Understanding Musicking on Social Media: Music Sharing, Sociality and Citizenship

Based on online and offline ethnographic fieldwork among the Spanish community in London, this thesis investigates why people circulate and share music on social media platforms, particularly within a context of migration. Written from the perspective of an insider-outsider, it combines research data from ethnographic participant observation and interviews to understand how music media circulates online, studying the different roles it fulfils within these contexts as different forms of musicking. The thesis responds to these questions by addressing six areas. Chapter 1 explores the uses of music to perform and articulate cultural and gender identity on social media profiles. Chapter 2 investigates how music sharing and compiling can be used to maintain relationships and social capital and to participate in transnational sociality. Chapter 3 addresses how the circulation of music parody as citizen engagement in contexts of political conflict such as the Brexit and Catalonian referendums gives rise to temporary political alliances in the form of citizen assemblages. Chapter 4 considers the circulation of music on social media from the perspective of fandom and how it is influenced by post-object ephemeral and reflexive practices. Chapter 5 analyses how the ubiquitous and imagined character of online music media fosters its circulation as a silent and visual element of online sociality, effectively generating practices of imagined listening. Chapter 6 examines ritualistic practices of music exchange on social media and their relationship with emerging moral economies of music circulation as foundational elements of online sociality and citizenship. I conclude by arguing that, in circulating music online through their social media and streaming profiles, users develop new forms of (im)material culture-making. Online musicking enables new ways of being in the world, turning the intangible, time-bound aural and visual experience of online music into something that has a materialised impact in the social lives of users. Through the circulation of music online users form, dissolve and inhabit temporary music-based alliances and expand their social worlds

Online musicking for humanity: the role of imagined listening and the moral economies of music sharing on social media

Music sharing on social media increasingly involves ‘imagined listening’, a form of sociality based on how we think that others listen to music (as well as on our own imagining of sounds) and typically mediated by the exchange of visual prompts, such as the thumbnail images associated with a particular streaming link or recording. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted online and offline with Spanish migrants in London, I show how practices of music sharing based on imagined listening articulate specific moral economies. In these economies, users imbue the sharing of music with positive value, as something that contributes to human flourishing and balances the negative aspects of social media and the world. I also consider how users reckon with the algorithmic manipulations of social media platforms and the fleeting forms of user engagement characteristic of an online world in which there is more music than could ever be heard

Spain and the Old Regime of Post-truth: Freedom of Speech, Ritualised Politics, and Postmemory on Social Media

The Spanish legal framework inherited from the Franco dictatorship (1939‒75) and its recent development foster political dynamics that ordain it as an old regime of post-truth, where denialism of fascist history is the official truth. Through digital ethnography I demonstrate that this kind of post-truth is further amplified through digital platforms, although there is also room for countercultural practices of antifascist truth-making in Spanish digital media. The lack of freedom of speech and the ritualisation of political discussion can hinder democratic truth-making practices, but postmemory forms of engagement with digital media also offset the impact of denialist post-truth. The conclusion questions whether the democratic liminality of the Spanish public sphere online and offline provide a breeding ground for post-truth

Digital Platforms and Infrastructure in the Realm of Culture

The concepts of (digital) platform and (digital) infrastructure have been widely used and discussed in recent media research, and in neighbouring fields such as science and technology studies (STS). Yet there is considerable confusion about these concepts and the relations between them. This article seeks to bring these concepts together more coherently by showing how “platformisation” might be understood in terms of its impacts on information infrastructure, including on the principles of openness and generativity underlying early internet architecture, and potential further effects on media and culture deriving from those impacts. To develop this perspective, we draw on research from legal studies which: (a) articulates these principles more fully than in recent media studies and STS; (b) understands infrastructures as resources subject to political contestation; and (c) in the work of Julie Cohen, interprets digital platforms as strategies for disciplining infrastructures. We discuss how such a perspective might complement approaches to digital platforms and infrastructures to be found in political economy of media and internet governance research. We then apply the perspective to a case study: the transition of online music from chaotic experiments with alternative models of distribution in the early century to a thoroughly platformised environment in the 2020s

p21(Cip1) plays a critical role in the physiological adaptation to fasting through activation of PPARα.

