This paper studies the relation between coalition structures in policy processes and policy change. While different factors such as policy images, learning processes, external events, or venue ...shopping are important to explain policy change, coalition structures within policy processes are often neglected. However, policy change happens as a result of negotiations and coordination among coalitions within policy processes. The paper analyzes how conflict, collaboration, and power relations among coalitions of actors influence policy change in an institutional context of a consensus democracy. Empirically, I rely on a Qualitative Comparative Analysis to conduct a cross‐sector comparison of the 11 most important policy processes in Switzerland between 2001 and 2006. Coalition structures with low conflict and strong collaboration among coalitions as well as structures with dominant coalitions and weak collaboration both facilitate major policy change. Competing coalitions that are separated by strong conflict but still collaborate strongly produce policy outputs that are close to the status quo.
Climate change mitigation policy is driven by scientific knowledge and involves actors from the international, national and local decision-making levels. This multi-level and cross-sectoral context ...requires collaborative management when designing mitigation solutions over time and space. But collaboration in general policymaking settings, and particularly in the complex domain of climate mitigation, is not an easy task. This paper addresses the question of what drives collaboration among collective actors involved in climate mitigation policy. We wish to investigate whether common beliefs or power structures influence collaboration among actors. We adopt a longitudinal approach to grasp differences between the early and more advanced stages of mitigation policy design. We use survey data to investigate actors’ collaboration, beliefs and power, and apply a Stochastic Actor-oriented Model for network dynamics to three subsequent networks in Swiss climate policy between 1995 and 2012. Results show that common beliefs among actors, as well as formal power structures, have a higher impact on collaboration relations than perceived power structures. Furthermore, those effects hold true for decision-making about initial mitigation strategies, but less so for the implementation of those measures.
Fatty acids (FAs) are considered strategically important platform compounds that can be accessed by sustainable microbial approaches. Here we report the reprogramming of chain-length control of ...Saccharomyces cerevisiae fatty acid synthase (FAS). Aiming for short-chain FAs (SCFAs) producing baker's yeast, we perform a highly rational and minimally invasive protein engineering approach that leaves the molecular mechanisms of FASs unchanged. Finally, we identify five mutations that can turn baker's yeast into a SCFA producing system. Without any further pathway engineering, we achieve yields in extracellular concentrations of SCFAs, mainly hexanoic acid (C
-FA) and octanoic acid (C
-FA), of 464 mg l
in total. Furthermore, we succeed in the specific production of C
- or C
-FA in extracellular concentrations of 72 and 245 mg l
, respectively. The presented technology is applicable far beyond baker's yeast, and can be plugged into essentially all currently available FA overproducing microorganisms.
Collaboration between actors in political decision-making processes is crucial from both an actor and a process perspective. Previous studies have highlighted the role of preference similarity, ...power, and opportunity structures as drivers of collaboration. However, these studies have focused on single policy sectors and have therefore overlooked possible differences in effects across sectors, as well as interactions between sectors. This article innovates by taking a cross-sector perspective. Applying exponential random graph models to collaboration networks covering 11 decision-making processes, we show that relational opportunity structures have a fairly consistent influence on collaboration, whereas the effects of social and institutional opportunity structures vary across processes. The effect of institutional opportunity structures is contingent on the importance of institutional arenas. Our hypothesis on cross-sector influences receives partial support. Opportunity structures and interactions between sectors add to preference similarity and power, which have a strong and robust influence on collaborative tie formation.
Fragmentation across scales in natural resource governance can impede coordinated action and decrease innovation capacity. Bridging actors who connect others within governance networks helps to ...overcome this challenge. We analyze two bridging positions for actors in governance networks. First, periphery connectors integrate otherwise unconnected actors and provide access to new knowledge. Second, central coordinators efficiently connect actors at the center of the network and thus facilitate coordinated action. We propose a way to identify periphery connectors and central coordinators within governance networks and formulate expectations about types of actors that are likely to occupy these positions. An analysis of three actor networks in the water supply sector in Switzerland suggests that periphery coordinator positions are more likely to be occupied by organizations at higher jurisdictional levels. Central coordinator positions are more likely to be occupied by governmental actors as compared to nongovernmental actors. Thus, in addressing challenges of fragmentation, higher level governmental actors continue to play an important role, even when they delegate responsibilities to lower level and private actors.
•We study the validity of the assessment of reputational power among political actors.•We test our Exponential Random Graph Model on data on 10 different networks.•Our results overall highlight the ...validity of the reputational power measure, but nevertheless point to mechanisms of self-promotion or misperception.•Informants attribute more power to actors with whom they collaborate.
The idea behind the reputational measure for assessing power of political actors is that actors involved in a decision-making process have the best view of their fellows’ power. There has been, however, no systematic examination of why actors consider other actors as powerful. Consequently, it is unclear whether reputational power measures what it ought to. The paper analyzes the determinants of power attribution and distinguishes intended from unintended determinants in a data-set of power assessment covering 10 political decision-making processes in Switzerland. Results are overall reassuring, but nevertheless point toward self-promotion or misperception biases, as informants systematically attribute more power to actors with whom they collaborate.
