Community resilience to climate change: an evidence review

The concept of community resilience to climate change in the UK has a diverse range of meanings and associated activities. This review of evidence and practice explores this varied and contested field to build the evidence base and help support the development of community resilience to climate change. The report shows: •the variety of actions being carried out across the UK that can be classed as improving resilience of communities to climate change; •the barriers and facilitators to improving resilience to climate change for communities; •the value of a framework to understand resilience of communities to climate change that emphasises existing capacities of communities, engagement and empowerment of citizens, and multi-level governance; and •examples of innovative actions to improve resilience of communities to climate change with a focus on four case studies, which are further explored in a separate report

UK Poverty 2017

This report, which has been produced in-house by the JRF Analysis Unit for the first time, examines poverty rates in the UK, and looks at how figures have changed over the past two decades. UK Poverty 2017 highlights that overall, 14 million people live in poverty in the UK – over one in five of the population. This is made up of eight million working-age adults, four million children and 1.9 million pensioners. 8 million live in families where at least one person is in work. Over the last 20 years, the UK has dramatically reduced poverty among people who had traditionally been most at risk – pensioners and certain types of families with children. But that progress is beginning to unravel; poverty rates for both groups have started to rise again. The analysis highlights that the three factors which have led to a fall in poverty and are now under question; state support for many of those on low incomes is falling in real terms, rents are increasing, and rising employment is no longer reducing poverty. As a result, JRF is calling for a national mission to transform the prospects of millions of people living in poverty in the UK. This is the first report to assess the progress the UK is making in reducing poverty rates and tackling the underlying drivers of poverty since the publication of JRF’s We Can Solve Poverty in the UK in 2016

Different battlegrounds, similar concerns? The “history wars” and the teaching of history in Australia and England

Debates about the purpose and content of history education in schools have been prevalent in most Westernised democratic nations over the last thirty years. At expense are essential questions concerning national identity/ies, competing narratives and the aims of history education. The impact of “history wars” have been felt within both Australia and England, as conservative commentators – including politicians and historians – have raised concerns about the depth and effectiveness of history education and have sought to make significant changes to the history curriculum for schools. This analysis examines the history wars in Australia and England, exploring the view that history education has been in danger and/or crisis and examining the curricular implications of a move toward greater recognition of national narratives. It raises some essential tensions that remain regarding two aspects of history teaching in both nations – (i) historiography and (ii) chronological understanding

Development and evaluation of low-volume tests to detect and characterize antibodies to SARS-CoV-2

Low-volume antibody assays can be used to track SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in settings where active testing for virus is limited and remote sampling is optimal. We developed 12 ELISAs detecting total or antibody isotypes to SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid, spike protein or its receptor binding domain (RBD), 3 anti-RBD isotype specific luciferase immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) assays and a novel Spike-RBD bridging LIPS total-antibody assay. We utilized pre-pandemic (n=984) and confirmed/suspected recent COVID-19 sera taken pre-vaccination rollout in 2020 (n=269). Assays measuring total antibody discriminated best between pre-pandemic and COVID-19 sera and were selected for diagnostic evaluation. In the blind evaluation, two of these assays (Spike Pan ELISA and Spike-RBD Bridging LIPS assay) demonstrated >97% specificity and >92% sensitivity for samples from COVID-19 patients taken >21 days post symptom onset or PCR test. These assays offered better sensitivity for the detection of COVID-19 cases than a commercial assay which requires 100-fold larger serum volumes. This study demonstrates that low-volume in-house antibody assays can provide good diagnostic performance, and highlights the importance of using well-characterized samples and controls for all stages of assay development and evaluation. These cost-effective assays may be particularly useful for seroprevalence studies in low and middle-income countries

Kinase Inhibitors from Early Research to Clinic

The Society for Medicines Research symposium was held at AstraZenca, Alderley Park Conference Centre, Alderley Park, Macclesfield. The meeting, organized by Jack Allen, Steve Collingwood and Andrew Ratcliffe, focused on kinase inhibitors from early research to clinic. Topics included kinase inhibitor design, translating kinase selectivity profiles into early safety guidance, and the discovery and early development of kinase inhibitors in the therapeutic areas of inflammation, pulmonary arterial hypertension and oncology

Virus bronquitis infecciosa aviar unido a fase sólida para detección de anticuerpos específicos en pruebas de ELISA

