876 research outputs found

    Climate Change and Critical Agrarian Studies

    Full text link
    Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the institutionalised responses in agrarian settings, highlighting what exclusions and inclusions result. It explores how different people — in relation to class and other co-constituted axes of social difference such as gender, race, ethnicity, age and occupation — are affected by climate change, as well as the climate adaptation and mitigation responses being implemented in rural areas. The book in turn explores how climate change – and the responses to it - affect processes of social differentiation, trajectories of accumulation and in turn agrarian politics. Finally, the book examines what strategies are required to confront climate change, and the underlying political-economic dynamics that cause it, reflecting on what this means for agrarian struggles across the world. The 26 chapters in this volume explore how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world and, in particular, the way agrarian struggles connect with the huge challenge of climate change. Through a huge variety of case studies alongside more conceptual chapters, the book makes the often-missing connection between climate change and critical agrarian studies. The book argues that making the connection between climate and agrarian justice is crucial

    Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

    Get PDF
    A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

    Modern meat: the next generation of meat from cells

    Get PDF
    Modern Meat is the first textbook on cultivated meat, with contributions from over 100 experts within the cultivated meat community. The Sections of Modern Meat comprise 5 broad categories of cultivated meat: Context, Impact, Science, Society, and World. The 19 chapters of Modern Meat, spread across these 5 sections, provide detailed entries on cultivated meat. They extensively tour a range of topics including the impact of cultivated meat on humans and animals, the bioprocess of cultivated meat production, how cultivated meat may become a food option in Space and on Mars, and how cultivated meat may impact the economy, culture, and tradition of Asia

    Book of Abstracts:9th International Conference on Smart Energy Systems

    Get PDF

    Design and Development of Biofeedback Stick Technology (BfT) to Improve the Quality of Life of Walking Stick Users

    Get PDF
    Biomedical engineering has seen a rapid growth in recent times, where the aim to facilitate and equip humans with the latest technology has become widespread globally. From high-tech equipment ranging from CT scanners, MRI equipment, and laser treatments, to the design, creation, and implementation of artificial body parts, the field of biomedical engineering has significantly contributed to mankind. Biomedical engineering has facilitated many of the latest developments surrounding human mobility, with advancement in mobility aids improving human movement for people with compromised mobility either caused by an injury or health condition. A review of the literature indicated that mobility aids, especially walking sticks, and appropriate training for their use, are generally prescribed by allied health professionals (AHP) to walking stick users for rehabilitation and activities of daily living (ADL). However, feedback from AHP is limited to the clinical environment, leaving walking stick users vulnerable to falls and injuries due to incorrect usage. Hence, to mitigate the risk of falls and injuries, and to facilitate a routine appraisal of individual patient’s usage, a simple, portable, robust, and reliable tool was developed which provides the walking stick users with real-time feedback upon incorrect usage during their activities of daily living (ADL). This thesis aimed to design and develop a smart walking stick technology: Biofeedback stick technology (BfT). The design incorporates the approach of patient and public involvement (PPI) in the development of BfT to ensure that BfT was developed as per the requirements of walking stick users and AHP recommendations. The newly developed system was tested quantitatively for; validity, reliability, and reproducibility against gold standard equipment such as the 3D motion capture system, force plates, optical measurement system for orientation, weight bearing, and step count. The system was also tested qualitatively for its usability by conducting semi-informal interviews with AHPs and walking stick users. The results of these studies showed that the newly developed system has good accuracy, reported above 95% with a maximum inaccuracy of 1°. The data reported indicates good reproducibility. The angles, weight, and steps recorded by the system during experiments are within the values published in the literature. From these studies, it was concluded that, BfT has the potential to improve the lives of walking stick users and that, with few additional improvements, appropriate approval from relevant regulatory bodies, and robust clinical testing, the technology has a huge potential to carve its way to a commercial market

    Development and application of methodologies and infrastructures for cancer genome analysis within Personalized Medicine

    Full text link
    [eng] Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized biomedical sciences, especially in the area of cancer. It has nourished genomic research with extensive collections of sequenced genomes that are investigated to untangle the molecular bases of disease, as well as to identify potential targets for the design of new treatments. To exploit all this information, several initiatives have emerged worldwide, among which the Pan-Cancer project of the ICGC (International Cancer Genome Consortium) stands out. This project has jointly analyzed thousands of tumor genomes of different cancer types in order to elucidate the molecular bases of the origin and progression of cancer. To accomplish this task, new emerging technologies, including virtualization systems such as virtual machines or software containers, were used and had to be adapted to various computing centers. The portability of this system to the supercomputing infrastructure of the BSC (Barcelona Supercomputing Center) has been carried out during the first phase of the thesis. In parallel, other projects promote the application of genomics discoveries into the clinics. This is the case of MedPerCan, a national initiative to design a pilot project for the implementation of personalized medicine in oncology in Catalonia. In this context, we have centered our efforts on the methodological side, focusing on the detection and characterization of somatic variants in tumors. This step is a challenging action, due to the heterogeneity of the different methods, and an essential part, as it lays at the basis of all downstream analyses. On top of the methodological section of the thesis, we got into the biological interpretation of the results to study the evolution of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in a close collaboration with the group of Dr. Elías Campo from the Hospital Clínic/IDIBAPS. In the first study, we have focused on the Richter transformation (RT), a transformation of CLL into a high-grade lymphoma that leads to a very poor prognosis and with unmet clinical needs. We found that RT has greater genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic complexity than CLL. Its genome may reflect the imprint of therapies that the patients received prior to RT, indicating the presence of cells exposed to these mutagenic treatments which later expand giving rise to the clinical manifestation of the disease. Multiple NGS- based techniques, including whole-genome sequencing and single-cell DNA and RNA sequencing, among others, confirmed the pre-existence of cells with the RT characteristics years before their manifestation, up to the time of CLL diagnosis. The transcriptomic profile of RT is remarkably different from that of CLL. Of particular importance is the overexpression of the OXPHOS pathway, which could be used as a therapeutic vulnerability. Finally, in a second study, the analysis of a case of CLL in a young adult, based on whole genome and single-cell sequencing at different times of the disease, revealed that the founder clone of CLL did not present any somatic driver mutations and was characterized by germline variants in ATM, suggesting its role in the origin of the disease, and highlighting the possible contribution of germline variants or other non-genetic mechanisms in the initiation of CLL

    Situating Data: Inquiries in Algorithmic Culture

    Get PDF
    Taking up the challenges of the datafication of culture, as well as of the scholarship of cultural inquiry itself, this collection contributes to the critical debate about data and algorithms. How can we understand the quality and significance of current socio-technical transformations that result from datafication and algorithmization? How can we explore the changing conditions and contours for living within such new and changing frameworks? How can, or should we, think and act within, but also in response to these conditions? This collection brings together various perspectives on the datafication and algorithmization of culture from debates and disciplines within the field of cultural inquiry, specifically (new) media studies, game studies, urban studies, screen studies, and gender and postcolonial studies. It proposes conceptual and methodological directions for exploring where, when, and how data and algorithms (re)shape cultural practices, create (in)justice, and (co)produce knowledge
    • …
    corecore