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In the present time, we see a rapid development of so-called cosmetic apps promoted by prominent cosmetic companies. Although there is an emerging market for male consumers, these apps are marketed as technological innovations designed to analyse, rate and evaluate mainly women’s facial appearances through the submission of a selfie. Based on the results generated from the selfie, personalised solutions are offered in the form of recommended products to supposedly help women improve their appearances. Drawing on a critical feminist approach and using multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), the aim of this article is to study how these evaluations are semiotically reproduced and presented to the users. The paper examines in detail how apps convey the evaluation process and transform a selfie into measures, presented through diagrams and charts, that is, how the female face is fragmented and metricised. Coming with affordances of being systematic, exact and scientific, these infographics assign the facial evaluations with meaning. A key argument is that these cosmetic apps are changing the way women are implied to consider and control their (facial) appearance. Following neoliberal notions, the apps put strong pressure on women to take the responsibility to engage in intensive forms of aesthetic labour and to consume the ‘right’ products to appear as the best versions of themselves.

This paper examines the marketing of trending green cosmetic products containing natural ingredients and coming with claims to keep skin health-enhancing and age-defying benefits. This is fostered ...

Mobility is an essential factor in the 5G core network (CN). If the network control plane can predict mobility, the operation will be more efficient and agile with intelligent and proactive decisions. So far, mobility patterns and their prediction models have been extensively studied in the research community with cellular network datasets. Recently, 3GPP initiated the specification of a CN architecture for data analysis and machine learning. In this article, in accordance with this trend, we provide a taxonomy of mobility prediction frameworks in 5G CNs ranging from data collection to model serving, with consideration of the 3GPP architecture and interfaces; and we introduce two key use cases in 5G CNs, where the gains from mobility predictions are evaluated on datasets from live networks. In particular, one of the proposed methods, machine-learning-assisted adaptive paging, reduces signaling overhead by up to 75 percent.

V gamma 9V delta 2 T cells is the dominant gamma delta T cell subset in human blood. They are cytotoxic and activated by phosphoantigens whose concentrations are increased in cancer cells, making the cancer cells targets for V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell immunotherapy. For successful immunotherapy, it is important both to characterise V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell proliferation and optimise the assessment of their cytotoxic potential, which is the aim of this study. We found that supplementation with freshly thawed human serum potentiated V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell proliferation from peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) stimulated with (E)-4-Hydroxy-3-methyl-but-2-enyl diphosphate (HMBPP) and consistently enabled V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell proliferation from cryopreserved PBMCs. In cryopreserved PBMCs the proliferation was higher than in freshly prepared PBMCs. In a panel of short-chain prenyl alcohols, monophosphates and diphosphates, most diphosphates and also dimethylallylmonophosphate stimulated V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell proliferation. We developed a method where the cytotoxicity of V gamma 9V delta 2 T cells towards adherent cells is assessed at the single cell level using flow cytometry, which gives more clear-cut results than the traditional bulk release assays. Moreover, we found that HMBPP enhances the V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell cytotoxicity towards colon cancer cells. In summary, we have developed an easily interpretable method to assess the cytotoxicity of V gamma 9V delta 2 T cells towards adherent cells, found that V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell proliferation can be potentiated by media-supplementation and how misclassification of non-responders may be avoided. Our findings will be useful in the further development of V gamma 9V delta 2 T cell immunotherapy.

This paper examines the impact of the digital transformation on broadcast practices from a producer/studio participant perspective with a focus on sports journalism online. More specifically, the s...

For exercise testing of COPD patients, a standard endurance test (ET) with constant workload is recommended. The test suffers from large inter-individual variability and need for large sample sizes in order to evaluate treatment effects.A new protocol for ET in COPD was designed. In contrast to the standard ET, the new ET involved an increasing workload in order to reduce the standard deviation of endurance time. Two new ETs were compared with the standard ET. In Study A, the new ET started at 75% of the patient's maximum workload (WIn Study A, that included 15 patients, the standard deviation and range for endurance time and work capacity were narrower for the new versus the standard ET. However, the higher mean workload at end and the low mean work capacity relative to the standard ET indicated that the stepwise increase was too aggressive. In Study B, that included 18 patients, with a modified protocol, the averages for endurance time, workload at end and work capacity were similar for new and standard ET, while the standard deviations and ranges for endurance time and work capacity were kept more narrow in the new ET. The variances for endurance time were not equal between the standard ET and the two new ETs (p0.05 for both according to Levene's test).The new ET reduced the number of patients with extreme endurance times (short and long) compared to the standard test. The new test showed a significant lower variance for endurance time, which potentially can lead to fewer patients needed in comparative studies. The overall best results were observed with a low linear increase during endurance.

