Celluloid Television Culture The Specificity of Film on Television: the Action-adventure Text as an Example of a Production and Textual Strategy, 1955 – 1978.

The aim of this thesis is to re-examine the use of film on British television, 1955-78, in order to demonstrate that the production of drama on British television was more complex than in the existing supposition, that television drama was either shot ‘live’ or co-existed with the recording medium of film. Instead, the types of interaction will raise questions about the process of production and how the recording of programmes on film addressed the audience watching a domestic medium. The thesis attempts to answer these questions by examining a form and mode of popular entertainment on British television that existed on film. The shot-on-film television series was a form that had been imported from the United States in the 1950s, but had been modified in Britain. The type of modification is shown to reveal how notions of value and quality were assigned to a television programme when a public service ethos determined the cultural discourse set by British television. The development of an export market and the internationalisation of British television will raise questions about the exact appeal of these programmes. At the same time, indigenous modes of film production designed for the domestic consumption of television existed side-by-side with the professional ideologies associated with commercial film-making. These professional ideologies allowed for the development of television as an international commodity. However, they created a tension between separate modes of fictional television production. The thesis concludes that the creation of separate modalities in the British adventure series at various times interacted in the 1960s and 1970s, and led to it becoming a less stable object of analysis, which requires an exploration of the often contradictory ways in which a number of key programmes functioned

Celluloid Television Culture The Specificity of Film on Television: the Action-adventure Text as an Example of a Production and Textual Strategy, 1955 – 1978.

The aim of this thesis is to re-examine the use of film on British television, 1955-78, in order to demonstrate that the production of drama on British television was more complex than in the existing supposition, that television drama was either shot ‘live’ or co-existed with the recording medium of film. Instead, the types of interaction will raise questions about the process of production and how the recording of programmes on film addressed the audience watching a domestic medium. The thesis attempts to answer these questions by examining a form and mode of popular entertainment on British television that existed on film. The shot-on-film television series was a form that had been imported from the United States in the 1950s, but had been modified in Britain. The type of modification is shown to reveal how notions of value and quality were assigned to a television programme when a public service ethos determined the cultural discourse set by British television. The development of an export market and the internationalisation of British television will raise questions about the exact appeal of these programmes. At the same time, indigenous modes of film production designed for the domestic consumption of television existed side-by-side with the professional ideologies associated with commercial film-making. These professional ideologies allowed for the development of television as an international commodity. However, they created a tension between separate modes of fictional television production. The thesis concludes that the creation of separate modalities in the British adventure series at various times interacted in the 1960s and 1970s, and led to it becoming a less stable object of analysis, which requires an exploration of the often contradictory ways in which a number of key programmes functioned

‘Lux Presents Hollywood’: films on the radio during the ‘golden age’ of broadcasting

This chapter examines the long-running radio anthologies Lux Radio Theater (1934-1955) and the Screen Guild Theater (1939-1952; sponsored by a range of different products), which broadcast adaptations of Hollywood movies on the NBC and CBS networks during US radio’s ‘golden age.’ During this period radio ownership increased exponentially, and the medium’s escapist comforts were prized so highly that many Depression-era families prioritized their radio hire-purchase payments over those of more functional, household appliances. It was also an era when the difficulty of how radio could be exploited commercially was solved by the devolution of programming to advertising agencies. Advertisers not only leased airtime and studio facilities from the radio networks, they also hired creative staff, such as writers, actors and producers, who became employees of specialist radio departments for agencies like JWT (the J. Walter Thompson Company, whose biggest client was Lever Brothers, the manufacturers of Lux soaps and detergents). Adaptation critics often cite commercial interests as a key motivation for adaptation, but this has seldom been more conspicuously evident than in these anthologies. Each episode unabashedly blended its source narrative with endorsements of soaps, face powders, cigarettes and gas stations, as well as with ‘movie news’ that used stars to promote both forthcoming feature films and the sponsors’ products. The resulting adaptations demonstrate the creative results of commercial exigencies and complex, industrial co-dependency (in which radio, film, magazines, stars, advertising agencies and ‘luxury,’ modern products all sustain, promote and profit from one another.) The anthologies also reflect in microcosm a number of adaptation approaches and critical debates: for example, some episodes, such as Screen Guild Theater’s adaptation of His Girl Friday, feature the films’ original stars, whilst many Lux Radio Theater adaptations include large portions of their sources’ screenplays. Other episodes reject fidelity and homage, such as Screen Guild Theater’s two adaptations of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which replace family-oriented sentimentality with lampoonery aimed at adult, war-time audiences. Many adaptations contain medium-specific modifications, such as Screen Guild Theater’s accommodation of telling rather than showing through the introduction of mise-en-abyme story-tellers and listeners. By contrast others display a flagrant disregard for such considerations (such as the choice of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and puppet Charlie McCarthy as one narrator-narratee pairing) in ways that reveal much about radio’s habitual intertextuality and parasitism during a period when the need fill airwaves was a paramount concern. The adaptations’ promotional segments also provide some film-history ‘hidden gems,’ such as host Cecil B. DeMille’s interview with Walt Disney during Lux Radio Theater’s ‘Snow White’ (in which both men advocate that film costumes and women’s ‘dainties’ be washed with Lux Flakes). In this chapter I will analyze in detail adaptations of Snow White and His Girl Friday (which were both adapted several times), whilst also drawing on a number of other episodes (such as reworkings of The Wizard of Oz and Casablanc). I will examine how the adaptations were shaped by the radio industry, its practices and technologies, how the anthologies influenced other radio programmes (for example, through their reliance on stars) and how they exemplify key debates within the study of cross-media adaptation

