The Bankruptcy of Liberalism and Social Democracy in the Neoliberal Age

The increasing similarity between the economic policies of center-left and center-right political parties has effectively diminished the legitimacy of governments in relationship to their citizenry in Western Europe and the U.S. Capitalist democracies during the period of managed capitalism gained legitimacy by the appearance of the separation of capitalist ownership rights in the marketplace from the political institutions that govern capitalism. During this period, Social Democratic parties in Western Europe, and to a lesser extent the Democratic Party in the U.S., paid some amount of attention to labor unions and mass constituents in formulating their policy agendas. The era of neoliberalism (late 1970s to the present) has broken any such appearances, with the dominant political parties, regardless of party label, moving rightward to embrace many of the same economic policy agendas.

Using Stable Isotopes to Investigate Trophic Interactions of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Coastal Everglades

Top predators are best known for their ability to affect their communities through inflicting mortality on prey and inducing behavioral modifications (e.g. risk effects). Recent scientific evidence suggests that predators may have additional roles in bottom-up processes such as transporting materials within and across habitat boundaries. The Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) is an “upside-down” oligotrophic estuary where productivity decreases from the mouth of the estuary to freshwater marshes. Research in the FCE suggest that predators can act as mobile links between disparate habitats and can potentially affect nutrient and biogeochemical dynamics through localized behaviors (e.g. American alligators and juvenile bull sharks). To date, little is known about bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the FCE beyond broad-scale patterns of abundance. Because they are highly mobile mammals commonly found in coastal waters, bottlenose dolphins are an interesting case study for investigating the influence of ecology on the evolution of local adaptations. Within this influence lies the potential for investigation of the related roles those adaptations play in coastal ecosystems due to their high metabolic rates, movement capabilities, and tendency to display specialized foraging behaviors. Stable isotope analysis of biopsy samples were used to investigate habitat use, trophic interactions, and patterns of individual specialization in bottlenose dolphins to gain functional insights into ecosystem dynamics. δ13 C isotopic values are used to differentiate the relative importance of a food web to the diet of an organism, while δ15 N values are used to evaluate the relative trophic position of an organism. Dolphin δ13 C isotopic values seem to suggest that dolphins are foraging within single ecosystems and may not be moving nutrients across ecosystem boundaries while their δ15 N isotopic values appear to be of a top predator, at a similar level to bull sharks and alligators in FCE. Further research is necessary to provide vital insight into the large predators’ role in affecting the evolution of local adaptations. Conducting this research should also provide information for predicting how future changes occurring due to restoration dynamics (see CERP: evergladesplan.org) and climate change will affect the ecological roles of these animals.

Using Stable Isotopes to Investigate Trophic Interactions of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Coastal Everglades”

Top predators are best known for their ability to affect their communities through inflicting mortality on prey and inducing behavioral modifications (e.g. risk effects). Recent scientific evidence suggests that predators may have additional roles in bottom-up processes such as transporting materials within and across habitat boundaries. The Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) is an “upside-down” oligotrophic estuary where productivity decreases from the mouth of the estuary to freshwater marshes. Research in the FCE suggest that predators can act as mobile links between disparate habitats and can potentially affect nutrient and biogeochemical dynamics through localized behaviors (e.g. American alligators and juvenile bull sharks). To date, little is known about bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the FCE beyond broad-scale patterns of abundance. Because they are highly mobile mammals commonly found in coastal waters, bottlenose dolphins are an interesting case study for investigating the influence of ecology on the evolution of local adaptations. Within this influence lies the potential for investigation of the related roles those adaptations play in coastal ecosystems due to their high metabolic rates, movement capabilities, and tendency to display specialized foraging behaviors. Stable isotope analysis of biopsy samples were used to investigate habitat use, trophic interactions, and patterns of individual specialization in bottlenose dolphins to gain functional insights into ecosystem dynamics. δ13 C isotopic values are used to differentiate the relative importance of a food web to the diet of an organism, while δ15 N values are used to evaluate the relative trophic position of an organism. Dolphin δ13 C isotopic values seem to suggest that dolphins are foraging within single ecosystems and may not be moving nutrients across ecosystem boundaries while their δ15 N isotopic values appear to be of a top predator, at a similar level to bull sharks and alligators in FCE. Further research is necessary to provide vital insight into the large predators’ role in affecting the evolution of local adaptations. Conducting this research should also provide information for predicting how future changes occurring due to restoration dynamics (see CERP: evergladesplan.org) and climate change will affect the ecological roles of these animals.

