‘We are all leaders’ : Building understanding of informal contemporary social movement leadership : Case study: The yellow vests movement in France

Johtajuus tämän hetken yhteiskunnallisissa liikkeissä on herättänyt paljon keskustelua tutkijoiden parissa. Yhteiskunnallisia liikkeitä, jotka organisoivat toimintaansa osittain sosiaalisen media alustoilla pidetään usein horisontaalisina rakenteina, jotka toimivat ilman johtajia. Kuitenkin tämänhetkinen tutkimus on paljastunut valtasuhteita ja epävirallista johtajuutta näiden liikkeiden sisällä. Tämän pro gradu- tutkielman tarkoituksena on tarkastella tätä epävirallista johtajuutta eri konteksteissa. Tapaustutkimuksena tutkielma tarkastelee keltaisten liivien liikettä Ranskassa ja pyrkii kartoittamaan dynamiikkaan liittyviä samankaltaisuuksia ja eroavaisuuksia verratessa toisiin tämän hetken yhteiskunnallisiin liikkeisiin. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin digitaalista mediaetnografiaa, joka mahdollisti ilmiön tehokkaan seuraamisen digitaalisilla alustoilla. Yli vuoden kestänyt kenttätyö keskittyi liikkeelle keskeisiin Facebook tileihin sekä ranskan- ja englanninkieliseen digitaaliseen uutismediaan. Keltaisten liivien liikkeen dynamiikan ymmärtämiseksi analyysi keskittyi kolmeen keskeiseen tapahtumaan, jotka nousivat esille tarkastelluilta sosiaalisen median tileiltä. Tutkimustulosten perusteella voidaan todeta, että Ranskan keltaisten liivien liike sisältää epävirallista johtajuutta. Tämä tulos tukee tämän hetken tutkimushavaintoja koskien yhteiskunnallisten liikkeiden dynamiikkaa. Keltaisten liivien liikkeen epävirallinen johtajuus on kuitenkin näkyvää erottaen sen anonyymien sosiaalisen median ylläpitäjien johtajuudesta. Näkyvyys mahdollistaa uusia henkilöityjä viestintätaktiikoita, joita käytetään vahvistamaan yhteisöllisyyden tunnetta liikkeessä. Keltaisten liivien liikkeen epävirallinen johtajuus on myös jaettua keskeisten henkilöiden ja muiden toimijoiden välillä tuoden esille liikkeen kollektiivisen luonteen. Tutkimushavaintoihin pohjautuen voidaan esittää, että Ranskan keltaisten liivien liikkeen rakenne ei ole horisontaalinen vaan avainhenkilöt toimivat liikeverkoston keskuspisteinä. Näin keskeisten henkilöiden panoksen ja määrätietoisuuden voidaan nähdä luovan pohjan Ranskan keltaisten liivien liikkeen pitkäikäisyydelle yhdessä eri konteksteissa tapahtuvan toiminnan kanssa. Tulokset osoittavat, että epävirallista johtajuutta ei voida ohittaa nykyaikaisten yhteiskunnallisten liikkeiden tutkimuksessa. Tulosten perusteella ehdotetaan, että tulevaisuudessa tutkimus keskittyisi tarkemmin siihen, millä kaikilla tavoilla epävirallinen johtajuus kanavoidaan yhteiskunnallisen liikkeen tavoitteiden saavuttamiseksi.Contemporary social movement leadership is a debated topic among social movement scholars. The social movements that organize action partly on digital platforms are often considered as leaderless and horizontal. However, recent research has revealed power dynamics and informal leadership within these movements. The scope of this master’s thesis is to build understanding of this informal leadership that concerns different levels and layers in the online and offline contexts. As a case study, the master’s thesis examines the yellow vests movement in France and seeks to discover what kind of similarities and differences emerge when comparing the dynamics of the yellow vests movement to other contemporary social movements. The research method was digital media ethnography that enabled efficient tracing of the phenomenon in different digital media platforms. The fieldwork that lasted for over a year concentrated on key Facebook accounts and French and English digital news media. Three key events emerging from the social media accounts were analyzed more closely to understand the dynamics of the yellow vests movement. The research findings reveal informal leadership within the yellow vests movement in France. This result supports recent research concerning the dynamics of contemporary social movements. However, informal leadership of the yellow vests movement is visible and thus differs from the leadership of anonymous social media administrators. Visibility enables new personalized communication tactics that are applied to strengthen emotional togetherness in the movement. The informal leadership of the yellow vests movement is also distributed between key figures and other participants in the movement network, highlighting collective action. Based on the research observations, it can be argued that the structure of the yellow vests movement is not horizontal, but key figures of the movement operate as central points or hubs in the network. Thus, it can be argued that the contribution and determination of the prominent figures in different contexts lay the foundation for the longevity of the yellow vests movement in France. The results indicate that informal leadership cannot be ignored in the research of contemporary social movements. Based on the findings, it is suggested that future research should concentrate more closely on how informal leadership is channeled in various ways to achieve the goals of the movement