Who Is Exposed to Secondhand Smoke? Self-Reported and Serum Cotinine Measured Exposure in the U.S., 1999–2006

This study presents self-reported and serum cotinine measures of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) for nonsmoking children, adolescents, and adults. Estimates are disaggregated by time periods and sociodemographic characteristics based on analyses of the 1999–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Self-reported exposure rates are found to be highest for children, followed by adolescents and adults. Important differences in exposure are found by socioeconomic characteristics. Using serum cotinine to measure exposure yields much higher prevalence rates than self-reports. Rates of SHS exposure remain high, but cotinine levels are declining for most groups

Sleep and cognitive performance:cross-sectional associations from the UK Biobank

Objective: The relationship between insomnia symptoms and cognitive performance is unclear, particularly at the population level. We conducted the largest examination of this association to date through analysis of the UK Biobank, a large population-based sample of adults aged 40-69 yrs. We also sought to determine associations between cognitive performance and self-reported chronotype, sleep medication use, and sleep duration. Methods: This cross-sectional, population-based study involved 477,529 participants, comprising 133,314 with frequent insomnia symptoms (age: 57.4 ± 7.7 yrs; 62.1% female) and 344,215 controls without (age: 56.1 ± 8.2 yrs; 52.0% female). Cognitive performance was assessed through a touchscreen test battery probing reasoning, basic reaction time, numeric memory, visual memory and prospective memory. Adjusted models included relevant demographic, clinical and sleep variables. Results: Frequent insomnia symptoms were associated with cognitive impairment in unadjusted models, however these effects were reversed after full adjustment, leaving those with frequent insomnia symptoms showing statistically better cognitive performance over those without. Relative to intermediate chronotype, evening chronotype was associated with superior task performance, while morning chronotype was associated with the poorest performance. Sleep medication use and both long (>9hrs) and short (<7hrs) sleep duration were associated with impaired performance. Conclusions: Our results suggest that after adjustment for potential confounding variables, frequent insomnia symptoms may be associated with a small statistical advantage, which is unlikely to be clinically meaningful, on simple neurocognitive tasks. Further work is required to examine mechanistic underpinnings of an apparent evening chronotype advantage in cognitive performance, as well as impairment associated with morning chronotype, sleep medication use, and sleep duration extremes

Resistance training in humans and mechanical overload in rodents do not elevate muscle protein lactylation

Although several reports have hypothesized that exercise may increase skeletal muscle protein lactylation, empirical evidence in humans is lacking. Thus, we adopted a multifaceted approach to examine if acute and subchronic resistance training (RT) altered skeletal muscle protein lactylation levels. In mice, we also sought to examine if surgical ablation-induced plantaris hypertrophy coincided with increases in muscle protein lactylation. To examine acute responses, participants’ blood lactate concentrations were assessed before, during, and after eight sets of an exhaustive lower body RT bout (n = 10 trained college-aged men). Vastus lateralis biopsies were also taken before, 3-h post, and 6-h post-exercise to assess muscle protein lactylation. To identify training responses, another cohort of trained college-aged men (n = 14) partook in 6 weeks of lower-body RT (3x/week) and biopsies were obtained before and following the intervention. Five-month-old C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 10 days of plantaris overload (OV, n = 8) or served as age-matched sham surgery controls (Sham, n = 8). Although acute resistance training significantly increased blood lactate responses ~7.2- fold (p \u3c 0.001), cytoplasmic and nuclear protein lactylation levels were not significantly altered at the post-exercise time points, and no putative lactylation-dependent mRNA was altered following exercise. Six weeks of RT did not alter cytoplasmic protein lactylation (p = 0.800) despite significantly increasing VL muscle size (+3.5%, p=0.037), and again, no putative lactylation-dependent mRNA was significantly affected by training. Plantaris muscles were larger in OV versus Sham mice (+43.7%, p \u3c 0.001). However, cytoplasmic protein lactylation was similar between groups (p = 0.369), and nuclear protein lactylation was significantly lower in OV versus Sham mice (p \u3c 0.001). The current null findings, along with other recent null findings in the literature, challenge the thesis that lactate has an appreciable role in promoting skeletal muscle hypertrophy

