11 research outputs found
Rising Powers and State Transformation: The Case of China
No full textThis article draws attention to the transformation of statehood under globalisation as a crucial dynamic shaping the emergence and conduct of ‘rising powers’. That states are becoming increasingly fragmented, decentralised and internationalised is noted by some international political economy and global governance scholars, but is neglected in International Relations treatments of rising powers. This article critiques this neglect, demonstrating the importance of state transformation in understanding emerging powers’ foreign and security policies, and their attempts to manage their increasingly transnational interests by promoting state transformation elsewhere, particularly in their near-abroad. It demonstrates the argument using the case of China, typically understood as a classical ‘Westphalian’ state. In reality, the Chinese state’s substantial disaggregation profoundly shapes its external conduct in overseas development assistance and conflict zones like the South China Sea, and in its promotion of extraterritorial governance arrangements in spaces like the Greater Mekong Subregion
Efeito anti-hiperalgésico e antiinflamatório de triterpenos pentacíclicos em modelos experimentais de hiperalgesia crônica: participação do sistema canabinóide
No full textTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Farmacologia, Florianópolis, 2011O presente estudo revela que o tratamento oral com os triterpenos pentacíclicos betulina (30 mg/mg), ácido ursólico (50 mg/kg) e ácido oleanólico (30 mg/kg) reduziu a hiperalgesia mecânica induzida pela injeção intraplantar (i.pl.) de Adjuvante Completo de Freund (CFA) e pela ligação parcial do nervo ciático (LPNC). De maneira similar, o tratamento oral com a mistura de isômeros , -amirina (30 mg/kg) significativamente reduziu a hiperalgesia mecânica e térmica induzida pelo CFA ou pelo procedimento de LPNC. Demonstrou-se também que a propriedade analgésica da mistura de isômeros , -amirina em modelos experimentais de dor persistente é mediada pela ativação direta dos receptores canabinóides CB1 e CB2. O tratamento oral com , -amirina foi tão efetivo quanto o tratamento realizado com os agonistas seletivos ACEA (CB1, 10 mg/kg; intra-peritoneal [i.p.]) ou JWH-133 (CB2, 10 mg/kg; i.p.) em reduzir a hiperalgesia mecânica induzida pela injeção i.pl. de CFA. O pré-tratamento com o antagonista seletivo do receptor CB1, AM251 (1 mg/kg; i.p.) ou do receptor CB2, AM630 (3 mg/kg; i.p.), bem como o bloqueio da expressão desses receptores através do tratamento com oligonucleotídeo anti-sense (ODN-AS), foi igualmente eficaz em reverter o efeito anti-hiperalgésico demonstrado pela , -amirina. O ensaio de ligação específica demonstrou que , -amirina pode atuar como um agonista de receptores canabinóides. Em condições fisiológicas, o composto demonstrou uma grande afinidade pelo receptor CB1 (Ki = 0,133 nM) e uma menor afinidade pelo receptor CB2 (Ki = 1.989 nM). O tratamento com , -amirina, ACEA ou JWH-133, em doses efetivas contra a hiperalgesia, não causou qualquer distúrbio de comportamento quando avaliado no ensaio da tétrade. Além disso, , -amirina demonstrou uma potente ação antiinflamatória, ao inibir a produção/liberação das citocinas interleucina-1 (IL-1 ), fator de necrose tumoral- (TNF- ), interleucina-6 (IL-6) e da quimiocina derivada de queratinócitos (KC), bem como a atividade da mieloperoxidase, tanto na pata quanto na medula espinhal de camundongos. O tratamento com , -amirina também foi efetivo em prevenir a ativação do fator de necrose kappa B (NF-kB) e da proteína de ligação ao elemento responsivo AMP cíclico (CREB) e diminuir a expressão da ciclooxigenase-2 (COX-2) na pata de camundongos submetidos à injeção i.pl. de CFA ou na medula espinhal de camundongos submetidos ao procedimento de LPNC. Os resultados do presente trabalho demonstram, portanto que a , -amirina exibe propriedades anti-hiperalgésicas e antiinflamatórias quando avaliadas em dois modelos de dor persistente, via ativação dos receptores canabinóides e pela inibição da produção/liberação de citocinas pró-inflamatórias e inibição da expressão de NF-kB, CREB e COX-2
Recommended from our members
The European Union, state of exception and state transformation - Romania, Turkey and ethnic minority politics
No full textThe dissertation argues that the modern national sovereignty is the political expression of modern subjectivity and it dominates as such the contemporary discourse of human life, ethnic minorities included, in world politics. The analytical mechanism is grounded in social constructivist theorisations of discourse analysis. It evaluates whether and to what extent the enlargement of the European Union (EU) and its accession conditionality affect the discursive mechanisms of the national, sovereign subjectivity and its relations with national minorities. The cases studied here have been chosen because of the two states being inscribed in the recent past (Romania) and currently (Turkey) in the enlargement process. The dissertation builds methodologically on Agamben’s understanding of sovereignty as state of exception, interpreted here originally qua exception from the temporality of human life and therefore apt to author political time. In national form, this is understood as the production of the national time of politics, with a double ontological consequence: it constitutes the political nation, while concomitantly and inherently excluding non-national human life from political possibilities. The method of research develops this methodological perspective to analyse national sovereignty, drawing also on Heidegger, as factualisation of two purely theoretical constructs: the nation and the principle of sovereignty
The strategic response of full service airlines to the low cost carrier threat and the perception of passengers to each type of carrier
No full textLow cost carriers have changed the competitive dynamics of the short-haul market
forever. They have revolutionised the way of doing business in aviation by adopting a
fresh approach on both strategic and operational issues. Simplicity has become their
universal principle over network airlines and subsequently they have achieved
substantial cost advantages which are passed onto the consumer as lower fares.