Riding on the rising concern of public health and the growing neoliberal self-care agenda, the food market has witnessed a surge in ‘healthy’ food despite the criticism of this food does not help consumers eat more healthily. A growing interest in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) is how food marketers colonise not only the food discourse but also the broader ideas and values such as health, politics, and environment. Contributing to this growing body of research, we look at one of the fastest-growing food trends, ‘functional drinks’, which claim to target physiological and psychological processes in the body, so that consumers can manage their health and performance. Company websites rely on forms of infographics to communicate how the products work. Adopting the notion of ‘integrated design’ from multimodal CDS, we show how these infographics, drawing on their affordances, are particularly useful in symbolising classifications and causalities which could not be accounted for in running texts. The paper argues that this is a way health and science converge with a neoliberal discourse of self-management and enterprise culture. Given the increased use of forms of integrated design in communication, more critical discursive work is needed in this area.

We study the marketing of radioactive products in Sweden from 1910 to 1940, using a dataset of newspaper and magazine advertisements. We use multimodal critical discourse analysis to show how marketers harnessed the meaning potentials of language and semiotic resources to embed radium in discourses of science and technological development, and thus convince consumers of its health benefits. We find that canny marketers continuously colonized, shaped, and remarketed radioactive products in response to greater scientific knowledge and growing safety concerns. These techniques highlight the challenges of distinguishing legitimate/illegitimate applications of discoveries when science and entrepreneurialism move at the same pace., Communication of "good" foods and healthy lifestyles

Background: Allergen avoidance is important in allergic asthma management. Nocturnal treatment with Temperature-controlled Laminar Airflow (TLA) has been shown to provide a significant reduction in the exposure to allergens in the breathing zone, leading to a long-term reduction in airway inflammation and improvement in Quality of life (QoL). Allergic asthma patients symptomatic on Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) step 4/5 were found to benefit the most as measured by Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ). However, the effect of TLA on severe asthma exacerbations is uncertain and therefore a meta-analysis was performed.Methods: Patients with severe allergic asthma (GINA 4/5) were extracted from two 1-year randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials conducted with TLA. A meta-analysis of the effect on severe exacerbations was performed by negative binomial regression in a sequential manner, defined by baseline markers of asthma control (symptoms and QoL scores).Results: The pooled dataset included 364patients. Patients with more symptoms at baseline (ACT3; N=179), had a significant mean 41% reduction in severe exacerbations (RR=0.59 (0.38-0.90); p=0.015) in favour of TLA. Higher ACQ7 cut-points of 3.5-4.5 resulted in significant reductions of 48-59%.More uncontrolled patients based on AQLQ total and symptom domains ≤3.0 at baseline also showed a significant reduction in severe exacerbations for TLA vs. placebo ((47% (p=0.037) and 53% (p=0.011), respectively). The meta-analysis also confirmed a significant difference in AQLQ-responders ((Minimal Clinically Important Difference)≥0.5; 74% vs. 43%, p=0.04).Conclusion: This meta-analysis of individual patient data shows a beneficial effect on severe exacerbations and quality of life for TLA over placebo in more symptomatic patients with severe allergic asthma. These outcomes support the national management recommendations for patients with symptomatic severe allergic asthma. The actual effect of TLA on severe exacerbations should be confirmed in a prospective study with larger numbers of patients.

Use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) at a submaximal level (Endurance test) is limited, in monitoring disease status and treatment effect in COPD, both in clinical practise and clinical trials, due to large interindividual variability. The present study targeted the heterogeneity in the duration of Endurance test intending to modify both the intensity and the method of applying workload, in order to accomplish shorter (between 180s-480s) and less variable endurance time,according to recommendations of ERS. 21 COPD patients were included in a cycle CPET double-blind,randomised cross-over study (LABA/LAMA vs placebo) comparing: 1) Standard Endurance Test (SET),with a 1-minute loadless pedalling warm-up period followed by a constant load at 75% of Wmax (maximum workload), 2) New Endurance Test (NET), with a 4-min warm-up (1-min loadless pedalling followed by 3-min at 30% of Wmax), followed by an instant increase at 70% of Wmax and thereafter a linear increase of 1% of Wmax per min up to 90% of Wmax. We argue that a submaximal incremental test with a warm-up period at 30% of Wmax, followed by a linear increase of workload can significantly reduce endurance time variation compared to a submaximal constant workload exercise test .Whether such an incremental test could detect differences after intervention remains to be seen.