An enzyme-linked immunosobent assay (ELISA) was performed using infections bronchitis virus (IBV) infected alantoic fluid for the sensitization of microplates. Microplates of different commercial origin showed different sensitivity and specificity when assessing the same reference sera. Phosphate buffer saline (PBS) pH 7.4, used as coating buffer, induced highest adsorption rates of this antigen to the plates. The dilution factor of IBV in the coating buffer showed to induce optical density variations when testing reference sera. In this study, according to the protein content (0.887 µg/µl) and infectivity of the viral material (10/6.25 EID50/ml), a 40% (v/v) dilution factor gave highest sensitivity. Microplates sensitized with purified IBV from a commercial source showed a higher sensitivity than microplates coated with non purified IBV. However, sensitivity of microplates sensitized as described herein could be used for routine profiling of antibody prevalence in poultry farms. Finally, freezing of IBV coated microplates did not influence significantly optical densities obtained with reference sera.Se desarrolló una prueba de ELISA ('enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay') empleando virus de la bronquitis infecciosa aviar sin purificar en la sensibilización de las microplacas. Los resultados indican diferencias en sensibilidad y especificidad de la prueba al emplear microplacas de diferente origen comercial. El medio de sensibilización salina fosfato (PBS) a pH 7,4 demostró inducir una mayor adhesión de este antígeno a la microplaca sobre otros buffers probados. La dilución del material viral en el medio de sensibilización también demostró constituir un factor de variación en las lecturas con los mismos sueros de referencia. De acuerdo al contenido proteico (0,887 µg/µl) y el título infectante del material viral (106.25 EID50/ml) empleado en este trabajo, se estableció que una dilución 40% (v/v) en el 'buffer' determinaba una mayor sensibilidad en la prueba. Al comparar microplacas sensibilizadas de esta forma con microplacas sensibilizadas con antígeno purificado de origen comercial, se observó una sensibilidad mayor de ELISA con las últimas. A pesar de ello, se determinó que microplacas sensibilizadas con VBIA sin purificar demuestran una sensibilidad que podría permitir su uso en la elaboración de perfiles serológicos rutinarios en planteles avícolas comerciales. Finalmente, el proceso de congelación de las microplacas así sensibilizadas no alteró mayormente los resultados de ELISA en sensibilidad y especificidad

Virus bronquitis infecciosa aviar unido a fase sólida para detección de anticuerpos específicos en pruebas de ELISA

An enzyme-linked immunosobent assay (ELISA) was performed using infections bronchitis virus (IBV) infected alantoic fluid for the sensitization of microplates. Microplates of different commercial origin showed different sensitivity and specificity when assessing the same reference sera. Phosphate buffer saline (PBS) pH 7.4, used as coating buffer, induced highest adsorption rates of this antigen to the plates. The dilution factor of IBV in the coating buffer showed to induce optical density variations when testing reference sera. In this study, according to the protein content (0.887 µg/µl) and infectivity of the viral material (10/6.25 EID50/ml), a 40% (v/v) dilution factor gave highest sensitivity. Microplates sensitized with purified IBV from a commercial source showed a higher sensitivity than microplates coated with non purified IBV. However, sensitivity of microplates sensitized as described herein could be used for routine profiling of antibody prevalence in poultry farms. Finally, freezing of IBV coated microplates did not influence significantly optical densities obtained with reference sera.Se desarrolló una prueba de ELISA ('enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay') empleando virus de la bronquitis infecciosa aviar sin purificar en la sensibilización de las microplacas. Los resultados indican diferencias en sensibilidad y especificidad de la prueba al emplear microplacas de diferente origen comercial. El medio de sensibilización salina fosfato (PBS) a pH 7,4 demostró inducir una mayor adhesión de este antígeno a la microplaca sobre otros buffers probados. La dilución del material viral en el medio de sensibilización también demostró constituir un factor de variación en las lecturas con los mismos sueros de referencia. De acuerdo al contenido proteico (0,887 µg/µl) y el título infectante del material viral (106.25 EID50/ml) empleado en este trabajo, se estableció que una dilución 40% (v/v) en el 'buffer' determinaba una mayor sensibilidad en la prueba. Al comparar microplacas sensibilizadas de esta forma con microplacas sensibilizadas con antígeno purificado de origen comercial, se observó una sensibilidad mayor de ELISA con las últimas. A pesar de ello, se determinó que microplacas sensibilizadas con VBIA sin purificar demuestran una sensibilidad que podría permitir su uso en la elaboración de perfiles serológicos rutinarios en planteles avícolas comerciales. Finalmente, el proceso de congelación de las microplacas así sensibilizadas no alteró mayormente los resultados de ELISA en sensibilidad y especificidad