Caveat Emptor! The Rhetoric of Choice in Food Politics

This project is about a form of corporate predation that entails both policy influence and cultural legitimation. Neoliberal explanations of the inability of citizens to thrive in the current socio- economic condition typically rest on a combination of victim-blaming and appeals to the individualistic rhetoric that assumes we all enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom of choice. It is common for corporate lobbyists, and politicians under their influence, to argue against consumer protection on the grounds that such efforts are paternalistic, and that they therefore undermine consumer sovereignty. By this logic, illnesses that are highly correlated to diet are problems that consumers can avoid, and it is not the duty of food companies or government to prevent consumers from making “bad choices.” Implicit in this moralistic narrative is that consumers have sufficient knowledge about the alternatives to enable them to make “good choices.” Major food lobbies use their political influence to oppose government regulations of food, based on the reasoning that consumers deserve the right to choose. Food industry groups also will sometimes invest heavily to prevent legal requirements to disclose information that might enable consumers to make informed choices, creating a predatory double-bind. In this essay, I discuss how the rhetoric of choice is employed by the food industry, how it is formulated within the political context of the United States, and how that rhetoric poses threats to food systems globally

Twin Crises and the Financial Accelerator

The incidence of simultaneous banking and currency crises is a recurring theme in emerging economies operating under fixed or quasi-fixed exchange rates. This thesis conducts an empirical analysis of the underlying determinants of so called “twin crises” by applying a probit econometric model to a sample of 48 emerging economies during the 1980-2013 period. Current account deficits are found to be a robust driver of twin crises, with vulnerability increasing in the size of the deficit relative to GDP. There is also evidence that real exchange rate appreciation and higher levels of short-term debt relative to reserves increase crisis probability. Recommendations for prevention policies include a reduction in agency costs through improved regulation and data transparency, the implementation of a managed float exchange rate regime, and the use of price-based controls on capital inflows

Synthetic Studies on the Pseudopterosins and trans-4-Methyl-L-Proline

The Pseudopterosin family of diterpene glycosides was isolated in 1986 from the Caribbean sea-plume Pseudopterogorgia elisabethea. Pseudopterosin E is one of the most potent anti-inflammatory agents currently know, being fifty times more active than indomethacin in preventing phorbol myristate acetate topically-induced inflammation in the mouse ear oedema model. In the first section of this thesis, an attempted synthetic strategy towards Pseudopterosin E is reported. Our initial retrosynthesis adopted an intramolecular Diels- Alder reaction (IMDA) to form the tricarbocyclic core of the natural product. It was envisaged that elaboration of the IMDA product would lead to a key intermediate in the Corey et al. synthesis of Pseudopterosin E. The remainder of our synthesis would be after Corey. Free trans-4-methyl-L-proline was first obtained from Worcester Pearmain apples in 1952. It is a constituent part of several natural products; Grisemelycin, Mycoplanecin A, and the Monamycins, all of which have potent biological activity profiles. In the second section of this thesis, several synthetic approaches to trans-4- methyl-L-proline are reported

International meta-analysis of PTSD genome-wide association studies identifies sex- and ancestry-specific genetic risk loci.

The risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified. In a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls we conduct a genome-wide association study of PTSD. We demonstrate SNP-based heritability estimates of 5-20%, varying by sex. Three genome-wide significant loci are identified, 2 in European and 1 in African-ancestry analyses. Analyses stratified by sex implicate 3 additional loci in men. Along with other novel genes and non-coding RNAs, a Parkinson's disease gene involved in dopamine regulation, PARK2, is associated with PTSD. Finally, we demonstrate that polygenic risk for PTSD is significantly predictive of re-experiencing symptoms in the Million Veteran Program dataset, although specific loci did not replicate. These results demonstrate the role of genetic variation in the biology of risk for PTSD and highlight the necessity of conducting sex-stratified analyses and expanding GWAS beyond European ancestry populations

The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP

PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a relatively new drug-based HIV prevention technique and an important means to lower the HIV risk of gay men who are especially vulnerable to HIV. From the perspective of biopolitics, PrEP inscribes itself in a larger trend of medicalization and the rise of pharmapower. This article reconstructs and evaluates contemporary literature on biopolitical theory as it applies to PrEP, by bringing it in a dialogue with a mapping of the political debate on PrEP. As PrEP changes sexual norms and subjectification, for example condom use and its meaning for gay subjectivity, it is highly contested. The article shows that the debate on PrEP can be best described with the concepts ‘sexual-somatic ethics’ and ‘democratic biopolitics’, which I develop based on the biopolitical approach of Nikolas Rose and Paul Rabinow. In contrast, interpretations of PrEP which are following governmentality studies or Italian Theory amount to either farfetched or trivial positions on PrEP, when seen in light of the political debate. Furthermore, the article is a contribution to the scholarship on gay subjectivity, highlighting how homophobia and homonormativity haunts gay sex even in liberal environments, and how PrEP can serve as an entry point for the destigmatization of gay sexuality and transformation of gay subjectivity. ‘Biopolitical democratization’ entails making explicit how medical technology and health care relates to sexual subjectification and ethics, to strengthen the voice of (potential) PrEP users in health politics, and to renegotiate the profit and power of Big Pharma

The MacBride Report in Twenty-first-century Capitalism, the Age of Social Media and the BRICS Countries

The MacBride Report was published in 1980. The report communicated the need for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). With the breakdown of what used to be called “actually existing socialism“ in the East and with the rise of the neoliberal commodification of everything, a NWICO indeed emerged, but one that looked quite different from that the MacBride commission imagined. Thirty-five years later, it is time to ask how the situation of the media and communications in society has changed. This contribution asks the question of what we can make of the MacBride Report today in a media world and society that has seen the rise of an economically driven form of globalisation that also has impacts on the media, the expansion of the information economy with a new young precariat at its core, and the emergence of the World Wide Web and its change into a highly commercialised system, including the emergence of so-called “social media“ whose capital accumulation model is based on targeted advertising

A letra da Lei: as telecomunicações e a pessoa corporativa

Este artigo examina a regulação da propriedade da televisão a cabo e da telefonia nos Estados Unidos, especialmente no que diz respeito à razão histórica e às implicações associadas para o fortalecimento contínuo do tratamento das infra-estruturas de telecomunicações como propriedade privada. Apesar do fato de que esses sistemas originaram um significante grau de presença pública, no caso da história da regulação do cabo, eles foram tudo menos concessões em prol dos esforços para definir e impor obrigações de interesse público aos proprietários dos sistemas. Com essa autonomia privada, os donos de operadoras de tv a cabo  desfrutaram dos benefícios libertários da Primeira Emenda, ao mesmo tempo em que detinham largos poderes para censurar a expressão nas suas redes controlando o acesso e exercitando outras formas de discriminação aos programadores de canais televisivos. Este poder foi recentemente incrementado pela decisão do Supremo Tribunal estado-unidense que afirma o direito dos proprietários de redes físicas de cabo de discriminar provedores de Internet que buscam sua capacidade excedente de rede, um modelo que as companhias telefônicas têm intenção de adotar. Com poderes desenfreados de censura privada, que está além do alcance dos tribunais, combinada a uma tremenda e largamente desregulada capacidade de sobrevivência, as companhias de TV a cabo são um exemplo de aparatos repressivos para silenciar e monitorar a liberdade de expressão pública e a discordância com a implícita benção do governo federal

Observing the Evolution of the Universe

How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass. We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in the planning stages.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Full list of 177 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed