The complement of political consumerism: Political producerism in the German organic food sector

In this chapter we will show that there is a direct link between political producerism and political consumerism, meaning that labels and especially the networks behind them enable consumers to make informed choices and to voice their political opinion. So far,academics often assessed labels from an economic point of view, for example adopting a game theoretic approach or dealing with the problem of asymmetric information in the food market (Golan, Kuchler, Mitchell, 2009; McCluskey, 2000; Guthman, 2006). Other academics such as Hébert (2010) argue that food labels are mainly established to cater to the economy of qualities, referring to the creation of luxury niche-market goods. In contrast to these accounts and to other accounts of authors such as Vogl, Kilcher & Schmidt (2005) and McMahon (2005), we believe that producers and retailers indeed are important agents in politics of food labelling. Rather than merely following the demands of the market, we will show that producers and retailers who engage in political producerism mainly act according to their own beliefs and standards

Preface and acknowledgements

This collection is the outcome of a Maastricht Research Based Learning Project (MARBLE) that took place at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University in spring 2011. Under the guidance of Jens Lachmund (who is a lecturer at that faculty) a group of nine students worked on eight distinct case-studies on the culture and politics of product labelling

A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms

Open scholarship has transformed research, introducing a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The Framework of Open and Reproducible Research Teaching (FORRT) community presents a crowd-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers

Structure of a hydrophobic leucinostatin derivative determined by host lattice display

Peptides comprising many hydrophobic amino acids are almost insoluble under physiological buffer conditions, which complicates their structural analysis. To investigate the three-dimensional structure of the hydrophobic leucinostatin derivative ZHAWOC6027, the previously developed host lattice display technology was applied. Two designed ankyrin-repeat proteins (DARPins) recognizing a biotinylated ZHAWOC6027 derivative were selected from a diverse library by ribosome display under aqueous buffer conditions. ZHAWOC6027 was immobilized by means of the DARPin in the host lattice and the structure of the complex was determined by X-ray diffraction. ZHAWOC6027 adopts a distorted α-helical conformation. Comparison with the structures of related compounds that have been determined in organic solvents reveals elevated flexibility of the termini, which might be functionally important

Structure of a hydrophobic leucinostatin derivative determined by host lattice display

Peptides comprising many hydrophobic amino acids are almost insoluble under physiological buffer conditions, which complicates their structural analysis. To investigate the three-dimensional structure of the hydrophobic leucinostatin derivative ZHAWOC6027, the previously developed host lattice display technology was applied. Two designed ankyrin-repeat proteins (DARPins) recognizing a biotinylated ZHAWOC6027 derivative were selected from a diverse library by ribosome display under aqueous buffer conditions. ZHAWOC6027 was immobilized by means of the DARPin in the host lattice and the structure of the complex was determined by X-ray diffraction. ZHAWOC6027 adopts a distorted α-helical conformation. Comparison with the structures of related compounds that have been determined in organic solvents reveals elevated flexibility of the termini, which might be functionally important

Changes in Doppler‐Derived Kidney Venous Flow and Adverse Cardiorenal Outcomes in Patients With Heart Failure

Background The impact of changes in Doppler‐derived kidney venous flow in heart failure (HF) is not well studied. We aimed to investigate the association of Doppler‐derived kidney venous stasis index (KVSI) and intrakidney venous‐flow (IKVF) patterns with adverse cardiorenal outcomes in patients with HF. Methods and Results In this observational cohort study, consecutive inpatients with HF referred to a nephrologist because of a history of diuretic resistance and abnormal kidney function (n=216) underwent spectral kidney assessments after admission (Doppler 1) and 25 to 35 days later (Doppler 2) to identify IKVF patterns (continuous/pulsatile/biphasic/monophasic) and KVSI levels. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to evaluate the associations between KVSI/IKVF patterns at Doppler 1 as well as changes from Doppler 1 to Doppler 2 and risk of cardiorenal events up to 18 months after admission. Worsening HF or death occurred in 126 patients. Both baseline KVSI (hazard ratio [HR], 1.49 [95% CI, 1.37–1.61] per 0.1‐unit increase) and baseline IKVF pattern (HR, 2.47 [95% CI, 2.01–3.04] per 1 pattern severity increase) were significantly associated with worsening HF/death. Increases in both KVSI and IKVF pattern severity from Doppler 1 to 2 were also associated with an increased risk of worsening HF/death (HR, 3.00 [95% CI, 2.08–4.32] per 0.1‐unit increase change; and HR, 6.73 [95% CI, 3.27–13.86] per 1 pattern increase in severity change, respectively). Similar results were observed for kidney outcomes. Conclusions Baseline kidney venous flow predicted adverse cardiorenal events, and inclusion of serial kidney venous flow in cardiorenal risk stratification could facilitate clinical decision‐making for patients with HF. Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT03039959