The Roles of Phenotypic Plasticity and Plant-Microbe Interactions in the Evolution of Complex Traits in Boechera stricta

All organisms live in complex habitats that shape the course of their evolution by altering the phenotype expressed by a given genotype (a phenomenon known as phenotypic plasticity) and simultaneously by determining the evolutionary fitness of that phenotype. In some cases, phenotypic evolution may alter the environment experienced by future generations. This dissertation describes how genetic and environmental variation act synergistically to affect the evolution of glucosinolate defensive chemistry and flowering time in Boechera stricta, a wild perennial herb. I focus particularly on plant-associated microbes as a part of the plant’s environment that may alter trait evolution and in turn be affected by the evolution of those traits. In the first chapter I measure glucosinolate production and reproductive fitness of over 1,500 plants grown in common gardens in four diverse natural habitats, to describe how patterns of plasticity and natural selection intersect and may influence glucosinolate evolution. I detected extensive genetic variation for glucosinolate plasticity and determined that plasticity may aid colonization of new habitats by moving phenotypes in the same direction as natural selection. In the second chapter I conduct a greenhouse experiment to test whether naturally-occurring soil microbial communities contributed to the differences in phenotype and selection that I observed in the field experiment. I found that soil microbes cause plasticity of flowering time but not glucosinolate production, and that they may contribute to natural selection on both traits; thus, non-pathogenic plant-associated microbes are an environmental feature that could shape plant evolution. In the third chapter, I combine a multi-year, multi-habitat field experiment with high-throughput amplicon sequencing to determine whether B. stricta-associated microbial communities are shaped by plant genetic variation. I found that plant genotype predicts the diversity and composition of leaf-dwelling bacterial communities, but not root-associated bacterial communities. Furthermore, patterns of host genetic control over associated bacteria were largely site-dependent, indicating an important role for genotype-by-environment interactions in microbiome assembly. Together, my results suggest that soil microbes influence the evolution of plant functional traits and, because they are sensitive to plant genetic variation, this trait evolution may alter the microbial neighborhood of future B. stricta generations. Complex patterns of plasticity, selection, and symbiosis in natural habitats may impact the evolution of glucosinolate profiles in Boechera stricta.

The Philippines in the Automotive Global Value Chain

This report uses the Duke CGGC Global Value Chain (GVC) framework to examine the role of the Philippines in the global automotive industry and identify opportunities for upgrading. The country’s strength in the sector is in electrical and electronic automotive components, with approximately two-thirds of its US$3.98 billion exports in 2014 falling in one of these categories. The Philippines has a particularly strong foothold in wire harnesses, exports of which increased by 129% from 2007 to 2014 to allow it to become the world’s fourth largest global exporter. The prominence of the cluster affords the country a number of upgrading opportunities moving forward. Otherwise, the relatively small size of the domestic market has constrained the development of the industry, with local companies unable to generate the economies of scale necessary to compete in an increasingly consolidated global environment.

Film as an archive for colonial photographs: activating the past in the present

This practice-led research looks at the ways in which the colonial archive, and the colonial photographic archive in particular, can be reconstructed to produce new critical histories. The research argues for the potential of the moving image as a tool for re-staging colonial archives, as a means of generating responsible ways of looking at, and of engaging with our troubled collective pasts. In my practice I mix the photographic archive of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company(which became BP) with my family’s photographs from Iran, and with the documentation and narrativization of my encounter with both of these sets of materials, within the moving image. Through this process I address questions about the nature of the photographic archive and the search for historical meaning within it; the question of the researcher’s position within the archive and within the history she produces; and I investigate the affective power of colonial photographs within film and the experience of untimeliness which they produce. While addressing problems associated with the failure of photographic archives to offer access to any stable, transparent meaning, I show how engaging with slippages of meaning can produce other kinds of historical knowledge. But I also argue that attending to the impression of the ‘real’ produced by the colonial photograph as it appears within film, makes the past felt in the present tense, in ways that draw attention to the responsibility of being an onlooker in a situation of injustice. In addition I show how registering the place and time of the researcher within the new filmic archive in motion produces an effective means of imaginative time travel and a lively experience of history.

Colonialism, political unconscious and cognitive mapping in the space of the film "Captain Phillips"

The purpose of this article has been made through a Marxist analysis of the US film "Captain Phillips" (PaulGreengrass, 2013), based on a true story. I have found how the evolution of capitalism in the West continuesto consolidate the belief reified in a historical and geographical superiority of the political and socioeconomicwestern models regarding Africa and Asia lowers models. At the same time, through categories like dialecticalmaterialism, criticism of diffusionist theory and application of cognitive mapping to large geopoliticalspaces located in most poor areas of the world, I have realized a remark about currently being articulatingthe political unconscious of working class in rich countries and the poor in poor countries, establishing arelationship between the ideological representation that takes an individual from his historical reality (ona scale that moves from local to global), and how he has developed a mental ability to escape of the responsibilityto make a critical review of what's happening around him in all areas. Finally, through physicalspace captured in the film, I have realized a materialist critique of globalized business process that takesplace through the carriage of goods, outlining spatial and cognitively limits of the mentality of our time, bothamong "winners"as among the "losers", based on the spatial movement of capital.

Predictable hydrodynamic conditions explain temporal variations in the density of benthic foraging seabirds in a tidal stream environment

Tidal stream turbines could have several direct impacts upon pursuit-diving seabirds foraging within tidal stream environments (mean horizontal current speeds > 2 ms−1), including collisions and displacement. Understanding how foraging seabirds respond to temporally variable but predictable hydrodynamic conditions immediately around devices could identify when interactions between seabirds and devices are most likely to occur; information which would quantify the magnitude of potential impacts, and also facilitate the development of suitable mitigation measures. This study uses shore-based observational surveys and Finite Volume Community Ocean Model outputs to test whether temporally predictable hydrodynamic conditions (horizontal current speeds, water elevation, turbulence) influenced the density of foraging black guillemots Cepphus grylle and European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis in a tidal stream environment in Orkney, United Kingdom, during the breeding season. These species are particularly vulnerable to interactions with devices due to their tendency to exploit benthic and epi-benthic prey on or near the seabed. The density of both species decreased as a function of horizontal current speeds, whereas the density of black guillemots also decreased as a function of water elevation. These relationships could be linked to higher energetic costs of dives in particularly fast horizontal current speeds (>3 ms−1) and deeper water. Therefore, interactions between these species and moving components seem unlikely at particularly high horizontal current speeds. Combining this information, with that on the rotation rates of moving components at lower horizontal current speeds, could be used to assess collision risk in this site during breeding seasons. It is also likely that moderating any device operation during both lowest water elevation and lowest horizontal current speeds could reduce the risk of collisions for these species in this site during this season. The approaches used in this study could have useful applications within Environmental Impact Assessments, and should be considered when assessing and mitigating negative impacts from specific devices within development sites.

Hotel Profit Implications from Rising Wages and Inflation in the U.S.

