Aesthetic Journeys

Researchers and designers are increasingly creating technologies intended to support urban mobility. However, the question of what mobility is remains largely under-examined. In this paper we will use the notion of aesthetic journeys to reconsider the relationship between urban spaces, people and technologies. Fieldwork on the Orange County bus system and in the London Underground leads to a discussion of how we might begin to design for multiple mobilities

A Vehicle for Research: Using Street Sweepers to Explore the Landscape of Environmental Community Action

Researchers are developing mobile sensing platforms to facilitate public awareness of environmental conditions. However, turning such awareness into practical community action and political change requires more than just collecting and presenting data. To inform research on mobile environmental sensing, we conducted design fieldwork with government, private, and public interest stakeholders. In parallel, we built an environmental air quality sensing system and deployed it on street sweeping vehicles in a major U.S. city; this served as a "research vehicle" by grounding our interviews and affording us status as environmental action researchers. In this paper, we present a qualitative analysis of the landscape of environmental action, focusing on insights that will help researchers frame meaningful technological interventions.Comment: 10 page

Apalutamide Treatment and Metastasis-free Survival in Prostate Cancer

Background Apalutamide, a competitive inhibitor of the androgen receptor, is under development for the treatment of prostate cancer. We evaluated the efficacy of apalutamide in men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who were at high risk for the development of metastasis. Methods We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial involving men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and a prostate-specific antigen doubling time of 10 months or less. Patients were randomly assigned, in a 2:1 ratio, to receive apalutamide (240 mg per day) or placebo. All the patients continued to receive androgen-deprivation therapy. The primary end point was metastasis-free survival, which was defined as the time from randomization to the first detection of distant metastasis on imaging or death. Results A total of 1207 men underwent randomization (806 to the apalutamide group and 401 to the placebo group). In the planned primary analysis, which was performed after 378 events had occurred, median metastasis-free survival was 40.5 months in the apalutamide group as compared with 16.2 months in the placebo group (hazard ratio for metastasis or death, 0.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.23 to 0.35;

“A very orderly retreat”: Democratic transition in East Germany, 1989-90

East Germany's 1989-90 democratisation is among the best known of East European transitions, but does not lend itself to comparative analysis, due to the singular way in which political reform and democratic consolidation were subsumed by Germany's unification process. Yet aspects of East Germany's democratisation have proved amenable to comparative approaches. This article reviews the comparative literature that refers to East Germany, and finds a schism between those who designate East Germany's transition “regime collapse” and others who contend that it exemplifies “transition through extrication”. It inquires into the merits of each position and finds in favour of the latter. Drawing on primary and secondary literature, as well as archival and interview sources, it portrays a communist elite that was, to a large extent, prepared to adapt to changing circumstances and capable of learning from “reference states” such as Poland. Although East Germany was the Soviet state in which the positions of existing elites were most threatened by democratic transition, here too a surprising number succeeded in maintaining their position while filing across the bridge to market society. A concluding section outlines the alchemy through which their bureaucratic power was transmuted into property and influence in the “new Germany”

Phase II randomized preoperative window-of-opportunity study of the PI3K inhibitor pictilisib plus anastrozole compared with anastrozole alone in patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer

Purpose: Preclinical data support a key role for the PI3K pathway in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer and suggest that combining PI3K inhibitors with endocrine therapy may overcome resistance. This preoperative window study assessed whether adding the PI3K inhibitor pictilisib (GDC-0941) can increase the antitumor effects of anastrozole in primary breast cancer and aimed to identify the most appropriate patient population for combination therapy. Patients and Methods: In this randomized, open-label phase II trial, postmenopausal women with newly diagnosed operable estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancers were recruited. Participants were randomly allocated (2:1, favoring the combination) to 2 weeks of preoperative treatment with anastrozole 1 mg once per day (n = 26) or the combination of anastrozole 1 mg with pictilisib 260 mg once per day (n = 49). The primary end point was inhibition of tumor cell proliferation as measured by change in Ki-67 protein expression between tumor samples taken before and at the end of treatment. Results: There was significantly greater geometric mean Ki-67 suppression of 83.8% (one-sided 95% CI, ≥ 79.0%) for the combination and 66.0% (95% CI, ≤ 75.4%) for anastrozole (geometric mean ratio [combination: anastrozole], 0.48; 95% CI, ≤ 0.72; P = .004). PIK3CA mutations were not predictive of response to pictilisib, but there was significant interaction between response to treatment and molecular subtype (P =.03);for patients with luminal B tumors, the combination:anastrozole geometric mean ratio of Ki-67 suppression was 0.37 (95% CI, ≤ 0.67; P = .008), whereas no significant Ki-67 response was observed for pictilisib in luminal A tumors (1.01; P = .98). Multivariable analysis confirmed Ki-67 response to the combination treatment of patients with luminal B tumors irrespective of progesterone receptor status or baseline Ki-67 expression. Conclusion: Adding pictilisib to anastrozole significantly increases suppression of tumor cell proliferation in luminal B primary breast cancer

