Images Big and Soft: The Digital Archive Rendered Cinematic

 In his recent immersive media art project titled Machine Hallucinations, artist Refik Anadol collected over 100 million images of New York City from social media and, using machine learning, created a 30-minute immersive experimental cinema experience that visualized the database. On his website, Anadol explains that computation allows “a novel form of synesthetic storytelling through its multilayered manipulation of a vast visual archive beyond the conventional limits of the camera and the existing cinematographic techniques.” With this project, Anadol demonstrates a tendency shared by a group of contemporary media artists who work at the intersection of cinema and the digital archive and who use machine learning and generative adversarial networks to render specific somatic experiences in relation to thousands of images. This essay discusses this shared focus by examining projects by three artists who use computational processes to assemble, manipulate, and then exhibit an archive of images as a part of their practice and output, translating the archival into the cinematic. The projects are significant in their evocation of what has been named by Ingrid Hoelzl the “soft-image” or “post-image,” shifting from the single image as a solid, stable representation within a collection of similarly single images, to that of the distributed, in-process experiential image. Further, each example approaches the creation of the collection with varied intentions; and each presents the material in disparate modalities that, while deeply connected to the cinematic, produce very different sensory experiences. Together, the examples offer a perspective on the archive in our current moment’s transition from representation to computation

Speculative Design and Curriculum Development: Using Worldbuilding to Imagine a New Major in a Post-Course Era

Randy Bass, Executive Director of Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, recently made the provocative claim that we inhabit a “post-course era.” Building on the findings of the National Survey of Student Engagement that show that the places in which undergraduate students demonstrate the highest degree of engagement is in areas outside the traditional curriculum and its courses, Bass suggests that we not merely try to enrich the formal curriculum, but that we also consider supporting and augmenting activities in the “extra” curriculum. We can thereby create opportunities for learning within informal as well as formal settings. In the process of developing a new BA degree within the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California dedicated to Media Arts and Practice—a major that is designed to support students interested not just in media literacy but also in media expertise and the ability to communicate powerfully through diverse media forms—we wanted to imagine a major for the post-course era: a major without courses, traditional assignments, and expected modes of assessment. This essay explores the design challenge posed in trying to imagine such a major, and offers a speculative degree proposal for the post-course era

Bacterial diversity impacts as a result of combined sewer overflow in a polluted waterway

Newtown Creek is an industrial waterway and former tidal wetland in New York City. It is one of the most polluted water bodies in the United States and was designated as a superfund site in 2010. For over a century, organic compounds, heavy metals, and other forms of industrial pollution have disrupted the creek’s environment. The creek is also impacted by discharges from twenty combined sewer overflow pipes, which may deposit raw sewage or partially treated wastewater directly into the creek during heavy or sustained rain events. Combined sewer overflow events and associated nutrient over-enrichment at the creek drive eutrophication and subsequent hypoxia. At the current study, three sites were sampled one week apart during a dry period and a wet period, where indication of a combined sewage overflow event could be detected. 16s rRNA high-throughput sequencing from these three sites collectively yielded over 1000 species of bacteria belonging to twenty-two classes. Based on these data, it is hypothesized that differences identified in the microbiome on wet versus dry days are as a result of combined sewage overflow, street runoff, and additional fluctuations in the creek’s environment associated with rain. It was found that after a combined sewer overflows event, the levels of Gamma Proteobacteria increased while the levels of Actinobacteria decreased. However, levels of bacteria stayed relatively unchanged at a site further away from combined sewer overflows discharge. Species found in Newtown Creek include pelagic, marine, human and animal pathogens, hydrocarbonoclastic, and other environmental microbes

Increasing doses of fiber do not influence short-term satiety or food intake and are inconsistently linked to gut hormone levels

