Cultural and economic complementarities of spatial agglomeration in the British television broadcasting industry: Some explorations.

This paper considers the processes supporting agglomeration in the British television broadcasting industry. It compares and contrasts the insights offered by the cultural turn in geography and more conventionally economic approaches. It finds that culture and institutions are fundamental to the constitution of production and exchange relationships and also that they solve fundamental economic problems of coordinating resources under conditions of uncertainty and limited information. Processes at a range of spatial scales are important, from highly local to global, and conventional economics casts some light on which firms are most active and successful

EQ-5D in skin conditions: an assessment of validity and responsiveness

Aims and objectives This systematic literature review aims to assess the reliability, validity and responsiveness of three widely used generic preference-based measures of health-related quality of life (HRQL), i.e., EQ-5D, Health Utility Index 3 (HUI3) and SF-6D in patients with skin conditions. Methods A systematic search was conducted to identify studies reporting health state utility values obtained using EQ-5D, SF-6D, or HUI3 alongside other HRQL measures or clinical indices for patients with skin conditions. Data on test-retest analysis for reliability, known group differences or correlation and regression analyses for validity, and change over time or responsiveness indices analysis were extracted and reviewed. Results A total of 16 papers reporting EQ-5D utilities in people with skin conditions were included in the final review. No papers for SF-6D and HUI3 were found. Evidence of reliability was not found for any of these measures. The majority of studies included in the review (12 out of 16) examined patients with plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis and the remaining four studies examined patients with either acne, hidradenitis suppurativa, hand eczema, or venous leg ulcers. The findings were generally positive in terms of performance of EQ-5D. Six studies showed that EQ-5D was able to reflect differences between severity groups and only one reported differences that were not statistically significant. Four studies found that EQ-5D detected differences between patients and the general population, and differences were statistically different for three of them. Further, moderate-to-strong correlation coefficients were found between EQ-5D and other skin-specific HRQL measures in four studies. Eight studies showed that EQ-5D was able to detect change in HRQL appropriately over time and the changes were statistically significant in seven studies. Conclusions Overall, the validity and responsiveness of the EQ-5D was found to be good in people with skin diseases, especially plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. No evidence on SF-6D and HUI3 was available to enable any judgments to be made on their performance

Antimicrobial Peptides and Skin: A Paradigm of Translational Medicine

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small, cationic, amphiphilic peptides with broad-spectrum microbicidal activity against both bacteria and fungi. In mammals, AMPs form the first line of host defense against infections and generally play an important role as effector agents of the innate immune system. The AMP era was born more than 6 decades ago when the first cationic cyclic peptide antibiotics, namely polymyxins and tyrothricin, found their way into clinical use. Due to the good clinical experience in the treatment of, for example, infections of mucus membranes as well as the subsequent understanding of mode of action, AMPs are now considered for treatment of inflammatory skin diseases and for improving healing of infected wounds. Based on the preclinical findings, including pathobiochemistry and molecular medicine, targeted therapy strategies are developed and first results indicate that AMPs influence processes of diseased skin. Importantly, in contrast to other antibiotics, AMPs do not seem to propagate the development of antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms. Therefore, AMPs should be tested in clinical trials for their efficacy and tolerability in inflammatory skin diseases and chronic wounds. Apart from possible fields of application, these peptides appear suited as an example of the paradigm of translational medicine for skin diseases which is today seen as a `two-way road' - from bench to bedside and backwards from bedside to bench. Copyright (c) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

Building blocks for the macroeconomics and political economy of housing

Housing has played an essential part in the global financial crisis 2007-08 and the Euro crisis. Large parts of bank lending go to mortgages. Housing wealth is the largest part of wealth for most households and is, at the same time, more dispersed than other forms of wealth. House prices exhibit pronounced fluctuations that are closely linked to credit growth. Housing thus plays a crucial role in the macroeconomy, which has become even more pronounced under neoliberalism. We scrutinise different theoretical approaches to housing. Despite its theoretical shortcomings mainstream economics has pioneered empirical research on wealth effects in consumption and recently documented the role of house prices in financial cycles. Post-Keynesian theory emphasises endogenous money creation, cycles in asset prices and debt, and have formalised the notion of a debt-driven demand regime. Comparative Political Economy research has recently developed the concept of the varieties of residential capitalism, which has different structures of house ownership and housing finance at the core of political coalitions. Marxist political economy has long established the intrinsic link between ownership of land and economic rent and notes that homeownership can act as force of working class fragmentation. Wealth surveys can be used to trace the extent of conflicting interests in a class-relational approach

