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PurposeThe spread of rumors on social media has caused increasing concerns about an under-informed or even misinformed public when it comes to scientific issues. However, researchers have rarely investigated their diffusion in non-western contexts. This study aims to systematically examine the content and network structure of rumor-related discussions around genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on Chinese social media.Design/methodology/approachThis study identified 21,837 rumor-related posts of GMOs on Weibo, one of China's most popular social media platforms. An approach combining social network analysis and content analysis was employed to classify user attitudes toward rumors, measure the level of homophily of their attitudes and examine the nature of their interactions.FindingsThough a certain level of homophily existed in the interaction networks, referring to the observed echo chamber effect, Weibo also served as a public forum for GMO discussions in which cross-cutting ties between communities existed. A considerable amount of interactions emerged between the pro- and anti-GMO camps, and most of them involved providing or requesting information, which could mitigate the likelihood of opinion polarization. Moreover, this study revealed the declining role of traditional opinion leaders and pointed toward the need for alternative strategies for efficient fact-checking.Originality/valueIn general, the findings of this study suggested that microblogging platforms such as Weibo can function as public forums for discussing GMOs that expose users to ideologically cross-cutting viewpoints. This study stands to provide important insights into the viral processes of scientific rumors on social media.

The mechanism of high superconducting transition temperatures (T_{c}) in bismuthates remains under debate despite more than 30 years of extensive research. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy studies on Ba_{0.51}K_{0.49}BiO_{3} reveal an unexpectedly 34% larger bandwidth than in conventional density functional theory calculations. This can be reproduced by calculations that fully account for long-range Coulomb interactions-the first direct demonstration of bandwidth expansion due to the Fock exchange term, a long-accepted and yet uncorroborated fundamental effect in many body physics.Furthermore, we observe an isotropic superconducting gap with 2Δ_{0}/k_{B}T_{c}=3.51±0.05, and strong electron-phonon interactions with a coupling constant λ∼1.3±0.2. These findings solve a long-standing mystery-Ba_{0.51}K_{0.49}BiO_{3} is an extraordinary Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superconductor, where long-range Coulomb interactions expand the bandwidth, enhance electron-phonon coupling, and generate the high T_{c}. Such effects will also be critical for finding new superconductors.

This study adopted a quantitative content analysis to examine how source attributes of opinion leaders and their message framing influenced user engagement in the public discourse of genetically modified organism (GMO) on Chinese social media. The findings showed that different source attributes and message frames used by opinion leaders varied in their respective influences on three dimensions of user engagement—reposts, comments, and likes. The attribute of account verification only predicted surface-level engagement (i.e., liking), whereas account type significantly influenced in-depth engagement (i.e., reposting and commenting). The fact, opportunity, pro-GMO, and international frames positively predicted user engagement.

We report a persistent low-energy phonon broadening around qB ∼ 0.28 r.l.u. along the Cu-O bond direction in the high-Tc cuprate Bi2Sr2CaCu2O 8+δ (Bi-2212). We show that such broadening exists both inside and outside the conventional charge density wave (CDW) phase, via temperature dependent measurements in both underdoped and heavily overdoped samples. Combining inelastic hard x-ray scattering, diffuse scattering, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and resonant soft x-ray scattering at the Cu L3-edge, we exclude the presence of a CDW in the heavily overdoped Bi-2212 similar to that observed in the underdoped systems. Finally, we discuss the origin of such anisotropic low-energy phonon broadening, and its potential precursory role to the CDW phase in the underdoped region. arXiv:1804.09286v1 [cond-mat.str-el]

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China has regularly claimed to have been intentionally and systematically misrepresented by Western media. That said, their general characterization of China is said to see improvement with the initial impetus coming from Beijing's hosting of Olympic Games in 2008. China's representation in Western media has now entered what many observers considered to be an 'age of uncertainty', and it differs greatly from China's projected self-image. This study examines US, UK versus Chinese media coverage of 'China's rise' from 2009 to 2017. Our analysis entails a 2.2 million-word corpus of news texts retrieved from six leading national newspapers. A combination of computerassisted corpus linguistics methods with critical discourse analysis was used to identify and compare linguistic elements as well as the structural dimensions that denote the journalistic positioning across large corpora. We argue that the globalist positioning stands in a dialectical relationship to the nationalist positioning. Globalism may be used to frame press narratives when it is viewed as suiting national interest, and this dynamic differs between the United States, the United Kingdom and China.