Immune evasion in lung cancer results from both structural and functional alterations of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules and the local release of immunosuppressive cytokines. Recent ...data suggest that HLA-G, a nonclassical class Ib molecule, is involved in immune evasion by tumor cells. We sought to determine whether HLA-G could contribute to immunescape in lung cancer. All of 19 tumor specimens examined demonstrated detectable membrane-bound (HLA-G1), as well as soluble (HLA-G5) isoform transcription. Nine of 34 (26%) tumors were positive by immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibody (mAb) 4H84, recognizing all denatured HLA-G isoforms, of which six were positive using mAb 16G1, recognizing soluble HLA-G. HLA-G immunoreactivity correlated with high-grade histology, with HLA-G being preferentially expressed on large-cell carcinomas. In these patients, loss of classical HLA class I molecules was observed to associate with HLA-G protein up-regulation. Moreover, we found interleukin-10 expressed in 15 of 34 (44%) tumors, and in most of the HLA-G-positive cases (7 of 9), suggesting up-modulation of HLA-G by interleukin-10. It is conceivable that HLA-G expression in lung cancer might be one of the ways how the tumor down-regulates host immune response, in addition to interleukin-10 production and HLA class I loss.
Managing Plastics: Uses, Losses and Disposal Clift, Roland; Baumann, Henrikke; Murphy, Richard ...
Law, environment and development journal,
2019, Letnik:
15, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The term ‘plastic’ refers to a wide range of different materials with diverse properties and uses. Plastics are essential in a modern industrial economy. Plastic pollution results from the ‘leakage’ ...of plastics into the unconfined environment at all stages of the product cycle, not just following use, so the highest priority to prevent continuing pollution is to ensure that all plastics remain within the economy. The ‘circular economy’ approach may reduce but cannot eliminate plastic pollution without effective measures to prevent leakage. Measures to prevent leakage must be based on understanding of how plastics are brought into and moved through the economy; of the practical options for reducing demand for fresh plastic, re-using and recycling plastic products, and managing final waste; and on prioritizing development of alternative materials for specific uses. Even if leakages of plastic into the environment are curtailed, the legacy of plastic pollution over the last seventy years will remain, particularly in the oceans. Marine plastic litter is a problem of the Global Commons and requires global action for its collection. Currently, landfilling of collected marine plastic debris is the only feasible option but, if economic uses can be found, this will partially offset future demand for fresh plastics.
Preparation Scott, Jonathan T.; Stahel, Walter R.
The Sustainable Business WorkBook,
2013
Book Chapter
... the act of making ready (i.e. putting or setting in order in advance of an act or purpose). Before beginning the sustainability process it’s important to: (1) learn what sustainability entails, ...(2) articulate why the pursuit of it is important, and (3) establish the groundwork that will instil both managers and non-management employees with enthusiasm, answers and support. Without this foundation, most attempts at sustainability are prone to confusion, suspicion, disorganization and dwindling motivation – as well as wasted time and efforts.
Preservation Scott, Jonathan T.; Stahel, Walter R.
The Sustainable Business WorkBook,
2013
Book Chapter
Preservation is defined as:
The process of keeping something in existence,
To keep up or maintain something,
The act of protecting or safeguarding something from harm or injury,
Keeping possession ...of, or retaining, what currently exists.
Processes Scott, Jonathan T.; Stahel, Walter R.
The Sustainable Business WorkBook,
2013
Book Chapter
A process is defined as: (1) a series of progressive, interrelated steps or actions from which an end result is attained, or (2) a prescribed procedure or a method of conducting affairs. Either way, ...processes form the belief systems, philosophies or thought patterns that constitute the work environments in which goods and services are manufactured (seen from this angle, a business process can also be referred to as a ‘business model’ or ‘the way we do things around here’). Most practitioners agree that for any business process to function properly, total commitment from all involved is mandatory. Success is also reliant upon a perfect fit between the process, its product and the business’s customers.
Product Scott, Jonathan T.; Stahel, Walter R.
The Sustainable Business WorkBook,
2013
Book Chapter
Because of the vast quantities of materials and energy that most products require, not to mention the huge amounts of waste they produce while they’re being manufactured, making products more ...efficient (and more efficiently) is crucial to reducing the costs of running a sustainable business. To be sure, redesigning products and the methods used to make them is time-consuming and arduous; however, many practitioners attest that it can also be the most financially rewarding.
Place Scott, Jonathan T.; Stahel, Walter R.
The Sustainable Business WorkBook,
2013
Book Chapter
Whether in an office, a factory, a store or a home, most work is conducted in buildings – and the vast majority of the world’s buildings are problematic. In some countries, buildings consume more ...than 68% of all electricity produced, account for over 39% of the nation’s energy demands, and are responsible for contributing 38% to the country’s total carbon dioxide emissions. Equally as unsettling, it’s not uncommon for indoor pollution levels to be two to five times higher (occasionally 100 times higher) than outdoor levels due to dust and fumes from interior building materials, cleaning solutions, production processes, central heating and cooling systems, radon gas, pesticides, paint, glue, carpets and so on. In the USA alone, nationwide building-related productivity losses and illnesses resulting from toxins can cost businesses $60 billion annually. Eliminating these expenses is therefore fundamental to the sustainability process.
There are clear indications that the present "old" industrial economy needs a serious adjustment to become compatible with the aims of a sustainable society. The main issues involved are the time ...factor, resource productivity and socio-cultural ecology. - the time factor: sustainability is a long-term societal vision concerned with the stewardship of natural resources and assets in order to safeguard the opportunities and choices of future generations. The industrial economy is often limited to a short-term optimization of throughput in monetary terms. Changing course towards a more sustainable society means to introduce the indeterministic time factor into economic thinking, which again implies an indeterministic vision of economics and the capability to deal with uncertainty. - resource productivity: in the present industrial economy, micro- and macro-economic success is directly coupled with resource flows (flows of matter and energy), due to its linear structure. The per capita resource consumption of this system cannot be generalized to the less developed countries without a world system collapse. In order to become sustainable, industrial economies must operate at a much higher level of resource productivity, i.e. be able to produce the same utilization value out of a greatly reduced resource throughput1. This change of course can be achieved by decoupling economic success and resource throughput - one way to do this is to change to a service economy, in which the measure of success refers to the performance of assets (stocks) instead of flows, and to stock utilization (Gianni and Stahel, 1989/93 - social and cultural ecology: the industrial economy has been largely technology-focused, using monetarized values as its main yardstick. A sustainable society is result-focused and based on social and cultural values (non-monetary assets), as well as economic values. Changing course towards a more sustainable society means to take into account social and cultural factors as peers to economic ones. The role of money still needs to be better understood and accepted, but the creation of wealth will increasingly depend on nonmonetarized assets and activities. This adaptation corresponds to a fundamental change, or paradigm shift, as the objectives of a service economy are quite different from those of an industrial economy: to maintain or increase total wealth and welfare, i.e. the monetary and non-monetary assets of society, over long periods of time. Its focal point is the optimization of utilization, i.e. of the performance and the results achieved with goods, rather than the goods themselves. The central notion of economic value in the service economy is the value of utilization over time, in contrast to the momentary value of exchange at the POS (point of sale) in the industrial economy (the added value system is only a subsystem of a larger economic concept). Similarly, quality in the service economy is defined as long-term optimization of system functioning, not as a momentary quality at the POS. For this paradigm shift towards a sustainable society, new tools are needed to control liabilities and simultaneously speed up innovation in commercial and technical areas, and to provide benchmarks for assessing new solutions. Insurance is maybe the only quick way to provide free-market safety nets for real innovation, and the concept of insurability is probably the most efficient free market assessment tool to chose between different options. This means that insurance and insurability could play a key role in the transition towards sustainability. But as a higher resource productivity also induces reduced costs (the "double dividend" of reduced resource procurement costs and reduced waste costs), insurance could even be the hidden joker to achieve a higher and greener economic competitiveness. Today, only few people in insurance, politics or the economy are aware of these links and opportunities, which this paper will try to show.
There are clear indications that the present “old” industrial economy needs a serious adjustment to become compatible with the aims of a sustainable society. The main issues involved are the time ...factor, resource productivity and socio-cultural ecology.-the time factor: sustainability is a long-term societal vision concerned with the stewardship of natural resources and assets in order to safeguard the opportunities and choices of future generations. The industrial economy is often limited to a short-term optimization of throughput in monetary terms. Changing course towards a more sustainable society means to introduce the indeterministic time factor into economic thinking, which again implies an indeterministic vision of economics and the capability to deal with uncertainty.-resource productivity: in the present industrial economy, micro- and macro-economic success is directly coupled with resource flows (flows of matter and energy), due to its linear structure. The per capita resource consumption of this system cannot be generalized to the less developed countries without a world system collapse. In order to become sustainable, industrial economies must operate at a much higher level of resource productivity, i.e. be able to produce the same utilization value out of a greatly reduced resource throughput1. This change of course can be achieved by decoupling economic success and resource throughput - one way to do this is to change to a service economy, in which the measure of success refers to the performance of assets (stocks) instead of flows, and to stock utilization (Giarini and Stahel, 1989/93).- social and cultural ecology: the industrial economy has been largely technology-focused, using monetarized values as its main yardstick. A sustainable society is result-focused and based on social and cultural values (non-monetary assets), as well as economic values. Changing course towards a more sustainable society means to take into account social and cultural factors as peers to economic ones. The role of money still needs to be better understood and accepted, but the creation of wealth will increasingly depend on nonmonetarized assets and activities.This adaptation corresponds to a fundamental change, or paradigm shift, as the objectives of a service economy are quite different from those of an industrial economy: to maintain or increase total wealth and welfare, i.e. the monetary and non-monetary assets of society, over long periods of time. Its focal point is the optimization of utilization, i.e. of the performance and the results achieved with goods, rather than the goods themselves. The central notion of economic value in the service economy is the value of utilization over time, in contrast to the momentary value of exchange at the POS (point of sale) in the industrial economy (the added value system is only a subsystem of a larger economic concept). Similarly, quality in the service economy is defined as long-term optimization of system functioning, not as a momentary quality at the POS.For this paradigm shift towards a sustainable society, new tools are needed to control liabilities and simultaneously speed up innovation in commercial and technical areas, and to provide benchmarks for assessing new solutions. Insurance is maybe the only quick way to provide free-market safety nets for real innovation, and the concept of insurability is probably the most efficient free market assessment tool to chose between different options. This means that insurance and insurability could play a key role in the transition towards sustainability. But as a higher resource productivity also induces reduced costs (the “double dividend” of reduced resource procurement costs and reduced waste costs), insurance could even be the hidden joker to achieve a higher and greener economic competitiveness.Today, only few people in insurance, politics or the economy are aware of these links and opportunities, which this paper will try to show.
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