It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, July 06, 2021
Kepler telescope glimpses population of free-floating planets
ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
VIDEO: A SIMULATION OF THE GRAVITATIONAL MICROLENSING EFFECT INDUCED BY A FOREGROUND ISOLATED PLANETARY BODY ON THE LIGHT FROM A BACKGROUND STAR LOCATED TOWARDS THE CENTRE OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY.view more
CREDIT: DAVID SPECHT / EAMONN KERINS / UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Tantalising evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of "free-floating" planets, planets that may be alone in deep space, unbound to any host star. The results include four new discoveries that are consistent with planets of similar masses to Earth, published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The study, led by Iain McDonald of the University of Manchester, UK, (now based at the Open University, UK) used data obtained in 2016 during the K2 mission phase of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. During this two-month campaign, Kepler monitored a crowded field of millions of stars near the centre of our Galaxy every 30 minutes in order to find rare gravitational microlensing events.
The study team found 27 short-duration candidate microlensing signals that varied over timescales of between an hour and 10 days. Many of these had been previously seen in data obtained simultaneously from the ground. However, the four shortest events are new discoveries that are consistent with planets of similar masses to Earth.
These new events do not show an accompanying longer signal that might be expected from a host star, suggesting that these new events may be free-floating planets. Such planets may perhaps have originally formed around a host star before being ejected by the gravitational tug of other, heavier planets in the system.
Predicted by Albert Einstein 85 years ago as a consequence of his General Theory of Relativity, microlensing describes how the light from a background star can be temporarily magnified by the presence of other stars in the foreground. This produces a short burst in brightness that can last from hours to a few days. Roughly one out of every million stars in our Galaxy is visibly affected by microlensing at any given time, but only a few percent of these are expected to be caused by planets.
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Artist's impression of a free-floating planet.
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A. Stelter / Wikimedia Commons
Kepler was not designed to find planets using microlensing, nor to study the extremely dense star fields of the inner Galaxy. This meant that new data reduction techniques had to be developed to look for signals within the Kepler dataset.
Iain notes: "These signals are extremely difficult to find. Our observations pointed an elderly, ailing telescope with blurred vision at one the most densely crowded parts of the sky, where there are already thousands of bright stars that vary in brightness, and thousands of asteroids that skim across our field. From that cacophony, we try to extract tiny, characteristic brightenings caused by planets, and we only have one chance to see a signal before it's gone. It's about as easy as looking for the single blink of a firefly in the middle of a motorway, using only a handheld phone."
Co-author Eamonn Kerins of the University of Manchester also comments, "Kepler has achieved what it was never designed to do, in providing further tentative evidence for the existence of a population of Earth-mass, free-floating planets. Now it passes the baton on to other missions that will be designed to find such signals, signals so elusive that Einstein himself thought that they were unlikely ever to be observed. I am very excited that the upcoming ESA Euclid mission could also join this effort as an additional science activity to its main mission."
Confirming the existence and nature of free-floating planets will be a major focus for upcoming missions such as the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and possibly the ESA Euclid mission, both of which will be optimised to look for microlensing signals.
IMAGE: THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE EARLY SUN. THE START OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM SEES THE INITIATION OF THE SUN'S DYNAMO, WHICH CREATES A STRONG MAGNETIC FIELD (GREEN LINES), THAT PULLS... view more
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
Scientists from Tohoku University and the University of Maryland have pinpointed the strong magnetic field of the early sun as the reason behind the radial variation of rock and metal in rocky planets' cores. This magnetic field, which pulled small iron grains inward, explains Mercury's big iron core and why Mars has so little iron in its core.
The details of their research were published in the journal Progress in Earth and Planetary Science on July 5, 2021.
Planets have iron cores surrounded by a rocky shell, mostly made up of mantle and a thin skin of crust. The four inner planets of our Solar System, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars have their own distinctive size and density. These differences have long since puzzled scientists.
