27 research outputs found
Energy transition looming behind the headlines? Newspaper coverage of biogas production in Finland
Get PDFBackground: Media coverage can play an important part in energy transitions. It creates awareness of landscape-level megatrends affecting energy systems. It influences and is influenced by public and policy agendas on a regime level. On a niche level, it can spread or screen out information and motivate or discourage actors to adopt new technologies and practices. However, relatively few studies have specifically addressed the role of media in energy transitions. Newspaper coverage of biogas is studied here as a case of media framing of a potential renewable energy solution.Methods: This article examines the long-term development of newspaper coverage of biogas in Finland. The aim of the quantitative content analysis is to draw an overall picture of the main phases of biogas coverage of a widely read newspaper focusing on agriculture and forestry, actors using discursive power in this coverage and key framings of the discussion. The results are discussed from the perspective of energy transition studies. In particular, future expectations created by the media are explored.Results: The results show a lack of newspaper coverage on biogas in the early 2000s, followed by a rapid increase and stabilisation of the volume of newspaper coverage. Biogas was most often mentioned as a secondary topic of broader discussions related to renewable energy. The core discussion focusing on biogas was characterised by very positive framings of biogas as a preferable energy solution fully compatible with the principle of circular economy. The news stories often had a strong future orientation, and examples of enthusiastic forerunners were frequently presented. However, the coverage also emphasised the poor economic profitability of biogas technologies and a need for considerable public subsidies that are inherently unpredictable.Conclusions: The future of niche-level energy technologies such as biogas can be strongly shaped by information flows, public perceptions and expectations created in part by media coverage. The analysed newspaper coverage in Finland was ambivalent from the perspective of energy transition. On the one hand, biogas production was represented as a preferable, environmentally friendly niche-level energy technology that should be encouraged. On the other hand, by emphasising the economic unviability of biogas technologies, the analysed newspaper coverage did not promote the adoption of biogas
SLUG transcription factor : a pro-survival and prognostic factor in gastrointestinal stromal tumour
Get PDFBackground: The SLUG transcription factor has been linked with the KIT signalling pathway that is important for gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) tumourigenesis. Its clinical significance in GIST is unknown. Methods: Influence of SLUG expression on cell proliferation and viability were investigated in GIST48 and GIST882 cell lines. The association between tumour SLUG expression in immunohistochemistry and recurrence-free survival (RFS) was studied in two clinical GIST series, one with 187 patients treated with surgery alone, and another one with 313 patients treated with surgery and adjuvant imatinib. Results: SLUG downregulation inhibited cell proliferation, induced cell death in both cell lines, and sensitised GIST882 cells to lower imatinib concentrations. SLUG was expressed in 125 (25.0%) of the 500 clinical GISTs evaluated, and expression was associated with several factors linked with unfavourable prognosis. SLUG expression was associated with unfavourable RFS both when patients were treated with surgery alone (HR = 3.40, 95% CI = 1.67-6.89, P = 0.001) and when treated with surgery plus adjuvant imatinib (HR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.29-2.60, P = 0.001). Conclusions: GIST patients with high tumour SLUG expression have unfavourable RFS. SLUG may mediate pro-survival signalling in GISTs.Peer reviewe
Creating urban platforms â opportunities and challenges for innovation in commercial real estate development
Full text linkCurrent theories on commercial urban development are dominated by the concept of linearity, which does not adequately take into account the demands of adaptation posed by the pace of change in digital developments, a pace that stands in marked contrast to the pace of change in physical developments. In the hi-tech sector, platform ecosystems have been employed to accommodate innovation and change. This paper explores the potential application of platform ecosystem theory to the commercial urban development process, where there is now great uncertainty regarding the future economic implications and societal requirements of physical commercial space. The boundary conditions for value creation in platform ecosystems are as follows: modularity, standardisation, complementarity and connectivity. Each is explored through a survey of key actors in recently completed commercial urban developments. The analysis identifies significant differences in the capacity of public- and private-sector actors to promote the creation of platform ecosystems, particularly in the complementary actions of development participants. Applying an approach to urban development based on a platform ecosystem might offer great opportunities, but will also be limited by the major challenges identified in this paper
