Non-State Superpowers, Transnational Challenges, and 21st Century Global Order: Private Sector Climate Action in an Age of State Inaction

This project explores the new actors, issues, and dynamics that are reshaping the land-scape and context in which states will have to advance their interests in the 21st century. Examining the case study of private sector climate action, it demonstrates that select transnational actors have not just the capacity to alter relationships between govern-ments, as scholars like Nye and Keohane anticipated in the 1970s, but the ability and, increasingly, the ambition to address non-traditional issues that states cannot address independently. Focusing on 34 of the world’s largest companies, representing four in-dustry groups (energy-intensive, automotive, technology, and finance) and three main headquarter countries (Germany, India, and the United States), this project investi-gates and analyzes the process by which private sector actors coalesced into a new pat-tern of response to climate change during the 2010–2017 timeframe and became key, even leading, actors in the issue area. It considers what the phenomenon of private sec-tor climate action implies about changes in global order, including in the actors that are shaping a landscape defined increasingly by non-traditional issues—and, in certain cases, by states’ abdication of leadership and action in the face of these complex new challenges. I make three main arguments in this study. First, I argue that private sector actors coalesced around a set of climate-relevant actions as the new “dominant de-sign,” or paradigm for long-term success in a changing environment. Second, in con-trast to the intuitive explanation, which is that during the 2010s changes in their politi-cal and consumer contexts led companies to perceive more serious climate-related risks and/or opportunities, I argue that individual companies did not perceive increas-ingly strong material incentives to alter their approach vis-à-vis climate change—and it was in this context that they coalesced into a new pattern of response to the issue. The pattern was emergent, or a second-order outcome that would not have been anticipat-ed on the basis of how individual actors perceived the climate issue. Third, I propose that the condition accounting for why companies coalesced in an emergent fashion into a new pattern of behavior was their declining confidence in states’ willingness to play their expected role vis-à-vis a critical issue poised to shape future global trends. As I show, from 2010 through 2017, as companies adopted cli-mate practices and became more deeply invested in them, and as select actors altered their approaches decisively and adopted “climate active” sensibilities, companies’ out-look for bold state action (in the form of high-impact climate-related regulation) de-clined significantly. Among the industry groups, technology and finance were the drivers of emer-gent action. Within most industries, American companies undertook the highest abso-lute level of action that “ran ahead of” expectations for costly climate-related risks or high-yield climate-related opportunities. However, German companies contributed most significantly to the upward trend in emergent action—an especially notable find-ing given that historically they have operated in a context of strong state leadership in the climate issue area. The overarching implication of this study is that non-state actors that individu-ally do not appear inclined to alter their approaches vis-à-vis a global issue can, through a decentralized and uncoordinated process, and in the context of states failing to provide leadership, come to change course and move in a cohesive new direction—and ultimately reshape the landscape in which states must advance their own interests

Framework and guidelines for implementing the proposed IUCN Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT)

Recently, Blackburn et al. (2014) developed a simple, objective and transparent method for classifying alien taxa in terms of the magnitude of their detrimental environmental impacts in recipient areas. Here, we present a comprehensive framework and guidelines for implementing this method, which we term the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa, or EICAT. We detail criteria for applying the EICAT scheme in a consistent and comparable fashion, prescribe the supporting information that should be supplied along with classifications, and describe the process for implementing the method. This comment aims to draw the attention of interested parties to the framework and guidelines, and to present them in their entirety in a location where they are freely accessible to any potential users

Optimizing the Readout of Lanthanide-DOTA Complexes for the Detection of Ligand-Bound Copper(I)

The CuAAC ‘click’ reaction was used to couple alkyne-functionalized lanthanide-DOTA complexes to a range of fluorescent antennae. Screening of the antenna components was aided by comparison of the luminescent output of the resultant sensors using data normalized to account for reaction conversion as assessed by IR. A maximum 82-fold enhanced signal:background luminescence output was achieved using a Eu(III)-DOTA complex coupled to a coumarin-azide, in a reaction which is specific to the presence of copper(I). This optimized complex provides a new lead design for lanthanide-DOTA complexes which can act as irreversible ‘turn-on’ catalytic sensors for the detection of ligand-bound copper(I)

The cost-effectiveness of a mechanical compression device in out of hospital cardiac arrest

AIM: To assess the cost-effectiveness of LUCAS-2, a mechanical device for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as compared to manual chest compressions in adults with non-traumatic, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS: We analysed patient-level data from a large, pragmatic, multi-centre trial linked to administrative secondary care data from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) to measure healthcare resource use, costs and outcomes in both arms. A within-trial analysis using quality adjusted life years derived from the EQ-5D-3L was conducted at 12-month follow-up and results were extrapolated to the lifetime horizon using a decision-analytic model. RESULTS: 4471 patients were enrolled in the trial (1652 assigned to the LUCAS-2 group, 2819 assigned to the control group). At 12 months, 89 (5%) patients survived in the LUCAS-2 group and 175 (6%) survived in the manual CPR group. In the vast majority of analyses conducted, both within-trial and by extrapolation of the results over a lifetime horizon, manual CPR dominates LUCAS-2. In other words, patients in the LUCAS-2 group had poorer health outcomes (i.e. lower QALYs) and incurred higher health and social care costs. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that the use of the mechanical chest compression device LUCAS-2 represents poor value for money when compared to standard manual chest compression in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Investigation of the blood proteome in response to spinal cord injury in rodent models

