Financing the Low-Carbon City: Can Local Government Leverage Public Finance to Facilitate Equitable Decarbonisation?

As decarbonisation interventions proliferate within cities, local governments setting ambitious targets are increasingly engaged in complex financial relations. Recognising the necessary cost of renewable and energy efficient infrastructures, and the ever-present constraints on public funds, this paper argues that finance is a critical node through which local governments advance decarbonisation in urban localities. While local decarbonisation strategies have been viewed cautiously for their potential to overburden individuals at the expense of more systematic and organisational change, this paper reveals a more complex picture. Drawing on decarbonisation initiatives in two Melbourne municipalities-Moreland and Darebin-it identifies four ways in which local governments are using public finance to achieve their sustainability objectives. Local governments are brokering bulk product purchases for residents; lending upfront capital for solar PV via local property taxes; purchasing energy efficient products and funding innovative technology pilots; and procuring renewable energy supply through multi-stakeholder power purchase agreements. By targeting lower income households and pooling resources with other organisations, the paper shows that local governments can address socio-economic inequality and facilitate extra-local change towards a low-carbon city. However, these incremental achievements emphasise the need for co-ordination and state engagement to realise decarbonisation at a meaningful scale

R02. HIV-1 Tat Promotes Age-Related Anxiety-like, Antinociceptive, and Neuromuscular Impairments in Aged Male Mice

Corresponding author (BioMolecular Sciences): Alaa Qrareya, [email protected]://egrove.olemiss.edu/pharm_annual_posters/1001/thumbnail.jp

Treatment With Nilvadipine Mitigates Inflammatory Pathology and Improves Spatial Memory in Aged hTau Mice After Repetitive Mild TBI

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the most common form of brain trauma worldwide. The effects of mTBI are not well-studied within the elderly population, yet older adults constitute a significant portion of all mTBI patients. Few preclinical studies have focused on the effects of mTBI, or mTBI treatments, in the aged brain, and none have explored repetitive mTBI (r-mTBI). In this study, we have administered our well-characterized 5-injury model (5 r-mTBI) to hTau mice aged 24 months to explore the neurobehavioral and neuropathological outcomes, and the effects of treatment with the dihydropyridine, Nilvadipine. Our previous studies have shown that Nilvadipine inhibits spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk), is effective at reducing inflammation, tau hyperphosphorylation, and amyloid production, and it has recently been investigated in a European Phase III clinical trial for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In our 24-month-old r-mTBI mice, we observed increased neuroinflammation and a trend toward impaired cognitive performance compared to sham controls. Treatment with Nilvadipine mitigated the TBI-induced inflammatory response in aged r-mTBI animals and significantly improved spatial memory. To our knowledge, this is the only preclinical study focusing on the treatment of r-mTBI in aged, and these results suggest a therapeutic potential of Nilvadipine for consequences of mTBI

Cardiovascular diseases risk factors among recently arrived Eritrean refugees in Switzerland

For the past 10 years, refugees from Eritrea represented the majority of asylum seekers in Switzerland. However, data on their health status remains limited. In this cross-sectional survey followed by a 1-year cohort study, we screened newly arrived Eritrean refugees for cardiovascular risk factors at arrival and 1-year post registration.; Among 107 participants (88.8% male; median age 25, 9 (9%) had a body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m; 2; , one (1%) had elevated blood pressure, one (1%) had diabetes, 19% smoked and two (2%) had a low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol ≥ 4.1 mmol/l. Among the 48 participants (5 females, 43 males) followed, there were no significant changes in cardiovascular risk profile 1 year post-arrival

Author Correction: Oleoylethanolamide treatment reduces neurobehavioral deficits and brain pathology in a mouse model of Gulf War Illness

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper

La extensión como una herramienta de permanencia y cambios educativos en la Universidad

En este trabajo contamos la experiencia como estudiantes y futuros docentes de ciencias naturales y exactas en la participación del proyecto de extensión “Naturalmente Ciencia, un paso hacia la cultura científica” (Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación - Universidad Nacional de La Plata). En el transcurso de dicho proyecto diseñamos y realizamos diferentes actividades, tales como talleres, clases y stands en distintos escenarios y con diversidad de destinatarios: niños, adultos, adolescentes, familias y grupos escolares. En las siguientes páginas compartimos reflexiones de lo que ha significado el proyecto de extensión como complemento de nuestra formación docente, como herramienta de permanencia o de redescubrimiento de vocaciones.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

La extensión como una herramienta de permanencia y cambios educativos en la Universidad

En este trabajo contamos la experiencia como estudiantes y futuros docentes de ciencias naturales y exactas en la participación del proyecto de extensión “Naturalmente Ciencia, un paso hacia la cultura científica” (Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación - Universidad Nacional de La Plata). En el transcurso de dicho proyecto diseñamos y realizamos diferentes actividades, tales como talleres, clases y stands en distintos escenarios y con diversidad de destinatarios: niños, adultos, adolescentes, familias y grupos escolares. En las siguientes páginas compartimos reflexiones de lo que ha significado el proyecto de extensión como complemento de nuestra formación docente, como herramienta de permanencia o de redescubrimiento de vocaciones.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

A permethrin metabolite is associated with adaptive immune responses in Gulf War Illness

Gulf War Illness (GWI), affecting 30% of veterans from the 1991 Gulf War (GW), is a multi-symptom illness with features similar to those of patients with autoimmune diseases. The objective of the current work is to determine if exposure to GW-related pesticides, such as permethrin (PER), activates peripheral and central nervous system (CNS) adaptive immune responses. In the current study, we focused on a PER metabolite, 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA), as this is a common metabolite previously shown to form adducts with endogenous proteins. We observed the presence of 3-PBA and 3-PBA modified lysine of protein peptides in the brain, blood and liver of pyridostigmine bromide (PB) and  PER (PB+PER) exposed mice at acute and chronic post-exposure timepoints. We tested whether 3-PBA-haptenated albumin (3-PBA-albumin) can activate immune cells since it is known that chemically haptenated proteins can stimulate immune responses. We detected autoantibodies against 3-PBA-albumin in plasma from PB + PER exposed mice and veterans with GWI at chronic post-exposure timepoints. We also observed that in vitro treatment of blood with 3-PBA-albumin resulted in the activation of B- and T-helper lymphocytes and that these immune cells were also increased in blood of PB + PER exposed mice and veterans with GWI. These immune changes corresponded with elevated levels of infiltrating monocytes in the brain and blood of PB + PER exposed mice which coincided with alterations in the markers of blood-brain barrier disruption, brain macrophages and neuroinflammation. These studies suggest that pesticide exposure associated with GWI may have resulted in the activation of the peripheral and CNS adaptive immune responses, possibly contributing to an autoimmune-type phenotype in veterans with GWI

Association of HIV neutralizing antibody with lower viral load after treatment interruption in a prospective trial (A5170)

We investigated the impact of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) on CD4 T-cell count and viral load in a cohort of HAART recipients who underwent extended structured treatment interruption