Taking off from the Media Talk approach, this paper examines the communicative work of a Swedish sports webcast football show, Superlive, as an emerging form of web-based media format called Web-TV. This analysis is situated in a context in which broadcasting is going through fundamental changes, and broadcasters are rethinking their content in order to face the challenges arriving with recent decades’ technological developments, and especially the fact that television is no longer restricted to being broadcast but can be distributed through the web and be received on PCs, tablets and mobile phones. In this ‘post-broadcasting era’ producers are searching for new ways of reaching audiences through creating new forms of audience address. Superlive is a good example of these changes and how broadcasters now explore the possibilities of producing television exclusively for the Web. The analysis shows that what is taking place in Superlive is clearly in contrast to the performances one could expect in the conventional broadcast. Through the participants’ favoring of an interactional style characterized by informality and spontaneity, this show situates itself as backstage to the conventional forms of airings. As a result, this discursive space implies an interactional orientation to “co-presence” with the audience.

Background The discovery of an epimeric form of 25(OH)D3 may complicate the interpretation of vitamin D-status. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and determinants of 25-hydroxy-3-epi-vitamin D3 (3-epi-25(OH)D3) in a mid-Swedish region and to investigate how the measurement of 3-epi-25(OH)D3 would affect the assessment of vitamin D status using current thresholds. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of 8286 in- and outpatients in primary as well as secondary care settings. Plasma 25(OH)D, 25(OH)D2, 25(OH)D3 and 3-epi-25(OH)D3 were measured using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography – Tandem Mass Spectrometry (HPLC – MS/MS). The relative 3-epi-25(OH)D3 contribution was calculated as a percentage of the total 25(OH)D3. Blood samples were collected between March 2014 and July 2015 providing a seasonal aspect to the results. Results 3-epi-25(OH)D3 was detected in 635 cases (7.7% of all subjects), and the mean concentration was 8.4 ± 3.5 nmol/L. 3-epi-25(OH)D3 correlated significantly with 25(OH)D3 (r = 0.38, p Conclusions We report findings from the first epidemiologic study of 3-epi-25(OH)D3 conducted in Sweden, based on a large population sample. 3-epi-25(OH)D3 was detected in 7.7% of the study population and the mean concentration was 8.4 nmol/L. The quantification of 3-epi-25(OH)D3 would not significantly influence the clinical interpretation of vitamin D levels. Additional studies are needed to understand the metabolic pathway and the possible physiological functions of this metabolite.

By using a longitudinal design and measuring television content and the occurrence of ordinary television and ‘ordinary’ participants at four different points in time from 1982 to 2011, this study investigates the alleged shift towards ordinariness in the 1990s. Using Sweden as a test case, three research questions are posed: To what extent did ordinary television programming increase during the 1990s? To what extent did the participation of ordinary people increase as a consequence of this shift? To what extent has public service television adapted to commercial competition through broadcasting more ordinary television? The analysis confirms the alleged shift towards ordinariness. Ordinary television and ordinary participants did increase during the studied era, but a key argument put forward is that this shift occurred gradually and that one should avoid using overdramatic epithets to characterise it. The results also suggest that the public service broadcaster (SVT) also moved towards ordinariness but that this change was modest and occurred later than expected in Sweden.

