Survival of Juvenile Ferruginous Hawks in Utah

We examined the reproduction of Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis) in Utah\u27s West Desert from 1997–99. We found 100 occupied territories during the study; 80 of them contained an active nest (i.e., evidence of eggs laid). Most active nests (91%) were successful in producing at least one hatchling, and 67% of nests with hatchlings produced at least one fledgling. We followed the fate of 202 Ferruginous Hawk hatchlings; 58% survived to fledging. We radio-tagged 46 of these fledglings; 72% survived the fledgling period and dispersed from their natal territories. Most juveniles that died were killed during the late nestling (58%) and fledgling (24%) period; mortality was lowest early in the nestling period (18%). Across all years, 42% of hatchlings did not survive long enough to disperse from their natal territory. Lagomorph abundance increased each year of our study and during 1999 was over 100 times higher than during 1997. Concomitantly, there was a significant difference among years in the proportion of nests that produced a hatchling and in the survival rate of hatchlings and fledglings. For all of these dependent variables, reproduction was lowest during 1997 when lagomorph densities were low and highest during 1999 when lagomorph densities were high. Yet, most juvenile mortalities were from depredation and not starvation. Most depredated juveniles were apparently killed by avian predators. We also found no relationship between the probability of juvenile depredation and either an index of parental nest attendance or an index of intensity of nest defense

The performance of young working-class masculinities in the South Wales valleys

This thesis examines the lives of a group of young working-class men in a post-industrial community in the South Wales Valleys. Using a longitudinal ethnographic approach, I focus on how young masculinities within a specific community are performed across a variety of educational and leisure spaces and indicate how social, economic and cultural processes impact on the formation of self. This thesis also describes how, within the limits of place and during different social interactions, individual young men can be seen as active agents in their own construction of identity. Ideas and issues drawn from Erving Goffman’s work on the performance of self and the formation of social identity are central to the theoretical framing of the thesis. I suggest that Goffman’s dramaturgical framework has important implications for analysing performances of masculinities. When applied to masculinities (and femininities) this framework highlights how gender comes into being through socially constructed performances which are understood (consciously and unconsciously) as socially acceptable in a given situation, setting or community, not as innate biological accomplishments but as dramaturgical tasks. Throughout the thesis, through paying attention to the diversity of social identities and relations within an ostensibly homogeneous working-class community, I challenge commonly held beliefs about working-class young men that appear in the media and in policy discourses. I argue that for a group of young men in a community of social and economic deprivation, expectations and transitions to adulthood are framed through geographically and historically shaped class and gender codes

Highly selective CO2 vs. N2 adsorption in the cavity of a molecular coordination cage

Two M8L12 cubic coordination cages, as desolvated crystalline powders, preferentially adsorb CO2 over N2 with ideal selectivity CO2/N2 constants of 49 and 30 at 298 K. A binding site for CO2 is suggested by crystallographic location of CS2 within the cage cavity at an electropositive hydrogen-bond donor site, potentially explaining the high CO2/N2 selectivity compared to other materials with this level of porosity

Doing gender locally: The importance of ‘place’ in understanding marginalised masculinities and young men’s transitions to ‘safe’ and successful futures

Observable anxieties have been developing about the position of boys and young men in contemporary society in recent years. This is expressed as a crisis of masculinity, in which place is often implicitly implicated, but is rarely considered for its role in the shaping of young men’s practices, trajectories and aspirations. Drawing on research conducted with young people who accessed a range of social care support services, this article argues that transition means different things for young men in different locales and that local definitions of masculinity are required to better understand young men’s lives and the opportunities available to them. The authors argue that home life, street life, individual neighbourhoods, regions and nations all shaped the young men’s identities and the practices they (and the staff working with them) drew on in order to create successful futures and ‘safe’ forms of masculinity. It is suggested that this place-based approach has the potential to re-shape the ‘crisis’ discourse surrounding masculinity and the anxieties associated with young men

Review Symposium

Book Review: Identity, neoliberalism and aspiration: educating white working-class boys. By Garth Stah