Background: People who eat more fiber often have a lower body weight than people who eat less fiber. The mechanism for this relationship has been explained, in part, by increased satiety, which may occur as a result of changes in appetite-suppressing gut hormone levels, and decreases in food intake at subsequent meals. Objective: We hypothesized that increasing doses of mixed fiber, consumed in muffins for breakfast, would proportionally influence satiety, gut hormone levels, and subsequent food intake. Design: This was a randomized, double-blind, crossover study. Healthy men (n=10) and women (n=10) with a BMI of 24±2 (mean±SEM) participated in this study. Fasting subjects consumed a muffin with 0, 4, 8, or 12 g of mixed fibers and approximately 500 kcal. Visual analog scales rated hunger and satiety for 3 h; blood was drawn to measure ghrelin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and peptide YY3–36 (PYY3–36) at various intervals; and food intake was measured at an ad libitum lunch. Results: Responses to satiety-related questions did not differ among treatments. However, despite lack of differences in satiety, gut hormone levels differed among treatments. Ghrelin was higher after the 12 g fiber dose than after the 4 and 8 g fiber doses. GLP-1 was higher after the 0 g fiber dose than after the 12 and 4 g fiber doses, and PYY3–36 did not differ among fiber doses. Food intake was also indistinguishable among doses. Conclusion: Satiety, gut hormone response, and food intake did not change in a dose-dependent manner after subjects consumed 0, 4, 8, and 12 g of mixed fiber in muffins for breakfast

Leucine zipper and ICAT domain containing (LZIC) protein regulates cell cycle transitions in response to ionizing radiation

Common hallmarks of cancer include the dysregulation of cell cycle progression and the acquisition of genome instability. In tumors, G1 cell cycle checkpoint induction is often lost. This increases the reliance on a functional G2/M checkpoint to prevent progression through mitosis with damaged DNA, avoiding the introduction of potentially aberrant genetic alterations. Treatment of tumors with ionizing radiation (IR) utilizes this dependence on the G2/M checkpoint. Therefore, identification of factors which regulate this process could yield important biomarkers for refining this widely used cancer therapy. Leucine zipper and ICAT domain containing (LZIC) downregulation has been associated with the development of IR-induced tumors. However, despite LZIC being highly conserved, it has no known molecular function. We demonstrate that LZIC knockout (KO) cell lines show a dysregulated G2/M cell cycle checkpoint following IR treatment. In addition, we show that LZIC deficient cells competently activate the G1 and early G2/M checkpoint but fail to maintain the late G2/M checkpoint after IR exposure. Specifically, this defect was found to occur downstream of PIKK signaling. The LZIC KO cells demonstrated severe aneuploidy indicative of genomic instability. In addition, analysis of data from cancer patient databases uncovered a strong correlation between LZIC expression and poor prognosis in several cancers. Our findings suggest that LZIC is functionally involved in cellular response to IR, and its expression level could serve as a biomarker for patient stratification in clinical cancer practice

The relationship between visual acuity loss and GABAergic inhibition in amblyopia

Early childhood experience alters visual development, a process exemplified by amblyopia, a common neurodevelopmental condition resulting in cortically reduced vision in one eye. Visual deficits in amblyopia may be a consequence of abnormal suppressive interactions in the primary visual cortex by inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). We examined the relationship between visual acuity loss and GABA+ in adult human participants with amblyopia. Single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data were collected from the early visual cortex (EVC) and posterior cingulate cortex (control region) of twenty-eight male and female adults with current or past amblyopia while they viewed flashing checkerboards monocularly, binocularly, or while they had their eyes closed. First, we compared GABA+ concentrations between conditions to evaluate suppressive binocular interactions. Then, we correlated the degree of visual acuity loss with GABA+ levels to test whether GABAergic inhibition could explain visual acuity deficits. Visual cortex GABA+ was not modulated by viewing condition, and we found weak evidence for a negative correlation between visual acuity deficits and GABA+. These findings suggest that reduced vision in one eye due to amblyopia is not strongly linked to GABAergic inhibition in the visual cortex. We advanced our understanding of early experience dependent plasticity in the human brain by testing the association between visual acuity deficits and visual cortex GABA in amblyopes of the most common subtypes. Our study shows that the relationship was not as clear as expected and provides avenues for future investigation

GABA and glutamate in hMT+ link to individual differences in residual visual function after occipital stroke

