Overlap Fermions on a 20420^4 Lattice

We report results on hadron masses, fitting of the quenched chiral log, and quark masses from Neuberger's overlap fermion on a quenched $20^4$ lattice with lattice spacing $a = 0.15$ fm. We used the improved gauge action which is shown to lower the density of small eigenvalues for $H^2$ as compared to the Wilson gauge action. This makes the calculation feasible on 64 nodes of CRAY-T3E. Also presented is the pion mass on a small volume ($6^3 \times 12$ with a Wilson gauge action at $\beta = 5.7$). We find that for configurations that the topological charge $Q \ne 0$, the pion mass tends to a constant and for configurations with trivial topology, it approaches zero possibly linearly with the quark mass.Comment: Lattice 2000 (Chiral Fermion), 4 pages, 4 figure

Why strategic communications matters and how to study it

This autumn the LSE’s Department of Media and Communications is launching a new course in Strategic Communications. Course leader Dr Lee Edwards explains why she thinks this is such an important subject in today’s ‘post-truth’ world and the special approach the course will take

Organised lying and professional legitimacy: public relations’ accountability in the disinformation debate

The role of the public relations industry in the disinformation debate has been largely overlooked, while an emphasis has been put on the responsibilities of platforms, media organisations and audiences to monitor content and eliminate fake news. In contrast, this article argues that disinformation and fake news are well-established tools in public relations work and are implicated in the current crisis. Drawing on an exploratory study of UK industry publications about fake news and disinformation, the article shows that public relations has addressed disinformation as a commercial opportunity and a platform for demonstrating professional legitimacy. Industry narratives position professional practice as ethical, trustworthy and true, while simultaneously ‘othering’ dubious practices and normalising ‘organised lying’. The article concludes by arguing that the fight against disinformation must take seriously the impact of public relations, if it is to be effective

Enhancing the ability of \u3ci\u3ePanicum virgatum\u3c/i\u3e to survive flooding and its effects on soil activity when used for lakeshore stabilization

Reservoirs in upstate South Carolina are subject to erosion and vegetation has been placed to help stabilize banks, but soils are nutrient-poor and have high bulk densities. Panicum virgatum L. (switchgrass) has been planted in several sites, and it is hypothesized that over time, changes in microbial activity and soil quality will occur in response to the planting. As vegetated sites aged, acid phosphomonoesterase, nitrate reductase, and dehydrogenase activity increased. Low values of nitrogen fixation and substrate-induced respiration were measured at all sites with no statistical differences between sites. Fatty acids indicative of Gram negative bacteria were found in vegetated sites and the diversity of fatty acids increased in vegetated sites indicating more diverse microbial communities. Switchgrass plants may experience periods of flooding resulting in ethylene production. Switchgrass plants were placed in a modified Hoagland\u27s solution and treated with an ethylene producer and ethylene inhibitor to determine morphological responses. Ethylene treatment resulted in increases in the number of adventitious roots. No effects were observed on aerenchyma development, shoot elongation, root length, average root diameter, root system volume, or root surface area. Switchgrass therefore does not appear to be sensitive to ethylene which may be produced in response to flooding resulting in no effect on switchgrass growth. Serratia ficaria, an ACC deaminase bacterium, was isolated from lakeshore soils and then added to switchgrass seeds/young plants to determine its effect as a plant growth-promoting bacterium (PGPB) under three different water regimes. Treatments inoculated with bacteria had increased root to shoot ratios in unflooded and completely submerged water regimes, but the opposite was true for crown-flooded treatments. Shoot growth was fastest in inoculated treatments, except for completely submerged treatments, where values were not statistically different between inoculated and uninoculated groups. The bacterium was beneficial when there is no water stress, but became detrimental when water levels rose until submergence. Overall switchgrass appears to increase microbial activity and diversity over time, has limited response to ethylene due to flooding and is able to grow in soils with minimal nutrients making it a good plant for use in lakeshore stabilization along Lake Hartwell

Transparency, publicity, democracy and markets: inhabiting tensions through hybridity

In this article, I explore the relationship between transparency and publicity, and consider how the links between the two ideas might be reconceptualized to make better sense of their empirical reality. Both transparency and publicity have acquired a normative power as management ideas that govern all kinds of organizations—political, commercial, nonprofit, and public sector. Transparency is normatively associated with ensuring accountability of those who govern (whether politically or economically) to those they are governing, while publicity is a strategic act motivated primarily by self-interest: to engage in publicity is to make visible something that one desires to be seen in a particular way in order to reap the benefits of that perception. The result of these normative associations is that transparency and publicity are often understood as conceptually opposed and incommensurate concepts. In this article, I challenge this dichotomy and suggest that, given the empirical reality of their application by organizations, it is more productive to understand the concepts as a transparency–publicity hybrid, rather than separate ideas. By investigating the empirical connections between transparency and what might be termed promotional publicity, new and more productive thinking about the effects of their interaction on organizations can develop

Provocations on the future of promotional industries and scholarship

LSE’s Department of Media and Communications celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2023, and recently marked the occasion with the Media Futures Conference held on 15-16 June. To celebrate the Department’s contribution to media and communications research and teaching over the last 20 years, we are publishing a series of reflections from faculty. Here Lee Edwards, Professor of Strategic Communications and Public Engagement, considers the future of promotional industries and how to study them