308 research outputs found
The celebrity entrepreneur on television: profile, politics and power
This article examines the rise of the âcelebrity entrepreneurâ on television through the emergence of the âbusiness entertainment formatâ and considers the ways in which regular television exposure can be converted into political influence. Within television studies there has been a preoccupation in recent years with how lifestyle and reality formats work to transform âordinaryâ people into celebrities. As a result, the contribution of vocationally skilled business professionals to factual entertainment programming has gone almost unnoticed. This article draws on interviews with key media industry professionals and begins by looking at the construction of entrepreneurs as different types of television personalities and how discourses of work, skill and knowledge function in business shows. It then outlines how entrepreneurs can utilize their newly acquired televisual skills to cultivate a wider media profile and secure various forms of political access and influence. Integral to this is the centrality of public relations and media management agencies in shaping media discourses and developing the individual as a âbrand identityâ that can be used to endorse a range of products or ideas. This has led to policy makers and politicians attempting to mobilize the media profile of celebrity entrepreneurs to reach out and connect with the public on business and enterprise-related issues
Case-Control study of Firefighters with documented positive tuberculin skin test results using Quantiferon-TB testing in comparison with Firefighters with negative tuberculin skin test results
BACKGROUND: Phoenix Firefighters have had abnormally high rates of tuberculin skin test (TBST) results on medical surveillance. The objectives of this study were to evaluate our firefighters using QuantiFERON-TB (QFT), comparing the results to their TBST results. METHODS: Using QFT results obtained during the study, we compared previously positive TBST responders (Cases) to negative responders (Controls). We also compared both groups for QFT results for Mycobacterium avium (MA) exposure. RESULTS: QFT effectively monitored our working population. 12.9% of the 148 cases, and 3.2% of the 220 controls had a positive QFT result. Another 14.8% of cases and 4.5% of controls had conditionally positive QFT results. There was an unusually high rate of MA response on QFT testing in both groups. CONCLUSION: Phoenix Firefighters have a higher than expected TBST and QFT results, which cannot be explained by the increased MA rate. The decreased level of QFT positivity in comparison to TBST results may indicate a considerable false positive TBST rate. The QFT offers many advantages as a surveillance method over TBST in exposed worker populations
Microwave-induced control of Free Electron Laser radiation
The dynamical response of a relativistic bunch of electrons injected in a
planar magnetic undulator and interacting with a counterpropagating
electromagnetic wave is studied. We demonstrate a resonance condition for which
the free electron laser (FEL) dynamics is strongly influenced by the presence
of the external field. It opens up the possibility of control of short
wavelength FEL emission characteristics by changing the parameters of the
microwave field without requiring change in the undulator's geometry or
configuration. Numerical examples, assuming realistic parameter values
analogous to those of the TTF-FEL, currently under development at DESY, are
given for possible control of the amplitude or the polarization of the emitted
radiation.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Structural and electrical transport properties of superconducting Au{0.7}In{0.3} films: A random array of superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) Josephson junctions
The structural and superconducting properties of Au{0.7}In{0.3} films, grown
by interdiffusion of alternating Au and In layers, have been studied. The films
were found to consist of a uniform solid solution of Au{0.9}In{0.1}, with
excess In precipitated in the form of In-rich grains of various Au-In phases
(with distinct atomic compositions), including intermetallic compounds. As the
temperature was lowered, these individual grains became superconducting at a
particular transition temperature (Tc), determined primarily by the atomic
composition of the grain, before a fully superconducting state of zero
resistance was established. From the observed onset Tc, it was inferred that up
to three different superconducting phases could have formed in these
Au{0.7}In{0.3} films, all of which were embedded in a uniform Au{0.9}In{0.1}
matrix. Among these phases, the Tc of a particular one, 0.8 K, is higher than
any previously reported for the Au-In system. The electrical transport
properties were studied down to low temperatures. The transport results were
found to be well correlated with those of the structural studies. The present
work suggests that Au{0.7}In{0.3} can be modeled as a random array of
superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) Josephson junctions. The
effect of disorder and the nature of the superconducting transition in these
Au{0.7}In{0.3} films are discussed.Comment: 8 text pages, 10 figures in one separate PDF file, submitted to PR
The impact of marketisation on postgraduate career preparedness in a high skills economy
