State-level Citizen Response to COVID-19 Containment Measures in Brazil and Mexico

In Brazil and Mexico, presidents failed to take swift, national action to stop the spread of COVID-19. Instead, the burden of imposing and enforcing public health measures has largely fallen to subnational leaders, resulting in varied approaches within each country and conflicting messaging from elites. We likewise see variation in compliance with social distancing across subnational units. To explain this variation, we contend that citizen responses are driven both by the comprehensiveness of state policies and whether they take cues from national or subnational elites. We hypothesize that support for national and subnational elites, and the nature of the state-level policy response, affect citizen compliance with public health guidelines. In both countries, we find that support for the governor has an interactive relationship with policy response. In Brazil, support for the president is associated with lower compliance. In Mexico, this effect is not present. We argue that these distinct relationships are due to the different cues emerging from each leader

Current Perspective on the Location and Function of Gamma- Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) and its Metabolic Partners in the Kidney.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter located in the mammalian central nervous system, which binds to GABAA and GABAB receptors to mediate its neurological effects. In addition to its role in the CNS, an increasing number of publications have suggested that GABA might also play a role in the regulation of renal function. All three enzymes associated with GABA metabolism; glutamic acid decarboxylase, GABA ?-oxoglutarate transaminase (GABA-T) and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) have been localised to the kidney providing the necessary machinery for localised GABA synthesis and metabolism. Moreover GABA receptors have been localised to both tubular and vascular structures in the kidney, and GABA is excreted in urine (~3 ?M) in humans. Despite the collective evidence describing the presence of a GABA system in the kidney, the precise function of such a system requires further clarification. Here we provide an overview of the current renal GABA literature and provide novel data that indicates GABA can act at contractile pericyte cells located along vasa recta capillaries in the renal medulla to potentially regulate medullary blood flow

Future of health and healthcare provision in cities

This paper is concerned with the future of health and healthcare provision in cities in the UK. The primary data was collected at a facilitated workshop held at the Academy of Medical Sciences in September 2015. The workshop was designed to guide participants through a series of exercises in order to explore what the current, near future and far future trends in health and healthcare provision are likely to be for cities. The paper is organised into six sections. First, we describe the importance of understanding health and healthcare provision within cities and the intrinsic relationship between people and their built environment with regard both of these topics. Second, we examine the significant transformations within the sector of health and healthcare provision over the last fifty years. Third, we explore potential worst case scenarios for the future of such provision in cities. Fourth, we identify four possible future cities for healthy cities and effective healthcare provision. Fifth, we establish which policy developments would need to be designed and prioritised to facilitate delivery of these future cities. In conclusion, we establish a synthesis of the prevalent patterns and emergent relationships of themes raised during the workshop in order to draw together our findings and further understand how health and healthcare provision may impact the future of cities

Label-free enrichment of adrenal cortical progenitor cells using inertial microfluidics.

Passive and label-free isolation of viable target cells based on intrinsic biophysical cellular properties would allow for cost savings in applications where molecular biomarkers are known as well as potentially enable the separation of cells with little-to-no known molecular biomarkers. We have demonstrated the purification of adrenal cortical progenitor cells from digestions of murine adrenal glands utilizing hydrodynamic inertial lift forces that single cells and multicellular clusters differentially experience as they flow through a microchannel. Fluorescence staining, along with gene expression measurements, confirmed that populations of cells collected in different outlets were distinct from one another. Furthermore, primary murine cells processed through the device remained highly viable and could be cultured for 10 days in vitro. The proposed target cell isolation technique can provide a practical means to collect significant quantities of viable intact cells required to translate stem cell biology to regenerative medicine in a simple label-free manner

The Participating Poor: The Effect of Conditional Cash Transfers on Beneficiary Political Participation