•The study unravels spatial and socio-economic determinants of smart cities.•Fuzzy-set QCA is used the determine the conditions favouring cities’ progress.•Service sector, universities and urban ...density are found as critical elements.•The study contributes to understanding of geographies of smart city development.
In the last decade, a number of smart city initiatives have flourished around the world. While the literature is ripe with descriptions of those projects and pioneering cities, there is far less systematic research on why some cities are more advanced than others. As single locating entities, cities are posited to have strong geographic rootedness. Hence, spatial and socio-economic context, considered as the main stimulant of organizational innovation, can be particularly important for cities. We investigate 22 Swiss cities with smart city projects and use fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to determine the configuration of conditions that make some cities more advanced than others in their smart city development. Results indicate that a configuration of high share of service sector, presence of research institutions and high urban density is sufficient for the outcome, whereas population size, new residential development and participation to international networks appear as less important. By providing insights into the spatial and socio-economic underpinnings of smart city development, the study contributes to the understanding of the geographies of smart cities.
The essential oxidoreductase Mia40/CHCHD4 mediates disulfide bond formation and protein folding in the mitochondrial intermembrane space. Here, we investigated the interactome of Mia40 thereby ...revealing links between thiol-oxidation and apoptosis, energy metabolism, and Ca2+ signaling. Among the interaction partners of Mia40 is MICU1—the regulator of the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU), which transfers Ca2+ across the inner membrane. We examined the biogenesis of MICU1 and find that Mia40 introduces an intermolecular disulfide bond that links MICU1 and its inhibitory paralog MICU2 in a heterodimer. Absence of this disulfide bond results in increased receptor-induced mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake. In the presence of the disulfide bond, MICU1-MICU2 heterodimer binding to MCU is controlled by Ca2+ levels: the dimer associates with MCU at low levels of Ca2+ and dissociates upon high Ca2+ concentrations. Our findings support a model in which mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake is regulated by a Ca2+-dependent remodeling of the uniporter complex.
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•Mia40 interactome links thiol redox to apoptosis, energy metabolism, Ca2+ signaling•MCU serves as platform for disulfide-dependent MICU1-MICU2 dimerization by Mia40•Absence of the disulfide that links MICU1 and MICU2 leads to increased Ca2+ uptake•Ca2+ uptake is controlled by Ca2+-dependent dissociation of the MICU dimer from MCU
Petrungaro et al. characterize the interactome of the human mitochondrial oxidoreductase Mia40, among which is MICU1, the regulator of the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU). Mia40 primes MICU1 for heterodimerization with MICU2, and the dimer associates with MCU in a Ca2+-dependent manner to control mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake.
New techniques of unconventional oil and gas extraction, such as hydraulic fracturing, challenge current political, institutional and administrative practices in how to regulate activities in the ...underground. Conflicts of interests between economic promotion, landscape and natural resource protection, and new trends on energy markets are further intensified by the fact that techniques of oil and gas extraction come with a considerable amount of uncertainties regarding ecological and health impacts. Information exchange is one important aspect of how political actors try to reduce uncertainties and conflicts. Based on exponential random graph models (ERGM) for network data, we analyze to what degree ideologies, public authority, existing collaboration and scientific expertise drive information exchange in hydraulic fracturing regulation in the United Kingdom. Results show that technical and political information exchange have to be disentangled, and that the former is driven by expertise and existing collaboration, the latter by ideology, public authority and existing collaboration.
Clinically relevant brain metastases (BMs) frequently form in cancer patients, with limited options for effective treatment. Circulating cancer cells must first permanently arrest in brain ...microvessels to colonize the brain, but the critical factors in this process are not well understood. Here, in vivo multiphoton laser-scanning microscopy of the entire brain metastatic cascade allowed unprecedented insights into how blood clot formation and von Willebrand factor (VWF) deposition determine the arrest of circulating cancer cells and subsequent brain colonization in mice. Clot formation in brain microvessels occurred frequently (>95%) and specifically at intravascularly arrested cancer cells, allowing their long-term arrest. An extensive clot embedded ∼20% of brain-arrested cancer cells, and those were more likely to successfully extravasate and form a macrometastasis. Mechanistically, the generation of tissue factor-mediated thrombin by cancer cells accounted for local activation of plasmatic coagulation in the brain. Thrombin inhibition by treatment with low molecular weight heparin or dabigatran and an anti-VWF antibody prevented clot formation, cancer cell arrest, extravasation, and the formation of brain macrometastases. In contrast, tumor cells were not able to directly activate platelets, and antiplatelet treatments did reduce platelet dispositions at intravascular cancer cells but did not reduce overall formation of BMs. In conclusion, our data show that plasmatic coagulation is activated early by intravascular tumor cells in the brain with subsequent clot formation, which led us to discover a novel and specific mechanism that is crucial for brain colonization. Direct or indirect thrombin and VWF inhibitors emerge as promising drug candidates for trials on prevention of BMs.
•Intravital imaging uncovers early blood clot formation and VWF deposition as important factors for cancer cell arrest in brain capillaries.•Brain macrometastasis formation can be inhibited by various anticoagulant therapies, suggesting a novel strategy for metastasis prevention.
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