Summary Background Occurrence of severe asthma exacerbations are the cornerstone of the evaluation of asthma management, but severe asthma exacerbations are rare events. Therefore, trials that assess drug efficacy on exacerbations are done late in clinical development programmes. We aimed to establish an endpoint capturing clinically relevant deteriorations (diary events) that, when combined with severe exacerbations, create a composite outcome (CompEx). CompEx needs to strongly mirror results seen with the severe exacerbation-validated outcome, to allow the design of clinical trials of shorter duration and that include fewer patients than trials assessing severe exacerbations. Methods Data from 12 asthma trials of 6 months or 12 months duration and, with standardised collection of exacerbations and diary card variables, were used to construct and test CompEx. The study populations had a mean age of 35–53 years, 59–69% were female, and had a mean FEV 1 percentage of predicted normal of 63–84%. With data from five trials, we established a series of diary events based on peak expiratory flow (P), reliever use (R), symptoms (S), awakenings (A), and threshold values for change from baseline and slopes to assess trends. For the development phase, we evaluated different variable combinations and deterioration criteria to select the most robust algorithm to define a diary event for the composite outcome. We defined a composite outcome, CompEx, as first occurrence of a diary event or a severe exacerbation. We assessed the performance of CompEx in seven trials by comparing the event frequency, treatment effect (hazard ratio; HR), and the sample size needed for future trials for the CompEx versus episodes of severe exacerbations. Findings CompEx (based on PRS) was the algorithm that best fulfilled our two-set criteria. When censored at 3 months, CompEx resulted in 2·8 times more events than severe exacerbations, and while preserving the treatment effect observed on severe exacerbations (CompEx over severe exacerbation average HR 1·01). The increased number of events, together with the sustained treatment effect, resulted in a large net gain in power, with a 67% mean reduction in the number of patients required in a drug trial for severe exacerbations. In six of seven comparisons tested, CompEx reduced the sample size needed by at least 50%. Validation of independent test populations confirmed the ability of CompEx to increase event frequencies, preserve treatment effect, and reduce the number of patients needed. Interpretation CompEx is a composite outcome for evaluation of new asthma therapies. CompEx allows design of shorter trials that require fewer patients than studies of severe exacerbations, while preserving the ability to show a treatment effect compared with severe exacerbations. Funding AstraZeneca.

Background Asthma management may involve a step up in treatment when symptoms are not well controlled. We examined whether budesonide/formoterol maintenance and reliever therapy (MRT) is as effective as higher, fixed-dose budesonide plus as-needed terbutaline in patients requiring step-up from Step 2 treatment (low-dose inhaled corticosteroids), stratified by baseline reliever use. Methods A post-hoc analysis utilized data from three clinical trials of 6–12 months’ duration. Patients aged ≥12 years with symptomatic asthma uncontrolled despite Step 2 treatment were included. Severe exacerbation rate, lung function and reliever use were analysed, stratified by baseline reliever use (2 occasions/day). Results Overall, 1239 patients were included. Reductions in severe exacerbation rate with budesonide/formoterol MRT versus fixed-dose budesonide were similar across baseline reliever use levels, and were statistically significant in patients using 1–2 (42%, p = 0.01) and >2 (39%, p = 0.02) reliever occasions/day, but not 2 reliever occasions/day (−0.33 and −0.74 occasions/day, respectively). Conclusions Treatment benefit with budesonide/formoterol MRT versus higher, fixed-dose budesonide plus short-acting β2-agonist was found in Step 2 patients with relatively low reliever use, supporting the proposal that budesonide/formoterol MRT may be useful when asthma is uncontrolled with low-dose inhaled corticosteroid. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12890-017-0401-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is frequently used to study diffusion in cell membranes, primarily the plasma membrane. The diffusion coefficients reported in the plasma membrane of the same cell type and even within single cells typically display a large spread. We have investigated whether this spread can be explained by variations in membrane topography throughout the cell surface, that changes the amount of membrane in the FCS focal volume at different locations. Using FCS, we found that diffusion of the membrane dye DiI in the apical plasma membrane was consistently faster above the nucleus than above the cytoplasm. Using live cell scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) to obtain a topography map of the cell surface, we demonstrate that cell surface roughness is unevenly distributed with the plasma membrane above the nucleus being the smoothest, suggesting that the difference in diffusion observed in FCS is related to membrane topography. FCS modeled on simulated diffusion in cell surfaces obtained by SICM was consistent with the FCS data from live cells and demonstrated that topography variations can cause the appearance of anomalous diffusion in FCS measurements. Furthermore, we found that variations in the amount of the membrane marker DiD, a proxy for the membrane, but not the transmembrane protein TCRζ or the lipid-anchored protein Lck, in the FCS focal volume were related to variations in diffusion times at different positions in the plasma membrane. This relationship was seen at different positions both at the apical cell and basal cell sides. We conclude that it is crucial to consider variations in topography in the interpretation of FCS results from membranes. QC 20201013

