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Hong Kong’s Political Landscape from The Media Coverage in The Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement
Get PDFThe study aims to obtain a deeper understanding of the political landscape in Hong Kong by investigating agenda-setting and narratives that are being presented by media from Hong Kong and mainland China during The Anti-ELAB Movement in 2019. News stories about The Anti-ELAB Movement from five media outlets in Hong Kong and mainland China are collected to answer three questions. First, does their agenda-setting differ in the collected news stories? Second, what specific issues do those media navigate differently? Third, what do those news stories reveal about the political landscape?
Hong Kong is a complex blend of Chinese and Western systems ideologically, culturally, and politically, which contributes to a confusing political identity and fostered mistrust of Beijing among Hong Kong residents. This mistrust further undermines efforts to implement One Country, Two Systems. Since then, the conflict in its politics has shifted from pro-Beijing versus pro-democracy to pro-government versus anti-government. Therefore, is the embodiment of the anti-government sentiment. In calling for universal suffrage, protesters are asserting their right to remove the government they disapprove of. However, with these social movements, what is the question protesters insist on addressing to the city? Both the Umbrella Movement and the Anti-ELAB Movement involve an extensive use of bodies. By demonstrating their bodies on streets, in buildings, and online, the young generation in Hong Kong reclaim the massive public sphere when suffering from economic imbalance
Testing for color vision in peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, L. boggessi, and L. jundalini, using optomotor response
No full textPeppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni, L. boggessi, and L. jundalini), are cleaner shrimp that specialize in removing dead and diseased tissue, and parasites on reef fishes. Crustaceans have a range of visual abilities, from being color blind to having many visual pigments, but most of them are limited in their ability to discern colors. A rotating optomotor drum with vertical stripes of blue and red shades were used to document the behavioral responses of each of the Lysmata sp. to determine whether they have color vision. The specific shades of blue and red were selected to have the same relative photon catch, i.e., the shrimps’ presumed known photoreceptor visual pigment absorbed the same amount of light reflected from these two colors. These photon catches were determined by assuming a maximum spectral absorption of the visual pigment of Lysmata sp. identical to published data on L. amboinensis, which has a single visual pigment at λmax=518 nm. To this visual pigment, the generated colors red (645nm, photon catch 0.435) and blue (400nm, photon catch 0.432), have no contrast. Each drum was rotated around a 15cm☓15cm cylindrical tank housing a single shrimp for two minutes at 6rpm. After the first minute, the direction of rotation was switched. A black and white striped drum was used as a control to verify the shrimps’ behavioral response to moving stripes. A solid white drum acted as a second control verifying the shrimps’ behavioral response in the absence of detectable visual stimuli. When presented with the black and white control drum, a positive behavioral response was observed, with shrimp swimming in the direction of the drum, including a reverse in drum spinning direction. A negative response, defined by either random swimming or no movement at all, was observed for the control white drum, but specifically for the colored red and blue drum. This response was seen in all three Lysmata sp., showing that L. wurdemanni, L. boggessi, and L. jundalini are color blind
Addictive Tendencies in a Mouse Model of Bipolar Disorder
No full textBipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic mood disorder characterized by cycles in mood and energy. Individuals with BD are at a higher risk of comorbid substance use disorders (SUD). Studies have shown that a mutation of the ClockΔ19 gene in mice may be a valid rodent model for BD. The ClockΔ19 mouse model presents both face and predictive validity in its parallels to human bipolar disorder such as, disrupted circadian rhythms, hyperactivity, increased risk taking, addictive tendencies, and the impact of lithium on BD symptoms. Additionally, similar to an increase in rates of SUD in humans with BD, these ClockΔ19 mice have shown a greater preference for alcohol and cocaine than wildtype (WT) mice. One assay used to test for addictive tendencies is the sucrose preference test (SPT). The SPT consists of two phases, the baseline and the test. In the test phase, mice can choose to drink water or sucrose water. The findings from this test can answer questions on the presence of increased motivation and addictive tendencies in ClockΔ19 mice. In our lab we examine the differences in preference of sucrose water between male and female wildtype (WT), heterozygous (HET), and homozygous (HOM) mice. In a sample size of 18 mice, we found no significant difference between WT, HET, and HOM mice. These results may have been due to the concentration of sucrose. We used a concentration of 0.03% for 12 mice and 0.01% for 6 mice, both of which produced ceiling effect like results. In the future, we suggest a decreased sucrose concentration to possibly eliminate the ceiling effect and an increase in sample size
Estuarine Sediment in the Kickemuit River: Analysis of Raw, Decarbonized, Decarbonated, and Acid-Washed Samples Using XRD, XRF, ICP-OES, DRIFTS, and Raman
No full textThe Kickemuit River in Rhode Island is a major freshwater input for Mount Hope Bay estuary, and it is a major source of nutrients notably the limiting organic and inorganic phosphorus forms. Phosphorus on entering the more basic saline waters precipitates and deposits within the estuarine sediment bound to Ca and Fe, becoming ecological locked and recycled in this niche. This study analyzed the concentration of metal ions [Fe, Ca, Mg, Al] and their mineral structures by a suite of spectroscopic instrumentation XRD, XRF, ICP, DRIFT, and Raman within the bay sediment and contrasted this with concentration of water soluble and bound phosphates extracted from the sediment. Segmented (25 cm) core samples (1 M) were collected from six different sites from the Kickemuit and Taunton rivers, and Mount Hope Bay. The segmented samples were dried (100˚C 24hrs), ground, sieved (#20 mesh size), and were heated (550˚C 4hrs) to determine the total organic carbon from loss on ignition and further heated (1000˚C 5hrs) to determine total carbonate content. The release of the different forms of phosphorus upon treatment (water and acid washes) was determined by the ascorbic acid chemical spot test. The samples analyzed by spectroscopic instruments and chemical spot tests were compared to the 1646a NIST reference estuarine sediment standard. XRF scans of whole and treated segmented sieved samples identified the presence and an abundance of Fe, Ca, Si, Mn, Al, and Cu metal ions. Further instrumental XRD analysis identified the acid washed decarbonated sample having a high concentration of bound phosphates in the form of ferric phosphate [FePO4] and apatite [Ca5PO4]. XRD spectra also revealed the abundance of aluminosilicates such as kaolinite [Al2Si2O5(OH)4], gibbsite [Al(OH]3], and feldspars [KAlSi3O8], [NaAlSi3O8], [CaAl2Si2O8]. FT-IR DRIFTS analysis of overlaid comparative spectra from each phase of the sediment treatment and extraction shows loss of sulfate, carbonate, and phosphate ions. Raman spectroscopy indicated that heating the dried sediment to a 1000˚C altered the mineral composition and species. ICP-OES was used to identify the concentration of suspended and water-soluble metals and phosphorus directly within filtered pore water and those extracted from the sediment by either aqueous or acid wash. The latter acid wash being more potent extractant of metals and phosphorus ion