NRF1 and NRF2 mRNA and protein expression decrease early during melanoma carcinogenesis:an insight into survival and microRNAs

Abstract. The prognostic significance of the major redox regulator nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor (NRF2) is recognized in many cancers, but the role of NRF1 is not generally well understood in cancer. Our aim was to investigate these redox transcription factors in conjunction with redox-related microRNAs in naevi and melanoma. We characterized the immunohistochemical expression of NRF1 and NRF2 in 99 naevi, 88 primary skin melanomas, and 67 lymph node metastases. In addition, NRF1 and NRF2 mRNA and miR-23B, miR-93, miR-144, miR-212, miR-340, miR-383, and miR-510 levels were analysed with real-time qPCR from 54 paraffin-embedded naevi and melanoma samples. The immunohistochemical expression of nuclear NRF1 decreased from benign to dysplastic naevi (p < 0.001) and to primary melanoma (p < 0.001) and from primary melanoma to metastatic lesions (p = 0.012). Also, NRF1 mRNA levels decreased from benign naevi to dysplastic naevi (p = 0.034). Similarly, immunopositivity of NRF2 decreased from benign to dysplastic naevi (p = 0.02) and to primary lesions (p = 0.018). NRF2 mRNA decreased from benign to dysplastic naevi and primary melanomas (p = 0.012). Analysis from the Gene Expression Omnibus datasets supported the mRNA findings. High nuclear immunohistochemical NRF1 expression in pigment cells associated with a worse survival (p = 0.048) in patients with N0 disease at the time of diagnosis, and high nuclear NRF2 expression in pigment cells associated with a worse survival (p = 0.033) in patients with M0 disease at the time of diagnosis. In multivariate analysis, neither of these variables exceeded the prognostic power of Breslow. The levels of miR-144 and miR-212 associated positively with ulceration (p = 0.012 and p = 0.027, respectively) while miR-510 levels associated positively with lymph node metastases at the time of diagnosis (p = 0.004). Furthermore, the miRNAs correlated negatively with the immunohistochemical expression of NRF1 and NRF2 but positively with their respective mRNA. Together, this data sheds new light about NFE2L family factors in pigment tumors and suggests that these factors are worth for further explorations.NRF1 ja NRF2 lähetti-RNA sekä proteiiniekspressio laskevat aikaisin melanooman syntyprosessin aikana : katsaus eloonjäämiseen ja mikro-RNA:han. Tiivistelmä. Merkittävän hapetus-pelkistysreaktion säätelijän, NRF2:n ennusteellinen merkittävyys on aiemmin tunnistettu useissa syövissä, mutta NRF1:n roolista syövässä tiedetään vasta hyvin vähän. Tavoitteemme oli tutkia näitä hapetus-pelkistysreaktioihin liittyviä transkriptiotekijöitä yhdessä hapetus-pelkistysreaktioihin liittyvän mikro-RNA:n kanssa luomi- sekä ihomelanoomanäytteissä. Kartoitimme NRF1:n ja NRF2:n immuhistokemiallisen ekspression 99 luominäytteessä, 88 pahanlaatuisessa primaarikasvainnäytteessä sekä 67 imusolmuke-etäpesäkenäytteessä. Lisäksi analysoimme NRF1- ja NRF2-lähetti-RNA:n sekä miR-23B:n, miR-93:n, miR-144:n, miR-212:n, miR-340:n, miR-383:n ja miR-510:n tason reaaliaikaisella qPCR:llä 54:stä parafiiniin upotetusta luomi- sekä ihomelanoomanäytteestä. Tutkimuksessamme totesimme tumassa sijaitsevan NRF1:n immuhistokemiallisen ekspression laskevan siirryttäessä hyvänlaatuisista luomista epätyypillisiin luomiin ja edelleen pahanlaatuisiin primaarikasvaimiin. Ekspressio laski myös siirryttäessä pahanlaatuisista primaarikasvaimista etäpesäkkeisiin. Myös NRF1-lähetti-RNA-taso laski siirryttäessä hyvänlaatuisista epätyypillisiin luomiin. Samoin, NRF2:n immunopositiivisuus sekä NRF2-lähetti-RNA-taso laski siirryttäessä hyvänlaatuisista epätyypillisiin luomiin ja edelleen pahanlaatuisiin primaarikasvaimiin. Gene Expression Omnibus -datasta tehty analyysi tuki lähetti-RNA-löydöksiä. Korkea immunohistokemiallinen NRF1 ekspressio pigmenttisolujen tumissa assosioitui huonompaan selviytymiseen potilailla, joilla oli diagnoosin saadessaan N0-tauti. Korkea pigmenttisolujen tumien NRF2 ekspressio taas assosioitui huonompaan selviytymiseen potilailla, joilla oli M0-tauti diagnoosihetkellä. Multivarianttianalyysissa kumpikaan näistä ei ylittänyt Breslown ennusteellista voimaa. MiR-144 ja miR-212 tasot assosioituvat positiivisesti haavautumiseen, kun taas miR-510 tasot assosioituivat positiivisesti imusolmuke-etäpesäkkeiden muodostumiseen diagnoosihetkellä. Lisäksi miRNA:t korreloivat negatiivisesti NRF1:n ja NRF2:n immunohistokemiallisen ekspression kanssa, mutta positiivisesti vastaavan lähetti-RNA:n kanssa. Yhteenvetona voidaan sanoa tutkimuksemme antavan uutta tietoa NFE2L säätelijäperheestä pigmenttikasvaimissa. Tutkimuksemme perusteella nämä säätelytekijät lienevät jatkotutkimuksen arvoisia

