Key ingredients for a collaborative urban regeneration strategy in the Global South

The paper documents the development of a collaborative regeneration strategy for a marginalised community in Cape Town that was led by a Non-Profit Company (NPC). NPC’s vision for the strategy was to incorporate key inputs from the community to unlock the economic potential of the area and promote upliftment. A case study methodology was adopted which included a series of interviews and community engagement workshops. The research aimed to identify the key ingredients required to drive collaborative urban regeneration in marginalised communities in the global south. The study established that in the absence of effective leadership and service delivery from local authorities the community feel disenfranchised as their community is not seen as an immediate priority. There was a deep-rooted mistrust in the process being driven by the NPC and the visioning process was met with resistance and suspicion. The engagement process lacked depth/scope and reflected a top-down approach. It is concluded that fundamental ingredients for effective collaborative urban regeneration is trust between the key stakeholders, a diverse assortment of expertise and skills, and an in-depth engagement process. Without these factors urban regeneration is likely to only entrench the complex urban issues it seeks to reconcile

My Kingdom for a Horse: Resolving Conflicts of Interest in Asset Management

Racehorse trainers operate asset management businesses in which the assets owned by outside clients compete with those owned by managers for the latter's time care and attention. Although this potentially leads to serious conflicts of interest we find no evidence of an agency problem: in a sample of 8000 racehorses and their associated stables client-owned horses perform no worse than trainer-owned horses on average. However this outcome is not uniform across stables: the average performance advantage of client-owned horses over their trainer-owned counterparts is positive in big stables where client-owners provide much of the trainer's income but is negative in small stables with relatively few outside clients. Agents with more to lose apparently behave better

The Current State and Characteristics of Cape Town's Smart City Development

In today’s urban environment, local governments have to deal with increasingly complex mandates, social inequalities and economic growth in a context of increasing environmental and economic uncertainty (Baud et al., 2014). In Africa, these complexities are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and the subsequent proliferation of urban poverty. This necessitates more efficient and effective management and governance of urban systems (Slavova & Okwechime, 2016; Meijer & Thaens, 2018). Given the increased role of ICT and its potential to advance the management and coordination of cities, contribute to their economic success, and improve the quality of life of its residents (Backhouse, 2015), many African cities are beginning to explore smart city interventions as a means of overcoming the rising challenges of urban development and sustainability. This report series seeks to explore the grounding of smart city concepts within an African context through an exploration of the City of Cape Town's smart city initiatives. The second report uses the analysis of the Digital City Strategy to develop an understanding of where the City of Cape Town currently is in terms of its smart city development, and the characteristics that have defined the advancement of the City’s smart city ambitions to date. Following that, the report discusses how the current state and characteristics relate to the Digital City Strategy outlined in the first report before providing some insight into what this reveals about the City’s approach to smart city development

Identifying the Opportunities and Challenges that Exist for Cape Town's Smart City Development

In today’s urban environment, local governments have to deal with increasingly complex mandates, social inequalities and economic growth in a context of increasing environmental and economic uncertainty (Baud et al., 2014). In Africa, these complexities are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and the subsequent proliferation of urban poverty. This necessitates more efficient and effective management and governance of urban systems (Slavova & Okwechime, 2016; Meijer & Thaens, 2018). Given the increased role of ICT and its potential to advance the management and coordination of cities, contribute to their economic success, and improve the quality of life of its residents (Backhouse, 2015), many African cities are beginning to explore smart city interventions as a means of overcoming the rising challenges of urban development and sustainability. This report series seeks to explore the grounding of smart city concepts within an African context through an exploration of the City of Cape Town's smart city initiatives. The first report provides an overview of the City of Cape Town's strategy along with some critical reflections on their guiding framework, The Digital City Strategy. The third report, using interviews with stakeholders in different government, civic and corporate spheres, serves as a reflection to unpack some of the key opportunities and challenges that Cape Town faces in terms of unlocking the potential of a smarter, more sustainable urban future. Following that, the report provides some insight to what it means on a broader level for smart city development in Cape Town

Modulation of tissue glucocorticoid exposure by cleavage of corticosteroid binding globulin in humans

