Enhanced Discrimination of Malignant from Benign Pancreatic Disease by Measuring the CA 19-9 Antigen on Specific Protein Carriers

The CA 19-9 assay detects a carbohydrate antigen on multiple protein carriers, some of which may be preferential carriers of the antigen in cancer. We tested the hypothesis that the measurement of the CA 19-9 antigen on individual proteins could improve performance over the standard CA 19-9 assay. We used antibody arrays to measure the levels of the CA 19-9 antigen on multiple proteins in serum or plasma samples from patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma or pancreatitis. Sample sets from three different institutions were examined, comprising 531 individual samples. The measurement of the CA 19-9 antigen on any individual protein did not improve upon the performance of the standard CA 19-9 assay (82% sensitivity at 75% specificity for early-stage cancer), owing to diversity among patients in their CA 19-9 protein carriers. However, a subset of cancer patients with no elevation in the standard CA 19-9 assay showed elevations of the CA 19-9 antigen specifically on the proteins MUC5AC or MUC16 in all sample sets. By combining measurements of the standard CA 19-9 assay with detection of CA 19-9 on MUC5AC and MUC16, the sensitivity of cancer detection was improved relative to CA 19-9 alone in each sample set, achieving 67–80% sensitivity at 98% specificity. This finding demonstrates the value of measuring glycans on specific proteins for improving biomarker performance. Diagnostic tests with improved sensitivity for detecting pancreatic cancer could have important applications for improving the treatment and management of patients suffering from this disease

Habitat contributions to biodiversity trends at a subcontinental extent

The extent to which humanity\u27s metabolism of natural resources has impacted the biosphere is significant. After discussing the global state of biodiversity, I use the 1992 National Land Cover Dataset and the North American Breeding Bird Survey to examine how avian species richness responds to habitat-level factors across the conterminous United States, and find a significant relationship between land-cover and species richness. I then use BBS data to examine whether species richness changes over time by examining trends in species richness on 554 routes surveyed continuously between 1990 and 2006. A linear regression analysis indicates a slight increase in species richness over this interval, but the spatial and frequency distributions of this change suggest the possibility that species richness attains a level of dynamic equilibrium in the absence of human disturbances. These two studies reinforce the need for integrative approaches to the measurement of multiple dimensions of biodiversity simultaneously, leading to a discussion of the role that the biophony, as a measure of biotic activity in the soundscape, could play as a multidimensional measure of biodiversity. In addition to facilitating transitions across spatial and temporal scales in biodiversity studies, the biophony of different habitats may offer unique information about the physiology, intraspecific communication, interspecific interactions, and responses of groups of organisms to anthropogenic disturbances. This information could foster a deeper understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics of biodiversity, and could facilitate a perceptual shift that re-couples human and biophysical systems

Visibility analysis and landscape evaluation in Martin river cultural park (Aragon, Spain) integrating biophysical and visual units

The European Landscape Convention (ELC) has encouraged affiliated countries to develop several assessment methodologies to facilitate land management in an effort to develop compatible, integrative assessment techniques that can be applied in diverse geographic settings. Here we begin to address the question of how to develop comprehensive landscape assessments based on the criteria of the ELC by integrating landscape studies using biophysical and visual characteristics. We assessed visibility, quality, and fragility to determine aptitude for protection based on both biophysical and visual landscape units. We selected the Martin River Cultural Park (Aragon, Spain) as a study area because it is recognized as a site of cultural and geomorphological importance, it is situated in a signatory country to the ELC, but has not been subject to any landscape assessment. The resulting maps of aptitude for protection can be used to prioritize landscapes for protection based on their levels of quality and fragility

Influences of horizontal and vertical aspects of land cover and their interactions with regional factors on patterns of avian species-richness

