Jack Webster - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Jack Webster
Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib is an emerging anticancer agent. Although the proteasome is c... more The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib is an emerging anticancer agent. Although the proteasome is clearly its locus of action, the early biochemical consequences of bortezomib treatment are poorly defined. Here, we show in cultured cells that bortezomib and other proteasome inhibitors rapidly inhibit free ubiquitin levels and ubiquitin thiolesterification to ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes. Inhibition of thiolesterification correlated with a reduction in the ubiquitination of certain substrates, exemplified by a dramatic decline in histone monoubiquitination and a decrease in the rate of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor polyubiquitination. Thus, in addition to the expected effect of blocking the degradation of polyubiquitinated substrates, bortezomib can also inhibit ubiquitination. The effect of bortezomib on histone monoubiquitination may contribute to its therapeutic actions.
Covering aspects of the Scottish motoring industry from the early days of the Argyll, Arrol-Johns... more Covering aspects of the Scottish motoring industry from the early days of the Argyll, Arrol-Johnston and Albion, this volume aslo includes more recent events like Rootes at Linwood and BMC at Bathgate. Specific chapters consider the pioneers of the motor industry, motor sports and motor museums.
Music streaming services, such as Spotify, have the potential to disrupt the social dynamics of m... more Music streaming services, such as Spotify, have the potential to disrupt the social dynamics of music consumption in ways not previously encountered. Not only do these platforms offer anytime, anywhere access to vast catalogues of music at little or no cost, they are seeking to manipulate what and how people consume it. Combining the judgements of music experts, extraordinary volumes of data about people’s identities and interactions, and computational techniques designed to extract and predict similarities and differences in musical preferences at scale, music streaming services are adapting what music is selected and presented to individuals on an increasingly personalised basis. Drawing on mixed qualitative methods and working through the case of Spotify, the market leading service in the UK, this thesis explores if and how music streaming services are shaping the part music taste and consumption play in the reproduction of class. In the 1960s, Pierre Bourdieu (1984) demonstrated...
Aberdeen has had its fair share of attention from historians down the centuries. But in this fres... more Aberdeen has had its fair share of attention from historians down the centuries. But in this fresh look at the story, Jack Webster condenses the knowledge and wisdom of past research and focuses on the later history. He observes the city's dramatic transformation in the twentieth century, when it went from an economy based on farming, fishing, textiles and granite to an industry which outshone them all. Who could have guessed that the Granite City would take on an international reputation as the oil capital of Western Europe? The events that unfolded from the 1960s were to transform the prosperity of Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland on an unprecedented scale. Jobs, housing, hotels and restaurants sprang up everywhere, and the standard of living was raised to a level unthinkable to a previous generation.
The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 2016
New Media & Society, 2021
Not only do music streaming platforms offer on-demand access to vast catalogues of licensed music... more Not only do music streaming platforms offer on-demand access to vast catalogues of licensed music, they are actively shaping what and how it finds us through personalisation. While existing literature has highlighted how personalisation has the potential to transform the part that music taste and consumption play in the performance of class identities and distinction, little is empirically known about its sociological consequences. Drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews with a combination of key informants and Spotify users, this article demonstrates that personalisation is undermining opportunities to achieve social distinction by taking over the labour of music curation and compressing the time needed to appreciate music for its own sake. It demonstrates that those with cultural capital at stake – in the case of this study, young, (primarily) male cultural omnivores – experience personalisation as a threat, highlighting how particular claims to social distinction are being conte...
Journal of Cultural Economy, 2020
Big Data & Society, 2019
From providing on-demand access to vast catalogues of recorded music at little or no cost to the ... more From providing on-demand access to vast catalogues of recorded music at little or no cost to the use of Big Data to personalise the experience of consuming music, music streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, have the potential to disrupt the part that music taste plays in the performance of class identities and the reproduction of class privilege in ways not previously encountered. The influential sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu , demonstrated that cultural taste – what and how people consume cultural goods, such as music, food and fashion – is shaped by class background and in doing so serves to mark and reproduce class differences in everyday life. In this commentary, I consider how sociologists might address the important but challenging question of if and how are music streaming platforms shaping the part that music taste plays in the performance of class identities and the cultural reproduction of class privilege. I discuss some ways in which music streaming platfor...
Information, Communication & Society, 2019
Scientific reports, Jan 20, 2017
The heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) family of molecular chaperones regulates protein homeostasis, f... more The heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) family of molecular chaperones regulates protein homeostasis, folding, and degradation. The ER-resident Hsp90 isoform, glucose-regulated protein 94 (Grp94), promotes the aggregation of mutant forms of myocilin, a protein associated with primary open-angle glaucoma. While inhibition of Grp94 promotes the degradation of mutant myocilin in vitro, to date no Grp94-selective inhibitors have been investigated in vivo. Here, a Grp94-selective inhibitor facilitated mutant myocilin degradation and rescued phenotypes in a transgenic mouse model of hereditary primary open-angle glaucoma. Ocular toxicities previously associated with pan-Hsp90 inhibitors were not evident with our Grp94-selective inhibitor, 4-Br-BnIm. Our study suggests that selective inhibition of a distinct Hsp90 family member holds translational promise for ocular and other diseases associated with cell stress and protein misfolding.