Corticosteroid Binding Globulin (CBG) binds over 85% of plasma cortisol and modulates free cortisol levels. Observations in vitro show that CBG undergoes proteolytic cleavage by neutrophil elastase (NE) at its reactive centre loop (RCL), a mechanism proposed to reduce CBG binding capacity by approximately ten-fold and increase the availability of free cortisol to tissues at sites of inflammation. However, detection of cleaved CBG in vivo in human plasma is controversial, and any influence of NE on CBG cleavage has not been tested in vivo. The CORtisol NETwork (CORNET) consortium found that genetic variation at a locus spanning SERPINA1 (encoding alpha-1 antitrypsin, AAT, the endogenous inhibitor of NE) and SERPINA6 (CBG) contributes to morning total plasma cortisol variation. We tested the hypotheses that: (i) CBG cleavage occurs in tissues in vivo, controlling tissue cortisol delivery; (ii) AAT deficiency increases CBG cleavage and hence free plasma cortisol; (iii) greater cleavage of CBG results in increased tissue cortisol delivery in adipose and in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis negative feedback; and (iv) NE inhibition inhibits NE-mediated CBG cleavage and thus plasma free cortisol in vivo. To test tissue-specific CBG cleavage we recruited 48 men and collected arterialised blood and samples from veins draining abdominal subcutaneous adipose, forearm skeletal muscle, brain and liver. Arterio-venous differences in CBG were calculated, adjusting for blood flow. Net CBG production from the liver was detected in people with obesity and type 2 diabetes, but no in vivo cleavage of CBG was observed across the tissues studied. In recall-by-genotype studies of people who are heterozygous for inactivating mutations in SERPINA1, 16 healthy carriers of either of the two most common AAT-deficiency single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs17580 & rs28929474) and 16 age-, sex- and BMI-matched controls were recruited from the Generation Scotland Biobank. Participants underwent placebo-controlled combined receptor antagonist stimulation of the HPA axis (‘CRASH’) testing using the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU486 plus mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist spironolactone, in a double-blind randomised crossover design. No measurable differences in CBG were observed. However, plasma free cortisol fraction was higher in those carrying AAT mutations. Adipose cortisol concentrations were not significantly different but transcripts of glucocorticoid-responsive genes were higher in adipose from AAT-deficient subjects. Plasma cortisol was elevated during CRASH testing in both groups, with the increment versus placebo tending to be lower in AAT-deficient subjects. Using coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery as a model of acute neutrophil-mediated inflammation, we measured CBG and cortisol in a randomised double-blind parallel group clinical trial of 35 patients administered placebo or elafin, an endogenous NE inhibitor, intravenously immediately before CABG surgery. Plasma CBG concentration and binding capacity fell by >30% following surgery, with corresponding increases in total and free cortisol, with a trend towards higher, rather than lower free cortisol in the elafin-treated group. In conclusion, these data suggest that AAT deficiency brings about changes consistent with enhanced cleavage of CBG, including enhanced delivery of glucocorticoid to adipose tissue and reduced tonic HPA axis negative feedback. This is consistent with a role for intact CBG in delivery of cortisol to the central HPA axis and a role for CBG cleavage in releasing cortisol to enhance tissue access in inflamed adipose tissue

Novel Understanding of Avian Biomechanics and Sonations Using High-Speed Video of the White-Ruffed Manakin (Corapipo Altera Altera)

Undergraduate students: Luke Nguyen, Department of Biology; W. Alice Boyle, Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS; Elsie Shogren, Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS; Natasha Bergevine, Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KSMajor/Minor: Major: BiochemistryFaculty advisor: Lainy B. Day, Department of Biology, Neuroscience Minorhttps://egrove.olemiss.edu/neuro_showcase/1007/thumbnail.jp