Healing in the Sámi North

There is a special emphasis today on integrating traditional healing within health services. However, most areas in which there is a system of traditional healing have undergone colonization and a number of pressures suppressing tradition for hundreds of years. The question arises as to how one can understand today’s tradition in light of earlier traditions. This article is based on material collected in Sámi areas of Finnmark and Nord-Troms Norway; it compares local healing traditions with what is known of earlier shamanic traditions in the area. The study is based on 27 interviews among healers and their patients. The findings suggest that although local healing traditions among the Sámi in northern Norway have undergone major transformations during the last several hundred years, they may be considered an extension of a long-standing tradition with deep roots in the region. Of special interest are also the new forms tradition may take in today’s changing global society

A community-based physical activity intervention to prevent mobility-related disability for retired older people (REtirement in ACTion (REACT)): Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: The REtirement in ACTion (REACT) study is a multi-centre, pragmatic, two-arm, parallel-group randomised controlled trial (RCT) with an internal pilot phase. It aims to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a community, group-based physical activity intervention for reducing, or reversing, the progression of functional limitations in older people who are at high risk of mobility-related disability. Methods/design: A sample of 768 sedentary, community-dwelling, older people aged 65 years and over with functional limitations, but who are still ambulatory (scores between 4 and 9 out of 12 in the Short Physical Performance Battery test (SPPB)) will be randomised to receive either the REACT intervention, delivered over a period of 12 months by trained facilitators, or a minimal control intervention. The REACT study incorporates comprehensive process and economic evaluation and a nested sub-study which will test the hypothesis that the REACT intervention will slow the rate of brain atrophy and of decline in cognitive function assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Outcome data will be collected at baseline, 6, 12 and 24 months for the main study, with MRI sub-study data collected at baseline, 6 and 12 months. The primary outcome analysis (SPPB score at 24 months) will be undertaken blinded to group allocation. Primary comparative analyses will be on an intention-to-treat (ITT) basis with due emphasis placed on confidence intervals. Discussion: REACT represents the first large-scale, pragmatic, community-based trial in the UK to target the non-disabled but high-risk segment of the older population with an intervention to reduce mobility-related disability. A programme that can successfully engage this population in sufficient activity to improve strength, aerobic capacity, coordination and balance would have a major impact on sustaining health and independence. REACT is also the first study of its kind to conduct a full economic and comprehensive process evaluation alongside the RCT. If effective and cost-effective, the REACT intervention has strong potential to be implemented widely in the UK and elsewhere

Resistance training in humans and mechanical overload in rodents do not elevate muscle protein lactylation

Although several reports have hypothesized that exercise may increase skeletal muscle protein lactylation, empirical evidence in humans is lacking. Thus, we adopted a multi-faceted approach to examine if acute and subchronic resistance training (RT) altered skeletal muscle protein lactylation levels. In mice, we also sought to examine if surgical ablation-induced plantaris hypertrophy coincided with increases in muscle protein lactylation. To examine acute responses, participants’ blood lactate concentrations were assessed before, during, and after eight sets of an exhaustive lower body RT bout (n = 10 trained college-aged men). Vastus lateralis biopsies were also taken before, 3-h post, and 6-h post-exercise to assess muscle protein lactylation. To identify training responses, another cohort of trained college-aged men (n = 14) partook in 6 weeks of lower-body RT (3x/week) and biopsies were obtained before and following the intervention. Five-month-old C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 10 days of plantaris overload (OV, n = 8) or served as age-matched sham surgery controls (Sham, n = 8). Although acute resistance training significantly increased blood lactate responses ∼7.2-fold (p &lt; 0.001), cytoplasmic and nuclear protein lactylation levels were not significantly altered at the post-exercise time points, and no putative lactylation-dependent mRNA was altered following exercise. Six weeks of RT did not alter cytoplasmic protein lactylation (p = 0.800) despite significantly increasing VL muscle size (+3.5%, p = 0.037), and again, no putative lactylation-dependent mRNA was significantly affected by training. Plantaris muscles were larger in OV versus Sham mice (+43.7%, p &lt; 0.001). However, cytoplasmic protein lactylation was similar between groups (p = 0.369), and nuclear protein lactylation was significantly lower in OV versus Sham mice (p &lt; 0.001). The current null findings, along with other recent null findings in the literature, challenge the thesis that lactate has an appreciable role in promoting skeletal muscle hypertrophy

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV