Smart urbanism in Barcelona: A knowledge-politics perspective

There is a risk in the ‘Smart City’ that plural forms of knowing the city become eclipsed by singular governance-oriented analyses produced through computational logics originating from undemocratic service providers. In light of this concern, this chapter considers three aspects of smart urbanism’s knowledge politics: i) the role of urban agencies – or understanding smart urbanism as a situated, socio-material practice; ii) the agency of smart city technologies’ materiality as well as the ownership and control of these technologies, and: iii) the political rationalities, values and assumptions embedded in smart city technologies’ design and use. Drawing on these insights, this chapter analyses smart knowledge politics in Barcelona, where the 2015 Council elections replaced a market-oriented political leadership enthusiastically implementing the Smart City with a political leadership whose origins in social movements and citizen democracy made it deeply sceptical towards smart urbanism. We analyse how this opened up space for different approaches to using technology in the city while at the same time giving rise to materially very different kinds of smart knowledge configuring technologies emphasizing citizen participation and democratic control of knowledge production. Indeed, political rationalities and smart knowledge configuring technologies intersected and co-evolved, rather than one informing the other unidirectionally

The politics of smart expectations: Interrogating the knowledge claims of smart mobility

This paper studies the performativity of smart mobility expectations in envisioning urban futures. Smart mobility, or ICT-enabled transport services, are increasingly considered a necessary ingredient for sustainability transitions in cities. Expectations of smart mobility’s contribution to such a transition are constituted by a strong belief in the transformative potential of data collection and use. These knowledge claims embedded in smart mobility expectations tend to be unchallenged, yet contribute to a particular future vision of urban mobility. Our empirical analysis, which draws on two empirical smart cycling case studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and Bordeaux, France, underlines the politics of such smart knowledge claims in two smart cycling projects and identifies distinct processes as to how such claims may shape and structure mobility futures. We observe intimate entanglements between what is being developed in terms of technologies and services; and the societal needs that the projects’ expectations promise to fulfil. At the same time, we witness a disentanglement of these interconnected knowledge claims when projects unfold, leaving the promise of (un)achieved societal benefits out of view. Indeed, smart knowledge claims carried strong inherent legitimacy in the cases studied, thereby risking to exclude non-smart alternatives

Compositional heterogeneity near the base of the mantle transition zone beneath Hawaii

Global seismic discontinuities near 410 and 660 km depth in Earth’s mantle are expressions of solid-state phase transitions. These transitions modulate thermal and material fluxes across the mantle and variations in their depth are often attributed to temperature anomalies. Here we use novel seismic array analysis of SS waves reflecting off the 410 and 660 below the Hawaiian hotspot. We find amplitude–distance trends in reflectivity that imply lateral variations in wavespeed and density contrasts across 660 for which thermodynamic modeling precludes a thermal origin. No such variations are found along the 410. The inferred 660 contrasts can be explained by mantle composition varying from average (pyrolitic) mantle beneath Hawaii to a mixture with more melt-depleted harzburgite southeast of the hotspot. Such compositional segregation was predicted, from petrological and numerical convection studies, to occur near hot deep mantle upwellings like the one often invoked to cause volcanic activity on Hawaii

A Novel Application of Time Reversed Acoustics: Salt Dome Flank Imaging Using Walk Away VSP Surveys

In the past few years, there has been considerable research and interest in a topic known by various names, such as Time Reverse Acoustics (TRA), Time Reverse Mirrors (TRM), and Time Reverse Cavities (TRC), which exploits reciprocity and the time symmetric property of the wave equation. Very little of this work has been directed at the seismic exploration imaging problem. In fact, most of the work has had application in sonar, medical and non-destructive testing applications. Here we present some initial results of applying this technology to the seismic imaging of a salt dome flank. We create a set of synthetic traces representing a multi-level, walk away VSP for a model composed of a simplified Gulf of Mexico vertical velocity gradient and an embedded overhanging salt dome. To process these data, we first apply the concepts of TRA to the synthetic traces. This creates a set of stacked traces without having to perform any velocity analysis or complicated processing. Each of these stacked traces is equivalent to the output of a spatially coincident, or zero offset, down hole source and receiver pair. Thus we have the equivalent of a zero offset seismic section as if it were collected from down hole sources and receivers. After having applied the TRA concepts, we then apply conventional post stack depth migration to this zero offset section to produce the final image of the salt dome flank. Our results show a very good image of the salt. In fact, the image created is nearly identical to an image actually using data from down hole, zero offset source and receiver pairs. The simplicity of the TRA implementation provides a virtually automated method to create a stacked section as if it had been collected from the reference frame of the borehole containing the VSP survey.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth Resources Laborator

The influence of single-nucleotide polymorphisms on overall survival and toxicity in cabazitaxel-treated patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

