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\"This book looks at questions and answers pertaining to the organization, usage, and ownership of information in the Internet age--and the impact of shifting attitudes towards information ownership on creative endeavors\"-- Provided by publisher.

In response to suggestions that Deleuze and Guattari are the “enemy” of companion species, this essay explores the tension between Donna Haraway’s attacks against Deleuze and Guattari and their philosophy of becoming animal. The essay goes on to contextualize Deleuze and Guattari’s statements against pet owners through a discussion of the psychoanalytical refiguration of desire and shows how their ostensible attack against pet owners fits into their larger critique against capitalism. The essay illustrates why Deleuze and Guattari and Haraway are more in agreement than first meets the eye, finding commensurability through Haraway’s early work on embryology. Becoming animal does not begin and end with either humans or animals, and the essay explores the high stakes of focusing on intensities rather than actual animal bodies.

This book looks at questions and answers pertaining to the organization, usage, and ownership of information in the Internet age—and the impact of shifting attitudes towards information ownership on creative endeavors. In the competing traditions of Marshall McLuhan and Langdon Winner, authors Aaron Barlow and Robert Leston take readers on a revealing tour of the Internet after the explosion of the blogosphere and social media. In the world Beyond the Blogosphere, information has surpassed its limits, the distinction between public and private selves has collapsed, information is more untrustworthy than it ever was before, and technology has exhibited a growth and a desire that may soon exceed human control. As Langdon Winner pointed out long ago, \"tools have politics.\" In an eye-opening journey that navigates the nuances of the cultural impact the internet is having on daily life, Barlow and Leston examine the culture of participation in order to urge others to reconsider the view that the Internet is merely a platform or a set of tools that humans use to suit their own desires. Provocative and engaging, Beyond the Blogosphere stands as a challenge on how to rethink the Internet so that it doesn't out-think us.

In the competing traditions of Marshall McLuhan and Langdon Winner, authors Aaron Barlow and Robert Leston take readers on a revealing tour of the Internet after the explosion of the blogosphere and social media. In the world Beyond the Blogosphere, information has surpassed its limits, the distinction between public and private selves has collapsed, information is more untrustworthy than it ever was before, and technology has exhibited a growth and a desire that may soon exceed human control. As Langdon Winner pointed out long ago,

In the wake of the so-called \"social turn\" in writing studies, the scholarship of invention has enjoyed renewed interest. This dissertation is primarily concerned with invigorating the research of invention by turning towards viable but untapped generative approaches for composing that have been forged by artists working in areas external to composition studies by putting into practice what media theorist Gregory Ulmer calls a \"heuretic\" approach to invention. (I use the term heuretic to indicate the appropriation of an inventional model from a domain or discipline such as art, though other domains such as engineering would suit just as well.) To move towards this practice, the project proceeds through theoretical and practical issues of invention in the domains of rhetoric, history, psychoanalysis, media studies, and composition. The major problem that this dissertation seeks to overcome is the tension between the terms kairos and nomos. The way these terms unfold in the course of this study suggest that invention---the bringing into being of the unknown---is thwarted by our culture(s), histories, and traditions. I come to argue that we perceive a problem because our traditions have given us an understanding of temporality that follows a straight line, a line mirrored in the linear paradigm of print. I show that new media opens up different narrative configurations for writing and composition, configurations that illustrate that rather than being a logical flaw, paradox can serve as a \"reservoir,\" a productive starting place for thinking and writing with new media.

The characteristics of available network connections can have a large impact on the user-perceived performance of distributed applications. Unfortunately, current packet-switched networks like the Internet do not provide applications with information regarding path characteristics such as bottleneck link speed and available bandwidth. If measurements of these quantities were available, applications could make more informed decisions regarding resource utilization, potentially providing reduced response time. In order to provide these end-to-end measurements at the application level, this dissertation presents two tools: B sc PROBE, which provides an estimate of the uncongested bandwidth of a path; and C sc PROBE, which gives an estimate of the current congestion along a path. These two measures may be used in combination to provide the application with an estimate of available bandwidth between server and client. In the first part of this dissertation we discuss the design and implementation of the probe tools, specifically illustrating the techniques used to achieve accuracy and robustness. We present validation studies for both tools which demonstrate their accuracy in the face of actual Internet conditions, and give the results of a survey of available bandwidth to a random set of WWW servers as a sample application of our probe technique. In the second half of this dissertation, we show how our probe tools can be used to enable dynamic server selection, a new approach to choosing servers in a replicated-server environment. Under dynamic server selection, applications postpone the choice of server until just before the service is requested; we show that this allows application-level congestion avoidance. We show that dynamic server selection consistently outperforms static policies. Further, we show that simple measurement techniques can provide most of the benefits of dynamic server selection while minimizing network impact. Finally, through simulation, we evaluate the impact of our techniques when deployed in a global network such as the Internet. We show that dynamic server selection appears to have at least three positive effects when used ubiquitously in a wide-area network: (1) Response time at clients is significantly reduced when compared to static selection policies; (2) Overall network traffic volume is decreased; and (3) Network traffic is redistributed away from the network backbone onto regional and local networks.

