Cultural Production of Protest Frames and Tactics: Cybermediaries and the SOPA Movement

On the surface, the recent mobilization of opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) over the internet appears to be yet another cyberactivism success. Yet, the anti-SOPA movement should have been doomed to failure for two reasons. First, the issue was too abstract to mobilize local kinship and friendship groups. Second, because mass media interests were served by the bill, mass media was unmotivated to diffuse the anti-SOPA message. Our analysis of this movement suggests it succeeded because of cybermediaries, internet companies that used their sites to diffuse the anti-SOPA message. They accomplished this through cultural productions of protest frames and tactics – technology-based verbal, graphical, and experiential representations of the SOPA protest frame and technology-based toolkits for use at the cybermediaries’ sites as well as for use at visitors’ sites. Our key contribution lies in identifying the nature and relative impact of these frames and tactics in cyberactivism

Dietary correlates of an at-risk BMI among Inuit adults in the Canadian high arctic: cross-sectional international polar year Inuit health survey, 2007-2008

Background: The study’s objective was to investigate the dietary correlates of an at-risk body mass index (BMI) among Inuit adults from thirty-six communities across the Canadian Arctic using data from the cross-sectional International Polar Year Inuit Health Survey, conducted in 2007–2008. Methods: The survey included assessments of 24-hr dietary recall, sociodemographics, physical activity, and anthropometry. Dietary characteristics of overweight and obesity were similar and therefore combined into one at- risk BMI category (≥25 kg/m2) for analyses. The relationship between an at-risk BMI and energy intake from macronutrients, high sugar drinks, high-fat foods, saturated fatty acids, and traditional foods were examined entering each dietary variable separately into a logistic regression model as an independent variable. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, region, kcalories, walking, smoking and alcohol consumption. Further multivariable models considered selected dietary variables together in one model. Results: An at-risk BMI was present for 64% with a prevalence of overweight and obesity of 28% and 36%, respectively. Consumption of high-sugar drinks (>15.5% E) was significantly related with having an at-risk BMI (OR = 1.6; 95% CI 1.2; 2.2), whereas the % E from total carbohydrate evaluated as a continuous variable and as quartiles was inversely related to an at-risk BMI (P -trend < 0.05) in multivariable analyses. While % E from high-fat foods was positively related to an at-risk BMI, the findings were not significant in a model controlling for high-sugar drinks and % E from carbohydrates. Conclusions: The prevalence of overweight and obesity is of public health concern among Inuit. The current findings highlight the obesogenic potential of high-sugar drink consumption in an ethnically distinct population undergoing rapid cultural changes and raises concerns regarding carbohydrate restricted diets. Health promotion programs aimed at preventing the development of an unhealthy body weight should focus on physical activity and the promotion of healthy diets with reduced intake of sugar drinks.publishedVersio

Oscillometry and pulmonary MRI measurements of ventilation heterogeneity in obstructive lung disease: Relationship to quality of life and disease control

Ventilation heterogeneity is a hallmark finding in obstructive lung disease and may be evaluated using a variety of methods, including multiple-breath gas washout and pulmonary imaging. Such methods provide an opportunity to better understand the relationships between structural and functional abnormalities in the lungs, and their relationships with important clinical outcomes. We measured ventilation heterogeneity and respiratory impedance in 100 subjects [50 patients with asthma, 22 ex-smokers, and 28 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)] using oscillometry and hyperpolarize

Sprint interval training (SIT) is an effective method to maintain cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and glucose homeostasis in Scottish adolescents

