The Neoliberal Biopolitics of Climate Security: Resilience and the European Union’s Securitization of Climate Change

Contemporary understandings of resilience were initially developed in the discipline of ecology to theorize ecosystems’ capacities to absorb, adapt, and transform in the face of shocks and stresses. Since then, the concept of resilience has informed a versatile and highly mobile set of guiding principles that have migrated to numerous policy fields. In recent years, it has also been a partial yet increasingly powerful prism through which climate change has been constructed as a security threat. In this regard, some populations, mainly residing in the Global South, are deemed insufficiently resilient to the effects of climate change, thereby generating risks of societal disruption, state failure, and population displacement that may adversely affect the Global North. The critical resilience literature has argued that the rise of resilience-thinking is predicated on its intuitive resonance with a neoliberal injunction to be self-reliant. An examination of European Union (EU) institutions’ and agencies’ climate security discourse and practices corroborates this claim, while also generating novel insights into neoliberalism’s contemporary role in the social construction of threats. However, it also reveals the role of antecedent security discourses and practices – in particular human security, risk management, and the security-development nexus – in structuring climate threat discourse. Drawing from the Paris School of Security Studies and from Foucauldian writings on biopolitics, this project argues that the entanglement of resilience and climate security in EU discourse is a function of both antecedent biopolitical security practices, and distinctly neoliberal sensibilities. The EU’s securitization of climate change, in effect, transfers responsibility for managing the effects of climate change away from societies chiefly responsible for it, and onto people most burdened by it

Putting it on the Map: Imperial Gazing and Cartographic Meaning

Arts, Faculty ofUnreviewedUndergraduat

The Biochemical Diagnosis of Acromegaly

Background: The diagnosis of acromegaly still poses a clinical challenge, and prolonged diagnostic delay is common. The most important assays for the biochemical diagnosis and management of acromegaly are growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Objective: Discuss the role of IGF-1, basal serum GH, and nadir GH after oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) for the diagnosis, management, and treatment of patients with acromegaly. Methods: We performed a narrative review of the published data on the biochemical diagnosis and monitoring of acromegaly. An English-language search for relevant studies was conducted on PubMed from inception to 1 January 2021. The reference lists of relevant studies were also reviewed. Results: Serum IGF-1 levels, basal GH values, and nadir GH after OGTT play a major role in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of patients with acromegaly. Measurement of IGF-1 levels is the key factor in the diagnosis and monitoring of acromegaly, but basal and nadir GH following OGTT are also important. However, several factors may significantly influence the concentrations of these hormones, including assay methods, physiologic and pathologic factors. In some cases, discordant GH and IGF-1 levels may be challenging and usually requires additional data and monitoring. Conclusion: New GH and IGF-1 standards are much more precise and provide more accurate tools to diagnose and monitor patients with acromegaly. However, all these biochemical tools have their limitations, and these should be taken under consideration, along with the history, clinical features and imaging studies, when assessing patients for acromegaly

Hallux Valgus Repair with Chevron Osteotomy Significantly Narrows Forefoot Width

Background: Hallux valgus (HV) is a common adult foot deformity. There is uncertainty concerning the effect of HV surgery on foot width. We examined the effect of chevron first metatarsal osteotomy on forefoot width using calibrated pre and postoperative standing radiographs. Methods: A retrospective cohort of 50 patients underwent chevron osteotomy HV surgery. All had HVA > 30°, IMA > 11°, DMMA > 3°, >6-month follow-up, and calibrated pre and postoperative standing foot radiographs. Bony width (BW) and soft tissue width (STW) were used to measure the surgery’s effect on foot width. Measurements were made preoperatively and 3–6 months following surgery. Results: The study group included 42 women with an average age of 63.4 (±8.3) and a mean BMI of 28.7 (±4.9). Preoperative HVA and IMA were 31.7° (±6.8°) and 13.4° (±2.8°), respectively. Following surgery, HVA and IMA improved significantly, by 15.6° (±5.7°) and 8.7° (±2.3°), respectively. The preoperative average BW was 9.4 cm (±0.6), and the STW was 10.6 cm (±0.7). Following surgery, significant changes in BW and STW were measured, with a mean narrowing of 1.2 cm (±0.4) in BW (p p p = 0.04, r = 0.57), but higher BW and STW reductions (p = 0.01, r = 0.35 and p = 0.008, r = 0.37, respectively). Conclusions: This study reinforced chevron osteotomy as a valid treatment option that significantly narrows forefoot width; it is thus expected to improve cosmetic outcomes, shoe selection options, and quality of life. This study also found that older age correlates with better forefoot narrowing following hallux valgus repair, possibly due to stiffer soft tissues

Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking-A Virtual Reality Study

