Interrogating tweendom online: ‘Fangirl as Pathology’, gender/age, and iCarly fandom

Since the early 1990s, fan studies has sought to counter perceptions of the ‘pathology of fandom’ and the devaluation of fans as feminine and infantile. In recent years, some scholars have claimed that fans are newly normalised in popular culture, and it is no longer necessary to contest problematic or pathologising stereotypes of fans. However, the near-exclusive stereotyped representation of ‘hysterical’ crowds of adolescent female fans, and the routine dismissal of ‘fangirls’ in mainstream media and fandom itself, would indicate that not all fans have escaped pathologisation. It is also the case that not all fans have enjoyed equal levels of academic attention. By virtue of their age and gender, girl fans arguably carry the greatest burden of negative stereotyping. Yet they have been notably marginalised in fan studies scholarship and their stereotyped construction has remained largely unchallenged. This thesis seeks to address this imbalance as it offers a timely examination of the cultural construction, circulation and pleasures of fangirl fandom, seeking to challenge and expose the tenacity of what I refer to as, ‘fangirl as pathology’. Using iCarly (2007-2012) fans across three online fan spaces (LiveJournal, Blogspot, and Tumblr) as a case study, it presents an empirical, observational study that aims to further understand the implications of the cultural construction and negative stereotypes of girl fans, and the extent to which they come to shape the landscape of tween TV fandom, or ‘tweendom’. Combining fan studies and girls’ studies, and analysing girls’ fan culture from an intersectional, gender/age perspective, this thesis examines the ways in which fangirl identities are performed and the ‘fangirl’ label is negotiated, and how fans identify with iCarly in relation to their own gendered/generational subjectivities. Strategies of defence and legitimisation are considered within the contexts of hierarchical distinctions in inter-/intra-fandom, how fans are textually represented within the show, and online interactions with the series’ creator-producer. This thesis argues that fandom performs important functions for these young women. As active producers, consumers, and negotiators of media, girl fans’ reproduction of negative and pathologising discourses of fangirls demand reconsideration outside resistance/conformist binaries, and specifically in the context of their stigmatisation and structural age/gender inequalities

Late Quaternary soils on clay dunes of the Willandra Lakes, New South Wales

The clay dunes of the Quaternary lakes of the Willandra system of New South Wales provides a framework for a comparative study of soil development. Extensive work by earlier researchers has resulted in a detailed soil stratigraphy, and palaeo-environmental history of the study area, all based upon an absolute chronology developed by radiometric dating techniques. The main elements of the dune stratigraphy are the Golgol unit (120 000+ to 44 000 years BP), the Mungo unit (44 000 to 18 000 years BP) and the Zanci (18 000 to present). Two thin eolian units (Eo2 and Eol) post-date the Zanci in some parts of the area. Clay dunes of the Zanci have a narrow range of parent materials which have been divided into two main groups, the sandy clay and the clay dune facies. A comparison is made between soils on crests of two dunes of the same age (15 500 years) but with contrasting parent materials. Solonetzes are characteristic of the clay dune facies, earthy sands of the sandier materials. Soil processes such as illuviation of clay, carbonate, gypsum, and sodium salts, clay pellet collapse, and weathering are identified and compared between the two lithogies. The main effect of parent material on pedogenesis concerns depth of leaching and the mobility of salts. The low clay content of the sandy materials does not allow the development of solonetzic characters; the sodium salts are flushed with little effect on the profile. Uniform parent materials of the Zanci clay dune facies in some dunes allows the influence of topography to be assessed in a single valley. Here the movement of solutes and suspensions through the valley was controlled by (a) valley morphology, and (b) orientation of the valley with respect to solar radiation. Solonetzes are formed on the crests and slopes, but solonetzic - chernozems have formed on the valley floor. Similar processes operate over the whole valley; only rates and depths of pedogenesis processes vary. Time as a control in soil development is studied by comparing two profiles of earthy sands on the sandy clay dunes. Soils of two pedoderms are compared, the Upper Mungo (19 500 BP to present) and the Zanci (15 500 BP to present); the longer period of soil development in the former resulted in increased depth of solum, a stronger red colour in the B horizon and marginally higher subplasticity ratings. Polygenesis is identified even in the youngest soil stratigraphic unit of the study area, with two main phases of soil development occurring during the last 15 500 years. The main characters of the dune soils were formed during the longer Phase B (15 500 to 2500 BP) with the effects of a shorter Phase A (2500 BP to present) being restricted to the modification of the Phase B soil characters. Mobile salts respond to these separate soil development phases by being redistributed through the dune according to their relative mobilities. The result of such sequences of salt mobility is the formation of superimposed patterns (soil chromotographs) from each phase. Eolian accession of salts to the soil surface is a significant feature of the soil history. Local sodium salts derived from the lake floor have resulted in the development of solonization during Phase B. Regional salt and dust acce4ssions have added clay, silt and carbonate to the soil over the last 15 500 years, yet these materials are indistiguishable from the rest of the parent materials. Wustenquarz contents of the soils and sediments, which are interpreted as evidence of periods of mobility/stability of the linear dunefields to the west, are combined with other data to produce a geomorphic history of the clay dunes. The development of type sites in the study area for the Zanci on soil morphological evidence, without the need for radiocarbon dates

