bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Data from Autocrine 17-β-estradiol/estrogen receptor-α loop determines the response to immune-checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Anobile Dario P. , Salaroglio Iris C. , Tabbò Fabrizio , La Vecchia Sofia , Akman Muhlis , Napoli Francesca , Bungaro Maristella , Benso Federica , Aldieri Elisabetta , Bironzo Paolo , Kopecka Joanna , Passiglia Francesco , Righi Luisella , Novello Silvia , Scagliotti Giorgio V. , Riganti Chiara
Published: June 2023

Abstract
Purpose: The response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) often differs between genders in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but metanalyses results are controversial, and no clear mechanisms are defined. We aim at clarifying the molecular circuitries explaining the differential gender-related response to anti-PD1/anti-PD-L1 agents in NSCLC. Experimental Design: We prospectively analyzed a cohort of patients with NSCLC treated with ICI as a first-line approach and we identified the molecular mechanisms determining the differential efficacy of ICI in 29 NSCLC cell lines of both genders, recapitulating patients’ phenotype. We validated new immunotherapy strategies in mice bearing NSCLC patient-derived xenografts and human reconstituted immune system (“immune-PDXs”). Results: In patients, we found that estrogen receptor α (ERα) was a predictive factor of response to pembrolizumab, stronger than gender and PD-L1 levels, and was directly correlated with PD-L1 expression, particularly in female patients. ERα transcriptionally upregulated CD274/PD-L1 gene, more in females than in males. This axis was activated by 17-β-estradiol, autocrinely produced by intratumor aromatase, and by the EGFR-downstream effectors Akt and ERK1/2 that activated ERα. The efficacy of pembrolizumab in immune-PDXs was significantly improved by the aromatase inhibitor letrozole, which reduced PD-L1 and increased the percentage of anti-tumor CD8+T-lymphocytes, NK cells and Vγ9Vδ2 T-lymphocytes, producing durable control and even tumor regression after continuous administration, with maximal benefit in 17-β-estradiol/ERα high female immune-xenografts. Conclusions: Our work unveils that 17-β-estradiol/ERα status predicts the response to pembrolizumab in NSCLC patients. Secondly, we propose aromatase inhibitors as new gender-tailored immune-adjuvants in NSCLC.
Data from Autocrine 17-β-Estradiol/Estrogen Receptor-α Loop Determines the Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Authors: Anobile Dario P. , Salaroglio Iris C. , Tabbò Fabrizio , La Vecchia Sofia , Akman Muhlis , Napoli Francesca , Bungaro Maristella , Benso Federica , Aldieri Elisabetta , Bironzo Paolo , Kopecka Joanna , Passiglia Francesco , Righi Luisella , Novello Silvia , Scagliotti Giorgio V. , Riganti Chiara
Published: June 2023

AbstractPurpose:
The response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) often differs between genders in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but metanalyses results are controversial, and no clear mechanisms are defined. We aim at clarifying the molecular circuitries explaining the differential gender-related response to anti–PD-1/anti–PD-L1 agents in NSCLC.
Experimental Design:
We prospectively analyzed a cohort of patients with NSCLC treated with ICI as a first-line approach, and we identified the molecular mechanisms determining the differential efficacy of ICI in 29 NSCLC cell lines of both genders, recapitulating patients’ phenotype. We validated new immunotherapy strategies in mice bearing NSCLC patient-derived xenografts and human reconstituted immune system (“immune-PDXs”).
Results:
In patients, we found that estrogen receptor α (ERα) was a predictive factor of response to pembrolizumab, stronger than gender and PD-L1 levels, and was directly correlated with PD-L1 expression, particularly in female patients. ERα transcriptionally upregulated CD274/PD-L1 gene, more in females than in males. This axis was activated by 17-β-estradiol, autocrinely produced by intratumor aromatase, and by the EGFR-downstream effectors Akt and ERK1/2 that activated ERα. The efficacy of pembrolizumab in immune-PDXs was significantly improved by the aromatase inhibitor letrozole, which reduced PD-L1 and increased the percentage of antitumor CD8+T-lymphocytes, NK cells, and Vγ9Vδ2 T-lymphocytes, producing durable control and even tumor regression after continuous administration, with maximal benefit in 17-β-estradiol/ERα highfemale immune-xenografts.
Conclusions:
Our work unveils that 17-β-estradiol/ERα status predicts the response to pembrolizumab in patients with NSCLC. Second, we propose aromatase inhibitors as new gender-tailored immune-adjuvants in NSCLC.
Supplemental Table 1 from Polymorphisms in the Nonhomologous End-joining DNA Repair Pathway are Associated with HPV Integration in Cervical Dysplasia
Authors: Geris Jennifer M. , Amirian E. Susan , Marquez-Do Deborah A. , Guillaud Martial , Dillon Laura M. , Follen Michele , Scheurer Michael E.
Published: June 2023

