Reclaiming Impact in the Age of Awareness-raising for Human Rights

In the last decade, the practice of awareness-raising for human rights has appeared as notably common across the board. Nevertheless, widespread awareness-raising has not necessarily always resulted in meaningful and sustainable impact. Accepting that awareness raising is not a panacea, we challenge the global collective fascination with big impact, while considering the power of small strategic impact that invests in education, and building alliances, and has the potential to last and to expand by way of gradual encroachment through contextually-defined grassroots means natural to its course. Empowered through social media, advocates are increasingly enthusiastic about reaching massive audiences by way of campaigns which if effectively designed and executed, travel far and wide. Acknowledging the potential power of awareness-raising, this practice should not be mistaken as an end in and of itself. In fact, if viewed as an end, such campaigns can arguably bear detrimental unintended consequences: While giving an impression of activism they may fail to channel the collective energy of the public into strategic and sustainable action focused on appropriately-scoped and scalable change. In this context, we explore the original aim(s) of awareness-raising as a concept, as well as its limitations and capacities. Moreover, we will revisit the parameters of structural, foundational and sustainable impact. In doing so, we will examine successful strategies for translating awareness-raising into behavioral change and measurable impact in other contexts (e.g., environmental movement, or public health). Finally, we will challenge the notion of global as it stands today, rejecting the notion that the west always seem to have lessons learned on human rights to offer to the Global South. As western societies struggle with backlash and hostility towards progress, there are valuable opportunities to learn from experiences of the Global South on grassroots activism, and the importance of patience in seeking impact

CD166 expression in dentigerous cyst, keratocystic odontogenic tumor and ameloblastoma

Background: CD166 is a glycoprotein of an immunoglobulin super family of adhesion molecules that has been associated with aggressive characteristics and high recurrence rate of tumors. Different odontogenic lesions exhibit considerable histological variation and different clinical behavior. In an attempt to clarify the mechanisms underlying this different behavior, the present study investigates the immunohistochemical expression of CD166 in these lesions. Material and Methods: In this study 69 formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue blocks of odontogenic lesion consist of 15 unicystic ameloblastoma (UA), 17 solid ameloblastoma (SA), 18 keratocystic odontogenic tumors (KCOT), and 19 dentigerous cysts (DC) were reviewed by immunohistochemistry for CD166 staining. Results: In this study, CD166 immune staining was evident in all specimen groups except dentigerous cyst. In positive cases, protein localization was cytoplasmic and/or membranous. CD166 expression was seen in76.5% (13) of SA, 73.5% (11) of UA, and 66.7% (12) of KCOTs. Statistical analysis showed that CD166 expression levels were significantly higher in ameloblastoma (SA and UA) and KCOTs than dentigerous cyst (P<0.001), but there was no statistically significant difference between CD166 expression in the other groups (P>0.05). Conclusions: This data demonstrates that overexpression of CD166 may have a role in the pathogenesis of ameloblastoma and KCOT

Tacrolimus toxicity in organ transplantation: an overview

Tacrolimus is a macrolide lactone antibiotic, and acts as a calcineurin inhibitor. It is widely used to prevent organ transplant rejection. It has been approved as first-line treatment after organ transplantation. Tacrolimus has narrow therapeutic range and wide individual variability in its pharmacokinetics. In organ transplantation, immunosuppression is associated with important risks, in particular, related to infections and cardiovascular diseases, which are the predominant causes of death in those with a functioning graft. This review focuses on toxicity of tacrolimus after transplantation. Tacrolimus toxicity is a major determinant of morbidity and mortality in organ recipients after transplantation. Therefore, reducing toxicities has become a priority. To decrease the incidence of side effects, and expand graft survival, the appropriate initial and maintenance dose of tacrolimus is essential. Clinical conditions that influence tacrolimus pharmacokinetics, such as hemorrhage, systemic inflammation and shock, all result in higher variations of tacrolimus concentrations. In addition, unbound plasma concentration is a major important reasonable parameter for monitoring of receiving optimal tacrolimus dosing in the unstable patient. Therefore, the approach of tacrolimus monitoring is vital and will support to avoid tacrolimus toxicity in the early days after transplantation

