Capability in the digital: institutional media management and its dis/contents

This paper explores how social media spaces are occupied, utilized and negotiated by the British Military in relation to the Ministry of Defence’s concerns and conceptualizations of risk. It draws on data from the DUN Project to investigate the content and form of social media about defence through the lens of ‘capability’, a term that captures and describes the meaning behind multiple representations of the military institution. But ‘capability’ is also a term that we hijack and extend here, not only in relation to the dominant presence of ‘capability’ as a representational trope and the extent to which it is revealing of a particular management of social media spaces, but also in relation to what our research reveals for the wider digital media landscape and ‘capable’ digital methods. What emerges from our analysis is the existence of powerful, successful and critically long-standing media and reputation management strategies occurring within the techno-economic online structures where the exercising of ‘control’ over the individual – as opposed to the technology – is highly effective. These findings raise critical questions regarding the extent to which ‘control’ and management of social media – both within and beyond the defence sector – may be determined as much by cultural, social, institutional and political influence and infrastructure as the technological economies. At a key moment in social media analysis, then, when attention is turning to the affordances, criticisms and possibilities of data, our research is a pertinent reminder that we should not forget the active management of content that is being similarly, if not equally, effective

Interaction between a fast rotating sunspot and ephemeral regions as the origin of the major solar event on 2006 December 13

The major solar event on 2006 December 13 is characterized by the approximately simultaneous occurrence of a heap of hot ejecta, a great two-ribbon flare and an extended Earth-directed coronal mass ejection. We examine the magnetic field and sunspot evolution in active region NOAA AR 10930, the source region of the event, while it transited the solar disk centre from Dec. 10 to Dec. 13. We find that the obvious changes in the active region associated with the event are the development of magnetic shear, the appearance of ephemeral regions and fast rotation of a smaller sunspot. Around the area of the magnetic neutral line of the active region, interaction between the fast rotating sunspot and the ephemeral regions triggers continual brightening and finally the major flare. It is indicative that only after the sunspot rotates up to 200$^{\circ}$ does the major event take place. The sunspot rotates at least 240$^{\circ}$ about its centre, the largest sunspot rotation angle which has been reported.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, ApJ Letters inpres

EUV Sunspot Plumes Observed with SOHO

Bright EUV sunspot plumes have been observed in five out of nine sunspot regions with the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer -- CDS on SOHO. In the other four regions the brightest line emissions may appear inside the sunspot but are mainly concentrated in small regions outside the sunspot areas. These results are in contrast to those obtained during the Solar Maximum Mission, but are compatible with the Skylab mission results. The present observations show that sunspot plumes are formed in the upper part of the transition region, occur both in magnetic unipolar-- and bipolar regions, and may extend from the umbra into the penumbra.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in ApJ Letter

Splanchnic metabolism of nutrients and hormones in steers fed alfalfa under conditions of increased absorption of ammonia and L-arginine supply across the portal-drained viscera

Effects of increased ammonia and/or arginine absorption on net splanchnic (portal-drained viscera [PDV] plus liver) metabolism of nonnitrogenous nutrients and hormones in cattle were examined. Six Hereford × Angus steers (501 ± 1 kg BW) prepared with vascular catheters for measurements of net flux across the splanchnic bed were fed a 75% alfalfa:25% (as-fed basis) corn and soybean meal diet (0.523 MJ of ME/[kg BW0.75.d]) every 2 h without (27.0 g of N/kg of DM) and with 20 g of urea/kg of DM (35.7 g of N/kg of DM) in a split-plot design. Net flux measurements were made immediately before and after a 72-h mesenteric vein infusion of L-arginine (15 mmol/h). There were no treatment effects onPDVor hepaticO2 consumption. Dietary urea had no effect on splanchnic metabolism of glucose or L-lactate, but arginine infusion decreased net hepatic removal of L-lactate when urea was fed (P < 0.01). Net PDV appearance of n-butyrate was increased by arginine infusion (P < 0.07), and both dietary urea (P < 0.09) and arginine infusion (P < 0.05) increased net hepatic removal of n-butyrate. Dietary urea also increased total splanchnic acetate output (P < 0.06), tended to increase arterial glucagon concentration (P < 0.11), and decreased arterial ST concentration (P < 0.03). Arginine infusion increased arterial concentration (P < 0.07) and net PDV release (P < 0.10) and tended to increase hepatic removal (P < 0.11) of insulin, as well as arterial concentration (P < 0.01) and total splanchnic output (P < 0.01) of glucagon. Despite changes in splanchnic N metabolism, increased ammonia and arginine absorption had little measurable effect on splanchnic metabolism of glucose and other nonnitrogenous components of splanchnic energy metabolism

Advantages and challenges associated with implementing an ecosystem services approach to ecological risk assessment for chemicals