Supplemental Table 1: Tag SNPs and Calculated Odds Ratios
Supplemental Figure S2 from Cost-effectiveness of p16/Ki-67 Dual-Stained Cytology Reflex Following Co-testing with hrHPV Genotyping for Cervical Cancer Screening
Authors: Harper Diane M. , Anderson Rye J. , Baker Ed , Yu Tiffany M.
Published: June 2023

Supplemental Figure S2 shows the proportion of the PSA simulations that were cost-effective at varying willingness-to-pay thresholds
Net impact implementation application development life-cycle management in banking sector
Authors: Pramitasari Noviana , Ruldeviyani Yova , Zarkasie Irvan Ramadhan
Published: June 2023

Digital transformation in the banking sector creates a lot of demand for application development, either new development or application enhancement. Continuous demand for reimagining, revamping, and running applications reliably needs to be supported by collaboration tools. Several big banks in Indonesia use Atlassian products, including Jira, Confluence, Bamboo, Bitbucket, and Crowd, to support strategic company projects. We need to measure the net impact of application development life-cycle management (ADLM) as a collaboration tool. Using the deLone and McLean model, process questionnaire data from banks in Indonesia that use ADLM. Processing data using structural equation modeling (SEM), multiple variables are analyzed statistically to establish, estimate, and test the causation model. The conclusions highlight that system quality strongly affected only User Satisfaction (p=0.049 and β=0.39). Information quality strongly affected use (p=0.001 and β=0.84) and strongly affected user satisfaction (p=0.169 and β=0.28). Service quality strongly affected only use (p=0.127 and β=0.31). Conclusion research verifies the information system's achievement approach described by DeLone and McLean. Importantly, it was discovered that system usability and quality were key indicators of ADLM success. To fulfill their objective, ADLM must be developed in a way that is simple to use, adaptable, and functional.
Ch'ixi Epistemology and The Potosí Principle in the 21st Century
Authors: Alberro Alexander
Published: June 2023

The author focuses on the project exhibition, “The Potosí Principle,” curated by Alice Creischer, Max Hinderer, and Andreas Siekmann Initially installed in Madrid in 2010 and then traveling to Berlin and La Paz, the show cut across the institutionally defined and often rigorously guarded boundaries between curatorial practice, aesthetic expression, and scholarly research to explore global capitalism's dynamics from the perspective of the Spanish colonial empire and its distinctive imagery. However, despite the exhibition's creative installation techniques and revisionist history, it generated a considerable scandal when a self-organized group of La Paz-based artists and scholars committed to anticolonial practices accused the curators of continuing the logic through which the modern West has represented others. The author argues that this criticism parallels the often-fraught negotiations between artists, curators, and curated cultures at the boundary zones between art frameworks.
Can Tomb Terminology Be Used as a Criterion for Dating the Pyramid Texts?
Authors: Hainline Brendan
Published: June 2023

Scholars have long recognized that some Pyramid Text utterances display signs of age that indicate a pre-monumental history of use. Two utterances in particular, PT 355 and PT 662, have been dated by scholars as early as the Pre- or Early Dynastic, based on lines interpreted as describing a pre-pyramidal royal tomb-form (a mudbrick mastaba or a sand grave). This article evaluates the assumptions upon which these claims are based and uses this question to examine the complex interaction between lexical semantics, religious beliefs, and material culture. This article will show that tomb terminology is not a definitive indicator of an early date of composition of Pyramid Text utterances, as the association of lexemes with specific archaeological building-types is problematized by innovations in language, religion, and architecture that occurred in the early Old Kingdom, as well as changes in modern scholarship’s understanding of the context and use of the Pyramid Texts.
Power and Space Production: A Bourdieusian Approach to Environmental Law and Inspection in China
Authors: Ye Liangfei
Published: June 2023

The most important tool or institution that the Chinese state has used since 2002 to address environmental pollution, relying on its power to force compliance by local polluters and cadres, is environmental inspection. This article proposes a Bourdieusian approach for analyzing environmental inspection by considering the symbolic power of the state and the local effects of inspections at different levels of government, which have seldom been explored in the literature. We use this approach to examine four propositions with a sample comprising ninety-nine inspections in city H. First, inspectors use both the objective and symbolic power of the state in inspections. Second, inspectors at lower levels in the bureaucratic hierarchy have less objective and symbolic power in confronting local cadres and polluters. Third, local environmental protection changes physical space (e.g., landscape), social space (e.g., relations between cadres and polluters), and mental space (e.g., environmental perceptions). Fourth, inspectors with more power produce larger spaces for environmental protection. Through using this approach, we offer insights into how the Chinese state uses inspection to mobilize local societies to address social or governance crises.
Historical Events as ‘Magic Yarn Balls’
Authors: Van den Heede Pieter J.B.J. , Polak Sara A.
Published: June 2023