This study focuses on the consequences for high skills development of the erosion of the once clear demarcation between higher education and business. It contributes to the broader debate about the relevance of higher education for thewell-being of the society of the future. The research explores the effects of marketisation on the postgraduate curriculum and studentsâ preparedness for careers in public relations and marketing communications. Interviews with lecturers and students in two universities in the UK and Australia indicate that a tension exists between academic rigour and corporate relevancy. The consequences are a diminution of academic attachment to critique and wider social/cultural engagement, with a resulting impoverishment of studentsâ creative abilities and critical consciences. Subsequently, graduates of public relations and marketing communications, and to some extent those from other profession-related disciplines, are insufficiently prepared for careers as knowledge workers in a future high-skills economy
Medical image colorization for better visualization and segmentation
Medical images contain precious anatomical information for clinical procedures. Improved understanding of medical modality may contribute significantly in arena of medical image analysis. This paper investigates enhancement of monochromatic medical modality into colorized images. Improving the contrast of anatomical structures facilitates precise segmentation. The proposed framework starts with pre-processing to remove noise and improve edge information. Then colour information is embedded to each pixel of a subject image. A resulting image has a potential to portray better anatomical information than a conventional monochromatic image. To evaluate the performance of colorized medical modality, the structural similarity index and the peak signal to noise ratio are computed. Supremacy of proposed colorization is validated by segmentation experiments and compared with greyscale monochromatic images
Interesting magnetic properties of FeCoSi alloys
Solid solution between nonmagnetic narrow gap semiconductor FeSi and
diamagnetic semi-metal CoSi gives rise to interesting metallic alloys with
long-range helical magnetic ordering, for a wide range of intermediate
concentration. We report various interesting magnetic properties of these
alloys, including low temperature re-entrant spin-glass like behaviour and a
novel inverted magnetic hysteresis loop. Role of Dzyaloshinski-Moriya
interaction in the magnetic response of these non-centrosymmetric alloys is
discussed.Comment: 11 pages and 3 figure
Poland's 2011 Online Election Campaign: New Tools, New Professionalism, New Ways to Win Votes
This article analyzes the use of the online environment within the context of the Polish parliamentary election of 2011. Using traditional methods of content analysis, we find that parties tend to adhere to a professionalized model of campaigning, and adapting online tools to suit the objectives of the campaign. There also appears to be a recognition that their most likely visitors to these online presences would be converts, and so they attempt to mobilize supporters rather than convert browsers. New parties and candidates are more likely to target browsers, with the latter offering a more personalized experience to online visitors. Importantly, when analyzing the outcome of the contest, we find that being online matters for candidates when controlling for all other variables. Equally, the reach the candidate has, which may well influence their vote share, is dependent on offering a more personalized, representational image and having a frequently updated online presence that should encourage repeat visits. Cumulatively, we suggest the future of online campaigning must not only focus on having a presence, but on using it in a way that appeals to a range of visitors, encouraging repeat visits, and that this strategy could have a positive impact on election outcomes. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Accentuating institutional brands: A multimodal analysis of the homepages of selected South African universities
In seeking to disentangle themselves from the constraints of apartheid, South African
universities have immersed themselves in an identity modification process in which they not only
seek to redress the past, but also to reposition their identities as equal opportunity and non-racial
institutions. In this paper, we investigate how the University of the Western Cape, the University
of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University have used visual and verbal semiotics to re-design
their identities on their homepages to appeal to diverse national and international clients. Using
Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), we show how the multi-semiotic choices work together on
the homepages to give the universities differentiated, competitive, powerful and attractive brands.
We conclude that the homepages blended cultural semiotic artefacts, historical, global and transformational
discourses, and architectural landscapes to construct different brand identities that, in turn,
rebrand the universities from edifices of apartheid education to equal opportunity institutions
The Stability of Al11Sm3 (Al4Sm) Phases in the Al-Sm Binary System
The relative stability of Al11Sm3 (Al4Sm) intermetallic phases was experimentally investigated through a series of heat treatments followed by microstructural, microchemical, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The principal findings are that the high-temperature tetragonal phase is stable from 1655 to 1333 K and that the low-temperature orthorhombic phases, α and γ, have no range of full stability but are metastable with respect to the crystalline Al and Sm reference states down to 0 K. Thermodynamic modeling is used to describe the relative energetics of stable and metastable phases along with the associated two-phase mixtures. Issues regarding transition energetics and kinetics are discussed
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