Cancer Control, 1996
Background Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is frequently accompanied by neutropenia requi... more Background Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is frequently accompanied by neutropenia requiring dose reduction or treatment delay that can potentially compromise therapeutic effectiveness. Recombinant granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) reduces the duration and severity of neutropenia. Methods Nineteen patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer receiving adjuvant systemic chemotherapy met criteria for dose reduction or treatment delay due to neutropenia. All were treated with G-CSF. The mean duration of G-CSF therapy was five days. Results An increase in mean absolute neutrophil count was seen in cycles with G-CSF. Chemotherapy treatment was delayed less often following the use of G-CSF. Conclusions Breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy who face treatment delays or dose reductions can continue on full-dose intensity therapy using supportive G-CSF. Prospective trials are needed to accurately measure the impact of G-CSF on dose intensity and long-term...
Popular Music and Society, 2017
Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 2016
Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Web Science, 2016
As the rate and scale of Web-related digital data accumulation continue to outstrip all expectati... more As the rate and scale of Web-related digital data accumulation continue to outstrip all expectations so too we come to depend increasingly on a variety of technical tools to interrogate these data and to render them as an intelligible source of information. In response, on the one hand, a great deal of attention has been paid to the design of efficient and reliable mechanisms for big data analytics whilst, on the other hand, concerns are expressed about the rise of 'algorithmic society' whereby important decisions are made by intermediary computational agents of which the majority of the population has little knowledge, understanding or control. This paper aims to bridge these two debates working through the case of music recommender systems. Whilst not conventionally regarded as 'big data,' the enormous volume, variety and velocity of digital music available on the Web has seen the growth of recommender systems, which are increasingly embedded in our everyday music consumption through their attempts to help us identify the music we might want to consume. Combining Bourdieu's concept of cultural intermediaries with Actor-Network Theory's insistence on the relational ontology of human and non-human actors, we draw on empirical evidence from the computational and social science literature on recommender systems to argue that music recommender systems should be approached as a new form of sociotechnical cultural intermediary. In doing so, we aim to define a broader agenda for better understanding the underexplored social role of the computational tools designed to manage big data.
Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib is an emerging anticancer agent. Although the proteasome is c... more The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib is an emerging anticancer agent. Although the proteasome is clearly its locus of action, the early biochemical consequences of bortezomib treatment are poorly defined. Here, we show in cultured cells that bortezomib and other proteasome inhibitors rapidly inhibit free ubiquitin levels and ubiquitin thiolesterification to ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes. Inhibition of thiolesterification correlated with a reduction in the ubiquitination of certain substrates, exemplified by a dramatic decline in histone monoubiquitination and a decrease in the rate of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor polyubiquitination. Thus, in addition to the expected effect of blocking the degradation of polyubiquitinated substrates, bortezomib can also inhibit ubiquitination. The effect of bortezomib on histone monoubiquitination may contribute to its therapeutic actions.
Covering aspects of the Scottish motoring industry from the early days of the Argyll, Arrol-Johns... more Covering aspects of the Scottish motoring industry from the early days of the Argyll, Arrol-Johnston and Albion, this volume aslo includes more recent events like Rootes at Linwood and BMC at Bathgate. Specific chapters consider the pioneers of the motor industry, motor sports and motor museums.
Music streaming services, such as Spotify, have the potential to disrupt the social dynamics of m... more Music streaming services, such as Spotify, have the potential to disrupt the social dynamics of music consumption in ways not previously encountered. Not only do these platforms offer anytime, anywhere access to vast catalogues of music at little or no cost, they are seeking to manipulate what and how people consume it. Combining the judgements of music experts, extraordinary volumes of data about people’s identities and interactions, and computational techniques designed to extract and predict similarities and differences in musical preferences at scale, music streaming services are adapting what music is selected and presented to individuals on an increasingly personalised basis. Drawing on mixed qualitative methods and working through the case of Spotify, the market leading service in the UK, this thesis explores if and how music streaming services are shaping the part music taste and consumption play in the reproduction of class. In the 1960s, Pierre Bourdieu (1984) demonstrated...
Aberdeen has had its fair share of attention from historians down the centuries. But in this fres... more Aberdeen has had its fair share of attention from historians down the centuries. But in this fresh look at the story, Jack Webster condenses the knowledge and wisdom of past research and focuses on the later history. He observes the city's dramatic transformation in the twentieth century, when it went from an economy based on farming, fishing, textiles and granite to an industry which outshone them all. Who could have guessed that the Granite City would take on an international reputation as the oil capital of Western Europe? The events that unfolded from the 1960s were to transform the prosperity of Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland on an unprecedented scale. Jobs, housing, hotels and restaurants sprang up everywhere, and the standard of living was raised to a level unthinkable to a previous generation.