Historical analogies are widely invoked to characterize contemporary events. As we argue that historians should play a central role in assessing these analogies, or at least, that history should offer organized models to think about them, we present a framework for productively engaging with historical analogies in the public debate, policy discussions and elsewhere. First, we introduce the ‘magic yarn ball’ as a central metaphor to capture the textured complexity of historical phenomena in terms of similarity and difference. Second, we propose a general framework inspired by this metaphor to engage with historical analogies, centered on interrogation, individuation, and prospection. We apply our model by assessing analogies between the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany in 1933 and the inauguration of US president Donald Trump in 2017.
Deriving Severe Hail Likelihood from Satellite Observations and Model Reanalysis Parameters Using a Deep Neural Network
Authors: Scarino Benjamin , Itterly Kyle , Bedka Kristopher , Homeyer Cameron R. , Allen John , Bang Sarah , Cecil Daniel
Published: June 2023

Geostationary satellite imagers provide historical and near-real-time observations of cloud-top patterns that are commonly associated with severe convection. Environmental conditions favorable for severe weather are thought to be represented well by reanalyses. Predicting exactly where convection and costly storm hazards like hail will occur using models or satellite imagery alone, however, is extremely challenging. The multivariate combination of satellite-observed cloud patterns with reanalysis environmental parameters, linked to Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) estimated maximum expected size of hail (MESH) using a deep neural network (DNN), enables estimation of potentially severe hail likelihood for any observed storm cell. These estimates are made where satellites observe cold clouds, indicative of convection, located in favorable storm environments. We seek an approach that can be used to estimate climatological hailstorm frequency and risk throughout the historical satellite data record. Statistical distributions of convective parameters from satellite and reanalysis show separation between nonsevere and severe hailstorm classes for predictors that include overshooting cloud-top temperature and area characteristics, vertical wind shear, and convective inhibition. These complex, multivariate predictor relationships are exploited within a DNN to produce a likelihood estimate with a critical success index of 0.511 and Heidke skill score of 0.407, which is exceptional among analogous hail studies. Furthermore, applications of the DNN to case studies demonstrate good qualitative agreement between hail likelihood and MESH. These hail classifications are aggregated across an 11-yr Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) image database from GOES-12/13 to derive a hail frequency and severity climatology, which denotes the central Great Plains, the Midwest, and northwestern Mexico as being the most hail-prone regions within the domain studied.
On the Control of Northern Hemispheric Feedbacks by AMOC: Evidence from CMIP and Slab Ocean Modeling
Authors: Eiselt Kai-Uwe , Graversen Rune Grand
Published: June 2023

The climate sensitivity of Earth and the radiative climate feedback both change over time as a result of a so-called “pattern effect,” i.e., changing patterns of surface warming. This is suggested by numerical climate model experiments. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) influences surface warming patterns as it redistributes energy latitudinally. Thus, this ocean circulation may play an important role for climate-feedback change over time. In this study, two groups of members from the abrupt4xCO2 experiment of phases 5 and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) are distinguished: one group showing weak feedback change and the other showing strong feedback change over time. It is found that both groups differ significantly in the AMOC response to 4xCO2. Therefore, experiments with a slab ocean model (SOM) with quadrupling of the CO2 concentration are performed in which the AMOC change is mimicked by changing the ocean heat transport. It is found that in the Northern Hemisphere extratropics the CMIP model group differences can be qualitatively reproduced by the SOM experiments, indicating that the AMOC plays an important role in setting the surface warming pattern. However, in the tropics and especially in the Southern Hemisphere other explanations are necessary.
The Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of Self-Perceived Barriers for Physical Activity Questionnaire
Authors: Kolbaşı Esma Nur , Van Der Veer Pınar , Birinci Tansu
Published: June 2023

Identifying the barriers to physical activity (PA) is important for comprehensive management strategies to decrease physical inactivity. This study aimed to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Self-Perceived Barriers for Physical Activity Scale (SPBPA) into Turkish and investigate its psychometric properties. One-hundred fifty-two young and middle-aged adults (mean age of 33.3 ± 12.66 years) were included. Within a 5-to-15-day period after the first assessment, the participants completed the Turkish version of SPBPA (SPBPA-T) to evaluate test-retest reliability. Cronbach’s alpha (α) was used to assess internal consistency. The correlation between the SPBPA-T and Physical Activity Barriers Questionnaire (PABQ) and Short Form-12 (SF-12) was determined to check the validity. The SPBPA-T had a strong internal consistency (α = .83) and test-retest reliability (ICC2,1 = .90). There was a strong correlation between PABQ and SPBPA-T (r = 0.709; p < .0001), indicating strong construct validity. The convergent validity of SPBPA-T was confirmed with the mental component of SF-12 (r = −.228; p < .0001). There was no floor or ceiling effect. The questionnaire had a 1.083 SEM value and its MDC was 3.00 points. The SPBPA-T is semantically and linguistically adequate and has strong internal validity and test-retest reliability to determine the self-perceived barriers to PA among Turkish-speaking young adults.
‘What have you done to our world?’: The rise of a global generational voice
Authors: Van de Velde Cécile
Published: June 2023