Overview and Analysis of Cape Town's Digital City Strategy

In today’s urban environment, local governments have to deal with increasingly complex mandates, social inequalities and economic growth in a context of increasing environmental and economic uncertainty (Baud et al., 2014). In Africa, these complexities are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and the subsequent proliferation of urban poverty. This necessitates more efficient and effective management and governance of urban systems (Slavova & Okwechime, 2016; Meijer & Thaens, 2018). Given the increased role of ICT and its potential to advance the management and coordination of cities, contribute to their economic success, and improve the quality of life of its residents (Backhouse, 2015), many African cities are beginning to explore smart city interventions as a means of overcoming the rising challenges of urban development and sustainability. This report series seeks to explore the grounding of smart city concepts within an African context through an exploration of the City of Cape Town's smart city initiatives. The first report provides an overview of the City of Cape Town's strategy along with some critical reflections on their guiding framework, The Digital City Strategy

My Kingdom for a Horse: Resolving Conflicts of Interest in Asset Management

Racehorse trainers operate asset management businesses in which the assets owned by outside clients compete with those owned by managers for the latter's time care and attention. Although this potentially leads to serious conflicts of interest we find no evidence of an agency problem: in a sample of 8000 racehorses and their associated stables client-owned horses perform no worse than trainer-owned horses on average. However this outcome is not uniform across stables: the average performance advantage of client-owned horses over their trainer-owned counterparts is positive in big stables where client-owners provide much of the trainer's income but is negative in small stables with relatively few outside clients. Agents with more to lose apparently behave better

An Early Catalog of Planet Hosting Multiple Star Systems of Order Three and Higher

We present a catalog (status July 1, 2022) of triple and higher order systems identified containing exoplanets based on data from the literature, including various analyses. We explore statistical properties of the systems with focus on both the stars and the planets. So far, about 30 triple systems and one to three quadruple systems, including (mildly) controversial cases, have been found. The total number of planets is close to 40. All planet-hosting triple star systems are highly hierarchic, consisting of a quasi-binary complemented by a distant stellar component, which is in orbit about the common center of mass. Furthermore, the quadruple systems are in fact pairs of close binaries (``double-doubles"), with one binary harboring a planet. For the different types of star-planet systems, we introduce a template for the classifications of planetary orbital configurations in correspondence to the hierarchy of the system and the planetary host. The data show that almost all stars are main-sequence stars, as expected. However, the stellar primaries tend to be more massive (i.e., corresponding to spectral types A, F, and G) than expected from single star statistics, a finding also valid for stellar secondaries but less pronounced. Tertiary stellar components are almost exclusively low-mass stars of spectral type M. Almost all planets have been discovered based on either the Radial Velocity or the Transit method. Both gas giants (the dominant type) and terrestrial planets (including super-Earths) have been identified. We anticipate the expansion of this data base in the light of future planetary search missions.Comment: Accepted by ApJS; 59 pages, including 11 figures and 12 table

Propidium monoazide (PMA) and ethidium bromide monoazide(EMA) improve DNA array and high-throughput sequencing ofporcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus identification

Pan-viral DNA array (PVDA) and high-throughput sequencing (HTS) are useful tools to identify novel viruses of emerging diseases. However, both techniques have difficulties to identify viruses in clinical samples because of the host genomic nucleic acid content (hg/cont). Both propidium monoazide (PMA) and ethidium bromide monoazide (EMA) have the capacity to bind free DNA/RNA, but are cell membrane-impermeable. Thus, both are unable to bind protected nucleic acid such as viral genomes within intact virions. However, EMA/PMA modified genetic material cannot be amplified by enzymes. In order to assess the potential of EMA/PMA to lower the presence of amplifiable hg/cont in samples and improve virus detection, serum and lung tissue homogenates were spiked with porcine reproductive and respiratory virus (PRRSV) and were processed with EMA/PMA. In addition, PRRSV RT-qPCR positive clinical samples were also tested. EMA/PMA treatments significantly decreased amplifiable hg/cont and significantly increased the number of PVDA positive probes and their signal intensity compared to untreated spiked lung samples. EMA/PMA treatments also increased the sensitivity of HTS by increasing the number of specific PRRSV reads and the PRRSV percentage of coverage. Interestingly, EMA/PMA treatments significantly increased the sensitivity of PVDA and HTS in two out of three clinical tissue samples. Thus, EMA/PMA treatments offer a new approach to lower the amplifiable hg/cont in clinical samples and increase the success of PVDA and HTS to identify viruses