Production Off Research Articles

Exclusionary inclusion? Streaming platforms and trans inclusive policies and practices: A case study of Netflix

This article examines the incongruence within Netflix’s corporate practice: while on the one hand the streamer promotes trans inclusion along with trans talent development in Netflix’s production culture, both on and off screen, on the other hand its industrial practices and representational output demonstrate a different approach. This article argues that, while the streamer positions itself as a champion of inclusion and diversity in the television industry, Netflix is invested in transness as an economic frontier rather than in adopting anti-transphobic practices. In making this argument, this article fosters a three-pronged approach to explore the treatment of trans identities by Netflix. Firstly, the article analyses Netflix’s corporate practices in relation to promotion of its limited series, Tales of the City. Secondly, the article explores the media event of Dave Chappelle’s comedy special The Closer and the subsequent trans employee walkout. Thirdly, it performs on audit of Netflix’s website and corporate materials to highlight how Netflix has developed a response to trans inclusion in relation to the walkout. Exploring these facets through Aron Kundnani’s (2023) critique of the diversity industry, this article argues that, on a policy and corporate performativity level, Netflix’s approach to trans inclusion can be defined as transliberalist (Raha, 2015), so that its practices result in a platform catalogue that is simultaneously at best trans-affirming and at worst transphobic.

Drivers and impact of the 2021 extreme warm event in the tropical Angolan upwelling system

Benguela Niños are extreme warm events that typically occur during the main downwelling season (austral fall) in the tropical Angolan upwelling system when the biological productivity is low. However, the extreme warm event that occurred between April and August 2021 stands out due to its late timing. It occurred and peaked during the main upwelling season in austral winter with sea surface temperature anomalies exceeding 2 °C in the Angola-Benguela area in June 2021. This led to an unprecedented reduction of the net primary production off southern Angola. Both local atmospheric processes and remote influences (via downwelling coastal trapped wave propagations) have contributed to the onset of the extreme warm event in April and its intensification towards the peak phase in June. Moreover, the poleward advection of warm equatorial waters toward the Angola-Benguela area in May 2021 might have contributed to the warming, since the transport of the Angola Current, as estimated from observations, was notably elevated, amounting to 2.1 Sv.

Detrital Input Sustains Diatom Production off a Glaciated Arctic Coast

AbstractIn the Arctic and subarctic oceans, the relatively low supply of silicon (compared to other nutrients) can make it limiting for the growth of diatoms, a fundamental building block of the oceanic food web. Glaciers release large quantities of dissolved silicon and dissolvable solid amorphous silica phases into high‐latitude estuaries (fjords), but the role of these glacially‐derived silica phases in sustaining diatom growth in the coastal and open‐water sectors remains unknown. Here we show how stable and radiogenic silicon isotopes can be used together to address this question, using southwest Greenland as a case study. This study finds enhanced levels of detrital (i.e., mineral) amorphous silica, likely glacially‐sourced, sustaining a large portion of diatom growth observed off the coast, revealing how the phytoplankton community can function during high‐meltwater periods.

Probing the structure of X(3872) in photoproduction

We study the production of X(3872) mesons in photon-induced nuclear reactions near the threshold within the collision model based on the nuclear spectral function. The model accounts for direct photon-nucleon X(3872) production processes as well as five different scenarios for their internal structure. We calculate the absolute and relative excitation functions for X(3872) production off 12C and 184W target nuclei at near-threshold incident photon energies of 8–16 GeV, the absolute differential cross sections for their production off these target nuclei at laboratory angles of 0∘–10∘ and for incident photon energy of 13 GeV as well as the A dependences of the relative (transparency ratios) cross sections for X(3872) production from γA collisions at photon energies around 13 GeV within the adopted scenarios for the X(3872) meson internal structure. We show that the absolute and relative observables considered reveal distinct sensitivity to these scenarios. Therefore, the measurement of such observables in a dedicated experiment at the CEBAF facility in the near-threshold energy range will allow us to get valuable information on the X(3872) inner structure.

Cabibbo suppressed hyperon production off nuclei induced by antineutrinos

Cabibbo suppressed hyperon production off nuclei induced by antineutrinos

Do Commercial Insect Repellents Provide Protection against the Tick Amblyomma sculptum (Acari: Ixodidae)?

