Deliberating stratospheric aerosols for climate geoengineering and the SPICE project

Increasing concerns about the narrowing window for averting dangerous climate change have prompted calls for research into geoengineering, alongside dialogue with the public regarding this as a possible response. We report results of the first public engagement study to explore the ethics and acceptability of stratospheric aerosol technology and a proposed field trial (the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) ‘pipe and balloon’ test bed) of components for an aerosol deployment mechanism. Although almost all of our participants were willing to allow the field trial to proceed, very few were comfortable with using stratospheric aerosols. This Perspective also discusses how these findings were used in a responsible innovation process for the SPICE project initiated by the UK’s research councils

Genetic diversity and the emergence of ethnic groups in Central Asia

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

An adjuvant free mouse model of oral allergenic sensitization to rice seeds protein

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rice is commonly known as a staple crop consumed worldwide, though with several rice proteins being reported for allergic properties in clinical studies. Thus, there is a growing need for the development of an animal model to better understand the allergenicity of rice proteins and the immunological and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the development of food allergy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Groups of BALB/c mice were sensitized daily with freshly homogenized rice flour (30 mg or 80 mg) without adjuvant by intragastric gavage. In addition, the mice were challenged with extracted rice flour proteins at several time points intragastrically. Hypersensitivity symptoms in mice were evaluated according to a scoring system. Vascular leakage, ELISA of rice protein-specific IgE, histopathology of small intestine, and passive cutaneous anaphylaxis were conducted on challenged mice.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>An adjuvant free mouse model of rice allergy was established with sensitized mice showing increased scratching behaviors and increased vascular permeability. Rice protein-specific IgE was detected after eighteen days of sensitization and from the fifth challenge onwards. Inflammatory damage to the epithelium in the small intestine of mice was observed beyond one month of sensitization. Passive cutaneous anaphylaxis results confirmed the positive rice allergy in the mouse model.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We introduced a BALB/c mouse model of rice allergy with simple oral sensitization without the use of adjuvant. This model would serve as a useful tool for further analysis on the immunopathogenic mechanisms of the various rice allergens, for the evaluation of the hypersensitivity of rice or other cereal grains, and to serve as a platform for the development of immunotherapies against rice allergens.</p

HIV/STI co-infection among men who have sex with men in Spain

In Spain, neither the HIV nor the STI national surveillance systems collect information on HIV/STI co-infection. However, there are two networks based on HIV/STI clinics which gather this data. We describe HIV prevalence in men who have sex with men (MSM) diagnosed with infectious syphilis and/or gonorrhoea in 15 STI clinics; and concurrent diagnoses of STI in MSM newly diagnosed with HIV in 19 HIV/STI clinics. In total, 572 MSM were diagnosed with infectious syphilis and 580 with gonorrhoea during 2005-2007. HIV prevalence among syphilis and gonorrhoea cases was 29.8% and 15.2% respectively. In the multivariate analysis, HIV/syphilis co-infection was associated with being Latin American; having a history of STI; reporting exclusively anal intercourse; and having sex with casual or several types of partners. HIV and gonorrhoea co-infection was associated with age older than 45 years; having no education or only primary education completed; and having a history of STI. In total, 1,462 HIV infections were newly diagnosed among MSM during 2003-2007. Of these, 31.0% were diagnosed with other STI at the same time. Factors associated with STI co-infection among new HIV cases in MSM were being Latin American; and having sex with casual partners or with both steady and casual partners. In Spain, a considerable proportion of MSM are co-infected with HIV and STI.This work was funded by two grants (36646/07; 36794/08) from the Foundation for Research and Prevention of AIDS in Spain (Fundación para la Investigación y la Prevención del SIDA en España–FIPSE).S

Speculative Method and Twitter: Bots, Energy and Three Conceptual Characters

This paper aims to contribute to recent innovations in social scientific methodology that aspire to address the complex, iterative and performative dimensions of method. In particular, we focus on the becoming-with character of social events, and propose a speculative method for engaging with the not-as-yet. This work, being part of a larger project that uses Speculative Design and ethnographic methods to explore energy-demand reduction, specifically considers the ways in which energy-demand reduction features in the Twitter-sphere. Developing and deploying three automated Bots whose function and communications are at best obscure, and not uncommonly nonsensical, we trace some of ways in which they intervene and provoke. Heuristically, we draw on the ‘conceptual characters’ of idiot, parasite and diplomat in order to grasp how the Bots act within Twitter to evoke the instability and emergent eventuations of energy-demand reduction, community and related practices. We conclude by drawing out some of the wider implications of this particular enactment of speculative method

Sex-Specific Genetic Structure and Social Organization in Central Asia: Insights from a Multi-Locus Study

In the last two decades, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY) have been extensively used in order to measure the maternally and paternally inherited genetic structure of human populations, and to infer sex-specific demography and history. Most studies converge towards the notion that among populations, women are genetically less structured than men. This has been mainly explained by a higher migration rate of women, due to patrilocality, a tendency for men to stay in their birthplace while women move to their husband's house. Yet, since population differentiation depends upon the product of the effective number of individuals within each deme and the migration rate among demes, differences in male and female effective numbers and sex-biased dispersal have confounding effects on the comparison of genetic structure as measured by uniparentally inherited markers. In this study, we develop a new multi-locus approach to analyze jointly autosomal and X-linked markers in order to aid the understanding of sex-specific contributions to population differentiation. We show that in patrilineal herder groups of Central Asia, in contrast to bilineal agriculturalists, the effective number of women is higher than that of men. We interpret this result, which could not be obtained by the analysis of mtDNA and NRY alone, as the consequence of the social organization of patrilineal populations, in which genetically related men (but not women) tend to cluster together. This study suggests that differences in sex-specific migration rates may not be the only cause of contrasting male and female differentiation in humans, and that differences in effective numbers do matter

Participation as Post-Fordist Politics: Demos, New Labour, and Science Policy

In recent years, British science policy has seen a significant shift ‘from deficit to dialogue’ in conceptualizing the relationship between science and the public. Academics in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) have been influential as advocates of the new public engagement agenda. However, this participatory agenda has deeper roots in the political ideology of the Third Way. A framing of participation as a politics suited to post-Fordist conditions was put forward in the magazine Marxism Today in the late 1980s, developed in the Demos thinktank in the 1990s, and influenced policy of the New Labour government. The encouragement of public participation and deliberation in relation to science and technology has been part of a broader implementation of participatory mechanisms under New Labour. This participatory program has been explicitly oriented toward producing forms of social consciousness and activity seen as essential to a viable knowledge economy and consumer society. STS arguments for public engagement in science have gained influence insofar as they have intersected with the Third Way politics of post-Fordism