Stable Ta2O5 Overlayers on Hematite for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Efficiencies

Hematite (α‐Fe2O3) is one of the most promising photoanodes for water oxidation, however the efficiencies of current hematite materials remain low. Surface trap states are often reported as one of the factors which limit the activity of hematite photoelectrodes, often leading to undesirable surface pinning and trap‐mediated recombination. The deposition of ultra‐thin Al2O3 overlayers is known to enhance hematite activity through passivation of surface states, however Al2O3 is rapidly degraded at normal hematite operating pH values (pH≈13). This study reports atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Ta2O5 thin films as stable, passivating overlayers on a range of hematite photoelectrodes and demonstrates that enhanced activity correlates with observed changes in trap‐state dynamics

Water splitting with polyoxometalate-treated photoanodes: Enhancing performance through sensitizer design

Visible light driven water oxidation has been demonstrated at near-neutral pH using photoanodes based on nanoporous films of TiO2, polyoxometalate (POM) water oxidation catalyst [{Ru4O4(OH)2(H2O)4}(γ-SiW10O36)2]10- (1), and both known photosensitizer [Ru(bpy)2(H4dpbpy)]2+ (P2) and the novel crown ether functionalized dye [Ru(5-crownphen)2(H2dpbpy)] (H22). Both triads, containing catalyst 1, and catalyst-free dyads, produce O2 with high faradaic efficiencies (80 to 94%), but presence of catalyst enhances quantum yield by up to 190% (maximum 0.39%). New sensitizer H22 absorbs light more strongly than P2, and increases O2 quantum yields by up to 270%. TiO2-2 based photoelectrodes are also more stable to desorption of active species than TiO2-P2: losses of catalyst 1 are halved when pH > TiO2 point-of-zero charge (pzc), and losses of sensitizer reduced below the pzc (no catalyst is lost when pH < pzc). For the triads, quantum yields of O2 are higher at pH 5.8 than at pH 7.2, opposing the trend observed for 1 under homogeneous conditions. This is ascribed to lower stability of the dye oxidized states at higher pH, and less efficient electron transfer to TiO2, and is also consistent with the 4th 1-to-dye electron transfer limiting performance rather than catalyst TOFmax. Transient absorption reveals that TiO2-2-1 has similar 1st electron transfer dynamics to TiO2-P2-1, with rapid (ps timescale) formation of long-lived TiO2(e-)-2-1(h+) charge separated states, and demonstrates that metallation of the crown ether groups (Na+/Mg2+) has little or no effect on electron transfer from 1 to 2. The most widely relevant findings of this study are therefore: (i) increased dye extinction coefficients and binding stability significantly improve performance in dye-sensitized water splitting systems; (ii) binding of POMs to electrode surfaces can be stabilized through use of recognition groups; (iii) the optimal homogeneous and TiO2-bound operating pHs of a catalyst may not be the same; and (iv) dye-sensitized TiO2 can oxidize water without a catalyst

The Bristol Method: Green Capital Student Capital - The power of student sustainability engagement