Based on a comparative analysis of seven youth movements, this article shows the rise of a rhetoric of intergenerational injustice over the past decade, increasingly associated with a direct accusation of older generations and with a generational and global ‘we’. Theoritically, we propose to approach the ‘generational voice’ – rather than the generational ‘presence’ – to shed light on the generational grievances, emotions and identities carried within movements. We draw on the textual analysis of protest slogans (n = 1914) collected directly from: the Indignados (2011), the student movements in Chile and Quebec (2011–2012), the Paris ‘Nuit Debout’ movement (2016), the Hong Kong pro-democracy movements (2014 and 2019), and the Montreal pro-climate march (2019). Using mixed methods, the article shows the existence of four major rhetorics of generational injustice – be it economic, social, political or environmental – associated with an increasingly radical critique of a legacy, deemed too heavy for ‘future generations’.
The persistence of hidden unemployment among incapacity claimants in large parts of Britain
Authors: Beatty Christina , Fothergill Steve
Published: June 2023

Across Britain as a whole, the number of non-employed adults of working age in receipt of incapacity-related benefits substantially exceeds the number claiming unemployment benefits. This article explores the extent to which the large number of incapacity claimants hides unemployment. Building on previous methods and evidence but deploying an updated methodology to adjust for underlying differences in health, the article finds that the number of incapacity claimants who might have been expected to have been in work in a genuinely fully-employed economy remains substantial, though somewhat lower than in the early 2000s. It also finds that this hidden unemployment is disproportionately concentrated in the weaker local economies of Britain’s older industrial areas and a number of coastal towns. The benefit claims are legitimate it is argued, but the scale and location of hidden unemployment casts doubt on assumptions that the contemporary UK economy is operating close to full employment.
Value-of-Information Analysis for External Validation of Risk Prediction Models
Authors: Sadatsafavi Mohsen , Lee Tae Yoon , Wynants Laure , Vickers Andrew J , Gustafson Paul
Published: June 2023

Background

A previously developed risk prediction model needs to be validated before being used in a new population. The finite size of the validation sample entails that there is uncertainty around model performance. We apply value-of-information (VoI) methodology to quantify the consequence of uncertainty in terms of net benefit (NB).

Methods

We define the expected value of perfect information (EVPI) for model validation as the expected loss in NB due to not confidently knowing which of the alternative decisions confers the highest NB. We propose bootstrap-based and asymptotic methods for EVPI computations and conduct simulation studies to compare their performance. In a case study, we use the non-US subsets of a clinical trial as the development sample for predicting mortality after myocardial infarction and calculate the validation EVPI for the US subsample.

Results

The computation methods generated similar EVPI values in simulation studies. EVPI generally declined with larger samples. In the case study, at the prespecified threshold of 0.02, the best decision with current information would be to use the model, with an incremental NB of 0.0020 over treating all. At this threshold, the EVPI was 0.0005 (relative EVPI = 25%). When scaled to the annual number of heart attacks in the US, the expected NB loss due to uncertainty was equal to 400 true positives or 19,600 false positives, indicating the value of further model validation.

Conclusion

VoI methods can be applied to the NB calculated during external validation of clinical prediction models. While uncertainty does not directly affect the clinical implications of NB findings, validation EVPI provides an objective perspective to the need for further validation and can be reported alongside NB in external validation studies.

Highlights

External validation is a critical step when transporting a risk prediction model to a new setting, but the finite size of the validation sample creates uncertainty about the performance of the model. In decision theory, such uncertainty is associated with loss of net benefit because it can prevent one from identifying whether the use of the model is beneficial over alternative strategies. We define the expected value of perfect information for external validation as the expected loss in net benefit by not confidently knowing if the use of the model is net beneficial. The adoption of a model for a new population should be based on its expected net benefit; independently, value-of-information methods can be used to decide whether further validation studies are warranted.
Rain Gutters in Ancient Egyptian Private Houses: Papyrological and Archaeological Evidence
Authors: Skalec Aneta
Published: June 2023

The subject of this study is a papyrus containing interesting information about drainage – namely the so-called ‘Legal Code of Hermopolis West’, known in both Demotic (P. Mattha – third century BC) and Greek versions (P.Oxy. XLVI 3285 – second century AD) – and the terminology contained therein in relation to water drains. It aims to determine what type of water these regulations applied to. To this end, the information obtained from papyrological sources is juxtaposed with what we know about drainage thanks to archaeology, especially models of houses (from the Middle Kingdom). This comparison reveals that ancient Egypt had a centuries-old tradition of draining rainwater through long, open, U-shaped gutters, even if their existence might seem unnecessary in this country at first glance.
BELIEVE: Privacy-Aware Secure Multi-Party Computation for Real-Time Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and Micro-Mobility Data Validation Using Blockchain—A Study on New York City Data
Authors: Khan Junaid Ahmed , Wang Weiyi , Ozbay Kaan
Published: June 2023

