Tactical Encounters:Material Rhetoric and the Politics of Tactical Media

Tactical Encounters: Material Rhetoric and the Politics of Tactical Media articulates the concept of material rhetorical tactics, discrete rhetorical moves effecting political and social change, however ephemeral. I argue that material rhetorical tactics do not necessarily originate or conclude with a human subject, and that to understand this, we must reorient our conceptions of rhetorical action, agency, and, ultimately, its relationship to the demos, to include actions, actors, agents, and events that are not, in themselves, human. I build on recent work in rhetorical theory that has conceptualized the function and nature of rhetoric as involving agents human and nonhuman, linked together in ecologies that exceed intentional, human rhetorical “situations.” I argue that these ecologies still need a concept of rhetorical tactics, which I develop in this dissertation. To develop this concept, I analyze a media practice called “tactical media,” which is the use of media devices and systems for social and political change through hacking, altering, perverting, or redirecting their functions. This practice shows itself as a privileged site for this analysis, since it attempts to effect sociopolitical change by and through technical media. I develop a concept of material rhetorical tactics that implicates multiple materialities and forces, to model effective tactics once the role of human agency is reoriented

Effect of Niacin Monotherapy on High Density Lipoprotein Composition and Function

BACKGROUND: Niacin has modest but overall favorable effects on plasma lipids by increasing high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and lowering triglycerides. Clinical trials, however, evaluating niacin therapy for prevention of cardiovascular outcomes have returned mixed results. Recent evidence suggests that the HDL proteome may be a better indicator of HDL\u27s cardioprotective function than HDL-C. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of niacin monotherapy on HDL protein composition and function. METHODS: A 20-week investigational study was performed with 11 participants receiving extended-release niacin (target dose = 2 g/day) for 16-weeks followed by a 4-week washout period. HDL was isolated from participants at weeks: 0, 16, and 20. The HDL proteome was analyzed at each time point by mass spectrometry and relative protein quantification was performed by label-free precursor ion intensity measurement. RESULTS: In this cohort, niacin therapy had typical effects on routine clinical lipids (HDL-C + 16%, q \u3c 0.01; LDL-C - 20%, q \u3c 0.01; and triglyceride - 15%, q = 0.1). HDL proteomics revealed significant effects of niacin on 5 proteins: serum amyloid A (SAA), angiotensinogen (AGT), apolipoprotein A-II (APOA2), clusterin (CLUS), and apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1). SAA was the most prominently affected protein, increasing 3-fold in response to niacin (q = 0.008). Cholesterol efflux capacity was not significantly affected by niacin compared to baseline, however, stopping niacin resulted in a 9% increase in efflux (q \u3c 0.05). Niacin did not impact HDL\u27s ability to influence endothelial function. CONCLUSION: Extended-release niacin therapy, in the absence of other lipid-modifying medications, can increase HDL-associated SAA, an acute phase protein associated with HDL dysfunction

183 A phase 1B/2A trial of tofacitinib, an oral janus kinase inhibitor, in systemic lupus erythematosus

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An Investigation of the Effects of Otitis Media on Academic Aptitude, Social Status and Selected Variables in Elementary School-Age Children

153 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1983.Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a common disease of early childhood usually associated with a mild fluctuating hearing loss. To date, few studies have looked at otitis media in school-age populations and none to this author's knowledge has studied the academic, social and linguistic implications of OME in first-grade children.The purpose of this study was to carefully describe the effects of OME on academic aptitude, social status, and several variables of language in a population of first-grade elementary school children. A total of 50 children participated in this study, 25 with a medically-documented history of OME prior to two years of age (the experimental group), and 25 with no previous medical documentation of OME or ear-related pathology (the reference group). Mean age for the experimental group was 6 years 8 months and for the reference group, 6 years 7 months.The two groups of children were administered similar tests; the Test of Language Development (TOLD), Carrow Elicited Language Inventory (CELI), and the Short Form Test of Academic Aptitude (SFTAA). The results revealed that the reference group children outperformed the experimental subjects (p < 0.05) on the study variables of phonology, syntax, semantics, noun phrase, verb phrase, reference language, and reference non-language. The intercorrelations among variables for the experimental and reference group ranged generally from essentially zero to approximately 0.75. Based on the significant intercorrelations on dependent variables within the respective groups, the experimental (OME) subjects performed in a more similar fashion than did their non-OME counterparts. Social status as measured by sociometric techniques did not appear to be influenced by the presence of OME. The results appear to indicate that persistent episodes of OME can compromise a child's linguistic development.A discriminant analysis was performed on all study variables with the exception of social status. The results showed that the variables of noun phrase, phonology, and verb phrase respectively, contributed most to differentiating the two groups of children. Recommendations for improving present and future research were made on the basis of the data gathered in this study.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Focal Ischemic Preconditioning Induces Rapid Tolerance to Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Mice

In a process called ischemic preconditioning, a brief, sublethal ischemic insult protects tissue from subsequent, more severe injury. There have been no reports of rapidly induced ischemic preconditioning. The authors sought to develop a model of cerebral ischemic preconditioning in the mouse that can be applied to transgenic and knockout animals. They found that brief middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion only minutes before a severe ischemic insult can induce protection from that insult. Here the investigators describe a mouse model of preconditioning using intraluminal MCA occlusion as both the conditioning and the test stimulus. One or three 5-minute episodes of ischemia given 30 minutes before MCA occlusion for 1 or 24 hours (permanent occlusion) confer significant protection as assessed by infarct volume measurements 24 hours later