We examined how both horizontal and vertical aspects of land-cover diversity influence patterns of avian species-richness across North America. Using count data from Breeding Bird Survey routes within the conterminous USA and land-cover data from the National Land Cover Data-set, we analyzed relationships between species-richness estimates, vegetative strata, landscape diversity and elevation and geographic position using both linear-regression models and a classification and regression tree. We found that latitude, the diversity of land-cover classes present, and the proportion of the landscape containing cover-classes representing 3 vegetative strata had the strongest influence on species richness. This illustrates that, while broad-scale biodiversity trends are strongly influenced by dominant regional factors, they are also sensitive to the structure of the intermediate-level landscape. Thus, factors at multiple scales must be considered when modeling spatial patterns of biodiversity such as avian species-richness

Sustainability and Metabolic Revolution in the Works of Henri Lefebvre

Humanity’s present social–ecological metabolic configuration is not sustainable, and the need for a radical transformation of society to address its metabolic rifts with the rest of nature is increasingly apparent. The work of French Marxist Henri Lefebvre, one of the few thinkers to recognize the significance of Karl Marx’s theory of metabolic rift prior to its rediscovery at the end of the twentieth century, offers valuable insight into contemporary issues of sustainability. His concepts of the urban revolution, autogestion, the critique of everyday life, and total (or metabolic) revolution all relate directly to the key concerns of sustainability. Lefebvre’s work embodies a vision of radical social–ecological transformation aimed at sustainable human development, in which the human metabolic interchange with the rest of nature is to be placed under substantively rational and cooperative control by all its members, enriching everyday life. Other critical aspects of Lefebvre’s work, such as his famous concept of the production of space, his temporal rhythmanalysis, and his notion of the right to the city, all point to the existence of an open-ended research program directed at the core issues of sustainability in the twenty-first century

Grassroots innovation for the pluriverse: Evidence from Zapatismo and autonomous Zapatista education

The social and environmental failure of successive Western development models imposed on the global South has led local communities to pursue alternatives to development. Such alternatives seek radical societal transformations that require the production of new knowledge, practices, technologies, and institutions that are effective to achieve more just and sustainable societies. We may think of such a production as innovation driven by social movements, organizations, collectives, indigenous peoples, and local communities. Innovation that is driven by such grassroots groups has been theorized in the academic literature as 'grassroots innovation'. However, research on alternatives to development has rarely examined innovation using grassroots innovation as an analytical framework. Here, we assess how grassroots innovation may contribute to building alternatives to development using Zapatismo in Chiapas (Mexico) as a case study. We focus on grassroots innovation in autonomous Zapatista education because this alternative to formal education plays a vital role in knowledge generation and the production of new social practices within Zapatista communities, which underpin the radical societal transformation being built by Zapatismo. We reviewed the academic literature on grassroots innovation as well as gray literature and audiovisual media on Zapatismo and autonomous Zapatista education. We also conducted ethnographic fieldwork in a Zapatista community and its school. We found innovative educational, pedagogical, and teaching-learning practices based on the (re)production of knowledge and learning, which are not limited to the classroom but linked to all the activities of Zapatistas. Our findings suggest that innovation self-realized by Zapatistas plays a key role on the everyday construction of Zapatismo. Therefore, we argue that a specific theoretical framework of grassroots innovation for the pluriverse, based on empirical work carried out in different alternatives to development, is an urgent task that will contribute to a better understanding of how such alternatives grassroots groups imagine, design, and build, particularly across the global South

Grassroots Innovation Using Drones for Indigenous Mapping and Monitoring

Indigenous territories are facing increasing pressures from numerous legal and illegal activities that are pushing commodity frontiers within their limits, frequently causing severe environmental degradation and threatening indigenous territorial rights and livelihoods. In Central and South America, after nearly three decades of participatory mapping projects, interest is mounting among indigenous peoples in the use of new technologies for community mapping and monitoring as a means of defense against such threats. Since 2014, several innovative projects have been developed and implemented in the region to demonstrate and train indigenous communities in the use of small drones for territorial mapping and monitoring. In this paper, we report on five projects carried out in Peru, Guyana, and Panama. For each one we describe the context, main objectives, positive outcomes, challenges faced, and opportunities ahead. Preliminary results are promising and have gained the interest of many indigenous societies who envision this technology as a powerful tool to protect their territories and strengthen their claims regarding specific environmental liabilities and justice issues. Based on the results presented here and a review of previous similar studies, we offer a critical discussion of some of the main opportunities and challenges that we foresee regarding the use of small drones for indigenous territorial mapping and monitoring. In addition, we elaborate on why a careful, well thought-out, and progressive adoption of drones by indigenous peoples may trigger grassroots innovations in ways conducive to greater environmental justice and sustainability