Connected and autonomous vehicles, as well as micro-mobility devices (e-scooters, e-bikes, and smartphones), constantly generate tremendous amounts of mobility data, comprising spatio-temporal trajectories and other sensory data, the sharing of which can assist in different safety and intelligent transportation system applications. However, constant sharing of such data for real-time mobility decisions could violate the privacy of respective users. At the same time, malicious users could generate and share false data, which would be potentially harmful for stakeholders relying on this data for their safety and mobility decisions. In this paper, we propose a new framework: Blockchain-Enabled Location Identification and Efficient Validation with Encryption” (BELIEVE)—a blockchain-based platform with multi-party computation (MPC)—to securely validate data from a mobility source without violating the user’s privacy. The smart contractin BELIEVE first enables a source to initiate the mobility data validation process, then enables mobile peers in the vicinity to reach a consensus on the data validation using MPC without requiring the source to share raw data, thereby preserving the user’s privacy. The spatio-temporal validation is then updated on a distributed ledger (Inter Planetary File System) as an immutable transaction. Real-time data validation is challenging, considering constant mobility alongside the reduction of resource consumption at the devices and, therefore, to address this, we employ an adaptive approach to the problem where the validation frequency as well as storage on the blockchain are dynamically decided by the nodes, based on the network conditions. We evaluate BELIEVE using a simulation model developed for a portion of New York City, U.S., transportation network and it achieves lower delays and overhead.
Parameters optimization of grounded dynamic vibration absorber with pendulum connected via the lever mechanism
Authors: Baduidana Marcial , Kenfack-Jiotsa Aurelien
Published: June 2023

This paper investigates the control performance of grounded dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) with pendulum connected via the lever mechanism. These optimal parameters are found based on the extended fixed point theory. However, in the optimal equivalent stiffness derivation process, it was found that the amplified mass ratio could only take limited values to guarantee the stability condition of the coupled system and make positive equivalent stiffness. As a result, the best working range of the amplified mass ratio was established. The results analysis of the influence of system parameters on the primary system response shown that the amplified mass ratio has greatly vibration reduction effect, which push the peak resonant vibration of the primary system smaller than its static response without control. To better understand the control performance of the proposed DVA, three other dynamic vibration absorbers with or without negative stiffness are considered. The control performance comparison show that under harmonic excitation or even random excitation of the primary system, the proposed DVA model has a significant vibration reduction effect compared to the considered its DVA counterparts. The interest of these relevant results can be used in the field of vibration control engineering.
The Ethicist Conception of Environmental Problems
Authors: Dickson Barnabas
Published: June 2023

Ethicist assumptions about the causes and solutions of environmental problems are widely held within environmental philosophy. It is typically assumed that an important cause of problems are the attitudes towards the natural environment held by individuals and that problems can be solved by getting people to adopt a more ethical orientation towards the environment. This article analyses and criticises these claims. Both the highly mediated nature of the relationship between individuals and the natural environment and the pervasive pressure on firms in market economies to reduce their costs provide reasons to question the ethicist assumptions.
The Dynamics of Framing Environmental Values and Policy: Four Models of Societal Processes
Authors: Miller Clark A.
Published: June 2023

While the subject of framing has achieved considerable recognition recently among social scientists and policy analysts, less attention has been given to how societies arrive at stable, collective frames of meaning for environmental values and policy. This paper proposes four models of societal processes by which framing occurs: narration, modelling, canonisation and normalisation. These four models are developed, compared, and explored in detail through a case study of the framing of the impacts of climate change on human societies in US science policy from the 1960s through the 1990s. I conclude by offering a number of potentially fruitful avenues for further research into the dynamics of framing.
Economics, Ecology and Sustainable Development: Are They Compatible?
Authors: Friend Anthony M.
Published: June 2023

The prevailing economic paradigm, in which a closed circular flow of production and consumption can be described in terms of ‘natural laws’ of the equilibrium of market forces, is being challenged by our growing knowledge of complex systems, particularly ecosystems. It is increasingly apparent that neo-classical economics does not reflect social, economic and environmental realities in a world of limited resources. The best way to understand the problems implicit in the concept of ‘sustainable development’ is provided by Ecological Economics – a new synthesis in which the traditional virtue of thrift is justified using modern ideas from systems theory and thermodynamics.
Individual or Community? Two Approaches to Ecophilosophy in Practice
Authors: Rothenberg David
Published: June 2023

Should environmental philosophers – or practical conservationists – focus their attentions on particular living creatures, or on the community of which they, and we, are part? The individualist ethos of the United States is reflected in legislation to protect endangered species in which particular species are portrayed as individuals with rights that must be protected. By contrast, the planning of environmental protection in Norway, exemplified by the Samla Plan for the management of water resources, emphasizes the importance of community integrity, where ‘community’ includes the whole of nature. These differing approaches are considered in the light of moral monism and pluralism, with special reference to Christopher Stone's recent work. Despite their differences, and the reservation that each method inevitably takes a human perspective, it can be hoped that each may contribute to enabling people and political systems to consider nature more seriously.
Humankind and the Environment: An Anatomy of Surprise and Ignorance
Authors: Faber Malte , Manstetten Reiner , Proops John L.R.
Published: June 2023

