Feeling controlled or being in control? Apps for self-management among older people with neurological disability

Purpose: The aim of this paper was to describe how people living with a neurological disability such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and stroke reason regarding using apps to facilitate self-management in everyday life.Material and methods: A qualitative research approach with a focus group methodology was used. The sample comprised 16 participants, 11 men and 5 women, with an average age of 64 years (ranging from 51–80 years). Six participants were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, six with Parkinson’s disease and four with stroke. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, which is a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns.Results: The results formed two themes. The first theme “using apps to have control of my health” comprises two subthemes; “monitor and take responsibility for a healthy lifestyle” and “compensate to facilitate everyday life”. The second theme “using the app as a tool and means for communication” also comprised two subthemes; “dare to trust the app” and “feeling safe when sharing information with health care professionals”.Conclusions: The use of apps put increased responsibility on the person and had the possibility to make them more involved in their own care. The use of an app can facilitate a healthy lifestyle and help to monitor disease-specific symptoms. In order to be able to use apps for communication with the health care sector legislation and safety issues need to be considered. Implications for rehabilitation Apps can be used for self-management if they are safe and can be trusted. People with neurological disabilities want to be involved in their healthcare and needs to be addressed by health care professionals. The use of apps grasp over a wide variety of areas this is something that may be considered in health care and something that can be addressed by interdisciplinary approaches. Ordinary health-oriented apps and disease-specific apps were used differently and for different purposes

Detection of Crosslinks within and between Proteins by LC-MALDI-TOFTOF and the Software FINDX to Reduce the MSMS-Data to Acquire for Validation

Lysine-specific chemical crosslinking in combination with mass spectrometry is emerging as a tool for the structural characterization of protein complexes and protein-protein interactions. After tryptic digestion of crosslinked proteins there are thousands of peptides amenable to MSMS, of which only very few are crosslinked peptides of interest. Here we describe how the advantage offered by off-line LC-MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry is exploited in a two-step workflow to focus the MSMS-acquisition on crosslinks mainly. In a first step, MS-data are acquired and all the peak list files from the LC-separated fractions are merged by the FINDX software and screened for presence of crosslinks which are recognized as isotope-labeled doublet peaks. Information on the isotope doublet peak mass and intensity can be used as search constraints to reduce the number of false positives that match randomly to the observed peak masses. Based on the MS-data a precursor ion inclusion list is generated and used in a second step, where a restricted number of MSMS-spectra are acquired for crosslink validation. The decoupling of MS and MSMS and the peptide sorting with FINDX based on MS-data has the advantage that MSMS can be restricted to and focused on crosslinks of Type 2, which are of highest biological interest but often lowest in abundance. The LC-MALDI TOF/TOF workflow here described is applicable to protein multisubunit complexes and using 14N/15N mixed isotope strategy for the detection of inter-protein crosslinks within protein oligomers

Warring for Peace? : Swedish television’s take on war in a ‘post-documentary’ culture

While it has explained how power and knowledge directly imply one another, constructivist theories of international relations have shown how knowledge and language are extensively used for legitimizing war, conflict and intervention. It has further been shown how not only news media, but increasingly popular culture is powerful in creating meaning and establishing knowledge about war and conflict. At the same time, media scholars have shown that the development in television production is going towards a blur between information and entertainment, fact and fiction. This blur has been shown to often and effectively de-politicize ideological content. This study is a critical discourse analysis of the TV series Krig för fred (War for peace), broadcast on the Swedish public service television during the spring of 2011. The study has through answering questions in terms of genre and ideology, found that the material is an example of a blur between documentary and reality TV and that the material is exclusively from a Swedish point-of-view, yet presented through a discourse of claiming the real. One of the consequences of the mixed genre seemed to have been that as more space was given to individual characters and exoticising images of the Afghan landscape and people, less space was given to criticism, which made this representation of the war entertaining rather than informative to watch. While the only information given about Afghanistan in the TV series is that it is among the poorest countries in the world, more clues have been given as to how the Swedish military view themselves and have been represented in relation to ‘others’ in the world

The Molecular Chaperone DNAJB6 - A Suppressor of Disease Related Amyloid Fibril Formation

