Elements for a comprehensive assessment of public indicators

There is no shortage of discussions and even criticisms of prominent indicators such as the Global Competitiveness Index, the Environmental Performance Index, or the Human Development Index, nor of proposals for supposedly better indices of prosperity, environmental sustainability or human progress. We certainly need them and probably others more. However, one cannot help thinking that a theory is missing that would offer a conception of indicators in general, and of social indicators in particular. Such a framework should recognize the complex and hybrid nature of these measures, and help assessing their quality. In other words, what we need is comprehensive assessments that considers indicators altogether as pieces of knowledge, instruments of governance and socially communicated signs; a perspective that combines the knowledge requirements of governance and the political dimension of public knowledge. We believe that such a perspective can be found at the juncture of three discourses or perspectives. The first one is Peirce’s theory of signs, or semiotics for short, that highlights the communicative nature of indicators, their role in the survival and reproduction of all living organisms and their link with action and behavior. In particular, Peirce’s classification of signs and notably his distinction between icons, indices and symbols is especially relevant here. Our second source of inspiration is John Dewey’s pragmatic theory of the public and of social inquiry which help conceptualizing the connection between indicators and public policy and understanding their role in the management of public problems. We underline the connection between Dewey’s conception of the public and more recent advances in cognitive politics, which highlights the importance of the way public problems are framed and the role of indicators in such framing. We find our third source of inspiration in the analysis by Gibbons, Limoges, Nowotny and their colleagues of the “Mode 2” of production of knowledge which can be looked at as an updating and empirical confirmation of Dewey’s theory of social inquiry. We conceive of the production of indicators as a typically “mode 2” activity, which is therefore to be assessed against the social robustness criteria. We attempt to show how Peirce’s distinction between the iconic, the indexical and the symbolic dimension of signs on one hand, and Dewey’s theory of democracy, on the other hand, provide us insightful tools for conducing comprehensive evaluations of the social robustness of indicators and designing more robust alternatives to the existing ones.JRC.DDG.01-Econometrics and applied statistic

Sustainable development indicators: a scientific challenge, a democratic issue

Social indicators, and therefore sustainable development indicators also, are scientific constructs whose principal objective is to inform public policy-making. Their usefulness is dependant on trade-offs between scientific soundness and rigor, political effectiveness and democratic legitimacy. The paper considers in this perspective three important stages in the building of sustainable development indicators: the identification of the various dimensions underlying the concept of sustainable development, the process of aggregating lower dimension indicators in higher level composite indices and the attribution of weights at various levels of the indicators hierarchy. More specifically, it assesses the relative fruitfulness for indicators construction of the four most widespread conceptions of sustainable development, in terms of domains or pillars (economy, society, and environment), in terms of resources and productive assets (manufactured, natural, human and social capitals), in terms of human well-being (needs, capabilities) or in terms of norms (efficiency, fairness, prudence…). It concludes with a plea for the construction of synthetic indices able to compete with and complement the GNP as an indicator of development

Sustainable development indicators: a scientific challenge, a democratic issue

Social indicators, and therefore sustainable development indicators also, are scientific constructs whose principal objective is to inform public policy-making. Their usefulness is dependant on trade-offs between scientific soundness and rigor, political effectiveness and democratic legitimacy. The paper considers in this perspective three important stages in the building of sustainable development indicators: the identification of the various dimensions underlying the concept of sustainable development, the process of aggregating lower dimension indicators in higher level composite indices and the attribution of weights at various levels of the indicators hierarchy. More specifically, it assesses the relative fruitfulness for indicators construction of the four most widespread conceptions of sustainable development, in terms of domains or pillars (economy, society, and environment), in terms of resources and productive assets (manufactured, natural, human and social capitals), in terms of human well-being (needs, capabilities) or in terms of norms (efficiency, fairness, prudence…). It concludes with a plea for the construction of synthetic indices able to compete with and complement the GNP as an indicator of development

Three strategies for sustainable consumption

An environmental program of sustainable consumption is one that causes humans to flourish along with the ecosystems. It fosters humans’ well-being and quality of life, along with environmental quality. We argue that there are three different, but complementary, ways to achieve these objectives: eco-efficiency, de-commoditization (or de-commodification), and sufficiency. The paper shows how these three strategies arise from a decomposition analysis of sustainable development as a program of maximizing a well-being-environmental load ratio. After describing the main characteristics of the three strategies, the paper concludes with the necessity to build mixed sector policies that have varying eco-efficiency, de-commoditization and sufficiency components, according to the consumption domain and social, economic and social circumstances and, in particular, the probability and importance of efficiency and sufficiency rebound effects

Ionized o-, m-, and p-Difluorobenzene Dissociate Through Ring-Opened Intermediates: A TPEPICO Investigation

Threshold photoelectron photoion coincidence (TPEPICO) experiments have shown that o-, m-, and p-difluorobenzene ions dissociate via a common, ring-opened intermediate and not via ionized p-difluorobenzene. Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) modeling of the experimental breakdown curves yields activation energies for the initial isomerization of 4.48 ± 0.05, 4.55 ± 0.05, and 4.68 ± 0.05 eV for o-, m-, and p-difluorobenzene, respectively. These values place each ion at a similar absolute energy and thus similar transition states. A large positive ΔS‡ for each ion (ca 100 J K−1 mol−1) suggests a ring-opened structure for these transition states

