Net neutrality discourses: comparing advocacy and regulatory arguments in the United States and the United Kingdom

Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this has been occurring in the United States around efforts to introduce "Net neutrality" regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has not developed in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe. We develop a comparative analysis of U.S. and UK Net neutrality debates with an eye toward identifying the arguments for and against regulation, how those arguments differ between the countries, and what the implications of those differences are for the Internet. Drawing on mass media, advocacy, and regulatory discourses, we find that local regulatory precedents as well as cultural factors contribute to both agenda setting and framing of Net neutrality. The differences between national discourses provide a way to understand both the structural differences between regulatory cultures and the substantive differences between policy interpretations, both of which must be reconciled for the Internet to continue to thrive as a global medium

Net neutrality discourses: comparing advocacy and regulatory arguments in the United States and the United Kingdom

Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this has been occurring in the United States around efforts to introduce "Net neutrality" regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has not developed in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe. We develop a comparative analysis of U.S. and UK Net neutrality debates with an eye toward identifying the arguments for and against regulation, how those arguments differ between the countries, and what the implications of those differences are for the Internet. Drawing on mass media, advocacy, and regulatory discourses, we find that local regulatory precedents as well as cultural factors contribute to both agenda setting and framing of Net neutrality. The differences between national discourses provide a way to understand both the structural differences between regulatory cultures and the substantive differences between policy interpretations, both of which must be reconciled for the Internet to continue to thrive as a global medium

Translations: effects of viewpoint, feature, naming and context on identifying repeatedly copied drawings

We explored the tension between bottom – up and top – down contributions to object recognition in a collaboration between a visual artist and a cognitive psychologist. Initial pictorial renderings of objects and animals from various viewpoints were iteratively copied, and a series of drawings that changed from highly concrete images into highly abstract images was produced. In drawing identification in which sets were shown in reverse order, participants were more accurate, more confident, and quicker to correctly identify the evolving image when it was originally displayed from a canonical viewpoint with all salient features present. In drawing identification in which images were shown in random order, more abstract images could be resolved as a result of previously identifying a more concrete iteration of the same drawing. The results raise issues about the influence of viewpoint and feature on the preservation of pictorial images and about the role of labelling in the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli. In addition, the study highlights a procedure in which visual stimuli can degrade without necessitating a substantial loss of complexity

IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF VARIOUS LEAF EXTRACTS OF CANTHIUM COROMANDELICUM(BURM.F.) ALSTON.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the total phenolic and flavonoid contents and to explore the antioxidant potential of various leaf extracts (chloroform, ethyl acetate, and ethanol) of Canthium coromandelicum, which is considered traditionally as an important medicinal plant.Methods: Antioxidant properties of the extracts were assessed using 1, 1- diphenyl -2- picrylhydrazyl and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging assays for ascorbic acid equivalents. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents were also investigated to determine their correlation with the antioxidant activity of the leaf extracts and expressed in Gallic acid and quercetin equivalents, respectively.Results: The results showed that the content of total phenols and flavonoids was found to be high in ethyl acetate extract which was recorded as 61.02±1.30 mg Gallic acid equivalent (GAE/g) and 81.72±0.61 QE/g, respectively. Compared to other extracts, ethyl acetate leaf extract was found to possess high antioxidant activity at p<0.05 level, with high percentage of inhibition at 100 μg/ml concentration (82.70%) toward hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging with IC50 value 62.94 μg/ml. Statistically, two-tailed Pearson's correlation showed strong positive correlations between hydrogenperoxide radical scavenging activity and total phenolic contents (TPC) (r=1.000) at p<0.05 level.Conclusion: The results obtained in this study clearly signifies that the ethyl acetate leaf extract of C. coromandelicum has high content of total phenols which are correlated to its antioxidant activity and thus has the potential to use as a source of natural antioxidants and can be explored as a therapeutic agent in free radical induced diseases.Â

Sigmatropic rearrangement enables access to a highly stable spirocyclic nitroxide for protein spin labelling

Spin labelling enables the study of biomolecules using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Here, we describe the synthesis of a cysteine-reactive spin label based on a spirocyclic pyrrolidinyl nitroxide containing an iodoacetamide moiety. The spin label was shown to be highly persistent under reducing conditions while maintaining excellent EPR relaxation parameters up to a temperature of 180 K. After successful double spin labelling of a calmodulin variant, interspin distances were measured by the EPR experiment double electron–electron resonance (DEER) at 120 K.Peer reviewe

Historical geography, climbing and mountaineering: route setting for an inclusive future

This article seeks to review work broadly defined as the historical geographies of mountaineering and climbing. As such, it outlines the links between mountaineering, colonialism, and vertical ascent as well as the historical geographies of rock climbing which speak to the culture, practices, and technologies of climbing. In outlining past work, particular attention is paid to the hidden and gendered histories of climbing and mountaineering. This moves discussion beyond common place tales of white privilege and Western philosophies of conquer through ascendancy to tackle the broader ways by which mountaineering and climbing have been explored by academic geography. A holistic appreciation of work on this topic, it is argued, can not only help the geographical discipline to deal with its colonial past but also show how the historical geographies of mountaineering and climbing fit within efforts to decolonise the discipline, include wider voices, and utilise archives unknown

Adenosine Signaling through A1 Receptors Inhibits Chemosensitive Neurons in the Retrotrapezoid Nucleus.