Mercury has a metallic core making up about 3/4 of its mass, with the remaining 1/4 being a rocky silicate shell. The cores of Earth and Venus possess a metallic core of only 1/3 of their mass, with the rest being rock. Mars has a measly core comprising only 1/4 of its mass.
These radical changes in metal content offer clues about what controlled the distribution of raw materials in the early formation of the solar system.
During this period, swirling gas and dust cloud drew matter into the Solar System's center, thus forming the Sun. The rapid delivery to the center caused many collisions and heated the inner region of the Solar System. When the Sun was big enough to have its own internal gravity, it caused its proton-rich core to ignite its nuclear fuel, brightly turning on the Sun. Following this, the Sun's core began convecting, creating a dynamo generating a strong magnetic field.
The high temperatures of the inner Solar System turned elements into a vapor state. As the element cloud cooled down it rained out mineral compounds. Evidence from primitive meteorites reveals the compounds precipitated were either silicates or metals. The sun's magnetic field pulled the metal particles inwards.
The composition of inner rocky planets is remarkably similar to primitive meteorites. Also known as chondrites, these meteorites are jumbled mixtures of rock and metal in different proportions. Unlike rocky planets, they do not have cores.
The raw materials making up the rocky planets are just four unevenly distributed elements: oxygen, iron, magnesium, and silicon. This represents about 93% of a rocky planet's mass. Around 70% of that is equal measure oxygen and iron, whilst the rest consists of equal measure magnesium and silicon.
"Planetary cores are a big deal," proclaims coauthor of the study Bill McDonough. "They control where elements end up in the planet." McDonough points to the Earth's abundance of the nutrient phosphorus concentrated in its core as an example. "Planetary habitability also depends upon the size and compositions of its core in addition to the lifetime of its dynamo."
The core's dynamo generates a magnetic shield that protects us from cancer-causing cosmic rays. Once Mars lost its core dynamo, its surface water disappeared quickly thereafter.
Early on in Solar System formation, a cloudy disc of gas and dust surrounded the Sun and planets, serving as a conduit for the Sun's magnetic field. The strength of the magnetic field weakened as it got further away from the Sun. Mercury formed in the prime location - close to where the Sun's magnetic field was strongest, thus explaining its large iron core.
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The Cores of the terrestrial planets. The four terrestrial planets each have iron-rich cores surrounded by rocky mantles. Core size scales with distance from the sun, Mercury has the biggest and Mars the smallest.
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NASA
New nanotech will enable a 'healthy' electric current production inside the human body
The innovative material that creates green energy through mechanical force
A new nanotechnology development by an international research team led by Tel Aviv University researchers will make it possible to generate electric currents and voltage within the human body through the activation of various organs (mechanical force). The researchers explain that the development involves a new and very strong biological material, similar to collagen, which is non-toxic and causes no harm to the body's tissues. The researchers believe that this new nanotechnology has many potential applications in medicine, including harvesting clean energy to operate devices implanted in the body (such as pacemakers) through the body's natural movements, eliminating the need for batteries.
The study was led by Prof. Ehud Gazit of the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, along with his lab team, Dr. Santu Bera and Dr. Wei Ji.
Also taking part in the study were researchers from the Weizmann Institute and a number of research institutes in Ireland, China and Australia. As a result of their findings, the researchers received two ERC-POC grants aimed at using the scientific research from the ERC grant that Gazit had previously won for applied technology. The research was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
Prof. Gazit, who is also Founding Director of the BLAVATNIK CENTER for Drug Discovery, explains: "Collagen is the most prevalent protein in the human body, constituting about 30% of all of the proteins in our body. It is a biological material with a helical structure and a variety of important physical properties, such as mechanical strength and flexibility, which are useful in many applications. However, because the collagen molecule itself is large and complex, researchers have long been looking for a minimalistic, short and simple molecule that is based on collagen and exhibits similar properties. About a year and a half ago, in the journal Nature Materials, our group published a study in which we used nanotechnological means to engineer a new biological material that meets these requirements. It is a tripeptide - a very short molecule called Hyp-Phe-Phe consisting of only three amino acids - capable of a simple process of self-assembly of forming a collagen-like helical structure that is flexible and boasts a strength similar to that of the metal titanium. In the present study, we sought to examine whether the new material we developed bears another feature that characterizes collagen - piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity is the ability of a material to generate electric currents and voltage as a result of the application of mechanical force, or vice versa, to create a mechanical force as the result of exposure to an electric field."
