Psychological interventions and dyadic coping in couples living with dementia

Coping with dementia has generally been conceptualised at an individual rather than relational level. In couples coping with chronic illness, dyadic coping models involving shared appraisals of stress and coping have been explored. This study aimed to explore dyadic coping in couples living with dementia. Qualitative framework analysis methodology was used to analyse data from nine joint interviews with spouse dyads living with dementia. Six main themes were identified: ‘Dementia awareness and ownership’, ‘Emotional closeness’, ‘Responsibility’, ‘Individual needs and difficulties’, ‘Individual coping by people with dementia’, and ‘Wider social context’. Findings suggested couples coping with dementia may utilise dyadic coping strategies, with couples maintaining closeness associated with sustaining joint coping. However, the impact of dementia upon a lack of shared dementia awareness and ownership, and loss of shared responsibility for coping, was associated with a lack of shared appraisals of stress and dyadic coping

Chinese computational propaganda: automation, algorithms and the manipulation of information about Chinese politics on Twitter and Weibo

A 2016 review of literature about automation, algorithms and politics identified China as the foremost area in which further research was needed because of the size of its population, the potential for Chinese algorithmic manipulation in the politics of other countries, and the frequency of exportation of Chinese software and hardware. This paper contributes to the small body of knowledge on the first point (domestic automation and opinion manipulation) and presents the first piece of research into the second (international automation and opinion manipulation). Findings are based on an analysis of 1.5 million comments on official political information posts on Weibo and 1.1 million posts using hashtags associated with China and Chinese politics on Twitter. In line with previous research, little evidence of automation was found on Weibo. In contrast, a large amount of automation was found on Twitter. However, contrary to expectations and previous news reports, no evidence was found of pro-Chinese-state automation on Twitter. Automation on Twitter was associated with anti-Chinese-state perspectives and published in simplified Mandarin, presumably aimed at diasporic Chinese and mainland users who ‘jump the wall’ to access blocked platforms. These users come to Twitter seeking more diverse information and an online public sphere but instead they find an information environment in which a small number of anti-Chinese-state voices are attempting to use automation to dominate discourse. Our understanding of public conversation on Twitter in Mandarin is extremely limited and, thus, this paper advances the understanding of political communication on social media

Indian Democracy Under Threat: The BJP’s Online Authoritarian Populism as a Means to Advance an Ethnoreligious Nationalist Agenda in the 2019 General Election

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Narendra Modi has been a pioneer of technologically enabled authoritarian populism, elected by a landslide in 2014 and reelected in 2019. However, India’s online authoritarian populism is relatively understudied with important questions remaining about the prevalence of authoritarian populist and ethnoreligious nationalist messages and mobilization around these ideologies. This research examines a representative sample of pro-BJP discourse on Twitter in the final week of the 2019 campaign. It finds the BJP used authoritarian populist strategies to advance an ethnoreligious nationalist agenda. Traditional media were excluded. Social media allowed direct leader-to-people connection, facilitating a personality cult around Modi. Online opinion leaders, often overlooked in studies of political campaigns, advanced the most extreme ethnoreligious nationalism, including religiously polarizing misinformation. These ideologies and strategies are dangerous to Indian democracy

Costume and Cross-Dressing in Stand-up Comedy.

Name a funny and successful man who has dressed up as a woman. Danny LaRue, Robin Williams, Les Dawson; the list roles off the tongue. But it is a little tougher to name the women who get laughs while dressing as men. Kathy Burke parodied teenager Perry in Harry Enfield and Chums in the 1990s, then around ten years later Catherine Tate took on the role of an effeminate middle-aged man. Why is there not an abundance of female comedians dressing up as men to get laughs? What are the taboos surrounding this medium and are they too significant to find a mainstream audience? In this project I discover what the performance benefits and pitfalls are of experimenting with cross-dressing and through that, notions of femininity. Can dressing up as a man give female comics – like me - freedom to be funnier? Or does the process result in a loss of self-identity and truth which makes it more difficult to step out on stage, under the spotlight with a microphone in hand. Drawing on previous research literature on notions of ‘self’ in comedic performance and the use of costume to make an impact, I use these theories as a base to conduct original research through my own performance. I explore the perceived wisdom that women parodying men is less successful due to their respective gender roles in society and the ideas of introversion/extroversion attached to each gender. By experimenting with different forms of gendered costuming, I discover the effects it has on the performer and how s/he can use these effects to their advantage. My focus is on the experience of the performer, not on the experience of the audience. Practical experimentation and existing academic theory is combined with first-hand interviews with drag performers. The result is a break away from preconceptions, both the audience's and my own

