No abstract

No abstract

Summary: Through the use of DEAE‐cellulose under the conditions reported in this paper which were particularly selective for the adsorption of clotting factors, the chromatographic behaviour of Factors I, II, V, VII, VIII, IX and X was studied using different buffer systems. Human plasma, supernatant of Fraction I of Cohn and human Factor‐VIII concentrates were used as starting materials. As some of the chromatographic systems used do not perceptibly modify the physical and chemical properties of the plasma or its derivatives, they allow the techniques to be included in a general scheme of routine plasma fractionation. The conclusions drawn from the chromatographic behaviour of the factors studied have led to the preparation of a concentrate of Factors II, IX and X for clinical use, a concentrate of Factor VII and an artificial substrate for the assay of Factor VII.

The Anthropocene is seen by many scholars across the sciences and the humanities as a tool for political action. Yet the validation process for this term appears to be extremely conservative. According to geologists’ leading efforts to formalize the term, signals need to petrify in stratigraphic sequences in order to become candidates to mark the start of the Anthropocene. I argue that this emphasis results from a fossilized view of becoming, where time is seen as a punctuated accumulation of solid surfaces that are accessible only in retrospect. I show that this petrified view of change relates to a tendency to divorce earth and sky, which currently divides the practices of humanities scholars and geologists, as well as those of earth system scientists and stratigraphers collaborating on the formalization of the Anthropocene. Challenging this tendency, I conclude, requires opening up earth’s history to the more-than-solid flows of environmental change.

Recent environmental changes have sparked off unprecedented dialogues between practitioners of the earth sciences and the humanities, which defy some of the basic assumptions underpinning western science. However, a gap still persists between natural scientists and scholars in the humanities in their tendency to concentrate respectively on the solid matter and fluid meaning. This article seeks to close this gap by paying attention to glacial ice and concrete, materials that often mark the onset and culmination of human history and have been historically regarded as solid fluids. We suggest that ice and concrete are caught in a punctuated understanding of change that turns fluidity and solidity into mutually exclusive properties. The article concludes by comparing this oxymoronic syndrome with the ways the Inuit of West Greenland experience their cryogenic landscapes as nurturing environments in constant becoming.

The identification of several genetic mutations in colorectal cancer (CRC) has allowed a better comprehension of the prognosis and response to different antineoplastic treatments. Recently, through a systematic process, consensus molecular subtypes (CMS) have been described to characterize genetic and molecular mutations in CRC patients. Through CMS, CRC patients can be categorized into four molecular subtypes of CRC by wide transcriptional genome analysis. CMS1 has microsatellite instability and mutations in CIMP and BRAF pathways. CMS2, distinguished by mutations in specific pathways linked to cellular metabolism, also has a better prognosis. CMS3 has a KRAS mutation as a hallmark. CMS4 presents mutations in fibrogenesis pathways and mesenchymal-epithelial transition, associated with a worse prognosis. CMS classification can be a meaningful step in providing possible answers to important issues in CRC, such as the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II, personalized first-line chemotherapy for metastasic CRC, and possible new target treatments that address specific pathways in each molecular subtype. Understanding CMS is a crucial step in personalized medicine, although prospective clinical trials selecting patients by CMS are required to pass proof-of-concept before becoming a routine clinical tool in oncology routine care.

With the arrival of Transantiago, the integrated public transport system of Santiago, Chile, a new payment method was implemented: the smart card. A critical aspect for smart cards is the loading network. Transantiago had a weak loading network, and, to tackle fare evasion, a loan was given through the smart card to those with insufficient funds, to complete one additional trip. The benefit was active from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. (the next day). No extensive analyses have examined the benefit—specifically whether the operating hours were optimal to reduce fare evasion. On May 1, 2014, an unannounced pilot plan extended the time window of the benefit until 11 a.m. Data analysis showed that this extension could effectively reduce fare evasion, as new smart card users took advantage of the benefit, effectively lowering failed trip attempts of users with positive but insufficient funds, and slightly increasing failed trip attempts by users with negative funds (who previously used the benefit). Estimates showed that 6,000 trips per day were no longer evaded as a result of the extension. On November 24, 2014, the benefit was publicly announced, after which failed trip attempts increased. Suggestions for the future are made to reduce fare evasion.

This issue opens an inquiry into the tension between solidity and fluidity. This tension is ingrained in the Western intellectual tradition and informs theoretical debates across the sciences and humanities. In physics, solid is one phase of matter, alongside liquid, gas and plasma. This, however, assumes all matter to be particulate. Reversing the relation between statics and dynamics, we argue to the contrary, that matter exists as continuous flux. It is both solid and fluid. What difference would it make were we to start from our inescapable participation in a world of solid fluids? Is solid fluidity a condition of being in the midst of things, or of intermediacy on a solid-fluid continuum? Does the world appear fluid in the process of its formation, but solid when you look back on things already formed? Here we open new paths for theorizing matter and meaning at a time of ecological crisis.