This paper addresses the problem of ‘ignorance’ in philosophy and science, particularly with respect to the conceptualization, study and solution of environmental problems. We begin by distinguishing between ‘risk’, ‘uncertainty’ and ‘ignorance’. We then offer a categorization of ignorance, and use these categories to assess the role of science as a means of reducing ignorance. We note that to proceed with science, several ‘acts of faith’ are necessary. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of an attitude of openness in science and philosophy, especially regarding environmental problems. Throughout, we illustrate our discussion of ignorance, and the problems involved in its reduction, by reference to environmental issues.
Getting behind Environmental Ethics
Authors: Grove-White Robin , Szerszynski Bronislaw
Published: June 2023

There are major problems in the way in which the environmental ‘ethics’ question is now being framed – problems which could lead to growing confusion and disillusionment, unless they are rapidly addressed and understood. It is on such problems that this paper focuses. We point to three dimensions of the environmental ‘phenomenon’ which prevailing accounts of environmental ethics are tending to overlook. We then identify several ways in which incomplete ethical models tend to be reflected in actual environmental policy discourse. Finally, we suggest three hitherto-absent ingredients which will need to be recognised if future models of the ethics question are to be able to reflect, and hence to engage adequately with, social reality.
Beautiful Action. Its Function in the Ecological Crisis
Authors: Naess Arne
Published: June 2023

The distinction made by Kant between ‘moral’ and ‘beautiful’ actions is relevant to efforts to counteract the current ecological crisis. Actions proceeding from inclination may be politically more effective than those depending on a sense of duty. Education could help by fostering love and respect for life.
Distributional Obstacles to International Environmental Policy: The Failures at Rio and Prospects after Rio1
Authors: Martinez-Alier J.
Published: June 2023

The concept of ‘sustainable development’ as used by the Brundtland Commission was meant to separate environmental policy from distributional conflicts. Increases in income sometimes are beneficial for the environment (for instance, they allow the use of domestic cooking fuels which in some ways are less damaging to the environment), but higher incomes have meant higher emissions of greenhouse gases, and higher rates of genetic erosion. In the aftermath of the Rio conference of June 1992, this article analyses some unavoidable links between distributional conflicts and environmental policy.

Often, environmental movements have tried to keep environmental resources and services outside the market, but there are now attempts to establish property rights on, and to give money values to environmental resources and services, such as agricultural genetic resources and the CO 2 absorption facility provided by the oceans and new vegetation. European ‘green’ proposals to impose an ‘eco-tax’, and proposals from India to create a world market for CO2 emission permits are considered. The issue raised by the growing Third World agroecology movement, of payment of ‘farmers’ rights’ for in situ agricultural biodiversity is discussed. The article includes a short discussion of the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico and the USA, in so far as it involves so-called ‘ecological dumping’, i.e. trading at values which do not include environmental costs. In the last sections, the article asks how prices in ecologically-extended markets would be formed, how much such prices will depend on distribution, and how much (or how little) such payments would change distribution of income. Environmental movements of the Poor are faced with the dilemma of keeping environmental resources and services out of the market, or else asking for property rights to be placed on them.
Artefacts and Functions: A Note on the Value of Nature
Authors: Katz Eric
Published: June 2023

This paper examines and compares the ontological and axiological character of artefacts – human creations – with nonhuman natural entities. The essential difference between artefacts and natural entities is that the former are always the result of human intention and design, while the latter are independent of human purpose. Artefacts have functions; natural entities do not.

The connection to human intentional purpose implies a different kind of value for artefacts. Artefacts are evaluated solely by their instrumental (and anthropocentric) use, while natural entities can be appreciated for their independent and autonomous existence.
Sustainability and Environmental Valuation
Authors: Common M. S. , Blamey R. K. , Norton T. W.
Published: June 2023

For economists, sustainability and environmental valuation are connected in two ways. At the micro level, proper environmental valuation is required if projects are to be approved and rejected consistently with sustainability requirements. This is cost benefit analysis. At the macro level, many take the view that sustainability requires that national income measurement be modified so as to account for environmental damage. Such natural resource accounting is possible only if environmental damage is valued for incorporation into the economic accounts. The paper reviews the techniques that economists have developed for environmental valuation. In regard to cost benefit analysis and sustainability, it is noted that the technique on which most interest focuses, the Contingent Valuation Method, involves the extension of the domain of consumer demand analysis to include the natural environment. Contributions questioning the appropriateness of this are reviewed, and it is argued that they merit more attention from economists than they have received to date. In regard to natural resource accounting, it is argued that while there is little prospect of it achieving what its proponents claim for it, the modelling that it necessarily implies has the potential to both clarify valuation issues and play an important role in informing the policy process.
Human Sentiment and the Future of Wildlife
Authors: Cooper David E.
Published: June 2023

