4 research outputs found
Blurring Borders: Innate Immunity with Adaptive Features
Adaptive immunity has often been considered the
penultimate of immune capacities. That system is now being
deconstructed to encompass less stringent rules that govern its
initiation, actual effector activity, and ambivalent results.
Expanding the repertoire of innate immunity found in all
invertebrates has greatly facilitated the relaxation of
convictions concerning what actually constitutes innate and
adaptive immunity. Two animal models, incidentally not on the line
of chordate evolution (C. elegans and
Drosophila), have contributed enormously to defining
homology. The characteristics of specificity and
memory and whether the antigen is pathogenic or nonpathogenic
reveal considerable information on homology, thus
deconstructing the more fundamentalist view. Senescence, cancer,
and immunosuppression often associated with mammals that possess
both innate and adaptive immunity also exist in invertebrates
that only possess innate immunity. Strict definitions become
blurred casting skepticism on the utility of creating rigid
definitions of what innate and adaptive immunity are without
considering overlaps
Fiscal policy and ecological sustainability: a post-Keynesian perspective
Fiscal policy has a strong role to play in the transition to an ecologically sustainable economy. This paper critically discusses the way that green fiscal policy has been analysed in both conventional and post-Keynesian approaches. It then uses a recently developed post-Keynesian ecological macroeconomic model in order to provide a comparative evaluation of three different types of green fiscal policy: carbon taxes, green subsidies and green public investment. We show that (i) carbon taxes reduce global warming but increase financial risks due to their adverse effects on the profitability of firms and credit availability; (ii) green subsidies and green public investment improve ecological efficiency, but their positive environmental impact is partially offset by their macroeconomic rebound effects; and (iii) a green fiscal policy mix derives better outcomes than isolated policies. Directions for future heterodox macroeconomic research on the links between fiscal policy and ecological sustainability are suggested