Geographic Rift in the Urban Periphery, and Its Concrete Manifestations in Morelia, Mexico

Capitalist urbanization is recognized as an important aspect of environmental change and conflict in Latin America. Marx’s theory of metabolic rift can offer powerful insights into the alienated mediation of society and nature underlying the socio-ecological contradictions and conflicts associated with urbanization, but has been under-utilized in urban political ecology. Building on the concept of geographic rift, we demonstrate how urbanization as both a metabolic process in itself and an important factor in other social-metabolic processes implicates capital’s fundamental contradictions in alienation from the land and its use-values and the subordination of human needs to capital accumulation. After developing the basic theoretical contours of these concepts, we provide an illustrative example of their concrete manifestations in urbanization of the periphery of Morelia, Mexico. We conclude with a discussion of how metabolic-rift theory strengthens the radical critique of sustainability in urban political ecology and encourages struggles to defend the material conditions of human development within the capital system, while pointing to the need for structural change to bring about the conditions necessary for a conscious, sustainable social metabolism. La urbanización capitalista es reconocida como un aspecto importante del cambio ambiental y conflicto en América Latina. La teoría de la ruptura metabólica de Marx puede ofrecer una visión poderosa de la mediación alienada de la sociedad y la naturaleza que subyace a las contradicciones y conflictos socio-ecológicos asociados con la urbanización, pero ha sido subutilizada en la ecología política urbana. Partiendo del concepto de la ruptura geográfica, demostramos cómo la urbanización como un proceso metabólico en sí misma y como factor importante en otros procesos metabólicos sociales implica las contradicciones fundamentales del capital en la alienación de la tierra y sus valores de uso y la subordinación de las necesidades humanas a la acumulación de capital. Después de desarrollar los contornos teóricos básicos de estos conceptos, proporcionamos un ejemplo ilustrativo de sus manifestaciones concretas en la urbanización de la periferia de Morelia, México. Concluimos con una discusión sobre cómo la teoría de la ruptura metabólica fortalece la crítica radical de la sostenibilidad en la ecología política urbana y alienta las luchas para defender las condiciones materiales del desarrollo humano dentro del sistema capitalista, al mismo tiempo que señala la necesidad de un cambio estructural para crear las condiciones necesarias para un metabolismo social consciente y sostenible

The Role of Geographical Landscape Studies for Sustainable Territorial Planning

One of the primary objectives of physical geography is to determine how natural phenomena produce specific territorial patterns. Therefore, physical geography offers substantial scientific input into territorial planning for sustainability. A key area where physical geography can contribute to land management is in the delimitation of landscape units. Such units are fundamental to formal socio-economic zoning and management in territorial planning. However, numerous methodologies—based on widely varying criteria—exist to delineate and map landscapes. We have selected five consolidated methodologies with current applications for mapping the landscape to analyse the different role of physical geography in each: (1) geomorphological landscape maps based on landforms; (2) geosystemic landscape maps; (3) Landscape Character Assessment; (4) landscape studies based on visual landscape units; (5) landscape image-pair test. We maintain that none of these methodologies are universally applicable, but that each contributes important insights into landscape analysis for land management within particular biogeophysical and social contexts. This work is intended to demonstrate that physical geography is ubiquitous in contemporary landscape studies intended to facilitate sustainable territorial planning, but that the role it plays varies substantially with the criteria prioritized