Nazi Punks Folk Off: Leisure, Nationalism, Cultural Identity and the Consumption of Metal and Folk Music

Far-right activists have attempted to infiltrate and use popular music scenes to propagate their racialised ideologies. This paper explores attempts by the far right to co-opt two particular music scenes: black metal and English folk. Discourse tracing is used to explore online debates about boundaries, belonging and exclusion in the two scenes, and to compare such online debates with ethnographic work and previous research. It is argued that both scenes have differently resisted the far right through the policing of boundaries and communicative choices, but both scenes are compromised by their relationship to myths of whiteness and the instrumentality of the pop music industry

Identification of phenotypic and transcriptomic signatures underpinning maize crown root systems

Maize is pivotal in supporting global agriculture and addressing food security challenges. Crop root systems are critical for water uptake and nutrient acquisition, which impacts yield. Quantitative trait phenotyping is essential to understand better the genetic factors underpinning maize root growth and development. Root systems are challenging to phenotype given their below-ground, soil-bound nature. In addition, manual trait annotations of root images are tedious and can lead to inaccuracies and inconsistencies between individuals, resulting in data discrepancies. In this study, we explored juvenile root phenotyping in the presence and absence of auxin treatment, a key phytohormone in root development, using manual curation and gene expression analyses. In addition, we developed an automated phenotyping pipeline for field-grown maize crown roots by leveraging open-source software. By examining a test set of 11 diverse maize genotypes for juvenile-adult root trait correlations and gene expression patterns, an inconsistent correlation was observed, underscoring the developmental plasticity prevalent during maize root morphogenesis. Transcripts involved in hormone signaling and stress responses were among differentially expressed genes in roots from 20 diverse maize genotypes, suggesting many molecular processes may underlie the observed phenotypic variance. In particular, co-expressed gene expression networks associated with module-trait relationships included 1,3-β-glucan, which plays a crucial role in cell wall dynamics. This study furthers our understanding of genotype-phenotype relationships, which is relevant for informing agricultural strategies to improve maize root physiology.This article is published as Callwood, Jodi B., Craig L. Cowling, Ella G. Townsend, Shikha Malik, Melissa A. Draves, Jasper Khor, Jackson P. Marshall, Heather Sweers, Justin W. Walley, and Dior R. Kelley. "Identification of phenotypic and transcriptomic signatures underpinning maize crown root systems." Plant Phenomics 7 (2025): 100008. doi:10.1016/j.plaphe.2025.100008

Prevalence and severity of antipsychotic related constipation in patients with schizophrenia: a retrospective descriptive study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Antipsychotic are the cornerstone in the treatment of schizophrenia. They also have a number of side-effects. Constipation is thought to be common, and a potential serious side-effect, which has received little attention in recent literature.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>We performed a retrospective study in consecutively admitted patients, between 2007 and 2009 and treated with antipsychotic medication, linking different electronic patient data to evaluate the prevalence and severity of constipation in patients with schizophrenia under routine treatment conditions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Over a period of 22 months 36.3% of patients (99) received at least once a pharmacological treatment for constipation. On average medication for constipation was prescribed for 273 days. Severe cases (N = 50), non-responsive to initial treatment, got a plain x-ray of the abdomen. In 68.4% fecal impaction was found.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A high prevalence of constipation, often severe and needing medical interventions, was confirmed during the study period. Early detection, monitoring over treatment and early intervention of constipation could prevent serious consequences such as ileus.</p

Nanomechanical properties of α-synuclein amyloid fibrils: a comparative study by nanoindentation, harmonic force microscopy, and Peakforce QNM

We report on the use of three different atomic force spectroscopy modalities to determine the nanomechanical properties of amyloid fibrils of the human α-synuclein protein. α-Synuclein forms fibrillar nanostructures of approximately 10 nm diameter and lengths ranging from 100 nm to several microns, which have been associated with Parkinson's disease. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to image the morphology of these protein fibrils deposited on a flat surface. For nanomechanical measurements, we used single-point nanoindentation, in which the AFM tip as the indenter is moved vertically to the fibril surface and back while the force is being recorded. We also used two recently developed AFM surface property mapping techniques: Harmonic force microscopy (HarmoniX) and Peakforce QNM. These modalities allow extraction of mechanical parameters of the surface with a lateral resolution and speed comparable to tapping-mode AFM imaging. Based on this phenomenological study, the elastic moduli of the α-synuclein fibrils determined using these three different modalities are within the range 1.3-2.1 GPa. We discuss the relative merits of these three methods for the determination of the elastic properties of protein fibrils, particularly considering the differences and difficulties of each method

ON THE DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION UXXXX + UY Y Y Y = F FOR AN ANISOTROPIC STIFF MATERIAL

Abstract. We study the differential operator L = ∂4 ∂x4 + ∂4 ∂y4 and investigate positivity preserving properties in the sense that f ≥ 0 implies that solutions u of Lu − λu = f are nonnegative. Since the operator is of fourth order we have no maximum principle at our disposal. The operator models the deformation of an anisotropic stiff material like a wire fabric, and it has to be complemented by appropriate boundary conditions. Our operator was introduced by Jacob II Bernoulli as the operator that supposedly models the vibrations of an elastic plate. This model was later revised by Kirchhoff, because the operator and its solutions were anisotropic. Modern materials, however, are often anisotropic and therefore the old model of Bernoulli deserves an updated investigation. It turns out that even our simple looking model problem contains some hard analytical challenges

Metaphor interpretation and use: A window into semantics in schizophrenia

The nature of putative semantic anomalies in schizophrenia is controversial. Metaphor interpretation and use provide a useful methodology with which to probe semantics since metaphors are critical in reasoning processes and in how conceptual knowledge is organized. The first study examined free speech for figurative language. The second study explored whether emotional versus non-emotional metaphorical language interpretation elicits differences in the tendencies to produce idiosyncratic (bizarre) or literal interpretations or use of other metaphors to describe the meaning of a metaphor. The third study examined the interpretation of time metaphors. We expected the time perspective in ambiguous sentences to be differentially influenced by previously presented unambiguous sentences of a specific perspective, either events moving relative to a stationary observer (moving-time) or an observer moving relative to a stationary event (moving-ego). First, we found that patients used a similar amount of figurative language as control participants. Second, we did not find any difference between the groups in terms of idiosyncratic interpretations, although patients did interpret more metaphors literally and controls utilized more figurative language. Third, we did not find evidence of a difference between the groups in terms of time perspectives influencing ambiguous target sentences differentially. As operationalized here, the interpretation and use of metaphors is similar in patients with schizophrenia to that of healthy control participants. To the extent that metaphors recruit semantic processes this area of cognition is generally intact in schizophrenia