Roles of Government and Community Support, Flood Experience, and Flood Education in Livelihood Resilience

Flooding is a perennial problem in the state of Bihar, India with devastating impact on the livelihood of people. In spite of the government\u27s measures of flood mitigation, households continue to live with suffering on account of severe damage to their material and non-material assets. In this background, the objectives of the study are: (1) to explore the differential role of the community and government support in livelihood resilience; (2) to assess the impact of flood experience and flood education in livelihood resilience; and (3) to explore the impact of level of education, reflected in average years of schooling of the male-headed households in livelihood resilience. The primary data were collected from 472 households by using a multi-stage random sampling technique over seven blocks in river basins of Ganga and Kosi in the district of Bhagalpur, Bihar. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling were used. The findings of the study show that prompt and spontaneous community action was more effective than government help. Flood experience also plays a crucial role in the revamping of livelihood. Flood education is not found to exist in the area; people learn the skills of survival during and after floods from their elders. Moreover, difference in education among the male-headed households creates difference in the attitudes and awareness surrounding livelihood resilience

Vefrifikacija prognoza oborine WRF modelom nad Indijom tijekom monsuna 2010.: CRA metoda

The WRF model forecast during monsoon season 2010 has been verified with daily observed gridded rainfall analysis with 0.5° spatial resolution. First- ly, the conventional neighborhood technique has been deployed to calculate common scores like mean error and root mean square error. Along with, widely used two categorical skill scores have been computed for seven different rainfall thresholds. The scores only found the general nature of the model performance and depicted the degradation of forecast accuracy exceeding moderate rainfall category of 7.5 mm. The object oriented Contiguous Rain Area method also has been considered for the verification of rainfall forecasts to gather more informa- tion about model performance. The method similarly has endorsed that the performance of the model degrades along with the increase in rainfall amount. But at the same time, the decomposition of mean square error has pointed out that the maximum error occurred due the shifting of rain object or event in the forecast compared to observation. The volume error contributes less as compared to pattern error in 24 hour forecasts irrespective of rainfall thresholds. But in 48 hour forecasts, their values are comparable and change along with rainfall threshold. During whole monsoon season, all contiguous rain areas in model forecasts have been searched over observed rainfall analyses applying best-fit criteria. For contiguous rain areas below 50 mm more than 70 percent match was found.Prognoza oborine dobivena modelom WRF za monsunsku sezonu 2010. verificirana je korištenjem analize dnevne opažene oborine u mreži prostorne rezolucije od 0,5°. Određeni su jednostavni, standardni pokazatelji poput srednje pogreške i srednje kvadratne pogreške, a također i dva uobičajena kategorička pokazatelja uspješnosti koji su izračunati za sedam različitih pragova oborine. Ti pokazatelji su omogućili općenitu procjenu uspješnosti modela te su ukazali na smanjenu pouzdanost za kategorije oborine veće od 7,5 mm. kako bi se detaljnije procijenila uspješnost modela, verifikacija prognoze oborine je također napravljena pomoću objektno orijentirane metode bliskih oborinskih područja CRA (Contiguous Rain Area). Ova metoda je također ukazala na smanjenje uspješnosti modela s povećanjem količine oborine. Međutim, dekompozicija srednje kvadratne pogreške je ukazala da najveću pogrešku uzrokuje pomak prognoziranog oborinskog područja ili događaja u odnosu na izmjerene vrijednosti. Za 24-satne prognoze volumna pogreška doprinosi manje u usporedbi s prostornom pogreškom, neovisno o pragovima oborine. Međutim, za 48-satne prognoze iznosi volumne i prostorne pogreške su usporedivi te rastu s pragom oborine. Susjedna oborinska područja za prognoziranu oborinu su određena obzirom na izmjerenu oborinu primjenom kriterija nabolje podudarnosti. Postupak je proveden za cijelu monsunsku sezonu. Za područja s količinom oborine manjom od 50 mm podudaranje je veće od 70%

Hepatitis A in pediatric acute liver failure in South India

This article does not have an abstract

Potentiating Effects of MPL on DSPC Bearing Cationic Liposomes Promote Recombinant GP63 Vaccine Efficacy: High Immunogenicity and Protection

