The “Third” United Nations Weiss, Thomas G; Carayannis, Tatiana; Jolly, Richard
Global governance,
01/2009, Letnik:
15, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Analysts usually identify two United Nations, one composed of member states and a second composed of the secretariats. A third UN should also be recognized, composed of actors that are closely ...associated with the world organization but not formally part of it. This "outside-insider" UN includes nongovernmental organizations, academics, consultants, experts, independent commissions, and other groups of individuals. These informal networks often help to effect shifts in ideas, policies, priorities, and practices that are initially seen as undesirable or problematic by governments and international secretariats.
Wie ein Phönix aus der Asche Weiss, Thomas G
Vereinte Nationen,
01/2020, Letnik:
68, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In einer Zeit voller Ungewissheiten, in der der Multilateralismus im Zeitalter neuer Nationalismen unter Druck gerät, ist ein Rückblick auf den 1. Januar 1942 und die Erklärung der Vereinten Nationen ...aufschlussreich. Nach 75 Jahren stellt sich die Frage, ob die Welt heute ohne die Vereinten Nationen eine bessere wäre.
History holds clues about how to prepare the UN for an uncertain future with multilateralism under siege in the age of new nationalisms. With the UN’s obvious weaknesses on display, including the disjointed responses to COVID-19, this essay returns to 1 January 1942 and the signing of the Declaration by the United Nations. It views the 75-year history through a counterfactual prism: “Would the World Be Better without the UN?”
We present optical continuum lags for two Seyfert 1 galaxies, MCG+08-11-011 and NGC 2617, using monitoring data from a reverberation mapping campaign carried out in 2014. Our light curves span the ...ugriz filters over four months, with median cadences of 1.0 and 0.6 days for MCG+08-11-011 and NGC 2617, respectively, combined with roughly daily X-ray and near-UV data from Swift for NGC 2617. We find lags consistent with geometrically thin accretion-disk models that predict a lag-wavelength relation of τ ∝ λ4/3. However, the observed lags are larger than predictions based on standard thin-disk theory by factors of 3.3 for MCG+08-11-011 and 2.3 for NGC 2617. These differences can be explained if the mass accretion rates are larger than inferred from the optical luminosity by a factor of 4.3 in MCG+08-11-011 and a factor of 1.3 in NGC 2617, although uncertainty in the SMBH masses determines the significance of this result. While the X-ray variability in NGC 2617 precedes the UV/optical variability, the long (2.6 day) lag is problematic for coronal reprocessing models.
Fecal occult-blood testing and sigmoidoscopy have been recommended for screening for colorectal cancer, but the sensitivity of such combined testing for detecting neoplasia is uncertain. At 13 ...Veterans Affairs medical centers, we performed colonoscopy to determine the prevalence of neoplasia and the sensitivity of one-time screening with a fecal occult-blood test plus sigmoidoscopy.
Asymptomatic subjects (age range, 50 to 75 years) provided stool specimens on cards from three consecutive days for fecal occult-blood testing, which were rehydrated for interpretation. They then underwent colonoscopy. Sigmoidoscopy was defined in this study as examination of the rectum and sigmoid colon during colonoscopy, and sensitivity was estimated by determining how many patients with advanced neoplasia had an adenoma in the rectum or sigmoid colon. Advanced colonic neoplasia was defined as an adenoma 10 mm or more in diameter, a villous adenoma, an adenoma with high-grade dysplasia, or invasive cancer. Classification of subjects according to the findings was based on the most advanced lesion.
A total of 2885 subjects returned the three specimen cards for fecal occult-blood testing and underwent a complete colonoscopic examination. A total of 23.9 percent of subjects with advanced neoplasia had a positive test for fecal occult blood. As compared with subjects who had a negative test for fecal occult blood, the relative risk of advanced neoplasia in subjects who had a positive test was 3.47 (95 percent confidence interval, 2.76 to 4.35). Sigmoidoscopy identified 70.3 percent of all subjects with advanced neoplasia. Combined one-time screening with a fecal occult-blood test and sigmoidoscopy identified 75.8 percent of subjects with advanced neoplasia.
One-time screening with both a fecal occult-blood test with rehydration and sigmoidoscopy fails to detect advanced colonic neoplasia in 24 percent of subjects with the condition.
