Datafication

Datafication is not just the making of information, which, in one sense, human beings have been doing since the creation of symbols and writing. Rather, datafication is a contemporary phenomenon which refers to the quantification of human life through digital information, very often for economic value. This process has major social consequences. Disciplines such as political economy, critical data studies, software studies, legal theory, and—more recently— decolonial theory, have considered different aspects of those consequences to be important. Fundamental to all such approaches is the analysis of the intersection of power and knowledge

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) RNA loads in peripheral blood correlates with disease severity in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection is usually restricted to the respiratory epithelium. Few studies have documented the presence of RSV in the systemic circulation, however there is no consistent information whether virus detection in the blood correlates with disease severity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Balb/c mice were inoculated with live RSV, heat-inactivated RSV or medium. A subset of RSV-infected mice was treated with anti-RSV antibody 72 h post-inoculation. RSV RNA loads were measured by PCR in peripheral blood from day 1-21 post-inoculation and were correlated with upper and lower respiratory tract viral loads, the systemic cytokine response, lung inflammation and pulmonary function. Immunohistochemical staining was used to define the localization of RSV antigens in the respiratory tract and peripheral blood.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>RSV RNA loads were detected in peripheral blood from day 1 to 14 post-inoculation, peaked on day 5 and significantly correlated with nasal and lung RSV loads, airway obstruction, and blood CCL2 and CXCL1 expression. Treatment with anti-RSV antibody reduced blood RSV RNA loads and improved airway obstruction. Immunostaining identified RSV antigens in alveolar macrophages and peripheral blood monocytes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>RSV RNA was detected in peripheral blood upon infection with live RSV, followed a time-course parallel to viral loads assessed in the respiratory tract and was significantly correlated with RSV-induced airway disease.</p

NGOs and human rights education in the neoliberal age : a case study of an NGO-secondary school partnership in London

Launched in 2009, Amnesty International's Human Rights Friendly\ud Schools project is to date the most ambitious attempt to create a global model\ud for rights-based education policy. Drawing on theories of utopianism,\ud pragmatism and micropolitics, this thesis explores the influence of wholeschool\ud human rights education (HRE) approaches for promoting human rights\ud and school improvement within formal education.\ud Based on participant-observation, semi-structured interviews and\ud documentary analysis at both Amnesty and a London secondary school at\ud multiple points over two years, this study examines how rights-based policies\ud and practices are enacted through non-governmental organisation (NGO)\ud partnership, and explores how the organisational and political contexts of\ud NGOs and schools in England influence such projects.\ud The study found that Human Rights Friendly Schools was primarily\ud implemented through the school's existing student voice programme, and was\ud used to raise awareness of school-wide rights initiatives. Throughout the\ud project, HRE was envisaged as both a means to empower students and as a\ud way to improve their behaviour and performance. However, authoritarian\ud leadership practices and damaging micropolitical activity undermined schoolwide\ud messages about human rights, and the human rights discourse\ud represented by Human Rights Friendly Schools challenged elements of the\ud school's behaviour management systems which teachers and students\ud perceived to be excessive. Tensions between discourses of control and\ud empowerment led to a series of teacher and student strikes — a destabilising\ud chain of events that led to the dissolution of the Amnesty partnership.\ud This thesis concludes that whilst the partnership ultimately failed to embed the\ud rights-based approach envisioned by Amnesty, important lessons can be\ud learned. The findings suggest that future whole-school HRE projects should\ud provide stronger support for school-wide rights learning, address potential\ud disjunctures between rights-based and neoliberal policies and prioritise\ud inclusion of the full range of school community voices in planning and\ud implementation. Such approaches can support wider school policies and\ud development strategies whilst simultaneously improving relationships between\ud teachers, students and leaders

Multi-scale approach of the instrumented indentation technique on the fracture toughness estimation

Instrumented Indentation Technique (IIT) is widely used to determine the mechanical properties of materials. The elastic modulus is usually determined by applying the methodology proposed by Oliver and Pharr [1] who supposed that its value is independent of the indentation depth. However, some authors [2, 3] have observed a decrease of the elastic modulus when the indenter displacement increases which allowed them to introduce a continuous damage theory used afterwards to estimate the fracture toughness of ductile materials. The assumption made by the authors is that a damage in the region very close to the bottom of the indent results in the formation of microvoids which leads to the variation of the elastic modulus as a function of the indenter displacement. Starting from this observation, Lee et al. [2] proposed an energy model based on the Griffith’s theory and the continuous damage mechanics (CDM) which states that the elastic modulus variation is related to the fraction void volume through a variable damage, introduced by Kachanov [4], related to the surface density of the microdefects. On the other hand, the works carried out over ductile materials by Li et al. [3] have been performed only with nanoindentation data preventing a discussion on the scale-­‐effect. (...

