The Sin of Skin: Color and ‘Other’ in the Greco-Roman World

Many Scholars have denied the presence of racial categorizing in European Antiquity. Though there was no institutionalized system of ‘racial oppression’ like we are familiar with in today’s society, I contend that there are cultural precursors of ‘race’ in the Greco-Roman world, otherwise known as ‘proto-race’. All societies have means to categorize people and put them into hierarchies - this is a major focus in the field of sociology. I propose that color-symbolic language was used to make distinctions amongst and between people; further that by analyzing the context within which these ‘color- words’ were referenced, it illuminates the importance of ethnic differentiation in the Greco-Roman world that became a veneer for ‘race’ as we understand it today. This paper is an exploration of early ethnic prejudice that uses both a symbolic interactionist perspective, as well as Michel Foucault’s conceptual framework of language as a vehicle for power, in order to analyze the color-symbolic language used in classical texts and the meaning that develops out of it

Just Be Happy?: Investigating the Role of Joy in Influencer Marketing Campaigns within the Fitness Industry

Influencer marketing has become exceedingly relevant with the rise of the digital age, difficulties of the attention economy, and successes of social media marketing. Clearly, influencer marketing can be advantageous for brands, however research is limited, and best practices are generalized. This particular research focuses on influencer marketing in the fitness industry and best practices for brands implementing fitness influencers. This paper specifically analyzes the emotion breakdown of fitness influencers’ content and the value of portraying joy through branded content to the success of these influencer marketing campaigns. Through comparing quantitative data collected from third-party platforms with data gathered through a social media audit approach, it was discovered that joy alone is not a deciding factor in engagement or conversions (key indicators of influencer performance) of branded content. However, the results show that joy is an important aspect in representing authenticity, brand alignment, and community, each of which are key to increasing engagement and conversions from branded influencer content. The original hypothesis of this research was rejected but revealed explicit best practices for fitness brands launching influencer marketing campaigns and clarified certain avenues for improvement of effectiveness of fitness influencer campaigns. Overall, this paper aims to add information and clarity to the constantly evolving methods of social media marketing in the fitness industry

Just Be Happy?: Investigating the Role of Joy in Influencer Marketing Campaigns within the Fitness Industry

Influencer marketing has become exceedingly relevant with the rise of the digital age, difficulties of the attention economy, and successes of social media marketing. Clearly, influencer marketing can be advantageous for brands, however research is limited, and best practices are generalized. This particular research focuses on influencer marketing in the fitness industry and best practices for brands implementing fitness influencers. This paper specifically analyzes the emotion breakdown of fitness influencers’ content and the value of portraying joy through branded content to the success of these influencer marketing campaigns. Through comparing quantitative data collected from third-party platforms with data gathered through a social media audit approach, it was discovered that joy alone is not a deciding factor in engagement or conversions (key indicators of influencer performance) of branded content. However, the results show that joy is an important aspect in representing authenticity, brand alignment, and community, each of which are key to increasing engagement and conversions from branded influencer content. The original hypothesis of this research was rejected but revealed explicit best practices for fitness brands launching influencer marketing campaigns and clarified certain avenues for improvement of effectiveness of fitness influencer campaigns. Overall, this paper aims to add information and clarity to the constantly evolving methods of social media marketing in the fitness industry

Client-centred Case Management: How Much Makes a Difference to Outcomes for Homeless Jobseekers?

Case management has become the predominant model for attempting to improve outcomes for young adults experiencing both homelessness and unemployment. However, there is little evidence-based knowledge about how young adults respond to case management, and how much intervention is needed to be effective. This Australian study utilised quantitative government data to investigate the effects of the amount of case management on key outcomes. With a purposive sample of 224 people aged 18-35, this study compared four different amounts of YP4 case management service received over a three-year period. Participants were categorised into four groupings depending on the number of case management contacts they received: 0-5, 6-20, 21-40, and 41-156. The findings show some significant group variations over the course of the trial in the areas of employment and accommodation. Participants who received 20 or more contacts had significantly better accommodation and employment outcomes than those who received fewer contacts

Resolving the unresolved: online microdialysis coupled to ICPQQQ for the simultaneous sampling and analysis of dissolved elements in soil solution

