‘Unboxing’ videos: co-construction of the child as cyberflâneur

This paper draws on data from a study of a four-year-old child, Gareth, in his first year of formal schooling in England. The aim of the study was to identify the nature of Gareth's literacy practices across home and school spaces. The focus for this paper is an analysis of one aspect of Gareth's home digital literacy practices: his repeated viewings at home of ‘unboxing’ videos on YouTube. These include videos that feature the unpacking of commercial products. It is argued that the child viewer/reader is co-constructed in these practices as cyberflâneur and that this mode of cultural transmission is a growing feature of online practices for this age group in the twenty-first century. The paper addresses issues concerning young children's online practices and their relationship to material culture before analysing the growth of interest in peer-to-peer textual production and consumption in the digital age

Miocene waterfowl and other birds from central Otago, New Zealand

Copyright © The Natural History Museum 2007Abundant fossil bird bones from the lower Bannockburn Formation, Manuherikia Group, an Early-Middle Miocene lacustrine deposit, 16–19 Ma, from Otago in New Zealand, reveal the “St Bathans Fauna” (new name), a first Tertiary avifauna of land and freshwater birds from New Zealand. At least 23 species of birds are represented by bones, and probable moa, Aves: Dinornithiformes, by eggshell. Anatids dominate the fauna with four genera and five species described as new: a sixth and largest anatid species is represented by just one bone. This is the most diverse Early-Middle Miocene duck fauna known worldwide. Among ducks, two species of dendrochenines are most numerous in the fauna, but a tadornine is common as well. A diving petrel (Pelecanoididae: Pelecanoides) is described, so extending the geological range of this genus worldwide from the Pliocene to the Middle Miocene, at least. The remaining 16 taxa are left undescribed but include: a large species of gull (Laridae); two small waders (Charadriiformes, genus indet.), the size of Charadrius bicinctus and Calidris ruficollis, respectively; a gruiform represented by one specimen similar to Aptornis; abundant rail (Rallidae) bones, including a common flightless rail and a rarer slightly larger taxon, about the size of Gallirallus philippensis; an ?eagle (Accipitridae); a pigeon (Columbidae); three parrots (Psittacidae); an owlet nightjar (Aegothelidae: Aegotheles sp.); a swiftlet (Apodidae: Collocalia sp.); and three passerine taxa, of which the largest is a member of the Cracticidae. The absence of some waterbirds, such as anserines (including swans), grebes (Podicipedidae) and shags (Phalacrocoracidae), among the abundant bones, indicates their probable absence from New Zealand in the Early-Middle Miocene.T. H. Worthy, A. J. D. Tennyson, C. Jones, J. A. McNamara and B. J. Dougla

Interaction of a poly(acrylic acid) oligomer with dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine bilayers

We studied the influence of 5 kDa poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) on the phase state, thermal properties, and lateral diffusion in bilayered systems of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) using 31P NMR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), 1H NMR with a pulsed field gradient, and 1H nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy (NOESY). The presence of PAA does not change the lamellar structure of the system. 1H MAS NOESY cross-peaks observed for the interaction between lipid headgroups and polyion protons demonstrated only surface PAA-biomembrane interaction. Small concentrations of PAA (up to ∼4 mol %) lead to the appearance of a new lateral phase with a higher main transition temperature, a lower cooperativity, and a lower enthalpy of transition. Higher concentrations lead to the disappearance of measurable thermal effects. The lateral diffusion coefficient of DMPC and the apparent activation energy of diffusion gradually decreased at PAA concentrations up to around 4 mol %. The observed effects were explained by the formation of at least two types of PAA-DMPC lateral complexes as has been described earlier (Fujiwara, M.; Grubbs, R. H.; Baldeschwieler, J. D. J. Colloid Interface Sci., 1997, 185, 210). The first one is characterized by a stoichiometry of around 28 lipids per polymer, which corresponds to the adsorption of the entire PAA molecule onto the membrane. Lipid molecules of the complex are exchanged with the "pure" lipid bilayer, with the lifetime of the complex being less than 0.1 s. The second type of DMPC-PAA complex is characterized by a stoichiometry of 6 to 7 lipids per polymer and contains PAA molecules that are only partially adsorbed onto the membrane. A decrease in the DMPC diffusion coefficient and activation energy for diffusion in the presence of PAA was explained by the formation of a new cooperative unit for diffusion, which contains the PAA molecule and several molecules of lipids. © 2011 American Chemical Society