BACKGROUND: Damage to the primary visual cortex following an occipital stroke causes loss of conscious vision in the contralateral hemifield. Yet, some patients retain the ability to detect moving visual stimuli within their blind field. The present study asked whether such individual differences in blind field perception following loss of primary visual cortex could be explained by the concentration of neurotransmitters γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate or activity of the visual motion processing, human middle temporal complex (hMT+). METHODS: We used magnetic resonance imaging in 19 patients with chronic occipital stroke to measure the concentration of neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate (proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and functional activity in hMT+ (functional magnetic resonance imaging). We also tested each participant on a 2-interval forced choice detection task using high-contrast, moving Gabor patches. We then measured and assessed the strength of relationships between participants’ residual vision in their blind field and in vivo neurotransmitter concentrations, as well as visually evoked functional magnetic resonance imaging activity in their hMT+. Levels of GABA and glutamate were also measured in a sensorimotor region, which served as a control. RESULTS: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy-derived GABA and glutamate concentrations in hMT+ (but not sensorimotor cortex) strongly predicted blind-field visual detection abilities. Performance was inversely related to levels of both inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters in hMT+ but, surprisingly, did not correlate with visually evoked blood oxygenation level–dependent signal change in this motion-sensitive region. CONCLUSIONS: Levels of GABA and glutamate in hMT+ appear to provide superior information about motion detection capabilities inside perimetrically defined blind fields compared to blood oxygenation level–dependent signal changes—in essence, serving as biomarkers for the quality of residual visual processing in the blind-field. Whether they also reflect a potential for successful rehabilitation of visual function remains to be determined

Effect of comorbid migraine on propranolol efficacy for painful TMD in a randomized controlled trial

Introduction The migraine-preventive drug propranolol is efficacious in reducing pain from temporomandibular disorder, suggesting potential modifying or mediating effects of comorbid migraine. Methods In this randomized controlled trial, myofascial temporomandibular disorder patients were treated with propranolol or placebo for 9 weeks. The primary endpoint was change in a facial pain index derived from daily symptom diaries. Linear and logistic regression models tested for a migraine × treatment-group interaction in reducing facial pain index. Counterfactual models explored changes in headache impact and heart rate as mediators of propranolol's efficacy. Results Propranolol's efficacy in reducing facial pain index was greater among the 104 migraineurs than the 95 non-migraineurs: For example, for the binary ≥ 30% reduction in facial pain index, odds ratios were 3.3 (95% confidence limits: 1.4, 8.1) versus 1.3 (0.5, 3.2), respectively, although the interaction was statistically non-significant (p = 0.139). Cumulative response curves confirmed greater efficacy for migraineurs than non-migraineurs (differences in area under the curve 26% and 6%, respectively; p = 0.081). While 9% of the treatment effect was mediated by reduced headache impact, 46% was mediated by reduced heart rate. Conclusions Propranolol was more efficacious in reducing temporomandibular disorder pain among migraineurs than non-migraineurs, with more of the effect mediated by reduced heart rate than by reduced headache impact. Study identification and registration SOPPRANO; NCT02437383; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT0243738

Carboxyl terminus of Hsp70-interacting protein (CHIP) is required to modulate cardiac hypertrophy and attenuate autophagy during exercise

The carboxyl terminus of HSP70-interacting protein (CHIP) is a ubiquitin ligase/co-chaperone critical for the maintenance of cardiac function. Mice lacking CHIP (CHIP −/−) suffer decreased survival, enhanced myocardial injury, and increased arrhythmias compared to wild type controls following challenge with cardiac ischemia reperfusion injury. Recent evidence implicates a role for CHIP in chaperone-assisted selective autophagy, a process that is associated with exercise-induced cardioprotection. To determine whether CHIP is involved in cardiac autophagy, we challenged CHIP −/− mice with voluntary exercise. CHIP −/− mice respond to exercise with an enhanced autophagic response that is associated with an exaggerated cardiac hypertrophy phenotype. No impairment of function was identified in the CHIP −/− mice by serial echocardiography over the five weeks of running, indicating that the cardiac hypertrophy was physiologic not pathologic in nature. It was further determined that CHIP plays a role in inhibiting Akt signaling and autophagy determined by autophagic flux in cardiomyocytes and in the intact heart. Taken together, cardiac CHIP appears to play a role in regulating autophagy during the development of cardiac hypertrophy, possibly by its role in supporting Akt signaling, induced by voluntary running in vivo