Rafiki: Children of Hope

Rafiki: Children or Hope .. is a story of\u27 survival, loss, hope and triumph. The explanatory narrative supplements the fifteen-minute documentary. and walks you through my journey of completing the video production. The video documentary exposes the reality the affect HIV/AIDS continues to have on Sub-Saharan Africa; more specifically, children at a small orphanage in Kikuyu, Kenya. Twenty-three children reside at Rafiki orphanage and each o[ those young faces all lost their parents to AlDS. Interviews with the House Mother and God Mother of Rafiki provide the organization history. Footage of the children reveals the emotional obstacles many of them were working to overcome. Rafiki is a Swahili word meaning friends or friendship\u27\u27 and this project was a collaborative effort between three friends. Tim Croskey, an engineer and videographer shot all of the video footage. His wife and Kenya native, Wangari Croskey, wrote the story behind the footage and I produced and edited the final project. Together, we created a powerful story showing that not all of\u27 Africa\u27s children are lost. This project proved to be challenging but. extremely rewarding. I spent a great deal logging various tapes of footage spanning the years of 2002 - 2006. Lack of communication with Tim and Wangari delayed crucial elements of the project. But I eventually obtained the English translations from Wangari and was able to move forward with recording audio. My passion for music and its power in documentaries guaranteed my selections would be chosen with care. I needed the film to emit a hopeful but melancholy mood. I wanted the viewer to feel the pain buried inside the children but also see the hope most of them finally bad. The project impressed upon me that you never stop learning. After all the elements of my project finally came together, the editing process proved to be the most difficult. Piecing together the recorded voiceovers with the taped interviews. creating original Li ties, correcting colors of shots, and deciding the proper format for the story - alI tested my assumed pre-existing knowledge. The AIDS epidemic spreading throughout Africa seems to be a losing battle. Nevertheless, the orphans at Rafiki are fighting and succeeding. Loise. the only orphan interviewed in the documentary is currently in college and studying Mass Communications. Although she lost both of her parents, she still has her will to fight the affects of such a deadly disease. From the solemn to the happy faces. I can only hope someone is touched and moved to support the Rafiki AIDS ministries after viewing my documentary

Comparative HPLC-MSn analysis of canine and human meibomian lipidomes: many similarities, a few differences

The aim of this study was to evaluate the lipidome of meibomian gland secretions in canines (cMGS) – a common pet and laboratory animal – and to compare it with that of human MGS (hMGS), to determine whether canines could be used as a valid experimental animal model in studies of the biochemistry and physiology of the human ocular surface in general, and of the Meibomian glands in particular. The MGS of both species were evaluated using HPLC in combination with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization ion trap mass spectrometry. The main lipid classes found in cMGS were very long chain cholesteryl esters, wax esters, (O-acyl)-omega-hydroxy fatty acids (OAHFA), and cholesteryl esters of OAHFA. The lipidomes of cMGS and hMGS were found to be qualitatively similar, which implies similar biosynthetic and biodegradation pathways in canines and humans. However, some quantitative differences between the two were observed

Initial invasive or conservative strategy for stable coronary disease

BACKGROUND Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, 121.8 percentage points; 95% CI, 124.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used

Health-status outcomes with invasive or conservative care in coronary disease

BACKGROUND In the ISCHEMIA trial, an invasive strategy with angiographic assessment and revascularization did not reduce clinical events among patients with stable ischemic heart disease and moderate or severe ischemia. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess angina-related health status among these patients. METHODS We assessed angina-related symptoms, function, and quality of life with the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) at randomization, at months 1.5, 3, and 6, and every 6 months thereafter in participants who had been randomly assigned to an invasive treatment strategy (2295 participants) or a conservative strategy (2322). Mixed-effects cumulative probability models within a Bayesian framework were used to estimate differences between the treatment groups. The primary outcome of this health-status analysis was the SAQ summary score (scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health status). All analyses were performed in the overall population and according to baseline angina frequency. RESULTS At baseline, 35% of patients reported having no angina in the previous month. SAQ summary scores increased in both treatment groups, with increases at 3, 12, and 36 months that were 4.1 points (95% credible interval, 3.2 to 5.0), 4.2 points (95% credible interval, 3.3 to 5.1), and 2.9 points (95% credible interval, 2.2 to 3.7) higher with the invasive strategy than with the conservative strategy. Differences were larger among participants who had more frequent angina at baseline (8.5 vs. 0.1 points at 3 months and 5.3 vs. 1.2 points at 36 months among participants with daily or weekly angina as compared with no angina). CONCLUSIONS In the overall trial population with moderate or severe ischemia, which included 35% of participants without angina at baseline, patients randomly assigned to the invasive strategy had greater improvement in angina-related health status than those assigned to the conservative strategy. The modest mean differences favoring the invasive strategy in the overall group reflected minimal differences among asymptomatic patients and larger differences among patients who had had angina at baseline