Amblyomma sculptum is a species of public health interest because it is associated with the transmission of the bacteria that causes Brazilian Spotted Fever (BSF). The use of repellents on humans is a prophylactic measure widely used to provide protection against a series of arthropod vectors, including mosquitoes and ticks. However, in Brazil, the effectiveness of commercial repellents against A. sculptum is little known. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out specific studies to evaluate the repellency of these commercial products, registered for use against mosquitoes, against the star tick. The main goal of the present work was to evaluate the effectiveness of six commercial repellents against A. sculptum. Unfed nymphs, aged between two and eight weeks, were tested against products based on DEET (OFF!® and Repelex®), Icaridin (Exposis® and SBP®), and IR3535 (Johnsons and Henlau). Three bioassays were conducted to evaluate tick behavior: (i) filter paper, (ii) fingertip, and (iii) field. All bases tested showed high repellent activity, differing significantly (p < 0.05) from the control. It was observed the formulation with DEET resulted in the best results in the filter paper bioassay. In the fingertip bioassay, the DEET base repelled a greater number of ticks compared to Icaridin. In the field bioassay, there was no significant difference between the Icaridin base and DEET, and both formulations differed from the control (p < 0.05). The six formulations tested showed significant percentages of repellency against ticks; however, for the fingertip and field bioassays, the products OFF!®, Repelex®, and Exposis® were tested as they showed better performance in the filter paper test. OFF!® showed the best percentage of repellency (100%), followed by Repelex® (96.8%), and Exposis® (93.1%), considering the two-hour period of the bioassay-field-test. Proving the effectiveness of repellents on the market against A. sculptum presented in this study is crucial, since this is the main ectoparasite of humans that can transmit Rickettsia rickettsii when infected. The effectiveness of commercial insect repellents against other tick species that parasitize humans can also be explored.

Sediment dynamics and geomorphology of a submarine carbonate platform canyon system situated in an arid climate setting

ABSTRACTChanges in neritic carbonate production and sediment transport off platforms are related to climate variations, sea‐level fluctuations and tectonic processes. Canyon systems marking the platform slopes represent critical source‐to‐sink pathways transporting shallow‐water sediments basinward. However, these export systems and related processes are primarily studied on platform slopes in humid to tropical climate settings. A newly discovered canyon system on the leeward margin of the Al Wajh platform (north‐east Red Sea) represents the ideal laboratory to investigate source‐to‐sink pathway dynamics in an arid climate that prevailed since the Late Pleistocene. A high‐resolution bathymetry map was established to characterize the slope morphology. The system displays a U‐shaped, 10 km long main channel dominantly sourced by the north‐west/south‐east running outer channel and two smaller 2 to 3 km long canyons. The latter are positioned perpendicular to the main canyon. A 4 km wide head scarp at the reef edge and dozens of amphitheatre‐shaped scarps along the mid to lower slope suggest significant slope failures over time. The analysis of four sediment cores collected on a profile down the canyon revealed sedimentation rates of 26 cm/ka at the mid‐slope to 9.4 cm/ka in the basin. Three main sediment‐export processes were identified: (i) sandy and neritic component‐poor turbidites; (ii) winnowing of strontium‐rich carbonate fines through surface currents; and (iii) remobilized carbonate fines on the upper slope. As of the Last Glacial, turbidites are predominantly deposited during times of significant sea‐level instability, both rises and falls, whereas their flat‐topped‐tropical counterparts show a higher turbidite frequency during highstands. Strontium‐rich carbonate fines are exported similarly through time in both climate settings. Overall, sediment export is controlled by: (i) the platform morphology (flat‐topped versus rimmed lagoon); (ii) variations in sediment production; (iii) sea‐level variations (exposure or flooding of sediment production areas); and (iv) the interaction between the sedimentary system and atmospheric changes (sediment production and delivery).

Computational design exploration of a segmented concrete shell building floor system

The construction industry is responsible for nearly half of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions and the use of an extremely large volume of concrete – the world's most widely used man-made material – accounts for more than 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The scale of this problem spawned research to explore the potential for structurally efficient non-prismatic geometries to reduce the amount of concrete used in building elements substantially, thus also reducing their embodied carbon dioxide footprint. In particular, the research focused on segmented thin concrete shells as floor slabs, leveraging computational design and digital fabrication methodologies to automate their production off site. An important part of this research was the development of a computational framework for the design of thin concrete shells in order to make such a construction methodology accessible to building designers in practice. The framework combines solutions for parametric modelling, finite-element analysis, isogeometric analysis, form-finding and optimisation, along with embedded fabrication constraints specific to the project's automated manufacturing system. The application of the developed computational framework in the design of a 4.5 m × 4.5 m prototype is documented in this paper, illustrating how automating concrete construction can transform the industry towards net-zero.

