Adam Frank

This paper aims to explore an astrobiological genealogy of the concept of the Planetary vividly discussed in contemporary environmental humanities and social sciences, and to offer a framework for an articulation of political-economic models based on this concept. Following Bentley Allan, we propose to treat the Planetary as an example of scientific cosmology, thus emphasizing how astrobiology supports a much broader philosophical worldview that shines a new light on persistent problems related to organizing human inhabitation of the Earth. Starting with the analysis and speculative elaboration on Allan’s theory of cosmological shifts in international orders during Western modernity, we associate the Anthropocene discourse as an inaugurating moment in the consolidation of the Planetary’s scientific cosmology, grounded in the astrobiology’s metabolic perspective on complex adaptive systems. The narrative of the paper offers a genealogy of this perspective, including the most recent research about information metabolisms and biosphere-technosphere coupling in astrobiology, which paves the way for the explanation of the economy itself as a metabolic entity. After the review of adjacent philosophical positions associated with ecological economics and the theory of complex adaptive systems, the paper concludes with remarks on the Planetary as a cornerstone of an international order that yields economic imperatives governed by a generic view of the Earth as a member of a potentially large and diverse category of habitable planets.

Ruth Leys raises a number of important questions about the conceptual and empirical underpinnings of the affect theories that have emerged in the critical humanities, sciences, and social sciences in the last decade. There are a variety of frameworks for thinking about what constitutes the affective realm, and there are different preferences for how such frameworks could be deployed. We would like to engage with just one part of that debate: the contributions of Silvan Tomkins's affect theory. We take issue with Leys's formulation that Tomkins's work along with that of Brian Massumi, William Connolly, and Paul Ekman form a group of like-minded theorists. We do not believe this represents an accurate account of the conceptual and empirical commitments of these various authors. By bundling their work together, Leys misses much of what is compellingly critical in each of these writers, and she overlooks what is most invigorating in the debates amongst them. In addition, the specificities of Tomkins's work have been badly served in Leys's essay. In four volumes stretching from 1962 to 1992 Tomkins laid out a complex and captivating theory of the human affect system, in which mechanisms of neurological feedback, social scripts, and facial behavior coassemble as affective events. Our response to Leys's essay is motivated by a wish to see more detailed engagements with this theory—the distinctiveness of which we believe has yet to be fully explored in this new affective turn.

Eloquent, urgent, and inspiring, _The Constant Fire_ tackles the acrimonious debate between science and religion, taking us beyond its stagnant parameters into the wider domain of human spiritual experience. From a Neolithic archaeological site in Ireland to modern theories of star formation, Adam Frank traverses a wide terrain, broadening our sights and allowing us to imagine an alternative perspective. Drawing from his experience as a practicing astrophysicist and from the writings of the great scholars of religion, philosophy, and mythology, Frank locates the connective tissue linking science and religion—their commonality as sacred pursuits—and finds their shared aspiration in pursuit of "the True and the Real." Taking us from the burning of Giordano Bruno in 1600 to Einstein and on to today's pressing issues of global warming and resource depletion, _The Constant Fire_ shows us how to move beyond this stale debate into a more profound experience of the world as sacred—a world that embraces science without renouncing human spirituality.

ArgumentThis essay offers a reading of Gertrude Stein's lecture “Plays” (1934) alongside the work of several thinkers on emotion, William James, Silvan Tomkins, and Wilfred Bion. The problem of what Stein calls “emotional syncopation” at the theater is understood in the context of James’ theory of emotion. The essay proceeds to unfold Stein's emphasis on varieties of excitement by way of Silvan Tomkins’ writing. It then turns to Wilfred Bion's theory of thinking to argue that the main problem with theater, for Stein, is the difficulty it poses to learning or arriving at genuinely new knowledge. The essay concludes with the suggestion that Stein's plays address the further difficulties of analyzing group dynamics or numbers of individuals, especially in the context of modernist mass media.

Carlo B Ramirez, Adam Bozdin, Adam Frank, Warren Maley, Cataldo DoriaDepartment of Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Antibody induction therapy has not been part of standard immunosuppressive regimens in liver transplantation. However, in recent years there has been an upward trend in the use of antibody induction therapy in orthotopic liver transplantation, attributed mainly to the growing number of OLT recipients with renal dysfunction after the Model for End Stage Liver Disease scoring system was adopted in 2002. Basiliximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody, is the most frequently used induction antibody in OLT. Basiliximab targets the alpha chain of interleukin-2 receptors in activated T-lymphocytes, inhibiting T-lymphocyte proliferation responsible for acute cellular rejection. Basiliximab has an excellent efficacy and safety profile. Basiliximab induction also allows early steroid withdrawal or avoidance, as well as delayed introduction and minimization of calcineurin inhibitors in the setting of renal insufficiency. Although its long-term effect on hepatitis C virus recurrence post OLT is currently unknown, studies using basiliximab induction in steroid-free protocols suggest no harmful effect on histologic HCV recurrence and survival rates. Basiliximab is a well tolerated, effective and safe anti-rejection drug in pediatric and adult OLT recipients when given in conjunction with a CNI-based immunotherapy.Keywords: liver transplantation, basiliximab, acute cellular rejection, immunosuppression, steroids