School determinants of political engagement and participation among South African 'Born Frees'

In this dissertation, I use the 2012 Cape Area Study - a survey of 2,518 Grade 11 students at 45 schools in the Cape Town metropolitan area - to explore school determinants of political engagement and participation among South Africa's first post-apartheid generation, the 'born frees'. I ask whether schools have had an impact on 'born free' students' civic engagement and the likelihood that they will participate in legal and illegal political activity, as well as voting in elections. Despite the legacies of the racially defined apartheid system, the current African National Congress (ANC) government's failure to deliver on their promise of equal, quality and democratic education for all, and the enduring crisis in basic education, I find that the school can have a positive influence on political engagement and attitudes toward political participation. In this regard, the school characteristics that have the greatest influence are: the frequency with which politics is discussed across classes, the level of participation in school governance and other organisations, and extent to which the school environment is fair and caring. In addition, the school contributes to the development of internal efficacy and a procedural (rather than instrumental) understanding of democracy, both of which positively impact political engagement and attitudes toward political participation. Socio-economic status and race have a relatively small impact, which is reassuring given South Africa's history and the persistently high level of socio-economic inequality. Intriguingly, where socioeconomic status and race are significant, it is the wealthier and previously advantaged groups who are less likely to be politically engaged and to have participative attitudes toward political activities, with the exception of voting

The political economy of decarbonisation: exploring the dynamics of South Africa’s electricity sector

South Africa’s coal-dominated electricity sector, a key feature of the country’s minerals-energy complex, is in crisis and subject to change. This offers potential opportunities for decarbonisation. Despite positive examples of decarbonisation in South Africa’s electricity sector, such as a procurement programme for renewable energy, there are structural path dependencies linked to coal-fired generation and security of supply. Decarbonisation goes far beyond what is technologically or even economically feasible, to encompass a complexity of political, social and economic factors. Meanwhile, decision-making in electricity is highly politicised and lack of transparency and power struggles in the policy sphere pose key challenges. Such power struggles are reflected in national debates over which technologies should be prioritised and the institutional arrangements that should facilitate them

A Review and Exploration of the Status, Context and Political Economy of Power Sector Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America

This paper provides an overview of market-oriented power sector reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America over the past twenty-five years. The role of political economy contextualities in driving, constraining or otherwise influencing power sector reform is explored through a review of the essential literature. Though this literature is considered to have considerably expanded the scope of understanding around power sector reform and development, political economy research in the area is found to be lacking in methodological coherence and theoretical substance. Future efforts are needed to systematically bring together the array of insights, methodological approaches and recommendations in this literature, as well as better bound, differentiate and systemise political economy research in the area going forward. Two initial frameworks are advanced through this paper in relation to this dual research imperative

AVALIAÇÃO DE BIOMARCADORES NO SANGUE PERIFÉRICO POR CITOMETRIA DE FLUXO COMO MEIO DE ORIENTAÇÃO PARA A IMUNOTERAPIA EM TUMORES SÓLIDOS: REVISÃO DA LITERATURA

Cancer treatment is an area that is constantly being updated, namely with the discovery of immunotherapy as a clinically effective therapeutic modality for various types of cancer. Among these innovative therapies, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have proven to provide significant and long-lasting responses. However, this response does not occur for all patients, i.e., some patients do not benefit from this therapy. Due to this heterogeneity in immunotherapy response, there is an urgent need to identify and establish biomarkers that will allow the identification of patients who will respond to the therapy, while sparing the non-responders from adverse effects. In addition, the use these biomarkers in monitoring the response during treatment seems promising. Given the recognized role of the immune system in the anti-tumour response, these cells have been intensively studied as potential biomarkers. Their study in peripheral blood (PB) has been of great interest and importance, given its easy accessibility and less invasive nature. The detailed and integral evaluation of peripheral immunity requires a multiparametric methodology such as flow cytometry (FC), applying the simultaneous analysis of lineage markers together with maturation, activation and functional state markers. In this narrative literature review, we intend to describe the “state of the art” on the FC study of PB immune cell populations as potential biomarkers for ICI therapy in solid tumours. The results found are presented for each of the major populations and their subsets, namely T lymphocytes, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), neutrophils, eosinophils, dendritic cells (CD), natural killer cells (NK), monocyte subsets, and B cells. O tratamento do cancro é uma área em intensa e permanente atualização, nomeadamente com a descoberta da imunoterapia como modalidade terapêutica clinicamente eficaz para diversos tipos de cancro. Entre estas terapias inovadoras, as terapias com inibidores de checkpoints imunológicos (ICI) têm demonstrado apresentar respostas significativas e duradouras. No entanto, esta resposta não ocorre para todos os doentes, ou seja, alguns pacientes não beneficiam desta terapia. Devido a esta heterogeneidade na resposta à imunoterapia, persiste a necessidade urgente de identificar e estabelecer biomarcadores que permitam a identificação dos doentes que irão responder à terapia, poupando os que não respondem aos efeitos adversos. Para além deste aspeto, parece promissor o impacto na clínica da utilização destes biomarcadores na monitorização da resposta durante o tratamento. Dado o reconhecido papel do sistema imunológico na resposta anti-tumoral, estas células têm sido intensamente estudadas como potenciais biomarcadores. Com este objetivo, o sangue periférico (SP), tem revelado grande interesse e importância, dada a sua fácil acessibilidade e natureza menos invasiva. A avaliação detalhada e integral da imunidade periférica, exige uma metodologia multiparamétrica como a citometria de fluxo, recorrendo à utilização de marcadores de linhagem simultaneamente com marcadores de maturação, ativação e estados funcionais. Com esta revisão bibliográfica narrativa, pretendeu-se descrever o “estado da arte” sobre o estudo por citometria de fluxo das populações celulares do sistema imunológico no SP, como potenciais biomarcadores para a terapia com ICI em tumores sólidos. Os resultados encontrados são apresentados para cada uma das populações principais e suas subpopulações, nomeadamente linfócitos T, células supressoras derivadas da linhagem mieloide (MDSCs), neutrófilos, eosinófilos, células dendríticas (DC), células natural killer (NK), monócitos, e linfócitos B.&nbsp