Several neurodegenerative diseases are caused by peptides or proteins forming amyloid fibrils such as the Aβ peptide involved in Alzheimer’s disease and the huntingtin exon-1 with a prolonged polyglutamine (polyQ) stretch involved in Huntington’s disease. The ability to form amyloid fibrils is an intrinsic feature in all proteins. The fibrils are built up of monomers to form elongated structures with β-sheets perpendicular to the fiber axis. Molecular chaperones are involved in maintaining the protein homeostasis in the cells, in preventing protein aggregation, in refolding misfolded proteins and in mediating degradation of proteins and also in preventing amyloid fibril formation. DNAJB6 is a member of the HSP40 chaperone family, and has been found to be superior compared to other chaperones in its ability to prevent aggregation of huntingtin exon-1 in human cells. In this thesis we have expressed and purified DNAJB6 in order to characterize its structure and function. Our data show that DNAJB6 also in vitro can suppress the fibril formation of polyQ and Aβ peptides by a direct interaction. By kinetic analysis of the nucleation rate constants we conclude that there is a strong binding between DNAJB6 and the early aggregated species. This prevents them from growing further and thereby efficiently inhibiting fibril formation. It was previously suggested that the inhibitory effect was due to a serine and threonine rich region in DNAJB6. We constructed a series of serine and threonine to alanine substitutions mutants of DNAJB6. The potency of DNAJB6 to suppress amyloid fibril formation declined in proportion to the number of substitutions. Furthermore, a structure model of DNAJB6 was generated and evaluated with chemical crosslinking mass spectrometry. The model revealed a possible domain arrangement where the conserved serine- and threonine-rich region forms a disordered protruding domain located between the well-ordered N- and C-terminal domains. The results obtained in this thesis suggest that DNAJB6 is an efficient suppressor of amyloid fibril formation, acting early in the self-assembly process. Since DNAJB6 is expressed in the brain and can prolong the life-span of a Huntington’s disease mouse model, it is a potential therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases

Mass tourism at a tipping point: Exploring the mediatisation of overtourism

The phenomenon of overtourism encapsulates the spirit of contemporary mass tourism. It has gained attention lately as an unsustainable consequence of the intensification of destination management principles in urban economic planning strategy. Stories about “the invasion” of visitors into a numberof popular European cities frequently circulate in news and social media. Research has begun to examine the social and economic causes of overtourism, but the phenomenon is undertheorized (e.g. Dodds & Butler, 2019). Even though a number of studies show that media narratives can dramatically increase the flow of visitors to a place and that such narratives affect the way visitors travel and interact withurban spaces (Panayiotopoulos & Pisano, 2019), processes of mediatisation are frequently neglected in tourism studies. The cultural transformations of our time are defined by globalisation and deep mediatisation (Couldry & Hepp, 2018). Hjarvard (2009: 160) defines mediatisation as ”the process whereby society to an increasing degree is submitted to, or becomes dependent on, the media and theirlogic.” The concept emphasise the institutionalisation of the media and the dialectical relationship between the media and social institutions (e.g. family, work, politics, war, etc.). The research aim in this paper is to conceptualise overtourism through exploring how it is mediatised in news reports and social media posts. Overtourism is here approached as cultural practice informed by a particular media dramaturgy. The study underscores the close relationship between media narratives and tourism saturation in cities. We contend that the mediatisation of overtourism contribute to theattractiveness of destinations, whilst at the same time mitigating flows of tourists to these destinations. Overtourism is constructed as a threat to not only the ecosystem of cities, but to local culture, world heritage sites, and community life. At the centre of the drama is the conflictual relationship between the natives (local residents) and the foreigners (tourists). Overtourism becomes an issue about rights and responsibilities, us and them, self and other. While mass tourism is intertwined in the economic growthand development of modern society, overtourism brings commercialization, urban decay and cultural despair. Hence, overtourism is not so much about unsustainable travel patterns, as it is about a range of other political issues tied to, for instance, current housing and labour conditions in many European cities.Keywords: overtourism, urban destinations, mediatization, sustainability, narrative analysis, politicsReferencesCouldry, N., & Hepp, A. (2018). The continuing lure of the mediated centre in times of deep mediatization: Media Events and its enduring legacy. Media, Culture & Society 40 (1), 114–117.Dodds, R. & Butler, R. W. (eds.) (2019) Overtourism: issues, realities and solutions. De Gruyter Oldenbourg.Hjarvard, S. (2009). Soft individualism: media and the changing social character. Lundby, K. (ed.) Mediatization: concept, Changes, consequences. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.Panayiotopoulos, A., & Pisano, C. (forthcoming 2019). Overtourism dystopias and socialist utopias: towards an urban armature for Dubrovnik. Tourism Planning & Development, 1-18