Uso de la gamificación para mejorar la calidad educativa de los niños con autismo

This study was conducted with a pre-test–post-test design with a control group in which participants were divided into two experimental (ten persons) and control (ten persons) groups. The Smile 1 intervention took place in 16 sessions of 30 min, which consisted of eight sessions of 1 h owing to the time spent by the parents of the participants in the study. Additionally, a Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) was used to measure the effectiveness of this interventional game on reducing the behavioural problems of children that participated. The questionnaire consists of 113 questions in which 13 different behavioural factors are identified in the children. For this purpose, pre-test and post-test stages were performed for both groups. In fact, due to time constraints for holding intervention sessions, it was expected from the outset that significant changes in participant behaviour during the two months of interventions would not be observed.Este estudio se realizó con un diseño pre-test-post test con un grupo de control en el que los participantes se dividieron en dos grupos experimentales (diez personas) y de control (diez personas). La intervención de Smile 1 se llevó a cabo en 16 sesiones de 30 minutos, que consistieron en ocho sesiones de 1 hora debido al tiempo que pasaron los padres de los participantes en el estudio. Además, se utilizó una Lista de control de la conducta infantil (CBCL) para medir la eficacia de este juego intervencionista en la reducción de los problemas de conducta de los niños que participaron. El cuestionario consta de 113 preguntas en las que se identifican 13 factores conductuales diferentes en los niños. Para ello, se realizaron etapas de pre-test y post-test para ambos grupos. De hecho, debido a las limitaciones de tiempo para realizar las sesiones de intervención, se esperaba desde el principio que no se observaran cambios significativos en el comportamiento de los participantes durante los dos meses de las intervenciones

IGF-1 and PDGF-bb suppress IL-1β-induced cartilage degradation through down-regulation of NF-κB signaling: involvement of Src/PI-3K/AKT pathway.

Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays a key role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). Growth factors (GFs) capable of antagonizing the catabolic actions of cytokines may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of OA. Herein, we investigated the potential synergistic effects of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-bb) on different mechanisms participating in IL-1β-induced activation of nuclear transcription factor-κB (NF-κB) and apoptosis in chondrocytes. Primary chondrocytes were treated with IL-1β to induce dedifferentiation and co-treated with either IGF-1 or/and PDGF-bb and evaluated by immunoblotting and electron microscopy. Pretreatment of chondrocytes with IGF-1 or/and PDGF-bb suppressed IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation via inhibition of IκB-α kinase. Inhibition of IκB-α kinase by GFs led to the suppression of IκB-α phosphorylation and degradation, p65 nuclear translocation and NF-κB-regulated gene products involved in inflammation and cartilage degradation (COX-2, MMPs) and apoptosis (caspase-3). GFs or BMS-345541 (specific inhibitor of the IKK) reversed the IL-1β-induced down-regulation of collagen type II, cartilage specific proteoglycans, β1-integrin, Shc, activated MAPKinase, Sox-9 and up-regulation of active caspase-3. Furthermore, the inhibitory effects of IGF-1 or/and PDGF-bb on IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation were sensitive to inhibitors of Src (PP1), PI-3K (wortmannin) and Akt (SH-5), suggesting that the pathway consisting of non-receptor tyrosine kinase (Src), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and protein kinase B must be involved in IL-1β signaling. The results presented suggest that IGF-1 and PDGF-bb are potent inhibitors of IL-1β-mediated activation of NF-κB and apoptosis in chondrocytes, may be mediated in part through suppression of Src/PI-3K/AKT pathway, which may contribute to their anti-inflammatory effects

A particle swarm algorithm for inspection optimization in serial multi-stage processes

AbstractImplementing efficient inspection policies is much important for the organizations to reduce quality related costs. In this paper, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed to determine the optimal inspection policy in serial multi-stage processes. The policy consists of three decision parameters to be optimized; i.e. the stages in which inspection occurs, tolerance of inspection, and size of sample to inspect. Total inspection cost is adopted as the performance measure of the algorithm. A numerical example is investigated in two phases, i.e. fixed sample size and sample size as a decision parameter, to ensure the practicality and validity of the proposed PSO algorithm. It is shown that PSO gives better results in comparison with two other algorithms proposed by earlier works