The Republican Movement, 'Disappearing' and Framing the Past in Northern Ireland

Despite a rich body of research on the conflict and peace process in Northern Ireland, the ‘disappearances’ carried out by Republican armed groups have so far escaped scrutiny. In this article I examine how the Republican movement has framed the rationale behind ‘disappearing’ as a rational response to informing and as an example of historical continuity. In doing so, Republicans appear to attempt to confer legitimacy on their choice of target and normalize the use of the practice within a Republican framework. However, these rationales incorporate techniques of neutralization and attempts to contextualize the ‘disappearances’ in such a way as to distance the Irish Republican Army from agency. Such distancing speaks to a third, overarching rationale for ‘disappearing’: the avoidance of an embarrassment that has continued into the postconflict period. I consider why Republicans persist in claiming the ‘disappeared’ were legitimate targets, killed by a method for which there is historical precedent, when such framing left them open to criticism at a time when they were seeking to demonstrate that they had left violence behind. I conclude that Republican attempts to satisfy two audiences resulted in a gulf between their engagement in the process of recovering remains and their rhetoric surrounding this issue. In so doing, light is shed on some of the challenges the Republican movement faced in their transition away from violence. More broadly, the value of unpicking the framing of key actors in transitional processes is illuminated.

A bond model for DEM simulation of cementitious materials and deformable structures

There is an increasing use of the discrete element method (DEM) to study cemented (e.g. concrete and rocks) and sintered particulate materials. The chief advantage of the DEM over continuum based techniques is that it does not make assumptions about how cracking and fragmentation initiate and propagate, since the DEM system is naturally discontinuous. The ability for the DEM to produce a realistic representation of a cemented granular material depends largely on the implementation of an inter-particle bonded contact model. This paper presents a new bonded contact model based on the Timoshenko beam theory which considers axial, shear and bending behaviour of the bond. The bond model was first verified by simulating both the bending and dynamic response of a simply supported beam. The loading response of a concrete cylinder was then investigated and compared with the Eurocode equation prediction. The results show significant potential for the new model to produce satisfactory predictions for cementitious materials. A unique feature of this model is that it can also be used to accurately represent many deformable structures such as frames and shells, so that both particles and structures or deformable boundaries can be described in the same DEM framework. 

Forced Displacement, Suffering and the Aesthetics of Loss

This article investigates how artists have addressed shocking experiences of displacement in different political contexts. Drawing on the notion of ‘the aesthetics of loss’ (Köstlin, 2010), it examines and compares the different aims, desires and strategies that have shaped the histories and social lives of paintings, memorial statues, installations and other artefacts. The analysis identifies a mode of artistic engagement with the sense of a ‘loss of homeland’ that has been commonly felt amongst Sudeten German expellees, namely the production and framing of visual images as markers of collective trauma. These aesthetics of loss are contrasted with the approach taken by the Dutch artist Sophie Ernst in her project entitled HOME. Working with displaced people from Pakistan, India, Palestine, Israel and Iraq, she created a mnemonic space to stimulate a more individualistic, exploratory engagement with the loss of home, which aimed, in part, to elicit interpersonal empathy. To simply oppose these two modes of aesthetic engagement, however, would ignore the ways in which artefacts are drawn into different discursive, affective and spatial formations. This article argues for the need to expose such dynamic processes of framing and reframing by focusing on the processual aspects of aestheticisation with attention to the perspective of loss.

Rapid identification of precursor cDNAs encoding five structural classes of antimicrobial peptides from pickerel frog (Rana palustris) skin secretion by single step “shotgun” cloning.

