Fake News and Editing: Marketing Techniques used to Spin Controversies in Video Mediums

This thesis explores the topic of fake news in today\u27s digital landscape by analyzing how young adults (18-2) form and change prior opinions based on the media they consume. I measured this by showing respondents one of two bias montages in response to Google\u27s Project Owl initiative. Project Owl is Google\u27s controversial attempt to regulate false or abusive news by launching new feedback forms in addition to altering their algorithm in a way the company has not yet disclosed to the public (Sullivan). Each self-edited montage is two minutes in length and together they cover two radically different responses to Project Owl: one is positioned critically against the principles behind this move by Google, and one is clearly in support of the company\u27s project. To test the effects of spinning each video to change viewers\u27 perception of Project Owl, I developed a survey and designed a study to collect data from one-hundred people. Of the hundred people surveyed, half were randomly assigned to watch video A and half were randomly assigned to watch video B. Each participant was asked to answer a set of questions before and after watching their assigned video. The survey was designed to provide data on how their responses to Project Owl change after watching their assigned video. By using surveys that target the effects on audiences of informative video compilations that spin Project Owl, the thesis shows the manipulation of editing and short-form informational social media videos have on society more broadly. The intricate project is especially relevant because, while President Donald Trump regularly reprimands the promotion of fake news through Twitter, left-wing activists argue that false information spread across the Internet contributed to the outcome of the 2016 election. These arguments from opposing sides are intensified in the 21st century age of New Media and information overload, a period in media history when the fact that the production and circulation of news can come from anyone, anywhere, and at any time means that the difficulty of assessing the authenticity and reliability of that information is increasing exponentially

Hyphal Growth in Human Fungal Pathogens and Its Role in Virulence

Most of the fungal species that infect humans can grow in more than one morphological form but only a subset of pathogens produce filamentous hyphae during the infection process. This subset is phylogenetically unrelated and includes the commonly carried yeasts, Candida albicans, C. dubliniensis, and Malassezia spp., and the acquired pathogens, Aspergillus fumigatus and dermatophytes such as Trichophyton rubrum and T. mentagrophytes. The primary function of hypha formation in these opportunistic pathogens is to invade the substrate they are adhered to, whether biotic or abiotic, but other functions include the directional translocation between host environments, consolidation of the colony, nutrient acquisition and the formation of 3-dimensional matrices. To support these functions, polarised hyphal growth is co-regulated with other factors that are essential for normal hypha function in vivo

High frame-rate resolution of cell division during Candida albicans filamentation

Acknowledgements: Strain YMG7139 was supplied by Peter Sudbery, University of Sheffield. DDT was funded by a BBSRC-DTG, BB/F016964/1, at Aberdeen. ACB is funded by a Royal Society URFUF080611 and a MRC NIRG90671. JB was funded by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) REA grant agreement number 303635; by an European Research Council Advanced Award, number 340087, RAPLODAPT, and an award from the Israel Science foundation (340/13).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

First report on Pythium myriotylum as pathogen on duckweed (Lemna minor L.) in hydroponic systems in Germany

Wasserlinsen sind eine vielversprechende Ressource für die zukünftige Produktion von Futter- und Nahrungsmitteln sowie die Abwasserreinigung. Krankheiten und Schädlinge können die Leistung der Produktionssysteme jedoch kritisch einschränken. In hydroponischen Systemen traten Flecken missfarbiger und gebleichter Wasserlinsen (Lemna minor L.) auf, die sich rasch im Bestand ausbreiteten. Durch mikrobiologische und molekularbiologische Untersuchungen wurde Pythium myriotylum als ursächlicher Schaderreger eindeutig nachgewiesen. Dies ist der erste Bericht über P. myriotylum an Wasserlinsen in Deutschland. Das Ergebnis und mögliche Gegenmaßnahmen werden erörtert.Duckweed is a promising resource for future feed and food production as well as wastewater treatment. However, diseases and pests can critically limit the performance of the production systems. Patches of discolored and bleached duckweed (Lemna minor L.) appeared in hydroponic systems and spread rapidly through the crop. Pythium myriotylum was confirmed as the causing pathogen by microbiological and molecular biological analysis. This is the first report of P. myriotylum on duckweed in Germany. The result and possible countermeasures are discussed

Contact-induced apical asymmetry drives the thigmotropic responses of Candida albicans hyphae

Acknowledgements We thank Marco Thiel for assistance with data interpretation, Peter Sudbery for the provision of strains and Jeremy Craven for useful discussions. This work was supported by a BBSRC-DTG to D. D. T., NIH award DK083592 to F. J. B. and P. A. J., and a Royal Society URF UF080611 and MRC NIRG 90671 to A. C. B.Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Host carbon sources modulate cell wall architecture, drug resistance and virulence in a fungal pathogen

The survival of all microbes depends upon their ability to respond to environmental challenges. To establish infection, pathogens such as Candida albicans must mount effective stress responses to counter host defences while adapting to dynamic changes in nutrient status within host niches. Studies of C. albicans stress adaptation have generally been performed on glucose-grown cells, leaving the effects of alternative carbon sources upon stress resistance largely unexplored. We have shown that growth on alternative carbon sources, such as lactate, strongly influence the resistance of C. albicans to antifungal drugs, osmotic and cell wall stresses. Similar trends were observed in clinical isolates and other pathogenic Candida species. The increased stress resistance of C. albicans was not dependent on key stress (Hog1) and cell integrity (Mkc1) signalling pathways. Instead, increased stress resistance was promoted by major changes in the architecture and biophysical properties of the cell wall. Glucose- and lactate-grown cells displayed significant differences in cell wall mass, ultrastructure, elasticity and adhesion. Changes in carbon source also altered the virulence of C. albicans in models of systemic candidiasis and vaginitis, confirming the importance of alternative carbon sources within host niches during C. albicans infection

Smarta fjärrvärmenät - En simuleringsstudie av prosumers inverkan på tekniska parametrar i distributionsnät

Environmental awareness increases, with demands for environmental certifications of new communities and buildings as a result. The introduction of climate friendly energy solutions is an important part of this sustainability development. Some examples of such solutions are solar collectors and heat pumps, which is why E.ON wants to investigate ways to combine small-scale, local solar collectors or heat pumps among customers, called prosumers, with district heating. The studied area is the Western Harbour (Västra Hamnen), which is a part of the district heating network of Malmö-Burlöv. This study focuses on how technical parameters, especially velocity, supply temperature, flow and differential pressure, change in district heating networks when prosumers, in this case with heat production in solar collectors and heat pumps, are introduced. Periods when prosumers produce and when they consume district heating has also been investigated. Heat contribution to the district heating network from solar heating occurs primarily during the summer and only during daytime, with a peak at midday. The heating demand among customers is, however, greatest during the winter, with peaks primarily in mornings and evenings. The solar collectors thus deliver heat when the need is at a minimum in the network. Heat pumps can, technically, deliver heat around the clock and during the greater part of the year but they require electrical energy. Since solar collectors and heat pumps have higher efficiency when they supply cooler water, it is desirable to have as low supply temperature as possible. This means that the supply temperature in the district heating network drops when a prosumer delivers heat to the distribution network. The supply temperature should however not be too low, since that can cause problems with insufficient heating and risk of bacterial growth in the domestic hot water. The cooler water from prosumers may also cause migratory temperature fronts, which leads to increased fatigue of the pipes. However, this has generally no impact on the lifetime of the pipes, since corrosion remains to be the limiting factor. The flow in the pipes increases as the temperature is lowered. This may be important to consider when dimensioning the pipes, since excessive velocities lead to unwanted noise. The flows from prosumers may also be larger during summer when the solar collectors produce much heat, than the flows to prosumers during low outdoor temperatures. Therefore, some of the supply pipes may have to be redimensioned. The results show that the differential pressure increases inside a prosumer’s pressure cone and in areas not reached by their cooler supply water. The latter can be used to optimise the pumping power and thus save money. On the other hand when water from the prosumers is mixed with supply water from the rest of the network, the differential pressure will instead decrease due to increased flows and thus higher pressure losses in the areas reached by this mixed water. What mainly needs to be regulated when introducing prosumers into a district heating network is the requirement of a minimum supply temperature from prosumers. It may also be necessary to control when prosumers are allowed to deliver heat to the network in order to avoid, for example, problems with too low differential pressures. The results have mainly been developed through simulations in NetSim, a network calculation program. Both static and dynamic simulations were conducted

Hyphal Orientation of Candida albicans Is Regulated by a Calcium-Dependent Mechanism

SummaryEukaryotic cells from fungal hyphae to neurites that grow by polarized extension must coordinate cell growth and cell orientation to enable them to exhibit growth tropisms and to respond to relevant environmental cues. Such cells generally maintain a tip-high Ca2+ cytoplasmic gradient, which is correlated with their ability to exhibit polarized tip growth and to respond to growth-directing extracellular signals [1–5]. In yeast and other fungi, the polarisome, exocyst, Arp2/3, and Spitzenkörper protein complexes collectively orchestrate tip growth and cell polarity, but it is not clear whether these molecular complexes also regulate cell orientation or whether they are influenced by cytoplasmic Ca2+ gradients. Hyphae of the human pathogenic fungus Candida albicans reorient their growth axis in response to underlying surface topography (thigmotropism) [6] and imposed electric fields (galvanotropism) [7]. The establishment and maintenance of directional growth in relation to these environmental cues was Ca2+ dependent. Tropisms were attenuated in media containing low Ca2+, or calcium-channel blockers, and in mutants where calcium channels or elements of the calcium signaling pathway were deleted. Therefore galvanotropism and thigmotropism may both be mediated by localized Ca2+ influx at sites of polarized growth via Ca2+ channels that are activated by appropriate environmental signals