| 1. |
- Islar, Mine, et al.
(author)
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Degrowth: A Path to Transformative Solutions for Socio-Ecological Sustainability
- 2024
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In: Global Sustainability. - 2059-4798. ; 7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article highlights the potential of degrowth as a transformative approach that can expand capacities necessary for socio-ecological sustainability. By addressing economic growth as a fundamental driver of unsustainability, degrowth offers a concrete pathway towards achieving sustainable outcomes. It calls for sustainability scientists to explicitly consider the role of economic growth, aligning with recent scientific assessments that support a critical stance on growth. While degrowth and sustainability share common goals such as respecting biocapacity and equitable distribution of ecological budgets, degrowth approaches differ by placing emphasis on national and local solutions and exploring aspects like technology, time, work, commodity, and property. Engaging with economic questions is crucial for sustainability science to maintain its transformative potential. Growth-critical perspectives like degrowth and post-growth have the potential to propel sustainability discourses into new, more impactful realms of development.
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| 2. |
- Koch, Raphael, et al.
(author)
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Turn-on fluorescence sensors based on dynamic intramolecular N -> B-coordination
- 2020
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In: ORGANIC CHEMISTRY FRONTIERS. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 2052-4129. ; 7:12, s. 1437-1452
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A series of ten aryl-triazole-functionalized boranes bearing BMes(2)-groups and capable of forming intramolecular five-membered N -> B-coordinated heterocycles, has been prepared by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. Electronically diverse substituents ranging from 4-NMe2-phenyl (4-NMe2) and 4-OMe-phenyl (4-OMe) to 4-cyanophenyl (4-CN), 4-nitrophenyl (4-NO2) and pentafluorophenyl (C6F5) have been introduced in the periphery of the compounds to systematically vary their electronic properties and the strength of the N -> B-coordination. Experimental and computational studies show that the boranes exist in dynamic equilibrium between aclosedN -> B-coordinated conformation and two types of non-coordinated conformations (open(syn)andopen(anti)). Their structural, optical and electrochemical properties have been characterized, and their binding affinities for nucleophilic anions has been tested. Individual boranes exhibit either fluorescence quenching (4-Me,4-OMe) or fluorescence turn-on (4-CN,4-CF3,C6F5,3,5-(CF3)(2)) upon coordination of anions. Further analyses show that the binding affinity to cyanide can be tailored through variation of the peripheral substituent, ranging from 5.79 (+/- 0.11) for4-Meto 6.53 (+/- 0.15) for the4-CN-substituted borane. These experimental data correlate with computed anion binding affinities, which indicate that the effective Lewis acidity at boron covers a range reaching from the parent compound PhBMes(2)to the much more Lewis acidic Ph3B.
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| 3. |
- Koch, Raphael, et al.
(author)
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Zoledronic Acid Add-on Therapy for Standard-Risk Ewing Sarcoma Patients in the Ewing 2008R1 Trial
- 2023
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In: Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. - 1078-0432. ; 29:24, s. 5057-5068
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PURPOSE: The phase III, open-label, prospective, multicenter, randomized Ewing 2008R1 trial (EudraCT2008-003658-13) was conducted in 12 countries to evaluate the effect of zoledronic acid (ZOL) maintenance therapy compared with no add-on regarding event-free survival (EFS, primary endpoint) and overall survival (OS) in standard-risk Ewing sarcoma (EWS). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eligible patients had localized EWS with either good histologic response to induction chemotherapy and/or small tumors (<200 mL). Patients received six cycles of VIDE induction and eight cycles of VAI (male) or eight cycles of VAC (female) consolidation. ZOL treatment started parallel to the sixth consolidation cycle. Randomization was stratified by tumor site (pelvis/other). The two-sided adaptive inverse-normal four-stage design (planned sample size 448 patients, significance level 5%, power 80%) was changed after the first interim analysis using the Müller-Schäfer method. RESULTS: Between April 2010 and November 2018, 284 patients were randomized (142 ZOL/142 no add-on). With a median follow-up of 3.9 years, EFS was not significantly different between ZOL and no add-on group in the adaptive design (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.43-1.28, P = 0.27, intention-to-treat). Three-year EFS rates were 84.0% (95% CI, 77.7%-90.8%) for ZOL vs. 81.7% (95% CI, 75.2%-88.8%) for no add-on. Results were similar in the per-protocol collective. OS was not different between groups. The 3-year OS was 92.8% (95% CI, 88.4%-97.5%) for ZOL and 94.6% (95% CI, 90.9%-98.6%) for no add-on. Noticeable more renal, neurologic, and gastrointestinal toxicities were observed for ZOL (P < 0.05). Severe renal toxicities occurred more often in the ZOL arm (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with standard-risk localized EWS, there is no additional benefit from maintenance treatment with ZOL.
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| 4. |
- Raphael, Riya, et al.
(author)
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Postgrowth welfare systems: a view from the Nordic context
- 2024
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In: Consumption and Society. - 2752-8499. ; 3:3, s. 395-407
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As production and supply chains rely on exploitative extraction of nature and labour, consumption levels (resource use) remain one of the main indicators of inequality, across and within national contexts. In times of ongoing climate crisis and rising levels of inequalities, welfare systems face the dual challenge of transforming economies to reduce their reliance on unsustainable industries as well as maintain and expand equitable distribution of public provision. In this keyword essay, we address three overlapping concerns to consider while envisioning sustainable welfare within the Nordic context: growth and its paradoxical relation with welfare; inequalities and notions of wellbeing; and possible alternatives to arrange provision systems.
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| 5. |
- Reuten, Raphael, et al.
(author)
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Basement membrane stiffness determines metastases formation
- 2021
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In: Nature Materials. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4660 .- 1476-1122.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The basement membrane (BM) is a special type of extracellular matrix and presents the major barrier cancer cells have to overcome multiple times to form metastases. Here we show that BM stiffness is a major determinant of metastases formation in several tissues and identify netrin-4 (Net4) as a key regulator of BM stiffness. Mechanistically, our biophysical and functional analyses in combination with mathematical simulations show that Net4 softens the mechanical properties of native BMs by opening laminin node complexes, decreasing cancer cell potential to transmigrate this barrier despite creating bigger pores. Our results therefore reveal that BM stiffness is dominant over pore size, and that the mechanical properties of ‘normal’ BMs determine metastases formation and patient survival independent of cancer-mediated alterations. Thus, identifying individual Net4 protein levels within native BMs in major metastatic organs may have the potential to define patient survival even before tumour formation. The ratio of Net4 to laminin molecules determines BM stiffness, such that the more Net4, the softer the BM, thereby decreasing cancer cell invasion activity.
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