From overtourism to undertourism: exploring the mediatization of place brands

Overtourism encapsulates the zeitgeist of contemporary tourism and was - for a few years - the buzzword within media reports on tourism. It gained attention as an unsustainable consequence of the intensification of place management practices in urban economic planning strategy. Stories about “the invasion” of visitors into a number of popular European cities frequently circulated in news and social media. However, all of that changed during spring 2020 with the advent of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Suddenly, urban tourism destinations went from overtourism to undertourism, or to almost no tourism at all. The aim of this paper is to advance the understanding of the connection between place branding and processes of mediatization (Hjarvard, 2009; see also Månsson, Buchmann, Cassinger and Eskilsson, 2020). To this end, we seek to capture how European urban destination brands are mediatized in a contemporary hybrid media landscape. Mediatization may be defined as ”the process whereby society to an increasing degree is submitted to, or becomes dependent on, the media and their logic” (Hjarvard 2009, 160). The concept highlights the institutionalisation of the media and the dialectical relationship between the media, institutions, and organisations (e.g. DMOs, place branding and management). The study is based on a narrative analysis (Czarniawska, 2004) of articles in English language news media downloaded through the database Global Newsstream between January 2018 and December 2020, and Instagram posts with hashtags related to over- and undertourism. The typical plots and their contextual use were identified in the narrative analysis. The findings point towards the presence of a particular media logic in the way that certain urban destination brands are presented and in the long run consumed by visitors. Unsurprisingly, the spotlight is on visually spectacular events in the bigger cities that are dramatized with archetypal villains, rescued objects, and heroes. Mediatization thus help us to understand how a particular media logic governs place branding processes making them difficult to control

What is the point? : A narrative comparative analysis on Kevin Bang’s own videos and marketing videos

Reklam har genom tiderna utvecklats från att vara övervägande argumenterande text till att påsenare år ha en mer berättande ansats, särskilt med framväxten av videoreklam. Socialamedier har lockat många företag att flytta sin reklam från traditionella medier till socialamedier på grund av den ökande användningen. Samtidigt som företag söker sig till socialamedier gör även allmänheten det, där ibland barn. Att urskilja reklam från annat innehåll pådessa plattformar har visat sig vara särskilt utmanande för barn. Mot denna bakgrund syftardenna studie till att undersöka skillnader och likheter i Kevin Bangs TikTok-videor med fokuspå deras berättarstrukturer. Studien analyserade tio videor, fem samarbetsvideor och fem av Kevin Bangs egna videor.Detta gjorde vi med hjälp av aktantmodellen, Hey You See So och plott. Studiens resultatindikerar att videorna följer liknande berättarstrukturer med några få distinkta skillnader. Detär även tydligt att hans samarbetsvideor inte går att separera från hans egna videor, främst pågrund av att det inte finns tydliga säljarargument. Advertising has evolved over time, transitioning from predominantly persuasive text to adopting a more narrative approach in recent years, especially with the rise of video advertising. Social media has enticed many companies to shift their advertising from traditional media to social platforms due to the increasing user engagement. Simultaneously, as businesses migrate to social media, so does the public, including children. Distinguishing advertisements from other content on these platforms has proven to be particularly challenging for children. Against this backdrop, this study aims to examine differences and similarities in Kevin Bang's TikTok videos, focusing on their narrative structures.  The study analyzed ten videos, comprising five collaboration videos and five of Kevin Bang's own videos. This analysis was conducted using the actantial model, Hey You See So, and plot. The results of the study indicate that the videos follow similar narrative structures with only a few distinct differences. It is also evident that his collaboration videos cannot be easily distinguished from his own videos, primarily due to the absence of a clear selling point.

Mediatisation and social sustainability – an ambivalent relationship

Mediatisation is one of the central concepts by which to understand how the intensifying media and communications environment constructs our social world. The aim of research is to examine the conditions of sustainability communication in a media economy of visibility and recognition. To this end, we focus on how the phenomenon overtourism is constructed as a social sustainability challenge in news- and social media.This research emphasises the dialectics of media and social institutions in examiningovertourism as a challenge for sustainable development in European urban destinations. Narrative analysis of the emergence of overtourism on online news media and social media platforms was conducted during 2017-2019.Findings underscore the ambivalent relationship between mediatization and sustainability. Media narratives construct overtourism as an unsustainable situation for urban destinations, whilst at the same time promoting the attractiveness of these places. Overtourism brings prosperity as well as urban decay and cultural despair to cities. We contend that the ambivalence surrounding the sustainability challenge of overtourism in the media is an obstacle to discussions of concrete measures. At the same time, ambivalence may lead to a greater reflexivity concerning social sustainability, which may be harnessed as a resource for change

Experiences of using powered wheelchair or powered scooter and accessibility in housings

OBJECTIVE: To describe powered wheelchair (PW) and powered scooter (PS) users' experiences of accessibility and housing adaptions in their homes.METHOD: A qualitative research approach with focus group methodology was used. Four focus groups were created, with men and women as well as PW and PS users in different groups. Applying a descriptive approach, data were analysed according to the principles described by Krueger and Casey.FINDINGS: With a specific focus on how PW and PS and housing adaptations operate together, the findings of this paper formed two categories: "Possibility of receiving housing adaptations according to individual needs" and "Importance of receiving the correct type of PW and PS in relation to individual needs".CONCLUSION: It is vital to acknowledge the characteristics and requirements of PW and PS as well as housing adaptations in order to optimize the use of such devices in the home, as a prerequisite for independence, activity and participation. The provision of PW and PS and housing adaptations should be considered and planned simultaneously, applying an explicitly user-centred perspective. Additionally, the collaboration between the different actors involved should be improved