The hybrid spatialities of transition: capitalism, legacy, and uneven urban economic restructuring

This paper conceptualises post-socialist urban economic geographies through the notion of hybrid spatialities that emerge from the mutual embeddedness of neoliberalism and socialist legacies. While the dismantling of state socialism was a massive moment towards the exacerbation of uneven development, ironically it is the socialist-era spatial legacy that has become the single major differentiating factor for the economic status of cities. This superficial overdetermination, however, masks the root causes of uneven development that must be seen in the logic of capitalism and its attendant practices which subsume legacy, recode its meaning, and recast the formerly equalitarian spaces as an uneven spatial order. The authors argue that the socialist legacy, rather than being an independent carrier of history, has been alienated from its history to become an infrastructure of neoliberalisation, conducive to capitalist process. The paper draws specifically on the experiences of Russia, although its reflections should reverberate much more broadly

Haemodynamic support of paediatric patients in septic shock Chapter 53

Paediatric septic shock is a life-threatening illness that requires immediate recognition and early aggressive treatment The haemodynamic profile of septic shock is influenced by multiple sepsis-induced physiological changes and characterised by components of hypovolaemia and cardiogenic, distributive and cytotoxic shock Cardiocirculatory abnormalities in septic shock Myocardial dysfunction Myocardial dysfunction develops in nearly all patients with septic shoc

Innovative business model for a standardised evaluation and re-financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects

Promising industrial energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) projects in Europe lack viable financing due to insufficient performance or credit guarantees, lack of ability/capacity among lenders to assess project risks, or related financing challenges. To overcome these barriers, the H2020 project TrustEE launched in 2016 to accelerate implementation of EE and RE solutions by developing an innovative project financing model and digital platform to standardise project evaluation. The innovative business model, which targets SMEs, combines project evaluation and development, contracting, risk hedging and external financing via a two-pronged approach. First, TrustEE established a securitization vehicle (“Sustainable Future Trustee”), which purchases receivables from technology supplier's who have successfully installed and commissioned industrial EE and RE projects. These purchases allow industrial SMEs (end users and suppliers) to create flexible project payment plans, and are financed by tradable securities offered to investors on the capital market. Investors are de-coupled from most technical risks as projects are already commissioned. This vehicle is supported and serviced by a semi-automatic project evaluation, using a three-stage, web-based platform. Stages 1 and 2 perform an automated technical and financial evaluation by comparing the project parameters to an automatic background simulation that uses comprehensive models for the envisaged EE and RE technologies. If a project meets the screening criteria, the TrustEE manager initiatives Stage 3, which includes technical optimization and legal and insurance-related preparation for re-financing. In the long term, plant and technology suppliers will be able to qualify and register on the platform, thus building a pool of certified suppliers. The paper presents real projects initiated by TrustEE and the performance and impacts from the project evaluation platform (TrustEE platform) and re-financing vehicle

Independent gene duplications of the YidC/Oxa/Alb3 family enabled a specialized cotranslational function

YidC/Oxa/Alb3 family proteins catalyze the insertion of integral membrane proteins in bacteria, mitochondria, and chloroplasts, respectively. Unlike gram-negative organisms, gram-positive bacteria express 2 paralogs of this family, YidC1/SpoIIIJ and YidC2/YgjG. In Streptococcus mutans, deletion of yidC2 results in a stress-sensitive phenotype similar to that of mutants lacking the signal recognition particle (SRP) protein translocation pathway, while deletion of yidC1 has a less severe phenotype. In contrast to eukaryotes and gram-negative bacteria, SRP-deficient mutants are viable in S. mutans; however, double SRP-yidC2 mutants are severely compromised. Thus, YidC2 may enable loss of the SRP by playing an independent but overlapping role in cotranslational protein insertion into the membrane. This is reminiscent of the situation in mitochondria that lack an SRP pathway and where Oxa1 facilitates cotranslational membrane protein insertion by binding directly to translation-active ribosomes. Here, we show that OXA1 complements a lack of yidC2 in S. mutans. YidC2 also functions reciprocally in oxa1-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants and mediates the cotranslational insertion of mitochondrial translation products into the inner membrane. YidC2, like Oxa1, contains a positively charged C-terminal extension and associates with translating ribosomes. Our results are consistent with a gene-duplication event in gram-positive bacteria that enabled the specialization of a YidC isoform that mediates cotranslational activity independent of an SRP pathway