In the study, the researchers created nanometric structures of the engineered material, and with the help of advanced nanotechnology tools, applied mechanical pressure on them. The experiment revealed that the material does indeed produce electric currents and voltage as a result of the pressure. Moreover, tiny structures of only hundreds of nanometers demonstrated one of the highest levels of piezoelectric ability ever discovered, comparable or superior to that of the piezoelectric materials commonly found in today's market (most of which contain lead and are therefore not suitable for medical applications).
According to the researchers, the discovery of piezoelectricity of this magnitude in a nanometric material is of great significance, as it demonstrates the ability of the engineered material to serve as a kind of tiny motor for very small devices. Next, the researchers plan to apply crystallography and computational quantum mechanical methods (density functional theory) in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the material's piezoelectric behavior and thereby enable the accurate engineering of crystals for the building of biomedical devices.
Prof. Gazit adds: "Most of the piezoelectric materials that we know of today are toxic lead-based materials, or polymers, meaning they are not environmentally and human body-friendly. Our new material, however, is completely biological, and therefore suitable for uses within the body. For example, a device made from this material may replace a battery that supplies energy to implants like pacemakers, though it should be replaced from time to time. Body movements - like heartbeats, jaw movements, bowel movements, or any other movement that occurs in the body on a regular basis - will charge the device with electricity, which will continuously activate the implant."
Now, as part of their continuing research, the researchers are seeking to understand the molecular mechanisms of the engineered material with the goal of realizing its immense potential and turning this scientific discovery into applied technology. At this stage, the focus is on the development of medical devices, but Prof. Gazit emphasizes that "environmentally friendly piezoelectric materials, such as the one we have developed, have tremendous potential in a wide range of areas because they produce green energy using mechanical force that is being used anyway. For example, a car driving down the street can turn on the streetlights. These materials may also replace lead-containing piezoelectric materials that are currently in widespread use, but that raise concerns about the leakage of toxic metal into the environment."
IMAGE: A PHOTO OF A FOXGLOVE CALIBRATED TO DIFFERENT VISUAL SYSTEMS AND ARTIFICIAL LIGHT TYPES. FROM LEFT: HUMAN VISION IN SUNLIGHT, HAWKMOTH MOONLIGHT, HAWKMOTH WHITE LED, HAWKMOTH PC AMBER LED. HAWKMOTH... view more
CREDIT: JOLYON TROSCIANKO
Changes in the colour and intensity of light pollution over the past few decades result in complex and unpredictable effects on animal vision, new research shows.
Insect attraction to light is a well-known phenomenon, but artificial lighting can also have more subtle consequences for species that rely on night-time vision for their behaviour.
To explore these effects, University of Exeter researchers examined the impact of more than 20 kinds of lighting on the vision of moths, and birds that eat them.
The study found that elephant hawkmoth vision was enhanced by some types of lighting and disrupted by others, while the vision of birds that hunt moths was improved by almost any lighting.
Night-time lighting is increasing rapidly worldwide, and has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, as amber (low-pressure sodium) streetlights are replaced with a diverse range of modern lights such as LEDs.
"Modern broad-spectrum lighting allows humans to see colour more easily at night," said Dr Jolyon Troscianko, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
"However, it is difficult to know how these modern light sources affect the vision of other animals.