The skin secretion of the North American pickerel frog (Rana palustris) has long been known to have pronounced noxious/toxic properties and to be highly effective in defence against predators and against other sympatric amphibians. As it consists largely of a complex mixture of peptides, it has been subjected to systematic peptidomic study but there has been little focus on molecular cloning of peptide-encoding cDNAs and by deduction, the biosynthetic precursors that they encode. Here, we demonstrate that the cDNAs encoding the five major structural families of antimicrobial peptides can be elucidated by a single step “shotgun” cloning approach using a cDNA library constructed from the source material of the peptidomic studies—the defensive skin secretion itself. Using a degenerate primer pool designed to a highly conserved nucleic acid sequence 5' to the initiation codon of known antimicrobial peptide precursor transcripts, we amplified cDNA sequences representing five major classes of antimicrobial peptides, such as esculentins, brevinins, ranatuerins, palustrins and temporins. Bioinformatic comparisons of precursor open-reading frames and nucleic acid sequences revealed high degrees of structural similarities between analogous peptides of R. palustris and the Chinese bamboo odorous frog, Rana versabilis. This approach thus constitutes a robust technique that can be used either alone or ideally, in parallel with peptidomic analysis of skin secretion, to rapidly extract primary structural information on amphibian skin secretion peptides and their biosynthetic precursors.

Examining the Neurocognitive Validity of Commercially Available, Smartphone-Based Puzzle Games

Cognitive assessment typically involves assessing a person’s cognitive performance in unfamiliar and ar-guably unnatural clinical surroundings. User-centred approaches to assessment and monitoring, driven by issues such as enjoyability and familiarity, are largely absent. Everyday technologies, for example, smartphones represent an opportunity to obtain an objective assessment of a person’s cognitive capabili-ties in a non-threatening, discreet and familiar way, e.g. by everyday puzzle games undertaken as a leisure activity at home. We examined the strength of relationships that exist between performance on common puzzle games and standard measures of neuropsychological performance. Twenty-nine participants, aged 50 - 65 years, completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and played three smart-phone-based puzzle games in triplicate: a picture puzzle [Matches Plus], a word puzzle [Jumbline] and a number puzzle [Sudoku]. As anticipated, a priori, significant correlations were observed between scores on a picture puzzle and visual memory test (r = 0.49; p = 0.007); a word puzzle and estimated verbal IQ (r = 0.53; p = 0.003) and verbal learning (r = 0.30; p = 0.039) tests; and a number puzzle and reason-ing/problem solving test (r = 0.42; p = 0.023). Further analyses making allowance for multiple compari-sons identified a significant unanticipated correlation (r = 0.49; p = 0.007) between number puzzle scores and a measure of nonverbal working memory. Performance on these smartphone-based games was in-dicative of relative cognitive ability across several cognitive domains at a fixed time point. Smart-phone-based, everyday puzzle games may offer a valid, portable measure of assessing and monitoring cognition in older adults.

A feasibility study testing four hypotheses with phase II outcomes in advanced colorectal cancer (MRC FOCUS3): a model for randomised controlled trials in the era of personalised medicine?

Background: Molecular characteristics of cancer vary between individuals. In future, most trials will require assessment of biomarkers to allocate patients into enriched populations in which targeted therapies are more likely to be effective. The MRC FOCUS3 trial is a feasibility study to assess key elements in the planning of such studies.

Patients and methods: Patients with advanced colorectal cancer were registered from 24 centres between February 2010 and April 2011. With their consent, patients' tumour samples were analysed for KRAS/BRAF oncogene mutation status and topoisomerase 1 (topo-1) immunohistochemistry. Patients were then classified into one of four molecular strata; within each strata patients were randomised to one of two hypothesis-driven experimental therapies or a common control arm (FOLFIRI chemotherapy). A 4-stage suite of patient information sheets (PISs) was developed to avoid patient overload.

Results: A total of 332 patients were registered, 244 randomised. Among randomised patients, biomarker results were provided within 10 working days (w.d.) in 71%, 15 w.d. in 91% and 20 w.d. in 99%. DNA mutation analysis was 100% concordant between two laboratories. Over 90% of participants reported excellent understanding of all aspects of the trial. In this randomised phase II setting, omission of irinotecan in the low topo-1 group was associated with increased response rate and addition of cetuximab in the KRAS, BRAF wild-type cohort was associated with longer progression-free survival.

Conclusions: Patient samples can be collected and analysed within workable time frames and with reproducible mutation results. Complex multi-arm designs are acceptable to patients with good PIS. Randomisation within each cohort provides outcome data that can inform clinical practice.