The ecosystem services (ES) approach is gaining broad interest in regulatory and policy arenas for use in landscape management and ecological risk assessment. It has the potential to bring greater ecological relevance to the setting of environmental protection goals and to the assessment of the ecological risk posed by chemicals. A workshop, organised under the auspices of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Europe, brought together scientific experts from European regulatory authorities, the chemical industry and academia to discuss and evaluate the challenges associated with implementing an ES approach to chemical ecological risk assessment (ERA). Clear advantages of using an ES approach in prospective and retrospective ERA were identified, including: making ERA spatially explicit and of relevance to management decisions (i.e. indicating what ES to protect and where); improving transparency in communicating risks and trade-offs; integrating across multiple stressors, scales, habitats and policies. A number of challenges were also identified including: the potential for increased complexity in assessments; greater data requirements; limitations in linking endpoints derived from current ecotoxicity tests to impacts on ES. In principle, the approach was applicable to all chemical sectors, but the scale of the challenge of applying an ES approach to general chemicals with widespread and dispersive uses leading to broad environmental exposure, was highlighted. There was agreement that ES-based risk assessment should be based on the magnitude of impact rather than on toxicity thresholds. The need for more bioassays/tests with functional endpoints was recognized, as was the role of modelling and the need for ecological production functions to link measurement endpoints to assessment endpoints. Finally, the value of developing environmental scenarios that can be combined with spatial information on exposure, ES delivery and service provider vulnerability was recognized

Properties of sunspots in cycle 23: I. Dependence of brightness on sunspot size and cycle phase

In this paper we investigate the dependence of umbral core brightness, as well as the mean umbral and penumbral brightness on the phase of the solar cycle and on the size of the sunspot. Albregtsen & Maltby (1978) reported an increase in umbral core brightness from the early to the late phase of solar cycle from the analysis of 13 sunspots which cover solar cycles 20 and 21. Here we revisit this topic by analysing continuum images of more than 160 sunspots observed by the MDI instrument on board the SOHO spacecraft for the period between 1998 March to 2004 March, i.e. a sizable part of solar cycle 23. The advantage of this data set is its homogeneity, with no seeing fluctuations. A careful stray light correction, which is validated using the Mercury transit of 7th May, 2003, is carried out before the umbral and penumbral intensities are determined. The influence of the Zeeman splitting of the nearby NiI spectral line on the measured 'continuum' intensity is also taken into account. We did not observe any significant variation in umbral core, mean umbral and mean penumbral intensities with solar cycle, which is in contrast to earlier findings for the umbral core intensity. We do find a strong and clear dependence of the umbral brightness on sunspot size, however. The penumbral brightness also displays a weak dependence. The brightness-radius relationship has numerous implications, some of which, such as those for the energy transport in umbrae, are pointed out.Comment: 16 pages, 21 postscript figures, accepted for publication in A&

Exploring the structural relationship between interviewer and self-rated affective symptoms in Huntington’s disease

This study explores the structural relationship between self-report and interview measures of affect in Huntington’s disease. The findings suggest continued use of both to recognize the multidimensionality within a single common consideration of distress

NLTE determination of the sodium abundance in a homogeneous sample of extremely metal-poor stars

Abundance ratios in extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars are a good indication of the chemical composition of the gas in the earliest phases of the Galaxy evolution. It had been found from an LTE analysis that at low metallicity, and in contrast with most of the other elements, the scatter of [Na/Fe] versus [Fe/H] was surprisingly large and that, in giants, [Na/Fe] decreased with metallicity. Since it is well known that the formation of sodium lines is very sensitive to non-LTE effects, to firmly establish the behaviour of the sodium abundance in the early Galaxy, we have used high quality observations of a sample of EMP stars obtained with UVES at the VLT, and we have taken into account the non-LTE line formation of sodium. The profiles of the two resonant sodium D lines (only these sodium lines are detectable in the spectra of EMP stars) have been computed in a sample of 54 EMP giants and turn-off stars (33 of them with [Fe/H]< -3.0) with a modified version of the code MULTI, and compared to the observed spectra. With these new determinations in the range -4 <[Fe/H]< -2.5, both [Na/Fe] and [Na/Mg] are almost constant with a low scatter. In the turn-off stars and "unmixed" giants (located in the low RGB): [Na/Fe] = -0.21 +/- 0.13 or [Na/Mg] = -0.45 +/- 0.16. These values are in good agreement with the recent determinations of [Na/Fe] and [Na/Mg] in nearby metal-poor stars. Moreover we confirm that all the sodium-rich stars are "mixed" stars (i.e., giants located after the bump, which have undergone an extra mixing). None of the turn-off stars is sodium-rich. As a consequence it is probable that the sodium enhancement observed in some mixed giants is the result of a deep mixing.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in A&

Broadcasting graphic war violence: the moral face of Channel 4

Drawing on empirical data from Channel 4 (C4) regarding the broadcasting of violent war imagery, and positioned within Goffman’s notion of the interaction ritual (1959, 1967), this article investigates how C4 negotiate potentially competing commercial, regulatory and moral requirements through processes of discretionary decision-making. Throughout, the article considers the extent to which these negotiations are presented through a series of ‘imaginings’ – of C4 and its audience – which serve to simultaneously guide and legitimate the decisions made. This manifestation of imaginings moves us beyond more blanket explanations of ‘branding’ and instead allows us to see the final programmes as the end product of a series of complex negotiations and interactions between C4 and those multiple external parties significant to the workings of their organization. The insights gleaned from this case study are important beyond the workings of C4 because they help elucidate how all institutions and organizations may view, organize and justify their practices (to both themselves and others) within the perceived constraints in which they operate