"Hawkmoth eyes are sensitive to blue, green and ultraviolet, and they use this colour vision to help find flowers just like bees, but at incredibly low light levels - even under starlight.
"Moths are also vitally important pollinators - accounting for a similar proportion of pollination as bees - so we urgently need to investigate how lighting affects them.
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Elephant hawkmoth
CREDIT
Emmanuelle Briolat
"We used animal vision modelling to calculate the ability of moths to see flower colours, and of birds to see camouflaged moths under a wide range of natural and artificial lighting.
"Artificial lights designed for human vision lack the blue and ultraviolet ranges that are key to moth colour vision, and under many conditions will block the moth's ability to see any colours at all.
"This could make it more difficult for them to find and pollinate wildflowers, and for them to find suitable spots to camouflage them from predators.
"Conversely, bird vision is much more robust, meaning artificial light will help them to find camouflaged moth prey, and will allow them to hunt later into the evening and earlier in the morning."
The study finds that phosphor converted amber LED lighting - often suggested to be less harmful to nocturnal insects - has unpredictable consequences for insect vision depending on distance from the light source and the colour of the objects viewed.
White lights (with a greater blue component), allow for more natural colour vision in moths, but these light sources are known to be harmful for other species.
Moth numbers are declining across Europe, but this is particularly true of nocturnal species, with growing evidence for a link with light pollution.
The researchers call for a "nuanced approach" to lighting, beyond general efforts to limit the amount and intensity of light where possible.
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Privet hawkmoth on foxglove
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Jolyon Troscianko
The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
The paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, is entitled: "Artificial nighttime lighting impacts visual ecology links between flowers, pollinators and predators."
Leonardo Da Vinci: New family tree spans 21 generations, 690 years, finds 14 living male descendants
Paper offers foundation to advance search for Leonardo's DNA
IMAGE: RESEARCHERS ALESSANDRO VEZZOSI AND AGNESE SABATO HAVE DOCUMENTED 21 GENERATIONS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI'S FAMILY COVERING 690 YEARS AND IDENTIFIED 14 LIVING MALE FAMILY DESCENDANTS. view more
CREDIT: ALESSANDRO VEZZOSI AND AGNESE SABATO
The surprising results of a decade-long investigation by Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato provide a strong basis for advancing a project researching Leonardo da Vinci's DNA.
Their extensive study, published by the journal "Human Evolution" (Pontecorboli Editore, Florence), documents with new certainty the continuous male line, from father to son, of the Da Vinci family (later Vinci), from progenitor Michele (born 1331) to grandson Leonardo (6th generation, born 1452) through to today -- 21 generations in all, including five family branches -- and identifies 14 living descendants.
The work fills gaps and corrects errors in previous genealogical research into Leonardo's family, while offering new discoveries and family tree updates.
This text deepens and enormously expands the discovery announced in Vinci, Italy, in 2016 by the same Vezzosi and Sabato of numerous living but indirect descendants including only two males in direct line, up to the 19th generation, from a single branch of the Vinci family.
It also provides for the first time the documentary data and information sources over seven centuries to the present day registry office, with work on additional family branches ongoing.
Leonardo himself had at least 22 half-brothers but no children; a new unpublished document shows that "Paolo di Leonardo da Vinci da Firenze" was a case of homonymy. The five family branches are traced from Leonardo's father, ser Piero (5th generation), and half-brother Domenico (6th). Since the 15th generation, data have been collected on over 225 individuals. The study, with the collaboration of the living descendants, contributes to the work of the Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage Association.
This extraordinary, authoritative 690-year genealogical investigation is fundamental to affiliated scientific work Vezzosi and Sabato have underway with the international Leonardo da Vinci DNA project, supported by The Richard Lounsbery Foundation. The project involves the J. Craig Venter Institute of La Jolla, California and several other high-profile universities and research centers, including the Department of Biology of the University of Florence, directed by David Caramelli.