Sickle cell disease (SCD), the most common monogenic disease worldwide, is marked by a phenotypic variability that is, to date, only partially understood. Because inflammation plays a major role in SCD pathophysiology, we hypothesized that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in genes encoding functionally important inflammatory proteins might modulate the occurrence of SCD complications. We assessed the association between 20 SNPs in genes encoding Toll-like receptors (TLR), NK cell receptors (NKG), histocompatibility leukocyte antigens (HLA), major histocompatibility complex class I polypeptide-related sequence A (MICA) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), and the occurrence of six SCD clinical complications (stroke, acute chest syndrome (ACS), leg ulcers, cholelithiasis, osteonecrosis, or retinopathy). This study was performed in a cohort of 500 patients. We found that the 4696480 3804099 , and HLA-G, 9380142 genotypes were more frequent in patients who had fewer complications. Also, in logistic regression, the HLA-G 9380142 allele increased the risk of cholelithiasis ( vs. , OR 1.57, 95%CI 1.16-2.15; vs. , OR 2.47, 95%CI 1.34-4.64; = 0.02). For SNPs located in the loci, in logistic regression, the A allele in three SNPs was associated with a lower frequency of retinopathy, namely, 2246809 ( vs. : OR 0.22, 95%CI 0.09-0.50; vs. : OR 0.47, 95%CI 0.31-0.71; = 0.004, for patients of same origin), 2617160 ( vs. : OR 0.67, 95%CI 0.48-0.92; vs. : OR 0.45, 95%CI 0.23-0.84; = 0.04), and 2617169 ( vs. : OR 0.33, 95%CI 0.13-0.82; vs. : OR 0.58, 95%CI 0.36-0.91, = 0.049, in patients of same SCD genotype). These results, by uncovering susceptibility to, or protection against SCD complications, might contribute to a better understanding of the inflammatory pathways involved in SCD manifestations and to pave the way for the discovery of biomarkers that predict disease severity, which would improve SCD management.

Aim Wetland loss and degradation threaten biodiversity to an extent greater than most ecosystems. Science‐supported responses require understanding of interacting effects of land use and climate change on wetland biodiversity. Location Alberta, Canada. Methods We evaluated how current climate, climate change (as a ghost of the past), land use and wetland water quality relate to aquatic macroinvertebrates and birds. Results Climatic relationships and climate–land use interactions were observed on chironomid abundance, but not macroinvertebrate taxa richness (MTR) or odonate abundance, which responded to land use and water chemistry. Chironomid abundance was positively associated with cropland and negatively associated with total precipitation. Higher cropland cover and dissolved organic carbon synergistically interacted with total precipitation to affect chironomids. MTR was negatively related to salinity, yet greater area of non‐woody riparian vegetation attenuated salinity effects on MTR. Odonate abundance was negatively related to total phosphorus. Higher grassland cover also increased the negative relationship of total phosphorous to odonate abundance. Climatic relationships and climate–land use interactions were observed on bird species richness (BSR) and abundance of several bird functional groups. Higher BSR and abundances of several bird groups were positively related to average rainfall and greater warming temperatures over time. Area of non‐crop cover and wetlands was positively associated with most bird groups and BSR. Warming temperatures over time ameliorated the negative relationship of higher cropland or less shrubland on aerial insectivores and other bird groups. Main conclusions Climate patterns and climate change are as important as land use pressures with stronger impacts on birds. Climate change was more influential than current climate and provided novel empirical evidence that progressively warmer, wetter conditions is benefiting some bird groups, including aerial insectivores, a group of conservation concern. Riparian vegetation ameliorated the negative impacts of climate and water quality gradients on MTR and could mitigate global change impacts in agricultural systems.

Purpose: The Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA) provides primary health care in Kodiak, Alaska and 6 outlying villages. KANA sought to actively improve key preventive screening rates for its patients. Methods: KANA adopted an electronic health record in 2008 and deployed national clinical reminders from the Indian Health Service for 5 key preventive screenings: tobacco use, alcohol use, depression, intimate partner violence, and a comprehensive cardiovascular exam. Clinical reminders were deployed in a 5-step process: (a) establish clinical demand, (b) pilot test reminder, (c) expand reminder to all providers, (d) measure outcomes and share results, and (e) delegate clinical reminder follow-up (primarily to nurses). Results: Data from 2007-2011 show screening rates for all 5 measures improved considerably, to levels significantly above the national average for Indian Health Service facilities. Conclusions: Clinical reminders have been a key part of a multistep process to improve screening for depression, tobacco cessation, intimate partner violence, alcohol use, and cardiovascular disease. If deployed correctly, reminders are valuable tools in identifying patients who are overdue for preventive health screenings.