Identifying what is wrong with the demise of wildlife requires prior identification of the human sentiment which is offended by that demise. Attempts to understand this in terms of animal rights (individual or species) and the benefits of wildlife to human beings or the wider environment are rejected. A diagnosis of this sentiment is attempted in terms of our increasing admiration, in the conditions of modernity and postmodernity, for the ‘harmony’ or ‘at homeness’ of wild animals with their environments. The diagnosis is defended against certain misunderstandings, and implications are tentatively drawn from it for environmental education and the management of wildlife.
How the Tail Wags the Dog: How Value Judgments Determine Ecological Science
Authors: Shrader-Frechette K. S. , Mccoy Earl D.
Published: June 2023

Philosophers, policymakers, and scientists have long asserted that ecological science – and especially notions of homeostasis, balance, or stability – help to determine environmental values and to supply imperatives for environmental ethics and policy. We argue that this assertion is questionable. There are no well developed general ecological theories having predictive power, and fundamental ecological concepts, such as ‘community’ and ‘stability’, are used in inconsistent and ambiguous ways. As a consequence, the contribution of ecology to environmental ethics and values lies more in the realm of natural history and case studies than in the realm of general theory. Moreover, although general ecological theory is unable to contribute to environmental values in the way many philosophers and policymakers have hoped, environmental values can and do contribute to ecological hypotheses and methods. Using examples related to preservation versus development, hunting versus animal rights, and controversies over pest control, we show that, because ecology is conceptually and theoretically underdetermined, environmental values often influence the practice of ecological science.
What is the Value of Rangitoto Island?
Authors: Vadnjal Dan , O'Connor Martin
Published: June 2023

Contingent Valuation has been promoted as a catch-all approach to environmental valuation. While there have been numerous attempts in recent years to place monetary values on environmental amenities, studies have often reported a high frequency of protest, zero or inordinately large dollar-value responses. This paper reports on the results of a survey designed to obtain information on how people actually interpret questions of paying to avoid changes in their views of Rangitoto Island. Evidence suggests that the meaning respondents attach to the actual dollar values they offer or bid are inconsistent with the conventional logic that underlies Contingent Valuation. Instead, respondents might be seen to be expressing views about how things ought to be in society, and that it is simply not right to develop Rangitoto Island.
The Crisis of Ecology: A Phenomenological Perspective
Authors: Howarth J. M.
Published: June 2023

If we are to act properly with regard to the natural world, to protect, preserve, conserve, manage or leave it alone, we need both appropriate knowledge of that world, and a sound foundation for values to guide our actions. The thesis of this paper is that scientific ecology, though some of its interpreters claim it as a ‘post-modern’ eco-friendly science, in fact, while perhaps not as guilty as other of its post-modern interpreters might claim of the worst excesses of ‘modernism’, nonetheless does retain the underlying assumptions of modernism. (The ‘jargon’ will be further explained.) The thesis will be supported by methods drawn from phenomenology. Phenomenological enquiry can reveal and criticise the modernist assumptions, while traditional phenomenological notions, in particular Heidegger's notion of Dwelling and Merleau-Ponty's notion of the body subject, I shall suggest, might form a more eco-friendly framework for enquiring into the character of interactions within the natural world and the basis of values in those interactions.
Anthropocentrism: A Misunderstood Problem
Authors: Hayward Tim
Published: June 2023

Anthropocentrism can intelligibly be criticised as an ontological error, but attempts to conceive of it as an ethical error are liable to conceptual and practical confusion. After noting the paradox that the clearest instances of overcoming anthropocentrism involve precisely the sort of objectivating knowledge which many ecological critics see as itself archetypically anthropocentric, the article presents the following arguments: there are some ways in which anthropocentrism is not objectionable; the defects associated with anthropocentrism in ethics are better understood as instances of speciesism and human chauvinism; it is unhelpful to call these defects anthropocentrism because there is an ineliminable element of anthropocentrism in any ethic at all; moreover, because the defects do not typically involve a concern with human interests as such, the rhetoric of anti-anthropocentrism is counterproductive in practice.
Nonuse Values and the Environment: Economic and Ethical Motivations
Authors: Crowards Tom
Published: June 2023

Nonuse values are a potentially very important, but controversial, aspect of the economic valuation of the environment. Since no use is envisaged by the individual, a degree of altruism appears to be the driving force behind nonuse values. Whilst much of the controversy has focused upon measurement issues associated with the contingent valuation method, this paper concentrates on the underlying motivations, whether ethical or economic, that form the basis for such values. Some fundamental aspects of defining and quantifying economic nonuse values are considered, and possible motives for attributing value to the environment are analysed, making a clear distinction between ‘selfish’ altruism and ‘selfless’ altruism. The difference has crucial implications for economic valuation and for assessing individuals’ willingness to pay for environmental quality. The concept of Safe Minimum Standards is introduced as a means of supplementing purely economic methodology to incorporate ethical concerns into decision making.
Bach's Butterfly Effect: Culture, Environment and History
Authors: Simmons I.G.
Published: June 2023

