Consumption in Cognitive Capitalism: Commodity Riots and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat of Consumption

We challenge the prevalent opinion that consumption does not seem to matter as much as production and defy the fetishism of industrial work. We explore the implications of the premise that under conditions of cognitive capitalism consumption dictates what production does, when and how. We explain that in a post-industrial global society and economy fashion, branding, instant gratification of desires, and ephemeral consumer tastes govern production and consumption. The London (commodity) riots of August 2011 send us a warning that consumption and cognitive capitalism are asphyxiating in the structures and norms of industrial capitalism that are still in place

The commodity form in cognitive capitalism

We revisit the Marxist debate on the commodity form. By following the thought of Alfred Sohn-Rethel and Slavoj Žižek, we attempt to understand the commodity form through the Kantian categories a priori. Sohn-Rethel explores the proposition that there can be no cognition independent of its historical and social conditions and puts forward the daring conclusion of an ontological unity between knowledge and commodity exchange. We suggest that Sohn-Rethel’s thought finds new relevance nowadays, under the prevalence of a cognitive capitalism. We discuss the reformulation of relations of production and consumption under cognitive capitalism and show how knowledge-led immaterial and affective labour adds a higher value to the commodities into which it is embodied. Above all, the commodity form in cognitive capitalism becomes biopolitical

Transnational labor regulation, reification and commodification: A critical review

Why does scholarship on transnational labor regulation (TLR) consistently fails to search for improvements in working conditions, and instead devotes itself to relentless efforts for identifying administrative processes, semantics, and amalgamations of stakeholders? This article critiques TLR from a pro-worker perspective, through the philosophical work of Georg Lukács, and the concepts of reification and commodification. A set of theoretically grounded criteria is developed and these are applied against selected contemporary cases of TLR. In the totality that is capitalism, reification of social relations of production conceals completely the experiences of workers. In TLR, managerialist and process-oriented scholarship is dominant, verifiable outcomes and positive improvements in conditions of employment are not sought, and worse, meaningless procedures are celebrated as positive achievements

Next Generation Automated Emergency Calls

The Internet of Things (IoT) potentials to transform our modern society into smart environments that facilitate living and boost all types of transactions are becoming more and more evident as the number of interconnections between the physical and the virtual world keeps increasing. Cyber-physical systems, wide end-to end connectivity and handling of big data are some of the mainstream concepts brought forth to materialise the IoT umbrella. Yet, emergency services, a domain of paramount importance to society, reveal multiple challenges for the adoption of applications that capitalise on the capabilities of smart devices and the interoperability among heterogeneous platforms. In this paper, we present the continuing work [4] on next generation automated (non- human initiated) emergency calls by specifying the pathway to implementation of NG eCall and sensor-enabled emergency services

J Invest Dermatol

Acne vulgaris is a skin disorder of the sebaceous follicles, involving hyperkeratinization and perifollicular inflammation. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) have a predominant role in inflammatory matrix remodeling and hyperproliferative skin disorders. We investigated the expression of MMP and tissue inhibitors of MMP (TIMP) in facial sebum specimens from acne patients, before and after treatment with isotretinoin. Gelatin zymography and Western-blot analysis revealed that sebum contains proMMP-9, which was decreased following per os or topical treatment with isotretinoin and in parallel to the clinical improvement of acne. Sebum also contains MMP-1, MMP-13, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2, as assessed by ELISA and western blot, but only MMP-13 was decreased following treatment with isotretinoin. The origin of MMP and TIMP in sebum is attributed to keratinocytes and sebocytes, since we found that HaCaT keratinocytes in culture secrete proMMP-2, proMMP-9, MMP-1, MMP-13, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2. SZ95 sebocytes in culture secreted proMMP-2 and proMMP-9, which was also confirmed by microarray analysis. Isotretinoin inhibited the arachidonic acid-induced secretion and mRNA expression of proMMP-2 and -9 in both cell types and of MMP-13 in HaCaT keratinocytes. These data indicate that MMP and TIMP of epithelial origin may be involved in acne pathogenesis, and that isotretinoin-induced reduction in MMP-9 and -13 may contribute to the therapeutic effects of the agent in acne

Photoinduced chemiluminescence determination of carbamate pesticides

A liquid chromatography method with post-column photoinduced chemiluminescence (PICL) detection is proposed for the simultaneous determination of eight carbamate pesticides, namely aldicarb, butocarboxim, ethiofencarb, methomyl, methiocarb, thiodicarb, thiofanox and thiophanate-methyl. After chromatographic separation, quinine (sensitizer) was incorporated and the flow passed through an UV lamp (67 s of irradiation time) to obtain the photoproducts, which reacted with acidic Ce(IV) and provided a CL emission. The PICL method showed great selectivity for carbamate pesticides containing sulphur in their chemical structure. A solid-phase extraction process increased sensitivity (LODs ranging from 0.06 to 0.27 ng mL−1) and allowed the carbamate pesticides in surface and ground water samples to be determined, with recoveries in the range 87 110% (except for thiophanate-methyl, whose recoveries were between 60 and 75%). The intra- and inter-day precision was evaluated, with RSD ranging from 1.1 to 7.5% and from 2.6 to 12.3%, respectively. A discussion about the PICL mechanism is also included.Catalá-Icardo, M.; Meseguer-Lloret, S.; Torres-Cartas, S. (2016). Photoinduced chemiluminescence determination of carbamate pesticides. Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences. 15:626-634. doi:10.1039/c6pp00056hS62663415Santaladchaiyakit, Y., Srijaranai, S., & Burakham, R. (2012). Methodological aspects of sample preparation for the determination of carbamate residues: A review. Journal of Separation Science, 35(18), 2373-2389. doi:10.1002/jssc.201200431Pesticides in Ground and Drinking water, ed. M. Fielding, Water Pollution Research Report 27, Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, 1991Melchert, W. R., & Rocha, F. R. P. (2010). A greener and highly sensitive flow-based procedure for carbaryl determination exploiting long pathlength spectrophotometry and photochemical waste degradation. 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