Whose News? How Television News Fails Political Discourse

This study analyzes the relationship between strategy frames and reported verbal and visual discourse in news content. It explored this dynamic by examining the verbal aspects of television broadcast news coverage of presidential campaigns and visuals in television broadcast news coverage of crime. Interviews with journalists were conducted in order to explain the findings. The visual analysis found that after the Willie Horton case became prominent, network news altered visual depictions of black and white criminals. Black criminals increasingly appeared in visuals similar to those that depicted Horton while white criminals were shown in different ways. This altered the visual representations of what constituted black and white criminals. These findings are evidence of visual framing, which occurs when subjects are shown in dissimilar ways to offer distinct depictions of the same entity. As an explanation for visual framing, the author offers the concept of visual priming, a process by which the news media alter the visual portrayal of issues or phenomena to reflect a salient incident. The study of presidential campaign coverage found that candidate messages in issue stories were more likely to be advocacy and supported by evidence; by contrast, messages in strategy stories were more likely to be attack and not supported by evidence. Interviews with journalists v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. indicate that they select portions of candidates\u27 and public officials’ speech based on a pre-established news frame rather than choose frames after considering political discourse. Piecing together research on news frames and the reporting of verbal and visual discourse, I offer the following explanation for press performance: strategy coverage, the result of real-world cues, drives the selection of unrepresentative verbal and visual discourse in television news about politics. By contrast, the absence of strategy framing produces reported discourse that is more consistent with political speech. The results demonstrate that strategy coverage goes beyond journalistic interpretations and affects how sources are quoted and how social phenomena are depicted visually

Towards In-Transit Analytics for Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, or Digital Manufacturing, is a vision of inter-connected services to facilitate innovation in the manufacturing sector. A fundamental requirement of innovation is the ability to be able to visualise manufacturing data, in order to discover new insight for increased competitive advantage. This article describes the enabling technologies that facilitate In-Transit Analytics, which is a necessary precursor for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) visualisation.Comment: 8 pages, 10th IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings-2017), Exeter, UK, 201

Systematics of the Western Lyresnake (Trimorphodon biscutatus) complex: implications for North and Middle American aridland biogeography

The Western Lyresnake (Trimorphodon biscutatus) is found generally from the desert southwestern United States southward along the pacific lowland versant of Mexico to northwestern Costa Rica. This species exhibits substantial geographic variation in size, squamation, and color pattern across its range, and as such has had an unstable taxonomic history. I investigated populations of T. biscutatus representing currently and formerly recognized forms using both morphological and molecular methods to infer the evolutionary history of this widespread, polytypic taxon. Multivariate statistical analyses (principal components and discriminant analysis) of morphological data (432 specimens, 33 characters) yielded six statistically significantly different groups, consistent with currently or formerly recognized taxa. Molecular phylogenetic analyses using parsimony and Bayesian methods (71 samples, 821 base pairs of the mitochondrial ND4 gene) recovered five clades with strong support, largely concordant with groups identified in multivariate analyses, with one exception. One clade consisted of samples representing two geographically proximate, morphologically distinct forms, Trimorphodon biscutatus lambda of the Sonoran Desert and T. b. vilkinsonii of the Chihuahuan Desert, with very low sequence divergence across large geographic distances. These results suggest very rapid and recent morphological evolution, or, alternatively, recent introgressive hybridization. Nested clade analysis of mitochondrial haplotypes from these two forms was implemented in an attempt to identify putative historical events that may have shaped spatial patterns of diversification. These analyses revealed a pattern consistent with recent population range expansion. However, recent introgressive hybridization is expected to leave the same genetic signature. Based on these results, I conclude that Trimorphodon biscutatus (sensu lato) actually represents at least five, and possibly six independent evolutionary lineages (i.e., species). This hypothesis is tenable in light of the geological and climatic history of arid North and Middle America, and concordant with the evolutionary history of other codistributed organisms. Taxonomic changes are proposed in order to provide a better estimate of the evolutionary history of this species complex

Cultural Intelligence and the Expatriate Teacher: A study of expatriate teachers’ constructs of themselves as culturally intelligent.

This study is situated in the field of cultural intelligence (CQ) research. It involves expatriate teachers employed at a college for Emirati women in the United Arab Emirates who are all EFL trained native English speakers with a minimum of 5 years overseas teaching experience. This interpretive study explores these teachers’ understandings of cultural intelligence through individual interviews and focus groups. In so doing it contributes to the discussion on expatriate teachers constructs of what it is to be culturally intelligent, and augments knowledge on the cultural intelligence construct itself through rich qualitative data. The research design and subsequent data analysis are informed by Sternberg and Detterman’s (1986) multi-loci of intelligence theory, and Earley and Ang’s (2003) multi-factor construct of cultural intelligence; metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioural CQ . Results suggest that these four factors of CQ feature in the respondents constructs of cultural intelligence. Metacognitive CQ is evident in the importance placed on being alert to the cultural context and of consciously assessing and reassessing cultural knowledge before making decisions about how to proceed appropriately. Cognitive CQ is displayed in the significance cultural knowledge has for the participants; the data suggest that cognitive CQ is evident in the willingness and the effort made to learn specific cultural information pertaining to the context. For the respondents the desire to travel and engage with different cultures and a confidence in their own ability to manage successfully in novel cultural settings is clear evidence of motivational CQ. The results show that not only do the participants demonstrate behavioural CQ in their actions, they also employ strategies to facilitate accurate acquisition of cultural norms of behaviour through adopting a non-threatening observe and listen approach. In addition the study produced some interesting findings related to the context and attitudes to Arab culture such as the idea of the Arabic language as a cultural ‘gate-keeper’. Other findings that warrant further study include the strong association the respondents made between language learning and CQ, close personal relationships and CQ, age and ‘stage of life’ influences on CQ development, and the correlation these respondents felt exists between EFL teacher qualities and CQ capabilities