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs entered the social policy scene in Mexico and Brazil in the mid-1990s and have since been adopted by policymakers throughout Latin America. While the effects of these programs on health, education, child labor and poverty have been widely studied, the political effects have not been considered in nearly as much depth. Yet we know from studying other social policies that they often have consequences beyond their intended goals. In this paper I build on the existing literature on CCTs and the political consequences of social policies to examine the effect of CCTs on broad political participation. Using survey data from across Latin America and the Caribbean, I find that beneficiaries of CCTs are more likely to participate in a variety of electoral and non-electoral types of participation. Using the same survey data, I also aim to understand the mechanisms that lead CCT beneficiaries to participate at higher rates than non-beneficiaries. I find that beneficiaries express higher levels of political interest, stronger senses of political efficacy and greater trust in political institutions than non-beneficiaries. I argue increased participation among CCT beneficiaries is a result of policy feedback effects, but that these feedback effects are the opposite of what existing literature on advanced democracies would lead us to expect, indicating a need to adjust our theories to the Latin American context.Master of Art

Isolation and characterisation of monoclonal antibodies raised against the Pk peptide tag

In this project, a number of monoclonal antibodies were developed which recognised an oligopeptide tag known as the Pk tag. These antibodies were used for the development of an affinity purification protocol in order to purify Pk tagged recombinant proteins. These proteins, in turn, were to be used for the development of multiple epitope vaccines. The Pk tag is a 14 amino acid oligopeptide which was originally mapped to the binding epitope of the monoclonal antibody SV5-P-k, raised to the Paramyxovirus Simian Virus 5 (SV5) phospho- (P) protein. The tag has been cloned into the bacterial expression vector pQ9cPk so that when expressed, any recombinant protein produced will have a Histidine tag at the N terminus and the Pk tag at the C terminus. These two tags are the basis of a two step purification system, utilising a nickel affinity column for the Histidine tag capture, and monoclonal antibody (mAb) SV5-P-k immobilised on Sepharose beads for Pk tag capture. The genes encoding the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) precursor protein Pr55gag and the auxiliary protein Nef were cloned into pQ9cPk and the recombinant proteins produced purified using the current two step purification protocol. However, the affinity of the mAb SV5-P-k for the Pk tag is so strong, that denaturing conditions were needed to separate the antibody from the tagged protein. Due to this it was decided to develop a number of mAb's to the Pk tag with the aim of creating antibodies whose binding affinities varied from that of SV5-P-k. A number of hybridoma clones expressing mAb's which recognise the Pk tag were created and after initial characterisation it was demonstrated that of the twenty four clones produced, only four recognised Pk tagged recombinant proteins or the SV5 P protein. The epitopes and binding affinities of these four mAb's were determined, and when compared to SV5-P-k, it was observed that all five mAb's had similar affinities for the Pk tag. Therefore, antibodies to the Pk tag which had lower binding affinities were not obtained. In order to utilise the five anti-Pk mAb's in the two step purification system, the original primary sequence of the Pk tag was modified, creating three new tags. On further analysis of the binding of the five anti-Pk mAb's to the modified tags, elution conditions were determined which allowed the elution of Pk tagged recombinant proteins from a mAb bound affinity column

PRIVILEGED INTERESTS: CLASS-BASED VARIATION IN GOVENRMENT RESPONSIVENESS IN BRAZILIAN STATES

This dissertation asks under what conditions governments will be more responsive to the interests of lower socioeconomic groups. To answer this question, I take a subnational approach, looking at variation among and within Brazilian states. I argue that governments will be more responsive to the interests of lower socioeconomic groups where left parties are in control, electoral environments are more competitive and civil society is stronger. To test my theory, I use both a quantitative analysis and qualitative case studies. In the quantitative analysis, I use an original dataset to examine the determinants of state investment in progressive social policies. I find evidence that, all else equal, left parties invest more in such policies than do other parties. I also develop qualitative case studies of Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás and Paraná. Through these case studies, I find additional evidence that the presence of a strong left is important for responsiveness to lower income groups. Civil society organization and competition are less effective on their own, but still have a role to play.Doctor of Philosoph