Viruses are the scourge of mankind, causing devastating pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish flu and AIDS. This Virology Select highlights new studies that shed light on how viruses invade host cells so efficiently and how they evade the host immune response by stowing away in immune cells or by constantly changing their surface armor. The opening decade of the 21 st century witnessed the first f...

The inflammatory response—characterized by release of cytokines such as TNFa and IL-1b and infiltration of infected or injured tissue by macrophages and neutrophils—is the first line of defense against infection by pathogens. Although an early inflammatory response is beneficial in stemming the tide of infection, a prolonged response may result in severe illness or even death. For example, the ...

Personal media sharing of photos and video has become a spectacle of the immediate, yet it may come at the cost of meaning and significance. To explore this design space, we created a new tool, Postulater, that supports time-delayed photo and video sharing. Our goal was to understand how media sharing tools should be designed and how they might be used for sending media, if users were able to s...

The purpose of this study was to select a polymer for a simulated gastric media (simHGF) to obtain rheological properties similar to that of aspirated human gastric fluid (aspHGF). Rheological characterization showed that addition of 0.2% (w/v) MC 20.000 mPa·s to simHGF provided a simulated media with rheological properties similar to that of aspHGF. INTRODUCTION Many efforts have been made tow...

In a relatively new area of research for crisis management, this working paper presents a preliminary discussion of some of the privacy and ethical implications surrounding the use of social media in the event of a crisis. The paper uses the chaos caused by the eruptions of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010 to contextualise the analysis. It begins by presenting two case studies of the use of...

Recent research suggests that more and more citizens select news and information that is congruent with their existing political preferences. This increase in political selective exposure (PSE) has allegedly led to an increase in polarization. The vast majority of studies stem from the US case with a particular media and political system. We contend that there are good reasons to believe PSE is...

Much of the literature on polarization and selective exposure presumes that the internet exacerbates the fragmentation of the media and the citizenry. Yet this ignores how the widespread use of social media changes news consumption. Social media provide readers a choice of stories from different sources that come recommended from politically heterogeneous individuals, in a context that emphasiz...

The potential harmful effects of media violence have been studied systematically and extensively. However, very little attention has been devoted to the intrigue and struggles between people depicted in the mass media. A longitudinal randomized experimental group-control group, pretest-posttest design study was conducted to examine the potential effects of this type of TV series on young adults...