The Y chromosome, passed on to male descendants, is known to remain almost unchanged through 25 generations. Comparing the Y chromosome of today's male relatives with that of their ancestors in ancient and modern burial sites would both verify the uninterrupted family line and certify Leonardo's own Y chromosome marker.
Questions potentially probed once Leonardo's DNA is confirmed include reasons behind his genius, information on his parents' geographical origins, his physical prowess, premature aging, left-handedness, diet, health and any hereditary diseases, and his extraordinary vision, synaesthesia and other sensory perceptions.
Comparison of biological data could also potentially help verify the authenticity of artwork and materials handled by Leonardo. The paper, "The New Genealogical Tree of the Da Vinci Family for Leonardo's DNA" is published in the journal Human Evolution, DOI: 10.14673/HE2021121077.
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Researchers Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato
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Researchers Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato
About the authors
Alessandro Vezzosi
Leonardist and art historian. He is originally from Vinci, where he founded the Leonardo Da Vinci Ideal Museum in 1993, with the Archives of fingerprints and Leonardisms, and with the project for "Leonardo's Garden". He is the author and curator of countless exhibitions, publications, conferences and lectures on Leonardo, as well as on Michelangelo and Raphael, the Garden of Pratolino, "and places of memory, contemporary art and design, from the United States to Japan.
His books have been translated into 19 languages ??(from Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1997 to Leonardo Da Vinci: The Complete Paintings in Detail, New York, Prestel, 2019).
He began in 1973 the research on the locations and spaces and descendants of Leonardo, for what has been configured since 2000 as a search for Leonardo's DNA. museoideale@gmail.com
Agnese Sabato
Agnese Chairs the Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage Association. She graduated in Modern History from the University of Florence. She collaborates in the organization of exhibitions, conferences, educational activities and institutional initiatives of the Leonardo Da Vinci Ideal Museum (including the "Fingerprint Archive"), and in books and study notebooks. She has published contributions on the history of slaves in Florence and on the myth and image of Leonardo. She has been working since 1993 researching the genealogy and living descendants of the Da Vinci, in collaborations with the Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project since 2015. leonardodavinciheritage@gmail.com
Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage Association
The Association aims to protect and enhanceLeonardo's cultural heritage and the spaces and locations related to his life and work. Born as an idea in 2017, the non-profit (Third Sector) Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage Association was established formally in January 2019 to spread in Italy and abroad the knowledge of Leonardo's life - through research, publishing and exhibition activities; strengthen research, dissemination, documentation and information activities on his life story, with particular reference to the genealogy of his family; safeguard the privacy of his descendants; to promote studies, research and scientific examinations relating to the DNA of Leonardo and his relatives; safeguard his moral and ethical heritage, while respecting and protecting his cultural heritage.
The project is curating creation of the "GeniaDaVinci" database, which will collect the thousands of documents collected for this study and the family tree in progress, to make them accessible to scholars and the general public.
A volume of the new paper in Italian will be published soon with full iconography.
Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project
Founded by anthropologists Brunetto Chiarelli and Henry de Lumley in 2014, goals of the project include obtaining and sequencing DNA of Leonardo to understand better his extraordinary talents, notably his visual acuity, through genetic associations. Three-dimensional images of Leonardo could possibly be created if sufficient genome sequence data becomes available.
Completed pilot studies confirm the ability to identify useful biological material from centuries old works of art and other kinds of relics and samples. The project also investigates the microbial flora located on and within artworks. Using 16S sequencing, the project has demonstrated a novel finding that there are differing bacterial communities when comparing artwork on wood and canvas, and microbes on stone/marble/plaster sculptures. It has also demonstrated that there are specific genera known for having oxidative positive strains present on paintings on wood and paintings on canvas that could potentially be responsible for deterioration and fading. More generally the Project seeks to stimulate fruitful interactions between, on the one hand, geneticists, molecular biologists, and microbiologists, and, on the other hand, historians, art historians, artists, and other experts in cultural heritage.
