Competitiveness and sustainability: can ‘smart city regionalism’ square the circle?

Increasingly, the widely established, globalisation-driven agenda of economic competitiveness meets a growing concern with sustainability. Yet, the practical and conceptual co-existence—or fusion—of these two agendas is not always easy. This includes finding and operationalising the ‘right’ scale of governance, an important question for the pursuit of the distinctly transscalar nature of these two policy fields. ‘New regionalism’ has increasingly been discussed as a pragmatic way of tackling the variable spatialities associated with these policy fields and their changing articulation. This paper introduces ‘smart (new) city-regionalism’, derived from the principles of smart growth and new regionalism, as a policy-shaping mechanism and analytical framework. It brings together the rationales, agreed principles and legitimacies of publicly negotiated polity with collaborative, network-based and policy-driven spatiality. The notion of ‘smartness’, as suggested here as central feature, goes beyond the implicit meaning of ‘smart’ as in ‘smart growth’. When introduced in the later 1990s the term embraced a focus on planning and transport. Since then, the adjective ‘smart’ has become used ever more widely, advocating innovativeness, participation, collaboration and co-ordination. The resulting ‘smart city regionalism’ is circumscribed by the interface between the sectorality and territoriality of policy-making processes. Using the examples of Vancouver and Seattle, the paper looks at the effects of the resulting specific local conditions on adopting ‘smartness’ in the scalar positioning of policy-making

An Open-Label, Multicenter, Phase I, Dose Escalation Study with Phase II Expansion Cohort to Determine the Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Preliminary Antitumor Activity of Intravenous TKM-080301 in Subjects with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Lessons learnedTKM-080301 showed a favorable toxicity profile at the studied dose.TKM-080301 targeting PLK1 through small interfering RNA mechanism did not demonstrate improved overall survival in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma compared with historical control. Preliminary antitumor activity as shown in this early-phase study does not support further evaluation as a single agent.BackgroundPolo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Knockdown of PLK1 expression by PLK1 small interfering RNA (siRNA) in an HCC cell line showed reduced expression in RNA-induced silencing complex and a reduction in cell proliferation.MethodsA 3 + 3 dose escalation plus expansion cohort at the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was implemented. Patients with HCC, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status ≤2, and Child-Pugh score A received TKM-080301 as an intravenous infusion once every week for 3 consecutive weeks, repeated every 28 days.ResultsThe study enrolled 43 patients. The starting dose of TKM-080301 was 0.3 mg/kg, and MTD was declared at 0.75 mg/kg. Following the development of grade 4 thrombocytopenia in two subjects on the expansion cohort, the MTD was redefined at 0.6 mg/kg. Four patients did not have any evaluable postbaseline scan. Of the other 39 subjects who had received at least 0.3 mg/kg, 18 subjects (46.2%) had stable disease (SD) by independent RECIST 1.1 criteria. By Choi criteria, eight subjects (23.1%) had a partial response (PR). For 37 assessable subjects, with 2 subjects censored, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.04 months. Median survival for the whole study population was 7.5 months.ConclusionTKM-080301 was generally well tolerated. In this early-phase study, antitumor effect for TKM 080301 was limited. Further evaluation as a single agent in large randomized trials is not warranted

Satellite Observations of the Wind Jets off the Pacific Coast of Central America. Part I: Case Studies and Statistical Characteristics

Measurements of near-surface winds by the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) from October 1996 through June 1997 are analyzed to investigate the three major wind jets along the Pacific coast of Central America that blow over the Gulfs of Tehuantepec, Papagayo, and Panama. Each jet is easily identifiable as locally intense offshore winds in the lee of low-elevation gaps through the Sierra Madre mountain range. The jets have relatively narrow cross-stream width but often extend several hundred kilometers or more into the Pacific. The Tehuantepec and Papagayo jets sometimes merge with the northeast trade winds of the Pacific. The Tehuantepec jet was highly energetic with characteristic timescales of about 2 days. Events were triggered by high pressures associated with cold surges into the Gulf of Mexico that originated over the Great Plains of North America. The Papagayo and Panama jets were much more persistent than the Tehuantepec jets. The winds at both of these lower-latitude locations exhibited a strong seasonal variation with almost exclusively offshore flow from late November 1996 through late May 1997 and periods of onshore flow in October and November during the late stages of the 1996 Central American monsoon season. Superimposed on this low-frequency seasonal variation were events with characteristic timescales of a few days. Based on NSCAT data, the spatial and temporal evolution of major wind events is described in detail for three representative case studies. In December 1996, the jets developed sequentially from north to south, consistent with the notion that wind events in the two lower-latitude jets are associated with cold-air outbreaks that trigger the Tehuantepec jet a day or so earlier. In November 1996 and March 1997, the Papagayo and Panama jets were strongly influenced by tropical phenomena that had little apparent association with the Tehuantepec jet. These latter two case studies, together with the distinction between the statistical characteristics of the three jets, suggest that the Papagayo and Panama jets are predominantly controlled by a mechanism that is very different from the across-gap pressure gradients associated with high pressure systems of midlatitude origin that control the Tehuantepec jet