The lifting of work restrictions for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens in the EU, in January 2014, encountered much resistance both in European political discourse and the media, as these migrants became demonised and presented as social and economic threats. In this article, we show how the Romanian press dealt with such discriminatory discourses against the Romanian migrants. We conduct a thorough Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) of news items published in Romanian press, prior to the lifting of work restrictions, and we argue that the Roma emerged as the perfect scapegoats that could explain the deviant and unruly behaviours ascribed by some western media to ‘Romanians’. We also show how racism toward the Roma, referred here as Romaphobia, invokes non-racial practices and instead builds on a reverse victimhood narrative. Such discourses relate in a broader sense to well-established discursive practices in Romanian context but also to the political climate across Europe which is marked by increased intolerance toward the Roma. It is the mixture of stereotypical discourses and populist rhetoric that makes racism towards the Roma appear naturalised and increasingly more difficult to challenge.

Linnea Jarenbäck,1 Göran Eriksson,1 Stefan Peterson,2 Jaro Ankerst,1 Leif Bjermer,1 Ellen Tufvesson1 1Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, 2Regional Cancer Center South, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden Background: COPD is defined as partly irreversible airflow obstruction. The response pattern of bronchodilators has not been followed in advanced lung function parameters. Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate bronchodilator response pattern in advanced lung function parameters in a continuous fashion along forced expiratory volume in 1second (FEV1) percent predicted (%p) in COPD patients and controls. Patients and methods: Eighty-one smokers/ex-smokers (41 controls and 40 COPD) performed spirometry, body plethysmography, impulse oscillometry and single-breath helium dilution carbon monoxide diffusion at baseline, after salbutamol inhalation and then after an additional inhalation of ipratropium. Results: Most pulmonary function parameters showed a linear increase in response to decreased FEV1%p. The subjects were divided into groups of FEV1%p 65, and the findings from continuous analysis were verified. The exceptions to this linear response were inspiratory capacity (IC), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC and expiratory resistance (Rex), which showed a segmented response relationship to FEV1%p. IC and FVC, with break points (BP) of 57 and 58 FEV1%p respectively, showed no response above, but an incresed slope below the BP. In addition, in patients with FEV1%p 65, response of FEV1%p did not correlate to response of volume parameters. Conclusion: Response of several advanced lung function parameters differs depending on patients’ baseline FEV1%p, and specifically response of volume parameters is most pronounced in COPD patients with FEV1%p

Taking a historical perspective (1982–2005) and using a multimodal discourse analysis, this paper explores the performance of ordinary expertise in Swedish cookery programmes. In particular it explores the changing forms of audience address in one particular format, called the novice format, which is crucial to understanding the history of Swedish cookery programmes. Typically this format involves two participants: a presenter who plays the role of a novice cook, posing questions about the ongoing preparation of dishes; and a chef who carries out the cooking, providing expert advice by responding to the questions asked. The analysis shows that over time the performance of expertise goes from taking the form of conversational coaching, to being enacted through small talk, to finally arising through the simulation of an interactional give-and-take between the expert and the viewers. When it comes to the ordinariness of ordinary expertise, this development is paradoxical. In the later series of programmes, when the chef appears more like an ordinary guy, the distance between the expert chef and the viewers is reduced. But at the same time the cooking is decoupled from routines associated with work and domestic chores, and in this sense is becoming less tied to everyday life and more escapist in character.

Drawing on tools from Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis this paper analyses the editing techniques in a Swedish docu-soap showing that humour is used to ridicule the working-class participants, representing them as slow, inflexible, undynamic and unstylish. The paper places this within broader discursive shifts in Sweden where the rise of neoliberalism requires a dismantling of the welfare state, legitimized partly though establishing the lower social economic groups as morally flawed and themselves responsible for their increasingly disadvantaged situation as social inequalities increase.

Non-linear resistive field grading materials (FGM) are used in different high voltage applications e.g. cable terminations, joints and rotating machines, where the electric stress is critical. It is already established that the use of FGM is an improved stress grading technique compared to conventional geometric methods. There is a constant endeavor within the electric power industries to extend these concepts to other power equipment. In order to achieve a wide spread use of FGM, they need to satisfy several functional requirements e.g. fire safety, tracking resistance, hydrophobicity, high thermal conductivity, besides certain dielectric properties e.g. field dependent conductivity, permittivity and low dielectric losses. In the present study ZnO filled silicon rubber (SiR) composite with different functional fillers, in total six different material compositions, are evaluated with respect to several important functional behaviors. Further, stress grading behavior of these six materials are demonstrated by finite element simulations on a generic electrode geometry and by performing inclined plane tracking test. Suitability of these material compositions to industrial applications are discussed.

Background: Two new protocols have been developed for bicycle exercise testing in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with an individualized cardiopulmonary exercise test (ICPET) and subsequent customized endurance test (CET), which generate less interindividual spread in endurance time compared with the standard endurance test. Main objectives of this study were to improve the prediction algorithm for WMAX for the ICPET and validate the CET by examining treatment effects on exercise performance of indacaterol/glycopyrronium (IND/GLY) compared with placebo. Methods: COPD patients, with forced expiratory volume in 1 s ( FEV1) 40–80% predicted, were recruited. Pooled baseline data from two previous studies ( n = 38) were used for the development of an improved WMAX prediction algorithm. Additional COPD patients ( n = 14) were recruited and performed the ICPET, using the new prediction formula at visit 1. Prior to the CET at visits 2 and 3, they were randomized to a single dose of IND/GLY (110/50 µg) or placebo. Results: The improved multiple regression algorithm for WMAX includes diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide ( DLCO), FEV1, sex, age and height and correlated to measured WMAX ( R2 = 0.89 and slope = 0.89). Treatment with IND/GLY showed improvement in endurance time versus placebo, mean 113 s [95% confidence interval (CI): 6–220], p = 0.037, with more prominent effect in patients with FEV1 Conclusion: The two new protocols for ICPET (including the new improved algorithm) and CET were retested with consistent results. In addition, the CET showed a significant and clinically relevant prolongation of endurance time for IND/GLY versus placebo in a small number of patients.

It is well-known that a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate forms vortices to carry the angular momentum. For a first vortex to nucleate at the trap center, the rotational frequency must become larger than a certain critical value. The vortex nucleation process, however, is sensitive to the trap shape. It was shown earlier that for a symmetry-breaking potential that preserves parity, at criticality the leading natural orbitals may become degenerate, giving rise to a maximally entangled quantum state, found from exact solutions for just a few bosons. Developing an effective two-state model, we here show that in the limit of large particle numbers, the many-body ground state becomes either a so-called twin-like or a Schr\"odinger cat-like state. We corroborate this finding by a direct comparison to the exact numerical solution of the problem, feasible for moderate particle numbers within the lowest Landau level approximation. We show that the nature of the quantum state at criticality can be controlled by both the quadrupolar deformation and the flatness of the confining potential., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

In many societies, governments have become concerned about diet related illnesses and the huge economic costs of managing them, disseminating information about things like eating, balanced diets and the foods we should avoid in excess. At the same time in our shops and cafes there have been a proliferation of products which carry possibilities for making more healthy choices. Yet research shows that the health-related properties these products offer are largely contradictory, confusing and more about market buzzwords than actual healthy food. And such healthy choices have tended to blur and merge with notions of ethical and moral shopping. In this introduction to a collection of articles on the discourses of good food, we look at some of the research on ‘good food’ showing exactly what a multimodal critical discourse perspective can contribute to the field. We show that closer analysis of product packaging, marketing, cook books, media reports and policy documents can help us to understand how commercial forces are colonizing and shaping our ideas of what it means to be healthy and also to act as good citizens.

Background: Allergen avoidance is important in allergic asthma management. Nocturnal treatment with Temperature-controlled Laminar Airflow (TLA; Airsonett®) has been shown to provide significant reduction of exposure to allergens in the breathing zone, leading to long-term reduction in airway inflammation and improvement in quality of life. Allergic asthma patients uncontrolled on GINA step 4 were found to benefit the most. A frequently asked question from clinicians and funders is related to time to onset (TTO) of improvements for patients using TLA. Methods: Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) scores were collected in a previous study. TTO of improvements in Quality of Life was analysed for difference (TLA-placebo) in Area-under-Curve using backwards deletion from 12, 9, 6, 3 down to 1 month for the AQLQ total score, the four individual domains and specifically the sleep question. Results: Patients with uncontrolled asthma on GINA step 4 (n = 87)) reported a statistically significant and clinically relevant (≥0.5 point) improvement in total AQLQ score (0.57; p = 0.009) after 3 months treatment for TLA over placebo. The shortest TTO was within 1 month for the environmental domain (0.68; p = 0.016) and the sleep question (0.771; p = 0.037). TTO for the emotional and symptom domains was 3 months (0.66; p = 0.020 and 0.64; p = 0.014 respectively) and for the activity domain 6 months (0.47; p = 0.036). Conclusion: Nocturnal avoidance of allergens using TLA provided a statistically significant and clinically relevant improvement in total AQLQ score within 3 months in patients in the GINA 4 + ACT