Novel methodologies for biomarker discovery in atherosclerosis

Identification of subjects at increased risk for cardiovascular events plays a central role in the worldwide efforts to improve prevention, prediction, diagnosis, and prognosis of cardiovascular disease and to decrease the related costs. Despite their high predictive value on population level, traditional risk factors fail to fully predict individual risk. This position paper provides a summary of current vascular biomarkers other than the traditional risk factors with a special focus on the emerging −omics technologies. The definition of biomarkers and the identification and use of classical biomarkers are introduced, and we discuss the limitations of current biomarkers such as high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) or N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). This is complemented by circulating plasma biomarkers, including high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and the conceptual shift from HDL cholesterol levels to HDL composition/function for cardiovascular risk assessment. Novel sources for plasma-derived markers include microparticles, microvesicles, and exosomes and their use for current omics-based analytics. Measurement of circulating micro-RNAs, short RNA sequences regulating gene expression, has attracted major interest in the search for novel biomarkers. Also, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy have become key complementary technologies in the search for new biomarkers, such as proteomic searches or identification and quantification of small metabolites including lipids (metabolomics and lipidomics). In particular, pro-inflammatory lipid metabolites have gained much interest in the cardiovascular field. Our consensus statement concludes on leads and needs in biomarker research for the near future to improve individual cardiovascular risk predictio

Microvesicles in vascular homeostasis and diseases. Position Paper of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Working Group on Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology

Microvesicles are members of the family of extracellular vesicles shed from the plasma membrane of activated or apoptotic cells. Microvesicles were initially characterised by their pro-coagulant activity and described as "microparticles". There is mounting evidence revealing a role for microvesicles in intercellular communication, with particular relevance to hemostasis and vascular biology. Coupled with this, the potential of microvesicles as meaningful biomarkers is under intense investigation. This Position Paper will summarise the current knowledge on the mechanisms of formation and composition of microvesicles of endothelial, platelet, red blood cell and leukocyte origin. This paper will also review and discuss the different methods used for their analysis and quantification, will underline the potential biological roles of these vesicles with respect to vascular homeostasis and thrombosis and define important themes for future research

Developing common protocols to measure tundra herbivory across spatial scales

Understanding and predicting large-scale ecological responses to global environmental change requires comparative studies across geographic scales with coordinated efforts and standardized methodologies. We designed, applied and assessed standardized protocols to measure tundra herbivory at three spatial scales: plot, site (habitat), and study area (landscape). The plot and site-level protocols were tested in the field during summers 2014-2015 at eleven sites, nine of them comprising warming experimental plots included in the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). The study area protocols were assessed during 2014-2018 at 24 study areas across the Arctic. Our protocols provide comparable and easy-to-implement methods for assessing the intensity of invertebrate herbivory within ITEX plots and for characterizing vertebrate herbivore communities at larger spatial scales. We discuss methodological constraints and make recommendations for how these protocols can be used and how sampling effort can be optimized to obtain comparable estimates of herbivory, both at ITEX sites and at large landscape scales. The application of these protocols across the tundra biome will allow characterizing and comparing herbivore communities across tundra sites and at ecologically relevant spatial scales, providing an important step towards a better understanding of tundra ecosystem responses to large-scale environmental change.CGB was funded by the Estonian Research Council (grant IUT 20-28), and the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence EcolChange). JDMS was supported by the Research Council of Norway (262064). OG and LB were supported by the French Polar Institute (program “1036 Interactions”) and PRC CNRS Russie 396 (program “ICCVAT”). DSH, NL, MAG, JB and JDR were supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada). NL, MAG, JB and JDR were supported by the Polar Continental Shelf Program. NL was supported by the Canada Research Chair program and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. NL and JB were supported by Environment Canada and Polar Knowledge Canada. NL and MAG were supported by the Government of Nunavut, the Igloolik Community, and Université de Moncton. NL, MAG and JB were supported by the Northern Scientific Training Program. JMA was funded by Carl Tryggers stiftelse för vetenskaplig forskning and Qatar Petroleum (QUEX-CAS-QP-RD-18_19). IHM-S was funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council Shrub Tundra (NE/M016323/1) grant. ISJ was funded by the University of Iceland Research Fund. Fieldwork in Yamal peninsula (Erkuta, Sabetta and Belyi) for DE, NS and AS was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (No: 18-05-60261 and No: 18-54-15013), Fram Centre project YaES (No: 362259), the Russian Center of Development of the Arctic, and the “Yamal-LNG” company. Fieldwork in Utqiaġvik was supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fieldwork in Svalbard was supported by the Norwegian Research Council (AFG No: 246080/E10), the Norwegian Polar Institute, Climate-ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra – COAT, the Svalbard Environmental protection fund (project number 15/20), and the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and the AB-338/AB-838 students of 2018. Sampling at Billefjorden was supported by GACR 17- 20839S

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018):a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (“MISEV”) guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these “MISEV2014” guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points