Beneficial effects of lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) supplementation on metabolic and inflammatory adverse effects induced by high-fat diet in a mouse model of obesity.

Obesity is a constantly increasing health problem worldwide. It is associated with a systemic low-grade inflammation, which contributes to the development of metabolic disorders and comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes. Diet has an important role in the prevention of obesity and its adverse health effects; as a part of healthy diet, polyphenol-rich berries, such as lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) have been proposed to have health-promoting effects. In the present study, we investigated the effects of lingonberry supplementation on high-fat diet induced metabolic and inflammatory changes in a mouse model of obesity. Thirty male C57BL/6N mice were divided into three groups (n = 10/group) to receive low-fat (LF), high-fat (HF) and lingonberry-supplemented high-fat (HF+LGB) diet for six weeks. Low-fat and high-fat diet contained 10% and 46% of energy from fat, respectively. Lingonberry supplementation prevented the high-fat diet induced adverse changes in blood cholesterol and glucose levels and had a moderate effect on the weight and visceral fat gain, which were 26% and 25% lower, respectively, in the lingonberry group than in the high-fat diet control group. Interestingly, lingonberry supplementation also restrained the high-fat diet induced increases in the circulating levels of the proinflammatory adipocytokine leptin (by 36%) and the inflammatory acute phase reactant serum amyloid A (SAA; by 85%). Similar beneficial effects were discovered in the hepatic expression of the inflammatory factors CXCL-14, S100A10 and SAA by lingonberry supplementation. In conclusion, the present results indicate that lingonberry supplementation significantly prevents high-fat diet induced metabolic and inflammatory changes in a murine model of obesity. The results encourage evaluation of lingonberries as a part of healthy diet against obesity and its comorbidities

Quantum confined electronic states in atomically well-defined graphene nanostructures

Despite the enormous interest in the properties of graphene and the potential of graphene nanostructures in electronic applications, the study of quantum confined states in atomically well-defined graphene nanostructures remains an experimental challenge. Here, we study graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with well-defined edges in the zigzag direction, grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on an iridium(111) substrate, by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS). We measure the atomic structure and local density of states (LDOS) of individual GQDs as a function of their size and shape in the range from a couple of nanometers up to ca. 20 nm. The results can be quantitatively modeled by a relativistic wave equation and atomistic tight-binding calculations. The observed states are analogous to the solutions of the text book "particle-in-a-box" problem applied to relativistic massless fermions.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Flavonoids: Genistein, Kaempferol, Quercetin, and Daidzein Inhibit STAT-1 and NF-κB Activations, Whereas Flavone, Isorhamnetin, Naringenin, and Pelargonidin Inhibit only NF-κB Activation along with Their Inhibitory Effect on iNOS Expression and NO Production in Activated Macrophages