This article provides an updated analysis relating to John B. Thompson’s argument about political visibility and fragility. It does so in light of recent years’ development of communication technologies and the proliferation of nonbroadcasting media organizations producing TV. Instances of a new mediated encounter for politicians is analyzed in detail – the live web interview – produced and streamed by two Swedish tabloids during election campaigning 2014. It is argued that the live web interview is not yet a recognizable ‘communicative activity type’ with an obvious set of norms, rules, and routines. This fact makes politicians more intensely exposed to moments of mediated fragility which may be difficult to control. The most crucial condition that changes how politicians are able to manage their visibility is the constantly rolling ‘non-exclusive’ live camera which does not give the politician any room for error. The tabloids do not seem to mind ‘things going a bit wrong’ while airing; rather, interactional flaws are argued to be part and parcel of the overall web TV performance.

Peter M Calverley,1 Göran Eriksson,2 Christine R Jenkins,3 Antonio R Anzueto,4 Barry J Make,5 Anders Persson,6 Malin Fagerås,6 Dirkje S Postma7 1Pulmonary and Rehabilitation Research Group, University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool, UK; 2Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden; 3George Institute for Global Health, The University of Sydney and Concord Clinical School, Sydney, Australia; 4Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Allergology, University of Texas Health Sciences Center and South Texas Veterans’ Health Care System, San Antonio, Texas, 5Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, National Jewish Health, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, USA; 6AstraZeneca R&D, Gothenburg, Sweden; 7Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis, GRIAC Research Institute, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands Background and objective: Large clinical trials have confirmed the long-term efficacy of inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2-agonist combinations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It was hypothesized that significant treatment effects would already be present within 3 months after the initiation of treatment across a range of clinical outcomes, irrespective of COPD severity. Methods: Post hoc analysis of 3-month post-randomization outcomes, including exacerbation rates, dropouts, symptoms, reliever use, and lung function, from three studies with similar inclusion criteria of moderate-to-very-severe COPD. Patients (n=1,571) were treated with budesonide/formoterol (B/F) 320/9 µg or placebo, twice daily; in one study, tiotropium 18µg once daily was also given. Results: Over the first 3 months of treatment, fewer patients randomized to B/F experienced exacerbations versus the placebo group (111 and 196 patients with ≥1 exacerbation, respectively). This was true in each COPD severity group. Compared with placebo, B/F treatment led to significantly lower 3-month exacerbation rates in the moderate and severe COPD severity groups (46% and 57% reduction, respectively), with a nonsignificant reduction (29%) in very severe COPD. Fewer dropouts occurred among patients treated with B/F versus placebo, this effect being greater with increasing COPD severity. B/F was associated with improved forced expiratory volume in 1 s, morning peak expiratory flow rate, total reliever use, and total symptom score versus placebo. Conclusion: Treatment with B/F decreased exacerbations in patients with moderate-to-very-severe COPD within 3 months of commencing treatment. This effect was paralleled by improved lung function, less reliever medication use, and fewer symptoms, irrespective of disease severity. Keywords: bronchodilator agents, clinical respiratory medicine, clinical trials, COPD

We study the temporal evolution of a small number $N$ of ultra-cold bosonic atoms confined in a ring potential. Assuming that initially the system is in a solitary-wave solution of the corresponding mean-field problem, we identify significant differences in the time evolution of the density distribution of the atoms when it instead is evaluated with the many-body Schr\"odinger equation. Three characteristic timescales are derived: the first is the period of rotation of the wave around the ring, the second is associated with a "decay" of the density variation, and the third is associated with periodic "collapses" and "revivals" of the density variations, with a factor of $\sqrt N$ separating each of them. The last two timescales tend to infinity in the appropriate limit of large $N$, in agreement with the mean-field approximation. These findings are based on the assumption of the initial state being a mean-field state. We confirm this behavior by comparison to the exact solutions for a few-body system stirred by an external potential. We find that the exact solutions of the driven system exhibit similar dynamical features., Comment: To appear in Journal of Physics B