Macroeconomic models based on the Phillips Curve predict that as the unemployment rate declines toward the long-run, natural rate, the pace of wage and price growth accelerates and inflation rises.1 In this paper I analyze the profitability prospects for the U.S. hotel industry in today’s relatively volatile economic environment, keeping in mind the Phillips Curve’s general principle that inflation and employment have an inverse, but relatively stable short-term relationship. Although employment and economic growth in the U.S. have been uneven in recent months, the unemployment rate has declined to less than 5 percent, which many economists believe is close to the natural rate. Growth in wages and salaries, as measured by the Employment Cost Index, has concurrently been moving upward between 2.5 and 3.0 percent during the past 12 months. At the same time, general inflation remains below levels that might typically be expected this late in the cycle, although core inflation is bumping up against the Federal Reserve’s 2-percent target. If the inflation rate continues to move upward as predicted by Phillips Curve models (and encouraged by the Federal Reserve), rising labor costs and other expenses will exert downward pressure on U.S. business profits. Backward movement up the Phillips Curve (with greater inflation) coincides with an expanding economy. In that scenario, prices of goods and services also will rise in real terms if their supply cannot keep up with demand, and producers have the ability to raise prices (absent fixed-price contracts such as leases).

Black and Blue: Exploring Racial Bias and Law Enforcement in the Killings of Unarmed Black Male Civilians

In late 2014, a series of highly publicized police killings of unarmed Black male civilians in the United States prompted large-scale social turmoil. In the current review, we dissect the psychological antecedents of these killings and explain how the nature of police work may attract officers with distinct characteristics that may make them especially well-primed for negative interactions with Black male civilians. We use media reports to contextualize the precipitating events of the social unrest as we ground our explanations in theory and empirical research from social psychology and industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. To isolate some of the key mechanisms at play, we disentangle racial bias (e.g., stereotyping processes) from common characteristics of law enforcement agents (e.g., social dominance orientation), while also addressing the interaction between racial bias and policing. By separating the moving parts of the phenomenon, we provide a more fine-grained analysis of the factors that may have contributed to the killings. In doing so, we endeavor to more effectively identify and develop solutions to eradicate excessive use of force during interactions between “Black” (unarmed Black male civilians) and “Blue” (law enforcement).

An Action Research Study Engaging in the Use of Storyboarding as Research-based Approach to Teaching to Identify Issues Faced when Working with People with Dementia from Minority Ethnic Communities

The common view that research informs teaching assumes a linear approach whereby teaching is considered an output of research. This paper reports the findings of an action research project that identified the issues and challenges faced by those working across health and social care when working with people with dementia from minority ethnic communities. It explored the research-teaching nexus by using an approach to teaching that was research-based as opposed to research-led. A storyboarding technique was used which involved identifying and dissecting real life experiences for discussion. The realisation that each story was unique to the individual demonstrated the benefits and importance of education and training for applying a person-centred approach to dementia care. This project also revealed the benefits of actively engaging course participants with research moving them from being recipients of research, to research- active. Such a process not only encouraged their intrinsic motivations but, also, critical thinking and reflective practice to support deep learning. Such findings demonstrate the benefits of linking teaching with research.

Shipping noise in a dynamic sea: a case study of grey seals in the Celtic Sea

Shipping noise is a threat to marine wildlife. Grey seals are benthic foragers, and thus experience acoustic noise throughout the water column, which makes them a good model species for a case study of the potential impacts of shipping noise. We used ship track data from the Celtic Sea, seal track data and a coupled ocean-acoustic modelling system to assess the noise exposure of grey seals along their tracks. It was found that the animals experience step changes in sound levels up to ~20dB at a frequency of 125Hz, and ~10dB on average over 10-1000Hz when they dive through the thermocline, particularly during summer. Our results showed large seasonal differences in the noise level experienced by the seals. These results reveal the actual noise exposure by the animals and could help in marine spatial planning.

Determination of a Mean Solar Radiation Year and of a Typical Meteorological Year for the region of Funchal in the Madeira Island

This paper presents the determination of a mean solar radiation year and of a typical meteorological year for the region of Funchal in the Madeira Island, Portugal. The data set includes hourly mean and extreme values for air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed and hourly mean values for solar global and diffuse radiation for the period 2004-2014, with maximum data coverage of 99.7%. The determination of the mean solar radiation year consisted, in a first step, in the average of all values for each pair hour/day and, in a second step, in the application of a five days centred moving average of hourly values. The determination of the typical meteorological year was based on Finkelstein-Schafer statistics, which allows to obtain a complete year of real measurements through the selection and combination of typical months, preserving the long term averages while still allowing the analysis of short term events. The typical meteorological year validation was carried out through the comparison of the monthly averages for the typical year with the long term monthly averages. The values obtained were very close, so that the typical meteorological year can accurately represent the long term data series. The typical meteorological year can be used in the simulation of renewable energy systems, namely solar energy systems, and for predicting the energy performance of buildings.