The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 2016
New Media & Society, 2021
Not only do music streaming platforms offer on-demand access to vast catalogues of licensed music... more Not only do music streaming platforms offer on-demand access to vast catalogues of licensed music, they are actively shaping what and how it finds us through personalisation. While existing literature has highlighted how personalisation has the potential to transform the part that music taste and consumption play in the performance of class identities and distinction, little is empirically known about its sociological consequences. Drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews with a combination of key informants and Spotify users, this article demonstrates that personalisation is undermining opportunities to achieve social distinction by taking over the labour of music curation and compressing the time needed to appreciate music for its own sake. It demonstrates that those with cultural capital at stake – in the case of this study, young, (primarily) male cultural omnivores – experience personalisation as a threat, highlighting how particular claims to social distinction are being conte...
Journal of Cultural Economy, 2020
Big Data & Society, 2019
From providing on-demand access to vast catalogues of recorded music at little or no cost to the ... more From providing on-demand access to vast catalogues of recorded music at little or no cost to the use of Big Data to personalise the experience of consuming music, music streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, have the potential to disrupt the part that music taste plays in the performance of class identities and the reproduction of class privilege in ways not previously encountered. The influential sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu , demonstrated that cultural taste – what and how people consume cultural goods, such as music, food and fashion – is shaped by class background and in doing so serves to mark and reproduce class differences in everyday life. In this commentary, I consider how sociologists might address the important but challenging question of if and how are music streaming platforms shaping the part that music taste plays in the performance of class identities and the cultural reproduction of class privilege. I discuss some ways in which music streaming platfor...
Information, Communication & Society, 2019
Scientific reports, Jan 20, 2017
The heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) family of molecular chaperones regulates protein homeostasis, f... more The heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) family of molecular chaperones regulates protein homeostasis, folding, and degradation. The ER-resident Hsp90 isoform, glucose-regulated protein 94 (Grp94), promotes the aggregation of mutant forms of myocilin, a protein associated with primary open-angle glaucoma. While inhibition of Grp94 promotes the degradation of mutant myocilin in vitro, to date no Grp94-selective inhibitors have been investigated in vivo. Here, a Grp94-selective inhibitor facilitated mutant myocilin degradation and rescued phenotypes in a transgenic mouse model of hereditary primary open-angle glaucoma. Ocular toxicities previously associated with pan-Hsp90 inhibitors were not evident with our Grp94-selective inhibitor, 4-Br-BnIm. Our study suggests that selective inhibition of a distinct Hsp90 family member holds translational promise for ocular and other diseases associated with cell stress and protein misfolding.
Cancer Control, 1996
Background Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is frequently accompanied by neutropenia requi... more Background Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is frequently accompanied by neutropenia requiring dose reduction or treatment delay that can potentially compromise therapeutic effectiveness. Recombinant granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) reduces the duration and severity of neutropenia. Methods Nineteen patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer receiving adjuvant systemic chemotherapy met criteria for dose reduction or treatment delay due to neutropenia. All were treated with G-CSF. The mean duration of G-CSF therapy was five days. Results An increase in mean absolute neutrophil count was seen in cycles with G-CSF. Chemotherapy treatment was delayed less often following the use of G-CSF. Conclusions Breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy who face treatment delays or dose reductions can continue on full-dose intensity therapy using supportive G-CSF. Prospective trials are needed to accurately measure the impact of G-CSF on dose intensity and long-term...
Popular Music and Society, 2017
Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 2016
Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Web Science, 2016
As the rate and scale of Web-related digital data accumulation continue to outstrip all expectati... more As the rate and scale of Web-related digital data accumulation continue to outstrip all expectations so too we come to depend increasingly on a variety of technical tools to interrogate these data and to render them as an intelligible source of information. In response, on the one hand, a great deal of attention has been paid to the design of efficient and reliable mechanisms for big data analytics whilst, on the other hand, concerns are expressed about the rise of 'algorithmic society' whereby important decisions are made by intermediary computational agents of which the majority of the population has little knowledge, understanding or control. This paper aims to bridge these two debates working through the case of music recommender systems. Whilst not conventionally regarded as 'big data,' the enormous volume, variety and velocity of digital music available on the Web has seen the growth of recommender systems, which are increasingly embedded in our everyday music consumption through their attempts to help us identify the music we might want to consume. Combining Bourdieu's concept of cultural intermediaries with Actor-Network Theory's insistence on the relational ontology of human and non-human actors, we draw on empirical evidence from the computational and social science literature on recommender systems to argue that music recommender systems should be approached as a new form of sociotechnical cultural intermediary. In doing so, we aim to define a broader agenda for better understanding the underexplored social role of the computational tools designed to manage big data.