The present study examined the physiological impact of a school based sprint interval training (SIT) intervention in replacement of standard physical education (SPE) class on cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) and glucose homeostasis during the semester following summer vacation. Participants (n=49) were randomly allocated to either intervention (SIT; n=26, aged 16.9 ± 0.3 yrs) or control group who underwent standard physical education (SPE; n=23, aged 16.8 ± 0.6 yrs). CRF (VO2max) and glucose homeostasis were obtained prior-to and following 7 weeks of SIT exercise. Significant group x time interaction was observed for CRF (P<0.01) with non-significant trends for fasting insulin (P= 0.08), and HOMA-IR (P = 0.06). CRF decreased (P<0.01) in SPE such that POST intervention CRF was significantly lower (P< 0.05) in SPE. Fasting plasma glucose (P<0.01), insulin (P< 0.01) and HOMA-IR (P< 0.01) increased significantly amongst SPE. The main finding of the present study is that 7-weeks of SIT exercise is an effective method of maintaining (but not improving) CRF and fasting insulin homeostasis amongst school-going adolescents. SIT exercise demonstrates potential as a time efficient physiological adjunct to standard PE class in order to maintain CRF during the school term

Deregulation of HDAC5 by Viral Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 Plays an Essential Role in Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus-Induced Lymphangiogenesis.

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the etiologic agent for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), which is one of the most common HIV-associated neoplasms. The endothelium is the thin layer of squamous cells where vascular blood endothelial cells (BECs) line the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) are in direct contact with lymphatic vessels. The KS lesions contain a prominent compartment of neoplastic spindle morphology cells that are closely related to LECs. Furthermore, while KSHV can infect both LECs and BECs in vitro, its infection activates genetic programming related to lymphatic endothelial cell fate, suggesting that lymphangiogenic pathways are involved in KSHV infection and malignancy. Here, we report for the first time that viral interferon regulatory factor 3 (vIRF3) is readily detected in over 40% of KS lesions and that vIRF3 functions as a proangiogenic factor, inducing hypersprouting formation and abnormal growth in a LEC-specific manner. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed that vIRF3 interacted with histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5), which is a signal-responsive regulator for vascular homeostasis. This interaction blocked the phosphorylation-dependent cytosolic translocation of HDAC5 and ultimately altered global gene expression in LECs but not in BECs. Consequently, vIRF3 robustly induced spindle morphology and hypersprouting formation of LECs but not BECs. Finally, KSHV infection led to the hypersprouting formation of LECs, whereas infection with a ΔvIRF3 mutant did not do so. Collectively, our data indicate that vIRF3 alters global gene expression and induces a hypersprouting formation in an HDAC5-binding-dependent and LEC-specific manner, ultimately contributing to KSHV-associated pathogenesis.IMPORTANCE Several lines of evidences indicate that KSHV infection of LECs induces pathological lymphangiogenesis and that the results resemble KS-like spindle morphology. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that KSHV vIRF3 is readily detected in over 40% of various KS lesions and functions as a potent prolymphangiogenic factor by blocking the phosphorylation-dependent cytosolic translocation of HDAC5, which in turn modulates global gene expression in LECs. Consequently, vIRF3-HDAC5 interaction contributes to virus-induced lymphangiogenesis. The results of this study suggest that KSHV vIRF3 plays a crucial role in KSHV-induced malignancy

Two-Qubit Gate Set Tomography with Fewer Circuits

Gate set tomography (GST) is a self-consistent and highly accurate method for the tomographic reconstruction of a quantum information processor's quantum logic operations, including gates, state preparations, and measurements. However, GST's experimental cost grows exponentially with qubit number. For characterizing even just two qubits, a standard GST experiment may have tens of thousands of circuits, making it prohibitively expensive for platforms. We show that, because GST experiments are massively overcomplete, many circuits can be discarded. This dramatically reduces GST's experimental cost while still maintaining GST's Heisenberg-like scaling in accuracy. We show how to exploit the structure of GST circuits to determine which ones are superfluous. We confirm the efficacy of the resulting experiment designs both through numerical simulations and via the Fisher information for said designs. We also explore the impact of these techniques on the prospects of three-qubit GST.Comment: 46 pages, 13 figures. V2: Minor edits to acknowledgment