We would like to thank the Institute of Orthopaedics and the Midlands Centre for Spinal Cord Injury (MCSI) for funding this research. This work was also supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number 094476/Z/10/Z] which funded the purchase of the TripleTOF 5600 mass spectrometer at the BSRC Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility, University of St Andrews.Study Design: Explanatory and mechanistic study. Objective: A better understanding of the 'whole-body' response following spinal cord injury (SCI) is needed to guide future research aimed at developing novel therapeutic interventions and identifying prognostic indicators for SCI. This study aimed to characterise the blood proteome following contusion or complete SCI compared to a sham injury in rat models. Setting: United Kingdom. Methods: Pooled blood samples from one and seven days after a contusion (serum; n = 5) or from 14 days and 112 days post-complete transection SCI (plasma; n = 8) and their sham-injured counterparts were subjected to independent iTRAQ nanoflow liquid chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry proteomic analyses. Pathway analyses of the proteins that were differentially abundant between SCI and their matched sham injured counterparts were completed to indicate biological pathways that may be changed in response to SCI. Results: Eleven and 42 proteins were differentially abundant (≥±2.0 FC; p ≤ 0.05) between the contusion SCI and sham injured animals at 24 h and seven days post-injury, respectively. Seven and tweleve proteins were differentially abundant between complete and sham injured rats at 14 and 112 days post-injury, respectively. Acute-phase response signalling and Liver X Receptor/Retinoic X Receptor activation were identified as differentially regulated pathways in both models of SCI. Conclusions: We have utilised longitudinal preclinical SCI models to provide an insight into the blood proteome changes that result following SCI and to highlight a number of biological pathways of interest for future studies.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Proteomic Analyses of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation Plasma Highlight Cartilage Acidic Protein 1 as a Candidate for Preclinical Screening.

BackgroundStratification is required to ensure that only patients likely to benefit receive autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). It would be advantageous to identify biomarkers to predict ACI outcome that are measurable in blood, avoiding the need for an invasive synovial fluid harvest.PurposeTo assess if proteomic analyses can be used to identify novel candidate blood biomarkers in individuals who respond well or poorly to ACI.Study designControlled laboratory study.MethodsIsobaric tagging for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) mass spectrometry was used to assess the proteome in plasma pooled from ACI responders (mean Lysholm improvement after ACI, 33; n = 10) or nonresponders (mean, -13; n = 10), collected at the time of surgery for cartilage harvest (stage 1) or implantation of culture-expanded chondrocytes (stage 2). An alternative proteomic method, label-free quantitation liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, was used to analyze plasma samples (majority matched to iTRAQ) individually. Differentially abundant proteins (±2.0-fold) were analyzed from both proteomic data sets, and markers of interest identified via pooled iTRAQ were validated via immunoassay of individual samples.ResultsProtein differences could be detected in the plasma preoperatively between ACI responders and nonresponders (16 proteins; ≥±2.0-fold change; P ConclusionsThis study is the first to use proteomic techniques to profile the plasma of individuals treated with ACI. Despite iTRAQ analysis of pooled plasmas indicating that there are differences in the plasma proteome between responders and nonresponders to ACI, these findings were not replicated when assessed using an alternative nonpooled technique. This study highlights some of the difficulties in profiling the plasma proteome in an attempt to identify novel biomarkers. Regardless, cartilage acidic protein 1 has been identified as a protein candidate, which is detectable in plasma and can predict outcome to ACI before treatment.Clinical relevanceCandidate plasma protein biomarkers identified in this study have the potential to help determine which patients will be best suited to treatment with ACI

Using nanopore sequencing to identify bacterial infection in joint replacements: a preliminary study

This project investigates if third-generation genomic sequencing can be used to identify the species of bacteria causing prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) at the time of revision surgery. Samples of prosthetic fluid were taken during revision surgery from patients with known PJIs. Samples from revision surgeries from non-infected patients acted as negative controls. Genomic sequencing was performed using the MinION device and the rapid sequencing kit from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Bioinformatic analysis pipelines to identify bacteria included Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, Kraken2 and MinION Detection Software, and the results were compared with standard of care microbiological cultures. Furthermore, there was an attempt to predict antibiotic resistance using computational tools including ResFinder, AMRFinderPlus and Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database. Bacteria identified using microbiological cultures were successfully identified using bioinformatic analysis pipelines. Nanopore sequencing and genomic classification could be completed in the time it takes to perform joint revision surgery (2–3 h). Genomic sequencing in this study was not able to predict antibiotic resistance in this time frame, this is thought to be due to a short-read length and low read depth. It can be concluded that genomic sequencing can be useful to identify bacterial species in infected joint replacements. However, further work is required to investigate if it can be used to predict antibiotic resistance within clinically relevant timeframes

Framework and guidelines for implementing the proposed IUCN Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT)

Recently, Blackburn et al. (2014) developed a simple, objective and transparent method for classifying alien taxa in terms of the magnitude of their detrimental environmental impacts in recipient areas. Here, we present a comprehensive framework and guidelines for implementing this method, which we term the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa, or EICAT. We detail criteria for applying the EICAT scheme in a consistent and comparable fashion, prescribe the supporting information that should be supplied along with classifications, and describe the process for implementing the method. This comment aims to draw the attention of interested parties to the framework and guidelines, and to present them in their entirety in a location where they are freely accessible to any potential users.Peer Reviewe