Wildlife in the Digital Anthropocene: Examining human-animal relations through surveillance technologies

Digital surveillance technologies enable a range of publics to observe the private lives of wild animals. Publics can now encounter wildlife from their smartphones, home computers, and other digital devices. These technologies generate public-wildlife relations that produce digital intimacy, but also summon wildlife into relations of care, commodification, and control. Via three case studies, this paper examines the biopolitical implications of such technologically mediated human-animal relations, which are becoming increasingly common and complex in the Digital Anthropocene. Each of our case studies involves a different biopolitical rationale deployed by a scientific-managerial regime: (1) clampdown (wild boar); (2) care (golden eagle); and (3) control (moose). Each of these modalities of biopower, however, is entangled with the other, inaugurating complex relations between publics, scientists, and wildlife. We show how digital technologies can predetermine certain representations of wildlife by encouraging particular gazes, which can have negative repercussions for public-wildlife relations in both digital and offline spaces. However, there remains work to be done to understand the positive public-wildlife relations inaugurated by digital mediation. Here, departing from much extant literature on digital human-animal relations, we highlight some of these positive potentials, notably: voice, immediacy, and agency

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ABSTRACT. Objective. The morphology of articular cartilage (AC) enables painless movement. Aging and mechanical loading are believed to influence development of osteoarthritis (OA), yet the connection remains unclear. Methods. This narrative review describes the current knowledge regarding this area, with the literature search made on PubMed using appropriate keywords regarding AC, age, and mechanical loading. Results. Following skeletal maturation, chondrocyte numbers decline while increasing senescence occurs. Lower cartilage turnover causes diminished maintenance capacity, which produces accumulation of fibrillar crosslinks by advanced glycation end products, resulting in increased stiffness and thereby destruction susceptibility. Articular cartilage (AC) covers bone surfaces and allows for almost friction-free movement. Unfortunately, AC is susceptible to acute injury and degenerative conditions, e.g., osteoarthritis (OA), and because cartilage has very poor healing potential, OA is a considerable medical challenge. OA is no longer solely seen as 1 single disease, instead 5 OA phenotypes have been suggested, i.e., genetic, metabolic, pain, age, and structural/post-traumatic 1 . Our narrative review is meant as a covering overview of the main OA phenotypes (related to aging and mechanical loading), and is aimed to include studies of molecular, biochemical, physiological, and clinical designs. To clarify these OA phenotypes, basic information about AC morphology and key components is provided. This is followed by a review of the effect of age and mechanical influence on the morphology, along with the underlying cell signaling, because, as demonstrated, OA is not merely a mechanical/physical "wear and tear" disease. The literature search was performed on PubMed using appropriate keywords regarding exercise/mechanical load, articular cartilage, metabolism/turnover, OA, extracellular matrix, and cell signaling/transduction. Morphology AC consists of the chondrocyte surrounded by an extracellular matrix (ECM), subdivided into areas in a pericellular matrix (PCM) immediately adjacent to the cell, a territorial matrix farther away, and an interterritorial matrix 2 . ECM contains a fibrillar network of both collagens and noncollagenous matrix components embedded in a viscous gel-like ground/basic substance. The fibers are oriented differently and divide the uncalcified AC into 3 zones: superficial zone (SZ) with parallel fiber orientation, intermediate zone (IZ) with random, and finally deep zone (DZ) with vertical orientation. A tidemark represents the DZ transition into the mineralized/calcified fourth zone followed by the subchondral bone below 3 . The ground/basic substance contains the extra

Wildlife in the Digital Anthropocene: examining human-animal relations through surveillance technologies

Digital surveillance technologies enable a range of publics to observe the private lives of wild animals. Publics can now encounter wildlife from their smartphones, home computers, and other digital devices. These technologies generate public-wildlife relations that produce digital intimacy, but also summon wildlife into relations of care, commodification, and control. Via three case studies, this paper examines the biopolitical implications of such technologically mediated human-animal relations, which are becoming increasingly common and complex in the Digital Anthropocene. Each of our case studies involves a different biopolitical rationale deployed by a scientific-managerial regime: (1) clampdown (wild boar); (2) care (golden eagle); and (3) control (moose). Each of these modalities of biopower, however, is entangled with the other, inaugurating complex relations between publics, scientists, and wildlife. We show how digital technologies can predetermine certain representations of wildlife by encouraging particular gazes, which can have negative repercussions for public-wildlife relations in both digital and offline spaces. However, there remains work to be done to understand the positive public-wildlife relations inaugurated by digital mediation. Here, departing from much extant literature on digital human-animal relations, we highlight some of these positive potentials, notably: voice, immediacy, and agency

Self-assembly of ordered graphene nanodot arrays (vol 8, 47, 2017)

Change History: A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML version of this article

Rotational coherence spectroscopy of molecules in helium nanodroplets: Reconciling the time and the frequency domains

Alignment of OCS, CS$_2$ and I$_2$ molecules embedded in helium nanodroplets is measured as a function of time following rotational excitation by a non-resonant, comparatively weak ps laser pulse. The distinct peaks in the power spectra, obtained by Fourier analysis, are used to determine the rotational, B, and centrifugal distortion, D, constants. For OCS, B and D match the values known from IR spectroscopy. For CS$_2$ and I$_2$, they are the first experimental results reported. The alignment dynamics calculated from the gas-phase rotational Schr\"{o}dinger equation, using the experimental in-droplet B and D values, agree in detail with the measurement for all three molecules. The rotational spectroscopy technique for molecules in helium droplets introduced here should apply to a range of molecules and complexes.Comment: ASC and LC contributed equally. 7 pages, 3 figure

Inflammatory cytokines and risk of coronary heart disease: new prospective study and updated meta-analysis.

AIMS: Because low-grade inflammation may play a role in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease (CHD), and pro-inflammatory cytokines govern inflammatory cascades, this study aimed to assess the associations of several pro-inflammatory cytokines and CHD risk in a new prospective study, including meta-analysis of prospective studies. METHODS AND RESULTS: Interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-18, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured at baseline in a case-cohort study of 1514 participants and 833 incident CHD events within population-based prospective cohorts at the Danish Research Centre for Prevention and Health. Age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for CHD per 1-SD higher log-transformed baseline levels were: 1.37 (95% CI: 1.21-1.54) for IL-6, 1.26 (1.11-1.44) for IL-18, 1.30 (1.16-1.46) for MMP-9, 1.01 (0.89-1.15) for sCD40L, and 1.13 (1.01-1.27) for TNF-α. Multivariable adjustment for conventional vascular risk factors attenuated the HRs to: 1.26 (1.08-1.46) for IL-6, 1.12 (0.95-1.31) for IL-18, 1.21 (1.05-1.39) for MMP-9, 0.93 (0.78-1.11) for sCD40L, and 1.14 (1.00-1.31) for TNF-α. In meta-analysis of up to 29 population-based prospective studies, adjusted relative risks for non-fatal MI or CHD death per 1-SD higher levels were: 1.25 (1.19-1.32) for IL-6; 1.13 (1.05-1.20) for IL-18; 1.07 (0.97-1.19) for MMP-9; 1.07 (0.95-1.21) for sCD40L; and 1.17 (1.09-1.25) for TNF-α. CONCLUSIONS: Several different pro-inflammatory cytokines are each associated with CHD risk independent of conventional risk factors and in an approximately log-linear manner. The findings lend support to the inflammation hypothesis in vascular disease, but further studies are needed to assess causality.This work was supported by a grant from the British Heart Foundation (RG/08/014), the U.K. Medical Research Council, and the U.K. National Institute of Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from OUP at http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/9/578