A subset of neurons in the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN) function as respiratory chemoreceptors by regulating depth and frequency of breathing in response to changes in tissue CO2/H+. The activity of chemosensitive RTN neurons is also subject to modulation by CO2/H+-dependent purinergic signaling. However, mechanisms contributing to purinergic regulation of RTN chemoreceptors are not entirely clear. Recent evidence suggests adenosine inhibits RTN chemoreception in vivo by activation of A1 receptors. The goal of this study was to characterize effects of adenosine on chemosensitive RTN neurons and identify intrinsic and synaptic mechanisms underlying this response. Cell-attached recordings from RTN chemoreceptors in slices from rat or wild-type mouse pups (mixed sex) show that exposure to adenosine (1 µM) inhibits chemoreceptor activity by an A1 receptor-dependent mechanism. However, exposure to a selective A1 receptor antagonist (8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine, DPCPX; 30 nM) alone did not potentiate CO2/H+-stimulated activity, suggesting activation of A1 receptors does not limit chemoreceptor activity under these reduced conditions. Whole-cell voltage-clamp from chemosensitive RTN neurons shows that exposure to adenosine activated an inward rectifying K+ conductance, and at the network level, adenosine preferentially decreased frequency of EPSCs but not IPSCs. These results show that adenosine activation of A1 receptors inhibits chemosensitive RTN neurons by direct activation of a G-protein-regulated inward-rectifier K+ (GIRK)-like conductance, and presynaptically, by suppression of excitatory synaptic input to chemoreceptors

Seasonal fecundity is not related to geographic position across a species’ global range despite a central peak in abundance

The range of a species is determined by the balance of its demographic rates across space. Population growth rates are widely hypothesized to be greatest at the geographic center of the species range, but indirect empirical support for this pattern using abundance as a proxy has been mixed, and demographic rates are rarely quantified on a large spatial scale. Therefore, the texture of how demographic rates of a species vary over its range remains an open question. We quantified seasonal fecundity of populations spanning the majority of the global range of a single species, the saltmarsh sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus), which demonstrates a peak of abundance at the geographic center of its range. We used a novel, population projection method to estimate seasonal fecundity inclusive of seasonal and spatial variation in life history traits that contribute to seasonal fecundity. We replicated our study over 3 years, and compared seasonal fecundity to latitude and distance among plots. We observed large-scale patterns in some life history traits that contribute to seasonal fecundity, such as an increase in clutch size with latitude. However, we observed no relationship between latitude and seasonal fecundity. Instead, fecundity varied greatly among plots separated by as little as 1 km. Our results do not support the hypothesis that demographic rates are highest at the geographic and abundance center of a species range, but rather they suggest that local drivers strongly influence saltmarsh sparrow fecundity across their global range

Clinical and arrhythmic outcomes after implantation of a defibrillator for primary prevention of sudden death in patients with post-myocardial infarction cardiomyopathy: The Survey to Evaluate Arrhythmia Rate in High-risk MI patients (SEARCH-MI)

To evaluate clinical and arrhythmic outcomes in post-infarction cardiomyopathy patients implanted with a defibrillator (ICD) for primary prevention of sudden death

Ligand-induced sequestering of branchpoint sequence allows conditional control of splicing

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite tremendous progress in understanding the mechanisms of constitutive and alternative splicing, an important and widespread step along the gene expression pathway, our ability to deliberately regulate gene expression at this step remains rudimentary. The present study was performed to investigate whether a theophylline-dependent "splice switch" that sequesters the branchpoint sequence (BPS) within RNA-theophylline complex can regulate alternative splicing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We constructed a series of pre-mRNAs in which the BPS was inserted within theophylline aptamer. We show that theophylline-induced sequestering of BPS inhibits pre-mRNA splicing both in vitro and in vivo in a dose-dependent manner. Several lines of evidence suggest that theophylline-dependent inhibition of splicing is highly specific, and thermodynamic stability of RNA-theophylline complex as well as the location of BPS within this complex affects the efficiency of splicing inhibition. Finally, we have constructed an alternative splicing model pre-mRNA substrate in which theophylline caused exon skipping both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that a small molecule-RNA interaction can modulate alternative splicing.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings provide the ability to control splicing pattern at will and should have important implications for basic, biotechnological, and biomedical research.</p