Air Entrainment in the Turbulent Ship Hull Boundary Layer

Turbulent fluctuations in the vicinity of the water free surface along a flat, vertically oriented surface-piercing plate are studied experimentally using a laboratory-scale experiment. In this experiment, a meter-wide stainless steel belt travels horizontally in a loop around two rollers with vertically oriented axes, which are separated by 7.5 meters. This belt device is mounted inside a large water tank with the water level set just below the top edge of the belt. The belt, rollers, and supporting frame are contained within a sheet metal box to keep the device dry except for one 6-meter-long straight test section between rollers. The belt is launched from rest with an acceleration of up to 3-g in order to quickly reach steady state velocity. This creates a temporally evolving boundary layer analogous to the spatially evolving boundary layer created along a flat-sided ship moving at the same velocity, with a length equivalent to the length of belt that has passed the measurement region since the belt motion began. Surface profile measurements in planes normal to the belt surface are conducted using cinematic Laser Induced Fluorescence and quantitative surface profiles are extracted at each instant in time. Using these measurements, free surface fluctuations are examined and the propagation behavior of these free surface ripples is studied. It is found that free surface fluctuations are generated in a region close to the belt surface, where sub-surface velocity fluctuations influence the behavior of these free surface features. These rapidly-changing surface features close to the belt appear to lead to the generation of freely-propagating waves far from the belt, outside the influence of the boundary layer. Sub-surface PIV measurements are performed in order to study the modification of the boundary layer flow field due to the effects of the water free surface. Cinematic planar PIV measurements are performed in horizontal planes parallel to the free surface by imaging the flow from underneath the tank, providing streamwise and wall-normal velocity fields. Additional planar PIV experiments are performed in vertical planes parallel to the belt surface in order to study the bahvior of streamwise and vertical velocity fields. It is found that the boundary layer grows rapidly near the free surface, leading to an overall thicker boundary layer close to the surface. This rapid boundary layer growth appears to be linked to a process of free surface bursting, the sudden onset of free surface fluctuations. Cinematic white light movies are recorded from beneath the water surface in order to determine the onset location of air entrainment. In addition, qualitative observations of these processes are made in order to determine the mechanisms leading to air entrainment present in this flow.

The complexity in the implementation process of empowerment-based chronic kidney care: a case study

Background: This study is part of an interactive improvement intervention aimed to facilitate empowerment-based chronic kidney care using data from persons with CKD and their family members. There are many challenges to implementing empowerment-based care, and it is therefore necessary to study the implementation process. The aim of this study was to generate knowledge regarding the implementation process of an improvement intervention of empowerment for those who require chronic kidney care. Methods: A prospective single qualitative case study was chosen to follow the process of the implementation over a two year period. Twelve health care professionals were selected based on their various role(s) in the implementation of the improvement intervention. Data collection comprised of digitally recorded project group meetings, field notes of the meetings, and individual interviews before and after the improvement project. These multiple data were analyzed using qualitative latent content analysis. Results: Two facilitator themes emerged: Moving spirit and Encouragement. The healthcare professionals described a willingness to individualize care and to increase their professional development in the field of chronic kidney care. The implementation process was strongly reinforced by both the researchers working interactively with the staff, and the project group. One theme emerged as a barrier: the Limitations of the organization. Changes in the organization hindered the implementation of the intervention throughout the study period, and the lack of interplay in the organization most impeded the process. Conclusions: The findings indicated the complexity of maintaining a sustainable and lasting implementation over a period of two years. Implementing empowerment-based care was found to be facilitated by the cooperation between all involved healthcare professionals. Furthermore, long-term improvement interventions need strong encouragement from all levels of the organization to maintain engagement, even when it is initiated by the health care professionals themselves.