Funding for this project is provided by The Richard Lounsbery Foundation and by the Achelis and Bodman Foundation.
Angelo Pontecorboli Editore - Firenze ISSN 0393-9375 -- ISSN ONLINE 1824-310X A scientific journal founded in 1969 by Prof. Brunetto Chiarelli, University of Florence. Managing Editor: Angelo Pontecorboli.
Human Evolution publishes scientific articles on the physical, sociological and cultural evolution of Humankind.
There are numerous disciplines involved in the study of human evolution which the magazine tries to address. Particular attention is paid to molecular evolution, genetics and DNA.
ABINGTON, Pa. -- Counterfeit dominance decreases Anglo-American, but not Asian, consumers' quality perception and purchase intention of authentic brands, according to a team of researchers.
"Counterfeit dominance is the perception that counterfeit products possess more than 50% of market share," Lei Song, assistant professor of marketing at Penn State Abington, said. "Counterfeit dominance is a phenomenon especially concerning for the luxury fashion industry as counterfeit luxury fashion brands account for 60% to 70% of the $4.5 trillion in total counterfeit trade and one-quarter of total sales in luxury fashion goods."
Lei and his team conducted four behavioral experiments with 149 participants on Mturk to test their hypotheses.
The results show that counterfeit dominance negatively affects the quality perception of authentic luxury fashion brands for Anglo-American, but not for Asian, consumers.
The study finds that Anglo-Americans are weaker in social-adjustive attitude, meaning that they are more likely to rely on outgroups such as people on the street to form their opinions. This is the reason for the unveiled cultural difference in perceived quality and purchase intention.
"Being aware of counterfeit dominance raises brand owners' concern that outgroups may consider their authentic brands as low-quality counterfeits, thus lowering their quality perception of authentic brands," Song said.
This research demonstrates that counterfeit dominance negatively affects the perceived quality and purchase intention of luxury fashion brands across product categories for Anglo-American, but not for Asian, consumers with a social-adjustive attitude underlying this difference. Therefore, counterfeit dominance has stronger negative impacts on luxury fashion brand owners' perceptions of their brands for those with a weak (Anglo-Americans), but not for those with a strong (Asians), social-adjustive attitude.
The team found that Asian consumers are stronger in social-adjustive attitude, suggesting that they are more likely to form opinions based on ingroups, such as friends, rather than outgroups. As a result, Asian brand owners' quality perception of authentic brands was less affected by counterfeit dominance.
Because quality perception strongly affects purchase intention, Song said the researchers also found that counterfeit dominance negatively affects the purchase intention of authentic luxury fashion brands for Anglo-American, but not for Asian, consumers.
To examine whether social-adjustive attitude is indeed the reason behind the unveiled cultural difference, the authors included a study about the moderating role of social-adjustive attitude. They found that the impact of counterfeit dominance on purchase intention was marginally significant among participants with a low social-adjustive attitude, but not for those with a high social-adjustive attitude towards luxury fashion brands. This suggests that a social-adjustive attitude underlies the effect of counterfeit dominance on different cultural groups' luxury fashion brand owners' purchase intention.
Counterfeit dominance effects spill over to other product categories of the same brand. The studies not only found that counterfeit dominance affects quality perception and purchase intention for the same product category -- for example, counterfeit Burberry sunglasses affect authentic Burberry sunglasses -- but also for a different product category of the same brand -- for example, counterfeit Burberry sunglasses affect authentic Burberry scarves. This indicates that the detrimental effect of counterfeit dominance in the Anglo-American culture is exponential.
The researchers made several recommendations to support luxury goods producers including reducing news of counterfeit dominance in Anglo-American culture and adopting word of mouth in Asian culture. Previous research indicates that acknowledgment of counterfeit dominance is more adverse for Anglo-American than Asian fashion brand owners.
"Luxury fashion brand manufacturers should collaborate with news and social media websites to reduce the amount of information related to counterfeiting of their luxury fashion brands and cooperate with government agencies to prevent counterfeit dominance in the Anglo-American culture. However, because Asian brand owners' perceptions of luxury fashion brands are strongly affected by their peers, luxury fashion brand manufacturers should focus increasingly on strategies such as word of mouth to influence these consumers' peers to augment the purchase of those brands," Song said.
"Thus, luxury fashion brand managers should segment their consumers by culture and develop different marketing strategies to remedy the loss of sales from counterfeit dominance," he continued.
Another area would be to focus on enhancing the quality of luxury products in Anglo-American culture and providing group discounts in Asian culture. Group discounts or buying refers to offering products and services at significantly reduced prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers would make the purchase.
According to the researchers, luxury fashion brand manufacturers should deploy strategies such as creating advertisements that specifically focus on quality to maintain customers with an Anglo-American cultural identity. However, for customers with an Asian cultural background, providing a group discount may increase influence from these consumers' peers to purchase luxury fashion brands.
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Song's co-authors on the study include Yan Meng, assistant professor of marketing, Grenoble Ecole de Management; Hua Chang, assistant professor of marketing, Towson University; Wenjing Li, assistant professor of marketing, Stephen F. Austin State University; and Kang "Frank" Tan, chair, ACIP Technology Ltd. Co.
Their research was published in the paper "How Counterfeit Dominance Affects Luxury Fashion Brand Owners' Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Examination" in the Journal of Business Research.
Communication: A key tool for citizen participation in science
Scientists gain insight into how citizen participation in science is practised in Spain and propose a series of recommendations for its improvement.
Researchers from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain) have analysed the way citizen science is practised in Spain. The paper, produced by Carolina Llorente and Gema Revuelta, from UPF's Science, Communication and Society Studies Centre (CCS-UPF) and Mar Carrió, from the University's Health Sciences Educational Research Group (GRECS), has been published in the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM).
Based on the study, a series of recommendations have been put forward to improve how citizen participation in science is carried out. Firstly, they suggest efforts be stepped up regarding the training given for assessing these initiatives or the creation of multi-disciplinary teams with a broad range of knowledge areas to organise this kind of assessment. They also highlight the importance of keeping in mind the activities' reproducibility.
The aims of the study were to identify citizen science participants in Spain, define what role communication plays and analyse to what extent the key requirements for undertaking citizen science are integrated in its practice. This is the first time this aspect has been studied in Spain.
In this qualitative study researchers analysed 16 interviews with coordinators of science activities in which citizens participate, which included the active participation of individuals in different phases of a research project. This participation could consist in providing opinions, collaborating with data collection, interpreting results and/or evidence-based decision-making.
The results indicate a largely strategic participation of groups of people with traits that make them ideal for participating in certain projects (such as neighbours, patients, public administration staff, etc.). The authors also highlight captive audiences - those who participate in activities without having volunteered for them and who have no choice but to take part, such as school students, for example.
The researchers underline communication as a key tool for successful practice. Gema Revuelta explains that "efforts must be spent in the conceptualisation phase to identify the participants, the best strategies for ensuring their participation and the expected level of commitment for the project".
The selection of a strategic public is essential for an activity of this nature to work properly. Although most interviewees made reference to this, there are some who continue to view the public as a single entity. Carolina Llorente stresses that: "it makes no sense to identify the public as "general public" in this kind of activity. Efforts need to be made when designing the activity to identify which specific groups should participate".
They also analysed the level of integration of five essential key elements that form part of a citizen science activity: the findings, the level of participant contribution, participation assessment, the reproducibility of the activity and the training of the participants and facilitators. Of particular importance here is training in specific skills based on the level of citizen participation and the need to train the teams responsible for organising the activities.
Researcher Carolina Llorente explains that the resulting insight into how citizen science is being performed "gives us a starting point for proposing improvement strategies to incentivise this way of doing research".
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This study was carried out with the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Reference article:
C. Llorente, G. Revuelta, M. Carrió. Characteristics of Spanish citizen participation practices in science. Journal of Science Communication, June 2021. DOI:10.22323/2.20040205.
How racial wage discrimination of football players ended in England
In 1995, the so-called Bosman ruling turned the labour market for European footballers upside down, introducing a free transfer market and greatly reducing the power of the football clubs. This ruling, named after the Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman, lifted restrictions on the players' mobility based on the principle of free mobility of labour, as set out in the European Community Treaty. This decision was perceived as a fundamental shock to the system. Players in the EU were suddenly allowed to move to another club at the end of their contract without a transfer fee being paid, among other changes in the regulations for foreign football players in European leagues.
"We find that wage discrimination against black English players was substantial before the Bosman ruling and then almost disappeared afterwards. Increasing labour mobility seemed to stop the clubs from being able to wage discriminate", said Pierre Deschamps, PhD in Economics at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University.
To be able to link the wage of a football player to his performance, the researchers used a method to identify discrimination, a so-called "market-test", on data from the English Premier League. This test detects wage discrimination by comparing teams with similar wage bills, but different shares of black players in the teams. By comparing the difference in performance between these clubs before and after the Bosman ruling, they could investigate how racial wage discrimination was affected.
Before the Bosman ruling, clubs had to pay transfer fees to recruit players who were out-of-contract. The situation was similar to the non-compete clauses often found in executive contracts, and increasingly in other types of jobs. As an example, Jean-Marc Bosman refused his club's (Liege) offer of a contract extension at only 25% of his old wage, and accepted a contract from the French club Dunkirk instead. Liege set a transfer fee that was high in order to prevent the transfer and force the player to sign the contract extension.
"This was a clear case of monopsony power - a situation where firms can limit labour market competition. After the ruling, players were free to leave for other clubs once their contracts had expired." said Pierre Deschamps.
Groups with less labor mobility still face wage discrimination
This change in labour market power for football players affected the possibility of discriminating black players, according to the researchers. After the ruling, the wages were more likely to reflect the talent of the black English players. But some groups still face mobility constraints however, non-EU players who have to obtain a work permit in front of a tribunal before they are allowed to play in England.
"When we look at the post-Bosman period, we find that the only players who face wage discrimination are black non-EU players. These players are the only ones who have to face both prejudice from clubs and restrictive contracting rules. This strengthens the case that contracting rules and labour mobility are key to limiting wage discrimination" says Pierre Deschamps.
The conclusion from the study is according to the researchers, that with the right labour market conditions, wage discrimination can be counteracted - even if employers are prejudiced.
"The important take-away from the article is that prejudice does not necessarily lead to wage discrimination. Acting against prejudice, although certainly desirable, is a longer-run endeavour with uncertain results. Limiting monopsony power and increasing labour market mobility can be done right away however, and in our dataset leads to an immediate decrease in wage discrimination." said Pierre Deschamps.
More about the study
The dataset was compiled by the authors, combining detailed team sheet data from the English Premier League from 1981 to 2008 with club wage bills from audited annual accounts. This dataset was then matched to data on the skin colour of football players, determined by visual inspection of players' photographs. Since the method is based on the players' appearance, it is suitable for determining the potential basis for discrimination, because discriminators prejudge an individual based on appearances.
The market-test method involves calculating the performance of a team from its wage bill and its share of black players. The main idea behind the test is that the racial composition of the team should have no effect on performance once we take the wage bills of clubs into account, unless there is racial discrimination. The researchers apply the market-test to data from the football matches, in this case the goal difference in a match. Having more black players in a team has a significant effect on performance in the 5 years before the Bosman ruling, but none afterwards, indicating that wage discrimination has disappeared
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The study is peer reviewed and published in the June edition of the scientific journal European Economic Review.