Brazil in the Era of Fascism: The “New State” of Getúlio Vargas

The New State established in Brazil by Getúlio Vargas (1937–1945) is the most important case of the institutionalisation of a dictatorship of the fascism era in Latin America. During this time, an impressive spectrum of authoritarian regimes was established, some of which were very instable and poorly institutionalised, while others were more consolidated. Roger Griffin coined the concept of para-fascism for some of them, and the “New State” of Getúlio Vargas in Brazil is a paradigmatic case. In this essay, we analyse the processes of institutional reform in 1930s Brazil paying particular attention to how domestic political actors look at institutional models of fascism and corporatism.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less sensitive to climatic variation

The phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species' range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two co-familial European songbirds, the great tit (Parus major) and blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity than those in evergreen and mixed habitats. However, populations with higher sensitivity tended to have experienced less rapid change in climate over the past decades, such that populations with high phenological sensitivity will not necessarily exhibit the strongest phenological advancement. Our results show that to effectively assess the impact of climate change on phenology across a species' range it will be necessary to account for intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity, climate change exposure, and the ecological characteristics of a population. Intra-specific variations may contribute to heterogeneous responses to climate change across a species' range. Here, the authors investigate the phenology of two bird species across their breeding ranges, and find that their sensitivity to temperature is uncoupled from exposure to climate change.Peer reviewe

Phase II study of two dose schedules of C.E.R.A. (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator) in anemic patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: C.E.R.A. (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator) is an innovative agent with unique erythropoietin receptor activity and prolonged half-life. This study evaluated C.E.R.A. once weekly (QW) or once every 3 weeks (Q3W) in patients with anemia and advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: In this Phase II, randomized, open-label, multicenter, dose-finding study, patients (n = 218) with Stage IIIB or IV NSCLC and hemoglobin (Hb) ≤ 11 g/dL were randomized to one of six treatment groups of C.E.R.A. administered subcutaneously for 12 weeks: 0.7, 1.4, or 2.1 μg/kg QW or 2.1, 4.2, or 6.3 μg/kg Q3W. Primary endpoint was average Hb level between baseline and end of initial treatment (defined as last Hb measurement before dose reduction or transfusion, or the value at week 13). Hematopoietic response (Hb increase ≥ 2 g/dL or achievement of Hb ≥ 12 g/dL with no blood transfusion in the previous 28 days determined in two consecutive measurements within a 10-day interval) was also measured. RESULTS: Dose-dependent Hb increases were observed, although the magnitude of increase was moderate. Hematopoietic response rate was also dose dependent, achieved by 51% and 62% of patients in the 4.2 and 6.3 μg/kg Q3W groups, and 63% of the 2.1 μg/kg QW group. In the Q3W group, the proportion of early responders (defined as ≥ 1 g/dL increase in Hb from baseline during the first 22 days) increased with increasing C.E.R.A. dose, reaching 41% with the highest dose. In the 6.3 μg/kg Q3W group, 15% of patients received blood transfusion. There was an inclination for higher mean Hb increases and lower transfusion use in the Q3W groups than in the QW groups. C.E.R.A. was generally well tolerated. CONCLUSION: C.E.R.A. administered QW or Q3W showed clinical activity and safety in patients with NSCLC. There were dose-dependent increases in Hb responses. C.E.R.A. appeared to be more effective when the same dose over time was given Q3W than QW, with a suggestion that C.E.R.A. 6.3 μg/kg Q3W provided best efficacy in this study. However, further dose-finding studies using higher doses are required to determine the optimal C.E.R.A. dose regimen in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy