Mass Media As an Information Channel and Public Arena

Professor Peters argues that several functions of mass media compete and that attempts to improve risk coverage must avoid optimizing one at the expense of others

On extensions of the core and the anticore of transferable utility games

We consider several related set extensions of the core and the anticore of games with transferable utility. An efficient allocation is undominated if it cannot be improved, in a specific way, by sidepayments changing the allocation or the game. The set of all such allocations is called the undominated set, and we show that it consists of finitely many polytopes with a core-like structure. One of these polytopes is the L1-center, consisting of all efficient allocations that minimize the sum of the absolute values of the excesses. The excess Pareto optimal set contains the allocations that are Pareto optimal in the set obtained by ordering the sums of the absolute values of the excesses of coalitions and the absolute values of the excesses of their complements. The L1-center is contained in the excess Pareto optimal set, which in turn is contained in the undominated set. For three-person games all these sets coincide. These three sets also coincide with the core for balanced games and with the anticore for antibalanced games. We study properties of these sets and provide characterizations in terms of balanced collections of coalitions. We also propose a single-valued selection from the excess Pareto optimal set, the min-prenucleolus, which is defined as the prenucleolus of the minimum of a game and its dual.Transferable utility game; core; anticore; core extension; min-prenucleolus

The role of organizations in the public communication of science – Early research, recent studies, and open questions

Organizational science communication of higher education institutions (and research institutes outside the university sector) came into view of scholars of “science journalism” soon after the begin of systematic studies of the scientist-journalist relationship. While the pioneering French study of scientists’ relationship with the mass media by Boltanski and Maldidier (1970) focused on implications of the norms of the scientific community for public communication by scientists, early surveys of scientists in the United States (Dunwoody & Ryan, 1982, 1983) and – peripherally – also in Germany (Krüger, 1985; Peters & Krüger, 1985) considered both the scientific community and the university (or other public research organizations) as relevant contexts of the scientist-journalist relationship. The issue of organizational science public relations (PR) was also addressed by scholars and practitioners in publications and workshops in Europe (see, e.g., Peters, 1984; Ruß-Mohl, 1990; Zerges & Becker, 1992) in the 1980s and early 1990s. While researchers were not oblivious of self-interests’ influence in public communication activities of universities and other research institutions, the dominant perspective on science communication was that of the relationship of science and the media, and PR officers at science organizations were largely conceptualized as “mediators between scientists and journalists” (Dunwoody & Ryan, 1983) or as “practitioner in the middle” (Rogers, 1988)

Sharon Dunwoody’s Legacy: Three Timely Lessons for Us

Sharon Dunwoody gained international reputation for her research on science journalism and media risk communication. Drawing on her publications published over more than four decades and the author’s long-lasting collaboration with her, this commentary elaborates on three of her most characteristic beliefs and orientations and suggests that they may serve as timely lessons for us to critically reflect on current assumptions and practices: substance over showmanship, improving one-way communication, and respecting the audience

Cycle-preserving extension of demand functions to new commodities

A method is given to extend demand functions to new commodities under preservation of the cycle number, i.e. the minimal length of a preference cycle revealed by the demand function. Thus, Gale's (Economica, N.S., 1960, 27, 348–354) demand function that shows that the weak axiom of revealed preference does not imply the strong axiom of revealed preference for three commodities can be extended to more than three commodities. Also Shafer's (Journal of Economic Theory, 1977, 16, 293–309) result, that arbitrarily high cycle numbers exist for three commodities, can now be extended to any number of commodities larger than three. This completely settles a question raised by Samuelson (Economica, N.S., 1953, 20, 1–9)

3D Gel Map of Arabidopsis Complex I

Complex I has a unique structure in plants and includes extra subunits. Here, we present a novel study to define its protein constituents. Mitochondria were isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana cell cultures, leaves, and roots. Subunits of complex I were resolved by 3D blue-native (BN)/SDS/SDS-PAGE and identified by mass spectrometry. Overall, 55 distinct proteins were found, seven of which occur in pairs of isoforms. We present evidence that Arabidopsis complex I consists of 49 distinct types of subunits, 40 of which represent homologs of bovine complex I. The nine other subunits represent special proteins absent in the animal linage of eukaryotes, most prominently a group of subunits related to bacterial gamma-type carbonic anhydrases. A GelMap http://www.gelmap.de/arabidopsis-3d-complex-i/ is presented for promoting future complex I research in Arabidopsis thaliana.DF

An analysis of the UK public for space exploration

This article presents the results of a survey carried out at two space outreach events in the UK aimed at characterising “the public for space exploration” and measuring public support for space exploration. Attitude towards space exploration and policy preferences were used as measures of public support. The sample involved 744 respondents and was mainly composed of adults between 25 and 45 years old, with men slightly over-represented compared with women. Findings revealed that males appeared to be stronger supporters than females – men had a more positive attitude towards space exploration and stronger space policy preferences. Because mixed groups tend to come together to such events we argue that male respondents would be more likely to be part of the “attentive” and “interested” public who come to outreach activities and bring a less interested public with them