The periphery as the centre: trajectories of responsibility and community support in contemporary Maputo, Mozambique

Development researchers have long held a belief that developed states use their power to provide Aid or other forms of external assistance such as private philanthropy, assistance of Non-Governmental Organisations, and other private financing to underdeveloped, or developing, nations to achieve global economic and political stability. Development scholars (including geographers) have largely attributed this to a sense of responsibility. Many have assumed this assistance to travel in one direction, i.e. from Global North to Global South, thus overlooking the modalities of care and hospitality among individuals within countries of the Global South. In this thesis, I posit that looking at everyday modes of assistance at the community level would challenge scholars to re-think the ways in which place matters in development. Analysing qualitative data gathered through interviews and focus groups in two neighbourhoods in Maputo, Mozambique, this study is ultimately an investigation of proximity. I argue that the closeness of people in these complex community relationships matters in three ways: (i) the everyday practices of assistance in these communities are modes of resistance to an oppressive state; (ii) forms of assistance serve as expressions of local (as opposed to national) identity; and (iii) religious institutions play a significant role in fostering public discourse, rather than motivating assistance itself. In speaking more specifically about how proximity matters, this study contributes uniquely to the growing realisation that development must come from within

Direct Democracy in the EU –The Myth of a Citizens’ Union. CEPS Paperback, November 2018

The European Union has a democracy problem. The polycrisis that has plagued the EU for years has led to a cacophony of voices calling for fundamental change to the integration project. Yet despite the shock of the Brexit referendum and the electoral upsets caused by nativist parties across the continent, few of the plans for EU reform include concrete proposals to address the perennial democratic deficit. This book looks at how the relationship between citizens, the state and EU institutions has changed in a multi-layered Union. As such, it focuses more on polity than on populism, and does not engage deeply with policy or output legitimacy. Building on the notion of increasing social, economic and political interdependence across borders, this book asks whether a sense of solidarity and European identity can be rescued from the bottom up by empowering citizens to ‘take back control’ of their Union. Direct Democracy in the EU: The Myth of a Citizens’ Union is part of the 'Towards a Citizens’ Union' project and is the product of collaboration with 20 renowned think tanks from the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN). It is the first of three publications that will also cover the state of representative democracy in the EU and the accountability of democratic institutions

Render Edit: The Paper My Committee Advises

Dear Reader, you are invited to experience the creative process, execution, pedagogy, failures, and visceral response of Render Edit – a semester-long project that culminated in an evening-length dance theatre event of three simultaneous performances in one space with subdivided stages and audiences. Render Edit asked audiences to engage with a scaffolding that concealed and revealed emotional arcs and structural narrative via movement, sound, and prop. This document is meant to provide you something sustainable, concrete, and explanatory to the dance’s ephemeral experience. Both dance and document are a womanifesto of challenge and agency. Both are meant to be duplicitous, triangulated, and experienced from multiple points of view. Both were completed in partial fulfillment and challenge of the Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Vagal and sympathetic heart rate and blood pressure control in adult onset PHOX2B mutation-confirmed congenital central hypoventilation syndrome

© Springer The original publication can be found at www.springerlink.comBackground Children with Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) typically present as newborns with alveolar hypoventilation. With the advent of genetic testing, parents of affected children and other unrelated adults, all heterozygous for the disease-defining PHOX2B polyalanine expansion mutation with the 20/25 genotype, are being identified in adulthood. Though children with PHOX2B mutation-confirmed CCHS demonstrate ANS dysregulation, including altered heart rate and blood pressure control, it is unknown if adults with CCHS have similarly affected autonomic function in blood pressure control. Methods and Results An autonomic profile of blood pressure control has been studied with recording of muscle sympathetic activity and spectral analysis of heart rate and blood pressure variability of one adult patient with alveolar hypoventilation and the 20/25 PHOX2B genotype. All parameters of heart rate variability were reduced. Cardiac baroreflex sensitivity was decreased. Sympathetic responses to Valsalva maneuver, hypoxemia, isometric exercise and cold pressor were blunted. Conclusion In summary, we found a reduced cardiac baroreflex and a blunted sympathetic mediated response in the individual with adult-onset CCHS, possibly due to dysfunction in the afferent pathway. Our results confirm that PHOX2B affects the development of the autonomic nervous system, possibly causing absence of normal maturation of carotid body and visceral sensory ganglia and leading to autonomic dysfunction in adult-onset CCHS.André Diedrich, Beth A. Malow, Nick A. Antic, Kyoko Sato, R. Doug McEvoy, Christopher J. Mathias, David Robertson, Elizabeth M. Berry-Kravis and Debra E. Weese-Maye