While walking, our locomotion is affected by and adapts to the environment based on vision- and body-based (vestibular and proprioception) cues. When transitioning to downhill walking, we modulate gait by braking to avoid uncontrolled acceleration, and when transitioning to uphill walking, we exert effort to avoid deceleration. In this study, we aimed to measure the influence of visual inputs on this behavior and on muscle activation. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether the gait speed modulations triggered by mere visual cues after transitioning to virtually inclined surface walking are accompanied by changes in muscle activation patterns typical to those triggered by veridical (gravitational) surface inclination transitions. We used an immersive virtual reality system equipped with a self-paced treadmill and projected visual scenes that allowed us to modulate physical-visual inclination congruence parametrically. Gait speed and leg muscle electromyography were measured in 12 healthy young adults. In addition, the magnitude of subjective visual verticality misperception (SVV) was measured by the rod and frame test. During virtual (non-veridical) inclination transitions, vision modulated gait speed by (i) slowing down to counteract the excepted gravitational "boost" in virtual downhill inclinations and (ii) speeding up to counteract the expected gravity resistance in virtual uphill inclinations. These gait speed modulations were reflected in muscle activation intensity changes and associated with SVV misperception. However, temporal patterns of muscle activation were not affected by virtual (visual) inclination transitions. Our results delineate the contribution of vision to locomotion and may lead to enhanced rehabilitation strategies for neurological disorders affecting movement.</p

Clinical Study and Systematic Review of Pituitary Microadenomas vs. Macroadenomas in Cushing&rsquo;s Disease: Does Size Matter?

Background: Reports on clinical and biochemical differences between adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-secreting pituitary microadenomas and macroadenomas are limited and inconsistent. Objective: Compare clinical and biochemical characteristics of patients with corticotroph microadenomas and macroadenomas and assess predictive factors for biochemical response to dynamic testing for Cushing&rsquo;s disease (CD) in a clinical trial and a systematic review. A second aim was to evaluate differences between macroadenomas with and without cavernous and sphenoid sinus invasion. Methods: Retrospective charts review of patients with CD, treated at Rabin Medical Center between 2000 and 2020 or at Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel between 2005 and 2017. Clinical and biochemical factors were compared between patients with corticotroph microadenomas and macroadenomas. We have also performed a systematic review of all studies (PRISMA guidelines) comparing corticotroph microadenomas with macroadenomas up to 31 November 2021. Results: The cohort included 105 patients (82 women, 78%; mean age, 41.5 &plusmn; 14.5 years), including 80 microadenomas (mean size, 5.2 &plusmn; 2.2 mm) and 25 macroadenomas (mean size, 18.0 &plusmn; 7.7 mm). Other baseline characteristics were similar between groups. Most common presentation suggestive for hypercortisolemia among patients with both micro- and macroadenomas were weight gain (46.3% vs. 48.0%, p = NS) and Cushingoid features (27.5% vs. 20.0%, p = NS). Mean 24 h urinary free cortisol (5.2 &plusmn; 5.4 &times; ULN vs. 7.8 &plusmn; 8.7 &times; ULN) and serum cortisol following low-dose dexamethasone (372.0 &plusmn; 324.5 vs. 487.6 &plusmn; 329.8 nmol/L), though higher for macroadenomas, were not significant. Levels of ACTH were greater for macroadenomas (1.9 &plusmn; 1.2 &times; ULN vs. 1.3 &plusmn; 0.8 &times; ULN, respectively, p = 0.01). Rates of recurrent/persistent disease were similar, as were rates of post-operative adrenal insufficiency and duration of post-operative glucocorticoid replacement. Macroadenomas with sphenoid or cavernous sinus invasion were associated with higher ACTH, 24 h free urinary cortisol, and serum cortisol following low-dose dexamethasone, compared with suprasellar or intrasellar macroadenomas. Conclusions: While ACTH-secreting macroadenomas exhibit higher plasma ACTH than microadenomas, there was no association between tumor size with cortisol hypersecretion or clinical features of hypercortisolemia. Though overall rare, increased awareness is needed for patients with CD with tumor extension in the cavernous or sphenoid sinus, which displays increased biochemical burden, highlighting that extent/location of the adenoma may be more important than size per se. Our systematic review, the first on this topic, highlights differences and similarities with our study

Gallium-68 prostate-specific membrane antigen PET-CT and the clinical management of prostate cancer

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of Gallium-68 prostatic-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET-computerized tomography (CT) in patients with prostate cancer undergoing imaging for initial staging, biochemical failure or the evaluation of metastatic disease. METHODS: This is a single institution retrospective study of 95 patients with prostate cancer who were referred for PSMA PET-CT scans. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines were used to generate treatment recommendations. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were performed to identify parameters associated with positive findings on a PET-CT PSMA scan. RESULTS: Mean age, Gleason score, and median prostate serum antigen (PSA) were: 72 years, 7.6 and 4 ng/ml, respectively. PSMA PET-CT was positive in 75.5% of the patients. A maximum standardized uptake value was 10.7 ± 8.8. PSMA avidity increased with rising PSA level: PSA ≤ 1 ng/ml: 5/15 patients (33%); PSA 1-5 ng/ml: 18/27 patients (67%), and PSA ≥ 5 ng/ml: 33/34 patients (97%). Following imaging in nine high-risk patients referred for staging, changes in treatment occurred in 6 (67%). Treatment recommendations changed in 27/35 (65%) patients referred due to biochemical failure; these included recurrences suitable for salvage therapy (n = 14), metastatic disease not suitable for salvage therapy (n = 10), and no lesion (n = 17). No changes in treatment occurred in any of the 35 patients referred to evaluate metastatic disease. DISCUSSION: PSMA PET-CT imaging may have a substantial impact on clinical management in prostate cancer patients at the time of initial staging or with biochemical failure; yet this modality does not appear useful in the management of patients with known metastatic disease