1,674 research outputs found
A tangled pathology: how AIDS became a "family disease" in Newark, New Jersey, 1970-1997
No full textAs AIDS proliferated in Newark, New Jersey through the 1980s, local AIDS-care advocates conceptualized AIDS in ways that reflected the disease’s impact on Newarkers. In reframing a problem that was predominately cast as a “gay disease” in North America, AIDS activists in Newark sought to highlight the growing prevalence of HIV and AIDS among urban communities of color. These efforts sought to direct national attention and resources towards affected “at risk” Newarkers by self-consciously portraying HIV and AIDS as a disease of the family. The lynchpin in this discourse was the pediatric AIDS patient. Discussions of HIV-positive children, and the “family disease” frame, became normalizing shorthand for addressing the complex biological transmission of the disease. By the late 1980s, advocates for Newark recognized the political utility in characterizing AIDS as a family disease at a time when the federal government was preparing to allocate funds for the areas hardest hit by the epidemic. This unique discourse was particularly useful in not only drawing attention to the problem of AIDS, but also to the societal “ills” associated with the disease’s prevalence among impoverished communities of color in Newark. As the family disease discourse evolved, Newark came to represent the ubiquitous, albeit insidious, urban problems that contributed to and exacerbated the epidemic in similar U.S. cities. Reserved almost exclusively to descriptions of families of color, the family disease discourse must be understood as—an implicit, if not explicit—response to mainstream perceptions of the inner city. Efforts to cope with AIDS in Newark benefited from the family disease script. Yet the legacy of the family disease discourse perhaps further encumbered cultural perceptions of inner city families as well. The family disease discourse thus inextricably linked the AIDS epidemic in impoverished communities color, and inner city families, to the pernicious social pathologies narrative that had over-determined perceptions of Newark since the late1960s.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Jason M. Chernesk
Efficient coralline algal psbA mini barcoding and High Resolution Melt (HRM) analysis using a simple custom DNA preparation
No full textInterview: Jason Dittmer Interviewed by Steven M. Schnell, Editor, The Geographical Bulletin
No full textJason Dittmer is from Jacksonville, Florida, received his PhD from Florida State University in 2003, and has taught at University College London in the United Kingdom since 2007. He is the author of Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and Identity (Rowman and Littlefield, 2010) and the co-editor of Mapping the End Times: American Evangelical Geopolitics and Apocalyptic Visions (Ashgate, 2010). He is married to the lovely Stephanie and has two cats. They all live in southeast London
Low salinity as a biosecurity tool for minimizing biofouling on ship sea chests
No full textAbstract. Biofouling is a major vector in the transfer of non-native species around the world. Species can be transported on virtually all submerged areas of ships (e.g. hulls, sea chests, propellers) and so antifouling systems are used to reduce fouling. However, with increased regulation of biocides used in antifoulants (e.g. the International Maritime Organization tributyltin ban in 2008), there is a need to find efficient and sustainable alternatives. Here, we tested the hypothesis that short doses of low salinity water could be used to kill fouling species in sea chests. Settlement panels were suspended at 1.5 m depth in a Plymouth marina for 24 months by which time they had developed mature biofouling assemblages. We exposed these panels to three different salinities (7, 20 and 33) for 2 hours using a model sea chest placed in the marina and flushed with freshwater. Fouling organism diversity and abundance were assessed before panels were treated, immediately after treatment, and then 1 week and 1 month later. Some native ascidian Dendrodoa grossularia survived, but all other macrobenthos were killed by the salinity 7 treatment after 1 week. The salinity 20 treatment was not effective at killing the majority of fouling organisms. On the basis of these results, we propose that sea chests be flushed with freshwater for at least 2 hours before ships leave port. This would not cause unnecessary delays or costs and could be a major step forward in improving biosecurity
International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 393 Preliminary Report South Atlantic Transect 2
No full textThe South Atlantic Transect (SAT) is a multidisciplinary scientific ocean drilling experiment designed to investigate the evolution of the oceanic crust and overlying sediments across the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This project comprises four International Ocean Discovery Program expeditions: fully staffed Expeditions 390 and 393 (April–August 2022) built on engineering preparations during Expeditions 390C and 395E that took place without science parties during the height of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Through operations along a crustal flow line at ~31°S, the SAT recovered complete sedimentary sections and the upper ~40–340 m of the underlying ocean crust formed at a slow to intermediate spreading rate at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge over the past ~61 My. The sediments along this transect were originally spot cored more than 50 y ago during Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 3 (December 1968–January 1969) to help verify the theories of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. The SAT expeditions targeted six primary sites on 7, 15, 31, 49, and 61 Ma ocean crust that fill critical gaps in our sampling of intact in situ ocean crust with regards to crustal age, spreading rate, and sediment thickness. Drilling these sites was required to investigate the history, duration, and intensity of the low-temperature hydrothermal interactions between the aging ocean crust and the evolving South Atlantic Ocean. This knowledge will improve the quantification of past hydrothermal contributions to global biogeochemical cycles and help develop a predictive understanding of the impacts of variable hydrothermal processes and exchanges. Samples from the transect of the previously unexplored sediment- and basalt-hosted deep biosphere beneath the South Atlantic Gyre are essential to refine global biomass estimates and examine microbial ecosystems’ responses to variable conditions in a low-energy gyre and aging ocean crust. The transect is located near World Ocean Circulation Experiment Line A10, which provides a baseline for records of carbonate chemistry and deepwater mass properties across the western South Atlantic through key Cenozoic intervals of elevated atmospheric CO2 and rapid climate change. Reconstruction of the history of the deep western boundary current and deepwater formation in the Atlantic basins will yield crucial data to test hypotheses regarding the role of evolving thermohaline circulation patterns in climate change and the effects of tectonic gateways and climate on ocean acidification. During engineering Expeditions 390C and 395E, a single hole was cored through the sediment cover and into the uppermost rocks of the ocean crust with the advanced piston corer (APC) and extended core barrel (XCB) systems at five of the six primary proposed SAT sites. Reentry systems with casing were then installed either into basement or within 10 m of basement at each of those five sites. Expedition 390 (7 April–7 June 2022) conducted operations at three of the SAT sites, recovering 700 m of core (77%) over 30.3 days of on-site operations. Sediment coring, basement coring, and wireline logging were conducted at two sites on 61 Ma crust (Sites U1556 and U1557), and sediment coring was completed at the 7 Ma Site U1559. Expedition 393 operated at four sites, drilling in 12 holes to complete this initial phase of the SAT. Complete sedimentary sections were collected at Sites U1558, U1583, and U1560 on 49, 31, and 15 Ma crust, respectively, and together with 257.7 m of sediments cored during earlier operations, more than 600 m of sediments was characterized. The uppermost ocean crust was drilled at Sites U1558, U1560, and U1583 with good penetration (~130 to ~204 meters subbasement), but at the youngest ~7 Ma Site U1559, only ~43 m of basement penetration was achieved in this initial attempt. Geophysical wireline logs were aquired at Sites U1583 and U1560. Expeditions 390 and 393 established legacy sites available for future deepening and downhole basement hydrothermal and microbiological experiments at Sites U1557, U1560, and U1559 on 61, 15, and 7 Ma crust, respectively
OPINION: Overfishing and the replacement of demersal finfish by shellfish: an example from the English Channel
No full textThe worldwide depletion and collapse of major fish stocks through intensive industrial fishing has raised many concerns about the sustainability of current fishing practices and the effectiveness of existing management measures (Christensen et al., 2003; Baum and Worm, 2009; O’Leary et al., 2011). Long-term data series such as fishery statistics have been analysed extensively in recent decades to assess changes in fish populations and ecological communities (Pauly et al., 2001; Pinnegar et al. 2002; Pauly and Chuenpagdee, 2003). Since Pauly et al.’s (1998) pioneering work, the phenomenon of “Fishing Down Marine Food Webs” has been investigated worldwide. The trend for fisheries shifting towards much smaller species found lower in the food chain as predatory species have been depleted has been demonstrated in many marine regions around the world through declines in the mean Trophic Level (mTL) of fisheries landings (Table 1). A study by the authors focused on the English Channel, a region with a long history of human exploitation where this assessment has never been performed before..
Dynamic structural colour increases photosynthetic performance in the alga Ericaria selaginoides
No full textNitrogen availability regulates the effects of a simulated marine heatwave on carbon sequestration and phycosphere bacteria of a marine crop
No full textGreat hope has been pinned on seaweed cultivation as being a potent way of removing CO2 to reduce rates of sea surface warming and acidification. Marine heatwaves and nitrogen pollution in coastal ecosystems are serious current issues that need to be better understood to inform decision making and policy. Here, we investigated the effects of a simulated heatwave and nitrogen pollution on carbon sequestration by an important seaweed crop species and its phycosphere bacteria. Gracilaria lemaneiformis was grown in ambient and high nitrogen conditions (14 and 200 μM L−1). Photosynthetic rate, seaweed biomass and particulate organic carbon accumulation were significantly increased in “high nitrogen-no heatwave” conditions. In “ambient nitrogen heatwave” conditions, the expression of genes related to photosynthesis was down regulated and the seaweeds lost more dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to the surrounding water, resulting in more refractory dissolved organic carbon (RDOC). In “high nitrogen heatwave” conditions, photosynthetic gene expression was upregulated; bacterial abundance was also increased that can explain the reduced DOC and RDOC accumulation. The simulated heatwave reduced bacterial diversity while high nitrogen alleviated this effect. These findings suggest that the economically important alga G. lemaneiformis may lose more DOC and RDOC to nearshore waters during marine heatwave events, enhancing carbon sequestration, while nitrogen enrichment has a counteractive effect
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