547 research outputs found
Conceptual Perspectives and their Relevance for the Study of Social Inequalities
The paper discusses the relationship between material qualities of nature and
the process of capitalist valuation. While valuation can be defined in a broad
sense pertaining to how resources are identified, extracted and integrated
into the world market, the focus here is narrower, centering on the specific
qualities of nature that are important to the creation of value itself and
touching on related questions such as how to evaluate tendencies in which
nature materialities are increasingly commodified. The first part of the paper
briefly reviews the work of scholars approaching nature as a materiality
placing certain âlimitsâ on valuation. Most of these scholars tend to view
valuation at the level of discrete production processes and while offering
many examples of how material nature constraints or enables production, the
role of these qualities in value generation is not clear. By contrast, a
second part of the paper discusses work that directly addresses valuation,
proposing that the specific role of nature lies in the fact that nature
materialities are not necessarily commodified, offering a view in which nature
is not a âlimitâ or an âoutsideâ but a materiality that is a constitutive part
of valuation, historically integrated through partial commodification. A final
section deals with the specificity of the valuation of living nature.
Agricultural biotechnologies in Latin America are briefly discussed, raising
various issues that should form part of a future research agenda to evaluate
how this particular type of nature valuation will reconfigure social
inequalities in the area
The making of sustainability: ideological strategies, the materiality of nature, and biomass use in the bioeconomy
The bioeconomy, a recent addition to the political project of ecological modernization, is largely premised on the widespread
use of biomass. Biomass is presented by bioeconomy proponents as renewable and, therefore, sustainable. However, a large
body of academic and non-academic literature questions this sustainability, citing the negative socio-ecological aspects of
biomass use. Given this contradiction, we ask how the key institutions of the innovation system (government, science, and
industry), construct and uphold the image of sustainability of biomass use in the bioeconomy. Through an analysis based
on ideology critique, we look at the broad field of biomass policy in Germany, including official bioeconomy strategies and
biomass potential calculations, expert portrayals of biomass use in the bioeconomy-themed Year of Science, and an iconic
biomass-based commodity. We identify four central ideological strategies that uphold the image of sustainability and contribute
to creating political consent for the political project of the German bioeconomy: seeking managerial solutions, relying on
technological innovation, relegating solutions into the future, and obscuring the materiality of nature. We discuss how these
strategies are upheld by the wider discourse and institutions of ecological modernization and argue that particular attention
should be given to the biophysical materiality of living nature in this context. The materiality of nature represents both an
obstacle to the ideological strategies identified, and a starting point for envisioning alternative societyânature relations.Peer Reviewe
Transcriptional properties of human NANOG1 and NANOG2 in acute leukemic cells
Transcripts of NANOG and OCT4 have been recently identified in human t(4;11) leukemia and in a model system expressing both t(4;11) fusion proteins. Moreover, downstream target genes of NANOG/OCT4/SOX2 were shown to be transcriptionally activated. However, the NANOG1 gene belongs to a gene family, including a gene tandem duplication (named NANOG2 or NANOGP1) and several pseudogenes (NANOGP2-P11). Thus, it was unclear which of the NANOG family members were transcribed in t(4;11) leukemia cells. 5âČ-RACE experiments revealed novel 5âČ-exons of NANOG1 and NANOG2, which could give rise to the expression of two different NANOG1 and three different NANOG2 protein variants. Moreover, a novel PCR-based method was established that allows distinguishing between transcripts deriving from NANOG1, NANOG2 and all other NANOG pseudogenes (P2âP11). By applying this method, we were able to demonstrate that human hematopoietic stem cells and different leukemic cells transcribe NANOG2. Furthermore, we functionally tested NANOG1 and NANOG2 protein variants by recombinant expression in 293 cells. These studies revealed that NANOG1 and NANOG2 protein variants are functionally equivalent and activate a regulatory circuit that activates specific stem cell genes. Therefore, we pose the hypothesis that the transcriptional activation of NANOG2 represents a âgain-of-stem cell functionâ in acute leukemia
Multidifferential study of identified charged hadron distributions in -tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV
Jet fragmentation functions are measured for the first time in proton-proton
collisions for charged pions, kaons, and protons within jets recoiling against
a boson. The charged-hadron distributions are studied longitudinally and
transversely to the jet direction for jets with transverse momentum 20 GeV and in the pseudorapidity range . The
data sample was collected with the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy
of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.64 fb. Triple
differential distributions as a function of the hadron longitudinal momentum
fraction, hadron transverse momentum, and jet transverse momentum are also
measured for the first time. This helps constrain transverse-momentum-dependent
fragmentation functions. Differences in the shapes and magnitudes of the
measured distributions for the different hadron species provide insights into
the hadronization process for jets predominantly initiated by light quarks.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any
supplementary material and additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-013.html (LHCb
public pages
Study of the decay
The decay is studied
in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of TeV
using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5
collected by the LHCb experiment. In the system, the
state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is
resolved into two narrower states, and ,
whose masses and widths are measured to be where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second
systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a
prompt sample. Evidence of a new
state is found with a local significance of , whose mass and width
are measured to be and , respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode
is found with a significance of
. The relative branching fraction of with respect to the
decay is measured to be , where the first
uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from
the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb
public pages
Measurement of the ratios of branching fractions and
The ratios of branching fractions
and are measured, assuming isospin symmetry, using a
sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to 3.0 fb of
integrated luminosity recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The
tau lepton is identified in the decay mode
. The measured values are
and
, where the first uncertainty is
statistical and the second is systematic. The correlation between these
measurements is . Results are consistent with the current average
of these quantities and are at a combined 1.9 standard deviations from the
predictions based on lepton flavor universality in the Standard Model.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-039.html (LHCb
public pages
Global survival trends for brain tumors, by histology: analysis of individual records for 556,237 adults diagnosed in 59 countries during 2000â2014 (CONCORD-3)
Background:
Survival is a key metric of the effectiveness of a health system in managing cancer. We set out to provide a comprehensive examination of worldwide variation and trends in survival from brain tumors in adults, by histology.