In inflammation, bacterial products and proinflammatory cytokines induce the formation of large amounts of nitric oxide (NO) by inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and compounds that inhibit NO production have anti-inflammatory effects. In the present study, we systematically investigated the effects of 36 naturally occurring flavonoids and related compounds on NO production in macrophages exposed to an inflammatory stimulus (lipopolysaccharide, LPS), and evaluated the mechanisms of action of the effective compounds. Flavone, the isoflavones daidzein and genistein, the flavonols isorhamnetin, kaempferol and quercetin, the flavanone naringenin, and the anthocyanin pelargonidin inhibited iNOS protein and mRNA expression and also NO production in a dose-dependent manner. All eight active compounds inhibited the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), which is a significant transcription factor for iNOS. Genistein, kaempferol, quercetin, and daidzein also inhibited the activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT-1), another important transcription factor for iNOS. The present study characterises the effects and mechanisms of naturally occurring phenolic compounds on iNOS expression and NO production in activated macrophages. The results partially explain the pharmacological efficacy of flavonoids as anti-inflammatory compounds

TRPA1 as a potential factor and drug target in scleroderma : dermal fibrosis and alternative macrophage activation are attenuated in TRPA1-deficient mice in bleomycin-induced experimental model of scleroderma

Background: Systemic sclerosis is a rheumatoid disease best known for its fibrotic skin manifestations called scleroderma. Alternatively activated (M2-type) macrophages are normally involved in the resolution of inflammation and wound healing but also in fibrosing diseases such as scleroderma. TRPA1 is a non-selective cation channel, activation of which causes pain and neurogenic inflammation. In the present study, we investigated the role of TRPA1 in bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis mimicking scleroderma. Methods: Wild type and TRPA1-deficient mice were challenged with intradermal bleomycin injections to induce a scleroderma-mimicking disease. Macrophages were investigated in vitro to evaluate the underlying mechanisms. Results: Bleomycin induced dermal thickening and collagen accumulation in wild type mice and that was significantly attenuated in TRPA1-deficient animals. Accordingly, the expression of collagens 1A1, 1A2, and 3A1 as well as pro-fibrotic factors TGF-beta, CTGF, fibronectin-1 and YKL-40, and M2 macrophage markers Arg1 and MRC1 were lower in TRPA1-deficient than wild type mice. Furthermore, bleomycin was discovered to significantly enhance M2-marker expression particularly in the presence of IL-4 in wild type macrophages in vitro, but not in macrophages harvested from TRPA1-deficient mice. IL-4-induced PPARγ-expression in macrophages was increased by bleomycin, providing a possible mechanism behind the phenomenon. Conclusions: In conclusion, the results indicate that interfering TRPA1 attenuates fibrotic and inflammatory responses in bleomycin-induced scleroderma. Therefore, TRPA1-blocking treatment could potentially alleviate M2 macrophage driven diseases like systemic sclerosis and scleroderma.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

MKP-1 Deficiency Exacerbates Skin Fibrosis in a Mouse Model of Scleroderma

Scleroderma is a chronic fibrotic disease, where proinflammatory and profibrotic events precede collagen accumulation. MKP-1 [mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphatase-1] downregulates inflammatory MAPK pathways suppressing inflammation. MKP-1 also supports Th1 polarization, which could shift Th1/Th2 balance away from profibrotic Th2 profile prevalent in scleroderma. In the present study, we investigated the potential protective role of MKP-1 in scleroderma. We utilized bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis model as a well-characterized experimental model of scleroderma. Dermal fibrosis and collagen deposition as well as the expression of inflammatory and profibrotic mediators were analyzed in the skin samples. Bleomycin-induced dermal thickness and lipodystrophy were increased in MKP-1-deficient mice. MKP-1 deficiency enhanced collagen accumulation and increased expression of collagens, 1A1 and 3A1, in the dermis. Bleomycin-treated skin from MKP-1-deficient mice also showed enhanced expression of inflammatory and profibrotic factors IL-6, TGF-β1, fibronectin-1 and YKL-40, and chemokines MCP-1, MIP-1α and MIP-2, as compared to wild-type mice. The results show, for the first time, that MKP-1 protects from bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis, suggesting that MKP-1 favorably modifies inflammation and fibrotic processes that drive the pathogenesis of scleroderma. Compounds enhancing the expression or activity of MKP-1 could thus prevent fibrotic processes in scleroderma and possess potential as a novel immunomodulative drug.publishedVersionPeer reviewe