3E (Belgium)

Abstract Across industrial societies, there is an inverse relation between body size and social class: the higher one’s class position and the lower one’s body size, particularly for women. The most stigmatized body type, on both aesthetic and moral grounds, is therefore linked with structural, intergenerationally transmitted advantage and disadvantage. In this chapter, we review existing explanations of the relation between body size and social class, from epidemiology and the health sciences, social psychology, sociology and fat studies. We then present a new sociological perspective on weight differences, based on the ‘embodied’ sociology of Pierre Bourdieu that moves beyond concerns with large body size as epidemic or individual pathology (or happens in health sciences), or as social stigma (as it is commonly seen in psychology and fat studies). We argue that it might be most productive to think of body size not as simply another intersecting axis of inequality, alongside gender, sexuality or, indeed, social class, but instead, that think of body size as a more direct expression of class habitus, which cannot be analytically separated from this ‘axis’.

Background: Zilucoplan, a macrocyclic peptide complement component 5 inhibitor, sustained efficacy for up to 60 weeks of treatment, with a favourable safety profile in patients with acetylcholine receptor autoantibody-positive generalised myasthenia gravis in an interim analysis of RAISE-XT (NCT04225871). We evaluate the safety and efficacy of zilucoplan up to 96 weeks. Methods: RAISE-XT, a Phase 3, multicentre, open-label extension study, included patients who participated in the double-blind Phase 2 (NCT03315130) and Phase 3 (NCT04115293) zilucoplan studies. Patients self-administered daily subcutaneous zilucoplan 0.3mg/kg injections. Primary outcome was incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs). Secondary outcomes included change from baseline in Myasthenia Gravis Activities of Daily Living (MG-ADL) score. Results: At data cut-off (11 May 2023), median (range) exposure to zilucoplan was 1.8 (0.11–5.1) years (N=200). TEAEs occurred in 191 (95.5%) patients; the most common TEAE was COVID-19 (n=64; 32.0%). At Week 96, mean (standard error) change in MG-ADL score from double-blind study baseline was –6.33 (0.49) and –7.83 (0.60) for patients who received zilucoplan 0.3mg/kg and placebo in the double-blind studies, respectively. Conclusions: Zilucoplan demonstrated a favourable long-term safety profile. Efficacy was sustained for 96 weeks in patients who had previously received zilucoplan and who switched from placebo.

The fulgorid name Alphina glauca (Metcalf) has been used erroneously since its inception to refer to a primarily southeastern U.S. species described originally as Calyptoproctus marmoratus Spinola. Additionally, at least three undescribed species from the Southwest have been incorrectly identified as A. glauca. The holotype of A. glauca has not been located. Since A. glauca is presently used to refer to multiple species, a neotype is designated which places A. glauca into synonymy with Calyptoproctus marmoratus. We establish a new genus, Scaralina, into which it is placed, giving the new combination Scaralina marmorata (Spinola), along with three southwestern, one Texan, and ten Mesoamerican taxa, named here as new species: S. aethrinsula, S. chapina, S. cristata, S. durango, S. gigantea, S. hawksi, S. metcalfi, S. monzoni, S. obfusca, S. obrienae, S. orientalis, S. rileyi, S. sullivani, and S. veracruzensis. Additionally, one new species of Scaralis in a new subgenus, Scaralis (Alphinoides) inbio, is described from Costa Rica and Guatemala. The limited information available suggests these insects feed on oaks (Quercus). The single defining putative synapomorphy for the subtribe Calyptoproctina is the enlarged apical plate on the female abdomen, which is absent in at least two members of Scaralina, and is also present in some genera that belong outside of Poiocerinae, so we reject the recognition of this subtribe. We consider that Scaralina is probably more closely related to the genus Scaralis Stål than to Alphina Stål. Based on morphology, some species originally described in Scaralis appear to be more closely related to one another than to the type species of the genus, and are here placed in a new subgenus, Alphinoides; Scaralis fluvialis Lallemand and Scaralis nigronotata Stål, plus three species originally described in Poiocera; Scaralis quadricolor (Walker) (the type species of Alphinoides), Scaralis semilimpida (Walker), and Scaralis spectabilis (Walker). Diagnoses are given for separation of the genera Scaralis and Scaralina, as well as the subgenus Alphinoides, plus descriptions of and keys to all species of Scaralina north of Panama, as well as keys to the genera corresponding to the former subtribe "Calyptoproctina" occurring north of Panama.