Methods:
We analyzed individual data for adults (15â99 years) diagnosed with a brain tumor (ICD-O-3 topography code C71) during 2000â2014, regardless of tumor behavior. Data underwent a 3-phase quality control as part of CONCORD-3. We estimated net survival for 11 histology groups, using the unbiased nonparametric Pohar Perme estimator.
Results:
The study included 556,237 adults. In 2010â2014, the global range in age-standardized 5-year net survival for the most common sub-types was broad: in the range 20%â38% for diffuse and anaplastic astrocytoma, from 4% to 17% for glioblastoma, and between 32% and 69% for oligodendroglioma. For patients with glioblastoma, the largest gains in survival occurred between 2000â2004 and 2005â2009. These improvements were more noticeable among adults diagnosed aged 40â70 years than among younger adults.
Conclusions:
To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the largest account to date of global trends in population-based survival for brain tumors by histology in adults. We have highlighted remarkable gains in 5-year survival from glioblastoma since 2005, providing large-scale empirical evidence on the uptake of chemoradiation at population level. Worldwide, survival improvements have been extensive, but some countries still lag behind. Our findings may help clinicians involved in national and international tumor pathway boards to promote initiatives aimed at more extensive implementation of clinical guidelines
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Transforming Nature: A Brief Hiatus in Space and Time
The dissertation departs from the premise that the materiality of living organisms, usually studied by the biological sciences, is essential to the social sciences in order to understand how nature is transformed by, and also transforms the distinctly different materiality of social relations. Agricultural plants are an excellent illustration of this, because how societies produce with them coincides materially with how plants reproduce, i.e., with their various living processes. Despite these deep connections, the disciplinary divide between the natural and the social sciences has generated no conceptual tools for studying the materiality of living nature in the social sciences. To address this problem, the dissertation develops an original analytic framework that captures the transformations in living organisms through spatiotemporal categories. These are used to analyze the transformation of agricultural plants in three major contexts: Peasant farming, Mendelian genetics and molecular genetics.
Spatiality and temporality serve as research tools for approaching the research material, consisting of scientific papers, handbooks and government documents that document the transformation of agricultural plants, spanning three centuries. The spatiotemporal concepts are shown to be versatile categories, appropriate for understanding the transformations in living nature, from molecules to agroecosystems. Moreover, they are also suitable for describing social processes, in particular the practices and strategies through which peasant farmers on the one hand, and scientists on the other, have transformed plants. The spatiotemporal categories therefore result in a common perspective for showing specific mechanisms that bridge societal relations and non-social materialities.
Significant insights are gained about society's relationship to agricultural plants by specifying how - rather than only recognizing that - the materiality of living plants shapes and is shaped by societal relations. These include the important role of recurring material forms such as plant seeds, creating a hiatus in the transformation of an otherwise perpetually changing materiality that results in a `fulcrum' to their transformation; the spatiotemporal stabilization of plants as a material basis for dominant forms of organizing production in various periods; or the consequences associated with practical redefinitions of living processes that abstract widely from how plant materiality has been reproduced historically. The long-term perspective used to study the transformation of agriculture is also particularly useful for understanding contemporary transformations through molecular techniques beyond plants. Of particular interest is the `fluid' relationship between human labor and the living processes of microorganisms for their potential to transform the materiality of contemporary production
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