Parent Issues: How Life on Mars Negotiates a Television Generation Gap

In defining what he termed 'Television's Second Golden Age', Robert J.Thompson refers to characteristics such as being 'not regular TV', internal continuity, mixed genres but an aspiration towards 'realism', complex writing, self-consciousness and intertextuality. Such characteristics are displayed by the BBC series Life on Mars (2006-2007) which intermingles the Seventies tough cop show with psychological fantasy. This chapter examines the way that the series can be understood as a dramatisation of the negotiation that the creators undertook with their Seventies source material to update it for the values and qualities of contemporary television drama. It will emphasise the importance of television in the generation of the imagined 1973 and its characters, but also as an ongoing connection between the real and the imagined within the programme, including forming a breach of the boundaries between the two. Sam's actions within his Seventies world to remake it to include his own ideas of justice and due process while retaining the passion and freedom of action that the milieu provides will also be be examined in relation to the series' creators' needs to remake the Seventies tough-cop show in the light of modern social and media mores. The paper will also consider how Sam has to come to terms with his father's crimes, as the series' creators had to come to terms with the 'crimes' of taste, morality and approach of their 'parent' programmes from the Seventies' Golden Age.

Spatial Heterogeneity and Kinetic Regulation of Arsenic Dynamics in Mangrove Sediments: The Sundarbans, Bangladesh

The biogeochemistry of arsenic (As) in sediments is regulated by multiple factors such as particle size, dissolved organic matter (DOM), iron mobilization, and sediment binding characteristics, among others. Understanding the heterogeneity of factors affecting As deposition and the kinetics of mobilization, both horizontally and vertically, across sediment depositional environments was investigated in Sundarban mangrove ecosystems, Bengal Delta, Bangladesh. Sediment cores were collected from 3 different Sundarbans locations and As concentration down the profiles were found to be more associated with elevated Fe and Mn than with organic matter (OM). At one site chosen for field monitoring, sediment cores, pore and surface water, and in situ diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) measurements (which were used to model As sediment pore-water concentrations and resupply from the solid phase) were sampled from four different subhabitats. Coarse-textured riverbank sediment porewaters were high in As, but with a limited resupply of As from the solid phase compared to fine-textured and high organic matter content forest floor sediments, where porewater As was low, but with much higher As resupply. Depositional environment (overbank verses forest floor) and biological activity (input of OM from forest biomass) considerably affected As dynamics over very short spatial distances in the mosaic of microhabitats that constitute a mangrove ecosystem.

Greatly enhanced arsenic shoot assimilation in rice leads to elevated grain levels compared to wheat and barley

Paired grain, shoot, and soil of 173 individual sample sets of commercially farmed temperate rice, wheat, and barley were surveyed to investigate variation in the assimilation and translocation of arsenic (As). Rice samples were obtained from the Carmargue (France), Doñana (Spain), Cadiz (Spain), California, and Arkansas. Wheat and barleywere collected from Cornwall and Devon (England) and the east coast of Scotland. Transfer of As from soil to grain was an order of magnitude greater in rice than for wheat and barley, despite lower rates of shoot-to-grain transfer. Rice grain As levels over 0.60 microg g(-1) d. wt were found in rice grown in paddy soil of around only 10 microg g(-1) As, showing that As in paddy soils is problematic with respect to grain As levels. This is due to the high shoot/soil ratio of approximately 0.8 for rice compared to 0.2 and 0.1 for barley and wheat, respectively. The differences in these transfer ratios are probably due to differences in As speciation and dynamics in anaerobic rice soils compared to aerobic soils for barley and wheat. In rice, the export of As from the shoot to the grain appears to be under tight physiological control as the grain/shoot ratio decreases by more than an order of magnitude (from approximately 0.3 to 0.003 mg/kg) and as As levels in the shoots increase from 1 to 20 mg/kg. A down regulation of shoot-to-grain export may occur in wheat and barley, but it was not detected at the shoot As levels found in this survey. Some agricultural soils in southwestern England had levels in excess of 200 microg g(-1) d. wt, although the grain levels for wheat and barley never breached 0.55 microg g(-1) d. wt. These grain levels were achieved in rice in soils with an order of magnitude lower As. Thus the risk posed by As in the human food-chain needs to be considered in the context of anaerobic verses aerobic ecosystems.

