Building community capacity in the rebuilding of New Orleans : the role of philanthropic funders post-Katrina

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-63).How can funders strengthen community capacity in post-Katrina New Orleans? Residents of low-income, minority neighborhoods have historically faced government neglect, and consequently distrust decisionmakers, in a city of extreme race and class segregation. These communities are now being overlooked in a market-driven rebuilding process. Based on a tradition of self-determination, groups across the city are fighting to meet new needs. With massive institutional failure at all levels, philanthropy could support these groups. The purpose of this thesis is to help the Gulf Coast Funders for Equity, a consortium committed to more equitable redevelopment, think strategically about how to allocate resources to strengthen these groups, some of which form, struggle, and evaporate before funders can reach them. I use a mixed-method case study approach: in-depth interviews with key informants; review of media coverage and documentary sources; and a secondary review of comparable approaches. First, to sharpen the rationale for community capacity building, I examine the pre- and post-storm roles and contributions of informal groups in New Orleans. These groups serve as nodes of trust, support and enthusiasm in overlooked communities.(cont.) Second, I review lessons learned from foundation-sponsored capacity building initiatives in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the civil unrest in Los Angeles in 1992. These cases highlight the importance of intermediary organizations to reach and support community groups, the variety of roles that a collaborative structure enables funders to play, and the importance of technical assistance for sustained community change. Third, having interviewed the grantor and prospective grantee (community group) insiders in this picture, I find a genuine interest in partnering on both sides. Among the community groups, I also find: significant information and capacity gaps; a desperate need for core operating support as much as program funds; a frustration that promising collaborations-in-progress are overlooked by funders; and concerns about the downsides of becoming grant-driven organizations. Among the funders, on the other hand, I find: confusion about what kinds of community groups to target; concerns about raising expectations through outreach without following through with funds; limited or missing capacity-including cultural competence-to do this kind of work; and variable willingness to take risks.(cont.) I recommend that funders: create local staff presence to do effective outreach and learn the landscape; provide appropriate technical assistance that does not compel groups to formalize; focus on brokering "bridging" relationships between community groups and local decisionmakers; emphasize sustained engagement; and develop the funder collaborative by choosing best options for joint action, defining roles and supporting continuous learning.by Jainey K. Bavishi.M.C.P

All-transretinoic acid and chemotherapy in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia

BACKGROUND: All- transretinoic acid (ATRA) and chemotherapy has improved complete remission rates and disease free survival in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). There is scanty data from Middle East. AIM: To determine the efficacy of ATRA and multi-agent combination chemotherapy in treatment of APL in a single Centre in Kuwait. SET-UPS AND DESIGN: Tertiary cancer centre, retrospective study. METHODS AND MATERIAL: All newly diagnosed APL patients were treated with oral ATRA 45mg/m2 daily until complete remission (CR), intravenous daunorubicin 50mg/m2 on days 1,3 and 5, cytosine arabinoside 100mg/m2 12hrly on days 1 through 10 and etoposide 100mg/m2 on days 1 through 5. Post remission three courses of intensive consolidation chemotherapy were administered. Since October 1999, maintenance chemotherapy consisting of oral 6 mercaptopurine 90mg/m2 daily, methotrexate 15mg/m2 weekly and ATRA 45mg/m2 for 2 weeks every three months was added. Complete remission rates and duration, relapse rate and toxicity were studied. RESULTS: 22 of 24 evaluable patients (91.6%) achieved CR. The median duration of remission was 13 months (range 2-55 months). Three patients (12.5%) relapsed. Two patients (8.3%) developed retinoic acid syndrome and responded to dexamethasone. Five patients (20.8%) died one each of refractory disease, during remission induction and of relapse. Two patients died while in remission. CONCLUSION:: ATRA and combination chemotherapy results in high complete remission rates and low relapse rate in newly diagnosed APL. Maintenance therapy may be useful in preventing relapses

The Impact of Nondisclosure of Geographic Segment Earnings on Earnings Predictability

Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Human intestinal anion exchanger isoforms: expression, distribution, and membrane localization

AbstractA family of anion exchangers (AEs) including AE1, AE2 and AE3 has been described. AE3 gene has been shown to encode two alternatively spliced isoforms termed as bAE3 (brain subtype) and cAE3 (cardiac subtype). The identity of the AE(s) involved in the human intestinal NaCl absorption is not fully understood. Current studies were undertaken to identify the AE isoforms expressed in the human intestine, to define their regional and vertical axis (crypt vs. surface cells) distribution, and to elucidate their membrane localization in the epithelial cells along the entire length of the human intestine. Our studies utilizing reverse transcription (RT)-PCR with total RNA extracted from pinch biopsies from various regions of the human intestine demonstrate that AE2 and bAE3 but not AE1 or cAE3 were expressed in all the regions of the human intestine. Utilizing in situ RT-PCR, we demonstrated that the message of AE2 was expressed throughout the vertical surface–crypt axis of the colon. Our Western blotting studies demonstrated that AE2 and bAE3 are localized to the basolateral but not the apical membranes of the intestinal epithelial cells from the human ileum and colon. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that in the human intestine, AE2 and bAE3, but not AE1 or cAE3, are expressed throughout the tract with the highest expression in the colon compared to the ileum and jejunum. Both the isoforms were found to be localized to the basolateral but not the apical membranes of the epithelial cells. We speculate that, in the human intestine, AE2 and bAE3 may be the ‘housekeeping’ isoforms, and the apical AE, the potential candidate for chloride absorption, remains to be identified

Predicting optical coherence tomography-derived diabetic macular edema grades from fundus photographs using deep learning

Center-involved diabetic macular edema (ci-DME) is a major cause of vision loss. Although the gold standard for diagnosis involves 3D imaging, 2D imaging by fundus photography is usually used in screening settings, resulting in high false-positive and false-negative calls. To address this, we train a deep learning model to predict ci-DME from fundus photographs, with an ROC–AUC of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.87–0.91), corresponding to 85% sensitivity at 80% specificity. In comparison, retinal specialists have similar sensitivities (82–85%), but only half the specificity (45–50%, p < 0.001). Our model can also detect the presence of intraretinal fluid (AUC: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.81–0.86) and subretinal fluid (AUC 0.88; 95% CI: 0.85–0.91). Using deep learning to make predictions via simple 2D images without sophisticated 3D-imaging equipment and with better than specialist performance, has broad relevance to many other applications in medical imaging