“True fan = watch match”? In Search of the ‘Authentic’ Soccer Fan.

Academics have created typologies to divide association football (soccer) fans into categories based upon the assumed ‘authenticity’ of their fandom practices. One of the main requirements of ‘authentic’ fandom has been assumed to be match attendance. The goal of this paper was to critically assess this assumption through considering how fans themselves talk about the significance of match attendance as evidence of ‘authentic’ fandom. In light of the fact that the voices of English non-league fans on the ‘authenticity’ debate have so far been overshadowed by the overbearing focus of much previous research on the upper echelons of English soccer, an e-survey was conducted with 151 members of an online community of fans of English Northern League (NL) clubs (a semi-professional / amateur league based in North East England). Findings revealed that opinion was divided on the constituents of ‘authentic’ fandom and match attendance was not deemed to be the core evidence of support for a club by 42% of the sample. Elias (1978) suggested that dichotomous thinking hinders sociological understanding and it is concluded that fan typologies are not sufficient for assessing the ‘authenticity’ of fan activities

Disney during COVID-19: The tourist and the actor’s nightmare

In this essay, we argue that the experience of being at Disney theme parks in COVID times was a waking version of what is sometimes called “The Actor’s Nightmare.” Due to safety regulations, theme parks either dropped live entertainment that structures the day as a show with a clear beginning and end (e.g. park-opening rope drop performances, and the fireworks), attempted to include references to COVID in live entertainment (like in the Frozen Ever After singalong, which added some COVID jokes), or to ignore it (like the Festival of the Lion King). In any case, due to these measures the narrative story of a theme park visit crumbles and the often-cited difference between a “theme park” and an “amusement park” disintegrates: the dissolution of structure provokes anxiety and unease in guests, especially those with previous park experience; the silencing of audiences that had previously been scripted to participate similarly creates a form of narrative anxiety, as both park and tourist no longer knew what story they were telling, or how best to tell it. Disney’s dramaturgical choices in COVID times reveal the extent to which the narrative structure of a theme park visit, the participation of the theme park visitors, and the distinction between “theme park” and “amusement park” rely on live entertainment

Aversion to health inequality — Pure, income-related and income-caused

We design a novel experiment to identify aversion to pure (univariate) health inequality separately from aversion to income-related and income-caused health inequality. Participants allocate resources to determine health of individuals. Identification comes from random variation in resource productivity and information on income and its causal effect. We gather data (26,286 observations) from a sample of UK adults (n = 337) and estimate pooled and participant-specific social preferences while accounting for noise. The median person has strong aversion to pure health inequality, challenging the health maximisation objective of economic evaluation. Aversion to health inequality is even stronger when it is related to income. However, the median person prioritises health of poorer individuals less than is assumed in the standard measure of income-related health inequality. On average, aversion to that inequality does not become stronger when low income is known to cause ill-health. There is substantial heterogeneity in all three types of inequality aversion.</p

Responsibility-sensitive welfare weights for health

We estimate welfare weights for health to facilitate program evaluation allowing for aversion to health inequality and to health inequity by three non-health characteristics. In a UK general population sample, 569 online experiment participants distribute constrained resources to determine the health of hypothetical individuals distinguished by randomly generated resource productivity as well as sex, income and smoking (41,460 observations). We elicit beliefs about responsibility for income and smoking, and use their associations with the allocations to estimate responsibility-sensitive weights for health by those two characteristics. We find weak prioritisation of females’ health, moderate prioritisation of the health of poorer individuals and strong prioritisation of the health of non-smokers over that of smokers. Substantial aversion to health inequality lowers weights on females and non-smokers, who are health-advantaged, and raises the weight on the poor, who are health-disadvantaged. As beliefs about responsibility for income and smoking strengthen, weights on the poor decrease and weights on non-smokers significantly increase.</p

3 dimensional modelling of early human brain development using optical projection tomography

BACKGROUND: As development proceeds the human embryo attains an ever more complex three dimensional (3D) structure. Analyzing the gene expression patterns that underlie these changes and interpreting their significance depends on identifying the anatomical structures to which they map and following these patterns in developing 3D structures over time. The difficulty of this task greatly increases as more gene expression patterns are added, particularly in organs with complex 3D structures such as the brain. Optical Projection Tomography (OPT) is a new technology which has been developed for rapidly generating digital 3D models of intact specimens. We have assessed the resolution of unstained neuronal structures within a Carnegie Stage (CS)17 OPT model and tested its use as a framework onto which anatomical structures can be defined and gene expression data mapped. RESULTS: Resolution of the OPT models was assessed by comparison of digital sections with physical sections stained, either with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) or by immunocytochemistry for GAP43 or PAX6, to identify specific anatomical features. Despite the 3D models being of unstained tissue, peripheral nervous system structures from the trigeminal ganglion (~300 μm by ~150 μm) to the rootlets of cranial nerve XII (~20 μm in diameter) were clearly identifiable, as were structures in the developing neural tube such as the zona limitans intrathalamica (core is ~30 μm thick). Fourteen anatomical domains have been identified and visualised within the CS17 model. Two 3D gene expression domains, known to be defined by Pax6 expression in the mouse, were clearly visible when PAX6 data from 2D sections were mapped to the CS17 model. The feasibility of applying the OPT technology to all stages from CS12 to CS23, which encompasses the major period of organogenesis for the human developing central nervous system, was successfully demonstrated. CONCLUSION: In the CS17 model considerable detail is visible within the developing nervous system at a minimum resolution of ~20 μm and 3D anatomical and gene expression domains can be defined and visualised successfully. The OPT models and accompanying technologies for manipulating them provide a powerful approach to visualising and analysing gene expression and morphology during early human brain development