B cells are selected for an intermediate level of B-cell antigen receptor (BCR) signalling strength: attenuation below minimum (for example, non-functional BCR) or hyperactivation above maximum (for ...example, self-reactive BCR) thresholds of signalling strength causes negative selection. In ∼25% of cases, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) cells carry the oncogenic BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase (Philadelphia chromosome positive), which mimics constitutively active pre-BCR signalling. Current therapeutic approaches are largely focused on the development of more potent tyrosine kinase inhibitors to suppress oncogenic signalling below a minimum threshold for survival. We tested the hypothesis that targeted hyperactivation--above a maximum threshold--will engage a deletional checkpoint for removal of self-reactive B cells and selectively kill ALL cells. Here we find, by testing various components of proximal pre-BCR signalling in mouse BCR-ABL1 cells, that an incremental increase of Syk tyrosine kinase activity was required and sufficient to induce cell death. Hyperactive Syk was functionally equivalent to acute activation of a self-reactive BCR on ALL cells. Despite oncogenic transformation, this basic mechanism of negative selection was still functional in ALL cells. Unlike normal pre-B cells, patient-derived ALL cells express the inhibitory receptors PECAM1, CD300A and LAIR1 at high levels. Genetic studies revealed that Pecam1, Cd300a and Lair1 are critical to calibrate oncogenic signalling strength through recruitment of the inhibitory phosphatases Ptpn6 (ref. 7) and Inpp5d (ref. 8). Using a novel small-molecule inhibitor of INPP5D (also known as SHIP1), we demonstrated that pharmacological hyperactivation of SYK and engagement of negative B-cell selection represents a promising new strategy to overcome drug resistance in human ALL.
International relations scholars generally argue that norm-building requires a number of successful cases. This essay, however, is about three concrete examples when virtually everyone—except for the ...state citing it—disputes the legitimacy of applying the emerging norm of the responsibility-to-protect (R2P). Misrepresentations of humanitarian intentions can be disingenuous and geopolitically driven, as was the case for the US and UK war in Iraq and the Russian claim to protect South Ossetians, or disinterested but wrong, as was the French invocation of R2P for Burma. These cases suggest that misuses can advance norms through contestation and conceptual clarification. Because contestation prompts debates, denial, and tactical concessions on the norm in question, it is insightful to compare and contrast R2P's development against the early stages of two theoretical models that deal most explicitly with contestation: the "spiral" of human rights change and the "cascade" of norm development.
This article takes seriously the proposition that ideas and concepts, both good and bad, have an impact on international public policy. It situates the emergence of governance, good governance and ...global governance, as well as the UN's role in the conceptual process. Although 'governance' is as old as human history, this essay concentrates on the intellectual debates of the 1980s and 1990s but explores such earlier UN-related ideas as decolonisation, localisation and human rights, against which more recent thinking has been played out. A central analytical perspective is the tension between many academics and international practitioners who employ 'governance' to connote a complex set of structures and processes, both public and private, while more popular writers tend to use it synonymously with 'government'.
The United Nations is hardly a popular pursuit in today's academic and policy literatures, and so it is unsurprising that an examination of that multilateral structure before 1945 shows an even more ...egregious absence of analytical attention. Such ignorance conveniently ignores the forgotten genius of 1942-45, namely in the wide substantive and geographic relevance of multilateralism during World War II and in the foundations for the contemporary world order. This collection of papers critically reviews the worlds of 1945 and 2015, of then and now, to determine the role of continuity and change, of the ongoing bases for compromise, and for the clashes between the Global South and Global North.
OPTN/SRTR 2022 Annual Data Report: Kidney Lentine, Krista L.; Smith, Jodi M.; Lyden, Grace R. ...
American journal of transplantation,
February 2024, 2024-Feb, 2024-02-00, 20240201, Letnik:
24, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The year 2022 had continued successes and challenges for the field of kidney transplantation, as the community adapted to ongoing surges of the COVID-19 pandemic and broader geographic organ ...distribution. The total number of kidney transplants in the United States reached a record count of 26,309, driven by continued growth in deceased donor kidney transplants (DDKTs). The total number of candidates listed for DDKT rose slightly in 2022 but remained below 2019 listing levels, with 12.4% of candidates having been waiting 5 years or longer. Following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, pretransplant mortality in 2022 declined across age, race and ethnicity, sex, and blood type groups. Pretransplant mortality continued to vary substantially by donation service area. The proportion of deceased donor kidneys recovered but not used for transplant (nonuse rate) rose to a high of 26.7% overall, with greater nonuse of biopsied kidneys (39.8%), kidneys from donors aged 55 years or older (54.7%), and kidneys with a kidney donor profile index (KDPI) of 85% or greater (71.3%). Nonuse of kidneys from donors who are hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody positive rose to 30.2% but only slightly exceeded that of HCV antibody–negative donors. Disparities in access to living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) persist, especially for non-White and publicly insured patients. Delayed graft function continues an upward trend and occurred in 26.3% of adult kidney transplants in 2022. Five-year graft survival after LDKT compared with DDKT was 90.0% versus 81.4% for recipients aged 18-34 years and 80.8% versus 67.8% for recipients aged 65 years or older, respectively. The total number of pediatric kidney transplants performed in 2022 decreased to 705, its lowest point in the past decade; 502 (71.2%) were DDKTs and 203 (28.8%) were LDKTs. Among pediatric recipients, LDKT remains low, with continued racial disparities. The rate of DDKT among pediatric candidates has decreased by almost 25% since 2011. Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract remain the leading primary kidney disease diagnosis among pediatric candidates with a reported diagnosis. Most pediatric deceased donor recipients received a kidney from a donor with a KDPI of less than 35%. The rate of delayed graft function was 5.8% in 2022 and has been stable over the past decade. Long-term graft survival continues to improve, with superior outcomes for living donor transplant recipients.
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