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a vector-transmitted disease caused by Leishmania donovani, is potentially fatal if left untreated. Vaccination against VL has received limited attention compared with cutaneous leishmaniasis, although the need for an effective vaccine is pressing for the control of the disease. Earlier, we observed protective efficacy using leishmanial antigen (Ag) in the presence of either cationic liposomes or monophosphoryl lipid A-trehalose dicorynomycolate (MPL-TDM) against experimental VL through the intraperitoneal (i.p.) route of administration in the mouse model. However, this route of immunization is not adequate for human use. For this work, we developed vaccine formulations combining cationic liposomes with MPL-TDM using recombinant GP63 (rGP63) as protein Ag through the clinically relevant subcutaneous (s.c.) route. Two s.c. injections with rGP63 in association with cationic liposomes and MPL-TDM showed enhanced immune responses that further resulted in high protective levels against VL in the mouse model. This validates the combined use of MPL-TDM as an immunopotentiator and liposomes as a suitable vaccine delivery system

TGF-beta 1 induces human alveolar epithelial to mesenchymal cell transition (EMT)

Background: Fibroblastic foci are characteristic features in lung parenchyma of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). They comprise aggregates of mesenchymal cells which underlie sites of unresolved epithelial injury and are associated with progression of fibrosis. However, the cellular origins of these mesenchymal phenotypes remain unclear. We examined whether the potent fibrogenic cytokine TGF-β1 could induce epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in the human alveolar epithelial cell line, A549, and investigated the signaling pathway of TGF-β1-mediated EMT. Methods: A549 cells were examined for evidence of EMT after treatment with TGF-β1. EMT was assessed by: morphology under phase-contrast microscopy; Western analysis of cell lysates for expression of mesenchymal phenotypic markers including fibronectin EDA (Fn-EDA), and expression of epithelial phenotypic markers including E-cadherin (E-cad). Markers of fibrogenesis, including collagens and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) were also evaluated by measuring mRNA level using RT-PCR, and protein by immunofluorescence or Western blotting. Signaling pathways for EMT were characterized by Western analysis of cell lysates using monoclonal antibodies to detect phosphorylated Erk1/2 and Smad2 after TGF-β1 treatment in the presence or absence of MEK inhibitors. The role of Smad2 in TGF-β1-mediated EMT was investigated using siRNA. Results: The data showed that TGF-β1, but not TNF-α or IL-1β, induced A549 cells with an alveolar epithelial type II cell phenotype to undergo EMT in a time-and concentration-dependent manner. The process of EMT was accompanied by morphological alteration and expression of the fibroblast phenotypic markers Fn-EDA and vimentin, concomitant with a downregulation of the epithelial phenotype marker E-cad. Furthermore, cells that had undergone EMT showed enhanced expression of markers of fibrogenesis including collagens type I and III and CTGF. MMP-2 expression was also evidenced. TGF-β1-induced EMT occurred through phosphorylation of Smad2 and was inhibited by Smad2 gene silencing; MEK inhibitors failed to attenuate either EMT-associated Smad2 phosphorylation or the observed phenotypic changes. Conclusion: Our study shows that TGF-β1 induces A549 alveolar epithelial cells to undergo EMT via Smad2 activation. Our data support the concept of EMT in lung epithelial cells, and suggest the need for further studies to investigate the phenomenon

Identification of Prognostic Molecular Features in the Reactive Stroma of Human Breast and Prostate Cancer

Primary tumor growth induces host tissue responses that are believed to support and promote tumor progression. Identification of the molecular characteristics of the tumor microenvironment and elucidation of its crosstalk with tumor cells may therefore be crucial for improving our understanding of the processes implicated in cancer progression, identifying potential therapeutic targets, and uncovering stromal gene expression signatures that may predict clinical outcome. A key issue to resolve, therefore, is whether the stromal response to tumor growth is largely a generic phenomenon, irrespective of the tumor type or whether the response reflects tumor-specific properties. To address similarity or distinction of stromal gene expression changes during cancer progression, oligonucleotide-based Affymetrix microarray technology was used to compare the transcriptomes of laser-microdissected stromal cells derived from invasive human breast and prostate carcinoma. Invasive breast and prostate cancer-associated stroma was observed to display distinct transcriptomes, with a limited number of shared genes. Interestingly, both breast and prostate tumor-specific dysregulated stromal genes were observed to cluster breast and prostate cancer patients, respectively, into two distinct groups with statistically different clinical outcomes. By contrast, a gene signature that was common to the reactive stroma of both tumor types did not have survival predictive value. Univariate Cox analysis identified genes whose expression level was most strongly associated with patient survival. Taken together, these observations suggest that the tumor microenvironment displays distinct features according to the tumor type that provides survival-predictive value