Towards In-Transit Analytics for Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, or Digital Manufacturing, is a vision of inter-connected services to facilitate innovation in the manufacturing sector. A fundamental requirement of innovation is the ability to be able to visualise manufacturing data, in order to discover new insight for increased competitive advantage. This article describes the enabling technologies that facilitate In-Transit Analytics, which is a necessary precursor for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) visualisation

How 19 years of BC coastal waterbird citizen science data is informing conservation planning

The Fraser River Estuary Important Bird and Biodiversity Area consisting of Sturgeon Bank, Roberts Bank, Boundary Bay and upland areas was designated in 2016 as an IBA in Danger by Birdlife International. The designation is based on the myriad of threats across the delta that have developed despite several transboundary and international designations of the region including a Ramsar Wetland of International Significance listing since 1982 and a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site designation since 2004. Despite these listings, declines in coastal waterbirds continue. The Coastal Waterbird Surveys have been running along the BC portion of the Salish Sea since 1999 with over 400 volunteers logging thousands of hours monitoring coastal waterbirds. Of the 57 waterbird species regularly using the Strait of Georgia, trend analysis from 1999-2011 (updated results to be presented) found that 22 of these species were experiencing a decline while three species, Canada Goose, Northern Shoveler and Pigeon Guillemot were increasing. While this species specific trend data has been very useful for transboundary planning initiatives such as the Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture, when it comes to addressing localized development threats spatially explicit data is required to aid conservation planning. Bird Studies Canada in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Service has recently completed an updated spatially explicit hotspot analysis for 19 guilds covered by the BC Coastal Waterbird Survey. The results of the new hotspot analysis will be presented along with a discussion of some the planning processes where the data is being utilized as an input such as spill response planning and coastal flood adaptation planning. The talk will conclude with some thoughts on the potential of the tools found in the Engagement Organizing literature as means to connect citizen scientists with decision making in order to strengthen the conservation of the Fraser estuary

Concurrent panel session 1: Environmental sustainability and Las Vegas

Moderator: Dr. Stan Smith, UNLV School of Life Sciences Scribe: Crystal Jackson, UNLV Department of Sociology Conference white paper & Full summary of panel session, 6 page

Qualitative tools & experimental philosophy

Experimental philosophy brings empirical methods to philosophy. These methods are used to probe how people think about philosophically interesting things such as knowledge, morality, freedom, etc. This paper explores the contribution that qualitative methods have to make in this enterprise. I argue that qualitative methods have the potential to make a much greater contribution than they have so far. Along the way, I acknowledge a few types of resistance that proponents of qualitative methods in experimental philosophy might encounter, and provide reasons to think they are ill-founded

Age-associated changes in long-chain fatty acid profile during healthy aging promote pro-inflammatory monocyte polarization via PPARγ

Differences in lipid metabolism associate with age-related disease development and lifespan. Inflammation is a common link between metabolic dysregulation and aging. Saturated fatty acids (FAs) initiate pro-inflammatory signalling from many cells including monocytes; however, no existing studies have quantified age-associated changes in individual FAs in relation to inflammatory phenotype. Therefore, we have determined the plasma concentrations of distinct FAs by gas chromatography in 26 healthy younger individuals (age 50 years). Linear mixed models were used to explore the association between circulating FAs, age and cytokines. We showed that plasma saturated, poly- and mono-unsaturated FAs increase with age. Circulating TNF-α and IL-6 concentrations increased with age, whereas IL-10 and TGF-β1 concentrations decreased. Oxidation of MitoSOX Red was higher in leucocytes from FA adults, and plasma oxidized glutathione concentrations were higher. There was significant colinearity between plasma saturated FAs, indicative of their metabolic relationships. Higher levels of the saturated FAs C18:0 and C24:0 were associated with lower TGF-β1 concentrations, and higher C16:0 were associated with higher TNF-α concentrations. We further examined effects of the aging FA profile on monocyte polarization and metabolism in THP1 monocytes. Monocytes preincubated with C16:0 increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in response to phorbol myristate acetate-induced differentiation through ceramide-dependent inhibition of PPARγ activity. Conversely, C18:1 primed a pro-resolving macrophage which was PPARγ dependent and ceramide dependent and which required oxidative phosphorylation. These data suggest that a midlife adult FA profile impairs the switch from proinflammatory to lower energy, requiring anti-inflammatory macrophages through metabolic reprogramming