The effects of price liberalisation on Kenyan peri-urban dairy

When severe market shortages of dairy products occurred in Kenya in early 1992, the government decontrolled dairy prices and revoked the monopoly of the Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC) on sales of processed milk in urban areas. The general opinion among policy makers in Kenya then was that the price liberalisation would adversely affect the KCC. That the KCC has actually not lost its grip on the market is illustrated in this study of the impact of the 1992 policy reform on smallholder peri-urban dairy producers, using a Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) approach

Modelling the effect of seasonal influenza vaccination on the risk of pandemic influenza infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent studies have suggested that vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine resulted in an apparent higher risk of infection with pandemic influenza H1N1 2009. A simple mathematical model incorporating strain competition and a hypothesised temporary strain-transcending immunity is constructed to investigate this observation. The model assumes that seasonal vaccine has no effect on the risk of infection with pandemic influenza.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results of the model over a range of reproduction numbers and effective vaccination coverage confirm this apparent increased risk in the Northern, but not the Southern, hemisphere. This is due to unvaccinated individuals being more likely to be infected with seasonal influenza (if it is circulating) and developing hypothesised temporary immunity to the pandemic strain. Because vaccinated individuals are less likely to have been infected with seasonal influenza, they are less likely to have developed the hypothesised temporary immunity and are therefore more likely to be infected with pandemic influenza. If the reproduction number for pandemic influenza is increased, as it is for children, an increase in the apparent risk of seasonal vaccination is observed. The maximum apparent risk effect is found when seasonal vaccination coverage is in the range 20-40%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Only when pandemic influenza is recently preceded by seasonal influenza circulation is there a modelled increased risk of pandemic influenza infection associated with prior receipt of seasonal vaccine.</p

Escherichia coli HU protein has a role in the repair of abasic sites in DNA

HU is one of the most abundant DNA binding proteins in Escherichia coli. We find that it binds strongly to DNA containing an abasic (AP) site or tetrahydrofuran (THF) (apparent Kd ≈50 nM). It also possesses an AP lyase activity that cleaves at a deoxyribose but not at a THF residue. The binding and cleavage of an AP site was observed only with the HUαβ heterodimer. Site-specific mutations at K3 and R61 residues led to a change in substrate binding and cleavage. Both K3A(α)K3A(β) and R61A(α)R61A(β) mutant HU showed significant reduction in binding to DNA containing AP site; however, only R61A(α)R61A(β) mutant protein exhibited significant loss in AP lyase activity. Both K3A(α)K3A(β) and R61K(α)R61K(β) showed slight reduction in AP lyase activities. The function of HU protein as an AP lyase was confirmed by the ability of hupA or hupB mutations to further reduce the viability of an E. coli dut(Ts) xth mutant, which generates lethal AP sites at 37°C; the hupA and hupB derivatives, respectively, had a 6-fold and a 150-fold lower survival at 37°C than did the parental strain. These data suggest, therefore, that HU protein plays a significant role in the repair of AP sites in E. coli

NIDCAP improves brain function and structure in preterm infants with severe intrauterine growth restriction

Objective: The effect of NIDCAP (Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program) was examined on the neurobehavioral, electrophysiological and neurostructural development of preterm infants with severe intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Study Design: A total of 30 infants, 27–33 weeks gestation, were randomized to control (C; N=17) or NIDCAP/experimental (E; N=13) care. Baseline health and demographics were assessed at intake; electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 35 and 42 weeks postmenstrual age; and health, growth and neurobehavior at 42 weeks and 9 months corrected age (9 months). Results: C and E infants were comparable in health and demographics at baseline. At follow-up, E infants were healthier, showed significantly improved brain development and better neurobehavior. Neurobehavior, EEG and MRI discriminated between C and E infants. Neurobehavior at 42 weeks correlated with EEG and MRI at 42 weeks and neurobehavior at 9 months. Conclusion: NIDCAP significantly improved IUGR preterm infants' neurobehavior, electrophysiology and brain structure. Longer-term outcome assessment and larger samples are recommended

What Do Unions Do for Economic Performance?

Twenty years have passed since Freeman and Medoff's What Do Unions Do? This essay assesses their analysis of how unions in the U.S. private sector affect economic performance - productivity, profitability, investment, and growth. Freeman and Medoff are clearly correct that union productivity effects vary substantially across workplaces. Their conclusion that union effects are on average positive and substantial cannot be sustained, subsequent evidence suggesting an average union productivity effect near zero. Their speculation that productivity effects are larger in more competitive environments appears to hold up, although more evidence is needed. Subsequent literature continues to find unions associated with lower profitability, as noted by Freeman and Medoff. Unions are found to tax returns stemming from market power, but industry concentration is not the source of such returns. Rather, unions capture firm quasi-rents arising from long-lived tangible and intangible capital and from firm-specific advantages. Lower profits and the union tax on asset returns leads to reduced investment and, subsequently, lower employment and productivity growth. There is little evidence that unionization leads to higher rates of business failure. Given the decline in U.S. private sector unionism, I explore avenues through which individual and collective voice might be enhanced, focusing on labor law and workplace governance defaults. Substantial enhancement of voice requires change in the nonunion sector and employer as well as worker initiatives. It is unclear whether labor unions would be revitalized or further marginalized by such an evolution