Network airlines have found it difficult to reshape their structural barriers and have
been slow to incorporate the components that low cost carriers deemed very
significant in impacting their operating margins. However, a restructuring of their
internal weaknesses should spur initiatives to design long-term strategies to address
those shortcomings. Network airlines rely on producing value-adding and consumerdriven
product differentiation beyond the basics of the low cost carrier product. To
further differentiate themselves network airlines need to focus on: customer
satisfaction; develop long term mutually beneficial relationships with both passengers
and corporations; collaborate with a wide range of bipartisan partners; retain
differentiated flight products that add value; and to incorporate strategies that other
network carriers deemed paradigmatic. Network carriers should resist reducing costs
associated with value-added services and need to become innovative in generating
alternative revenue streams
Empirically Testing the Neurocognitive Model of Insomnia
No full textThe Neurocognitive Model of insomnia proposes that, through conditioned arousal, individuals with insomnia may experience heightened cortical arousal leading to increased sensory processing of external stimuli and sleep state misperception. This thesis provides a novel contribution to the literature by utilising auditory stimuli to examine the propositions of the Neurocognitive Model as a method of both eliciting and measuring the effects of cortical arousal. Firstly, the effect of noise on sleep was observed within the habituated home environment, evidencing that NREM sleep may be more susceptible to increased arousal through noise comparative to REM. Furthermore, traits typically associated with insomnia showed relationships with sleep disturbance due to noise, indicative that noise may increase cortical arousal. Secondly, the administration of novel noise in a non-habituated laboratory environment was utilised to raise cortical arousal levels in good sleepers to directly test the propositions of the Neurocognitive Model. Results demonstrated that noise altered both subjective and objective sleep along with creating a misperception of sleep onset, albeit not associated with explicit memory of noise stimuli. Finally, utilising individuals assumed to be experiencing heightened cortical arousal (insomnia) and good sleepers, words were administered during sleep onset periods to directly assess the processing and misperception components of the Neurocognitive model. Results demonstrated that both explicit and implicit recognition for words presented during sleep was greater for individuals with insomnia, yet this did not associate with a misperception of sleep. Therefore, this thesis proposes that the Neurocognitive Model could be a model of the effects of raised cortical arousal on sleep of which the two outcome pathways are the processing of auditory stimuli and sleep state misperception. Future research may wish to continue to examine the role of cortical arousal in the context of the Neurocognitive Model as a potential mechanism of sleep state misperception in those with insomnia and vulnerable good sleepers
Germline determinants of outcome and risk in colorectal cancer
No full textGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified germline single nucleotide
polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) susceptibility.
This thesis applies the same approach to the identification of germline determinants of
prognosis in CRC, attempts to verify potential susceptibility loci, and examines the
relationship between SNPs and some forms of non-SNP based germline variation.
The GWAS for prognosis used 931 patients enrolled in the VICTOR trial in the
discovery phase, screening 309,200 autosomal SNPs for an association with disease-free
survival (DFS). Following the application of selection filters based on statistical
significance levels and performance of the genotyping, 40 SNPs were identified to be
examined in further cohorts. The verification phase consisted of 1338 patients in the
PETACC 3 trial and three population based cohorts: 899 patients from Scotland, 599
patients from Denmark, and 962 patients from Finland.
The SNPs that came closest to genome-wide significance in stage 2 and 3 CRC was
rs7556894, 15kb from Actin-related protein 2 (ARP2) on chromosome 2, part of the
ARP2/3 complex essential for cell shape and motility, with p=8.96e-07. The impact on
prognosis of rs7556894 was estimated as HR=1.52 (95% CI 1.17-1.96).
Because of the failure to reach genome-wide significance (p<1e-07), two further
approaches to the discovery phase are presented: the meta-analysis of two discovery
cohorts to increase event rate and subject numbers and a GWAS for predictive markers
for the benefit of adjuvant 5-FU chemotherapy. Formal verification of either approach
was not undertaken as part of this thesis.
Further loci were subjected to specific analyses of association with prognosis or CRC
susceptibility: rs6983267 and the previously identified CRC susceptibility loci to a survival
analysis, and not found to be associated; rs6687758, previously identified as a potential
CRC risk locus to a susceptibility verification, confirming a significant association with
HR=1.15, 95% CI 1.10-1.21, p=5.04e-08; and a variety of hypothesis driven potential
risk loci to a screen for an association with CRC susceptibility, none was found but the
LD relationship between tagSNPs and insertion/deletion polymorphisms appears to be
the same as for ‘normal’ SNPs.
Overall, the data presented in this thesis quantify further the contribution of germline
variation to CRC susceptibility, exclude a major effect of such variation on prognosis, and
verify rs6687758 as a further low-penetrance CRC susceptibility locus
Exploring the Short-Sleep Obesity Association in Young Children
No full textThere is strong and consistent epidemiological evidence that short sleep duration is associated with increased risk of obesity from early childhood. Childhood obesity and inadequate sleep have negative consequences for health and well-being, and the ability to target both of these public health concerns with a novel obesity intervention involving sleep extension is appealing; yet little is known about the mechanisms linking short sleep with obesity. In adults, hormonal mechanisms have been proposed; in young children, behavioural mechanisms and parenting are likely to be involved. Furthermore, the wider social and cultural determinants of short sleep and obesity should be incorporated into sleep-obesity research. This study aimed to explore some aspects of the sleep-obesity link in preschool children, using an exploratory design with a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods, and applying an evolutionary medicine perspective.
Participants were 109 3-year-old children and their parents in Stockton-on-Tees. Children’s sleep (validated by actigraphy), food intake and activity over 4 days/5 nights were assessed by parental diary report, and body composition was measured. Parents’ attitudes were explored using semi-structured interviews.
Combined daytime and nighttime sleep duration was associated with central fat. Alternate parenting strategies were identified, based on regulation and consistency (routine-led), or child-governance and lack of regulation (routine-free). Building on the trends identified and the literature reviewed, I propose two hypotheses to explain the short sleep-obesity link in young children: the Behavioural Mechanisms Hypothesis (dietary and activity behaviours mediate or confound the association), and the Parental Confounding Hypothesis (parenting strategies, which vary with SES, impact on both children’s sleep duration and obesity risk). Parenting impacts children’s health by either limiting or facilitating discordance between children’s experiences in evolutionarily novel environments, and their biological make-up. I conclude that sleep-based obesity interventions should consider the wider context of children’s behaviours, particularly strategies of parenting
Why do British Indian children have an apparent mental health advantage?
No full textThe British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (B-CAMHS) of 1999 and 2004 found a substantially lower prevalence of any child mental disorder in Indians compared to the general population (3.4% vs. 9.4%, p<0.001). This PhD sought to understand this apparent Indian mental health advantage through secondary analyses comparing the 16 449 White and 419 Indian children aged 5-16 in B-CAMHS.
There was strong evidence (p<0.002) of an Indian advantage for externalising problems/disorders and little or no difference for internalising problems. This was consistently observed for clinical diagnosis and for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) administered separately to parents, teachers and children. Detailed psychometric analyses provided no evidence that measurement bias could account for this observed Indian advantage. There was likewise no evidence that the advantage could be explained by participation bias.
In multivariable analyses the unexplained difference between Indians and Whites for externalising problems decreased somewhat after adjusting for the fact that Indian children were more likely to live in two-parent families (92.2% vs. 65.4%) and less likely to have academic difficulties (e.g. 2.9% vs. 8.6% for parent-reported learning difficulties). In models adjusting for a larger number of child, family, school and area variables the difference reduced only by about a quarter (e.g. from 1.08 to 0.75 SDQ points on the parent SDQ) and remained highly significant (p<0.001). In both unadjusted and adjusted models, the unexplained Indian advantage for externalising problems was consistently larger in families of low SEP. There was little or no evidence of an ethnic difference for internalising problems/disorders in unadjusted or adjusted models.
In conclusion, the Indian mental health advantage is genuine and is specific to externalising problems/disorders. Family type and academic abilities mediate part of this advantage, but most of the advantage is not explained by major child mental health risk factors
British Party Politics and Foreign Policy: The Case of Zimbabwe
No full textThe basic tenets of International Relations have become subject to uncertainty and debate. The academic consensus that dominated the field has cracked with further questions arising on the conventional assumptions’ claim to universality. Post-modernist thinkers, who have challenged its foundation on structured thinking, affirm that normalising discourses within traditional foreign policy position restricts academic advancement in the area. They challenge the notion that geopolitics and national politics are mutually exclusive. They argue for an interpretive approach of IR, which could show that some principles and understanding that shape domestic policymaking may affect foreign policy positions. Their interpretation of politics, including IR, is that, its fundamentals require an interpretive review of actions and their consequences. These reveal the socio-political and environmental influences that help shape policy, which traditional approaches to foreign relations fail to reveal. In over a century, the political situation in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe tilted towards the ideological position of the party in Britain. A debate about the nature of government, human rights, economics and Britain’s role in these, has characterised the foreign policy debate between the two states. The definition of these concepts has depended on the party running Downing Street. The emphasis on similar issues in the 1970s and 1980s differed to that of the late 1990s, indicating divergent interpretations of national interests, which most scholars regard as causal of the apolitical nature of IR. The high levels of public interest Rhodesian/Zimbabwean interests pushed foreign policy into the ideological field of domestic politics. This challenges the IR premises established by convention IR approaches. Thus, using the case study it is clear that dominated views of foreign relations are unable to verify the whole picture of what transpires in a political field