Influence of synaptic depression on memory storage capacity

Synaptic efficacy between neurons is known to change within a short time scale dynamically. Neurophysiological experiments show that high-frequency presynaptic inputs decrease synaptic efficacy between neurons. This phenomenon is called synaptic depression, a short term synaptic plasticity. Many researchers have investigated how the synaptic depression affects the memory storage capacity. However, the noise has not been taken into consideration in their analysis. By introducing "temperature", which controls the level of the noise, into an update rule of neurons, we investigate the effects of synaptic depression on the memory storage capacity in the presence of the noise. We analytically compute the storage capacity by using a statistical mechanics technique called Self Consistent Signal to Noise Analysis (SCSNA). We find that the synaptic depression decreases the storage capacity in the case of finite temperature in contrast to the case of the low temperature limit, where the storage capacity does not change

“Young” masters vs. elite swimmers: comparison of performance, energetics, kinematics and efficiency

Competition in masters swimming is getting tougher. Athletes are dedicating more time and effort to excel in masters competitions than they use to. Research question: What are the factors associated with masters and elite swimmers performance? Type of study: A cohort group comparison (young master versus elite swimmers) and a correlational study (association between selected variables and performance) were conducted. Purpose: The aim was to identify the energetics, kinematics and efficiency variables associated with young masters (former elite) and elite swimmers performance as well as compare it between both cohort groups. Methods: Twenty male swimmers (masters: N=8, 29.75±3.80-y; elite: N=12, 20.41±3.20-yld) performed a 7x200m freestyle swim. The performance (200m freestyle at official competition), velocity at which the 4 mmol.l-1 of blood lactate was assessed (V4), peak blood lactate concentrations (Lapeak), peak oxygen up-take (VO2peak), minimum velocity to elicited VO2peak (vVO2peak), total energy expenditure (Ėtot), stroke frequency (SF), stroke length (SL), mean swimming velocity (v), energy cost (C), stroke index (SI) and propelling efficiency (p) to check whether this was achieved. Results: Elite swimmers presented a better performance. V4, VO2peak, vVO2peak, Ėtot , SF, v and SI were significantly higher in elite swimmers. For both groups performance was associated with the V4, vVO2peak and v. In addition, elite swimmers’ performance was impaired with regard to the Lapeak. Conclusions: Young masters swimmers presented impairment in performance related to a decrease in the energetics profile and biomechanical behaviour. Nevertheless, their previous background as elite swimmers allowed them to maintain high swimming efficiency

Modificações no perfil bioenergético e biomecânico de nadadores entre dois períodos "pré-taper"

O estudo teve como objectivo analisar as alterações ao nível do perfil bioenergético e biomecânico de nadadores de elite entre dois períodos “pré-taper”. Foram analisados 7 nadadores portugueses masculinos de elevado nível competitivo. Os parâmetros bioenergéticos e biomecânicos foram obtidos em dois momentos “pré-taper” (T1 e T2) antecedentes a competições importantes (Novembro e Março da época desportiva de 2009-2010). Foram obtidos: (i) velocidade do equilíbrio máximo de lactato estimada às 4 mmol (V4), como indicador bioenergético; (ii) distância de ciclo à V4 (DC@V4), frequência gestual à V4 (FG@V4), índice de nado à V4 (IN@V4) e a eficiência propulsiva à V4 (hp@V4) como indicadores biomecânicos. A comparação entre os dois momentos de avaliação foi efectuada com recurso à estatística não paramétrica Teste de Wilcoxon. Foram verificados aumentos com significado estatístico na V4 e na FG@V4 de T1 para T2. A DC@V4e o IN@V4 apresentaram-se estáveis sem variações significativas. Do ponto de vista da análise individual 4 dos 7 nadadores aumentaram o seu IN@V4. A hp@V4 revelou uma diminuição, contudo sem diferenças estatisticamente significativas. Em síntese, existe uma tendência para o aumento da V4 ao longo da época desportiva. As alterações na V4 parecem ser decorrentes de modificações nos pressupostos biomecânicos, mais precisamente no aumento da FG@V4