The basic thesis that environmental values must spring from the economic relations of human societies is examined and it is suggested that although such connections are never absent, they do not account for the totality of values. Rather, they interact with other values in a kind of helical strand which is open-ended and self-organising. In such a context, ‘sustainability’, for example, be comes a rather time-limited idea. Our present ways of describing such evolution and interactions are also briefly examined.
Poverty, Puritanism and Environmental Conflict
Authors: Brennan Andrew
Published: June 2023

The paper proposes two ideas:

(1) The wilderness preservation movement has failed to identify key elements involved in situations of environmental conflict.

(2) The same movement seems unaware of its location within a tradition which is both elitist and Puritan.

Holmes Rolston's recent work on the apparent conflict between feeding people and saving nature appears to exemplify the two points. With respect to point (1), Rolston's treatment fails to address the institutional and structural features which set the agenda for individual human lives. The human ecology of environmental destruction cannot ignore the role of corporate actors such as banks, national governments, transnational corporations, trade unions and so on. These agents interact with each other in various ways and also have an internal structure – perhaps akin to Arthur Koestler's conception of the holarchy - which enables people working within them to avoid taking responsibility for policies that have damaging environmental consequences. As far as thesis (2) is concerned, Rolston's work shares common features with Arne Naess's deep ecology and Aldo Leopold's land ethic. All of these writers draw, perhaps unconsciously, on a tradition of sporting elitism associated with the Great White Hunter. One variety of this tradition combines elitism with a form of Puritanism
No Experience Necessary? Foundationalism and the Retreat from Culture in Environmental Ethics
Authors: Minteer Ben A.
Published: June 2023

Many of the leading contributors to the field of environmental ethics demonstrate a preference for foundationalist approaches in their theoretical justifications of environmentalism. In this paper, I criticise this tendency as it figures in the work of Holmes Rolston III, J. Baird Callicott, and Eric Katz. I illustrate how these writers’ desire for philosophical absolutes leads them to reject the moral resources present within human culture; a move that carries with it a number of troubling philosophical and political problems. I conclude that environmental theorists would be better served by taking a more contextual, social, and pragmatic approach to justifying their moral projects regarding nature, and that this mode of inquiry will ultimately lead toward a more philosophically sound and democratically authentic environmental ethics.
Intentional Recognition and Reductive Rationality: A Response to John Andrews
Authors: Plumwood Val
Published: June 2023

Recognition of intentionality and the possibility of agency in non-human others is a prerequisite for a process of mutual adjustment and dialogue that could replace current reductive and dualistic human-centred theories. John Andrews’ article in this issue of Environmental Values is criticised for misattributing to me the view that intentionality could be a sole criterion for moral worth – a view which I reject as unacceptably hierarchical and human-centred. To clarify my position, the values and limitations of different kinds of ranking are discussed; and the concept of intentionality is explored, with particular reference to apparently purposeful machines and to Dennett's theory of consciousness.
Liberalism and the Environment
Authors: Vincent Andrew
Published: June 2023

The article scrutinises the complex relation between late twentieth century liberal and environmental thought. It concludes that if the key values of contemporary liberal and environmental thought are compared then the prognosis looks gloomy. There are implicit and deep tensions over most value questions. In order to provide a coherent focus for this analysis, the paper addresses the issue of liberal justice, namely, can liberal theories of justice be sensitively applied to environmental questions? The answer to this question is that for much environmental thought, it is the very values and practices implicit within liberal justice theory which now constitute the key environmental danger.
When Something is to be Done: Proof of Environmental Harm and the Philosophical Tradition
Authors: Hull Carrie L.
Published: June 2023

This paper is centred around a debate taking place among environmental scientists. One camp argues that proof of a causal connection between a chemical and a biological anomaly must be demonstrated in the laboratory. The other contends that actual damage is underestimated in the lab, and that it is therefore necessary to conduct supplemental ecoepidemiological research in order to determine the full impact of toxic chemicals. Members of the former contingent – claiming to be defending scientific rigour – sometimes accuse their peers of practising an inferior science. This paper argues that this contention is supported by a philosophical tradition tending to favour abstract and formal analysis over the close examination of material detail. To the extent that this preference has been adopted by the media, industry, policy analysts, and regulatory bodies, more is at stake than an intellectual squabble. The paper provides a brief overview of the history of the formalist tendency in philosophy, followed by an illustration of the ways in which advocates of a strict laboratory methodology implicitly rely on this foundation. The work and ideas of contemporary ecoepidemiologists are then compared to this imposing edifice of traditional science.