Regulatory planning and affordable housing in Kigali City: policies, challenges and prospects

The availability of sufficient housing for all is often stated as a priority for enhancing the social needs of a society. Studies from elsewhere have suggested a correlation between zoning strictness and inflating housing costs, which also leads to the exclusion of social classes in cities. However, in Africa, these linkages have not been adequately assessed. With zoning being at the heart of the current planning system in Rwanda, this research aims at examining the linkages between zoning planning and housing affordability, in an emerging urban setting like Kigali City. The study employed a combination of systematic review of articles, policy documents, discourse, and cost analysis to assess the effects of the strictness of master plan and zoning requirements on housing costs, and the ease of access to housing particularly for low-income households. This paper finds a significant gap in affordable housing supply, a moderate impact of zoning regulations on housing production costs, and a clear policy determination to address the housing problem despite implementation constraints. This study thus suggests for a relaxation in zoning regulations for certain income thresholds, re-defining of affordability to match the local context, and the generation of housing affordability indexes to inform government’s urban housing strategies.Keywords: Regulatory Planning, Affordable Housing, Urban Poor Households, Kigali Cit

Ontology of the communication performance prospects of Building Information Modelling (BIM) adoption among project teams in construction project delivery

Abstract: The need for improved communication performance among project teams has significantly underlined the increased adoption of many computer-based tools and Information Communication Technology (ICT) in project delivery in the construction industry. Though the literature has espoused the key benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM), relatively less attention has been paid to the communication performance influence of BIM to profession-specific tasks and wider industry adoption. The primary aim of this study is to assess the communication performance prospects of BIM adoption among project teams in construction project delivery. Using deductive research design, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted on 52 experienced construction industry practitioners in the use of BIM tools in project delivery. The results indicated a significant influence of BIM adoption to accuracy, understanding, timeliness and improvement in the dissemination of shared project related information among project teams. However, contrary to opinion espoused in literature, there was no significant impact on overcoming underloading, overloading and gatekeeping issues in communicated information among the team. The findings provide empirical support into the perceived communication benefits of BIM adoption and thus this knowledge can be an overriding impetus to extensive adoption of BIM tools across all the project life cycle to enhance communication in the construction industry

Physiological and histopathological responses following closed rotational head injury depend on direction of head motion

Rotational inertial forces are thought to be the underlying mechanism for most severe brain injuries. However, little is known about the effect of head rotation direction on injury outcomes, particularly in the pediatric population. Neonatal piglets were subjected to a single non-impact head rotation in the horizontal, coronal, or sagittal direction, and physiological and histopathological responses were observed. Sagittal rotation produced the longest duration of unconsciousness, highest incidence of apnea, and largest intracranial pressure increase, while coronal rotation produced little change, and horizontal rotation produced intermediate and variable derangements. Significant cerebral blood flow reductions were observed following sagittal but not coronal or horizontal injury compared to sham. Subarachnoid hemorrhage, ischemia, and brainstem pathology were observed in the sagittal and horizontal groups but not in a single coronal animal. Significant axonal injury occurred following both horizontal and sagittal rotations. For both groups, the distribution of injury was greater in the frontal and parietotemporal lobes than in the occipital lobes, frequently occurred in the absence of ischemia, and did not correlate with regional cerebral blood flow reductions. We postulate that these direction-dependent differences in injury outcomes are due to differences in tissue mechanical loading produced during head rotation

Hypoxia-Induced Down-Regulation of Neprilysin by Histone Modification in Mouse Primary Cortical and Hippocampal Neurons

Amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) accumulation leads to neurodegeneration and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ metabolism is a dynamic process in the Aβ production and clearance that requires neprilysin (NEP) and other enzymes to degrade Aβ. It has been reported that NEP expression is significantly decreased in the brain of AD patients. Previously we have documented hypoxia is a risk factor for Aβ generation in vivo and in vitro through increasing Aβ generation by altering β-cleavage and γ-cleavage of APP and down-regulating NEP, and causing tau hyperphosphorylation. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia-induced down-regulation of NEP. We found a significant decrease in NEP expression at the mRNA and protein levels after hypoxic treatment in mouse primary cortical and hippocampal neurons. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays and relative quantitative PCR (q-PCR) revealed an increase of histone H3-lysine9 demethylation (H3K9me2) and a decrease of H3 acetylation (H3-Ace) in the NEP promoter regions following hypoxia. In addition, we found that hypoxia caused up-regulation of histone methyl transferase (HMT) G9a and histone deacetylases (HDACs) HDAC-1. Decreased expression of NEP during hypoxia can be prevented by application with the epigenetic regulators 5-Aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5-Aza), HDACs inhibitor sodium valproate (VA), and siRNA-mediated knockdown of G9a or HDAC1. DNA methylation PCR data do not support that hypoxia affects the methylation of NEP promoters. This study suggests that hypoxia may down-regulate NEP by increasing H3K9me2 and decreasing H3-Ace modulation

Serine metabolism remodeling after platinum-based chemotherapy identifies vulnerabilities in a subgroup of resistant ovarian cancers

Resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy represents a major clinical challenge for many tumors, including epithelial ovarian cancer. Patients often experience several response-relapse events, until tumors become resistant and life expectancy drops to 12–15 months. Despite improved knowledge of the molecular determinants of platinum resistance, the lack of clinical applicability limits exploitation of many potential targets, leaving patients with limited options. Serine biosynthesis has been linked to cancer growth and poor prognosis in various cancer types, however its role in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer is not known. Here, we show that a subgroup of resistant tumors decreases phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) expression at relapse after platinum-based chemotherapy. Mechanistically, we observe that this phenomenon is accompanied by a specific oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) regenerating phenotype, which helps tumor cells in sustaining Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activity under platinum treatment. Our findings reveal metabolic vulnerabilities with clinical implications for a subset of platinum resistant ovarian cancers

Contribution of Aging, Obesity, and Microbiota on Tumor Immunotherapy Efficacy and Toxicity

Cancer immunotherapy has entered the forefront of cancer treatment, but major challenges still exist, such as the limited proportion of patients that respond to treatment and treatment-related toxicity. Therefore, biomarkers to predict which patients will benefit from therapy without major side effects are of the utmost importance. Moreover, novel therapeutic targets to increase the proportion of responding patients on a given immunotherapy or to alleviate immunotherapy-induced toxicity could be a valuable adjunct to immunotherapy treatment. Host factors such as age, obesity, and the composition of the gut microbiome have considerable effects on immune responses and, hence, could have a large impact on the outcome of immunotherapies. Moreover, since these host factors differ considerably between preclinical mouse models and human cancer patients, it might be possible that these host factors account, in part, for the observed discrepancies in outcomes between mice experiments and clinical trials. In this review, we discuss the latest data on the influence of aging, obesity, and the gut microbiome on the anti-tumor immune response and immunotherapy and propose avenues to increase our knowledge on this topic in order to improve patient selection for cancer immunotherapy treatment.status: publishe