Purpose: Cabazitaxel, used in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), is associated with adverse events which may require dose reductions or discontinuation of treatment. We investigated the potential association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes encoding drug transporters and drug-metabolizing enzymes with cabazitaxel toxicity, overall survival (OS) and pharmacokinetics (PK). Methods: A total of 128 cabazitaxel-treated mCRPC patients, of whom prospectively collected data on toxicity and OS were available and 24 mCRPC patients with available cabazitaxel PK measurements, were genotyped using genomic DNA obtained from EDTA blood. The SLCO1B1 (388A > G; *1B; rs2306283 and 521 T > C; *5; rs4149056 and haplotype SLCO1B1*15), SLCO1B3 (334 T > G; rs4149117), CYP3A4 (*22; rs35599367), CYP3A5 (*3; rs776746), ABCB1 (3435C > T; rs1045642), and TUBB1 (57 + 87A > C; rs463312) SNPs were tested for their association with clinical and PK parameters by univariate/multivariate logistic regression, log-rank test, or Kruskal–Wallis test. Results: The SLCO1B1*15 haplotype was significantly associated with a lower incidence of leukopenia and neutropenia (p = 0.020 and p = 0.028, respectively). Patients harboring a homozygous variant for SLCO1B1*1B experienced higher rate ≥ grade 3 (p = 0.042). None of the SNPs were associated with pharmacokinetics or OS. Conclusions: In this study, SLCO1B1 (SLCO1B1*15 and SLCO1B1*1B) was associated with cabazitaxel-induced adverse events in mCRPC patients. As the associations were opposite to previous studies in other drugs and contradicted an underlying pharmacokinetic rationale, these findings are likely to be false-positive and would ideally be validated with even larger (pharmacokinetic) cohorts

Generalized Fourier Integral Operators on spaces of Colombeau type

Generalized Fourier integral operators (FIOs) acting on Colombeau algebras are defined. This is based on a theory of generalized oscillatory integrals (OIs) whose phase functions as well as amplitudes may be generalized functions of Colombeau type. The mapping properties of these FIOs are studied as the composition with a generalized pseudodifferential operator. Finally, the microlocal Colombeau regularity for OIs and the influence of the FIO action on generalized wave front sets are investigated. This theory of generalized FIOs is motivated by the need of a general framework for partial differential operators with non-smooth coefficients and distributional data

Influence of enzalutamide on cabazitaxel pharmacokinetics: A Drug–Drug interaction study in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients

Purpose: In ongoing clinical research on metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) treatment, the potential enhanced efficacy of the combination of taxanes with AR-targeted agents, that is, enzalutamide and abiraterone, is currently being explored. Because enzalutamide induces the CYP3A4 enzyme and taxanes are metabolized by this enzyme, a potential drug–drug interaction needs to be investigated. Experimental Design: Therefore, we performed a pharmacokinetic cross-over study in mCRPC patients who were scheduled for treatment with cabazitaxel Q3W (25 mg/m2). Patients were studied for three consecutive cabazitaxel cycles. Enzalutamide (160 mg once daily) was administered concomitantly after the first cabazitaxel cycle, during 6 weeks. Primary endpoint was the difference in mean area under the curve (AUC) between the first (cabazitaxel monotherapy) and third cabazitaxel cycle, when enzalutamide was added. Results: A potential clinically relevant 22% (95% CI, 9%–34%; P ¼ 0.005) reduction in cabazitaxel exposure was found with concomitant enzalutamide use. The geometric mean AUC0–24h of cabazitaxel was 181 ngh/mL (95% CI, 150–219 ngh/mL) in cycle 3 and 234 ngh/mL (95% CI, 209–261 ngh/mL) in cycle 1. This combination did not result in excessive toxicity, whereas PSA response was promising. Conclusions: We found a significant decrease in cabazitaxel exposure when combined with enzalutamide. In an era of clinical trials on combination strategies for mCRPC, it is important to be aware of clinically relevant drug–drug interactions. Because recent study results support the use of a lower standard cabazitaxel dose of 20 mg/m2, the clinical relevance of this interaction may be substantial, because the addition of enzalutamide may result in subtherapeutic cabazitaxel exposure

Prognostic factors in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with cabazitaxel

Background: Treatment selection for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has become increasingly challenging with the introduction of novel therapies at earlier disease stages. The purpose of this study was to identify prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and PSA response in patients with mCRPC treated with cabazitaxel. Results: 224 mCRPC patients were included in the current analysis. In multivariable analysis, WHO performance status, baseline hemoglobin, alkaline phosphatase and albumin were all significantly associated with OS. Hemoglobin and alkaline phosphatase were significantly associated with PSA response. Conclusions: This study identified prognostic factors for OS and PSA response of men with mCRPC treated with cabazitaxel. In an increasingly complicated treatment landscape with several treatment options available our findings might serve to estimate the chance of survival of men qualifying for treatment with second-line chemotherapy in daily practice. Furthermore, these data can be used to risk-stratify patients in clinical trials. Methods: We performed a post-hoc analysis of a randomized phase II trial of mCRPC patients treated with cabazitaxel. Cox and logistic regression models were used to investigate the influence of clinical and biochemical variables on OS and PSA response. Nomograms were developed to estimate the chance of PSA response and OS

A global Carleman estimate in a transmission wave equation and application to a one-measurement inverse problem

We consider a transmission wave equation in two embedded domains in $R^2$, where the speed is $a1 > 0$ in the inner domain and $a2 > 0$ in the outer domain. We prove a global Carleman inequality for this problem under the hypothesis that the inner domain is strictly convex and $a1 > a2$ . As a consequence of this inequality, uniqueness and Lip- schitz stability are obtained for the inverse problem of retrieving a stationary potential for the wave equation with Dirichlet data and discontinuous principal coefficient from a single time-dependent Neumann boundary measurement