Fasting is a physiological stress that elicits well-known metabolic adaptations, however, little is known about the role of stress-responsive tumor suppressors in fasting. Here, we have examined the expression of several tumor suppressors upon fasting in mice. Interestingly, p21 mRNA is uniquely induced in all the tissues tested, particularly in liver and muscle (>10 fold), and this upregulation is independent of p53. Remarkably, in contrast to wild-type mice, p21-null mice become severely morbid after prolonged fasting. The defective adaptation to fasting of p21-null mice is associated to elevated energy expenditure, accelerated depletion of fat stores, and premature activation of protein catabolism in the muscle. Analysis of the liver transcriptome and cell-based assays revealed that the absence of p21 partially impairs the transcriptional program of PPARα, a key regulator of fasting metabolism. Finally, treatment of p21-null mice with a PPARα agonist substantially protects them from their accelerated loss of fat upon fasting. We conclude that p21 plays a relevant role in fasting adaptation through the positive regulation of PPARα

New Approaches to Clarify Antinociceptive and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of the Ethanol Extract from Vernonia condensata Leaves

The present study was aimed at evaluating the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of the ethanol extract from Vernonia condensata leaves in animal models, in order to afford a better understanding of these properties. The extract reduced the number of abdominal contortions at doses of 100 (51.00 ± 3.00), 200 (42.00 ± 2.98) and 400 mg/kg (39.00 ± 4.00). In formalin tests, a significant reduction in the licking time (p < 0.01) was observed in the first phase by 25.14 (200 mg/kg = 51.50 ± 4.44) and 31.15% (400 mg/kg = 48.00 ± 4.37). The doses of 100 (43.37 ± 5.15), 200 (34.62 ± 4.16) and 400 mg/kg (28.37 ± 3.98) inhibited (p < 0.001) the second phase. After 60 and 90 min of treatment, a dose of 400 mg/kg (10.13 ± 0.39 and 11.14 ± 1.33, respectively) increased the latency time. Doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg potentiated the sleeping time induced by diazepam, pentobarbital and meprobamate. The extracts (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) showed anti-inflammatory effects by a decrease in paw edema. The extracts also reduced the exudate volume at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg. The leukocyte migration had significant effect (p < 0.001) at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg. The completion of additional experiments in the investigation of the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of V. condensata allowed a better understanding of the central and peripheral mechanisms involved

Consensus on complementary feeding from the Latin American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition: COCO 2023

Abstract Complementary feeding (CF) is defined as infant feeding that complements breastfeeding or, alternatively, breastfeeding with a breast milk substitute, and is a process that goes beyond simply providing guidance on what and how to introduce foods. The information provided by health professionals should be up-to-date and evidence-based. There are different guidelines or position papers at the international level, which, although most of the recommendations may be applicable, there are some others that require regionalization or adaptation to the conditions and reality of each area. The Nutrition working group of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition convened a group of experts, representatives from each of the countries that make up the society, with the objective of developing a consensus on CA, incorporating, when possible, local information that adapts to the reality of the region. The purpose of this document is to show the results of this work. Through Delphi methodology, a total of 34 statements or statements regarding relevant aspects of CA were evaluated, discussed and voted upon.Resumen La alimentación complementaria (AC) se define como la alimentación de los lactantes que complementa a la lactancia materna o en su defecto, a la lactancia con un sucedáneo de la leche materna, y es un proceso que va más allá de simplemente una guía sobre qué y cómo introducir los alimentos. La información brindada por parte de los profesionales de la salud debe ser actualizada y basada en evidencia. Existen diferentes guías o documentos de posición a nivel internacional, que, aunque la mayoría de las recomendaciones pueden ser aplicables, hay algunas otras que requieren una regionalización o adecuación a las condiciones y realidad de cada zona. El grupo de trabajo de Nutrición de la Sociedad Latinoamericana de Gastroenterología, Hepatología y Nutrición Pediátrica convocó a un grupo de expertos, representantes de cada uno de los países que conforman la sociedad, con el objetivo de desarrollar un consenso sobre la AC, que incorporó cuando así fue posible, información local que se adapte a la realidad de la región. El objetivo de este documento es mostrar los resultados de dicho trabajo. A través de metodología Delphi, se evaluaron, discutieron y votaron un total de 34 declaraciones o enunciados con respecto a aspectos relevantes de la AC

SELNET clinical practice guidelines for bone sarcoma

Bone sarcoma are infrequent diseases, representing < 0.2% of all adult neoplasms. A multidisciplinary management within reference centers for sarcoma, with discussion of the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies within an expert multidisciplinary tumour board, is essential for these patients, given its heterogeneity and low frequency. This approach leads to an improvement in patient's outcome, as demonstrated in several studies. The Sarcoma European Latin-American Network (SELNET), aims to improve clinical outcome in sarcoma care, with a special focus in Latin-American countries. These Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) have been developed and agreed by a multidisciplinary expert group (including medical and radiation oncologist, surgical oncologist, orthopaedic surgeons, radiologist, pathologist, molecular biologist and representatives of patients advocacy groups) of the SELNET consortium, and are conceived to provide the standard approach to diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of bone sarcoma patients in the Latin-American context