Testing the ϕ-nuclear potential in pion-induced ϕ meson production on nuclei near threshold

The near-threshold pion-induced ϕ production off nuclei has been studied in the kinematical conditions of the HADES experiment using a collision model based on the nuclear spectral function. Starting from the elementary reaction π−p→ϕn, absolute differential and integral cross sections for the production of ϕ mesons off a light carbon and a heavy tungsten target have been calculated and compared to the recently reported experimental cross sections. The absolute cross section values are shown to be sensitive to the effective nuclear scalar ϕ and neutron potentials while the transparency ratio is governed by the ϕN absorption cross section. The experimental data are found to be consistent with an attractive ϕ-nucleus potential of ≈ -(50–100) MeV at normal nuclear matter density ρ0 and an effective ϕN absorption cross section of ≈ 12–25 mb. The extracted ϕ-nucleus potential is deeper than previous theoretical and experimental findings as well as those obtained in the present work within the (tρ) approximation with accounting for Pauli correlations from the spin-averaged ϕ-p scattering length reported in a recent ALICE experiment.

Possible Evidence for Lorentz Invariance Violation in Gamma-Ray Burst 221009A

The preliminary detections of the gamma-ray burst 221009A up to 18 TeV by LHAASO and up to 251 TeV by Carpet 2 have been reported through Astronomer’s Telegrams and Gamma-ray Coordination Network circulars. Since this burst is at redshift z = 0.1505, these photons may at first seem to have a low probability to avoid pair production off of background radiation fields and survive to reach detectors on Earth. By extrapolating the reported 0.1–1.0 GeV Fermi Large Area Telescope spectrum from this burst to higher energies and using this to limit the intrinsic spectrum of the burst, we show that the survival of the 18 TeV photon detected by LHAASO is not unlikely with many recent extragalactic background light models, although the detection of a 251 TeV event is still very unlikely. This can be resolved if Lorentz invariance is violated at an energy scale E QG ≲ 49E Planck in the linear (n = 1) case, and E QG ≲ 10−6 E Planck in the quadratic (n = 2) case (95% confidence limits), where E Planck is the Planck energy. This could potentially be the first evidence for subluminal Lorentz invariance violation.

A conceptual framework for integrated Designers Risk Assessments - a case study of an Insulated Concrete Formwork framed project

Designers’ Risk Assessments (DRA)s are essential to the successful implementation of projects and contractor’s work methods. The Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2015 in the UK demands that all parties who specify or recommend a component or elements on a building project are responsible for their designs and specifications. As more buildings are moving from traditional forms of construction to various forms of hybrid construction, designers contributing to the project will need to provide DRAs that are associated with their designs and specifications. Traditionally, the input of the architect, structural and services engineers would suffice for this process. However, as projects are incorporating more off-site production and on-site assembly, design responsibilities are getting more fragmented and designers will need to will need to propose risk assessments that manage the safe implementation of their designs at the points of production (off or on-site). Furthermore, Principal Designers who have the duty to coordinate all DRAs will need incorporate these into a wholistic document that will ensure that all risks (off site, in transit and on-site) are properly assessed for elimination, reduction, information and control at the final point of project implementation on site. An illustrative case study approach based on a project being delivered as a hybrid of insulated concrete formwork, beam and block suspended ground flooring, precast concrete first and second floors/ staircases and timber truss roofing was used to study and propose a conceptual framework that seeks to inform research/practice and engender wider debate relevant to integrated DRA formulation.

S68 Alpha-Gal Syndrome Complicating the Management of Suspected Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency

Introduction: IgE antibodies to the oligosaccharide galactose-α-1,3-galactose (α-gal) are an important cause of allergic reactions to mammalian meat and other mammal-derived products. The symptoms of α-gal syndrome (AGS) can involve urticaria or anaphylaxis, but increasingly we are aware that GI tract symptoms, including diarrhea, are also a major feature of AGS. Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) is a common cause of diarrhea and treatment involves the use of pancreatic replacement enzymes (PRE). PRE are porcine derived and contain α-gal. Patients receiving PRE who are α-gal IgE positive are at risk for allergic reactions and GI symptoms due to α-gal sensitivity. Here we reviewed patients with suspected PEI and concomitant α-gal IgE sensitization in the practice of one gastroenterologist in Virginia. Methods: Retrospective chart review was carried out using inclusion criteria of i) diarrhea, ii) low fecal elastase (< 200 μg/g feces), and iii) α-gal IgE sensitization ( >0.10 kU/L). Results: 15 patients were identified with mean fecal elastase of 123 and median IgE α-gal level 0.96 (Table). 9 improved off of mammalian-containing food products and 3 of these did not require PRE. 11 patients received PRE. Of 5 patients with pre-existing systemic allergy symptoms to mammalian meat, 1 improved off of mammalian products and did not require PRE, 1 had increased diarrhea with Creon and was lost to follow up, 1 tolerated Creon with pruritus, 1 experienced hives from Creon but successfully underwent office-based desensitization, and 1 patient avoided PRE due to the severity of allergy symptoms. 6 patients without the classic cutaneous allergy symptoms of AGS tolerated PRE, though 1 developed some urticaria. Conclusion: In this series of 15 patients with suspected PEI who had concomitant α-gal IgE >0.1 kU/L, 60% improved with removal of α-gal containing products from the diet and 20% did not require PRE. Of the 11 patients who were treated with ongoing PRE, 3 experienced urticaria and 1 had increased diarrhea, but none had severe allergic symptoms. In our experience, patients who are sensitized to α-gal can usually tolerate PRE. Practitioners should also be aware that worsening diarrhea during PRE treatment could be a consequence of α-gal-related hypersensitivity, rather than medication non-compliance. Recognition of AGS superimposed upon PEI will allow improve management in this complex patient population. Table 1. - Clinical data from 15 patients with suspected pancreatic exocrine insufficiency diagnosed with concomitant α-gal syndrome Characteristics Total Cohort (n=15) Age, mean years (range) 59.5 (19-80) Sex, female, n (%) 9 (60%) Race, Caucasian, n (%) 15 (100%) Fecal Elastase, mean μg/g fecal material (range) 123 (49-183) IgE to α-gal, median kU/L (range) 0.96 (0.41-26.1) Diarrhea Severity recorded, n (%) 13 (87%) Mild, 0-4 stools per day, n (%) 4 (31%) Moderate, 5-8 stools per day, n (%) 6 (46%) Severe, >8 stools per day, n (%) 3 (23%) Improvement with mammalian avoidance, n (%) 9 (60%) Treated with PRE, n (%) 11 (73%) Creon, n (%) 10 (91%) Zenpep, n (%) 1 (9%) Allergy Symptoms attributed to PRE, n (%) 4 (36%) Urticaria, n (%) 3 (27%) Diarrhea, n (%) 1 (9%)

Effects of Government Water Supply on the Smallholder Farmers’ Sustainable Nutrition in Togo

Water shortage is a global problem. It is predominantly visible in the agricultural sector and in farming communities. Togo is not an exception in this regard because some rural agricultural communities do not have access to water but rely on distance conveyance. Government is under constitutional obligation to supply water in rural areas to boost crop production off rain seasons especially. Can Government Water subsidy improve smallholder farmers&amp;rsquo; nutrition? This study, therefore, aims at investigating the impact of Government Water Supply (GWS) on the household of Kara agricultural region in Togo. A two-stage sampling procedure was employed to collect panel data during 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 cropping seasons. Different from previous studies, robust fixed effects regression is used to model the effect of government water subsidy. The core findings reveal that water subsidy improves farm household&amp;rsquo;s nutrition. The results also indicate that subsidized water influences available per capita calories per day, household&amp;rsquo;s months of good nutrition, and the probability of being well nourished from own production of cereals and legumes but has statistically insignificant effects on household annual consumption expenditure. The results provide several valuable insights from the policy point of view. A water supply subsidy program has a higher and better influence on the maximum good nutrition, bringing up the question of whether targeting households in the lowest food crops production percentiles give value for money to achieve the goal of sustainable nutrition.

The sin 2phi _h azimuthal asymmetry of pion production in SIDIS within TMD factorization

We study the sin 2phi _h azimuthal asymmetry of charged and neutral pion productions off the longitudinally polarized nucleon targets in semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering (SIDIS) process within the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization. The asymmetry is contributed by the convolution of the TMD distribution h_{1L}^{perp } and the Collins fragmentation function H_{1}^perp . We adopt the Wandzura–Wilczek-type (WW-type) approximation for h_{1L}^{perp } and two different parametrizations on the nonperturbative Sudakov form factor for h_{1L}^{perp } and H_{1}^perp . We estimate the sin 2phi _h asymmetry at HERMES and CLAS and compare them with the corresponding experimental data. We also provide the prediction at kinematical configuration of CLAS12. It is shown that our theoretical calculation can describe the HERMES and CLAS data, except the asymmetry of the pi ^- production off proton target at HERMES and CLAS. We also find that different choices of the nonperturbative part of TMD evolution lead qualitatively similar results.

PEMBERDAYAAN KELOMPOK WANITA TANI MELALUI INOVASI OLAHAN PRODUK UNGGULAN LOKAL DESA SALAMREJO KABUPATEN KULON PROGO

One of the ways to empower rural communities is to empower women farmer groups. One of the program activities in the women farmer group is the processing of agricultural commodities. The activity of processing agricultural commodities into a food product (off farm) can provide added value to the product and can make the product to be superior product. Limited knowledge related to product processing is a problem that can be overcome through community empowerment programs. The purpose of this activity is that women farmer groups in every hamlet in Salamrejo Village, Kulon Progo Regency can utilize superior commodities in their area into processed food products that have added value. The method used in this activity is counseling (edu-agriculture) and direct training practices on the manufacture of processed foods made from corn. The results of the activities obtained are in the form of increasing the knowledge of members of the women's farmer group regarding how to process food made from corn commodities so that they are cost-efficient and have a high selling price and can practice food processing made from corn commodities independently in groups.

Central exclusive production of axial-vector f1 mesons in proton-proton collisions within the tensor-pomeron approach

We discuss the central exclusive production of f_{1}f1 mesons in proton-proton collisions. The diffractive pomeron-pomeron fusion process within the tensor-pomeron approach is considered. Two ways to construct the pomeron-pomeron-f_{1}f1 coupling are discussed. The theoretical calculation of coupling constants is a challenging problem of nonperturbative QCD. We adjust the parameters of the model to the WA102 experimental data. The total cross section and differential distributions are presented. Predictions for LHC experiments are given. Detailed analysis of the distributions in \phi_{pp}ϕpp the azimuthal angle between the transverse momenta of the outgoing protons can help to check different models and to study real pattern of the absorption effects.

Value Co-Creation on Public Social Media at Different Stages of the New Product Development Process. A Case Study of a Polish Clothes Manufacturer

This study contributes to the value co-creation theory in the context of the new product development process. The aim of this study is a comparison of interactions that lead to creation of value on public social media. The considered interactions are at diff erent stages of the new product development process: an idea generation and product development (crowdsourcing) and post-launch (product off erings). The place where interactions take place is Facebook fan page of a Polish clothes manufacturer. The DART model of value co-creation is the framework of the comparison. The results show that interactions at the stage of ideation and product development phase attracted more attention from the social media users than post-launch ones. Interactions at the stage of idea generation phase encouraged social media users to communicate with other social media users. It was rare with post-launch activities in the form of product off ering. The study is qualitative, based on a case study of a Polish clothes manufacturer with the use of an indepth interview and netnography.

E&amp;P Notes (April 2022)

E&amp;P Notes (April 2022)

Circle in the Square Theatre: A Comprehensive History

Circle in the Square Theatre: A Comprehensive History

Late Holocene centennial to millennial-scale variability in lower trophic level productivity off southern Hokkaido, Japan, and its response to dissolved iron-replete Coastal Oyashio dynamics

AbstractLittle is known about the dynamics of marine food chains spanning primary to higher trophic levels on centennial and longer timescales, especially where the supply of dissolved iron limits primary productivity. To elucidate the long-term dynamics of biological productivity in the Coastal Oyashio (CO), which is a major pathway for transporting dissolved iron into the western North Pacific from winter to spring, we reconstructed the lower trophic level productivity over the last 3000 years in the CO. Our results demonstrate that the concentrations and mass accumulation rates of both Chl-a (chlorophyll a and its derivatives) and biogenic opal used as proxies of primary productivity, and steryl chlorin esters (SCEs) used as that of zooplankton productivity, show a millennial-scale increasing trend and centennial-scale variability beginning ca. AD 400. SCEs were positively correlated with Chl-a, indicating that changes in zooplankton productivity were induced by bottom-up control of primary productivity. The Chl-a and SCEs showed synchronous centennial-scale patterns with a relative abundance of sea-ice-associated diatom species transported by CO, and with a ventilation index in the Okhotsk Sea Intermediate Water. This synchronous pattern indicates that lower trophic-level productivity during the spring bloom responded to the intensity of iron-replete CO.