Muriel Rukeyser, America, and the “Melville Revival”

Whilst Muriel Rukeyser's poetic affinity with Walt Whitman is generally acknowledged, the close relation of her work and poetic sensibility to the thought and writing of Herman Melville has somehow gone relatively unnoticed, and almost wholly unexamined. In 1918, Van Wyck Brooks called for the creation of a usable past that would energize America by recasting its cultural tradition. His plea addressed the need to rebuild a national heritage via the rediscovery of culturally “great” figures. By the late 1930s, many scholars and writers had answered the call, and the new discipline of American studies was beginning to take shape, aided by a reclamation of one of the country's greatest, most neglected, writers – Herman Melville. This was also the period in which Rukeyser “came of age”; a time when political and international conflicts and economic crises generated both the stark, documentary representation of present social realities and the drive to retrieve or reconstruct a more golden age that might mobilize a dislocated nation. The following article examines the importance of Melville to Rukeyser's work, and situates her within the “Melville revival” as an important figure in the movement throughout the first half of the twentieth century to reconstruct an American cultural character.

Algorithmic method for scraper load-time optimization

Scrapers have established an important position in the earthmoving field as they are independently capable of accomplishing an earthmoving operation. Given that loading a scraper to its capacity does not entail its maximum production, optimizing the scraper’s loading time is an essential prerequisite for successful operations management. The relevant literature addresses the loading time optimization through a graphical method that is founded on the invalid assumption that the hauling time is independent of the load time. To correct this, a new algorithmic optimization method that incorporates the golden section search and the bisection algorithm is proposed. Comparison of the results derived from the proposed and the existing method demonstrates that the latter entails the systematic needless prolongation of the loading stage thus resulting in reduced hourly production and increased cost. Therefore, the proposed method achieves an improved modeling of scraper earthmoving operations and contributes toward a more efficient cost management.

'Big, strong and healthy'. Young children's identification of food and drink that contribute to healthy growth

Growing awareness of the importance of healthy diet in early childhood makes it important to chart the development of children's understanding of food and drink. This study aimed to document young children's evaluation of food and drink as healthy, and to explore relationships with socioeconomic status, family eating habits, and children's television viewing. Data were gathered from children aged 3-5. years (. n=. 172) in diverse socioeconomic settings in Ireland, and from their parents. Results demonstrated that children had very high levels of ability to identify healthy foods as important for growth and health, but considerably less ability to reject unhealthy items, although knowledge of these increased significantly between ages 3 and 5. Awareness of which foods were healthy, and which foods were not, was not related to family socioeconomic status, parent or child home eating habits, or children's television viewing. Results highlighted the importance of examining young children's response patterns, as many of the youngest showed a consistent 'yes bias'; however, after excluding these responses, the significant findings remained. Findings suggest it is important to teach children about less healthy foods in the preschool years. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Fragmentos de Soto de Rojas: a ‘new’ mythological fable of the Spanish Baroque

The twentieth-century poet Gerardo Diego’s commitment to the recovery of a ‘sub-genre’, the mythological fable, evident in his Fábula de Equis y Zeda (1930) has been acknowledged by Peinado Elliot (2006), among others. However a recent discovery in his archive has revealed a hitherto unknown aspect of the poet’s scholarly commitment to this endeavour. A transcription of a previously unpublished, and until recently, unknown Baroque mythological fable with the title ‘Fábula de Alfeo y Aretusa’ was recently found by his daughter Elena, alongside an unpublished study by the young poet of said fable entitled ‘Un poema manuscrito del siglo XVII de la biblioteca Menéndez Pelayo’. Rosa Navarro Durán (2012) is convinced that the correspondences with Soto de Rojas’ 'Los fragmentos de Adonis' and the clear imprint of Góngora’s 'Soledades' and his 'Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe' permit us to attribute it, with some confidence, to Pedro Soto de Rojas. This essay will consider the significance of this exciting discovery for our reading of Soto de Rojas’ existing corpus, exploring in particular the poem’s links with the dark eroticism of the Fragmentos de Adonis, (1652) and the early Fábula de la Naya.(1623)

