Slow Fashion Is Positively Linked to Consumers’ Well-Being: Evidence from an Online Questionnaire Study in China

open access articleThe environmental price of fashion has been heavily scrutinised in recent years. Slow fashion, with its emphasis on quality, design, sustainability, ethicality and local craft heritage, represents an alternative to the harmful environmental and social impact of fast fashion. Equally important,some initial evidence from qualitative research suggests that slow fashion could enhance consumers’ well-being. The present study aims to quantitatively evaluate the relationships that fast and slow fashion may have with different domains of well-being, utilising Seligmen’s influential PERMA model from positive psychology. In addition, it explores characteristics from slow fashion that may enhance garment lifetimes. An online questionnaire successfully surveyed 763 urban Chinese consumers. Results showed that consumption of slow fashion, in particular ‘customised/bespoke clothing’ that allows consumers to be actively involved in the creation process, positively predicted three well being domains—engagement, meaning and achievement. Fast fashion, on the other hand, negatively predicted these domains. Classic/timeless design, ease of maintenance and ease of matching with other clothes emerged as the three most important characteristics that may encourage consumers’ long-term use of fashion items. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of promoting slow fashion to enhance sustainability

Predictors of Upcycling in the Highly IndustrialisedWest: A Survey across Three Continents of Australia, Europe, and North America

open access articleUpcycling, as a way to reutilise resources, offers a promising alternative to production and consumption based on virgin materials. Despite the growing academic and industrial interest in recent years, there is a lack of large-scale cross-country or cross-regional studies that systematically investigate influencing factors for consumer upcycling behaviour. By drawing on social psychological theories of interpersonal behaviour and planned behaviour, this study investigated predictors of upcycling behaviour in five highly industrialised countries of three continents: Australia, Canada, Germany, UK, and USA. Results showed that intention and perceived behavioural control (confidence in abilities) were the most important factors for upcycling. Theoretical and practical implications from this study are discussed in the context of efforts to scale up global upcycling

Predictors of Upcycling in the Highly Industrialised West: A Survey across Three Continents of Australia, Europe, and North America

Upcycling, as a way to reutilise resources, offers a promising alternative to production and consumption based on virgin materials. Despite the growing academic and industrial interest in recent years, there is a lack of large-scale cross-country or cross-regional studies that systematically investigate influencing factors for consumer upcycling behaviour. By drawing on social psychological theories of interpersonal behaviour and planned behaviour, this study investigated predictors of upcycling behaviour in five highly industrialised countries of three continents: Australia, Canada, Germany, UK, and USA. Results showed that intention and perceived behavioural control (confidence in abilities) were the most important factors for upcycling. Theoretical and practical implications from this study are discussed in the context of efforts to scale up global upcycling

Pharmacological characteristics of metamizole

Metamizole (dipyrone) is a popular analgetic, non-opioid drug, commonly used in human and veterinary medicine. In some cases, this agent is still incorrectly classified as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Metamizole is a pro-drug, which spontaneously breaks down after oral administration to structurally related pyrazolone compounds. Apart from its analgesic effect, the medication is an antipyretic and spasmolytic agent. The mechanism responsible for the analgesic effect is a complex one, and most probably rests on the inhibition of a central cyclooxygenase-3 and activation of the opioidergic system and cannabinoid system. Metamizole can block both PG-dependent and PG-independent pathways of fever induced by LPS, which suggests that this drug has a profile of antipyretic action distinctly different from that of NSAIDs. The mechanism responsible for the spasmolytic effect of metamizole is associated with the inhibited release of intracellular Ca²⁺ as a result of the reduced synthesis of inositol phosphate. Metamizole is predominantly applied in the therapy of pain of different etiology, of spastic conditions, especially affecting the digestive tract, and of fever refractory to other treatments. Co-administration of morphine and metamizole produces superadditive, antinociceptive effects. Metamizole is a relatively safe pharmaceutical preparation although it is not completely free from undesirable effects. Among these side-effects, the most serious one that raises most controversy is the myelotoxic effect. It seems that in the past the risk of metamizole- induced agranulocytosis was exaggerated. Despite the evidence showing no risk of teratogenic and embryotoxic effects, the drug must not be administered to pregnant women, although it is allowed to be given to pregnant and lactating animals. This paper seeks to describe the characteristics of metamizole in the light of current knowledge

