4,268 research outputs found
Friends, enemies, and agonists: Politics, morality and media in the COVID-19 conjuncture
The radical democratic theorist Chantal Mouffe has long criticized the moralization of politics in its neoliberalized Third Way form. The argument informs her analysis of the rise of the far right, which she suggests has partly been enabled by moralizing antagonisms that inhibit a culture of agonistic political contestation. This paper uses Mouffe to think about the current condition of mediatized public discourse, extending her critique of moralized politics to a wider set of targets. I illuminate the argument through an analysis of a BBC Newsnight report that thematizes the ‘toxic’ nature of public debate about the science of COVID-19. I show how the report internalizes sedimented ‘culture war’ discourses about the polarized nature of today’s public culture and, in the process, offers oblique insights into how far-right discourses are normalized. I end by considering some of the limitations of Mouffe’s work as a resource for thinking about how to counteract the far right.fals
Prevalence of QoI resistance and mtDNA diversity in the Irish Zymoseptoria tritici population
peer-reviewedThe emergence and spread of Quinone outside Inhibitor (QoI) fungicide resistance in the Irish Zymoseptoria tritici population in the early 2000s had immediate impacts on the efficacy of the entire group of fungicides for the control of septoria tritici blotch. As a result, a dramatic reduction in the quantities applied to winter wheat occurred in the following seasons. Even in the absence of these fungicides, the frequency of the resistance allele, G143A in the pathogens mtDNA has remained exceptionally high (>97%), and as such, it can be anticipated that continued poor efficacy of current QoI fungicides will be observed. Amongst the isolates with G143A, differences in sensitivity to the QoI pyraclostrobin were observed in vitro. The addition of the alternative oxidase (AOX) inhibitor salicylhydroxamic acid increased sensitivity in these isolates, suggesting some continued impairment of respiration by the QoI fungicides, albeit weak. Interestingly, amongst those tested, the strains from a site with a high frequency of inserts in the MFS1 transporter gene known to enhance QoI efflux did not exhibit this increase in sensitivity. A total of 19 mtDNA haplotypes were detected amongst the 2017 strain collection. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the suggestion of a common ancestry of all the haplotypes, even though three of the haplotypes contained at least one sensitive strain
Journalism 'fixers', hyper-precarity and the violence of the entrepreneurial self
Syed I Ashraf, Sean Phelan, "Journalism ‘fixers’, hyper-precarity and the violence of the entrepreneurial self" First Published in "Journalism" January 24, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211065306,Publishe
Emergence of foams from the breakdown of the phase field crystal model
The phase field crystal (PFC) model captures the elastic and topological
properties of crystals with a single scalar field at small undercooling. At
large undercooling, new foam-like behavior emerges. We characterize this foam
phase of the PFC equation and propose a modified PFC equation that may be used
for the simulation of foam dynamics. This minimal model reproduces von
Neumann's rule for two-dimensional dry foams, and Lifshitz-Slyozov coarsening
for wet foams. We also measure the coordination number distribution and find
that its second moment is larger than previously-reported experimental and
theoretical studies of soap froths, a finding that we attribute to the wetness
of the foam increasing with time.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A Triangular Tessellation Scheme for the Adsorption Free Energy at the Liquid-Liquid Interface: Towards Non-Convex Patterned Colloids
We introduce a new numerical technique, namely triangular tessellation, to
calculate the free energy associated with the adsorption of a colloidal
particle at a flat interface. The theory and numerical scheme presented here
are sufficiently general to handle non-convex patchy colloids with arbitrary
surface patterns characterized by a wetting angle, e.g., amphiphilicity. We
ignore interfacial deformation due to capillary, electrostatic, or
gravitational forces, but the method can be extended to take such effects into
account. It is verified that the numerical method presented is accurate and
sufficiently stable to be applied to more general situations than presented in
this paper. The merits of the tessellation method prove to outweigh those of
traditionally used semi-analytic approaches, especially when it comes to
generality and applicability.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 0 table
Virus Sharing, Genetic Sequencing, and Global Health Security
The WHO’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework was a milestone global agreement designed to promote the international sharing of biological samples to develop vaccines, while that ensuring poorer countries would have access to those vaccines. Since the PIP Framework was negotiated, scientists have developed the capacity to use genetic sequencing data (GSD) to develop synthetic viruses rapidly for product development of life-saving technologies in a time-sensitive global emergency—threatening to unravel the Framework. Access to GSD may also have major implications for biosecurity, biosafety, and intellectual property (IP).
By rendering the physical transfer of viruses antiquated, GSD may also undermine the effectiveness of the PIP Framework itself, with disproportionate impacts on poorer countries. We examine the changes that need to be made to the PIP Framework to address the growing likelihood that GSD might be shared instead of physical virus samples. We also propose that the international community harness this opportunity to expand the scope of the PIP Framework beyond only influenza viruses with pandemic potential.
In light of non-influenza pandemic threats such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Ebola, we call for an international agreement on the sharing of the benefits of research – such as vaccines and treatments – for other infectious diseases to ensure not only a more secure and healthy world, but also a more just world, for humanity
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