Assessing rapid chemical-elemental reactions in soils is significantly inhibited by the spatial and temporal resolution of current sampling techniques [RhizonTM samplers, diffusive gradients in thin films (DGTs)]1 . Soil chemistry is typically investigated over hours-days-weeks and with poor sampling density; the vast majority of reactions occur within seconds-minutes. Microdialysis (MD) is a new technique in the field of soil science that uses small probes to sample compounds dissolved in soil solution, with minimal disturbance to the external environment2 . Initially developed for use in neuroscience, MD has the potential for translation to environmental geochemistry to define soil chemical/physical parameters, and better inform predictive models for soil-to-plant transfer of potentially harmful elements (PHEs) or essential nutrients. One considerable experimental challenge for MD is balancing the target analyte recovery efficiency with the sample volume required for the analytical chemistry technique, which can significantly affect how often elemental speciation changes and soil fixation events can be measured3 . To overcome this challenge, we have begun development of a novel integrated online MD sampling and analysis technique, through direct coupling of MD probes with triple quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-QQQ) using a microflow total consumption nebulizer with no additional modifications. This poster will present the initial setup, optimisation and application of the technique to the sampling and analysis of multiple elements in soil solution, alongside future perspectives on how information gained from this promising technique can contribute to the management of global societal and agricultural issues (e.g. nutrient supply to staple crops, contaminated land remediation)

A Statistical Social Network Model for Consumption Data in Food Webs

We adapt existing statistical modeling techniques for social networks to study consumption data observed in trophic food webs. These data describe the feeding volume (non-negative) among organisms grouped into nodes, called trophic species, that form the food web. Model complexity arises due to the extensive amount of zeros in the data, as each node in the web is predator/prey to only a small number of other trophic species. Many of the zeros are regarded as structural (non-random) in the context of feeding behavior. The presence of basal prey and top predator nodes (those who never consume and those who are never consumed, with probability 1) creates additional complexity to the statistical modeling. We develop a special statistical social network model to account for such network features. The model is applied to two empirical food webs; focus is on the web for which the population size of seals is of concern to various commercial fisheries.Comment: On 2013-09-05, a revised version entitled "A Statistical Social Network Model for Consumption Data in Trophic Food Webs" was accepted for publication in the upcoming Special Issue "Statistical Methods for Ecology" in the journal Statistical Methodolog

NF-κB Induction of the SUMO Protease SENP2: A Negative Feedback Loop to Attenuate Cell Survival Response to Genotoxic Stress

Activation of NF-κB, pivotal for immunity and oncogenesis, is tightly controlled by multiple feedback mechanisms. In response to DNA damage, SUMOylation of NEMO (NF-κB essential modulator) is critical for NF-κB activation, however SUMO proteases and feedback mechanisms involved remain unknown. Here we show that among the six known SENPs (Sentrin/SUMO-specific proteases) only SENP2 can efficiently associate with NEMO, deSUMOylate NEMO and inhibit NF-κB activation induced by DNA damage. We further show that NF-κB induces SENP2 (and SENP1) transcription selectively in response to genotoxic stimuli, which involves ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated)-dependent histone methylation of SENP2 promoter κB regions and NF-κB recruitment. SENP2-null cells display biphasic NEMO SUMOylation and activation of IKK and NF-κB, and higher resistance to DNA damage-induced cell death. Our study establishes a self-attenuating feedback mechanism selective to DNA damage induced signaling to limit NF-κB-dependent cell survival responses

Where are the silences? : a scoping review of child participatory research literature in the context of the Australian service system

This paper presents a scoping review of the literature on child participatory research in Australia published in academic journals between 2000 and 2018. The review focused on research designed to engage with children and young people in the development, implementation and evaluation of services. A total of 207 papers were identified and distributed across eight service sectors: child protection and family law, community, disability, education, health, housing and homelessness, juvenile justice and mental health. The papers were reviewed against Shier's participation matrix, demonstrating that almost all of the identified papers included children only as participants who contributed data to adult researchers. Only a small number of papers involved children and young people in the other phases of research, such as designing research questions, analysis and dissemination. There is a clear interest in the engagement of children and young people in service design and decision-making in Australia. This paper is intended to serve as a catalyst for discussion on where there are gaps and where further Australian research is needed