The Stargazin-Related Protein {gamma}7 Interacts with the mRNA-Binding Protein Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein A2 and Regulates the Stability of Specific mRNAs, Including CaV2.2

The role(s) of the novel stargazin-like {gamma}-subunit proteins remain controversial. We have shown previously that the neuron-specific {gamma}7 suppresses the expression of certain calcium channels, particularly CaV2.2, and is therefore unlikely to operate as a calcium channel subunit. We now show that the effect of {gamma}7 on CaV2.2 expression is via an increase in the degradation rate of CaV2.2 mRNA and hence a reduction of CaV2.2 protein level. Furthermore, exogenous expression of {gamma}7 in PC12 cells also decreased the endogenous CaV2.2 mRNA level. Conversely, knockdown of endogenous {gamma}7 with short-hairpin RNAs produced a reciprocal enhancement of CaV2.2 mRNA stability and an increase in endogenous calcium currents in PC12 cells. Moreover, both endogenous and expressed {gamma}7 are present on intracellular membranes, rather than the plasma membrane. The cytoplasmic C terminus of {gamma}7 is essential for all its effects, and we show that {gamma}7 binds directly via its C terminus to a heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP A2), which also binds to a motif in CaV2.2 mRNA, and is associated with native CaV2.2 mRNA in PC12 cells. The expression of hnRNP A2 enhances CaV2.2 IBa, and this enhancement is prevented by a concentration of {gamma}7 that alone has no effect on IBa. The effect of {gamma}7 is selective for certain mRNAs because it had no effect on {alpha}2{delta}-2 mRNA stability, but it decreased the mRNA stability for the potassium-chloride cotransporter, KCC1, which contains a similar hnRNP A2 binding motif to that in CaV2.2 mRNA. Our results indicate that {gamma}7 plays a role in stabilizing CaV2.2 mRNA

Two-pore channel-2 and inositol trisphosphate receptors coordinate Ca²⁺ signals between lysosomes and the endoplasmic reticulum

Lysosomes and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are Ca2+ stores mobilized by the second messengers NAADP and IP3, respectively. Here, we establish Ca2+ signals between the two sources as fundamental building blocks that couple local release to global changes in Ca2+. Cell-wide Ca2+ signals evoked by activation of endogenous NAADP-sensitive channels on lysosomes comprise both local and global components and exhibit a major dependence on ER Ca2+ despite their lysosomal origin. Knockout of ER IP3 receptor channels delays these signals, whereas expression of lysosomal TPC2 channels accelerates them. High-resolution Ca2+ imaging reveals elementary events upon TPC2 opening and signals coupled to IP3 receptors. Biasing TPC2 activation to a Ca2+-permeable state sensitizes local Ca2+ signals to IP3. This increases the potency of a physiological agonist to evoke global Ca2+ signals and activate a downstream target. Our data provide a conceptual framework to understand how Ca2+ release from physically separated stores is coordinated

Entropy loss in long-distance DNA looping

The entropy loss due to the formation of one or multiple loops in circular and linear DNA chains is calculated from a scaling approach in the limit of long chain segments. The analytical results allow to obtain a fast estimate for the entropy loss for a given configuration. Numerical values obtained for some examples suggest that the entropy loss encountered in loop closure in typical genetic switches may become a relevant factor which has to be overcome by the released bond energy between the looping contact sites.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure