1,539 research outputs found
Introduction. Social Inequalities, Uneven Space, and Care
No full textUnevenness remains a salient characteristic of caring relationships in a world plagued by disruptions and crises. Scholars of care have acknowledged the prevalence of uneven geographies of care that unfold primarily in urban space. Yet, the urban is also a hopeful realm where care is continuously extended to the needy-from homeless people to undocumented migrants. Performing the (urban) work of care and mitigating the inequalities that underpin it is a massive endeavor necessitating mass mobilization of individuals, social groups, and communities. But care also requires more than benevolence and affect as considerable investment and allocation of material resources are needed to sustain care work on wider redistributive scales. It is through these site-specific combinations of resources, or `materialities of care,´ which include not only human bodies, but also material hardwire, or infrastructures, that urban care is provided
On-line measurement of some selected soil properties for controlled input crop management systems
Get PDFThe evaluation of the soil spatial variability using a fast, robust and cheap tool is one of the key steps towards the implementation of Precision Agriculture (PA) successfully. Soil organic carbon (OC), soil total nitrogen (TN) and soil moisture content (MC) are needed to be monitored for both agriculture and environmental applications. The literature has proven that visible and near infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy to be a quick, cheap and robust tool to acquire information about key soil properties simultaneously with relatively high accuracy. The on-line vis-NIR measurement accuracy depends largely on the quality of calibration models. In order to establish robust calibration models for OC, TN and MC valid for few selected European farms, several factors affecting model accuracy have been studied. Nonlinear calibration techniques, e.g. artificial neural network (ANN) combined with partial least squares regression (PLSR) has provided better calibration accuracy than the linear PLSR or principal component regression analysis (PCR) alone. It was also found that effects of sample concentration statistics, including the range or standard derivation and the number of samples used for model calibration are substantial, which should be taking into account carefully. Soil MC, texture and their interaction effects are other principle factors affecting the in situ and on-line vis-NIR measurement accuracy. This study confirmed that MC is the main negative effect, whereas soil clay content plays a positive role. The general calibration models developed for soil OC, TN and MC for farms in European were validated using a previously developed vis-NIR on-line measurement system equipped with a wider vis-NIR spectrophotometer (305 – 2200 nm) than the previous version. The validation results showed this wider range on-line vis-NIR system can acquire larger than 1500 data point per ha with a very good measurement accuracy for TN and OC and excellent accuracy for MC. The validation also showed that spiking few target field samples into the general calibration models is an effective and efficient approach for upgrading the implementation of the on-line vis-NIR sensor for measurement in new fields in the selected European farms
Recall this Book 30: Nir Eyal on (the Deontology of) "Challenge Testing" a Covid Vaccine
No full textOn April 27, David D. Kirkpatrick reported in the N. Y. Times that Oxford's Jenner Center is close to starting human trials on a potential Covid-19 vaccine. According to Kirkpatrick, "ethics rules, as a general principle, forbid seeking to infect human test participants with a serious disease. That means the only way to prove that a vaccine works is to inoculate people in a place where the virus spreading naturally around them." It ain't necessarily so, says Nir Eyal, Henry Rutgers Professor of Ethics and Director of Center for Population-Level Bioethics, Rutgers University. Eyal is lead author (along with Harvard's Marc Lipsitch and Peter Smith) of a striking March article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Human Challenge Studies to Accelerate Coronavirus Vaccine Licensure. A recent interview with Nir in Nature has a more revealing title: "Should scientists infect healthy people with the coronavirus to test vaccines?" So, John sat down with Nir to discuss the idea of deliberately exposing healthy young volunteers to corona virus in order to accelerate the efficacy phase of vaccine testing. Prior to this pandemic, many felt challenge testing with a deadly disease was beyond the ethical pale. Eyal et. al propose that despite its checkered history (think coerced deadly medical procedures), there is an interesting philosophical case to be made in its favor
Protein Topology Prediction Algorithms Systematically Investigated in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
No full textMembrane proteins perform a variety of functions, all crucially dependent on their orientation in the membrane. However, neither the exact number of transmembrane domains (TMDs) nor the topology of most proteins have been experimentally determined. Due to this, most scientists rely primarily on prediction algorithms to determine topology and TMD assignments. Since these can give contradictory results, single-algorithm-based predictions are unreliable. To map the extent of potential misanalysis, the predictions of nine algorithms on the yeast proteome are compared and it is found that they have little agreement when predicting TMD number and termini orientation. To view all predictions in parallel, a webpage called TopologYeast: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/molgen/TopologYeast was created. Each algorithm is compared with experimental data and a poor agreement is found. The analysis suggests that more systematic data on protein topology are required to increase the training sets for prediction algorithms and to have accurate knowledge of membrane protein topology
A toolbox for systematic discovery of stable and transient protein interactors in baker's yeast
No full textAbstract Identification of both stable and transient interactions is essential for understanding protein function and regulation. While assessing stable interactions is more straightforward, capturing transient ones is challenging. In recent years, sophisticated tools have emerged to improve transient interactor discovery, with many harnessing the power of evolved biotin ligases for proximity labelling. However, biotinylation‐based methods have lagged behind in the model eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, possibly due to the presence of several abundant, endogenously biotinylated proteins. In this study, we optimised robust biotin‐ligation methodologies in yeast and increased their sensitivity by creating a bespoke technique for downregulating endogenous biotinylation, which we term ABOLISH (Auxin‐induced BiOtin LIgase diminiSHing). We used the endoplasmic reticulum insertase complex (EMC) to demonstrate our approaches and uncover new substrates. To make these tools available for systematic probing of both stable and transient interactions, we generated five full‐genome collections of strains in which every yeast protein is tagged with each of the tested biotinylation machineries, some on the background of the ABOLISH system. This comprehensive toolkit enables functional interactomics of the entire yeast proteome
A toolbox for systematic discovery of stable and transient protein interactors in baker’s yeast
No full textCare, Uncare, and the City
No full textThrough exploring the spatial conditions and materializations of caring practices and relations, this chapter aims at developing an urban(ized) understanding of care. It thereby seeks to interweave care debates into conceptual debates in urban studies and planning theory. The chapter discusses the tension between fields of care and `uncare´ as an analytical lens to situate care debates-and the ambivalences unfolding around them-within broader theoretical debates on cities, urbanization, and urban life. By taking a spatial perspective and by fostering an understanding of care geographies, three perspectives are developed: 1) How the scale of analysis and research in urban theory contributes to a wider understanding of the changing landscape of care; 2) how moments of presence and of encounters in public space allow both the acknowledgment and alteration of caring infrastructures; and 3) how care and crisis are fundamentally linked, and how care perspectives bear a potential to move analytical prisms beyond crisis-centered narratives
On-line measurement of selected soil properties towards the refinement of Nitrogen fertilisation management in vegetable crops
Get PDFFertiliser applications in vegetable crops are one of the main input costs of
production. Thematic soil maps have been widely used for decades to
characterise soil nutrients and, therefore, apply variable rate fertilisers.
However, traditional variable rate methods used in soil sampling are time-
consuming, costly and not accurate. Thus, they fail in providing a true estimate
of the nutrients soil needs. To obtain better crop response to inputs, a rapid,
non-destructive, timely and cost-effective soil analysis are needed to enable
site-specific fertiliser applications. Proximal soil sensing with visible and near
infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy is a promising tool to assist in variable rate
applications. This thesis aims to develop reliable calibration models for a
previously developed on-line visible (vis) and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy
sensor (Mouazen, 2006), for the prediction of soil properties in vegetable crop
fields for a better N fertiliser management. Experiments were established in
crops of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) during 2013 season (two fields) and
2014 season (three fields), in UK. A mobile, fibre-type, vis–NIR
spectrophotometer (AgroSpec, Tec5 Technology for Spectroscopy, Germany)
with a measurement range of 305-2200 nm was used to measure soil spectra in
diffuse reflectance mode, measuring up to ~1500 points per ha. Four different
calibration sets were tested to establish the most accurate calibration model for
moisture content (MC), soil organic carbon (OC), pH and total nitrogen (TN),
using partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis selected according to
different spectral library size and geographical scale: Scenario 1 (SC1 (local)),
Scenario 2 (SC2 (regional)), Scenario 3 (SC3 (national)), Scenario 4 (SC4
(continental)). The best results in cross-validation were obtained for MC with
SC2 (R2[R squared] = 0.89; RPD > 2.5), followed by SC4 (R2[R squared] = 0.88; RPD = 2.91-3.31, in
2013 and 2014, respectively); and SC1 and SC4 worked very well for MC on-
line prediction (R2[R squared] > 0.90 and RPD > 2.5). SC3 and SC4 both provided the best
performance for OC and TN in cross-validation, whereas no clear trend was
observed for on-line prediction. Poor model performance was obtained for pH in
on-line predictions (R2[R squared] < 0.30 and RPD < 0.9). Although the calibration models
using the on-line vis-NIR sensor provided good and detailed information of the
soil nutrients analysed, future research will be needed to estimate these
properties more accurately, with the aim to develop reliable vis-NIR calibration
models for the on-line measurement in vegetable crop fields
Book Launch: Z''L Gali Schir - "We bring them Israel there." Cross border engagement as a case of nationbuilding (Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2018)
Get PDFFaist T, Cohen N. Book Launch: Z''L Gali Schir - "We bring them Israel there." Cross border engagement as a case of nationbuilding (Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2018). COMCAD Arbeitspapiere - Working Papers. Vol 170. Bielefeld: Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD), Fakultät für Soziologie; 2020
Care and the city: encounters with urban studies
Get PDFCare and the City is a cross-disciplinary collection of chapters examining urban social spaces, in which caring and uncaring practices intersect and shape people’s everyday lives. While asking how care and uncare are embedded in the urban condition, the book focuses on inequalities in caring relations and the ways they are acknowledged, reproduced, and overcome in various spaces, discourses, and practices.
This book provides a pathway for urban scholars to start engaging with approaches to conceptualize care in the city through a critical-reflexive analysis of processes of urbanization. It pursues a systematic integration of empirical, methodological, theoretical, and ethical approaches to care in urban studies, while overcoming a crisis-centered reading of care and the related ambivalences in care debates, practices, and spaces. These strands are elaborated via a conceptual framework of care and situated within broader theoretical debates on cities, urbanization, and urban development with detailed case studies from Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
By establishing links to various fields of knowledge, this book seeks to systematically introduce debates on care to the interconnecting fields of urban studies, planning theory, and related disciplines for the first time
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