Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and International Business Travel: Mobility Allies?

Like forecasts about the paperless office, technological solutions to the problem of international business travel continue to be deferred. As with the increased use of office paper, international business travel is defying predictions of its decline. There is growing evidence to suggest that business sectors which seem ideally placed to substitute information and communication technology (ICT) for travel, are actually generating more physical travel than other sectors. This paper develops a case study of the Irish software industry to exemplify why international travel is not diminishing in importance how and the ICT and business travel relationship is changing in this sector. The paper presents research findings that suggest that a cycle of substitution, generation and modification relationships have occurred as mobility interdependencies have developed.Peer Reviewe

Learning to become an online editor: the editathon as a learning environment

This study explores Wikipedia as a site for learning. In particular it traces how people learn to become Wikipedia editors through engagement in an editathon, a training event for people who want to become a volunteer editor. The study is original in its emphasis on the various types of knowledge editors acquire as they develop expertise. Determining the knowledge needed to contribute to Wikipedia is significant in terms of understanding Wikipedia as a site for learning. Data was gathered from nine participants who took part in an ‘editathon’ event on the theme of the Edinburgh Seven. The study used a rigorous methodology, combining quantitative social network analysis, documenting the online activity of participants as they created and edited Wikipedia pages, with qualitative interviews, which recorded participants reflections on their participation in the editathon. A key finding is that conceptual and procedural knowledge are representative of the foundational knowledge needed to contribute to Wikipedia actively as an editor. However, this knowledge on its own is not sufficient. Editors also develop socio-cultural and relational knowledge forms of knowledge to enable them to operate and problem-solve effectively. The relationship between the physical and the digital is important, since socio-cultural and relational knowledge are developed through active experimentation as the editathon engage with physical objects to create the online wiki pages

Social media, protest cultures and political subjectivities of the Arab spring

This article draws on phenomenological perspectives to present a case against resisting the objectification of cultures of protest and dissent. The generative, self-organizing properties of protest cultures, especially as mobilized through social media, are frequently argued to elude both authoritarian political structures and academic discourse, leading to new political subjectivities or ‘imaginaries’. Stemming from a normative commitment not to over-determine such nascent subjectivities, this view has taken on a heightened resonance in relation to the recent popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. The article argues that this view is based on an invalid assumption that authentic political subjectivities and cultures naturally emerge from an absence of constraint, whether political, journalistic or academic. The valorisation of amorphousness in protest cultures and social media enables affective and political projection, but overlooks politics in its institutional, professional and procedural forms

Chronic proliferative rhinitis in sheep: An update

Chronic proliferative rhinitis (CPR) is a slow and progressive upper respiratory tract disease of sheep with a poor prognosis for affected animals. It causes a proliferative inflammation of the ventral nasal turbinates with uni or bilateral affection that may totally obstruct the nasal cavity. Salmonella enterica subspecies diarizonae serovar 61:k:1, 5, (7) has been associated with the disease. This microorganism, host-adapted of tonsils and nasal cavity of sheep, has been isolated in pure culture from the nasal cavity in all reported cases of CPR. However, its etiopathogenesis, mechanism of transmission and its involvement with the disease are still unknown. The present article focuses on describing the current knowledge about this disease gathering the published information and offering some new data on the latest research carried out on chronic proliferative rhinitis in sheep

Thermodynamics of solutions of hydrocarbons in low molecular weight poly(isobutylene): a gas chromatographic study

The reduced chemical potentials (x*) of twenty normal and branched alkanes, cyclohexane and three aromatic hydrocarbons at infinite dilution in polyisobutylene (PIB) were measured by gas-liquid chromatography at five temperatures between 35 and 65°C. Reduced partial molar residual enthalpies (k*) were calculated from the temperature dependence of x*; they are positive for PIB+alkane systems, but smaller than those obtained in former chromatographic studies. Although uncertainties on k* are at least one order of magnitude larger than those on x*, binary X12 Flory parameters obtained from k* display a good correlation with the structural parameter 0ɵv defined as the ratio of the number of hydrogen atoms on methyl groups to the total number of hydrogen atoms in the alkane molecule. Very poor or nil correlation exists between X12 values obtained from x* and 0ɵ1. The evidence is by no means conclusive, but in principie the x* results obtained for PIB + alkane systems could be explained in terms offree volume contributions and of the antipathy between methyl groups on the alkanes molecules and the polymer side groups. Positive partial molar residual entropies were detected for the three aromatic hydrocarbons; their partial molar residual enthalpies are however highly positive, resulting in their poor solvent properties towards PIB

