall task, demonstrated that when the instruction to forget was close to the to-be-forgotten words, they received minimal process­ing and were quickly forgotten. When it was located further away, however, the effect was substantially reduced. Experiments 4 and 5, which were paired associate tasks, demonstrated that subjects were unable to make the best possible use of a forget instruction when there was uncertainty as to the form that the Instruction might take. It was concluded that the first five experiments, which employed variants of standard directed forgetting paradigms, in fact examined subject's strategies for remembering. Experiments 6 and 7 used new procedures which were designed to examine whether people can actively forget. The results of those experiments suggested that they can, provided the experimental situation is appropriately structured

How has big data contributed to obesity research? A review of the literature

There has been growing interest in the potential of ‘big data’ to enhance our understanding in medicine and public health. Although there is no agreed definition of big data, accepted critical components include greater volume, complexity, coverage and speed of availability. Much of these data are ‘found’ (as opposed to ‘made’), in that they have been collected for non-research purposes but could include valuable information for research. The aim of this paper is to review the contribution of ‘found’ data to obesity research to date, and describe the benefits and challenges encountered. A narrative review was conducted to identify and collate peer-reviewed research studies. Database searches conducted up to September 2017 found original studies using a variety of data types and sources. These included: retail sales, transport, geospatial, commercial weight management data, social media, and smartphones and wearable technologies. The narrative review highlights the variety of data uses in the literature: describing the built environment, exploring social networks, estimating nutrient purchases or assessing the impact of interventions. The examples demonstrate four significant ways in which ‘found’ data can complement conventional ‘made’ data: firstly, in moving beyond constraints in scope (coverage, size, and temporality); secondly, in providing objective, quantitative measures; thirdly, in reaching hard-to-access population groups; and lastly in the potential for evaluating real-world interventions. Alongside these opportunities, ‘found’ data come with distinct challenges, such as: ethical and legal questions around access and ownership; commercial sensitivities; costs; lack of control over data acquisition; validity; representativeness; finding appropriate comparators; and complexities of data processing, management and linkage. Despite widespread recognition of the opportunities, the impact of ‘found’ data on academic obesity research has been limited. The merit of such data lies not in their novelty, but in the benefits they could add over and above, or in combination with, conventionally collected data

Changing the Ties That Bind? The Emerging Roles and Identities of General Practitioners and Managers in the New Clinical Commissioning Groups in the English NHS

The English National Health Service (NHS) is undergoing significant reorganization following the 2012 Health and Social Care Act. Key to these changes is the shift of responsibility for commissioning services from Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to general practitioners (GPs) working together in Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). This article is based on an empirical study that examined the development of emerging CCGs in eight case studies across England between September 2011 and June 2012. The findings are based on interviews with GPs and managers, observations of meetings, and reading of related documents. Scott’s notion that institutions are constituted by three pillars—the regulative, normative, and cognitive–cultural—is explored here. This approach helps to understand the changing roles and identities of doctors and managers implicated by the present reforms. This article notes the far reaching changes in the regulative pillar and questions how these changes will affect the normative and cultural–cognitive pillars