Creating the cultures of the future: cultural strategy, policy and institutions in Gramsci. Part three: Is there a theory of cultural policy in Gramsci’s prison notebooks?

In this article, I argue that Gramsci’s prison notes on questions of cultural strategy, policy and institutions, which have so far been largely overlooked by scholars, provide further analytical insights to those offered by his more general concepts. Together they enrich the theoretical underpinnings for critical frameworks of analysis as well as for radical practices of cultural strategy, cultural policy-making and cultural organisation. On the basis of a detailed analysis of these notes, I then answer the question of whether they amount to a theory of cultural policy

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Experimental results on RPC neutron sensitivity

Abstract RPC neutron sensitivity has been studied during two tests done with different neutrons energies. In the first test, neutrons from spontaneous fission events of 252 Cf were used (average energy 2 MeV ); while in the second test neutrons were produced using a 50 MeV deuteron beam on a 1 cm thick beryllium target (average energy 20 MeV ). Preliminary results show that the neutron sensitivity in double gap mode is (0.52±0.03)×10−3 at about 2 MeV and (5.3±0.5)×10−3 at about 20 MeV

RPC sensitivity to low energy neutrons and ? rays:preliminary results

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Effects of livestock farming on birds of rural areas in Europe

In the last decades, profound modifications of agricultural practices occurred in Europe, including the introduction of modern livestock farming. These modifications negatively affected the fauna of rural areas, as indicated by the large demographic declines suffered by several populations of birds typical of these habitats. The impact of agricultural practices on bird populations has been widely investigated, while the effect of livestock farming has seldom been assessed. To fill this gap, we carried out a quantitative meta-analysis of the existing scientific literature and evaluated the size of the effects of livestock farming on birds of rural areas in Europe. We only found 26 papers on this topic, from which 72 effect sizes could be estimated. The barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) was the species on which most studies focused. Livestock farming positively influenced presence and distribution of barn swallows in breeding habitats, while it did not significantly affect reproduction of this species. Effects on other bird species typical of rural habitats were non-significant. The positive effect on the insectivorous barn swallow might be mediated by the enhanced insect abundance where livestock is reared. In addition, habitat features typical of rural settings where livestock is reared (e.g. cattle-sheds or large hayfields) positively affected barn swallows independently of actual presence of livestock at a setting. Presence of livestock at rural setting therefore seems beneficial to barn swallows, but not significantly to other bird species typical of rural habitats. The effect of livestock farming on birds of rural habitats has been under-investigated to date

Parent-absent begging in barn swallow broods : causes of individual variation and effects on sibling interactions and food allocation

Altricial offspring solicit parental care using complex begging displays. Although such solicitations are mainly performed towards parents, nestlings of several birds often beg when parents are not at the nest. This parent-absent begging (PAB) has been interpreted as a mistake in correctly detecting parental arrival, but it may also reliably signal individual need to nest mates, potentially affecting intra-brood competition for food. Here, we focused on the proximate factors that may determine frequency and intensity of PAB, including brood size and sex ratio, as well as individual age, sex and body mass, in natural barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) broods, under conditions of normal and experimentally reduced food intake. We also investigated the relationship between PAB and begging intensity at parental arrival and food intake in the two different experimental conditions. The frequency of PAB was larger after food deprivation than before, indicating that PAB reliably reflects hunger level. In addition, nestlings increased their own begging intensity upon parental arrival after performing PAB. Concomitantly, siblings decreased begging effort, irrespective of sex or body mass, but this occurred only when nestlings were normally fed, suggesting that PAB diminishes scrambling for food by nest mates. Finally, such a reciprocal begging modulation resulted in a larger chance of obtaining food at the subsequent feeding event for nestlings performing PAB under normal food provisioning. Within-brood signalling in the absence of parents can therefore play an important role in determining competitive strategies among siblings and affecting parental decisions on food allocation in altricial broods