THE BRISTOL METHODThe Bristol Method is a knowledge-transfer programme aimed at helping people in other cities understand and apply the lessons that Bristol has learned in becoming a more sustainable city, not just in 2015 but in the last decade. Each module of the Bristol Method is presented as an easy-to-digest ‘how to’ guide on a particular topic, which use Bristol’s experiences as a case study. The modules contain generic advice and recommendations that each reader can tailor to their own circumstances.This module focusses on the Green Capital: Student Capital project, and explains how the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) and the University of Bristol – with their respective students’ unions – have been working in partnership with the city and local communities, using Higher Education Funding Council for England Catalyst funding to promote student involvement in Green Capital activities across Greater Bristol.Student Capital created a broad programme of citywide impact during European Green Capital. It delivered a programme of student and staff engagement in enhancing sustainability within the city and has developed student and staff engagement with sustainability action. Through action research approaches it is also providing lessons for how institutions can collaborate across cities and communities to have internal and external impacts for sustainability. This report is for anyone seeking to increase sustainability engagement. In it we tell the story of the Student Capital project, explaining the processes and the outcomes, and suggesting pieces of advice and lessons for what went well, and what could have been done better or differently

Life path analysis: scaling indicates priming effects of social and habitat factors on dispersal distances

1. Movements of many animals along a life-path can be separated into repetitive ones within home ranges and transitions between home ranges. We sought relationships of social and environmental factors with initiation and distance of transition movements in 114 buzzards Buteo buteo that were marked as nestlings with long-life radio tags. 2. Ex-natal dispersal movements of 51 buzzards in autumn were longer than for 30 later in their first year and than 35 extra-natal movements between home ranges after leaving nest areas. In the second and third springs, distances moved from winter focal points by birds that paired were the same or less than for unpaired birds. No post-nuptial movement exceeded 2 km. 3. Initiation of early ex-natal dispersal was enhanced by presence of many sibs, but also by lack of worm-rich loam soils. Distances travelled were greatest for birds from small broods and with relatively little short grass-feeding habitat near the nest. Later movements were generally enhanced by the absence of loam soils and short grassland, especially with abundance of other buzzards and probable poor feeding habitats (heathland, long grass). 4. Buzzards tended to persist in their first autumn where arable land was abundant, but subsequently showed a strong tendency to move from this habitat. 5. Factors that acted most strongly in ½-km buffers round nests, or round subsequent focal points, usually promoted movement compared with factors acting at a larger scale. Strong relationships between movement distances and environmental characteristics in ½-km buffers, especially during early ex-natal dispersal, suggested that buzzards became primed by these factors to travel far. 6. Movements were also farthest for buzzards that had already moved far from their natal nests, perhaps reflecting genetic predisposition, long-term priming or poor habitat beyond the study area

First principles high throughput screening of oxynitrides for water-splitting photocatalysts

In this paper, we present a first principles high throughput screening system to search for new water-splitting photocatalysts. We use the approach to screen through nitrides and oxynitrides. Most of the known photocatalytic materials in the screened chemical space are reproduced. In addition, sixteen new materials are suggested by the screening approach as promising photocatalysts, including three binary nitrides, two ternary oxynitrides and eleven quaternary oxynitrides.United States. Dept. of Energy (contract DE-FG02-96ER4557)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (TeraGrid resources under Grant No. TG-DMR970008S)Pittsburgh Supercomputing CenterUniversity of Texas at Austin. Texas Advanced Computing CenterEni-MIT Solar Frontiers Cente

Tweet valence, volume of abuse, and observers’ dark tetrad personality factors influence victim-blaming and the perceived severity of Twitter cyberabuse

Previous research into Twitter cyberabuse has yielded several findings: victim-blaming (VB) was influenced by victims’ initial tweet-valence; perceived severity (PS) was influenced independently by tweet valence and abuse volume; VB and PS were predicted by observer narcissism and psychopathy. However, this previous research was limited by its narrow focus on celebrity victims, and lack of consideration of observer sadism. The current study investigated 125 observers’ VB and PS perceptions of lay-user cyberabuse, and influence of observers’ Dark Tetrad scores (psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, sadism). We manipulated initial-tweet valence (negative, neutral, positive) and received abuse volume (low, high). Our results indicated that VB was highest following negative initial tweets; VB was higher following high-volume abuse. PS did not differ across initial-tweet valences; PS was greater following a high abuse volume. Regression analyses revealed that observer sadism predicted VB across initial-tweet valences; psychopathy predicted PS when initial tweets were ‘emotive’ (negative, positive), whereas Machiavellianism predicted PS when they were neutral. Our results show that perceptions of lay-user abuse are influenced interactively by victim-generated content and received abuse volume. Our current results contrast with perceptions of celebrity-abuse, which is mostly determined by victim-generated content. Findings are contextualised within the Warranting Theory of impression formation