Mutation analysis of the LCE3B/LCE3C genes in Psoriasis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An association between a common deletion comprising the late cornified envelope LCE3B and LCE3C genes (LCE3C_LCE3B-del) and Psoriasis (Ps) has been reported. The expression of these LCE genes was induced after skin barrier disruption and was also strong in psoriatic lesions. The damage to the skin barrier could trigger an epidermal response that includes the expression of genes involved in the formation of skin barrier.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We determined the LCE3C_LCE3B-del genotype in 405 Ps patients and 400 healthy controls from a Northern Spain region (Asturias). These patients and controls were also genotyped for the rs4112788 single nucleotide polymorphism, in strong linkage disequilibrium with the LCE3C_B cluster. The LCE3B and LCE3C gene variant was determined in the patients through SSCA, DHPLC, and direct sequencing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Allele and genotype frequencies did not differ between patients and controls for the rs4112788 and LCE3C_LCE3B-del polymorphisms. However, del/del homozygotes were significantly higher among patients with chronic plaque type Ps who did not develop arthritis (p = 0.03; OR = 1.4; 95%CI = 1.03-1.92). The analysis of the coding sequence of LCE3B and LCE3C in the patients who had at least one copy of this showed that only one patient has a no previously reported LCE3B variant (R68C).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our work suggested that homozygosity for a common LCE3C_LCE3B deletion contributes to the risk of developing chronic plaque type Ps without psoriatic arthritis. Our work confirmed previous reports that described an association of this marker with only skin manifestations, and supported the concept of different genetic risk factors contributing to skin and joint disease.</p

HLA-Cw*0602 associates with a twofold higher prevalence of positive streptococcal throat swab at the onset of psoriasis: a case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The influence of streptococcal infections in the pathogenesis of psoriasis is not yet understood. <it>In vitro </it>data suggest that streptococcal factors influence T-cell function in psoriasis in a HLA-dependent manner, but studies designed to measure the HLA-C/Streptococci interaction are lacking. In the present study, we hypothesized that there is a statistical interaction between the result of streptococcal throat cultures and the presence of the HLA-Cw*0602 allele in psoriasis patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed a case control study using the "Stockholm Psoriasis Cohort" consisting of patients consecutively recruited within 12 months of disease onset (Plaque psoriasis = 439, Guttate psoriasis = 143), matched to healthy controls (n = 454) randomly chosen from the Swedish Population Registry. All individuals underwent physical examination including throat swabs and DNA isolation for HLA-Cw*0602 genotyping.</p> <p>The prevalence of positive streptococcal throat swabs and HLA-Cw*0602 was compared between patients and controls and expressed as odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Associations were evaluated separately for guttate and plaque psoriasis by Fisher's exact test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Regardless of disease phenotype, the prevalence of positive streptococcal throat swabs in HLA-Cw*0602 positive patients was twice the prevalence among HLA-Cw*0602 negative patients (OR = 5.8 C.I. = 3.57–9.67, p < 0.001), while no difference was observed among Cw*0602 positive versus negative controls.</p> <p>The corresponding odds ratios for the guttate and plaque psoriasis phenotypes were 3.5 (CI = 1.5–8.7, p = 0.01) and 2.3 (CI = 1.0–5.1, p = 0.02) respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that among HLA-Cw*0602 positive psoriasis patients, streptococci may contribute to the onset or exacerbation of the inflammatory process independent of the disease phenotype. However, studies on the functional interaction between HLA-C and streptococcal factors are needed.</p

Microclimates of urban reproduction : the limits of automating environmental control

Enclosed, controlled environments, stretching from sites of luxury consumption to urban food production, are proliferating in cities around the world, utilising increasingly advanced techniques for (re)creating and optimising microclimatic conditions for different purposes. However, the role of automated control systems – to filter, reprocess and reassemble atmospheric and metabolic flows with growing precision – remains under-researched. In this article, we explore the phenomenon of automated environmental control at three sites in the UK city of Sheffield: a botanical glasshouse, a luxury hotel and a university plant growth research lab. In doing so, we first show how controlled environments are constituted through specific relations between the inside and outside, which are embedded in inherently political urban contexts and processes. Second, we identify the technical and ecological tensions and limits of indoor environmental control at each site which limit the scope of automation, and the considerable amount of hidden labour and energy required to maintain and restabilise desired conditions. Drawing on these more established examples of ecological interiorisation in a key moment of transition, we raise urgent questions for critical urban and environmental geographers about the possible futures of controlled environments, their practical or selective scalability, and who and what will be left ‘outside’, when they are emerging as a strategic form of urban adaptation and immunisation in the face of converging ecological pressures

Local and Global Effects of Climate on Dengue Transmission in Puerto Rico

The four dengue viruses, the agents of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever in humans, are transmitted predominantly by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. The abundance and the transmission potential of Ae. aegypti are influenced by temperature and precipitation. While there is strong biological evidence for these effects, empirical studies of the relationship between climate and dengue incidence in human populations are potentially confounded by seasonal covariation and spatial heterogeneity. Using 20 years of data and a statistical approach to control for seasonality, we show a positive and statistically significant association between monthly changes in temperature and precipitation and monthly changes in dengue transmission in Puerto Rico. We also found that the strength of this association varies spatially, that this variation is associated with differences in local climate, and that this relationship is consistent with laboratory studies of the impacts of these factors on vector survival and viral replication. These results suggest the importance of temperature and precipitation in the transmission of dengue viruses and suggest a reason for their spatial heterogeneity. Thus, while dengue transmission may have a general system, its manifestation on a local scale may differ from global expectations

Multiyear Climate Variability and Dengue—El Niño Southern Oscillation, Weather, and Dengue Incidence in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Thailand: A Longitudinal Data Analysis

Michael Johansson and colleagues use wavelet analysis to show that there is limited evidence for a multiyear relationship between climate and dengue incidence in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Thailand