Media(ted) discourses and climate change : a focus on political subjectivity and (dis)engagement

Research has shown that the media are the main source of information and the main factor shaping people’s awareness and concern in relation to climate change and therefore have an important role in setting the public agenda. As a key forum for the production, reproduction and transformation of the meaning of public issues, the media influence understandings of risks, responsibilities, as well as of the functioning of democratic politics. This article argues that the media also matter to citizens’ perception of their (potential) political agency or their political subjectivity. Media representations construct particular ‘subject positions’ for individuals and cultivate dispositions to action or inaction. The article discusses the importance of citizens’ political engagement with climate change and points out some aspects of media(ted) discourses that may constrain the perceived possibilities of participation in the politics of climate change. While engagement with climate change has multiple dimensions and a number of barriers have been identified through empirical studies, this article offers a critique of the role of the media in political engagement with the problem and suggests avenues for future research.The author is grateful to the Portuguese Funda A, o para a CiIncia e a Tecnologia for funding the project 'The Politics of Climate Change: Discourses and Representations' (POCI/COM56973/2004), to Jan Zienkowski for relevant comments on this paper, and to the reviewers who provided detailed feedback

Defining Natural History: Assessment of the Ability of College Students to Aid in Characterizing Clinical Progression of Niemann-Pick Disease, Type C

Niemann-Pick Disease, type C (NPC) is a fatal, neurodegenerative, lysosomal storage disorder. It is a rare disease with broad phenotypic spectrum and variable age of onset. These issues make it difficult to develop a universally accepted clinical outcome measure to assess urgently needed therapies. To this end, clinical investigators have defined emerging, disease severity scales. The average time from initial symptom to diagnosis is approximately 4 years. Further, some patients may not travel to specialized clinical centers even after diagnosis. We were therefore interested in investigating whether appropriately trained, community-based assessment of patient records could assist in defining disease progression using clinical severity scores. In this study we evolved a secure, step wise process to show that pre-existing medical records may be correctly assessed by non-clinical practitioners trained to quantify disease progression. Sixty-four undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame were expertly trained in clinical disease assessment and recognition of major and minor symptoms of NPC. Seven clinical records, randomly selected from a total of thirty seven used to establish a leading clinical severity scale, were correctly assessed to show expected characteristics of linear disease progression. Student assessment of two new records donated by NPC families to our study also revealed linear progression of disease, but both showed accelerated disease progression, relative to the current severity scale, especially at the later stages. Together, these data suggest that college students may be trained in assessment of patient records, and thus provide insight into the natural history of a disease

Seriously personal:The reasons that motivate entrepreneurs to address climate change

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is freely available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Scholars increasingly argue that entrepreneurs and their small- and medium-sized enterprises should play a central role in reducing the rate and magnitude of climate change. However, evidence suggests that while some entrepreneurs recognize their crucial role in addressing climate change, most do not. Why some entrepreneurs nevertheless concern themselves with climate change has largely been overlooked. Some initial work in this area tentatively suggests that these entrepreneurs may engage with climate change because of their personal values, which either focus on financial or socio-ecological reasons, or a combination of both. Yet, it is unclear if all for-profit entrepreneurs engage with climate change for the same reasons, or if indeed their motivations vary across business types. Over a period of four years, we examined entrepreneurs’ motivations to engage with climate change through a variety of qualitative research methods. Our findings illustrate how entrepreneurs who address climate change have motivations specific to their business activity/industry and level of maturity. In each instance, we link these motivations to distinct conceptualizations of time and place. We contend that, through a more differentiated understanding of entrepreneurial motivations, policy-makers can draft climate change-related policies tailored to entrepreneurial needs. Policies could both increase the number of entrepreneurs who already engage in climate change mitigation and leverage the impact of those entrepreneurs already mitigating climate change.This study was funded by the European Social Fund (09099NCO5). We acknowledge with thanks the participation of the entrepreneurs and the support of Business Leaders for Low Carbon, Cornwall Council, and Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project. The authors wish to thank Professor John Amis, Professor Kenneth Amaeshi and the anonymous reviewers who provided useful feedback on earlier versions of the article