Young children's food brand knowledge. Early development and associations with television viewing and parent's diet

Brand knowledge is a prerequisite of children's requests and choices for branded foods. We explored the development of young children's brand knowledge of foods highly advertised on television - both healthy and less healthy. Participants were 172 children aged 3-5 years in diverse socio-economic settings, from two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland with different regulatory environments. Results indicated that food brand knowledge (i) did not differ across jurisdictions; (ii) increased significantly between 3 and 4 years; and (iii) children had significantly greater knowledge of unhealthy food brands, compared with similarly advertised healthy brands. In addition, (iv) children's healthy food brand knowledge was not related to their television viewing, their mother's education, or parent or child eating. However, (v) unhealthy brand knowledge was significantly related to all these factors, although only parent eating and children's age were independent predictors. Findings indicate that effects of food marketing for unhealthy foods take place through routes other than television advertising alone, and are present before pre-schoolers develop the concept of healthy eating. Implications are that marketing restrictions of unhealthy foods should extend beyond television advertising; and that family-focused obesity prevention programmes should begin before children are 3 years of age.

From Beijing with love: The global dimension of Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor

Famous for being the first foreign feature film that obtained permission to shoot in the Forbidden City, The Last Emperor (1987) is also one of the most ambitious and expensive independent productions of its time, awarded four Golden Globes and nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In addition, The Last Emperor can be considered as one of the first attempts of cinematic collaboration between West and East, in a period of cultural and economic transformations witnessed by China. This article aims to offer an overview of the production history of The Last Emperor, focusing on the co-production collaborations and the outcomes of a western auteur’s gaze on Chinese history. Questions of Orientalism, travel narrative and critical reception are taken into account in order to engage with the transnational implications of Bertolucci’s film and the western fascination with China.

On Publication, Refereeing, and Working Hard

We present a model for academia with heterogeneous author types and endogenous effort to evaluate recent changes in the publication process in Economics. We analyze the implications of these developments on research output. Lowering the precision of refereeing signals lowers effort choices of golden middle authors, but invites more submissions from less able authors. Increasing the number of journals stimulates less able authors to submit their papers. The editor can improve the journal's quality pool of submitted manuscripts by improving the precision of refereeing, but not by lowering acceptance standards. The submission strategy of an author is informative of his ability.

Characterization of NKR+ T-cell subsets in human bone marrow:implications for immunosurveillance of neoplasia

In addition to hematopoietic progenitors, human bone marrow contains mature T/NK lymphocytes. Valpha24Vbeta11 NKT-cells, a subset of NK receptor+ (NKR+) T-cells in humans, are rare in bone marrow, suggesting the presence of other NKR+ T-cells which may contribute to tumor surveillance. NKR+/- T-cells were examined in blood (PB), and bone marrow from donors (DM) and patients with active hematopoietic malignancy (PM), or in remission (PR). T-cells in PR & PM were enriched for CD56+ and CD57+ subsets, compared to DM. All marrow NKR+/- T-cell subsets were more activated than PB. PM and, surprisingly, PR marrow contained more activated cells than DM. CD8+ cells were significantly increased in all patient marrows and there was evidence of the formation of an effector/memory pool in malignant marrow. These data suggest that NKR+ T-cell enrichment in human bone marrow that has been exposed to neoplastic transformation is compatible with a role in localized tumor surveillance/eradication.