Identification of alternative protein targets of glutamate-ureido-lysine associated with PSMA tracer uptake in prostate cancer cells

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is highly overexpressed in most prostate cancers and is clinically visualized using PSMA-specific probes incorporating glutamate-ureido-lysine (GUL). PSMA is effectively absent from certain high-mortality, treatment-resistant subsets of prostate cancers, such as neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC); however, GUL-based PSMA tracers are still reported to have the potential to identify NEPC metastatic tumors. These probes may bind unknown proteins associated with PSMA-suppressed cancers. We have identified the up-regulation of PSMA-like aminopeptidase NAALADaseL and the metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in PSMA-suppressed prostate cancers and find that their expression levels inversely correlate with PSMA expression and are associated with GUL-based radiotracer uptake. Furthermore, we identify that NAALADaseL and mGluR expression correlates with a unique cell cycle signature. This provides an opportunity for the future study of the biology of NEPC and potential therapeutic directions. Computationally predicting that GUL-based probes bind well to these targets, we designed and synthesized a fluorescent PSMA tracer to investigate these proteins in vitro, where it shows excellent affinity for PSMA, NAALADaseL, and specific mGluRs associated with poor prognosis

Assessment of Androgen Receptor Splice Variant-7 as a Biomarker of Clinical Response in Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer.

PURPOSE: Therapies targeting the androgen receptor (AR) have improved the outcome for patients with castration-sensitive prostate cancer (CSPC). Expression of the constitutively active AR splice variant-7 (AR-V7) has shown clinical utility as a predictive biomarker of AR-targeted therapy resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), but its importance in CSPC remains understudied. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We assessed different approaches to quantify AR-V7 mRNA and protein in prostate cancer cell lines, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, publicly available cohorts, and independent institutional clinical cohorts, to identify reliable approaches for detecting AR-V7 mRNA and protein and its association with clinical outcome. RESULTS: In CSPC and CRPC cohorts, AR-V7 mRNA was much less abundant when detected using reads across splice boundaries than when considering isoform-specific exonic reads. The RM7 AR-V7 antibody had increased sensitivity and specificity for AR-V7 protein detection by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in CRPC cohorts but rarely identified AR-V7 protein reactivity in CSPC cohorts, when compared with the EPR15656 AR-V7 antibody. Using multiple CRPC PDX models, we demonstrated that AR-V7 expression was exquisitely sensitive to hormonal manipulation. In CSPC institutional cohorts, AR-V7 protein quantification by either assay was associated neither with time to development of castration resistance nor with overall survival, and intense neoadjuvant androgen-deprivation therapy did not lead to significant AR-V7 mRNA or staining following treatment. Neither pre- nor posttreatment AR-V7 levels were associated with volumes of residual disease after therapy. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that further analytical validation and clinical qualification are required before AR-V7 can be considered for clinical use in CSPC as a predictive biomarker

Evidence for arsenic metabolism and cycling by microorganisms 2.7 billion years ago

International audienceThe ability of microbes to metabolize arsenic may have emerged more than 3.4 billion years ago1, 2. Some of the modern environments in which prominent arsenic metabolism occurs are anoxic3, 4, as were the Precambrian oceans. Early oceans may also have had a relatively high abundance of arsenic5. However, it is unclear whether arsenic cycling occurred in ancient environments. Here we assess the chemistry and nature of cell-like globules identified in salt-encrusted portions of 2.72-billion-year-old fossil stromatolites from Western Australia. We use Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence to show that the globules are composed of organic carbon and arsenic (As). We argue that our data are best explained by the occurrence of a complete arsenic cycle at this site, with As(III) oxidation and As(V) reduction by microbes living in permanently anoxic conditions. We therefore suggest that arsenic cycling could have occurred more widely in marine environments in the several hundred million years before the Earth’s atmosphere and shallow oceans were oxygenated