Finite element modelling of cyclic behaviour of cold-formed steel bolted moment-resisting connections

This paper investigates the accuracy of new finite element modelling approaches to predict the behaviour of bolted moment-connections between cold-formed steel members, formed by using brackets bolted to the webs of the section, under low cycle fatigue. ABAQUS software is used as a modelling platform. Such joints are used for portal frames and potentially have good seismic resisting capabilities, which is important for construction in developing countries. The modelling implications of a two-dimensional beam element model, a three-dimensional shell element model and a three-dimensional solid element model are reported. Quantitative and qualitative results indicate that the three-dimensional quadratic S8R shell element model most accurately predicts the hysteretic behaviour and energy dissipation capacity of the connection when compared to the test results.

Genetic optimism:Framing genes and mental illness in the news

Over the past two decades the pace and specificity of discoveries associating genetics with mental illness has accelerated, which is reflected in an increase in news coverage about the genetics of mental disorder. The news media is a major source of public understanding of genetics and a strong influence on public discourse. This paper examines the news coverage of genetics and mental illness (i.e., bipolar illness and schizophrenia) over a 25 year period, emphasizing the peak period of 1987-1994. Using a sample of 110 news stories from 5 major American newspapers and 3 news magazines, we identify the frame of "genetic optimism" which dominated the reporting of genetics and mental illness beginning in the mid-1980s. The structure of the frame is comprised of 3 elements: a gene for the disorder exists; it will be found; and it will be good. New discoveries of genes were announced with great fanfare, but the most promising claims could not be replicated or were retracted in short order. Despite these disconfirmations, genetic optimism persisted in subsequent news stories. While the scientific accuracy of the gene stories is high, the genetic optimism frame distorts some of the findings, misrepresents and reifies the impact of genes on mental disorder, and leaves no space for critics or an examination of potential negative impacts. The stances of reporters, scientists and editors may all in different ways contribute to the perpetuation of genetic optimism. Genetic optimism presents an overly sanguine picture of the state of genetics; as we enter the genetic age it is important to balance the extraneous "hype and hope" contained in news stories of genetics and mental illness.

The Open Method of Coordination on Health Care After the Lisbon Strategy II: Towards a Neoliberal Framing?

This paper undertakes a content analysis of the discourse on the Open Method of Coordination on Health Care (OMC/HC) in order to show how equity and solidarity are increasingly linked to optimisation and, as such, how neoliberalism increasingly frames health care. Some of the side-effects of this reframing for politics are highlighted: legitimating and extending EU governance, reducing the space for oppositional formations and limited citizenship. The analysis begins by interrogating the broader context of the Lisbon Strategy II, after which the techniques of the OMC/HC and its substantive outputs are analysed.

Confounds in pictorial sets: The role of complexity and familiarity in basic-level picture processing

Complexity is conventionally defined as the level of detail or intricacy contained within a picture. The study of complexity has received relatively little attention-in part, because of the absence of an acceptable metric. Traditionally, normative ratings of complexity have been based on human judgments. However, this study demonstrates that published norms for visual complexity are biased. Familiarity and learning influence the subjective complexity scores for nonsense shapes, with a significant training x familiarity interaction [F(1,52) = 17.53, p <.05]. Several image-processing techniques were explored as alternative measures of picture and image complexity. A perimeter detection measure correlates strongly with human judgments of the complexity of line drawings of real-world objects and nonsense shapes and captures some of the processes important in judgments of subjective complexity, while removing the bias due to familiarity effects.

Campaigns Against Incineration in Ireland - North and South: Framing Networking and Political Opportunities

An analysis of community-based campaigns opposing waste incineration and advocating 'zero waste' policies in Ireland, North and South.

On-line Emotion Recognition in a 3-D Activation-Valence-Time Continuum using Acoustic and Linguistic Cues

For many applications of emotion recognition, such as virtual agents, the system must select responses while the user is speaking. This requires reliable on-line recognition of the user’s affect. However most emotion recognition systems are based on turnwise processing. We present a novel approach to on-line emotion recognition from speech using Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks. Emotion is recognised frame-wise in a two-dimensional valence-activation continuum. In contrast to current state-of-the-art approaches, recognition is performed on low-level signal frames, similar to those used for speech recognition. No statistical functionals are applied to low-level feature contours. Framing at a higher level is therefore unnecessary and regression outputs can be produced in real-time for every low-level input frame. We also investigate the benefits of including linguistic features on the signal frame level obtained by a keyword spotter.