Bamlanivimab therapy for acute COVID-19 does not blunt SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T cell responses

Despite the widespread use of SARS-CoV-2-specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy for the treatment of acute COVID-19, the impact of this therapy on the development of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses has been unknown, resulting in uncertainty as to whether anti-SARS-CoV-2 mAb administration may result in failure to generate immune memory. Alternatively, it has been suggested that SARS-CoV-2-specific mAb may enhance adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 via a "vaccinal effect." Bamlanivimab (Eli Lilly) is a recombinant human IgG1 that was granted FDA emergency use authorization for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in those at high risk for progression to severe disease. Here, we compared SARS-CoV-2 specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses of 95 individuals from the ACTIV-2/A5401 clinical trial 28 days after treatment with 700 mg bamlanivimab versus placebo. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses were evaluated using activation induced marker (AIM) assays in conjunction with intracellular cytokine staining (ICS). We demonstrate that most individuals with acute COVID-19 develop SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses. Overall, our findings suggest that the quantity and quality of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory was not diminished in individuals who received bamlanivimab for acute COVID-19. Receipt of bamlanivimab during acute COVID-19 neither diminished nor enhanced SARS-CoV-2-specific cellular immunity

Genomic investigations of unexplained acute hepatitis in children

Since its first identification in Scotland, over 1,000 cases of unexplained paediatric hepatitis in children have been reported worldwide, including 278 cases in the UK1. Here we report an investigation of 38 cases, 66 age-matched immunocompetent controls and 21 immunocompromised comparator participants, using a combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and immunohistochemical methods. We detected high levels of adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) DNA in the liver, blood, plasma or stool from 27 of 28 cases. We found low levels of adenovirus (HAdV) and human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B) in 23 of 31 and 16 of 23, respectively, of the cases tested. By contrast, AAV2 was infrequently detected and at low titre in the blood or the liver from control children with HAdV, even when profoundly immunosuppressed. AAV2, HAdV and HHV-6 phylogeny excluded the emergence of novel strains in cases. Histological analyses of explanted livers showed enrichment for T cells and B lineage cells. Proteomic comparison of liver tissue from cases and healthy controls identified increased expression of HLA class 2, immunoglobulin variable regions and complement proteins. HAdV and AAV2 proteins were not detected in the livers. Instead, we identified AAV2 DNA complexes reflecting both HAdV-mediated and HHV-6B-mediated replication. We hypothesize that high levels of abnormal AAV2 replication products aided by HAdV and, in severe cases, HHV-6B may have triggered immune-mediated hepatic disease in genetically and immunologically predisposed children

Essays on Venture Capital Syndication and the Informational Efficiency of the Corporate Bond Market

The first two essays in this dissertation examine the phenomenon of venture capital syndication, or co-investment. In the first essay, I construct measures of syndicate heterogeneity and find that when venture capital firms from different geographic regions syndicate their investments, this has a strong positive impact on the company receiving the financing. However, I find no equivalent positive impact from heterogeneity in terms of organizational structure of the venture capital firms. My results are robust to selection effects and are consistent with the notion that syndicate partners add value through their access to different business networks. In the second essay, I find that syndication is positively associated with both the investment amount and the information asymmetries between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist(s). I also find that syndication is more prevalent in Boston, California, and the Pacific Northwest. After controlling for these factors, I still find that syndication rates cycle and argue that current elevated syndication rates are a symptom of overinvestment by the venture capital community. In the third essay, I find that a firm's traded corporate bonds partially anticipate its stock price movements by one to three months. A decline of 10% over three months of a firm's bonds is associated with an ensuing cumulative stock-price decline of 3% to 6%. The effect is non-linear, with bond price declines signaling lower future stock prices, but bond price increases having no effect. Possible explanations include the focus of bond analysts on negative results, the use of credit-default swaps as venues for informed trading (including insider trading), and the influence of noise traders on equity prices