Informatics Technology Mimics Ecology: Dense, Mutualistic Collaboration Networks Are Associated with Higher Publication Rates

Information technology (IT) adoption enables biomedical research. Publications are an accepted measure of research output, and network models can describe the collaborative nature of publication. In particular, ecological networks can serve as analogies for publication and technology adoption. We constructed network models of adoption of bioinformatics programming languages and health IT (HIT) from the literature

Mapping interactions with the chaperone network reveals factors that protect against tau aggregation.

A network of molecular chaperones is known to bind proteins ('clients') and balance their folding, function and turnover. However, it is often unclear which chaperones are critical for selective recognition of individual clients. It is also not clear why these key chaperones might fail in protein-aggregation diseases. Here, we utilized human microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT or tau) as a model client to survey interactions between ~30 purified chaperones and ~20 disease-associated tau variants (~600 combinations). From this large-scale analysis, we identified human DnaJA2 as an unexpected, but potent, inhibitor of tau aggregation. DnaJA2 levels were correlated with tau pathology in human brains, supporting the idea that it is an important regulator of tau homeostasis. Of note, we found that some disease-associated tau variants were relatively immune to interactions with chaperones, suggesting a model in which avoiding physical recognition by chaperone networks may contribute to disease

Próteses parciais fixas reforçadas por fibras: um estudo clínico retrospectivo preliminar

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical performance (retention rate) of fiber-reinforced composite fixed partial dentures (FPDs). Polyethylene fiber (Ribbond®) was used combined with restorative composite during FPDs fabrication. FPDs were placed in thirteen patients in a private clinic. Nineteen FPDs were evaluated. The prosthetic space was filled with only one pontic using extracted teeth (2 cases), acrylic resin teeth (11 cases), or with composite resin (6 cases), combined with Polyethylene fiber. The clinical criterion used was based on retention rate of FPDs. If FPDs were in function in the mouth at the time of examination without previous repair they were classified as Complete Survival (CS) restorations. A classification of Survival with Rebonding (SR) was assigned in the event of an adhesive failure, but after rebonding the FPD still remained under evaluation. Treatment was classified as a Failure (F) if the FPD restoration was lost. The time of evaluation was 41.15 months (±15.13). The FPDs evaluated were retained (CS=94.75%), and no failure was found except for in one situation which required rebonding (SR=5.25%). According to the survival estimation method of Kaplan-Meyer the mean survival time was 42.3 months. At the time of evaluation investigated, polyethylene-reinforced FPDs showed a favorable retention rate in preliminary data.O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a performance clínica (percentagem de retenção) de próteses parciais fixas reforçadas por fibras. Fibras de polietileno (Ribbond®) foram usadas em combinação com resina composta durante a confecção das próteses. Os tratamentos foram realizadas em 13 pacientes, em uma clínica privada., sendo que 19 próteses foram reavaliadas. O espaço protético era preenchido com um pôntico usando o próprio dente extraído (2 casos), dentes de acrílico (11 casos) ou confeccionados com resina composta (6 casos), em todas as situações eram empregadas fibras de polietileno. Os critérios clínicos usados foram baseados na percentagem de retenção das próteses parciais fixas. As próteses que estavam em função no momento da avaliação, sem nunca necessitar de qualquer reparo prévio, foram classificadas como sobrevivência completa (SC). A classificação de sobrevivência com nova colagem (SR) foi utilizada para os casos de falha adesiva, com posterior cimentação da peça, a qual permanecia em função. O tratamento era classificado como falha (F) quando a restauração era perdida. O tempo médio de avaliação foi de 41,15 meses (±15,13). Nenhum caso de falha foi detectado, em apenas um caso houve falha adesiva com posterior colagem da peça (SR=5,25%) e em 94.75% dos casos as próteses permaneciam em função.. De acordo com o método de sobrevida de Kaplan-Meyer o tempo médio de sobrevida foi de 42,3 meses. As próteses parciais fixas reforçadas por fibras mostraram uma percentagem de retenção favorável neste estudo preliminar

Imaging of ependymomas: MRI and CT

The imaging features of intracranial and spinal ependymoma are reviewed with an emphasis on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), perfusion MRI and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and computed tomography. Imaging manifestations of leptomeningeal dissemination of disease are described. Finally, salient imaging features obtained in the postoperative period to evaluate completeness of surgical resection, and thereafter for long-term surveillance for disease recurrence, are reviewed