LaserbeamFoam: Laser Ray-Tracing and Thermally Induced State Transition Simulation Toolkit

The application of high energy density photonic sources to the surface of metallic substrates causes localised topological evolution as the interface deforms due to hydrodynamic forces through fusion and vapourisation state transitions. Understanding how this laser energy is deposited, which may involve multiple reflection events, coupled with a thermal-fluid-dynamics framework capable of describing the heat and mass transfer in the system, permits accurate predictions of many important processes, including Laser Powder Bed Fusion, selective laser melting and laser welding among many others. In this work, we present laserbeamFoam: a multi-phase thermal-fluid-dynamics solver incorporating a ray-tracing algorithm and associated Fresnel equation implementation to determine the absorptivity of the discretised laser rays as a function of incidence angle through multiple reflections. laserbeamFoam is released under the GNU general public license with source code available on GitHub

Do social preferences explain health inequality aversion?

Impartial-spectator experiments find strong average health inequality aversion with much variation that is unexplained. We examine whether social preferences over own and others’ health can partly explain this variation. We conduct an online experiment, with a UK general public sample (n=903), in which participants allocate resources to determine health of hypothetical individuals. Randomly induced equality-efficiency trade-offs identify participant-level inequality aversion that is estimated with a random behavioural model. We elicit social preferences from choices between own health and another’s health, both when the participant is health advantaged and disadvantaged. We find that social preferences do partly explain the substantial variation in estimated health inequality aversion. Compassion from a position of health advantage is most closely correlated with inequality aversion, which is also associated with unselfishness and the convexity of social preferences. Our value judgements on fair health distribution appear related to concerns about those less healthy than us.</p

BRCA2 polymorphic stop codon K3326X and the risk of breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers

Background: The K3326X variant in BRCA2 (BRCA2*c.9976A&gt;T; p.Lys3326*; rs11571833) has been found to be associated with small increased risks of breast cancer. However, it is not clear to what extent linkage disequilibrium with fully pathogenic mutations might account for this association. There is scant information about the effect of K3326X in other hormone-related cancers. Methods: Using weighted logistic regression, we analyzed data from the large iCOGS study including 76 637 cancer case patients and 83 796 control patients to estimate odds ratios (ORw) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for K3326X variant carriers in relation to breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer risks, with weights defined as probability of not having a pathogenic BRCA2 variant. Using Cox proportional hazards modeling, we also examined the associations of K3326X with breast and ovarian cancer risks among 7183 BRCA1 variant carriers. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The K3326X variant was associated with breast (ORw = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.17 to 1.40, P = 5.9x10- 6) and invasive ovarian cancer (ORw = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.10 to 1.43, P = 3.8x10-3). These associations were stronger for serous ovarian cancer and for estrogen receptor–negative breast cancer (ORw = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.2 to 1.70, P = 3.4x10-5 and ORw = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.28 to 1.76, P = 4.1x10-5, respectively). For BRCA1 mutation carriers, there was a statistically significant inverse association of the K3326X variant with risk of ovarian cancer (HR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.22 to 0.84, P = .013) but no association with breast cancer. No association with prostate cancer was observed. Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that the K3326X variant is associated with risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers independent of other pathogenic variants in BRCA2. Further studies are needed to determine the biological mechanism of action responsible for these associations

A detailed comparison of measured and simulated optical properties of a short-period GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs distributed Bragg reflector

A 6-period GaAs/Al$_{0.9}$Ga$_{0.1}$As distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) has been grown and its optical properties have been both measured and simulated. Incremental improvements were made to the simulation, allowing it to account for internal consistency error, incorrect layer thicknesses, and absorption due to substrate doping to improve simulation accuracy. A compositional depth profile using secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has been taken and shows that the Al fraction averages 88.0$\pm0.3\%$. It is found that the amplitude of the transmission is significantly affected by absorption in the n-doped GaAs substrate, even though the energy of the transmitted light is well below the GaAs band gap. The wavelength of the features on the transmission spectrum are mostly affected by DBR layer thicknesses. On the other hand, the transmission spectrum is found to be relatively tolerant to changes to Al fraction