Göran Eriksson,1 Peter M Calverley,2 Christine R Jenkins,3,4 Antonio R Anzueto,5 Barry J Make,6 Magnus Lindberg,7 Malin Fagerås,7 Dirkje S Postma8 1Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden; 2Pulmonary and Rehabilitation Research Group, University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool, UK; 3Concord Clinical School, University of Sydney, 4The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia; 5Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care, University of Texas Health Sciences Center and South Texas Veterans’ Health Care System, San Antonio, Texas, 6Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, National Jewish Health, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, USA; 7AstraZeneca R&D, Mölndal, Sweden; 8Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis, University Medical Center Groningen, GRIAC Research Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands Background: When discontinuation in COPD randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is unevenly distributed between treatments (differential dropout), the capacity to demonstrate treatment effects may be reduced. We investigated the impact of the time of differential dropout on exacerbation outcomes in RCTs, in relation to study duration and COPD severity.Methods: A post hoc analysis of 2,345 patients from three RCTs of 6- and 12-month duration was performed to compare budesonide/formoterol and formoterol in moderate, severe, and very severe COPD. Outcomes were exacerbation rate, time-to-first exacerbation, or discontinuation; patients were stratified by disease severity. Outcomes were studied by censoring data monthly from 1 to 12 months.Results: In patients treated with budesonide/formoterol, annualized exacerbation rates (AERs) were comparable for each study duration (rate ratio [RR] =0.6). With formoterol, the AER decreased with study duration (RR=1.20 at 1 month to RR =0.86 at 12 months). There was a treatment-related difference in exacerbation rates of 45%–48% for shorter study durations (≤4 months) and 27% for 12-month duration. This treatment-related difference in exacerbation rates was comparable for the three disease severities in studies ≤4 months (range: 39%–51%), but this difference decreased with longer study durations, especially in more severe groups (22% and 29% at 12 months). There were fewer discontinuations with budesonide/formoterol; the treatment-related difference in time-to-first discontinuation decreased by study duration (35%, 30%, 26%, and 22% at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively). Numbers of differential dropouts increased with increasing disease severity, being greatest during second, third, and fourth months.Conclusions: COPD severity and study duration impact exacerbation as an outcome in double-blind RCTs. This effect is most obvious in patients with severe/very severe COPD and in studies that are longer than 4 months. Early differential dropout particularly impacts study outcome, producing a “healthy survivor effect,” which reduces estimations of treatment impact on exacerbations. Keywords: healthy survivor effect, exacerbation outcomes, early differential dropout, RCT, disease severity

This paper discusses the role of reality television in the ongoing transformation of Swedish working-class discourse. This transformation is linked to a neoliberal political project and concerns a shifting relationship between discourses of exclusion and inclusion. The key argument is that working-class people are now portrayed through ‘a moral underclass discourse’ in which the working class is devalued and delegitimized, and given moral blame for their own structural situation. This discussion is based on a multimodal critical discourse analysis of participants who appear to be ‘ordinary’ working-class people in Ullared, a docu-soap that follows the goings-on at, and in the vicinity of a popular, rural low-cost outlet (called Gekas). Hence it puts participants' consumption and consumer behaviour in the foreground, and these activities are ridiculed through a mode of production best described as the ‘middle-class gaze’. Ordinary participants are presented as flawed or pathological consumers and become si...

This article examines a particular form of popular expertise, one that uses aggressive, face-threatening confrontations as a means of achieving its goals. The specific case under scrutiny is the Swedish home renovation programme The Angry Carpenter (Sw: Arga snickaren), here considered as an instance of what has been labelled belligerent broadcasting. The analysis demonstrates that belligerent outbursts and emotional displays serve essential, but varying functions in the construction of the host’s expertise. Belligerence is both a method to achieve epistemic status and for the enactment of expertise. Paradoxically, through his belligerence the host promotes a common-sense theory of good communication. A key lesson to be learned from programmes like this is the curative power of ‘tough love’. When nothing else works, belligerence is justified as a method for diagnosing problems, dealing with personal difficulties and restoring healthy households.