A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLIC\u27S PERSPECTIVES OF MINING APPLIED TO THE KENTUCKY COAL INDUSTRY

People’s perceptions of mining are heavily based on the media they consume and the messages therein. News outlets ordinarily report on mining only when there is an accident or environmental concern. When messages that the public is exposed to are negative, it is no wonder that there are negative perceptions about mining. Current public relations campaigns on the behalf of specific companies or select sectors do exist; however, this is often a reactionary move in response to recent shifts in the socio-political environment. The details of these campaigns are often tied up in proprietary information or withheld by public relations firms. Hiring public relations firms is often cost prohibitive for many single mining companies. Mining serves a vital purpose in providing society with the base resources to sustain the standard of living it has come to expect. This important purpose needs to be fully communicated to the public in order to educate them. Attitudes about mining need to be identified so misinformation can be accurately targeted. Before this can begin, these attitudes must be measured and knowledge gaps identified. This work focused on two main objectives on the mining industry’s behalf. The first focus was to determine attitudes towards mining and knowledge about mining. This was done through a survey administered to three counties in Kentucky. From this survey, guidance for communication efforts were produced, through the suggestion of specific topics for messages, which directly addresses identified attitudes of the public and misconceptions about mining. Relationships between knowledge and attitudes were explored, as well as relationships between demographic information and knowledge, and attitudes. Subsequently, an empirical model for predicting individuals\u27 knowledge of mining was produced. The second focus was to apply theoretical foundations to educational and community engagement efforts. Different theories are required for different groups of people depending on the level that mining plays a role in those peoples\u27 lives. In all, how the mining industry communicates with the public needs to be improved, and the work proposed here will steer these improvements

Advanced paramagnetic resonance spectroscopies of iron–sulfur proteins: Electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) and electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM)

AbstractThe advanced electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) techniques, electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) and electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) spectroscopies, provide unique insights into the structure, coordination chemistry, and biochemical mechanism of nature's widely distributed iron–sulfur cluster (FeS) proteins. This review describes the ENDOR and ESEEM techniques and then provides a series of case studies on their application to a wide variety of FeS proteins including ferredoxins, nitrogenase, and radical SAM enzymes. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Fe/S proteins: Analysis, structure, function, biogenesis and diseases

Plants, people and health: Three disciplines at work in Namaqualand

In Paulshoek, Namaqualand, three research projects focusing on medicinal plants were developed concurrently. The projects were based in the disciplines of anthropology, botany and chemistry. In this paper, we explore how these projects related to one another and describe the conversations that occurred in the process of searching for transdisciplinary knowledge. The projects ostensibly shared a common object of knowledge, but it was through working together that the medicinal plants constituted us as a community of scholars. As our insight into our respective disciplinary relationships with the plants grew, so did our understanding of the limitations of our respective disciplinary positions. The process made possible a ‘reimagination’ of both the object of study and our relationships to it and to one another. The research project, conceptualised in 2009, engaged current debates on indigenous knowledge and its historical erasures, and offered an approach that has potential to produce new knowledges while respecting the integrity of the disciplines. This approach requires a non-competitive attitude to research and one that acknowledges the contributions that can be made by multiple approaches

The Orbit and Occultations of KH 15D

The unusual flux variations of the pre-main-sequence binary star KH 15D have been attributed to occultations by a circumbinary disk. We test whether or not this theory is compatible with newly available data, including recent radial velocity measurements, CCD photometry over the past decade, and photographic photometry over the past 50 years. We find the model to be successful, after two refinements: a more realistic motion of the occulting feature, and a halo around each star that probably represents scattering by the disk. The occulting feature is exceptionally sharp-edged, raising the possibility that the dust in the disk has settled into a thin layer, and providing a tool for fine-scale mapping of the immediate environment of a T Tauri star. However, the window of opportunity is closing, as the currently visible star may be hidden at all orbital phases by as early as 2008.Comment: To appear in ApJ [16 pages, 13 figures

Staphylococcus aureus golden pigment impairs neutrophil killing and promotes virulence through its antioxidant activity

Golden color imparted by carotenoid pigments is the eponymous feature of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Here we demonstrate a role of this hallmark phenotype in virulence. Compared with the wild-type (WT) bacterium, a S. aureus mutant with disrupted carotenoid biosynthesis is more susceptible to oxidant killing, has impaired neutrophil survival, and is less pathogenic in a mouse subcutaneous abscess model. The survival advantage of WT S. aureus over the carotenoid-deficient mutant is lost upon inhibition of neutrophil oxidative burst or in human or murine nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase–deficient hosts. Conversely, heterologous expression of the S. aureus carotenoid in the nonpigmented Streptococcus pyogenes confers enhanced oxidant and neutrophil resistance and increased animal virulence. Blocking S. aureus carotenogenesis increases oxidant sensitivity and decreases whole-blood survival, suggesting a novel target for antibiotic therapy