Flow, viscoelastic and masticatory properties of tailor made thickened pea cream for people with swallowing problems

[EN] This study evaluated the flow, viscoelastic and masticatory properties of tailor made pea cream using different hydrocolloids, and the potential effect that saliva could have while chewing. The creams thickened with pectin, carboxymethyl cellulose, tara gum and konjac gum showed the weakest internal gel structure with highest values of loss tangent at 1Hz (0.49 +/- 0.07), slope of log elastic modulus versus log frequency (0.34 +/- 0.05) and maximum capacitance (0.07 +/- 0.02 Pa-1). The samples thickened with commercial hydrocolloids were affected the most by the presence of saliva, with a significant reduction in apparent viscosity at 10 s(-1), that ranged from 1500 mPas until 11000 mPas. These results demonstrate that it is possible to optimize the structure of thickened pea cream for dysphagia by using, for example, carboxymethyl cellulose, tara gum and konjac gum, because they provide a greater viscous component, and, therefore, a bolus that is more easy to swallow.The authors thank the "Ministerio Espanol de Ciencia e Innovaci.on" for the financial support provided through the RTI2018-098842-B-I00 Project.Talens Oliag, P.; Castells, ML.; Verdú, S.; Barat Baviera, JM.; Grau Meló, R. (2021). Flow, viscoelastic and masticatory properties of tailor made thickened pea cream for people with swallowing problems. Journal of Food Engineering. 292:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2020.110265S11029

Against Modern Football: Mobilising Protest Movements in Social Media

Recent debates in sociology consider how Internet communications might catalyse leaderless, open-ended, affective social movements that broaden support and bypass traditional institutional channels to create change. We extend this work into the field of leisure and lifestyle politics with an empirical study of Internet-mediated protest movement, Stand Against Modern Football. We explain how social media facilitate communications that transcend longstanding rivalries, and engender shared affective frames that unite diverse groups against corporate logics. In examining grassroots organisation, communication and protest actions that span online and urban locations, we discover sustained interconnectedness with traditional social movements, political parties, the media and the corporate targets of protests. Finally, we suggest that Internet-based social movements establish stable forms of organisation and leadership at these networked intersections in order to advance instrumental programmes of change

Impaired exercise training-induced muscle fiber hypertrophy and Akt/mTOR pathway activation in hypoxemic patients with COPD

Exercise training (ExTr) is largely used to improve functional capacity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. However, ExTr partially restores muscle function in COPD patients, suggesting that confounding factors may limit the efficiency of ExTr. In the present study, we hypothesized that skeletal muscle adaptations triggered by ExTr could be compromised in hypoxemic COPD patients. Vastus lateralis muscle biopsies were obtained from normoxemic (n = 15; resting arterial PO2 = 68.5 +/- 1.5 mm Hg) and hypoxemic (n = 8; resting arterial PO2 = 57.0 +/- 1.0 mm Hg) COPD patients before and after a 2 month-ExTr program. ExTr induced a significant increase in exercise capacity both in normoxemic and hypoxemic COPD patients. However, ExTr increased citrate synthase and lactate dehydrogenase enzyme activities only in skeletal muscle of normoxemic patients. Similarly, muscle fiber cross-sectional area and capillary-to-fiber ratio were only increased in normoxemic patients. Expression of atrogenes (MuRF1, MAFbx/Atrogin-1) and autophagy-related genes (Beclin, LC3, Bnip, Gabarapl) remained unchanged in both groups. The phosphorylation level of Akt (Ser473), GSK-3beta (Ser9) and p70S6k (Thr389), which was non-significantly increased in normoxemic patients in response to ExTr, was significantly decreased in hypoxemic patients. We further showed on C2C12 myotubes that hypoxia completely prevented IGF-1-induced phosphorylation of Akt, GSK-3beta and p70S6K. Together, our observations suggest a role for hypoxemia in the adaptive response of skeletal muscle of COPD patients to ExTr